Abstract
As part of a long-term investigation of the symbolic interpretation of central nervous system activity, the authors have been concerned with the functioning and the characteristics of language during states of ergotropic1 arousal.
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References
Ergotropic arousal, a concept of Hess, denotes “behavior patterns which are preparatoiy for positive action characterized by increased sympathetic activity and an activated psychic state”; see for example: Beckman, H.: Pharmacology, second edition, London: W.B. Saunders, 1961, p.262
R.H. Ward, “ A Drug Taker’s Notes”, London: Victor Gollancz,Ltd. 1957, p.10
Op. cit., p.10
R. Fischer, “The Biological Fabric of Time”, in: Interdisciplinary Perspectives of Time, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 138:440–488 and especially 891, (1967)
I Sit and Look Out: Editorials from the Brooklyn Daily Times, edited by Emory Holloway and Vernolian Schwartz, New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1932. Passages for analysis were selected to represent a variety of topics and included portions of the pieces beginning on the pages noted: “Local Politics -No Allegiance to Party” (p.36); “Reformers” (p.44); “Teachers—Shall Not they Too Be Taught” (p.54); “A German Holliday”(p.60); “Shakespeare’s Women Characters” (p.66); “The Revival Movement” (p.77); “Prospects of the Slavery Question” (p.88); “More Gold” (p.99); “The Prize Fight” (p.106); “Health Among Females”(p.II6); “The Gas Question” (p.126); “The Weather” (p.168); representing a total of 3,051 words.
The Wound Dresser: Letters written to his mother from the hospitals in Washington during the Civil War, edited by R.M.Bucke, M.D., New York: The Bodley Press, 1949. Passages were selected to represent a variety of intended audiences and include parts of the essays: “The Great Army of the Wounded” (pp.2–7); “Hospital Visits” (pp.41–45); and parts of the letters to his: sister (p.51); mother (p.55); brother (p.57); representing a total of 4,378 words.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, New York.1855. All specific references are to the Viking Compass Edition, edited by Malcolm Cowley, New York: The Viking Press, 1959.
Bucke, Richard M.,“Walt Whitman”. Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883. For Whitman’s own remarks, see p.136; for the remarks of a close acquaintance, Miss Helen Price, see pp.30–31; for Mr. Bucke’s views, see pp.21–25.
Maslow, Abraham H., “Lessons from Peak Experiences”, Journal of Humanistic Psychology,2:9–18,1962.
The passages are sections 1–5 (pp.25–29), sections 10–14 (pp.32–36), and sections 21–25 (pp.44–5l) of “Song of Myself” in: Leaves of Grass; representing a total of 3,821 words.
James, William, “The Varieties of Religious Experience” New York: The Modern Library, Random House, 1929, especially pp.83–86.
Op. cit., note 8.
Bucke, Richard M., “Cosmic Consciousness”, Philadelphia: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1926, especially pp.215–237.
Briefly, on several separate occasions, the volunteers copied a standard 28-word passage four times onto four separate sheets of paper with an ordinary ball-point pen. For each occasion, the SDHA was calculated. For details see: Fischer Roland, Thomas Kappeler, Philip Wisecup and Karen Thatcher, “Measurement of Handwriting Area to Pressure Ratios During Psilocybin-Induced Hallucinations”, Agents and Actions, Vol. 1/1:42–52,1969; and especially the chapter by R. Fischer entitled “Prediction and Measurement of Perceptual-Behavioral Change in Drug-Induced Hallucinations”, in this volume.
Meyers, I.B. In: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Princeton: Educat.Testing Service, 1962; see also: R. Fischer, K.Thatcher, T. Kappeler and P. Wisecup, “Unity and Covariance of Perception and Behavior Perceptual Variability: A Predictor of Psychotomimetic Drug-Induced Behavior”, in press in Drug Research, 1969; and the chapter by R. Fischer in this volume.
Control passages contain a total of 1,886 words for F.R.; 1,322 words for W.L.
Test passages contain a total of 823 words for F.R., 973 words for W.L.
Extracted from: W.L., Test Passage 1, paragraphs 2 and 3.
Extracted from W.L., Review Article: “Tragedy and the Theory of Drama”, sentences 2 through 6.
Extracted from: W.L., Test Passage 1, paragraph 3.
Extracted from: W.L., “Review Article...,”, sentence 5.
For the rationale behind this type of syntactic analysis see: Chomsky, Noam, “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax”, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1965.
It is frequently the case that sentence complexity increases directly with sentence length. But since one may also find long sentences that are relatively simple and short sentences that are relatively complex, it is useful to maintain two major indices of sentence structure.
Extracted from: W.L., Test Passage 1, paragraph 3.
Extracted from: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass , “Song of Myself”, section 2, lines 13–21.
Extracted from: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, “Song of Myself”, Section 15, lines 257–262 and lines 324 and 325. This section is 68 lines in length. All of them, except the last two are like the first six quoted: they name an activity of some man, bird or beast. The final two lines of the section (quoted in final position above), suggest the topic of the section: Whitman’s oceanic union with the life of the universe. Notice that had the final two lines not been present, one might suppose that the topic of the passage was: things Whitman has seen. Just this sort of hypothesis was made in the case of the first quoted associationally organized passage.
This display is modeled on the one utilized by Kellogg W. Hunt in “Sentence Structures Used by Superior Students in Grades Four and Twelve, and by Superior Adults”. Cooperative Research Project No.5–0313, Florida State Univ.,Tallahassee, Fla.,p.18
The data for all columns except Browning: “Sordello” are taken from: Kellogg W. Hunt, “Sentence Structures Used by Superior Students in Grades Four and Twelve, and by Superior Adults”, Cooperative Research Project No.5–0313, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, Fla. p. 18 (Data for “Skilled Adults” are derived from analyses of articles published in Harpers and Atlantic Monthly as reported by Hunt).
The data for Browning: “Sordello” are taken from: Robert G. Lint, “Syntax in Browning’s ‘Sordello’,” unpublished dissertation, Ohio Univ. 1967, p.88.
Criticism of the syntactic style of “Sordello” is reviewed by Robert G. Lint, op. cit., note 29.
Ward, R.H., “A Drug-Taker’s Notes”, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1957, pp.204–207.
Fischer R., “Prediction and Measurement of Perceptual-Behavioral Change in Drug-Induced Hallucinations”, in this volume.
Fischer R., “The Biological Fabric of Time”, in: Interdisciplinary Perspectives of Time, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 138:440–488 and especially 891,(1967).
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Landon, G.M., Fischer, R. (1970). On Common Features of the Language of Creative Performance and Hallucinogenic-Drug-Induced Creative Experience. In: Keup, W. (eds) Origin and Mechanisms of Hallucinations. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-8645-6_34
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