HEART RATE IN RELATION TO EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCES

Abstract

We present in this paper certain of our observations on the heart rate under conditions designed to elicit reactions. No explanation need be offered for investigating the emotions of psychotic patients. Emotional reactions, affective states and other terms of similar connotation constitute a large part of the current psychiatric patter. In reading the psychiatric literature, one almost is led to think that a detailed knowledge of conflicts would, in itself, be a knowledge of the causes of the psychoses. Some of our observations, however, appear to minimize rather than to emphasize the emotional significance of certain reactions. We shall first present the observations descriptively and then discuss briefly their possible significance. The records represent the results of about two hundred and eighty hours of observation of forty-eight subjects, twenty-nine of whom were psychotic patients. LITERATURE A relationship between the heart and the emotions has long been known, but,