Abstract
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AMUSEMENTS.—In the Nineteenth Century (July 1926) M. Willson Disher discusses the ‘Psychology of the Show.’ He points out the antiquity of the show or circus, a form of entertainment referred to in Homer, and its almost universal appeal. He finds that the various incidents resolve themselves into means whereby the visitor can experience novel sensations, or normal sensations in an intenser form, and so obtain a heightened thrill. Normal behaviour is overturned, people delight in seeing men, beasts, and things put to any but their ordinary uses, and they prefer to be deceived. The means employed vary with the advance of knowledge, but the experiences aimed at remain the same. The power moving the roundabout may change, but the general appearance has changed but little. Men on holiday bent prefer to be able to return to the attitude of childhood, and this can best be secured by similarity of outward appearance. Hence attempts to ‘show up’ the tricks of the show have but little effect on the show. People are seeking, not an appeal to their reason, but an appeal to their primary emotions, and are not grateful to those who would deprive the stimulus of its power. Perhaps Prof. Karl Groos' famous theory of play may be suitably recalled in this connexion. After his theory of the play of children and animals, which suggests that, biologically, in play, instincts are exercised for later use, he urges that in adult play we seek (i.) ‘completion of life,’ i.e. to experience sensations and emotions which normally in our work receive little or no gratification; (ii.) freedom from the constraint of ‘must.’ Fear in a limited degree, which we invoke by our own will, is very different from the fear which we experience in defiance of our will. This the show can do for us: we need not go, we can depart when we like. There is, therefore, for a short space of time, granted to us the power to feel masters of ourselves.
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Research Items. Nature 118, 243–245 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118243a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118243a0