Quotes XIV
Quotations about
NEUROTICISM, NEUROSIS, and MOODS
DO PEOPLE DIFFER IN GENERAL EMOTIONALITY
- OR NEUROTICISM (n)?
WHAT IS 'NEUROTICISM', REALLY? WHAT IS THE VALUE,
OR FUNCTION, OF BEING HIGH OR LOW IN EMOTIONALITY? ONE GENERAL
POSSIBILITY IS THAT THE VARIABILITY OF HIGHER-n PEOPLE
IS ESSENTIALLY ALONG FOUR DIMENSIONS OF PERSONALITY WHICH-TOGETHER
WITH GENERAL INTELLIGENCE (g) AND n ITSELF-MAKE
UP THE 'BIG SIX' (CF. QUOTES III). HOWEVER, THE VARIABILITY OF
MORE EMOTIONAL PEOPLE WILL PROVIDE THEM WIDE OPPORTUNITIES TO
CRYSTALLIZE MEMORIES AND HABITS; SO THEIR STATE AT ANY ONE TIME
MAY INVOLVE SOMETHING OF A BALANCING ACT BETWEEN THEIR CURRENT
MOOD AND THE BEHAVIOURAL OPTIONS WHICH THEY HAVE CRYSTALLIZED
DURING QUITE DIFFERENT MOOD STATES IN THE PAST. TODAY'S RESEARCHERS
ONCE MORE CONSIDER 'REPRESSED' MEMORIES TO BE PART OF THE PICTURE
OF HIGH-n, LIKE MORE CONSCIOUS EFFORTS AT 'SUPPRESSION.'
- NOTORIOUSLY, IN MORE EMOTIONAL PEOPLE, PHOBIAS, OBSESSIONS,
MANNERISMS AND INFATUATIONS PERSIST THOUGH UNWANTED AND LARGELY
INAPPROPRIATE; YET HIGH n MAY CONTRIBUTE A CRUCIAL INTENSITY
TO KEY HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS.
The dimension of 'neuroticism' (n)-as self-reported
'emotionality' has been somewhat insensitively titled by psychometrician-psychologists-was
first discovered by researchers in Holland and London some eighty
years ago . Ever since, individual differences in n have
remained central to differential psychology. {See Quotes III:
after g, n is the biggest and best-agreed factor
in standard researches by psychometrician-psychologists.} Higher-n
scorers report themselves as moody, nervous, easily stressed,
sensitive, passionate and as having more interesting dreams; while
low scorers profess stability, confidence, poise and emotional
self-control (or even a frankly sluggish lack of any conspicuous
motivation).
Although n-levels appear high in art students, ballet dancers,
actors, novelists and first-rank philosophers, and although n
correlates with intensity of romantic experience, such news seems
to bring little cheer to high-n scorers themselves. Higher-n
people normally dislike and think they would rather do without
the 'negative' aspects of neuroticism-notably the tendency to
swing easily into the four general dysphoric mood-states of depression,
anxiety, fatigue/boredom, and hostility. It comes as no surprise
to high-n scorers that higher n levels characterize
most psychiatric patients and many other groups of unhappy and
discontented people. High-n people themselves think they
would prefer the lower n-levels that obtain amongst aircraft
pilots and bomb disposal officers.
It would be most satisfactory if high-n could be traced
to intelligible origins -e.g. to unhappy childhoods, failed relationships,
or major life stresses. Many psychologists, just like laymen,
think it only too likely that exam failures, jiltings, unemployment,
being taken hostage or learning one was infertile would raise
n levels. However, despite a half-century of environmentalistic
enthusiasm in psychology, there is no conclusive evidence of such
causation. Unhappy homes have indeed been the experience of less
happy children; but this correlation may arise because of genetic
factors. Some studies have found little general impact of major
stresses (like bankruptcy) on personality; and other researches
have found that people currently suffering unhappiness (in marriage
or at a 'mid-life crisis') have been high-n and unhappy
for many years preceding their current problems. (See Quotes
V re the influence of 'life stresses.')
Other important aspects of n-partly revealing, and partly
obscuring its essential nature-are as follows.
1. n is a rather 'private' variable. It is hard to tell
whether even quite familiar acquaintances are high- or low-n
except by asking them. It is not just that high-n people
may keep out of the way when they are feeling low. - Even husbands
and wives can be quite surprised to discover 'what it feels like'
to be their spouse.
2. n has few strong behavioural correlates in formal psychometric
ability-testing or in the serendipitous tasks of the experimental
psychologist's laboratory. High-n people often believe
that they will perform poorly, but they are wrong as often as
right. Rather, n has two correlations in the psychological
laboratory. One is with variability of performance over
time: high-n people will perform rather well on some days
and rather poorly on others. (This variability is paralleled by
greater actual variability in self-reported mood-e.g. when subjects
report their moods several times a day over a few weeks; and high-n's
awareness of such variability may be the reason why they are apprehensive
about how they will perform for the psychologist in the laboratory.)
The other is that optimal performance tends to occur at moderate
levels of n-or at lower levels if a task in complex or
novel, and at higher levels if a task is simple and already over-practised.
(This is a variant of the classic Yerkes-Dodson Law whereby moderate
levels of motivation tend to yield the best levels of learning
and performance.)
3. n has shown no substantial correlations with psychophysiological
indicators despite many searches over the years. This may be because
at least some low-n-scorers are just 'repressing' anxieties
and self-doubts that higher-n scorers are prepared to admit.
(In recent years, Michael Eysenck has reported evidence for such
a view.)
4. In so far as n level may reflect lack of repression,
repression would then no longer be central to 'neurosis' (contrary
to Freudian ideas). Indeed, repression might be an advantage
(except, perhaps, for aspiring ballet dancers, etc.).
In recent years there has been much concern to explore and to
emphasize the 'cognitive' nature of emotional life and neurotic
phenomena. This has doubtless reflected the wish of 'cognitive
psychologists' (see Quotes XIII) to escape the confines of previous
behaviourist dogma. However, it is far from clear that this concern
has done much to illuminate emotional and neurotic disorders-for
most of which the treatment of choice is still entirely non-cognitive,
psychotropic medicine prescribed by a G.P. after a brief consultation
that emphatically does not dwell unduly on the patient's current
moral dilemmas or life tasks. Admittedly, the superficial nature
of neurotic problems has changed enormously since the days when
Freud was interpreting neurosis as originating from repressed
(infantile) sexuality. No longer are hysteria and neurasthenia
diagnosed with any frequency. Instead, young women have anorexia
nervosa, anorexia bulimia, and make attempted suicide bids after
drinking several cans of lager; and other 'neurotic' patients
are treated chiefly for mild sleep disturbances, panic attacks,
depression, concentration problems and 'globus' (an uncomfortable
sensation of having a lump in the throat). Within psychoanalysis
itself there has been increased attention to distinctively modern
problems like 'narcissism'-i.e. subtle exhibitionism (for 'appearance'
and a semblance of 'identity' can now be purchased off the peg
as never before); and, more generally, there has been agreement
on other important new neurotic phenomena such as the bombastic
irritability of the 'Type A' personality, and the naive sentimentality
of 'New Age' devotees. Still, neurotic problems have remained
ameliorable primarily via the chemical route; so it is
perhaps worth retaining the idea that basic emotional lability
(involving mood-swings that occur "with or without
apparent reason", as high-n scorers themselves attest)
is still central to the problem. Bearing the above points in mind,
some elements of a preliminary sketch of a theory of n would
perhaps be as follows. {For an account of all the 'Big Six' personality
dimensions, see Quotes III. For dimensions of mood, see Brand,
1994, Psychologica Belgica 34. For distinctively Freudian
considerations, see Quotes XVIII; and Brand, 1997, in H. Nyborg,
Festschrift II for H. J. Eysenck..}
1. That the four main dimensions of mood are related to the four
personality dimensions that, together with g and n,
make up the 'Big Six' {as indicated in Quotes III}. Thus:
ELATION - DEPRESSION probably relates
to extraversion - introversion
CONFIDENCE - FEAR " " "
will - subduedenss
ALERTNESS - FATIGUE " "
" control - casualness
TRUST - HOSTILITY " " "
affection - suspicion.
w¦CO
¦
¦
¦
¦
¦FE
EL DE FA AL
-------------------- ---------------------
e c
¦HO
¦
¦
¦
¦
a¦TR
2. That n itself is a dimension of variation in
the ease with which emotional swings occur-especially into extremes
of the 'negative', 'dysthymic' moods that are appropriate to biological
emergencies. [The diagram shows the negative moods towards the
centre of the 2-dimensional space of which the four dimensions
sometimes seem to be differentiations-see Quotes III and Brand,
Egan & Deary, 1993, in Personality Psychology in Europe
4.]
