DRIVES AND THE C.N.S. (CONCEPTUAL NERVOUS SYSTEM)[1]
D. O. Hebb (1955)
First published inPsychological Review,62, 243-254.
The problem of motivation of course lies close to the heart of the general problem of understanding behavior, yet it sometimes seems the least realistically treated topic in the literature. In great part, the difficulty concerns that c.n.s., or "conceptual nervous system," which Skinner disavowed and from whose influence he and others have tried to escape. But the conceptual nervous system of 1930 was evidently like the gin that was being drunk about the same time; it was homemade and none too good, as Skinner pointed out, but it was also habit-forming; and the effort to escape has not really been successful. Prohibition is long past. If wemustdrink we can now get better liquor; likewise, the conceptual nervous system of 1930 is out of date and -- if we must neurologize -- let us use the best brand of neurology we can find.