movements of the stomach; and at the same time it seems to
favor the comfortable, rather lazy state that is appropriate for
digestion. The middle division (often called the "sympathetic", though
the name is rather misleading to a student of psychology, as it has
nothing to do with "sympathy") checks digestion, hastens the heart
beat, and stimulates the adrenal glands to rapid secretion, thus
giving {125} rise to the organic condition of anger. The lower
division has to do with the bladder, rectum and sex organs, and is
active during sex excitement, for one thing.

The lower centers in the medulla and cord that give rise to the
autonomic nerves are themselves much under the influence of the
higher, cerebral centers. Thus appetite for food, and the flow of
gastric juice, can be aroused by the sight of good food, or by hearing
or reading about food, or even by merely thinking of food; and both
anger and sex appetite can be aroused in corresponding ways.

We should notice right here the antagonism that exists between the
middle division of the autonomic and the other two. Suppose the upper
division is active, as in comfortable digestion, when an angering
stimulus supervenes; then, as we have seen, digestion halts, the upper
autonomic is shunted out of action by the middle division. In the same
way, sex appetite is shunted out by anger.

The Emotional State as a Preparatory Reaction

An emotion is often spoken of as a disturbance of the normal quiet
state, and as if it represented a breakdown of the organism's
machinery. Anger or fear is often a nuisance in civilized life, and
any strong emotion is apt to disturb mental work or skilled manual
work. But if we think ourselves back into a primitive condition of
life, when anger means a fight, we see that the organic response in
anger makes a first-class preparation for the fight. Rapid
circulation, abundant muscular fuel, protection from fatigue--these
are all positively useful; and the halting of digestion is useful also
in relieving the circulation from taking care of an activity that can
afford to wait.

What we have been calling the "organic state in anger" occurs also in
_fear_ of the strong type (as distinguished from {126} fear
paralysis), and in certain other states that are not exactly either
fear or anger, such as the state of a football player before the game,
or the state of a student about to take an examination. It is the
state of _excitement_ or of being