ABSTRACT
First we will consider a tendency - Passive Sym pathy - which is o f so general a type th a t even M cDougall and others who enum erate m any hum an instincts, do not include it in the list.
Passive sympathy or sympathetic induction o f emotions. T he word ‘Sym pathy5 by derivation really means ‘feeling w ith5. In ordinary language it usually implies not only feeling distress with someone bu t doing something for them - if help is needed. I t is im portant, however, to distinguish the impulse to help and m ere sym pathetic feeling. I f we see or hear a person laughing w ith glee most of us tend to laugh and to feel a t least some degree o f delight, even if we do not know the cause of his laughter. I f we see grief realistically portrayed on the stage we tend to feel a sim ilar emotion. A m ere baby, on hearing another cry, will often show sim ilar signs of distress. M y boy a t five years, when I described a soldier so wounded in the knee th a t it was mere pulp, shuddered and said, ‘O h, th a t gives me a pain in my knee.5 O ne of my daughters, a t three and a ha lf years, screamed w ith apparen t acute distress w hen our little dog was biting a thrush. W hen, during a violent air-raid, I was in a cellar w ith ha lf a dozen others, a sudden loud expression of fear by one person caused an obvious intensification of fear in most of the others.
