ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates notions of grace, both secular and theological, implicit in William James’s accounts of psychophysical plasticity and ethical responsiveness. James begins his lecture by discussing the relationship between “psychological doctrines” and “mental hygiene”, with a particular focus on the mental hygiene required for the sane navigation of the stresses of American life. The problem in America is that the buried life writ large is one of frantic over-achievement and constant labor: breathlessness, tension, and anxiety. The question James pursues in his lecture for students has to do with the causes and possible remedies for so much over-tension. In The Principles of Psychology , James describes the mind as comprising a complex system of grooves and channels of varying complexity and depth. Habituated in certain ways, the brain acquires a distinctive shape, permeated with deeply cut channels.