3. That, because of its association with relatively frequent emotional
arousal, n will be associated with better long-term conditioning
and recall of experience- because experienced events will have
'made more mark' on higher-n people. (J.A.Gray envisages
n as likely to involve superior 'conditionability' under
all the possible conditions of reward, frustration, punishment
and relieving non-punishment.)
4. That the mature re-writing of memory and reorganisation of
sub-routines that repeatedly occur as people develop through time
will be less easy for higher-n people, many of whose emotionally
charged memories will be 'flagged' as too important to lose. {See
e.g. Brand, 1997, in J.Mohan & H.J.Eysenck, Psychology
and Cross-Cultural Perspectives, London, Taylor & Francis.}
5. That some higher-n people will then have to resort to
finding ways of limiting the intrusiveness of unpleasant memories
without actually altering them-i.e. by some kind
of repression or suppression, whatever the psychic cost of the
effort involved. (Lower n levels may be a happy result;
but at the expense of actual neurosis, as mechanisms are brought
into play the only function of which is 'internal' and psychodynamic-not
to address real-world problems but to diminish the psychic pain
that would be caused afresh by the triggering of the now repressed
memory. 'Multiple personality' may also be a product in extreme
cases -see Quotes VI.} Unlike the psychotic person {see
Quotes XV} the neurotic person's resort will be, arguably,
to crystallized facets of personality traits that do not compound
the problem of excessive emotion: e.g. it is sometimes observed
that obsessional behaviour can be amelioriated by treating the
sufferer as if for depressive illness. The more striking neurotic
solutions (making some positive use of crystallized habits to
handle problems of negative mood) will be those that bring in
crystallized personality features making for an overall swing
in apparent personality to one side or other of the 2-dimensional
space of the above diagram. These might perhaps involve combining:
low fluid e with high crystallized c in obsessional
neurosis, sleep disturbance, and neurotic depression;
low fluid w with high crystallized a in phobia,
hysteria and appetitive (incl. sexual) aversions;
low fluid c with high crystallized e in narcissism,
exhibitionism, naive identity
assertion, and coquetry;
low fluid a with high crystallized w in cynical,
irritable, litigious or bombastic 'Type
A' behaviour.
6. That higher-n people will thus, at whatever cost (sometimes
slight), have available to them a rich fund of event-memories
even if their access to them will not be straightforward. Such
a store of unreconstructed memories may be of considerable value
in some circumstances, in some occupations and relationships-where
sensitivity to highly individual features of human experience
is necessary-at least in conjunction with other favourable features
(such as high g) that allow the best use of complex and
potentially disruptive material.
€ € €
For coverage of general intelligence
and other main trait differences, see:
BRAND, C.R. (1996) The g Factor.
Chichester : Wiley DePublisher.
"The nature and measurement of intelligence is a political
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and up-to-date
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This short book provides a great deal for thought
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Professor Adrian Furnham, University College London.
The book was first issued, in February, but then withdrawn, in
April, by the 'publisher' because it was deemed to have infringed
modern canons of
'political correctness.'
It received a perfectly favourable review in Nature (May
2, 1996, p. 33).
For a Summary of the book, NewsLetters
concerning the
de-publication affair, details of how to see the book for scholarly
purposes, and others' comments and reviews,
see the Internet URL sites:
http://laboratory.psy.ed.ac.uk/DOCS/crb/internet.html
http://www.webcom.com/zurcher/thegfactor/index.html
For Chris Brand's 'Get Real About Race!'-his
popular exposition of his views on race and education in the Black
hip-hop music magazine 'downlow' (Autumn, 1996)-see:
http://www.bhs.mq.edu.au/~tbates/intelligence/Brand_downlow.html
*********************************************************************************************
INDEX to QUOTES XIV
Page
(i) Is there a dimension of individual differences in 'neuroticism'?
8
{See also Quotes III}
(ii) How do individual differences in neuroticism come about?
12
(iii) What is the psychological nature of neuroticism? 16
Are the differences primarily in moodiness, passion,
romanticism, repression, variability, sentience, ease of emotional
arousal, vividness of recall, lack of control of emotional
arousal, persistence of emotional arousal, lack of self-esteem,
or what? Anyhow, are they primarily affective or
cognitive?
(iv) Some clinical neuroses and mood disorders. 21
Depression
Obsessive-compulsive disorders
Phobias
Hysteria
Pre-menstrual syndrome
(v) Positive aspects of neuroticism/emotionality. 27
{See also Quotes XVII.}
Epilogue
*********************************************************************************************
(i) Is there a dimension of individual differences in 'neuroticism'
(n)?
And are such differences of any general importance? {See also
Quotes III}
"[In the work of W.Stephenson,] 'one unitary (i.e. general)
factor was verified....and a second factor revealed'. The former
appeared closely related to so-called tests of perseveration (p),
but is ultimately identified with Webb's w (persistence
or stability) rather than perseveration; the latter (f)
is termed 'fluency', and appears as a bipolar factor [contrasting
unrepressed-or extroverted-with inhibited features."
Cyril BURT, 1940, The Factors of the Mind.
London : University of London Press.
"....as we have a general factor of general intelligence
with respect to cognitive activities, so we have a general factor,
known as GENERAL EMOTIONALITY, with respect to affective activities."
Fred J. SCHONELL, 1958, Backwardness in Basic Subjects, 4th
edn.
Edinburgh & London : Oliver & Boyd.
"The second most important type of co-variation in the observed
and self-reported lives of people [after the co-variation that
yields g] is that which yields the dimension of neuroticism
(n). Although this dimension appears under many names in
the writings of personality theorists-'anxiety' and 'emotionality',
for example, as opposed to 'adjustment' and 'self-esteem'-it is
readily recognizable by its loadings for self-reports of moodiness
and insecurity and by its more particular correlates in fearfulness,
depression, over-sensitivity, distractibility and irritability.
It accounts for some 50% of individual variation in self-reported
psychopathology (e.g. I.H.Gotlib, 1984, J.Abnormal Psychol.).
At the low-n end of the dimension, people report themselves
as calm, unflappable, and resilient; and they may appear to be
positively sluggish and under-motivated."
C.R.BRAND, 1984, in J.Nicholson & Halla Beloff,
Psychology Survey 5. Leicester : British Psychological
Society.
"Let us briefly comment on [Eysenck's] arbitrary distinction
between what he terms 'disorders of the first kind' (anxieties,
phobias, obsessive-compulsive states, reactive depressions) which
he assumes arise out of classical conditioning, and 'disorders
of the second kind' (psychopathic behaviour, alcoholism, hysteria,
personality disorders, hypochondria, nocturnal enuresis) which
purportedly stem from a failure of the conditioning process to
occur. Distinctions of this kind have limited utility for practitioners
since, in the real world, enuretic children, hypochondriacal patients
and substance abusers often also suffer from anxieties and phobias,
and Eysenck's putative differentiations become blurred."
A.A.LAZARUS, 1986, in S. & Celia Modgil, Hans Eysenck:
Consensus and Controversy. Brighton : Falmer.
"....there was a clear difference in personality between
[contact] lens successes and failures, with the failure showing
up as more introverted and markedly and markedly less stable than
the successful...."
D.M.NELSON & Lucy WEST, 1987, Journal of the British
Contact Lens Association 10.
