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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #69930 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69930)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The unconscious, by Morton Prince
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: The unconscious
- The fundamentals of human personality, normal and abnormal
-
-Author: Morton Prince
-
-Release Date: February 2, 2023 [eBook #69930]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Turgut Dincer, KD Weeks and the Online Distributed
- Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
- produced from images generously made available by The
- Internet Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UNCONSCIOUS ***
-
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Transcriber’s Note:
-
-This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
-Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_.
-
-Footnotes have been moved to follow the Lecture in which they are
-referenced.
-
-Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please
-see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding
-the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.
-
-
-
-
- THE UNCONSCIOUS
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
- THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
- NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
- DALLAS · ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO
-
- MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
- LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
- MELBOURNE
-
- THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
- TORONTO
-
-
-
-
- THE UNCONSCIOUS
-
-
- THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN
- PERSONALITY NORMAL AND
- ABNORMAL
-
-
-
-
- BY
-
- MORTON PRINCE, M.D., LL.D.
-
- PROFESSOR (EMERITUS) OF DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM,
- TUFTS COLLEGE MEDICAL SCHOOL; CONSULTING PHYSICIAN
- TO THE BOSTON CITY HOSPITAL
-
-
-
-
- SECOND EDITION
- REVISED
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- =New York=
- THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
- 1921
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- COPYRIGHT, 1914 and 1921
- BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
-
- -------
-
- Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1914.
- New Edition, June, 1921.
-
-
-
-
- PREFACE
-
-
-This work is designed to be an introduction to abnormal psychology. The
-problems considered, however, belong equally to normal psychology in
-that they are problems of psycho-physiological functions and mechanisms.
-I have made no attempt to develop any particular school of psychological
-theory but rather, so far as may be, to gather together the knowledge
-already gained and lay a foundation which can be built upon by any
-school for the solution of particular problems, especially those of
-special pathology. I have therefore endeavored to avoid controversial
-questions although this, of course, has not been wholly possible, and
-indeed so far as special pathological conditions (the psychoses) have
-been considered, it has been for the purpose of providing data and
-testing the principles adduced. The inductive method, alone, I believe,
-as in the physical sciences, can enable us to arrive at sound
-conclusions—justify the formulation of theories to explain psychological
-phenomena. Because of the very difficulties of this field of
-research—one of which is that of submitting to experimental conditions
-complex psychological phenomena having so many factors—it is all the
-more incumbent that the inductive method should be employed. To my way
-of thinking we should begin at the bottom and build up bit by bit,
-drawing, as we go, no wider conclusions than the facts developed
-warrant; or if we do, these should be recognized clearly as working
-hypotheses or speculative theories. Skyscrapers should not be erected
-until the foundations have been examined to see if they will bear the
-superstructure. That I have wholly succeeded in so rigorously
-restricting my own endeavors I can scarcely hope. I trust, however, that
-I have succeeded in consistently maintaining the distinction between
-facts and their interpretations.
-
-The present volume consists of selected lectures (with the exception of
-four) from courses on abnormal psychology delivered at the Tufts College
-Medical School (1908-10) and later at the University of California
-(1910).[1] These again were based on a series of papers on the
-Unconscious published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology (1908-9) of
-which they are elaborations. Since the lectures were delivered a large
-amount of new material has been incorporated and the subject matter
-considered in more detail and more exhaustively than was practical
-before student bodies. The four additional lectures (X, XI, XII and
-XIII) appeared in abbreviated form in the same Journal (Oct., Nov.,
-1912) under the title “The Meaning of Ideas as Determined by Unconscious
-Settings.” The lecture form has been retained, offering as it does many
-advantages where, in the exposition of a difficult subject, much that is
-elemental needs to be stated.
-
-As the subconscious and its processes are fundamentals both in the
-structure of personality and in the many mechanisms through which
-personality, normal and abnormal, finds expression, the first eight
-lectures are devoted to its exposition. Indeed, as has been said, the
-subconscious is not only the most important problem of psychology, it is
-_the_ problem. The study of its phenomena must be preliminary to that of
-the functioning mechanisms of both the normal mind and of those special
-pathological conditions—the psycho-neuroses—which modern investigators
-are tracing to its perversions.
-
-In a recently published article M. Bergson concludes with the following
-prophesy: “To explore the most sacred depths of the unconscious, to
-labor in what I have just called the subsoil of consciousness, that will
-be the principal task of psychology in the century which is opening. I
-do not doubt that wonderful discoveries await it there, as important
-perhaps as have been in the preceding centuries the discoveries of the
-physical and natural sciences. That at least is the promise which I make
-for it, that is the wish that in closing I have for it.”[2]
-
-And yet one reads and hears all sorts of contradictory statements, made
-by those who it is presumed should know, regarding the actuality of the
-subconscious. Thus one or another writer, assuming to know, states most
-positively that there is no such thing as the subconscious. Others,
-equally emphatic, postulate it as an established fact rather than a
-theory, or assume it as a philosophical concept or hypothesis to explain
-particular phenomena. One difficulty is that the term, as commonly used,
-has many meanings, and it has followed that different writers have
-assumed it with respectively different meanings. Consequently the
-subconscious as an actuality has been unwittingly denied when the intent
-has been really to deny some particular meaning or interpretation, and
-particular meanings have been subsumed which are only philosophical
-concepts.
-
-There should be no difficulty in deciding what the facts permit us to
-postulate. The subconscious is a theory based upon observed facts and
-formulated to explain those facts. There are many precise phenomena of
-different kinds which can only be explained as due to explicitly
-subconscious processes, that is, processes which do not appear in the
-content of consciousness; just as the phenomena manifested by radium can
-only be explained by emanations (or rays) which themselves are not
-visible and cannot be made the object of conscious experience. In each
-case it is the manifestations of such processes of which we become
-aware. Subconscious processes and radio-activity stand on precisely the
-same basis so far as the determination of their actuality is concerned.
-(The latter have the advantage, of course, in that being physical they
-are subject to quantitative measurement.) Such being the case it ought
-to be possible to construct the theory of the subconscious by inductive
-methods on the basis of facts of observation just as any theory of the
-physical sciences is constructed.
-
-This task I have set before myself as well as that of giving precision
-to our conception of the theory and taking it out of the domain of
-philosophical concepts. With this purpose in view I have endeavored to
-apply the method of science and construct the theory by induction from
-the data of observation and experiment. I dare say this has been a
-somewhat ambitious and some will say, perhaps, overbold undertaking.
-Undoubtedly, too, this attitude toward this and other individual
-problems has not been always consistently maintained, nor perhaps is it
-completely possible in the present state of the science.
-
-Our formulations should be as precise as possible and facts and concepts
-of a different order should not be included in one and the same formula.
-I have, accordingly, divided the subconscious into two classes, namely
-(1) the _unconscious_, or neural dispositions and processes, and (2) the
-_coconscious_, or actual subconscious ideas which do not enter the
-content of conscious awareness. An unconscious process and a coconscious
-process are both therefore _subconscious_ processes but particular types
-thereof—the one being purely neural or physical and the other
-psychological or ideational.
-
-The soundness of the conclusions reached in this work I leave to the
-judgment of my critics, of whom I doubt not I shall have many. I do not
-hesitate to say, however, that it is only by practical familiarity with
-the phenomena of mental pathology and artificially induced phenomena
-(such as those of hypnosis, suggestion, etc.), requiring a long training
-in this field of research (as in other scientific fields), that we can
-correctly estimate the value of data and the conclusions drawn
-therefrom; and even then many of our conclusions can be regarded as only
-provisional.
-
-In these lectures I have also endeavored (Lectures XIV-XVI) to develop
-the phenomena of the emotional innate dispositions which I conceive play
-one of the most fundamental parts in human personality and in
-determining mental and physiological behavior.
-
-Experimental methods and the well-known clinical methods of
-investigation have been employed by me as far as possible. The data made
-use of have been derived for the most part from my own observations,
-though confirmatory observations of others have not been neglected.
-Although a large number and variety of subjects or cases have been
-studied, as they have presented themselves in private and hospital
-practice, the data have been to a large extent sought in intensive
-studies, on particular subjects, carried on in some cases over a period
-of many years. These subjects, because of the ease with which
-subconscious and emotional phenomena were either spontaneously
-manifested or could be experimentally evoked, were particularly suitable
-for such studies and fruitful in results. It is by such intensive
-studies on special subjects, rather than by casual observation of many
-cases, that I believe the deepest insight into mental processes and
-mechanisms can be obtained.
-
-In conclusion I wish to express my great obligation to Mrs. William G.
-Bean for the great assistance she has rendered in many ways in the
-preparation of this volume. Not the least has been the transcription and
-typing of my manuscript, for the most part written in a quasi shorthand,
-reading the printer’s proofs, and much other assistance in the
-preparation of the text for the press. For this her practical and
-unusually extensive acquaintance with the phenomena has been of great
-value.
-
-I am also indebted to Mr. Lydiard Horton for kindly reading the proofs
-and for many helpful suggestions in clarifying the arrangement of the
-text—a most difficult task considering the colloquial form of the
-original lectures.
-
-Boston.
-458 Beacon Street.
-
-
-
-
- PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
-
-
-The favorable reception which was given to the first edition of this
-work has tempted me in preparing a new edition at the request of the
-publishers to incorporate four additional chapters dealing with the
-general principles underlying the structure and dynamic elements of
-human personality (Lecture XVII) and a study of a special problem in
-personality in which these principles are involved, namely, the
-psychogenesis of multiple personality as illustrated by a study of the
-case known as B. C. A.[3] (Lectures XVIII-XX.) The latter study was
-omitted (with other lectures) from the first edition in order to limit
-the number of subjects treated and the size of the volume.
-
-Although the theory of the subconscious and that of the dynamics of
-specific conscious and subconscious processes (to the fundamental
-principles of both of which these lectures were limited) owe their value
-to our being able through them to explain many mental and physiological
-abnormalities, they possess an equal value from the light they throw
-upon the structure and dynamics of that composite whole best termed
-human personality. Over and above a knowledge of the abnormal, what we
-as human beings want to know is not only what sort of physiological
-beings but what sort of conscious beings we are; and how we think and
-act, and what motives and other impulses whether hidden or in the clear
-light of awareness, regulate and determine our behavior; what are the
-forces that do it and how. We want to know the answer to a lot of
-problems of this character, all of which involve principles of innate
-and acquired dispositions.
-
-A comprehensive study of human personality would include, as far as may
-be, answers to all these problems and would require a volume in itself.
-I have, therefore, not been able more than to give an outline in Lecture
-XVII of what seem to me to be the fundamental principles involved and
-the dynamic unitary systems out of which the structure is built up.
-There are various points of view from which the structure of the mind
-may be considered, just as with the structure of a literary work of art,
-or of a complicated mechanism like an automobile. We may consider the
-structure of the latter, for instance, as an assembly of complex units
-or mechanisms—cylinders, carburetors, ignition systems, etc.,—each
-analyzed into its elements, without regard to the dynamic, integrative
-functioning of the units in the total mechanism. This would be the
-static point of view. Or we may consider these units as wholes from the
-standpoint of the forces they generate, the processes they subserve and
-the parts they play in the total functioning of the whole machine. This
-is the dynamic point of view. It is this latter which alone has a vital
-practical interest. The former is of interest only to the technician. So
-with the mind. The dynamic point of view alone is of practical
-importance and alone awakens fascinating interest of stirring intensity.
-So long as psychology held to the static viewpoint it was only of
-academic value. For submitted to the pragmatic test it made little
-difference whether it was right or wrong. Nor could it become an applied
-science. Consequently it is from the dynamic viewpoint that I have
-sketched in—and it is little more than a sketch—the application of the
-principles laid down in these lectures to the peculiarly appealing
-problem of personality. Closely related to this is multiple personality,
-for it is a special problem in personality, and one that is a
-fascinating study in itself. But aside from its own intrinsic interest,
-its practical interest, its chief value is derived from the fact that it
-is a veritable vivisection of the mind by the mind’s own vital forces,
-and as such gives us much more definite and precise data for the
-determination of normal mental mechanisms and processes than can
-introspective analysis; just as the vivisection of the body in the
-laboratory and by disease has given us our most precise knowledge of
-physiology. Consequently the phenomena acquire a greater interest and
-value from the insight they give into the normal. For there is no more
-fruitful material for the study of the mechanisms and processes of
-personality than cases of this sort where there is a disintegration of
-the normally integrated structural wholes and a reassembling of the
-component elements into new composite wholes. In the construction of
-these new personalities certain normal structures and mechanisms are
-dissected out, so to speak, of the original composite by the stress of
-the forces that cause the cleavage between systems and are then
-reassembled into new functioning wholes. There is a veritable
-vivisection of the mind. In a mind thus disassembled nearly every mental
-phenomenon, conscious and subconscious—conflicts, hallucinations,
-coconscious processes, defense reactions, etc.,—can be observed in an
-isolated form and systematically studied. They are veritable gold mines
-of psychological phenomena, as William James once expressed it to me in
-reference to one of my cases. It is strange, therefore, that such cases
-have been neglected by psychologists who would study mental mechanisms.
-It is true that for a complete understanding of multiple personality a
-study of a number of cases should be presented, particularly as many
-variations are to be observed constituting differing types. But in a
-volume of this kind this would be impracticable. I have, therefore,
-limited myself to the psychogenesis of a single case, that of B. C. A.
-This will I believe be of interest not only as illustrating the basic
-principles underlying the pathology of multiple personality, but because
-of the data it offers for the understanding of the structure and
-mechanisms of the normal self, something that curiously appeals to the
-egoistic interest of human nature.
-
- MORTON PRINCE.
-
-
-
-
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
-
- PAGE
-
- PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION v
-
- PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION xiii
-
- LECTURE
-
- I. THEORY OF MEMORY AS A PROCESS 1
-
- II. CONSERVATION OF FORGOTTEN EXPERIENCES OF NORMAL, 15
- ARTIFICIAL, AND PATHOLOGICAL LIFE
-
- III. CONSERVATION OF FORGOTTEN EXPERIENCES OF NORMAL, 49
- ARTIFICIAL, AND PATHOLOGICAL LIFE—(Continued)
-
- IV. CONSERVATION A RESIDUUM OF EXPERIENCES 87
-
- V. NEUROGRAMS 109
-
- VI. SUBCONSCIOUS PROCESSES 147
-
- VII. SUBCONSCIOUS INTELLIGENCE 188
-
- VIII. THE UNCONSCIOUS 229
-
- IX. THE ORGANIZATION OF UNCONSCIOUS COMPLEXES 265
-
- X. THE MEANING OF IDEAS AS DETERMINED BY SETTINGS 311
-
- XI. MEANING, SETTINGS, AND THE FRINGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS 338
-
- XII. SETTINGS OF IDEAS AS SUBCONSCIOUS PROCESSES IN 363
- OBSESSIONS
-
- XIII. TWO TYPES OF PHOBIA 387
-
- XIV. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF EMOTION 423
-
- XV. INSTINCTS, SENTIMENTS AND CONFLICTS 446
-
- XVI. GENERAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM EMOTIONAL CONFLICTS 488
-
- XVII. THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMIC ELEMENTS OF HUMAN PERSONALITY 529
-
- XVIII. THE PSYCHOGENESIS OF MULTIPLE PERSONALITY—THE CASE OF B. 545
- C. A.
-
- XIX. (The Same Continued)—THE B PERSONALITY 593
-
- XX. (The Same Continued)—THE A PERSONALITY 614
-
- SUMMARY AND GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 634
-
- INDEX 645
-
-
-
-
- THE UNCONSCIOUS
-
-
-
-
- THE UNCONSCIOUS:
-
- THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN PERSONALITY,
- NORMAL AND ABNORMAL
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE I
- THEORY OF MEMORY AS A PROCESS
-
-
-Gentlemen:
-
-The subject which I have chosen for our first lecture is the theory of
-the mechanism of memory. I begin with the study of this problem because
-a knowledge of the facts which underlie the theory of memory is a
-necessary introduction to an understanding of the Unconscious, and of
-the part which subconscious processes play in normal and abnormal mental
-life.[4] Speaking more specifically, without such a preliminary study I
-do not believe we can interpret correctly a very large number of the
-disturbances of mind and body which are traceable to the activity of
-subconscious processes and with which we shall later have to do.
-
-If we consider memory as a _process_, and not as specific phases of
-consciousness, we shall find that it is an essential factor in the
-mechanisms underlying a large variety of phenomena of normal and
-abnormal life. These phenomena include those of both mind and body of a
-kind not ordinarily conceived of as manifestations of memory. I would
-have you dwell in your minds for a moment on the fact that I make this
-distinction between memory as a process and memory as a phase of
-consciousness or specific mental experience. What we ordinarily and
-conventionally have in mind when we speak of memory is the conscious
-thought of some past mental experience. But when we conceive of memory
-as a process we have in mind the whole mechanism through the working of
-which this past experience is _registered_, _conserved_, and
-_reproduced_, whether such reproduction be in consciousness or below the
-surface of consciousness.
-
-Memory is usually looked upon as something that pertains solely to
-consciousness. Such a conception is defensible if the meaning of the
-term is restricted to those facts alone which come within our conscious
-experience. But when we consider the mechanism by which a particular
-empirical fact of this kind is introduced into consciousness we find
-that this conception is inadequate. We find then that we are obliged to
-regard conscious memory as only the end result of a process and, in
-order to account for this end result, to assume other stages in the
-process which are not phases of consciousness. Though the end result is
-a reproduction of the ideas which constituted the previous conscious
-experience, this reproduction is not the whole process.
-
-More than this, the conscious experience is not the only experience that
-may be reproduced by the process, nor is the end result always and
-necessarily a state of consciousness. _Conscious memory is only a
-particular type of memory._ The same process may terminate in purely
-unconscious or physiological effects, or what may be called
-physiological memory to distinguish it from conscious memory. Along with
-the revived ideas and their feeling tones there may be a revival of the
-physiological experiences, or processes, which originally accompanied
-them; such as secretion of sweat, saliva and gastric juice, the
-contraction and dilatation of the blood vessels, the inhibition or
-excitation of the heart, lungs and other viscera, the contraction of
-muscles, etc. These visceral mechanisms, being originally elements in a
-complex process and accompaniments of the idea, may be reproduced along
-with the conscious memory, and even without conscious memory. As this
-physiological complex is an acquired experience it is entitled to be
-regarded as memory so far as its reproduction is the end result of the
-same kind of process or mechanism as that which reproduces ideas.
-
-Then, again, investigations into the subconscious have shown that the
-original experience may be reproduced subconsciously without rising into
-awareness.
-
-The more comprehensive way, then, of looking at memory is to regard it
-as a process and not simply as an end result. The process, as we shall
-see, is made up of three factors—Registration, Conservation, and
-Reproduction. Of these the end result is reproduction; conservation
-being the preservation of that which was registered.
-
-This view is far more fruitful, as you will presently see, for memory
-acquires a deeper significance and will be found to play a fundamental
-and unsuspected part in the mechanism of many obscure mental processes.
-
-From this point of view, upon memory, considered _as a process_, depend
-the acquired conscious and subconscious habits of mind and body.
-
-The process involves unconscious as well as conscious factors and may be
-wholly unconscious (subconscious).
-
-Two of its factors—registration and conservation—are responsible for the
-building up of the unconscious as the storehouse of the mind and,
-therefore, primarily for all subconscious processes, other than those
-which are innate.
-
-To it may be referred the direct excitation of many subconscious
-manifestations of various kinds.
-
-Consciously or subconsciously it largely determines our prejudices, our
-superstitions, our beliefs, our points of view, our attitudes of mind.
-
-Upon it to a large degree depend what we call personality and character.
-
-It often is the unsuspected and subconscious secret of our judgments,
-our sentiments, and impulses.
-
-It is the process which most commonly induces dreams and furnishes the
-material out of which they are constructed.
-
-It is the basis of many hypnotic phenomena.
-
-In the field of pathology, memory, through its perversions, takes part
-in and helps to determine the form of a variety of disturbances such as
-obsessions, impulsions, tics, habit psychoses and neuroses, many of the
-manifestations of that great protean psychosis, hysteria, and other
-common ailments which it is the fashion of the day to term neurasthenia
-and psychasthenia. It is largely responsible for the conscious and
-subconscious conflicts which disrupt the human mind and result in
-various pathological states.
-
-Finally, upon the utilization of the processes of memory modern
-psychotherapeutics, or the educational treatment of disease, is largely
-based. For many of these reasons an understanding of the mechanism of
-memory is essential for an understanding of the subconscious. In short,
-memory furnishes a standpoint from which we can productively study the
-normal and abnormal processes of the mind—conscious and subconscious.
-
-These somewhat dogmatic general statements—which I have put before you
-much after the fashion of the lawyer who presents a general statement of
-his case in anticipation of the evidence—I hope will become clear and
-their truth evident as we proceed; likewise, their bearing upon the
-facts of abnormal psychology. To make them clear it will be necessary to
-explain in some detail the generally accepted theory of memory as a
-process and to cite the numerous data upon which it rests.
-
-There may be, as, indeed, you will find there are, wide differences of
-opinion as to the exact psychological mechanism by which a
-memory-process plays its part in the larger processes of mental life,
-normal and abnormal, such as I have just mentioned, but that the
-memory-process is a fundamental factor is revealed by whatever method
-the problems are attacked. A study, therefore, of this fundamental
-factor and a determination of its mechanism are a prerequisite for a
-study of the more complex processes in which it takes part. For this
-reason I shall begin the study of the Unconscious (subconscious), to
-which I shall ask your attention in these lectures, with a consideration
-of the processes of memory.
-
-If you ask the average person, as I have often done, how or why he
-remembers he will be puzzled and he is apt to reply, “Why, I just
-remember,” or, “I never thought of that before.” If you push him a bit
-and ask what becomes of ideas after they have passed out of mind and
-have given place to other ideas, and how an idea that has passed out of
-mind, that has gone, disappeared, can be brought back again as memory,
-he becomes further puzzled. We know that ideas that have passed out of
-mind may be voluntarily recalled, or reproduced, as memory; we may say
-that meantime they have become what may be called dormant. But surely
-something must have happened to enable these conscious experiences to be
-conserved in some way and recalled. Ideas are not material things which,
-like books, can be laid away on a shelf to be taken up again when
-wanted, and yet we can recall, or reproduce, many ideas when we want
-them just as we can go to a shelf and take down any book we want.
-
-We learn the alphabet and the multiplication table in childhood. During
-the greater part of our lives the sensory images, auditory language
-symbols, etc., which may be summarized as ideas representing these
-educational experiences, are out of our minds and do not form a
-continuous part of our conscious experiences, but they may be recalled
-at any moment as memory. In fact, try as hard as we may, we cannot
-forget our alphabet or multiplication table. Why is this?
-
-The older psychology did not bother itself much with these questions
-which puzzle the average man. It was content for the most part with a
-descriptive statement of the facts of conscious memory. It did not
-concern itself with the process by which memory is effected; nor, so
-long as psychology dealt only with phases of consciousness, was it of
-much consequence. It has been only since subconscious processes have
-loomed large in psychology and have been seen to take part on the one
-hand in the mechanism of conscious thought and on the other to produce
-various bodily phenomena, that the process of memory has acquired great
-practical importance. For it has been seen that in these subconscious
-processes previous conscious experiences are resurrected to take part as
-subconscious memory, consequently a conscious experience that has passed
-out of mind may not only recur again as conscious memory, but may recur
-subconsciously below the threshold of awareness. The study of
-subconscious processes therefore necessarily includes the processes of
-memory. And so it has become a matter of considerable moment to follow
-the fate of experiences after they have passed out of mind with a view
-to determining the mechanism by which they can be reproduced consciously
-and subconsciously. More than this it is important that the theory of
-memory should be removed if possible from the domain of purely
-speculative psychological concepts and placed on a sound basis of
-observation and experiment like other accepted theories of science.
-
-From the point of view of animism, and indeed of dualism, nothing
-becomes of the ideas that have passed out of mind; they simply, for the
-time being, cease to exist. Consciousness changes its form. Nothing is
-preserved, nothing is stored up. This is still the popular notion
-according to which a mental experience at any given moment—the content
-of my consciousness, for instance, at this moment as I speak to you—is
-only one of a series of kaleidoscopic changes or phases of my
-self-consciousness. In saying this what is meant plainly must be that
-the content of consciousness at any given moment is a phase of a
-continuing psychical something. We may, perhaps, call this my
-self-consciousness, and say that when I reproduce an experience as
-memory I simply bring back (by the power of self-determination) that
-same previous phase of the psychical something. If I cannot bring it
-back my failure may be due to a failure of the power of
-self-determination or—and here is a weak point—to a failure in the
-formative cohesion of the elementary ideas of that experience. In this
-latter alternative no note is taken of a seeming contradiction paradox.
-If nothing is preserved, if nothing continues to exist, if memory is
-only one of a series of kaleidoscopic phases of consciousness, how can
-there be any cohesion or organization within what does not exist?
-Consciousness according to this notion might be likened to the water of
-a lake in which vortices were constantly being formed, either by the
-current of inflowing springs from the bottom or the influences of
-external agencies. One vortex would give place to a succeeding vortex.
-Memory would be analogous to the reproduction of a previously occurring
-vortex.
-
-When, however, such a notion of memory is examined in the light of all
-the facts which have to be explained it will be found to be descriptive
-only of our conscious experiences. It does not explain memory; it does
-not answer the question of the ordinary man, “How can ideas which have
-ceased to exist be reproduced again as memory?” For, putting aside
-various psychological difficulties such as, How can I determine the
-reproduction of a former phase of consciousness—that is, memory—without
-first _remembering_ what I want to determine?, or, if this be answered,
-“By the association of phases (ideas),” how can there be any bond of
-association between an existing idea and one that does not exist?, and,
-therefore, how can association bring back that which has ceased to
-exist?—putting aside such questions, there are a number of
-psycho-physiological facts which this conception of memory will be found
-inadequate to meet. As a matter of fact, investigations into the
-behavior of mental processes, particularly under artificial and
-pathological conditions, have disclosed certain phenomena which can be
-adequately explained only on the supposition that ideas as they pass out
-of mind—the mental experiences of the moment—leave something behind,
-some residuum which is preserved, stored up as it were, and which plays
-a subsequent part in the process of memory. These phenomena seem to
-require what may be called a psycho-physiological theory of memory.
-Although the theory has long been one of the concepts of normal
-psychology it can be said to have been satisfactorily validated only by
-the investigations of recent years in abnormal psychology.
-
-The full significance as well as the validity of this theory can be
-properly estimated only in the light of the facts which have been
-revealed by modern technical methods of investigation. After all, it is
-the consequences of a theory which count, and this will be seen to be
-true particularly as respects memory. The pragmatic point of view of
-counting the consequences, of determining the difference that the theory
-makes in the understanding of the mental processes of normal and
-abnormal life, reveals the importance to us of validating the theory.
-The consequences of the psycho-physiological theory are so far-reaching,
-in view of its bearing upon a large number of problems in normal and
-abnormal psychology, that it is worthy of sustained and exhaustive
-examination. I will, therefore, briefly résumé the various classes of
-facts which support the theory and which any adequate theory of memory
-must satisfactorily explain. For, as will appear, besides the common
-facts of memory pertaining to everyday life, there are a large number of
-other facts which can be observed only when the mind is dissected, so to
-speak, by pathological processes, and by the production of artificial
-conditions, and when investigations are carried out by special technic.
-Irrespective of any theory of explanation, a knowledge of these facts is
-extremely important for an understanding of many phenomena in the domain
-of both normal and abnormal psychology.
-
-=The meaning of conservation.=—We all know, as an everyday experience of
-mankind, that at one time we can recall what happened to us at some
-particular moment in the past, and at another time we cannot. We know
-that when we have forgotten some experience if we stimulate or refresh
-our memory, as the lawyers say to us on the witness-stand, by reference
-to our notes, appropriately called memoranda, the original experience
-may come back to mind. Often at one moment we cannot recall a verse, or
-a name, or a piece of acquired knowledge, while at another time, a
-little later, we can. We have a feeling, a perhaps justifiable belief,
-that a desired piece of knowledge is not lost, that it is back somewhere
-in our minds but we cannot get at it. If, sooner or later, under one
-circumstance or another, with or without the aid of some kind of
-stimulus, we can recall the desired knowledge we say it was preserved
-(or conserved). If we continue, under all circumstances and at all
-moments, to be unable to recall it we say it is lost, that our memory of
-it is not conserved. So the notion of conservation of knowledge being
-something apart from recollection enters even into popular language.
-What sort of thing conservation is, popular language does not attempt to
-define. It is clear, however, that we may with propriety speak of the
-conservation of experiences, using this term in a descriptive sense
-without forming any definite concept of the nature of conservation.
-Provisionally, then, I shall speak of conservation of a given experience
-in this sense only, meaning that the memory of it is not permanently
-lost but that under certain particular circumstances we can recall it.
-
-Now a large mass of observations demonstrate that there are an enormous
-number of experiences, belonging to both normal and abnormal mental
-life, which we are unable to voluntarily recall during any period of our
-lives, no matter how hard we try, or what aids to memory we employ. For
-these experiences there is life-long amnesia. Nevertheless, it is easy
-to demonstrate that, though the personal consciousness of everyday life
-cannot recall them, they are not lost, properly speaking, but conserved;
-for when the personal consciousness has undergone a peculiar change, at
-moments when certain special alterations have taken place in the
-conditions of the personal consciousness, at such moments you find that
-the subject under investigation recalls the apparently lost experiences.
-These moments are those of hypnosis, abstraction, dreams, and certain
-pathological states. Again, in certain individuals it is possible by
-technical devices to awaken secondary mental processes in the form of a
-subconsciousness which may manifest the memories of the forgotten
-experiences without awareness therefor on the part of the personal
-consciousness. These manifestations are known as automatic writing and
-speech. Then, again, by means of certain post-hypnotic phenomena, it is
-easy to study conservation experimentally. We can make, as you will
-later see, substantially everything that happened to the subject of the
-experiment in hypnosis—his thoughts, his speech, his actions, for all of
-which he has complete and irretrievable loss of memory in a waking
-state—we can make memory for all these lost experiences reappear when
-hypnosis is again induced. Thus we can prove conservation when voluntary
-memory for experiences is absolutely lost. These experiments, among
-others, as we shall also see, also give an insight into the nature of
-conservation which is the real problem involved in an investigation into
-the process of memory.
-
-Before undertaking to solve this problem—so far as may be done—it is
-well to obtain a full realization of the extent to which experiences
-which have been forgotten may be still conserved. I will therefore, as I
-promised you, résumé the experimental and other evidence supporting this
-principle, making use of both personal observations and those of others.
-
-_NOTE—In the following exposition of the evidence for the theory of
-memory it has been necessary to make use of phenomena subsuming
-subconscious processes before the subconscious itself has been
-demonstrated. A few words in explanation of the terms used is therefore
-desirable to avoid confusing the reader._
-
-_Dividing as I do the subconscious into the unconscious and the
-coconscious, the former is either simply a neural disposition, or an
-active neural process without any quality of consciousness; the latter
-is an actual subconscious idea or a process of thought of which,
-nevertheless, we are not aware. An unconscious and a coconscious process
-are both, therefore, only particular types of a subconscious process. I
-might have used the single term subconscious throughout the first seven
-lectures, but in that case, though temporarily less confusing, the data
-necessary for the appreciation of the division of the subconscious into
-two orders would not have been at hand. Typical phenomena having been
-described as unconscious or coconscious (instead of simply
-subconscious), the reader will have already become familiar with
-examples of each type and be thus prepared for the final discussion in
-Lecture VIII. PROVISIONALLY, these three terms may be regarded as
-synonyms. To indicate the synonym, the term “subconscious” has often
-been added in parenthesis in the text to one or other of the
-subdivisional terms, and vice versa._
-
------
-
-Footnote 1:
-
- In this connection it is a satisfaction to the author to note that
- more recently a committee was appointed by the American Psychological
- Association (December, 1911) to investigate the relation of psychology
- to medical education. This committee, after an extensive inquiry by
- correspondence with all the medical schools of the country, has made a
- report (Science, Oct. 17, 1913) based upon the preponderating opinion
- of the best medical schools and of the schools as a whole. The second
- (in substance) and third conclusions reached in the report were as
- follows:
-
- 2nd: For entrance in certain schools requiring a preliminary college
- training of greater or less length an introductory or pre-medical
- course in psychology should be required in the same way as they now
- require chemistry, biology, physics, etc., or, in lieu thereof, a
- course in the medical schools.
-
- 3rd: “It is the belief of most of the best schools that a second
- course in psychology should precede the course in clinical psychiatry
- and neurology. This course should have more of a practical nature, and
- should deal especially with abnormal mental processes and with the
- application of psychological principles and facts to medical topics.
- Although this course should deal chiefly with psychopathology, it
- should not be permitted to develop, or degenerate, into a course in
- psychiatry, neurology or psychotherapeutics. This course should be
- clinical in the sense that, as far as possible, clinical material
- should be the basis of the course, but it should not be clinical in
- the sense that the students are given particular cases for the purpose
- of diagnosis or of treatment. The functions of the courses in
- psychiatry and neurology should not be assumed by this course.”
-
- The courses, from which I have selected twelve lectures for my present
- purpose, were designed for just such instruction as is recommended in
- this report. They were, I believe, the first to be given on these
- subjects in any medical school or college in this country. Necessarily
- they covered a wider range of topics than the lectures now published
- which more properly serve as an introduction to the general subject.
-
-Footnote 2:
-
- “The Birth of the Dream,” _The Independent_, Oct. 30, 1913.
-
-Footnote 3:
-
- A descriptive account of this case, written as a sort of autobiography
- by the subject herself, was published in the _Journal of Abnormal
- Psychology_ (Vol. 3, Nos. 4 & 5, 1908-1909) under the title “My Life
- as a Dissociated Personality.” This remarkable account includes an
- instructive description of the coconscious self of considerable value.
-
-Footnote 4:
-
- I divide the Subconscious into two parts, namely the Unconscious and
- the Coconscious. See preface and Lecture VIII.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE II
- CONSERVATION OF FORGOTTEN EXPERIENCES OF NORMAL, ARTIFICIAL, AND
- PATHOLOGICAL LIFE
-
- I. Normal Life
-
-=Evidence obtained by the method of automatic writing.=—If we take a
-suitable subject, one in whom “_automatic writing_”[5] has been
-developed, and study the content of the script, we may find that to a
-large extent it contains references to, i.e., memories of, experiences
-which have long been forgotten by the subject and which cannot even by
-the stimulus of memoranda be voluntarily recalled. These experiences may
-be actions performed even as far back as _childhood_, _or_ passages read
-in books, or fragments of conversation, etc. Thus B. C. A., who suffers
-from an intense fear or phobia of cats, particularly _white_ cats, can
-recall no experience in her life which could have given rise to it. Yet
-when automatic writing is resorted to the hand writes a detailed account
-of a fright into which she was thrown, when she was only five or six
-years of age, by a white kitten which had a fit while she was playing
-with it. The writing also describes in minute detail the furnishings of
-the room where the episode occurred, the pattern of the carpet, the
-decorative designs of the window shades, the furniture, etc. As this
-observation is typical of many others, it may be well to dwell upon it
-long enough to describe it in some detail for the benefit of those who
-are not familiar with this class of phenomena.
-
-After it had been determined, by a searching examination, that B. C. A.
-could not recall any experience that might throw light upon her phobia,
-an attempt was made to recover a possible memory in hypnosis. As is well
-known, the memory often broadens in hypnosis and events which are
-forgotten when “awake” may be recovered. In this instance the subject
-was put into two different hypnotic states, but without success. This,
-again, is a matter of some importance for the principle of conservation.
-Different hypnotic states in the same individual may be distinguished in
-that each, among other characteristics, may have different and
-independent systems of memories, as we shall see later. The memories
-which belong to one state cannot be recalled in another. Hence the fact
-that a memory cannot be recovered in one state is not proof that it is
-not conserved, nor is a failure to recover the memory of an episode in
-all states of hypnosis evidence of failure of conservation, any more
-than is the failure to recover a memory in the waking state at any given
-moment.
-
-In the experiment with B. C. A., after failing to awaken a possible
-memory in either state of hypnosis, a pencil was put in her hand while
-she was still hypnotized. The hand then wrote automatically, without the
-knowledge of the hypnotized subject, the following account of this
-childhood episode that I have just mentioned:[6]
-
-“I think I know about the cats. I can remember myself, a little child,
-playing on the floor with a kitten, and it began to run about the room
-and had a fit, I think, and it jumped on me, and I was alone, and I
-screamed and cried and called my mother, but no one came, and I was very
-much frightened. I do not believe I ever told anyone. It was a white
-kitten. It ran out of the room and after a bit I went on playing.”
-
-To test the extent of the conserved memories still further the hand was
-asked to describe the furnishings of the room and the plan of the house.
-It wrote:
-
-“There were two windows on the side of the room. The shades were gray, I
-think, with a border of grapes, or something of that color. The carpet
-was green or gray with green figures. There was a large old-fashioned
-sofa between one window and the door which led into the dining-room. A
-bookcase and desk-combination, you know. There was a mantle, I think,
-between the windows. It was the ground floor.”
-
-This childhood episode and the furnishings of the room were completely
-forgotten by B. C. A. in the sense that they could not be voluntarily
-recalled. Even after reading the script she could not remember them. She
-had not seen the room since she was six years of age, the family having
-removed at that time from the town in which the incident took place. As
-to the accuracy of the “automatic” account and the possibility of
-fabrication, the description of the room has been corroborated by the
-independent and written testimony of an older member of the family. It
-was not possible to confirm the incident of the kitten as there were no
-witnesses. This portion of the account, therefore, cannot be proved not
-to be a fabrication, but I have never known a fabricated statement to be
-made in this subject’s automatic script, and I have obtained from her a
-large number of statements of different kinds in the course of several
-years’ observation.
-
-However that may be, the point is not essential, for the minute
-description, by a special technic, of the furnishings of a room which
-had not been seen since childhood, a matter of some thirty-five years,
-and which were totally forgotten, is a sufficient demonstration of the
-principle of conservation of conscious experiences that cannot be
-voluntarily recalled. The reproduction of the conscious experience by
-automatic writing was, of course, an act of memory effected by a special
-device, and this fact compels us to postulate the conservation of the
-experience during this long period of time, notwithstanding that the
-experience could not be recalled voluntarily. Although the conserved
-experience could not be awakened into memory by voluntary processes of
-the personal consciousness it could be so awakened by an artificial
-stimulus under artificial conditions.
-
-An observation like this, dealing with the conservation of long
-forgotten childhood or other experiences, is not unique. Quite a
-collection of recorded cases might be cited. Mr. C. Lowe Dickinson has
-put on record[7] one of a young woman (Miss C.), who, in an hypnotic
-trance, narrated a dream-like fabrication of a highly imaginative
-character. On one occasion, through the imaginary intermediation of the
-spirit of a fictitious person, who was supposed to have lived in the
-time of Richard II, she gave a great many details about the Earl and
-Countess of Salisbury, “and other personages of the time, and about the
-manners and customs of that age. The personages referred to, the details
-given in connection with them, and especially the genealogical data,
-were found on examination to be correct, although many of them were such
-as apparently it would not have been easy to ascertain without
-considerable historical research.” Miss C. after coming out of the
-hypnotic trance was in entire ignorance of how she could have obtained
-this knowledge and could not recall ever having read any book which
-contained the information she had given. Through automatic writing,
-however, it was discovered that it was to be found in a book called _The
-Countess Maud_, by E. Holt. It then appeared—and this is the point of
-interest bearing on the conservation of forgotten knowledge—that this
-book had been read to her by her aunt _fourteen years previously, when
-she was a child about eleven years old_. Both ladies had so completely
-forgotten its contents that they could not recall even the period with
-which it dealt. Here were conscious experiences of childhood which, if
-voluntary recollection were to be made use of as a test, would be
-rightly said to have been extinguished, but that they had only lain
-fallow, conserved in some unconscious fashion, was shown by their
-reproduction in the hypnotic trance.[8]
-
-In this connection I may instance the case of Mrs. C. D., who suffers
-from a fixed fear of fainting. She cannot recall, even after two
-prolonged searching examinations, the first occasion when this fear
-developed, or why she has it, and is, therefore, ignorant of its
-genesis. Yet put into abstraction or light hypnosis she recalls vividly
-its first occurrence as the effect of an emotional scene of twenty years
-ago. The details of its psychological content come clearly into
-consciousness, and its meaning, as a fear of death, is remembered as a
-part of the original episode. That the fixed idea is a recurrence or
-partial memory of the original complex becomes logically plain and is
-recognized as such.
-
-Instances of the reproduction in automatic script of _forgotten passages
-from books_ are to be found in Mrs. Verrall’s[9] elaborate records of
-her own automatic writings. Investigation showed that numerous pieces of
-English, Latin, and Greek script were not original compositions but only
-forgotten passages from authors previously read.
-
-Mrs. Holland’s script records, as investigation seemed to show, the
-exact words expressing a personal sentiment contained in a letter
-written to her _twenty years_ before and long forgotten. The letter
-proving this was accidentally discovered.[10]
-
-The following instance of a forgotten experience is, in itself, common
-enough with everybody, but its recovery by automatic writing illustrates
-how conservation of the thousand and one simply _forgotten acts of
-everyday life_ may still persist. It forces, too, a realization of the
-reason why it is possible that though an act may be forgotten at any
-given moment it may later at any time flash into the mind. It is still
-conserved.
-
-B. C. A. had been vainly hunting for a bunch of keys which she had not
-seen or thought of for four months, having been in Europe. One day, soon
-after her return, while writing a letter to her son she was interrupted
-by her hand automatically and spontaneously writing the desired
-information. The letter to her son began as follows: “October 30, 19—.
-Dear Boy: I cannot find those keys—have hunted everywhere”.... [Here the
-hand began to write the following, automatically.] “_O, I know—take a
-pencil_” [Here she did as she was bidden] “_you put those keys in the
-little box where X’s watch is._”
-
-In explanation B. C. A. sent me the following letter: “The keys were
-found in the box mentioned. I had hunted for them ever since coming
-home, October 4th. One key belonged to my box in the safety deposit
-vault and I had felt very troubled and anxious at not being able to find
-them. I have no recollection now of putting them where I found them.”
-[Nor was recollection subsequently recovered.]
-
-I could give from my own observation if it were necessary as many
-instances as could be desired of “automatic” reproductions of forgotten
-experiences of one kind or another the truth of which could be verified
-by notebook records or other evidence. By a forgotten experience of
-course is meant something more than what cannot for the moment be
-voluntarily recalled. I mean something that cannot be remembered at any
-moment nor under any conditions, _even after the memory has been prodded
-by the reproduction in the script_—something that is apparently
-absolutely forgotten. The experience may not only be of a trivial nature
-but something that happened long in the past and of the kind that is
-ordinarily absolutely forgotten. I have often invoked the automatic
-writing (memories) of the subject to recover data elicited in the past
-in psychological examinations but which both I and the subject had
-forgotten. Reference to notes always verified the automatic memories.
-The records of automatic writing to be found in the literature are rich
-in reproductions showing conservation of forgotten experiences. In fact,
-given a good subject who can write automatically it is easy to obtain
-experimentally evidence of this kind at will.
-
-=Evidence from abstraction.=—One of the most striking of artificial
-memory performances is the recovery of the details of inconsequential
-experiences of everyday life by inducing simple states of _abstraction_
-in normal people. It is often astonishing to see with what detail these
-experiences are conserved. A person may remember any given experience in
-a general way, such as what he does during the course of the day, but
-the minute details of the day he ordinarily forgets. Now, if he allows
-himself to fall into a passive state of abstraction, simply
-concentrating his attention upon a particular past moment, and gives
-free rein to all the associative memories belonging to that moment that
-float into his mind, at the same time taking care to forego all critical
-reflection upon them, it will be found that the number of details that
-will be recalled will be enormously greater than can be recovered by
-voluntary memory. Memories of the details of each successive moment
-follow one another in continuous succession. This method requires some
-art and practice to be successfully carried out. In the state of
-abstraction attention to the environment must be completely excluded and
-concentrated upon the past moments which it is desired to recall. For
-instance, a young woman, a university student, had lost some money
-several days before the experiment and desired to learn what had become
-of it. She remembered, in a general way, that she had gone to the bank
-that day, had cashed some checks, made some purchases in the shops of
-the town, returned to the university, attended lectures, etc., and later
-had missed the money from her purse. Her memory was about as extensive
-as that of the ordinary person would be for similar events after the
-lapse of several days. I put her into a state of abstraction and evoked
-her memories in the way I have just described. The minuteness and
-vividness with which the details of each successive act in the day’s
-experiences were recovered were remarkable, and, to the subject, quite
-astonishing. _As the memories arose she recognized them as being
-accurate, for she then remembered the events as having occurred_, just
-as one remembers any occurrence.[11] In abstraction, she remembered with
-great vividness every detail at the bank teller’s window, where she
-placed her gloves, purse, and umbrella, the checks, the money, etc.;
-then there came memories of seating herself at a table in the bank, of
-placing her umbrella here, her purse there, etc.; of writing a letter,
-and doing other things; of absent-mindedly forgetting her gloves and
-leaving them on the table;[12] of going to a certain shop where, after
-looking at various articles and thinking certain thoughts and making
-certain remarks, she finally made certain purchases, giving a certain
-piece of money and receiving the change in coin of certain
-denominations; of seeing in her purse the exact denominations of the
-coins (ten and five-dollar gold pieces and the pieces of subsidiary
-coinage) which remained; then of going to another shop and similar
-experiences. Then of numerous details which she had forgotten; of other
-later incidents including lectures, exercising in the gymnasium, etc.
-Through it all ran the successive fortunes of her purse until the moment
-came when, looking into it, she found one of the five-dollar gold pieces
-gone. It became pretty clear that the piece had disappeared at a moment
-when the purse was out of her possession, a fact which she had not
-previously remembered but had believed the contrary. The hundred and one
-previously forgotten details which surged into her mind as vivid
-conscious recollections would take too long to narrate.
-
-(I have made quite a number of experiments of this kind with similar
-results. That the memories are not fabrications is shown by the fact
-that, as they arise, they become recollections in the sense that the
-subject can then consciously recall the events and place them in time
-and space as one does in ordinary memory, and particularly by the fact
-that many of them are often capable of confirmation.
-
-I would here point out that the recovery of forgotten experiences by the
-method of _abstraction_ differs in one important psychological respect
-from their recovery by _automatic writing_. In the former case the
-recalled experiences being brought back by associative memories enter
-into the associations and become true conscious recollections, like any
-other recollections, while in automatic writing the memories are
-reproduced in script without entering the personal consciousness at all
-and while the subject is still in ignorance. Often even after reading
-the script his memory still remains a blank. It is much as if one’s
-ideas had been preserved on a phonographic record and later reproduced
-without awakening a memory of their original occurrence.[13] The
-significance of this difference for the theory of conservation I will
-point out later after we have considered some other modes of
-reproduction.)
-
-Among the conserved forgotten experiences are often to be found fleeting
-thoughts, ideas, and perceptions, so insignificant and trifling that it
-would not be expected that they would be remembered. Some of them may
-have entered only the margin or fringe of the content of consciousness,
-and, therefore, the subject was only dimly aware of them. Some may have
-been so far outside the focus of awareness that there was no awareness
-of them at all, i.e., they were subconscious. Instructive examples of
-such conserved experiences may be found in persons who suffer from
-attacks of phobia, i.e., obsessions. The experiences to which I refer
-occur immediately before and during the attacks. After the attack the
-ideas of these periods are usually largely or wholly forgotten,
-particularly the ideas which were in the fringe of consciousness and the
-idea which, according to my observation, was the exciting cause of the
-attack. By the method of abstraction I have been able to recover the
-content of consciousness during the periods in question, including the
-fringe of consciousness, and thus discover the nature of the fear of
-which the patient was unaware because the idea was in the fringe.
-
-Mrs. C. D., whom I have mentioned as having suffered intensely from
-attacks of fear, and Miss F. E., who is similarly afflicted with such
-attacks accompanied by the feeling of unreality, are instances in point.
-As is well known such attacks come on suddenly in the midst of mental
-tranquillity, often without apparent cause so far as the patient can
-discover. While in the state of abstraction the thoughts, perceptions,
-and acts of the period just preceding and during the attack, as they
-successively occurred, could be evoked in these subjects in great detail
-and with striking vividness. The recovery of these memories has been
-always a surprise to the patient who, a moment before, had been utterly
-unable to recall them, and had declared the attack had developed without
-cause. In the case of Mrs. C. D. it was discovered in this way the real
-fear was of fainting and death, and in that of Miss F. E. of insanity.
-These ideas having been in the fringe of consciousness, or background of
-the mind, the subjects were at the time scarcely aware of them and,
-therefore, were ignorant of the true nature of their phobias,
-notwithstanding the overwhelming intensity of the attacks. Among the
-memories recovered in these and other cases I have always been able to
-find one of a thought or of a sensory stimulus from the environment
-which immediately preceded and which through association occasioned the
-attack. When this particular memory was recovered the patient, who had
-declared that the attack had developed without cause, at once recognized
-the original idea which was the cause of the attack, just as one
-recognizes the idea which causes one to blush. The idea sometimes has
-been a thought suggested by a casual and apparently insignificant word
-in a sentence occurring in a conversation on indifferent matters, or by
-a dimly conscious perception of the environment, sometimes an idea
-occurring as a secondary train of thought perhaps bearing upon some
-future course of action, and so on.
-
-As instances of such dimly-conscious perceptions of the environment
-which I have found I may mention a gateway through which the subject was
-passing, or a bridge about to be crossed; these particular points in the
-environment being places where previous attacks had occurred. The
-perceptions which precipitated the attack may have been entirely
-subconscious and yet may be brought back to memory. With the
-pathogenesis of the attacks we are not now directly concerned. The point
-of interest for us lies in the fact that such forgotten casual ideas and
-perceptions, some of which had been actually subconscious and some had
-only entered the margin of the focus of attention may, notwithstanding
-the amnesia, be conserved; and the same is true of any succession of
-trivial ideas occurring at an inconsequential moment in a person’s life.
-
-However that may be, if you will try to recall in exact detail the
-thoughts and feelings which successively passed through your mind at any
-given moment say three or four weeks ago—or even days ago—and their
-accompanying acts, and then (if you can do this, which I very much
-doubt) try to give them in their original sequence, I think you will
-realize the force of these observations and appreciate the significance
-of the conservation of such minute experiences and of their reproduction
-in abstraction.
-
-=Evidence furnished by the method of hypnosis.=—It is almost common
-knowledge that when a person is hypnotized—whether lightly or deeply—he
-may be able to remember once well-known events of his conscious life
-which he has totally forgotten in the full waking state. It is not so
-generally known that he may also be able to recall conscious events of
-which he was never consciously aware, that is to say, experiences which
-were entirely subconscious. The same is true, of course, of forgotten
-experiences which originally had entered only the margin of the content
-of consciousness and of which he was dimly aware. Among the experiences
-thus recalled may be perceptions of minute details of the environment
-which escape the attentive notice of the individual, or they may be
-thoughts which were in the background of the mind and, therefore, never
-in the full light of attention. You must not fall into the common error
-of believing every hypnotized person can do this, or that any person can
-do it in any state of hypnosis. There are various “degrees” or states of
-hypnosis representing different conditions of dissociation and
-synthesis. One person may successively be put into several different
-states; many persons can be put into only one, but the degree of
-dissociation and capacity for synthesis in each state and in every
-person varies very much, and, indeed, according to the technical devices
-employed. Each state is apt to exhibit different systems of memories,
-that is, to synthesize (recall) past conserved experiences in a
-different degree. What cannot be recalled in one state may be in
-another. We may say as a general principle that _theoretically_ any
-experience that has been conserved can be recalled in some state, and,
-conversely, there is theoretically some state in which any conserved
-experience can be recalled. Practically, of course, we can never induce
-a state which synthesizes all conserved experiences, nor always one in
-which any given experience is synthesized. I shall later, in connection
-with particular types of conscious states, give examples of hypnotic
-memories showing conservation of such experiences as I have just
-mentioned. The point you will not lose sight of is that we are concerned
-with hypnotic phenomena only so far as they may be evidence of the
-conservation of forgotten experiences.
-
-There is a class of hypnotic memory phenomena which acquire additional
-importance because of the bearing they have upon the _psycho-genesis_ of
-certain pathological conditions. They show the conservation of the
-details of an episode in their original chronological order with an
-exactness that is beyond the powers of voluntary memory to reproduce.
-These phenomena consist of the realistic reproduction of certain
-emotional episodes which as a whole may or may not be forgotten. The
-reproduction is realistic in the sense that the episodes are acted over
-again by the individual as if once more he were actually experiencing
-them. Apparently every detail is reproduced, including the emotion with
-its facial expressions and its other physiological manifestations, and
-pathological disturbances like pain, paralysis, anesthesia, movements,
-etc. I will cite the following three examples:
-
-M——l, a Russian, living in this country, suffers from psycholeptic
-attacks dating from an episode which occurred seven years previously and
-_which he has completely forgotten_. At that time he was living in
-Russia. It happened that after returning from a ball he was sent back
-late at night by his employer, a woman, to look for a ring which she had
-lost in the ballroom. His way led over a lonely road by a graveyard. As
-he was passing this place he heard footsteps behind him and became
-frightened. Overcome with terror he fell, partially unconscious, and his
-whole right side became affected with spasms and paralysis. He was
-picked up in this condition and taken to a hospital. Each year since
-that time he has had recurring attacks of spasms and paralysis.[14]
-
-In _hypnosis_ he remembers and relates a dream. This dream is one which
-recurs periodically but is _forgotten after waking from sleep_. This is
-the dream: He is back in his native land; it is the night of the ball;
-he sees his employer with outstretched hand commanding him to go search
-for the ring. Once more he makes his way along the lonely road; he hears
-footsteps; he becomes frightened, falls, and then awakes, with entire
-oblivion for the dream, to find his right side paralyzed and in spasms.
-
-The following experiment is now made. By suggestion in hypnosis he is
-made to believe that he is fifteen years of age. As a consequence in his
-hypnotic dream he is once more living in Russia before he had learned
-English. It is now found that he has spontaneously lost all knowledge of
-the English language and can speak only Russian. He is told it is the
-night of the ball and, as in a dream, he is carried successively through
-the different events of that night. Finally he returns in search of the
-ring, passes again over the lonely road, hears the footsteps and becomes
-frightened. At this point his face is suddenly contorted with an
-expression of fright, the whole right side becomes paralyzed and
-anesthetic, and the muscles of face, arm, and leg affected with clonic
-spasms. At the same time he moans with pain which he experiences in his
-side, which he hurt when he fell. Though consciousness is confused he
-answers questions and describes the pain which he feels. On being
-awakened all passes off.
-
-Mrs. W. on her return to Boston after an absence in Europe happened to
-pass by a certain house on her way to her hotel; the house (a private
-hospital) was one with which she had very distressing associations. On
-leaving the steamer she took a street car which she left a block distant
-from the hotel. She walked this distance and as she passed the house she
-was seized with a sudden attack of fear, dizziness, palpitation, etc.
-Although it is beside the point I may say that she had not noticed the
-locality and did not consciously recognize the house until the attack
-developed. The attack was, therefore, induced by a subconscious
-perception.[15] She recalls the incident and describes the attack,
-remembers that it occurred at this particular spot, but without further
-detail.
-
-Now in hypnosis she is taken back to the day of her arrival on the
-steamship. In imagination, as in a sort of dream, she is living over
-again that day; she disembarks from the ship, enters the street car in
-which she rides a certain distance; she leaves the car at the point
-nearest her destination and proceeds to walk the remainder of the
-distance; suddenly her face exhibits the liveliest emotion; she becomes
-strongly agitated and her respiration is short and quick; her head and
-eyes turn toward the left and upward, as if in search of a cause, and
-she exclaims, “Yes, that’s it, that’s it,” as she recognizes in
-imagination the house which had been the scene of her previous distress.
-Then the attack subsides as she passes by, continuing her way toward her
-hotel.
-
-Mrs. E. B. suffers from traumatic hysteria as the result of a slight but
-emotional accident—a fall—when alighting from a railway train. The
-accident resulted in a sprained shoulder and neuritis of the arm. She
-fully remembers the accident and describes it as any one might.
-
-When put into hypnosis, however, the memory assumes a different
-character. She is taken back in imagination to the scene of the
-accident. Once more the train is entering the station; she leaves the
-car, steps from the platform upon a truck; then, unawares, steps off the
-truck and falls to the ground. As she falls her face suddenly becomes
-distorted with fear; tears stream down her cheeks, which become
-suffused; her heart palpitates; she suffers again acute pain in her arm,
-and so on. Her physical and mental anguish is painful to look upon.
-Though I try to persuade her that she is not hurt and that the accident
-is a delusion my effort is not very successful.
-
-In this experiment, as in the others, there is substantially a
-reproduction in all its details of the content of consciousness which
-obtained at the time of the accident, and also of the emotion and its
-physiological manifestations—all were faithfully conserved. Further,
-each event follows in the same chronological sequence as in the original
-experience.
-
-But in these observations the reproduction differs somewhat from that of
-ordinary memory. It is in the form of a dream, hypnotic or normal, and
-the subject goes back to the time of the experience, which he thinks is
-the present, and actually lives over again the original episode. Unlike
-the conditions of ordinary memory the whole content of his consciousness
-is practically limited to that which originally was present, all else,
-the present and the intervening past, being dissociated and excluded.
-The original psychological processes and their psycho-physiological
-accompaniments (pain, paralysis, anesthesia, spasms, etc.) repeat
-themselves as if the present were the past. Plainly, for such a
-reproduction, the original episode must have left conserved dispositions
-of some kind which when excited were capable of reënacting the episode
-in all its psycho-physiological details. From a consideration of such
-phenomena it is easy to understand how certain psycho-neuroses may be
-properly regarded as memories of certain past experiences. The
-experiences are conserved and under certain conditions reproduced from
-time to time.
-
-I may cite one other experiment dealing with the conservation of the
-details of a day’s experiences after the lapse of several months. The
-subject was a little girl who suffered from hysterical tics. Hoping to
-discover the exciting cause of her nervous disturbance, I put her into
-deep hypnosis, and evoked the memories of the events of the day on which
-her disease developed, _about six months previously_. It was astonishing
-to hear her recall a continuous series of precise thoughts and acts,
-many of them trivial, of the kind that would be transient and forgotten
-by anybody. She began with the events of the early morning, giving her
-own thoughts and acts; the remarks of her father and mother, describing
-exactly the location in the house at the time of each member of the
-family; her arrival at school; the several lessons of the day; the
-remarks of the teacher; the happenings during recess; her final entry
-into the laboratory; and the sudden onset of the tic. Everything was
-given in chronological order. The memories were vivid and, as they came
-up into her mind, were recognized as true recollections.[16] All this
-was forgotten when she was awake, that is to say, although conserved, it
-could not be reproduced. There was no way, of course, of determining the
-accuracy of these memories and, therefore, their correctness lacks
-scientific proof. On the other hand, the facts, which are in entire
-correspondence with similar results obtained under conditions where
-confirmation is possible, have value as cumulative evidence.[17]
-
-It is not difficult to arrange experiments which will test the accuracy
-with which the minute details of experiences may be conserved when
-reproduction is at fault. A simple test is to have a suitable subject
-endeavor to repeat _verbatim_ the contents of a letter written by him at
-some preceding time—one week, two weeks, a month, or more. Few people,
-of course, can do this. If, now, the subject is a suitable one for the
-abstraction or hypnotic method it may be that he will be able to
-reproduce by one or the other method the test letter, word for word; a
-comparison of the reproduction with the letter will, of course,
-determine the accuracy of the memory. In such an experiment I have
-succeeded in getting two subjects, Miss B.[18] and B. C. A., to repeat
-_verbatim_ the contents of fairly long letters, and this even, on
-certain occasions, when, on account of the subject being a dissociated
-personality, there was no recollection of the letter at all, not even
-that it had been written. Such minute reproduction affords further
-evidence that the conservation of experiences may be much more complete
-and exact than ordinary conscious memory would lead us to suppose.
-
-=Evidence from hallucinatory phenomena=.—I may mention one more example
-of conservation of a forgotten experience of everyday life as it is an
-example or mode of reproduction which differs in certain important
-respects both from that of ordinary memory and that observed under the
-artificial methods thus far described. This mode is that of a _visual_
-or an _auditory hallucination_ which may be an exact reproduction in
-vividness and detail of the original experience. It is a type of a
-certain class of memory phenomena. One of my subjects, while in a
-condition of considerable stress of mind owing to the recurrence of the
-anniversary of her wedding-day, had a vision of her deceased husband,
-who addressed to her a certain consoling message. It afterwards
-transpired that this message was an actual reproduction of the words
-which a friend, in the course of a conversation some months previously,
-had quoted to her as the words of her own husband just before his death.
-In the vision the words were put into the mouth of another person, the
-subject’s husband, and were actually heard as an hallucination. Under
-the peculiar circumstances of their occurrence, however, these words
-awakened no sense of familiarity; nor did she recognize the source of
-the words until the automatic writing, which I later obtained, described
-the circumstances and details of the original episode. Then the original
-experience came back vividly to memory. On the other hand, the
-“automatic writing” not only remembered the experience but recognized
-the connection between it and the hallucination. (The truth of the
-writing is corroborated by the written testimony of the other party to
-the conversation.)
-
-Although such types of hallucinatory memories are not actual
-reproductions of an experience but rather translated representations,
-yet they show the experience must have been conserved in order to have
-determined the representation. The actual experience, as we shall see
-later, is translated into a visual or auditory form which pictures or
-verbally expresses it, as the case may be. This type of hallucination is
-common. That which is translated may be previous thoughts, or
-perceptions received through another sense. Thus Mrs. Holland records a
-visual hallucination which pictured a verbal description previously
-narrated to her by a friend, but forgotten. The hallucination included
-“the figure of a very tall thin man, dressed in gray, standing with his
-back to the fire. He had a long face, I think a mustache—certainly no
-beard—and suggested young middle age.”... On a second occasion “the tall
-figure in gray was lying on the bed in a very flung-down, slack-jointed
-attitude. The face was turned from me, the right arm hanging back across
-the body which lay on the left side. I started violently and my foot
-seemed to strike an empty bottle on the floor.”
-
-There is very little doubt that these visions of Mrs. Holland’s
-represented Mr. Gurney, who had died from an accidental dose of
-chloroform. Mrs. Holland “took very little interest” in Mr. Gurney,
-hence she had entirely forgotten that the main facts of his death had
-been told to her a few months previously by the narrator, Miss Alice
-Johnson.[19]
-
-In an hallucination of this sort we have a dramatic pictorial
-representation of previous though forgotten knowledge which must have
-determined it. In order to have determined the hallucination the
-knowledge must have been conserved somehow. I have frequently observed a
-similar reproduction of a forgotten experience, which was not visual,
-through translation into a newly created _visual_ representation in the
-form of an artificial hallucination. The following is of this kind: Miss
-B., looking into a crystal,[20] saw a scene laid in a wood near a lake,
-etc. Several figures appeared in this scene, which was that of a murder.
-Although she had no recollection of anything that could have given rise
-to the hallucination, investigation showed that the original experience
-was to be found in one of Marie Correlli’s novels which she had read but
-forgotten. The vision was a correct representation of the scene as
-described in the book.
-
-In suitable subjects almost any past experience, whether forgotten or
-not, can be reproduced in this way if conserved, and observation shows
-that the number which are conserved is enormous. I shall have occasion
-to cite further examples in other connections. The phenomenon of
-translation we shall find when we come to study it, as we shall do in
-another lecture, throws light upon the nature of conservation for here
-we are dealing with something more than simple reproduction; what is
-conserved becomes elaborated into a new composition.
-
-=Evidence obtained from dreams.=—Another not uncommon mode in which
-forgotten experiences are recovered is through dreams. The content of
-the dream may, as Freud has shown, be a cryptic and symbolical
-expression or representation of the experience,[21] or a visualized
-representation or obvious symbolism, much as a painted picture may be a
-symbolized expression of an idea,[22] or it may be a realistic
-reproduction in the sense that the subject lives over again the actual
-experience. A relative of mine gave me a very accurate description of a
-person whom she had never seen from a dream in which he appeared. After
-describing his hair, eyes, contour of face, mouth, etc., she ended with
-the words, “He looks like a cross between a Scotchman and an Irishman.”
-After she had most positively insisted that she had never seen this
-person or heard him described—against my protest to the contrary—I
-reminded her that I had myself described him to her only a few days
-before in the identical words, ending my description with the remark,
-“He looks like a cross between a Scotchman and an Irishman.” Even then
-she could not recall the fact. Von Bechterew has recorded the case of a
-man who frequently after hearing an opera dreamed the whole opera
-through.[23] One subject of mine frequently dreamed over again in very
-minute detail, after an interval of eight or nine months, the scenes
-attending the deathbed of a relative. Indeed, in the dream she
-realistically lived them again in a fashion similar to that of hypnotic
-dreams such as I have related. Although she had not forgotten these
-scenes it is highly improbable that she could have voluntarily recalled
-them, particularly after the lapse of so long a time, without the aid of
-the dream, so rich was it in detail, with each event in its
-chronological order.
-
-Dream reproductions, whether in a symbolic form or not, are too common
-to need further statement. I would merely point out that the frequency
-with which childhood’s experiences occur in dreams is further evidence
-of the conservation of these early experiences. The symbolic dream,
-cryptic or obvious, deserves, however, special consideration because of
-the data it offers to the problem of the nature of conservation which we
-shall later study. In this type of dream, if the fundamental principle
-of the theory of Freud is correct, the content is a symbolical
-continuation in some form of an antecedent thought (experience) of the
-dreamer.[24] When this thought, which may be forgotten, is recovered the
-symbolic character of the dream, in many cases, is recognized beyond
-reasonable doubt.[25] If this principle is well established, and nearly
-all investigators are in accord on this point, though we need not always
-accept the given interpretation of individual dreams—if the principle is
-sound, then it follows that symbolism includes memory of the original
-experience which must be conserved. So that even this type of dream
-offers evidence of conservation of experiences for which there may be
-total loss of memory (amnesia).
-
-Before closing this lecture I will return to the point which I
-temporarily passed by, namely, the significance of the _difference in
-the form of reproduction_ according as whether it is by automatic
-writing or through associative memories in abstraction. In the latter
-case, as we have seen, the memories are identical in form and principle
-with those of everyday life. They enter the personal consciousness and
-become conscious memories in the sense that the individual personally
-remembers the experience in question. Abstraction may be regarded simply
-as a favorable condition or moment when the subject remembers what he
-had at another previous moment forgotten. We have seen also that the
-same thing is true of remembering in hypnosis (excepting those special
-realistic reproductions when the subject enters a dream-like or
-somnambulistic state and lives over again the past experience in
-question). In automatic writing, on the other hand, the reproduction is
-by a secondary process entirely separate and independent of the personal
-consciousness. In the examples I cited the latter was in entire
-ignorance of the reproduction which did not become a personally
-conscious memory. At the very same moment when the experiences could not
-be voluntarily remembered, and without a change in the moment’s
-consciousness, something was tapped, as it were, and thereby they were
-graphically revealed without the knowledge of the subject, without
-memory of them being introduced into the personal consciousness, and
-even without the subject being able to remember the incident after
-reading the automatic script. Even this stimulus failed to bring back
-the desired phase of consciousness. It was very much like
-surreptitiously inserting your hand into the pocket of another and
-secretly withdrawing an object which he thinks he has lost. What really
-happened was this: a secondary process was awakened and this process (of
-which the principal or personal consciousness was unaware) revealed the
-memory lost by the personal consciousness. At least this is the
-interpretation which is the one which all the phenomena of this kind
-pertaining to subconscious manifestations compel us to draw.[26] At any
-rate the automatic script showed that somehow and somewhere _outside the
-personal consciousness_ the experiences were conserved and under certain
-conditions could be reproduced.
-
-We now also see that the same principle of reproduction by a secondary
-process holds in hallucinatory phenomena whether artificial or
-spontaneous, and in many dreams. When a person looking into a crystal
-sees a scene which is a truthful pictorial representation of an actual
-past experience which he does not consciously remember, it follows that
-that visual hallucination must be induced and constructed by some
-secondary subconscious process outside of and independent of the
-processes involved in his personal consciousness. And, likewise, when a
-dream is a translation of a forgotten experience into symbolical terms
-it follows that there must be, underlying the dream consciousness, some
-subconscious process which continues and translates the original
-experience into and constructs the dream.
-
-This being so we are forced to two conclusions: first, in all these
-types of phenomena the secondary process must in some way be closely
-related to the original experience in order to reproduce it; and,
-second, a mental experience must be conserved in some form which permits
-of a subconscious process reproducing the experience in one or other of
-the various forms in which memory appears. Further than this I will not
-go at present, not until we have more extensively reviewed the number
-and kinds of mental experiences that may be conserved. This we will do
-in the next lecture.
-
------
-
-Footnote 5:
-
- Automatic writing is script which has been produced unconsciously or
- involuntarily, although the writer is in an alert state, whether it be
- the normal waking state or hypnosis. The hand writes, though the
- subject does not consciously direct it. Ordinarily, though not always,
- the subject is entirely unaware of what the hand is writing, and often
- the writing is obtained better if the attention is diverted and
- directed toward other matters. The first knowledge then obtained by
- the subject of what has been written, or that the hand has written at
- all, is on reading the script. Some persons can cultivate the art of
- this kind of writing. Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland, for example,
- deliberately educated themselves to write automatically, and each
- published a volume of her records. In other normal people automatic
- writing seems to develop accidentally or under special circumstances.
- In certain types of hysteria it is very easily obtained. “Planchette,”
- which many years ago was in vogue as a parlor game, was only a
- particular device to effect automatic writing.
-
-Footnote 6:
-
- In this particular experiment, when the hand wrote “automatically,”
- the second _hypnotic consciousness vanished_ and the subject went into
- a _trance_ state, or what is equivalent to a third hypnotic state.
- There was no consciousness present, excepting that which was
- associated with the writing hand. At other times, in experiments of
- this class with this same subject, the hypnotic or the waking
- consciousness, as the case might be, persisted _alert_ while the hand
- wrote. For the purpose of the experiment in recovering memories this
- change in the psychological condition is not of importance, the
- principle remains the same.
-
-Footnote 7:
-
- _Journal of the S. P. R._, July, 1906. A fuller account of this case
- was later published in the same journal, August, 1911.
-
-Footnote 8:
-
- A remark made by the subject in the trance state, though passed over
- in the report as apparently inconsequential, has really much meaning
- when interpreted through that conception of the unconscious memory
- process which will be developed in succeeding chapters. The subject,
- while in the trance, claimed to be in a mental world wherein “is to be
- found, it is said, not only everything that has ever happened or will
- happen, but all thoughts, dreams, and imagination.” In other words, in
- that psychical condition into which she passed, all the conserved
- conscious experiences of her life could be awakened into memory.
-
-Footnote 9:
-
- _Proceedings of the S. P. R._, October, 1906, Chap. XII.
-
-Footnote 10:
-
- In the automatic script, which purported to be a spiritistic message
- from a dead friend named Annette, occurred the enigmatical sentence:
- “Tell her this comes from the friend who loved cradles and cradled
- things.” The meaning of this was revealed by the above-mentioned
- letter to Mrs. Holland, written twenty years previously. It was from a
- friend of Annette’s, and quoted an extract from Annette’s will, which
- ran, “because I love cradles and cradled things.” When Mrs. Holland
- was tearing up some old letters she came across this one. (“On the
- automatic writing of Mrs. Holland,” by Miss Alice Johnson:
- _Proceedings of the S. P. R._, June, 1908, pp. 288, 289.)
-
-Footnote 11:
-
- It would have required a stenographer, whom I did not have, to record
- fully all these recovered memories. They would fill several printed
- pages, and I can give only a general résumé of them. Some weeks later
- the experiment was repeated and a record taken as fully as possible in
- long hand.
-
-Footnote 12:
-
- Later in the day she discovered the loss of her gloves and, not
- remembering where she had left them, was obliged to retrace her steps
- in search of them.
-
-Footnote 13:
-
- Of course the memories recovered by either method may be fabrications
- as with ordinary voluntary memory, and the automatic script may
- stimulate the conscious memory to recollect the experiences in
- question. Nevertheless, while the memories are being recorded by the
- script, no “conscious” memory is present with subjects who are unaware
- of what the hand is writing.
-
-Footnote 14:
-
- Sidis, Prince, and Linenthal: A contribution to the Pathology of
- Hysteria, _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_, June 23, 1904.
-
-Footnote 15:
-
- The Dissociation of a Personality, by Morton Prince. (New York;
- Longmans, Green & Co., 1906.) P. 77. Hereafter, when this work is
- referred to, the title will be indicated simply by “The Dissociation.”
-
-Footnote 16:
-
- Undoubtedly much was forgotten and, therefore, there must have been
- hiatuses of which she was not aware; but the remarkable thing is that
- not only so much, but so much that was inconsequential and evanescent
- was recalled. If additional technical methods had been employed
- probably more memories could have been recalled.
