love, or in fear, we have the impulse to do something about it. And, while it is
true that emotion may be inhibited by suppressing the physical expressions on
which it is founded, so may a state of emotional tension be relieved by some
forms of expression. None have failed to experience the relief which comes to
the overcharged nervous system from a good cry. There is no sorrow so bitter as
a dry sorrow, when one cannot weep. A state of anger or annoyance is relieved
by an explosion of some kind, whether in a blow or its equivalent in speech. We
often feel better when we have told a man "what we think of him."
At first glance this all seems opposed to what we have been laying down as the
explanation of emotion. Yet it is not so if we look well into the case. We have
already seen that emotion occurs when there is a blocking of the usual pathways
of discharge for the nerve currents, which must then seek new outlets, and thus
result in the setting up of new motor responses. In the case of grief, for example,
there is a disturbance in the whole organism; the heart beat is deranged, the
blood pressure diminished, and the nerve tone lowered. What is needed is for the
currents which are finding an outlet in directions resulting in these particular
responses to find a pathway of discharge which will not produce such deep-
seated results. This may be found in crying. The energy thus expended is
diverted from producing internal disturbances. Likewise, the explosion in anger
may serve to restore the equilibrium of disturbed nerve currents.
Relief Does Not Follow if Image is Held Before the Mind.—All this is true,
however, only when the expression does not serve to keep the idea before the
mind which was originally responsible for the emotion. A person may work
himself into a passion of anger by beginning to talk about an insult and, as he
grows increasingly violent, bringing the situation more and more sharply into his
consciousness. The effect of terrifying images is easily to be observed in the case
of one's starting to run when he is afraid after night. There is probably no doubt
that the running would relieve his fear providing he could do it and not picture
the threatening something as pursuing him. But, with his imagination conjuring
up dire images of frightful catastrophes at every step, all control is lost and fresh
waves of terror surge over the shrinking soul.
Growing Tendency toward Emotional Control.—Among civilized peoples
there is a constantly growing tendency toward emotional control. Primitive races
express grief, joy, fear, or anger much more freely than do civilized races. This
does not mean that primitive man feels more deeply than civilized man; for, as
we have already seen, the crying, laughing, or blustering is but a small part of
the whole physical expression, and one's entire organism may be stirred to its