Chapter 8 Chapter 6 The Unintentional Psychologist: William James

In what category should a man be placed who has become a distinguished professor of the new science of psychology, but who does not recognize it as a science?He praised the discoveries of experimental psychologists, but he was reluctant to conduct experiments and tried to do as few experiments as possible; he was considered the greatest psychologist in the United States of his time (late 19th century), but he never took a psychology course. taking classes, and sometimes even denying himself to be a psychologist. Listen to this geek William James: To a friend who wrote poetry, he wrote with some irony about the new psychology of the German mechanists: "The only soul that science can now affirm is a frog whose head has been cut off. Twitches and writhing express truths deeper than you cowardly poets can dream." In a letter to his brother, the novelist Henry James, he said that psychology was a "nasty little subject." , as long as people want to know, it does not research.Less than two years after he completed his own voluminous and authoritative Principles of Psychology, he wrote:

It's a strange thing to hear people talk proudly about the "New Psychology" and to see people writing the "History of Psychology" because the real element and power that the word encompasses is simply absent here, with a shadow of clarity I can't find them.just a string of pure facts; some gossip and disputes of opinion; little categorization and synthesis at the mere descriptive level; a strong prejudice that we have different states of mind and that our brains control those states; However, there are no laws at all, unlike physics that can list some laws for us to find out laws. There is no proposition that can be used to infer a result from cause to effect.It's not science, it's just a science of hope.

But instead of mocking psychology, this outspoken disobedient had great expectations of it.Its goal, he saw, was to discover the connection between each physiological "state of the brain" and the corresponding state of consciousness; a true understanding of this connection would be "a scientific achievement before which All achievements pale in comparison."However, he said that psychology was not yet ready for this goal; its state was like physics before Galileo announced the laws of motion, and chemistry before Lavoisier announced the law of the conservation of mass.Until the Galileo and Lavoisier of this science came along, the best it could do was to explain the laws of conscious mental life, but "the day must eventually come."

James' words aren't official comments, and there's no pretentiousness in them, but they tell us we're about to see someone quite different from Wundt, and it's no wonder they don't have a thing for each other's work Good things to say.James was short, thin, with blue eyes, a small beard, fine features, and an aristocratic forehead. He liked to wear less formal clothes, such as Norfolk jackets, light-colored His shirt and loose tie didn't quite befit his professorship.He was friendly, charming, and fond of going out, often walking through Harvard Yard with the students, talking to them speculatively, a sight that terrified serious professors.As a lecturer, he was so lively and humorous that a student interrupted his lecture one day to ask him to be more serious.

Although he always had a smile on his face and looked childish and even mischievous, he was a complex character: strong and vulnerable at times, hardworking, gregarious, cheerful, but sometimes Also suffers from bouts of depression, is friendly with students and loving family, but he gets bored easily and likes to exaggerate and find fault with trivial things like proofreading. (To which he wrote: "Don't make me proofread any more! I'll send it back untouched and never speak to you again.") Despite his gentlemanly manners and his well-behaved manners, he sometimes It can also be very vicious, as he said about Wundt in the quote above, but usually he only said these in private letters, but in his public writings he was humble and polite, even when criticizing when others.

He writes with a remarkably fluent, easy-going ease and a lot of personal talk that no other psychologist of his time, especially the Germans, would have dreamed of doing.Among the different rules governing one's many multifunctional social selves, he said: "In general you can't lie, but when you're asked about your relationship with a woman, you can do whatever you want. ;Facing a colleague, you must accept the challenge, but if it is someone who is worse than you, you can just laugh it off and show contempt.” In order to show that it is difficult for a person to concentrate on a topic he doesn’t like, he held Take the following example (probably his own):

People will use all sorts of excuses to avoid what they don't want to do, no matter how trivial and irrelevant they are.For example, I know someone who would rather poke the fire, pick the stains off the floor, clear the tabletop, flip through the newspaper, any book in sight, fix his nails, and in short, dawdle and waste a whole In the morning, and none of this was planned in advance - just for formal logic, which he didn't like, and the only thing he should be doing at noon was preparing for this class.What is your opinion on this? ! At times, James dilutes the seriousness of his work with humorous stories and jokes.Describing how Helmholtz and Wundt felt about a professor who had just misapplied their principle of unconscious reference, James wrote: "Naturally, [they] felt about him like the How the sailor felt about the horse, because the horse stuck his feet in the stirrups, and the sailor said—'If you're going to put it on (go forward), I'll have to take it off (dismount)."'

James is also quite sensitive and compassionate at times.When Helen Keller was a little girl, he bought her a small gift that she thought she would like, but in fact she never forgot this gift-an ostrich feather. (Helen Keller was blind, deaf and dumb, learned several languages ​​with amazing perseverance, and became a writer. Her story is celebrated all over the world - Annotation.) No wonder the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead summed him up: "William James, that was a respectable genius." William James was born in New York City in 1842. His family was wealthy, but he never thought that he would become a dude.

His grandfather, of Scotch-Irish descent who had come to America from Ireland, was a shrewd businessman and founder of the Lake Erie Canal, making millions.As a result, his son Henry (William's father) didn't have to work at all.Henry attended a mission school for two years, but dropped out because he found the rigid Presbyterian dogma unpleasant, but he continued to be interested in religious and philosophical questions throughout his life. At the age of 33, he encountered a serious emotional crisis.After dinner, as he idled about the fire, he was suddenly overtaken by an inexplicable sense of dread—"a utterly irrational and pathetic dread, without any apparent reason"; he said afterwards—though it lasted only 10 seconds, but he was devastated, and continued to be affected by recurring anxiety attacks for the next two years.Doctors, travel, and other distractions didn't help much, but in the end he found relief in the philosophy of the Swedish mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg, because Swedenborg himself I have also been hit by this anxiety.