-
-Footnote 17:
-
- The objection will probably be made that the memories and statements
- of hypnotized persons are unreliable on several grounds, chiefly
- suggestibility, liability to illusions and, in some cases, tendency to
- fabrications. This criticism is more likely to come from those who
- have had a special rather than a wide experience with hypnotism.
-
-Footnote 18:
-
- Miss B., in these pages, always refers to Miss Beauchamp, an account
- of whose case is given in “The Dissociation.” In this connection cf.
- pp. 501, 81 and 238 of that work.
-
-Footnote 19:
-
- _Proceedings of the S. P. R._, June, 1908.
-
-Footnote 20:
-
- Crystal or artificial visions are hallucinatory phenomena which, like
- automatic writing, can be cultivated by some people. The common
- technic is to have a person look into a crystal, at the same time
- concentrating the mind, or putting himself into a state of
- abstraction. Under these conditions the subject sees a vision, i.e.,
- has a visual hallucination. The vision may be of some person or place,
- or may represent a scene which may be enacted. Because of the use of a
- crystal such hallucinations are called “crystal visions,” but a
- crystal is not requisite; any reflecting surface may be sufficient, or
- even the concentration of the attention. The crystal or other object
- used of course acts only by aiding the concentration of attention and
- by force of suggestion.—_The subconscious is tapped._
-
-Footnote 21:
-
- Freud: Traumdeutung, 2 aufl. 1909.
-
-Footnote 22:
-
- Morton Prince: The Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams. _The
- Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, October-November, 1910.
-
-Footnote 23:
-
- Zentralblatt für Nervenheilkunde und Psychiatrie; 1909, Heft 12.
-
-Footnote 24:
-
- According to Freud and his school it is always the imaginary
- fulfilment of a suppressed wish, almost always sexual. For our
- purposes it is not necessary to inquire into the correctness of this
- interpretation or the details of the Freudian theory.
-
-Footnote 25:
-
- For an example, see p. 98.
-
-Footnote 26:
-
- If the physiological interpretation be maintained, i.e., that the
- script was produced by a pure physiological process, this phenomenon
- would be a crucial demonstration of the nature of conservation, that
- it is in the form of physical alterations in nervous structure. I do
- not believe, however, that this interpretation can be maintained.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE III
- CONSERVATION OF FORGOTTEN EXPERIENCES OF NORMAL, ARTIFICIAL, AND
- PATHOLOGICAL LIFE
-
- I. Normal Life (Continued)
-
-I have directed your attention up to this point to the conservation of
-experiences which at the time of their occurrence, although lost beyond
-voluntary recall, for the most part occupied the focus of attention of
-the individual—were within the full light of consciousness. If these
-experiences were the only ones which were subject to conservation—and I
-would have you still bear in mind that I am using the term only in the
-limited sense of the ability to recover an experience in some favorable
-condition, or moment of consciousness, or through some fortunate or
-technical mode of reproduction—if, I say, these were the only ones to be
-conserved, then the conservation of the experiences which make up our
-mental lives would be considerably curtailed. It so happens, however,
-that a large part of our mental activity is occupied with acts of which
-at the moment we are only dimly aware—or half aware—in that they do not
-occupy the focus of attention. Some of these are what we call
-absent-minded acts. Again, many sensations and perceptions do not enter
-the focus of attention, so that we are either not aware of them, or, if
-we are, there is so little vividness attached to them that they are
-almost immediately lost to voluntary memory. The same is true of certain
-trains of thoughts which course through the mind while one’s attention
-is concentrated on some other line of thought. They are sometimes
-described as being in the background of the mind. Then, again, we have
-our dream life, and that of reverie, and the important artificial state
-of hypnosis; also certain pathological states to which some individuals
-are subject, such as intoxication, hysterical crises, deliria, and
-multiple personality. Accordingly it is important in any investigation
-into the extent of the field of conservation to inquire whether all this
-mental life is only fleeting, evanescent, psychological experience, or
-whether it is subject to the same principle of conservation. If the
-latter be the case it presages consequences which are portentous in the
-possible multiplicity and manifoldness of the elements which may enter
-into and may govern the mechanism of mental processes. But let me not
-get ahead of my exposition.
-
-=Absent-minded acts.=—In a study made some time ago I recorded the
-reproduction, as a crystal vision, of an absent-minded act, i.e., one
-which had not fully entered the focus of consciousness during deep
-concentration of the attention. It is a type of numerous experiments of
-this kind that I have made. Miss B. is directed to look into a crystal.
-She sees therein a vision of herself walking along a particular street
-in Boston in a brown study. She sees herself take out of her pocket some
-bank notes, tear them up, and throw them into the street. Now this
-artificial hallucination, or vision, was a picture of an actual
-occurrence; in an absent-minded reverie the subject had actually
-performed this very act under the circumstances portrayed in the vision
-and had retained no memory of it.[27]
-
-Similarly I have frequently recovered knowledge of the whereabouts of
-articles mislaid absent-mindedly. Sometimes the method used has been, as
-in the above examples, that of crystal gazing or artificial
-hallucinations; sometimes hypnotism, sometimes automatic writing, etc.
-By the last two methods not only the forgotten acts but the ideas and
-feelings which were outside the focus of attention, but in the fringe of
-consciousness, and prompted the acts are described. It is needless to
-give the details of the observations; it suffices to say that each
-minute detail of the absent-minded act and the thoughts and feelings
-that determined it are described or mirrored, as the case may be. The
-point of importance is that concentration of attention is not essential
-for conservation, and, therefore, among the vast mass of the conserved
-experiences of life may be found many which, though once conscious, only
-entered the margin of awareness (not the focus of attention) and never
-were subject to voluntary recollection. In the absence of attentive
-awareness at the time for such an experience (and therefore of
-recollection), we often can only be assured that it ever occurred by
-circumstantial evidence. When this assurance is wanting we are tempted
-to deny its occurrence and our responsibility, but experiment shows that
-the process of conservation, like the dictagraph, is a more faithful
-custodian of our experiences than are our voluntary memories.
-
-=Subconscious perceptions=.—It is not difficult to show that perceptions
-of the environment which _never even entered the fringe of the personal
-consciousness, i.e., of which the individual was never even dimly
-aware_, may be conserved. Indeed, the demonstration of their
-conservation is one of the important pieces of evidence for the
-occurrence of coconscious perception and, therefore, of the splitting of
-consciousness. Mrs. Holland, both by automatic writing and in hypnosis,
-describes perceptions of the environment (objects seen, etc.) of which
-she was not aware at the time. Miss B. and B. C. A. recall, in hypnosis
-and by automatic writing, paragraphs in the newspapers read through
-casual glances without awareness thereof. The same is true of
-perceptions of the environment experienced under experimental conditions
-as well as fortuitously. I have made a large number of experiments and
-other observations of this kind, and have been in the habit of
-demonstrating before the students at my lectures this evidence of
-coconscious perception. A simple method is to ask a suitable subject to
-describe the dress of some person in the audience, or of objects in the
-environment; if he is unable to do this, then to attempt to obtain as
-minute a description as possible by automatic writing or verbally after
-he has been hypnotized. It is often quite surprising to note with what
-detail the objects which almost entirely escaped conscious observation
-are subconsciously perceived and remembered. Sometimes the descriptions
-of my students have been quite embarrassing from their naïve
-truthfulness to nature.
-
-The following is an example of such an observation: I asked B. C. A.
-(without warning and after having covered her eyes) to describe the
-dress of a friend who was present and with whom she had been conversing
-for perhaps some twenty minutes. She was unable to do so beyond saying
-that he wore dark clothes. I then found that I myself was unable to give
-a more detailed description of his dress, although we had lunched and
-been together about two hours. B. C. A. was then asked to write a
-description automatically. Her hand wrote as follows (she was unaware
-that her hand was writing):
-
-“He has on a dark greenish gray suit, a stripe in it—little rough
-stripe; black bow-cravat; shirt with three little stripes in it; black
-laced shoes; false teeth; one finger gone; three buttons on his coat.”
-
-The written description was absolutely correct. The stripes in the coat
-were almost invisible. I had not noticed his teeth or the loss of a
-finger and we had to count the buttons to make sure of their number
-owing to their partial concealment by the folds of the unbuttoned coat.
-The shoe strings I am sure, under the conditions, would have escaped
-nearly everyone’s observation.
-
-Subconscious perceptions even more than absent-minded acts offer some of
-the most interesting phenomena of conservation, for these phenomena give
-evidence of the ability, under certain conditions, to reproduce, in one
-mode or another, experiences which were never a phase of the personal
-consciousness, never entered even the fringe of the content of this
-consciousness and of which, therefore, we were never aware. For this
-reason they are not, properly speaking, forgotten experiences. Their
-reproduction sometimes produces dramatic effects. The following is an
-instance: B. C. A., waking one night out of a sound sleep, saw a vision
-of a young girl dressed in white, standing at the foot of her bed. The
-vision was extraordinarily vivid, the face so distinct that she was able
-to give a detailed description of it. She had no recollection of having
-seen the face before, and it awakened no sense of familiarity.
-Suspecting, for certain reasons, the figure to be that of a young girl
-who had recently died and whom I knew that B. C. A. had never known and
-was not aware that she had ever seen, I placed before her a collection
-of a dozen or more photographs of different people among which was one
-of this girl. This photograph she picked out as the one which most
-resembled the vision (it was a poor likeness) and automatic writing
-confirmed most positively the choice. Now it transpired that she had
-passed by this girl on one occasion while the latter was talking to me
-in the hall of my house, but she had purposely, for certain reasons, not
-looked at her. Subconsciously, however, she had seen her since she could
-give, both in hypnosis and by automatic writing, an accurate account of
-the incident, which I also remembered. B. C. A., however, had no
-recollection of it. The subconscious perception was later reproduced
-(after having undergone secondary elaboration) as a vision.
-
-Similarly I have known paragraphs read in the newspapers out of the
-corner of her eye, so to speak, and probably by casual glances, not
-only, as I have said, to be recalled in hypnosis and by automatic
-writing, but to be reproduced with more or less elaboration in her
-dreams. She had, as the evidence showed, no awareness at the time of
-having read these paragraphs and no after recollection of the same.
-
-Experimentally, as I have said, it is possible to demonstrate other
-phenomena which are the same in principle. The experiment consists,
-after surreptitiously placing objects under proper precautions in the
-peripheral field of vision, in having the subject fix his eyes on
-central vision and his attention distracted from the environment by
-intense concentration or reading. Immediately after removing the objects
-it is determined that the subject did not consciously perceive them. But
-in hypnosis or by other methods it is found that memory for perceptions
-of the peripheral objects returns, i.e., the perceptions are reproduced.
-Auditory stimuli may be used as tests with similar results.
-
-Likewise, with Miss B., I have frequently obtained reproductions of
-perceptions of which at the time she was unaware. This has been either
-under similar experimental conditions, or under accidental circumstances
-when I could confirm the accuracy of the reproductions. For instance, to
-cite one out of numerous examples, on one occasion I saw her pass by in
-the street while I was standing on the door-step of a house some fifteen
-or twenty feet away, well outside the line of her central vision. She
-was in a brown study. I called to her three times saying, “Good morning,
-Miss B.,” laying the accent each time on a different word. She did not
-hear me and later had no recollection of the episode. In hypnosis she
-recalled the circumstances accurately and reproduced my words with the
-accents properly placed. Such observations and experiments I have
-frequently made. They can be varied indefinitely in form and condition.
-
-The phenomenon of subconscious perception of sensory _stimulations
-applied to anesthetic areas_ (tactile, visual, etc.), in hysterics,
-first demonstrated by Janet, is of the same order, but has been so often
-described that only a reference to it is necessary. I mention examples
-here merely that the different kinds of phenomena that may be brought
-within the sphere of memory shall be mentioned. For instance, Mrs. E.
-B.[28] has an hysterical loss of sensibility in the hand which, in
-consequence, can be severely pinched or pricked, or an object placed in
-it, etc., without her being aware of the fact. Notwithstanding this
-absence of awareness these tactile experiences were conserved since an
-accurate detailed memory of them is recovered in hypnosis, or manifested
-through automatic writing. The same phenomenon can be demonstrated in
-Mrs. R., whose right arm is anesthetic.[29] The same conservation of
-subconscious perceptions can be experimentally demonstrated during
-automatic writing. At such times the writing hand becomes anesthetic and
-if a screen is interposed so that the subject cannot see the hand he is
-not aware of any stimulations applied to it. Nevertheless such sensory
-stimulations—a prick or a pinch or more complicated impressions—are
-conserved, for the hand will accurately describe all that is done.
-
-An observation which I made on one of my subjects probably belongs here
-rather than to the preceding types. Several different objects were
-successively brought into the field of vision, but so far toward the
-periphery that they could not be sufficiently clearly seen to be
-identified. In hypnosis, however, they were accurately described,
-showing the conservation of perceptions that did not enter the vivid
-awareness or clear perception of the subject.
-
-It is true, as a study of the coconscious would show, that such
-phenomena of anesthesia and unrecognized perceptions are dependent upon
-a dissociation of consciousness and upon coconscious perception. But
-this is a matter of mechanism with which we are not now concerned. The
-point simply is that subconscious perceptions which never entered the
-awareness of the personal consciousness may be conserved.
-
-I will cite one more observation, one in which the reproduction was
-through secondary translation, as we shall see later that it belongs to
-a class which enables us to determine the nature of conservation.
-
-B. C. A., actuated by curiosity, looked into a crystal and saw there
-some printed words which had no meaning for her whatever and awakened no
-memory of any previous experience. It was afterward found that these
-words represented a cablegram message which she unconsciously overheard
-while it was being transmitted over the telephone to the telegraph
-office by my secretary in the next room. She had no recollection of
-having heard the words, as she was absorbed in reading a book at the
-time. The correctness of the visual reproduction is shown, not only by
-automatic writing which remembered and recorded the whole experience,
-but also by comparison with the original cablegram.
-
-Again, in other experiments there appear, in the crystal, visions rich
-in detail of persons whom she does not remember having seen, although it
-can be proved that she actually has seen them.
-
-The reproduction of subconscious perceptions and forgotten knowledge in
-dreams, visions, hypnosis, trance states, by automatic writing, etc., is
-interesting apart from the theory of memory. Facts of this kind offer a
-rational interpretation of many well-authenticated phenomena exploited
-in spiritistic literature. Much of the surprising information given by
-planchette, table rapping, and similar devices commonly employed by
-mediums, depends upon the translation of forgotten dormant experiences
-into manifestations of this sort. In clinical medicine, too, we can
-often learn, through reproductions obtained by special methods of
-investigation, the origin of obsessions and other ideas which otherwise
-are unintelligible.
-
-=Dreams and somnambulisms=.—Many people remember their dreams poorly or
-not at all, and, in the latter case, are under the belief that they do
-not dream. But often circumstantial evidence, such as talking in their
-sleep, shows that they do dream. Now, though ordinarily they cannot
-remember the dreams, by changing the waking state to an hypnotic one, or
-through the device of crystal visions or automatic writing, it is
-possible in some people to reproduce the whole dream. Amnesia for
-dreams, therefore, cannot be taken as evidence that they do not occur,
-and forgotten dream consciousness is subject to the same principles of
-conservation and reproduction as the experiences of waking life. Thus in
-B. C. A. dreams totally forgotten on awakening are easily recovered in
-hypnosis and in crystal visions.[30] In the case of M——l, which I cited
-to you a little while ago, the forgotten dream in which he lived over
-again the original episode which led to the development of his
-hysterical condition and which when repeated in the dream induced each
-successive attack, was easily recovered in hypnosis. The same was true
-of the forgotten dreams of Mrs. H. and Miss B.
-
-The reproduction of nocturnal somnambulistic acts and the ideas which
-occupied the content of consciousness of the somnambulist can be
-effected in the same manner. I have quite a collection of observation of
-this kind. In the study of visions,[31] to which I have already
-referred, may be found the observation where Miss B., looking into a
-crystal, sees herself walking in her sleep and hiding some money under a
-tablecloth and books lying on the table. The money (which was supposed
-to have been lost) was found where it was seen in the vision.
-
-In my notebook are the records of numerous artificial hallucinations of
-this kind which reproduce sleep-walking acts of B. C. A. To cite one
-instance: in the crystal she sees herself arise from her bed, turn on
-the lights, descend the stairs, enter one of the lower rooms, sit by the
-fire in deep, pensive reflection, then get up and dance merrily as her
-somnambulistic mood changes. Presently, as the cinematograph-like
-picture unfolds itself in the crystal, she sees herself go to the
-writing table, write two letters, ascend the stairs, dropping one letter
-on the way,[32] reënter her room, open a glove box, place the remaining
-letter under the gloves, and finally put out the lights and get into bed
-when, with the advent of sleep, the vision ends. In the vision the
-changing expression of her face displays each successive mood. In
-hypnosis also the scene is remembered and then even the thoughts which
-accompanied each act of the somnambulist are described. Here again,
-then, we have evidence that even forgotten dreams and somnambulistic
-thoughts are not lost but under certain special conditions can be
-revived in one mode or another.
-
- II. Forgotten Experiences of Artificial and Pathological States
-
-The experiences that I have thus far cited in evidence of the principle
-of the conservation of dormant experiences that cannot be voluntarily
-recalled have been drawn almost entirely from normal everyday life. We
-now come to a series of facts which are very important in that they show
-that what is true of the experiences of everyday life is also true of
-those of _artificial_ and _pathological_ states of which the normal
-personal consciousness has no cognizance. These facts are also vital for
-the comprehension of post-hypnotic phenomena, of amnesia, multiple
-personality, and allied dissociated states. Let us consider some of the
-states from the point of view of conservation.
-
-=Artificial states.=—After a person passes from one _dissociated state_
-to another, or from a dissociated state to the full waking state, it is
-commonly found that there is amnesia for the previous state. This is a
-general principle. The forgetting of dreams is an example from normal
-life. For the psychological state of sleep in which dreams occur is one
-of normal dissociation of consciousness by which the perception of the
-environment, and the great mass of life’s experiences, can no longer be
-brought within the content of the dream consciousness. Hence there is a
-general tendency to the development of amnesia for dreams after waking
-when the normal synthesis of the personality has been established. Yet,
-as we have seen, forgotten dreams can generally be recalled in hypnosis
-or by some other technical method (e. g., crystal visions and
-abstraction). Now _hypnosis_ is an artificially dissociated state. After
-passing from one hypnotic state to another,[33] or after waking, it is
-very common to find complete amnesia for the whole of the experience
-belonging to the previous hypnotic state. By no effort whatsoever can it
-be recalled and this inability persists during the remainder of the life
-of the subject. And yet those hypnotic experiences may have been very
-extensive, particularly if the subject has been hypnotized a great many
-times. Nevertheless, it is easy to demonstrate that they are conserved
-and therefore, like all conserved experiences, potentially still
-existing, subject to recall under favoring conditions; for, as is well
-known, if the subject be rehypnotized they are recalled as normal
-memories. With the restitution of the hypnotic state the memories which
-were dormant become synthesized with the hypnotic personality and
-conscious.
-
-The method of producing crystal visions may also be used to demonstrate
-the dormant conservation of experiences originating in hypnotic states.
-By this method and that of automatic writing, as I have already
-explained, the memories may be made to reveal themselves, without
-inducing recollection, at the very moment when the subject cannot
-voluntarily recall them. The subject, of course, being ignorant of what
-happened in hypnosis cannot recognize the visions as pictorial memories.
-In illustration of this I would recall the observation in the case of
-Miss B. where, in such an artificial vision, she saw herself sitting on
-a sofa smoking a cigarette.[34] This vision represented an incident
-which occurred during one of the subject’s hypnotic states when she had
-smoked a cigarette. Naturally Miss B., in her ignorance of the facts,
-denied the truthfulness of the vision. Other examples of a like kind
-might be cited if it were necessary.
-
-By automatic writing, also, evidence of the same principle may be
-obtained. The conserved memories are _tapped_, so to speak. Thus I
-suggest to Mrs. R. in hypnosis that after waking she shall write certain
-verses or sentences. After being awakened she reproduces automatically,
-as directed, the desired verses or sentences which, of course, belonged
-to her hypnotic experiences.[35] In other words, although the personal
-consciousness did not remember the hypnotic experience of having
-received the command and of having given the promise to write the
-verses, etc., the automatic writing by the act of fulfilling the command
-showed that all this was conserved; here again was evidence of
-conservation, in some form, of an experience at the very moment when the
-personal consciousness was unable to voluntarily recall what had taken
-place in hypnosis. Such experiments may be varied indefinitely.
-
-The following is an instance of the same phenomenon obtained by tapping
-without the use of previous suggestion in hypnosis: subject B. C. A. One
-of the hypnotic states, b, was waked up to become B, this change being
-followed, as usual, by amnesia. By means of automatic writing an
-accurate account was now obtained of the experiences which had taken
-place during the previous moments in hypnosis, the subject being unaware
-of what the hand wrote. Here were complete memories of the whole period
-of which the personal consciousness, B, had no knowledge. One of the
-most striking, not to say dramatic, demonstrations of this kind can
-sometimes be obtained in cases exhibiting several different hypnotic
-states. For instance: “c” and “b” are two different hypnotic phases
-belonging to the same individual (B. C. A.). c knows nothing of the
-experiences of b, and b nothing of c, each having amnesia for the other.
-Now one has only to whisper in the ear of c, asking a question of b, and
-at once, by automatic speech, the dormant b phase responds, giving such
-information as is sought in proof of the conservation of any given
-experience belonging to the tapped b phase. The consciousness of c
-apparently continues uninterruptedly during the experiment. The same
-evidence could be obtained by automatic writing under the same
-conditions. Again in the b phase another state known as “Alpha and
-Omega” can be tapped, giving similar evidence of conservation. In the
-case of Miss B. the same phenomena could be elicited. In this respect
-hypnotic states may show the same behavior as alternating personalities
-of which I shall presently speak.
-
-Suggested _post-hypnotic phenomena_ depend, in part, on the conservation
-of dormant complexes. In hypnosis I give a suggestion that the subject
-on waking shall, at a given moment, take a cigarette and smoke it. There
-is thus formed a complex of ideas which becomes dormant and forgotten
-after waking. Later, by some mechanism which we need not inquire into
-now, the ideas of the dormant complex enter the field of the personal
-self; the idea of smoking a cigarette arises therein and the subject
-puts the idea into execution. These consequences of the suggestion could
-not occur unless the experiences were conserved. Or, we may take an
-experiment where the hypnotic experiences are reproduced automatically
-by writing. Here the conserved experiences form a secondary system split
-off from the personal consciousness. This system reproduces the hypnotic
-experiences as memory outside of the personal consciousness.
-
-From a practical point of view this principle of the conservation of the
-experiences of the hypnotic state is of the utmost importance. The fact
-that a person does not remember them on waking—if such be the case—is of
-little consequence in principle, and, practically, this amnesia does not
-preclude these experiences from influencing the waking personality. _As
-experiences and potential memories they all belong to and are part of
-the personality._ The hypnotic experiences being conserved our
-personality may still be modified and determined in its judgments,
-points of view, and attitudes by them, as by other unrecognized memories
-when such modifications have been effected in the hypnotic state. When
-the last is the case the hypnotically modified judgments, etc., may
-introduce themselves into the content of consciousness in the waking
-state by association without being recognized as memories. There may be
-no recollection of the source of the new ideas, of the reason for the
-modification of a given judgment or attitude of mind, because there is
-no recollection of the hypnotic state as a whole; but so far as the new
-judgment or attitude is a reproduction of an hypnotic experience it is
-memory, although not perfect memory or recollection in the sense of
-localizing the experience in the past.
-
-This principle can easily be demonstrated experimentally. It is only
-necessary, for instance, to state to a suitably suggestible subject that
-the weather, with which previously he was discontented is, after all,
-fine; for although it is raining, still, the crops need rain; it will
-allay the dust and make motoring pleasant, it will give him an
-opportunity to finish his neglected correspondence, etc. The whole
-prospect, he is told, is pleasing. He accepts, we assume, the new point
-of view. He is then waked up and has complete amnesia for the
-experience. Now these ideas, developed in the hypnotic state, are
-conserved as potential memories. Though with the change of the
-moment-consciousness they cannot be voluntarily recalled, they have
-entered into associations to form a new viewpoint. Just speak to him
-about the weather and watch the result. His discontent has disappeared
-and given place to satisfaction. He expresses himself as quite pleased
-with the weather and gives the same reasons for his satisfaction as were
-suggested to and accepted by him in hypnosis. He does not recognize his
-new views as reproductions, i.e., memories, of previous experiences
-because he has no recollection of the hypnotic state. He does not
-remember when and how he changed his mind; but these experiences have
-determined his views because they have become a part of his conscious
-system of thought. The principle applies to a large part of our
-judgments not formed in hypnosis. There is nothing very remarkable about
-it. The process is similar to that of ordinary thought though it has had
-an artificial and different origin. The complex of ideas having been
-formed in hypnosis still remains organized and some of its elements
-enter the complexes of the personal consciousness, just as in normal
-life ideas of buried experiences of which we have no recollection
-intrude themselves from time to time and shape our judgments and the
-current of our thoughts without our realizing what has determined our
-mental processes. We have forgotten the source of our judgments, but
-this forgetfulness does not affect the mechanism of the process.
-
-=Pathological states.=—In the _functional amnesias_ of a pathological
-character we find the same phenomenon of conservation. Various types of
-amnesia are encountered. I will specify only the episodic, epochal, and
-the continuous, so commonly observed in hysteria. This field has been
-threshed over by many observers and I need refer only to a few instances
-as illustrations. In the first two types the experiences which are
-forgotten may have occurred during the previous normal condition. In the
-episodic the particular episode which is forgotten may have been,
-strangely enough, one which from the very important part it played in
-the life of the subject and its peculiar impressiveness and significance
-we should expect would be necessarily remembered, especially as memory
-in other respects is normal. But for the same reasons it is not
-surprising to find that the experience has been conserved somehow and
-somewhere although it cannot be recalled. The classical cases of
-Fräulein O. and Lucy R. reported by Breuer and Freud[36] are typical.
-
-From my own collection of cases I will cite the following episode from
-the case of B. C. A. This subject received a mental shock as the result
-of an emotional conflict of a distressing character. This experience was
-the exciting factor in the development of her psychosis, a dissociation
-of personality. In the resulting “neurasthenic” state, although her
-memory was normal for all other experiences of her life, this particular
-episode with all its manifold details, notwithstanding its great
-significance in her life, completely dropped out of her memory.[37]
-
-This incident was a very intimate one and it is not necessary to give
-the details. When put to the test all effort to recall the episode
-voluntarily is without result, and even suggestions in two hypnotic
-states fail to awaken it in those states. Yet when a pencil is put in
-her hand these memories are made to manifest themselves by automatic
-writing. During the writing the subject remains in a perfectly alert
-state but is unaware of what her hand is doing. At a later period after
-the subject had been restored to the normal condition she could
-voluntarily recall these memories thus, again, showing their
-conservation.
-
-One other example of episodic amnesia I will cite, inasmuch as, aside
-from the question of conservation, it is of practical importance, being
-typical of experiences which lead to obsessions of phobia. The subject,
-O. N., had an intense fear of towers such as might contain bells that
-might ring. She had no recollection of the first occasion when the fear
-occurred or of any experience which might have given rise to it, and, of
-course, could give no explanation of the obsession. Neither in
-abstraction or hypnosis could any related memories be evoked, but by
-automatic writing she “unconsciously” described an emotional and
-dramatic scene which was the occasion of the first occurrence of the
-fear and which had taken place some twenty-five years previously when
-she was a young girl.
-
-With the reason for the amnesia we are not particularly concerned at
-present excepting so far as it serves to make clear the distinction
-between recollection and conservation, and to throw light on the nature
-of the latter. The episodes in both these instances were of a strongly
-emotional character. Now we have known for many years from numerous
-observations that emotion tends to disrupt the mind and to dissociate
-the experiences which give rise to the affective state so that they
-cannot be brought back into consciousness. We may particularize further
-and, making use of the known impulsive force of emotion, attribute the
-dissociation (or inhibition) in many cases to a conflict between certain
-ideas belonging to the experience and other opposing ideas which, with
-the emotion, they have awakened. The impulsive force of the latter
-ideas, being the stronger, dissociates, or, to use the expressive term
-introduced by Freud, represses, the former. The principle of
-dissociation by conflict has been formulated and elaborated by Freud in
-his well-known theory which has been made use of to explain all
-functional amnesias. It is not necessary to go as far as that, nor does
-the theory as such concern us now. It is sufficient if in certain cases
-the amnesia (or dissociation) is a dissociation (repression) induced by
-the conative force of conflicting emotion. If so we should expect that
-the amnesia would be of a temporary nature and would continue only so
-long as the conflict and dissociating force continued. In any favorable
-moment when repression ceased or failed to be operative, as in hypnosis
-or abstraction, reproduction (recollection) could occur. But this
-requires that the registration of the experience should be something
-specific that can be dissociated without obliteration. And, further, it
-must be something that can be so conserved, somehow and somewhere,
-_during dissociation_ that, as in the case of reproduction by automatic
-writing, it can escape the influence of the repressing force and express
-itself autonomously, i.e., without the expressed memory of the
-experience entering the personal consciousness. To this we shall return
-later.
-
-In the two examples I have cited, if my interpretation is correct, the
-amnesia was due to dissociation by conflict and hence the conservation,
-as is the rule in functional dissociation, and the reproduction by
-automatic writing. This principle of dissociation by conflict and of
-conservation of the dissociated remembrances is of great practical
-importance as we shall see in later lectures. It can be best studied
-experimentally with cases of multiple personality. In the case of Miss
-B. numerous examples of amnesia from conflict were observed. Owing to
-the precise organization of the consciousness into two distinct
-personalities it was possible to definitely determine beyond question
-the antagonistic ideas of one personality which voluntarily induced the
-conflict and, by the impulsive force of their emotion, caused the
-amnesia in the other personality.[38] The same phenomena were observed
-in the case of B. C. A. As memory for the forgotten experiences in these
-instances returned as soon as the conflict ceased, conservation of them
-necessarily persisted during the amnesia.
-
-Perhaps I may be permitted to digress here slightly to point out that
-this same (in principle) phenomenon may be effected experimentally by
-suggestion. The suggested idea which has the force of a volition or
-unexpressed wish, coming in conflict with the knowledge of previously
-familiar facts, inhibits or represses the reproduction in consciousness
-of this knowledge as memory. It is easy to prove, however, that this
-knowledge is conserved though it cannot be recalled. Thus, I give
-appropriate suggestions to B. C. A. in hypnosis that she shall be
-unable, when awake, to remember a certain unpleasant episode connected
-with a person named “August.” After being awakened she has complete
-amnesia, not only for the episode, but even for the name. The
-suppression of the memory of the episode carries with it by association
-the name of the person. In fact, the name itself has no meaning for her.
-When asked to give the names of the calendar months after mentioning
-“July” she hesitates, then gives “September” as the next. Even when the
-name “August” is mentioned to her it has no meaning and sounds like a
-word of a foreign language. The memory of the episode has become dormant
-so far as volitional recollection is concerned. It can, however, be
-_recalled as a coconscious process_ through automatic writing, as in the
-preceding experiment, and then the word in all its meanings and
-associations is also awakened in the coconsciousness.
-
-The same phenomenon may be observed clinically in transition types
-standing halfway between the amnesia following emotional episodes and
-that produced by external suggestion. Auto-suggestion may then be a
-factor in the mechanism, as in the following example: In a moment of
-discouragement and despair B. C. A., torn by an unsolved problem, said
-to herself after going to bed at night, “I shall go to sleep and I shall
-forget everything, my name and everything else.” Of course she did not
-intend or expect to forget literally her name, but she gave expression
-to a petulant despairing conditional wish which if fulfilled would be a
-solution to her problem; as much as if she said, “If I should forget who
-I am my troubles would be ended.” Nevertheless the auto-suggestion with
-its strong feeling tones worked for repression. The next day, when about
-to give her name by telephone, she discovered that she had forgotten it.
-On testing her later I found that she could not speak, write, or read
-her name. She could not even understandingly read the same word when
-used with a different signification, i.e., stone [her name, we will
-suppose, is Stone], nor the letters of the same. This amnesia persisted
-for three days until removed by my suggestion. That the lost knowledge
-was all the time conserved is further shown by the fact that during the
-amnesia the name was remembered in hypnosis and also reproduced by
-automatic writing.
-
-In the epochal type of amnesia a person, perhaps after a shock, suddenly
-loses all memory for lost _epochs_, it may be for days and even for
-years of his preceding life. In the classical case of Mr. Hanna, studied
-by Boris Sidis, the amnesia was for his whole previous life, so that the
-subject was like a new-born child. It is easy to show, however, that the
-forgotten epoch is normally conserved by making use of the various
-methods of reproduction at our disposal. In the case of Hanna, Sidis was
-able through “hypnoidization” and suggestion to bring back memory
-pictures of the amnesic periods. “While the subject’s attention is thus
-distracted, events, names of persons, of places, sentences, phrases,
-whole paragraphs of books totally lapsed from memory, and in language
-the very words of which sounded bizarre to his ears and the meaning of
-which was to him inscrutable—all that flashed lightning-like on the
-patient’s mind. So successful was this method that on one occasion the
-patient was frightened by the flood of memories that rose suddenly from
-the obscure subconscious [unconscious] regions, deluged his mind, and
-were expressed aloud, only to be forgotten the next moment. To the
-patient himself it appeared as if another being took possession of his
-tongue.”[39]
-
-In another class of cases of epochal amnesia known as _fugues_ the
-subject, having forgotten his past life and controlled by fancied ideas,
-perhaps wanders away not knowing who he is or anything of the previous
-associations of his life. The “Lowell Case” of amnesia, which I had an
-opportunity to carefully observe and which later was more extensively
-studied for me by Dr. Coriat, may be instanced.[40] A woman suddenly
-left her home without apparent rhyme or reason. When later found she had
-lost all recollection of her name, her personality, her family, and her
-surroundings, and her identity was only accidentally discovered through
-the publication of her photograph in the newspaper. She then had almost
-complete amnesia for her previous life.
-
-Another case, also studied by Dr. Coriat and the writer, was that of a
-policeman who suddenly deserted his official duty in Boston and went to
-New York, where he wandered about without knowledge of who he was, his
-name, his age, his occupation, indeed, as there is reason to believe, of
-his past life. When he came to himself three days later he found himself
-in a hospital with complete amnesia for the three days’ fugue. When I
-examined him some days later this amnesia still persisted but Dr. Coriat
-was able to recover memories of his vagrancy in New York showing that
-the experiences of this fugue were still conserved. It is hardly
-necessary to remind you that, of course, the memories of his normal life
-which during the fugue it might have been thought were lost were shown
-to have been conserved, as on “coming to himself” they were recovered.
-In the “Lowell Case” substantially similar conditions were found.
-
-In _continuous or anterograde_ amnesia the subject forgets every
-experience nearly as fast as it happens. The classical case of Mme. D.,
-studied by Charcot and later more completely by Janet, is an example.
-The conservation of the forgotten experiences was demonstrated by these
-authors.
-
-In _multiple personality_ amnesia for large epochs in the subject’s life
-is quite generally a prominent feature. In one phase of personality
-there is no knowledge whatsoever of existence in another phase. Thus,
-for instance, all the experiences of BI and BIV, in the case of Miss B.,
-were respectively unknown to the other. When, however, the change took
-place from one personality to the other, with accompanying amnesia, all
-the great mass of experiences of the one personality still remained
-organized and conserved during the cycle of the other’s existence. With
-the reversion to the first personality, whichever it might be, the
-previously formed experiences of that personality became capable of
-manifesting themselves as conscious memories. This conservation could
-also be shown, in this case, by the method of tapping the conserved
-memories and producing crystal visions or artificial hallucinations.
-Those who are familiar with the published account of the case will
-remember that BIV was in the habit at one time of acquiring knowledge of
-the amnesic periods of BI’s existence by “fixing” her mind and obtaining
-a visual picture of the latter’s acts. Likewise, it will be remembered
-that by crystal visions I was enabled to bring into consciousness a
-vision of the scene at the hospital which, through its emotional
-influence, caused the catastrophe of dissociation of personality, and
-also of the scene enacted by BI just preceding the awakening of BIV, of
-all of which BIV had no knowledge.[41] As with Mr. Hanna sometimes these
-memories instead of being complex pictures were scrappy—mere flashes in
-the pan. The same condition of conservation of the experiences of one
-personality during the existence of another obtained in the case of B.
-C. A. and numerous cases recorded in the literature. In this respect the
-condition is the same as that which obtains in hypnotic states and which
-I mentioned a few moments ago.
-
-We may, in fact, lay it down as a general law that during any
-dissociated state, no matter how extensive or how intense the amnesia,
-all the experiences that can be recalled in any other state, whether the
-normal one or another dissociated state, are conserved and,
-theoretically at least, can be made to manifest themselves. And,
-likewise and to the same extent, during the normal state the experiences
-which belong to a dissociated state are still conserved, notwithstanding
-the existing amnesia for those experiences. Furthermore, if we were
-dealing with special pathology we would be able to show that many
-pathological phenomena are due to the subconscious manifestations of
-such conserved and forgotten experiences.
-
-Observation shows that the experiences of _trance states_ and allied
-conditions are similarly conserved. Fanny S., as the result of an
-emotional shock, due to a distressing piece of news, goes into a
-trance-like state of which she has no memory afterwards. Later, a
-recollection of this supposedly unconscious state, including the content
-of her trance thoughts and the sayings and doings of those about her, is
-recovered by a special device. B. C. A. likewise fell into a trance of
-which there was no recollection. The whole incident was equally fully
-recovered in a crystal vision, and also conscious memory of it brought
-back to personal consciousness by a special technic. In the vision she
-saw herself apparently unconscious, the various people about her each
-performing his part in the episode; the doctor administering a
-hypodermic dose of medicine, etc. In hypnosis she remembered in addition
-the thoughts of the trance consciousness and the various remarks made by
-different people in attendance.
-
-Even _delirious states_ for which there is complete amnesia may be
-conserved. I have observed numerous instances of this in the case of
-Miss B. For instance, the delirious acts occurring in the course of
-pneumonia were reproduced in a crystal vision by Miss B. and the
-delirious thoughts as well were remembered by the secondary personality,
-Sally.[42] I have records of several examples of conservation of
-delirium in this case. Quite interesting was the repetition of the same
-delirium due to ether narcosis in succeeding states of narcosis as
-frequently happened. A very curious phenomenon of the same order was the
-following: After the subject had been etherized a number of times I
-adopted the ruse of pretending to etherize one of the secondary
-personalities, using the customary inhaler but without ether. The
-efficient factor was, of course, suggestion. The subject would, at least
-apparently, become unconscious, passing into a state which had all the
-superficial appearances of deep etherization. At the end of the
-procedure she would slowly return to consciousness, repeat the same
-stereotyped expletives and other expressions which she regularly made
-use of when ether was actually used, and make the same grimaces and
-signs of discomfort, etc. This behavior would seem to indicate that the
-mental and physical experiences originally induced by a physical agent
-were conserved and later reproduced under imaginary conditions.
-
-Mental experiences formed in states of _alcoholic intoxication_ without
-delirium may be conserved as dormant complexes. Dr. Isador Coriat,[43]
-in his studies of _alcoholic amnesia_, was able to restore memories of
-experiences occurring during the alcoholic state showing that they were
-still conserved. The person, during the period for which later there is
-amnesia, may or may not be what is ordinarily called drunk, although
-under the influence of alcohol. Later, when he comes to himself, he is
-found to have forgotten the whole alcoholic period—perhaps several days
-or a week—during which he may have acted with apparently ordinary
-intelligence, and perhaps have committed criminal acts. By one or
-another of several technical methods memory of the forgotten period may
-often be recalled. Dr. C. W. Pilgrim[44] also has reported two cases of
-this kind in which he succeeded in restoring the memories of the
-forgotten alcoholic state. I might also recall here the case, cited by
-Ribot, of the Irish porter who, having lost a package while drunk, got
-drunk again and remembered where he had left it.
-
-Of course, in order to demonstrate the conservation of forgotten
-experiences it is necessary, when abstraction is not sufficient, to
-employ subjects in whom more profound dissociation of consciousness can
-be produced by one or another of the artificial means described so as to
-permit of the reproduction of the hidden (conserved) experiences of
-mental life. Such subjects, however, are sufficiently common. Often the
-passive state of abstraction after some practice is sufficient.
-
- Summary
-
-Although in the above résumé of the phenomena of memory I have for the
-most part made use of personal observations, these, so far as the
-phenomena themselves are concerned, are in accord with those of other
-observers. It would have been easy to have drawn for corroboration upon
-the writings of Gurney, Janet, Charcot, Breuer, Freud, Sidis, Coriat,
-and others.
-
-A survey of all the facts which I have outlined in this lecture forces
-us to ask ourselves the question: To what extent are life’s experiences
-conserved? Indeed it was to meet this question that I have reviewed so
-large a variety of forgotten experiences which experiment or observation
-in individual cases has shown to be conserved. If my aim had been to
-show simply that an experience, which has been lost beyond all possible
-voluntary recall, may still be within the power of reproduction when
-special devices adapted to the purpose are employed, it would not have
-been necessary to cover such a wide field of inquiry. To meet the wider
-question it was necessary to go farther afield and examine a large
-variety of experiences occurring in multiform conditions of mental life.
-
-After doing this the important principle is forced upon us in strong
-relief that it matters not in what period of life, or in what state,
-experiences have occurred, or how long a time has intervened since their
-occurrence; they may still be conserved. They become dormant, but under
-favorable conditions they may be awakened and may enter conscious life.
-We have seen, even by the few examples I have given, that childhood
-experiences that are supposed to have long been buried in oblivion may
-be conserved. We have seen that the mental life of artificial and
-pathological states is subject to the same principle; that the
-experiences of hypnosis, trance states, deliria, intoxication,
-dissociated personality—though there may be absolute amnesia in the
-normal waking state for them—may still be capable of reproduction as
-memory. Yet of the vast number of mental experiences which we have
-during the course of our lives we can voluntarily recall but a
-fractional part. What proportion of the others is conserved is
-difficult, if not impossible, to determine. The difficulty is largely a
-practical one due to the inadequacy of our technical methods of
-investigation. In the first place, our technic is only applicable to a
-limited number of persons. In the second place, it is obvious that when
-an episode—occurring in the course of everyday life—is forgotten, but is
-recovered under one or another of the conditions I have described, it is
-only in a minority of instances that circumstances will permit
-confirmation of this evidence by collateral and independent testimony.
-Still, if we take the evidence as a whole its cumulative force is such
-as to compel the conviction that a vast number of experiences, more than
-we can possibly voluntarily recall, are conserved, and that it is
-impossible to affirm that any given experience may not persist in a
-dormant state. It is impossible to say what experiences of our daily
-life have failed to be conserved and what are awaiting only a favorable
-condition of reproduction to be stimulated into activity as memory. Even
-if they cannot be reproduced by voluntary effort, or by some one
-particular device, they may be by another and, if all devices fail, they
-may be recovered in pathological conditions like delirium, trance,
-spontaneous hallucinations, etc., or in normal dissociated states like
-dreams. The inability to recall an experience is no evidence whatever
-that it is not conserved. Indeed, even when the special methods and
-moments fail it is still not always possible to say that it is not
-conserved.
-
-It would be a gross exaggeration to say, on the basis of the evidence at
-our disposal, that all life’s experiences persist as potential memories,
-or even that this is true of the greater number. It is, however,
-undoubtedly true that of the great mass of experiences which have passed
-out of all voluntary recollection, an almost incredible, even if
-relatively small, number still lie dormant, and, under favoring
-conditions, many can be brought within the field of conscious memory.
-The significance of this fact will become apparent to us later after we
-have studied the nature of conservation. Still more significant,
-particularly for abnormal psychology, is the fact we have brought out by
-our technical methods of investigation; namely, that almost any
-conserved experience under certain conditions can function as a
-subconscious memory and become translated into, i.e., produce sensory
-and motor automatic phenomena, such as hallucinations, writing, speech,
-etc. It will not be surprising if we shall find that various other
-disturbances of mind and body are produced by such subconscious
-processes.
-
-Two striking facts brought out by some of these investigations are the
-minuteness of the details with which forgotten experiences may be
-conserved and the long periods of time during which conservation may
-persist. Thus, as we have seen, experiences dating back to early
-childhood may be shown to be preserved in extremely minute detail though
-the individual has long forgotten them. Furthermore, it has been shown
-that even remembered experiences may be conserved in far more elaborate
-detail than would appear from so much of the experience as can be
-voluntarily recalled. Probably our voluntary memory is not absolutely
-perfect for any experience in all its details but the details that are
-conserved often far exceed those that can be recalled.
-
-In the survey of life’s experiences which we have studied we have, for
-the most part, considered those which have had objective relation and
-have been subject to confirmation by collateral testimony. But we should
-not overlook the fact that among mental experiences are those of the
-inner as well as outer life. To the former belong the hopes and
-aspirations, the regrets, the fears, the doubts, the self-communings and
-wrestlings with self, the wishes, the loves, the hates, all that we are
-not willing to give out to the world, and all that we would forget and
-would strive not to admit to ourselves. All this inner life belongs to
-our experience and is subject to the same law of conservation.
-
-Finally, it should be said that much of what is not ordinarily regarded
-as memory is made up of conserved experiences. A large part of every
-mental content is memory the source of which is forgotten. Just as our
-vocabulary is memory, though we do not remember how and where it was
-acquired, so our judgments, beliefs, and opinions are in large part made
-up of past experiences which are forgotten but which have left their
-traces as integral parts of concepts ingrained in our personalities.
-
------
-
-Footnote 27:
-
- For a full account of this experiment, see An Experimental Study of
- Visions, _Brain_, Winter Number, 1898; The Dissociation, pp. 81, 82.
-
-Footnote 28:
-
- The Dissociation, p. 77.
-
-Footnote 29:
-
- For numerous observations of this kind, see Pierre Janet: The Mental
- States of Hystericals.
-
-Footnote 30:
-
- The Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams, loc. cit.
-
-Footnote 31:
-
- Loc. cit. See p. 51.
-
-Footnote 32:
-
- See Lecture VI, p. 185.
-
-Footnote 33:
-
- Gurney was among the first to demonstrate the induction of several
- states in the same subject. He was able to obtain three different
- hypnotic states (Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IV, p. 515), and Mrs.
- Sidgwick and Miss Johnson eight in one individual, each with amnesia
- for the other. Janet, of course, demonstrated the same phenomena. In
- the cases of Miss B. and B. C. A. I obtained a large number of such
- states.
-
-Footnote 34:
-
- Morton Prince: The Dissociation, p. 55; also An Experimental Study of
- Visions, _Brain_, Winter Number, 1898.
-
-Footnote 35:
-
- Some of the Revelations of Hypnotism, _Boston Medical and Surgical
- Journal_, May 22, 1890.
-
-Footnote 36:
-
- Studien über Hysterie.
-
-Footnote 37:
-
- Of course I am not discussing here the genetic mechanism of the
- amnesia, being concerned only with the principle of conservation.
-
-Footnote 38:
-
- The Dissociation, pp. 284-5, 456-9.
-
-Footnote 39:
-
- Boris Sidis: The Psychology of Suggestion, p. 224; see also Multiple
- Personality, p. 143.
-
-Footnote 40:
-
- _The Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, Vol. II, p. 93.
-
-Footnote 41:
-
- The Dissociation, pp. 220, 221, 255, 531, 532.
-
-Footnote 42:
-
- The Dissociation, p. 83.
-
-Footnote 43:
-
- _The Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, Vol. I, No. 3.
-
-Footnote 44:
-
- _American Journal of Insanity_, July, 1910.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE IV
- CONSERVATION A RESIDUUM OF EXPERIENCES
-
-
-A consideration of all the facts of observation and experiment of the
-kind which I have recited in the last two lectures—and I might have
-multiplied them many times—forces us to the conclusion that whether or
-not we can recall any given experience it may be still conserved. Bear
-in mind that I have used conservation, thus far, only in the sense that
-under favoring changes in the moment’s consciousness, or by special
-methods of stimulation, a past experience may reproduce itself, or may
-be made to reproduce itself, in one form or another of memory.
-
-It may be, for example, that you have to-day only a vague and general
-recollection of the last lecture and if you should endeavor to write an
-account of it from memory the result would be but a fragmentary report.
-And yet it is quite possible that, if one or another of the various
-technical methods I have described could be applied to some one of you,
-we should be able to recover quite exact memories, of certain portions
-at least, of the lecture—perhaps _verbatim_ transcripts of certain
-portions, and large numbers of facts which are quite beyond your present
-recollection.
-
-Our study of those phenomena of memory which I cited in the last lecture
-was carried only so far as to allow us to draw the conclusions as to
-conservation which I have just stated. And, in drawing these
-conclusions, let me repeat—we have provisionally limited the meaning of
-the term conservation simply to the potential ability to reproduce
-experiences, with or without recollection, either in their original
-form, or translated into a graphic, visual, or auditory expression of
-them. We have not attempted from these phenomena to draw conclusions as
-to the nature of conservation, or as to whether it is anything apart
-from reproduction under favorable conditions. If we do not look below
-the surface of the phenomena it might be held that memory is only a
-recurrent phase of consciousness, and that the term conservation is only
-a figure of speech to express the ability to determine that recurrence
-in our self-consciousness.
-
-Let us examine now a little more closely some of the phenomena we have
-already examined but inadequately.
-
-=Residual processes underlying automatic motor phenomena: writing,
-speech, gestures, etc.=—We will take writing as a type and the following
-as an example: In a state of hypnosis a subject learns a verse by heart.
-It is then suggested that this verse shall be written automatically
-after he has been awakened. (By arranging the conditions of the
-experiment in this way we make certain that the script afterwards
-written shall express a memory and not a fabrication.) After the subject
-returns to the normal waking state he has complete amnesia for the whole
-hypnotic state and therefore for the verse. Now, if the experiment is
-successful, his hand writes the given verse without the subject being
-aware of what his hand is writing, and it may be without being aware
-that his hand is writing anything at all. The whole thing has been done
-without participation of his consciousness and without his knowing that
-any such phenomenon was to occur. (Of course any of his conscious
-experiences while in the hypnotic state might have been used as a test,
-these being known to the experimenter as well.) Now the things to be
-noted are:
-
-1, that the script expresses a memory; that is, reproduces previous
-_conserved_ conscious ideas—the verse. It expresses memory just exactly
-as it would express it if it had been consciously and voluntarily
-written.
-
-2, that these ideas _while in a state of conservation_ and without
-entering consciousness—i.e., becoming conscious memory—express
-themselves in written language.
-
-3, that this occurs while the subject has complete amnesia for the
-conserved ideas and therefore he could not possibly reproduce them as
-conscious memory.
-
-4, that that which effects the writing is not a recurring phase of the
-self-consciousness which is concerned at the moment with totally
-different ideas.
-
-5, that the “state of conservation” is, at least during the writing, a
-specific state existing and functioning independently and outside of the
-personal self-consciousness.
-
-6, that in functioning it induces specific processes which make use of
-the same organized physiological mechanisms which ordinarily are made
-use of by conscious memory to express itself in writing and that these
-processes are not in, but independent of, consciousness.
-
-We are forced to conclude therefore that a conscious experience—in this
-case the ideas of the verse—is conserved through the medium of some kind
-of residuum of itself capable of specific functioning and inducing
-processes which reproduce in the form of written symbols the ideas of
-the original experience.
-
-We need not consider for the present the nature of the residuum, and its
-process, whether it is the ideas themselves or something else.
-
-=Residual processes underlying hallucinations.=—We will take the
-observation of B. C. A. looking into a crystal and reading some printed
-words—a cablegram—which she had previously unconsciously overheard.[45]
-The words were, let us say, “Best Wishes and a Happy New Year.” This
-visual picture was not a literal reproduction of the original
-experience, which was a subconscious _auditory_ experience of the same
-words, of which she was not aware; but plainly, nevertheless, the visual
-picture must have been determined somehow by the auditory experience.
-Equally plainly the visual image was not a recurrent phase of the
-consciousness, for the words of the message had not been previously
-_seen_. What occurred was this: the antecedent auditory perception
-manifested itself in consciousness _after an interval of time_ as a
-visual hallucination of the words. There was a reproduction of the
-original experience but not in its original form. It had undergone a
-_secondary alteration_ by which the visual perception replaced the
-auditory perception. As a memory it was a conversion or _translation_ of
-an auditory experience into terms of another sense. Now the conversion
-must have been effected by some mechanism outside of consciousness; that
-is to say, it was not an ordinary visualization, i.e., intensely vivid
-secondary images pertaining to a _conscious_ memory, as when one thinks
-of the morning’s breakfast table and visualizes it; for there was no
-conscious memory of the words, or knowledge that there ever had been
-such an experience. The visualization therefore must have been induced
-by something not in the content of consciousness,—something we have
-called a secondary process, of which the individual is unaware.
-
-We can conceive of the phenomenon originating in either one of two
-possible modes. Either the hallucination was a newly fabricated
-conscious experience; or it was a reproduction of secondary visual
-images originally belonging to the auditory perception at the time of
-its occurrence and now thrust into consciousness in an intensely vivid
-form. In either case, for this to have taken place something must have
-been left by the original experience and conserved apart from and
-independent of the content of the personal consciousness at any and all
-moments—something capable of functioning after an interval of time as a
-secondary process _outside of the personal consciousness_. The only
-intelligible explanation of the phenomenon is that the original auditory
-impression persisted, somehow and somewhere, in a form capable of
-conservation as a specific and independent residuum during all
-subsequent changes in the content of consciousness. This residuum either
-fabricated the hallucination or thrust its secondary images into
-consciousness to become the hallucination.
-
-The phenomenon by itself does not permit a conclusion as to the nature
-of the residuum, whether it is psychological or neural; i.e., whether an
-auditory perception, as perception, still persists subconsciously
-outside the focus of awareness of consciousness, or whether it has left
-an alteration of some kind in the neurons. Whatever the inner nature of
-the conserved experience it _obviously must have a very specific and
-independent existence, somehow and somewhere, outside of the awareness
-of consciousness, and one capable of secondary functioning in a way that
-can reproduce the original experience in terms of another sense. In
-other words, conservation must be in the form of some kind of residuum,
-psychological or neural_. It must be, therefore, something very
-different from reproduction or a recurrent phase of consciousness.
-Further, it must form a stage in the process of memory of which
-reproduction is the final result.
-
-This observation of course does not stand alone. I have cited a number
-of observations and might cite many more in which the same phenomenon of
-transformation or conversion of sensory images of one sense into images
-of another sense was prominent. Indeed a study of hallucinations,
-artificial or spontaneous, which are representations of former
-experiences and where the determining factors can be ascertained, will
-show that in most, if not all, of them this same _mechanism of
-conversion_ is at work. Take, for instance, the experiment cited in our
-last lecture, the one in which Miss B. was directed to look into a
-crystal for the purpose of discovering the whereabouts of some money she
-had lost without being aware of the fact. In the crystal she sees a
-vision of herself walking along a particular street in Boston absorbed
-in thought. She sees herself in a moment of absent-mindedness take some
-banknotes out of her pocket, tear them up, and throw them into the
-street.
-
-Now this artificial hallucination was, as we have seen, a picture of an
-actual occurrence for which there was amnesia. It must, therefore, have
-been determined by that experience. The psychological phenomena
-manifested, however, were really much more complicated than would appear
-at first sight. An analysis of this vision, which unfolded itself like a
-cinematograph picture, would show that it was a composite visual
-representation of several different kinds of experiences—of past
-perceptions of her body and face, of her conscious knowledge of her
-relation to the environment (in the street), of muscular movements, and
-of her knowledge derived from subconscious tactile impressions of the
-act. Of these last she was not aware at the time of their occurrence.
-Much of this knowledge must have persisted as a residuum of the original
-experience and functioned subconsciously. Thereby, perhaps, the original
-secondary visual images were reproduced and emerged into consciousness
-as the hallucination or pictorial memory.
-
-Similar phenomena indicative of conservation being effected by means of
-a residuum of the original experience may be produced experimentally in
-various ways. For instance, in certain hysterics with anesthesia if you
-prick a number of times a part of the body—say the hand—in which all
-tactile sensation has been lost, and later direct the subject to look
-into a crystal, he will see a number, perhaps written on a hand. This
-number, let us say five, will correctly designate the number of times
-the hand was pricked. Now, because of the loss of sensibility, the
-subject was unaware of the pin-pricks. Nevertheless, of course, they
-were recorded subconsciously, coconsciously). Their subsequent
-transformation into a visual hallucination not only shows that they were
-conserved, but that they left something which was capable of taking
-part, outside of consciousness, in a secondary process which gave rise
-to the hallucination.
-
-An examination of all crystal visions, so far as they are translated
-memories of actual experiences, will show this same evidence for a
-conserved residuum.
-
-That _conservation is not merely a figure of speech_ to express the
-ability to determine the recurrence of a previous experience, but means
-a specific residuum capable of independent and elaborate functioning, is
-brought out more conspicuously in those visions which are elaborately
-fabricated symbolisms of an antecedent experience. In other words, the
-vision is not a literal recurrence of a previous phase of consciousness,
-in that the latter has been worked over, so to speak, so as to appear in
-consciousness in a reconstructed form. Though reconstructed it either
-still retains its original meaning or is worked out to a completion of
-its thoughts, or to a fulfilment of the emotional strivings pertaining
-to them (anxieties, wishes, etc.). These visions, perhaps, more
-frequently occur spontaneously, often at moments of crises in a person’s
-life, but also are observed under experimental conditions. Sometimes
-they answer the doubts, scruples and other problems which have troubled
-the subject, sometimes they express the imaginary fulfilment of intense
-longings or of anxieties and dreads which have been entertained, or
-disturbing thoughts which have pricked the conscience.[46] We are
-obliged to conclude, in the light of experimental observations of the
-same class, that such phenomena are determined by the specific residua
-of antecedent thoughts which must be conserved and function in a
-specific manner to appear in this metamorphosed form.
-
-=Similar residual processes underlying post-hypnotic
-phenomena.=—Conserved experiences which give rise to more complicated
-secondary elaboration may be observed in suggested post-hypnotic
-phenomena. Experiments of this kind may be varied in many ways. The
-phenomenon may be an hallucination similar to the one I have just
-described in hysterics, or a so-called subconscious calculation. You
-suggest in hypnosis to a suitable subject that he shall multiply certain
-numbers, or calculate the number of seconds intervening between certain
-hours—let us say between 10:43 and 5:13 o’clock—the answer to be given
-in writing on a certain day. The subject is then awakened immediately,
-before he has time to do the calculation while in hypnosis. Later, if
-the experiment is successful, at the time designated the subject will
-absent-mindedly or automatically write the figures giving the answer.
-
-There are two modes in which these calculations may be accomplished. In
-a special and limited class of cases, where there is a large split-off
-subconscious personality, or doubling of consciousness, the calculation
-may be made entirely by this secondary subconscious self, in the same
-fashion as it would be made by the principal personality if the problem
-were given in the waking state. The subconscious personality will go
-through each conscious step in the calculation in the same way.[47] In a
-second class of cases the _calculations are worked out, apparently,
-unconsciously_, without participation in the process by a subconscious
-personality even when such exists. At most it would seem that isolated
-numbers representing different steps in the calculation arise from time
-to time coconsciously as a limited secondary consciousness (of which the
-personal consciousness is unaware) until finally the figures of the
-completed answer appear therein. The calculation itself appears to be
-still another process outside both the personal and the secondary
-consciousness. When the problem has been finished the answer is finally
-given automatically. The whole process is too complicated to go into at
-this time before we have studied the problems of the coconscious.[48] It
-is enough to say that it is plain that the hypnotic experience—the
-suggested problem—must be considered as some kind of specific residuum,
-psychological or neural, and that this residuum must be one capable of
-quite elaborate independent and subconscious intellectual activity
-before finally becoming transformed into the final answer.
-
-=Residual processes underlying dreams.=—When citing the evidence of
-dreams for the conservation of forgotten experiences I spoke of one type
-of dream as a symbolical memory. I may now add it is more than this; it
-is a fabrication. The original experience or thought may appear in the
-dream after being worked over into a fantasy, allegory, symbolism, or
-other product of imagination. Such a dream is not a recurrent phase of
-consciousness, but a _newly fabricated phase_. Further, analytical and
-experimental researches go to show that the fabrication is performed by
-the original phase without the latter recurring in the content of the
-personal consciousness. The original phase must therefore have been
-conserved in some form capable of such independent and specific
-functioning, i.e., fabrication below the threshold of consciousness. For
-instance:
-
- The subject dreamed that she was standing where two roads separated.
- One was broad and bright and beautiful, and many people she knew were
- going that way. The other road was the rocky path, quite dark, and no
- one was going that way, but she had to go. And she said, “Oh, why must
- I go this way? Will no one go with me?” And a voice replied, “I will
- go with you.” She looked around, and there were some tall black
- figures; they all had names across their foreheads in bright letters,
- and the one who spoke was Disappointment; and all the others said, “We
- will go with you,” and they were Sorrow, Loss, Pain, Fear, and
- Loneliness, and she fell down on her face in anguish.
-
-Now an analysis of the antecedent thought of this subject and a
-knowledge of her circumstances and mental life, though we cannot go into
-them here, make it perfectly clear that as a fact, whether there was any
-causal connection or not, this dream _was_ a symbolic expression of
-those thoughts. The rocky path has been shown to be symbolic of her
-conception of her own life entertained through years—the other road
-symbolic of the life longed for and imagined as granted to others.
-Likewise the rest of the dream symbolized, in a way which any one can
-easily recognize, the lot which she had in her disappointment actually
-fancied was hers. The thoughts thus symbolized had been constantly
-recurring thoughts and therefore had been conserved. They were
-reproduced in the dream, not in their original form, but translated into
-symbols and an allegory. Something must, therefore, have effected the
-translation. In other words, the dream is not a recurrent phase of
-consciousness but _an allegorical fabrication_ which expresses these
-thoughts, not literally as they originally occurred, but in the form of
-an imaginative story. Now the similarity of the allegorical dream
-thoughts to the original thoughts can be explained only in two ways:
-either as pure chance coincidence, or through a relation of cause and
-effect. In the latter case the dream might have been determined either
-by the specific antecedent thoughts in question—those revealed as
-memories in the analysis, or both series might have been determined by a
-third, as yet unrevealed, series. For the purposes of the present
-problem it is immaterial which so long as the dream was determined by
-some antecedent thought. The very great frequency, not to say
-universality, with which this same similarity or a logical relation with
-antecedent thoughts is found in dreams after analysis renders chance
-coincidence very improbable. We must believe, therefore, that the dream
-was determined by antecedent experiences. It is beyond my purpose to
-enter here into an exposition of the theory of the mechanism of dreams,
-although I shall touch upon it later in some detail in connection with
-subconscious processes. We need here only concern ourselves with this
-mechanism so far as it bears upon the principle of conservation. Suffice
-it to say that analytical observations (Freud) have, it seems to me,
-conclusively shown that conserved experiences may be not only the
-determining factors in dreams, but that _while in a state of
-conservation they are capable of undergoing elaborate fabrication and
-afterwards appearing so thoroughly transformed in consciousness as not
-to be superficially recognizable_. I have also been able to reach the
-same conclusions by the method of experimental production of dreams.
-
-The only question is, in what form can a thought be so conserved that it
-can, _while still in a state of conservation_, without itself rising
-into consciousness, fabricate a symbolism, allegory, or other work
-requiring imagination and reasoning? The only logical and intelligible
-inference is that the antecedent conscious experience has been either
-itself specifically conserved as such outside of the personal
-consciousness, or has left some neural residuum or disposition capable
-of functioning and constructing the conscious dream fabrication.
-
-=Residual processes underlying physiological bodily
-disturbances.=—Before proceeding further I would invite your attention
-to another class of facts as these facts must be taken into
-consideration in any theory of conservation. These facts show that the
-residua can, by subconscious functioning, induce _physiological bodily
-manifestations_ without reproducing the original mental experience as
-conscious memory. In certain abnormal conditions of the nervous system,
-i.e., in certain psychoneuroses, we meet with certain involuntary
-actions of the limbs or muscles known as spasms and contractures; also
-with certain impairment of functions such as blindness, deafness, loss
-of sensation (anesthesia), paralysis, etc. These disturbances are purely
-functional, meaning that they are not due to any organic disease. Now
-the evidence seems to be conclusive that these physiological
-disturbances are caused sometimes by ideas after they have passed out of
-consciousness and become, as ideas, dormant, i.e., while they are in a
-state of conservation and have ceased to be ideas—or, at least, ideas of
-which the subject is aware. A moment’s consideration will convince you
-that this means that ideas, or, at least, experiences in a state of
-conservation, and without being reproduced as conscious memory, can so
-function as to affect the body in one or other of the ways I have
-mentioned. To do this they must exist in some specific form that is
-independent of the personal consciousness of the moment. To take, for
-example, an actual case which I have elsewhere described:
-
-B. C. A., in a dream, had a visual hallucination of a flash of light
-which revealed a scene in a cave and which was followed by blindness
-such as would physiologically follow a tremendous flash. In the dream
-she is warned that if she looks into the cave, she will be blinded. She
-looks; there is a blinding flash and loss of vision follows; after
-waking she was still partially blind, but she continued from time to
-time to see momentary flashes of light revealing certain of the objects
-seen in the dream in the cave, and these flashes would be succeeded
-temporarily by absolute blindness as in the dream. She had no memory of
-the dream. Now psychological analysis disclosed the meaning of the
-dream; it was a symbolical representation of certain conserved
-(subconscious) previous thoughts—thoughts apprehensive of the future
-into which she dared not look, thinking she would be overwhelmed. _While
-in a state of conservation_ the residua of _these_ antecedent thoughts
-had translated themselves into the symbolical hallucination of the dream
-and the loss of vision. Similarly after waking, although she had no
-memory of the dream, the conserved residua of the same thoughts
-continued to translate themselves into visual hallucinations and to
-induce blindness.[49] It would take too long for me to enter here into
-the details of the analysis which forces this conclusion.[50]
-
-Similarly, as is well known, convulsions resembling epilepsy, paralysis,
-spasms, tics, contractures, etc., may be caused directly or indirectly
-by ideas, after they have passed out of consciousness and ceased to take
-part in the conscious processes of thought. At least that is the
-interpretation which the facts elicited by the various methods of
-investigation seem to require.
-
-There is an analogous class of phenomena which ought to be mentioned
-among the possible data bearing upon the theory of memory, although too
-much weight cannot be placed upon them as their interpretation is not
-wholly clear. I will discuss them in detail later in connection with the
-phenomena of the emotions. They are certain _emotional phenomena_ which
-are attributed by some writers to ideas in a state of conservation. It
-has been demonstrated that ideas to which strong feeling tones are
-attached are accompanied by such physiological effects as disturbance of
-respiration, of the heart’s action, of the vaso-motor system, of the
-secretions, etc., and also by certain _galvanic phenomena_ which are due
-to the diminution of the electrical resistance of the body, probably
-caused by increased secretion of sweat.[51]
-
-Now the point is that such phenomena are sometimes experimentally
-obtained in connection with certain test words[52] spoken to the subject
-experimented upon, although he has no recollection of any incident in
-his life which could have given an emotional tone to the word and,
-therefore, can give no explanation of the physical reaction. By various
-technical methods, however, memories of a forgotten emotional experience
-in which the idea (represented by the word) plays a part and through
-which it derived its emotional tone are resurrected. I have been able to
-obtain such reactions from test words which investigation showed
-referred to the incidents of terrifying dreams which were _completely
-forgotten_ in the waking state. When the test word was given, the
-subject might, for instance, exhibit a respiratory disturbance—a sudden
-gasp—without conscious knowledge of its significance, and the
-galvanometer, with which the subject was in circuit, would show a wide
-deflection. Recovery of the dream in hypnosis would explain the meaning
-of the emotional disturbance excited by the word. The interpretation
-which has been put upon such phenomena is that the residua of the
-forgotten experience are “struck” by the test word. As the forgotten
-experience originally included the emotion and its physiological
-reaction, so the residua are linked by association to the emotional
-mechanism and when stimulated function as a subconscious process and
-excite the reaction. If this interpretation, strongly held by some, be
-correct, the phenomena are important for the support they give to the
-theory of conservation. They would indicate that conscious experiences
-must be conserved in a very specific subconscious form, one that is
-capable, without becoming conscious memory, of exciting the
-physiological apparatus of the emotions in a manner identical with that
-of conscious emotional ideas. They are open, however, to a simpler
-explanation, whether more probable or not: namely, that it is not the
-residua of the forgotten experience which unconsciously excite the
-physiological reaction, but the auditory symbol, the test word itself.
-The symbol having been once associated with the emotional reaction, it
-afterwards of itself, through a short circuit so to speak, suffices to
-induce the reaction, though the origin of the association has been
-forgotten and, therefore, the subject is in entire ignorance of the
-reason for the strong feeling manifestation. On the other hand, in some
-instances test words associated with emotional experiences which
-_originally_ were entirely coconscious and _had never entered conscious
-awareness at all_ give the reactions in question.[53] As coconscious
-memories of such experiences can be demonstrated it would seem at first
-sight as if under such conditions the word-reactions must come from a
-true subconscious process—the subconscious memory. And yet even here it
-is difficult to eliminate absolutely the possibility of the second
-interpretation. There are, however, a large number of emotional
-phenomena occurring in pathological conditions which can only be
-intelligibly interpreted as being due to the residua of previously
-conscious experiences functioning as a subconscious process. These
-phenomena we shall have occasion to review in succeeding lectures. They
-are too complex to enter upon at this stage.
-
-Aside, then, from these word-reactions we have a sufficient number of
-other phenomena, such as I have cited, which indicate that conscious
-experiences when conserved must persist in a form capable of exciting
-purely physiological reactions without the experiences themselves rising
-into consciousness again as memory. The form must also be one which
-permits of their functioning as intelligent processes although not
-within the conscious field of awareness of the moment.
-
-As a final summing up of the experiments and observations of the kind
-which I have thus far cited, dealing with forgotten experiences, we may
-say that they lead us to the following conclusions:
-
-1. That conservation is something very different from reproduction.
-
-2. A given experience is conserved through the medium of some kind of
-residuum of that experience. This residuum must have a specific
-existence independent of consciousness, in that it is capable of
-specific and independent functioning, coincidentally with and outside of
-the consciousness of any given moment. Its nature must be such that it
-can incite through specific processes the following phenomena in none of
-which the conscious processes of the moment take part as factors:
-
-(a) Specific memory for the given experience expressed through the
-established physiological mechanisms of external expression (speech,
-writing, gestures) after the manner of a mnesic process.
-
-(b) A mnesic hallucination which is a representation of the antecedent
-perceptual experience but after having undergone translation into terms
-of another sense.
-
-(c) A mnesic hallucination in which the original experience appears
-synthesized with various other experiences into an elaborate
-representation of a complex experience, or secondarily elaborated into a
-symbolism, allegory or other fabrication.
-
-(d) Mnesic phenomena which are a logical continuation of the antecedent
-conscious experiences and such as ordinarily are produced by conscious
-processes of thought—reasoning, imagination, volition (mathematical
-calculations, versification, fabrication, etc.).
-
-(e) Physical phenomena (paralyses contractures, vasomotor disturbances,
-etc.).
-
-In other words a specific experience while in a state of conservation
-and without being reproduced in consciousness can incite or induce
-processes which incite these and similar phenomena.
-
------
-
-Footnote 45:
-
- Lecture III, p. 58.
-
-Footnote 46:
-
- For specific instances, see Lecture VII.
-
-Footnote 47:
-
- Morton Prince: Experimental Evidence for Coconscious Ideation,
- _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, April-May, 1908.
-
-Footnote 48:
-
- For further details, see Lecture VI, p. 169.
-
-Footnote 49:
-
- Prince: Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams, _Jour. of Abn.
- Psych._, October-November, 1910.
-
-Footnote 50:
-
- If, lacking this knowledge of the data, any one chooses to insist that
- it was not the conserved residua of previous thoughts, but of the
- dream itself (the only alternative entertainable explanation) which
- induced, _after waking_, the hallucinatory phenomena and blindness, we
- still fall back upon the same principle, namely, that of the
- subconscious functioning of conserved residua of a conscious
- experience producing a physiological (and psychological) effect.
-
-Footnote 51:
-
- According to recent researches of Sidis in conjunction with Kalmus,
- and later with Nelson (The Nature and Causation of the Galvanic
- Phenomenon, Psychological Review, March, 1910) similar galvanic
- phenomena under similar conditions may be caused by the _generation_
- of an electric current within the body.
-
-Footnote 52:
-
- The test word (e. g., boat, stone, hat, etc.) of course represents an
- idea which may have various associations in the mind of the subject.
