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An Analysis of Volitional Life

Abstract

ONE of the great difficulties of pure introspective psychology has always been the function of the will. The processes of motivation in the human being are complex and elusive if only consciousness is to be considered. Indeed, the exponents of dynamic psychology have suggested that this is due to the strength of the unconscious, and have propounded the well-known analogy of conscious volition being regarded as comparable to a baby on an elephant, the baby (consciousness) believing that it controls the behaviour, but the elephant (unconscious) in reality going where it wishes.

An Analysis of Volitional Life

By C. Lambek. Translated from the Danish by Agnete Kortsen. Pp. 104. (Copenhagen: Einar Munksgaard; London: Williams and Norgate, Ltd., 1947.) 8 Danish Cr.

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ALLEN, C. An Analysis of Volitional Life. Nature 161, 789–790 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161789d0

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