The Story of the Mind | Page 8

these we may
neglect so long as we are investigating actions which we consider our
own. Apart from the Instincts, the principle holds that behind every
action which our conduct shows there must be something thought of,

some sensation or knowledge then in mind, some feeling swelling
within our breast, which prompts to the action.
This general principle is Motor Suggestion. It simply means that we are
unable to have any thought or feeling whatever, whether it comes from
the senses, from memory, from the words, conduct, or command of
others, which does not have a direct influence upon our conduct. We
are quite unable to avoid the influence of our own thoughts upon our
conduct, and often the most trivial occurrences of our daily lives act as
suggestions to deeds of very great importance to ourselves and others.
For example, the influence of the newspaper reports of crime stimulate
other individuals to perform the same crimes by this principle of
suggestion; for the fact is that the reading of the report causes us to
entertain the thoughts, and these thoughts tend to arouse in us their
corresponding trains of suggested action.
The most interesting and striking sphere of operation of the principle of
Suggestion (of other sorts as well as motor) is what is commonly
known simply as Hypnotism. To that, as well as to further illustrations
of Suggestion, we will return later on.
We are able, however, to see a little more in detail how the law of
Motor Suggestion works by asking what sort of action is prompted in
each case of thought or feeling, at the different levels of the mind's
activity which have been distinguished above as all illustrating
Apperception--e.g., the stages known as Perception, Imagination,
Reasoning, etc.
We act, of course, on our perceptions constantly; most of our routine
life is made up of such action on the perceptions of objects which lie
about us. The positions of things in the house, in the streets, in the
office, in the store, are so well known that we carry out a series of
actions with reference to these objects without much supervision from
our consciousness. Here the law of Motor Suggestion works along
under the guidance of Perception, Memory, and the Association of
Ideas. Then we find also, in much of our action, an element due to the
exercise of the Imagination. We fill in the gaps in the world of
perception by imagining appropriate connections; and we then act as if

we knew that these imaginations were realities. This is especially true
in our intercourse with our fellow-men. We never really know what
they will do from time to time. Their action is still future and uncertain;
but from our familiarity with their character, we surmise or imagine
what they expect or think, and we then act so as to make our conduct fit
into theirs. Here is suggestion of a personal kind which depends upon
our ability, in a sense, to reconstruct the character of others, leading us
out into appropriate action. This is the sphere of the most important
affairs of our lives. It appears especially so when we consider its
connection with the next great sort of action from suggestion.
This next and highest sphere is action from the general or abstract
thoughts which we have been able to work up by the apperceiving
activity of the mind. In this sphere we have a special name for those
thoughts which influence us directly and lead us to action: we call such
thoughts Motives. We also have a special name for the sort of action
which is prompted by clearly-thought-out motives: Will. But in spite of
this emphasis given to certain actions of ours as springing from what is
called Will, we must be careful to see that Will is not a new faculty, or
capacity, added to mind, and which is different from the ways of action
which the mind had before the Will arose. Will is only a name for the
action upon suggestions of conduct which are so clear in our minds that
we are able to deliberate upon them, acting only after some reflection,
and so having a sense that the action springs from our own choice. The
real reasons for action, however, are thoughts, in this case, just as in the
earlier cases they were. In this case we call them Motives; but we are
dependent upon these Motives, these Suggestions; we can not act
without Motives, nor can we fail to act on those Motives which we
have; just as, in the earlier cases, we could not act without some sort of
Perceptions or Imaginations or Memories, and we could not fail to act
on the Perceptions or other mental states which we had. Voluntary
action or Will