"The antecedents of marital stability {i.e. staying married
vs divorcing} and marital satisfaction [within the
group of subjects who remained married] were investigated with
a panel of 300 couples who were followed from their engagements
in the 1930's until 1980.... The three aspects of personality
most strongly related to [poor] marital outcome were the neuroticism
of the husband, the neuroticism of the wife, and [low] impulse
control [on the part of] the husband."
E. Lowell KELLY & J.J.CONLEY, 1987,
Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 52.
"The published literature [involving 101 methodologically
satisfactory studies] on personality correlates of five diseases
with so-called "psychosomatic" components - asthma,
arthritis, ulcers, headaches and coronary heart disease - is reviewed
and discussed.... The results point to the probable existence
of a generic "disease-prone" personality that involves
depression, anger/hostility, anxiety and possibly other aspects
of personality.... Perhaps the most striking relationship is the
apparent association between depression and disease (in particular,
between depression and the four diseases other than ulcers). The
accumulated evidence is definitely not inconsistent with a causal
role for personality.... Personality may function like diet: imbalances
can predispose one to all sorts of diseases."
H.S.FRIEDMAN & Stephanie BOOTH-KEWLEY, 1987, 'The "disease-
prone personality": a meta-analytic view of the construct.'
American Psychologist 42.
"[In 120 retired Californians,] trait anxiety alone accounted
for approximately 39% of the total variance in self-reported life
satisfaction, although further significant contributions were
made by state anxiety and religious commitment. [We argue] that
self-ratings of life satisfaction among older adults are primarily
expressions of stable personality attributes...."
S.ROGALSKI & T.PAISEY, 1987, Personality & Individual
Differences 8.
"In agreement with other studies, strong relations were found
[in 207 Dutch psychiatric patients] among self-report scales purporting
to measure depression, anxiety and neuroticism. At a theoretical
level {too}, the concepts of depression, anxiety and neuroticism
are closely linked and hard to demarcate from each other."
F.J.LUTEIJN & T.K.BOUMAN, 1988, European Journal of Personality
2.
"[In a study of 75 married couples over six months,] striking
individual differences were found in the extent to which daily
stress was associated with health and mood across time. Participants
with unsupportive relationships and low self-esteem were more
likely to experience an increase in psychological and somatic
problems both on and following stressful days.... These data suggest
that persons with low psychosocial resources are vulnerable to
illness and mood disturbance when their stress levels increase,
even if they generally have little stress in their lives."
Anita DELONGIS, Susan FOLKMAN & R.S.LAZARUS, 1988,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54.
"P.Costa and R.R.McCrae (1980) found that there was a subset
of subjects in their [longitudinal] study who could be described
as experiencing a mid-life crisis. However, their data indicated
that this subset of individuals could also be characterized as
having enduring neurotic tendencies, and that evidence of high
neuroticism as assessed by self-report measures was present several
years before the occurrence of a mid-life crisis."
Nathan BRODY, 1988, Personality.
San Diego : Academic (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich).
"Neuroticism is the trait....that may be easiest to conceal
even to acquaintances. Whereas Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness
and Openness to Experience are easier to observe, knowledge of
others' Neuroticism requires a lot of experience with the ratees.
Consistent with this view is that the correspondence between self-ratings
and ratings by strangers tends to be weakest for Neuroticism {4
refs, e.g. Borkenau & Liebler, 1992, J. Person. & Soc.
Psychol. 62}...."
P.BORKENAU & F.OSTENDORF, 1992,
European Journal of Personality 6.
"Our findings concur with those of other investigators who
have expended considerable effort in attempts to obtain the maximum
meaningful discrimination between measures of anxiety and depression.
Indeed....+.50 may well be an irreducible minimum correlation
between self-report scales designed to measure depression and
anxiety.
P.F.LOVIBOND et al., 1995, Behaviour Research &
Therapy 33.
"[In 463 subjects, including students of dentistry and nursing
and bank employees] Covert Aggression ['If I let people see the
way I feel, I'd be considered a hard person to get along with',
'When I look back on what's happened to me, I can't help feeling
mildly resentful', 'Although I don't show it, I am sometimes eaten
up with jealousy', 'I don't seem to get what's coming to me']
correlated significantly with....agoraphobic avoidance [.45],
somatization [.38], anxiety [.58], hostility {which correlated
more (.68) with Overt Aggression} [.24], depression (.52), insufficiency
(.56), sensitivity (.55) and general neuroticism (.64)."
A.LANGE et al., 1995, Behaviour Research & Therapy
33.
"Using a sample of 32 volunteers, we found a significant
correlation {of .43} between trait anxiety {= neuroticism}
and threat-relevant interference on a masked Stroop task {where
subjects could not consciously perceive the 'threatening' words
used to generate interference with colour-naming}. Furthermore,
it was found that the single best predictor of vulnerability to
life stress was the interference on the masked Stroop task."
M. Van den HOUT et al., 1995, Behaviour Research &
Therapy 33.
(ii) How do individual differences in neuroticism come
about?
"One can observe in the circle of one's acquaintances
that (at least in urban populations) those individuals who have
been seduced by women at an early age have escaped neurasthenia."
FREUD, 1893, letter to Wilhelm Fliess. In J.M.Masson,
The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess,
1878-1904. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press.
"....I am working on the assumption that our psychic mechanism
has come into being by a process of stratification; the material
present in the form of memory traces being subjected from time
to time to a rearrangement in accordance with fresh circumstances
- to a retranscription. Thus what is essentially new about my
theory is the thesis that memory is present not once but several
times over, that it is laid down in various kinds of indications....
I should like to emphasize the fact that the successive registrations
represent the psychic achievement of successive epochs of life.
At the boundary between two such epochs a translation of the psychic
material must take place. I explain the peculiarities of the psychoneuroses
by supposing that this translation has not taken place in the
case of some of the material.... If a later transcript is lacking,
the excitation is dealt with in accordance with the psychological
laws in force in the earlier psychic period and along the paths
open at that time.... A failure of translation-this is what is
known clinically as "repression". The motive for it
is always a release of the unpleasure that would be generated
by a translation; it is as though this unpleasure provokes a disturbance
of thought that does not permit the work of translation."
FREUD, 1896, letter to Wilhelm Fliess, 6 xii.
"....we discover that, in every single neurotic, evidence
of homosexual tendencies is forthcoming and that a large proportion
of the symptoms are expressions of this latent inversion.... In
fact, we have even come to the conclusion that one particular
mental disorder, paranoia, no longer to be reckoned as one of
the transference neuroses, invariably arises from an attempt to
subdue unduly powerful homosexual tendencies."
FREUD, 1922, Introductory Lectures, XX.
"[Cattell & Scheier (1961, Measurement of Neuroticism
and Anxiety, New York, Ronald)] administered the Cattell anxiety
questionnaire to students in six countries and found the following
rank order in the means (going from high anxiety to low): Poland,
India, France, Italy, Britain and the United States. The authors
proposed that either a low standard of living (India) or a politically
authoritarian regime (Poland) might generate high anxiety."
R.LYNN, 1995, 'Cross-cultural differences in intelligence and
personality.' In D.H.Saklofshe & M.Zeidner, International
Handbook of Personality and Intelligence.
"Our results indicate that the familial transmission of anxiety
disorders is hereditary"
Y.TORGERSON et al., 1983, Archives of General Psychiatry.
"What happens is possibly that the neurotic person learns
everything and forgets nothing: while the low-n person
re-writes his mental programs and re-arranges his sub-routines
to dispose of former habits of reaction, the high-n subject
merely adds conflicting possibilities to existing programs and
has then to call repeatedly on higher-level processing to decide
between alternatives."
C.R.BRAND, 1984, in J.Nicholson & Halla Beloff, Psychology
Survey 5. Leicester : British Psychological Society.
"There are many more connections in the brain of an
infant than an elderly adult. Development seems to be a matter
of "pruning" the original connections rather than making
many new ones. Consider this about infant babbling: in the first
weeks, the child utters almost every sound of every known language...."
R.E.ORNSTEIN, 1985, Psychology.
San Diego : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
"From Freud on, it has been recognised that every neurotic
disturbance derives from a disturbance in the love life, even
if the symptom seems completely remote from any consideration
of love."
