Normal Emotional Reactions
Some emotions, that seem exaggerated at first thought, may be normal
under the circumstances. For no one can know the whole background for
emotional response in the life of another. After being long shut up in a
darkened room, with bandaged eyes and aching head and sick body, the
first visit to the bit of woods back of the house--when all the pains
have gone--may bring almost delirious joy. The green of the foliage, the
freedom--all go to the head like new wine. The abandon of joy is a
normal response under the circumstances, now. It would hardly be normal
to one whose habit it is to visit this same bit of woods every day, to
one who loved it, but for whom it had lost the force of newness.
To the child, who has never in all his little life had a wish not
gratified, the denial of a desired stick of candy is as great a calamity
as is the loss of a fortune to the grown man. And the child reacts to
feeling equally intense. These are normal reactions to stimuli--normal,
under the circumstances.
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