“In Mowrer’s experiments, his human subjects reported that their experience of dread would rise to a maximum and then, with the actual occurrence of sharp pain, abruptly subside, producing a kind of pleasure or satisfaction. This appeared to be the case with a bevy of animals as well, all of whom could be observed to relax at the point the shock was delivered: ‘The electric shock seems both in the pig and the sheep to come as a relief, and is followed by a period of comparative relaxation before anticipatory behavior towards the next shock begins,’ Mowrer wrote. Barnyard animals and ‘higher’ animals alike experienced this cyclical phenomenon marked by ascending levels of nervousness. The spiral would continue to mount when properly managed: ‘the excitatory value of each successively higher order of conditioned stimulus can be kept great enough’—specifically within a context of dread, excitation, terror, or anticipation—‘to be used to establish still higher orders of conditioning.’ This spiraling effect, Mowrer suggested, could reach ‘any desired level.’ At higher levels, the subject became more and more sensitive to pain; his torment became exquisite. However, should this cycling continue without diminishment, then one would observe, at last, ‘the ultimate demoralization of behavior’: a nervous breakdown.” Rebecca Lemov, Harvard University: [fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/bios/lemov.html] World as Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men, by Rebecca Lemov: [books.google/books/about/World_as_Laboratory.html?id=_R2KRGTW4WwC]
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 02:15:39 +0000
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