White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1930-06-27
Why We Behave
Like Human Beings
B. GEORGE DORSEY, ph. D, LID.
Men Haters

0S0OnSE DOhobI, Fn La IL. II.
Men Haters
/ MAYHEM woman says, II hate tina
w mani" what does she hate hin
with? Does hate spring from rage i'm
pulse which drives us to anger whel
restrained, or is it the opposite, tn,
detumescence Of love? Suppose sh,
says: II hate avender"-women d.
say such things. heard one say: :"
hate Paris" Most women "love'
Paris, some "simply adore" it.
love corned beef and cabbage
Sight or odor of corned beef and cab
bage makes my mouth water. My
mouth waters only when am stimu
lated by something within my food
hunger repertoire. My mouth-watel
mechanism is made up Of glands, mus
cles, nerves. An adequate stimulus
sets it off. Call that activity tunes
cence (swelling). And note that may
leave the restaurant with full stom
ach, and yet the odor Of broiled mush.
rooms as I pass out the door sets my
mouth watering again.
I sit down and order broiled mush'
rooms. The first one l spear has q
hair in it. try again; and encounter
dead fly. These are not pleasant
things, but such make or break appe-
titles. have lost mine for broiled
mushrooms, possibly forever. The very
thought of mushrooms makes me sick ;
no mouth-water, no good feeling" in
the food-appetite mechanism. Call that
detumescence
The sex-appetite mechanism is much
more complicated; has more parts,
more nerves, is capable of more devas-
tating sensations. Call it the eroge-
nous Glove producing) zone. This zone
is all in order at birth. By condition
ing processes 1t learns to respond to
widely differing stimuli by the time
the mature puberty glands begin to
send their impulses to satisfy what is
by now definite and specific mate
hunger.
Which means that by the time we
reach the marrying age the mate we
choose, if any, will be more or less al
ready picked out for us.
'Things and places" says Watson,
"tend to become associated with or
ganic responses, specifically those with
love-" Every object, by virtue Of the
original bent of the individual, or
through conditioned reflex or habit,
calls out overt or delayed response in
the motor mechanism; also, "a def
mite and complex group of reflex activ-
ity in the erogenous zone"
Excitation in this zone arouses two
fundamental kinds of impulses:
~ Tumescence: rythmical contrac-
ton Of certain muscular tissue and in
creased secretions. .'If functioning
alone, the impulse will lead to posi-
tive seeking movements and ultimately
to the unfolding Of the instructive re-
productive mechanism"
~ Detumescence: inhibition, and
relaxation of other muscular tissue
and inhibition of secretions. "These
impulses at the motor center, If not
inhibited, would release avoidance
movements"
Here, then, is the sex-appetite
mechanism which early in life begins
to sort the little world about into
loved ones and those it does not care
for. Through the mechanism of habit
and reflex functions, objects which
at first had no emotional value come
later to arouse family or overly one
or other Of the two impulses tunes
cence or detumescence.
To the objection that this view
over-emphasizes the instructive factor
Of love, Watson points out that the
love and do-not-love factors are at the
bottom of home, general, social and
vocational life. We work long hours
to improve our position to make more
money to carry on home life on
broader scale. "The activities conferred
about loved ones from infancy to old
age are easily the most important fac
tors in life. No wonder that our acts
are connected with and evalued by
the connections lying below our Ian
guage level"
Here again, as always, we come
back to that as yet unsolved prob
lem of two faces: the significance and
extent of individual Inheritance; the
degree to which this individual in
l..;4o,oa oop ho conditional. m o,1r
original tendencies make us, or our
parents and our teachers and our en-
vironment? Or, put the question this
way Where does nature leave off and
nurture begin? Nature never leaves
OLIVE may be certain of that. Muir
ture begins at once.
Born with an elaborate mechanism
for adjustment, we face three doctors,
two nurses, several servants, father,
mother, aunts, uncles, etc., all on their
toes to adjust for us. Nature never
gets chance. Nurture cries when
we do not smile back. To make us
smile, they tickle us under the chin
and trot us on their knees and bribe
us with candy and ribbons and gew-
gaws.
And so our food appetites, sex ap-
petites, fears and RACES slop over into
endless things that are not to be eaten
or loved, nor to be run from or killed.
IndigestionTor adiposity; celibacy-
or promiscuity; afraid of shadows,
facts, and death; and war on our
neighbors instead Of against poverty,
squalor, and ignorance.
Love and such move the world,
move it in many ways because in
Stinctiye RESPONSES can be and must