-
-Footnote 53:
-
- Morton Prince and Frederick Peterson: Experiments in Psycho-Galvanic
- Reactions from Coconscious (Subconscious) Ideas in a Case of Multiple
- Personality, _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, April-May, 1908.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE V
- NEUROGRAMS
-
-
-We have got as far as showing that the phenomena of memory to be
-intelligible require that ideas which have passed out of mind must be
-conserved through some sort of residuum left by the original experience.
-But this as a theory of memory is incomplete; the question remains,
-_How_, and in what form, manner, or way, are they conserved? In other
-words, What is the nature of the residuum? Is it psychical or
-physical?[54] As we have seen, from the fact that something outside of
-the personal consciousness can manifest memory of a given experience at
-the very same moment when the personal consciousness has amnesia for
-that experience, we are compelled to infer that conservation must be by
-a medium, psychological or physiological, capable of being excited as a
-specific secondary process. Now this medium must be either an
-undifferentiated “Psyche” or specific differentiated residua. In the
-former case we postulate a concept of a transcendental something beyond
-experience and of which, like the soul after death, we have and can have
-no knowledge. To this concept of an undifferentiated Psyche we shall
-return presently.
-
-If the second alternative—specific differentiated residua—be the medium
-by which experiences are conserved, then the residua must be either
-specific psychological states, i.e., the original psychological
-experience itself as such; or neural residua (or dispositions) such as
-when excited are ordinarily correlated with a conscious memory. In
-either case the medium would be such as to permit of the experiences
-manifesting themselves, while so conserved outside of the personal
-consciousness, as a very specific secondary process, not only
-reproducing the original experience as memory, but elaborating the same
-and exhibiting imagination, reasoning, volition, feeling, etc. Unless
-the doctrine of the undifferentiated Psyche be accepted it is difficult
-to conceive of any other mode in which conservation can be effected so
-as to permit of the phenomena of memory outside of consciousness.
-
-=Conservation considered as psychological residua.=—It is hypothetically
-possible that our thoughts and other mental experiences after they have
-passed out of mind, out of our awareness of the moment, may continue
-their psychological existence as such although we are not aware of them.
-Such an hypothesis derives support from the fact that researches of
-recent years in abnormal psychology have given convincing evidence that
-an idea, under certain conditions, after it has passed out of our
-awareness may still from time to time take on another sort of existence,
-_one in which it still remains an idea, although our personal
-consciousness of the moment is not aware of it_. A coconscious idea, it
-may be called. More than this, in absent-mindedness, in states of
-abstraction, in artificial conditions as typified in automatic writing,
-and particularly in pathological conditions (hysteria), it has been
-fairly demonstrated, as I think we are entitled to assert, that
-coconscious ideas in the form of sensations, perceptions, thoughts, even
-large systems of ideas, may function and pursue autonomous and
-contemporaneous activity outside of the various systems of ideas which
-make up the personal consciousness. It usually is not possible for the
-individual to bring such ideas within the focus of his awareness.
-Therefore, there necessarily results a doubling of consciousness,—two
-consciousnesses, one of which is the personal consciousness and the
-other a coconsciousness. These phenomena need to be studied by
-themselves. We shall consider them here only so far as they bear on the
-problem of conscious memory. Observation has shown that among ideas of
-this kind it often happens that many are memories, reproductions of
-ideas that once belonged to the personal consciousness. Hence, on first
-thought, it seems plausible that conservation might be effected by the
-content of any moment’s consciousness becoming _coconscious_ after the
-ideas have passed out of awareness. According to such an hypothesis all
-the conscious experiences of our lives, that are conserved, would form a
-great coconscious field where they would continue their existence in
-specific form as ideas, and whence they could be drawn upon for use at
-any future time.
-
-Various difficulties are raised by this hypothesis. In the first place,
-there is no evidence that coconscious ideas have a continuous existence.
-The technical methods of investigation which give evidence of such ideas
-functioning outside of the awareness of the personal consciousness do
-not show that at any given moment they are any more extensive than are
-those which fill the field of the personal consciousness. Indeed,
-usually, the coconscious field is of very limited extent. There remains
-an enormous field of conserved experiences to be accounted for. So far
-then as coconscious ideas can be discovered by our methods of
-investigation they are _inadequate to account for the whole of the
-conservation of life’s experiences_.
-
-In the second place, these ideas come and go in the same fashion as do
-those which make up the content of the main personal consciousness; and
-many are constantly recurring to become coconscious memories. The same
-problem, of the nature of conservation, therefore confronts us with
-coconscious ideas in the determination of the mechanism of coconscious
-memory. To explain conservation through coconscious ideas is but a
-shifting of the problem. If a broader concept be maintained, namely,
-that this coconsciousness, which can be demonstrated in special
-conditions, is but a fraction of the sum total of coconscious ideas
-outside of the personal awareness, we are confronted with a concept
-which from its philosophical nature deals with postulates beyond
-experience. We can neither prove nor disprove it. There is much that can
-be said in its support for the deeper we dive into the subconscious
-regions of the mind the more extensively do we come across evidences of
-coconscious states underlying specific phenomena. Nevertheless, the
-demonstration of coconscious states in any number of specific phenomena
-does not touch the problem of the nature of conservation. In weighing
-the probability of the hypothesis on theoretical grounds it would seem,
-as I have already said in a preceding lecture, to be hardly conceivable
-that ideas that had passed out of mind, the thoughts of the moment of
-which we are no longer aware, can be treasured, conserved as such in a
-sort of psychological storehouse or reservoir of consciousness, just as
-if they were static or material facts. Such a conception would require
-that every specific state of consciousness, every idea, every thought,
-perception, sensation and feeling, after it had passed out of mind for
-the moment, should enter a great sea of ideas which would be the sum
-total of all our past experiences. In this sum-total millions of ideas
-would have to be conserved _in concrete_ form until wanted again for use
-by the personal consciousness of the moment. Here would be found, in
-what you will see at once would be a real subconscious mind beyond the
-content or confines of our awareness, stored up, so to speak, ready for
-future use, the mass of our past mental experiences. Here you would
-find, perhaps, the visualized idea of a seagull soaring over the waters
-of your beautiful bay conserved in association with the idea of the
-mathematical formula, a + b = c; the one having originated in a
-perception of the outer world through the window of your study while you
-were working at a lesson in algebra which gave rise to the latter. And
-yet conserved as ideas, as such vast numbers of experiences would be, we
-should not be aware of them until they were brought by some mysterious
-agency into the consciousness of the moment. The great mass of the
-mental experiences of our lives which we have at our command, our
-extensive educational and other acquisitions from which we consciously
-borrow from time to time, as well as those which, we have seen, are
-conserved though they cannot be voluntarily reproduced, all these mental
-experiences, by the hypothesis, would still have persisting conscious
-existences in their _original concrete psychological form_.
-
-Such an hypothesis, to my mind, is hardly thinkable, and yet this very
-hypothesis has been proposed, though in less concrete form perhaps, in
-the doctrine of the “subliminal mind,” a particular form of the theory
-of the subconscious mind. This doctrine, which we owe to the genius of
-the late W. H. H. Meyers, has more recently appeared, without full
-recognition of its paternity, in the writings of a more modern school of
-psychology. According to this doctrine our personal consciousness, the
-ideas which we have at any given moment and of which we are aware, are
-but a small portion of the sum total of our consciousness. Of this
-sum-total we are aware, at any given moment, of only a fractional
-portion. Our personal consciousness is but sort of up-rushes from this
-great sum of conscious states which have been called the subliminal
-mind, the subliminal self, the subconscious self. These conscious
-up-rushes make up the personal “I,” with the sense of awareness for
-their content.
-
-The facts to be explained do not require such a metaphysical hypothesis.
-All that is required is that our continuously occurring experiences
-should be conserved in a _form_, and by an arrangement, which will allow
-the concrete ideas belonging to them to reappear in consciousness
-whenever the conserved arrangement is again stimulated. This
-requirement, the theory of conservation, which is generally accepted by
-those who approach the problem by psycho-physiological methods, fully
-satisfies. Before stating this theory in specific form let me mention to
-you still another variety of the subliminal hypothesis, metaphysical in
-its nature, which appeals to some minds of a philosophical tendency.
-
-=Conservation considered as an undifferentiated psychical something or
-“psyche.”=—It is difficult to state this hypothesis clearly and
-precisely for it is necessarily vague, transcending as it does human
-experience. It is conceived, as I understand the matter, or at least the
-hypothesis connotes, that ideas of the moment, after ceasing to be a
-part of awareness, subside and become merged in some form or other in a
-larger mind or consciousness of which they were momentary concrete
-manifestations or phases. This consciousness is conceived as a sort of
-unity. Ideas out of awareness still persist as consciousness in some
-form though not necessarily as specific ideas. According to this
-hypothesis, it is evident that when the ideas of the moment’s awareness
-subside and become merged into the larger consciousness either one of
-two things must happen; they must either be conserved as specific ideas,
-or lose their individuality as states of consciousness, and become fused
-in this larger consciousness as an undifferentiated psychical something.
-Some like to call it a “psyche,” apparently finding that by using a
-Greek term, or a more abstract expression, they avoid the difficulties
-of clear thinking.
-
-The first alternative is equivalent to the hypothesis of conservation in
-the form of coconscious specific ideas which we have just discussed. The
-second alternative still leaves unexplained the mechanism by which
-differentiation again takes place in this psychical unity, how a
-conscious unity becomes differentiated again into and makes up the
-various phases (ideas) of consciousness at each moment; that is, the
-mechanism of memory.
-
-But, aside from this difficulty, the hypothesis is opposed by evidence
-which we have already found for the persistence of ideas (after
-cessation as states of consciousness) in some concrete form capable of
-very specific activity and of producing very specific effects. We have
-seen that such ideas may under certain conditions continue to manifest
-the same specific functionating activity as if continuing their
-existence in concrete form (e. g., so-called subconscious solution of
-problems, physiological disturbances, etc.). This phenomenon is scarcely
-reconcilable with the hypothesis that ideas after passing out of
-awareness lose their concrete specificity and become merged into an
-undifferentiated psychical something.[55]
-
-Furthermore, for a concept transcending experience to be acceptable it
-must be shown that it adequately explains all the known facts, is
-incompatible with none, and that the facts are not intelligible on any
-other known principle. These conditions seem to me far from having been
-fulfilled. Before accepting such a concept it is desirable to see if
-conservation cannot be brought under some principle within the domain of
-experience.
-
-=Conservation considered as physical residua.=—Now the theory of memory
-which offers a satisfactory explanation of the mode in which
-registration, conservation, and reproduction occur postulates the
-conserved residua as physical in nature. Whenever we have a mental
-experience of any kind—a thought, or perception of the environment, or
-feeling—some change, some “trace,” is left in the neurons of the brain.
-I need not here discuss the relation between brain activity and mind
-activity. It is enough to remind you that, whatever view be held, it is
-universally accepted that every mental process is accompanied by a
-physical process in the brain; that, parallel with every series of
-thoughts, perceptions, or feelings, there goes a series of physical
-changes of some kind in the brain neurons. And, conversely, whenever
-this same series of physical changes occurs the corresponding series of
-mental processes, that is, of states of consciousness, arises. In other
-words, physical brain processes or experiences are correlated with
-corresponding mind processes or experiences, and vice versa.[56] This is
-known as the doctrine of psycho-physical parallelism. Upon this doctrine
-the whole of psycho-physiology and psycho-pathology rests. Mental
-physiology, cerebral localization, and mental diseases excepting on its
-assumption are unintelligible—indeed, the brain as the organ of the mind
-becomes meaningless. We need not here inquire into the nature of the
-parallelism, whether it is of the nature of dualism, e. g., a
-parallelism of two different kinds of facts, one psychical and the other
-physical; or whether it is a monism, i.e., a parallelism of two
-different aspects of one and the same fact or a parallelism of a single
-reality (mind) with a mode of apprehending it (matter)—mind and matter
-in their inner nature being held to be practically one and the same. The
-theory of memory is unaffected whichever view of the mind-brain relation
-be held.
-
-Now, according to the psycho-physiological theory of memory, with every
-passing state of conscious experience, with every idea, thought, or
-perception, the brain process that goes along with it leaves some trace,
-some residue of itself, within the neurons and in the functional
-arrangements between them. It is an accepted principle of physiology
-that when a number of neurons, involved, let us say, in a coördinated
-sensori-motor act, are stimulated into functional activity they become
-so associated and the paths between them become so opened or, as it
-were, sensitized, that a _disposition_ becomes established for the whole
-group, or a number of different groups, to function together and
-reproduce the original reaction when either one or the other is
-afterward stimulated into activity. This “disposition” is spoken of in
-physiological language as a lowering of the threshold of excitability—a
-term which does not explain but only describes the fact. For an
-explanation we must look to the nature of the physical change that is
-wrought in the neurons by the initial functioning. This change we may
-speak of as a _residuum_.
-
-Similarly a system of brain neurons, which in any experience is
-correlated in activity with conscious experience, becomes, so to speak,
-sensitized and acquires, in consequence, a “disposition” to function
-again as a system (lowering of thresholds?) in a like fashion; so that
-when one element in the system is again stimulated it reproduces the
-whole original brain process, and with this reproduction (according to
-the doctrine of psycho-physical parallelism) there is a reproduction of
-the original conscious experience. In other words, without binding
-ourselves down to absolute precision of language, it is sufficiently
-accurate to say that every mental experience leaves behind a residue, or
-a trace, of the physical brain process in the chain of brain neurons.
-This residue is the physical _register_ of the mental experience. _This
-physical register may be conserved or not._ If it is conserved we have
-the requisite condition for memory; the _form_ in which our mental
-experiences are conserved. But it is not until these physical registers
-are stimulated and the original brain experience is reproduced that we
-have memory. If this occurs the reproduction of the brain experience
-reproduces the conscious experience, i.e., conscious memory (according
-to whatever theory of parallelism is maintained). Thus in all ideation,
-in every process of thought, the record of the conscious stream may be
-registered and conserved in the correlated neural process. Consequently,
-the neurons in retaining residua of the original process become, to a
-greater or less degree, _organized into a functioning system_
-corresponding to the system of ideas of the original mental process and
-capable of reproducing it. When we reproduce the original ideas in the
-form of memories it is because there is a reproduction of the
-physiological neural process.
-
-It is important to note that just as, on the psychological side, memory
-always involves the awakening of a previous conscious experience by an
-associated idea, one that was an element in the previous system of
-associated sensations, perceptions, thoughts, etc., making up the
-experience, so, on the physiological side, we must suppose that it
-involves stimulation of the whole system of neurons belonging to this
-experience by the physiological stimulus corresponding to the conscious
-element or stimulus. For instance, if I see my friend A, the image is
-not a memory, though it is one I have had many times before and has left
-residua of itself capable of being reproduced as memory. But if I see
-his hat, and immediately previously linked pictorial images of him arise
-in my mind; or, if, when I see him, there arise images of his library in
-which I have previously seen him, these images are memory. A conscious
-memory is always the reproduction of an experience by an associated idea
-or other element of experience (conscious or subconscious). Similarly we
-must infer that the neurons correlated with any past mental experience
-are stimulated by associated neuron processes. This is the
-foundation-stone of mental physiology; for upon the general principle of
-the correlation of mental processes with neural processes rests the
-whole of cerebral localization and brain physiology.
-
-Although we assume newly arranged dynamic associations of neurons
-corresponding to associations of ideas, we do not know how this
-rearrangement is brought about, though we may conceive of it as
-following the physiological laws of lowering of thresholds of
-excitability. Nor do we know whether the modifications left as residua
-(by which the thresholds are lowered) are physical or chemical in their
-nature, though there is some reason for believing they may be chemical.
-
-=Chemical and physical theories of residua.=—It is possible that,
-through chemical changes of some kind left in the system of neurons
-corresponding to an experience, the neurons may become sensitized so as
-to react again as a whole to a second stimulus applied to one element.
-In other words a hyper-susceptibility may become established. There is a
-physiological phenomenon, known as anaphylaxis, which may possibly prove
-more than analogous, in that it depends upon the production, through
-chemical changes, of hyper-susceptibility to a stimulus which before was
-inert. The phenomenon is one of sensitizing the body to certain
-previously innocuous substances. If, for instance, a serum from a horse
-be injected into a guinea pig no observable reaction follows. But, if a
-second dose be injected, a very pronounced reaction follows and the
-animal dies with striking manifestations called anaphylactic shock. This
-consists of spasm of the bronchioles of the lungs induced by contraction
-of their unstriated muscles and results in an attack of asphyxia.[57]
-
-The mechanism of anaphylaxis is a very complicated one involving the
-production in the blood of chemical substances called antibodies, and is
-far from being thoroughly understood. One theory is that sensitization
-consists in the “fixing” of the cells of the tissues with these
-antibodies. This may or may not be correct—probably not—and I am far
-from wishing to imply that sensitization of the neurons, as a
-consequence of functioning, has anything in common with the mechanism of
-sensitizing the body in anaphylaxis. I merely wish to point out that
-sensitizing nervous tissue through chemical changes is a physiological
-concept quite within the bounds of possibility; and, as all functioning
-is probably accompanied by metabolic (chemical) changes, such metabolic
-changes may well persist in neurons after brain reactions produce
-sensitization.
-
-If this hypothesis of sensitization should be proven it would offer an
-intelligible mechanism of the phenomenon of memory. If the system of
-neurons engaged in any conscious experience were sensitized by chemical
-changes it would acquire a hyper-susceptibility. The system as a whole
-would consequently be excited into activity by any other functioning
-system of neurons with which it was in anatomical association and might
-reproduce the originally correlated conscious experience.
-
-Various theories based on known or theoretical chemical or physical
-alterations in the neurons have been proposed to account for memory on
-the physiological side. Robertson[58] has proposed that it is of the
-nature of autocatalysis. Catalysis is the property possessed by certain
-bodies called catalyzers of initiating or accelerating chemical
-reactions which would take place without the catalyzer, but more slowly.
-“A catalyzer is a stimulus which excites a transformation of energy. The
-catalyzer plays the same rôle in a chemical transformation as does the
-minimal exciting force which sets free the accumulation of potential
-energy previous to its transformation into kinetic energy. A catalyzer
-is the friction of the match which sets free the chemical energy of the
-powder magazine.”[59]
-
-Numerous examples of catalytic actions might be given from chemistry.
-The inversion of sugar by acids, the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide
-by platinum black, fermentation by means of a soluble ferment or
-diastase, a phenomenon which may almost be called vital, are all
-instances. According to Leduc “the action of pepsin, of the pancreatic
-ferment, of zymase and other similar ferments has a great analogy with
-the purely physical phenomenon of catalysis.”
-
-In auto-catalysis one of the _products_ of the reaction acts as the
-catalyzer. Now Robertson concluded, as a result of his experiments
-carried out on frogs, that the processes which accompany the excitation
-of the cells of the neurons are of the nature of catalysis; for he found
-that they have as one effect the production of an acid; and he also
-found that acids accelerate such processes which he concludes to be
-probably of the nature of oxidations. “The chemical phenomena which
-constitute the activity of a neuron cell,” he says, “seem to us then an
-_auto-catalytic oxidation_, that is to say, an oxidation in which one of
-the products of the reaction acts as a catalyzer in the reaction.” It
-occurred to him then that the physiological correlate of memory might be
-explained on the principle of auto-catalysis. When, to test this
-hypothesis, he came to compare the results of certain psychological
-experiments on memory, made by two different experimenters (Ebbinghaus
-and Smith), with the law characteristic of auto-catalytic chemical
-reactions, he found that they corresponded in a surprisingly close way
-with this law. That is to say, assuming the value of the residua of
-memory (measured by the number of syllables learnt by heart) to be
-proportional to the mass of the chemical product of auto-catalysis, we
-should expect that the increase of the number of syllables or other
-experiences retained by memory following increase of repetitions would
-obey the law of catalytic reaction as expressed in the mathematical
-formula established for the reaction. Now, as a fact, he found that the
-number of syllables that should be so retained in memory, as calculated
-theoretically by the formula, corresponded in a remarkable way with the
-actual number determined by experiment. “The agreement was closer,” the
-author states, “than that which generally obtained in experiments in
-chemical dynamics carried out _in vitro_.” Robertson sums up his
-conclusions as follows:
-
-“5th. We have shown that the phenomenon of which the subjective aspect
-is called ‘memory’ is of a nature indicating that the autocatalyzed
-chemical reactions form the mechanism conditioning the response of the
-central nervous system to stimuli.
-
-“6th. In admitting that the extent of the trace of memory may be
-proportionate to the mass of a product of an autocatalyzed chemical
-reaction unfolding itself in the central nervous system as the result of
-the application of a stimulus, we have shown that the relation which one
-theoretically deduces between the mass of memory material and the number
-of repetitions corresponds to that which has been found by experience.
-
-“7th. On the basis of the hypothesis above mentioned we have shown that
-the law of Weber-Fechner admits of a rational physico-chemical
-interpretation, and that the result thus obtained, provided the
-hypothesis above mentioned be an exact representation of facts, is that
-the intensity of the sensation is at each instant proportionate to the
-mass of the product of the autocatalyzed chemical reaction above
-mentioned and, consequently, to the extent of the trace of memory.”
-
-While it is easy to understand that auto-catalysis may take part in the
-chemical process which underlies the performance of simple volition, as
-inferred by Robertson,[60] and perhaps reproduction in the memory
-process, it is difficult to understand how such a chemical action can
-explain conservation. The problem is not that of acceleration of an
-action, but of something like the storing up of energy.
-
-Rignano[61] has proposed an hypothesis according to which the cells of
-the nervous system are to be considered as so many accumulators,
-analogous to electric accumulators or storage batteries. “The
-similarities and differences which nerve currents present in comparison
-with electric currents warrant us in assuming in nerve currents some of
-the properties of electric currents, and in attributing at the same time
-to the first other properties which the electric do not possess,
-provided these qualities are not incompatible with the others.”
-
-Now, according to the hypothesis, the specific nervous current set up by
-any stimulus forms and deposits in the nucleus of the cells (through
-which the current flows) a _substance_ which adds itself to the others
-already there without changing them and which is capable, under
-appropriate conditions, of being discharged and restoring the same
-_specific_ current by which it was produced. Each cell thus becomes what
-Rignano calls an _elementary nervous accumulator_. He points out that
-“both the conception of _accumulators of nervous energy in tension_, and
-that of _accumulators of a specific nervous energy constituting their
-specific irritability_,” which the hypothesis includes, are not new but
-“an ordinary conception very generally employed.”... “The only new thing
-which the above definition includes is the hypothesis that the
-substance, which is thus capable of giving as a discharge a given
-nervous current, _was produced and deposited_ only by a nervous current
-of the same specificity, but in the inverse direction, and could have
-been produced and deposited only by such a current.” "In just this
-capacity of restoring again the same specificity of nervous current as
-that by which each element had been deposited one would look for the
-cause of the mnemonic faculty, in the widest sense, which all living
-matter possesses. And further the very essence of the mnemonic faculty
-would consist entirely in this restitution.“
-
-”_The specific elementary accumulators_ (previously termed specific
-potential elements) are thus susceptible now of receiving a third name,
-namely, that of _mnemonic elements_." “The preservation of memories is
-to be ascribed to the accumulations of substance,” while “the
-reawakening of these memories consists in the restitution of the same
-currents [by discharge of the substance] as had formerly constituted the
-actual sensation or impression.”
-
-By this hypothesis Rignano explains not only memory but the inheritance
-of acquired characters and the whole process of specialization of cells,
-all of which phenomena are special instances of such elementary
-accumulators of organic energy being formed and discharged.
-
-Any attempt, with our present knowledge, to postulate particular kinds
-of chemical or physical changes in the nervous system as the theoretical
-residua of physiological dispositions left by psychological experiences
-must necessarily be speculative. And any hypothesis can only have so
-much validity as may come from its capability of explaining the known
-facts. It is interesting, however, to note some of the directions which
-attempts have taken to find a solution of the problem. For the present
-it is best to rest content with the theory to which we have been led,
-step by step, in our exposition, namely, that conservation is effected
-by some sort of physiological residua. This theory, of course, is an old
-one, and has been expressed by many writers. What we want, however, is
-not expressions of opinion but facts supporting them. It would seem as
-if the facts accumulated in recent years by experimental and abnormal
-psychology all tended to strengthen the theory, notwithstanding an
-inclination in certain directions to seek a psychological interpretation
-of conservation.
-
-Some minds of a certain philosophical bent will not be able to get over
-the difficulty of conceiving how a psychological process can be
-conserved by the physical residuum of a physiological process. But this
-is only the old difficulty involved in the problem of the relation
-between mind and brain of which conservation is only a special example.
-That a mind process and a brain process are so intimately related that
-either one determines the other there is no question. It is assumed in
-every question of psycho-physiology. The only question is the How. I may
-point out in passing, but without discussion, that if we adopt the
-doctrine of panpsychism for which I have elsewhere argued[62]—namely,
-that there is only one process—the mental—in one and the same
-individual, and that what we know as the physical process is only the
-mode of apprehending the mental process by another individual; if we
-adopt this doctrine of monism the difficulty is solved. In other words,
-the psychical (and consciousness) is reality, while matter (and physical
-process) is a _phenomenon_, the disguise, so to speak, under which the
-psychical appears when apprehended through the special senses. According
-to this view in their last analysis all physical facts are psychical in
-nature, although not psychological (for psychological means
-consciousness), so that physiological and psychical are one. To this
-point I shall return in another lecture.
-
-=Neurograms.=—Whatever may be the exact nature of the theoretical
-alterations left in the brain by life’s experiences they have received
-various generic terms; more commonly “brain residua,” and “brain
-dispositions.” I have been in the habit of using the term _neurograms_
-to characterize these brain records. Just as telegram, Marconigram, and
-phonogram precisely characterize the form in which the physical
-phenomena which correspond to our (verbally or scripturally expressed)
-thoughts, are recorded and conserved, so neurogram precisely
-characterizes my conception of the form in which a system of brain
-processes corresponding to thoughts and other mental experiences is
-recorded and conserved.[63]
-
-Of course it must not be overlooked that such neurograms are pure
-theoretical conceptions, and have never been demonstrated by objective
-methods of physical research. They stand in exactly the same position as
-the atoms and molecules and ions and electrons of physics and chemistry,
-and the “antibodies” and “complements” of bacteriology. No one has seen
-any of these postulates of science. They are only inferred. All are
-theoretical concepts; but they are necessary concepts if the phenomena
-of physical, chemical, and bacteriological science are to be
-intelligible. The same may be said for brain changes if the phenomena of
-brain and mind are to be intelligible.
-
-And so it happens that though our ideas pass out of mind, are forgotten
-for the moment, and become dormant, their physiological records still
-remain, as sort of vestigia, much as the records of our spoken thoughts
-are recorded on the moving wax cylinder of the phonograph. When the
-cylinder revolves again the thoughts once more are reproduced as
-auditory language. A better analogy would be the recording and
-reproducing of our thoughts by the dynamic magnetization of the iron
-wire in another type of the instrument. The vibration of the voice by
-means of a particular electrical mechanism leaves _dynamic traces_ in
-the form of corresponding magnetic changes in the passing wire, and when
-the magnetized wire again is passed before the reproducing diaphragm the
-spoken thoughts are again reproduced. So, when the ideas of any given
-conscious experience become dormant, the physiological records, or
-dynamic rearrangements, still remain organized as physiological
-unconscious complexes, and, with the excitation of these physiological
-complexes, the corresponding psychological memories awake.
-
-It is only as such physiological complexes that ideas that have become
-dormant can be regarded as still existing. If our knowledge were deep
-enough, if by any technical method we could determine the exact
-character of the modifications of the dispositions of the neurons that
-remain as vestiges of thought and could decipher their meaning, we could
-theoretically read in our brains the record of our lives, as if
-graphically inscribed on a tablet. As Ribot has well expressed it: “...
-Feelings, ideas, and intellectual actions in general are not fixed and
-only become a portion of memory when there are corresponding residua in
-the nervous system—residua consisting, as we have previously
-demonstrated, of nervous elements, and dynamic associations among those
-elements. On this condition, and this only, can there be conservation
-and reproduction.”[64] _Dormant ideas are thus equivalent to conserved
-physiological complexes._ We may use either term to express the fact.
-
-The observations and experiments I have recited have led us to the
-conclusion that conservation of an experience is something quite
-specific and distinct from the reproduction of it. They compel us to the
-conclusion that we are entitled, as I pointed out at the opening of
-these lectures, to regard memory as a _process_ and the result of at
-least two factors—conservation and reproduction. But as conservation is
-meaningless unless there is something to be conserved, we must also
-assume _registration_; that is, that every conserved mental experience
-is primarily registered somehow and somewhere. Conservation implies
-registration.
-
-Such is the theory of memory as a _process of registration,
-conservation, and reproduction_. Thus it will be seen (according to the
-theory) that ideas which have passed out of mind are preserved, if at
-all, not as ideas, but as physical alterations or records in the brain
-neurons and in the functional dynamic arrangements between them.
-
-From this you will easily understand that while, as you have seen from
-concrete observations, we can have conservation of experiences without
-memory (reproduction) we cannot have memory without conservation. Three
-factors are essential for memory, and memory may fail from the failure
-of any one of them. Unless an experience is registered in some form
-there will be nothing to preserve, and memory will fail because of lack
-of registration. If the experience has been registered, memory may fail,
-owing to the registration having faded out, so to speak, either with
-time or from some other reason; that is, nothing having been conserved,
-nothing can be reproduced. Finally, though an experience has been
-registered and conserved, memory may still fail, owing to failure of
-reproduction. The neurographic records must be made active once more,
-stimulated into an active process, in order that the original experience
-may be recalled, i.e., reproduced. Thus what we call conscious memory is
-the final result of a process involving the three factors, registration,
-conservation, and reproduction.
-
-=Physiological memory.=—Memory as commonly regarded and known to
-psychology is a _conscious_ manifestation but, plainly, if we regard it,
-as we have thus far, as a process, then, logically, we are entitled to
-regard any process which consists of the three factors, registration,
-conservation, and reproduction of experiences, as memory, whether the
-final result be the reproduction of a conscious experience, or one to
-which no consciousness was ever attached. In other words, theoretically
-it is quite possible that acquired physiological body-experiences may be
-reproduced by exactly the same process as conscious experiences, and
-their reproduction would be entitled to be regarded as memory quite as
-much as if the experience were one of consciousness. In principle it is
-evident that it is entirely immaterial whether that which is reproduced
-is a conscious or an unconscious experience so long as the mechanism of
-the process is the same.
-
-Now, as a matter of fact, there are a large number of acquired
-physiological body-actions which, though unconscious, must be regarded
-quite as much as manifestations of memory as is the conscious repetition
-of the alphabet, or any other conscious acquisition. Having been
-acquired they are _ipso facto_ reproductions of organized experiences.
-We all know very well that movements acquired volitionally, and perhaps
-laboriously, are, after constant repetition, reproduced with precision
-without conscious guidance.
-
-They are said to be automatic; even the guiding afferent impressions do
-not enter the content of consciousness. The maintaining of the body in
-one position, sitting or standing, though requiring a complicated
-correlation of a large number of muscles, is carried out without
-conscious volition. It is the same with walking and running. Still more
-complicated movements are similarly performed in knitting, typewriting
-and playing the piano, shaving, buttoning a coat, etc. We do not even
-know the elementary movements involved in the action, and must become
-aware of them by observation. The neurons remember, i.e., conserve and
-reproduce the process acquired by previous conscious experiences. But
-though it is memory it is not conscious memory, it is unconscious
-memory, i.e., a physiological memory. The acquired dispositions repeat
-themselves—what is called habit. Precision in games of skill largely
-depend upon this principle. A tennis player must learn the “stroke” to
-play the game well. This means that the muscles must be coordinated to a
-delicate adjustment which, once learned, must be unconsciously
-remembered and used, without consciously adjusting the muscles each time
-the ball is hit. Indeed some organic memories are so tenacious that a
-player once having learned the stroke finds great difficulty even by
-effort of will in unlearning it and making his muscles play a different
-style of stroke. Likewise one who has learned to use his arms in
-sparring by one method finds difficulty in learning to spar by another
-method. In fact almost any acquired movement is compounded of elementary
-movements which by repetition were linked and finely adjusted to produce
-the resultant movement, and finally conserved as an _unconscious
-physiological arrangement_. As one writer has said, the neuron
-organization “faithfully preserves the records of processes often
-performed.”
-
-In what has just been said the fact has not been overlooked that the
-initiation or modification of any of the movements which have been
-classed as physiological memory (knitting, typewriting, games of skill,
-etc.), even after their acquisition, is necessarily voluntary and
-therefore, so far, a conscious memory, but the nice coördination of
-afferent and efferent impulses for the adjustment of the muscles
-involved becomes, by repetition, an unconscious mechanism, and is
-performed outside the province of the will as an act of _unconscious
-memory_. By repeated experience the neurons become functionally
-organized in such a way as to acquire and conserve a functional
-“disposition” to reproduce the movements originally initiated by
-volition.
-
-Physiological memory has indeed, as it seems, been recently
-experimentally demonstrated by Rothmann, who educated a dog from which
-the hemispheres had been removed to perform certain tricks; e. g., to
-jump over a hurdle.[65]
-
-Still another variety of memory is _psycho-physiological_. This type is
-characterized by a combination of psychological and physiological
-elements and is important, as we shall see later, because of the
-conspicuous part which such memories play in pathological conditions.
-Certain bodily reactions which are purely physiological, such as
-vaso-motor, cardiac, respiratory, intestinal, digestive, etc.,
-disturbances, become, as the result of certain experiences, linked with
-one or another psychical element (sensations, perceptions, thoughts),
-and, this linking becoming conserved as a “disposition,” the
-physiological reaction is reproduced whenever the psychical element is
-introduced into consciousness. Thus, for example, the perception or
-thought of a certain person may become, as the result of a given social
-episode, so linked with blushing or cardiac palpitation that whenever
-the former is thrust into consciousness, no matter how changed the
-conditions may be from those of the original episode, the physiological
-reaction of the blood vessels or heart is reproduced. Here the original
-psycho-physiological experience—the association of an idea (or psychical
-element) with the physiological process is conserved and reproduced.
-Such a reproduction is essentially a psycho-physiological memory
-depending wholly upon the acquired disposition of the neurons.[66]
-
-Thus, to take an actual example from real life, a certain person during
-a series of years was expecting to hear bad news because of the illness
-of a member of the family and consequently was always startled, and her
-“heart always jumped into her throat,” whenever the telephone rang.
-Finally the news came. That anxiety is long past, but now when the
-telephone rings, although she is not expecting bad news and no thought
-of the original experience consciously arises in her mind, her “heart
-always gives a leap and sometimes she bursts into a perspiration.”
-
-A beautiful illustration of this type of memory is to be found in the
-results of the extremely important experiments, for psychology as well
-as physiology, of Pawlow and his co-workers in the reflex stimulation of
-saliva in dogs. These experiments show the possibility of linking a
-physiological process to a psychological process by education, and
-through the conservation of the association reproducing the
-physiological process as an act of unconscious memory. (The experiments,
-of course, were undertaken for an entirely different purpose, namely,
-that of studying the digestive processes only.) It should be explained
-that it was shown that the salivary glands are selective in their
-reaction to stimuli in that they do not respond at all to some (pebbles,
-snow), but respond to others with a thin watery fluid containing mere
-traces of mucin or a slimy mucin-holding fluid, according as to whether
-the stimulating substance is one which the dog rejects, and which
-therefore must be washed out or diluted (sands, acids, bitter and
-caustic substances), or is an eatable substance and must as a food bolus
-be lubricated for the facilitation of its descent. Dryness of the food,
-too, largely determined the quantity of the saliva.
-
-Now the experiments of the St. Petersburg laboratory brought out another
-fact which is of particular interest for us and which is thus described
-by Pawlow. “In the course of our experiments it appeared that all the
-phenomena of adaptation which we saw in the salivary glands under
-_physiological_ conditions, such, for instance, as the introduction of
-the stimulating substances into the buccal cavity, reappeared in exactly
-the same manner under the influence of _psychological_ conditions—that
-is to say, when we merely drew the animal’s attention to the substances
-in question. Thus, when we pretended to throw pebbles into the dog’s
-mouth, or to cast in sand, or to pour in something disagreeable, or,
-finally, when we offered it this or that kind of food, a secretion
-either immediately appeared or it did not appear, in accordance with the
-properties of the substance which we had previously seen to regulate the
-quantity and nature of the juice when _physiologically_ excited to flow.
-If we pretended to throw in sand a watery saliva escaped from the mucous
-glands; if food, a slimy saliva. And if the food was dry—for example,
-dry bread—a large quantity of saliva flowed out even when it excited no
-special interest on the part of the dog. When, on the other hand, a
-moist food was presented—for example, flesh—much less saliva appeared
-than in the previous case however eagerly the dog may have desired the
-food. This latter effect is particularly obvious in the case of the
-parotid gland.”[67]
-
-It is obvious that in these experiments, when the experimenter pretended
-to throw various substances into the dog’s mouth, the action was
-effective in producing the flow of saliva of specific qualities because,
-through repeated experiences, the pictorial images (or ideas) of the
-substance had become associated with the specific physiological salivary
-reaction, and this association had been conserved as a neurogram.
-Consequently the neurographic residue when stimulated each time by the
-pretended action of the experimenter reproduced reflexly the specific
-physiological reaction and, so far as the process was one of
-registration, conservation, and reproduction, it was an act of
-psycho-physiological memory.
-
-That this is the correct interpretation of the educational mechanism is
-made still more evident by other results that were obtained; for it was
-found that the effective psychical stimulus may be part of wider
-experiences or a complex of ideas; everything that has been in any way
-psychologically associated with an object which physiologically excites
-the saliva reflex may also produce it; the plate which customarily
-contains the food, the furniture upon which it stands; the person who
-brings it; even the sound of the voice and the sound of the steps of
-this person.[68]
-
-Indeed, it was found that any sensory stimulus could be educated into
-one that would induce the flow of saliva, if the stimulus had been
-previously associated with food which normally excited the flow. “Any
-ocular stimulus, any desired sound, any odor that might be selected, and
-the stimulation of any part of the skin, either by mechanical means or
-by the application of heat or cold, have in our hands never failed to
-stimulate the salivary glands, although they were all of them at one
-time supposed to be inefficient for such a purpose. This was
-accomplished by applying these stimuli simultaneously with the action of
-the salivary glands, this action having been evolved by the giving of
-certain kinds of food or by forcing certain substances into the dog’s
-mouth.”[69] It is obvious that reflex excitation thus having been
-accomplished by the education of the nerve centers to a previously
-indifferent stimulus the reproduction of the process through this
-stimulus is, in principle, an act of physiological memory.[70]
-
-The experiences of the dogs embraced quite large systems of ideas and
-sensory stimuli which included the environment of persons and their
-actions, the furniture, plates, and other objects; and various ocular,
-auditory, and other sensory stimuli applied arbitrarily to the dogs. All
-these experiences had been welded into an associative system and
-conserved as neurograms. Consequently it was only necessary to stimulate
-again any element in the neurogram to reproduce the whole process,
-including the specific salivary reaction.
-
-We shall see later that these experiments acquire additional interest
-from the fact that in them is to be found the fundamental principle of
-what under other conditions can be recognized as a _psycho-neurosis—an
-abnormal or perverted association and memory_. The effects produced by
-this association of stimuli may be regarded as the germ of the habit
-psychosis, and in these experiments we have experimental demonstration
-of the mechanism of these psychoses—but this is another story which we
-will take up by and by.
-
-=Recollection.=—This is as good a place as any other to call attention
-to a certain special form of memory. Recollection and memory are not
-synonymous terms. We are accustomed to think of memory as including, in
-addition to other qualities, recollection, i.e., what is called
-localization of the experience in time and space. It connotes an
-awareness of the content of the memory having been once upon a time a
-previous experience which is more or less accurately located in a given
-past time (yesterday, or a year ago, or twenty years ago), and in
-certain local relations of space (when we were at school, or riding in a
-railway car with so and so). But, as Ribot points out, this (relatively
-to physiological memories) is ... “only a certain kind of memory which
-we call perfect.” For we have just seen that, when memory is considered
-as a process, reproduced physiological processes, which contain no
-elements of consciousness and therefore of localization, may be memory.
-But more than this, I would insist, _recollection is only a more perfect
-kind of conscious memory_. Ribot would make recollection a peculiarity
-of all conscious memory, but this is plainly an oversight. As we saw in
-previous lectures there may be _conscious memories which do not contain
-any element of recollection_, or, in other words, such conscious
-memories resemble in every way, in principle, the reproduction of
-organic neuron processes in that they have no conscious localization in
-the past. In dissociated personalities, for instance, and in other types
-of _dissociated conditions_ (functional amnesia, post-hypnotic states,
-etc.), the names of persons, places, faces, objects, and even complex
-ideas may flash into the mind without any element of recollection. The
-person may have no idea whence they come, but by experiment it is easy
-to demonstrate that they are automatic memories of past experiences.[71]
-In the sensory automatisms known as _crystal visions_, pictures which
-accurately reproduce, symbolically, past experiences of which the
-subject has no recollection may vividly arise in the mind. Such pictures
-are real conscious symbolic memories. _Dreams_, too, as we have seen,
-may be unrecognized memories in that they may reproduce conscious
-experiences, something heard or seen perhaps, but which has been
-completely forgotten even when awake. Again, modern methods of
-investigation show that numerous ideas that occur in the course of our
-_everyday thoughts_—names, for instance—are excerpts from, or vestiges
-of, previous conscious experiences of which we have no recollection,
-that is to say, they are memories, reproductions of formerly experienced
-ideas. In the absence of recollection they seem to belong only to the
-present. Memories which hold an intermediate place between these
-automatic memories and those of true recollection are certain memories,
-like the alphabet or a verse or phrase once learned by heart which we
-are able at best to localize only dimly in the past. Indeed, the greater
-part of our _vocabulary_ is but conscious memory without localization in
-the past. So we see that recollection is not an essential even for
-conscious memories. It is only a particular phase of memory just as are
-automatic conscious memories.
-
------
-
-Footnote 54:
-
- I use this term physical in the sense in which it is used in the
- physical sciences without reference to any metaphysical concept or the
- ultimate nature of matter or of a physical process.
-
-Footnote 55:
-
- The psyche would have to be one which would be capable of becoming
- differentiated at one and the same moment into two independent
- consciousnesses—the personal and the secondary; a soul split into two,
- so to speak. The desire to explain a secondary consciousness by this
- doctrine has probably given rise to the popular notion of two souls in
- a single body!
-
-Footnote 56:
-
- If the theory of the unconscious presented in these lectures be firmly
- established this doctrine will have to be modified to this extent,
- that, while all mental processes are accompanied by brain processes,
- brain processes that ordinarily have conscious equivalents can within
- certain limits occur without them and exhibit all the characteristics
- of intelligence—unconscious cerebration. _Indeed, it becomes probable
- that every mental process is a part of a larger mechanism in which
- unconscious brain processes not correlated with the specifically
- conscious processes are integral factors._
-
-Footnote 57:
-
- Dr. S. J. Meltzer has pointed out in a very suggestive article
- (_Journal American Medical Association_, Vol. IV, No. 12) that the
- anaphylactic attack resembles that of bronchial asthma in man, and
- argues that this latter disease may be the same phenomenon.
-
-Footnote 58:
-
- T. Brailsford Robertson: Sur la Dynamique chimique du système nerveux
- central, Archiv. de Physiol. v. 6, 1908, p. 388. Ueber die Wirkung von
- Säuren auf das Athmungs Zentrum, Arch. f. die Gesammte Physiologie,
- Bd. 145, Hft. 5 u. 6, 1912.
-
-Footnote 59:
-
- Stéphane Leduc: The Mechanism of Life.
-
-Footnote 60:
-
- Further studies in the chemical dynamics of the central nervous
- system, Folio Neuro-Biologica, Bd. VI, Nos. 7 and 8, 1912.
-
-Footnote 61:
-
- Eugenio Rignano: Upon the Inheritance of Acquired Characters. Trans.
- by Basil C. H. Harvey, Chicago. Open Court Publishing Co., 1911.
-
-Footnote 62:
-
- Prince: The Nature of Mind and Human Automatism, 1885:
- Hughlings-Jackson on the Connection between the Mind and Brain,
- _Brain_, p. 250, 1891; The Identification of Mind and Matter,
- _Philosoph. Rev._, July, 1904.
-
-Footnote 63:
-
- Richard Semon (Die Mneme, 1908) has adopted the term Engramm with much
- the same signification that I have given to Neurogram, excepting that
- Engramm has a much wider meaning and connotation. It is not limited to
- nervous tissue, but includes the residual changes held by some to be
- left in all irritable living substances after stimulation. All such
- substances are therefore capable of memory in a wide sense (Mneme).
-
-Footnote 64:
-
- Th. Ribot: Diseases of Memory, pp. 154, 155. Translation by William
- Huntington Smith. D. Appleton & Co.
-
-Footnote 65:
-
- Cf. Lecture VIII, p. 238.
-
-Footnote 66:
-
- Emotion is a factor in the genesis of such phenomena, but may be
- disregarded for the present until we have studied the phenomena of the
- emotions by themselves.
-
-Footnote 67:
-
- The Work of the Digestive Glands (English Translation), p. 152.
-
-Footnote 68:
-
- Psychische Erregung der Speicheldrusen, J. P. Pawlow. Ergebnisse der
- Physiologie, 1904, I Abteil., p. 182.
-
-Footnote 69:
-
- Huxley Lecture, _Br. Med. Jour._, October 6, 1906.
-
-Footnote 70:
-
- Pawlow overlooked in these experiments the possible, if not probable,
- intermediary of the emotions in producing the effects. The principle,
- however, would not be affected thereby.
-
-Footnote 71:
-
- Compare “The Dissociation,” pp. 254, 261. For examples, see also
- “Multiple Personality,” by Boris Sidis, and “The Lowell Case of
- Amnesia,” by Isador Coriat, _The Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, Vol.
- II, p. 93.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE VI
- SUBCONSCIOUS PROCESSES
-
-
-In what I have said thus far I have had another purpose in view than
-that of a mere exposition of the psycho-physiological theory of memory.
-This other and chief purpose has been to lay the foundation for a
-conception of the _Unconscious_ in its larger aspect. We have seen that
-thoughts and other conscious experiences that have passed out of mind
-may be and to an enormous extent are conserved and, from this point of
-view, may be properly regarded as simply _dormant_. Further we have seen
-that all the data collected by experimental pathology and other
-observations lead to the conclusion that conservation is effected in the
-form of neurographic residua or brain neurograms—organized physiological
-records of passing mental experiences of all sorts and kinds. We have
-seen that these neurographic records conserve not only our educational
-acquisitions and general stock of knowledge—all those experiences which
-we remember—but a vast number of others which we cannot spontaneously
-recall, including, it may be, many which date back to early childhood,
-and many which we have deliberately repressed, put out of mind and
-intentionally forgotten. We have also seen that it is not only these
-mental experiences which occupied the focus of our attention that leave
-their counterpart in neurograms, but those as well of which we are only
-partially aware—absent-minded thoughts and acts and sensations and
-perceptions which never entered our awareness at all—subconscious or
-coconscious ideas as they are called. Finally, we have seen that the
-mental experiences of every state, normal, artificial, or pathological,
-whatever may be the state of the personal consciousness, are subject to
-the same principle of conservation. In this way, in the course of any
-one’s natural life, an enormous field of neurograms is formed
-representing ideas which far transcend in multitude and variety those of
-the personal consciousness at any given moment and all moments, and
-which are far beyond the voluntary beck and call of the personal
-consciousness of the individual.
-
-Neurograms are concepts and, by the meaning of the concept, they are
-unconscious. It is not necessary to enter into the question whether they
-are in their ultimate nature psychical or physical. That is a
-philosophical question.[72] They are at any rate unconscious in this
-sense; they are devoid of consciousness, i.e., have none of the
-psychological attributes of any of the elements of consciousness, and in
-the sense in which any physiological arrangement or process is not
-conscious, i.e., is unconscious. We have here, then, in the concept of
-brain residual neurograms the fundamental meaning of the
-_Unconscious_.[73] _The unconscious is the great storehouse of
-neurograms which are the physiological records of our mental lives._ By
-the terms of the concept neurograms are primarily passive—the potential
-form, as it were, in which psychical energy is stored. This is not to
-say, however, that, from moment to moment, certain ones out of the great
-mass may not become active processes. On the contrary, according to the
-theory of memory, when certain complexes of neurograms are stimulated
-they take on activity and function—the potential energy becomes
-converted into dynamic energy. In correlation with the functioning of
-such neurographic complexes, the complexes of ideas which they
-conserve—the psychological equivalents—are reproduced (according to the
-doctrines of monism and parallelism) and enter the stream of the
-personal consciousness. The unconscious becomes the conscious (monism),
-or provided with correlated conscious accompaniments (parallelism), and
-we may speak of the ideas arising out of the unconscious.
-
-=Neurograms may also function as subconscious processes exhibiting
-intelligence and determining mental and bodily behavior.=—Here two
-important questions present themselves. Is it a necessary consequence
-that when unconscious neurograms become active processes psychological
-equivalents must be awakened; and when they are awakened, must they
-_necessarily_ enter the stream of the personal consciousness? If both
-these questions may be answered in the negative, _then plainly in either
-case such active processes become by definition subconscious
-processes_—of an _unconscious_ nature in the one case and of a
-_coconscious_ nature in the other. They would be subconscious because in
-the first place they would occur outside of consciousness and there is
-no awareness of them, and in the second place they would be a
-dissociated second train of processes distinct from those engaged in the
-conscious stream of the moment. Theoretically such subconscious
-processes, whether unconscious or coconscious, might perform a variety
-of functions according to the specificity of their activities.
-
-Now, in preceding lectures, when marshalling the evidence for
-conservation, we met with a large number and variety of phenomena
-(automatic writing, hallucinations, post-hypnotic phenomena, dreams,
-“unconscious” solution of problems, etc.), which clearly demonstrated
-that memory might be manifested by processes of which the individual was
-unaware and which were outside the content of consciousness. Hence these
-phenomena presented very clear evidence of the occurrence of processes
-that may be properly termed _subconscious_.[74] Attention, however, was
-primarily directed to them only so far as they offered evidence of
-conservation and of the mode by which conservation was effected. But
-necessarily these evidences were subconscious manifestations of
-forgotten experiences (memory), and in so far as this was the case we
-saw that unconscious neurograms can take on activity and function
-subconsciously; i.e., without their psychological equivalents (i.e.,
-correlated conscious memory) entering the stream of the personal
-consciousness. We may now speak of these processes as =subconscious
-memory=. But when their manifestations are carefully scrutinized they
-will be found to exhibit more than memory. They may, for instance,
-exhibit logical elaboration of the original experiences, and what
-corresponds to fabrication, reasoning, volition and affectivity.
-_Theoretically_ this is what we should expect if any of the conserved
-residual experiences of life can function subconsciously. As life’s
-experiences include fears, doubts, scruples, wishes, affections,
-resentments, and numerous other affective states, innate dispositions,
-and instincts, the subconscious memory process necessarily may include
-any of these affective complexes of ideas and tendencies. An affective
-complex means an idea (or ideas) linked to one or more emotions and
-feelings. In other words, any acquired residua drawn from the general
-storehouse of life’s experiences may be systematized with feelings and
-emotions, the innate dispositions and instincts of the organism. Now it
-is a general psychological law that such affective states tend by the
-force of their conative impulses to carry the specific ideas with which
-they are systematized to fulfilment through mental and bodily behavior.
-Consequently, theoretically, it might thus well be that the residua of
-diverse experiences, say a fear or a wish, by the force of such impulses
-might become activated into very specific subconscious processes with
-very specific tendencies expressing themselves in very specific ways,
-producing very specific and diverse phenomena. Thus memory would be but
-one of the manifestations of subconscious processes.
-
-Now, as a matter of fact, there are a large number of phenomena which
-not only justify the postulation of subconscious processes but also the
-inference that such processes, activated by their affective impulses,
-may so influence conscious thought that the latter is modified in
-various ways; that it may be determined in this or that direction,
-inhibited, interrupted, distorted, made insistent, and given
-pathological traits. There is also a large variety of bodily phenomena
-which can be explicitly shown to be due to subconscious processes, and
-many which are only explicable by such a mechanism. Indeed, a
-subconscious process may become very complex and constellated with any
-one or many of the psycho-physiological mechanisms of the organism. In
-special artificial and pathological conditions where such processes
-reach their highest development, as manifested through their phenomena,
-they may exhibit that which when consciously performed is understood to
-be _intelligence_, comprising reasoning, constructive imagination,
-volition, and feeling; in short, what is commonly called thought or
-mental processes. Memory, of course, enters as an intrinsic element in
-these manifestations just as it is an intrinsic element in all thought.
-The automatic script that describes the memories of a long-forgotten
-childhood experience may at the same time reason, indulge in jests,
-rhyme, express cognition and understanding of questions—indeed (if put
-to the test), might not only pass a Binet-Simon examination for
-intelligence, but take a high rank in a Civil Service examination. In
-these more elaborate exhibitions of subconscious intelligence it is
-obvious that there is an exuberant efflorescence of the residua
-deposited in many unconscious fields by life’s experiences and
-synthesized into a _subconscious functioning system_.
-
-It is beyond the scope of this lecture to examine into the particular
-_mechanism_ by which a subconscious process is provoked at all—why, for
-instance, a dormant wish or fear-neurogram becomes activated into a
-subconscious wish or fear, or having become activated, the mechanism by
-which such a wish or fear manifests itself in this phenomenon or that—or
-to examine even any large number of the various phenomena which are
-provoked by subconscious processes, and it is not my intention to do so.
-Such problems belong to special psychology and special pathology. Of
-recent years, for instance, certain schools of psychology, and in
-particular the Freudian school, have attempted to establish particular
-mechanisms by which subconscious processes come into being and express
-themselves. We are engaged in the preliminary and fundamental task of
-establishing, if possible, certain basic principles which any mechanism
-must make use of, and, as a deeper-lying theoretical question, the
-nature of such processes.
-
-The subconscious now belongs to popular speech and it is the fashion of
-the day to speak of it glibly enough, but I fear it means very little to
-the average person. It is involved in vagueness if not mystery. Yet as a
-necessary induction from observed facts it has a very precise and
-concrete meaning devoid of abstruseness, just as the other has a precise
-and concrete meaning. Although subconscious processes were originally
-postulated on theoretical grounds, the theory is fortunately open to
-experimental tests so that it is capable of being placed on an
-experimental basis like other concepts of science. It is possible to
-artificially create such processes and study their phenomena; that is to
-say, the modes in which they manifest their activities, their influence
-upon conscious and bodily processes. We can study their effect in
-inhibiting and distorting thought, in determining it in this or that
-direction, in creating hallucinatory, emotional, amnesic, and other
-mental phenomena, in inducing physiological disturbances of motion,
-sensation, of the viscera, etc. We can also study the capabilities and
-limitations of the subconscious in carrying on intelligent operations
-below the threshold of consciousness. Again, we can investigate the
-phenomena of this kind as met with in the course of clinical
-observations, and by technical methods of research explore the
-subconscious and thus explicitly reveal the process underlying and
-inducing the phenomena. By such methods of investigation the
-subconscious has been removed from the field of speculative psychology,
-and placed in the field of experimental research. We have thus been
-enabled to postulate a subconscious process as a _definite concrete
-process producing very definite phenomena_. These processes and their
-phenomena have become a field of study in themselves and, from my point
-of view, the determination of the laws of the subconscious should be
-approached by such experimental and technical methods of research. After
-its various modes of activity, its capabilities and limitations have
-been in this way established, its laws can then be applied to the
-solution of conditions surrounding particular problems. Though we can
-determine the actuality of a particular subconscious process this does
-not mean that we can determine all the components of that process; we
-may be able to determine many or perhaps none of these: just as among
-the constituents of a crowd we may discern an active, turbulent group
-creating a disturbance, though we may not be able to recognize all the
-components of the group or the scattered individuals acting in
-conjunction with it. Nor may we be able to determine the intrinsic
-nature of a subconscious process—whether it is a conscious or
-unconscious one, but only the actuality of the process, the conditions
-of its activity, and the phenomena which it induces.
-
-_A subconscious process may be provisionally defined as one of which the
-personality is unaware, which, therefore, is outside the personal
-consciousness, and which is a factor in the determination of conscious
-and bodily phenomena, or produces effects analogous to those which might
-be directly or indirectly induced by consciousness._ It would be out of
-the question at this time to enter into an exposition of the larger
-subject—the multiform phenomena of the subconscious, but as its
-processes are fundamental to an understanding of many phenomena with
-which we shall have to deal, we should have a clear understanding of the
-grounds on which such processes are postulated as specific, concrete
-occurrences. The classical demonstration of subconscious occurrences
-makes use of certain phenomena of hysteria, particularly those of
-subconscious personalities and artificial “automatic” phenomena like
-automatic writing. The epoch-making researches of Janet[75] on hysterics
-and almost coincidently with him of Edmund Gurney on hypnotics very
-clearly established the fact that these phenomena are the manifestations
-of _dissociated_ processes outside of and independent of the personal
-consciousness. Among the phenomena, for example, are motor activities of
-various kinds such as ordinarily are or may be induced by conscious
-intelligence. As the individual, owing to anesthesia, may be entirely
-unaware even that he has performed any such act, the process that
-performed it must be one that is subconscious.
-
-=The intrinsic nature of subconscious processes.=—Janet further brought
-forward indisputable evidence showing that in hysteria these
-subconscious processes are real coconscious processes. It is only
-another mode of expressing this to say that there is a dissociation or
-division of consciousness in consequence of which certain ideas do not
-enter the content of the personal consciousness of the individual. It is
-possible, as he was the first to show, to communicate with and, in
-hypnotic and other dissociated states, recover memories of these
-split-off ideas of which the individual is unaware, and thereby
-establish the principle that these ideas are the subconscious process
-which induces the hysterical phenomena. (These phenomena are of a great
-many kinds and include sensory as well as motor automatisms, inhibition
-of thought and will, deliria, visceral, emotional, and other
-disturbances of mind and body.) The hysterical subconscious process is
-thus determined to be a very specific concrete _coconscious_ process,
-one, the elements of which are memories and other particular ideas. This
-type of subconscious process, therefore, may be regarded as the
-activated residua of antecedent experiences with or without secondary
-elaboration. All subsequent investigations during the past twenty-five
-years have served but to confirm the accuracy of Janet’s observations
-and conclusions. It would be out of the question at this time, before
-coconscious ideas have been systematically studied, to attempt to
-present the evidence on which this interpretation of certain
-subconscious phenomena rests. This will be done in other lectures.[76] I
-will simply say that this evidence for coconsciousness occurring in
-certain special conditions, artificial and pathological, and perhaps as
-a constituent of the normal content of consciousness, is of precisely
-the same character as that for the occurrence of consciousness in any
-other individual but one’s self. If we reject the evidence of hysterical
-phenomena, of that furnished by a coconscious personality, and by
-automatic script and speech, etc., we shall have to reject precisely
-similar evidence for consciousness in other people than ourselves.[77]
-The evidence is explicit and not implied.
-
-A subconscious personality is a condition where complexes of
-subconscious processes have been constellated into a personal system,
-manifesting a secondary system of self-consciousness endowed with
-volition, intelligence, etc. Such a subconscious personality is capable
-of communicating with the experimenter and describing its own mental
-processes. It can, after repression of the primary personality, become
-the sole personality for the time being, and then remember its previous
-subconscious life, as we all remember our past conscious life, and can
-give full and explicit information regarding the nature of the
-subconscious process. By making use of the testimony of a subconscious
-personality and its various manifestations, we can not only establish
-the actuality of subconscious processes and their intrinsic nature in
-these conditions, but by prearrangement with this personality
-predetermine any particular process we desire and study the modes in
-which it influences conscious thought and conduct. For instance, we can
-prescribe a conflict between the subconsciousness and the personal
-consciousness, between a subconscious wish and a conscious wish, or
-volition, and observe the resultant mental and physical behavior, which
-may be inhibition of thought, hallucinations, amnesia, motor phenomena,
-etc. The possibilities and limitations of subconscious influences can in
-this way be experimentally studied. Subconscious personalities,
-therefore, afford a valuable means for studying the mechanism of the
-mind.[78]
-
-The conclusion, then, seems compulsory that the subconscious processes
-in many conditions, particularly those that are artificially induced and
-those that are pathological, are _coconscious_ processes.
-
-There are other phenomena, however, which require the postulation of a
-subconscious process, yet which, when the subconscious is searched by
-the same methods made use of in hysterical phenomena, do not reveal
-explicit evidence of coconsciousness. An analysis of the subconscious
-revelations as well as the phenomena themselves seems to favor the
-interpretation that in some cases the underlying process is in part and
-in others wholly _unconscious_. The only ground for the interpretation
-that all subconscious processes are wholly conscious is the assumption
-that, as some are conscious, all must be. This is as unsound as the
-assumption that, because at the other end of the scale some complex
-actions (e. g., those performed by decerebrated animals) are intelligent
-and yet performed by processes necessarily unconscious, therefore all
-actions not under the guidance of the personal consciousness are
-performed by unconscious processes.
-
-If some subconscious processes are unconscious they are equivalent to
-physiological processes such as, _ex hypothesi_, are correlated with all
-conscious processes and perhaps may be identified with them. In truth,
-they mean nothing more nor less than “unconscious cerebration.”
-
-We can say at once that considering the complexity and multiformity of
-psycho-physiological phenomena there would seem to be no _a priori_
-reason why all subconscious phenomena must be the same in respect to
-being either coconscious or unconscious; some may be the one and some
-the other. It is plainly a matter of interpretation of the facts and
-there still exists some difference of opinion. The problem is a very
-difficult one to settle by methods at present available; yet it can only
-be settled by the same methods, in principle, that we depend upon to
-determine the reality of a personal consciousness in other persons than
-ourselves. No amount of _a priori_ argument will suffice. Perhaps some
-day a criterion of a conscious state of which the individual is unaware
-will be found, just as the psycho-galvanic phenomenon is possibly a
-criterion of an effective state. Any conclusions which we reach at
-present should be regarded as provisional.[79]
-
- SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS
-
-As one of our foremost psychologists has said, the subconscious is not
-only the most important problem of psychology, it is _the_ problem. But
-of course it involves many problems of practical and theoretical
-interest. Among them are:
-
-First of all the evidential justification of the postulation of
-subconscious processes in general.
-
-Second; the intrinsic nature of such processes. In other words and more
-specifically, whether the neurograms of experiences after becoming
-active subconscious _processes_ continue to be devoid of consciousness,
-nothing but a brain process,—i.e., unconscious; or whether in becoming
-activated they become conscious (monism), or acquire conscious
-equivalents (parallelism), notwithstanding they are outside (dissociated
-from) the content of the personal consciousness.
-
-Third; the kind and complexity of functions a subconscious process can
-perform. Can it perform the same functions as are ordinarily performed
-by conscious _intelligence_ (as we commonly understand that term); that
-is to say memory, perception, reasoning, imagination, volition,
-affectivity, etc.? If so, to what extent?
-
-Fourth; are the processes of the conscious mind only a part of a larger
-mechanism of which a submerged part is a subconscious process?
-
-Fifth; to what extent can and do subconscious processes determine the
-processes of the conscious mind and bodily behavior in normal and
-abnormal conditions?
-
-These are some of the problems of the subconscious which for the most
-part have been only incompletely investigated.
-
-It is, of course, beyond the scope of these introductory lectures to
-discuss with any completeness the evidence at hand bearing upon these
-problems or to even touch upon many of the points involved. We may,
-however, study more deeply than we have done some of the phenomena with
-which we have become familiar with a view to seeing what light they
-throw upon some of these problems, particularly the first three.
-
-=1, 2, and 3; Actuality, Intrinsic Nature and Intelligence of
-Subconscious Processes.=—As to the first question, whether subconscious
-processes can be established in principle as a sound induction from
-experimental and clinical facts and not merely as a hypothetical
-concept, I have already pointed out that many manifestations of
-conservation already cited in the exposition of the theory of memory are
-of equal evidential value for the _actuality_ of such processes. Let us
-now consider them in more detail from the point of view, more
-particularly, of the second and third questions—the _intrinsic nature_
-(whether coconscious or unconscious) and _intelligence_ of the
-underlying processes at work. In any given case however the actuality of
-the subconscious process must always be first demonstrated.
-
-If we leave aside those conditions (hysteria, coconscious personalities)
-wherein specific memory of a coconscious process can be recovered, or
-such a process can be directly communicated with (automatic writing and
-speech), the conditions required for the valid postulation of a
-subconscious process underlying any given phenomenon are: first, that
-the causal factor shall be positively _known_; second, that it shall be
-an antecedent experience; and, third, that it shall not be in the
-content of consciousness at the moment of the occurrence of the
-phenomenon. If the causal factor and the phenomenon are both known, then
-the only unknown factor to be determined is the process, if any,
-_intervening between the two_. If this is not in consciousness, a
-subconscious process must be postulated.
-
-Obviously, if the known causal factor is _immediately_ related to the
-caused phenomenon, the subconscious process must be the causal factor
-itself. But if the known causal factor is _not immediately_ related to
-the caused phenomenon, there must be an intervening process which must
-be subconscious, perhaps consisting of a succession of processes
-eventuating in the final phenomenon. For instance, if the causal factor
-is a hypnotic suggestion (for which there is afterwards amnesia) that
-the subject when awake shall automatically raise the right arm, a
-subconscious process which is the memory of that suggestion immediately
-provokes the automatic phenomenon. If, however, the suggestion is that
-of a series of automatic actions involving complicated behavior, or if
-it is a mathematical calculation, the intervening process which provokes
-the end result must not only be subconscious but must be a more or less
-complicated succession of processes.
-
-When, on the other hand, the causal factor is not known but only
-inferred with greater or less probability, the justification of the
-postulation of a subconscious process may be invalidated by the
-uncertainty of the inference. If for example a person raises his right
-hand or has a number come into his head without obvious cause, any
-_inferred_ antecedent experience as the causal factor must be open to
-more or less doubt, and, therefore, a subconscious process cannot be
-postulated with certainty. This uncertainty seriously affects the
-validity of conclusions drawn from clinical phenomena where the
-antecedent experience as well as a subconscious process must be inferred
-and perhaps even a matter of guesswork.
-
-Let us examine then, a few selected phenomena where the causal factor in
-the process is a known antecedent conscious experience, one which can be
-logically related to the succeeding phenomenon only by the postulation
-of an intervening process of some kind. By an analysis of the antecedent
-experience and the caused phenomenon into their constituent elements we
-shall often be able to infer the functional characteristics of this
-intervening process. Then, if the subject is a favorable one, by the use
-of hypnotic and other methods we may be able to obtain an insight into
-the intrinsic nature of the subconscious process and determine how far
-it is conscious and how far unconscious. Necessarily the most available
-phenomena are those experimentally induced. We can arrange beforehand
-the causal experience and the phenomenon which it is to determine—an
-hallucination, a motor automatism, a dream, a conscious process of
-thought, or the product of an intellectual operation. The number of
-observations we shall examine might be made much larger and the types
-more varied. Those I have selected have such close analogies with
-certain experiences of everyday and pathological life that what is found
-to be true of them will afford valuable fundamentals in the elucidation
-of these latter experiences.[80]
-
-=Subconscious processes in which the causal factor was antecedently
-known.=—I. The evidential value of _post-hypnotic phenomena_ ranks
-perhaps in the first place for our purpose as the conditions under which
-they occur are largely under control. Among these showing subconscious
-processes of a high order of intelligence are:
-
-(a) The well-known subconscious mathematical calculations which I cited
-in a previous lecture (p. 96). There is no possible explanation of this
-phenomenon except that the calculation was a subconscious process and
-done either coconsciously or unconsciously. That it may be done, in some
-cases, by coconscious processes of which the subject is unaware is
-substantiated by the evidence.[81] In other cases this does not appear
-to be wholly the case if we can rely upon hypnotic memories. We will
-examine this process in connection with:
-
-(b) A second class of post-hypnotic phenomena, namely, those of
-suggested actions carried out by the subject more or less automatically,
-in a sort of absent-minded way, without his being aware of what he is
-doing. The subject is directed in hypnosis to perform such or such an
-action after being awakened. Sometimes the suggested action is performed
-consciously, the suggested ideas with their impulses arising in his
-mind, but without his knowing why. In other instances, however, he
-performs the action automatically without being consciously aware at the
-moment that he is doing it, his attention being directed toward
-something else. Such actions must be performed by some kind of
-subconscious processes instigated by the ideas suggested in hypnosis.
-
-Now hypnotic and other technically evoked memories sometimes reveal the
-conscious content of the processes involved in both classes of
-phenomena. For instance: two intelligent subjects, who have been the
-object of extensive observations on this point, are able to recall in
-hypnosis the previous occurrence of coconscious ideas of a peculiar
-character. The description of these ideas has been very precise and has
-carried a conviction, I believe, to all those who have had an
-opportunity to be present at these observations that these recollections
-were true memories and not fabrications.[82] The statements of these
-subjects is that in their own cases, under certain conditions of
-everyday life, coconscious ideas _of which the principal consciousness
-is not aware_ emerge into the subconscious, persist for a longer or
-shorter time, and then subside to be replaced by others. So long as the
-conditions of their occurrence continue these coconscious ideas keep
-coming and going, interchanging with one another. Sometimes these ideas
-take the form of images, or what is described as visual “pictures.” When
-the conditions are those of the subconscious solution of a mathematical
-calculation then the same “pictures” occur and take the form of the
-figures involved in the calculation; the figures come and go, apparently
-add, subtract, and multiply themselves until the final result appears in
-figures. An example will make this clear.
-
-While the subject was in hypnosis the problem was given to add 458 and
-367, the calculation to be done _subconsciously_ after she was awake.
-The problem was successfully accomplished in the usual way. The mode in
-which the calculation was effected was then investigated with the
-following result: In what may be termed for convenience the secondary
-consciousness, i.e., the subconsciousness, the numbers 458 and 367
-appeared as distinct visualizations. These numbers were placed one over
-the other, “with a line underneath them such as one makes in adding. The
-visualization kept coming and going; sometimes the line was crooked and
-sometimes it was straight. The secondary consciousness did not do the
-sum at once, but by piecemeal. It took a long time before it was
-completed.” The sum was not apparently done as soon as one would do it
-when awake, by volitional calculation, “but rather the figures _added
-themselves_, in a curious sort of way. The numbers were visualized and
-the visualization kept coming and going and the columns at different
-times added themselves, as it seemed, the result appearing at the
-bottom.” In another problem (453 to be multiplied by 6) the process was
-described as follows: The numbers were visualized in a line, thus, 453 ×
-6. Then the 6 arranged itself under the 453. The numbers kept coming and
-going the same as before. Sometimes, however, they added themselves, and
-sometimes the 6 subtracted itself from the larger number. Finally,
-however, the result was obtained. As in the first problem, the numbers
-kept coming and going in the secondary consciousness until the problem
-was solved and then they ceased to appear. It is to be understood, of
-course, that the _principal or personal consciousness was not aware of
-these coconscious figures, or even that any calculation was being or to
-be performed_.
-
-In suggested post-hypnotic actions, the pictures that come and go
-correspond to and represent the details of the action as it is carried
-out. Each detail is preceded or accompanied by its coconscious image or
-picture. Likewise, when somatic phenomena have followed dreams, pictures
-representing certain elements of the dream have appeared as secondary
-conscious states. When the subject has been disturbed by some unsolved
-moral or social problem (not suggested) the pictures have been symbolic
-representations of the disturbing doubts and scruples.[83]
-
-One of these two subjects, while in hypnosis and able to recollect what
-goes on in the secondary consciousness, thus describes the coconscious
-process during the _spontaneous_ subconscious solution of problems.