When he recovered, Henry devoted part of his time to writing theology and social reform (he considered himself "a philosopher and seeker of truth") and partly to the education of his children.Dissatisfied with American schools, he took his family to Europe from time to time—William James was the eldest of five children—to broaden their horizons, supplement their education, and bring the children back to their home in Washington Square, New York, to maintain contact with one's own culture. As a result, William James was educated and privately educated in the United States, England, France, Switzerland, and Germany; he was familiar with the great museums and galleries of the cities he visited with his family; Yes; met, talked with, and listened to their discourses, such as Thoreau, Emerson, Greeley, Hawthorne, Carlyle, Tennyson, and J. S. Mill, who frequented his home; Under the influence of his father, he read widely and had a philosophical foundation.That's not to say old Henry James was a foreman and a disciplined man, he was a very uncommon random man for his day, and a lovely father, for he allowed the children to be at the dinner table Talk about anything, and, to the great amazement of his friends, he allows the children to go to the theatre.

However, an amiable and loving father may also have a bad influence on children. At the age of 17, William James hoped to be a painter, but Henry James Sr. did not agree with this matter, and took the whole family to Europe for a year to dilute the matter, because he hoped that his children would pursue careers in science or philosophy. a career.It was only because William insisted that he begrudgingly let him take lessons with a painter in Newport.Half a year later, William felt that he lacked great talent in this area, perhaps more because of a sense of guilt than lack of talent. He followed his father's hope and entered Harvard University and began to study chemistry. Red-tape laboratory work tested his patience, however, and he quickly turned to physiology, the hot topic of the time, largely because of pioneering work in Europe by Müller, Helmholtz, and Dubois-Raymond.But soon, as the family's financial situation began to deteriorate, William realized that sooner or later he would have to make a living for himself, so he turned to Harvard Medical School.Medicine failed to arouse his enthusiasm, so he spent nearly a year traveling to the Amazon with the eminent Harvard naturalist Louis Agassiz in the hope that natural history would become his true passion.It turned out no, he didn't like collecting specimens. He went back to medical school, only to be plagued by various ailments—lower back pain, poor eyesight, indigestion, and bouts of suicidal urges—all or mostly exacerbated by his worries about the future.In search of relief he went to France and Germany for about two years, bathed there, studied under Helmholtz and other eminent physiologists, and became quite familiar with the new psychology. Finally, he came back and finished medical school at 27.He didn't try to practice medicine because of his poor health, but he spent time studying psychology, darkened by worries about his future, combined with his scientific views on consciousness and the mysteries of the world and its father There is a big difference between doctrine and spiritual pursuit, so I am depressed. At the age of 28 in 1870, after more than a year of depression, he suddenly had an emotional crisis very similar to that of his father.Many years later, in Varieties of Religious Experience, he described this experience in the form of a memoir written for him by an anonymous Frenchman: One night, I went to a tailor shop in the dark to buy a dress, and suddenly a terrible feeling of dread hit me without warning, as if emerging from the darkness.This fear is the fear of one's own existence.At the same time, an image appeared in my mind of an epileptic, whom I had seen before in the madhouse, a black-haired young man with green skin, a total idiot who sat on a stool all day long, Or sit on a shelf against the wall with your legs tucked around your knees.This image is me, I thought.I was so frightened that I called out.After that, the meaning of the universe to me completely changed.I wake up every morning with a really horrible feeling of dread in the bottom of my stomach, a morning dew feeling I never knew existed.I haven't experienced it since. William, who as an adult had explained his father's crisis as a general outburst of long-repressed hostility against his tyrannical father, never hinted at the explanation for his own crisis.Jacques Bazin once put forward a hypothesis: "It is quite reasonable to suppose that this is due to the intolerable pressure, because he