STUDYING MENTAL STATES OF OTHERS THROUGH EXPRESSION.--Although I can
meet only my own mind face to face, I am, nevertheless, under the
necessity of judging your mental states and knowing what is taking place
in your consciousness. For in order to work successfully with you, in
order to teach you, understand you, control you or obey you, be your
friend or enemy, or associate with you in any other way, I must _know_
you. But the real you that I must know is hidden behind the physical
mask that we call the body. I must, therefore, be able to understand
your states of consciousness as they are reflected in your bodily
expressions. Your face, form, gesture, speech, the tone of voice,
laughter and tears, the poise of attention, the droop of grief, the
tenseness of anger and start of fear,--all these tell the story of the
mental state that lies behind the senses. These various expressions are
the pictures on the screen by which your mind reveals itself to others;
they are the language by which the inner self speaks to the world
without.
