In this contribution, I examine several key publications on the physiology of emotions from the 1860s to the 1930s. I focus on physiologists who studied the emotions prior to and following William James’s 1884 Mind article, by critically reflecting on the conceptual and practical origins and constituents of the Cannon–Bard thalamic theory of emotions. I offer a historical corrective to several major assumptions in our histories of the scientific study of emotions.
AngellJ. R. (1916). A reconsideration of James’s theory of emotion in the light of recent criticisms. Psychological Review, 23, 251–261.
2.
BardP. (1928). A diencephalic mechanism for the expression of rage with special reference to the sympathetic nervous system. American Journal of Physiology, 84, 490–515.
3.
BardP. (1934a). On emotional expression after decortication with some remarks on certain theoretical views: Part I. Psychological Review, 41, 309–329.
4.
BardP. (1934b). On emotional expression after decortication with some remarks on certain theoretical views: Part II. Psychological Review, 41, 424–449.
5.
BardP. (1973). The ontogenesis of one physiologist. Annual Review of Physiology, 35, 1–16.
6.
BardP., & to CannonW. B. (1936, June15). Folder 1526, box 110. Walter Bradford Cannon Papers (H MS c40). Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, MA.
7.
BazettH. C.PenfieldW. G. (1922). A study of the Sherrington decerebrate animal in the chronic as well as the acute condition. Brain, 45, 185–265.
8.
BeattieJ. (1932). Hypothalamic mechanisms. The Canadian Medical Association Journal, 26, 400–405.
9.
Beebe-CenterJ. G.StevensS. S. (1938). The emotional responses: Changes of heart-rate in a gun-shy dog. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 23, 239–257.
10.
BenderM. B. (1938). Fright and drug contractions in denervated facial and ocular muscles of monkeys. American Journal of Physiology, 121, 609–619.
11.
BernardC. (1866). Sur la physiologie du coeur et ses rapports avec le cerveau [On the physiology of the heart and its rapport with the brain]. In BernardC. (Ed.), Leçons sur les propriétés des tissus vivants (pp. 421–471). Paris, France: Germer Baillière.
12.
CannonB. (1975). Walter B. Cannon: Personal reminiscences. In BrooksC. McC.KoizumiK.PinkstonJ. O. (Eds.), The life and contributions of Walter Bradford Cannon 1871–1945: His influence on the development of physiology in the twentieth century (pp. 151–169). New York: State University of New York.
13.
CannonW. B. (1914). The interrelations of emotions as suggested by recent physiological researches. The American Journal of Psychology, 25, 256–282.
14.
CannonW. B. (1915). Bodily changes in pain, hunger, fear and rage. New York, NY: D. Appleton.
15.
CannonW. B. (1916). Some disorders supposed to have an emotional origin. New York Medical Journal, 104, 870–873.
16.
CannonW. B. (1927). The James–Lange theory of emotions: A critical examination and an alternative theory. The American Journal of Psychology, 39, 106–124.
17.
CannonW. B. (1928a). The mechanism of emotional disturbance of bodily functions. The New England Journal of Medicine, 198, 877–884.
18.
CannonW. B. (1928b). Neural organization for emotional expression. In ReymertM. L. (Ed.), Feelings and emotions: The Wittenberg symposium (pp. 257–269). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.
19.
CannonW. B. (1931). Again the James–Lange and the thalamic theories of emotion. Psychological Review, 28, 281–295.
20.
CannonW. B. to FormigueraR. C. (1925, January19). Folder 579, box 45. Walter Bradford Cannon Papers (H MS c40). Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, MA.
21.
CannonW. B. to KempfE. J. (1936, February25). Folder 1757, box 125. Walter Bradford Cannon Papers (H MS c40). Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, MA.
22.
CannonW. B to KlingC. (1942, April8). Folder 1761, box 125. Walter Bradford Cannon Papers (H MS c40). Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, MA.
23.