cannot rebel against a father who has never been violent to him, but only love." The attack left James depressed for months.During this period he was particularly troubled by the mechanistic view of the world of the German physiologists, the scientific equivalent of the Calvinistic determinism which his own father had always rejected.If mechanism truly reflects consciousness, then all his thoughts, desires, and wills are nothing more than the interplay of natural particles, predetermined; he has no way of judging his own actions, Like that epileptic patient in a mental hospital. Eventually, like his father, he broke free from his depression by reading—not Swedenborg, though, but an essay on free will by the French philosopher Charles Henouille.James wrote in his diary: (I) see no reason to change his definition of free will—"to keep this thought I choose, when I might have other thoughts"—into a definition of illusion.Regardless, I'll tentatively -- until next year -- think it's not an illusion.My first act of free will will be to believe in free will.I want to go one step further with my will, not only to act with that will, but to believe in it, in my own authenticity and creativity. He believed that the will of free will really worked, and he began to recover slowly, although his physical condition had been fragile all his life, and he still had brief episodes of depressed emotions from time to time.He spent the next two years reading extensively in physiology and physiological psychology, bringing his mental health back as well. In 1872, in his late twenties, still financially dependent on his father and with few plans for the future, the president of Harvard and his neighbors—the James family lived for a while in Cambridge— Charles Elio invited him to teach physiology at Harvard.He accepted, and he stayed there for the next 35 years. But not there as a professor of physiology. Three years later, he began teaching courses in physiological psychology and began giving demonstrations to students in his small laboratory with Lawrence Hale.He continued to read promiscuously, developing his own arcane psychological concepts, and spent the next three years writing numerous articles and book reviews advocating his ideas.Publisher Henry Holt offered him a contract to write a textbook on the new science of psychology.James signed the contract but said sorry because he needed two years to finish the book.It turned out that it took him 12 years to complete the book in 1890, but the book he wrote was very successful, far exceeding the original hopes of the publisher. The year James began writing the book, 1878, is also a milestone in another way. At 36, he got married.Despite his belief in free will, he already seems to be some kind of agent who is not free in the choice of a mate.Two years before, his father had announced, returning from a meeting at the Radical Club in Boston, that he had met William's fiancée, Alice Gibbons, a Boston elementary school teacher and accomplished pianist.Although William dragged his legs to meet her, once he saw her, the tree was turned into a boat, and the uncooked rice turned into cooked rice.After a long chase, Alice became his faithful, strong wife and helper, mother of five, scribe and lifelong intellectual companion.She admired his genius, understood his emotional needs and temperamental inconsistencies, and, despite the many moments of saber-rattling, the relationship was not easy, especially before William would go on a long journey every time— He sometimes needs to be apart for a while - but, they are a faithful and loving couple. Once married, some of James' remaining neurological and physical symptoms began to alleviate. Although his body was not always perfect, his attitude towards life changed greatly. The enthusiasm and energy were Never experienced it before.He finally became a financially independent man with an identity of his own, with a family, an income, and the freedom to pursue his own goals.Two years later, Harvard recognized his special interests and talents, made him an associate professor of philosophy (where his grand views on psychology would be more appropriate than a department of physiology), and in 1889 Eventually his title was changed to Professor of Psychology. Before James began teaching psychology in 1875, there were no psychology professors in American universities.At that time, the only forms of psychology taught in American universities were phrenology and Scottish psychophysiology, an offshoot of associationism used primarily as a defense of revelation.James himself never took a course in New Psychology because there was no such course available, as he scoffs: "The first lecture on psychology I ever heard was given