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 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
INTRODUCTORY.

Purpose of the book : the study of the mechanism of Attention 7

Division of the subject.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Definition of Attention.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

CHAPTER I.

SPONTANEOUS OR NATURAL ATTENTION.

Always caused by emotional states : basal facts.. . . . . . . . . . . 12

Its physical manifestations : vase-motory phenomena, respira-
tory phenomena, motory phenomena, or phenomena of ex-
presslon.................:............................. ‘7
The supposed effects of attention are its indispensable factors
and constitutive elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5
Attention is only the subjective aspect of the physical manifes-
tqtions expressing it., . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Concerning surprise. o.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Origin of Spontaneous Attention : its attachment with the ne-
cessary conditions of life.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . 32

CHAPTER II.
VOLUNTARY OR ARTIFICIAL ATTENTION.

Its formation : a product of art.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

The three principal periods of its genesis : actions of simple
feelings, of complex feelings, and of habit.. . . . . . _ . . . . . . 39
It is an apparatus of perfectionment and a result of civilization 42
T h e m e c h a n i s m o f v o l u n t a r y a t t e n t i o n . . . . . :. . . . . . . . . . 45
T h e r&e o f a c t i o n s o f i n h i b i t i o n i n p h y s i o l o g y : f a c t s a n d
theories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Attention acts only upon muscles and through muscles.. . . . 51
Motor elements in perceptions, emotions, images, and general
ideas.................................................. 5 2
 TABLE OF CONTENTS'.
PAGE.

The meaning of “voluntarily to direct one’s attention towards

an object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Of the feeling of effort in general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Of effort in attention : effort in attention results from co*-
comitant muscular contractions, and its point of deparlure is
peripheral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Experimental researches upon voluntary attention. . . . . . . . . . 72
Expectant attention : what it consists in ; its motory and in-
tellectual aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

CHAPTER III.
THE MORBID STATES OF ATTENTION.

Distraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Classification of pathological forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
1. H y p e r t r o p h y o f a t t e n t i o n : t r a n s i t i o n f r o m t h e n o r m a l
statetothemorbidstate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Hypochondria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Fixed ideas : their varieties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Resemblances and differences with and from attention . . go
Ecstasy : its varieties and different degrees ; the state of
perfect monoideism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
2. Atrophy of attention : maniacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
The state of exhaustion : the enfeeblement of attention
and that of the power of motion go hand in hand. . . . . 103
Attention in sleep and in hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Attention in idiots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rag

CONCLUSION.

Attention dependent upon emotional states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I I I

Emotional life reducible to needs, tendencies, desires, whether
accompanied or not accompanied with consciousness . . . . . . 1 1 2
These states always imply a motory innervation in some degree
or other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Upon the most general physical condition of attention., . . . . . 118