Abstract

The Journal of General Psychology, 1949, 41, 67-78. A. N. WHITEHEAD’S THEORY OF FEELING’” Department of Psychology, Bates College JOHN K. MCCREARY In his discussion of “Needs, Emotions and Affections,” H. A. Murray ( 11, p. 89) remarks: “All experimenters know that emotion is a topic about which there is no agreement at the present day.” We may take seri- ously Murray’s dedication of his work to five distinguished thinkers, among them Alfred N. Whitehead, “whose philosophy of organism supplied the necessary underlying generalities.” It is really astonishing how much relevant material one finds in the philosophers; while it is of a semi- or quasi-psy- chological sort, its superior critical nature aids materially in solving prob- lems of psychological theory. We find this to be true of Whitehead’s “Theory of Prehensions,” or his doctrine of feeling. It may be, as the late Miss L. Susan Stebbing once remarked, that Whitehead’s teaching is either too profound to be judged by our generation or essentially unclear yet illuminated by flashes of penetrating insight. Appreciating the dilemma, we in any case profit from his work. And we shall do well to be generously empirical in seeking to translate Whiteheadean terms into contemporary