by myself." But within 20 years, at least more than 20 American universities have opened psychology courses, published 3 psychology journals, and established a professional psychology society.Psychology came into flower for three reasons: many university presidents wanted to emulate the success of German psychological institutions, Wundt-trained psychologists came to America, and, above all, the influence of James, who taught, through his A dozen extremely popular articles and his masterpiece, Principles of Psychology, spread these influences. James introduced experimental psychology to America.He demonstrated the experiment to the students at least at the same time as Wundt, if not earlier, when James and the students started to conduct psychological experiments, it was at the same time as Wundt did the experiment with the students.The irony is that, on the one hand, James puts great emphasis on the value of the experiment, but on the other hand, he finds it very boring and too academically limited.He usually spends only two hours conducting experiments, "I don't like experimental work by nature," he told a friend, and, referring to the working style of the laboratory at the University of Leipzig, "the thought of psycho-physics experiments and Complete brass instruments and algebraic formulas, I am terrified of this kind of psychology." However, he believed in experimental psychology and had his students conduct extensive experiments.They made frogs spin rapidly to explore the function of the inner ear; he did the same experiment with deaf people to test James' hypothesis that because their semicircular passages had been damaged, they were less sensitive to vertigo than normal people Just less (he was right); they performed reflex experiments on frog legs, and experiments on reaction-times and neurotransmission speeds on human subjects; moreover, they were far beyond the scope of Wundt's physiological psychology , also experimented with hypnosis and automatic writing. Even though James didn't like doing experiments, when the best way to prove or disprove a theory was to run experiments, he forced himself to do some.When he was writing the chapter on memory in his book Principles of Psychology, he wished to test an ancient belief still held by "functional" psychologists, that memory, like a muscle, can be strengthened with practice , and memorizing anything would thus improve not only the memory of the memorized material, but the ability to memorize all material.Suspecting this, James made himself a test subject.In 8 days, he recited 158 lines of Victor Hugo's "Satire", each line took an average of about 50 seconds.Then he began to recite Milton's.For 38 days, he recited 90 minutes a day until he had recited the complete poem (798 lines).If the theory of the exercise is correct, this prolonged effort should strengthen his memory enormously.He went back to the poem "Satire" and recited 158 lines—and found that it took seven seconds longer to recite each line than the first time.Instead of strengthening his memory, the practice slowed it down, at least temporarily. (He had several assistants repeat the experiment, with roughly the same results.) A widely accepted psychological theory for more than two thousand years, and still believed by many laypeople today, has been utterly refuted . James' own experiments, however, were only one source, and a very humble one at that, for his psychological ideas.He used all the books he read in the fields of philosophy and physiological psychology; he stayed in Europe for more than half a year from 1882 to 1883, visited various universities, participated in laboratory activities, listened to various lectures, and communicated with dozens of famous psychologists. interviews with scientists and other scientists; corresponded regularly with them, and collected materials and reports from clinical studies of abnormal and normal thinking under hypnosis, drugs, or depression. He obtained many of his major insights and speculations through introspection, a very different source than what Wundt and his students called introspection.In James' view, capturing and isolating individual elements of a thought process through Wundt introspection is bound to fail: Just as a snowflake falling on a hot hand is no longer a snowflake but a drop, so when we try to grasp the feeling of a relationship that is ending, we find that what we grasp is something solid, solid. What is often the last word we utter, if viewed statically, but also in terms of its function, tendency, and especially meaning in a sentence, often disappears.In these cases the method of introspective analysis is really like grasping something spinning to feel its motion, or trying to turn on a