Project Gutenberg's Essay on the Creative Imagination, by Th. Ribot This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Essay on the Creative Imagination Author: Th. Ribot Translator: Albert H. N. Baron Release Date: August 25, 2008 [EBook #26430] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION *** Produced by Clare Boothby and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's Note: Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of this document. The children's letters on page 108 have been reproduced in this text as illustrations. ESSAY ON THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION BY TH. RIBOT TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY ALBERT H. N. BARON FELLOW IN CLARK UNIVERSITY LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LTD. 1906 COPYRIGHT BY The Open Court Publishing Co. CHICAGO, U. S. A. 1906 All rights reserved. TO THE MEMORY OF MY TEACHER AND FRIEND, Arthur Allin, Ph. D., professor of psychology and education, university of colorado, WHO FIRST INTERESTED ME IN THE PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOLOGY, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED, WITH REVERENCE AND GRATITUDE, BY THE TRANSLATOR. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. THE NAME OF TH. RIBOT HAS BEEN FOR MANY YEARS WELL KNOWN IN AMERICA, AND HIS WORKS HAVE GAINED WIDE POPULARITY. THE PRESENT TRANSLATION OF ONE OF HIS MORE RECENT WORKS IS AN ATTEMPT TO RENDER AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH WHAT HAS BEEN RECEIVED AS A CLASSIC EXPOSITION OF A SUBJECT THAT IS OFTEN DISCUSSED, BUT RARELY WITH ANY ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND ITS TRUE nature. IT IS QUITE GENERALLY RECOGNIZED THAT PSYCHOLOGY HAS REMAINED IN THE SEMI-MYTHOLOGICAL, SEMI-SCHOLASTIC PERIOD LONGER THAN MOST ATTEMPTS AT SCIENTIFIC FORMULIZATION. FOR A LONG TIME IT HAS BEEN THE "SPOOK SCIENCE" per se, AND THE IMAGINATION, NOW ANALYZED BY M. RIBOT IN SUCH A MASTERLY MANNER, HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST PERSISTENT, APPARENTLY REAL, THOUGH VERY INDEFINITE, OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SPOOKS. WHEREAS PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ACCUSTOMED TO SPEAK OF THE IMAGINATION AS an entity sui generis, AS A LOFTY SOMETHING FOUND ONLY IN LONG-HAIRED, WILD-EYED "GENIUSES," CONSTITUTING INDEED THE CENTER of a cult, our author, Prometheus-like, has brought it down from the heavens, and has clearly shown that imagination is a function of mind common to all men in some degree, AND THAT IT IS SHOWN IN AS HIGHLY DEVELOPED FORM IN COMMERCIAL LEADERS AND PRACTICAL INVENTORS AS IN THE MOST BIZARRE OF ROMANTIC IDEALISTS. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT THE manifestation is not the same. THAT THIS VIEW IS NOT ENTIRELY ORIGINAL WITH M. RIBOT IS NOT TO HIS DISCREDIT—INDEED, HE DOES NOT CLAIM ANY ORIGINALITY. WE FIND THE VIEW CLEARLY EXPRESSED ELSEWHERE, CERTAINLY AS EARLY AS ARISTOTLE, THAT THE GREATEST ARTIST IS HE WHO ACTUALLY EMBODIES HIS VISION AND WILL IN PERMANENT FORM, PREFERABLY IN SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. THIS IDEA IS SO CLEARLY ENUNCIATED IN THE PRESENT MONOGRAPH, WHICH THE AUTHOR MODESTLY STYLES AN ESSAY, THAT WHEN THE END OF THE BOOK IS REACHED BUT LITTLE remains of the great imagination-ghost, save the one great mystery underlying all facts of mind. THAT THE PRESENT RENDERING FALLS FAR BELOW THE LUCID FRENCH OF THE ORIGINAL, THE TRANSLATOR IS WELL AWARE; HE TRUSTS, HOWEVER, THAT THE INDULGENT READER WILL TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE GOOD INTENT AS OFFSETTING IN PART, AT LEAST, THE NUMEROUS shortcomings of this version. I wish here to express my obligation to those friends who encouraged me in the congenial task of translation. A. H. N. B. AUTHOR'S PREFACE CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY HAS STUDIED THE PURELY REPRODUCTIVE IMAGINATION WITH GREAT EAGERNESS AND SUCCESS. THE WORKS ON THE DIFFERENT IMAGE-GROUPS—VISUAL, AUDITORY, TACTILE, MOTOR—ARE KNOWN TO EVERYONE, AND FORM A COLLECTION OF INQUIRIES SOLIDLY BASED ON SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE OBSERVATION, ON PATHOLOGICAL FACTS AND LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS. THE study of the creative or constructive imagination, on the other hand, has been almost entirely neglected. It would be easy TO SHOW THAT THE BEST, MOST COMPLETE, AND MOST RECENT TREATISES ON PSYCHOLOGY DEVOTE TO IT SCARCELY A PAGE OR TWO; OFTEN, INDEED, DO NOT EVEN MENTION IT. A FEW ARTICLES, A FEW BRIEF, SCARCE MONOGRAPHS, MAKE UP THE SUM OF THE PAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS' WORK ON THE SUBJECT. THE SUBJECT DOES NOT, HOWEVER, AT ALL DESERVE THIS INDIFFERENT OR CONTEMPTUOUS ATTITUDE. ITS IMPORTANCE IS UNQUESTIONABLE, AND EVEN THOUGH THE STUDY OF THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION HAS HITHERTO REMAINED ALMOST INACCESSIBLE TO EXPERIMENTATION STRICTLY SO-CALLED, THERE ARE YET OTHER OBJECTIVE PROCESSES THAT PERMIT OF OUR APPROACHING IT WITH SOME LIKELIHOOD OF SUCCESS, AND OF CONTINUING THE WORK OF FORMER PSYCHOLOGISTS, BUT WITH METHODS better adapted to the requirements of contemporary thought. THE PRESENT WORK IS OFFERED TO THE READER AS AN ESSAY OR FIRST ATTEMPT ONLY. IT IS NOT OUR INTENTION HERE TO UNDERTAKE A COMPLETE MONOGRAPH THAT WOULD REQUIRE A THICK VOLUME, BUT ONLY TO SEEK THE UNDERLYING CONDITIONS OF THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION, SHOWING THAT IT HAS ITS BEGINNING AND PRINCIPAL SOURCE IN THE NATURAL TENDENCY OF IMAGES TO BECOME [v] [vi] [vii] [viii] OBJECTIFIED (OR, MORE SIMPLY, IN THE MOTOR ELEMENTS INHERENT IN THE IMAGE), AND THEN FOLLOWING IT IN ITS DEVELOPMENT UNDER its manifold forms, whatever they may be. For I cannot but maintain that, at present, the psychology of the imagination is CONCERNED ALMOST WHOLLY WITH ITS PART IN ESTHETIC CREATION AND IN THE SCIENCES. WE SCARCELY GET BEYOND THAT; ITS OTHER manifestations have been occasionally mentioned—never investigated. Yet invention in the fine arts and in the sciences is ONLY A SPECIAL CASE, AND POSSIBLY NOT THE PRINCIPAL ONE. WE HOPE TO SHOW THAT IN PRACTICAL LIFE, IN MECHANICAL, MILITARY, INDUSTRIAL, AND COMMERCIAL INVENTIONS, IN RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS, THE HUMAN MIND HAS EXPENDED AND made permanent as much imagination as in all other fields. THE CONSTRUCTIVE IMAGINATION IS A FACULTY THAT IN THE COURSE OF AGES HAS UNDERGONE A REDUCTION—OR AT LEAST, SOME PROFOUND CHANGES. SO, FOR REASONS INDICATED LATER ON, THE MYTHIC ACTIVITY HAS BEEN TAKEN IN THIS WORK AS THE CENTRAL POINT OF OUR TOPIC, AS THE PRIMITIVE AND TYPICAL FORM OUT OF WHICH THE GREATER NUMBER OF THE OTHERS HAVE ARISEN. THE CREATIVE POWER IS THERE SHOWN ENTIRELY UNCONFINED, FREED FROM ALL HINDRANCE, CARELESS OF THE POSSIBLE AND THE IMPOSSIBLE; IN A PURE STATE, UNADULTERATED BY THE OPPOSING INFLUENCE OF IMITATION, OF RATIOCINATION, OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF NATURAL LAWS AND THEIR uniformity. IN THE FIRST OR ANALYTICAL PART, WE SHALL TRY TO RESOLVE THE CONSTRUCTIVE IMAGINATION INTO ITS CONSTITUTIVE FACTORS, AND STUDY each of them singly. THE SECOND OR GENETIC PART WILL FOLLOW THE IMAGINATION IN ITS DEVELOPMENT AS A WHOLE FROM THE DIMMEST TO THE MOST complex forms. Finally, the third or concrete part, will be no longer devoted to the imagination, but to imaginative beings, to the principal types of imagination that observation shows us. May, 1900. ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Translator's Preface v Author's Preface vii INTRODUCTION. THE MOTOR NATURE OF THE CONSTRUCTIVE IMAGINATION. TRANSITION FROM THE REPRODUCTIVE TO THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION.—DO ALL REPRESENTATIONS CONTAIN MOTOR ELEMENTS?— UNUSUAL EFFECTS PRODUCED BY IMAGES: VESICATION, STIGMATA; THEIR CONDITIONS; THEIR MEANING FOR OUR SUBJECT.—THE IMAGINATION IS, ON THE INTELLECTUAL SIDE, EQUIVALENT TO WILL. PROOF: IDENTITY OF DEVELOPMENT; SUBJECTIVE, PERSONAL character of both; teleologic character; analogy between the abortive forms of the imagination and abulias. 3 FIRST PART. ANALYSIS OF THE IMAGINATION. CHAPTER I. THE INTELLECTUAL FACTOR. DISSOCIATION, PREPARATORY WORK.—DISSOCIATION IN COMPLETE, INCOMPLETE AND SCHEMATIC IMAGES.—DISSOCIATION IN SERIES. ITS PRINCIPAL CAUSES: INTERNAL OR SUBJECTIVE, EXTERNAL OR OBJECTIVE.—ASSOCIATION: ITS RÔLE REDUCED TO A SINGLE QUESTION, THE FORMATION OF NEW COMBINATIONS.—THE PRINCIPAL INTELLECTUAL FACTOR IS THINKING BY ANALOGY. WHY IT IS AN ALMOST INEXHAUSTIBLE SOURCE OF CREATION. ITS MECHANISM. ITS PROCESSES REDUCIBLE TO TWO, VIZ.: PERSONIFICATION, transformation. 15 CHAPTER II. THE EMOTIONAL FACTOR. THE GREAT IMPORTANCE OF THIS ELEMENT.—ALL FORMS OF THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION IMPLY AFFECTIVE ELEMENTS. PROOFS: ALL AFFECTIVE CONDITIONS MAY INFLUENCE THE IMAGINATION. PROOFS: ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS ON AN EMOTIONAL BASIS; NEW COMBINATIONS UNDER ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY FORMS.—ASSOCIATION BY CONTRAST.—THE MOTOR ELEMENT IN TENDENCIES.—THERE IS NO CREATIVE INSTINCT; INVENTION HAS NOT a SOURCE, BUT sources, AND ALWAYS ARISES FROM A NEED.—THE WORK OF THE IMAGINATION REDUCED TO TWO GREAT CLASSES, THEMSELVES REDUCIBLE TO SPECIAL NEEDS.— Reasons for the prejudice in favor of a creative instinct. 31 CHAPTER III. THE UNCONSCIOUS FACTOR. [ix] [x] [xi] [xii] VARIOUS VIEWS OF THE "INSPIRED STATE." ITS ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS; SUDDENNESS, IMPERSONALITY.—ITS RELATIONS TO UNCONSCIOUS ACTIVITY.—RESEMBLANCES TO HYPERMNESIA, THE INITIAL STATE OF ALCOHOLIC INTOXICATION AND SOMNAMBULISM ON WAKING.—DISAGREEMENTS CONCERNING THE ULTIMATE NATURE OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS: TWO HYPOTHESES. —THE "INSPIRED STATE" IS NOT A CAUSE, BUT AN INDEX.—ASSOCIATIONS IN UNCONSCIOUS FORM.—MEDIATE OR LATENT ASSOCIATION: RECENT EXPERIMENTS AND DISCUSSIONS ON THIS SUBJECT.—"CONSTELLATION" THE RESULT OF A SUMMATION OF predominant tendencies. Its mechanism. 50 CHAPTER IV. THE ORGANIC CONDITIONS OF THE IMAGINATION. ANATOMICAL CONDITIONS: VARIOUS HYPOTHESES. OBSCURITY OF THE QUESTION. FLECHSIG'S THEORY.—PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS: ARE THEY CAUSE, EFFECT, OR ACCOMPANIMENT? CHIEF FACTOR: CHANGE IN CEREBRAL AND LOCAL CIRCULATION.—ATTEMPTS AT EXPERIMENTATION.—THE ODDITIES OF INVENTORS BROUGHT UNDER TWO HEADS: THE EXPLICABLE AND INEXPLICABLE. THEY ARE HELPERS OF INSPIRATION.—IS THERE ANY ANALOGY BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND PSYCHIC CREATION? A PHILOSOPHICAL HYPOTHESIS on the subject.—Limitation of the question. Impossibility of an exact answer. 65 CHAPTER V. THE PRINCIPLE OF UNITY. Importance of the unifying principle. It is a fixed idea or a fixed emotion.—Their equivalence.—Distinction between THE SYNTHETIC PRINCIPLE AND THE IDEAL, WHICH IS THE PRINCIPLE OF UNITY IN MOTION: THE IDEAL IS A CONSTRUCTION IN IMAGES, MERELY OUTLINED.—THE PRINCIPAL FORMS OF THE UNIFYING PRINCIPLES: UNSTABLE, ORGANIC OR MIDDLE, EXTREME OR SEMI- morbid.—Obsession of the inventor and the sick: insufficiency of a purely psychological criterion. 79 SECOND PART. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION. CHAPTER I. IMAGINATION IN ANIMALS. DIFFICULTIES OF THE SUBJECT.—THE DEGREE OF IMAGINATION IN ANIMALS.—DOES CREATIVE SYNTHESIS EXIST IN THEM? AFFIRMATION AND DENIALS.—THE SPECIAL FORM OF ANIMAL IMAGINATION IS MOTOR, AND SHOWS ITSELF THROUGH PLAY: ITS NUMEROUS VARIETIES.—WHY THE ANIMAL IMAGINATION MUST BE ABOVE ALL MOTOR: LACK OF INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT.— COMPARISON WITH YOUNG CHILDREN, IN WHOM THE MOTOR SYSTEM PREDOMINATES: THE RÔLES OF MOVEMENTS IN INFANTILE insanity. 93 CHAPTER II. IMAGINATION IN THE CHILD. DIVISION OF ITS DEVELOPMENT INTO FOUR PRINCIPAL PERIODS.—TRANSITION FROM PASSIVE TO CREATIVE IMAGINATION: PERCEPTION AND ILLUSION.—ANIMATING EVERYTHING: ANALYSIS OF THE ELEMENTS CONSTITUTING THIS MOMENT: THE RÔLE OF BELIEF.— Creation in play: period of imitation, attempts at invention.—Fanciful invention. 103 CHAPTER III. PRIMITIVE MAN AND THE CREATION OF MYTHS. THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION.—MYTHS: HYPOTHESES AS TO THE ORIGIN: THE MYTH IS THE PSYCHO-PHYSICAL OBJECTIFICATION OF MAN IN THE PHENOMENA THAT HE PERCEIVES. THE RÔLE OF IMAGINATION.—HOW MYTHS ARE FORMED. The moment of creation: two operations—animating everything, qualifying everything. Romantic invention lacking IN PEOPLES WITHOUT IMAGINATION. THE RÔLE OF ANALOGY AND OF ASSOCIATION THROUGH "CONSTELLATION."—THE EVOLUTION OF MYTHS: ASCENSION, ACME, DECLINE.—THE EXPLANATORY MYTHS UNDERGO A RADICAL TRANSFORMATION: THE WORK OF DEPERSONIFICATION OF THE MYTH. SURVIVALS.—THE NON-EXPLANATORY MYTHS SUFFER A PARTIAL TRANSFORMATION: LITERATURE is a fallen and rationalized mythology.—Popular imagination and legends: the legend is to the myth what illusion is TO HALLUCINATION.—UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSES THAT THE IMAGINATION EMPLOYS IN ORDER TO CREATE LEGENDS: FUSION, idealization. 118 CHAPTER IV. THE HIGHER FORMS OF INVENTION. IS A PSYCHOLOGY OF GREAT INVENTORS POSSIBLE? PATHOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF GENIUS.—GENERAL CHARACTERS OF GREAT INVENTORS. PRECOCITY: CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CREATIVE POWER. PSYCHOLOGICAL REASONS FOR THIS ORDER. WHY THE CREATOR COMMENCES BY IMITATING.—NECESSITY OR FATALISM OF VOCATION.—THE representative character of great creators. Discussion as to the origin of this character—is it in the individual or in THE ENVIRONMENT?—MECHANISM OF CREATION. TWO PRINCIPAL PROCESSES—COMPLETE, ABRIDGED. THEIR THREE PHASES; THEIR RESEMBLANCES AND DIFFERENCES.—THE RÔLE OF CHANCE IN INVENTION: IT SUPPOSES THE MEETING OF TWO FACTORS— one internal, the other external.—Chance is an occasion for, not an agent of, creation. 140 CHAPTER V. LAW OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION. IS THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION, IN ITS EVOLUTION, SUBJECT TO ANY LAW?—IT PASSES THROUGH TWO STAGES SEPARATED BY A CRITICAL PHASE.—PERIOD OF AUTONOMY; CRITICAL PERIOD; PERIOD OF DEFINITE CONSTITUTION. TWO CASES: DECAY OR TRANSFORMATION THROUGH LOGICAL FORM, THROUGH DEVIATION.—SUBSIDIARY LAW OF INCREASING COMPLEXITY.—HISTORICAL verification. 167 [xiii] [xiv] [xv] THIRD PART. THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF IMAGINATION. PRELIMINARY. The need of a concrete study.—The varieties of the creative imagination, analogous to the varieties of character. 179 CHAPTER I. THE PLASTIC IMAGINATION. IT MAKES USE OF CLEAR IMAGES, WELL DETERMINED IN SPACE, AND OF ASSOCIATIONS OF OBJECTIVE RELATIONS.—ITS EXTERNAL CHARACTER.—INFERIORITY OF THE AFFECTIVE ELEMENT.—ITS PRINCIPAL MANIFESTATIONS: IN THE ARTS DEALING WITH FORM; IN POETRY (TRANSFORMATION OF SONOROUS INTO VISUAL IMAGES); IN MYTHS WITH CLEAR OUTLINE; IN MECHANICAL INVENTION.—THE dry and rational imagination its elements. 184 CHAPTER II. THE DIFFLUENT IMAGINATION. IT MAKES USE OF VAGUE IMAGES LINKED ACCORDING TO THE LEAST RIGOROUS MODES OF ASSOCIATION. EMOTIONAL ABSTRACTIONS; THEIR NATURE.—ITS CHARACTERISTIC OF INWARDNESS.—ITS PRINCIPAL MANIFESTATIONS: REVERY, THE ROMANTIC SPIRIT, THE CHIMERICAL SPIRIT; MYTHS AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS, LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS (THE SYMBOLISTS), THE CLASS OF THE MARVELOUS AND FANTASTIC.—VARIETIES OF THE DIFFLUENT IMAGINATION: FIRST, NUMERICAL IMAGINATION; ITS NATURE; TWO PRINCIPAL FORMS, COSMOGONIC AND SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTIONS; SECOND, MUSICAL IMAGINATION, THE TYPE OF THE AFFECTIVE IMAGINATION. ITS CHARACTERISTICS; IT DOES NOT DEVELOP SAVE AFTER AN INTERVAL OF TIME.—NATURAL TRANSPOSITION OF EVENTS IN MUSICIANS.—ANTAGONISM BETWEEN TRUE MUSICAL IMAGINATION AND PLASTIC IMAGINATION. INQUIRY AND FACTS ON the subject.—Two great types of imagination. 195 CHAPTER III. MYSTIC IMAGINATION. ITS ELEMENTS; ITS SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS.—THINKING SYMBOLICALLY.—NATURE OF THIS SYMBOLISM.—THE MYSTIC CHANGES CONCRETE IMAGES INTO SYMBOLIC IMAGES.—THEIR OBSCURITY; WHENCE IT ARISES.—EXTRAORDINARY ABUSE OF ANALOGY.— MYSTIC LABOR ON LETTERS, NUMBERS, ETC.—NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE BELIEF ACCOMPANYING THIS FORM OF IMAGINATION: IT is unconditional and permanent.—The mystic conception of the world a general symbolism.—Mystic imagination in religion and in metaphysics. 221 CHAPTER IV. THE SCIENTIFIC IMAGINATION. IT IS DISTINGUISHABLE INTO GENERA AND SPECIES.—THE NEED FOR MONOGRAPHS THAT HAVE NOT YET APPEARED.—THE IMAGINATION IN GROWING SCIENCES—BELIEF IS AT ITS MAXIMUM; IN THE ORGANIZED SCIENCES—THE NEGATIVE RÔLE OF METHOD.—THE CONJECTURAL PHASE; PROOF OF ITS IMPORTANCE.—ABORTIVE AND DETHRONED HYPOTHESES.—THE IMAGINATION IN THE PROCESSES OF VERIFICATION.—THE METAPHYSICIAN'S IMAGINATION ARISES FROM THE SAME NEED AS THE scientist's.—Metaphysics is a rationalized myth.—Three moments.—Imaginative and rationalist. 236 CHAPTER V. THE PRACTICAL AND MECHANICAL IMAGINATION. INDETERMINATION OF THIS IMAGINATIVE FORM.—INFERIOR FORMS: THE INDUSTRIOUS, THE UNSTABLE, THE ECCENTRIC. WHY PEOPLE OF LIVELY IMAGINATION ARE CHANGEABLE.—SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS. ORIGIN OF THIS FORM OF IMAGINATION—ITS MENTAL MECHANISM AND ITS ELEMENTS.—THE HIGHER FORM—MECHANICAL IMAGINATION.—MAN HAS EXPENDED AT LEAST AS MUCH IMAGINATION THERE AS IN ESTHETIC CREATION.—WHY THE CONTRARY VIEW PREVAILS.—RESEMBLANCES BETWEEN THESE TWO FORMS OF IMAGINATION.—IDENTITY OF DEVELOPMENT. DETAIL OBSERVATION—FOUR PHASES.—GENERAL CHARACTERS. THIS FORM, AT ITS BEST, SUPPOSES INSPIRATION; PERIODS OF PREPARATION, OF MATURITY, AND OF DECLINE.—SPECIAL CHARACTERS: INVENTION OCCURS IN LAYERS. PRINCIPAL STEPS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT.—IT DEPENDS STRICTLY ON PHYSICAL CONDITIONS.—A PHASE OF PURE IMAGINATION—MECHANICAL ROMANCES. EXAMPLES.—IDENTICAL NATURE OF THE IMAGINATION OF THE mechanic and that of the artist. 256 CHAPTER VI. THE COMMERCIAL IMAGINATION. ITS INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CONDITIONS.—TWO CLASSES OF CREATORS—THE CAUTIOUS, THE DARING.—THE INITIAL MOMENT OF INVENTION.—THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INTUITIVE MIND.—HYPOTHESES IN REGARD TO ITS PSYCHOLOGIC NATURE.—ITS DEVELOPMENT: THE CREATION OF INCREASINGLY MORE SIMPLE PROCESSES OF SUBSTITUTION.—CHARACTERS IN COMMON WITH THE FORMS OF CREATION ALREADY STUDIED.—CHARACTERS PECULIAR TO IT—THE COMBINING IMAGINATION OF THE TACTICIAN; IT IS A FORM OF WAR.—CREATIVE INTOXICATION.—EXCLUSIVE USE OF SCHEMATIC REPRESENTATIONS.—REMARKS ON THE VARIOUS types of images.—The creators of great financial systems.—Brief remarks on the military imagination. 281 CHAPTER VII. THE UTOPIAN IMAGINATION. [xvi] [xvii] [xviii] SUCCESSIVE APPEARANCES OF IDEAL CONCEPTIONS.—CREATORS IN ETHICS AND IN THE SOCIAL REALM.—CHIMERICAL FORMS. SOCIAL NOVELISTS.—CH. FOURRIER, TYPE OF THE GREAT IMAGINER.—PRACTICAL INVENTION—THE COLLECTIVE IDEAL.— Imaginative regression. 299 CONCLUSION. I. The foundations of the creative imagination. WHY MAN IS ABLE TO CREATE: TWO PRINCIPAL CONDITIONS.—"CREATIVE SPONTANEITY," WHICH RESOLVES ITSELF INTO NEEDS, TENDENCIES, DESIRES.—EVERY IMAGINATIVE CREATION HAS A MOTOR ORIGIN.—THE SPONTANEOUS REVIVAL OF IMAGES.—THE creative imagination reduced to three forms: outlined, fixed, objectified. Their peculiar characteristics. 313 II. The imaginative type. A VIEW OF THE IMAGINATIVE LIFE IN ALL ITS STAGES.