II. PSYCHICAL COMPOUNDS.
§ 8. DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF PSYCHICAL COMPOUNDS.


1. By "psychical compound" we mean any composite component of our immediate experience which is marked off from other contents of this experience by characteristics peculiarly its own, in such a way that it is recognized as a relatively independent unity and is, when practical necessity demands it, designated by a special name. In developing such a name, language has followed the general rule that only classes and the most important species into which phenomena may be grouped shall have special designations. Thus such terms as idea, emotion, volitional act, etc., designate general classes of psychical compounds, such terms as visual idea, joy, anger, hope, etc., designate special species included in these classes. So far as these designations are based upon actual, distinguishing characteristics, they have a certain value for psychological analysis. But in granting this, we must avoid from the first, two presuppositions to which the existence of these expressions might easily mislead us. The first is, that a psychical compound is an absolutely independent content of immediate experience. The second is, that certain compounds, as for example, ideas, have the nature of things. The truth is that compounds are only relatively independent units. Just as they are made up of various elements, so they themselves unite to form a complete interconnection, in which relatively simple compounds may continually combine to form more composite ones. Then, again, compounds, like the psychical elements contained in them, are never things, but processes which change from moment to moment, so that it is only through deliberate abstraction, which is, indeed, indispensable for the investigation in many cases, that they can be thought of as constant at any given moment (p. 31).

2. All psychical compounds may be resolved into psychical elements, that is, into pure sensations and simple feelings. The two kinds of elements behave, however, in an essentially different manner, in keeping with the special properties of simple feelings described in § 7. The sensational elements found by such a resolution, always belong to one of the sensational systems already considered. The affective elements, on the other hand, include not only those which correspond to the pure sensations contained in the compounds, but also those due to the interconnection of the elements into a compound. The systems of sensational qualities, accordingly, remain the same, no matter how many varieties of compounds arise, while the systems of simple affective qualities continually increase. Furthermore, it is a general principle valid for all psychical compounds, whether they are composed of sensations only, of feelings only, or of combinations of both sensations and feelings, that the attributes of psychical compounds are never limited to the attributes of the elements which enter into them. It is true rather that new attributes, peculiar to the compounds themselves, always arise as a result of the combination of these elements. Thus, a visual idea has not only the attributes of the light sensations and sensations of ocular position and movements contained in it, but it has also the attribute of spatial arrangement of the sensations, a factor not present in the elements themselves. Again a volition is made up not only of the ideas and feelings into which its single acts may be resolved, but there result also from the combination of these single acts, new affective elements which are specifically characteristic of the volition process. Here, again, the combinations of sensational and affective elements are different. In the first case, on account of the constancy of the sensational systems, no new sensations can arise, but only peculiar forms of their arrangement. These forms are the intensive, the extensive spatial and temporal manifolds. When, on the other hand, affective elements combine, new simple feelings arise, which unite with those originally present to make intensive affective units of composite character.

3. The classification of psychical compounds is naturally based upon the character of the elements which enter into them. Those composed entirely or chiefly of sensations are called ideas, those consisting mainly of affective elements are called affective processes. The same limitations hold here as in the case of the corresponding elements. Although compounds are more the products of immediate discrimination among actual psychical processes than are the elements, still, there is in all exactness no pure ideational process and no pure affective process; in both cases we can only abstract to a certain extent from one or the other component. As in the case of the two kinds of elements, so here, we can neglect the accompanying subjective states when dealing with ideas, but we must always presuppose some idea when giving an account of the affective processes.

We distinguish, accordingly, three chief forms of ideas: 1) intensive ideas, 2) spatial ideas, 3) temporal ideas; and three forms of affective processes: 1) intensive affective combinations, 2) emotions, 3) volitions. Temporal ideas constitute a sort of link between the two kinds of compounds, for certain feelings play an important part in their formation.