gas lamp quickly to see what the darkness looks like. He felt, however, that the naturalist's method of introspection—observing our own thoughts and feelings as they actually are—could tell us a great deal about the life of the mind.For James, this is the most important method of investigation, which he defines as "searching our own minds and reporting what we find there." (He was referring to the introspection of conscious mental activity. At the time, neither he nor other psychologists knew how much of our mental activity took place outside of consciousness.) Such introspection requires concentration and practice, because the inner states are so close to each other and often blended together that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other.However, it's doable, says James, who likens it to sensory perception.As one can see practice, one can achieve the same purpose as one can explore inner phenomena by carefully observing, naming, and classifying outer objects. Rather, at the time, there was a classical question as to whether this was possible.The conscious mind can observe external objects, but how can it observe its own?Is there a second consciousness to observe the first consciousness?How do we know that such a second consciousness exists - can we observe it too?How to observe it?James has an answer to these complex questions: introspection is really immediate recall; the conscious mind looks back and reports what it just experienced. He admits that introspection is difficult and error-prone.Who can guarantee the exact sequence of sensations when they happen in rapid succession?Who can vouch for the strength of comparison between them when they feel more or less the same?If both happen only in an instant, who's to say which one takes longer?Who can enumerate all the ingredients in such a complex emotion as anger? He added, however, that the effectiveness of a certain type of introspective reporting can be tested and examined by at least 56 validated experimental methods.For example, the time length of simple mental activities can be estimated by introspection, and then verified by reaction-time experiments; another example, the introspective report of how many numbers or letters a person can memorize at the same time can be determined by anaesthesia experiments. to be verified. Moreover, although introspective reports of more complex and subtle mental states may not be experimentally verifiable, James believes that since these movements are observable introspectively, any direct When the narrative can be considered literal.In any case, "introspective observation is the method we must rely on first and in all cases." Another source—and perhaps the most important one—for James' psychological ideas is a personal and nonscientific source: his natural, sensory, and intelligent interpretations of human behavior, drawn from his own experience and understanding as the basis.Many of his key insights came from "psychological analysis," as the eminent psychologist Ernest Hilgard put it in his authoritative American Psychology: To perform "psychoanalysis" is to recall everyday observations and then provide a plausible explanation for the relevant experience and behavior.Once expressed, such explanations are often so plausible that detailed proofs seem irrelevant, or at least too onerous to be worth trying.Shakespeare is such a "psychoanalyst", he has no intention of becoming a psychologist.Among psychologists, James is a preeminent psychoanalyst.As a result, he encouraged an all-armed, eager-hearted psychology, uninterested in trifles—a strong and important psychology that stood up to the most perplexing aspects of psychology. problem. After 12 years of research, introspection, psychoanalysis, and writing, James completed Principles of Psychology, which had always been an intolerable burden for him.It's a colossal project—nearly 1,400 pages in two volumes—and utterly unsuitable for a textbook.However, within two years, he adapted an abbreviated textbook from it. (The non-abbreviated version is known as "James", the abbreviated version is known as "Jimmy") Principles of Psychology was an immediate hit and had a profound impact on American psychology.Almost 60 years later, Ralph Barton Perry, a professor of philosophy at Harvard University, still said of it often: "No book in psychology has ever enjoyed such a warm reception...nor has any other Such an enduring reputation." By 1892, when James finished Jimmy, he had been teaching and writing on psychology for 17 years and was getting a little tired of it.From then on he turned his creative talents to a number of other things: education (he lectured on the use of psychology in the classroom and published Talks with Teachers