CannonW. B. to RansonS. W. (1934, November13). Folder 1783, box 127. Walter Bradford Cannon Papers (H MS c40). Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, MA.
24.
CannonW. B.BrittonS. W. (1925). Studies on the conditions of activity in endocrine glands, XV: Pseudaffective medulliadrenal secretion. American Journal of Physiology, 72, 283–294.
25.
CannonW. B.MendenhallW. L. (1914). Factors affecting the coagulation time of blood, IV: The hastening of coagulation in pain and emotional excitement. American Journal of Physiology, 34, 251–261.
26.
CushingH. (1931). VI. Concerning a possible “parasympathetic center” in the diencephalon. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 17, 253–264.
DarwinC. (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. New York, NY: Appleton.
29.
De BarenneJ. G. D. (1919). Recherches expérimentales sur les functions du systeme nerveux central, faites en particulier sur deux chats, dont le néopallium a été enlevé [Experimental researches on the functions of the central nervous system made in particular on two cats whose neo-cortex had been removed]. Haarlem, The Netherlands: Joh. Enschedé en Zonen.
30.
De BoulogneG. B. D. (1862). Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine ou analyse électro-physiologique de l’expression des passions applicable à la pratique des arts plastiques [Mechanism of human physiognomy or electro-physiological analysis of the expressions of the passions as applied to the practice of the plastic arts]. Paris, France: Jules Renouard.
31.
De CyonM. E. (1873). Le coeur et le cerveau [The heart and the brain]. Revue Scientifique de La France et de L’étranger, 21, 481–489.
32.
DrorO. E. (1999a). The affect of experiment: The turn to emotions in Anglo-American physiology, 1900–1940. Isis, 90, 205–237.
33.
DrorO. E. (1999b). The scientific image of emotion: Experience and technologies of inscription. Configurations, 7, 355–401.
34.
DrorO. E. (2001). Techniques of the brain and the paradox of emotions, 1880–1930. Science in Context, 14, 643–660.
35.
DrorO. E. (2009). A reflection on feelings and the history of science. Isis, 100, 848–851.
36.
DrorO. E. (2010). Seeing the blush: Feeling emotions. In DastonL.LunbeckE. (Eds.), Histories of scientific observation (pp. 326–348). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
37.
DrorO. E. (2014). Blush, flush, adrenalin: Science, modernity and paradigms of emotions, 1850–1930. Manuscript submitted for publication.
38.
DurantJ. R. (1981). The beast in man: An historical perspective on the biology of human aggression. In BrainP. F.BentonD. (Eds.), The biology of aggression (pp. 17–46). Leiden, The Netherlands: Alphen aan den Rijn.
39.
EliasN.DunningE. (1986). Quest for excitement: Sport and leisure in the civilizing process. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
40.
EllsworthP. C. (1994). William James and emotion: Is a century of fame worth a century of misunderstanding?Psychological Review, 101, 222–229.
41.
FehrF. S.SternJ. A. (1970). Peripheral physiological variables and emotion: The James–Lange theory revisited. Psychological Bulletin, 74, 411–424.
42.
Find rage and fear are fat consumers. (1931, April11). New York Times, p. 1.
43.
FriedmanB. H. (2010). Feelings and the body: The Jamesian perspective on autonomic specificity of emotion. Biological Psychology, 84, 383–393.
44.
FultonJ. F. (1932). New horizons in physiology and medicine: The hypothalamus and visceral mechanisms. New England Journal of Medicine, 207, 60–68.
45.
GagnierR. (2000). The insatiability of human wants: Economics and aesthetics in market society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
46.
GeisonG. L. (1978). Michael Foster and the Cambridge School of Physiology: The scientific enterprise in late Victorian society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
47.
GellhornE.CortellR.FeldmanJ. (1941). The effect of emotion, sham rage and hypothalamic stimulation on the vago-insulin system. American Journal of Physiology, 133, 532–541.
48.
GoltzF. (1892). Der Hund ohne Grosshirn [The dog without telencephalon]. Pfluger’s Archive, 51, 570–614.
