The faulty and unwise behavior of a mother has led the boy to react to her in many particulars as does her husband.
The study of habits is still continued today, especially how children mimic the behaviors of their parents, showing how important it is to set a good example for your children. This can also lead to the argument of Nature vs. Nurture when evaluating someone's habits.
Now if conditioned reflexes can arise in the salivary gland, they can and possibly do arise in all glandular and muscular portions of the body. The possibility that tics and hysterical manifestations generally arise in this way is very great.
This information could be built off of for future research involving involuntary motor tics and what is know as Tourette Syndrome.
This article focuses on the concept of "mental" and what exactly mental disorders are. This can be considered habits that become reflexes or something that is learned or even a condition that is not "outgrown" from childhood. Not all reactions are voluntary and the idea of the "mind" can not be boiled down to a single explanation since the science is continually changing. Terminology is not understood across the board because scientist, especially across different fields, cannot agree on a single definition. Because habits can be learned though training, there is a possibly for them to be unlearned over a period of time - this is where the importance of a therapist, psychiatrist, counsoler, or psychopathologist comes into paly.
psychopathologist
This is a type of mental health professional that studies mental illness, distress, and what conditions result from them. These are very important in modern psychology and studies of mental disorders.
Dunlap's recent inquiry[6] into the definitions of psychological terms shows, I believe, more clearly than I can state, just how little agreement there is among psychologists in the use of common psychological terms. It seems to me to be a mistake for as useful and fascinating a growth as psychopathology to allow itself to become encrusted with the barnacles of an outgrown terminology.
Terms and definitions are not concrete in the science of psychology. This is evident in any article that refers to a specific scientists idea or definition of the concept, but as new information and studies are done, the definition and understanding changes.
The length of time required for the cure and the rapidity of the cure would depend upon several factors -- such as my luck in fixing upon just the right method for breaking up the old non-serviceable habits, the length of time the old habits had been in force, upon the tractability of the dog, etc.
This is stating that there is a good possibility that the dog can be cured, it will just vary for how long it takes. This can give hope to curing mental issues associated with humans by developing new habits.
I tell him that I have trained the dog during the past five years to do just these things
This shows how animals can form habits with repetition and training, same as humans.
I think I can illustrate what I mean by describing a hypothetical "neurasthenic dog." Suppose I take a dog to a canine psychiatric [p. 594] clinic and tell the physician nothing about the dog's previous history. The physician puts the dog through a searching neurological examination, makes a thorough test of heart action, examines the urine, etc. Absolutely no pathological disturbances are found. He finds, however, on testing the dog's reactions to his normal canine environment that there are serious functional disturbances. When the normal dog sees a piece of red meat, he snaps at it. The "neurasthenic" dog, however, lies down and becomes absolutely motionless. When brought near a female of his own kind, far from exhibiting the usual reactions, he begins to shed tears. When spoken to in gentle tones, he hangs his head, puts his tail between his legs, but when spoken to gruffly he brightens up and lifts his head and licks the speaker's hand. When preparing to sleep, instead of turning round and round and lying down with anterior and posterior ends in close relations, the dog jumps up and down and finally lies down on his back with his paws pointing to the stars. The physician surely finds here serious conflict with reality and a woeful lack of normal compensations. But since there are no organic pathological disturbances, the physician diagnoses the case as neurasthenia with compulsion neurosis -- the disease is mental.
This paragraph explains that some animals display similar mental and physical reactions to humans, just within a different context. Allowing for psychology experiments to be used with studying animals, who by default, are more willing to participate and at larger scales.
All such disturbances of habit -- superfluous and useless conditioned reflexes -- may be found to date back to some primary stimulus (possibly to sex trauma, exposure,[3] masturbation, [p. 593] etc., in childhood) which is the conditioning cause operating
These ideas can be traced to ideas of repressed memories which can be associated with reflexes that might not otherwise be explained. Scientists now are still studying causes of obscure habits and where they originate - trauma, repression, the subconscious or some other means.
We often see an instructor despair of telling a student in words how to conduct an experiment. He then resorts to acts and goes through the experiment for the student.
This shows that sometimes words are not enough for someone to grasp a concept to the full extent, and watching or doing the experiment itself might be a better way to comprehend. This is why some scientists repeat previous experiments in order to better understand the results and processes.
The words of the nurse "cover up, dear" will lead to the same act.
This is a learned reaction from repetition.
will produce a defensive reflex -
This is an example of an involuntary reflex.
I believe that the description of "mental" cases can be completed as well as begun in behavior terms.
He is insinuating that mental diseases or disorders can be explained with behavioral psychology.
I then try to show that such habit systems need never have been "conscious"
William James argues this in his idea that habits have an adaptive function and occur "more or less" automatically - this enables the conscious to focus on other problems like survival. This more than likely influenced this information.
As we pass from childhood to man's estate we are constantly giving up thousands of activities which our nervous and muscular systems have learned to perform and which they still have a tendency to perform.
I believe that Watson is referring to the habits that are formed when we are younger that turn into the concept of muscle memory. Sometimes, even when we grow older, we can revert back to these old habits due to previous repetition.
I am strengthened in this attempt to give my concept of mental diseases by the difficulty I have had in understanding the terminology (involving throughout and often transcending the current concept of consciousness) of the psychoanalytic movement.
This shows that the article was published before the field of psychology focused much of its attention on mental diseases and disorders.
At the end of his discourse two or three eminent physicians stated their satisfaction that the speaker had been willing to come out clearly and say that the disease was "mental." In other words, they expressed their approval of the fact that the speaker did not, in functional nervous cases, deem it necessary to find lesions in the central nervous system or even a toxic condition of the nervous system before admitting that the patient had a disease.
This shows that the physicians realized the difference between voluntary and involuntary (reflex) actions in relation to the function of the nervous system.
neurasthenia
Fatigue is one of the bigger symptoms of this mental disease, it was often linked to depression and anxiety with most of the emphasis on fatigue. This is very relevant in today's science where there is a focus on helping people cope with anxiety and depression.
Nevertheless, I am glad to take advantage of Professor Caldwell's criticisms to work out certain phases of my argument that could not well be embodied in my former article.
This statement shows that Titchener not only can take criticism, but that his goal is to improve the science of psychology and make his ideas and concepts understood for the reader.
The Postulates of a Structural Psychology
This was a paper written 11 years prior in 1989 by Titchener when he was a young professor at Cornell University. At this time, was considered a talented laboratory psychologist at the time with clear ideas about new psychology.