The Emotions

The publication, in 1872, of Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals had a profound effect upon the development of Psychology. Darwin's book gave to three men the impetus to develop the theory of the emotions as organic processes, and this theory has not only become so strongly entrenched in scientific thought that it is practically assumed today as the basis for the study of the emotional life, but has also led to the development of the hypothesis of reaction or response as the basis of all mental life: a hypothesis which is rapidly supplanting the phrenologists' theory of brain-activity. The three men who independently developed the organic theory of the emotions were Carl Georg Lange in Denmark, William James in America, and Alexander Sutherland in Australia. The writings of James and Lange had profound influence on contemporary and later psychologists, and on this account it is not unfair to apply the name "James-Lange Theory" to the organic theory of the emotions, as is customarily done. This implies no lack of appreciation of the work of Sutherland, or of the contributions of Ribot, Mosso, and later investigators. We present in this volume a new translation of Lange's Ueber Gemuthsbewegungen, made by Miss Istar A. Haupt from Kurella's German version, together with a reprinting of James' What is an Emotion? and his chapter on "The Emotions" from the Principles of Psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).