-“When a problem on which my waking self is engaged remains unsettled, it
-is still kept in mind by the secondary consciousness even though put
-aside by my waking self. My secondary consciousness often helps me to
-solve problems which my waking consciousness has found difficulty in
-doing. But it is not my secondary consciousness that accomplishes the
-final solution itself, but it helps in the following way: Suppose, for
-instance, I am trying to translate a difficult passage in Virgil. I work
-at it for some time and am puzzled. Finally, unable to do it, I put it
-aside, leaving it unsolved. I decide that it is not worth bothering
-about and so put it out of my mind. But it is a mistake to say you put
-it _out_ of your mind. What you do is, you put it _into_ your mind; that
-is to say, you don’t put it out of your mind if the problem remains
-unsolved and unsettled. By putting it _into_ your mind I mean that,
-although the waking consciousness may have put it aside, the problem
-still remains in the secondary consciousness. In the example I used the
-memory of the passage from Virgil would be retained persistently by my
-secondary consciousness. Then from time to time a whole lot of
-fragmentary memories and thoughts connected with the passage would arise
-in this consciousness. Some of these thoughts, perhaps, would be
-memories of the rules of grammar, or different meanings of words in the
-passage, in fact, anything I had read, or thought, or experienced in
-connection with the problem. These would not be logical, connected
-thoughts, and they would not solve the problem. My secondary
-consciousness does not actually do this, i.e., in the example taken,
-translate the passage. The translation is not effected here. But later
-when my waking consciousness thinks of the problem again, these
-fragmentary thoughts of my secondary consciousness arise in my mind, and
-with this information I complete the translation. The actual translation
-is put together by my waking consciousness.[84] I am not conscious of
-the fact that these fragments of knowledge existed previously in my
-secondary consciousness. I do not remember a problem ever to have been
-solved by the secondary consciousness.[85] It is always solved by the
-waking self, although the material for solving it may come from the
-secondary. When my waking consciousness solves it in this way, the
-solution seems to come in a miraculous sort of way, sometimes as if it
-came to me from somewhere else than my own mind. I have sometimes
-thought, in consequence, that I had solved it in my sleep.”[86]
-
-A series of observations conducted with a fourth subject (O. N.) gave
-the following results, briefly summarized. (This subject, like the
-others, is practiced in introspection and can differentiate her memories
-with precision.) She distinguishes “two strata” in her mental processes
-(an upper and lower). The “upper stratum” consists of the thoughts in
-the focus of attention. The lower (also called the background of her
-mind) consists of the perceptions and thoughts which are not in the
-focus. This stratum, of course, corresponds with what is commonly
-recognized as the fringe of consciousness, and, as is usual, when her
-attention is directed elsewhere she is not aware of it. She can,
-however, bring this fringe within the field of attention and then she
-becomes aware of, or rather remembers, its content during the preceding
-moment. To be able to do this is nothing out of the ordinary, but what
-is unusual is this: by a trick of abstraction which she has long
-practiced, she can bring the memory of the fringe or stratum into the
-full light of awareness and then it is discovered that it has been
-exceedingly rich in thoughts, far richer than ordinary attention would
-show and a fringe is supposed to be. It is indeed a veritable
-coconsciousness in which there goes on a secondary stream of thoughts
-often of an entirely different character and with different affects from
-those of the upper stratum. It is common for thoughts which she _has
-resolutely put out of her mind as intolerable or unacceptable, or
-problems which have not been solved, to continue functioning in the
-lower stratum without entering awareness_.[87] She can, however, at any
-time become aware of them by the trick of abstraction referred to, and
-sometimes they emerge apparently spontaneously and suddenly[88] replace
-the “upper stratum.” In hypnosis also the content of the lower stratum
-can be distinctly recalled.
-
-Now the point I have been coming to is, the subject has acquired the
-habit of postponing the decision of many everyday problems and giving
-them, as a matter of convenience, to this second stratum or fringe to
-solve. She puts one aside, that is out of (or _into_) her mind and it
-goes into this stratum. Then, later, when the time for action comes, she
-voluntarily goes into abstraction, becomes aware of the subconscious
-thoughts of the second stratum and, lo and behold! the problem is found
-to be solved. If a plan of action, all the details are found arranged as
-if planned “consciously.” If asked a moment before what plans had been
-decided upon and decision reached she would have been obliged in her
-conscious ignorance to reply, “I don’t know.”[89]
-
-An analysis of these different observations shows, first, that the
-post-hypnotic phenomena—calculations (a) and actions (b)—were performed
-by a subconscious process. Of this there can be no manner of doubt, even
-if the subsequent hypnotic memories of the process be rejected as
-untrustworthy. The phenomenon—the answer to the mathematical problem in
-the one case and the motor acts in the other—is so logically related to
-the suggestion, and can be predicted with such certainty, that only a
-causal relation can be admitted.
-
-Second, in the calculation phenomena the process is clearly of an
-intellectual character requiring _reasoning_ and the coöperation of
-mathematical _memory_. (Reasoning is more conspicuous when the problem
-is more complicated, as in the calculation of the number of seconds
-intervening between, say, twenty-two minutes past eleven and seventeen
-minutes past three o’clock.)[90] The phenomenon is the solution of a
-problem.
-
-The final phenomenon was not _immediately_ related to the suggested
-idea. It was the final result of a quite long series of logical
-processes of a more or less complex character occurring over a period of
-time as in conscious calculation. _Conation_ (volition?) would seem also
-to be essential to carry the suggested idea to fulfilment. _Subconscious
-cognition_ would seem also to be required. There must have been an
-intelligent appreciation of what the problem was and as soon as the
-solution was accomplished the process stopped. Random figuring did not
-continue.
-
-In the post-hypnotic motor acts conation is obvious. Here too there is a
-series of subconscious processes covering a period of time and carrying
-out a purpose. The suggested causal idea did not include the acts
-necessary for the fulfillment of the idea. Each step was adapted to an
-end, ceased as soon as it accomplished that end, and was followed by
-another in logical sequence, the whole taking place as if performed by
-an intelligence. Reasoning may or may not be involved according to the
-complexity of the actions.
-
-Third; _the coconscious figures in the calculation experiments do not
-constitute the whole of the process_. They would seem to be the product
-of some deeper underlying process. The figures “kept coming and going”
-and seemed to “add themselves.” There was no conscious process that
-related the figures to one another and determined whether the problem
-was one of addition or multiplication—as is the case when we do a
-calculation consciously; that is to say, of course, if the hypnotic
-personality remembered the whole of the conscious calculation. It was
-more as if there was an underlying unconscious process which did the
-calculation, certain final results of which appeared as dissociated
-states of consciousness, i.e., figures which did not enter the personal
-consciousness. The process reminds us of the printing of visible letters
-by the concealed works of a typewriter; or of visible letters of an
-electrically illuminated sign appearing and disappearing according as
-the concealed mechanism is worked. This interpretation is in entire
-accord with the spontaneous occurrence of the coconscious images during
-the everyday life of these subjects. These images were pictorial
-representations of antecedent thoughts and seemed to be the products or
-elements of these thoughts apparently functioning as underlying
-unconscious processes. Likewise, in post-hypnotic suggested actions, I
-have not been able to obtain memories of coconscious thoughts directing
-the actions, but only the images described. These behave as if they were
-the product of another underlying process determining the action.
-Inferences of this sort are as compulsory as the inference that the
-illumination of a sensitive plate observed in the study of
-radio-activity must be due to the bombardment of the plate by invisible
-particles emitted by the radio-active substance. These particles and the
-process which ejects them can only be inferred from the effects which
-they produce. So, in the above observations, it would seem as if the
-coconscious figures, and other images involved, must be ejected as
-conscious phenomena by an underlying process. There is no explicit
-evidence that this is conscious.
-
-I said advisedly, a moment ago, “if the hypnotic personality remembered
-the whole of the conscious calculation,” for, as a matter of fact, we
-find, when we examine several different hypnotic states in the same
-subject, that their memories for coconscious ideas are not coextensive,
-one (or more) being fuller than another. Indeed in certain states there
-may not be any such memories at all. It is necessary, therefore, to
-obtain by hypnosis a degree of dissociation which will allow the
-complete memories of this kind to be evoked. In the subjects I made use
-of this procedure was followed. Theoretically it might be held that, no
-matter how complete the memories evoked in the various states, some
-other state might possibly be obtained in which still more complete
-memory would be manifested. Theoretically this is true and all
-conclusions are subject to this criticism. Practically, however, I
-found, when making these investigations, that I seemed to have come to
-the limit of such possibilities, for, obtain as I would new dissociated
-arrangements of personality, after a certain point no additional
-memories could be evoked. There is still another possibility that there
-may be coconscious processes for which no memories can be evoked by any
-method or in any state.
-
-II. _Artificially induced visual hallucinations_ with which we have
-already become familiar can, as we have seen, only be interpreted as the
-product of subconscious processes. If only because of the important part
-that hallucinations play in insanity and other pathological states and
-of the frequency with which they occur in normal people (mystics and
-others), the characteristics of the subconscious process are well worth
-closer study. What is found to be true of the experimental type is
-probably true of the spontaneous variety whether occurring in
-pathological or normal conditions. Indeed, as we shall see, spontaneous
-hallucinations have the same characteristics. We have considered them
-thus far only from two points of view, viz. (1) as evidence of
-conservation of forgotten experiences, and (2) as evidence for specific
-residua of such experiences functioning as subconscious processes. Now,
-artificial visual hallucinations, like the spontaneous ones, may be
-limited—relatively speaking—to what is apparently little more than an
-exact reproduction of an antecedent visual perception, e. g., a person
-or object. But, generally speaking, it is more than this and when
-analyzed will be found almost always to be the expression of a
-complicated process. For instance, take the relatively simple crystal
-vision, of the subject smoking a cigarette in a particular situation
-during hypnosis, which I have previously cited. (Lecture III.) As a
-matter of fact, the subject had no primary visual perceptions at the
-time of the original episode at all. She was in hypnosis, her eyes were
-closed, and she did not and could not see herself (particularly her own
-face) or the cigarette or her surroundings. And yet the vision pictured
-everything exactly as it had occurred in my presence, even to the
-expression of her features. Looking into the crystal the subject saw
-herself sitting in a particular place, enacting a series of movements,
-talking and smoking a cigarette with a peculiar smile and expression of
-enjoyment on her face.[91] For this experience there was complete
-amnesia after waking from hypnosis and at the time of the vision.
-
-Now consider further the facts and their implications. In the mechanism
-of the process eventuating in the visual phenomenon we obviously have
-two known factors: the antecedent causal factor—the hypnotic
-episode—and, after a time interval, the end result—the vision. As there
-was no conscious memory of the hypnotic episode the neurograms of the
-latter must have functioned subconsciously to have produced the vision.
-But what particular neurograms? As the subject’s eyes had been closed in
-hypnosis, and, in any event, as she could not have seen her own face,
-there were at the time no _visual_ perceptions of herself smoking a
-cigarette, and therefore the vision could not have been simply a
-reproduction of a visual experience. There were, however, tactual,
-gustatory, and other perceptions and ideas of self and environment, and
-these perceptions and ideas of course possessed _secondary visual
-images_.[92] The simplest mechanism would be that the neurograms of this
-complex of perception and ideas of self, etc., functioned subconsciously
-and their _secondary_ visual images emerged into consciousness to be the
-vision. I give this as the simplest mechanism by which we can conceive
-of a visual representation of an antecedent experience emerging out of a
-subconscious process.[93] There is a considerable body of data
-supporting this interpretation.
-
-But the original experiences of the episode included more than the mere
-perceptions and movements of the subject. They included trains of
-thought and enjoyment of the cigarette smoking experience. All formed a
-complex of which the tactual and other perceptions of self were
-subordinate elements. At one moment, of course, one element, and, at
-another moment another element, had been in the focus of awareness, the
-others becoming shifted into the fringe _where at all times were
-secondary visual images of herself_. Did the subconscious process
-underlying the vision include the whole of this complex? As to this, one
-peculiarity of the vision has much significance. In behavior it acted
-after the manner of a cinematographic or “moving picture,” and
-delineated each successive movement of the episode, as if a rapid series
-of photographs had been taken for reproduction. In this manner even the
-emotional and changing play of the features of the vision-self,
-expressive of the previous thoughts and enjoyment, were depicted. Such a
-cinematographic series of visual images would seem to require a
-concurrent subconscious process to produce the successive changes in the
-hallucinatory images. As these changes apparently correspond from moment
-to moment with the changes that had occurred in the content of
-consciousness during the causal episode, it would also seem that the
-subconscious process was a reproduction in subconscious terms of
-substantially the whole original mental episode. This conclusion is
-fortified by the following additional facts: In many experiments of this
-kind, if the subject’s face be watched during the visualization, it will
-be observed that _it shows the same play of features as is displayed by
-the vision face_,[94] and the visualizer at the same moment _experiences
-the same emotion as is expressed by the features of the vision
-face_,[95] and sometimes knows “what her [my] vision self is thinking
-about.” In other words, _in particular instances_, sometimes the
-feelings alone and sometimes both the thoughts and feelings expressed in
-pantomime in the hallucination arise at the same moment in
-consciousness. This would seem to indicate that the same processes which
-determined the mimetic play of features in the _hallucination_ were
-determining at the same moment the same play in the features of the
-visualizer, and that these processes were a subconscious memory of
-substantially all the original perceptions and thoughts. That is to say,
-this memory in such cases remains sometimes entirely subconscious and
-sometimes emerges into consciousness. The hallucination is simply a
-projected visualization induced by what is taking place subconsciously
-in the subject’s mind at the moment. Whether this shall remain entirely
-subconscious or shall emerge partially or wholly into consciousness
-depends upon psychological conditions peculiar to the subject.
-
-That even when the thoughts of the causal experience emerge in
-consciousness along with the vision a portion of the functioning
-complex—e. g., the perceptual elements—may still remain submerged is
-shown by the following example: The vision, one of several of the same
-kind, portrayed in pantomime an elaborate nocturnal somnambulistic act.
-It represented the subject walking in her sleep with eyes closed; then
-sitting before the fire in profound and depressing thought; then
-joyously dancing; then writing letters, etc., and finally ascending the
-stairs, _unconsciously dropping one of the letters from her hand on the
-way_,[96] and returning to bed. During the visualization the thoughts
-and feelings of the vision-self, even the contents of the letters, arose
-in the mind of the visualizer whose features and tone of voice betrayed
-the feelings.
-
-The point to be noted in this observation is that the _vision reproduced
-as a detail of the somnambulistic act the accidental dropping of a
-letter from the hand of the somnambulist who was unaware of the fact_;
-it reproduced what was not in conscious experience. How came it that an
-act for which there had been no awareness could appear in the vision?
-The only explanation is that originally in the somnambulistic state, as
-is so commonly observed in hypnotic somnambulism, there was a
-subconscious tactual perception (with secondary visual images?) of
-dropping the letter and now the memory of this antecedent perception,
-functioning subconsciously, induced this detail of the vision. The
-general conclusion then would seem to be justified that this
-hallucination was determined by a fairly large complex of antecedent
-somnambulistic experiences of which a part emerged as the hallucination
-and the thoughts of the somnambulist into consciousness, and a part—the
-tactual and other perceptions—remained submerged as the subconscious
-process. How much more may have been contained in this process the facts
-do not enable us to determine.
-
-An examination, then, of even the more simple artificial hallucinations
-discloses that underlying them there is a residual process which is
-quite an extensive subconscious memory of antecedent thoughts,
-perceptions and affective experiences. Whether this memory is only an
-unconscious functioning neurogram or whether it is also a coconscious
-memory, or partly both, cannot be determined from the data.[97] The
-bearing of these results upon the interpretation of _insane
-hallucinations_ is obvious.
-
-Our examination of subconscious processes in the two classes of
-phenomena thus far studied—post-hypnotic phenomena and artificial
-hallucinations—permits the following general conclusions: First, there
-is positive evidence to show that in some instances, in their intrinsic
-nature, they are coconscious. In other instances, in the absence of such
-evidence, it is permissible to regard them as unconscious. Second, that
-in the quality of the functions performed they frequently exhibit that
-which is characteristic of Intelligence. This characteristic will be
-seen to be still more pronounced in the phenomena which we shall next
-study.
-
------
-
-Footnote 72:
-
- I forbear to enter into the question of the nature of consciousness
- and matter. In the last analysis, matter and mind probably are to be
- identified as different manifestations of one and the same
- principle—the doctrine of monism—call it psychical, spiritual, or
- material, or energy, as you like, according to your fondness for
- names. For our purpose it is not necessary to touch this philosophical
- problem as we are dealing only with specific biological experiences.
-
-Footnote 73:
-
- Also quite commonly termed the Subconscious. Unfortunately the term
- unconscious, as noun or adjective, is used in two senses, viz., (1)
- pertaining to unawareness (for example, I am unconscious of such and
- such a thing), and (2) in the sense of not having the psychological
- attribute of consciousness, i.e., non-conscious.
-
- In the first sense the adjective is used, as in the phrase
- “unconscious process” to define a process of which we are unaware
- without connotation as to whether it is a psychological process or a
- brain process; also the noun (The Unconscious) is used to signify
- something not in awareness regardless of whether that something is
- psychological or not; on the other hand, as an adjective it is also
- used, as in the phrase “unconscious ideas,” to specifically signify
- real ideas of which we are unaware.
-
- In the second sense, as noun or adjective, it is used to denote
- specifically brain residua or processes, which, of course, are devoid
- of consciousness. With this interchange of meaning the term is apt to
- be confusing and is lacking in precision. _In the text unconscious
- will be used always with the second meaning, unless inverted commas or
- the context plainly indicate the first meaning._ (Cf. Lecture VIII,
- pp. 248-254).
-
-Footnote 74:
-
- Also termed by some writers _unconscious_. (See preceding footnote.)
-
-Footnote 75:
-
- Pierre Janet: L’automatisme psychologique, Paris, 1889, and numerous
- other works.
-
-Footnote 76:
-
- Not included in this volume.
-
-Footnote 77:
-
- Cf. Prince: The Dissociation; also A Symposium on the Subconscious,
- _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, June-July, 1907; Experiments to
- Determine Coconscious (Subconscious) Ideation, _Journal of Abnormal
- Psychology_, April-May, 1908; Experiments in Psycho-Galvanic Reactions
- from Coconscious (Subconscious) Ideas in a Case of Multiple
- Personality, _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, June-July, 1908; The
- Subconscious [_Rapports et Comptes Rendus, 6me Congrès International
- de Psychologie_, 1909]; also, My Life as a Dissociated Personality, by
- B. C. A., _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, October-November, 1908.
-
-Footnote 78:
-
- The value of subconscious personalities for this purpose has been
- overlooked, owing, I suppose, to such conditions being unusual and
- bizarre, and the assumption that they have little in common with
- ordinary subconscious processes. But it ought to be obvious that _in
- principle_ it makes little difference whether a subconscious system is
- constellated into a large self-conscious system called a personality,
- or whether it is restricted to a system limited to a few particular
- coconscious ideas. In the former case the possibilities of its
- interfering with the personal consciousness may be more extended and
- more influential, that is all.
-
-Footnote 79:
-
- Of course, from a practical (clinical) point of view, it is of no
- consequence whether given phenomena are induced by coconscious or
- unconscious processes; the individual is not aware of either. Let me
- answer, however, a strange objection that has been made to such an
- inquiry. It has been objected that as it makes no practical difference
- whether the subconscious process, which induces a given phenomenon, is
- coconscious or unconscious, and as in many given cases it is difficult
- or impossible to determine the question, therefore, that such
- inquiries are useless. Plainly such an objection only concerns applied
- science, not science itself. It concerns only the practicing physician
- who deals solely with reactions. Likewise it makes no difference to
- the practicing chemist whether some atoms are positive and some
- negative ions, and whether on further analysis they are systems of
- electrons, and whether, again, electrons are points of electricity.
- The practical chemist deals only with reactions. Such questions,
- however, having to do with the ultimate nature of matter are of the
- highest interest to science. Likewise the nature of subconscious
- processes is of the highest interest to psychological science.
-
-Footnote 80:
-
- I have passed over the classical hysterical phenomena as they open a
- very large subject which needs a special treatment by itself. The
- subconscious processes underlying them, so far as they have been
- determined, are, as I have explained, admittedly coconscious, though
- some may be in part unconscious. They are too complicated to be
- entered into here.
-
-Footnote 81:
-
- Prince: Experiments to Determine Coconscious (Subconscious) Ideation,
- _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, April-May, 1908.
-
-Footnote 82:
-
- Among these I might mention the names of a dozen or more well-known
- psychologists and physicians of experience and repute who have
- observed one or both of these cases. Through the kindness of Dr. G. A.
- Waterman I have had an opportunity to investigate a third case, one of
- his patients, who described similar coconscious “pictures”
- accompanying certain impulsive conscious acts. The pictures, when of
- persons, were described as “life size,” and were likened to those of a
- cinematograph. Also, as with one of my cases, suggested post-hypnotic
- actions were accompanied by such coconscious pictures representing in
- successive stages the act to be performed. An analysis of both the
- impulsive and the suggested phenomena seemed to clearly show that the
- pictures emerged from a deeper lying submerged process induced by the
- residuum of a dream and of the suggestion, respectively.
-
-Footnote 83:
-
- Cf. Lecture IV. These coconscious pictures are so varied and occur in
- so many relations that they need to be studied by themselves.
-
-Footnote 84:
-
- This, of course, so far as she could determine from the data of
- memory. The more correct interpretation probably is that the thoughts
- of the “secondary consciousness” were supplied by a still deeper
- underlying subconscious process, certain elements of which emerged as
- dissociated conscious states (not in the focus of attention). This
- same process probably was the real agent in doing the actual
- translation, and later thrust the necessary data into awareness in
- such fashion that the translation seemed to be performed consciously.
- If all the required data is supplied to consciousness the problem is
- thereby done.
-
-Footnote 85:
-
- The subject here, of course, refers not to experimental but to
- spontaneous solutions. When experimentally performed the whole problem
- was solved subconsciously. Furthermore, a memory of a detail of this
- kind of remote experiences obviously would not be reliable, but only
- immediately after an experience. In fact, spontaneous solutions
- sometimes occurred entirely subconsciously. (Cf. Lecture VII.) In the
- experimental calculation experiments the solution is made
- subconsciously in accordance with the prescribed conditions of the
- experiment. In other observations on this subject the coconscious
- pictures represented past experiences of the subject, much as do
- crystal visions, and suggest that these past experiences were
- functioning unconsciously.
-
-Footnote 86:
-
- Prince: Some of the Present Problems of Abnormal Psychology, Congress
- of Arts and Sciences, St. Louis, 1904, V. 5, p. 770.
-
-Footnote 87:
-
- Practically similar conditions I have found in B. C. A., and Miss B.,
- though described by the subjects in different phraseology.
-
-Footnote 88:
-
- For instance, to take a sensational example, on one occasion in the
- midst of hilarity while singing, laughing, etc., she suddenly became
- depressed and burst into tears. What happened was this: It was a
- sorrowful anniversary, and in the “lower stratum” sad memories had
- been recurring during the period of hilarity. These memories had come
- into consciousness early in the morning, but she had resolutely put
- them out of her mind. They had, however, kept recurring in the lower
- stratum, and suddenly emerged into the upper stratum of consciousness
- with the startling effect described. More commonly, however, the
- emergence of the lower stratum is simply a shifting play of thought.
- It is interesting to note that censored thoughts and temptations are
- apt to go into the lower stratum and here with their affects continue
- at play. _These sometimes reappear as dreams._
-
-Footnote 89:
-
- The validity of the evidence of memory as applied to subconscious
- processes needs to be carefully weighed. It is a question of method,
- and if the method is fallacious all conclusions fall to the ground. In
- the sciences of normal psychology and psychiatry and psychopathology,
- the data given by memory are and necessarily must be relied upon to
- furnish a knowledge of the content of mental processes and the mental
- symptoms, and all methods of psychological analysis are based on the
- data of memory. Without such data there could be no such sciences. As
- a matter of experience the method is found to be reliable when
- properly checked by multiple observations. If by special methods of
- technique mental processes, which do not enter the awareness of the
- moment, are later brought into consciousness as data of memory, are
- these data _per contra_ to be rejected as hallucinatory? This is what
- their rejection would mean. Now, as a fact, there are phenomena, like
- coconscious personalities, which compel the postulation of coconscious
- processes. If this is the case, if there are coconscious processes
- which do not enter awareness, it would be the strangest thing if there
- were not conditions of the personality in which a memory of these
- processes could be obtained. This fact would have to be explained. The
- bringing of coconscious processes into consciousness as data of memory
- does not seem therefore to be anything _a priori_ improbable and there
- would seem to be no reason why the memory of them should be more
- unreliable than that of conscious processes in the forms of attention.
- Indeed, if the fringe of consciousness be regarded as coconscious, it
- is an every-day act common to everybody. Such data necessarily should
- be checked up by multiple observations.
-
-Footnote 90:
-
- For examples of this kind, see Prince, Experiments to Determine
- Coconscious Ideation, _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, April-May,
- 1908.
-
-Footnote 91:
-
- The Dissociation, pp. 55, 56.
-
-Footnote 92:
-
- It is only necessary to close one’s eyes, then grimace and move one’s
- limbs to become conscious of these secondary images which picture each
- movement of the features, etc.
-
-Footnote 93:
-
- The mechanism is probably not quite so simple as this, probably past
- visual perceptions of self and the environment took part, so that the
- vision was a fusion or composite of these older primary images and the
- secondary images. The principle of mechanism, however, would not be
- affected by this added element. Sidis (The Doctrine of Primary and
- Secondary Sensory Elements, _Psych. Rev._, January-March, 1908) has
- maintained that all hallucinations are the emerging of the secondary
- images of previous perceptions. If, on the other hand, the vision be
- interpreted as something fabricated by the subconscious process—as
- must be the case with some hallucinations—then this process must have
- been much more complicated than memory. Something akin at least to
- constructive imagination and intelligence that translated the
- experiences into visual terms.
-
-Footnote 94:
-
- That is to say, as described by the visualizer.
-
-Footnote 95:
-
- Cf. The Dissociation, pp. 211-220.
-
-Footnote 96:
-
- At this point the subject watching the vision remarked, “I drop one of
- the letters, but I do not know I have done so.” In other words,
- conscious of the content of the somnambulist’s consciousness, the
- visualizer knows that there is no awareness of this act. The letter
- was afterward found by the servant on the stairs.
-
-Footnote 97:
-
- Coconscious ideas may provoke hallucinations. (For examples consult
- “Hallucinations” in Index to The Dissociation.)
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE VII
- SUBCONSCIOUS INTELLIGENCE
- (Continued)
-
-
-III. _Subconscious intelligence underlying spontaneous
-hallucinations._—Spontaneous hallucinations often offer opportunities to
-study subconscious processes exhibiting constructive intelligence.
-Although properly belonging to clinical phenomena, they often can be so
-clearly related to an antecedent experience as to allow us to determine
-the causal factor with the same exactness as in the experimental type,
-and, therefore, to infer the connecting subconscious link with equal
-probability. Some of these spontaneous visions indicate that the
-subconscious link must be of considerable complexity and equivalent to
-logical processes of reasoning, volition, and purposive intelligence.
-Sometimes the same subconscious processes which fabricate the vision
-determine also other processes of conscious thought and movements.
-
-In illustration I may cite an incident in the life of Miss B., which I
-have previously described:
-
- “Miss B., as a child, frequently had visions of the Madonna and
- Christ, and used to believe that she had actually seen them. It was
- her custom when in trouble, if it was only a matter of her school
- lessons, or something that she had lost, to resort to prayer. Then she
- would be apt to have a vision of Christ. The vision never spoke, but
- sometimes made signs to her, and the expression of His face made her
- feel _that all was well_. After the vision passed she felt that her
- difficulties were removed, and if it was a bothersome lesson which she
- had been unable to understand it all became intelligible at once. Or,
- if it was something that she had lost, _she at once went to the spot
- where it was_.”... [For example, while under observation.] "Miss B.
- had lost a bank check and was much troubled concerning it. For five
- days she had made an unsuccessful hunt for it, systematically going
- through everything in her room. She remembered distinctly placing the
- check between the leaves of a book, when some one knocked at her door,
- and this was the last she saw of the check. She had become very much
- troubled about the matter, and in consequence, after going to bed that
- night she was unable to sleep, and rose several times to make a
- further hunt. Finally, at 3 o’clock in the morning, she went to bed
- and fell asleep. At 4 o’clock she woke with the consciousness of a
- presence in the room. She arose, and in a moment saw a vision of
- Christ, who did not speak, but smiled. She at once felt, as she used
- to, _that everything was well_, and that the vision foretold that she
- should find the check. All her anxiety left her at once. The figure
- retreated toward the bureau, but the thought flashed into her mind
- that the lost check was in the drawer of her desk. A search, however,
- showed that it was not there. She then walked automatically to the
- bureau, opened the top drawer, took out some stuff upon which she had
- been sewing, unfolded it, and there was the check along with one or
- two other papers.
-
- “Neither Miss B. nor BII [hypnosis] has any memory of any specific
- thought which directed her to open the drawer and take out her sewing,
- nor of any conscious idea that the check was there. Rather, she did
- it, so far as her consciousness goes, automatically, as she used to do
- automatic writing.”[98]
-
-Further investigation revealed the fact that the money had been put away
-absent-mindedly and “unconsciously”; in hypnosis the memory of this act
-was recovered.
-
-In this observation we have two so-called automatic phenomena of
-different types—one a sensory automatism, the vision, the other a motor
-automatism or actions leading to the finding of the money. The motor
-acts being automatic were necessarily determined by subconscious
-processes and plainly required a knowledge of the hiding-place. This
-knowledge also plainly must have been conserved in the unconscious and
-now, in answer to her wish to find the lost money, acting as a
-subconscious process, fulfilled her wish in a practical way.
-
-The vision was of Christ smiling. Seeing it the subject at once “felt
-that all was well,” and her anxiety vanished. It was plainly therefore a
-fabricated visual symbolism though one which she had frequently before
-experienced. It may be taken as a message sent by subconscious processes
-to her anxious consciousness and it is not too much to say had a
-purposive meaning, viz., to allay her anxiety. The question is, What was
-the causal factor which determined this symbolism? Logically it is a
-compulsory inference that the same conserved knowledge and subconscious
-processes, which eventuated in the motor automatisms, must have been the
-causal factor that determined the visual symbolism which carried the
-reassuring message to consciousness. This subconscious knowledge first
-allayed her anxiety and then proceeded to answer her problem of the
-whereabouts of the lost money. More specifically, the primary causal
-factor was the preceding anxious wish to find the money; the resulting
-phenomena were the sensory and motor automatisms, allaying the anxiety
-and fulfilling the wish; _between the two as connecting links were
-subconscious processes of an intelligent, purposive, volitional
-character which first fabricated a visual symbolism as a message to
-consciousness and then made use of the conserved knowledge of her
-previous absent-minded act to solve her problem_. The subconscious
-process as a whole we thus see was of quite a complicated character. In
-this example it is impossible to determine from the data at hand whether
-the subconscious process was coconscious or unconscious.
-
-The observation which I have elsewhere described as “an hallucination
-from the subconscious”[99] is an excellent example of an intelligent
-subconscious process indicative of judgment and purpose. The
-hallucination occurred in my presence as a result of an antecedent
-experience for which I was a moment before responsible. It was therefore
-of the nature of an experiment and the causal factor was known. The
-antecedent experience consisted of certain remarks and behavior of the
-subject while under the influence of an illusion during a dissociated
-state for which there was subsequent amnesia. The vision was of a friend
-whose face was sad, as of one who had been injured, and seemed to
-reproach her. At the same moment she heard his voice which said, “How
-could you have betrayed me?” The hallucinatory words and the visual
-image were in no sense a reproduction of the causal, i.e., antecedent,
-experience. They were the expression of a _subconscious self-reproach_
-in consequence of that experience. This reproach connoted a subconscious
-belief or logical judgment, drawn from the experience, that she had
-broken a promise.[100] It was a subconscious reaction to a subconscious
-belief. I say both the reproach and the judgment were subconscious
-because, in the dissociated state, owing to the illusion, and in the
-normal after-state owing to the amnesia, she was entirely ignorant of
-having done anything that could be construed into breaking a promise.
-This interpretation of the episode must therefore have been entirely
-subconscious. The self-reproach emerged into consciousness but
-translated into visual and auditory hallucinations. These were plainly a
-condemnatory message sent from the subconscious to the personal
-consciousness and might aptly be termed “the prickings of a subconscious
-conscience.” The primary causal factor was simply certain statements
-(conserved in the unconscious) made to me by the subject and for which
-afterwards there was amnesia. Intervening between this antecedent
-experience and the resulting hallucinatory phenomena a subconscious
-process must be postulated as a necessary connecting link. This process
-plainly involved memory and an intelligent judgment, an emotional
-reaction, and an expression of this judgment and reaction translated
-into hallucinatory phenomena. Apparently also a distinct purpose to
-upbraid the personality was manifested.
-
-The accounts of _sudden religious conversion_ are full of instances of
-hallucinations occurring at the time of the “crisis” and these—visions
-and voices—are often logical symbolisms of antecedent thoughts of the
-subject. By analogy with similar experimental phenomena we are compelled
-to interpret them in the same way and postulate these antecedent
-experiences as the causal factors. If this postulation is sound then the
-connecting subconscious link is often a quite complicated process of an
-intelligent character.
-
-In one instance in which the occurrence was similar in principle to
-sudden religious conversion I was able to determine beyond question the
-causal antecedents of the hallucinatory phenomenon. I will not repeat
-the details here;[101] suffice it to say that the hallucination,
-consisting of a vision and an auditory message from the subject’s
-deceased husband (see p. 40), answered the doubts and scruples with
-which the subject had been previously tormented. It was a logical answer
-calculated to allay distressing memories against which she had been
-fighting, “the old ideas of dissatisfaction with life, the feelings of
-injury, bitterness, and rebellion against fate and the ‘kicking against
-the pricks’ which these memories evoked.” It expressed previously
-entertained ideas which she had tried to accept but without success. The
-exposition of this answer in the _hallucinatory symbolism_ required a
-subconscious process involving considerable reasoning. _The phenomenon
-as a whole was a message addressed to her own consciousness by
-subconscious processes to answer her doubts and anxious questionings of
-herself, and to settle the conflict going on in her mind._ The logical
-connection between the different elements of this hallucination and
-certain antecedent experiences which had harassed the subject are so
-close that there is no room left for doubting that these experiences
-were the causal factors. And so I might analyze a large number of
-spontaneous hallucinations wherein you would find the same evidence for
-subconscious processes _showing intelligent constructive imagination,
-reasoning, volition, and purposive effort_, and expressing themselves in
-automatisms which either solve a disturbing problem or carry to fruition
-a subconscious purpose.
-
-I offer no excuse for multiplying these observations of hallucinatory
-phenomena, even at the expense of tedious repetition, for such studies
-give an insight into the mechanism of the hallucinations met with in the
-insanities and other pathological states. They offer, too, an insight
-into the basic process involved in dreams as these are a type of
-hallucinatory phenomena. It is by a study of hallucinations
-experimentally created, and others where we are in a position to know
-the causal factors, that we can learn the mechanisms underlying similar
-phenomena occurring in normal pathological conditions. As a rule in the
-latter conditions it is difficult to determine beyond question the true
-causal factors and, therefore, the particular subconscious processes
-involved. Such phenomena as I have presented justify the conclusion of
-the “new psychology” that the _hallucinations of the insane_ are not
-haphazard affairs but the resultant of subconscious processes evoked by
-antecedent experiences. In conclusion, then, we may say that _in
-artificial hallucinations as experimentally conducted, and in certain
-spontaneous hallucinations, we have two known factors; the causal factor
-(the antecedent experience) and the hallucinatory phenomenon—the effect.
-Intervening between the two is an inferred subconscious process of
-considerable complexity which is required to explain the causal
-connection_. With the exact mechanism of hallucinatory phenomena we are
-not at present concerned, but only with the evidence of the actuality of
-a subconscious process, of its character as an intelligence, and with
-its intrinsic nature.
-
-As to the last problem it is plain that further investigations are
-required and that the methods at present at our disposal for its
-solution leave much to be desired. All things considered a conservative
-summing up would be that the subconscious process may be both
-coconscious and unconscious.
-
-IV. _Subconscious intelligence underlying dreams._ As is well known,
-Freud advanced the theory, now well fortified by numerous observations
-of others, that underlying a dream is a subconscious process which
-fabricates the conscious dream. According to Freud and his followers
-this subconscious process is always an antecedent wish and the dream is
-an imaginary fulfillment of that wish. This part of the theory (as well
-as the universality of an underlying process) is decidedly questionable.
-My own observations lead me to believe that a dream may be also the
-expression of antecedent doubts, scruples, anxieties, etc., or may be an
-answer to an unsolved problem. We need not concern ourselves with this
-particular question here. I refer to it simply to point out that its
-correct solution depends upon the correct determination of the true
-causal factor which is necessarily antecedently unknown and must be
-inferred. It is inferred or selected from the associated memories evoked
-by the so-called method of analysis. Hence it must be always an element
-open to greater or less doubt. _Dreams are a type of hallucinatory
-phenomena_ and therefore we should expect that their mechanism would
-correspond more or less closely with that of other hallucinatory
-phenomena.
-
-With the object in view of determining whether a dream could be produced
-_experimentally_ and brought within the category of phenomena where the
-causal factor was antecedently known, and thus determine the actuality
-of a subconscious process as a necessary intervening link between the
-two, I made the following experiment. It should be noted that a wish
-_fulfilment_ necessarily means a dream content so far different in form
-from the content of the _wish itself_ that the postulation of a
-connecting link, conscious or subconscious, is required. I also sought,
-if a subconscious process could be postulated, to discover how elaborate
-and what sort of a work of constructive imagination a subconscious wish
-could evolve.
-
-To a suitable subject while in a deep hypnotic trance state I gave a
-suggestion in the form of a wish to be worked out to fulfilment in a
-dream. It so happened that this subject was going through a period of
-stress and strain for which she sought relief. I also knew that she had
-a very strong desire to do a good piece of original psychological work
-and had advised her to take up the work as a solution of her
-difficulties. So, taking advantage of this desire, I impressed upon her,
-for the purpose of emphasizing the impulsive force of the desire, that
-she now had the longed-for opportunity as the culmination of her
-previous years of training to do the work. I then gave her the following
-suggestion: “You want to do a good piece of original work and your dream
-to-night will be the fulfillment of the wish.” No hint as to what form
-the dream fulfilment should take was given, nor had she any knowledge
-before being put into the trance state that I intended to make an
-experiment.
-
-It is interesting to note how the dream has a logical form which is
-unfolded as an argument. This itself is an allegorical transcript of the
-reasons previously suggested to her for the particular solution of her
-problem.
-
-The dream was a long one and into it were logically introduced as a part
-of the argument the actual distressing circumstances for the relief of
-which I had advised taking up the piece of psychological work as an
-outlet to her feelings and solution of her problem of life. I will give
-in detail only so much of the dream as contains the wish fulfilment
-(which became also a part of the dream argument), summarizing the
-remainder. The dream begins with an allegorical description of the great
-task involved in the study of psychology by all the workers of the
-world. The science of psychology is symbolized by a temple. “I dreamed I
-was where they were building a great temple or cathedral; an enormous
-place covering many acres of ground. Hundreds of men were building. Some
-were building spires, some were building foundations, and some were
-tearing down what they had built, some parts had fallen down of
-themselves. I was wandering around looking on.” Then she proceeds to
-help one of the builders who was building a particular part of the
-temple by bringing him material in the form of stones. This she had
-actually done, in real life, contributing much psychological material
-out of her own experiences. Many of these experiences had been very
-intimate ones from her inner life and had involved much suffering; hence
-the stones which she contributed in her dream were big and heavy and
-were beyond her strength to carry, so that she could only roll them,—and
-some were sharp and made her hands bleed, so that her contribution
-involved much suffering. This part of the dream was not only a prelude
-to the suggested wish fulfilment but, as interpreted, contained a wish
-fulfilment in itself.
-
-Then there was interjected an allegorical but very accurate description
-of the distressing circumstances to which I have referred and for which,
-as a problem of life, the suggested work was advised as a solution. Then
-logically followed the wish fulfilment and solution. She heard the voice
-of the builder whom she had been helping say to her, “‘Now, here are all
-the materials and you must build a temple of your own,’ and I [she]
-said, ‘I cannot,’ and he said, ‘you can, and I will help you.’ So I
-began to build the stones I had taken him. It was hard work, but I kept
-on, and a most beautiful temple grew up.... All the stones were very
-brilliant in color, but each one was stained with a drop of blood that
-came from a wound in my heart. And the temple grew up; and I handled all
-the stones; but somehow the temple grew up of itself and lots of people
-were coming from all directions to look at it, and someone, who seemed
-to be William James, said, ‘It is the most valuable part of the temple,’
-and I felt very proud....’” After another interjection of the
-distressing problem of her life just alluded to, the dream ends with the
-figure of “a beautiful shining angel with golden spreading wings and the
-word ‘Hope’ written on his forehead.” This figure “spread his lovely
-wings and rose right up through the temple and became the top of the
-spire, a gorgeous shining figure of Hope.”[102]
-
-After this dream was obtained the subject, who had no knowledge that any
-suggestion had been given to induce the dream, was told to analyze the
-dream herself by the method of associative memories. As is customary in
-the use of this method, in which she had had considerable experience,
-the memories associated with each element of the dream were obtained.
-These memories all led back directly to her interest in psychology and
-desire to contribute some original work, and to her own life’s
-experiences. Every one of the dream-elements (temple, spires,
-foundations, stones, bleeding hands, drop of blood from the wound in her
-heart, etc.) evoked associative memories which justified the inference
-that these elements were symbolisms of past experiences or of
-constructive imagination.
-
-That this dream was determined by, and the explicit imaginary fulfilment
-of the antecedent wish made use of in the experiment and motivated by
-the suggestion would seem to be conclusively shown.
-
-If, then, in any case a causal relation between an antecedent wish and
-its dream fulfilment exists, it follows that there must be some link
-between that wish experienced in the past and the present dream
-fulfilment, some mode, mechanism, or process by which a past thought,
-without entering consciousness, can continue to its own fulfilment in a
-conscious work of the imagination, the dream. I say without entering
-consciousness because the original specific thought-wish does not appear
-in the dream consciousness, which is only the fulfilment. The phenomenon
-as a whole is also inexplicable unless there was some motivating factor
-or force which determined the form of the dream just as in conscious
-fabrication and argument “we” consciously motivate and arrange the form
-of the product. The only logical and intelligible inference is that the
-_original wish_, becoming reawakened (by the preceding suggestion)
-during sleep, _continued to function outside of the dream consciousness,
-as a motivating and directing subconscious process_.
-
-But what was the content of this process, and to what extent can its
-elements be correlated with those of the dream? The experimental data of
-this dream do not afford an answer to this question. (Those of the
-observation I shall next give will permit a deeper insight into the
-character and content of their process.) It is a reasonable inference,
-however, inasmuch as the different elements of the dream—temple, stones,
-etc., the material out of which it is constructed—are found to be
-logical symbolizations of their associative memories, that these
-memories took part in the subconscious process and consequently may be
-correlated with their dream-symbols. In other words the content of the
-subconscious process was more than a wish, or wish neurogram, it
-included a large complex of memories of diverse experiences that can be
-recognized through their symbolizations in the dream. This complex,
-motivated by a particular wish, fabricated the dream, just as in the
-hallucinations I have cited an underlying process fabricated the
-hallucination as a symbolic expression of a subconscious judgment,
-self-reproach, etc. To do this a process that must be termed a
-_subconscious intelligence_ was required. The dream was an allegory, a
-product of constructive imagination in the logical form of an argument,
-and if constructed by an underlying process the latter must have had the
-same characteristics.[103]
-
-This experimental dream confirms therefore the general principle
-formulated by Freud from the analysis of dreams in which the causal
-factor is an inferred wish. It is likewise on the assumption of my
-having correctly inferred this factor that I have insisted that a dream
-may be a fabricated expression of thoughts other than wishes or may be
-the solution of an unsolved problem. In this last case _the dream
-phenomena and mechanism seem to be analogous in every way to the
-subconscious solution of mathematical problems_ which I have already
-described. In such and other cases the subconscious process would seem
-to be a continuation and elaboration of the antecedent suggested
-problem.
-
-In dreams, then, or, as we should strictly limit ourselves for the
-present to saying, _in certain dreams_, there are, as Freud first
-showed, two processes; one is the conscious dream, the other is a
-subconscious process which is the actuated residuum of a previous
-experience and determines the dream.[104] It would be going beyond the
-scope of our subject to enter into a full exposition of this
-interpretation at this time and I must refer you for a discussion of the
-dream problem to works devoted to the subject.
-
-We have not, of course, touched the further problem of the _How_: how a
-subconscious intelligence induces a conscious dream which is not an
-emergence of the elements of that intelligence into self-consciousness,
-but a symbolization of them. This is a problem which still awaits
-solution. From certain data at hand it seems likely that so far as
-concerns the hallucinatory perceptual elements of a dream they can be
-accounted for as the _emergence of the secondary images_ pertaining to
-the subconscious “ideas.”
-
-The following observation is an _example of subconscious versification
-and_ also of _constructive imagination_. It also, I think, gives an
-insight into the character and content of the underlying process which
-constructs a dream. I give the observation in the subject’s own words:
-
- "I woke suddenly some time between three and four in the morning. I
- was perfectly wide awake and conscious of my surroundings but for a
- short time—perhaps two or three minutes—I could not move, and I saw
- this vision which I recognized as such.
-
- "The end of my room seemed to have disappeared, and I looked out into
- boundless space. It looked misty but bright, as if the sun was shining
- behind a light fog. There were shifting wisps of fog blowing lightly
- about, and these wisps seemed to gather into the forms of a man and a
- woman. The figures were perfectly clear and lifelike—I recognized them
- both. The man was dressed in dark every-day clothes, the woman in
- rather flowing black; her face was partly hidden on his breast; one
- arm was laid around his neck; both his arms were around her, and he
- was looking down at her, smiling very tenderly. They seemed to be
- surrounded by a sort of rosy atmosphere; a large, very bright star was
- above their heads—not in the heavens, but just over them; tall rose
- bushes heavy with red roses in full bloom grew up about them, and the
- falling petals were heaped up around their feet. Then the man bent his
- head and kissed her.
-
- "The vision was extraordinarily clear and I thought I would write it
- down at once. I turned on the light by my bedside, took pencil and
- paper lying there and wrote, as I supposed, _practically what I have
- written here_. I then got up, was up some minutes, went back to bed,
- and after a while to sleep. The clock struck four soon after getting
- back into bed. I do not think I experienced any emotion at the moment
- of seeing the vision, but after writing it down I did.
-
- "The next morning I picked up the paper to read over what I had
- written and was amazed at the language and the rhythm. This is what I
- had written:
-
- "‘Last night I waked from sleep quite suddenly,
- And though my brain was clear my limbs were tranced.
- Beyond the walls of my familiar room
- I gazed outward into luminous space.
- Before my staring eyes two forms took shape,
- Vague, shadowy, slowly gathering from the mists,
- Until I saw before me, you—my Love!
- And folded to your breast in close embrace
- Was she, that other, whom I may not name.
- A rosy light bathed you in waves of love;
- Above your heads there shone a glowing star;
- Red roses shed their leaves about your feet.
- And as I gazed with eyes that could not weep
- You bent your head and laid your lips on hers.
- And my rent soul’ ... [Apparently unfinished.]
-
- “The thoughts were the same as my conscious thoughts had been—the
- vision was well described—but the language was entirely different from
- anything I had thought, and the writing expressed the emotion which I
- had not consciously experienced in seeing the vision, but which (I
- have since learned) I had felt during the dream, and which I did
- consciously feel _after_ writing. When I wrote I meant simply to state
- the facts of the vision.”[105]
-
-The subject was unable to give any explanation of the vision or of the
-composition of the verse. She rarely remembers her dreams and had no
-memory of any dream the night of this vision. By hypnotic procedure,
-however, I was able to recover memories of a dream which occurred just
-before she woke up. It appeared that in the dream she was wandering in a
-great open space and saw this “picture in a thin mist. The mist seemed
-to blow apart” and disclosed the “picture” which was identical with the
-vision. At the climax of the dream picture the dreamer experienced an
-intense emotion well described in the verse by the unfinished phrase,
-“My rent soul...” The dreamer “shrieked, and fell on the ground on her
-face, and grew cold from head to foot and waked up.”
-
-The vision after waking, then, was a repetition of a preceding _dream_
-vision and we may safely assume that it was fabricated by the same
-underlying process which fabricated the dream, this process repeating
-itself after waking.
-
-So far the phenomenon was one which is fairly common. Now when we come
-to examine the automatically written script we find it has a number of
-significant characteristics. (1) It describes a conscious episode, (2)
-As a literary effort for one who is not a poetical writer it is fairly
-well written and probably quite as good verse as the subject can
-consciously write; (3) It expresses the mental attitude, sentiments and
-emotions experienced in the dream but not at the time of the vision.
-_These had also been antecedent experiences_; (4) Both the central ideas
-of the verse and the vision symbolically represented certain antecedent
-presentiments of the future; (5) The script gives of the vision an
-interpretation which was not consciously in mind at the moment of
-writing.
-
-Now, inasmuch as these sentiments and interpretations were not in the
-conscious mind at the moment of writing, the script _suggests_ that the
-process that wrote it was not simply a subconscious memory of the vision
-but the same process which fabricated the dream. Indeed, the phenomenon
-is open to the suspicion that this same process expresses the same ideas
-in verbal symbolism as a substitution for the hallucinatory symbolism.
-To determine this point, an effort was made to recover by technical
-methods memories of this process; that is to determine what wrote the
-verse and by what sort of a process. The following was brought out:
-
-1. The script was written automatically. The subject thought she was
-writing certain words and expressing certain thoughts and did not
-perceive that she was writing different words. “Something seemed to
-prevent her seeing the words she wrote.” There were two trains of
-“thought.”
-
-2. The “thoughts” of the verse were in her “subconscious mind.”[106]
-These “thoughts” (also described as “words”) were not logically arranged
-or as written in the verse, but “sort of tumbled together—mixed up a
-little.” “They were not like the thoughts one thinks in _composing_ a
-verse.” There did not seem to be any attempt at selection from the
-thoughts or words. No evidence could be elicited to show that the
-composing was done here.
-
-3. Concurrently with these subconscious, mixed-up thoughts coconscious
-“images” of the words of the verse came just at the moment of writing
-them down. The images were bright, printed words. Sometimes one or two
-words would come at a time and sometimes a whole line.
-
-In other words all happened _as if_ there was a deeper underlying
-process which did the composing and from this process certain thoughts
-without logical order emerged to form a subconscious stream and after
-the composing was done the words of the verse emerged as coconscious
-images as they were to be written. This underlying process, then,
-“automatically” did the writing and the composing. Hence it seemed to
-the subject even when remembering in hypnosis the subconscious thoughts
-and images that both were done unconsciously.
-
-As to whether this underlying process was the same as that which
-fabricated the dream and the hallucination, the evidence, albeit
-circumstantial, would seem to render this almost certain. In the first
-place the verse was only a poetical arrangement of the subconscious
-thoughts disclosed; the vision was an obvious symbolic expression or
-visual representation of the same thoughts (that is, of course, of those
-concerned with the subject matter of the vision). The only difference
-would seem to be in the form of the expression—verbal and visual imagery
-respectively.[107] In the second place the vision was an exact
-repetition of the dream vision. It is not at all rare to find certain
-phenomena of dreams (visual, motor, sensory, etc.) repeating themselves
-after waking.[108] This can only be explained by the subconscious
-repetition of the dream process. Consequently we are compelled to infer
-the same subconscious process underlying the dream-vision. More than
-this, it was possible to trace these thoughts back to antecedent
-experiences of the dreamer, so that in the last analysis the
-dream-vision, waking-vision, and poetical expression of the vision could
-be related with almost certainty to the same antecedent experiences as
-the causal factors.
-
-Certain conclusions then seem compulsory: underlying the dream, vision,
-and script was a subconscious process in which the fundamental factors
-were the same. As this process showed itself capable of poetical
-composition, constructive imagination, volition, memory, and affectivity
-it was a _subconscious intelligence_.
-
-As to its intrinsic nature—coconscious or unconscious—according to the
-evidence at least the process that wrote the script contained conscious
-elements—the coconscious thoughts and images.
-
-We may assume the same for the dream and the vision. As to the mechanism
-of the vision it is quite conceivable, not to say probable, that,
-corresponding to the coconscious images of the printed words during the
-writing, there were similar images of the vision scene (both in the
-dream and the waking state), but these _instead of remaining coconscious
-emerged into consciousness to be the vision_.[109] Whether the still
-deeper underlying process was conscious or unconscious could not be
-determined by any evidence accessible and must be a matter of
-hypothesis.
-
-The chief importance that attaches to this observation, it seems to me,
-is the insight it gives into the character of the underlying process of
-a dream. If the conclusions I have drawn are sound, then the
-subconscious process which determines the conscious dream may be what is
-actually an _intelligence_ and it matters not whether a coconscious or
-unconscious one. This seems to me to be a conclusion fraught with the
-highest significance for the theory of dreams and hallucinatory
-phenomena in general. Of course we all know well enough that dissociated
-subconscious processes may be intelligent and influence the content of
-the personal consciousness, as witness coconscious personalities. If the
-underlying process of a dream may be something akin to such a
-personality, something capable of reasoning, imagination and volition,
-it renders intelligible the fundamental principle of the Freudian theory
-of a double process—the “latent” and “manifest” dream. One of the
-difficulties in the general acceptance of this theory has been, I think,
-the difficulty of conceiving a subconscious process—the “latent
-dream”—capable of the intelligent fabrication of a “manifest” dream
-phantasy which is a cryptic symbolization of the subject’s thoughts.
-Such a fabrication has all the earmarks of purpose, fore-thought and
-constructive imagination. But if this underlying process can be
-identified, even though it be in a single case, with such an
-intelligence as that which wrote the poetical script we have studied, it
-is plainly quite capable of fabricating the wildest dream phantasy.
-
-I have suggested that the _subconscious intelligence_ may be _comparable
-to the phenomenon of a coconscious personality_. It is worth noting in
-this connection that in the case of Miss B. the coconscious personality,
-Sally, who claimed to be awake while Miss B. was dreaming, also claimed
-that Miss B. sometimes dreamed about what Sally was thinking of at the
-moment.[110] In other words, the thoughts of a large systematized
-coconscious intelligence determined the dream just as these thoughts
-sometimes emerged into Miss B.’s mind when awake. That a coconscious
-personality may persist awake while the principal personality is asleep
-I have been able to demonstrate in another case (B. C. A.). It was also
-noted in Dr. Barrows’ case of Anna Winsor. Moreover, Sally was shown to
-be a persistent, sane coconsciousness while Miss B. was delirious and
-also while she was apparently deeply etherized and unconscious.[111]
-After all it is difficult to distinguish _in principle_ the condition of
-sleep with a persisting coconsciousness from a state of deep hypnotic
-trance where the subject is apparently unconscious. In this condition,
-although the waking consciousness has disappeared, there can be shown to
-be a persisting “secondary” consciousness which can be communicated with
-by automatic writing and which later can exhibit memories of occurrences
-in the environment during the hypnotic trance. (B. C. A.)
-
-What has been said does not touch, of course, the other mechanisms of
-the Freudian theory nor the unessential, greatly over-emphasized theory
-that the subconscious dream is always a sexual wish. On the contrary,
-the principle throws a strong, _a priori_ doubt upon the correctness of
-this generalization. It is plainly, however, a matter of fact which
-might be easily determined by observation were it not for the difficulty
-of correctly referring clinical phenomena to the correct antecedent
-experiences as their causal factors. In the last analysis it becomes
-always a matter of interpretation.
-
-=Applied psychology.=—Much has been discovered in recent years regarding
-the part played by subconscious processes in the production of normal
-and abnormal phenomena. But we do not as yet know the possibilities and
-limitations of these processes. We have as yet but an imperfect
-knowledge of what they can do, what they can’t do, and what they do do,
-and of the mechanisms by which they are called into play and provoke
-phenomena. _Many pathological phenomena_ have been shown to be due to
-subconscious processes; and it is quite probable that these play an
-important part in determining the mental processes of normal life, but
-this is still largely theory. In applied psychology and psychopathology
-the “subconscious” has been made use of to explain many phenomena with
-which we have practically to deal. Assumed as a concept the phenomena
-are explained by it with a greater or less degree of probability. In
-those _hysterical conditions_ where the subconscious processes have been
-shown to be split-off conscious processes, we can often recover memories
-of the latter and demonstrate their relation to the hysterical phenomena
-by the various technical methods already mentioned. But where this
-cannot be done, as is ordinarily the case, some conserved antecedent
-experience must be inferred as the causal factor and assumed to be the
-functioning subconscious process which determines the phenomenon. To a
-large extent, then, in applied psychology and psychopathology the
-postulation in specific cases of a subconscious process is theoretical
-and open to more or less doubt. In other words, although a principle may
-be established, its application, as in all applied sciences, is apt to
-meet with difficulties.
-
-Now the application of the principle of a subconscious process to the
-explanation of a given phenomenon is rendered peculiarly difficult
-because for practical purposes it is not so much the question of a
-subacting process that is at issue as it is of what particular
-antecedent experience is concerned in the process. The question is of
-the causal factor. For example, we may know from general experience in a
-large number of instances that a given hysterical phenomenon—a tic or a
-convulsive attack or an hallucination or a dream—must be in all
-probability determined by a subconscious process derived from some
-conserved experience, but what specific experience may be a matter of
-considerable uncertainty. _Hence the different theories and schools of
-interpretation_ that have arisen. The importance of clearly appreciating
-the nature of such problems and properly estimating the different
-theories at their true value is so great that I may be permitted a few
-words in further explanation.
-
-Let us take dreams as a type. The conscious dream may be made up of
-fantastic imagery and apparently absurd thoughts without apparent
-logical meaning. Now from general experience we may believe that the
-dream is a cryptic symbolic expression of a logical subconscious
-process—perhaps a wish. The question is, what wish? The symbolism cannot
-be deciphered on its face. Now, by the analytic method associative
-memories pertaining to each element of the dream are recovered in
-abstraction. When a memory of antecedent thoughts of which the dream
-element is a logical symbolism or synonym and which give an intelligent
-meaning to the dream is recovered, we infer that these antecedent
-thoughts are contained in the determining subconscious process. Further,
-as it is found that certain objects or actions (e. g., snakes, flying,
-etc.) frequently occur in the dreams of different people as symbolisms
-of the same thoughts, it is inferred that whenever these objects or
-actions appear in the dream they are always symbolisms of the same
-underlying thoughts.
-
-Obviously the mere fact of an antecedent experience arising as an
-associative memory is not of itself evidence of its being the causal
-factor. Hundreds of such memories might be obtained. To have evidential
-value the memory must give logical meaning to the dream or dream element
-under investigation. Now, as a matter of fact, more than one memory can
-often be obtained which answers these conditions. Consequently it
-becomes a matter of selection from memories, or interpretation, as to
-which is the correct solution of a given dream problem—and _mutatis
-mutandis_ of a pathological phenomenon. Naturally the selection is
-largely determined by personal views and _a priori_ concepts. It also
-follows that if one accepts the universality of a given symbolism and is
-committed to a given theory one can, by going far enough, find
-associations in vast numbers of dreams that will support that theory.
-The correct solution of a dream problem, that is, the correct
-determination of the specific underlying process, depends upon the
-correct determination of the causal factor and this must be inferred.
-The inferential nature of the latter factor therefore introduces a
-possible source of error. There must frequently be considerable latitude
-in the interpretation. This is not to gainsay that in a large number of
-instances the logical relation between antecedent experiences (recovered
-by associative memories) and the dream is so close and obtrusive that
-doubt as to the true subconscious process can scarcely be entertained.
-
-An example of a condensed _analysis of a dream_ will illustrate the
-practical difficulty often presented in determining by clinical methods
-the correct causal factor and subconscious process of a dream. I select
-a simple one which consists of two scenes:[112]
-
- "C. was somewhere and saw an old woman who appeared to be a _Jewess_.
- She was holding a _bottle_ and a _glass_, and seemed to be drinking
- whisky. Then this woman changed into her own _mother_, who had the
- bottle and glass, and appeared likewise to be drinking whisky.
-
- “Then the door opened and her _father_ appeared. He had on her
- _husband’s dressing gown_, and he was holding _two sticks of wood_ in
- his hand.”
-
-Before interpreting this dream I will state that the subject had been
-tormented (as was brought out by the associative memories) by the
-question whether poor people should be condemned if they yielded to
-temptation, particularly that of drinking. This problem she could not
-answer satisfactorily to herself. It is the inferred causal factor in
-the dream process. The dream gave an answer to this problem.
-
-Let me also point out that the material, that is, the elements out of
-which this dream was constructed (indicated by the words italicized),
-was found in the thoughts of the dreamer on the preceding day and
-particularly just before going to sleep. The first scene of the dream
-ends with the mother drinking whisky: the second scene represents the
-father appearing with two sticks of wood. For the sake of simplicity of
-illustration I will confine myself to the _interpretation_ of this first
-scene as it will answer our present purposes.
-
- “As to the first scene” (by technical methods of analysis) “a rich
- collection of memories was obtained. It appeared that on the previous
- morning the subject had walked with a _poor Jewess_ through the slums,
- and had passed by some men who had been _drinking_. This led her to
- think at the time of the lives of these poor people; of the
- _temptations_ to which they were exposed; of how little we know of
- this side of life and of its _temptations_. She wondered what the
- effect of such surroundings, particularly of seeing people _drinking_,
- would have upon the child of the Jewess. She wondered if such people
- ought to be condemned if they yielded to drink and other temptations.
- She thought that she herself would not blame such people if they
- yielded, and that we ought not to _condemn_ them. Then in the
- psychoanalysis there came memories of her mother, whose character she
- admired and who _never condemned any one_. She remembered how her
- mother, who was an invalid, always had a glass of _whisky_ and water
- on her table at night, and how the family used to joke her about it.
- Then came memories again of her husband sending _bottles of whisky_ to
- her mother; of the latter _drinking_ it at night; of the men whom she
- had seen in the slums and who had been _drinking_. These, very
- briefly, were the experiences accompanied by strong feeling tones
- which were called up as associative memories of this scene of the
- dream. With these in mind, it is not difficult to construct a logical,
- though symbolic, meaning of it. In the dream _a_ Jewess (not _the_
- Jewess, but a type) is in the act of drinking whisky—in other words,
- the poor, whom the _Jewess_ represents, yield to the temptation which
- the dreamer had thought of with considerable intensity of feeling
- during the day. The dreamer’s own judgment, after considerable
- cogitation, had been that such people were not to be condemned. Was
- she right? The dream answers the question, for the Jewess changes in
- the dream to her mother, for whose judgment she had the utmost
- respect. Her mother now drinks the whisky as she had actually done in
- life, a logical justification (in view of her mother’s fine character
- and liberal opinion) of her own belief, which was somewhat intensely
- expressed in her thoughts of that morning, a belief in not condemning
- poor people who yield to such temptations. The dream scene is
- therefore the symbolical representation and justification of her own
- belief,[113] and answers the doubts and scruples that beset her mind.”
-
-Whether or not this is the correct interpretation of this dream depends
-entirely upon whether the true causal factors were found. If through the
-analysis this was the case, as I believe—namely, the scruple or ethical
-problem whether poor people who yield to temptation ought to be
-condemned—then the interpretation given is logically sound and the dream
-is an answer to the doubts and scruples that beset the dreamer’s mind.
-But the answer is a pictorial symbolism and therefore requires an
-intervening subconscious process which induces and finally expresses
-itself in the symbolism. We may suppose that this process in response to
-and as a subconscious incubation of the ethical problem took some form
-like this: “Poor people like the Jewess are not to be condemned for
-yielding to the temptation (of drinking) for my mother, who was beyond
-criticism, showed by her life she would not have condemned them.”
-
-This may or may not be the true subconscious process and the correct
-interpretation of the dream. But it is one possible and logical
-interpretation based upon the actually found antecedent experiences and
-associative memories of the dreamer. Now it so happens that this
-interpretation and that of other dreams[114] which I endeavored to trace
-to antecedent experiences have been warmly challenged by certain
-clinicians because the inferred causal factors were not found to be
-antecedent repressed sexual wishes. It is insisted on theoretical
-grounds that the content of the dreams plainly indicated that there must
-have been such wishes and that if these had been found this dream would
-have been unfolded as a logical symbolical fulfilment of a sexual wish.
-Which interpretation is correct is inconsequential for our present
-purpose. The controversy only relates to the universality of the sexual
-theory of dreams. The point is that this difference in interpretation
-shows the possibility of error in the determination of the causal factor
-and the subconscious process by clinical methods. The dream may be
-logically related to two or more antecedent experiences and we have no
-criterion of which is the correct one. To insist upon one or the other
-savors of pure dogmatism.[115] Indeed, the justification for the
-postulation in a dream of any subconscious process in the last analysis
-depends upon the soundness of the postulation of the antecedent
-experience as the causal factor. If this factor falls to the ground the
-subconscious process falls with it.
-
-The second point to which this discussion leads us is that the latitude
-of interpretation allowed by the method of analysis has given rise to
-different views as to the specific character of the subconscious process
-found in many dreams. According to the theory of Freud, to whose genius
-we are indebted for the discovery of this process, it is almost always a
-sexual wish and the dream is always the imaginary, even though cryptic,
-fulfilment of that wish. On the other hand, as a result of my own
-studies, if I may venture to lay weight upon them, I have been forced to
-the conclusion that _a dream may be the symbolical expression of almost
-any thought_ to which strong emotional tones with their impulsive forces
-have been linked, particularly anxieties, apprehensions, sorrows,
-beliefs, wishes, doubts, and scruples, which function subconsciously in
-the dream. It may be a solution of unsolved problems with which the mind
-has been occupied,[116] just as in the waking state a mathematical or
-other problem may be solved subconsciously. In some subjects the problem
-is particularly apt to be one involving a conflict between opposing
-impulses, therefore one which has troubled the dreamer.[117]
-
-We have seen that in experimental and spontaneous hallucinatory
-phenomena, where the causal factor is known, a subconscious process is
-the essential feature of the mechanism. In this respect the mechanism is
-identical with that of certain dreams. Indeed, dreams are one type of
-hallucinatory phenomena. In fact we met with one dream the chief element
-of which was repeated afterward in the waking state as a vision. We are
-justified, then, in applying the principle of a subconscious process to
-the elucidation of the _visions of normal people_, although it may be
-difficult to determine exactly the specific content of the process and
-the antecedent thought from which it was derived. Sometimes the content
-of a vision and the known circumstances under which it occurred are
-sufficient to enable us to interpret the phenomenon with reasonable
-certainty. In the following historical examples it is not difficult to
-recognize that the vision was a symbolic answer to a problem which had
-troubled the conscience of the Archduke Charles of Austria. Unable to
-solve his problem consciously and come to a decision, it was solved for
-him by a subconscious process. Indeed, as a fact, the vision was
-accepted by Charles as an answer to his doubts and perhaps changed the
-future history of Austria.
-
- “The Archduke Charles (the father of the present Emperor of Austria)
- was also greatly troubled in his mind as to the right to waive his
- claim to the crown in favor of his son. According to his own statement
- he only finally made up his mind when, while earnestly praying for
- guidance in his perplexity, he had _a vision of the spirit of his
- father, the late Emperor Francis, laying his hand on the head of his
- youthful grandson and thus putting all his own doubts to rest_.”[118]
-
-The likeness in type of the dream which we have just discussed to this
-vision is instructive. In the former the mother of the dreamer answers
-the question of conscience by drinking the whisky; in the latter the
-father of the visualizer does the same by laying his hand on the head of
-the object of the doubt.
-
-I have already pointed out the evidence for a subconscious process
-underlying the hallucinatory phenomena of sudden religious
-conversion.[119] I may further cite here, as an analogous phenomenon,
-the following historical example of not only hallucinatory symbolism,
-but of _explicitly conscious processes of thought_ which were elaborated
-by subconscious processes. It is Margaret Mary’s vision of the Sacred
-Heart. Margaret earnestly desired (according to her biographer)——
-
- “To be loved by God! and loved by him to distraction (aimé jusqu’à la
- folie)!—Margaret melted away with love at the thought of such a thing.
- Like St. Philip of Neri in former times, or like St. Francis Xavier,
- she said to God: ‘Hold back, O my God, these torrents which overwhelm
- me, or else enlarge my capacity for their reception.’”
-
-The answer and the form of the fulfilment of this wish came as an
-hallucination. She had a vision of Christ’s Sacred Heart
-
- “‘surrounded with rays more brilliant than the sun, and transparent
- like a crystal. The wound which he received on the cross visibly
- appeared upon it. There was a crown of thorns roundabout this divine
- Heart, and a cross above it.’ At the same time Christ’s voice told her
- that, unable longer to contain the flames of his love for mankind, he
- had chosen her by a miracle to spread the knowledge of them. He
- thereupon took out her mortal heart, placed it inside of his own and
- inflamed it, and then replaced it in her breast, adding: ‘Hitherto
- thou hast taken the name of my slave, hereafter thou shalt be called
- the well-beloved disciple of my Sacred Heart.’”[120]
-
-There is scarcely room to doubt, on the strength of the evidence as
-presented, that the antecedent longings of Margaret impelled by the
-conative force of their emotions were the causal factor of this vision.
-These longings, organized in the unconscious, must have gone through
-subconscious incubation (as William James has pointed out) and then
-emerged after maturity into consciousness as a symbolic visualization
-accompanied by hallucinatory words which were the expression of explicit
-subconscious imagination. Indeed, all such hallucinatory symbolisms—like
-the mental phenomena in general of sudden religious conversion—can only
-be psychologically explained as the emergence into consciousness of
-subconscious processes. The problem in each case is the determination of
-the content of the process.[121]
-
-_Reflection, consideration, meditation._—We are entering upon more
-uncertain ground in attempting to apply the mechanism of subconscious
-processes to every-day thought. There are certain types of thought,
-however, which behave as if this mechanism were at work. When, for
-instance, we take a problem “under advisement,” reflect upon it, give it
-“thoughtful consideration,” it seems as if, in weighing the facts pro
-and con, in looking at it from different points of view, i.e., in
-switching it into different settings, in considering all the facts
-related to it, we _voluntarily_ recall each fact that comes into
-consciousness. Yet it is quite possible, and indeed I think more than
-probable, reasoning from analogy, that the processes which present each
-fact, switch each point of view, or setting into consciousness, are
-subconscious and that what we do is chiefly to select from those which
-are thus brought into consciousness the ideas, settings, etc., which
-fulfil best the requirements of the question. In profound reflection or
-attention to thought (a form of absentmindedness) it seems as if it were
-more a matter of attention to and selection from the “free associations”
-which involuntarily come into the mind than of determining voluntarily
-what shall come in. If this be so, it is evident that the subconscious
-plays a much more extensive part in the mechanism of thought than is
-ordinarily supposed. We have not, however, sufficient data to allow us
-to do much more than theorize in the matter. Yet there are certain data
-which suggest the probability of the correctness of this hypothesis. In
-this connection I would point out how entirely confirmatory of this view
-is the testimony of the hypnotic consciousness which was cited in the
-previous lecture and which I will ask you to recall. You will remember
-that this testimony was to the effect that when a problem was under
-consideration associative memories required for its solution kept
-emerging out of the unconscious into the secondary consciousness.[122]
-
-Consider certain facts of every-day experience. A novel and difficult
-question is put up to us for decision. We have, we will say, to decide
-whether a certain piece of property situated in a growing district of a
-city shall be sold or held for future development: or a political
-manager has to decide whether or not to pursue a certain policy to win
-an election; or the President of the United States has to decide the
-policy of the government in certain land questions in Alaska. Now each
-of us would probably say that we could not decide such a question
-offhand; we would want time for consideration. If we attempted
-voluntarily, at the moment the question is put, to recall to mind all
-the different facts involved, to consider the given question from all
-aspects, to switch the main facts into their different settings, we
-would find it an impossible thing to do. We consequently take the matter
-“under advisement,” to use the conventional expression. We want time.
-Now what we apparently, and I think undoubtedly, do is to put the
-problem _into_ our minds and leave it, so to speak, to incubate. Then,
-from time to time, as we take up the matter for consideration, the
-various facts involved in the different aspects of the question, and
-belonging to their different settings, arise to mind. Then we weigh,
-compare, and estimate the value of these different facts and arrive at a
-judgment. All happens as if subconscious processes had been at work, as
-if the problem had been going through a subconscious incubation,
-switching in this and switching in that set of facts, and presenting
-them to consciousness, the final selection of the deciding point of view
-being left to the latter. The subconscious garners from the storehouse
-of past experiences, those which have a bearing on the question and are
-required for its solution, brings them into consciousness, and then our
-logical conscious processes form the judgment. The degree to which
-subconscious processes in this way take part in forming judgments would
-vary according to the mental habits of the individual, the complexity of
-the problem, the affectivity and conflicting character of the elements
-involved. Under this theory we see that there is a deeper psychological
-basis for the every-day practice of taking “under advisement” or “into
-consideration” a matter, before giving judgment, than would appear on
-the surface. There is considerable experimental evidence in favor of
-this theory. In discussing above the subconscious solution of problems I
-cited certain evidence, obtained from the memories of subjects in
-hypnosis, for coconscious and unconscious processes taking part in such
-solutions. I have been able to accumulate evidence of this kind showing
-the coöperation of processes outside of consciousness in determining the
-point of view and final judgment of the subject when a matter has been
-under advisement; particularly when the subject has been disturbed by
-doubts and scruples. It is plain that in the final analysis any question
-on which we reserve our judgment is a problem which we put _into_ our
-minds. And, after all, _it is only a question of degree and affectivity
-between the state of mind which hesitates to decide an impersonal
-question, like a judicial decision, and one that involves a scruple of
-conscience_. This latter state often eventuates in hallucinatory and
-other phenomena involving subconscious processes. Scruples of
-conscience, it is true, usually have strong affective elements as
-constituents, but the former may also have them, particularly when
-involving personal ambitions, political principles, etc.
-
------
-
-Footnote 98:
-
- The Dissociation, Appendix L, p. 548.
-
-Footnote 99:
-
- The Dissociation, Chapter XXXI.
