This writing is comparative study of the philosophy of William James and Imam Ali (a.s).
William James, born in New York in1842 (died in1910), was a Philosopher and psychologist responsible for the advancement of America in every sphere. He is considered as the father of American philosophy. He has put the foundation of the field called 'experimental psychology' and is the founder of the philosophy of radical pragmatism. His Book 'the principles of psychology' is still popular as the text book on psychology.
During my study of William James I have found the parallel of his philosophy and psychology in the teachings of Imam Ali (a.s).
Veena is a graduate student in the Experimental Psychology program. She is interested in language, memory, and the underlying brain mechanisms. She is currently doing research on reference processing in reading using self paced reading and event-related potential (ERP) methodologies.
Experimental psychology:
William James, the father of experimental psychology, propounded that the physical actions and gestures can change the emotional state of a person. It means if you want to become angry just clench your fist and grind your teeth, in a few minutes you will feel that the emotion of anger has taken you in it's grip. And similarly, laughing (for no reason) promotes the emotion of happiness and calm to encompass your personality. Well, this is the reason for the success of the laughter therapy. If you make it a habit to act like an angry person, in the long run the emotion of anger takes you in it’s permanent grip and you end up as a short tempered person. Similarly, if you act or follow the gesture of a calm and enduring person, in the long run you end up as a calm and enduring person. In conclusion, our emotions are in our control, and we can bring out whatever emotion we like just by making the gestures related to the emotion we wish. In our brain (which is a computer) the emotions and their respective gestures exist as programs. When you make a particular gesture, say clenching fists, the brain detects these gestures through the change in blood pressure and muscle movements, and finds out the emotion related to it, in this case anger, and then the program of anger starts running. Similarly we can manipulate other emotions .This means that you can be happy whenever you wish and you can be angry whenever you wish. Means, if you act like a short tempered person you become one and to the contrary if you act like a forbearing person you become one, this is what Imam Ali (a.s) means when he says,
“If you cannot forbear, act to do so because it is seldom that a man likens himself to a group and does not become one of them.”
