Illusions: A Psychological Study

Name: Illusions: A Psychological Study
Author: James Sully

By James Sully

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Psychiatry/Psychology

About This Book

The author surveys sensory and mental errors, defining and classifying illusions across perception, introspection, memory, dreams, insight, and quasi-presentative errors. He analyzes physiological and psychological mechanisms—sensory limits, misinterpretation, preperception, expectation, and environmental conditions—distinguishing passive (organism/environment) and active (voluntary/involuntary) causes and their continuum with hallucination. Dreaming, hypnotic states, and variations of memory receive structural explanations linking neural activity, associative processes, and emotion to distorted recall, time perspective, and imaginative transformation. Throughout, scientific description and examples are used to explain how normal processes can produce systematic cognitive and perceptual errors.

About the Author

James Sully

James Sully was a British philosopher and psychologist, known for his contributions to the understanding of childhood development and the nature of laughter. His notable works include "An Essay on Laughter: Its Forms, Its Causes, Its Development and Its Value," where he explores the psychological aspects of humor. Sully's writings often reflect his interest in the psychological processes underlying human experiences, particularly in children, as seen in his book "Studies of Childhood." His insights have influenced both educational theory and psychological thought, making him a significant figure in the study of developmental psychology.