The Emotions and their Characteristics in Polish Life and Literature

The aim of this thesis is threefold: (1) to acquaint the American reader with the psychology of the Pole which is hardly known to the psychological world, (2) to point out the close relationship of psychology-in its broadest sense-to literature which reveals much better the inmost recesses of the human soul than the most complicated tests in a laboratory, (3) to emphasize the importance of emotions as primary movers in human activity that drive mankind to loftiest heights of noble achievement as well no push it to the dismal abyss of destruction; to reveal the innermost throbs of human heart, which is laid bare in the Polish literature.This paper will be primarily the study of the heart - the Polish heart - with all its sensitiveness, its love and hatred, and its joy and pain. What an unscientific subject one may say» for the heart and soul of man have been banished from the field of modern psychology, and all their nobler impulses replaced by animal instincts and sex drives of Freudian dogmatism. But as one looks deeper into human life one will find perhaps that the greatest science is to understand our fellow-man and if this can be achieved with the help of the intuitive insight of the artist and poet, why not avail oneself of that help? Besides, even such a full-fledged psychologist as Frederic Lyman Wells says in his "Mental Adjustments" that in order to be a good psychologist it is not enough to work in a laboratory and read scientific beaks, but one must have intuition, for psychology is not merely a science but also an art.