Impression
Historical document, translated for reference. It reflects medical knowledge of the 1920s–30s and is not medical advice.
Summary
This article defines 'impression' as the traces left on the human nervous-psychic apparatus by any irritation, particularly when the irritation has an emotional quality and leaves a vivid mark. It discusses the property of impressiveness, which is the nervous-psychic apparatus's reaction to external stimuli colored by vivid emotional tones, often sharply expressed in patients with functional nervous system instability.
Encyclopedia entry (1928–1936)
Impression, the traces left on the human nervous-psychic apparatus by any irritation. In ordinary usage, one speaks of an impression when the given irritation had an emotional shade and when the trace it left was of a sufficiently vivid character. In the psychological meaning of this word, impression is very close to the concept of perception and can be formulated as the trace from a sufficiently vivid perception. Impressiveness, the property of the nervous-psychic apparatus to react to external irritations colored subjectively in vivid emotional tones. Impressiveness is especially sharply expressed in patients with functional disturbances of the stability of the nervous system (psychoneuroses).
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“Impression.” Soviet Medical Encyclopedia. English translation of Bolshaya Meditsinskaya Entsiklopediya, 1st ed. (Moscow, 1928–1936), ed. N. A. Semashko. https://sovietmedicalencyclopedia.pages.dev/article/impression/