—REDUCTION TO A PSYCHOLOGIC LAW.—FOUR STAGES CHARACTERIZED: 1, BY THE quantity OF IMAGES; 2, BY THEIR quantity and intensity; 3, BY QUANTITY, INTENSITY AND DURATION; 4, BY THE complete and permanent systematization of the imaginary life.—Summary. 320 APPENDICES. OBSERVATIONS AND DOCUMENTS. A. The various forms of inspiration. 335 B. ON THE NATURE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS FACTOR. TWO CATEGORIES—STATIC UNCONSCIOUS, DYNAMIC UNCONSCIOUS.—THEORIES as to the nature of the unconscious.—Objections, criticisms. 338 C. Cosmic and human imagination. 346 D. Evidence in regard to musical imagination. 350 E. The imaginative type and association of ideas. 353 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION The Motor Nature of the Constructive Imagination I IT HAS BEEN OFTEN REPEATED THAT ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL CONQUESTS OF CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY IS THE FACT THAT IT HAS FIRMLY ESTABLISHED THE PLACE AND IMPORTANCE OF MOVEMENTS; THAT IT HAS ESPECIALLY THROUGH OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENT SHOWN THE REPRESENTATION OF A MOVEMENT TO BE A MOVEMENT BEGUN, A MOVEMENT IN THE NASCENT STATE. YET THOSE WHO HAVE MOST STRENUOUSLY INSISTED ON THIS PROPOSITION HAVE HARDLY GONE BEYOND THE REALM OF THE PASSIVE IMAGINATION; THEY HAVE CLUNG TO FACTS OF PURE REPRODUCTION. MY AIM IS TO EXTEND THEIR FORMULA, AND TO SHOW THAT IT EXPLAINS, IN LARGE MEASURE AT LEAST, THE origin of the creative imagination. LET US FOLLOW STEP BY STEP THE PASSAGE FROM REPRODUCTION PURE AND SIMPLE TO THE CREATIVE STAGE, SHOWING THEREIN THE persistence and preponderance of the motor element in proportion as we rise from mere repetition to invention. FIRST OF ALL, DO ALL REPRESENTATIONS INCLUDE MOTOR ELEMENTS? YES, I SAY, BECAUSE EVERY PERCEPTION PRESUPPOSES MOVEMENTS TO SOME EXTENT, AND REPRESENTATIONS ARE THE REMNANTS OF PAST PERCEPTIONS. CERTAIN IT IS THAT, WITHOUT OUR EXAMINING THE QUESTION IN DETAIL, THIS STATEMENT HOLDS GOOD FOR THE GREAT MAJORITY OF CASES. SO FAR AS VISUAL AND TACTILE IMAGES ARE CONCERNED THERE IS NO POSSIBLE DOUBT AS TO THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MOTOR ELEMENTS THAT ENTER INTO THEIR COMPOSITION. THE EYE IS VERY POORLY ENDOWED WITH MOVEMENTS FOR ITS OFFICE AS A HIGHER SENSE-ORGAN; BUT IF WE TAKE INTO ACCOUNT ITS INTIMATE CONNECTION WITH THE VOCAL ORGANS, SO RICH IN CAPACITY FOR MOTOR COMBINATIONS, WE NOTE A KIND OF COMPENSATION. SMELL AND TASTE, SECONDARY IN HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY, RISE TO A VERY HIGH RANK INDEED AMONG MANY ANIMALS, AND THE OLFACTORY APPARATUS THUS OBTAINS WITH THEM A COMPLEXITY OF MOVEMENTS PROPORTIONATE TO ITS IMPORTANCE, AND ONE THAT AT TIMES APPROACHES THAT OF SIGHT. THERE YET REMAINS THE GROUP OF INTERNAL SENSATIONS THAT MIGHT CAUSE DISCUSSION. SETTING ASIDE THE FACT THAT THE VAGUE IMPRESSIONS BOUND UP WITH CHEMICAL CHANGES WITHIN THE TISSUES ARE SCARCELY FACTORS IN REPRESENTATION, WE FIND THAT THE SENSATIONS RESULTING FROM CHANGES IN RESPIRATION, CIRCULATION, AND DIGESTION ARE NOT LACKING IN MOTOR ELEMENTS. THE MERE FACT THAT, IN SOME PERSONS, VOMITING, HICCOUGHS, MICTURITION, ETC., CAN BE CAUSED BY PERCEPTIONS OF SIGHT OR OF HEARING PROVES THAT REPRESENTATIONS OF THIS CHARACTER HAVE A TENDENCY TO BECOME TRANSLATED into acts. WITHOUT EMPHASIZING THE MATTER WE MAY, THEN, SAY THAT THIS THESIS RESTS ON A WEIGHTY MASS OF FACTS; THAT THE MOTOR [xix] [3] [4] [5] ELEMENT OF THE IMAGE TENDS TO CAUSE IT TO LOSE ITS PURELY "INNER" CHARACTER, TO OBJECTIFY IT, TO EXTERNALIZE IT, TO PROJECT IT outside of ourselves. IT SHOULD, HOWEVER, BE NOTED THAT WHAT HAS JUST BEEN SAID DOES NOT TAKE US BEYOND THE REPRODUCTIVE IMAGINATION— BEYOND MEMORY. ALL THESE REVIVED IMAGES ARE repetitions; BUT THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION REQUIRES SOMETHING new—THIS IS ITS PECULIAR AND ESSENTIAL MARK. IN ORDER TO GRASP THE TRANSITION FROM REPRODUCTION TO PRODUCTION, FROM REPETITION TO CREATION, IT IS NECESSARY TO CONSIDER OTHER, MORE RARE, AND MORE EXTRAORDINARY FACTS, FOUND ONLY AMONG SOME FAVORED BEINGS. THESE FACTS, KNOWN FOR A LONG TIME, SURROUNDED WITH SOME MYSTERY, AND ATTRIBUTED IN A VAGUE MANNER "TO THE POWER OF THE IMAGINATION," HAVE BEEN STUDIED IN OUR OWN DAY WITH MUCH MORE SYSTEM AND EXACTNESS. FOR OUR PURPOSE we need to recall only a few of them. MANY INSTANCES HAVE BEEN REPORTED OF TINGLING OR OF PAINS THAT MAY APPEAR IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE BODY SOLELY THROUGH THE EFFECT OF THE IMAGINATION. CERTAIN PEOPLE CAN INCREASE OR INHIBIT THE BEATING OF THEIR HEARTS AT WILL, I.E., BY MEANS OF AN INTENSE AND PERSISTENT REPRESENTATION. THE RENOWNED PHYSIOLOGIST, E. F. WEBER, POSSESSED THIS POWER, AND HAS DESCRIBED THE MECHANISM OF THE PHENOMENON. STILL MORE REMARKABLE ARE THE CASES OF VESICATION PRODUCED IN HYPNOTIZED SUBJECTS BY MEANS OF SUGGESTION. FINALLY, LET US RECALL THE PERSISTENT STORY OF THE STIGMATIZED INDIVIDUALS, WHO, FROM THE thirteenth century down to our own day, have been quite numerous and present some interesting varieties—some having ONLY THE MARK OF THE CRUCIFIX, OTHERS OF THE SCOURGING, OR OF THE CROWN OF THORNS. [1] LET US ADD THE PROFOUND CHANGES OF THE ORGANISM, RESULTS OF THE SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS OF CONTEMPORARIES; THE WONDERFUL EFFECTS OF THE "FAITH CURE," I.E., THE MIRACLES OF ALL RELIGIONS IN ALL TIMES AND IN ALL PLACES; AND THIS BRIEF LIST WILL SUFFICE TO RECALL CERTAIN CREATIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE human imagination that we have a tendency to forget. IT IS PROPER TO ADD THAT THE IMAGE ACTS NOT ALTOGETHER IN A POSITIVE MANNER. SOMETIMES IT HAS AN INHIBITORY POWER. A VIVID REPRESENTATION OF A MOVEMENT ARRESTED IS THE BEGINNING OF THE STOPPAGE OF THAT MOVEMENT; IT MAY EVEN END IN COMPLETE ARREST OF THE MOVEMENT. SUCH ARE THE CASES OF "PARALYSIS BY IDEAS" FIRST DESCRIBED BY REYNOLDS, AND LATER BY CHARCOT AND HIS SCHOOL UNDER THE NAME OF "PSYCHIC PARALYSIS." THE PATIENT'S INWARD CONVICTION THAT HE CANNOT MOVE A LIMB RENDERS HIM POWERLESS FOR ANY MOVEMENT, AND HE RECOVERS HIS MOTOR POWER ONLY WHEN THE MORBID REPRESENTATION HAS disappeared. These and similar facts suggest a few remarks. FIRST, THAT WE HAVE HERE CREATION IN THE STRICT SENSE OF THE WORD, THOUGH IT BE LIMITED TO THE ORGANISM. WHAT APPEARS IS new. THOUGH ONE MAY STRICTLY MAINTAIN THAT FROM OUR OWN EXPERIENCE WE HAVE A KNOWLEDGE OF FORMICATION, RAPID AND SLOW BEATING OF THE