Reuben FINE, 1985, The Meaning of Love in Human Experience.
New York : Wiley DePublisher.
"As wives' Neuroticism scores are related to divergence [between
marital partners in their levels of Extraversion], while scores
of husbands are not, this suggests that wives' neuroticism is
very relationship-related, while neuroticism in husbands is much
less so. Other research has noted similar conclusions.... in a
study of 800 subjects chosen from an English populations, the
quality of emotional relationship and intimacy in marriage were
{apparently] significantly associated with wives' but not husbands'
degree of mental disorder."
P.E.MOFFITT et al., 1985, Personality & Individual
Differences 6.
"Repressors, operationally defined by a pattern of low anxiety
and high defensiveness, displayed a limited accessibility [of]
personal, real-life affective memories that was particularly pronounced
for fear and self-consciousness experiences."
Penelope J. DAVIS, 1987,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53.
"....social adversity was not related to depressive cognitions
in either clinical or community samples. This implies that clinicians
should not regard physical illness or other adversity in their
elderly patients as a sufficient explanation for cognitive symptoms
of depression."
D.H.LAM et al., 1987, Journal of Abnormal Psychology
96.
"Contrary to expectations, previous exposure to major life
events decreased the impact of stressful daily life events."
A.CASPI et al., 1987, Journal of Personality & Social
Psychol. 52.
"[One] woman could not understand why she became phobic about
going into hospital until it emerged through lengthy counselling
that she had been sexually abused [in childhood], although she
had managed to obliterate the memory from her life. Subconsciously
she was afraid of leaving her daughter alone with her husband."
Heather KIRBY, 1988, The Times, 29 vi.
"We are our complexes; they are our memory. They imprison
us within their repetitive structures, yet without that we should
be in a state of chaos."
Elie HUMBERT, 1988, Journal of Analytical Psychology 33.
"Now, the neuroses are essentially disorders of the paleo-cortex
or limbic system; it is characteristic of neurotic disorders that
they can hardly be influenced by processes originating in the
neocortex.... The neocortex and the paleocortex are not completely
incommunicado, but there is relatively little interaction between
them. Now, the language of the paleocortex is Pavlovian conditioning."
H.J.EYSENCK, 1990, Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire.
Washington : Scott Townsend.
"....trying not to think about sex, like thinking about sex,
elevates skin conductance level in comparison to thinking about
or not thinking about less exciting topics ['dancing', 'Mom',
'our student Dean'].... the suppression of exciting thoughts might
be involved in the production of chronic emotional responses such
as phobias and obsessive pre-occupations."
D.WEGNER et al., 1991, Journal of Personality &
Social Psychology 58.
"This study investigated the relationship between worrying
and two features of social problem solving: problem-solving ability
and confidence. However, while levels of worrying were significantly
related to both poor problem-solving confidence and poor perceived
control over the problem-solving process, worrying was unrelated
to problem-solving ability per se..... The results provide
no support for the hypothesis that chronic worrying results from
poor social problem-solving abilities...."
G.C.DAVEY, 1994, Behaviour Research & Therapy 32.
"....the transactional model of stress....supposes a flow
of causation from antecedent through mediating to outcome
variables. [By contrast, a negative affectivity model] hypothesizes
that most of the covariance among [variables indexing neuroticism,
fear and coping behaviours] has its source in a general tendency
towards distress, be it emotional, somatic or social. These [models]
were tested using structural equation modelling....the negative
affectivity model had better fit statistics...."
I.J.DEARY & B.M.FRIER, 1994, in C.D.Spielberger & I.Sarason,
Stress and Emotion 15. Washington, DC : Taylor & Frances.
(iii) What is the psychological nature of neuroticism?
Are the differences primarily in moodiness, passion,
romanticism, variability, sentience, ease of emotional
arousal, vividness of recall, lack of control of emotional
arousal, lack of self-esteem, or what? Anyhow, are they
primarily affective or cognitive?
"Forgetfulness is no mere vis inertiae, as the superficial
believe, rather it is a power of obstruction, active and, in the
strictest sense of the word, positive-a power responsible for
the fact that what we have lived, experienced and taken into ourselves
no more enters into consciousness during the process of digestion
(it might be called psychic absorption) than all the manifold
processes by which our physical nutrition, the so-called "incorporation",
is carried on.... The man in whom this preventative apparatus
is damaged and discarded....can "get rid of" nothing."
F. NIETZSCHE, 1887, The Genealogy of Morals, Peoples and Countries.
New York : Russell & Russell, 1964.
"...work carried out in the Menninger Clinic indicates that
some people are particularly adept at directing their attention
to relevant stimuli while ignoring irrelevant stimuli. Such people
were found to be more self-controlled, assertive, confident and
emotionally stable. Other individuals who were more passive in
their attention and easily distracted were found to be lacking
in confidence, less controlled in their emotions, more anxious
and over-conforming in their attitudes to authority. Although
there is yet much to learn about the interaction between personality
and cognitive processes such as attention, it would seem that
the level of emotional maturity is an important factor in influencing
the habitual mode of attending and concentrating."
A. McGHIE, 1968, 'Human psychology.'
In R.Passmore & J.S.Robson, A Companion to Medical
Studies, Volume I. Oxford : Blackwell.
"Repressors [having low self-reported anxiety but high Marlowe-Crowne
defensiveness] were more stressed [on physiological and behavioral
measures-slower reactions, content avoidance, verbal interference
(to phrases like 'The prostitute slept with the student')] than
[other] low-anxious subjects despite their claims of lower trait
anxiety. ....The repressors' preoccupation with mastering negative
emotion and rigorously controlling their behavior was particularly
striking. They clearly value a rational, nonemotional approach
to life."
D.A.WEINBERGER et al., 1979, Journal of Abnormal Psychology
88.
"....the most positive contribution a social constructivist
position has to offer is to dissuade researchers from regarding
these real-life problems [e.g. agoraphobia] as reflecting an underlying
emotion of anxiety, or, even less helpful, an anxiety disorder."
R.S.HALLAM, 1986, Anxiety. London : Academic.
"Depressed patients often complain of difficulties in concentration,
attention, learning, learning and memory.... Depressed patients
fail to learn information that requires sustained effort or the
use of elaborate rather than superficial cognitive operations."
P.N.TARIO & H.WEINGARTNER, 1986,
Archives of General Psychiatry 43.
"....neuroticism is above all characterized by strong emotions
which are easily aroused.... it is a simple step to translate
'strong emotions' into 'a general sensitivity to all reinforcing
events, whether rewarding or punishing."
Jeffrey GRAY, 1987, The Psychology of Fear and Stress, 2nd
edn.
"A.T.Beck (1976, Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders)
has proposed a cognitive theory of depression which essentially
views it as a disorder of thinking.... [However] the attribution
and social cognition literatures are full of studies documenting
self-serving biases in attributions (see A.G.Greenwald, 1980,
Amer. Psychologist); and a tendency to see one's future
as bleak and oneself as worthless and incompetent would certainly
be extinguished were it strictly a cognitive error."
Drew WESTERN, 1985, Self and Society. Cambridge University
Press.
"Unlike Plato, Aristotle never suggested that there need
be a permanent struggle between reason and passion; like Jane
Austen, he regarded the passions as expressions of cognitive attitudes
which could be gradually altered by the cultivation of new habits
of thought. Something of the same conception may perhaps be found
in Aquinas and in Hegel. But it is modern Anglo-Saxon philosophy
that has thoroughly and conclusively established the intrinsically
cognitive and, in that sense, rational nature of emotion."
Oliver LETWIN, 1987, Ethics, Emotion and the Unity of the Self.
London : Croom Helm.
"[Oatley & Johnson-Laird (1987) propose] that different
emotions have different functions which are reflected in their
corresponding cognitive processes. According to a functional view
of emotions, a primary function of anxiety is to detect and deal
with threat, whereas a primary function of depression is to detach
oneself from inappropriate, unattainable goals and to reflect
on past events in an attempt to revise those goals."