-
-Footnote 100:
-
- As a matter of fact, the judgment was erroneous, though a justifiable
- inference.
-
-Footnote 101:
-
- Cf. The Dissociation, 2d edition, p. 567.
-
-Footnote 102:
-
- William James had once said to her in my presence that she could make
- a valuable contribution to psychology. It is interesting to note,
- although it is aside from the question at issue, that this subject had
- strenuously denied that there was any “hope,” insisting that she was
- absolutely devoid of any such sentiment. Through hypnotic memories,
- however, I was able to demonstrate that this was only consciously
- true, and that there were very evident and strong coconscious ideas of
- hope of which she was not consciously aware. She had refused to
- acknowledge these ideas to herself and by repression had dissociated
- them from the personal consciousness. These ideas now expressed
- themselves symbolically in the dream.
-
-Footnote 103:
-
- We must remember that a dreaming state is a dissociated state (like a
- fugue or trance), and numerous observations have shown that in such
- conditions any of the dormant related experiences of life may modify,
- repress, resist, alter, and determine the content of the dissociated
- consciousness. It is difficult to conceive of a dream allegory being
- constructed by the dream consciousness itself. If that were the
- mechanism, we should expect that the associative ideas for which
- symbols are chosen would appear during the dream construction as is
- the case in waking imagination. The method of the mental processes is
- very different in the latter. We there _select_ from a number of
- associative ideas that crowd into consciousness, choose our symbols,
- and remember the rejected ideas. This is not the case with dream
- imagination. The imagery develops as if done by something else.
-
-Footnote 104:
-
- It must not be assumed that all dreams are determined by a
- subconscious process or that all are symbolic. On the contrary, from
- evidence in hand, there is reason to believe that some dreams have
- substantially the same mechanism as waking imagination subject to the
- limitations imposed by the existing dissociation of consciousness
- during sleep. Just as, in the waking state, thoughts may or may not be
- determined by subconscious processes, so in the sleeping state. We
- know too little about the mechanisms of thought to draw wide
- generalizations or to dogmatize.
-
-Footnote 105:
-
- “For two or three days previously I had been trying to write some
- verses, and had been reading a good deal of poetry. I had been
- thinking in rhythm. I had also been under considerable nervous and
- emotional strain for some little time in reference to the facts
- portrayed in the verse.”
-
-Footnote 106:
-
- By this is meant “thoughts” of which she was not aware. Numerous
- observations on this subject have disclosed such subconscious ideas in
- connection with other phenomena. This corresponds with the testimony
- of other subjects previously cited. (Lecture VI.)
-
-Footnote 107:
-
- As a theory of the mechanism of the vision I would suggest that it was
- the emergence of the secondary visual images belonging to the
- subconscious ideas.
-
-Footnote 108:
-
- See page 102. Also Prince: The Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams.
- _Jour. Abnormal Psychology_. Oct.-Nov., 1910. G. A. Waterman: Dreams
- as a Cause of Symptoms. Ibid. Oct.-Nov., 1910.
-
-Footnote 109:
-
- I base this theory on other observations where coconscious images or
- “visions” of scenes occurred. When these images emerge into
- consciousness the subject experienced a vision.
-
-Footnote 110:
-
- The Dissociation, p. 332.
-
-Footnote 111:
-
- The Dissociation of a Personality, p. 330.
-
-Footnote 112:
-
- Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams, _Journal Abnormal Psychology_,
- Oct.-Nov., 1910.
-
-Footnote 113:
-
- The symbolic expression of beliefs and symbolic answers to doubts and
- scruples is quite common in another type of symbolism, viz., visions.
- Religious and political history is replete with examples.
-
-Footnote 114:
-
- _Loc. cit._
-
-Footnote 115:
-
- It has been answered that experience in a large number of cases shows
- that dreams always can be related logically to sexual experiences. To
- this it may be answered they can also in an equal number of cases,
- indeed in many of these same cases, be related to non-sexual
- experiences.
-
-Footnote 116:
-
- _Loc. cit._ It is possible, however, that sometimes the problem has
- been solved subconsciously in the waking state, the answer then
- appearing in the dream.
-
-Footnote 117:
-
- Here we find an analogy with certain allied phenomena—the visions and
- voices experienced as phenomena of sudden religious conversion.
-
-Footnote 118:
-
- Francis Joseph and His Sir Horace Rumbold. Page 151. (Italics mine.)
-
-Footnote 119:
-
- See also, “The Psychology of Sudden Religious Conversion,” _Journal
- Abnormal Psychology_, April, 1906, and “The Dissociation,” 2nd Edit.,
- pages 344 and 564; also James’ “The Varieties of Religious
- Experience.”
-
-Footnote 120:
-
- Quoted by William James, page 343.
-
-Footnote 121:
-
- Some will undoubtedly read into Margaret’s vision a cryptic sexual
- symbolism. To do so seems to me too narrow a view, in that it fails to
- give full weight to other instincts (and emotions) and to appreciate
- all the forces of human personality.
-
-Footnote 122:
-
- Lecture VI, pp. 169-172.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE VIII
- THE UNCONSCIOUS
-
-
-Our studies up to this point have led us to the general conclusion that
-a large measure of the experiences of life are conserved or deposited in
-what may be called a storehouse of neurographic dispositions or residua.
-_This storehouse is the unconscious._ From this storehouse our conscious
-processes draw for the material of thought. Further, a large amount and
-variety of evidence, which we have briefly and incompletely reviewed,
-has shown that conserved experiences may function without arising into
-consciousness, i.e., as a subconscious process. To what extent such
-processes take part in the mechanism of thought, contribute to the
-formation of judgments, determine the point of view and meaning of
-ideas, give direction to the stream and formulate the content of
-consciousness, and in particular conditions, by a species of
-translation, manifest themselves consciously as phenomena which we
-designate abnormal constitute special problems which require to be
-studied by themselves.
-
-=Physiological memory and processes.=—There is one phase of the
-unconscious which for the sake of completeness ought to be touched upon
-here, particularly as it is of considerable importance in any biological
-conception of intelligence. _There is every reason to believe that_
-intrinsically _there is no essential difference between those
-physiological dispositions and activities of the lower nervous centers
-(subcortical ganglia and spinal cord), which condition and determine
-unconscious behavior, and those dispositions and activities of the
-higher centers—the cortex—which condition and determine both conscious
-and unconscious behavior._ The former are undoubtedly innate in that
-they are primarily conditioned by inherited anatomical and physiological
-prearrangements of neurons and the latter are pre-eminently acquired
-through experience although probably not wholly so. (Our knowledge of
-the localization of function in the nervous system is not sufficiently
-definite to enable us to delimit the localization of either innate or
-acquired dispositions.) The innate activities of the lower nervous
-centers so far as represented by movements can be clearly differentiated
-from those of the higher centers and recognized in the behavior of
-so-called “spinal” animals and of animals from which the cerebral
-hemispheres have been removed. In the former the connection between the
-spinal cord and all parts of the nervous system above having been
-severed, whatever movements are executed are performed by the spinal
-cord alone and therefore of course by unconscious processes. The latter
-animals, although their actions are more complex and closely approximate
-(with important differences) those of normal animals, are also devoid or
-nearly devoid of consciousness. I say “nearly devoid” because in the
-interpretation of the experiments it is difficult to disprove that, as
-some hold, elementary sensations—qua sensation—are retained, though
-others regard the animals as purely unconscious physiological machines.
-
-In the spinal animal, in response to specific stimuli, various movements
-are elicited which though of a purposive character are effected, as has
-been so admirably worked out by Sherington, by complex spinal mechanisms
-of a reflex character. The so-called “scratch reflex” and the reflex
-movements of walking, trotting, and galloping (the animal being
-suspended in air) are examples. Such reflexes involve not only the
-excitation of certain movements appropriate to the stimulus but the
-inhibition of antagonistic muscles and reflex movements. Further in the
-integration of the spinal system, reflexes are compounded, one bringing
-to the support of another allied accessory reflexes so that various
-coöperative movements are executed. A constellation of reflexes leads to
-quite complex spinal mechanisms responsive to groups of stimuli acting
-concurrently and resulting in behavior which is purposive and adaptive
-to the situation. The neural processes executing such movements are
-necessarily conditioned by inherited dispositions and structural
-arrangements of the neurons.
-
-In the animal from which the cerebral hemispheres only have been removed
-there can be little doubt that the physiological mechanisms governing
-behavior differ only in complexity, not in kind, from those of the
-spinal reflexes; that in passing through successive anatomical levels
-from the spinal animal to this decerebrate animal with the addition of
-each successive ganglion the increasing complexity of behavior
-corresponds to increasing complexity of mechanisms or compounding of
-reflexes. And yet in the decerebrate animal without consciousness, as we
-must believe (excepting perhaps elementary sensations), the subcortical
-ganglia and spinal cord continue to perform exceedingly complex actions
-ordinarily, as we suppose, guided in the normal animal by consciousness.
-The reptile crawls; the fish swims; indeed the lancet fish has no brain,
-all its functions being regulated by its spinal cord. The frog hops and
-swims; the hen preens its feathers, walks and flies; the dog walks and
-runs. These, however, are the simplest examples of decerebrate behavior.
-Indeed it may be quite complex. The more recent experiments of Schräder
-on the pigeon and falcon and Goltz and Rothmann on the dog, not to
-mention those of earlier physiologists, have shown that the decerebrate
-unconscious (?) animal performs about all the movements performed by the
-normal animal.[123] “A mammal such as a rabbit, in the same way as a
-frog and a bird, may in the complete or all but complete absence of the
-cerebral hemispheres maintain a natural posture, free from all signs of
-disturbance of equilibrium, and is able to carry out with success at all
-events all the usual and common bodily movements. And as in the bird and
-frog, the evidence also shows that these movements not only may be
-started by, but in their carrying out are guided by and coordinated by,
-afferent impulses along afferent nerves, including those of the special
-senses. But in the case of the rabbit it is even still clearer than in
-the case of the bird that the effects of these afferent impulses are
-different from those which result when the impulses gain access to an
-intact brain. The movements of the animal seem guided by impressions
-made on its retina, as well as on other sensory nerves; we may perhaps
-speak of the animal as the subject of sensations; but there is no
-satisfactory evidence that it possesses either visual or other
-perceptions, or that the sensations which it experiences give rise to
-ideas.”[124]
-
-Even _spontaneity_ which at one time was supposed to be lost it is now
-agreed returns if the animal is kept alive long enough. It “wanders
-about in the room untiringly the greater part of the day” (Loeb).
-
-Of course there are differences in the animal’s behavior when compared
-with normal behavior, but these differences are not so easy to interpret
-in psychological terms. Loeb, apparently following Schräder, does not
-believe the animal is blind or deaf or without sensation for it reacts
-to light, to noise, to smell, to tactile impressions, etc. It avoids
-obstacles and is guided by visual impressions, etc. The falcon jumps at
-and catches a mouse introduced in its cage; the dog growls and snaps if
-its paw is pinched and endeavors to get away or bite the offending hand;
-the pigeon flies and alights upon a bar, apparently visually measuring
-distance, and so on. But though it is guided by visual and other sensory
-_impressions_, does it have visual, auditory and other _images_, that
-is, conscious sensory states? This is not easy to answer. It certainly
-acts like an animal that is not blind nor deaf nor without tactual
-sensation, and yet it is conceivable that it is guided simply by sensory
-mechanisms without conscious sensation. The main reason, apparently, for
-believing the animal to be without sensation, as some believe (e. g.,
-Morgan) is the absence of the cerebral cortex in which alone sensation
-is believed to be “localized.” Recently Rothmann[125] has succeeded in
-keeping alive for three years a dog from which the entire cerebrum was
-extirpated. It was then killed. Although the dog, like Goltz’ dog, in
-its behavior exhibited an abundance of functions in the spheres of
-mobility, sensibility, feeding, barking, etc., Rothmann came to the
-conclusion that it was blind and deaf.[126] Although apparently without
-taste for bitter, sweet, sour, and acid, yet the dog reacted differently
-to edible and non-edible substances, swallowing the former and rejecting
-the latter (moist sand); raw flesh was eaten preferably to cooked flesh
-and Goltz’ dog rejected from its mouth food made bitter with quinine.
-Some kind of gustatory processes (probably purely reflex as in Pawlow’s
-association experiments) were therefore retained though not necessarily
-taste as such. But blindness and deafness in the dog cannot negative the
-retention in birds and other animals of visual and auditory impressions
-of some kind which guide and originate behavior. But whether such
-impressions are psychologically sensations or not, the animal certainly
-does not possess visual or other _perceptions_, because the “sensations”
-have no “meaning.” Schräder’s falcon, for example, would jump at and
-catch with its claws a moving mouse in the cage, but there the matter
-was at an end; it did not devour it as would a normal falcon. Any moving
-object had for it the same meaning as a mouse and excited the same
-movement. So the decerebrate dog does not distinguish friend from
-stranger and other dogs have no meaning for it. All objects are alike to
-all decerebrate animals. In the popular language of the street “all
-coons look alike” to them. In other words the main defect is loss of
-memory for conscious experiences, of what Loeb calls associative-memory,
-the conscious memory which gives meaning to sensations, transforms them
-by synthesis into _perception_ of objects and gives still further
-meaning to the objects. Hence for the pigeon without its cerebrum
-“Everything is only a mass in space, it moves aside for every pigeon or
-attempts to climb over it, just as it would in the case of a stone. All
-authors agree in the statement that to these animals all objects are
-alike. They have no enemies and no friends. They live like hermits no
-matter in how large a company they find themselves. The languishing coo
-of the male makes as little impression upon the female deprived of its
-cerebrum as the rattling of peas or the whistle which formerly made it
-hasten to its feeding place. Neither does the female show interest in
-its young. The young ones that have just learned to fly pursue the
-mother, crying unceasingly for food, but they might as well beg food of
-a stone.”[127]
-
-One of the chief utilities of conscious memory is the means it offers
-the psycho-physiological organism to make use of past experiences to
-adapt present conduct to a present situation. This the brainless animal
-cannot do. Hence it is a mindless physiological automaton. All the
-actions performed by it, however complex they may be, are unquestionably
-performed and primarily conditioned by inherited neural arrangements and
-dispositions. They may be even regarded as complexly compounded reflex
-processes similar excepting in complexity, as Sherrington has held, to
-the mechanisms of the spinal cord. The behavior of the animal is
-therefore by definition instinctive. But even so this fact in no way
-throws light upon the intrinsic nature of the physiological process, but
-only upon the conditions of its occurrence. Acquired behavior is also
-conditioned—conditioned by acquired dispositions. The difference
-physiologically between the two is that in instinctive behavior the
-neural processes are confined to pathways established by evolutionary
-development, and in acquired behavior to pathways established by
-experience. Both must be conditioned by pathways, and the process in its
-inner nature must be the same in both. Many cortical processes, to be
-sure, are conscious—i.e., correlated with consciousness—but probably not
-all. And this quality of consciousness permitting of conscious memory is
-of great utility in the organization of acquired dispositions that
-provide the means for the adaption of the animal to each new
-environmental situation.
-
-Furthermore, it is not at all certain that the behavior of the
-decerebrate animal is not in part determined by _secondarily acquired
-dispositions_. In the normal animal instinctive actions become modified
-and perfected after the very first performances of the act by conscious
-experience[128] and it is not at all certain that dispositions so
-acquired and essential for these modifications are not conserved and
-incorporated in the unconscious neural arrangements of the subcortical
-centers. So far as this may be the case the acquired modifications of
-instinctive behavior may be manifested in the actions of the decerebrate
-animals. In other words, the unconscious processes of the lower nervous
-centers motivating movements (and visceral functions) may include
-_acquired dispositions or physiological memories_.
-
-That the subcortical centers are capable of memory seems to have been
-shown for the first time by Rothmann’s dog. This mindless animal proved
-to be capable of a certain amount of education. It learned to avoid
-hitting against objects, and to do certain tricks—jumping over a hurdle
-and following on its hind legs a stool upon which its fore feet were
-placed as the stool was dragged forward. “In the perfection of all these
-performances the influence of practice was easily recognized.” This
-means, if the interpretation given is correct, that new dispositions and
-new connections may be acquired within the lower centers _without the
-intervention of the integrating influence of the cortex_ or conscious
-intelligence.[129] This is an important contribution for apparently the
-attempt to educate brainless animals had not been previously made, and
-their capability for education demonstrated.
-
-The important bearing which this fact has upon this discussion is that
-it shows that unconscious processes are capable of memory, that is
-physiological memory. It may be said that this statement needs some
-modification if the sensory “impressions” guiding the decerebrate animal
-are to be interpreted as true psychological, however elementary,
-“sensations.” It would seem to me on the contrary only to accentuate the
-fact that the processes of the brainless animal are on a transition
-level between the purely unconscious processes of the spinal animal and
-the purely (if ever wholly so) conscious processes of the normal animal,
-and that intrinsically all are of the same nature. If sensation enters
-into the complex reflex reactions of the brainless animal it would seem
-that it can only be an elemental conscious factor in a complicated
-unconscious physiological mechanism. In this mechanism it can have no
-more specific importance in determining behavior, because of the fact of
-its being a psychological state, than if it were a receptor “impression”
-intercalated in the arc of an innate process. It is not linked with any
-associative memories of the past or foresight into the future; it does
-not constitute conscious intelligence. As a conscious experience it
-cannot have that kind of “meaning” which in the normal animal modifies
-instinctive processes and determines conduct. It probably plays simply
-the same part in the whole process, which otherwise is wholly
-unconscious, that the associative sensory image plays in determining the
-flow of thick or thin saliva in Pawlow’s dogs—simply a single link in a
-chain of associated reflex processes.
-
-The next point to which I would direct attention is that from an
-objective point of view the behavior of the decerebrate animal may be in
-nature _intelligent_ in the empirical sense of that word. The dog that
-growls and snaps when his foot is pinched, tries to draw it away, and,
-failing that, bites at the offending hand; the “educated” dog that jumps
-over a hurdle, and walks on his hind legs, following a stool supporting
-his front legs, to my way of thinking performs intelligent actions
-whether it has a brain or not. If intelligence is arbitrarily limited to
-actions performed by conscious processes, then intelligence becomes a
-mere question of terms.[130] There arises also the practical difficulty
-that certain types of behavior, which by common assent and common sense
-are regarded as purely automatic and unintelligent, must be termed
-intelligent because guided by consciousness. I cannot help thinking that
-“intelligence” is a pragmatic question, not a biological or
-psychological one. It would be much more conducive to a clear
-understanding of biological problems to use intelligence only as a
-convenient and useful expression, like sanity or insanity, to designate
-certain behavior which conforms to a type which, without strictly
-defining its limits, popular language has defined as intelligent. Sanity
-and insanity have ceased to be terms of scientific value because they
-cannot be defined in terms of specific mental conditions and much less
-in terms of mental processes. So intelligence cannot be defined in terms
-of conscious and unconscious processes. Any attempt to do so meets with
-insuperable difficulties and becomes “confusion worse confounded.” When
-we say then that the behavior of the decerebrate dog may be intelligent,
-all that is meant is that the animal exhibits behavior identical with
-that which in the normal animal we would empirically call intelligent.
-In this sense unconscious processes may exhibit intelligence. It was
-from this viewpoint, I think, that Foster concluded: “In short, the more
-we study the phenomena exhibited by animals possessing a part only of
-their brain, the closer we are pushed to the conclusion that no sharp
-line can be drawn between volition and lack of volition, or between the
-possession and absence of intelligence. Between the muscle-nerve
-preparation at one limit, and our conscious willing selves at the other,
-there is a continuous gradation without a break; we cannot fix on any
-linear barrier in the brain or in the general nervous system, and say
-‘beyond this there is volition and intelligence, but up to this there is
-none.’”[131]
-
-It has already been pointed out (Lecture V) that, in man, complicated
-actions which have been volitionally and perhaps laboriously acquired
-may be afterwards involuntarily and unconsciously performed.[132] In
-other words, after intelligent actions have been acquired by conscious
-processes, they may be performed by subconscious processes for which
-there is no conscious awareness and probably these may be either
-coconscious or entirely unconscious. There is no sharp dividing line
-between the activities of the unconscious, coconscious, and conscious.
-
-When we descend in the scale of animal life to the insects (bees, ants,
-etc.,) we observe motor activity of a highly complex character of a kind
-that is termed intelligent, but we are forced to conclude, from various
-considerations, that the elements of consciousness have dwindled away to
-what can be nothing more than mere sensibility. In other words
-consciousness is reduced to its lowest terms, but behavior and the
-neural processes are maintained at a high level of complexity.
-Accordingly there is a disproportion between the complexity of the motor
-behavior and the inferred simplicity of consciousness, for in the higher
-animals the former would be correlated with complex psychological
-processes. If this be so, the motor activities must be determined by
-processes which are mostly unconscious.
-
-In still lower forms of life the motor activities can be referred to
-simple tropisms, and thus necessarily are wholly unconscious.
-
-Between the most complex unconscious physiological processes performed
-by the nervous system and the simpler cerebral processes accompanied by
-consciousness there is not as wide a step as might seem when
-superficially viewed. The physiological process may, as we have seen,
-manifest itself in acts of quite as intelligent a character as those
-exhibited by the conscious process, and indeed more so; for the
-conscious act may be little more than a limited reflex. On the other
-hand a psychological process may be so elementary that it contains
-nothing of awareness of self, of intelligence, or of volition in the
-true sense—nothing more, perhaps, than an elementary sensation without
-even perception. But it may be said that the presence of the most
-rudimentary state of consciousness makes all the difference and renders
-the gulf between the two impassable.
-
-We are not called upon to discuss that question here. It is one which
-involves the ultimate nature of physical processes. A distinction should
-be made between psychological and psychical, these not being coextensive
-and always interchangeable terms. Psychological pertains to the
-empirical data of consciousness, (thoughts, ideas, sensations, etc.)
-while psychical pertains to the inner or ultimate nature of these data.
-Though the data as given in consciousness are psychical, that which is
-psychical may not be solely manifested as psychological phenomena. It
-may be manifested as physical phenomena and perhaps be identified with
-the energy of the universe. Hence the doctrine of panpsychism. And so it
-may be that in its ultimate analysis an unconscious process is psychical
-(monism) although not psychological and not manifesting itself as a
-datum of consciousness. Certain it is that, _objectively_ viewed, there
-is nothing to distinguish physiological from psychological intelligence.
-If the extraordinary instinctive habits exhibited by insects, such as
-bees and ants and by still lower forms of animal life, can rightly be
-interpreted as, in large part at least, manifestations of physiological
-processes, as is quite possible, the distinction between the conscious
-and the unconscious in respect to intelligence and adaptability to
-environment would be reduced to one only of degree. That some of the
-lowest forms of life are endowed with consciousness, in any sense in
-which the word has psychological meaning, seems incredible, though they
-manifest instinctive intelligence of no mean order. The fact probably
-is, as I have just intimated, that those processes we call physiological
-and those we call psychological are in their inner nature identical, and
-the former are quite capable of functioning, incredible as it may seem,
-in a fashion that we are accustomed to believe can only be the attribute
-of conscious intelligence. This does not mean, of course, that the
-physiological intelligence can reach the same degree of perfection as
-that reached by conscious intelligence, though conversely, the latter
-may be of a lower order than physiological intelligence.[133] From this
-point of view we are logically entitled to regard physiological
-processes, even of the lower nervous centers and even though they are
-not acquired but due to congenital structural and functional
-arrangement, as phases of the unconscious.
-
-=Psycho-physical parallelism and monism.=—According to the doctrine of
-psycho-physical parallelism every mental process is correlated with
-(accompanied by) a brain process. As brain processes thus viewed are
-“unconscious” (in the sense of not having the attribute of
-consciousness) we may express this in other terms and say: every
-“conscious” process is accompanied by an “unconscious” process. I have
-no intention of entering here into the question of the validity of the
-doctrine of psycho-physical parallelism. I wish merely to point out that
-if parallelism is a true formulation of the mind-brain problem, as I
-have just stated it, the converse ought to hold true, namely, that every
-brain process of a certain kind involving intelligence ought to be
-correlated with consciousness. But if some subconscious processes
-manifesting what is equivalent to thought, reasoning, judgment,
-imagination, volition, etc., are unconscious—as seems likely if not
-probable—then this converse does not hold true. This has some bearing on
-the validity of the doctrine; for if physical processes can perform
-substantially the same function as conscious intelligence it is
-difficult to reconcile this fact with what I may call naïve
-psycho-physical parallelism.
-
-It is reconcilable, however, with psychic monism. According to this
-doctrine it is not a question of parallelism at all. There is only one
-process—the psychical. The physical brain process is only an aspect or
-special mode of apprehending this one. All is psychical but not
-psychological. That which we apprehend in the form of the unconscious is
-really psychical and hence is capable of performing the same _kind_ of
-function as it performs when it becomes psychological. It is not at all
-certain that unconscious processes may not comprise an intelligence
-possessing faculties identical in kind with those of conscious
-intelligence and indistinguishable from the latter. Subconscious
-processes may exhibit perception, cognition, reason, imagination,
-conation (will), feeling, etc., and it is possible that some of these
-processes may be correctly interpreted as unconscious. At any rate, from
-the point of view of monism, whether the real psychical process or,
-probably more correctly, how much of it shall emerge as a psychological
-state of consciousness depends upon intrinsic conditions. Though we
-cannot penetrate within them it is quite conceivable that it is a matter
-of complexity of synthesization and coöperative activity of psychical
-energies. This is a most interesting problem closely related to that of
-awareness and self-consciousness.
-
-=The meanings of the unconscious, subconscious, and coconscious.=—Though
-the term “unconscious” is in general use it has so many connotations
-derived from its various meanings in metaphysics, psychology, and
-physiology that its use has given rise to considerable confusion of
-thought, particularly, I am compelled to believe, in the interpretation
-of specific psycho-physiological phenomena. Nevertheless, it has been so
-well established in our nomenclature that we could not replace it if we
-would. Nor is it wholly desirable to do so. It is a good and useful
-term, but I believe that with each advance in the precision of our
-knowledge we ought, so far as accumulative data permit, to give
-precision to the concept for which it stands. Just as in physical
-science we attempt to give precision to our concept of electricity in
-conformity with new data accumulated from time to time, so our
-psychological concepts should be defined and limited in accordance with
-the advance in knowledge. Some do not like to define the term, not being
-quite willing to commit themselves unreservedly to the complete
-acceptance of the physiological theory of memory and to cut adrift
-from the metaphysical concept of a subliminal mind. If the
-psycho-physiological theory of memory, which is now generally accepted,
-is sound, we have one meaning of the unconscious which is a very
-definite concept, namely, the brain residua, physiological
-“dispositions” or neurograms in which the experiences of life are
-conserved. These terms become, therefore, synonyms for the unconscious.
-That, under certain conditions, the passive neurograms may, under
-stimulation, become active and function unconsciously (i.e., without
-corresponding psychological equivalents being introduced into the
-personal consciousness), need not invalidate the concept. We are then
-dealing with an unconscious and dynamic process. The effects of such
-functioning are simply the manifestations of the unconscious and may be
-recognized either in modifications of the stream of consciousness or in
-bodily disturbances. The term unconscious is an appropriate and
-descriptive term to characterize that which is devoid of the attributes
-of consciousness. This use of the term has been sanctioned by common
-usage.
-
-Unfortunately, however, the term has been also employed to characterize
-another and distinct class of facts, namely _Co-[or Sub-]conscious
-Ideas_. We shall have occasion to study these psychological phenomena in
-other lectures.[134] We have seen examples in many of the phenomena I
-have cited. It is sufficient to say here, that as conceived of, and as
-we have seen, they are very _definite states of coconsciousness—a
-coexisting dissociated consciousness or coconsciousness of which the
-personal consciousness is not aware_, i.e., of which it is
-“unconscious.” Hence they have been called “unconscious ideas” and have
-been included in the unconscious, particularly by German writers. But
-this is plainly using the term in a different sense—using it as a
-synonym for the longer phrase, “ideas we are unaware of,” and not as a
-characterization of that which is physiological and non-psychological.
-
-“Unconscious ideas” in this sense (the equivalent of coconscious ideas)
-would include conscious states that we are not aware of simply because
-not in the focus of attention but in the fringe of the content of
-consciousness. The term would also include pathologically split-off and
-independently acting coconscious ideas or systems of ideas such as occur
-in hysteria, reaching their apogee in coconscious personalities and in
-automatic writings. Here we have a series of facts essentially different
-from the conceptual facts of physical residua, the form in which
-experiences are conceived to be conserved. Manifestly it is confusing
-and incorrect to define both by “the unconscious.” And to speak of the
-former as “unconscious ideas” and of the latter as “unconscious,”
-although technically correct, leads to confusion from using the term
-“unconscious” in two different senses.[135]
-
-As a concept in a scheme of metaphysics, “unconscious ideas”—i.e., ideas
-of which we are not conscious, have long been recognized. Leibnitz was
-the first to maintain, on theoretical grounds and by _a priori_
-reasoning, the existence of ideas of which we are not aware, as did
-likewise Kant, influenced by Leibnitz, and later Schilling, and Herbart;
-while Hartmann evolved the unconscious into a biological and
-metaphysical system.[136]
-
-By most American, English, and French psychologists such ideas, as
-conceived at least by Leibnitz, Kant, and Herbart, would to-day be
-called subconscious or coconscious ideas. Hartmann included all
-physiological processes of the nervous system in the Unconscious and
-ascribed to them special attributes (will, purpose, etc.). The
-Unconscious accordingly has connotations from which it is not easy to
-rid ourselves in dealing with it. It is generally agreed that it is
-desirable to have a term which shall cover all classes of
-facts—coconscious ideas, conserved experiences, and physiological
-processes—without committal of opinion as to interpretation.[137]
-
-It does not follow, however, that the term “unconscious” is the one that
-should be chosen. On the contrary, as unconscious has two distinct and
-different meanings (that pertaining to unawareness and that which is
-non-psychological) it is a very undesirable term if we wish to be
-precise in our terminology. That we should have a term which shall
-precisely define ideas which are not in awareness and which shall
-distinguish them from physiological processes is necessitated by the
-fact that such ideas in themselves form a distinct field of
-investigation.
-
-The term “subconscious” is commonly used, excepting by German writers,
-to characterize these coconscious ideas. In fact, by some French medical
-writers, particularly Janet, it is very precisely limited to such ideas.
-By other authors it is employed in this sense and also to include the
-physical residua of experiences, and sometimes with the additional
-meaning of unconscious physiological neurograms, or processes, which it
-defines—in fact, to denote any conserved experience or process outside
-of consciousness. On the other hand, among these authors, some do not
-admit the validity of the concept of coconscious ideas, but interpret
-all so-called subconscious manifestations as the expression of the
-physiological functioning of physiological neurograms in which the
-experiences of life are conserved. Subconscious and unconscious are,
-therefore, quite commonly, but not always, employed as synonyms to
-define two or three different classes of facts. For practical reasons,
-as already stated, it is desirable to have a term which shall embrace
-all classes of facts, and of the two terms in common use, subconscious
-and unconscious, the former is preferable, as it is not subject to the
-double meaning above mentioned. I, therefore, use the term subconscious
-in a generic sense to _include_ (_a_) _coconscious ideas or processes_;
-(_b_) _unconscious neurograms, and_ (_c_) _unconscious processes_. Of
-course it is only a matter of terminology. The conceptual facts may then
-be thus classified:
-
- { (synonym: subconsciousideas.)
- { The coconscious {
- { { {a: Conserved dormant
- { { {neurograms or neural
- { { {dispositions.
- The subconscious {
- { { {b: Active functioning
- { The unconscious { {neurograms or neural
- { { processes.
- { { (synonym: unconscious
- { { processes.)
-
-Subconscious as an adjective used to qualify ideas is plainly equivalent
-to coconscious ideas. This terminology I have found useful in keeping
-the different classes of conceptual facts separate in my mind and I
-believe it will prove to be equally useful to others. With the
-conceptual facts clearly differentiated it will be generally easy to
-recognize the various senses in which the terms are used when found in
-the writings of others.
-
-=The unconscious as a fundamental of personality.=—A survey of all the
-facts and their relations, which I have outlined in the preceding
-lectures, brings into strong relief the important principle that no
-matter in what state complexes of ideas are formed, so long as they are
-conserved, they become a part of our personality. They become dormant,
-but, being conserved, they may under favorable conditions be awakened
-and enter our conscious life. It matters not whether complexes of ideas
-have been formed in our personal consciousness, or in a state of
-hypnosis, in dreams, in conditions of dissociated personality, in
-coconsciousness, or any other dissociated state. They all become parts
-of ourselves and may afterwards be revived under favoring conditions,
-whether volitionally, automatically, by artificial devices, by
-involuntary stimuli, or other agencies. They may or may not be subject
-to voluntary recall as recollections, but, so long as they form part of
-our dormant consciousness as physiological neurograms, they belong to
-the personal self. “After all,” as Miss B. used to say, and correctly,
-referring to her different dissociated personalities, BI, B III, and
-BIV, “after all, they are all myself.” It makes no difference in what
-state an experience has occurred. A potential memory of it may persist
-and may, in one way or another, be revived, no matter how or when it
-originated.
-
-Through the conception of the _sub_conscious as resolvable, on the one
-hand, into the _un_conscious, passive or active physiological
-dispositions, and, on the other hand, into _co_active conscious states,
-the subconscious becomes simplified and intelligible. It offers a basis
-on which may be constructed comprehensible theories of memory,
-suggestibility, post-hypnotic phenomena, dreams, automatic writing and
-similar phenomena, artificial hallucinations, the protean phenomena of
-hysteria, and the psycho-neuroses, as well as the mechanism of thought.
-It enables us also to construct a rational concept of personality and
-self. As we shall see, when we take up the study of multiple personality
-in later lectures, out of the aggregate of the accumulated and varied
-experience of the past conserved in the unconscious may be constructed a
-number of different personalities, each depending upon a synthesis and
-rearrangement of life’s neurograms and innate dispositions and
-instincts. All dormant ideas with their feeling tones and conative
-tendencies belong to our personality, but they may be arranged with
-varying instincts and innate dispositions into a number of
-differentiated systems, each synthesized into a corresponding
-personality. In the unconscious may be conserved a vast number of life’s
-experiences ranging in time almost from the cradle to the grave. The
-hopes, the wishes, the anxieties of childhood may still be there, lying
-fallow, but capable of injecting themselves under favoring conditions
-into our personalities. Properly speaking, from this point of view,
-aside from certain artificial and pathological conditions, there is,
-_normally_, no distinct “subconscious _self_,” or “subliminal _self_,”
-or “secondary _self_,” or “hidden _self_.” In artificial and
-pathological conditions there may be, as has been frequently shown, a
-splitting of consciousness and the aggregation into a secondary
-coconscious system of large systems of ideas which have all the
-characteristics of personality. This secondary personality (of which the
-primary personality is not aware) may have its own memories, feelings,
-perceptions, and thoughts. It may appropriate to itself various
-complexes of neurograms deposited by the experiences of life which are
-not at the disposal of the principal personality. Such a coconscious
-system may properly be spoken of as a subconscious _self_. But there is
-no evidence that, _normally_, such systems exist. All that we are
-entitled to affirm is that every individual’s consciousness may include
-ideas of which he is not aware, and that he has at his disposal, to a
-greater or less extent, a large unconscious storehouse in which are
-neurographically conserved a large and varied mass of life’s
-experiences. These experiences may be arranged in systems, as we shall
-see in the next lecture, but they do not constitute a “self.” To speak
-of them as a subconscious, subliminal, secondary, or hidden self is to
-construct concepts which are allegories, metaphors, symbolisms,
-personifications of concrete phenomena. Their use tends to fallacious
-reasoning and to perverted inductions from the facts. Becoming major
-premises in a syllogism, they lead to erroneous interpretations of the
-simplest facts, just as fixed ideas or obsessions tend to a perverted
-interpretation of the environment.
-
-We are now in a position to see that the psycho-physiological theory of
-memory has a far-reaching significance. The facts which have been
-brought before you in evidence of the theory have been selected largely
-from those which were capable of verification by experimentation and by
-other objective testimony. They include a large variety of experiences
-which occurred in pathological conditions like amnesia and multiple
-personality, and in artificial conditions like hypnosis and
-intoxication. Such abnormal conditions enable us to show by testimony,
-independent of the individual, that these experiences had actually
-occurred, and, therefore, to show that the reproductions of these
-experiences were in principle truthful memories. They also enable us to
-appreciate the enormous variety and quantity of experiences which,
-although absolutely beyond the power of voluntary recall, may be
-conserved nevertheless as neurograms, and also to appreciate the
-minuteness of detail in which the brain records may be preserved.
-
-If you will stop a moment to think, and give play to your imagination,
-you will see that the principle of the neurographic conservation of
-experiences must be true not only of our outer life, of our experiences
-with our environment, but of our whole _inner life_, normal as well as
-abnormal. It is always possible that any thought, any feeling, however
-trivial and transitory, may leave neurograms in the brain. It is always
-possible that even a fleeting doubt or scruple, thoughts which flash
-into the mind and straightway are put out again, all may leave their
-records and dispositions to function again. Even a passing doubt which
-any of you may entertain regarding the interpretation of the phenomena I
-have described, and the correctness of our conclusions, may be recorded.
-Indeed, it is a matter of some importance for the understanding of
-abnormal mental conditions that many of those horrid little sneaking
-thoughts which we do not like to admit to ourselves, the thoughts which
-for one reason or another we endeavor to repress, to put out of our
-minds, may leave their indelible traces. In fact, these are the very
-thoughts, the ones which we try hardest to forget, to push aside, which
-are most likely to be conserved. The harder we try, the stronger the
-feelings attached to them, the more likely they are to leave neurograms
-in the brain though they may never be reproduced. This has been shown by
-observation of pathological conditions, like hysteria and psychasthenia,
-and by experimentation. In repressing our thoughts we do not put them
-out of our minds, but, as the subject previously cited, who in hypnosis
-could recall such repressed thoughts, said, we put them _into_ our
-minds. In other words, we conserve them as neurograms.
-
-In one sense, I suppose, we may say that every one leads a double life.
-Let me hasten to say to you, I mean this not in a moral but in an
-intellectual sense. Every one’s mental life may fairly be said to be
-divided between those ideas, thoughts, and feelings which he receives
-from and gives out to his social world, the social environment in which
-he lives, and those which belong more properly to his inner life and the
-innermost sanctuary of his personality and character. The former include
-the activities and the educational acquisitions which he seeks to
-cultivate and conserve for future use. The latter include the more
-intimate communings with himself, the doubts and fears and scruples
-pertaining to the moral, religious, and other problems of life, and the
-struggles and trials and difficulties which beset its paths; the
-internal contests with the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the
-devil. The conventionalities of the social organization require that the
-outward expression of many of these should be put under restraint.
-Indeed, society insists that some, the sexual strivings, are aspects of
-life and human nature which are not to be spoken or thought of. Now, of
-course, this inner life must also leave its neurographic tracings along
-with the outer life, and must, potentially at least, become a part of
-our personality, liable to manifest itself in character and in other
-directions. But, more than this, abnormal psychology, through its
-technical methods of investigation and through the perverted
-manifestations exhibited in sick conditions of mind and body, has shown
-us that the neurograms deposited as the experiences of this inner life
-may flower, to use an expression of the lamented William James, below
-the threshold of consciousness, and, under certain conditions, where the
-mind is in unstable equilibrium, burst forth in mental and bodily
-manifestations of an unusual character. Thus in processes of this kind
-we find an explanation of religious phenomena like sudden conversion; of
-dreams and of certain pathological phenomena like the hallucinations,
-deliria, crises, and bodily manifestations of hysteria, and the numerous
-automatic phenomena of spiritualistic mediums. Such phenomena may then
-be interpreted as the _flowering or functioning of the unconscious_.
-
-The essential difference in the consequences which follow from this
-psycho-physiological conception of memory, based as it is on the
-unconscious, and those which follow from that conception which is
-popularly held must be obvious. According to popular understanding the
-mental life which we have outlived, the life which we have put behind
-us, whether that of childhood or of passing phases of adult life, is
-only an ephemeral, evanescent phase of consciousness which once out of
-mind, put aside or forgotten, need no longer be taken into consideration
-as pertaining to, much less influencing, our personality. Writers of
-fiction who undertake to depict human nature almost invariably, I
-believe, are governed by this point of view. They describe their
-characters as throwing overboard their past, their dominating beliefs,
-convictions, and other traits as easily as we should toss undesirable
-refuse into the ocean. Their heroes and heroines jettison their
-psychological cargoes as if they were barrels of molasses whenever their
-personalities show signs of going down in the storms of life’s
-experiences. According to this view, which is derived from an imperfect
-conception of mental processes, any passing phase of consciousness
-ceases to have potential existence or influence as soon as it is
-forgotten, or as soon as it ceases to be a consciously dominating belief
-or motive of life. It is assumed that so long as we do not bring it back
-into consciousness it belongs to us no more than as if it had originated
-in the mind of another, or had taken flight on the wings of a dove. This
-is true in part only. A phase of consciousness may not be conserved, or
-it may become so modified by the clash with new experiences that a
-rearrangement of its elements takes place and it becomes, for instance,
-a new motive or belief, or a new setting to give a new meaning to an
-idea. On the other hand, any passing phase may, as we have seen, still
-belong to our personality even though it lies hidden in its depths. That
-we no longer recall it, bring it voluntarily into the field of our
-personal consciousness, does not negative its continuing (though
-dormant) existence, and its further influence upon the personality
-through the subconscious workings of the mind.
-
-In conclusion, and by way of partial recapitulation, we may say, first:
-The records of our lives are written in unconscious dormant complexes
-and therein conserved so long as the residua retain their dynamic
-potentialities. It is the unconscious, rather than the conscious, which
-is the important factor in personality and intelligence. The unconscious
-furnishes the formative material out of which our judgments, our
-beliefs, our ideals, and our characters are shaped.
-
-In the second place, the unconscious, besides being a _static_
-storehouse, has _dynamic_ functions. It is evident that, theoretically,
-if unconscious complexes are once formed they may, under favoring
-conditions of the psycho-physical organism, become revived and play an
-important part in pathological mental life. If through dissociation they
-could be freed from the normal inhibition and the counterbalancing
-influences of the normal mental mechanism, and given an independence and
-freedom from voluntary control, they might, by functioning, produce
-abnormal states like fixed ideas, delusions, automatisms,
-hallucinations, etc. A study of such abnormal phenomena confirms this
-theoretical view and finds in this conception of the unconscious an
-explanation of the origin of many of them. The hallucinations and
-bizarre notions and delusions of the insane, the hysteric, and
-psychasthenic, where all seems chaos, without law or order, are often
-due to the resurrection and fabricating effect of unconscious complexes
-formed by the earlier experiences of the patient’s life. Of course, the
-mechanism by which such phenomena are produced is a complicated one
-about which there is much difference of opinion and which we cannot
-enter into here. In post-hypnotic phenomena and artificial
-hallucinations we have experimental examples of the principle.
-
-More than this, and more important, there is considerable evidence going
-to show that conserved experiences functioning as subconscious processes
-take part in and determine the conscious processes of everyday life. On
-the one hand stored neurograms may undergo subconscious incubation,
-assimilating the material deposited by the varied experiences of life to
-finally burst forth in ripened judgments, beliefs, and convictions, as
-is so strikingly shown in sudden religious conversions and allied mental
-manifestations. Through a similar incubating process, the stored
-material needed for the solution of baffling problems is gathered
-together and oftentimes assimilated and arranged and formulated as an
-answer to the question. On the other hand, subconscious processes may be
-but a hidden part of that mechanism which determines our everyday
-judgment and our points of view, our attitudes of mind, the meanings of
-our ideas, and the traits of our characters. Antecedent experiences
-functioning as such processes may determine our fantasies and our
-dreams. Thus functioning as dynamic processes the stored residua of the
-past may provide the secrets of our moods, our impulses, our prejudices,
-our beliefs, and our judgments.
-
-It remains, however, for future investigation to determine the exact
-mechanism and the relative extent to which subconscious processes play
-their parts.
-
------
-
-Footnote 123:
-
- For a general account of the behavior of decerebrate animals and
- summary of these experiments see Loeb’s “Physiology of the Brain,” and
- Schäfer’s Text Book of Physiology.
-
-Footnote 124:
-
- M. Foster: A Text Book of Physiology, 1895, page 726.
-
-Footnote 125:
-
- Von M. Rothmann: Demonstration des Hundes ohne Grossirn. _Bericht über
- den V Kongress f. Experiment. Psychol. in Berlin, 1912_, page 256. The
- report is too meager to admit of independent judgment of the animal’s
- behavior in many of its details.
-
-Footnote 126:
-
- Until the basal ganglia have been microscopically examined it cannot
- be determined that the loss of function was not due to secondary
- organic lesions. In Goltz’ dog, which acted like a blind dog, one
- optic nerve was cut and the corpora striata and optic thalami were
- partly involved in the lesion.
-
-Footnote 127:
-
- Quoted from Schräder by Loeb.
-
-Footnote 128:
-
- Cf. Lloyd Morgan: Instinct and Experience, 1912.
-
-Footnote 129:
-
- Dr. Morgan in his work, “Instinct and Experience,” 1912, published
- before Rothmann’s observations, remarks that this “is not inherently
- improbable” although it had not as yet been demonstrated.
-
-Footnote 130:
-
- From the point of view here adopted, the recent discussions and
- controversies over the problems of “instinct and intelligence” have
- been much muddled by the arbitrary denial of conscious elements to an
- instinctive process, and by the acceptation of consciousness or
- conscious experience as the criterion of intelligence. In this view
- instinct and intelligence become contrasted concepts which to my way
- of thinking they are not necessarily at all. If it is admitted that
- instinct is an innate disposition, its contrasted quality is that
- which is _acquired_ and not the quality of consciousness. It is true
- that acquired behavior is commonly if not always determined by
- conscious processes (conscious experience), but likewise innate
- behavior may be determined by processes which contain conscious
- elements. Surely fear is instinctive and is a conscious element in an
- innate process; and so must be visual and other sensory images, as in
- the first peck of a chicken. To look upon the first visual image
- simply as conscious “experience,” as an “onlooker,” and reject it as a
- factor in the process which determines that first peck, seems to me to
- be arbitrary psychology if not physiology. If consciousness may be a
- quality of an innate process—and why not?—it cannot be a criterion of
- intelligence. The true converse of the conscious is the unconscious.
-
- This adopted antithesis between consciousness and instinct, from this
- point of view as well as the arbitrary limitation of the localization
- of the whole of an instinctive process to the subcortical centers,
- vitiates the force of the very able presentation of the subject by Dr.
- Morgan, if I correctly understand him. I know of no data which forbid
- the cortex to be included in the innate mechanism of an instinctive
- process. On the contrary, it is difficult to understand instinctive
- behavior and its modifications through conscious experience unless
- cortical centers are included in the psycho-physiological arcs. At any
- rate we may define instinct and intelligence in terms of the conscious
- and the unconscious, or in brain terms, but we should not mix up these
- aspects with that of localization in the definition. Mr. McDougall’s
- conception of instinct appeals to me more strongly from both a
- biological and a psychological point of view, and further seems to me
- to be more in consonance with the data of experience.
-
-Footnote 131:
-
- A Text Book of Physiology, 1893, page 727.
-
-Footnote 132:
-
- The localization of the processes concerned in all such acquired
- automatic behavior—whether it is in the cortex or subcortical
- centers—is an unsolved problem.
-
-Footnote 133:
-
- If the subconscious processes which perform a mathematical calculation
- and other problems, which logically determine the symbolism of a
- dream, etc., can be correctly interpreted as unconscious, they plainly
- exhibit a higher order of intelligence than any conscious processes in
- lower animals, or even some conscious processes of man, like brushing
- away a fly.
-
-Footnote 134:
-
- Not included in this volume.
-
-Footnote 135:
-
- It has been objected that to speak of unconscious ideas is a
- contradiction of terms. This seems to me to smack of quibbling as we
- know well enough that the adjective is used in the sense of
- unawareness.
-
-Footnote 136:
-
- For a good account of the history of the theory of unconscious ideas
- in philosophy see Hartmann’s “Philosophy of the Unconscious,” where
- the following quotations may be found: “To have ideas and yet not to
- be conscious of them—there seems to be a contradiction in that—for how
- can we know that we have them if we are not conscious of them?
- Nevertheless, we may become aware indirectly that we have an idea,
- although we be not directly cognizant of the same.” (Kant,
- Anthropology, sec. 5.) And again: "Innumerable are the sensations and
- perceptions whereof we are not conscious although we must undoubtedly
- conclude that we have them, obscure ideas as they may be called (to be
- found in animals as well as in man). The clear ideas, indeed, are but
- an infinitely small fraction of these same exposed to consciousness.
- That only a few spots on the great chart of our minds are illuminated
- may well fill us with amazement in contemplating this nature of ours.
- (Ibid.)
-
- “Now unconscious ideas” are such “as are in consciousness without our
- being aware of them” (Herbart).
-
- It is interesting to notice how Kant’s statement might well be
- substituted for that of Myers’ of his “Subliminal.” It is difficult to
- understand the peculiar antagonistic attitude of certain theoretical
- psychologists to the theory of subconscious (coconscious) ideas in
- view of the history of this theory in philosophy. They seem to have
- forgotten their philosophy and not to have kept pace with experimental
- psychology.
-
-Footnote 137:
-
- See footnote on p. 149.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE IX
- THE ORGANIZATION OF UNCONSCIOUS COMPLEXES
-
-
-=Everyday life.=—It will be well at this point to state in orderly
-fashion a few general principles governing the organization of complexes
-or syntheses of ideas[138] which, as we shall see, play an important
-part in normal and abnormal life. Although this statement will be little
-more than descriptive of what is common experience it will be helpful in
-classifying and obtaining a useful perspective of the phenomena with
-which we shall deal.
-
-Now, as every one knows, the elemental ideas which make up the
-experience of any given moment tend to become organized (i.e.,
-synthesized and conserved) into a system or complex of ideas, linked
-with emotions, feelings and other innate dispositions, so that when one
-of the ideas belonging to the experience comes to mind the experience as
-a whole is recalled. We may conveniently term such a system when in a
-state of conservation, an _unconscious complex_[139] _or neurogram, or
-system of neurograms_. If we wish to use psychological terms we may
-speak of it as a complex or synthesis of dormant ideas. Although we may
-formulate this principle as the “association of ideas” the formula can
-have only a descriptive significance pertaining to a relation in time
-(and not a causal one) unless there be included an unconscious factor by
-which the association becomes effective in exciting one idea through
-another—i.e., through a linking of neural dispositions. We cannot
-conceive of any conscious relation between ideas that can possibly
-induce this effect. It must be some _unconscious dynamic relation_[140]
-and be explained in terms of neural dispositions. If this be so, all
-ideas are dynamically associated and related in a process which does not
-appear in consciousness and which is essential for organization into a
-complex. Every system of associated ideas, therefore, implies
-conservation through an organized unconscious complex.
-
-Complexes may be very feebly organized in that the elemental ideas are
-weakly conserved or weakly associated; in which case when we try to
-recall the original experience only a part or none of it is recalled.
-
-On the other hand, a complex may be strongly organized and include a
-large number of details of an experience. This is usually owing to the
-fact that the original experience was accompanied by strong emotional
-tones, or by marked interest and attention, or was frequently repeated.
-
-=Emotional Complexes=: 1. When the original experience was accompanied
-by an emotion it may be regarded as having excited one or more of the
-emotional instincts of anger, fear, disgust, etc. The excitation of the
-instinct or instincts is in one sense a _reaction_ to the ideas of the
-experience. The instincts then become organized about one or more of the
-ideas to form a sentiment (Shand) and the whole is incorporated in a
-complex which then acquires an affective character. The impulsive force
-of the instinct thereafter largely determines the behavior of the
-complex. (To this we shall return later when we consider the instincts.)
-General observation shows that emotional experiences are more likely to
-be conserved and also voluntarily recalled. Given such an emotional
-complex nearly anything associated with some detail of the experience
-may, by the law of association, automatically or involuntarily revive
-it, or the emotional reaction with a greater or less number of its
-associated memories. This tendency seems to be directly proportionate to
-the intensity of the instinct (fear, anger, etc.) incorporated in the
-complex. Sometimes, it is true, a strongly emotional experience, even an
-experience of great moment in an individual’s life, is completely
-forgotten, so completely that no associated idea avails as a stimulus to
-awaken it. Usually in all such cases the neurograms are isolated, etc.,
-by dissociation. They still, however, may be strongly organized and
-conserved as an unconscious complex and sometimes may be excited as a
-subconscious process by an associated stimulus. In such conditions it
-very frequently is found that the dissociation is due to conflict
-between the emotion belonging to the complex and another emotional
-complex. The impulsive force of the latter dissociates the former
-complex which then cannot be voluntarily reproduced as memory, nor
-awakened by any association under normal conditions. We have then a
-condition of amnesia and often an hysterical condition. To this
-important phenomenon we shall return when we consider the emotions.
-Passing over these exceptional conditions of conflicting emotions (which
-being explained “prove the rule”), it still remains true that in
-everyday life emotional experiences are not only more likely to be
-conserved but to be subject to voluntary recall, or awakened
-involuntarily by an associated stimulus.
-
-If, for instance, we have experienced a railroad accident involving
-exciting incidents, loss of life, etc., the words “railroad,”
-“accident,” “death,” or a sudden crashing sound, or the sight of blood,
-or even riding in a railroad train may recall the experience, or at
-least the prominent features in it. The earlier events and those
-succeeding the accident may have passed out of all possibility of
-voluntary recall. To take an instance commonplace enough, but which
-happens to have come within my recent observation: a fireman, hurrying
-to a fire, was injured severely by being thrown from a hose-wagon
-against a telegraph-pole with which the wagon collided. He narrowly
-escaped death. Although three years have elapsed he still cannot ride on
-a wagon to a fire without the memory of substantially the whole accident
-rising in his mind. When he does so he again lives through the accident,
-including the thoughts just previous to the actual collision when
-realizing his situation he was overcome with terror, and he again
-manifests all the organic physical expressions of fear, viz.,
-perspiration, tremor, and muscular weakness. Here is a well organized
-and fairly limited complex. It is also plainly an imperative memory,
-that is to say, any stimulus-idea associated with some element in the
-complex reproduces the experience as memory whether it is wished or not.
-Try as hard as he will he cannot prevent its recurrence. The stimulus
-that excites such involuntary memories may be a spoken word (as in the
-psycho-galvanic and other associative experiments which we shall
-consider in a later lecture), or it may be a visual perception of the
-environment—of a person or place—or it may be a repetition of the
-circumstances attending the original experience, however induced. The
-phenomenon may also be regarded as an automatism or automatic process.
-As the biological instinct of fear is incorporated in the complex it is
-also a _phobia_.
-
-_Why_ our fireman suffered the intense terror that he did at the time of
-the accident, why he experienced the thoughts which surged into his
-mind, why he suffered this emotional experience, while another man going
-through the same accident suffers no more than the physical injury (if
-any) at the time, and why the experience continues to recur as an
-imperative memory are problems which we are not considering now. The
-fact is that he did suffer the terror and its agonizing thoughts, and,
-this being the case, their constant recurrence, i.e., the reproduction
-of the experience, is a memory. And this memory consists of a well
-organized complex of ideas, feelings, and physiological accompaniments.
-I emphasize this point because an imperatively recurring mental
-experience of this sort is a psychosis, and, so far as the principle of
-memory enters into it, so far memory becomes a part of the mechanism of
-obsessions.
-
-The reason why the man at the moment of the accident experienced the
-terrorizing thoughts that he did, and why he continued to experience
-them, must be sought in associated conserved experiences of his past.
-These experiences were the psycho-genetic factors. It would take us too
-far out of the way to consider this problem, which belongs to the
-obsessions, at this time, but, as I have touched upon it, I may say in
-passing that the accident would have awakened no sense of terror and no
-emotional shock if a _psychological torch_ had not already been
-prepared. This torch was made up of ideas previously imbibed from the
-social environment and made ready to be set aflame by the match set to
-it by the accident. In the unconsciousness of this man were written in
-neurographic records the dangers attending accidents of this kind and
-dangers which still threatened his present and future.
-
-Likewise the _insistence_ of the memory can be related to a setting of
-associated thoughts which gave meaning to his perception of himself as
-one affected, as he believed, with a serious injury threatening his
-future. His fear was also, therefore, a fear of the present and future.
-Thus not only the experiences of the accident itself became organized
-into a group and conserved as a memory, but were organized with memories
-of still other experiences which stood in a genetic relation to them. If
-it were necessary I could give from my personal observation numerous
-examples of this mode of organization of complexes through emotional
-experiences and of their reproduction as automatic memories.
-
-An historical example of complex-organizing of this kind is narrated in
-Tallentyre’s delightful life of Voltaire. Toward the end of Voltaire’s
-famous residence at the court of Frederick the Great, as the latter’s
-guest, one of those pestiferous friends who cannot help repeating
-disagreeable personal gossip for our benefit swore to Voltaire to having
-heard Frederick remark, “I shall want him (Voltaire) at the most another
-year; one squeezes the orange and throws away the rind.” From that
-moment a complex of emotional ideas was formed in Voltaire’s mind, that,
-do what he would, he could not get rid of. He wrote it to his friends,
-thought about it, dreamed about it; he tried to forget it, but to no
-purpose; it would not “down”; the rind kept constantly rising. It
-brought with it every memory of Frederick’s character and actions that
-fitted the remark.
-
-Voltaire, like many men of genius, was a neurasthenic and his ideas with
-strong emotional tones tended to become strongly organized and acquire
-great force. “The orange rind haunts my dreams,” he wrote; “I try not to
-believe it.... We go to sup with the king and are gay enough
-sometimes;—the man who fell from the top of a steeple and found the fall
-through the air soft and said, ‘Good, provided it lasts,’ is not a
-little as I am.” The emotional complex which so tormented Voltaire that
-it literally became an obsession was a recurring memory. The experience
-had been strongly registered and conserved, owing to the emotional tone,
-but the reason _why_ there was so much emotion, and _why_ it absorbed so
-many associated ideas into itself and kept recurring would undoubtedly
-have been found to lie, if we could have probed Voltaire’s mind, in its
-settings—his previous stormy experiences with Frederick, his knowledge
-of Frederick’s character, his previous _apprehensions_ of what later
-actually occurred, and, most probably, self-reproach for his own
-behavior, _the consequences of which he feared to face_. All this,
-conserved as neurograms, was set ablaze by the remark and furnished not
-only the emotion but the material for the content of the complex. These
-previous experiences, therefore, stood in genetic relation to the
-latter, excited the emotional reaction of anger, resentment and fear,
-and prevented the complex from subsiding. The exciting cause for each
-recurrence of the complex was, of course, some associated stimulus from
-the environment, or train of thought.
-
-Another interesting historical example is the foolish complex which is
-said to have disturbed the pretty Mme. Leclerc (Pauline Bonaparte, who
-was afterward the Princess Borghese). This fascinating and beautiful
-woman was enjoying her triumph at a ball. Seated in a little boudoir off
-the ball-room she was entertaining “guests who came to admire her and
-fill her cup to overflowing. There was, however, a Mme. de Contades, who
-had been deserted by her own cavaliers at the appearance of Pauline.
-Approaching, now, on the arm of her escort, she said in a tone
-sufficiently loud so that every one, including Pauline, could hear
-perfectly: ‘Mon Dieu, what a misfortune! Oh, what a pity! She would be
-so pretty but for that!’ ‘But for what?’ asked her cavalier. All eyes
-were turned upon poor Mme. Leclerc, who thought there must be something
-the matter with her coiffure and began to redden and suffocate. ‘But do
-you not see what I mean?’ persisted Mme. de Contades, with the cold
-cruelty of a jealous woman. ‘What a pity! Yes, truly, how unfortunate!
-Such a really pretty head to have such ears! If I had ears like those I
-would have them cut off. Yes, positively, they are like those of a pug
-dog. You who know her, Monsieur, advise her to have it done; it would be
-a charitable act.’ Pauline, more beautiful than ever in her blushes,
-rose, tears blinding her eyes, then sank back upon the sofa, hiding her
-face in her hands, sick with mortification and shame. As a matter of
-fact, her ears were not ugly, only a little too flat. From that day,
-however, she always dressed her hair over them or concealed them under a
-bandeau, as in the well-known painting of her.”[141]
-
-Fixed ideas relating to physical blemishes are not uncommonly observed
-as obsessions in psychasthenics. With our knowledge of such psychical
-manifestations it is easy to imagine Pauline’s antecedent thoughts
-regarding her own flat ears, and repugnance to this defect in others,
-her suspicions of unfavorable criticisms and of not being admired, etc.,
-all organized with the instinct of self-abasement (emotion of
-subjection) and forming a sentiment of self-depreciation and shame in
-her mind.
-
-2. The outbreak of such _automatic memories_ is particularly prone
-to occur in persons of a particular temperament (the apprehensive
-temperament, in which the biological instinct of fear is the
-paramount factor), in fatigue states, and in so-called neurotic
-people—neurasthenics, psychasthenics, and hysterics. In such people
-the organization of the complex probably has been largely a
-previously _subconscious incubating process_, as in the phenomenon
-of “sudden religious conversion.” Later the sudden suggestion or
-awakening by whatsoever means of an idea, which has roots in the
-antecedent thoughts engaged in the subconscious process, readily
-gives occasion for the outbreak of the complex. The latter then
-excites the emotional reaction of anger, horror, antipathy, fear,
-jealousy, etc., which becomes incorporated in the complex. When once
-formed the automatism becomes the psychosis. The following case is
-an illustration:
-
-L. E. W., forty-nine years of age, farmer and lawyer by occupation, a
-man of strenuous disposition, broke down under stress and strain with
-severe but common symptoms of mental and physical fatigue modified and
-exaggerated by apprehensions of incurable illness. At the end of a year
-there developed scruples and jealous suspicions of his wife’s chastity,
-not persistent but recurring from time to time in attacks, and always
-awakened by a suggestion of some kind—an associated idea, a remark
-heard, an act of some kind on the part of the wife, etc. Between the
-attacks he was entirely free from such thoughts, but during the attack,
-which came on with the usual suddenness, these thoughts—always the same
-doubts, suspicions, reasonings, jealousy, and fear—were dominating,
-imperative, and painful. An open-minded, frank, intelligent man he fully
-realized that his scruples were entirely unfounded and even
-characterized them as “delusions.” It was interesting, so clear was he
-in this respect, to hear him discuss his attacks between times with his
-wife, as if they were recurrent appendicitis. The attacks would pass off
-in a short time after discussing his scruples with his wife, and then he
-became natural again; they involved great suffering and he feared, as
-people thus afflicted so often do, that they spelled impending insanity.
-And yet it was easy to determine that they were only _imperative
-recurrent memories_, conserved complexes emerging from the unconscious.
-He had been married twenty-two years. He was of a jealous nature, and
-before marriage it annoyed him to think that his wife had been courted
-by other men, that she wrote them letters, etc. He began to think of her
-as a flirt, that she was going to jilt him, and to have misgivings of
-her character. He grew jealous and suspicions of possible unchastity
-worried him, but reasoning with himself he would say, “O, pshaw! it is
-an abominable suspicion,” “an hallucination,” and put the thought out of
-his mind, as he said. But we know he really put the thought _into_ his
-mind to be conserved in the unconscious, as a complex of chastity
-scruples, and there undergo incubation and further development. Later he
-had had spells of jealousy during his married life but no true
-imperative ideas until he broke down in health, and then, as he himself
-expressed it, “the devil got the upper hand and said, ‘I’ve got you
-now.’”
-
-The devil was the complex organized twenty-two years previously with the
-emotion of jealousy[142] centered about the idea of his wife and the
-whole neurographically conserved. The impulsive force of the emotion was
-constantly striving to awaken and give expression to the unconscious
-complex. He was able to hold it in check, to repress it, by the
-conflicting force of other sentiments until these became weakened by the
-development of the psychasthenic state. Then these latter controlling
-elements of personality were repressed in turn whenever the more
-powerful jealousy complex was awakened. The whole mechanism was
-undoubtedly more complicated than this, in that the jealousy complex had
-a setting in certain unsophisticated and puritanical ideas of conduct
-(brought to light in the analysis) which gave a peculiar meaning (for
-him) to his wife’s actions. So long as this setting persisted it would
-be next to impossible to modify the jealousy complex.
-
-Whatever the mechanism, ideas with strong emotional tones (particularly
-fear, anger, jealousy, and disgust), no matter how absurd or repellent,
-or unjustified, and whether acceptable or unacceptable, tend to become
-organized and welded into a complex which is thereby conserved. The
-impulsive force of the incorporated emotion tends to awaken and give
-expression to the complex whenever stimulated. The recurrence of such an
-organized complex so far as it is reproduction is, of course, in
-principle, memory, and an imperative memory or _fixed idea_. Whether the
-complex shall be awakened as such a recurrent memory, or shall function
-as a dissociated subconscious process, producing other disturbances, or
-remain quiescent in the unconscious, depends upon other factors which we
-need not now consider.
-
-3. Clinically the _periodic recurrence_ of such complexes is an
-_obsession_. An obsession _as met with_ is most likely to be
-characterized by fear not only because the instinct of fear is the most
-painful of the emotions, but for another reason. Although biologically
-fear is useful as a defense for the preservation of the individual, when
-perverted by useless associations it becomes harmful, in that it is not
-only painful but prevents the adjustment of the individual to his
-environment and thereby takes on a pathological taint. Complexes with
-other emotions are less likely to be harmful and therefore less
-frequently apply for relief. Yet imperative ideas with jealousy, anger,
-hatred, love, disgust, etc., centered about an object are exceedingly
-common though their possessors less often resort to a physician.
-
-From another point of view abnormal complexes, represented by these
-examples, may be regarded as “_association psychoses_.” Sometimes the
-physiological bodily accompaniments form the greater part of the complex
-which is for the most part made up of physiological disturbances
-(vasomotor, cardiac, gastric, respiratory, secretory, muscular, etc.);
-almost pure association _neuroses_ they then become. Neuroses of this
-kind we shall consider in a later lecture.[143]
-
-Sometimes, particularly in people of intensive temperaments, “imperative
-ideas” are formed by gradual evolution in consequence of the mind
-constantly dwelling with emotional intensity on certain phases of
-thought—i.e., through repetition. This we see in the development of
-religious complexes or faiths, but it is also obtrusive in other fields
-of thought, political, industrial, social, etc. Hence the evolution of
-_fanatics_. A. D. is a man of strong feeling and great imagination. As a
-child he was a constant witness of quarrels between his father and
-mother. His mind dwelt upon these experiences and there developed in him
-at an early date strong aversions toward marriage. Aversion means the
-instinct of repulsion or disgust. This instinct therefore became
-systematized with the idea of marriage as its object forming an intense
-sentiment of aversion. Even as a boy the aversion impelled him to
-determine never to marry and later he formed strong theoretical
-anti-matrimonial views which became almost a religion. For years he
-talked about his views, argued and preached about them like a fanatic to
-his friends. His aversion rose in successful conflict against every
-temptation to matrimony and his anti-matrimonial complex became an
-obsession. The consequences were what might have been expected when,
-later in life, he allowed himself in a moment of sympathetic weakness
-and owing to compromising situations to slip within the matrimonial
-noose. The complex then, like that of Voltaire’s orange rind, would not
-down at his own bidding, or at that of his devoted spouse for whom he
-had, in other respects, a strong affection mingled with personal
-admiration. The resulting situation can be imagined.
-
-4. _Hysterical attacks._ It is of practical importance to note another
-part which emotional complexes may play in psychopathology. In certain
-pathological conditions in which there is limitation of the field of
-consciousness (involving a disappearance of a large part of the normal
-mental life) often all that persists of consciousness and represents the
-personal self is the obsessing complex which previously tormented the
-patient. In hysterical crises, psycholeptic attacks, trance, and certain
-types of epilepsy this is peculiarly the case. In these states the
-content of consciousness consists almost wholly, or at least largely, of
-a recurrent memory of an experience which originated in the normal life
-and which has been conserved in the unconscious. Here the obsessing
-ideas, which at one time were voluntarily entertained by the subject,
-or, as frequently happens, originated in some emotional experience,
-automatically recur, while the remainder of the conscious life becomes
-dissociated and suppressed; in other words the obsessing ideas emerge
-out of the unconscious (neurograms) and became substantially the whole
-conscious field. In hysterical attacks, particularly, the complex is
-accompanied by the same strong emotional tone—such as fear, anxiety,
-jealousy, or anger—which belonged to the original experience. In such
-pathological subjects, whenever the complex is awakened, the remainder
-of the conscious field tends to become dissociated and the psychological
-state to be reproduced. Hence, in such states, the ideas repeat
-themselves over and over again with the recurrence of the attacks. The
-subject lives over again as in a dream the original attack, which is a
-stereotyped revivification of the original experience. This peculiarity
-of the mental condition in attacks has been described by various
-writers. The dream of the hystero-epileptic is substantially always the
-same. Janet has accurately described the origin and rôle of the fixed
-ideas in the hysterical attack. “These ideas,” he says, “are not
-conceived, invented at the moment; they formulate themselves; they are
-only _repetitions_. Thus, the most important of the hallucinations which
-harassed Marcelle during her cloud-attack was but the exact reproduction
-of a scene which had taken place the previous year. The fixed ideas of
-dying, of not eating, are the reproduction of certain desperate
-resolutions taken some years ago. Formerly these ideas had some sense,
-were more or less well connected with a motive. A desperate love affair
-had been the cause of her attempts at suicide; she refused to eat in
-order to let herself die of hunger, etc. To-day these ideas are again
-reproduced, but without connection and without reason. She has, we
-convinced ourselves, completely forgotten her old despair, and has not
-the least wish to die. The idea of suicide comes to her to-day without
-any relation to her present situation, and she is in despair at the idea
-of this suicide which imposes itself on her as a relic of her past, so
-to say. She does not know why she refuses to eat; the ideas of suicide
-and refusal of food are dissociated. The one exists without the other.
-At one moment she hears the voice, ‘Do not eat,’ and yet she has no
-thought of death; at another, she thinks of killing herself and yet she
-accepts nourishment. We always find in fixed ideas this characteristic
-of automatic repetition of the past without connection, without actual
-logic.”[144]
-
-When certain emotional and distressing ideas of wounded love are
-awakened in M. C., an hysteric, she is thrown into an hysterical attack
-in which these ideas recur over and over again and dominate
-consciousness. In P. M., another hysteric, ideas of loneliness and
-jealousy, which had previously been entertained but which had been
-thrust out of her mind again and again in a conscientious struggle with
-her moral nature, recur, emerge from the unconscious and dominate the
-field of consciousness in each hysterical attack which they induce.
-
-6. In the _psycholeptic_, a variant of the hysteric, the same
-sensations, motor phenomena, and hallucinations, and the same bizarre
-ideas—whatever the symptomatic phenomena—characterize each attack. This
-could be shown experimentally in M——l.[145]
-
-Of course the degree of dissociation of consciousness, the content of
-the fixed idea, and the physiological manifestations vary in individual
-cases, according to the nature of the case. Sometimes the disturbance of
-consciousness is slight and the physiological manifestations
-predominant.
-
-From a consideration of all the facts we see that a conserved complex
-associated with strong feeling tones may play a disastrous and
-pathological part in certain individuals.
-
-It is well to bear in mind here, as before, that in these statements we
-are only giving a literal description of the psychological events
-without attempt to form any theory of the mechanism of the processes, or
-the antecedent psychogenetic factors which lead to the development of
-the particular fixed ideas or complexes. About this there may be and is
-a difference of view.
-
-=Systematized Complexes.= In contrast with the limited group of fixed
-ideas, organized with one or more emotions (i.e., instincts) I have been
-describing, are the large _systems_ of complexes or associated
-experiences which become organized and fairly distinctly differentiated
-in the course of the development of every one’s personality. In many, at
-least, of these systems there will be found a predominant emotion and
-certain instinctive tendencies, and a predominant feeling tone—of
-pleasure or pain, of exaltation or depression, etc. It is quite possible
-that careful investigation would disclose that it is this conflicting
-affective force which is responsible for the differentiation of one
-system from another with opposing affects and tendencies. The
-differentiation of such systematized complexes is of considerable
-practical importance for normal and abnormal personality. Among such
-systems may here be mentioned those which are related to certain
-_subjects_ or departments of human experience, or are related in _time_,
-or to certain dispositions or _moods_ of the individual. The first may
-be called _subject_ systems, the second _chronological_ systems, and the
-last _mood_ systems.
-
-1. _Subject systems_: I find myself interested, for instance, in several
-fields of human knowledge; (a) abnormal psychology; (b) public
-franchises; (c) yachting; (d) local politics; (e) business affairs. To
-each of these I give a large amount of thought, accumulate many data
-belonging to each, and devote a considerable amount of active work to
-carrying into effect my ideas in each field. Five large systems are thus
-formed, each consisting of facts, opinions, memories, experiences, etc.,
-distinct from those belonging to the others. To each there is an emotion
-and a feeling tone which have more or less distinctive qualities; these
-coming from the intellectual interest of abnormal psychology differing
-qualitatively from those of the “joy of battle” excited by a public
-contest with a railroad corporation or gas company, as it does from that
-of the exhilarating sport of a yacht race, or from the annoying and
-rather depressing care of business interests; and so on.