HEART, EVEN THOUGH WE MAY NOT BE ABLE ORDINARILY TO PRODUCE THEM AT WILL, THIS POSITION IS ABSOLUTELY UNTENABLE WHEN WE CONSIDER CASES OF VESICATION, STIGMATA, AND OTHER ALLEGED MIRACULOUS PHENOMENA: these are without precedent in the life of the individual. SECOND, IN ORDER THAT THESE UNUSUAL STATES MAY OCCUR, THERE ARE REQUIRED ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS IN THE PRODUCING MECHANISM. AT BOTTOM THIS MECHANISM IS VERY OBSCURE. TO INVOKE "THE POWER OF THE IMAGINATION" IS MERELY TO SUBSTITUTE A WORD WHERE AN EXPLANATION IS NEEDED. FORTUNATELY, WE DO NOT NEED TO PENETRATE INTO THE INMOST PART OF THIS MYSTERY. IT IS ENOUGH FOR US TO MAKE SURE OF THE FACTS, TO PROVE THAT THEY HAVE A REPRESENTATION AS THE STARTING POINT, AND TO SHOW THAT THE REPRESENTATION BY ITSELF IS NOT ENOUGH. WHAT MORE THEN IS NEEDED? LET US NOTE FIRST OF ALL THAT THESE OCCURRENCES ARE RARE. IT IS NOT WITHIN THE POWER OF EVERYBODY TO ACQUIRE STIGMATA OR TO BECOME CURED OF A PARALYSIS PRONOUNCED INCURABLE. THIS HAPPENS ONLY TO THOSE HAVING AN ARDENT FAITH, A STRONG DESIRE that it shall come to pass. THIS IS AN INDISPENSABLE PSYCHIC CONDITION. WHAT IS CONCERNED IN SUCH A CASE IS NOT A SINGLE STATE, BUT A DOUBLE ONE: AN IMAGE FOLLOWED BY A PARTICULAR EMOTIONAL STATE (DESIRE, AVERSION, ETC.). IN OTHER WORDS, THERE ARE TWO CONDITIONS: IN THE FIRST ARE CONCERNED THE MOTOR ELEMENTS INCLUDED IN THE IMAGE, THE REMAINS OF PREVIOUS PERCEPTIONS; IN THE SECOND, THERE ARE CONCERNED THE FOREGOING, plus AFFECTIVE STATES, TENDENCIES THAT SUM UP THE INDIVIDUAL'S ENERGY. IT IS THE LATTER FACT THAT explains their power. TO CONCLUDE: THIS GROUP OF FACTS SHOWS US THE EXISTENCE, BEYOND IMAGES, OF ANOTHER FACTOR, INSTINCTIVE OR EMOTIONAL IN form, which we shall have to study later and which will lead us to the ultimate source of the creative imagination. I FEAR THAT THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE FACTS HERE GIVEN AND THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION PROPER WILL SEEM TO THE READER VERY GREAT INDEED. AND WHY SO? FIRST, BECAUSE THE CREATIVE ACTIVITY HERE HAS AS ITS ONLY MATERIAL THE ORGANISM, AND IS NOT SEPARATED FROM THE CREATOR. THEN, TOO, BECAUSE THESE FACTS ARE EXTREMELY SIMPLE, AND THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION, IN THE ORDINARY SENSE, IS EXTREMELY COMPLEX; HERE THERE IS ONE OPERATING CAUSE, A SINGLE REPRESENTATION MORE OR LESS COMPLEX, WHILE IN IMAGINATIVE CREATION WE HAVE SEVERAL CO-OPERATING IMAGES WITH COMBINATIONS, COÖRDINATION, ARRANGEMENT, GROUPING. BUT IT MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN THAT OUR PRESENT AIM IS SIMPLY TO FIND a transition stage[2] BETWEEN REPRODUCTION AND PRODUCTION; TO SHOW THE COMMON ORIGIN OF THE TWO FORMS OF IMAGINATION—THE PURELY REPRESENTATIVE FACULTY AND THE FACULTY OF CREATING BY MEANS OF THE INTERMEDIATION OF IMAGES;—AND TO SHOW AT THE SAME TIME THE WORK OF SEPARATION, OF severance between the two. II SINCE THE CHIEF AIM OF THIS STUDY IS TO PROVE THAT THE BASIS OF INVENTION MUST BE SOUGHT IN MOTOR MANIFESTATIONS, I SHALL NOT HESITATE TO DWELL ON IT, AND I TAKE THE SUBJECT UP AGAIN UNDER ANOTHER, CLEARER, MORE PRECISE, AND MORE PSYCHOLOGICAL FORM, IN PUTTING THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: WHICH ONE AMONG THE VARIOUS MODES OF MIND-ACTIVITY OFFERS THE CLOSEST ANALOGY [6] [7] [8] [9] TO THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION? I UNHESITATINGLY ANSWER, voluntary activity: IMAGINATION, IN THE INTELLECTUAL ORDER, IS THE equivalent of will in the realm of movements. Let us justify this comparison by some proof. 1. LIKENESS OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE TWO INSTANCES. GROWTH OF VOLUNTARY CONTROL IS PROGRESSIVE, SLOW, CROSSED AND CHECKED. THE INDIVIDUAL HAS TO BECOME MASTER OF HIS MUSCLES AND BY THEIR AGENCY EXTEND HIS SWAY OVER OTHER THINGS. REFLEXES, INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS, AND MOVEMENTS EXPRESSIVE OF EMOTION CONSTITUTE THE PRIMARY MATERIAL OF VOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS. THE WILL HAS NO MOVEMENTS OF ITS OWN AS AN INHERITANCE: IT MUST COÖRDINATE AND ASSOCIATE, SINCE IT SEPARATES IN ORDER TO FORM NEW ASSOCIATIONS. IT REIGNS BY RIGHT OF CONQUEST, NOT BY RIGHT OF BIRTH. IN LIKE MANNER, THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION DOES NOT RISE COMPLETELY ARMED. ITS RAW MATERIALS ARE IMAGES, WHICH HERE CORRESPOND TO MUSCULAR MOVEMENTS. IT GOES THROUGH A PERIOD OF TRIAL. IT ALWAYS IS, AT THE START (FOR REASONS INDICATED LATER ON), AN IMITATION; IT attains its complex forms only through a process of growth. 2. BUT THIS FIRST COMPARISON DOES NOT GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE MATTER; THERE ARE YET DEEPER ANALOGIES. FIRST, THE COMPLETELY SUBJECTIVE CHARACTER OF BOTH INSTANCES. THE IMAGINATION IS SUBJECTIVE, PERSONAL, ANTHROPOCENTRIC; ITS MOVEMENT IS FROM WITHIN OUTWARDS TOWARD AN OBJECTIFICATION. THE UNDERSTANDING, I.E., THE INTELLECT IN THE RESTRICTED SENSE, HAS OPPOSITE CHARACTERISTICS—IT IS OBJECTIVE, IMPERSONAL, RECEIVES FROM OUTSIDE. FOR THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION THE INNER WORLD IS THE REGULATOR; THERE IS A PREPONDERANCE OF THE INNER OVER THE OUTER. FOR THE UNDERSTANDING, THE OUTSIDE WORLD IS THE REGULATOR; THERE IS A PREPONDERANCE OF THE OUTER OVER THE INNER. THE WORLD OF MY IMAGINATION IS my WORLD AS OPPOSED TO THE WORLD OF MY UNDERSTANDING, WHICH IS THE WORLD OF ALL MY FELLOW CREATURES. ON THE OTHER HAND, AS REGARDS THE WILL, WE MIGHT REPEAT EXACTLY, WORD FOR WORD, WHAT WE HAVE JUST SAID OF THE IMAGINATION. THIS IS UNNECESSARY. BACK OF BOTH, THEN, WE HAVE OUR TRUE CAUSE, WHATEVER MAY BE OUR OPINION CONCERNING THE ULTIMATE NATURE OF CAUSATION AND OF will. 3. BOTH IMAGINATION AND WILL HAVE A TELEOLOGICAL CHARACTER, AND ACT ONLY WITH A VIEW TOWARD AN END, BEING THUS THE opposite of the understanding, which, as such, limits itself to proof. We are always wanting something, be it worthless or IMPORTANT. WE ARE ALWAYS INVENTING FOR AN END—WHETHER IN THE CASE OF A NAPOLEON IMAGINING A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN, OR A COOK MAKING UP A NEW DISH. IN BOTH INSTANCES THERE IS NOW A SIMPLE END ATTAINED BY IMMEDIATE MEANS, NOW A COMPLEX AND DISTANT GOAL PRESUPPOSING SUBORDINATE ENDS WHICH ARE MEANS IN RELATION TO THE FINAL END. IN BOTH CASES THERE IS A vis a tergo DESIGNATED BY THE VAGUE TERM "SPONTANEITY," WHICH WE SHALL ATTEMPT TO MAKE CLEAR LATER, AND A vis a fronte, AN attracting movement. 