in 1899); the practice of different kinds of religious experience Results ("The Varieties of Religious Experience" published in 1902) and philosophy ("Pragmatism" published in 1907, which made him a famous American thinker). He did, however, continue to write popular articles, republicizing the ideas he had developed in Principles of Psychology, and keeping pace with the development of psychology. In 1894 he was the first American to call attention to the then obscure Viennese physician Sigmund Freud, and in 1909 he visited Clark University despite his illness Only - Floyd who came to the United States once, and heard the speech. Always defiant of convention, James was willing to explore forms of psychology outside the realm of accepted science.He developed a deep interest in spiritualism and the phenomenon of "souls," which he considered extensions of abnormal psychology; he also kept pace with psychic researchers; attended a number of seances; and founded the American Soul in 1884 research association.He once made a pact with a dying friend to sit outside his house and wait to talk to friends from other worlds after he died; no conversation happened.James combined an openness to such subjects with rigorous scientific evidence; later in his life he once concluded: "I find myself believing that in these successive reports of psychic phenomena the ' Something', although I've never had any solid evidence of it... Theoretically, I'm not much better off than I was when I started." From 1898, James became interested in the afterlife for a personal reason.At the age of 56, he overworked his heart while climbing in the Adirondacks, and has had chronic heart disease ever since.His health continued to deteriorate; he retired from Harvard in 1907 and spent the next three years writing two of the most important books in philosophy before dying in 1910 at the age of 68.John Dewey commented on him at the time: "It is generally accepted that he has been the greatest psychologist in America. If it were not for the unreasonable praise for Germans and things, I think he is the same as his age and any The greatest psychologist in the country—perhaps the greatest psychologist of all time." James had much to say on every topic in the field of psychology, as was evident in his day, but his main influence was due to the following concepts: Functionalism: This label is often applied to Jamesian psychology.Unlike the New Psychologists, who argued that higher-order activities were formed with age through evolutionary processes because of their adaptive value, the New Psychologists argued that higher-order mental accumulated on an individual basis.He was 17 when Darwin's was published (1871), and he was 29 when "Ancestors of Man" was published (1871), so he was deeply impressed by both books.It seemed clear to him that complex processes of consciousness had evolved because of their life-sustaining functions, and that in order to understand these processes one had to ask what function they fulfilled. Functionalism is a readily available label, and it's accurate, except that it applies only to certain parts of James's psychology.He had no actual system, and deliberately avoided forming an organic system of his thoughts, because he felt that the time had not yet come for psychology to form a grand theory.As Ralph Barton Perry said, James was an explorer, not a cartographer.In "Principles of Psychology", he provides materials and theories about every psychological phenomenon, from the simplest feeling to reasoning, without forcing everything into a unified framework. He does, however, have strong points of view.German physiological psychologists said that mental states were nothing more than physiological states of the brain and nervous system, but James said that this is "an unjustified judgment in the current state of psychology."He believed that mental life was real, and that the physiological view that human consciousness was nothing more than a physiological response to external stimuli was not to be trusted or debated: All men believe without hesitation that they can feel themselves thinking, that they can distinguish a mental state as an inner activity or passion from all objects which it can deal with through cognitive activity.I consider this belief to be the most fundamental of all the basic conditions of psychology, and I dismiss any curious doubts about its certainty as being too arcane for the scope of this book. The proper subject of psychology would therefore be the introspective analysis of "states of consciousness" of which we are all aware in everyday life and the functions they serve for the organism. (We will skim over what James has to say about physiological psychology in Principles of Psychology, since there is nothing in these chapters that is clearly James's, except for some lucid and poetic prose.) The nature of consciousness: Although James rejected materialism in physiological psychology, he could not accept another form of classical dualism, that is, the idea that consciousness is some kind of independent entity parallel to or independent of the body.Not only is this totally unacceptable, but both Fechner and Donders, among others, have shown that certain physiological responses to stimuli give rise to certain states of consciousness. 