-
-These five subject-complexes do not form independent automatisms or
-isolated systems which may intrude themselves in any conscious field,
-but comprise large associations, memories of experiences in a special
-field of thought. Within that field the ideas of the system are no more
-strongly organized than are ideas in general; but it can be recognized
-that the system as a whole with its affective tones is fairly well
-delimited from the other complexes of other spheres of thought. It is
-difficult, for certain individuals at least, to introduce the
-associations of one subject-complex into the focus of attention so long
-as another is invested with personal interest and occupies the attention
-of consciousness. They find it difficult to switch[146] their minds from
-one subject to another and back again. On the other hand, it is said of
-Napoleon that he had all the subjects of his experiences arranged in
-drawers of his mind, and that he could open each drawer at will, take
-out any subject he wished, and shut it up again as he wished. Ability of
-this kind involves remarkable control over the mind and is not given to
-all.
-
-I have frequently made observations like the following on myself,
-showing the organization and differentiation of systems: I collect the
-various data belonging to one of the problems discussed in these
-lectures. I arrange all in an orderly fashion in my mind, work out the
-logical relations and the conclusions to which they lead, as well as
-their relations to other data and problems. The whole is then
-schematically arranged on paper to await proper elaboration the next
-morning, when it will be written out on waking, the preliminary mental
-arrangement having been done at night. A large complex has been created,
-the various details of which are luminously clear and the sequence of
-the ideas vividly conceived, the conclusions definite. There is,
-further, an affective tone of joy and exaltation which is apt to
-accompany the accomplishment of an intellectual problem and which
-produces a feeling of increased energy.
-
-The next morning, as I awake and gradually return to full consciousness,
-another and very different kind of complex almost exclusively fills my
-mind, owing probably to the fatigue following the previous night’s work.
-All sorts of gloomy thoughts, memories of experiences better forgotten,
-course through the mind; and entirely different emotions (instincts),
-and a strong feeling of depression dominate the mental panorama. The
-whole—ideas, emotions, and feelings—makes a complex which has been
-experienced over and over again, and is recognized as such. The same old
-ideas, emotions, thoughts, and memories, conserved as neurograms, repeat
-themselves almost in stereotyped fashion. The mental complex has
-completely changed and the exuberant energy of the night before has
-given place to listless inertia.
-
-All this is commonplace enough, merely morning depression you will say,
-due to fatigue; and so it is. But mark the sequel.
-
-I now remember that I have a task to perform and before rising take
-paper and pencil, lying ready at my side, to write out the theme
-previously arranged in skeleton. But to my surprise I find that it
-cannot be recalled. To be sure, I can, by effort of will, recall
-individual facts, but the facts have lost their associations and
-meaning, they remain comparatively isolated in memory; all their
-correlated ramifications, their associated ideas and relations, which
-the night before stood out in relief and crowded into consciousness,
-have gone. The emotional tone and impulses which energized the thoughts
-have also disappeared, and with them the system of complexes as a whole.
-It has been dissociated, inhibited, repressed, and there is _amnesia_
-for it. With the fatigue depression a new system, with different
-emotions and feelings, now dominates the mind and the desired system
-cannot be switched in.
-
-This amnesia is not one of conservation but one of reproduction; for
-later in the day the fatigue and depression disappear, a new energizing
-emotional tone arises and the sought-for system is switched in and
-returns in its entirety. With this change the depression system in turn
-disappears, and now it is difficult to recall it, excepting that as an
-intellectual fact I remember that such thoughts occupied my mind in the
-early morning hours. The two systems as a whole are distinctly
-differentiated from and alternate with one another.
-
-All this is only expressing in somewhat technical language a common
-experience, as most people, I suppose, have such _alternations of
-complexes_. The facts are trite enough; but, because they are of common
-experience, it is well to formulate them and so, as far as possible,
-give precision to our conception of the psychological relations which
-have a distinct bearing on the principles of dissociated personality and
-other psychoses, on character and psycho-therapeutics. When, at a later
-time, we take up for study the subject of dissociated personality[147]
-we shall find that the dissociation of consciousness sometimes takes its
-lines of cleavage between systems of complexes of this kind.[148] And,
-above all, the formation of complexes _is the foundation stone of
-psycho-therapeutics_.
-
-The methods of _education and therapeutic suggestion_ are variants of
-this mode of organizing mental processes. Both, in principle, are
-substantially the same, differing only in detail. They depend for their
-effect upon the implantation in the mind of ideational complexes
-organized by repetition, or by the impulsive force of their affective
-tones, or both. Every form of education necessarily involves the
-artificial formation of such complexes, whether in a pedagogical,
-religious, ethical, scientific, social, or professional field. So in
-psychotherapy by artfully directed suggestion, or education in the
-narrower sense, complexes may be similarly formed and organized. New
-points of view and “sentiments” may be inculcated, useful emotions and
-feelings excited, and the personality correspondingly modified. Roughly
-speaking, this is accomplished by suggesting ideas that will form
-_settings_ (associations) that give new and desired meanings to
-previously harmful ideas; and these ideas, as well as any others we
-desire to implant in the mind, are organized by suggestion with emotions
-(instincts) of a useful, pleasurable, and exalting kind to form
-desirable sentiments, and to carry the ideas to fulfilment. Thus
-sentiments of right, or of ambition, or of sympathy, or of altruism, or
-of disinterestedness in self are awakened; and, with all this, opposing
-emotions are aroused to conflict with and repress the distressing ones,
-and the whole welded into a complex which becomes conserved
-neurographically and thereby a part of the personality.
-
-Under ordinary conditions of every-day mental life _social suggestion_
-acts like therapeutic suggestion. But the suggestions of every-day life
-are so subtle and insidious that they are scarcely consciously
-recognized.
-
-2. _Chronological systems_ (using complex in a rather extended sense)
-are those which embrace the experiences of certain epochs of our lives
-rather than the subject material included in them. In a general way
-events as they are successively experienced become associated together,
-and with other elements of personality, so that the later recollection
-of one event in the chain of an epoch recalls successively the others.
-Conversely a break in the chain of memory may occur at any point and the
-chain only be picked up at a more distant date, leaving between, as a
-hiatus, an epoch for which there is amnesia of reproduction. This
-normally common _amnesia affords confirmatory evidence_ of the
-associative relation of successive events. Involving as it does the
-unimportant and unemotional experiences as well as the important and
-emotional—though the former may be as well conserved as the latter—it is
-not easy to understand. The principle, however, plays an important part
-in abnormal amnesia particularly, but not necessarily, where there is a
-dissociation of personality.
-
-The epoch may be of a few hours, or it may be of days, of months, or
-years. The simplest example is the frequent amnesia for the few hours
-preceding a physical injury to the head resulting in temporary
-unconsciousness. In other cases it is the result of extensive
-dissociation effected by suggestion (e. g., in hypnosis), or psychical
-trauma including therein emotional conflicts. Thus, to cite an
-experimental example: Miss B. is troubled by a distressing memory which
-constantly recurs to her mind during the twenty-four hours. To relieve
-her I suggest that she will completely forget the original experience.
-To my surprise, though the suggestion is limited to the experience
-alone, the whole twenty-four hours are completely wiped out of her
-memory. She cannot recall a single incident of that day. The whole epoch
-which had associations with the memory is dissociated.
-
-When the epochal amnesia follows psychical trauma the condition of
-memory is apt to present the following peculiarity and the personality
-may be altered. When the epoch is the immediate past, i.e., includes the
-experiences extending from a certain past date up to the present, it
-sometimes happens that memory reverts to that past date. That is to say,
-the personality goes back to the period last remembered in which he
-believes, for the moment, he is still living, the memory of the
-succeeding last epoch being dissociated from the personal consciousness.
-Under such conditions there is something more than amnesia. The
-neurographic residua of the remembered epoch are revived and its
-experiences remembered as if they had just been lived. There is not only
-a dissociation of the memories of one epoch, but a resurrection of the
-conserved and maybe forgotten experiences of a preceding one. The
-synthesis of these memories restores again the personal consciousness of
-that period. Before the cleavage took place the recollection of the
-resurrected epoch may have been very incomplete and vague; afterward the
-new personality remembers it as if just experienced. The personality is,
-however, in other respects generally (always?) something different from
-the personality of that particular epoch. The dissociation is apt to
-involve a certain number of acquired traits and certain innate
-dispositions and instincts, while other outlived and repressed traits
-and innate dispositions and instincts are apt to be reawakened and
-synthesized into an altered abnormal personality. But this is another
-story that does not concern us now.
-
-As an example of epochal amnesia I may cite Mrs. J——, who, after
-dissociation occurs, has amnesia for all the events of several years
-succeeding a certain hour of a certain day when a psychical trauma
-(shock) occurred. She thinks she is living on that day and remembers in
-great detail its events as if they had just occurred.
-
-Miss B. reverts on one occasion to a day, six years back, when she
-received a psychical shock; the complexes of her personality of that day
-are revived as if just lived, all the succeeding years being forgotten;
-on another occasion she reverts to a day when she was living in another
-city seven or eight years before.
-
-M——l reverts to an early period of his life when he was living in
-Russia, and forgets all since including even his knowledge of English.
-
-B. C. A. on several occasions reverts to different epochs of her life
-with complete amnesia for all after events. On each occasion she takes
-up the thread of her mental life as if living in the past, and recites
-the events as if just lived.
-
-Likewise, after a subject reverts from the abnormal to the normal state,
-after a short or long condition of altered personality, there may be a
-complete amnesia for the abnormal epoch, and although now normal he
-thinks it the same day on which dissociation occurred.
-
-Thus, Miss O. develops a condition of dissociated personality lasting
-six months during which, as it unfortunately happens, she falls in love
-with a man whom she had never known in her normal state. At the end of
-this period she “wakes up” with a complete loss of memory for the phase
-of altered personality and, therefore, to find that her fiancé is
-apparently a stranger to her (!).
-
-The same amnesia in the normal state for prolonged epochs in which the
-personality was altered was conspicuous in the case of Miss B. In
-William James’ often-cited case of Ansel Bourne and Dr. E. E. Mayer’s
-case of Chas. W. the subjects returned to their normal states with
-complete amnesia for the abnormal epochs of two months and seventeen
-years respectively.
-
-After all, the common _amnesia for the hypnotic state after waking is
-the same phenomenon_.
-
-Such observations show the possible systematization of epoch complexes,
-although the determining conditions are not as yet understood.
-
-3. _Disposition or Mood systems._—Among the loosely organized complexes
-in many individuals, and possibly in all of us, there are certain
-dispositions toward views of life which represent natural inclinations,
-desires, and modes of activity, which, for one reason or another, we
-tend to suppress or are unable to give full play to. Many individuals,
-for example, are compelled by the exactions of their duties and
-responsibilities to lead serious lives, to devote themselves to pursuits
-which demand all their energies and thought and which, therefore, do not
-permit of indulgence in the lighter enjoyments of life; and yet they may
-have a natural inclination to partake of the pleasures which innately
-appeal to all mankind and which many actually pursue; in other words, to
-yield to the impulsive force of the innate disposition, or instinct, of
-play. But these desires are repressed. Nevertheless the longing for
-these pleasures, under the impulses of this instinct, recurs from time
-to time. The mind dwells on them, the imagination is excited and weaves
-a fabric of pictures, sentiments, thoughts, and emotions the whole of
-which thus becomes organized into a systematized complex.
-
-There may be a conflict, a rebellion and “kicking against the pricks”
-and, thereby, a liberation of emotional force of the instinct,
-impressing, on the one hand, a stronger organization of the whole
-process, and, on the other, repressing all conflicting desires. Or, the
-converse of this may hold and a person who devotes his life to the
-lighter enjoyments may have aspirations and longings for the more
-serious pursuits, and in this respect the imagination may similarly
-build up a complex which may similarly express itself. The recurrence of
-such complexes is one form of what we call a “mood” which has a
-distinctively emotional tone of its own derived from the instincts and
-sentiments which are dominant. Such a “disposition” system is often
-spoken of as “_a side to one’s character_,” to which a person may from
-time to time give play. Thus a person is said to have “many sides to his
-character,” and exhibits certain alternations of personality which may
-be regarded as normal prototypes of those which occur as abnormal
-states.
-
-It may be interesting to note in passing that the well-known
-characteristics of people of a certain temperament, in consequence of
-which they can pursue their respective vocations only when they are “in
-the mood for it,” can be referred to this principle of complex
-formations and dissociation of rival systems. Literary persons,
-musicians, and artists in whom “feeling” is apt to be cultivated to a
-degree of self-pampering are conspicuous in this class. The ideas
-pertaining to the development of their craft form mixed subject and mood
-complexes which tend to have strong emotional and feeling tones. When
-some other affective tone is substituted, organized within a conflicting
-complex, it is difficult for such persons to revive the subject complex
-belonging to the piece of work in hand and necessary for its
-prosecution. “The ideas will not come,” because the whole subject
-complex which supplies the material with which the imagination is to
-work has been dissociated and replaced by some other. Certain elements
-in the complex can be revived piece-meal, as it were, but the complex
-will not develop in mass with the emotional driving energy which belongs
-to it. Not having their complexes and affects under voluntary control it
-is necessary for such persons to wait until, from an alteration in the
-coenesthesis or for some other reason, an alteration in the “feeling”
-has taken place with a revival of the right complex _in mass_.
-
-No more exquisite illustration of these “disposition complexes” could be
-found than in the personality of William Sharp. Sharp’s title to
-literary fame very largely rests upon the writings which he gave to the
-world under the feminine name of Fiona Macleod. The identity of the
-author was concealed from the world until his death, and it is still a
-common belief that this concealment and the assumption of the feminine
-pseudonym were nothing more than a literary hoax. Nothing could be
-farther from the truth. There were two William Sharps; by which I mean,
-of course, there were two very strongly organized and sharply cut sides
-to his character. Each had its points of view, its complexes of ideas,
-its imaginings, and, above all, its creative tendencies and feeling
-tones. The one side—the one christened William Sharp—was the bread and
-butter earner, the relatively practical man who came in contact with the
-world—literary critic, “biographer, essay and novel writer as well as
-poet”—the experienced side which was obliged to correct its imagination
-by constant comparison with reality. The other side—Fiona Macleod—was
-the so-called inner man; what he himself called his “true inward self.”
-As Fiona he lived in his imagination and dreamed. The development of
-this side of his personality began while, as he said, “I was still a
-child.” “He found,” his biographer writes,[149] “as have other
-imaginative, psychic children, that he had an inner life, a curious
-power of visions unshared by any one about him, so that what he related
-was usually discredited; but the psychic side of his nature was too
-intimate a part of his mind to be killed by misunderstanding. He learned
-to shut it away—to keep it as a thing apart—a mystery of his own, a
-mystery to himself.”
-
-This inner life, as time went on, became a mood which he fostered and
-developed and in which he built up great complexes of fancies, points of
-view, and emotions, which, when the other side of his character came
-uppermost, remained neurographically conserved and dormant in the
-unconscious. The Fiona complexes he distinctly felt to be feminine in
-type so that when he came to give expression to them, as he felt he
-must, he concealed this side of his character under a feminine
-pseudonym. “My truest self,” he wrote, “the self who is below all other
-selves, and my most intimate life, and joys, and sufferings, thoughts,
-emotions, and dreams must find expression, yet I cannot save in this
-hidden way.”
-
-“From time to time the emotional, the more intimate self, would sweep
-aside all conscious control; a dream, a sudden inner vision, an idea
-that had lain dormant in what he called ‘the mind behind the mind’ would
-suddenly visualize itself and blot out everything else from his
-consciousness, and under such impulse he would write at great speed,
-hardly aware of what, or how, he wrote, so absorbed was he in the vision
-with which for the moment he was identified.”
-
-“All my work,” he said, “is so intimately wrought with my own
-experiences that I cannot tell you about _Pharais_, etc., without
-telling you my whole life.”
-
-William Sharp himself realized the two moods or “sides,” which became in
-time developed into two distinct personalities. These he distinctly
-recognized, although there was no amnesia. “Rightly or wrongly,” he
-wrote, “I am conscious of something to be done by one side of me, by
-one-half of me, by the true inward mind as I believe—(apart from the
-overwhelmingly felt mystery of a dual mind, and a reminiscent life, and
-a woman’s life and nature within concurring with and oftenest dominating
-the other)....” This dual personality was so strongly realized by him
-that on his birthdays he wrote letters to himself as Fiona signed
-“Will,” and _vice versa_.
-
-I have dwelt upon this historical example of the exaggerated development
-of mood complexes because, while well within the limits of normal life,
-it brings home to us the recognition of psychological facts which we
-all, more or less, have in common. But, more important than this, in
-certain abnormal conditions where the dissociation between systems of
-complexes becomes more exaggerated, mood, subject, chronological and
-other complexes, linked as each is with its own characteristic emotions
-and feelings—instincts and other innate dispositions—play a paramount
-part and dominate the personality. In the _hysterical personality_, in
-particular, there is more or less complete reversion to or a
-subconscious awakening of one or other such complex. Where the
-hysterical dissociation becomes so extreme as to eventuate in amnesia in
-one state for another the different systems of complexes are easily
-recognized as so many phases of _multiple personality_. But in so
-identifying the ideational content of phases of personality it should
-not be overlooked that intensive studies of multiple personality
-disclose the fact that the dissociation of one phase for another carries
-with it certain of the instincts innate in every organism. What I mean
-to say is, observation of psychopathological states has shown that
-instincts, such as play, hunger, anger, fear, love, disgust, the sexual
-instincts, etc., may be dissociated separately or in conjunction with
-complexes of ideas. In every case of multiple personality that I have
-had the opportunity to study each phase has been shorn of one or more of
-these inborn psycho-physiological dispositions and I believe this
-obtains in every true case. As a result certain sentiments and traits
-are lost while those that are retained stamp an individuality upon the
-phase. And as the conative forces of the retained instincts are not
-balanced and checked by the dissociated opposing instincts, the
-sentiments which they form and the emotional reactions to which they
-give rise stand out as dominating traits. Thus one phase may be
-characterized by pugnacity, self-assertion, and elation; another by
-submission, fear and tender feeling; and so on.
-
-This is not the place to enter into an explanation of dissociated
-personality, but I may point out, in anticipation of a deeper discussion
-of the subject, that, in accordance with these two principles, in such
-conditions we sometimes find that disposition and other complexes
-conserved in the unconscious come to the surface and displace or
-substitute themselves for the other complexes which dominate a
-personality. A complex or system of complexes that is only a mood or a
-“side of the character” of a normal individual, may in conditions of
-dissociation become the main complex and chief characteristic of the new
-personality. In Miss B., for instance, the personality known as BI was
-made up almost entirely of the religious and ethical ideas with
-corresponding instincts which formed one side of the original self. In
-the personality known as Sally we had for the most part the
-chronological and mood complexes of youth representing the enjoyment of
-youthful pleasures and sports, the freedom from conventionalities and
-artificial restraints generally imposed by duties and responsibilities;
-she was a resurrection of child life. In BIV the complex represented the
-ambitions and activities of practical life. In Miss B., as a whole,
-normal, without disintegration, it was easy to recognize all three
-dispositions as sides of her character, though each was kept ordinarily
-within proper bounds by the conflicting influence of the others. It was
-only necessary to put her in an environment which encouraged one or the
-other side, to associate her with people who strongly suggested one or
-the other of her own characteristics, whether religious, social,
-pleasure-loving, or intellectual, to see the characteristics of BI,
-Sally, or BIV stand out in relief as the predominant personality. Then
-we had the alternating play of these different sides of her character.
-
-Likewise in B. C. A. In each of the personalities, B and A, similar
-disposition complexes could be recognized each corresponding to a side
-of the character of the original personality C. In A were represented
-the complexes formed by ideas of duty, responsibility, and moral
-scruples; in B were represented the complexes formed by the longing for
-fun and the amusements which life offered. When the cleavage of
-personality took place it was between these two complexes, just as it
-was in Miss B. between the several complexes above described. This is
-well brought out in the respective autobiographies of B[150] and
-Sally[151] in these two cases. In many cases of hysteria in which
-dissociation of personality can be recognized the same phenomenon is
-often manifest. A careful study will reveal it also, I believe, in other
-cases of multiple personality, although, of course, as we have seen, the
-dissociation may be along other lines; that is, between other complexes
-than those of disposition.
-
-This principle of the conservation, as neurograms in the unconscious, of
-complexes representing “sides” to one’s character, gives a new meaning
-to the saying _In vino veritas_. In alcoholic and other forms of
-intoxication there results a loss of inhibition, of self-control, and
-the disposition complexes, which have been repressed or concealed by the
-individual as a matter of social defense, arise out of the unconscious,
-and, for the time being, become the dominant mood or phase of
-personality. When these complexes represent the true inner life and
-nature of the individual, freed from the repressing protection of
-expediency, we can then truly say “In vino veritas.”
-
-=Complexes organized in hypnotic and other dissociated conditions.=—1.
-We have been speaking thus far of complexes formed in the course of
-every-day life and which take part in the composition of the normal
-personality. But it is obvious that a complex may be organized in any
-condition of personality so long as we are dealing with consciousness,
-however limited or disturbed. Thus in _artificial states_, like hypnosis
-and the subconscious process which produces automatic writing, ideas may
-be synthesized into systems as well as in normal waking life. This is
-exemplified by the fact that in hypnosis the memories of past hypnotic
-experiences are conserved and form systems of memories dissociated from
-the memories of waking life. When the subject regains the normal
-condition of the personal self, though there may be amnesia for the
-hypnotic experiences their neurograms remain conserved to the same
-extent and in the same fashion as do those of the waking life.
-Consequently on the return to the hypnotic state the memories of
-previous hypnotic experiences are recovered.
-
-This systematization of hypnotic experiences is easily recognized in
-those cases where several different hypnotic states can be obtained in
-the same individual. Each state has its own system of memories differing
-from, and with amnesia for, those of the others. Each system also has
-its own feeling tones, one system, for example, having a tone of
-elation, another, of depression, etc. The systematization is still more
-accentuated in cases like the one mentioned in the second lecture (p.
-19), where the subject goes into a hypnotic state resembling a trance,
-and lives in an ideal world, peopled by imaginary persons, and in an
-imaginary environment, perhaps a spirit world or another planet. The
-content of consciousness consists of fabrications which make up a
-fancied life. In the instance I have mentioned the subject imagined she
-was living in a world of spirits; in Flournoy’s classical case, Mlle
-Hélène Smith imagined she was an inhabitant of the planet Mars, and
-spoke a fabricated language. In these states the same systems of ideas
-invariably appeared.
-
-2. In consequence of this principle of systematization it is in our
-power by educational suggestion in hypnosis to organize mental processes
-and _build complexes_ of the same kind and in the same way as when the
-subject is awake. In fact, it is more readily done, inasmuch as in
-hypnosis the critical judgment and reflection tend to be suspended. The
-suggested ideas are accepted and education more easily accomplished.
-While in hypnosis the individual may thus be made to accept and hold new
-beliefs, new judgments, in short, new knowledge.[152] After waking he
-may or may not remember his hypnotic experiences. Generally he does. If
-he does the new knowledge, if firmly organized (by repetition and strong
-affective tones) is still retained, and if accepted (i.e., not repressed
-by conflicting ideas) shapes his views and conduct in accordance
-therewith. Even if his hypnotic experiences are not remembered, they
-still belong to his personality, inasmuch as they are neurographically
-conserved, and, experience shows, may still influence his stream of
-consciousness. His views are modified by his unconscious personality.
-His ideas may and generally do awaken the neurograms of associated
-systems created in hypnosis. Not remembering the hypnotic state as a
-whole he does not remember the _origin_ of his new knowledge; that is
-all.
-
-One point to be borne in mind is that conserved ideas, whether we can
-recall them or not, so long as they are conserved are a part of our
-personality, as I have previously pointed out, and ideas can emerge from
-the unconscious into the field of the conscious though we have
-completely forgotten their origin. It requires but a single experiment
-in the induction of suggested post-hypnotic phenomena to demonstrate
-these principles.
-
-3. As to those _pathological states_ where there is a splitting of
-personality—hysterical crises, psycholeptic attacks, trance states,
-certain types of epilepsy, etc.—complexes may similarly be formed in
-them. In these conditions there is a dissociation of a large part of the
-normal mental life, and that which is left is only a limited field of
-consciousness. A new synthesis comes into being out of the unconscious
-to represent the personal self. Though the content of consciousness is a
-reproduction of, or determined by certain previous experiences, it is
-also true that in these states new experiences may result in new
-complexes which then take part in the personality as with hypnotic
-experiences.
-
-=Personality as the survival of organized antecedent experiences.=—Of
-course all our past mental experiences do not persist as organized
-complexes. The latter, after they have served their purpose, tend to
-become disaggregated, just as printer’s type is disaggregated or
-distributed after it has served its purpose in printing. In the
-organization and development of personality the elements of the mental
-experiences become sifted, as it were. Normally, in the adaptation of
-the individual to the environment, the unessential and useless, the
-intermediate steps leading to the final and useful, tend to drop out
-without leaving surviving residua, while the essential and useful tend
-to remain as memories capable of recall. In the unconscious these remain
-more or less permanently fixed as limited ideas, sentiments, and systems
-of complexes. Further, those complexes of experiences which persist not
-only provide the material for our memories, but tend, consciously or
-unconsciously, to shape the judgments, beliefs, convictions, habits, and
-tendencies of our mental lives. Whence they came, how they were born, we
-have long ceased to remember. We often arrive at conclusions which we
-imagine in our ignorance we have constructed at the moment unaided out
-of our inner consciousness. In one sense this is true, but that inner
-consciousness has been largely determined by the vestiges furnished by
-forgotten experiences. Many of these we imbibed from our environment and
-the experiences of our fellows; in this sense we are all plagiarists of
-the past.
-
-Furthermore, we react, to a large extent, to our environment in a way
-that we do not thoroughly understand because these reactions are
-determined by the impulses of unconscious complexes organized with
-innate dispositions. Indeed, our reactions to the environment, our moral
-and social conduct, the affective reactions of our sentiments,
-instincts, feelings, and other conative tendencies, our “habits,”
-judgments, points of view, and attitudes of mind—all that we term
-character and personality—are predetermined by the mental experiences of
-the past by which they are developed, organized, and conserved in the
-unconscious. Otherwise all would be chaos. We are thus the offspring of
-our past and the past is the present.
-
-This same principle underlies what is called the “social conscience,”
-the “civic” and “national conscience,” patriotism, public opinion, what
-the Germans call “Sittlichkeit,” the war attitude of mind, etc. All
-these mental attitudes may be reduced to common habits of thought and
-conduct derived from mental experiences common to a given community and
-conserved as complexes in the unconscious of the several individuals of
-the community.[153]
-
-Through education, whether scholastic, vocational, or social, we inherit
-the experiences of our predecessors and become “... the heir of all the
-ages, in the foremost files of time.” But the conceptions of one age can
-never represent those of a preceding age. The veriest layman in science
-today could not entertain the conceptions underlying many hypotheses
-formulated by the wisest of the preceding age—of a Galileo, a Descartes,
-or Pascal. Lucretius, in the first century B. C., argued, with what for
-the time was great force, that the soul of man was corporeal and that it
-“must consist of very small seeds and be inwoven through veins and flesh
-and sinews; inasmuch as, after it has all withdrawn from the whole body
-the exterior contour of the limbs preserves itself entire and not a
-tittle of the weight is lost.”
-
-Lucretius gave much thought to this problem, but to-day the least
-cultured person, who has never reflected at all on psychological
-matters, would recognize the foolishness of such a conception and reject
-the hypothesis.[154] He would call it _common-sense_ which guided him,
-but common-sense depends upon the fact that in the unconscious lie
-memories, the reasons for and origin of which we do not remember; these
-nullify such an hypothesis. These contradicting ideas, sifted out of
-those belonging to the social education, have become fixed as dormant or
-organized memories, and determine the judgments and trends of the
-personal consciousness. These memory vestiges may work for good or evil,
-shape our personal consciousness into a useful or useless form, one that
-adapts or unfits the organism to its environment. In the latter case
-they drive the organism into the field of pathological psychology.
-
------
-
-Footnote 138:
-
- I am using this word in the general sense of any mental experience as
- in the common phrase, “the association of ideas,” and not in the
- restricted sense of Titchener as the equivalent of a perception.
-
-Footnote 139:
-
- I use this word “complex” in the general sense in which it is commonly
- used and not with the specific meaning given to it by the Zurich
- school, which limits it to a system of ideas to which a strong
- affective tone is attached and which, because of its personally
- distressing character, is repressed into the subconscious.
-
-Footnote 140:
-
- Which may be psychical, although not psychological.
-
-Footnote 141:
-
- Sisters of Napoleon, by M. Joseph Turquan.
-
-Footnote 142:
-
- McDougall (Social Psychology) regards jealousy as a complex emotional
- state in which anger, tender emotion, and other innate dispositions
- are factors.
-
-Footnote 143:
-
- Not included in this volume.
-
-Footnote 144:
-
- Aboulie et idées fixes, Revue philosophique, 1891, i., p. 279. Mental
- State of Hystericals, p. 408.
-
-Footnote 145:
-
- P. 33.
-
-Footnote 146:
-
- The switching process is an interesting problem in itself. (Cf. Max
- Levy-Suhl: Ueber Einstellungsvorgänge in normalen und anormalen
- Seelenzuständen. Zeitschrift für Psychotherapie und Medizinishe
- Psychologie, Bd. 11, Hft. 3, 1910.) An example is the well-known
- psychological diagram which may be perceived at one moment as a flight
- of steps and at another as an overhanging wall, according as which
- perception of the same line is switched in.
-
-Footnote 147:
-
- Lectures not included in this volume.
-
-Footnote 148:
-
- In the case of Miss B., for example, Sally had absolute amnesia for
- certain systems of subject-complexes (Latin, French, etc.) possessed
- by the other personalities.
-
-Footnote 149:
-
- William Sharp, A Memoir, by Elizabeth A. Sharp.
-
-Footnote 150:
-
- My Life as a Dissociated Personality, _Journal of Abnormal
- Psychology_, October-November, 1908, December-January, 1909.
-
-Footnote 151:
-
- The Dissociation, Chapter XXIII.
-
-Footnote 152:
-
- Provided, of course, this new knowledge is justified and not
- contradicted by the facts and principles of life. In other words, it
- must be believed, at least, to be the truth.
-
-Footnote 153:
-
- While these pages were in press, Lord Haldane in his Montreal address
- (before the American Bar Association), which has attracted wide
- attention, developed the psychological principle of “Sittlichkeit,” as
- applied to communities, the nation and groups of nations. By
- “Sittlichkeit” is meant the social habit of mind and action underlying
- social customs, the instinctive sense of social obligation which is
- the foundation of society. This plainly includes what is often called
- the social conscience and actions impelled thereby. In further
- definition of this principle Lord Haldane quotes Fichte as stating
- “Sittlichkeit” to mean “those principles of conduct which regulate
- people in their relations to each other, and have become matter of
- habit and second nature at the stage of culture reached, and of which,
- therefore, we are not explicitly conscious.” The point was made that
- the citizen is governed “only to a small extent by law and legality on
- the one hand, and by the dictates of the individual conscience on the
- other.” It is the more extensive system of “Sittlichkeit” which plays
- the predominant rôle. Out of this system there develops a unity of
- thought and “a common ideal” which can be made to penetrate the soul
- of a people and to take complete possession of it. Likewise there
- develops “a general will with which the will of the good citizen is in
- accord.” This will of the community (inspired by the common ideal) is
- common to the individuals composing it. Lord Haldane goes on to make
- the point that what is now true within a single nation may in time
- come to be true between nations or a group of nations. Thus an
- international habit of looking to common ideals may grow up
- sufficiently strong to develop a general will, and to make the binding
- power of those ideas a reliable sanction for their obligations to each
- other. With this thesis, ably presented and fortified though it be, we
- are not here concerned. The point I wish to make is that this
- conception of “Sittlichkeit” which Lord Haldane in his remarkable
- address, destined I believe to become historic, so ably develops and
- applies to the solution of a world-problem is in psychological terms
- identical with that of complexes of ideas and affects organized in the
- unconscious.
-
-Footnote 154:
-
- Professor G. S. Fullerton, in the course of an essay, “Is the Mind in
- the Body?” interestingly refers to this fact and points out that
- common sense directs the common man in repudiating ancient doctrines,
- and that it is “part of his share in the heritage of the race.” “The
- common sense which guides men is the resultant attitude due to many
- influences, some of them dating very far back indeed.” _The Popular
- Science Monthly_, May, 1907.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE X
- THE MEANING OF IDEAS AS DETERMINED BY SETTINGS
-
-
-In the preceding lecture when describing the organization of emotional
-complexes, I mentioned, somewhat incidentally, that their fuller meaning
-was to be found in antecedent experiences of life; and that these
-experiences conserved in the unconscious formed a setting that gave the
-point of view and attitude of mind. It was pointed out also that if we
-wish to know the reason why a given experience, like that of Voltaire
-with Frederick, awakens a strong emotional reaction, and why the memory
-of this experience continues persistently organized with the emotion or
-gives rise to the emotional reaction whenever stimulated, we must look
-to this setting of antecedent experiences which gives the ideas of the
-complexes meaning. We need now to inquire to what extent the unconscious
-complex in which the setting has roots may take part in the process
-which gives meaning to an idea. It is a problem in _psychogenesis_ and
-psychological mechanisms. As an imperatively recurring emotional complex
-is an obsession the full meaning of any given obsession is involved in
-the psychological problem of “Idea and Meaning.”
-
-Let us, then, take up for discussion this latter problem as preliminary
-to the study of that important psychosis—obsessing ideas and emotions.
-
-A perception, or, what is in principle the same thing, an idea of an
-object, although apparently a simple thing, is really, as a rule, a
-complex affair. Without attempting to enter deeply into the psychology
-of perception (and ideas), and particularly into the conventional
-conception of perception as usually expounded in the text-books—a
-conception which to my mind is inadequate and incomplete[155]—it is
-sufficient for our immediate purposes to point out in a general rough
-way the following facts concerning perception.
-
-=Perception a synthesis of primary and secondary images.=—Perception may
-be regarded both as a process and as a group of conscious elements some
-of which are within the focus of attention or awareness and some of
-which are outside this focus. As _a process_ it undoubtedly may include
-much that is entirely subconscious and therefore without conscious
-equivalents, and much that appears in consciousness. As a group of
-conscious elements it is a fusion, amalgamation, or compounding of many
-elements.
-
-My perception of X., for example, whom I recognize as an acquaintance,
-is much more than a cluster of visual sensations—I mean the sensations
-of color and form that come from the stimulation of my retina. Besides
-these sensations it includes a number of imaginal memory images some of
-which are only in the fringe of consciousness and can only be recognized
-by introspection or under special conditions. These secondary images, as
-they are called, may be (as they most often are) visual, orienting him
-in space and in past associative relations, according to my previous
-experiences; they may be auditory—the imaginal sound of his voice or
-verbal images of his name; or they may be the so-called kinesthetic
-images, etc.; and all these images supplement the actual visual
-sensations of color and form.
-
-That such images take part in perception is of course well recognized in
-every text-book on psychology where they will be found described. It is
-easy to become aware of them under certain conditions. For instance, to
-take an auditory perception from every-day life, you are listening
-through the telephone and hear a strange voice speaking. Aside from the
-meaning of the words you are conscious of little more than auditory
-sensations although you do perceive them as those of a human voice and
-not of a phonograph. Then of a sudden you recognize the voice as that of
-an acquaintance. Instantly visual images of his face, and perhaps of the
-room in which he is speaking and his situation therein, of the
-furnishings of the room, etc., become associated with the voice. Your
-perception of the voice now takes on a fuller meaning in accordance with
-these imaginal images. In such an experience, common probably to
-everybody, the secondary images which take part in perception are
-unusually clear and easily detected.
-
-Again, let us take a visual perception. You meet face to face a person
-whom at first sight seems unfamiliar; then in a flash visual images of a
-scene in a room where you first met, verbal images of his name, and the
-sound of his voice rush into consciousness. The comparatively simple
-perception of a man has now given place to a more complex perception
-(apperception) of an acquaintance and has acquired a new meaning. This
-new meaning is in part due to these images which have supplemented the
-visual sensations; but it is also due to the coöperation of another and
-important factor—the context—which I will presently consider.
-
-Another situation of every-day life in which we become aware of the
-images is when riding in a street car at night we look out of the window
-and fail to recognize the individual buildings as we pass them though we
-perceive them as houses. The neighborhood being obscured by darkness,
-the buildings have no meaning from the point of view of their uses,
-proprietorship, locality, etc., but only from an architectural point of
-view. Then suddenly, by some apparently subconscious process, visual
-memory images of the unseen neighborhood (hidden in darkness), and of
-the interior of the buildings, flash into consciousness in conjunction
-with the actual visual pictures of the buildings. In imagination we at
-once see the locality and recognize (or apperceive) the buildings which
-acquire a new meaning as particular shops, which we have often entered,
-located in a particular locality, etc.
-
-Again, take a tactual perception: If you close your eyes and touch, say
-a point on your left hand, with your finger, you not only perceive the
-touch but you perceive the exact spot that you touched. Your perception
-includes localization. Now if you fix your attention and introspect
-carefully you will find that you visualize your hand and see, more or
-less vividly, the point touched (and the touching finger). If you draw a
-figure on the hand you will visualize that figure. That is to say
-imaginal visual images of the hand, figure, etc., enter into the tactual
-perceptions. You will probably also be able to feel faint tactual
-“images” of the hand (joints, fingers, etc.) which combine with the
-visualization.[156] The whole complex is the perception proper.
-
-The images which take part in actual perception, or in ideas of objects,
-vary with the mode of perception (whether visual, auditory, tactile,
-etc.) and with objects, and in different people. Reading, or the
-perception of words, is in many people accompanied by the sound of the
-words or kinesthetic images of words. If the printed words are those of
-a person whose voice is familiar to us we may actually hear his
-voice.[157] General kinesthetic images may occur in perception, as with
-objects which look heavy, i.e., have secondary tactual sensations of
-heaviness. Likewise tactile and olfactory images may enter the
-perceptual field and supplement the visual sensations. When the
-sensational experiences of perception are tactile, auditory, olfactory,
-or gustatory visual images probably always take part in the perceptual
-field if the object is perceived as, e. g., the perception of velvet by
-touch and of an orange by smell. Summing all this up we may say, using
-Titchener’s words: “perceptions are selected groups of sensations in
-which images are incorporated as an integral part of the whole process.”
-We may further say the secondary images give meaning to sensations in
-forming a perception.
-
-Now, before proceeding further in this exposition, I would point out
-that if memory images are habitually synthesized with sensations to form
-a given perception, and if perception is a matter of synthesis, then,
-theoretically, it ought to be possible to dissociate these images.
-Further, in that case, the perception as such ought to disappear. That
-this theoretical assumption correctly represents the facts I have been
-able to demonstrate by the following experiment which I have repeated
-many times. I should first explain that it has been shown by Janet that
-by certain technical procedures some hysterics can be distracted in such
-a way that the experimenter’s voice is not consciously heard by them,
-but is heard and understood subconsciously. The ordinary procedure is to
-whisper to the subject while his attention is focused on something else.
-The whisper undoubtedly acts as a suggestion that the subject will not
-consciously hear what is whispered. The whispered word-images are
-accordingly dissociated, but are perceived coconsciously, and whatever
-coconsciousness exists can be in this way surreptitiously communicated
-with and responses obtained without the knowledge of the personal
-consciousness. In this way I have been able to make numerous
-observations showing the presence of dissociated coconscious complexes
-which otherwise would not have been suspected. Now the experiment which
-I am about to cite was made for the purpose of determining whether
-certain experiences for which the subject had amnesia were coconsciously
-remembered, but the results obtained, besides giving affirmative
-evidence on this point, furnished certain instructive facts indicative
-of the dissociation of secondary images.
-
-The subject, Miss B., was in the state known as BIVa, an hypnotic state,
-_her eyes closed_. While she was conversing with me on a subject which
-held her attention I whispered in her ear with the view of communicating
-with coconscious ideas as above explained. While I was whispering, she
-remarked, “Where have you gone?” and later asked why I went away and
-what I kept coming and going for. On examination it then appeared that
-it seemed to her that during the moments when I whispered in her ear I
-had gone away. That is to say, she could no longer visualize my body,
-the secondary imaginal visual images being dissociated with my whispered
-words. At these times, however, she continued the conversation and was
-not at all in a dreamy state. Testing her tactile sense it was found
-that there was no dissociation of this sense during these moments. She
-felt tactile impressions while she was not hearing my voice, but she
-explained afterwards [while whispering, of course, I could not ask
-questions regarding sensations aloud] that when I touched her, and when
-she held my hand, palpating it in a curious way as if trying to make out
-what it was, she felt the tactile impressions, or tactile sensations,
-but not naturally. It appeared as the result of further observations
-that this feeling of unnaturalness and strangeness was due to a
-dissociation of the secondary visual images which normally occur with
-the tactile images. (She described the tactile impressions of my hand as
-similar to those she felt when she lifted her own hand when it had “gone
-to sleep”; it felt dead and heavy as if it belonged to no one in
-particular.
-
-Testing further it was found that, _before abstraction_, while she held
-my hand she could definitely visualize my hand, arm, and even face.
-While she was thus visualizing I again abstracted her auditory
-perceptions by the whispering process. At once the secondary visual
-images of my hand, etc., disappeared. As with the auditory perceptions
-she could not obtain these visual images, although a moment before she
-could visualize as far as the elbow.
-
-Desiring now to learn whether these dissociated visual images were
-perceived coconsciously I whispered, at the same time holding her hand,
-“Do you see my hand, arm, and face?” She nodded (automatically) “Yes.”
-“Does _she_ [meaning the personal consciousness] see them?” (Answer by
-nod) “No.” (The personal consciousness (BIVa) was unaware of the
-questions and nodding; the latter was performed subconsciously.)
-
-This experiment was repeated several times. As often as she ceased to
-hear my voice she ceased to visualize my hand, though she could feel it
-without recognizing it. It follows, therefore, that the dissociation of
-the auditory perceptions of my voice having also robbed the subject’s
-personal consciousness of all visual images of my body, her previous
-tactual perception of my hand lost thereby its visual images and ceased
-to be a perception.
-
-Let us take another observation: We have seen that a tactual perception
-of the body includes secondary imaginal visual and other sensory images
-besides the tactile sensation. Now, of course, if sensation is
-dissociated so that one has complete anesthesia, no tactile sensation
-can be perceived. Under such conditions an anesthetic person
-theoretically might not be able to imagine the dissociated tactile
-sensations and the associated visual images included in tactile
-perception. If so such a person would not be able to visualize his body.
-In other words, in accordance with the well-known principle that the
-dissociation of a specific memory robs the personal consciousness of
-other elements of experiences synthesized with the specific memory, the
-dissociation of the tactile images carries with it the visual images
-associated in perception. This theoretical proposition is confirmed by
-actual observation. Thus B. C. A. in one hypnotic state has general
-anesthesia, so complete that she has no consciousness of her body
-whatsoever. She does not know whether she is standing or sitting, nor
-the attitude of her limbs, or her location in space; she is simply
-thought in space. Now it is found that she can visualize the
-experimenter, the room, and the objects in the room although she cannot
-visualize any part of her own body. The dissociation of the tactual
-field of consciousness is so complete that she cannot evoke imaginal
-tactual images of the body, and this dissociation of these images
-carries with it that of the associated imaginal visual images. Visual
-images of the environment, however, not being synthesized with the
-tactual body images, can be still evoked. So we see from observations
-based on introspection and experimentation that perception includes,
-besides primary simple sensations of an object, secondary imaginal
-images of various kinds and in various numbers.
-
-=Besides images the content of ideas includes “Meaning”.=—What I have
-said thus far refers to perception and idea as the content of
-consciousness—a group of conscious states. But this is not all when
-perception is regarded as a _process_. The objects of experience have
-associative relations to other objects, actions, conduct, stimuli,
-constellated ideas, etc., i.e., past experiences represented by
-conserved (unconscious) complexes. As a result of previous experiences
-various associations have been organized with ideas and these complexes
-form the setting or the “context” (Tichener) which gives ideas meaning.
-As the secondary images give meaning to sensations to form ideas (or
-perceptions), so these associated complexes as settings give meaning to
-ideas. This setting in more general terms may be regarded as the
-attitude of mind, point of view, interest, etc. Just as the context in a
-printed sentence gives meaning to a given word, and determines which of
-two or more ideas it is meant to be the sign of, so in the process of
-all perceptions the associated ideas give meaning to the perception.
-Indeed it is probable that the context as a process determines what
-images shall become incorporated with sensations to form the nucleus of
-the perception. Perception thus takes one meaning when it is
-constellated with one complex and another meaning when constellated with
-another complex.
-
-“Meaning” plays such an important part in the mental reactions of
-pathological and everyday life that I feel we must study it a little
-more closely before proceeding with our theme.
-
-The idea horse[158] as the content of consciousness includes more than
-the primary and secondary sensory images which constitute a perception
-of an animal with four legs distinguished anatomically from other
-animals: The idea includes the meaning of a particular kind of animal
-possessing certain functions, useful for particular purposes and
-occupying a particular place in civilization, etc. We are distinctly
-conscious of this meaning; and although we may abstract more or less
-successfully the visual image of the animal from the meaning, and attend
-to the former alone, the result is an artifact. Likewise we may as an
-artifice abstract, to a large degree, the meaning from the image,
-keeping the latter in the background, and attend to the meaning.
-
-That meaning—just as much as the sensory image of an object—is part of
-the conscious content of an idea becomes apparent at once, the moment
-the setting becomes altered and an object is collocated with a new set
-of experiences (knowledge regarding it). X, for example, has been known
-to the world as a pious, god-fearing, moral man, a teacher of the
-Christian religion. My perception of him, so far as made up of images,
-is, properly speaking, that which distinguishes him anatomically from
-other men of my acquaintance, that by which I recognize him as X and not
-as Y. But my perception also has a distinctly conscious meaning, that of
-a Christian man. This meaning also distinguishes him in his qualities
-from other men. Now it transpires to every one’s astonishment that X is
-a foul, cruel, murderer of women—a Jack-the-Ripper. My perception of him
-is the same but it has acquired an entirely different meaning. A
-bestial, villainous meaning has replaced the Christian meaning. So
-almost all objects have different meanings in different persons’ minds,
-or at different times in the same person’s mind, according to the
-settings (experiences) with which they are collocated. My perception of
-A has the meaning of physician, while one of his family perceives him as
-father or husband. My perception of a snake, it may be, has the meaning
-of a loathsome, venomous animal, while a naturalist’s perception may be
-that of a vertebrate representing a certain stage of evolution, and a
-psychologist holding certain theories may perceive it with a meaning
-given by those theories, viz.: as a sexual symbol.
-
-This fact of meaning becomes still more obvious when we reflect that the
-meaning of a perception, as of A’s personality as a physician or father,
-may occupy the focus of attention while the images of his face, voice,
-etc., may sink into the background.
-
-Every one is agreed then that every idea or combination of ideas has
-“meaning” of some sort. Even nonsense syllables have in a psychological
-sense some meaning, which may be an alliteration of sound, or a
-symbolism of nonsense (e. g., “fol-de-rol-di-rol-dol-day”) or as
-suitable tests for psychological experiments. I am speaking now, of
-course, of meaning as dealt with by psychology as a content of
-consciousness, and not as dealt with by logic. Every one also will
-probably agree that the content of an idea is a composite of sensory
-elements (images) and meaning—I would like to say of perception and
-meaning; but the use of two abstract terms is likely to lead to a
-juggling with words by turning attention away from the concrete facts
-for which the terms stand, and by connoting a sharp distinction between
-perception and meaning which, as I observe the facts, does not hold.
-Indeed the common though useful habit of psychologists of treating
-meaning as an abstract symbol without specific reference to those
-elements of the content of consciousness for which it stands has, it
-seems to me, led to considerable confusion of thought.
-
-Mr. Hoernlé, who has given us one of the clearest expositions of _idea
-and meaning_ that I have read,[159] designates that constituent of an
-idea which is the psychical image of an object (e. g., “the visual
-perception of a horse”) by the term “sign.” “Signs,” he states “are
-always sensational in nature, whether they are actual sensations (as in
-sense-perception) or ideas (images or ‘revived’ sensations).”
-Accordingly an idea is a composite of sign and meaning, or, as Mr.
-Hoernlé has well expressed it: “Both the idea[160] and its meaning,
-then, must be present in consciousness. Or perhaps it would be more
-accurate to say that they form together a complex psychical whole, a
-‘psychosis,’ of which the different elements, however, enjoy different
-degrees of prominence in consciousness or draw upon themselves different
-amounts of attention.... Normally we apperceive merely the meaning, and
-the image or sign remains in the background, in the shade as it were.
-But of course we can make the image or sign the special object of
-attention; we can apperceive it and correspondingly the meaning falls
-into the background. But it does not disappear; it remains in
-consciousness.” And again, “every idea is a concrete whole of sign and
-meaning, in which the meaning, even when unanalyzed and ‘implicit’ is
-what is essential and prominent in consciousness. The sign on the other
-hand which we saw reason to identify with certain sensational elements
-in this conscious experience is normally subordinate and I have called
-this concrete idea a ‘psychic whole’....”
-
-I quote these passages from Mr. Hoernlé as they are admirably clear
-statements of the theory, but as descriptions they are a very incomplete
-analysis of the content of ideas, and fall far short of what we require
-to know when dealing with the problem of mental mechanisms. It is all
-very well to speak of meaning in this general way; but to rest content
-with such an abstract term is to only present the problem and there stop
-short. Mr. Hoernlé rests content with the negative statement that
-meaning “does not consist in images and other words.” What then does it
-consist in?
-
-It must be admitted that the problem is a very difficult one and
-therefore it is, I suppose, that most psychologists, as if scenting
-danger, seem to dodge the question and rest content to use meaning as a
-symbol like the unknown _x_ and _y_ of algebra. If meaning is a part of
-the content of consciousness it must be analyzable into specific
-conscious elements (images, thoughts, words, feelings or what not)
-representing to some extent and in some way past experiences.
-
-Obviously a full rounded-out psychology of meaning must include an
-analysis of the content of meaning.[161] I have no intention of entering
-upon this task here and it is not my business. It would, however, be of
-very great assistance in solving many of the problems of abnormal
-psychology if the psychology of meaning were better worked out. But
-conversely, I would say, considerable light on the psychology of meaning
-can be derived from the study of abnormal conditions, and of the mental
-phenomena artificially provoked by hypnotic procedures. Some of the
-observations which I shall presently cite contribute, I believe, to this
-end.
-
-Permit me also to point out—as the point is one which has considerable
-bearing on our theme—that the descriptive statement that ideas are a
-composite of two distinct elements, perception (images, signs) and
-meaning, is inadequate in another respect; it is too static and
-schematic. Although it is convenient to distinguish between perception
-and meaning, they shade into one another and indeed there does not seem
-to be any justification for regarding them as other than one dynamic
-process. As we have seen, perception is made up of a primary sensory
-image of an object combined with a number of secondary images. This in
-itself is a “psychic whole”, and, as I view it, contains meaning. My
-perception of a watch contains secondary images which give it the
-meaning of a watch and make it something more than a visual image. It
-may have a still larger and different meaning, that of a souvenir of a
-dead friend, and in this larger meaning the perception of the watch
-becomes subordinate, as a sign or group of images, and sinks into the
-background, while the added meaning occupies the focus of attention.
-Indeed the primary image of a perception may sink into relative
-insignificance in the background, while the secondary images become
-all-important and practically constitute the actual perception (or idea)
-as a psychic whole. Consider, for instance, what different secondary
-images (and meaning) are in the focus and how the primary image of the
-word “son” (spoken or written) almost disappears, according as the
-context shows it to be _my_ son or _your_ son; and how correspondingly
-different are those ideas. And so with a wider filial meaning of son. It
-is safe to say that King Lear’s idea of “daughter” had not the filial
-meaning conventionally ascribed to that relationship.
-
-If all this that I have said is valid the difference between that which
-we call perception and that which we call meaning is one of complexity.
-The less complex we call perception, the more complex, meaning. Both are
-determined by past experiences the residua of which are the settings.
-
-This may be illustrated by the following: We will suppose that three
-persons in imagination perceive a certain building used as a department
-store on a certain street I have in mind now, in a growing section of
-the city. One of these persons is an architect, another is an owner of
-property on this street, and the third is a woman who is in the habit of
-making purchases in the department store. When the architect thinks of
-the building he perceives it in his mind’s eye in an architectural
-setting, that is, its architectural style, proportions, features, and
-relations. His perception includes a number of secondary images of the
-neighboring buildings, of their styles of architecture, and of their
-relations from an æsthetic point of view. In the perception of the owner
-of property there are also a number of secondary images, but these are
-of the passing people and traffic, of neighboring buildings as shops and
-places of business. In the perception of the woman the secondary images
-are of the interior of the store, the articles for sale, clothes she
-would like to purchase and possibly bargains dear to every woman’s
-heart. Plainly each perceives the building from a different point of
-view. Each might perceive the building from the same point of view, but
-the point of view differs because of the differences in the past
-experiences of each.
-
-In the case of the architect these experiences were those of previous
-observations on the architecture of the growing neighborhood. In the
-case of the property owner they were of thoughtful reflections on the
-future development of neighboring property, on the industrial relations
-of the building to business, and on the speculative future value of the
-property. In the case of the woman they were of purchases she had made,
-of articles she had seen and desired, of scenes inside the shop, etc.
-Out of these experiences respectively a complex was built and conserved
-in the mind of each. The idea of the building is set in these respective
-experiences which therefore may be called its setting. The imaginal
-perception of the building obviously has a different meaning for each of
-our three observers, and it is plainly the setting which governs the
-meaning, i.e., an architectural, industrial, or shopping meaning, as the
-case happens to be; and we may further say the setting determines the
-point of view or attitude of mind or interest. _Either the perception
-proper of the building or the meaning may be in the focus of attention
-and the other recede into the background or the fringe of awareness._
-
-Further, different _affects_ may enter into each setting and, therefore,
-into the perception. With the architectural perception there may be
-linked an æsthetic joyful emotion; with the industrial perception a
-depressing emotion of anxiety; with the shopping perception perhaps one
-of anger. (This linking of an emotion, of course, has a great importance
-for psychopathic states.)
-
-The dependence of perceptions upon their settings for meaning has been
-very beautifully expressed by Emerson in “Each and All”:
-
- “Nothing is fair or good alone.
- I thought the sparrow’s note from heaven,
- Singing at dawn on the alder bough;
- I brought him home, in his nest, at even;
- He sings the song, but it cheers not now,
- For I did not bring home the river and sky;
- He sang to my ear—they sang to my eye.
- The delicate shells lay on the shore;
- The bubbles of the latest wave
- Fresh pearls to their enamel gave,
- And the bellowing of the savage sea
- Greeted their safe escape to me.
- I wiped away the weeds and foam,
- I fetched my sea-born treasures home;
- But the poor unsightly, noisome things
- Had left their beauty on the shore
- With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar.”
-
-=The practical application of the theory to emotional outbreaks of
-everyday life.=—The significance of these principles for our purpose
-lies in the fact that they enable us to understand numerous
-psychological events of everyday and pathological life that otherwise
-would be unintelligible. It is worth while then to study a little more
-closely the practical application in everyday life of this principle of
-settings before applying it to the more difficult problem of imperative
-ideas or obsessions.
-
-No psychological event, any more than a physical event, stands entirely
-isolated, all alone by itself, without relation to other events. Every
-psychological event is related more or less intimately to antecedent
-events, and the practical importance or value of this relation depends
-for the individual partly upon the nature of the relation itself, and
-partly upon the ontological value of those anterior events, i.e., the
-part they played and still play in the personality of the individual. No
-event, therefore, if it is to be completely interpreted, should be
-viewed by itself but only in relation to preceding ones. For example: a
-husband good humoredly and thoughtlessly chaffs his wife about the cost
-of a new hat which she exhibits with pride and pleasure. The wife in
-reply expresses herself by an outburst of anger which, to the astonished
-bystander, seems an entirely unjustifiable and inexplicable response to
-an entirely inadequate cause. Now if the bystander were permitted to
-make a psychological inquiry into the mental processes of the wife, he
-would find that the chaffing remark had meaning for her very different
-from what it had for him, and probably also for the husband; that it
-meant much more to her than the cost of that hat. He would find that it
-was set in her mind in a number of antecedent experiences consisting of
-criticisms of the wife by the husband for extravagance in dress; and
-perhaps criminations and recriminations involving much angry feeling on
-the part of both, and he would probably find that when the hat was
-purchased the possibility of criticism on the ground of extravagance
-passed through her mind. The chaffing remark of the husband therefore in
-the mind of the wife had for a context all these past experiences which
-formed a setting and gave an unintended meaning to the remark. The angry
-response, therefore, was dictated by these antecedent experiences and
-not simply by the trivial matter of the cost of a hat, standing by
-itself. The event can only be interpreted in the light of these past
-conserved experiences. How much of all this antecedent experience was in
-consciousness at the moment is another question which we shall presently
-consider.
-
-I have often had occasion to interpret cryptic occurrences of this
-kind happening with patients or acquaintances. They make quite an
-amusing social game. (A knowledge of this principle shows the
-impossibility of outsiders judging the rightness or wrongness of
-misunderstandings and contretemps between individuals—particularly
-married people.) To complete the interpretation of this episode of the
-hat—although a little beside the point under consideration: plainly
-the anger to which the wife gave expression was the affect linked with
-and the reaction to the setting-complex formed by antecedent
-experiences. To state the matter in another way, these experiences
-were the formative material out of which a _psychological torch_ had
-been plastically fashioned ready to be set ablaze by the first touch
-of a match—in this case the chaffing remark or associated idea. This
-principle of the setting, which gives meaning to an idea, being the
-conserved neurograms of related antecedent experiences is strikingly
-manifest in pathological and quasi-pathological conditions. I will
-mention only two instances.
-
-The first, that of X. Y. Z., I shall have occasion to refer to in more
-detail in connection with the emotions and instincts in a later
-lecture.[162] This lady, on the first night of her marriage, felt deeply
-hurt in her pride from a fancied neglect on the part of her husband. The
-cause was trivial and could not possibly be taken by any sensible person
-as an adequate justification for the resentment which followed and the
-somewhat tragic revenge which she practiced (continuous voluntary
-repression of the sexual instinct during many years). But the fancied
-slight had a meaning for her which did not appear on the surface. As she
-herself insisted, in attempted extenuation of her conduct, “You must not
-take it alone by itself but in connection with the past.” It appeared
-that during the betrothal period there had been a number of experiences
-wounding to her pride and leading to angry resentment. These had been
-_ostensibly but not really forgiven_. The action of her spouse on the
-important night in question had a meaning for her of a slight, because
-it stood in relation to all these other antecedent experiences, and
-through these only could its meaning (for her) be interpreted. As a
-practical matter of therapeutics it became evident that the cherished
-resentment of years and the physiological consequences could only be
-removed by readjusting the setting—the memories of all the antecedent
-experiences with their resentment.
-
-The second instance was a case of hysteria of the neurasthenic type with
-outbreaks of emotional attacks in a middle-aged woman. It developed
-immediately, in the midst of good health, out of a violent and
-protracted fit of anger, almost frenzy, two years ago, culminating in
-the first emotional or hysterical attack. Looked at superficially the
-fit of anger would be considered childish because it was aroused by the
-fact that some children were allowed to make the day hideous by firing
-cannon-crackers continually under her window in celebration of the
-national holiday. When more deeply analyzed it was found that the anger
-was really _resentment_ at what she considered unjustifiable treatment
-of herself by others, and particularly by her husband, who would not
-take steps to have the offense stopped. It is impossible to go into all
-the details here; suffice it to say that _below the surface_ the
-experiences of life had deposited _a large accumulation of grievances_
-against which resentment had been continuous over a long series of
-years. Although loving and respecting her husband, a man of force and
-character, yet she had long realized she was not as necessary to his
-life as she wanted to be; that he could get along without her, however
-fond he was of her; and that he was the stronger character in one way.
-She wanted to be wanted. Against all this for years she had felt anger
-and resentment. She had concealed her feelings, controlled them,
-repressed them, if you will, but there remained a general
-dissatisfaction against life, a “kicking against the pricks,” and a
-quickness to anger, though its expression had been well controlled.
-These were the formative influences which laid the mine ready to be
-fired by a spark, feelings of resentment and anger which had been
-incubating for years. Finally the spark came in the form of a childish
-offense. The frenzy of anger was ostensibly only the reaction to that
-offense, but it was really the explosion of years of antecedent
-experiences. The apparent offense was only the manifested cause,
-symbolic if you like so to express it, of the underlying accumulated
-causes contained in life’s grievances.[163] After completion of the
-analysis the patient herself recognized this interpretation to be the
-true meaning of her anger and point of view.
-
-Similarly in everyday life the _emotional shocks_ from fear in dangerous
-situations, to which most people are subject and which so often give
-rise to traumatic psychoses, must primarily find their source in the
-psychological setting of the perception of the situation (railroad,
-automobile, and other accidents). This setting is fashioned from the
-conserved knowledge of the fatal and other consequences of such
-accidents. This knowledge, deposited by past mental experiences—that
-which has been heard and read—induces a dormant apprehension of
-accidents and gives the meaning of danger to a perception of a present
-situation, and in itself, I may add, furnishes the neurographic fuel
-ready to be set ablaze by the first accident.[164]
-
------
-
-Footnote 155:
-
- In that it takes into account only a limited number of the data at our
- disposal and neglects methods of investigation which afford data
- essential for the understanding of this psychological process.
-
-Footnote 156:
-
- It is of interest to note again in this connection that these
- secondary images may emerge from a subconscious process to form the
- structure of an hallucination. Various facts of observation which I
- have collected support the thesis advanced by Sidis (loc. cit.) on
- theoretical grounds “that hallucinations are synthesized compounds of
- secondary sensory elements dissociated completely or incompletely from
- their primary elements.” It would carry us too far away from our theme
- to consider here this problem of special pathology. Sidis further
- insists that hallucinations are not central, but always “are
- essentially of peripheral origin,” a view which, it seems to me, is
- incompatible with numerous facts of observation.
-
-Footnote 157:
-
- I once dictated into a phonograph a passage of a published work.
- Whenever I read that passage now I hear the sound of my own voice as
- it was emitted by the phonograph.
-
-Footnote 158:
-
- I intentionally do not here say idea _of_ a horse because the use of
- the preposition (while, of course, correctly used to distinguish horse
- as an idea from a material horse, or the former as a particular idea
- among ideas in general) has led, as it seems to me, insidiously to
- specious reasoning. Thus Mr. Hoernlé (Image, Idea and Meaning, _Mind_,
- January, 1907) argues that every idea has a meaning because every idea
- is an idea _of_ some thing. Although this is true in a descriptive
- sense, psychologically idea-of-a-horse is a compound term and an
- imagined horse. The idea itself is horse. The speciousness of the
- reasoning appears when we substitute horse for idea; then the phrase
- would read, a “horse is always a horse of something.” I agree, of
- course, that every idea has a meaning, but not to this particular
- reasoning by which the conclusion is reached, as when, for example,
- Mr. Hoernlé when traversing James’ theory cites “image _of_ the
- breakfast table” to denote that the breakfast table is the meaning of
- the image. The image _is_ the (imagined) breakfast table. They are not
- different things as are leg and chair in the phrase, “leg of the
- chair,” where chair plainly gives the meaning to leg.
-
-Footnote 159:
-
- R. F. Hoernlé, Image, Idea and Meaning, _Mind_, January, 1907.
-
-Footnote 160:
-
- Idea, according to Mr. Hoernlé’s context, is here used in the sense of
- a word, image or sign.
-
-Footnote 161:
-
- Of course the constituents of the content must vary in each individual
- instance, but the kind of conscious elements that in general give
- meaning to the sensory part of the idea can be determined.
-
-Footnote 162:
-
- P. 462, Lecture XIV.
-
-Footnote 163:
-
- Prince: The Mechanism of Recurrent Psychopathic States, with Special
- Reference to Anxiety States, _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_,
- June-July, 1911, pp. 153-154.
-
-Footnote 164:
-
- Ibid., p. 152. It is interesting to note that statistics show that
- traumatic psychoses following railway accidents are comparatively rare
- among trainmen, while exceedingly common among passengers. The reason
- is to be found in the difference in the settings of ideas of accidents
- in the two classes of persons. It is the same psychological difference
- that distinguishes the seasoned veteran soldier from the raw recruit
- in the presence of the enemy.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE XI
- MEANING, SETTING, AND THE FRINGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
-
-
-=The content of the fringe of consciousness considered as a subconscious
-zone.=—It is obvious that all the past experiences which originate the
-meaning of an idea cannot be in consciousness at a given moment. If I
-carefully introspect my imaginal perception or idea of an object, say of
-a politician, I do not find in my consciousness all the elements which
-have given me my viewpoint or attitude of mind toward him—the meaning of
-my idea of him as a great statesman or a demagogue, whichever it be—and
-yet it may not be difficult, by referring to my memory, to find the past
-experiences which have furnished the setting which gives this viewpoint.
-Very little of all these past experiences can be in the content of
-consciousness, and much less in the focus of attention, at any given
-moment, nevertheless I cannot doubt that these experiences really
-determined the meaning of my idea, for if challenged I proceed to recite
-this conserved knowledge. And so it is with everyone who defends the
-validity of the meaning of his ideas.
-
-The question at once comes to mind in the case of any given perception,
-how much of past experience (associated ideas) is in consciousness at
-any given moment as the setting which provides the meaning?
-
-That the meaning must be in consciousness is obvious; else the term
-“meaning” would have no meaning—it would be sheer nonsense to talk of
-ideas having meaning. As I have said, the meaning may be in the focus of
-attention or it may be in the fringe or background according to the
-point of interest. If in the focus of attention, meaning plainly may,
-synchronously or successively, include ideas of quite a large number of
-past experiences, but if in the background it may be another matter. In
-this case it may be held, and probably in many instances quite rightly,
-that meaning is a short summary of past experiences, or summing up in
-the form of a symbol, and that this summary or symbol is in the focus of
-attention or in the fringe of awareness, i. e., is clearly or dimly
-conscious. Thus, in one of the examples above given, the industrial
-meaning of the owner’s idea of the building might be a short summing up
-of his past cogitations on the business value of the property; in the
-case of my idea of the politician, the symbol “statesman” or
-“demagogue”—as the case might be—might be in consciousness and be the
-meaning. All the rest of the past associative experiences in either case
-would furnish the origin of the setting but would not be the actual
-functioning setting itself.
-
-It must be confessed, however, that the content of meaning, when it is
-not in the focus of attention, often becomes very elusive when we try to
-clearly revive it retrospectively and differentiate the particular
-states of consciousness present at any given moment. It is probably
-because of this elusiveness, as of something that seems to evade
-analysis, that it was so long overlooked as an object of psychological
-study. Yet if meaning is not something more than an abstract term, and
-is really a component of a moment’s consciousness, we ought to be able
-to analyze it in any given instance provided our methods of
-investigation are adequate. The difficulty, I think, largely arises from
-the fact that the minute we direct attention to such elements of the
-content of consciousness of any given moment as are not in the focus of
-attention they at once become shifted into the focus and the composition
-of the content also becomes altered. Consequently we are never
-_immediately_ vividly or fully aware of the whole content. The only
-method of learning what is the whole content at any given moment is by
-_retrospection_—the recovery of it as memory. Further, special technical
-methods are required. Then, too, image and meaning are constantly
-shifting their relative positions, at one time the one being in the
-focus of attention, the other in the fringe, and _vice versa_.
-
-When speaking colloquially of the content of consciousness we have in
-mind those ideas or components of ideas—elements of thought—which are in
-the focus of attention, and therefore that of which we are more or less
-vividly aware. If you were asked to state what was in your mind at a
-given moment it is the vivid elements, upon which your attention was
-focused, that you would describe. But, as everyone knows, these do not
-constitute the whole field of consciousness at any given moment. Besides
-these there is in the background of the mind, outside the focus, _a
-conscious margin or fringe_ of varying extent (_consisting of
-sensations, perceptions, and even thoughts_) _of which you are only
-dimly aware_. It is a sort of twilight zone in which the contents are so
-slightly illuminated by awareness as to be scarcely recognizable. The
-contents of this zone are readily forgotten owing to their having been
-outside the focus of attention; but much can be recalled if an effort to
-do so (retrospection) is made immediately after any given moment’s
-experience. Much can only be recalled by the use of special technical
-methods of investigation. I believe that the more thoroughly this
-wonderful region is explored the richer it will be found to be in
-conscious elements.
-
-It must not be thought that because we are only dimly aware of the
-contents of this twilight zone therefore the individual elements lack
-definiteness and positive reality. To do so is to confuse the awareness
-of a certain something with that something itself. To so think would be
-like thinking that, because we do not distinctly recognize objects in
-the darkness, therefore they are but shadowy forms without substance.
-When, in states of abstraction or hypnosis, the ideas of this fringe of
-attention are recalled, as often is easily done, they are remembered as
-_very definite, real, conscious elements_, and the memory of them is as
-vivid as that of most thoughts. That these marginal ideas are not
-“vivid” at the time of their occurrence means simply that they are not
-in such dynamic relations with the whole content of consciousness as to
-be the focus of awareness or attention. What sort of relations are
-requisite for “awareness” is an unsolved problem. It seems to be a
-matter not only of synthesis but of dynamic relations within the
-synthesis.
-
-However that may be, outside that dynamic synthesis which we distinguish
-as the focus of attention we can at certain moments recognize or recall
-to memory (whether through technical devices or not) a number of
-different conscious states. These may be roughly classified as follows:
-
-1: Visual, auditory, and other sensory impressions to which we are not
-giving attention—(e. g., the striking of a clock; the sound of horses
-passing in the street; voices from the next room; coenæsthetic and other
-sensations of the body.
-
-2: The secondary sensory images of which I spoke in the last lecture as
-taking part in perception.
-
-3: Associative memories and thoughts pertaining to the ideas in the
-focus of attention.
-
-4: Secondary independent trains of thought not related to those in the
-focus of attention. (As when we are doing one thing or listening to
-conversation and thinking of something else. Very likely, however, what
-appear to be secondary trains of thought are often only alternating
-trains. I have, however, a considerable collection of data showing such
-concomitant secondary trains in certain subjects (cf. Lecture VI). Such
-a train can be demonstrated to be a precisely differentiated “stream” of
-consciousness in absent-minded conditions, where it may constitute a
-veritable doubling of consciousness.
-
-Some of these marginal elements may be so distinctly within the field of
-awareness that we are conscious of them, but dimly so.[165] Others, in
-particular cases at least, may be so far outside and hidden in the
-twilight obscurity that the subject is not even dimly aware of them. In
-more technical parlance, we may say, they are so far dissociated that
-they belong to _an ultra-marginal zone and are really subconscious_.
-Evidence of their having been present can only be obtained through
-memories recovered in hypnosis, abstraction, and by other methods. These
-may be properly termed coconscious. Undoubtedly the degree of awareness
-for marginal elements, i.e., the degree of dissociation between the
-elements of the content of consciousness, varies at different moments in
-the same individual according to the degree of concentration of
-attention and the character of the fixation, e. g., whether upon the
-environment or upon inner thoughts. It also varies much in different
-individuals. Therefore some persons lend themselves as more favorable
-subjects for the detection of marginal and ultra-marginal states than
-others. Furthermore, according to certain evidence at hand, there is, in
-some persons at least, a constant shifting or interchange of elements
-going on between the field of attention and the marginal and the
-ultra-marginal zone—what is within the first at one moment is in the
-second, or is entirely subconscious, the next, and _vice versa_.
-
-Amnesia develops very rapidly for the contents of the twilight region,
-as I have already stated, and this renders their recognition
-difficult.[166]
-
-In favorable subjects memory of that portion of the content of
-consciousness which is commonly called the fringe can be recovered in
-abstraction and hypnosis. In these states valuable information can be
-obtained regarding the content of consciousness at any given previous
-moment,[167] and this information reveals that there were present in the
-fringe conscious states of which the subject was never aware, or of
-which he is later ignorant owing to amnesia. I have studied the fringe
-of consciousness by this method in a number of subjects. A number of
-years ago _a systematic study_ of the field of the content of
-consciousness outside the focus of awareness, including not only the
-fringe but what may be called the ultra-marginal (subconscious) zone,
-was made in a very favorable subject (Miss B.), and the general results
-were given in an address on the “Problems of Abnormal Psychology”[168]
-at the Congress of Arts and Sciences held in St. Louis (1904). I may be
-permitted to quote that summary here. The term “secondary consciousness”
-is used in this passage to designate the fringe and ultra-marginal
-(subconscious) zone.