4. ADDED TO THIS ANALOGY AS REGARDS THEIR NATURE, THERE ARE OTHER, SECONDARY LIKENESSES BETWEEN THE ABORTIVE FORMS OF THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION AND THE IMPOTENT FORMS OF THE WILL. IN ITS NORMAL AND COMPLETE FORM WILL CULMINATES IN AN ACT; BUT WITH WAVERING CHARACTERS AND SUFFERERS FROM ABULIA DELIBERATION NEVER ENDS, OR THE RESOLUTION REMAINS INERT, INCAPABLE OF REALIZATION, OF ASSERTING ITSELF IN PRACTICE. THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION ALSO, IN ITS COMPLETE FORM, HAS A TENDENCY TO BECOME OBJECTIFIED, TO ASSERT ITSELF IN A WORK THAT SHALL EXIST NOT ONLY FOR THE CREATOR BUT FOR EVERYBODY. ON THE CONTRARY, WITH DREAMERS PURE AND SIMPLE, THE IMAGINATION REMAINS A VAGUELY SKETCHED INNER AFFAIR; IT IS NOT EMBODIED IN ANY ESTHETIC OR practical invention. Revery is the equivalent of weak desires; dreamers are the abulics of the creative imagination. IT IS UNNECESSARY TO ADD THAT THE SIMILARITY ESTABLISHED HERE BETWEEN THE WILL AND THE IMAGINATION IS ONLY PARTIAL AND HAS AS ITS AIM ONLY TO BRING TO LIGHT THE RÔLE OF THE MOTOR ELEMENTS. SURELY NO ONE WILL CONFUSE TWO ASPECTS OF OUR PSYCHIC LIFE THAT ARE SO DISTINCT, AND IT WOULD BE FOOLISH TO DELAY IN ORDER TO ENUMERATE THE DIFFERENCES. THE CHARACTERISTIC OF NOVELTY SHOULD BY ITSELF SUFFICE, SINCE IT IS THE SPECIAL AND INDISPENSABLE MARK OF INVENTION, AND FOR VOLITION IS ONLY ACCESSORY: THE extraction of a tooth requires of the patient as much effort the second time as the first, although it is no longer a novelty. AFTER THESE PRELIMINARY REMARKS WE MUST GO ON TO THE ANALYSIS OF THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION, IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND ITS NATURE IN SO FAR AS THAT IS ACCESSIBLE WITH OUR EXISTING MEANS. IT IS, INDEED, A TERTIARY FORMATION IN MENTAL LIFE, IF WE ASSUME A PRIMARY LAYER (SENSATIONS AND SIMPLE EMOTIONS), AND A SECONDARY (IMAGES AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS, CERTAIN ELEMENTARY LOGICAL OPERATIONS, ETC.). BEING COMPOSITE, IT MAY BE DECOMPOSED INTO ITS CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS, WHICH WE SHALL STUDY UNDER THESE THREE HEADINGS, VIZ., THE INTELLECTUAL FACTOR, THE AFFECTIVE OR EMOTIONAL FACTOR, AND THE UNCONSCIOUS FACTOR. BUT THAT IS NOT ENOUGH; THE ANALYSIS SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY A SYNTHESIS. ALL IMAGINATIVE CREATION, GREAT OR SMALL, IS ORGANIC, requires a unifying principle: there is then also a synthetic factor, which it will be necessary to determine. FOOTNOTES: A. Maury, in his book L'Astronomie et la Magie, enumerates fifty cases. There are still others, as we shall see later on. PART ONE ANALYSIS OF THE IMAGINATION [10] [11] [12] [1] [2] [13] [14] [15] CHAPTER I THE INTELLECTUAL FACTOR. I CONSIDERED UNDER ITS INTELLECTUAL ASPECT, THAT IS, IN SO FAR AS IT BORROWS ITS ELEMENTS FROM THE UNDERSTANDING, THE IMAGINATION PRESUPPOSES TWO FUNDAMENTAL OPERATIONS—THE ONE, NEGATIVE AND PREPARATORY, DISSOCIATION; THE OTHER, positive and constitutive, association. DISSOCIATION IS THE "ABSTRACTION" OF THE OLDER PSYCHOLOGISTS, WHO WELL UNDERSTOOD ITS IMPORTANCE FOR THE SUBJECT WITH WHICH WE ARE NOW CONCERNED. NEVERTHELESS, THE TERM "DISSOCIATION" SEEMS TO ME PREFERABLE, BECAUSE IT IS MORE COMPREHENSIVE. IT DESIGNATES A GENUS OF WHICH THE OTHER IS A SPECIES. IT IS A SPONTANEOUS OPERATION AND OF A MORE RADICAL NATURE THAN THE OTHER. ABSTRACTION, STRICTLY SO-CALLED, ACTS ONLY ON ISOLATED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS; DISSOCIATION ACTS, FURTHER, ON SERIES OF STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS, WHICH IT SORTS OUT, BREAKS UP, DISSOLVES, AND THROUGH THIS PREPARATORY work makes suitable for entering into new combinations. PERCEPTION IS A SYNTHETIC PROCESS, BUT DISSOCIATION (OR ABSTRACTION) IS ALREADY PRESENT IN EMBRYO IN PERCEPTION, JUST BECAUSE THE LATTER IS A COMPLEX STATE. EVERYONE PERCEIVES AFTER AN INDIVIDUAL FASHION, ACCORDING TO HIS CONSTITUTION AND THE IMPRESSION OF THE MOMENT. A PAINTER, A SPORTSMAN, A DEALER, AND AN UNINTERESTED SPECTATOR DO NOT SEE A GIVEN HORSE in the same manner: the qualities that interest one are unnoticed by another.[3] THE IMAGE BEING A SIMPLIFICATION OF SENSORY DATA, AND ITS NATURE DEPENDENT ON THAT OF PREVIOUS PERCEPTIONS, IT IS INEVITABLE THAT THE WORK OF DISSOCIATION SHOULD GO ON IN IT. BUT THIS IS FAR TOO MILD A STATEMENT. OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENT SHOW US THAT IN THE MAJORITY OF CASES THE PROCESS GROWS WONDERFULLY. IN ORDER TO FOLLOW THE PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS DISSOLUTION, WE MAY ROUGHLY DIFFERENTIATE IMAGES INTO THREE CATEGORIES—COMPLETE, INCOMPLETE, AND schematic—and study them in order. THE GROUP OF IMAGES HERE TERMED complete COMPRISES FIRST, OBJECTS REPEATEDLY PRESENTED IN DAILY EXPERIENCE—MY WIFE'S FACE, MY INKSTAND, THE SOUND OF A CHURCH BELL OR OF A NEIGHBORING CLOCK, ETC. IN THIS CLASS ARE ALSO INCLUDED THE IMAGES OF THINGS THAT WE HAVE PERCEIVED BUT A FEW TIMES, BUT WHICH, FOR ADDITIONAL REASONS, HAVE REMAINED CLEAN-CUT IN OUR MEMORY. ARE THESE IMAGES COMPLETE, IN THE STRICT SENSE OF THE WORD? THEY CANNOT BE; AND THE CONTRARY BELIEF IS A DELUSION OF CONSCIOUSNESS THAT, HOWEVER, DISAPPEARS WHEN ONE CONFRONTS IT WITH THE REALITY. THE MENTAL IMAGE CAN CONTAIN ALL THE QUALITIES OF AN OBJECT IN EVEN LESS DEGREE THAN THE PERCEPTION; THE IMAGE IS THE RESULT OF SELECTION, VARYING WITH EVERY CASE. THE PAINTER FROMENTIN, WHO WAS PROUD THAT HE FOUND AFTER TWO OR THREE YEARS "AN EXACT RECOLLECTION" OF THINGS HE HAD BARELY NOTICED ON A JOURNEY, MAKES ELSEWHERE, HOWEVER, THE FOLLOWING CONFESSION: "MY MEMORY OF THINGS, ALTHOUGH VERY FAITHFUL, HAS NEVER THE CERTAINTY ADMISSIBLE AS DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. THE WEAKER IT GROWS, THE MORE IS IT CHANGED IN BECOMING THE PROPERTY OF MY MEMORY AND THE MORE VALUABLE IS IT FOR THE WORK THAT I INTEND FOR IT. IN PROPORTION AS THE EXACT FORM BECOMES ALTERED, ANOTHER FORM, PARTLY REAL, PARTLY IMAGINARY, WHICH I BELIEVE PREFERABLE, TAKES ITS PLACE." NOTE THAT THE PERSON SPEAKING THUS IS A PAINTER ENDOWED WITH AN UNUSUAL VISUAL MEMORY; BUT RECENT INVESTIGATIONS HAVE SHOWN THAT AMONG MEN GENERALLY THE SO-CALLED COMPLETE AND EXACT IMAGES UNDERGO CHANGE AND WARPING. ONE SEES THE TRUTH OF THIS STATEMENT WHEN, AFTER A LAPSE OF SOME TIME, ONE IS PLACED IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ORIGINAL OBJECT, SO THAT COMPARISON BETWEEN THE REAL OBJECT AND ITS IMAGE BECOMES POSSIBLE. [4] LET US NOTE THAT IN THIS group the image always corresponds to certain individual objects; it is not the same with the other two groups. The group of incomplete IMAGES, ACCORDING TO THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIOUSNESS ITSELF, COMES FROM TWO DISTINCT SOURCES— FIRST, FROM PERCEPTIONS INSUFFICIENTLY OR ILL-FIXED; AND AGAIN, FROM IMPRESSIONS OF LIKE OBJECTS WHICH, WHEN TOO OFTEN REPEATED, END BY BECOMING CONFUSED. THE LATTER CASE HAS BEEN WELL DESCRIBED BY TAINE. A MAN, SAYS HE, WHO, HAVING GONE THROUGH AN AVENUE OF POPLARS WANTS TO PICTURE A POPLAR; OR, HAVING LOOKED INTO A POULTRY-YARD, WISHES TO CALL UP A PICTURE OF A HEN, EXPERIENCES A DIFFICULTY—HIS DIFFERENT MEMORIES RISE UP. THE EXPERIMENT BECOMES A CAUSE OF EFFACEMENT; THE IMAGES CANCELING ONE ANOTHER DECLINE TO A STATE OF IMPERCEPTIBLE TENDENCIES WHICH THEIR LIKENESS AND unlikeness prevent from predominating. Images become blunted by their collision just as do bodies by friction.