詹姆斯考查了就意识-肉体问题提出的每一种主要办法，最后确定了一种观点上的二元论。有外在的物体，还有我们对这些物体的知觉；有一个物质的世界，还有一套与之相联系的意识状态。后者不仅仅是由外部事物引起的大脑状态，它们是心理状态，可以彼此间发生影响，而且，在意识的王国里，它们还遵守它们自己的因果法则。 不管意识状态最终的本质是什么，詹姆斯说，心理学家都应该把意识-肉体这个问题搁在一边。心理学远远还没有准备好或者能够理清生理状态与心理状态之间的联系，而它在目前应该关心的问题是描述并解释如推理、注意力、意愿、想象、记忆力和感觉等的活动。从詹姆斯的时代起，这就是许多心理学流派的主要观点——人格及个人差别的研究、教育心理学、非正常人心理学、儿童发展研究、社会心理学；的确，几乎是任何东西，只是实验心理学除外而已。这个学派的大部分人将会变成行为主义者和今后几十年当中的反“心理主义者”。 意识流：詹姆斯利用内省分析作为其探索有意识思维的主要方法，他强调说，这种方法感觉到的直接的现实就是复杂意识思维无法言说的流动： 大部分书都以感觉开始，它们都是最简单的心理事实，而且是按合成的方式进行的，总是从底下的那些建起更高的一些。可是，这就抛弃了实证主义的调查方法。没有人曾经拥有一个自发而来的感觉。从我们出生的那天起，意识就是许多物体和关系的集中复合。心理学有权在一开始就假设的惟一基本前提就是思维本身这个事实。对于我们这些心理学家来说，这个第一事实就是，某种思维还在继续当中。我用思维这个词来表示任何形式的意识，而不作任何分别。如果我们可以在英语里面说“它想”，就像我们说“（天）下雨了”，或者“（外面）刮风了”，我们就是在以最为简单的方式和最少的假定来宣称一个事实。因为我们不能，所以，我们都必须简单地说，思维还在继续之中。 詹姆斯认为意识不是一个东西，而是一个过程或者功能。正如呼吸是肺的功能一样，传递有意识的心理生活就是大脑干的事情。为什么要干呢？“为了把一个已经变得过于复杂的神经系统导于调整自身的正规上来。”意识允许有机体考虑事物在过去、现在和将来的状态，而且，因为有了由此而来的预测能力，它可以事先计划并调整其行动，以适应环境需要。意识“无事不起早，可除非这事就摆在眼前，否则，许多事根本就算不得一件事”。最主要的事情是要生存，那就是它的功能。 就进一步的内省，我们可以注意到，意识是有某些特征的。在詹姆斯提出的五种特征中，最有趣的是——因为它与传统的亚里士多德思维概念相矛盾——每个人的意识都是一个连续统一体，而不是一系列相关联的经验或者思想： 那么，意识自我出现时并非一排砍碎的粉屑。像“链”或者“连串”这类的词并不能合适地描述它刚刚出现的样子。它不是接上去的某种东西；它会流动；一条“河流”，或者一条“小溪”是很自然地描述它们应该用的比喻。因此，本书再次描述它们的时候，让我们把它叫做思想之流，意识之流或者主观生活之流。 虽然我们的思想或者知觉的对象也许好像是不同和分开的，但我们对它们的意识本身却是一种连续的流，它们就像是浮在小溪上的东西。 思想流的概念（或者，按照它更为人所知的说法叫意识流）在心理学家中引起了极大的反响，并成为研究和临床工作中非常有用和重要的东西。它还被很多作家立即拿去写作意识流风格的小说，其中有马塞尔·普鲁斯特、詹姆斯·乔伊斯、弗吉尼娅·吴尔夫和格特鲁德·施泰因。（施泰因实际上还在哈佛跟詹姆斯学习过。） 自我：就连意识的间歇，比如在梦中发生的，也不能中断这个流的连续性；当我们醒来时，我们都不难在意识的流中做好这个连接，就是昨天的我和今天的我。可这是因为意识的另一个主要特征：它的个人本质。思想不仅仅是思想，它们还是我的思想或者你的思想。有一个个人的自我能区分自己的意识和其他人的意识，而且一时时，一天天都知道，我就是几分钟、一天，10年或者一辈子以前的那个我，同一个我。 自从心理学诞生以来，思想家们一直都在挣扎着解决这样一个问题，即是谁或者是什么知道我就是我，知道我的经验都是发生在同一个我的身上的。是什么物质或者实体，是什么观察者或者监测者解释自我的感觉或者连续身份的？詹姆斯把这个问题称作“最令人困惑的难题，而心理学必须解决这个问题”。 古典的答案是，灵魂或者超验的自我。可是，一个世纪以前，休谟和康德都曾表明，我们不可能对这样一个自我产生实证主义的知识。哲学家们也许还可以就此思辩，可心理学家们不能够观察研究它。相应地，19世纪的实验心理学家们甚至都不谈论自我，英国联想主义者们抛弃这个问题，认为它只不过是一些倏忽而过的思想之链。 可是，詹姆斯感觉到，“对一种明确的自我原则的信仰”是“人类常识”最为基本的部分，而且找到了一条将一种有意义的——而且可以研究的——自我概念归还给心理学的办法。我们都知道我们有一个单独的自我，我们认为某些事情是我或者我的。这些感觉和与它们联系起来的行动可以进行调查，因而就是“实证的自我”。 实证的自我有好几种元素：物质的自我（我们的身体，衣服、所有物、家人、家庭）；社会的自我或者我们（我们是谁，我们与生活中的不同的人处于相互关系时如何行动——一种对社会心理学的预测，这作为一个专业几十年后才出现）；还有精神的自我，一个人的内心或者主观的存在，他整个的心灵功能或者性格的集合。所有这些只能通过内省的办法和观察的办法加以探索；实证的自我总体来说是可研究的。 可是，这还是没有完全解决这个最令人困惑的难题。什么东西解释这个我性的感觉、自我状态和归属感，即我就是刚才那个我这种纯粹的确信？詹姆斯辨别了像属于“纯粹的自我”这样一个完全是主观现象的思想，并提出，它对连续个人身份的感知来自于意识流的连续性：“感觉（特别是肉体的感觉）的连续统一体的各部分的相似……构成我们所能感觉得到的那个真实、可证明的'个人的身份'。” 詹姆斯说，既是这样，心理学就不需要假设有一个观察者或者灵魂在观察这个了解一切的意识并保持身份的感觉：“表达实际的、如它们所出现的样子那样的、意识的主观现象时，（灵魂）无论如何是不需要的。”他在吉米一书中把这个有力的结论说得更斩钉截铁： 意识的状态就是心理学完成其工作所需要的全部东西。形而上学或者神学也许能证明灵魂存在；可是，对于心理学来说，这个单一体实在的原理的假设完全是多余的。 意志：有些同时代人说詹姆斯对心理学最有价值的贡献是他的意志理论，即有意识的、能引导自愿活动的过程。 詹姆斯在《心理学原理》中对意志的大部分讨论都是神经生理学方面的，处理的是意志如何生成神经脉冲，脉冲如何产生所需要的肌肉运动。可是，他所捡起来的有趣得多的问题是，我们如何一开始就想到自愿采取一个行动的。关键的因素，按他的观点来看，就是要提供有关我们获取所欲求的目标的能力这方面的信息和经验： 我们想要感觉、拥有、完成各种各样的事情，而这些事情当时并没有被感觉到、被拥有和被完成。如果伴随着这个欲望的还有一种感觉，即获取是不可能的，则我们就只是希望，可是，如果我们相信这个目标是在我们的能力范围之内的，我们就会产生意愿，即所欲求的感觉、拥有或者完成就应该是真实的；而目前它就变得真实了，要么是在意愿产生的时候立即发生，要么就是在某些先决条件已经形成之后。 我们如何感觉到所欲求的目标就在我们的能力范围之内的？通过经验；通过我们对自己的不同行动会达到什么效果的了解：“提供各种可能的、不同的运动的想法，这是意志生活的第一个先决条件，而这些想法是由经验根据它们不是自愿的行为留在记忆里面的。”婴儿想要抓住一个玩具，因而手足作出无数随意的运动，这迟早会与想要的玩具连接在一起的。它们最终会能够产生合适运动的意愿的。做个类比的话，成人积累了不同行动及其可能后果的大量的想法，我们行走，谈话，进食，并执行无数其它的行动，都是通过产生合适行动并获取所欲求的目标的意愿来进行的。 在大部分时间里，我们毫不犹豫地产生日常行动的意愿，因为我们感觉到这与我们想做的事情并不矛盾和冲突。可是，在其它一些时候，互相冲突的一些想法存在于我们的脑海里：我们想做甲，但我们也想做乙，这是互相矛盾的。在这样一些情况下，什么东西决定我们产生采取哪一个行动呢？詹姆斯的答案：我们将两者的可能性相比较，决定除一个以外，其它的一律放弃，因而让这一个成为现实。当我们做好决定后，意愿就接过来了；或者，人们也可以说，选择放弃哪一个想法，注意哪一个想法这个动作即是意愿行动本身。 詹姆斯举了一个独特的个人例子。在一个寒冷的早晨，他躺在床上，他说，知道如果不起床就会迟到多少时间，就会让好多事情放在那里没人干，可是，他不喜欢因为起床而带来的那种感觉，而宁愿选择继续留在床上将会带来的感觉。最后，他有意禁止所有的想法，只考虑那天必须做什么事情。哎呀呀，这个思想成了他的注意力的中心，因而产生了合适的行动，他马上就坐起来，下了床。“意愿的基本成就，简单地说，当它是最为'自动的'时候，就是注意另一个不同的对象，并让它在意识面前保持足够长的时间……注意力的努力因而成为意志最基本的现象。” 有时候，做决策是立即和简单的，有时候很长时间而且是因为决意、推理和决策结果。不管过程如何，在每种情况下，意识是行为的原因，是因果关系中的干扰者，而不是对外界影响被动的自动反应。自动的行动暗示着脱开意志。 詹姆斯本人，如我们所知，后来在他的情感危机中也相信自由意志，这个信仰曾帮他度过了难关。可是，他仍然得用科学心理学的基本信条与这个信仰调和起来：所有的行为都是，或者最终都将是可以解释的，每一种行为都有其原因所在。如果每个行动都是可确定的原因的结果，怎么可能有任何自由让我们从好几种可能的未来当中选择一个并非完全确定的未来呢？然而，我们做一个决定，去做或者不做什么事情的时候，不管这事情是琐屑无聊的还是事关重大的，我们每次都能体验验到某种象是意志的自由。 詹姆斯是很坦率的：“我自己的信仰是，自由意志这个问题，从严格的心理学立场上来说是不可解决的。”这位心理学家希望建立一门科学，而科学是一种固定关系形成的系统，可自由意志不是固定的、可计算的关系；它超越了科学，因而最好留给玄学家们们去鼓捣。心理学就是心理学，不管自由意志是不是真实的。 可他又坚持说，相信自由意志在实用主义方面看来是有意义的，也有必要。