-
-"A systematic examination was made of the personal consciousness in
-hypnosis regarding the perceptions and content of the secondary
-consciousness during definite moments, of which the events were
-prearranged or otherwise known, the subject not being in
-absent-mindedness. It is not within the scope of an address of this sort
-to give the details of these observations, but in this connection I may
-state briefly a summary of the evidence, reserving the complete
-observation for future publication. It was found that—
-
-"1. A large number of perceptions—visual, auditory, tactile, and thermal
-images, and sometimes emotional states—occurred outside of the personal
-consciousness and, therefore, the subject was not conscious of them when
-awake. The visual images were particularly those of peripheral vision,
-such as the extra-conscious [marginal or ultra-marginal] perception of a
-person in the street who was not recognized by the personal waking
-consciousness; and the perception of objects intentionally placed in the
-field of peripheral vision and not perceived by the subject, whose
-attention was held in conversation. Auditory images of passing
-carriages, of voices, footsteps, etc., thermal images of heat and cold
-from the body were similarly found to exist extra-consciously, and to be
-entirely unknown to the personal waking consciousness.
-
-"2. As to the content of the concomittant (dissociated) ideas, it
-appeared, by the testimony of the hypnotic self, that as compared with
-those of the waking consciousness the secondary ideas were quite
-limited. They were, as is always the experience of the subject, made up
-for the most part of emotions (e. g., annoyances), and sensations
-(visual, auditory, and tactile images of a room, of particular persons,
-people’s voices, etc). They were not combined into a logical
-proposition, though in using words to describe them it is necessary to
-so combine them and therefore give them a rather artificial character as
-‘thoughts.’ It is questionable whether the word ‘thoughts’ may be used
-to describe mental states of this kind, and the word was used by the
-hypnotic self subject to this qualification. Commonly, I should infer, a
-succession of such ‘thoughts’ may arise, but each is for the most part
-limited to isolated emotions and sensorial images and lacks the
-complexity and synthesis of the waking mentation.
-
-"3. The memories, emotions, and perceptions of which the subject is not
-conscious when awake are remembered in hypnosis and described. The
-thoughts of which the subject is conscious when awake are those which
-are concentrated on what she is doing. The others, of which she is not
-conscious, are a sort of side-thoughts. These are not logically
-connected among themselves, are weak, and have little influence on the
-personal (chief) train of thought. Now, although when awake the subject
-is conscious of some thoughts and not of others, both kinds keep running
-into one another and therefore the conscious and the subconscious are
-constantly uniting, disuniting, and interchanging. _There is no hard and
-fast line between the conscious and the subconscious, for at times what
-belongs to one passes into the other, and vice versa._ The waking self
-is varying the grouping of its thoughts all the time in such a way as to
-be continually including and excluding the subconscious thoughts. The
-personal pronoun ‘I,’ or, when spoken to, ‘you,’ applied equally to her
-waking self and to her hypnotic self, _but these terms were not
-applicable to her unconscious thoughts, which were not self-conscious_.
-For convenience of terminology it was agreed to arbitrarily call the
-thoughts of which the subject is conscious when awake the _waking
-consciousness_, and the thoughts of which when awake she is not
-conscious the _secondary consciousness_. In making this division the
-hypnotic self insisted most positively on one distinction, namely that
-the secondary consciousness was in no sense a _personality_. The pronoun
-_I_ could not be applied to it. In speaking of the thoughts of this
-second group of mental states alone, she could not say ‘I felt this,’ ‘I
-saw that.’ These thoughts were better described as, for the most part,
-unconnected, discrete sensations, impressions, and emotions, and were
-not synthesized into a personality. They were not, therefore,
-self-conscious. When the waking self was hypnotized, the resulting
-hypnotic self acquired the subconscious perceptions of the second
-consciousness; she then could say ‘_I_,’ and the hypnotic ‘_I_’ included
-what were formerly ‘subconscious’ perceptions. In speaking of the
-secondary personality by itself, then, it is to be understood that
-self-consciousness and personality are always excluded. This testimony
-was verified by test instances of subconscious perception of visual and
-auditory images of experiences occurring in my presence.
-
-"4. Part played by the secondary consciousness in (a) normal mentation.
-The hypnotic self testified that the thoughts of the secondary
-consciousness do not form a logical chain. They do not have volition.
-They are entirely passive and have no direct control over the subject’s
-voluntary actions.
-
-"(b) Part played by the secondary consciousness in absent-mindedness.
-(1) Some apparently absent-minded acts are only examples of amnesia.
-There is no doubling of consciousness at the time. It is a sort of
-continuous amnesia brought about by lack of attention. (2) In true
-absent-mindedness there does occur a division of consciousness along
-lines which allow a large field to, and relatively wide synthesis of the
-dissociated states. The personal consciousness is proportionately
-restricted. The subconscious thoughts may involve a certain amount of
-volition and judgment, as when the subject subconsciously took a book
-from the table, carried it to the bookcase, started to place it on the
-shelf, found that particular location unsuitable, arranged a place on
-another shelf where the book was finally placed. No evidence, however,
-was obtained to show that the dissociated consciousness is capable of
-wider and more original synthesis than is involved in adapting habitual
-acts to the circumstances of the moment.
-
-"(c) Solving problems by the secondary consciousness. [The statement of
-the hypnotic self regarding the part played by the ‘secondary
-consciousness’ has already been given in Lecture VI, p. 167.]
-
-“The subject of these observations was at the time in good mental and
-physical condition. Criticism may be made that, the subject being one
-who had exhibited for a long time previously the phenomena of mental
-dissociation, she now, though for the time being recovered, tended to a
-greater dissociation and formation of subconscious states than does a
-normal person, and that the subconscious phenomena were therefore
-exaggerated. This is true. It is probable that the subconscious flora of
-ideas in this subject are richer than in the ordinary individual. These
-phenomena probably represent the extreme degree of dissociation
-compatible with normality. And yet, curiously enough, the evidence
-tended to show that the more robust the health of the individual, the
-more stable her mind, the richer the field of these ideas.”
-
-Of course it is a question how far the findings in a particular and
-apparently specially favorable subject are applicable to people in
-general. I would say, however, that I have substantially confirmed these
-observations in another subject, B. C. A., when in apparent health. In
-this latter subject the richness of the fringe and what may be called
-the ultra-marginal region in conscious states is very striking. The same
-is true of O. N. (cf. Lecture VI, p. 174). Again in psychasthenics,
-suffering from attacks of phobia, association, or habit psycho-neuroses,
-etc., I have been able to recover, after the attack has passed off,
-memories of conscious states which during and preliminary to the attack
-were outside the focus of attention. Of some of these the subject had
-been dimly aware, and of some apparently entirely unaware (i.e., they
-were coconscious). For the former as well as the latter there followed
-complete amnesia, so that the subject was ignorant of their previous
-presence, and believed that the whole content of consciousness was
-included in the anxiety or other state which occupied the focus of
-attention. Consequently I am in the habit, when investigating a
-pathological case, like an obsession, of inquiring (by technical
-methods) into the fringe of attention and even the ultra-marginal
-region, and reviving the ideas contained therein, particularly those for
-which there is amnesia. My purpose has been to discover the presence of
-ideas or thoughts which as a setting would explain the meaning of the
-idea which was the object of fear (a phobia), the exciting cause of
-psycho-neurotic attacks, etc. To this I shall presently return.
-
-If all that I have said is true, it follows that the _whole content or
-field of consciousness at any given moment includes not only
-considerably more than that which is within the field of attention but
-more than is within the field of awareness_. The field of conscious
-states as a whole comprises the focus of attention plus the marginal
-fringe; and besides this there may be a true subconscious ultra-marginal
-field comprising conscious states of which the personal consciousness is
-not even dimly aware. We may schematically represent the relations of
-the different fields by a diagram (Fig. 1).
-
-It will be noted that the field of conscious states includes A., B., and
-C. and is larger than that of awareness, which includes A. and B. The
-field of awareness is larger than that of attention (A.), but the focus
-of awareness coincides with the field of attention, or, as it is
-ordinarily termed, the focus of attention. Of course there is no sharp
-line of demarcation between any of these fields, but a gradual shading
-from A. to D. Any such diagrammatic representation, although of help to
-those who like to visualize concepts, must give a false viewpoint; as in
-reality the relations are dynamic or functional, and the different
-fields more properly should be viewed as different but inter-related
-participants in a large dynamic mechanism.
-
-[Illustration:
-Fig. 1. A. Attention and focus of awareness.
- B. Fringe of awareness.
- C. Subconscious, i.e., coconscious states (ultramarginal).
- D. Unconscious processes.
-]
-
-=The meaning of ideas may be found in the fringe of consciousness.=—Let
-us now return from this general survey of the fringe of consciousness to
-our theme—the setting which gives meaning to ideas.
-
-It is obvious that, theoretically, when I attend to the perceptive
-images of an idea, the meaning of that idea, not being in the focus of
-awareness, may be found among the conscious states that make up the
-fringe of the dynamic field. For instance, if my idea of a certain
-politician, my knowledge of whom, we will say, has been gained entirely
-from the newspapers, is that of a bad man—a “crook”—this meaning may be
-dimly in the fringe of my awareness. It is not necessary that any large
-part of this knowledge should be in the marginal zone of the content of
-consciousness but only a summary of all the knowledge I have acquired
-regarding him. The _origin_ of this meaning—a crook—I can easily find in
-my associative memories of what I have read. But there would seem to be
-no need of all these to persist as a functioning setting—a short summary
-in the form of an idea, secondary image, a word or symbol of a bad man
-would seem to be sufficient. The same principle is applicable to a large
-number of the simple images of objects in my environment—a book, an
-electric lamp, a horse, etc.
-
-It is not easy with such normal ideas of everyday life to analyze the
-fringe and determine precisely its contents. There is no sharp dividing
-line between the various zones—the whole being a dynamic system. _The
-moment attention is directed to the marginal zones they become the focus
-and vice versa._ To obtain accurate knowledge of the marginal zones we
-require individuals suitable for a special technique by which the
-constituents of these zones can be brought back as memory.
-
-For such purposes certain persons with pathological ideas (e. g.,
-phobias)[169] are very favorable subjects for various reasons not
-necessary to go into.
-
-Now, as respects the simple normal ideas of everyday life, such as I
-have just cited, a person can give very clearly his viewpoint. He has a
-very definite notion of the meaning of his perceptions and can give his
-reasons for them based on his associative memories of past experiences
-which he can recall. But in the conditions to which I am now referring
-_a person can give no explanation_ of a particular viewpoint which may
-be of a very definite but unusual (abnormal) character. Nor can he
-recall any experiences which would explain the origin of it. I have in
-mind particularly the obsessions.
-
-Now, according to my observations, we find in the marginal zones of the
-content of consciousness conscious elements which in particular cases
-may even give a hitherto unsuspected meaning to the pathological idea. I
-have found in these zones thoughts which gave meaning to emotions and
-other symptoms excited by apparently inadequate objects. Thus, in H. O.,
-attacks of recurrent nausea and fear almost prohibiting social
-intercourse were always due to thoughts of self-disgust hidden in the
-fringe.
-
-Let us take a concrete case, that of a person who has a pathological
-fear and who, as we know is often the case, can give no explanation of
-his viewpoint. The fear may be that of fainting, or of thunderstorms, of
-a particular disease, say cancer, or of so-called “unreality” attacks,
-or what not. This so-called “fear” is of course an idea of self or other
-object linked with, or which occasions as a reaction, the strong emotion
-of fear. It recurs in attacks which are excited by stimuli, of one kind
-or another, that are associated with the idea. The patient can give no
-explanation of the _meaning_ of this idea that renders intelligible why
-it should occasion his fear. There is nothing in his consciousness, so
-far as he knows, which gives an adequate meaning to it.
-
-Thus, for example, C. D. was the victim of attacks of fear; the attacks
-were so intense that at times she had been almost a prisoner in her
-house, in dread of attacks away from home; and yet she was unable even
-after two prolonged searching examinations to define the exact nature of
-the fear which was the salient feature of the attacks, or, from her
-ordinary memories, to give any explanation of its origin. She remembered
-many moments in the last twenty years when the fear had come upon her
-with great intensity, but she could not recall the date of its inception
-and, therefore, the conditions under which it originated; consequently
-nothing satisfactory could be elicited beyond an early history of
-“anxiety attacks” or indefinable fear of great intensity attached to no
-specific idea that she knew.
-
-As a result of searching investigation by technical methods it was
-brought out that the specific object of the fear was _fainting_. When an
-attack developed, besides intense physiological disturbances and
-confusion of thought, there was in the content of consciousness a
-feeling that her mind was flying off into space and a definite thought
-of losing consciousness or fainting, and that she was going to faint.
-There was amnesia for these thoughts following the attacks. She never
-had fainted in the attacks and, as it later transpired, had fainted only
-once in her life. Here then, _dimly in the content_ of consciousness,
-was the object of the fear in an attack. But the object was afterwards
-forgotten; hence she could not explain what she was afraid of. Why
-fainting should be such a terrible accident to be feared she also could
-not explain.
-
-The question now was, what possible meaning could fainting have for her
-that she so feared it? This she did not know.
-
-Now, on still further investigation, I found that there was always in
-the fringe of consciousness during an attack and also during the
-anticipatory fear of an attack, _an idea and fear of death_. This, to
-use her expression, “was in the background of her mind”; it referred to
-impending fainting. It appeared then that in the fringe or
-ultra-marginal zone was the _idea of death as the meaning of fainting_.
-_Of this she was never aware._ It was really subconscious. It was the
-meaning of her idea of herself fainting. In consequence of this meaning
-fainting was equivalent to her own death. She would not have been afraid
-of fainting if she had not believed or could have been made to believe
-that in her case it did not mean death. We might properly say that the
-real object of the fear was death.
-
-When this content of the fringe of attention was recovered, the patient
-voluntarily remarked that she had not been aware of the presence during
-the attacks of that idea, but now she remembered it clearly, and also
-realized plainly why she was afraid of fainting,—what she had not
-understood before. (It must be borne in mind that this meaning of
-fainting, as a state equivalent to death, did not pertain to fainting in
-general but solely to herself. She knew perfectly well that fainting in
-other people was not dangerous; it was only an unrecognized belief
-regarding a possible accident to herself.) Besides this content of the
-fringe of attention it was also easy to show that the fringe often
-included the thought (or idea) which had been the immediate excitant of
-each attack. Sometimes this stimulus-idea entered the focus of
-attention; sometimes it was only in the fringe. In either case there was
-apt to be amnesia for it, but it could always be recalled to memory in
-abstraction or hypnosis.
-
-The content of consciousness taken as a whole, i.e., to include both the
-focus and the fringe of attention, then would adequately determine the
-meaning of this subject’s idea of fainting as applied to herself.
-
-But why this meaning of fainting? It must have been derived from
-antecedent experiences. An idea can no more have a meaning without
-antecedent experiences with which it is or once was linked than can the
-word “parallelopipedon” have a geometrical meaning without a previous
-geometrical experience, or “Timbuctoo” a personal meaning without being
-set in a personal experience, whether of missionaries or hymn-books.
-
-I will not take the time to give the detailed results of the
-investigation by hypnotic procedures that followed. I will merely
-summarize by stating that the fear of death from fainting was a
-recurrent memory, i.e., _a recurrence of the content of consciousness_
-of a moment during an incident that occurred more than twenty years
-before, when she was a young girl about 18 years of age. At the time as
-the result of a nervous shock she had fainted, and just before losing
-consciousness she definitely thought her symptoms meant death. At this
-thought she became frightened, and ever since she has been afraid of
-fainting. There was no conscious association between her phobia and this
-youthful episode. When the memory of the latter was recovered she
-remarked, “I wonder why I never thought of that before.”
-
-But this again was not all. A searching investigation of the unconscious
-(residua) in deep hypnosis revealed the fact that death from fainting
-was organized with still wider experiences involving a fear of death. At
-the moment of the nervous shock just before fainting (_fancied as
-dying_) she thought of her mother who was dangerously ill from _cancer_
-in an adjoining room, and a great fear swept over her at the thought of
-what might happen to her mother if she should hear of the cause of her
-(the patient’s) nervous shock and of her _death_. It further transpired
-that the idea of death and fear of it were set in a still larger series
-of experiences.[170] It had, indeed, dated from a childhood experience
-when she was eight years of age. At that time she was frightened when a
-pet animal died and a fear of death had been more or less continuously
-present in her mind ever since, but not always consciously so; meaning
-that it was sometimes in awareness and sometimes in the _ultra-marginal
-zone_ of consciousness. She had been able to conceal the fear until the
-fainting episode occurred and, as she in hypnosis asserted, fear
-afterward had continued to be present more or less persistently,
-although _she was not conscious of the fact when awake_ (excepting in
-the phobic attacks) and it had attached itself to various ideas of
-intercurrent illnesses. But these ideas could all be reduced to two,
-_fainting and cancer_. Ever since her mother’s illness and death she had
-a fear of death from cancer, believing she might inherit the disease.
-This thought and the fear it aroused had been constantly in her mind but
-never previously confessed. It was the real meaning of her fear of
-illness which had been conspicuous and puzzling to her physician. She
-had imagined that each illness might mean cancer, but had successfully
-concealed this thought. The idea of death and the fear it excited had
-thus become constellated in a large _unconscious_ complex derived from
-past experiences which included the fainting episode, her mother’s death
-from cancer and the possibility of having cancer herself. This last was
-still _consciously believed_ and was very real to her.
-
-Without pursuing further the details it is evident that although the
-meaning of fainting—death—was in the fringe of consciousness and
-subconscious, it had as a setting a large group of fear-inspiring
-experiences, more particularly those involving cancer. But there was no
-conscious association between her fear of fainting and that of cancer.
-_Of this setting, during a phobic attack, only the ideas of fainting and
-fear-inspiring death enter the various zones of consciousness._
-
-As to why this apparently unsophisticated idea of death still
-_persisted_ in connection with that of fainting is another problem with
-which we are not concerned at this moment. We should have to consider
-more specifically the content of the setting in which, besides the
-cancer-belief, probably subconscious self-reproaches would be found.
-
-=Meaning may be the conscious elements of a functioning larger
-subconscious complex.=—However, whatever be its conscious constituents,
-obviously meaning must be derived from antecedent experiences and
-without such experiences no idea can have meaning. If, then, antecedent
-experiences determine the meaning of the idea, it is _theoretically_
-possible, particularly with insistent ideas, that the conscious elements
-involved in meaning are, with many ideas at least, only part and parcel
-of a larger complex which is for the most part unconscious. That is to
-say, a portion of this complex—perhaps the larger portion represented by
-the residua of past experiences—would, under this hypothesis, be
-unconscious while certain elements would arise in consciousness as the
-meaning of a given idea. Under such conditions a hidden subconscious
-process would really determine the conscious setting which gives the
-meaning. The whole setting would be partly conscious and partly hidden
-in the unconscious. Such a mechanism may be roughly likened to that of a
-clock, so far as concerns the relation of the chimes and hands to the
-works concealed inside the case. Though the visible hands and the
-audible chimes appear to indicate the time, the real process at work is
-that of the hidden mechanism. To inhibit the chime or regulate the time
-rate the mechanism must be altered. And so with an insistent idea: The
-unconscious part of the complex setting must be altered to alter the
-meaning of the idea. Of course the analogy must not be carried too far
-as in the case of the clock the chimes and hands are only epiphenomena,
-while conscious ideas are elements in the functioning mechanism.
-
-Such a theory would afford an adequate explanation of the psychogenesis
-and mechanism of certain pathological ideas such as the phobia of C. D.
-At any rate, it is plain that an explanation of such ideas must be
-sought, on the one hand, in their meanings and in the antecedent
-experiences to which they are related, and, on the other, in the
-processes which determine their insistency or fixation.
-
-The facts which support this theory, to which our studies have led us,
-we will take up for consideration in our next lecture.
-
------
-
-Footnote 165:
-
- It is very doubtful whether vivid awareness is a matter of intensity
- because, among other reasons, subconscious ideas of which the
- individual is entirely unaware and elements in the fringe may have
- decided intensity.
-
-Footnote 166:
-
- The development of amnesia seems to be inversely proportionate to the
- degree of awareness, provided there are no other dissociating factors,
- such as an emotional complex.
-
-Footnote 167:
-
- This is due to the well-known fact (demonstrated in a large variety of
- phenomena) that ideas dissociated from the personal consciousness
- awake may become synthesized as memories with this same consciousness
- in hypnosis.
-
-Footnote 168:
-
- See _Proceedings_, also _The Psychological Review_, March-May, 1905.
-
-Footnote 169:
-
- All pathological processes are only the normal under altered
- conditions.
-
-Footnote 170:
-
- Among them was the following: A few months later her mother died. C.
- D. was in the room with the body, her back turned toward the bed where
- the body lay. Suddenly she was startled by the window curtain blowing
- out of the window. The noise and the partial vision of the curtain
- gave her a start, for she thought the body had risen up in bed. At
- this point, while in hypnosis, C. D. remarked, “Ah! that explains the
- dream which I am always having. I am constantly having a frightful
- dream of my mother lying dead and rising up as a corpse from the bed.
- This dream always gives me a great terror.”
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE XII
- SETTINGS OF IDEAS AS SUBCONSCIOUS PROCESSES IN OBSESSIONS
-
-
-In our last lecture we were led to two conclusions: (1) that the
-conscious elements which are the meaning of an idea may be in the
-marginal zones; and (2) more important, that “meaning” may be only a
-part of a larger setting of antecedent experiences, which is an
-unconscious complex.
-
-Let us now consider the further question raised in the theory finally
-proposed; namely, whether the submerged elements of a complex remain
-quiescent or _whether, in some cases at least, this portion functions
-subconsciously_ and takes part as an active factor in the whole process
-by which the meaning of an idea and its accompanying emotional tone
-invades the content of consciousness. If the latter be true, a hidden
-subconscious process would, according to the theory (to repeat what was
-previously said), really determine the conscious setting which gives the
-meaning. Such a mechanism was roughly likened to that of a clock. If
-such were the mechanism in insistent ideas, obsessions, and impulsions,
-it would, as I have intimated, explain their insistency, their
-persisting recurrence, the difficulty in modifying them, notwithstanding
-the subject realizes their falsity, the point of view often inexplicable
-to the subject, and the persistence of the affect. There is a constant
-striving of affective subconscious processes, when stimulated, to carry
-themselves to fulfilment. Consequently as we know from numerous
-observations, the feelings and emotions (pleasantness and
-unpleasantness, exaltation and depression; fear, anger, etc.) pertaining
-to subconscious processes tend to emerge into consciousness;[171] and
-likewise ideational constituents of the process often emerge into the
-fringe of the content of consciousness and even the focus of awareness.
-Given such a subconsciously functioning setting to an idea, it would
-necessarily tend by the impulsive force of its emotion to make the
-latter insistent, and resist the inhibiting control of the personal
-consciousness.
-
-In the case of C. D., cited in the last lecture, we were led to the
-conclusion, as the result of analysis, that her insistent phobia might
-be due to the impulsive force of such subconscious complexes. The whole
-problem is a very difficult one, dealing as we are with complicated
-mechanisms and such elusive and fluid factors as conscious and
-subconscious processes. It is useless, therefore, to attempt to
-formulate the mechanisms with anything like scientific exactness.
-
-It must be borne in mind, further, that the method of analysis (employed
-with C. D.), meaning thereby the bringing to light associated memories
-of past experiences, cannot positively demonstrate that those
-experiences take part as the causal factor in a present process. It can
-demonstrate the sequence of mental events, and, therefore, each
-successive link in a chain of evidence leading to the final act; or it
-can demonstrate the material out of which we can select with a greater
-or less degree of probability the factor which, in accordance with a
-theory—in this case that of subconscious processes—seems most likely to
-be the causal factor. Thus in the analysis of a bacterial culture we can
-select the one which seems on various considerations to be the most
-likely cause of an etiologically undetermined disease, but for actual
-demonstration we must employ synthetic methods; that is, actually
-reproduce the disease by inoculation with a bacterium. So with
-psychological processes synthetic methods are required for positive
-demonstration.
-
-We have _available synthetic methods in hypnotic procedures_. These
-give, it seems to me, positive results of value. If a subject is
-hypnotized and in this state a complex is formed, it will be found that
-this complex will determine, after the subject is awakened, the point of
-view and therefore the meaning of the central idea when it comes into
-consciousness, and this though the subject has complete amnesia for the
-hypnotic experience. In this manner, if the idea is one which previously
-had a very definite and undesirable meaning which we wish to eradicate,
-we can organize a complex which shall include that idea and yet give it
-a very different meaning, provided it is one acceptable to the subject.
-
-To take simple examples, and to begin with a hypothetical case, but one
-which in practice I have frequently duplicated: A subject is hypnotized
-and although, in fact, the day is a beautifully fair one we point out
-that it is really disagreeable because the sunshine is glowing and hot;
-that such weather means dusty roads, drought, the drying up of the water
-supply, the withering of the foliage, that the country needs rain, etc.
-We further assert that this will be the subject’s point of view. In this
-way we form a cluster of ideas as a setting to the weather which gives
-it, fair as it is, an entirely different and unpleasant meaning and one
-which is accepted. The subject is now awakened and has complete amnesia
-for the hypnotic experience. When attention is directed to the weather
-it is found that his point of view, for the time being at least, is
-changed from what it was before being hypnotized. The perception of the
-clear sky and the sunlight playing upon the ground includes secondary
-images of heat, of dust, of withered foliage, etc., such as have been
-previously experienced on disagreeable, hot, dusty days, and some of the
-associated thoughts with their affects suggested in hypnosis arise in
-consciousness; perhaps only a few, but, if he continues to think about
-the weather, perhaps many. Manifestly the new setting formed in hypnosis
-has been switched into association with the conscious perceptions of the
-environment and has induced the secondary images and associated
-thoughts, emotions, and feelings which give meaning. But it is equally
-manifest, though many elements bubble up, so to speak, from the
-unconscious setting into consciousness, that most of this setting
-remains submerged in the unconscious.
-
-In similar fashion I made a subject regard, metaphorically speaking, as
-a cesspool for sewage a river which was being converted into a beautiful
-water park by a dam.[172] It is scarcely necessary to cite additional
-observations.
-
-Manifestly such phenomena belong to the well-known class of so-called
-“suggested post-hypnotic phenomena.” These we have already seen
-(solution of problems predetermined actions, &c., Lecture VI) require
-the postulate of a subconscious process. It is therefore difficult to
-resist the conclusion that, when the suggested phenomenon is the
-“meaning” of an idea, this also involves a subconscious process—that a
-hypnotically organized setting functioning subconsciously ejects the
-meaning into consciousness. In other words, the unconscious setting is a
-part of the whole “psychosis” or complex, a factor in the functioning
-mechanism; it is dynamic and not merely static, and is a functioning
-part of the “psychic whole” of the given ideas (sign, perception, and
-meaning). To use the analogy of the clock, the unconscious part of the
-complex corresponds in a way to the works and determines what shall
-appear in consciousness. In the case of the ideas of everyday life, and
-particularly of pathological insistent ideas, unconscious complexes can
-be shown, by methods of analysis and by interpretation, to be existent
-and to be settings. We therefore infer that they similarly take part in
-the functioning process of ideation. But, as I have said, as any idea
-has many different settings and associated complexes, it is difficult to
-determine by this method with positiveness which setting or other
-complex, if any, is _in activity_ and takes part in the process. Hence
-the different theories that have been offered to explain the precise
-psychogenesis of insistent ideas.
-
-=Therapeutic application.=—By similar procedures in a very large number
-of instances, for therapeutic purposes, I have changed the setting, the
-viewpoint, and the meaning of ideas without any realization on the
-patient’s part of the reason for this change. This is the goal of
-psychotherapy, and in my judgment the one fundamental principle common
-to all technical methods of such treatment, different as these methods
-appear to be when superficially considered.
-
-It is obvious that in everyday life when by arguments, persuasion,
-suggestion, punishment, exhortation, or prayer we change the viewpoint
-of a person, we do so by building up complexes which shall act as
-settings and give new meanings to his ideas. I may add, if we wish to
-sway him to carry this new viewpoint to fulfilment through action we
-introduce into the complex an emotion which by the driving force of its
-impulses shall carry the ideas to practical fruition. This is the art of
-the orator in swaying audiences to his views. Shakespeare has given us a
-classic example in Marc Antony’s speech to the Roman populace.
-
-The practical application to therapeutics of these principles of
-rearranging the setting of a perception by artificial complex building
-may be seen from the following actual case, which I have already cited
-in previous contributions.[173]
-
-I suggest to B. C. A. in hypnosis ideas of well-being, of recovery from
-her infirmity; I picture a future roseate with hope, stimulate her
-ambitions with suggestions of duties to be performed, deeds to be
-accomplished. With all this there goes an emotional tone of exaltation
-which takes the place of the depression and of the sense of failure
-previously present. This emotional tone gives increased energy to her
-organization, revitalizing, as it were, her psycho-physiological
-processes [and by conflict represses the previously dissociating affect
-and sentiment]. The whole I weave artfully and designedly into a
-complex. Whatever neurotic symptoms were previously present I do not
-allow to enter this complex. Indeed, the complex is such that they are
-incompatible with it. The headache, nausea, and other bodily
-discomforts, pure functional disturbances in this instance, are
-dissociated and cease to torment. After “waking” there is complete
-amnesia for the complex. Yet it is still organized, for it can be
-recovered again in hypnosis. It is simply dormant. But the emotional
-tone still persists after waking, and invades the personal synthesis,
-which takes on a correspondingly ecstatic tone. The aspect of her
-environment, her conception of her relation to the world and her past,
-present, and future mental life have become colored, so to speak, by the
-new feeling, as if under a new light. But, more than this, new syntheses
-have been formed with new tones. If we probe deep enough we find that
-many ideas of the dormant complex have, through association with the
-environment (_point de repère_), become interwoven with those of the
-previous personal consciousness and given all a new meaning. A moment
-ago [her view was that] she was an invalid, incapacitated, exiled from
-her social and family life, etc. What was there to look forward to? Now:
-What of that? She is infinitely better; what a tremendous gain; at such
-a rate of progress in a short time a new life will be open to her,
-etc.—a radically new point of view. Now, too, she feels buoyant with
-health and energy, ready to start afresh on her crusade for health and
-life. Her neurotic symptoms have vanished. Such is the change that she
-gratefully speaks of it as the work of a wizard. But the mechanism of
-the transformation is simple enough. The exaltation, artificially
-suggested in hypnosis, persists, altering the trend of her ideas and
-giving new energy. The perceptions of her environment, cognition of
-herself, etc., have entered into new syntheses which the introduction of
-new _ideas_, new points of view have developed; thus the content of her
-ideas has taken a definite, precise shape. Whence came these new ideas?
-They seem to her to have come miraculously, for she has forgotten the
-hypnotic complex. But forgetting an experience is not equivalent to its
-not having happened, or to that experience not having been a part of
-one’s own psychic life. The hypnotic consciousness remains a part of
-one’s self (as a neurographic complex), however absolutely we have lost
-awareness of it. Its experiences become fixed, though dormant, just as
-do the experiences of our personal conscious life. The mechanism is the
-same.
-
-The following letter from this patient, received by chance after these
-paragraphs were written, well expresses the psychological conditions
-following hypnotic suggestion:
-
- “Something has happened to me—I have a new point of view. I don’t know
- what has changed me so all at once, but it is as if scales had fallen
- from my eyes; I see things differently. That affair at L—— was nothing
- to be ashamed of, Dr. Prince. I showed none of the common sense which
- I really possess; I regret it bitterly; but I was not myself, and even
- as [it was] I did nothing to be ashamed of—quite the contrary,
- indeed.... Anyway, for some reason—I don’t know why, but perhaps you
- do—I have regained my own self-respect and find to my amazement that I
- need never have lost it. You know what I was a year ago—you know what
- I am now—not much to be proud of, perhaps; but I am the work of your
- hands, and a great improvement on [my poor old self]. I owe you what
- is worth far more than life itself ... namely, the _desire_ to live.
- You have given me life and you have given me something to fill it with
- ... I feel more like myself than for a long time. I am ‘my own man
- again,’ so to say, and if you keep me and help me a little longer I
- shall be well.”
-
-In interpreting the phenomena it must be remembered that in such
-suggestive experiments the subject after waking has complete amnesia for
-the whole hypnotic experience, for all the ideas which were organized
-into the complex to form the setting. And yet this viewpoint, in spite
-of this amnesia, is that which was suggested, and he does not know why
-his view has changed. That a large fraction of the hypnotic complex (or
-setting) remains submerged in the unconscious can be readily shown. The
-only question is whether it becomes an active subconscious process out
-of which certain elements emerge as meaning into consciousness.
-
-=The setting in obsessions.=—This question of the functioning of
-unconscious complexes as subconscious processes is of fundamental
-importance for psychology, whether normal or abnormal, and if well
-established gives an entirely new aspect to its problems. We cannot
-therefore be too exacting in demanding proof for the postulation of
-subconscious processes as part of the mechanisms we are considering, or,
-at least, requiring sufficient evidence to justify them as a _reasonable
-theory_. If assumed as an hypothesis many otherwise obscure phenomena
-become intelligible by one or other theory making use of them.
-
-Let us examine for a moment the obsessions as one of the most important
-problems with which abnormal psychology has to deal, and which offer
-themselves as exaggerated examples of ideas with insistent meanings. The
-phenomena are psychological and physical. They occur in a sporadic form,
-as well as in a recurring obsessional form. Let us consider them simply
-as phenomena irrespective of recurrence. They may be arranged by
-gradations in types in which they appear:
-
-A, as purely physical disturbances;
-
-B, as physical disturbances plus conscious emotion;
-
-C, as physical disturbances plus conscious emotion plus a specific idea
-of the object of the emotion, but _without_ logical meaning;
-
-D, as physical disturbances plus emotion plus idea plus meaning.
-
-In the first type the physical phenomena (such as commonly attend
-emotion) can be traced to a functioning subconscious emotional complex
-of which the phenomena are physical manifestations; in the second to a
-functioning subconscious complex ejecting its emotion into
-consciousness. In the third we find by analysis an associated
-unconscious complex (setting), which logically would account for the
-emotion of the obsessing idea, and infer, by analogy with A and B, that
-it is a dynamic factor in the psychosis. In the fourth we find a similar
-complex, which logically would account for all the physical and
-conscious phenomena.
-
-_Type A_: The following observation may be cited as an example. At the
-conclusion of some experiments, made on one subject in the presence of
-another patient and while conversing socially at afternoon tea, I
-noticed that the subject manifested marked tremor of the hands to such
-an extent that the cup in her hand shook and rattled in its saucer. She
-herself commented on the fact, and laughingly remarked that she did not
-know what was the matter with her; at times she would “get awfully hot
-all over and would break out in perspiration.” She could give no
-explanation of this phenomenon which had not been present before the
-experiments were begun. The subject was now put into deep hypnosis, in a
-state in which communication was obtained only by writing, and thereby
-the subconscious tapped. Without going into all the details, the sum and
-substance of the information obtained in this hypnotic state was this:
-coconscious images (pictures), of which she was not consciously aware,
-kept coming and going; these were the coconscious phenomena I have
-previously described (p. 169). When certain images appeared
-coconsciously the tremor developed, and when others appeared the tremor
-ceased; when still others appeared there were vasomotor disturbances and
-perspiration as well as tremor.
-
-The images as I interpret them were the secondary images belonging to
-subconscious ideas or processes.[174] To understand the conditions in
-this instance it will be necessary to explain certain antecedent facts.
-I had arranged to make certain hypnotic and other experiments on two
-patients in the presence of each other. The one in question, the subject
-of this observation, hesitated to have them made on herself in the
-presence of a second person, fearing lest the various subconscious
-phenomena which she exhibited would be regarded as stigmata and she be
-thought “queer.” Each, of course, wished to see the experiments on the
-other. The subject in question had for a long time been rather obsessed
-with the insistent foolish idea that if people knew she manifested these
-phenomena they would not care to know her socially. It was a point of
-view which had been more or less obstinately maintained in spite of all
-contradictory arguments. The idea had specifically recurred from time to
-time in particular situations, and had caused considerable emotional
-disturbance. If not a true obsession it was close to one. Nevertheless
-she wanted to take part both for the object of seeing the experiments
-and also of meeting the second patient. Still there were anxious doubts
-and scruples in her mind arising from her desire, on the one hand, and a
-fear, on the other, that it was a social mistake to do so. This had been
-going on during several days and had been even the subject of
-correspondence, discussions, etc. It was only at the last moment that
-she could screw up her courage to take part in the experiments.
-
-Finally the experiments were made, with the result as above stated. Now
-the coconscious images which were accompanied by the tremors, etc., were
-pictures of herself, of the second patient, and of myself. These images
-coming and going seemed, as in a pantomime, to symbolize her previous
-thoughts. Sometimes the image of the second patient turned away from the
-subject, sometimes the three images were present, but the one of the
-subject stood apart from the others as if an outcast, and in both these
-latter cases particularly she would shake with tremor, and would “get
-awfully hot all over,” and break out in perspiration. Then apparently
-reassuring pictures would come and the tremor would cease.
-
-Besides these coconscious images there was a train of coconscious
-thought of which she was not personally aware. There was the thought
-that perhaps, after all, it was a mistake to have taken part in the
-experiments, as X, the second patient, was not a physician, and her wish
-to see the subject hypnotized must have been largely curiosity. Of this
-train of thought the subject was not aware. _At the same time_
-concurrently there was in her personal consciousness the “thought that
-she liked X, that it was very good of her to have come, and awfully kind
-of you to take your time to conduct the experiments.” There was also a
-conscious emotion of pleasure and something akin to hope, and
-nervousness at the situation. By contrast coconsciously there was a
-greater feeling of nervousness and the _emotion of fear_ of which she
-was not consciously aware. By a few appropriate suggestions all these
-phenomena were made to disappear.
-
-It would take us too long and be too much of a digression to go more
-deeply into these subconscious phenomena. From what has been given,
-which is corroborated by a large number of observations of the same
-sort, it seems to me we are justified in concluding that the physical
-manifestations of emotion (tremor, etc.) in the instance were determined
-by subconscious processes which were the _functioning residua of
-antecedent thoughts with their emotions_.
-
-But more than this these antecedent thoughts were obsessing ideas of
-self-abasement, i.e., of herself as a person who socially was stamped
-with a stigma and, therefore, as a sort of outcast. These thoughts had
-formed one setting to the actual situation in which she found herself.
-The subconscious complex, therefore, contained a perception plus the
-meaning of the situation plus emotion; in other words, the whole of the
-psychosis including the affect was subconscious in that none of its
-elements emerged into consciousness. Another and rival perception of the
-situation was that which was actually in consciousness and which has
-been described. The physical phenomena were the manifestation of the
-subconscious affect and would have been equally manifested if the affect
-had become conscious. In such a case, then, we may say the whole of one
-setting actually functions subconsciously.
-
-The case of H. O. is the same in principle as I interpret it, but is
-distinguished by the fact that the dissociation of processes was not so
-extreme. The obsessing idea was in the ultramarginal zone of
-consciousness and, to this extent, subconscious. Briefly stated, H. O.
-for many years was the victim of an intense obsession, in consequence of
-which she had practically foregone social life, and found herself unable
-to travel for fear she would be afflicted with her psychosis in trains,
-etc. The physical symptom was intense nausea suddenly arising as an
-attack. When attacked with this there developed also depression and a
-mental state which is perhaps best described as a mood. She could give
-no explanation of the attacks. On examination it developed that always
-in the “background of her mind,” just preceding the attack, there came
-the idea of disgust of self. At once the nausea as the physical
-expression of disgust was experienced. The disgust-idea was always
-excited by some associated stimulus. The meaning of this “sentiment” was
-set in a large complex of past experiences. Into all this I will not go.
-The point is that the only conscious elements of her obsession were in
-the extreme fringe of consciousness, sufficiently dissociated to be
-practically coconscious,[175] but the _physical symptoms_ were
-distressingly prominent. _Relief was easily effected simply by
-organizing a new complex giving a new point of view of self._
-
-Complexes consisting entirely of the physiological manifestations of
-emotion without conscious emotion undoubtedly occur. A long time ago I
-described such a neurosis under the name of Fear Neurosis[176] in
-distinction from psychosis. The symptom complex was interpreted as a
-persisting automatism derived from antecedent fear states that had been
-outgrown. From our present standpoint and fuller knowledge we must
-believe that underlying this automatism is probably an unconscious
-complex of these antecedent experiences including the fear which takes
-part in the functioning mechanism. It may be called, then, a
-subconscious psychosis.
-
-True _hysterical laughter and crying_ are undoubtedly phenomena of this
-type and due to the same mechanism. These phenomena are well known to be
-purely automatic; that is to say, they are emotional manifestations
-unaccompanied in consciousness by thoughts or even by emotions
-corresponding to them. The subject laughs or cries without knowing why
-and without even feeling merry or sad. I forbear to digress sufficiently
-to present the evidence for the interpretation that the phenomena are
-due to subconscious processes of the kind just described. Let me merely
-say that in one instance, N. O., intensely studied, the automatic crying
-was traced by experimental and clinical methods to a persisting and
-often insistent subconscious childhood’s perception and meaning of
-self—as a lonely, unhappy child. This perception, etc., could be
-differentiated from the conscious perception belonging to adult age.
-
-Numerous observations of emotional phenomena similar in principle have
-been recorded in the case of Miss B.[177] These observations included
-automatic facial expressions of pleasure, anger, and fear. These
-expressions could always be traced to subconscious processes and in this
-case to actual ideas of a coconscious personality. But the principle is
-the same. _Sometimes the affect linked to the process welled up into
-consciousness and sometimes it did not._ When, in the case of Miss B.,
-the automatic phenomena were determined by coconscious ideas it was
-because the perceptions of the secondary subconscious personality had a
-humorous, angry, or fear setting, as the case might be. These particular
-observations are of especial interest because they allow us to clearly
-distinguish _at almost one and the same moment the different
-manifestations corresponding to the different settings with which the
-same idea may be clustered_. While, for instance, the personal
-consciousness of Miss B. perceived a person or situation with
-apprehension and manifested this apprehension in her facial expression
-as well as verbally, the subconscious perception of the same person or
-situation was one of joy which broke through Miss B.’s apprehensive
-feature in automatic smiles. In other words, two different perceptions
-(with opposite meanings) of one and the same object functioned at the
-same time.
-
-These observations, as interpreted, are of wider significance in that
-they allow us to understand the mechanism of many phenomena of everyday
-life. For instance, the _hysteria of crowds_ may be explained on the
-same principle; likewise the outbreak of emotional physical
-manifestations in a person whose attention is absorbed (abstraction and
-distraction) in reading or hearing something (e. g., at a play), which,
-it may be inferred, touches some inner emotional experience of his life.
-In the kind of instance I have in mind introspection fails to reveal the
-presence of conscious thoughts or sometimes even emotions which
-adequately explain the physical disturbance. When not abstracted by the
-reading or play, the same ideas he was attending to a moment before fail
-to excite these disturbances.
-
-As has been said, “everyone is a little hysterical,” meaning that under
-certain conditions—particularly those of stress and strain and strong
-emotion—the mind becomes a bit disintegrated, and unconscious complexes
-manifest themselves through what are called hysterical symptoms.
-
-_Type B_: In this class the subject is afflicted with attacks of
-_conscious emotion_, most conspicuously and commonly fear, _plus the
-same physical disturbances as in type A_, but without any specific idea
-in consciousness to which the emotion is related. When we examine
-certain favorable subjects like Miss B., B. C. A., H. O. and O. N., in
-whom memories of subconscious processes can be obtained by technical
-procedures, specific coconscious ideas can be demonstrated during the
-attacks of fear. These ideas are those of fear of some specific object.
-The emotion pertaining to these ideas _alone_ emerges into
-consciousness, the subject remaining unaware of the ideas themselves. In
-the case of Miss B. numerous observations of this kind were
-recorded.[178] When the obsessing fear constantly recurs it is a
-so-called “_anxiety neurosis_,”[179] as I interpret the phenomena.
-
-A typically perfect example of anxiety neurosis was the recurring
-attacks of intense anxiety accompanied by a feeling of suffocation and
-oppression of the chest experienced by one of my subjects. Investigation
-disclosed that the first attack immediately followed a dream which was
-forgotten, but recovered in hypnosis. It appeared that in the dream she
-was accused by a certain person of certain delinquencies and threatened
-with exposure. At this point in the dream she was overcome with fear and
-anguish as in the after attacks. It also appeared that previously she
-had been and still was apprehensive of this person’s loyalty. By
-inference and analogy with the well-established after-phenomena of
-dreams (p. 101), we must assume that the dream process still functioned
-subconsciously and produced the anxiety attacks.[180]
-
-In this connection it is well to notice that it is a common observation
-that not only the affect of emotion but that of _feeling_ also may
-emerge from the subconscious into consciousness and color the attitude
-of the personal consciousness. This may be demonstrated by hypnotic
-procedures. When in hypnosis complexes of ideas with strong feeling
-tones, whether of pleasure or displeasure, of exaltation or depression,
-are suggested, the subject after awakening experiences these same
-feeling tones which dominate the personality. The subject then feels
-pleasantly exalted or unpleasantly depressed, as the case may be,
-without knowing the reason why. In alternating personalities the same
-phenomena may sometimes be observed. In the case of Miss B. the feeling
-tones which dominated the one personality invaded the consciousness of
-the other personality, often causing considerable distress after the
-alternation had occurred and although there was amnesia for all that had
-gone before.[181] Thus BIV complained of the feelings of depression from
-which BI shortly before had suffered, although her own ideas were far
-from being of a depressing nature. This depression welled up from the
-unconscious. It was in consequence of this phenomenon that BIV wrote:
-“BI’s constant grieving wears on my nerves. It is harder to endure than
-one would believe possible. I would rather give and take with Sally—a
-thousand times rather.” Likewise when a subject has feelings of
-unpleasantness and depression which he cannot explain it is easy in
-certain subjects to demonstrate the concurrence of coconscious ideas
-with these feeling tones. The affect in such cases emerges into
-consciousness, though the subject is unaware of the coconscious ideas.
-Correspondingly the feelings may be those of pleasantness and
-exaltation. The demonstration of coconscious processes as the sources of
-the conscious feelings of course can only be made in subjects in whom
-memories of coconscious processes can be evoked. In such subjects I have
-observed the phenomena on almost numberless occasions. But it can be
-provoked in almost any good hypnotic subject. To awake pleasurable and
-exalting feelings, to substitute them for their opposite when such are
-present, belongs to therapeutic art. The skillful therapeutist endeavors
-to provoke the former by the various procedures at his command. The
-important principle underlying such procedures is that the feeling tones
-pertaining to ideas may still invade the personal consciousness after
-the ideas have become dormant in the unconscious.
-
-This principle, it seems to me, is of far-reaching application. The
-persistence of the feeling tone in a pleasant or unpleasant mental
-attitude after the experience giving rise to it has become dormant is
-_observed in everyday life_ and can be explained on this principle. We
-have an exalting experience, engage in a spirited game of tennis, watch
-an exciting football match, or take part in an exhilarating dance. For
-the remainder of the day or the next day we still experience all the
-stimulating pleasurable feeling, even though in the cares of our
-vocation the memories of the previous experiences have remained dormant,
-not having once been called to mind. The only difference between such
-experiences of everyday life and those of hypnosis is that in one case
-we can, if we will, recall the origin of the feeling and in the other we
-cannot. In both we do not.[182]
-
-Dormant _dream_ complexes may give rise to similar phenomena. In a minor
-way everyone, probably, has experienced the persistence of the emotional
-effects of a dream after waking and after the memory of the dream has
-vanished. More commonly, of course, the dream is remembered, but in the
-cases of people who do not remember their dreams the phenomenon is
-precise. B. C. A., for example, does not as a rule remember her dreams,
-but nevertheless frequently awakes in a state of anxiety or exaltation
-which has considerable persistency. In hypnosis the dream which gives
-rise to the emotional state is recovered.
-
-In pathological conditions these post-hypnotic, hysterical, dream, and
-other phenomena suggest, among other questions, whether in depressive
-and excited psychoses the affective element is not derived from
-submerged unconscious complexes. _Melancholias_, for example, may in
-some cases at least derive their feeling tone from such complexes.
-
------
-
-Footnote 171:
-
- Janet: The Mental States of Hystericals, pp. 289-290. Prince: The
- Dissociation, pp. 132-5, 262, 297–8, 324-5, 497.
-
-Footnote 172:
-
- The Unconscious, _Journal Abnormal Psychology_, April-May, 1909.
-
-Footnote 173:
-
- Morton Prince: (Psychotherapeutics; A Symposium. Richard G. Badger,
- Boston, 1910.) Also The Unconscious, _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_,
- April-May, and June-July, 1909.
-
-Footnote 174:
-
- See p. 178, Lecture VI.
-
-Footnote 175:
-
- Memory of them could only be obtained in abstraction and hypnosis.
-
-Footnote 176:
-
- Fear Neurosis, _Boston Med. and Surg. Journal_, September 28, 1898.
-
-Footnote 177:
-
- The Dissociation, see index, “Subconscious Ideas,” and “Subconscious
- Self.”
-
-Footnote 178:
-
- The Dissociation, loc. cit.
-
-Footnote 179:
-
- Ibid., p. 132.
-
-Footnote 180:
-
- It is worth noting that this interpretation is supported by the
- therapeutic result. The attacks completely and quickly ceased after
- the setting to her apprehensive idea was so altered, by one single
- explanation, that she no longer feared the loyalty of her friend.
-
-Footnote 181:
-
- The Dissociation, pp. 262, 297, 298 and 324, 325, 497; also The
- Unconscious, _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, April-May, 1909.
-
-Footnote 182:
-
- Prince: The Unconscious, _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, April-May
- and June-July, 1909.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE XIII
- TWO TYPES OF PHOBIA
- (_Obsessions Continued_)
-
-
-_Type C_: In this type _the affect is linked with an idea as its object
-in consciousness but without meaning_, so that whenever this idea is
-awakened it is accompanied by the affect alone. Some of the phobias are
-the most common pathological exemplars. Nor is there anything in the
-content of consciousness which gives meaning to the idea as something
-that should occasion anxiety. The subject, in other words, does not know
-why he is afraid of the given object. In such cases the restoration of
-dormant memories will disclose antecedent experiences in which the idea
-is set and which explains the origin and meaning of the fear. Here again
-we have the principle shown in a clear cut way in conditions of
-alternating personality. For instance take the case of Miss B. An
-emotion, apparently paradoxical, would be aroused in BIV in connection
-with a strange person or place, or in consequence of a reference by some
-one to an unknown event. BIV, without apparent reason, would feel an
-intense emotion in connection with something or other which she did not
-remember to have ever heard or seen before. A face, a name, a particular
-locality where she happened to find herself would arouse a strong
-emotional effect without her knowing the reason. The memories of the
-experiences to which these emotions belonged were a part of BI’s life
-and could easily be recalled by her when the personalities again
-alternated and BI came into existence. When BIV came again these
-experiences, of course, would be forgotten and become dormant, but the
-emotions associated with the visual, auditory, and other images of a
-given person or place, or whatever it might be, would be liable to be
-aroused in her by the perception, in spite of the amnesia, whenever the
-given person or place, as it might be, came into her daily life. Here
-the conscious content of the psychosis consists of perception plus
-affect without meaning.
-
-I formerly was inclined to interpret such paradoxical emotions on the
-principle of the simple linking of an affect to a perception. But when
-we consider that, on the reversion of the personality to BI the
-perception, meaning, and affect still remained organized as a conscious
-psychic whole, it is much more probable that the meaning took part as a
-subconscious process in the mechanism of BIV’s emotional psychosis and
-was responsible for the paradox. In the case of recurrent fears the
-antecedent experiences which contain their meaning are conserved as
-unconscious complexes. The psychosis differs clinically from types A and
-B only in that another conscious element has been added,—viz.: the idea
-of an object of the fear. It is consistent therefore to infer that the
-unconscious complexes are a submerged part of the mechanism by which the
-affect is maintained in association with the object. The conscious and
-the subconscious form a psychic whole.
-
-As an instance let us take the following case of phobia. It was
-ostensibly one of church-steeples and towers of any kind. The patient, a
-woman about forty years of age, dreaded and tried in consequence to
-avoid the sight of one. When she passed by such a tower she was very
-strongly affected emotionally, experiencing always a feeling of terror
-or anguish accompanied by the usual marked physical symptoms. Sometimes
-even speaking of a tower would at once awaken this emotional complex
-which expressed itself outwardly in her face, as I myself observed on
-several occasions. Considering the frequency with which church and
-schoolhouse towers are met with in everyday life, one can easily imagine
-the discomfort arising from such a phobia. Before the mystery was
-unraveled she was unable to give any explanation of the origin or
-meaning of this phobia, and could not connect it with any episode in her
-life, or even state how far back in her life it had existed. Vaguely she
-thought it existed when she was about fifteen years of age and that it
-might have existed before that. Now it should be noted that an idea of a
-tower with bells had in her mind no meaning whatsoever that explained
-the fear. It had no more meaning than it would have in anybody’s mind.
-In the content of consciousness there was only the perception plus
-emotion and no corresponding meaning. Accordingly I sought to discover
-the origin and meaning of the phobia by the so-called psycho-analytic
-method.
-
-When I attempted to recover the associated memories by this method, the
-mere mention of bells in a tower threw her into a panic in which
-anxiety, “thrills,” and perspiration were prominent. Before making the
-analysis I had constructed a theory in my mind to the effect that a
-phobia for bells in a tower was a sexual symbolism, being led to this
-partly by the suggestiveness of the object and partly by the fact that I
-had found symbolisms of a sexual kind in her dreams.[183]
-
-Analysis was conducted at great length and memories covering a wide
-field of experiences were elicited. When asked to think of bells in a
-tower, or each of these objects separately, there was at first a
-complete blocking of thought in that her mind became a blank. Later,
-memories which to a large extent, but not wholly, played in various
-relations around her mother (who is dead) as the central object came
-into the field of consciousness. Nothing, however, was awakened that
-gave the slightest meaning to the phobia even on the wildest
-interpretation. The patient, who had been frequently hypnotized by
-another physician, tended during the analysis to go into a condition of
-unusually deep abstraction, to such a degree that on breaking off the
-analysis she failed to remember, save very imperfectly, the memories
-elicited. Such an abstraction is hypnosis.
-
-Finally, after all endeavors to discover the genesis of the phobia by
-analysis were in vain, I tried another method. While she was in hypnosis
-I put a pencil in her hand with the object of obtaining the desired
-information through automatic writing. _While she was narrating some
-irrelevant memories of her mother_, the hand rapidly wrote as follows:
-“G.... M.... church and my father took my mother to Bi.... where she
-died and we went to Br.... and they cut my mother. I prayed and cried
-all the time that she would live and the church bells were always
-ringing and I hated them.”
-
-When she began to write the latter part of this script she became
-depressed, sad, indeed anguished; tears flowed down her cheeks and she
-seemed to be almost heartbroken. In other words, it appeared as if she
-were subconsciously living over again the period described in the
-script. I say subconsciously for she did not know what her hand had
-written or why she was anguished. During the writing of the first part
-of the script she was verbally describing other memories; during the
-latter part she ceased speaking.
-
-After awakening from hypnosis and when she had become composed in her
-mind she narrated, at my request, the events referred to in the script.
-She remembered them clearly as they happened when she was about fifteen
-years of age. It appeared that she was staying at that time in G....
-M...., a town in England. Her mother, who was seriously ill, was taken
-to a great surgeon to be operated upon. She herself suffered great
-anxiety and anguish lest her mother should not recover. She went twice a
-day to the church to pray for her mother’s recovery and in her anguish
-declared that if her mother did not recover she would no longer believe
-in God. The chimes in the tower of the church, which was close to her
-hotel, sounded every quarter hour; they got on her nerves; she hated
-them; she could not bear to hear them, and while she was praying they
-added to her anguish. Ever since this time the ringing of bells has
-continued to cause a feeling of anguish. This narrative was not
-accompanied by emotion as was the automatic script.
-
-It now transpired that it was the _ringing_ of the church bells, or the
-_anticipated ringing_ of bells, that caused the fear, and not the
-perception of a tower itself. When she saw a tower she feared lest bells
-should ring. This was the object of the phobia.[184] She could not
-explain why she had never before connected her phobia with the episode
-she described. This failure of association as we know is not uncommon,
-and in this case was apparently related to a determination to put out of
-mind an unbearable episode associated with so much anguish. There had
-been for years a more or less constant mental conflict with her phobia.
-The subject had striven not to think of or look at belfries, churches,
-schoolhouses, or any towers, or to hear the ringing of their bells, or
-to talk about them. She had endeavored to protect herself by keeping
-such ideas out of her mind. Before further analyzing the case there are
-two points which are well worth calling attention to:
-
-1. When the subject subconsciously described the original childhood
-experience by automatic script there was intense emotion—fear—which
-emerged into consciousness without her knowing the reason thereof. When,
-on the other hand, she later from her conscious memories described the
-same experience there was no such emotion. In other words it was only
-when the conserved residua of the experience functioned consciously and
-autonomously as a dissociated, independent process that emotion was
-manifested. So long as the memories were described from the view-point
-of the matured adult personal consciousness there was no emotion. As a
-subconscious process they were unmodified by this later viewpoint. This
-suggests at least that when the phobia was excited by the sight or idea
-of a tower it was due likewise to a subconscious process and that this
-was one and the same as that which induced the experimental phobia.
-
-2. The phraseology of the script is noticeable. The account is just such
-as a child might have written. It reads as if the conserved thoughts of
-a child had awakened and functioned subconsciously.
-
-From this history, so far as given, it is plain that the psychosis in
-one sense is a recurring antecedent experience or memory, but it is only
-a partial memory. The whole of the experience does not recur but only
-the emotion in association with the ringing of bells. The rest of that
-experience, viz., the idea of the possible death of her mother with its
-attendant grief and anguish associated with the visits to the church,
-the praying for recovery and finally the realization of the fatal
-ending—all that which originally excited the fear and _gave the
-ringing-of-bells-in-a-tower meaning_ was conserved as a setting in the
-unconscious. That the rest of the experience was conserved was shown by
-the fact that it could be recalled not only by automatic writing but,
-although not in association with the phobia, to conscious memory. From
-this point of view the fear of bells ringing may be regarded as a
-recurrence of the original fear—that of her mother’s death—now derived
-from a subconsciously functioning setting. The child was afraid to face
-her grief and so now the matured adult was also afraid.
-
-From another point of view the ringing of bells may be regarded as
-standing for, or a symbol of, her mother’s death with which it was so
-intimately associated, and this symbol awakened the same fear as did
-originally the idea itself of the death. An object may still be the
-symbol of another, although the association between the two cannot be
-recalled. (The transference of the emotional factor of an experience to
-some element in it is a common occurrence; e. g., a fear of knives in a
-person who has had the fear of committing suicide.)
-
-The discovered antecedent experiences of childhood then give a hitherto
-unsuspected meaning to the ringing of bells. It is a meaning—the _mise
-en scène_ of a tragedy of grief and a symbol of that tragedy. But was
-that tragedy with its grief the _real_ meaning of the child’s fear or,
-perhaps more correctly, the _whole_ of the meaning? And is it still the
-meaning in the mind of the adult woman? Does the mere conservation of a
-painful memory of grief explain its persistent recurrent subconscious
-functioning during twenty-five years, well into adult life, so that the
-child’s emotion shall be reawakened whenever one element (bell-tower) of
-the original experience is presented to consciousness? And, still more,
-can the persistence of a mere association of the affect with the object
-independently of a subconscious process explain the psychosis? Either of
-these two last propositions is absurd on its face as being opposed to
-the experience of the great mass of mankind. The vast majority of people
-have undergone disturbing, sorrowful or fear-inspiring experiences at
-some time during the course of their lives and they do not find that
-they cannot for years afterwards face some object or idea belonging to
-that experience without being overwhelmed with the same emotion. Such
-emotion in the course of time subsides and dies out. A few, relatively
-speaking, do so suffer and then, because contrary to general experience,
-it is called a psychosis.
-
-We must, then, seek some other and adequate factor in the case under
-examination. When describing the episode in the church, the subject
-stated that on one occasion she omitted to go to church to pray and the
-thought came to her that if her mother died it would be due to this
-omission, and _it would be her fault_. The “eye of God”[185] she thought
-was literally upon her in her every daily act and when her mother did
-die she thought that it was God’s punishment of herself because of that
-one failure. Consequently she thought _that she was to blame for her
-mother’s death_; that _her mother’s death was her fault_. She feared to
-face her mother’s death, not because of grief—that was a mere
-subterfuge, a self-deception—but because she thought she was to blame;
-and she feared to face towers with bells, or rather the ringing of
-bells, because they symbolized or stood for that death (just as a
-tomb-stone would stand for it), and in facing that fact she had to face
-her own fancied guilt and self-reproach and this she dared not do. _This
-was the real fear_, the fear of facing her own guilt. The emotion then
-was not only a recurrence of the affect associated with the church
-episode but a _reaction to self-reproach_. The ringing of bells,
-somewhat metaphorically speaking, reproached her as Banquo’s ghost
-reproached Macbeth.
-
-All this was the child’s point of view.
-
-But I found that the patient, an adult woman, _still believed and
-obstinately maintained_ that her mother’s death was her fault. She had
-never ceased to believe it. Why was this? Why had not the
-unsophisticated belief of a child become modified by the maturity of
-years? It did not seem to be probable that the given child’s reason was
-the real adult reason for self-reproach. I did not believe it. A woman
-forty years of age could not reproach herself on such grounds. And, even
-if this belief had been originally the real reason, as a matter of fact
-she had outgrown the child’s religious belief. She was a thorough-going
-agnostic. Further probing brought out the following:
-
-Two years before her mother’s death, the patient, then thirteen years
-old, owing to her own carelessness and disobedience to her mother’s
-instructions, had contracted a “cold” which had been diagnosed as
-incipient phthisis. By the physician’s advice her mother took her to
-Europe for a “cure” and was detained there (as she believed) for two
-years, all on account of the child’s health. At the end of this period a
-serious, chronic disease from which the mother had long suffered was
-found to have so developed as to require an emergency operation. The
-patient _still believed_ and argued that if her mother had not been
-compelled to take her abroad she (the mother) would have been under
-medical supervision at home, would have been operated upon long before
-and in all probability would not have died. Furthermore, as the patient
-had heedlessly and disobediently exposed herself to severe cold and
-thereby contracted the disease compelling the sojourn in Europe, she was
-to blame for the train of circumstances ending fatally.
-
-All this was perfectly logical and true, assuming the facts as
-presented. Here then was the real reason for the patient’s persistent
-belief that her mother’s death was her fault and the persistent
-self-reproach. _It also transpired that all this had weighed upon the
-child’s mind and that the child had likewise believed it._ So the child
-had two reasons for self-reproach. One was neglecting to pray and the
-other was being the indirect cause of the fatal operation. Both were
-intensely believed in. The first based on the “eye of God” theory she
-had outgrown, but the other had persisted.
-
-Summing up our study to this point: All these memories involving grief,
-suffering, self-reproach, bells and mother formed an unconscious setting
-which gave meaning to bells in towers and took part in the functioning
-to form a psychic whole. The conscious psychosis was first the emergence
-into consciousness of two elements only, the perception and the affect,
-and the fear was a reaction to self-reproach, a fear to face self-blame.
-
-Now even if the mother’s death were logically, by a train of fortuitous
-circumstances, the patient’s fault, why did an otherwise intelligent
-woman lay so much stress upon an irresponsible child’s behavior? The
-child after all behaved no differently from other children. People do
-not consciously blame themselves in after life for the ultimate
-consequences of childhood’s heedlessness. According to common experience
-such self-reproaches do not last into adult life without some
-continuously acting factor.
-
-A search in this case into the unconscious brought to light a persisting
-idea that when events in her life happened unfortunately it was due to
-her fault. It had cropped out again and again in connection with
-inconsequential as well as consequential matters. She had, for instance,
-been really unable on many occasions to leave home on pleasure trips for
-fear lest some accident might happen within the home and consequently it
-would be due to her fault; and if away she was in constant dread of
-something happening for which she would be to blame. It was not a fear
-of what might happen—an accident to the children, for example—but that
-it would be her fault. I have heard her, when some matter of apparently
-little concern had gone wrong, suddenly exclaim, “Was it my fault?” her
-voice and features manifesting a degree of emotion almost amounting to
-terror. When her brother died (still earlier, before her mother’s death)
-she had blamed herself for that death, as later with her mother, on the
-same religious grounds. This self-reproach for happenings, fancied as
-due to her fault, has frequently appeared in her dreams. It would take
-us too far afield to trace the origin and psychogenesis of this idea.
-Suffice to say, it can be followed back to early childhood when she was
-five or six years of age. She was a lonely, unhappy child. She thought
-herself ugly and unattractive and disliked and that so it always would
-be through life, and it was all her fault because she was ugly, as she
-thought.[186] The instinct of self-abasement (McDougall[187]) or
-negative self-feeling (Ribot) dominated the personality as the most
-insistent instinct and from its intensity within the self-regarding
-sentiment (McDougall) formed a sentiment of self-depreciation. She
-wanted to be liked and believed it to be her own fault that, as she
-fancied, she was not and never would be, and reproached herself
-accordingly. This sentiment of self depreciation with its impulse to
-render self-reproach has persisted, as with many people, all her life
-and has been fostered by unwise and thoughtless domestic criticism. The
-persistence to the present day of this impulse to self-reproach is shown
-in the following observation:
-
-Quite recently this subject began to suffer from general fatigue,
-insomnia, distressing dreams, hysterical crying, indefinable anxiety and
-pseudo twilight states or extreme states of abstraction. In these states
-she became oblivious of her environment, did not hear the conversation
-going on about her, nor answer when directly spoken to. This became so
-noticeable that she became the jest of her companions. In these states
-her mind was always occupied with reveries (not fantasies), though
-mostly pleasant, regarding a very near relative who had died about six
-months previously. Her distressing dreams also concerned this relative.
-It appeared, therefore, probable, on the face of the symptoms that they
-were in some way related to this relative’s death.
-
-Now it transpired, as I already knew, that the relative had died under
-somewhat tragic circumstances and that our subject’s experience during
-the last illness was unusually distressing and sorrowful. _This
-experience, she asserted, she could not bear to speak or even think
-about and over and over again had refused to do so and put it out of her
-mind. She further asserted that her reason for this attitude was the
-distressing nature of the scenes in which she took part._
-
-Now I did not believe that this was the true reason, although given in
-good faith. It was improbable on its face. To say that a grown woman,
-forty years of age, could not do what every woman can do, tolerate
-sorrowful memories simply because they were sorrowful, and must perforce
-put them out of her mind, is sheer nonsense. There must be some other
-reason.
-
-On examining a dream it was found to be peculiar in one respect: It was
-not an imaginative or fantastic composition, but a detailed and precise
-living over again of the scenes at the death bed: that is to say, it was
-a sort of somnambulistic state. In recalling this dream[188] she could
-not for some time recover the ending. Finally it “broke through,” as she
-expressed it. The dream was as follows: First came many details of the
-vigil of the last night of the illness; then she went to her room and to
-bed to snatch a few moments’ sleep; she was waked up by the husband of
-the dying relative appearing in her room. He sat on the edge of her bed
-and said to her, “All is over.” Up to this point the facts of the dream
-were actual representations in great detail of the actual facts as they
-had occurred, but at this moment the dream presented a fact which had
-not occurred in the real scene; she suddenly, in the dream, sat up in
-bed and exclaimed, “My God! then I ought to have sent for the doctor!”
-
-Here was the key to the intolerance for memories of the illness of the
-relative and the death-bed scene. What had happened was this: The
-question had arisen early in the illness whether or not a doctor should
-be sent for from London in consultation. The expense, owing to the
-distance, would have been considerable. The whole responsibility and
-decision rested upon the subject. Against the opinion of other relatives
-she had decided that it was inadvisable. After the fatal ending the
-question had arisen again whether or not she ought to have sent for the
-consultant and she had been tormented by the doubt as to whether she did
-right; _was the fatal result her fault_? Although she had reasoned with
-herself that her decision was good judgment and right still there had
-always lurked a doubt in her mind. She was also somewhat disturbed by
-the thought of what the husband’s opinion might be.
-
-The real reason why she could not tolerate the memories of the last
-illness of this relative, and the psychogenesis of the symptoms now were
-plain: they were not grief but self-reproach with its instinct of
-self-abasement. The memories brought to her mind that the fault was
-her’s and with the thought came self-reproach. _This self-reproach she
-was afraid of and unwilling to face._ This fact she recognized and
-frankly confessed after the disclosures of the analysis.
-
-Now follows the therapeutic sequel. The relative’s illness at the
-beginning was in no way of a dangerous nature and the proposed
-consultation had nothing to do with the question of danger to life. The
-death was due to purely an accidental factor and could not have been
-foreseen. When I assured her in hypnosis, with full explanation, that
-her decision had been medically sound, as it was, the change in her
-mental attitude was delightful to look upon. “Wasn’t it my fault! Wasn’t
-it my fault!” she exclaimed in excitement. Anxiety, dread, and
-depression gave way to exhilaration and joyousness. Thereupon she woke
-up completely relieved in mind, and retained the same feeling of joy,
-but without knowing the reason thereof. The explanation was repeated to
-her in the waking state and she then fully realized (as she did also in
-hypnosis) that her previous view was a pure subterfuge and fully
-appreciated the truth of the discovered reason for her inability to face
-her painful memories. The twilight states, the insomnia, and the
-distressing dreams, the anxiety, and other symptoms ceased at once.
-
-Returning to the phobia for bells, in the light of all these facts, the
-patient’s belief that her mother’s death was her fault and the
-consequent self-reproach were obviously only a particular concrete
-example of a lifelong emotional tendency originating in the experiences
-of childhood to blame herself; and this tendency was the striving to
-express itself of the instinct of self-abasement (with the emotion of
-self-subjection) which, incorporated within “the self-regarding
-sentiment” (McDougall), was so intensely cultivated and had played so
-large a part in her life. Indeed this instinct had almost dominated her
-self-regarding sentiment and had given rise time and again to
-self-reproach for accidental happenings. It now specifically determined
-her attitude of mind toward the series of events which led up to the
-fatal climax and determined her judgment of self-condemnation and
-self-reproach. These last most probably received increased emotional
-force from the large number of roots in painful associations of
-antecedent experiences (particularly of childhood) in which the
-self-regarding sentiment, self-debasement, and self-reproaches were
-incorporated.[189] _Nevertheless the fear was of a particular concrete
-self-reproach._ The general tendency was of practical consequence only
-so far as it explained the particular point of view and might induce
-other self-reproaches.
-
-As a general summary of this study it would appear that we can postulate
-a larger setting to the phobia than the grief inspiring experiences
-attending her mother’s death. The unconscious complex included the
-belief that she was to blame and the sentiment of self-reproach, and the
-whole gave a fuller meaning to the ringing of bells in a tower. The fear
-besides being a recurring association was also a reaction to the
-subconsciously excited setting of a fancied truth or self-accusation.
-Although excited by towers and steeples the fear was really of
-self-reproach. Towers, steeples, and bells not only in a sense
-symbolized her mother’s death, but her own fancied fault. It was in this
-sense and for this reason that she dared not face such objects. The
-conscious and the unconscious formed a psychic whole.[190]
-
-Now in reaching these conclusions see how far we have traveled: Starting
-with an ostensible phobia for towers, we find it is more correctly one
-of ringing-of-bells, but without conscious association; then we reach a
-childhood’s tragedy; then a self-reproach on religious grounds; then a
-belief in a fault of childhood’s behavior culminating in a lifelong
-self-reproach—the causal factor and psychologically the true object of
-the phobia: and between this last self-reproach and the phobia no
-conscious association.
-
-The _therapeutic_ procedure and results are instructive. As the fear was
-induced by a belief in a fancied fault exciting a self-reproach,
-obviously if this belief should be destroyed the self-reproach must
-cease and the fear must disappear. Now when all the facts were brought
-to light, the patient, as is usual, recognized the truth of them. She
-also recognized fully and completely the real nature of the fear, of the
-self-blame and of the self-reproach. There remained no lingering doubt
-in her mind, nevertheless the bringing to “the full light of day” of all
-this did not cure the phobia. As the first procedure in the therapeusis
-it was pointed out that it was contrary to common sense to blame herself
-for the heedlessness of a child; that all children were disobedient;
-that she would have been a little prig if she had been the sort of a
-child that never disobeyed, and that she would not have blamed any other
-child who had behaved in a similar way under similar circumstances, and
-so on. She simply said that she recognized all this intellectually as
-true and yet, although it was the point of view which she would take
-with another person in the same situation, it did not in any way alter
-her attitude toward herself. In other words the bringing to the full
-light of day of the facts did not cure the phobia. It was necessary to
-change the setting of her belief. _To do this either the alleged facts
-had to be shown to be not true or else new facts had to be introduced
-which would give them a new meaning._ This, briefly told, was done in
-the following way:
-
-She was put into light hypnosis in order that exact and detailed
-memories of her childhood might be brought out. Then, through her own
-memories, it was demonstrated, that is to say, the _patient herself
-demonstrated_, that there was considerable doubt about her having had
-phthisis at all; that she was not taken to the usual places of “cures”
-for phthisis but sojourned in the gay and pleasant cities and watering
-places of Europe; that her mother really staid in Europe because she
-enjoyed it and made an excuse of her daughter’s health not to come home;
-that she might have returned at any time but did not want to do so; and
-that the fault lay, if anywhere, with her physician at home. When this
-was brought out the patient remarked, “Why, of course, I see it now! My
-mother did not stay in Europe on account of my health but because she
-enjoyed it, and might have returned if she had wanted to. I never
-thought of that before! It was not my fault at all!” After coming out of
-hypnosis the facts as elicited were laid before the patient; she again
-said that she saw it all clearly, as she had done in hypnosis, and her
-whole point of view was changed.
