ABSTRACT
THE THEORY of Pieron makes the transition from the views of the last chapter to those of this chapter:
Now the idea of emotion seems to be associated with a quantitative aspect, a certain level, of the affect. The difference between a moderate interest taken in a theatrical performance and the keen emotion which it arouses, whatever may be the precise nature of the feelings involved ... is essentially a quantitative one.
—H. Pieron, 'Emotion in Animals and Man', FE 28, pp. 285-6.Thus it seems to us that emotion may be described as an extreme level of affect, tending toward the pathological as a limit. It consists essentially in an abnormal discharge of nervous energy, a discharge which exceeds the amount which can be used for the normal reactions of the individual, and which occurs even when there is no occasion for reaction. It consequently involves a diffusion of excitatory impulses into the viscera, which on the whole, seems to be not only useless, but harmful, and even pathogenic....
—Idem, p. 294.