Brendan P. BRADLEY, 1995, 'Implicit and explicit memory bias for
emotion-congruent information in clinical depression and anxiety.'
Behaviour Research & Therapy 33.
"Cognitive theories and therapies of depression are based
on the premise that the affective, behavioural and cognitive response
systems are fused and highly interdependent.... [Our results and
a meta-analysis of intervention programmes] suggest that links
between the affective and behavioural systems may be more direct
than those between the affective and cognitive, or cognitive and
behavioural systems."
G.H.EIFERT & L.CRAILL (James Cook University of North Queensland),
1988, to 24th International Congress of Psychology (Abstract S390).
"[In a study of young West German adults,] subjects frequently
ascribed to themselves or to their peers two favourable trait
terms that were descriptively inconsistent [e.g. 'firm',
'lenient' vs 'severe', 'lax'].... Subjects who described
themselves in a socially desirable were less neurotic and more
conscientious according to self-reports as well as to peer reports."
P.BORKENAU & F.OSTENDORF, 1989,
European Journal of Personality 3.
"Neuroticism may lead to distress through exposing people
to a greater number of stressful events, through increasing their
reactivity to those events, or through a mechanism unrelated to
environmental events....[In 339 persons studied over six weeks]
exposure and reactivity to....minor stressors explained over 40%
of the distress differences between high-and low-neuroticism subjects.
Reactivity to stressors accounted for twice as much of the distress
difference as exposure to stressors."
N.BOLGER & Elizabeth A. SCHILLING, 1991, Journal of Personality
59.
"....inhibitors (that is, individuals low in trait anxiety
{cf. neuroticism} appeared to be avoiding allocating processing
resources to the ear where a threat-related word had just been
presented.... In sum, there is increasing evidence that those
high and low in trait anxiety differ both in terms of what
stimuli are processed and how stimuli are processed....
In essence, those high and low in trait anxiety differ in at least
two important ways: (i) in the responsiveness of [Gray's] behavioural
inhibition system; (ii) in the amount of processing accorded to
threatening stimuli and in the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli
and situations."
M.W.EYSENCK, 1992, in A.Gale & M.W.Eysenck, Handbook of
Individual Differences: Biological Perspectives. Chichester
: Wiley DePublisher.
"....in complete contrast to [Aaron Beck's] cognitive model,
[my] analysis suggests that high level meanings [e.g. 'self-as-total-failure']
can be altered by modifying purely sensory elements. The higher-order
meaning that I create following a failure experience may be quite
different if I combine the specific failure-related meanings with
the elements related to the sensory feedback from a smiling facial
expression rather than a frown, or from high bodily arousal and
an erect posture rather than from a sluggish body-state and bowed,
stooped posture. [My] analysis suggests a very useful place for
purely physical interventions, such as training in maintaining
a half-smiling expression, or vigorous physical exercise, in the
cognitive therapy of depression. There may even be a place
for that traditional behaviour therapy procedure, muscle relaxation."
{? from Behaviour Research & Therapy, 1993}
"....within the neutral mood condition {induced in Cambridge
students by their hearing the tape Pocket Calculator for
five minutes}, high levels of neuroticism were associated
with relatively poor recall of negative words ('unfriendly', 'complaining')
(r = -.42, p<.05). On the other hand, in the
depressed condition {induced by hearing Prokofiev's Russia
under the Mongolian Yoke, played at half speed} there was
a near-significant trend for high levels of neuroticism
to be associated with better recall of negative material (r=+.35,
p<.09).... The results indicate that....negative recall
bias is an interactive function of state and trait variables....
mood-regulatory processes [may be] more likely to operate in males
than females: ....within the neutral mood condition, high levels
of neuroticism predicted relatively poor recall of negative information
among males (r=-.54) but not females (r=-.04)"
B.BRADLEY et al., 1993, Behaviour Research & Therapy
31.
"Three methods were used to measure [personality and subjective
well-being]: experience-sampling daily reports, self-reports and
informant reports. It was found that neuroticism and negative
affect were indistinguishable at the latent trait level."
F.FUJITA, 1993, to the 6th Meeting of International Society for
the Study of Individual Differences, Baltimore.
"Cognitive biases associated with anxiety states have now
been documented in a substantial number of experimental studies.
Greater interference in color-naming emotionally threatening words
relative to control Ss has been found in phobic states,
panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Although the
exact mechanism underlying this effect remains in doubt, the most
widely held explanation is that anxious Ss automatically
allocate priority to processing threatening information, provided
that the content matches their current emotional concerns (Mathews
& Klug, 1993, Behav.Res.&Ther.31).
A.MATHEWS et al., 1995, Behavior Research & Therapy
33.
"According to Gudjonsson (1981), suppression of emotion can
be measured by combining neuroticism (N) and lie (L) scores from
the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Based on this....'sensitizers'
are significantly more prone to coronary heart disease (p <
.001)....The sensitivity of CHD subjects found in the present
study supports the theory of differential reactions of CHD-prone
and cancer-prone people, the latter being found as repressive-coping
personalities (e.g. Kneier &Temoshok, 1984)."
A.MARUSIC, H.J.EYSENCK & G.GUDJONSSON, 1995, from the abstract
of an address to International Society for the Study of Individual
Differences, 7th meeting, in Warsaw.
"The White Bear Suppression Inventory is a self-report questionnaire
measuring people's general tendency to {experience and} suppress
unwanted negative thoughts. .....[Here] scores were found to be
positively related {at around r = .50} to measures of emotional
vulnerability and psychopathological symptoms."
P.MURIS et al., 1996, Behaviour Research & Therapy
34.
(iv) Some clinical mood disorders and neuroses.
Depression
"Few people whose minds have been completely
closed to psychoanalytic work have contributed much to the understanding
of the psychological aspects of the depressive illnesses."
G.A.FOULDS, 1976, Brit. J. Social & Clinical Psychology.
"The term 'depression' is now used to cover a wider range
of emotional disturbances than was the case when psychiatrists
confined their attention to patients referred to psychiatric hospitals....
The majority of depression rating scales contain a motley collection
of symptoms, attitudes and feelings, and will produce high prevalence
rates and a large proportion of false positives if case detection
relies on them.... Depressed mood is too diffuse a concept, too
ill-defined, as witness the number of epithets which may be provided
to substitute for it. Feelings of worthlessness and guilt are
too liable to have a basis in reality, i.e. to be psychogenic;
hopelessness may also be based upon the undesirable situation
of the person and therefore unreliable as an indicant of biogenic
depression.... Of all the states, anhedonia emerges as
the central and reliable symptom of hypomelancholia. Anhedonia,
the loss of the ability to experience pleasure, may also be fairly
reliably ascertained by a few key questions: Does the sight of
flowers or a beautiful sunset lift the heart, or the sound of
one's favourite music make one want to sing with it?...."
R.P.SNAITH, 1987, British Journal of Psychiatry 150.
"....although there is considerable evidence that depressives
may perceive situations differently to controls, the discrepancies
may be the consequences of the controls distorting the evidence
in a positively self-enhancing manner while the depressives are
being painfully realistic."
M.J.POWER & L.A.CHAMPION, 1986, British Journal of Clinical
Psychology.
"....if one identical twin has manic-depression, the other
has a nearly 80% chance of having it too. If one member of a pair
of fraternal twins has the illness, the other member has about
a 20% chance of having it. When adult persons with manic-depressions
were studied, investigators found that more than 30% of their
biological parents also had manic-depressions, but only 2% of
the adoptive parents did."
Gina KOLATA, 1986, Science 232, 2 v.
(Citing Elliott Gershon, U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.)
"No psychiatrist or psychotherapist, save an extremist, would
discount the current evidence for a genetic and a psychodynamic
understanding of manic depression."
Paul WILLIAMS, 1988, The Independent, 29 vi.
"Depression gave me extreme perspicacity: rather than skin,
it was as if I had only thin gauze bandages to shield me from
everything I saw."
Elizabeth WURTZEL (1994). Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed
in America - A Memoir. New York : Houghton Mifflin.