49.
HeuerJ. G.AndrusW. D. (1934). The effect of adrenal cortical extract in controlling shock following the injection of aqueous extracts of closed intestinal loops. Annals of Surgery, 100, 734–749.
50.
HighamJ. (1965). The reorientation of American culture in the 1890s. In WeissJ. (Ed.), The origins of modern consciousness (pp. 25–48). Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.
51.
HillmanJ. (1992). Emotion: A comprehensive phenomenology of theories and their meanings for therapy. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. (Original work published 1960)
52.
HowardD. T. (1928). A functional theory of the emotions. In ReymertM. L. (Ed.), Feelings and emotions: The Wittenberg symposium (pp. 140–149). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.
53.
Jackson LearsT. J. (1994). No place of grace: Antimodernism and the transformation of American culture, 1880–1920. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
54.
JamesW. (1884). What is an emotion?Mind, 9, 188–205.
55.
JamesW. (1907). The energies of man. Science, 25, 321–332.
56.
JamesW. (1910, August). The moral equivalent of war. McClure’s Magazine, pp. 463–468.
57.
KiesowF. (1961). Autobiography. In MurchisonC. (Ed.), A history of psychology in autobiography (pp. 163–190). New York, NY: Russell & Russell.
58.
KlingC. (1933). The role of the parasympathetics in emotions. Psychological Review, 40, 368–380.
59.
LangP. J. (1994). The varieties of emotional experience: A meditation on James–Lange theory. Psychological Review, 101, 211–221.
60.
LangeC. G. (1885). The emotions: A psychophysiological study. In DunlapK. (Ed.), The emotions (pp. 33–90). Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins.
61.
LehmannA. (1892). Die Hauptgesetze des menschlichen Gefühlslebens [The major laws of human emotions]. Leipzig, Germany: O. R. Reisland.
62.
MacLeanP. D. (1949). Psychosomatic disease and the “visceral brain”: Recent developments bearing on the Papez theory of emotion. Psychosomatic Medicine, 11, 338–353.
63.
MossoA. (1879). Die Diagnostik des Pulses in Bezug auf die lokalen Veränderungen desselben [The diagnostics of the pulse with respect to its local alterations]. Leipzig, Germany: Verlag von Veit.
64.
MossoA. (1881). Kreislauf des Blutes im Menschlichen Gehirn [The circulation of blood in the human brain]. Leipzig, Germany: Verlag von Veit.
65.
MossoA. (1884). La paura [Fear]. Milano, Italy: Fratelli Treves.
66.
PapezJ. W. (1937). A proposed mechanism of emotion. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 38, 725–742.
67.
PaulyP. J. (1994). Modernist practice in American biology. In RossD. (Ed.), Modernist impulses in the human sciences, 1870–1930 (pp. 272–289). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
68.
ProbramK. H.MelgesF. T. (1969). Psychophysiological basis of emotion. In VinkenP. J.BrunyanG. W. (Eds.), Handbook of clinical neurology (pp. 316–342). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: North-Holland Press.
69.
RansonS. W. (1937). Some functions of the hypothalamus. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 13, 241–271.
70.
RansonS. W. to CannonW. B. (1934, Nov. 5). Folder 1783, box 127. Walter Bradford Cannon Papers (H MS c40). Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, MA.
71.
SherringtonC. S. (1900). Experiments on the value of vascular and visceral factors for the genesis of emotion. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 66, 390–403.
72.
SherringtonC. S. (1906). The integrative action of the nervous system. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
73.
StearnsP. N. (1994). American cool: Constructing a twentieth-century emotional style. New York, NY: New York University Press.
74.
VeyseyL. R. (1965). The emergence of the American university. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
75.
WintonW. M. (1990). Jamesian aspects of misattribution research. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 652–664.
76.
WoodworthR. S.SherringtonC. S. (1904). A pseudaffective reflex and its spinal path. Journal of Physiology, 31, 234–243.