他从心理学转移注意力以后就发展了实用主义的哲学，可它的种子还留在《心理学原理》中。詹姆斯的实用主义哲学并没有像一些粗暴的简单化评论所断言的那样，说什么“真理就是能起作用的东西”。不过，它的确说过，如果我们将解决一个问题的各种方案的含义进行比较的话，我们会选择相信哪一个，采取哪一个行动。如果完全相信决定论，这会使我们消极和无能；完全相信自由意志，就会让我们考虑各种其它办法，来计划，来实施方案。因此，这是实用和现实的： 大脑是各种可能性，而不是确定性的工具。然而，意识，因为有展现在它面前的自己的目的，而且也知道会导致什么样的可能性，经过什么方式，如果它有一种因果的功效，将会强化有利的可能性，压抑不利或者不相关的那些可能性……如果（意识）是有用的，它是通过其因果功效来实现这一点的，就像自动机器人理论必须屈从于常识理论一样。 这些观察意见虽然很有道理，也经久不衰，可是，詹姆斯讨论意志的某些部分，在今天听上去却很是奇怪，而且老掉牙了。在他讨论“意志的不健康”、嗜酒者或者吸毒者“被夸大的癖好”或者不能动弹的人“被阻碍住的意志”时，人们会听到他对罹于病痛中的人深刻的关心——也听到道德说教性的反对意见： 没有哪个阶级（的人）比无望的失败者更能理解人生的金光大道或独木桥之间的差别，那些感伤的人，那些醉酒的人，那些谋士、那些“欠债的”，他们的生活是知识与行动之间长期的矛盾，他们完全懂得字面的道理，可总是没有想到要让自己软弱的性格坚强起来。 詹姆斯的意志心理学在许多年里都是美国心理学中的重要特征，可是，在行为主义长期的统治下——从约1920年到1960年——这个话题从美国心理学中完全消失了；在这样一个决定论的系统当中，任何由有机体本身启动的行为都找不到自己的位置。从那以后，意志论也没有能够卷土重来，至少在这个名字下是没有的；这个词在现代许多的心理学教科书中甚至找不到索引的条目。 然而，詹姆斯心理学有关意志的论述在事实上是现代心理学主流的一部分，其名字是：“有目的的行为”、“意向性”、“决策过程”、“自我控制”、“选择”、“自我功效”等等。现代心理学家，特别是临床心理学家都相信行为是，或者最终必将是完全能够解释的，可是，人类在某种程度上是可以指导他们自己的行为的。如果心理学家没有能够回答这两个概念为什么能够同时都是正确的，那么，他们经常就来找詹姆斯自己的解决办法：即这样一个信仰，我们不能够影响我们自己的行为，因此会带来灾难性的后果；即如果能够，则会产生有益的成果。 无意识：詹姆斯心理学关心的几乎全部都是有意识的心理生活；在《心理学原理》的某些部分，人们会得出这样一个印象，即根本就没有无意识的精神状态，大脑里面发生的无论什么事情，根据定义都是有意识的。可是，在许多地方，詹姆斯都曾对这个问题持不同的看法。在谈论到自愿行动时，他小心地区分我们有意识地命令的肌肉运动和其它的运动——即自愿行动的大部分——这些运动长期以来被执行和进行着，会立即和自动地跟随心理的选择，就好像是自己作出的选择一样。我们谈话，爬楼，脱掉或者穿上衣服，根本就不考虑所需要的身体运动：“心理学中的一个普遍原则就是，意识会放弃所有不再有利用价值的过程。”在许多种熟悉的活动中，我们都实际上在根本不考虑需要的运动时效果更好： 我们投出东西，抓住东西，射击某物或者砍下某物时，接触得越少，肌肉用力越少，我们反而做得更好，我们的意识也反而看得也更加清楚（更远的东西）。盯住你瞄准的地方，你的手就会抓住它；想着你的手，反而就会错过它。 因此，詹姆斯预测了现代学习研究，而这些研究证明，通过实践，更复杂一些的自愿动作，比如像弹钢琴，开车或者打网球都是“学得过熟了”，而且很大部分是在有意识的思维发出一个总的命令之后很快无意识地完成它的。 他还看到，当我们不注意体验时，我们也许会对这些东西不太注意，尽管它们对我们的感官会产生正常的影响：“我们醒着时，对习惯性的噪音等无动于衷，这证明，我们可以忽略否则会感觉到的东西。” 詹姆斯还很清楚无意识在非正常人心理学中的特殊现象的作用，比如，引用了法国心理学家艾尔弗雷德·比奈报告的一些歇斯底里盲目的例子：“比奈先生发现，他病人的手无意识地写下他们的眼睛正在无效地努力着要'看见'的东西。”可是，詹姆斯的注意力集中在有意识的心理生活上，他不能想象完全无意识的知识；他感觉到，不管什么形式，不管在什么地方，所有的知识都是有意识的。他跟随另一位法国当代人，即彼埃尔·让内的思想，认为这样的些似是而非的无意识知识都是一种分裂人格的结果；主要的人格没有意识到的东西，却是为分裂的第二人格所“意识到”的东西。 詹姆斯以同样的方式解释催眠状态下的某些方面，特别是催眠后的暗示，在这样一些情形之下，病人在恍惚的状态中接受了一些指令，在醒过来之后就执行这些指令，可还是对按照指令所进行的事情一无所知。分裂的人格假设是很差的，非常有限，而且经不起实证的检验，可是，詹姆斯在无意识作为一种现实被普遍接受很早之前表达这个观点的时候至少承认，某些精神状态是发生在主要的意识之外的。 在《心理学原理》出版之后的许多年里，詹姆斯扩大了他的无意识观点，并依靠这个扩充来解释梦幻、自动写作、“魔鬼附体”和《宗教经验种种》中报告的许多神秘体验。弗洛伊德已经开始发表自己有关无意识的一些观点了，可詹姆斯不一样，他不认为无意识是动机的来源，或者是思维想从意识中驱除不能为社会所容忍的性愿望的方法。可是，早在1896年，詹姆斯就讲到了弗洛伊德发现的歇斯底里症状减轻办法的可能用途，而且，在听说1909年弗洛伊德在克拉克大学讲演后，他说：“我希望弗洛伊德及其弟子们能够把他们的思想运用到极致……他们一定会对人类本性的理解投下一线曙光。” 情绪：詹姆斯提出过一个很不起眼的理论，这个理论远远没有前面所述的大部头理论著名，但却引向了更多的研究。这就是他的情绪理论，它很简单，但也同样具有革命性。我们感觉到的情绪，并不是引起像快速跳动的心脏或者汗流不止的手掌这类肉体症状的那些东西，反过来，是对外部刺激产生反应的神经系统产生这些生理症状的，而我们对这些生理症状的感知就是我们叫做情绪的东西。这个说法如此有趣，如此具有说服力，它值得我们长篇大段地引用它： 我们自然的思维方法……就是，对一些事实的心理感知激发心理叫做情绪的心理效果，而后面的心理状态又会产生肉体表达。我的理论正好相反，即说是，肉体的变化直接跟随对引起刺激的事实的感觉，而且，我们对这同一些变化的感觉就是情绪。常识说，我们失去了财产，我们会痛苦和哭泣；我们会见一头熊，会感到害怕而逃走；我们受到竟敌的侮辱会生气，然后反击。这里要辩护的假设说，这个顺序是不对的，一个心理状态并不是直接由另一个心理状态引发的肉体的表达必须首先放在中间，更为合理的表述应该是，我们感到难过，因为我们哭了，感到愤怒，是因为我们反击了，感到害怕，是因为我们在发抖。 他把这个理论建立在内省的基础上，人们只需要仔细地朝里瞧一瞧就知道，人们的情绪是从生理表达中发展而来的： 如果没有跟随感知而来的身体状态，则感知在形式上就会是纯粹认知性的、苍白、无颜色、缺乏情感的温暖。我们也许会看见这头熊，并想着最好是逃走省事，接受侮辱并觉得奋起反击是正确的，可是，我们不应该在事实上感到害怕或者愤怒。 几乎就在同时，同样的理论由一位丹麦生理学家卡尔·朗格提出来了，他的工作詹姆斯是予以了承认的。尽管他和朗格并没有在这个理论上进行合作，但它很快便被确认为詹姆斯-朗格理论，并在今天的教科书中以这个名字进行讨论。 这个理论有一个奇怪的历史。它很快引起争议和研究，最终被认为在许多方面是错误的。沃尔特·坎农是位哈佛生理学家，他在1927年显示，有些不一样的情绪都伴随有总体上是同样的身体反应；生理反应不一定具体到能够解释不同情绪的程度。比如说，愤怒和害怕都伴有心跳加速和血压升高。另外，坎农说，内脏反应时间很慢，但情绪反应却经常是立即产生的。坎农的结论是，情绪刺激会激发丘脑（更新的研究已经精确地指出了下丘脑和边缘系统）；从大脑开始，信息会向外发出，一方面向自动的神经系统，从而在此生成内脏变化，一方面向脑皮质层，在这里生成情绪的主观感觉。 可是，詹姆斯-朗格理论仍然受到心理学家们的高度注意。它在假定情绪有生理成因上是正确的，尽管现在这些成因都被确认为自动的神经过程而不是内脏变化。而且，尽管这个理论有不精确之处，它还是具有实际的应用的。我们可以控制对刺激的生理反应，也就可以在同样程度上控制联想情绪。我们可以数十来控制愤怒，可以吹口哨而保持乐观勇敢，可以跑步或者打网球以区除烦恼。许多现代心理医疗家都教病人进行放松锻炼以减少焦虑或者害怕，还可以用自信的态度练习站立、行走和谈话，以获得对自己的信心。心理学家保罗·艾克曼及其在加利福尼亚大学医学院的同事最近显示，当志愿者有意做一些与某些情绪相关的面部表情时——惊奇、讨厌、悲伤、愤怒、害怕、幸福——这些会影响到心跳和皮肤温度，并诱发少量合适的情绪。情绪的生理表达引起某种程度的情绪；总起来说，詹姆斯-朗格理论有一部分是正确的。 大凡读过詹姆斯心理学作品的人一定会时常感到困惑：詹姆斯总是清晰明白而且很有说服力的，可是，在同一个话题相反的方面，他也是如此。詹姆斯经常是自相矛盾的，不是因为头脑混乱，而是因为他在学术问题上太过宽泛，无法使自己局限在一个封闭或者连续的思想体系内。著名的心理家研究者和几十年前的一位理论家戈登·奥尔波特总结了詹姆斯变色龙一样的习惯： 光是在《心理学原则》一书中，我们就能找到极明显、使人迷惑、公然的矛盾之处。比如，他既是一位实证主义者，也是一位现象主义者。星期二、四、六，他会指向行为主义和实证主义，不过，在星期一、三、五他好像更富有才气，这时候，他会写到意识流、宗教体验的种类和战争的道德名称。 可是，奥尔波特却认为这种前后不一致是一种美德，自有其好处。他谈到詹姆斯“高产的矛盾之处”；认为一个问题的两个方面经常会揭开问题的盖子，好让后来人加以攻破。 可是，结果詹姆斯对心理学的影响虽然很大，却是一阵阵子的；虽然流传甚广，但从没有处于主流地位。詹姆斯避免创立一个系统，没有形成任何学派，很少培训研究生，也没有追随者。然而，令人吃惊的是，他的思想当中有很大一部分成了主流心理学的一部分，特别是在美国。詹姆斯在实验室方法和实验方法学上面输给了冯特，可詹姆斯的心理学极其丰富，有现实主义色彩和实用主义用途，从整体上胜过了冯特系统。如雷蒙德·番切尔说的： 詹姆斯将心理学从某种深奥难解和抽象的科学，其内省式方法学的难度使一些学生避之不及，转变成了一门直接谈及个人兴趣和关心的问题的学科。詹姆斯让心理学产生了一种特征，使它成为一个“下三流的小课题”，它排除了大家想知道的一切，但在他自己论述心理学的著作中，却与这种特征极不相符。 在主流之外，詹姆斯还在两个方面影响了心理学，这两个方面都是实际的。一是：他建议将心理学原理应用到教学当中去，这已经成了教育心理学的核心。另外一个是：1909年，作为“国立精神卫生委员会”的高级执行委员，詹姆斯付出了很大的努力，让洛克菲勒基金会和其它一些财团将成百万的美元分配到了精神卫生运动、精神医院的发展和精神卫生职业人员的培训中。 当美国心理学协会1977年庆祝其75岁生日时，开幕式讲演人戴卫·克莱奇说威廉·詹姆斯是“培养了我们的父亲”。谈到在过去四分之三世纪的时间里解决由詹姆斯提出的一些问题的努力时，克莱奇说：“就算我把一切的收获和成就全部加起来，再乘以希望这个系数，所得的总数还是不足以作为足够丰硕的贡品供奉在詹姆斯的脚下。”