[5] THIS GROUP LEADS US TO THAT OF schematic IMAGES, OR THOSE ENTIRELY WITHOUT MARK—THE INDEFINITE IMAGE OF A ROSEBUSH, OF A PIN, OF A CIGARETTE, ETC. THIS IS THE GREATEST DEGREE OF IMPOVERISHMENT; THE IMAGE, DEPRIVED LITTLE BY LITTLE OF ITS OWN CHARACTERISTICS, IS NOTHING MORE THAN A SHADOW. IT HAS BECOME THAT TRANSITIONAL FORM BETWEEN IMAGE AND PURE CONCEPT that we now term "generic image," or one that at least resembles the latter. THE IMAGE, THEN, IS SUBJECT TO AN UNENDING PROCESS OF CHANGE, OF SUPPRESSION AND ADDITION, OF DISSOCIATION and CORROSION. THIS MEANS THAT IT IS NOT A DEAD THING; IT IS NOT AT ALL LIKE A PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATE WITH WHICH ONE MAY REPRODUCE COPIES INDEFINITELY. BEING DEPENDENT ON THE STATE OF THE BRAIN, THE IMAGE UNDERGOES CHANGE LIKE ALL LIVING SUBSTANCE,—IT IS SUBJECT TO GAINS AND LOSSES, ESPECIALLY LOSSES. BUT EACH OF THE FOREGOING THREE CLASSES HAS ITS USE FOR THE INVENTOR. THEY SERVE AS MATERIAL FOR DIFFERENT KINDS OF IMAGINATION—IN THEIR CONCRETE FORM, FOR THE MECHANIC AND THE ARTIST; IN THEIR schematic form, for the scientist and for others. THUS FAR WE HAVE SEEN ONLY A PART OF THE WORK OF DISSOCIATION AND, TAKING IT ALL IN ALL, THE SMALLEST PART. WE HAVE, SEEMINGLY, CONSIDERED IMAGES AS ISOLATED FACTS, AS PSYCHIC ATOMS; BUT THAT IS A PURELY THEORETIC POSITION. IMAGES ARE NOT [16] [17] [18] [19] SOLITARY IN ACTUAL LIFE; THEY FORM PART OF A CHAIN, OR RATHER OF A WOOF OR NET, SINCE, BY REASON OF THEIR MANIFOLD RELATIONS THEY MAY RADIATE IN ALL DIRECTIONS, THROUGH ALL THE SENSES. DISSOCIATION, THEN, WORKS ALSO UPON series, CUTS THEM UP, mangles them, breaks them, and reduces them to ruins. THE IDEAL LAW OF THE RECURRENCE OF IMAGES IS THAT KNOWN SINCE HAMILTON'S TIME UNDER THE NAME OF "LAW OF redintegration,"[6] WHICH CONSISTS IN THE PASSING FROM A PART TO THE WHOLE, EACH ELEMENT TENDING TO REPRODUCE THE COMPLETE STATE, EACH MEMBER OF A SERIES THE WHOLE OF THAT SERIES. IF THIS LAW EXISTED ALONE, INVENTION WOULD BE FOREVER FORBIDDEN TO US; WE COULD NOT EMERGE FROM REPETITION; WE SHOULD BE CONDEMNED TO MONOTONY. BUT THERE IS AN OPPOSITE power that frees us—it is dissociation. IT IS VERY STRANGE THAT, WHILE PSYCHOLOGISTS HAVE FOR SO LONG A TIME STUDIED THE LAWS OF ASSOCIATION, NO ONE HAS INVESTIGATED WHETHER THE INVERSE PROCESS, DISSOCIATION, ALSO HAS NOT LAWS OF ITS OWN. WE CAN NOT HERE ATTEMPT SUCH A TASK, WHICH WOULD BE OUTSIDE OF OUR PROVINCE; IT WILL SUFFICE TO INDICATE IN PASSING TWO GENERAL CONDITIONS DETERMINING THE association of series. FIRST, THERE ARE THE INTERNAL OR SUBJECTIVE CAUSES. THE REVIVED IMAGE OF A FACE, A MONUMENT, A LANDSCAPE, AN OCCURRENCE, is, most often, only partial. It depends on various conditions that revive the essential part and drop the minor details, and THIS "ESSENTIAL" WHICH SURVIVES DISSOCIATION DEPENDS ON SUBJECTIVE CAUSES, THE PRINCIPAL ONES OF WHICH ARE AT FIRST PRACTICAL, UTILITARIAN REASONS. IT IS THE TENDENCY ALREADY MENTIONED TO IGNORE WHAT IS OF NO VALUE, TO EXCLUDE THAT FROM CONSCIOUSNESS. HELMHOLTZ HAS SHOWN THAT IN THE ACT OF SEEING, VARIOUS DETAILS REMAIN UNNOTICED BECAUSE THEY ARE IMMATERIAL IN THE CONCERNS OF LIFE; AND THERE ARE MANY OTHER LIKE INSTANCES. THEN, TOO, EMOTIONAL REASONS GOVERNING THE ATTENTION ORIENTATE IT EXCLUSIVELY IN ONE DIRECTION—THESE WILL BE STUDIED IN THE COURSE OF THIS WORK. LASTLY, THERE ARE LOGICAL OR INTELLECTUAL REASONS, IF WE UNDERSTAND BY THIS TERM THE LAW OF MENTAL INERTIA OR THE LAW OF LEAST RESISTANCE BY means of which the mind tends toward the simplification and lightening of its labor. SECONDLY, THERE ARE EXTERNAL OR OBJECTIVE CAUSES WHICH ARE VARIATIONS IN EXPERIENCE. WHEN TWO OR MORE QUALITIES OR EVENTS ARE GIVEN AS CONSTANTLY ASSOCIATED IN EXPERIENCE WE DO NOT DISSOCIATE THEM. THE UNIFORMITY OF NATURE'S LAWS IS THE GREAT OPPONENT OF DISSOCIATION. MANY TRUTHS (FOR EXAMPLE, THE EXISTENCE OF THE ANTIPODES) ARE ESTABLISHED WITH DIFFICULTY, BECAUSE IT IS NECESSARY TO BREAK UP CLOSELY KNIT ASSOCIATIONS. THE ORIENTAL KING WHOM SULLY MENTIONS, WHO HAD NEVER SEEN ICE, REFUSED TO CREDIT THE EXISTENCE OF SOLID WATER. A TOTAL IMPRESSION, THE ELEMENTS OF WHICH HAD NEVER BEEN GIVEN US SEPARATELY IN EXPERIENCE, WOULD BE UNANALYZABLE. IF ALL COLD OBJECTS WERE MOIST, AND ALL MOIST OBJECTS COLD; IF ALL LIQUIDS WERE TRANSPARENT AND ALL NON-LIQUIDS OPAQUE, WE SHOULD FIND IT DIFFICULT TO DISTINGUISH COLD FROM MOISTURE AND liquidity from transparency. On his part, James adds further that what has been associated sometimes with one thing and SOMETIMES WITH ANOTHER TENDS TO BECOME DISSOCIATED FROM BOTH. THIS MIGHT BE CALLED A LAW OF ASSOCIATION BY concomitant variations.[7] In order to thoroughly comprehend the absolute necessity for dissociation, let us note that total redintegration is per se A HINDRANCE TO CREATION. EXAMPLES ARE GIVEN OF PEOPLE WHO CAN EASILY REMEMBER TWENTY OR THIRTY PAGES OF A BOOK, BUT IF they want a particular passage they are unable to pick it out—they must begin at the beginning and continue down to the REQUIRED PLACE. EXCESSIVE EASE OF RETENTION THUS BECOMES A SERIOUS INCONVENIENCE. BESIDES THESE RARE CASES, WE KNOW THAT IGNORANT PEOPLE, THOSE INTELLECTUALLY LIMITED, GIVE THE SAME INVARIABLE STORY OF EVERY OCCURRENCE, IN WHICH ALL THE PARTS —THE IMPORTANT AND THE ACCESSORY, THE USEFUL AND THE USELESS—ARE ON A DEAD LEVEL. THEY OMIT NO DETAIL, THEY CANNOT SELECT. MINDS OF THIS KIND ARE INAPT AT INVENTION. IN SHORT, WE MAY SAY THAT THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF MEMORY: ONE IS COMPLETELY SYSTEMATIZED, E.G., HABITS, ROUTINE, POETRY OR PROSE LEARNED BY HEART, FAULTLESS MUSICAL RENDERING, ETC. THE ACQUISITION