"Relative left hemisphere hypoactivation in anterior regions
has been linked to increased negative affect, decreased positive
affect, or both. ....several findings support the assertion that
depression is characterized by the breakdown of...."self-deceptive"
mechanisms (e.g. Alloy & Abramson, 1988, J. Exptl Psychol.
(Gen.) 108). ....[Our] results support the prediction that
a repressive coping style and higher Marlowe Crowne scores would
be linked to relative left anterior activation. ....several theorists
have argued that a combination of heightened task focus and reduced
ruminative self-focus is optimal for goal attainment on complex
tasks."
A.J.TOMARKEN & R.J.DAVIDSON, 1994,
Journal of Abnormal Psychology 103.
"Personality Disorders {schizotypal, schizoid, paranoid;
narcissistic, anti-social, borderline and histrionic; dependent,
obsessive-compulsive} are diagnosed in about half of the patients
[who have] depression, anxiety or eating disorders."
Carol J.M. VAN VELZEN & P.M.G.EMMELKAMP, 1996,
Behaviour Research & Therapy 34.
"....depressed, but not anxious subjects, were selectively
attentive to socially threatening words."
A.MATHEWS et al., 1996, Behaviour Research & Therapy
34.
Obsessive-compulsive disorders
"The patient who feels a compulsion to jump out of
windows has built up this compulsion into a safeguard. He acquires
a sense of superiority by successfully overcoming the urge, and
employs the whole situation as an excuse for his lack of success
in life. He then believes that only his compulsive idea prevents
him from fulfilling an actually triumphant mission. Thus he covers
his inferiority complex with a superiority complex and appears
magnificent enough in his own eyes.
The compulsion neurotic retires, so to speak, to a secondary field
of action where he expends all his energies instead of devoting
them to solving his primary problem. Like a veritable Don Quixote
he fights windmills, concerning himself with matters which have
no proper place in our social world, and only serve to dally away
time."
Alfred ADLER, c. 1918. Cited in H.L. & R.R.ANSBACHER
(eds), 1956, The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler.
New York : Basic Books.
"An excessive sense of responsibility has been identified
in obsessive-compulsive disorder where patients evaluate their
thoughts in terms of the harm they could cause to themselves or
others.... responsibility is most readily identifiable among checkers....[who]
would represent the case where the threat and responsibility schemata
are simultaneously present and directly related to the target
thought/situation. For example, a secretary who checked repeatedly
before leaving work to see that no important papers were left
lying around, returned to work when halfway home, and sought reassurance
from her husband, feared being blamed and losing her job for negligence
if anyone took the papers."
Josée Rhéaume et al., 1995, Behaviour
Research & Therapy 33.
"Obsessive-compulsive checkers frequently state that they
are unable to recall whether a check was executed successfully,
and this inability to remember their behavior increases their
desire to repeat the check. ....{In this study,} checkers reported
that they desired higher levels of memory vividness than they
were able to produce."
J.I.CONSTANS et al., 1995, Behavior Research & Therapy
33.
"In the light of recent research suggesting that obsessive-compulsive
disorder is more likely to be associated with constellations of
personality traits {and with general 'personality disorder'} rather
than obsessive-compulsive personality traits, the present study
was undertaken to explore this relationship further and to remove
the possibly confounding effects of anxiety and depression, it
was found, contrary to recent research, that specific obsessional
symptoms were only related to the traits of obsessive-compulsive
personality disorder."
Kate ROSEN & F.TALLIS, 1995, Behavioural Research &
Therapy 33.
"The relationship between obsessional personality traits
and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has long been the subject of
debate. Although clinicians have asserted for nearly a hundred
years that such a relationship exists, empirical investigations
have failed to provide consistent support; however, none of these
empirical investigations have undertaken analyses that control
for the effect of mood. ....[Here,] after the effects of depression
and anxiety were removed from a correlational analysis, obsessional
symptoms were found to be significantly associated with obsessional
and passive-aggressive traits."
F.TALLIS et al., 1996, Behaviour Research & Therapy
34.
"Employing a directed forgetting procedures [we instructed
patients] either to remember or to forget each [word] after it
was presented. ....[Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder]
exhibited deficits in the ability to forget negative material
relative to positive and neutral material, whereas [healthy] control
subjects did not."
Sabine WILHELM et al., 1996, Behaviour Research &
Therapy 34.
Phobia
"[In my study, at Amsterdam University,] agoraphobic
women were characterized by strong field-dependence, neurosomatism,
self-sufficiency [i.e. egotism], rigidity, and, to a lesser extent,
by a rather low intelligence, a defensive attitude, inadequacy
and femininity.
For socially phobic women, strong characteristics were
social anxiety, social inadequacy, a low self-esteem, and a high
intelligence.
Simple phobic women can only be characterized by their
high intelligence...."
Florence J. van ZUUREN, 1987, Personality & Individual
Differences 8.
"M.Seligman's theory of preparedness holds that certain fears
are more easily learned due to a biological preparedness to fear
objects and situations that were dangerous to the human species
in its evolutionary development. This theory accounts for why
certain phobias [e.g. of animals, heights, and enclosed spaces]
are so common in clinical populations, contrary to the classical
conditioning theory which predicts that any neutral object can
acquire properties of a phobic stimulus.... The distribution of
phobias in the Sri Lankan population investigated here was very
similar to those found in....English and Scottish studies. This
is, of course, what the [preparedness] theory would predict, as
preparedness is defined in terms of biological and evolutionary
significance which would be expected to operate at a deeper level
than cultural differences."
P. DE SILVA, 1988, Behaviour Research & Therapy 26.
"....[59] acrophobic patients gave higher estimates of the
probability of falling from [a] ladder than normals did; [and]
gave higher estimates of the injuries that would result from falling....
The results challenge the view that phobic patients have complete
insight into the inappropriateness of their own distress."
R.G.MENZIES & J.C.CLARKE, 1995, Behaviour Research &
Therapy 33.
"Results obtained question the significance of simple associative-learning
events in the acquisition of fear of heights. Only 11.5% of fearful
S's were classified as directly conditioned cases. Furthermore,
no differences between groups were found in the proportion of
S's who knew other height-fearfuls, had experienced relevant associative-learning
events, or the ages at which these events had occurred. Finally,
no relationships between mode of acquisition and severity or individual
response patterns were obtained. In general, the data were consistent
with the non-associative, Darwinian accounts of fear acquisition
that continue to attract theorists from a variety of backgrounds."
R.M.MENZIES & J.C.CLARKE, 1995,
Behaviour Research & Therapy 33.
"The principal finding of this study is that postural instability
assessed by moving platform posturography is a remarkably good
predictor of reported agoraphobic avoidance. These results cannot
readily be dismissed as due to emotional or motivational influences
on balance, since EquiTest (Yardley et al., 1994, J.Audiological
Med.3) results were strongly related to agoraphobic avoidance
after controlling for anxiety."
Lucy YARDLEY et al., 1995, Behaviour Research & Therapy
33.
Hysteria
"Hysterics suffer mainly from reminiscences."
S.FREUD & J.BREUER, 1895, Studies on Hysteria.
"....within a few years the concept of hysteria will belong
to history.... there is no such disease and there never has been."
A.STEYERTHAL, 1908.
"All the signs of hysteria are the signs not of disease but
of health."
E.SLATER, 1965.
"A tough old word like 'hysteria' dies hard. It tends to
outlive its obituarists."
Sir Aubrey LEWIS, 1976.
"Hysteria is the neurosis of the disregarded, of those who,
within society or within the
family, have been made to feel of no account."
A.STORR, 1981.
"Every doctor knows in his clinical experience that he is
bound to fall back on the magic word hysteria...."
Henri EY, 1982.
"In terms of our model of consciousness, we see hysterical
conversion symptoms as involving a blockade of representations
from re-representation within self-awareness. Information is processed
quite normally within consciousness to the highest cognitive level,
but selective mechanisms within consciousness itself prevent access
to it by self-awareness mechanisms."
D.A.OAKLEY & L.C.EAMES, 1985, in D.A.Oakley,
Brain and Mind. Oxford : Blackwell.
