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do, to avoid cases where there is a shifting of content with
shifting of pleasure-pain phase.We naturally begin with the relatively simple states called
sensations; after that I shall ask the reader to consider the
more complex fixed psychoses which we call the emotions.I shall make no pretence to logical completeness in this re-
view of the sensational and emotional fields, although I shall
lead the reader as far as our knowledge seems to warrant us in
the distinction of fixed separable contents.
SENSATION
It becomes each day more apparent to the student of nerve
physiology that we are only beginning to comprehend the
mechanism of the sense organs and of their extensions, so to
speak, toward and in the brain, and the reader must not expect
to find here definite organic position referred to.The fact that in two successive cases we appreciate the same
sensational content, involves, so far as we can judge, activity of
the same organ in the two cases, and this postulate is all that is
needed here.I shall endeavour in each case to note the phases --
1. The pain of reduced activity.
2. Indifference; the practical absence of either pleasure or pain.
3. The pleasure of active functioning.
4. The pain of active functioning.
5. The pleasure of rest after hypernormal activity. This last,
however, is so generally recognised that it would involve mere
reiteration to draw attention to it in all cases.

Let us begin with our most clearly defined sensations, i.e.
those which are least complicated with resultants in the more
complex region of thought.

TOUCH. -- Touch stimuli which have become habitual and
which do not recur normally are distinctly "missed."

We experience the painfulness of itching, which is removed
by rubbing of the parts to which the disagreeableness is referred.
Itching too is increased by increase of the flow of nutriment to
the superficial organs, i.e. by increase of the capacity for action
without increased activity in the organ; inflammatory conditions,
warmth, and indirectly even the rubbing which itself at first gives
relief, will produce this added capacity and the itching pains.

Indifference appears in our failure to notice the constant touch
stimulation produced by our clothing. This common occurrence

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Publication Information: Book Title: Pain, Pleasure, and Aesthetics: An Essay concerning the Psychology of Pain and Pleasure, with Special Reference to Aesthetics. Contributors: Henry Marshall Rutgers - author. Publisher: Macmillan. Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 1894. Page Number: 284.
    
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