FORMS A COMPACT WHOLE AND CANNOT ENTER INTO NEW COMBINATIONS. THE OTHER IS NOT SYSTEMATIZED; IT IS COMPOSED OF SMALL, MORE OR LESS COHERENT GROUPS. THIS KIND OF MEMORY IS PLASTIC AND CAPABLE OF BECOMING COMBINED IN new ways. WE HAVE ENUMERATED THE SPONTANEOUS, NATURAL CAUSES OF ASSOCIATION, OMITTING THE VOLUNTARY AND ARTIFICIAL CAUSES, WHICH ARE BUT THEIR IMITATIONS. AS A RESULT OF THESE VARIOUS CAUSES, IMAGES ARE TAKEN TO PIECES, SHATTERED, BROKEN UP, BUT MADE ALL THE READIER AS MATERIALS FOR THE INVENTOR. THIS IS A PROCESS ANALOGOUS TO THAT WHICH, IN GEOLOGIC TIME, PRODUCES NEW strata through the wearing away of old rocks. II ASSOCIATION IS ONE OF THE BIG QUESTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY; BUT AS IT DOES NOT ESPECIALLY CONCERN OUR SUBJECT, IT WILL BE DISCUSSED IN STRICT PROPORTION TO ITS USE HERE. NOTHING IS EASIER THAN LIMITING OURSELVES. OUR TASK IS REDUCIBLE TO A VERY CLEAR AND VERY BRIEF QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE FORMS OF ASSOCIATION THAT GIVE RISE TO NEW COMBINATIONS AND UNDER WHAT INFLUENCES DO THEY ARISE? ALL OTHER FORMS OF ASSOCIATION, THOSE THAT ARE ONLY REPETITIONS, SHOULD BE ELIMINATED. CONSEQUENTLY, THIS SUBJECT CAN NOT BE TREATED IN ONE SINGLE EFFORT; IT MUST BE STUDIED, IN TURN, IN ITS RELATIONS TO OUR THREE factors—intellectual, emotional, unconscious. IT IS GENERALLY ADMITTED THAT THE EXPRESSION "ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS" IS FAULTY. [8] IT IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE ENOUGH, ASSOCIATION BEING ACTIVE ALSO IN PSYCHIC STATES OTHER THAN IDEAS. IT SEEMS INDICATIVE RATHER OF MERE JUXTAPOSITION, WHEREAS ASSOCIATED STATES MODIFY ONE ANOTHER BY THE VERY FACT OF THEIR BEING CONNECTED. BUT, AS IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY LONG USAGE, IT would be difficult to eliminate the phrase. ON THE OTHER HAND, PSYCHOLOGISTS ARE NOT AT ALL AGREED AS REGARDS THE DETERMINATION OF THE PRINCIPAL LAWS OR FORMS OF [20] [21] [22] [23] ASSOCIATION. WITHOUT TAKING SIDES IN THE DEBATE, I ADOPT THE MOST GENERALLY ACCEPTED CLASSIFICATION, THE ONE MOST SUITABLE FOR OUR SUBJECT—THE ONE THAT REDUCES EVERYTHING TO THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF CONTIGUITY AND RESEMBLANCE. IN RECENT YEARS VARIOUS ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO REDUCE THESE TWO LAWS TO ONE, SOME REDUCING RESEMBLANCE TO CONTIGUITY; OTHERS, CONTIGUITY TO RESEMBLANCE. PUTTING ASIDE THE GROUND OF THIS DISCUSSION, WHICH SEEMS TO ME VERY USELESS, AND WHICH PERHAPS IS DUE TO EXCESSIVE ZEAL FOR UNITY, WE MUST NEVERTHELESS RECOGNIZE THAT THIS DISCUSSION IS NOT WITHOUT INTEREST FOR THE STUDY OF THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION, BECAUSE IT HAS WELL SHOWN THAT EACH OF THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL LAWS HAS A characteristic mechanism. ASSOCIATION BY CONTIGUITY (OR CONTINUITY), WHICH WUNDT CALLS EXTERNAL, IS SIMPLE AND HOMOGENEOUS. IT REPRODUCES THE order and connection of things; it reduces itself to habits contracted by our nervous system. IS ASSOCIATION BY RESEMBLANCE, WHICH WUNDT CALLS INTERNAL, STRICTLY SPEAKING, AN ELEMENTARY LAW? MANY DOUBT IT. WITHOUT ENTERING INTO THE LONG AND FREQUENTLY CONFUSED DISCUSSIONS TO WHICH THIS SUBJECT HAS GIVEN RISE, WE MAY SUM UP THEIR RESULTS AS FOLLOWS: IN SO-CALLED ASSOCIATION BY RESEMBLANCE IT IS NECESSARY TO DISTINGUISH THREE MOMENTS—(A) THAT OF THE PRESENTATION; A STATE A IS GIVEN IN PERCEPTION OR ASSOCIATION-BY-CONTIGUITY, AND FORMS THE STARTING POINT. (B) THAT OF THE work of assimilation; A IS RECOGNIZED AS MORE OR LESS LIKE A STATE a PREVIOUSLY EXPERIENCED. (C) AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE coëxistence of A and a in consciousness, they can later be recalled reciprocally, although the two original occurrences A AND a HAVE PREVIOUSLY NEVER EXISTED TOGETHER, AND SOMETIMES, INDEED, MAY NOT POSSIBLY HAVE EXISTED TOGETHER. IT IS EVIDENT THAT THE CRUCIAL MOMENT IS THE SECOND, AND THAT IT CONSISTS OF AN ACT OF ACTIVE ASSIMILATION. THUS JAMES MAINTAINS THAT "IT IS A RELATION THAT THE MIND PERCEIVES AFTER THE FACT, JUST AS IT MAY PERCEIVE THE RELATIONS OF SUPERIORITY, OF DISTANCE, OF CAUSALITY, OF CONTAINER AND CONTENT, OF SUBSTANCE AND ACCIDENT, OR OF CONTRAST BETWEEN AN OBJECT, AND SOME SECOND object which the associative machinery calls up."[9] ASSOCIATION BY RESEMBLANCE PRESUPPOSES A JOINT LABOR OF ASSOCIATION AND DISSOCIATION—IT IS AN ACTIVE FORM. CONSEQUENTLY IT IS THE PRINCIPAL SOURCE OF THE MATERIAL OF THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION, AS THE SEQUEL OF THIS WORK WILL sufficiently show. AFTER THIS RATHER LONG BUT NECESSARY PREFACE, WE COME TO THE INTELLECTUAL FACTOR RIGHTLY SO TERMED, WHICH WE HAVE BEEN LITTLE BY LITTLE APPROACHING. THE ESSENTIAL, FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT OF THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION IN THE INTELLECTUAL SPHERE IS THE CAPACITY OF THINKING BY ANALOGY; THAT IS, BY PARTIAL AND OFTEN ACCIDENTAL RESEMBLANCE. BY ANALOGY WE MEAN AN IMPERFECT kind of resemblance: like is a genus of which analogue is a species. LET US EXAMINE IN SOME DETAIL THE MECHANISM OF THIS MODE OF THOUGHT IN ORDER THAT WE MAY UNDERSTAND HOW ANALOGY IS, by its very nature, an almost inexhaustible instrument of creation. 1. ANALOGY MAY BE BASED SOLELY ON THE number of attributes compared. Let a b c d e f and r s t u d v BE TWO BEINGS OR OBJECTS, EACH LETTER REPRESENTING SYMBOLICALLY ONE OF THE CONSTITUTIVE ATTRIBUTES. IT IS EVIDENT THAT THE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE TWO IS VERY WEAK, SINCE THERE IS ONLY ONE COMMON ELEMENT, d. IF THE NUMBER OF THE ELEMENTS COMMON TO BOTH INCREASES, THE ANALOGY WILL GROW IN THE SAME PROPORTION. BUT THE AGREEMENT REPRESENTED ABOVE IS NOT INFREQUENT AMONG MINDS UNUSED TO A SOMEWHAT SEVERE DISCIPLINE. A CHILD SEES IN THE MOON AND STARS A MOTHER SURROUNDED BY HER DAUGHTERS. THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA CALLED A BOOK "MUSSEL," MERELY BECAUSE IT OPENS AND SHUTS LIKE THE VALVES OF A shellfish.[10] 2. ANALOGY MAY HAVE FOR ITS BASIS THE quality or value OF THE COMPOUND ATTRIBUTES. IT RESTS ON A VARIABLE ELEMENT, WHICH OSCILLATES FROM THE ESSENTIAL TO THE ACCIDENTAL, FROM THE REALITY TO THE APPEARANCE. TO THE LAYMAN, THE LIKENESS BETWEEN CETACIANS AND FISHES ARE GREAT; TO THE SCIENTIST, SLIGHT. HERE, AGAIN, NUMEROUS AGREEMENTS ARE POSSIBLE, PROVIDED ONE TAKE no account either of their solidity or their frailty. 3. LASTLY, IN MINDS WITHOUT POWER, THERE OCCURS A SEMI-UNCO...