"[Dual personality, which] was a rare condition in 19th-century
France reached 6,000 in the US by 1986, and today there are [says
Ian Hacking, Rewriting the Soul] hundreds of such cases
in every sizeable American town; it is an epidemic. ....How can
this be? The sceptical answer is that the "personalities",
like false memories, are somehow implanted in suggestible clients.
The therapists' response is that in the past only the very tip
of the iceberg of child abuse was revealed against massive denial;
it took the new therapies and new feminist consciousness to find
it."
Steven ROSE, 1995, Times Higher Educational Supplement,
20 x.
Pre-menstrual syndrome
"In our study [of 844 Dutch women], 62% of the group
of highly neurotic women [seem to] suffer from the pre-menstrual
syndrome. In the less neurotic or less disturbed women....in this
study, 41% may be diagnosed as [suffering from PMS]. These data
are indicative of the idea that PMS and neuroticism are highly
correlated constructs."
H. M. Van der PLOEG, 1987, Personality & Indiv. Differences
8.
(v) Positive aspects of neuroticism/emotionality.
{See also Quotes XVII.}
"All extraordinary men distinguished in philosophy, politics,
poetry and the arts are evidently melancholic."
ARISTOTLE.
"[During the eighteenth century] the old humoral theory [of
insanity] yielded under the influence of Thomas Willis's neuroanatomy
to an explanation based on the functioning of the brain and the
nervous system. Talk of spleen, the vapours and the hyp gave way
to the new vogue for "nervous" complaints.... This kind
of nervous illness [as caricatured by Smollett-"not absolute
madness,....weakness of the nerves"] for a time became a
symbol of superior sensibilities. It was seen as a disease of
civilization, the price humanity had to pay for social progress."
Keith THOMAS, 1987, Times Literary Supplement, 4-10 xii.
"Genius is sorrow's child."
John ADAMS, 1821.
"For years [Schopenhauer] was persecuted by fear of criminal
proceedings, fear of the loss of his property, and fear that his
own mother would contest his [inheritance]. If any noise was heard
at night, he got out of bed and reached for sword and postolo,
which he kept permanently loaded. Even without any special provocation,
he was preoccupied with continual anxiety, which led him to search
for and see dangers endlessly and made intercourse with people
altogether difficult."
W. Von GWINNER, 1910, Schopenhauers Leben, 3rd edn.
Leipzig : Brockhaus.
"....a certain degree of neurosis is of inestimable value
as a drive, especially to a psychologist.... I feel sure....that
[Havelock] Ellis must have some sexual abnormality, else he would
never have devoted himself to the field of sex research."
FREUD, c. 1910.
{Freud's suspicion of Havelock Ellis finds empirical support in
Ruth Brandon's (1990) The New Women and the Old Men. London
: Secker.}
"Of the fifteen psychiatrists who examined Zola, the majority
concluded 'that his genius had its source in the neurotic elements
of his temperament....' And Zola, as a man of genius, did little
to discredit their findings-as a matter of fact, he concurred
with them completely."
G.BECKER, 1978, The Mad Genius Controversy.
Beverly Hills, CA : Sage.
"Dr Gattel is becoming much attached to me and my theories.
His intelligence is quite considerable; he is not free of neurotic
sensibility. He is presently engrossed in your papers."
FREUD, 1897, letter to Wilhelm Fliess, 7 vii.
"My father and mother were dead {they had died in his third
year of life} and I used to wonder what sort of people they had
been.... Throughout the greater part of my childhood, the most
important hours of my day were those I spent alone in the garden,
and the most vivid part of my existence was solitary.... Throughout
my childhood I had an increasing sense of loneliness, and of despair
of meeting anyone with whom I could talk. Nature and books and
(later) mathematics saved me from complete despondency.... There
was a footpath leading across the fields to New Southgate, and
I used to go there alone to watch the sunset and contemplate suicide.
I did not, however, commit suicide, because I wished to know more
about mathematics."
Bertrand RUSSELL, cited by B-A.Scharfstein, 1980,
The Philosophers. Oxford : Blackwell.
"[Wittgenstein] has pure intellectual passion in the highest
degree; it makes me love him. His disposition is that of an artist,
intuitive and moody. He says every morning he begins his work
with hope and every evening he ends in despair-when he can't understand
things, he has just the sort of rage that I have."
Bertrand RUSSELL. Cited by R.W.Clark, 1975, The Life of
Bertrand Russell. London : Cape / Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
"Heidegger's modus philosophandi is neurotic through
and through and is obstinately rooted in his psychic crankiness.
His kindred spirits, close or distant, are sitting in lunatic
asylums, some as patients and some as psychiatrists on a philosophical
rampage.... For all its critical analysis, philosophy has not
yet managed to root out its psychopaths. What do we have psychiatric
diagnosis for! That grizzler Kierkegaard also belongs in this
galère. Philosophy still has to learn that it is
made by human beings and depends to an alarming degree
on their psychic constitution. In the critical philosophy of the
future there will be a chapter on 'The Psychopathology of Philosophy.'
Hegel is fit to bust with presumption and vanity. Nietzsche drips
with outraged sexuality, and so on. There is no thinking qua
thinking; at times it is a pisspot of unconscious devils, just
like any other function that lays claim to hegemony. Often what
is thought is less important than who thinks it. But this
is assiduously overlooked. Neurosis addles the brain of every
philosopher because he is at odds with himself. His philosophy
is then nothing but a systematized struggle with his own uncertainty."
C.G.JUNG, letter to Arnold Kunzli, 28 ii 1943.
"Emotions are inherent in your nature, but their content
is dictated by your mind. Your emotional capacity is an empty
motor, and your values are the fuel with which your mind fills
it."
'John Galt', hero of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
New York : Random House, 1957.
"Most of the variety, vigour and self-expression of adult
life comes....from setting one's face against too much "adjustment"."
Alan E. THOMSON, 1958, University of Edinburgh Gazette,
ii.
"For three years [as a soldier at the front in World War
I] I had kept my never by stifling my intelligence, but now I
let the intelligence rip and the nerve dissolve. I am sure there
has been worse wretchedness, fright, and despair in the world's
history, but I set up a personal record that I have never since
approached."
'Dunstan Ramsay', central character in Robertson Davies'
Fifth Business. Harmondsworth : Penguin, c. 1975.
"There is a direct tie between intellect and anxiety. We
think as much as we do in order to control our lives as well as
we can; but the same knowledge that lessens ignorance exposes
how much ignorance remains and uncovers threats of which we have
not yet been aware."
B.-A.SCHARFSTEIN, 1980, The Philosophers. Oxford : Blackwell.
"....characterological virtues [such as resolution, conscientiousness,
affection and energy] are not so much diminished in the high-n
person as they are idiosyncratically expressed; obstinacy, obsessionality,
hyper-sensitivity and agitation may be experienced and admitted
even when their more highly valued counterparts are denied. Whatever
else it is, neuroticism is at least a scrambling device that permits
idiosyncrasy, unresolved conflict and richness of human experience
to persist. Such idiosyncrasy is a valuable human variation, even
if we would not wish it to characterise airline pilots."
C.R.BRAND, 1984, in J.Nicholson & Halla Beloff, Psychology
Survey 5.
Leicester : British Psychological Society.
"I'm a very anxious person. I don't know a writer who isn't."
Edna O'BRIEN (novelist), 1987, interviewed by
Anthony Clare, BBC IV UK, 28 viii.
"Dancers tend to be less stable (high scores for emotionality
and anxiety) than non-dancers.... One of [the] explanations might
be that part of a dancer's job is to give expression to feelings
and emotions. Dancers should be sensitive to, for example, the
emotional meaning of music and choreography and be able to convey
this to other people. Being sensitive and emotional might be a
favourable requisite for this."
F.C.BAKKER (Dept Psychol., Interfaculty of Human Movement
Sciences, The Free University, Amsterdam), 1988,
Personality & Individual Differences 9.
"I don't know what I was nervous about {as an actress}. It's
partly biological. There was always a bucket in the wings for
me."
Maria AITKEN, 1988, BBC IV UK, 7 ix.
"....depressed persons (both clinical depressives and non-depressives
in an induced sad mood) were better at solving problems that required
logical analyses, and were found to be more responsive to the
quality of arguments presented in persuasive communications."
N.SCHWARZ, 1988, to 24th International Congress of Psychology,
in Sydney (Abstract S143).
"Emotions contain the wisdom of the ages."
R.S.LAZARUS, 1991, American Psychologist.
"For Rudolf [Nureyev], and for his many fans, this is what
mattered: the emotion in the encounter. This is why he danced
long past his physical prime. His emotional force remained undimmed
and this is what people came to see, to be part of."
Peter WATSON, 1994, Nureyev. London : Hodder & Stoughton.
"Götz & Götz (1973, Perc. & Mot. Skills
30), [comparing] a group of highly gifted arts students....with
less gifted and ungifted subjects....found that highly gifted
students....had low scores on extraversion and high scores on
neuroticism. It may also be noted that neuroticism would seem
to be related positively to creative work in the arts,
negatively to creative work in science; the reason may
be the emotional involvement in art, and the explicit rejection
of emotion in science. The point would be that neuroticism is
not related to creativity per se, but to the direction
of creativity."
H.J.EYSENCK, 1995, Genius: the Natural History of Creativity.
Cambridge University Press.
"[Jeremy Bentham] never knew prosperity and adversity, passion
nor satiety; he never had even the experiences which sickness
gives; he lived from childhood to the age of eighty-five in boyish
health. He knew no dejection, no heaviness of heart. He never
felt life a sore and weary burden.... Knowing so little of human
feelings, he knew still less of the influences by which those
feelings are formed; all the more subtle workings both of the
mind upon itself, and of external things upon the mind, escaped
him."
John Stuart MILL, The Philosophy of John Stuart Mill.
Edited by M.Cohen, 1961. New York : Random House.
"....the neurotic is not the man who adopts a particular
intellectual and personal style, but the one who, having adopted
a style, suffers its weaknesses without enjoying its strengths."
Liam HUDSON, 1966, Contrary Imaginations. London : Methuen.
"[The commitment of David Gower, the English cricket captain]
to the stylishly relaxed approach to life and sport is thoroughly
genuine. It is the basis of his unneurotic nature that seems frequently
to be oversimplified. There could hardly be a more blatantly romantic
figure in the field - with his blond curls and lithe grace....
But he gives the strong impression of never having been dazzled
by his own extreme talents as a games-player, never having lost
sight of the simple fact that, regardless of how wonderful sport
can be, much of what is most rewarding in life must always lie
beyond its boundaries."
Hugh McILVANNEY (sports commentator), 1989, The Observer,
21 v.
"....whereas most psychologists have been concerned with
what group cultures do to neurotics, the evidence is....that neurotics
produce reductions in the syntality morale of groups to which
they belong."
R.B.CATTELL, 1994, How Good Is Your Country?
Washington, DC : Institute for the Study of Man.
Epilogue
"In his treatise on "those disorders which are called
nervous", more than two hundred years ago, R. Whytt (1765,
Observations on the Nature, Causes and Cure of those Disorders
which are Called Nervous, 2nd edn, Edinburgh) observed that
individuals who complain about mood fluctuations and irritability
also tend to report many somatic dysfunctions and symptoms....
[Today] the psychophysiology of neuroticism (emotionality) and
anxiety, despite intense and extended research activities, has
not yet attained a consistent factual basis or a theoretical foundation
of general acceptance. A re-orientation of research is mandatory."
Jochen FAHRENBERG, 1992, 'The psychophysiology of neuroticism
and anxiety'. In A.Gale & M.W.Eysenck, A Handbook of Individual
Differences: Biological Perspectives. Chichester : Wiley DePublisher.
"US studies show that more murders occur when the moon is
full, that there are more accidents and suicides, and that the
risk of disturbed behaviour among psychiatric patients increases....In
1991 Dr George Masterton and his colleagues from the Department
of Psychological Medicine at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
examined the incidence of parasuicide-deliberate attempts at self-injury.
They discovered small peaks at full moon and new moon. In the
Journal of Psychological Medicine, Dr Masterton concludes
"Disregarding this field of enquiry is an understandable
but inappropriate response.""
Patsy WESTCOTT, 1994, 'The moon and your health.'
Top Santé Health & Beauty, vii.
FINIS
(Compiled by C.R.Brand, Department
of Psychology, University of Edinburgh.)
For coverage of general intelligence
and other main trait differences, see:
BRAND, C.R. (1996) The g Factor.
Chichester : Wiley DePublisher.
"The nature and measurement of intelligence is a political
hot potato. But Brand in this extremely readable, wide-ranging
and up-to-date
book is not afraid to slaughter the shibboleths of modern "educationalists".
This short book provides a great deal for thought
and debate."
Professor Adrian Furnham, University College London.
The book was first issued, in February, but then withdrawn, in
April, by the 'publisher' because it was deemed to have infringed
modern canons of
'political correctness.'
It received a perfectly favourable review in Nature (May
2, 1996, p. 33).
For a Summary of the book, Newsletters
concerning the
de-publication affair, details of how to see the book for scholarly
purposes, and others' comments and reviews,
see the Internet URL sites:
http://laboratory.psy.ed.ac.uk/DOCS/crb/internet.html
http://www.webcom.com/zurcher/thegfactor/index.html
For Chris Brand's 'Get Real About Race!'-his
popular exposition of his views on race and education in the Black
hip-hop music magazine 'downlow' (Autumn, 1996)-see:
http://www.bhs.mq.edu.au/~tbates/intelligence/Brand_downlow.html
A reminder of what is available in other Sections of 'P,
B & S.'
Summary Index
for PERSONALITY, BIOLOGY
& SOCIETY
(This resource manual of quotations about
individual and group differences, compiled by
Mr C. R. Brand, is kept on the Internet and in Edinburgh University
Psychology Department Library.)
Pages of Introduction
3 - 11 Full Index, indicating
key questions in each Section.
12 - 14 Preface. - Why quotations? - Explanations and apologies.
15 - 51 Introduction: Questions, Arguments and Agreements in
the study of Personality.
-Some history, and a discussion of 'realism vs 'idealism.'
52 - 57 Introductory Quotes about the study of personality.
Sections
General problems
1 'Situational' vs 'personological' approaches to human
variation.
2 'Nomothetic' vs 'idiographic', 'subjective' and relativistic
approaches.
3 Personality dimensions-by factor analysis and otherwise.
4 'Superstructure' and 'infrastructure.' - The 'mind/body problem'.
5 Nature versus Nurture? - Or Nature via Nurture?
6 The role of consciousness in personality and 'multiple personality'.
7 The 'folk psychology' of personality components.
Intelligence
8 The measurement of intelligence. - Does g exist?
9 The bases of intelligence. - What is the psychology
of g?
10 The developmental origins of g differences. - The nature
and nurture of g.
11 The importance of intelligence. - The psychotelics of
g.
12 Piagetianism: Kant's last stand?
13 Cognitivism: 'The Emperor's New Mind?'
Propensities
14 Neurosis, emotion and Neuroticism.
15 Psychosis, psychopathy and Psychoticism.
16 Crime and criminality.
17 Genius and creativity.
Popular proposals - psychoanalytic, phrenological and prophylactic
18 Psychoanalysis: 'Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire'?
19 Hemispherology: a twentieth-century phrenology?
20 Psycho-social Engineering: therapy, training or transformation?
Group differences
21 Age and ageing - especially, the role of g in 'life-span
development'.
22 Psychological sex differences. - Do they exist? Must they exist?
23 Social class. - Does it matter any longer?
24 Racial and ethnic differences. - Their role in 'lifestyles'
and cultural attainments.
Ideological issues
25 The psychology of politics and ideological extremism.
26 The politics of psychologists and allied co-workers.
27 Equality and Community: the 'utopian' package of political
aims.
28 Freedom and Responsibility: the 'legitimist' package of political
aims.
Pragmatic questions
29 Carry on differentializing?
30 Carry on psycho-testing?
Appendix: Factor Analysis - 'Garbage in, garbage out'?
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