-
-The therapeutics, then, consisted in showing that the alleged facts upon
-which the patient’s logical conclusions had been based were false. The
-setting thereby was altered, and a new and true meaning given to the
-real facts. The result was towers and steeples no longer excited fears,
-the phobia ceased at once—an immediate cure.[191]
-
-_Type D._ In this type _the conscious psychosis consists of idea,
-meaning, affect, and physical disturbance_. F. E. suffered from attacks
-of so-called “unreality” accompanied with intense fear. She was unable
-to give an intelligent explanation as to why she was afraid of the
-attacks—harmless in themselves—until it was brought out that there was
-in the _background of her mind_ the thought that the attacks spelled
-insanity (or that she was likely to go insane) and also death. Following
-the attacks there was amnesia for these thoughts. Her fear really, then,
-was of insanity and death. The content of consciousness in the attacks
-contained the perception of herself as an insane person, thoughts which
-expressed the meaning of her attacks, and fear. (The usual physical
-disturbances of course accompanied the fear.) No amount of explanation
-of the harmlessness of the unreality syndrome sufficed to change her
-point of view, i.e., its meaning to her. But going further it was
-discovered that her self-regarding sentiment and her ideas of insanity
-and death were organized with a large number of fear-inspiring
-antecedent experiences which explained why she regarded the attacks as
-dangerous to her mentality and life; and why the biological instinct of
-fear was incorporated with the self-regarding sentiment. These
-experiences had long passed out of mind and there was no conscious
-association between them and her phobia, but they could be recalled as
-associative memories.[192] The unreality attacks had for her two
-meanings which were within the content of consciousness, viz., 1,
-insanity, and 2, death. The first was derived from (a) antecedent
-girlhood and later experiences which had engendered the unsophisticated
-belief that having the mind fixed on one subject, as was obtrusively and
-painfully the case at one time, meant insanity: and (b), from the fact
-that the bewildering, irreconcilable, absurd thoughts, conflicts, and
-emotions in which the unreality attacks culminated meant insanity.
-
-The second meaning (death) was derived from (a) the previous fixed idea
-(just referred to), organized with that of insanity—namely, an
-unsophisticated medieval idea of hell which was conceived of as the
-equivalent of death and which had excited an intense horror of both; and
-(b) from the fact that in the unreality attacks there was a _struggling_
-for air; struggling was in her mind, the equivalent of convulsions;[193]
-convulsions of unconsciousness; and unconsciousness of death. All these
-various ideas and the intense fears which each gave rise to had become
-organized into a complex, and, in consequence of these antecedent
-experiences in which self took a prominent part, the instinct of fear—as
-I conceive the matter—became incorporated within the self-regarding
-sentiment. (Anything that aroused this sentiment tended to arouse the
-emotion of fear, as in another person it would tend to arouse the
-emotion of pride, or self-abasement.) At any rate this organized complex
-was the setting which gave the meaning to her phobia. There can be, I
-think, no manner of doubt about this. The patient herself explained her
-viewpoint through these ideas here briefly summarized. The only question
-is as to the mechanism of the phobia. Now as Type D, of which these
-cases are examples, differs clinically from the preceding three types
-only in the addition of one more element—meaning—to the conscious
-psychic whole, a consistent interpretation would seem to compel us to
-postulate also a functioning subconscious complex or setting and in this
-case of the antecedent experiences disclosed as a factor in the
-mechanism and a part of the psychic whole. Out of this complex emerged
-into consciousness the idea of insanity and death and fear as the
-meaning of the unreality syndrome, the whole constituting the phobia
-psychosis.
-
-That there was in fact a subconsciously functioning process derived from
-this complex would seem to be almost conclusively shown by another
-phenomenon manifested. I refer to the vivid _visualization of herself in
-a convulsion, struggling for air and manifesting fright_, which she
-experienced in each attack. We have seen that such a visualization
-(i.e., a modified vision) is the expression (secondary images?) of a
-subconscious process (co-conscious ideas?). As a matter of fact this
-particular visualization was a pictorial representation of antecedent
-thoughts organized with thoughts of death and insanity and still
-conserved in the unconscious. We must believe, then, that it was these
-antecedent thoughts (in the first place her apprehension of inheriting
-Bright’s disease and convulsions from her father, and in the second
-place her conception of the unreality syndrome as a state which might
-possibly end in convulsions) which, functioning subconsciously, induced
-the quasi hallucinatory expression of themselves.[194] It is difficult
-to get away from the conclusion that the remainder of the setting from
-which the ideas of insanity and death were derived also functioned as a
-subconscious process. Whether this process was conscious or unconscious
-is a secondary question which we need not consider.
-
-In weighing the probabilities of this interpretation we should bear in
-mind that there were two conscious beliefs of which the patient was
-fully aware and which were very real to her; namely, the liability of
-becoming insane and to convulsions and death. The conative force of the
-instinct of fear linked to such ideas is quite sufficient to drive them
-to expression when out of mind and subconscious. Or expressed
-differently we may say that the fear was a reaction to these ideas which
-the patient dared not face.
-
-We ought not, however, to be too sweeping in our generalizations and go
-further than the facts warrant. We are not justified in concluding that
-the linking of an affect to an idea always includes a subconscious
-mechanism. On the contrary, as I have previously said, probably in the
-great majority of such experiences, aside from obsessions, no such
-mechanism is required to explain the facts.
-
-_The Inability to Voluntarily Modify Obsessions._—We are now in a
-position on this theory to look a little more deeply into the structure
-and mechanism of an obsession and thereby realize why it is that the
-unfortunate victims are so helpless to modify or control them. Indeed
-this behavior of the setting could be cited as another piece of
-circumstantial evidence for the theory that the setting is largely
-unconscious and that only a few elements of it enter the field of
-consciousness. If we simply explain to a person who has a true
-obsession, i.e., an insistent idea with a strong feeling tone, the
-falsity of the point of view, the explanation in many cases at least has
-no or little effect in changing the viewpoint, though the patient admits
-the correctness of the explanation. The patient cannot modify his idea
-even if he will. But if the original complex, which is hidden in the
-unconscious and which gives rise to the meaning of the idea, is
-discovered, and so altered that it takes on a new meaning and different
-feeling tones, the patient’s conscious idea becomes modified and ceases
-to be insistent. This would imply that the insistent idea is only an
-element in a larger unconscious complex which is the setting and
-unconsciously determines the viewpoint. The reason why the patient
-cannot voluntarily alter his viewpoint becomes intelligible by this
-theory, because that which determines it is unconscious and unknown. He
-may not even know what his point of view is, owing to the meaning being
-in the fringe of consciousness.
-
-If this theory of the mechanism is soundly established the difficulty of
-correcting obsessions becomes obvious and intelligible. It is also
-obvious that there are theoretically two ways in which an obsession
-might be corrected.
-
-1. A new setting with strong affects may be artificially created so that
-the perception acquires another equally strong meaning and interest.
-
-2. The second way theoretically would be to bring into consciousness the
-setting and the past experiences of which the setting is a _sifted_
-residuum, and reform it by introducing new elements, including new
-emotions and feelings. In this way the old setting and point of view
-would become transformed and a new point of view substituted which would
-give a new meaning to the perception.
-
-Now in practice both these theoretical methods of destroying an
-obsession are found to work, although both are not always equally
-efficacious in the same case. In less intense obsessions where the
-complex composing the setting is only partially and inconsequently
-submerged, and to a slight degree differentiated from the mass of
-conscious experiences, the first and simpler method practically is amply
-sufficient. We might say that the greater the degree to which the
-setting is conscious and the less the degree to which it has acquired,
-as an unconscious process, independent autonomous activity the more
-readily it may be transformed by this method.
-
-On the other hand in the more intense obsessions, where a greater part
-of the setting is unconscious, has wide ramifications and has become
-differentiated as an independent autonomous process, the more difficult
-it is to suppress it and prevent its springing into activity whenever
-excited by some stimulus (such as an associated idea). In such instances
-the second method is more efficacious. It is obvious that, so long as
-the setting to a central idea remains organized and conserved in the
-unconscious, the corresponding perception and meaning are always liable
-under favoring conditions (such as fatigue, ill health, etc.) to be
-switched into consciousness and replace the new formed perception. This
-means of course a recurrence. Nevertheless medical experience from the
-beginning of time has shown that this is not necessarily or always the
-case. The technique, therefore, of the treatment of obsessions will vary
-from “simple explanations” (Taylor) without preliminary analysis to the
-more complicated and varying procedures of analysis and re-education in
-its many forms.
-
-_Affects._—Here a word of caution in the interpretation of emotional
-reactions is necessary. In the building of complexes, as we have seen,
-an affect becomes linked to an idea through an emotional experience. The
-recurrence of that idea always involves the recurrence of the affect. It
-is not a logical necessity that the original experience which occasioned
-the affect should always be postulated as a continuing subconscious
-process to account for the affect in association with the idea. It is
-quite possible, if not extremely probable, that in the simpler types, at
-least, of the emotional complexes, the association between the idea and
-affect becomes so firmly established that the conscious idea alone,
-without the coöperation of a subconscious process, is sufficient to
-awake the emotion; just as in Pawlow’s dogs the artificially formed
-association between a tactile stimulus and the salivary glands is
-sufficient to excite the glands to activity, or as in human beings the
-idea of a ship by pure association may determine fear and nausea, the
-sound of running water by the force of association may excite the
-bladder reflex, or an ocular stimulus the so-called hay fever complex.
-So in word-association reactions, when a word is accompanied by an
-affect-reaction the word itself may be sufficient to excite the reaction
-without assuming that an “unconscious complex has been struck.” The
-total mechanism of the process we are investigating must be determined
-in each case for itself.
-
-In the study and formulation of psychological phenomena there is one
-common tendency and danger, and that is of making the phenomena too
-schematic and sharply defined, as if we were dealing with material
-objects. Mental processes are not only plastic but shifting, varying,
-unstable, and undergo modifications of structure almost from moment to
-moment. We describe a complex schematically as if it had a fixed,
-immutable, and well-defined structure. This is far from being the case.
-Although there may be a fairly fixed nucleus, the cluster, as a whole,
-is ill defined and undergoes considerable modification from moment to
-moment. New elements enter the cluster and replace or are added to those
-which previously took part in the composition. An analogy might be made
-with a large cluster of electric lights arranged about a central
-predominant light, but so arranged that individual lights could be
-switched in and cut out of the cluster at any moment and different
-colored lights substituted. The composition and structure of the
-cluster, and the intensity and color of the light, could be varied from
-moment to moment, yet the cluster as a cluster maintained. We might
-carry the analogy farther and imagine the cluster to be an advertising
-sign which had a meaning—the advertisement. This meaning might or might
-not be altered by the changes in the individual lamps.
-
-The same indefiniteness pertains to the demarcation between the
-conscious and the subconscious. What was conscious at one moment may be
-subconscious the next and _vice versa_. Under _normal_ conditions there
-is a continual shifting between the conscious and subconscious. I have
-made numerous investigations to determine this point, and the evidence
-is fairly precise, and to me convincing, that this shifting continually
-occurs,[195] as might well be inferred on theoretical grounds. Nor,
-excepting in special pathological and artificial dissociated conditions,
-is the distinction between the conscious and subconscious at any moment
-always sharp and precise; it is often rather a matter of vividness and
-shading, and whether a conscious state is in the focus of attention or
-in the fringe. Experimental observation confirms introspection in this
-respect.
-
-In view of the foregoing we can now appreciate a fallacy which has been
-too commonly accepted in the interpretation of therapeutic facts. It is
-quite generally held that it is a necessity that the underlying
-unconscious complexes cannot be modified without bringing them to the
-“full light of day” by analysis. The facts of everyday observation do
-not justify this conclusion. The awakening of dormant memories of past
-experiences is mainly of importance for the purpose of giving us exact
-information of _what_ we need to modify, not necessarily for the purpose
-of effecting the modification. Owing to the fluidity of complexes,
-whether unconscious or conscious, our conscious ideas can become
-incorporated in unconscious complexes. This means that any new setting
-in which we may incorporate our conscious ideas to give them a new
-meaning becomes effective in the associations which these ideas have as
-a dormant complex. The latter is able to assimilate from the conscious
-any new material offered to it. Practical therapeutics and everyday
-experience abundantly have shown this. I have accomplished this, and I
-believe every therapeutist has done the same time and again. We should
-be cautious not to overlook common experience in the enthusiasm for new
-theories and dramatic observations. The difficulty is in knowing what we
-want to modify, and for this purpose analytical investigations of one
-sort or another are of the highest assistance, because they furnish us
-with the required information. If we recover the memories of the
-unconscious complex our task is easier, as we can apply our art with the
-greater skill.
-
-When we speak of a setting to an idea we are not entitled to think of it
-as a sharply defined group of ideas, or sharply limited subconscious
-process. When we identify it with the residua of past experiences we are
-not entitled, on the basis of exact knowledge, to arbitrarily make up a
-selected cluster of residua which shall exclude those and include these
-residual elements of antecedent associated experiences, and dogmatically
-postulate the composition of the complex which we call the setting.
-Analysis by the very limitations of the method fails to permit of such
-arbitrary selection, and synthetic methods are not sufficiently exact
-for the purpose. All we can say is that from the residua of various past
-experiences a complex is sifted out to become the setting. And even then
-no process is entirely autonomous and entirely removed from the
-interfering, directing, and coöperative influence of other processes.
-Even with simple and purely physiological processes, such as the knee
-jerk, this is true. Although the knee jerk may be schematically
-conceived as a simple reflex arc involving the peripheral nerves and the
-spinal cord, nevertheless other parts of the nervous system—the brain
-and the spinal cord—provide coöperative processes which take part, and
-under special conditions take a very active part, in modifying the
-phenomenon. While we are justified, for the clarifying purposes of
-exposition, in schematizing the phenomenon by selecting the spinal
-reflex as the predominant process, yet we do not overlook the
-coöperative processes which may control and modify the spinal reflex. If
-this is true of purely physiological processes, it is still more true of
-the enormously more complex processes of human intelligence.
-
-We may say, then, not only that with our present knowledge and our
-present methods we are not able to precisely differentiate the settings
-of ideas, but that it is highly improbable that settings as complexes of
-residua are with any preciseness functionally entirely autonomous and
-removed from the influence of other associative processes.
-
-We need further investigations into the psychology and processes of
-settings, and until we have wider and more exact knowledge it is well
-not to theorize and still more not to dogmatize. It is an inviting field
-which awaits the psychologist.
-
------
-
-Footnote 183:
-
- In making the analysis, therefore, I was in no way antagonistic in my
- mind to the Freudian hypothesis.
-
-Footnote 184:
-
- I want to emphasize this point, because certain students, assuming the
- well-known alleged sexual symbolism as the meaning of steeples and
- towers, will read and have read such an interpretation into this
- phobia. As a matter of fact, although these objects had been
- originally alleged by the subject herself to be the object of the fear
- it was done thoughtlessly as the result of careless introspection.
- Later she clearly distinguished the true object. They were no more the
- object than the churches and schoolhouses themselves. They bore an
- incidental association only, and only indicated where the ringing of
- bells might be expected to be heard, having been an element in the
- original episode. Nor were bells, qua bells, the object of the phobia,
- but the ringing-of-bells of the kind that recalled the mother’s death.
- In other words, the fear was of bells with a particular meaning. Nor
- was the fear absolutely limited to tower-bells, for it transpired that
- the subject had refrained from having, as she desired, an alarm bell
- arranged in her house in the country (in case of fire, etc.), because
- of her phobia. (This note is perhaps made necessary by the violent
- shaking of the heads of my Freudian friends that I noticed at this
- point during the presentation of this case before the American
- Psychopathological Association.) See _Jour. Abn. Psychol._, Oct.-Nov.,
- 1913.
-
-Footnote 185:
-
- This idea had its origin in a child’s fairy tale, and had been
- fostered by the governess as a useful expedient in enforcing good
- behavior. The child accepting the fairy legend believed the Eye of God
- was always on her and every one in the world, and observed all that
- each did or omitted to do. The legend excited her imagination, and she
- used to think about it and wonder how God could keep His eye on so
- many people as there were in the world. At a still earlier age, when
- she was about eight, she had thought her little brother’s death was
- also her fault, because she had neglected one night, at the time of
- his illness, God’s eye being upon her, to say her prayers. For a long
- time afterward she suffered similarly from self-reproach. It is
- interesting to compare the outgrowing with maturity of this
- self-reproach with the persistence of the later one, evidently owing
- to the reasons given in the text.
-
-Footnote 186:
-
- Another example of this idea and of the way it induced a psychosis is
- the following: She had an intense dislike to hearing the sound of
- running water. This sound induced an intense feeling of _unhappiness
- and loneliness_. This feeling was so intense that whenever she heard
- the sound of running water she endeavored to get away from it. The
- sound of a fountain or rainwater running from a roof, for example,
- would cause such unpleasant feelings that she would change her
- sleeping room to avoid them. Likewise drawing water to fill the
- bathtub was so unpleasant that she would insist upon the door being
- closed to exclude the sound. She could give no explanation of this
- psychosis. It was discovered in the following way: She had been
- desirous of finding out the cause, and we had discussed the subject. I
- had promised that I would unravel the matter in due time, after the
- other phobia had been cured. I then hypnotized her and, while she was
- in hypnosis and just after we had completed the other problem, she
- remarked that a memory of the running water association was on the
- verge of emerging into her mind. She could not get it for some time,
- and then, after some effort, it suddenly emerged. She described it as
- follows: “It was at Bar Harbor. She was about eight years of age.
- There was a brook there called Duck Brook. The older girls used to go
- up there on Sundays for a walk with the boys. I went with them one
- Sunday, accompanied by the governess, and was standing by the brook
- with a boy. It was a very noisy brook, the water running down from the
- hillside. While I was standing by the brook, watching the running
- water, the boy left me to join the other girls, who had gone off. I
- thought that was the way it would always be in life; that I was ugly,
- and that they would never stay with me. I felt lonely and unhappy.
- During that summer I would not join parties of the same kind, fearing
- or feeling that the same thing would happen. I stayed at home by
- myself, and when I refused to go it was attributed to sullenness. They
- did not know my real reasons. Ever since I have been unable to bear
- the sound of running water, which produces the feeling of unhappiness
- and loneliness, the same feeling that I had at that time. I thought
- then that it was all my fault, because I was ugly.” It was then
- tentatively pointed out at some length to the subject that as she now
- knew all the facts which had been brought to the “full light of day,”
- etc., she, of course, would no longer have her former unpleasant
- emotions from the sound of running water. Hereupon, to put the
- question to the test, I reached out my hand and poured some water from
- a caraffe, by chance standing by, into a tumbler, letting the water
- fall from a height to make a sound. At once she manifested discomfort,
- and sought to restrain me with her hand. Plainly the setting had to be
- changed. This was easily done by leading her to see that her
- childhood’s ideas had been proven by life’s experiences to be false.
- When this became apparent she laughed at herself, and the psychosis
- ceased at once.
-
-Footnote 187:
-
- Social Psychology.
-
-Footnote 188:
-
- This was done in hypnosis, the dream being forgotten when awake.
-
-Footnote 189:
-
- For instance, when I came to the therapeutics I found in abstraction
- that the patient did not want to give up her point of view “because,”
- as she said, “it forms an excuse so that when I feel lonely, if there
- is nothing else to be lonely about, I have that memory and point of
- view to fall back upon as something to justify my crying and feeling
- lonely and blue.”
-
- When she now feels blue and cries, as happens occasionally, and she
- asks herself Why? then she drifts back in her mind to childhood and
- remembers she was lonely and then cries the harder. Then she vaguely
- thinks of her mother’s death being her fault. She likes therefore to
- hold on to this as a peg on which to hang any present feeling of
- blueness and loneliness.
-
-Footnote 190:
-
- Some, I have no doubt, will insist upon seeing in towers with bells a
- sexual symbol, and in the self-reproach a reaction to a repressed
- infantile or other sexual wish. But I cannot accede to this view
- first, because a tower was not only not the real object of the phobia,
- but not even the alleged object, which was the ringing of bells;
- secondly, because it is an unnecessary postulate unsupported by
- evidence, and, thirdly, because in fact, the associative memories of
- early life were conspicuously free from sex knowledge, wishes,
- curiosity, episodes and imaginings, nor was there any evidence of the
- so-called “mother complex” or “father-complex,” or any other sexual
- complex that I could find after a most exhaustive probing. The
- impulses of instincts other than sexual are sufficient to induce
- psychical trauma, insistent ideas, and emotion. To hold otherwise is
- to substitute dogma for the evidence of experience.
-
-Footnote 191:
-
- It is worth noting that between the bringing to the “full light of
- day” the facts furnished by the analysis and the cure a full year and
- a half elapsed, during which the phobia continued. The “cure” was
- effected at one sitting. The original study was undertaken on purely
- psychological grounds; the cure for the purpose of completing the
- study.
-
-Footnote 192:
-
- This account will be clearer if read in connection with the full
- analysis (“A Clinical Study of a Case of Phobia”), published in the
- _Jour, of Abn. Psychol._, October-November, 1912.
-
-Footnote 193:
-
- She was apprehensive of having inherited Bright’s disease from her
- father, who had convulsions.
-
-Footnote 194:
-
- It is quite possible that this subconscious process induced the
- unreality syndrome in which struggling for air was the salient
- symptom.
-
-Footnote 195:
-
- I am excluding conditions like split personalities, automatic writing,
- etc., and refer rather to normal mental processes.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE XIV
- THE PHYSIOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF EMOTION
-
-
-Emotion,[196] more particularly fear, plays so large a part in the
-psychogenesis and symptomatology of the psychoses that it is desirable
-to have a clear realization of its physiological and psychological
-manifestations and of the disturbances of the organism which it can
-induce. It is not necessary for our purpose to discuss the various
-theories of the nature of emotion that have been propounded; we need
-deal only with the _manifestations_ of emotion and its effect upon the
-organism.[197] We will consider the physiological manifestations first.
-
-When a strong emotion is awakened in consciousness there are a large
-number of physiological reactions, for the most part visceral, which can
-be noted. Some of these may be graphically recorded and measured by
-means of instruments of precision. These physiological reactions are
-numerous and have been extensively described by Féré[198] among others.
-The earlier work of Mosso upon the disturbances of the respiration and
-vasomotor apparatus induced by sensory stimulation is well known.
-
-More recently considerable experimental work has been done, particularly
-by German investigators, to determine the influence of affective states
-upon the circulation and respiration.
-
-Modifications of the _peripheral circulation_, manifested through pallor
-or turgescence of the skin and measured by changes recorded by the
-plethismograph in the volume of the limbs; modifications of the volume
-of the _heart_ and of the rhythm and force of the beats recorded by the
-sphygmograph, and of arterial tension measured by the sphygmomonometer
-are common phenomena. (Fear is more particularly accompanied by pallor,
-and shame by turgescence—blushing. Anger in some is manifested by pallor
-and in others by turgescence, and so on.) Changes in rate of the
-heart-beats belong to popular knowledge. It is not so well known, even
-to physiologists that the volume of the heart may be affected by
-emotion. In several series of observations made under conditions of
-emotional excitement upon a large number of healthy men, candidates for
-civil service appointments, I recorded in a high percentage not only
-alterations in the rate and rhythm and force of the heart-beat, but
-temporary dilatation of the heart lasting during the period of
-excitement.[199] This dilatation in some cases was sufficient to lead to
-insufficiency of the mitral valve and to give rise to murmurs. The
-examination was purposely conducted so as to induce a high degree of
-emotional excitement, at least in many men. In another series of
-observations (not published) the arterial tension was measured, and it
-was found, as would be expected, that an increase of tension accompanied
-the cardiac excitation under emotion.[200]
-
-[Illustration:
-
- Fig. 2. J., acute katatonic stupor. b is a wave selected from the
- series in which 6 is sudden call by name. The galvanometer curve (a)
- is slight, but the change in the pneumograph curve is notable.
- (Peterson and Jung.[201])
-]
-
-As to the _respiratory apparatus_ the effect of emotion in altering the
-rate and depth of respiration may be shown by the pneumograph; by this
-method the effects of slight emotion that otherwise would escape
-observation may be detected. Such a disturbance of respiration is shown
-in the tracing, Fig. 2.
-
-That emotion will profoundly affect the respiration has of course been
-common knowledge from time immemorial, and has been made use of by
-writers of fiction and actors for dramatic effect. The same may be said
-of modifications of the functioning of the whole respiratory apparatus,
-including the nostrils and the mouth; and likewise of the decrease or
-increase of secretions (dryness of the mouth from fear, and “foaming”
-from anger). These are among the well known physiological effects of
-emotions.
-
-Increase of _sweat_ sometimes amounting to an outpour, and alterations
-in the amount of the various _glandular secretions_ (_salivary_,
-_gastric_, etc.), and _rigor_ are important phenomena.
-
-The remarkable researches of Pawlow[202] and his co-workers in Russia on
-the _work of the digestive glands_, and those of Cannon[203] in America
-on the _movements of the stomach and intestines_ have revealed that
-these functions are influenced in an astonishing degree by psychical
-factors.
-
-Although it has long been known that the sight of food under certain
-conditions would call forth a secretion of gastric juice in a hungry dog
-(Bidder and Smith, 1852), and common observation has told us that
-emotion strongly affects the gastrointestinal functions, increasing or
-diminishing the secretions of saliva and gastric juice, and even
-producing dyspeptic disturbances and diarrhœa, it has remained for
-Pawlow and his co-workers to demonstrate the important part which the
-“appetite,” as a psychical state, plays in the process of digestion. In
-hungry dogs a large quantity of gastric juice, rich in ferment, is
-poured out when food is swallowed, and even at the sight of food, and it
-was proved that this outpouring was due to psychical influences. Simply
-teasing and tempting the animal with food cause secretions, and food
-associations in the environment may have the same effect. “If the dog
-has not eaten for a long time every movement, the going out of the room,
-the appearance of the attendant who ordinarily feeds the animal—in a
-word, every triviality—may give rise to excitation of the gastric
-glands.” (Pawlow, p. 73.) This first secreted juice is called “appetite
-juice,” and is an important factor in the complicated process of
-digestion. “The appetite is the first and mightiest exciter of the
-secretory nerves of the stomach.” (Pawlow, p. 75.) Pawlow’s results have
-been confirmed in man by Hornborg, Umber, Bickel, and Cade and Latarjet.
-The mere chewing of appetizing food, for instance, is followed by a
-copious discharge of gastric juice, while chewing of rubber and
-distasteful substances has a negative result. Depressing emotions
-inhibit the secretion of juice (Bickel). More than this, Cannon,[204] in
-his very remarkable experiments on the movements of the stomach and
-intestines, found that in animals (cat, rabbit, dog, etc.), gastric
-peristalsis is stopped whenever the animal manifests signs of rage,
-distress, or even anxiety. “Any signs of emotional disturbance, even the
-restlessness and continual mewing which may be taken to indicate
-uneasiness and discomfort, were accompanied in the cat by total
-cessation of the segmentation movements of the small intestines, and of
-antiperistalsis in the proximal colon.” Bickel and Sasaki have confirmed
-in dogs these emotional effects obtained by Pawlow and Cannon.
-
-The effect of the emotions on the digestive processes is so important
-from the standpoint of clinical medicine that I quote the following
-summary of published observations from Cannon: "Hornborg found that when
-the boy whom he studied chewed agreeable food a more or less active
-secretion of the gastric juice was started, whereas the chewing of
-indifferent material was without influence.
-
-"Not only is it true that normal secretion is favored by pleasurable
-sensations during mastication, but also that unpleasant feelings, such
-as vexation and some of the major emotions, are accompanied by a failure
-of secretion. Thus Hornborg was unable to confirm in his patient the
-observation of Pawlow that mere sight of food to a hungry subject causes
-the flow of gastric juice. Hornborg explains the difference between his
-and Pawlow’s results by the difference in the reaction of the subjects
-to the situation. When food was shown, but withheld, Pawlow’s hungry
-dogs were all eagerness to secure it, and the juice at once began to
-flow. Hornborg’s little boy, on the contrary, became vexed when he could
-not eat at once, and began to cry; then no secretion appeared. Bogen
-also reports that his patient, a child, aged three and a half years,
-sometimes fell into such a passion in consequence of vain hoping for
-food, that the giving of the food, after calming the child, was not
-followed by any secretion of the gastric juice.
-
-"The observations of Bickel and Sasaki confirm and define more precisely
-the inhibitory effects of violent emotion on _gastric secretion_. They
-studied these effects on a dog with an œsophageal fistula, and with a
-side pouch of the stomach which, according to Pawlow’s method, opened
-only to the exterior. If the animal was permitted to eat while the
-œsophageal fistula was open the food passed out through the fistula and
-did not go to the stomach. Bickel and Sasaki confirmed the observation
-of Pawlow that this sham feeding is attended by a copious flow of
-gastric juice, a true ‘psychic secretion,’ resulting from the
-pleasurable taste of the food. In a typical instance the sham feeding
-lasted five minutes, and the secretion continued for twenty minutes,
-during which time 66.7 c. c. of pure gastric juice was produced.
-
-"On another day a cat was brought into the presence of the dog,
-whereupon the dog flew into a great fury. The cat was soon removed, and
-the dog pacified. Now the dog was again given the sham feeding for five
-minutes. In spite of the fact that the animal was hungry and ate
-eagerly, there was no secretion worthy of mention. During a period of
-twenty minutes, corresponding to the previous observation, only 9 c. c.
-of acid fluid was produced, and this was rich in mucus. It is evident
-that in the dog, as in the boy observed by Bogen, strong emotions can so
-profoundly disarrange the mechanisms of secretion that the natural
-nervous excitation accompanying the taking of food cannot cause the
-normal flow.
-
-"On another occasion Bickel and Sasaki started gastric secretion in the
-dog by sham feeding, and when the flow of gastric juice had reached a
-certain height the dog was infuriated for five minutes by the presence
-of the cat. During the next fifteen minutes there appeared only a few
-drops of a very mucous secretion. Evidently in this instance a
-physiological process, started as an accompaniment of a psychic state
-quietly pleasurable in character, was almost entirely stopped by another
-psychic state violent in character.
-
-"It is noteworthy that in both the positive and negative results of the
-emotional excitement illustrated in Bickel and Sasaki’s dog the effects
-persisted long after the removal of the exciting condition. This fact
-Bickel was able to confirm in a girl with œsophageal and gastric
-fistulas; the gastric secretion long outlasted the period of eating,
-although no food entered the stomach. The importance of these
-observations to personal economics is too obvious to require
-elaboration.
-
-“Not only are the secretory activities of the stomach unfavorably
-affected by strong emotions; the movements of the stomach as well, and,
-indeed, the movements of almost the entire alimentary canal, are wholly
-stopped during excitement.”[205]
-
-So you see that the proverb, “Better a dinner of herbs where love is
-than a stalled ox and hatred therewith,” has a physiological as well as
-a moral basis.
-
-Nearly any sensory or psychical stimulus can be artificially made to
-excite the _secretion of saliva_ as determined by experimentation on
-animals by Pawlow.
-
-It is probable that all the _ductless glands_ (thyroid, suprarenal,
-etc.), are likewise under the influence of the emotions. The suprarenal
-glands secrete a substance which in almost infinitesimal doses has a
-powerful effect upon the heart and blood vessels, increasing the force
-of the former and contracting the peripheral arterioles. The recent
-observations of Cannon and de la Paz have demonstrated in the cat that
-under the influence of fear or anger an increase of this substance is
-poured into the circulation.[206] Cannon, Shohl and Wright have also
-demonstrated that the glycosuria which was known to occur in animals
-experimented upon in the laboratory is due (in cats) to the influence of
-the emotions, very probably discharging through the sympathetic system
-on the adrenal glands and increasing their secretion.[207] The
-glycosuria is undoubtedly due to an increase of sugar in the blood. It
-is interesting to note, in this connection, that there is considerable
-clinical evidence that indicates that some cases of diabetes and
-glycosuria have an emotional origin. The same is true of disease of the
-thyroid gland (exophthalmic goiter).
-
-Most of the viscera are innervated by the sympathetic system, and the
-visceral manifestations of emotion indicate the dominance of sympathetic
-impulses. “When, for example, a cat becomes frightened, the pupils
-dilate, the stomach and intestines are inhibited, the heart beats
-rapidly, the hairs of the back and tail stand erect—all signs of nervous
-discharge along sympathetic paths” (Cannon). Cannon and his co-workers
-have further made the acute suggestion that, as adrenalin itself is
-capable of working the effects evoked by sympathetic stimulation, “the
-persistence of the emotional state, after the exciting object has
-disappeared, can be explained” by the persistence of the adrenalin in
-the blood. There is reason to believe that some of the adrenal secretion
-set free by nervous stimulation returning in the blood stream to the
-glands stimulates them to further activity, and this would tend to
-continue the emotional effect after the emotion has subsided. “Indeed it
-was the lasting effect of excitement in digestive processes which
-suggested” to Cannon his investigations.[208]
-
-According to Féré[209] the _pupils_ may dilate under the influence of
-asthenic emotions and contract with sthenic emotions. However that may
-be, the dilatation of the pupils during states of fear may be
-demonstrated in animals.
-
-exert force of which he is ordinarily incapable. Or this energy, instead
-of being discharged into the channels being made use of by the will, and
-so augmenting its effects, may be so discharged as to inhibit the will,
-and produce paralysis of the will and muscular action.
-
-These muscular vasomotor and secretory changes need not surprise us, as
-indeed they have a biological meaning. As Sherrington[210] has pointed
-out, “there is a strong bond between emotion and muscular action.
-Emotion ‘moves’ us, hence the word itself. If developed in intensity, it
-impels toward vigorous movement. Every vigorous movement of the body ...
-involves also the less noticeable co-operation of the viscera,
-especially of the circulatory and respiratory [and, I would add, the
-secretory glands of the skin]. The extra demand made upon the muscles
-that move the frame involves a heightened action of the nutrient organs
-which supply to the muscles the material for their energy”; and also
-involves a heightened action of the sweat glands to maintain the thermic
-equilibrium. “We should expect,” Sherrington remarks, “visceral action
-to occur along with the muscular expression of emotion,” and we should
-expect, it may be added, that through this mechanism emotion should
-become integrated with vasomotor, secretory, and other visceral
-functions.
-
-Another physiological effect of emotion ought to be mentioned, as of
-recent years it has been the object of much and intensive study by
-numerous students and has been frequently made use of in the clinical
-study of mental derangements and in the study of subconscious phenomena.
-I refer to the so-called “_psycho-galvanic reflex_.” As an outcome of
-all the investigations which have been made by numerous students into
-this phenomenon, it now seems clear that there are two types of galvanic
-reactions, distinct from each other, which can be recognized. The one
-type first described by Féré[211] consists in an increase, brought about
-by emotion, of a galvanic current made to pass through the body from a
-galvanic cell. If a very sensitive galvanometer is put in circuit with
-the body and such a cell, a certain deviation of the needle of course
-may be noted varying in amplitude according to the resistance of the
-body. Now, if an idea associated with emotion—i.e., possessing a
-sufficient amount of affective tone—is made to enter the consciousness
-of the person experimented upon, there is observed an increased
-deflection of the needle, showing an increase of current under the
-influence of the emotion. The generally accepted interpretation of this
-increase is that it is due to diminished resistance of the skin (with
-which the electrodes are in contact) caused by an increase of the
-secretions of the sweat glands. A similar increase of current follows
-various sensory stimulations, such as the pricking of a pin, loud
-noises, etc. It may be interesting for historical reasons to quote here
-Féré’s statement of his observations, as they seem to be generally
-overlooked. In his volume, “La Pathologie des Emotions,” in 1892, he
-thus sums up his earlier and later observations: "I then produce various
-sensory stimulations—visual (colored glasses), auditory (tuning fork),
-gustatory, olfactory, etc. Whereupon there results a sudden deviation of
-the needle of the galvanometer which, for the strongest stimulations,
-may travel fifteen divisions (milliampères). The same deviation may also
-be produced under the influence of sthenic emotions, that is to say, it
-is produced under all the conditions where I have previously noticed an
-augmentation of the size of the limbs, made evident through the
-plethysmograph. Absence of stimulation, on the contrary, increases the
-resistance; in one subject the deviation was reduced by simply closing
-the eyes.
-
-“Since these facts were first described at the Biological Society I have
-been enabled to make more exact observations by using the process
-recommended by A. Vigouroux (De la résistance électrique chez les
-mélancoliques, Th. 1890, p. 17), and I have ascertained that under the
-influence of painful emotions or tonic emotions the electrical
-resistance may, in hystericals, instantaneously vary from 4,000 to
-60,000 ohms.”
-
-It will be noticed that Féré attributed the variations of the current to
-variations of resistance of the body induced by sensations and emotions.
-
-The method of obtaining the psycho-galvanic reaction may be varied in
-many ways, the underlying principle being the same, namely, the arousing
-of an emotion of some kind. This may be simply through imagined ideas,
-or by expectant attention, sensory stimulation, suggested thoughts,
-verbal stimuli, etc. According to Peterson and Jung,[212] “excluding the
-effect of attention, we find that every stimulus accompanied by an
-emotion causes a rise in the electric curve, and directly in proportion
-to the liveliness and actuality of the emotion aroused. The galvanometer
-is therefore a measurer of the amount of emotional tone, and becomes a
-new instrument of precision in psychological research.” This last
-statement can hardly be said to be justified, as we have no means of
-measuring the “liveliness and actuality” of an emotion and, therefore,
-of co-relating it with a galvanic current, nor have we any grounds for
-assuming that the secretion of sweat (upon which the diminished
-resistance of the body presumably depends) is proportionate to the
-liveliness of the emotion, or, indeed, even that it always occurs. It is
-enough to say that the galvanic current is in general a means of
-detecting the presence of emotion.
-
-The second type of galvanic reaction, as shown by Sidis and Kalmus,[213]
-does not depend upon the diminished resistance of the body to a galvanic
-current passing from without through the body, but is a current
-originating within the body under the influence of emotion. Sidis and
-Kalmus concluded that “active psycho-physiological processes, sensory
-and emotional processes, with the exception of purely ideational ones,
-initiated in a living organism, bring about electromotive forces with
-consequent galvanometric deflections.” In a later series of experiments
-Sidis and Nelson[214] came to the conclusion that the origin of the
-electromotive force causing the galvanic deflection was in the
-muscles.[215] Wells and Forbes,[216] on the other hand, conclude from
-their own investigation that the origin of the galvanic current is to be
-found in the sweat gland activity and believe the muscular origin
-improbable. From a clinical standpoint the question is unimportant.
-
-_Sensory disturbances._ On the sensory side the effect of emotions,
-particularly unpleasant ones, in awakening “thrills” and all sorts of
-sensations in different parts of the body is a matter of everyday
-observation. _Nausea_, _dizziness_, _headache_, _pains_ of different
-kinds are common accompaniments. Such reactions, however, largely vary
-as idiosyncrasies of the individual, and are obviously not open to
-experimentation or measurement. Whether they should be spoken of as
-physiological or aberrant reactions is a matter of terminology. They
-are, however, of common occurrence. In pathological conditions
-disagreeable sensations accompanying fear, grief, disgust, and other
-distressing forms of emotion often play a prominent part, and as
-symptoms contribute to the syndromes of the psychosis. The following
-quaintly described case quoted by Cannon from Burton’s Anatomy of
-Melancholy is as good as a more modern illustration: “A gentlewoman of
-the same city saw a fat hog cut up; when the entrails were opened, and a
-noisome savour offended her nose, she much disliked, and would not
-longer abide; a physician in presence told her, as that hog, so was she
-full of filthy excrements, and aggravated the matter by some other
-loathsome instances, insomuch this nice gentlewoman apprehended it so
-deeply that she fell forthwith a vomiting; was so mightily distempered
-in mind and body that, with all his art and persuasion, for some months
-after, he could not restore her to herself again; she could not forget
-or remove the object out of her sight.” Cannon remarks: “Truly, here was
-a moving circle of causation, in which the physician himself probably
-played the part of a recurrent augmenter of the trouble. The first
-disgust disturbed the stomach, and the disturbance of the stomach, in
-turn, aroused in the mind greater disgust, and thus between them the
-influences continued to and fro until digestion was impaired and serious
-functional derangement supervened. The stomach is ‘king of the belly,’
-quotes Burton, ‘for if he is affected all the rest suffer with him.’”
-
-Such cases could be multiplied many fold from the records of every
-psychopathologist. I happen by chance to be interrupted while writing
-this page by a patient who presents herself suffering from a phobia of
-fainting. When this fear (possibly with other emotions) is awakened she
-is attacked by nausea and eructation of the gastric contents, and, if
-she takes food, by vomiting of the meal. (Owing to a misunderstanding of
-the true pathology by her physician, her stomach was washed out
-constantly for a period of two years without relief!)
-
-=General psychopathology.=—In the light of all these well-known
-physiological effects of emotion it is apparent that when an idea
-possessing a strong emotional tone, such as fear or its variants, enters
-consciousness, it is accompanied by a complex of physiological
-reactions. In other words, fear, _as a biological reaction_ of the
-organism to a stimulus, does not consist of the psychical element alone,
-but includes a large syndrome of physiological processes. We can,
-indeed, theoretically construct a schema which would represent the
-emotional reaction. This schema would undoubtedly vary in detail in
-particular cases, according to the excitability of the different
-visceral functions involved in different individuals and to the mixture
-of the emotions taking part (fear, disgust, shame, anger, etc.). As one
-type, for instance, of a schema, taking only the most obtrusive
-phenomena which do not require special technique for their detection, we
-would have:
-
-Fear (or one of its variants, anxiety, apprehension, etc., or a compound
-emotion that includes fear).
-
-Inhibition of thought (confusion).
-
-Pallor of the skin.
-
-Increased perspiration.
-
-Cardiac palpitation.
-
-Respiratory disturbances.
-
-Tremor.
-
-Muscular weakness.
-
-Gastric and intestinal disturbances.
-
-(Blushing or congestion of the skin would replace pallor if the fear was
-represented or accompanied by shame or bashfulness, etc.
-(self-debasement and self-consciousness),[217] or if the affective state
-was anger.)
-
-On the sensory side we would have various paresthesiæ varying with the
-idiosyncrasies of the individual, and apparently dependent upon the
-paths through which the emotional energy is discharged:
-
-“Thrills.”
-
-Feeling of oppression in the chest.
-
-Headache.
-
-Nausea (with or without vomiting).
-
-Pains, fatigue, etc.
-
-It is of practical importance to note that attacks of powerful emotions,
-according to common experience, are apt to be followed by exhaustion;
-consequently in morbid fears fatigue is a frequent sequela.
-
- Physiological Mimicry of Disease.
-
-Now, theoretically, one or more of these physiological disturbances
-might be so obtrusive as to be the predominant feature of the syndrome
-and to mask the psychical element which might then be overlooked.
-Gastric and intestinal disturbances, for instance, or cardiac distress,
-might be so marked as not to be recognized as simply manifestations of
-an emotion, but be mistaken for true gastric, intestinal, or heart
-disease. Going one step further, if a person had a frequently recurring
-fear, as is so common, and the physiological symptoms were obtrusively
-predominant, these latter would necessarily recur in attacks and,
-overshadowing the psychical element, might well have all the appearance
-(both to the subject and the observer) of true disease of the viscera.
-
-Now, as a fact this theoretical possibility is just what happens. It is
-one of the commonest of occurrences, although it is too frequently
-misunderstood.[218] A person, we will say, has acquired—owing to no
-matter what psychogenetic factor—a recurrent fear. This fear, or, in
-less obtrusive form, anxiety, or apprehension, is, we will say, of
-disease—heart disease or insanity or fainting or cancer or epilepsy or
-what not. It recurs from time to time when awakened by some thought or
-stimulus from the environment. At once there is an outburst of
-physiological, i.e., functional disturbances, in the form of an
-“attack.” There may be violent cardiac and respiratory disease, tremor,
-flushing, perspiration, diarrhœa, sensory disturbances, etc., followed
-by more or less lasting exhaustion. On the principle of complex
-building, which we have discussed in a previous lecture, the various
-physiological reactions embraced in such a scheme as I have outlined
-tend to become welded into a complex (or association psycho-neurosis),
-and this complex of reactions in consequence recurs as a syndrome every
-time the fear is reëxcited. On every occasion when the anxiety recurs, a
-group of symptoms recurs which is made up of these physical
-manifestations of emotion which are peculiar to the individual case. The
-symptoms, unless a searching inquiry is made into their mode of onset,
-sequence, and associative relations, will appear a chaotic mass of
-unrelated phenomena; or only certain obtrusive ones, which in the mind
-of the patient point to disease of a particular organ, are described by
-him. The remainder have to be specifically sought for by the
-investigator. The latter, if experienced in such psycho-neuroses, can
-often from his knowledge of the phenomena of emotion anticipate the
-facts and in a large degree foretell to the patient the list of symptoms
-from which he suffers. By those who lack familiarity with these
-functional disturbances mistakes in diagnosis are frequently made.
-Disease of the heart, or of the stomach, or of the nervous system is
-frequently diagnosed when the symptoms are simply the product of
-emotion. Quite commonly, when the symptoms are less related to
-particular organs, but more conspicuously embrace vasomotor, sensory,
-digestive disturbances (inhibition of function), and fatigue, the
-syndrome is mistaken for so-called _neurasthenia_.[219] Thus it happens
-that in recurrent morbid fears—known as the phobias or obsessions—a
-group of symptoms are met with which at first sight appear to be
-unrelated bodily disturbances, but which when analyzed are seen to be
-only a certain number of physiological manifestations of emotion welded
-into a complex. On every occasion that the fear recurs this complex is
-reproduced.
-
-It now remains to study the effect of the emotions on the psychical
-side. This we shall do in the next lecture.
-
------
-
-Footnote 196:
-
- I use the word, not in the strict but in the popular and general
- sense, to include feeling, indeed all affective states, excepting
- where the context gives the strict meaning.
-
-Footnote 197:
-
- The James-Lange theory is disregarded here as untenable.
-
-Footnote 198:
-
- La Pathologie des Emotions, 1892.
-
-Footnote 199:
-
- Physiological Dilatation and the Mitral Sphincter as Factors in
- Functional and Organic Disturbances of the Heart, _The American
- Journal of the Medical Sciences_, February, 1901; also, The Occurrence
- and Mechanism of Physiological Heart Murmurs (Endocardial) in Healthy
- Individuals, _The Medical Record_, April 20, 1889.
-
-Footnote 200:
-
- The emotional factor is a source of possible fallacy in all
- observations on arterial tension and must be guarded against.
-
-Footnote 201:
-
- Frederick Peterson and C. G. Jung: Psycho-Physical Investigations with
- the Galvanometer and Pneumograph, _Brain_, Vol. XXX, July, 1907, p.
- 153.
-
-Footnote 202:
-
- The Work of the Digestive Glands (English Translation), London, 02.
-
-Footnote 203:
-
- For a summary of Cannon’s work, see his article, Recent Advances in
- the Physiology of the Digestive Organs Bearing on Medicine and
- Surgery, _The Medical Journal of Medical Sciences_, 1906, New Series,
- Vol. CXXXI, pp. 563-578.
-
-Footnote 204:
-
- _American Journal of Medical Sciences_, 1906, p. 566. See also “The
- Influence of Emotional States on the Functions of the Alimentary
- Canal,” by the same writer (_ibid._, April, 1909) for an interesting
- résumé of the subject.
-
-Footnote 205:
-
- _American Journal of the Medical Sciences_, April, 1909.
-
-Footnote 206:
-
- Cannon and de la Paz: _American Journal of Physiology_, April 1, 1911.
-
-Footnote 207:
-
- Cannon, Shohl, and Wright, Ibid., December 1, 1911.
-
-Footnote 208:
-
- These effects of adrenalin suggest that the secretion may take some
- part in pathological anxiety states.
-
-Footnote 209:
-
- Pathologie des Emotions, 1892.
-
- The influence of emotion on the _muscular system_ need hardly be more
- than referred to. Tremor, twitchings, particularly of the facial
- muscles, and other involuntary movements, as well as modifications of
- the tonus of the muscles, are common effects. All sorts of
- disturbances occur, ranging from increase of excitability to
- paralysis. Everyone knows that under the influence of powerful
- emotion, whether of joy, anger, or fear, there is discharged an
- increase of energy to the muscles, sometimes of an intensity which
- enables an individual to
-
-Footnote 210:
-
- The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, p. 266.
-
-Footnote 211:
-
- Note sur les modifications de la résistance électrique sous
- l’influence des excitations sensorielles et des émotions, _C. R. Soc.
- de Biologie_, 1888, p. 217.
-
-Footnote 212:
-
- Psycho-Physical Investigations with the Galvanometer and Pneumograph
- in Normal and Insane Individuals, _Brain_, Vol. XXX, July, 1907.
-
-Footnote 213:
-
- _Psychological Review_, November, 1908, and January, 1909.
-
-Footnote 214:
-
- The Nature and Causation of the Galvanic Phenomena, _Psychological
- Review_, March, 1910, _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, June-July,
- 1910.
-
-Footnote 215:
-
- Having demonstrated the development of electromotive force within the
- body, these experimenters assumed that every psycho-galvanic reaction
- was of this type. But plainly, their results do not contradict the
- phenomenon of diminished resistance of the body to an electric current
- brought about by emotion stimulating the sweat glands. The evidence
- indicates, as I have said, two types of psycho-galvanic phenomena.
-
-Footnote 216:
-
- On Certain Electrical Processes in the Human Body and Their Relation
- to Emotional Reactions, _Archives of Psychology_, March, 1911.
-
-Footnote 217:
-
- Morbid self-consciousness is commonly accompanied by fear and other
- emotions. Nausea, although the specific manifestation of disgust, not
- rarely is induced by fear.
-
-Footnote 218:
-
- A good example is that of an extreme “neurasthenic,” who had been
- reduced to a condition of severe inanition from inability to take a
- proper amount of food because of failure of digestion, nausea, and
- vomiting. Examined by numerous and able physicians in this country and
- Europe, none had been able to recognize any organic disease or the
- true cause of the gastric difficulty which remained a puzzle. As a
- therapeutic measure her stomach had been continuously and regularly
- washed out. Yet it was not difficult to recognize, after analyzing the
- symptoms and the conditions of their occurrence, that the disturbances
- of the gastric functions were due to complex mental factors, the chief
- of which, emotion, inhibited the gastric function, as in Cannon’s
- experiments, and indirectly or directly, induced the nausea and
- vomiting. The correctness of this diagnosis was recognized by the
- attending physician and patient. Sometimes a phobia complicates a true
- organic disease and produces symptoms which mimic the symptoms of the
- latter—heart disease, for example. In this case it is often difficult
- to recognize the purely phobic character of the symptoms. O. H. C. was
- such a case. Though there was severe valvular disease of the heart,
- compensation was good and there was little if any cardiac disability.
- The attacks of dyspnœa and other symptoms were unmistakably the
- physical manifestation of a phobia of the disease. The phobia had been
- artificially created by overcautious physicians.
-
-Footnote 219:
-
- One has only to compare routine out-patient hospital records with the
- actual state of patients to verify the truth of this statement. For
- purposes of instruction I have frequently done this before the class.
- The true nature of the psycho-neurosis and the irrelevancy of the
- routine record and diagnosis have, I believe, been commonly made
- manifest. Sometimes, however, of course, phobias complicate other
- diseases, and we have a mixed symptomatology.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE XV
- INSTINCTS, SENTIMENTS, AND CONFLICTS
-
-
-It is generally agreed that emotions proper (as distinguished from other
-affective states) may be divided into those which are primary (anger,
-fear, disgust, etc.), and those (jealousy, admiration, hatred, etc.),
-which are compounded of two or more primary emotions. McDougall has made
-a great contribution to our knowledge in having made clear that a
-primary emotion is not only instinctive, but is the central or psychical
-element in a reflex process consisting, besides, of an ingoing stimulus
-and an outgoing impulse. The whole process is the instinct.[220] It is
-of course innate, and depends on congenital prearrangements of the
-nervous system. The central element, the emotion, provides the conative
-or impulse force which carries the instinct to fulfilment. It is the
-motive power, the dynamic agent that executes, that propels the response
-which follows the stimulus. Though we speak of anger and fear, for
-example, as instincts, McDougall is unquestionably right in insisting
-that more correctly speaking the activated instinct is a process in
-which the emotion is only one factor—the psychical. The instincts of
-anger and fear should more precisely be termed respectively “pugnacity
-with the emotion of anger” and “flight with the emotion of fear.” In the
-one case, the emotion, as the central reaction to a stimulus, by its
-conative force impels to pugnacity; in the other fear impels to flight;
-and so with the other instincts and their emotions which I would suggest
-may be termed arbitrarily the _emotion-instincts_, to distinguish them
-from the more general instincts and innate dispositions with which
-animal psychology chiefly deals, and in which the affective element is
-feebler or has less of the specific psychical quality. For brevity’s
-sake, however, we may speak of the instinct of anger, fear, tender
-feeling, etc. Of course they are biological in their nature.
-
-This formulation, by McDougall, of emotion as one factor in an
-instinctive process must be regarded as one of the most important
-contributions to our knowledge of the mechanism of emotion. It can
-scarcely be traversed, as it is little more than a descriptive statement
-of observed facts. It is strange that this conception of the process
-should have been so long overlooked. Its value lies in replacing
-vagueness with a precise conception of one of the most important of
-psychological phenomena, and enables us to clearly understand the part
-played by emotion in mental processes. It also shows clearly the
-inadequacy of the objective methods of normal psychology when attempting
-to investigate emotion by measuring the discharge of its impulsive force
-in one direction only, namely, the disturbances of the functions of the
-viscera (vasomotor, glandular, etc.). It discharges also along lines of
-mental activity and conduct.
-
-When studying the organization of complexes, and in other lectures, we
-saw, as everyone knows in a general way, that _affects may become linked
-with ideas_, and that the force derived from this association gives to
-the ideas intensity and conative influence. Further, it was developed
-that the linking of a strong affect tends to stronger registration and
-conservation of experiences. This linking of an affect to an idea is one
-of the foundation stones of the pathology of the psycho-neuroses. One
-might say that upon it “hangs all the law and the prophets.”
-
-Inasmuch as a sentiment, even in the connotations of popular language,
-besides being an idea always involves an affective element, it is
-obvious that _a sentiment is an idea of an object with which one or more
-emotions are organized_. But, obvious as it is, it remained for Mr.
-Shand, as McDougall reminds us, to make this precise definition. It is
-hardly a discovery as the latter puts it, as the facts themselves have
-been long known; but it is a valuable definition and its value lies in
-helping us to think clearly. Nearly every idea, if not every idea, has
-an affective tone of some kind, or is one of a complex of ideas endowed
-with such tone. This tone may be weak so as to be hardly recognizable,
-or it may be strong. Now, if emotion is one factor in an instinctive
-process, it is evident that a sentiment more precisely is an idea of an
-object linked or organized with one or more “emotion-instincts.” As
-McDougall has precisely phrased it, “A sentiment is an organized system
-of emotional dispositions centered about the idea of some object.” The
-impulsive force of the emotional dispositions or linked instincts
-becomes the conative force of the idea, and it is this factor which
-carries the idea to fruition. This is one of the most important
-principles of functional psychology. Its value can scarcely be
-exaggerated. Without the impulse of a linked emotion ideas would be
-lifeless, dead, inert, incapable of determining conduct. But when we say
-that an emotion becomes linked to, i.e., organized with that composite
-called an idea, _we really mean (according to this theory of emotion)
-that it is the whole instinct, the emotional innate disposition of which
-the emotion is only a part that is so linked_. The instinct has also
-afferent and efferent activities. The latter is an impulsive or conative
-force discharged by the emotion. Thus the affective element of an
-instinctive process—a process which is a biological reaction—provides
-the driving force, makes the idea a dynamic factor, moves us to carry
-the idea to fulfilment. As McDougall has expressed it:
-
- "We may say, then, that directly or indirectly the instincts are the
- prime movers of all human activity; by the conative or impulsive force
- of some instinct (or of some habit derived from some instinct), every
- train of thought, however cold and passionless it may seem, is borne
- along toward its end, and every bodily activity is initiated and
- sustained. The instinctive impulses determine the ends of all
- activities and supply the driving power by which all mental activities
- are sustained; and all the complex intellectual apparatus of the most
- highly developed mind is but a means toward these ends, is but the
- instrument by which these impulses seek their satisfactions, while
- pleasure and pain do but serve to guide them in their choice of the
- means.
-
- “Take away these instinctive dispositions with their powerful
- impulses, and the organism would become incapable of activity of any
- kind; it would lie inert and motionless like a wonderful clockwork
- whose mainspring had been removed, or a steam engine whose fires had
- been drawn. These impulses are the mental forces that maintain and
- shape all the life of individuals and societies, and in them we are
- confronted with the central mystery of life and mind and will.”[221]
-
-Furthermore _the organization of the emotions with ideas to form
-sentiments is essential for self-control and regulation of conduct_, and
-becomes a safeguard against mental, physiological, and social chaos.
-
- “The growth of the sentiments is of the utmost importance for the
- character and conduct of individuals and of societies; it is the
- organization of the affective and conative life. In the absence of
- sentiments our emotional life would be a mere chaos, without order,
- consistency, or continuity of any kind; and all our social relations
- and conduct, being based on the emotions and their impulses, would be
- correspondingly chaotic, unpredictable, and unstable. It is only
- through the systematic organization of the emotional dispositions in
- sentiments that the volitional control of the immediate promptings of
- the emotions is rendered possible. Again, our judgments of value and
- of merit are rooted in our sentiments; and our moral principles have
- the same source, for they are formed by our judgments of moral
- value.”[222]
-
-Summing up, then, we may say _one of the chief functions of emotion_ is
-to provide the conative force which enables ideas to fulfill their aims,
-and one of the chief functions of sentiments to control and regulate the
-emotions.
-
-Besides the instinctive dispositions proper there are other innate
-dispositions which similarly provide conative force and determine
-activities. For the practical purposes of the problems with which we are
-concerned, the conative or impulsive forces of all such innate
-dispositions and the sentiments which they help to form are here, it
-should be understood, considered together and included under instincts.
-
-=The conative function of emotion.=—I shall take up in a later
-lecture[223] (in connection with the psychogenesis of multiple
-personality) the instincts and sentiments for discussion in more detail.
-The point to which I wish in this connection to call attention is that
-when a simple emotion-instinct, or an idea linked with an instinct (a
-sentiment) is awakened by any stimulus, _its impulsive force is
-discharged in three directions_: the _first_ is toward the excitation of
-those articulated movements and ideas which guide and carry the instinct
-to fruition—to fight in the case of anger, to flee in the case of fear,
-to cherish in the case of love, etc. _Second_ (accessory to the first)
-the excitation of many of the various visceral functions which we have
-reviewed reinforces the instinctive movements; e. g., for pugnacity or
-flight the increased respiration and activity of the heart increase the
-supply of oxygen and blood to the muscles; the secretion of sweat
-regulates the temperature during increased activity, the increased
-secretion of adrenalin and the increased secretion of sugar may, as
-Cannon suggests, respectively keep up the emotional state (after the
-cause of the fear or anger has subsided) and meet the demand of the
-muscles for an extra supply of food, etc.
-
-Later experiments of Cannon seem to show that the adrenal secretion
-removes the fatigue of muscles; and, further, that stimulation of the
-splanchic nerves will largely recover fatigued muscles, increasing the
-efficiency as much as 100 per cent.[224] As emotion discharges its
-impulses along splanchic pathways to the adrenal glands, the inference
-as to the function of emotion in overcoming fatigue is obvious.
-
-As to the _sensory accompaniments of emotion_, it is quite reasonable to
-suppose that their rôle is to supplement and reinforce in consciousness
-the affect, thereby aiding in arousing the individual to a full
-appreciation of the situation and to such voluntary effort (whether to
-guide and assist the instinct to its fulfillment or to repress it) as,
-in the light of past experiences, his judgment dictates. These sensory
-disturbances on this theory act as additional warnings in consciousness
-where the affect proper might be too weak.[225] Their function would be
-like that of pain in the case of organic disease. Pain is a biological
-reaction and a warning to the individual to rest the diseased part,[226]
-as well as a danger signal.
-
-The _third_ direction which the discharge of the impulsive force of the
-emotion takes is toward the repression of the conflicting conative force
-of such other emotions as would act in an antagonistic direction.[227]
-The utility of the discharge in this direction is supplementary to that
-of the excitation of the visceral functions: _the former protects
-against the invasion of counteracting forces, the latter strengthens the
-force of the impulse in question_.
-
-_Conflicts thus arise._ When an emotion is aroused a conflict
-necessarily occurs between its impulse and that of any other existing
-affective state, the impulse of which is antagonistic to the aim of the
-former. Consequently instincts and sentiments which, through the
-conative force of their emotion, tend to drive the conduct of the
-individual in a course in opposition to that of a newly aroused emotion
-(instinct) meet with resistance. Whichever instinct or sentiment,
-meaning whichever impulse, is the stronger necessarily downs the other;
-inhibits the central and efferent parts of the process—ideas, emotions
-and impulses—though the afferent part conveys the stimulus to the
-central factor. Thus processes of thought to which the inhibited
-sentiment or instinct would normally give rise, or with which it is
-systematized, are likewise inhibited and behavior correspondingly
-modified. These statements are only descriptive of what is common
-experience. If one recalls to mind the principal primary emotions
-(instincts) such as the sexual, anger, fear, tender feeling, hunger,
-self-abasement, self-assertion, curiosity, etc., this is seen to be an
-obvious biological truth.[228] Fear is suppressed by anger, tender
-feeling, or curiosity (wonder), and _vice versa_; hunger and the sexual
-instinct by disgust.
-
-What is true of the primitive instincts and their primary emotions is
-also true of compound instincts (emotions) and of sentiments, i.e.,
-ideas about which one or several emotions are systematized. We may,
-therefore, for brevity’s sake, speak of a conflict of ideas or
-sentiments or emotions or instincts indiscriminately. In other words,
-_any affective state may be suppressed by conflict with another and
-stronger affective state_. A timid mother, impelled by the parental
-instinct, has no fear of danger to herself when her child is threatened.
-The instinct of pugnacity (anger) in this case not being antagonistic
-(in conflict) is not only not suppressed but may be awakened as a
-reaction to aid in the expression of the parental instinct. _Per
-contra_, when anger would conflict with this instinct, as when the child
-does wrong, the anger is suppressed by the parental instinct.
-Conversely, the sentiment of love for a particular person may be
-completely suppressed by jealousy and anger. Hatred of a person may
-expel from consciousness previous sentiments of sympathy, justice, pity,
-respect, fear, etc. The animal under the influence of the parental
-instinct may be incapable of fear in defense of its young, particularly
-if anger is excited. Fear may be suppressed in an animal or human being
-if either is impelled by great curiosity over a strange object. Instead
-of taking to flight, the animal may stand still in wonder. Similarly in
-man, curiosity to examine, for example, an explosive—an unexploded shell
-or bomb—inhibits the fear of danger often, as we know, with disastrous
-results. The suppression of the sexual instinct by conflict is one of
-the most notorious of the experiences of this kind in everyday life.
-This instinct cannot be excited during an attack of fear and anger, and
-even during moments of its excitation, if there is an invasion of
-another strong emotion the sexual instinct at once is repressed. Under
-these conditions, as with other instincts, even habitual excitants can
-no longer initiate the instinctive process. Chloe would appeal in vain
-to her lover if he were suddenly seized with fright or she had
-inadvertently awakened in him an intense jealousy or anger. Similarly
-the instinct may be suppressed, particularly in men, as every
-psycho-pathologist has observed, by the awakening of the instinct of
-self-subjection with its emotion of self-abasement (McDougall) with
-fear, shown in the sentiments of incapacity, shame, etc. The authors of
-“_Vous n’avez rien à declarer_” makes this the principal theme in this
-laughable drama. Indeed the principle of the suppression of one instinct
-by conflict with another has been made use of by writers of fiction and
-drama in all times.
-
-This principle of inhibition by conflict allows us to understand the
-imperative persistence (if not the genesis) of certain sexual
-perversions in otherwise healthy-minded and normal people who have a
-loathing for such perversions in other people but can not overcome them
-in themselves. H. O., for example, has such a perversion, and yet the
-idea of this perversion in another person excites a lively emotion of
-disgust. In other words, at bottom, as we say, she is right-minded. How
-then account for the continuance of a self practice which she reprobates
-in another, censures in herself, and desires to be free of, and why does
-not the instinct of repulsion, and the sentiment of self respect, etc.,
-act in herself as a safeguard? Introspective examination shows that when
-the sexual emotion is awakened, disgust and the sentiments of pride and
-self respect are suppressed, and the momentarily activating instinct
-determines all sorts of sophistical reasoning by which the perversion is
-justified to herself. As soon as the instinct accomplishes its aim it
-becomes exhausted, and at once intense disgust, meeting with no
-opposition, becomes awakened and in turn determines once more her
-right-minded ideas. Based upon this mechanism one therapeutic procedure
-would be to organize artificially so intense sentiments of disgust for
-the perversion and of self-respect that they would suppress the sexual
-impulse.[229]
-
-Likewise the intense religious emotions (awe, reverence, self-abasement,
-divine love, etc.) may, if sufficiently strong, suppress the opposing
-instincts of anger, fear, play, and self-assertion, and emotions
-compounded of them. Examples might be cited from the lives of religious
-martyrs and fanatics.
-
-If it is true that “the instincts are the prime movers of all human
-activity,” and that through their systematic organization with ideas
-into sentiments they are so harnessed and brought under subjection that
-they can be utilized for the well-being of the individual; and if
-through this harnessing the immediate promptings of the emotions are
-brought under volitional control, then _all conduct, in the last
-analysis, is determined by the conative force of instincts_[230] (and
-other innate dispositions) harnessed though they be to ideas. For though
-volition itself can control, reinforce, and determine the particular
-sentiment and thus govern conduct,—reinforce, for instance, a weaker
-abstract moral sentiment so that it shall dominate any lower brutish
-instinct or sentiment with which it conflicts, still, volition must be a
-more complex form of conation and itself issue from sentiments.
-
-We need not enter into this troublesome problem of the nature of the
-will;[231] nor does it concern us. It is enough for our purpose to
-recognize that volition can reinforce a sentiment and thus take part in
-conflicts. In this way undesirable instincts and sentiments can he
-voluntarily overcome and inhibited or repressed and mental processes and
-conduct determined.
-
-Nor are we concerned here with conduct which pertains more properly to
-social psychology. Our task is much more limited and simple, namely to
-inquire into the immediate conscious phenomena provoked by emotion, just
-as we have studied the physiological phenomena. We have seen that one
-such phenomenon is inhibition or repression of antagonistic instincts
-and sentiments provoked by conflict. (We shall see later that a conflict
-may arise between a conscious and an entirely subconscious sentiment
-with similar resulting phenomena.)
-
-=Repression of individual instincts may be lasting.=—The repressions
-resulting from conflict which we have just been considering have been of
-a temporary nature lasting only just so long as the conflict has lasted.
-It is instructive to note that just as an instinct can be cultivated
-until it becomes a ruling trait in the character, so it can be
-permanently repressed, or so intensely repressed that it cannot be
-awakened excepting by unusual excitants or under unusual conditions.
-Such a persisting repression may be brought about either directly by
-volitional conflict or indirectly through the cultivation of
-antagonistic sentiments. The cultivation of an instinct is a common
-enough observation. Every one can point to some one of his acquaintance
-who has so fostered his instinct of anger or fear, has so cultivated the
-habit of one or the other reaction that he has become the slave of his
-emotion. Conversely, by the conative force of the will, and still more
-successfully by the cultivation of appropriate moral and religious and
-other sentiments, and complexes or “settings” systematized about those
-sentiments, a person can inhibit any instinct or any sentiment organized
-with that instinct. A bad-tempered person can thus, if he chooses,
-become good-tempered; a coward, a brave person; a person governed by the
-instinct of self-subjection can repress it by the cultivation of
-sentiments of self-assertion, and so on. The complete repression of
-unchristian instincts and sentiments is the acquired characteristic of
-the saintly character. The cultivation and repression of character
-traits and tendencies along these lines obviously belong to the domains
-of the psychology of character, social psychology, and criminology. But
-the persisting repression of at least one instinct—the sexual
-instinct—may take on pathological significance[232] while that of
-sentiments may lead to pathological dissociation and to the _formation
-of disturbing subconscious states_. To this latter type of repression we
-shall presently return.
-
-That the sexual instinct may be involuntarily and persistently repressed
-by conflict is shown by the following case:
-
-F. S. presented herself at the hospital clinic because of hysterical
-epileptiform attacks of six months’ duration. The attacks, which had
-been caused by an emotional trauma, were easily cured by suggestion.
-After recovery she fell into lamentations over the fact that she was
-sterile owing to both ovaries having been removed three years before
-because of pelvic disease. Just before the operation she had also
-suffered from an emotional trauma (fear). Although complete recovery
-from her symptoms had followed the operation, the sexual instinct had
-been abolished for three years. She was now much distressed over her
-inability to have children, complaining it had led to domestic
-infelicity, and apprehending divorce which had been threatened on the
-ground of her sterility. Having confidence in the strength of certain
-fundamental principles of human nature, and disbelieving the reasons
-alleged by the husband for divorce, I was able to restore domestic
-felicity, as well as demonstrate the psycho-physiological principle that
-the instinct was not lost but only inhibited. A single suggestion in
-hypnosis, psychologically constructed so as to bear a strong conative
-impulse that would overcome any other conflicting affective impulses and
-carry itself to fruition, restored not only the lost function[233] but
-conjugal happiness. That the instinct had only been inhibited is
-obvious. Whether the repressing factor had been fear or an involuntary
-auto-suggestion was not determined.
-
-The following case is instructive not only because of the lasting
-dissociation of this instinct as a result of a conflict, but because the
-dissociation was volitionally and intentionally effected as a revenge.
-Other interesting features are the transference of the repressing
-revenge affect to an object (clothes which became an amulet or fetish to
-protect from sexual approaches, and the building of a complex (“raw
-oyster”) which became the bearer of the repressing force. X. Y. Z.
-received a deep wound to her pride on the first night of her honeymoon
-when her husband forgot his bride of a few hours who was awaiting him in
-the nuptial chamber. Happening to meet in the hotel some political
-acquaintances after the bride had retired, he became absorbed in a
-political discussion and—forgot! When he appeared after a prolonged
-absence and presented his excuses she was hurt in her pride and offended
-to think that she was of so little importance to him that he could
-become interested in talking politics.[234] There was anger too, and she
-vowed to herself to show, or, to use her own words, she “would be hanged
-if” she would show that she had any liking for or any interest in the
-marital intimacy. (She had never hitherto experienced any sexual
-feelings and, like most young girls, was entirely ignorant of the
-physical side. Nevertheless, from what she had been told, she had
-idealized the spiritual union of husband and wife and anticipated
-pleasurable experiences.) So purposely she repressed any interest, made
-herself absolutely indifferent to her spouse’s amorous attentions and
-experienced absolutely no sexual feeling; and so it continued for some
-days. In view of what later happened, and what we know of conflicts, we
-must believe that the impulses which carried her volition to fruition
-came from the emotions of anger, pride, and revenge.
-
-Then one afternoon, just after she had finished dressing herself
-preparatory to going out, her husband came into her room and made
-advances to her. The idea appealed to her and she became emotionally
-excited at the thought. But in the middle of the act when the libido
-began to be aroused, suddenly she remembered that she had been snubbed
-at the first and that her rôle was to show no liking or interest. There
-were reawakened the emotions of pride, anger, and revenge, although not
-malicious revenge. Impelled by these emotions she actually gave herself
-suggestions to effect her purpose—a determination to get square with the
-past. She said to herself, “I must not like it; I must put it away back
-in my mind, I must become flabby as an oyster.” Thereupon she became
-“perfectly limp and uninterested and the feelings of flabbiness came
-over” her, and the beginning sexual feeling subsided at once. (That day
-she had eaten some raw oysters and had been impressed by them as the
-essence of flabbiness.) She admitted having continued during succeeding
-years to cherish this revengeful feeling as to the sexual relation—to
-get square with the past. She defended it, however, (although admitting
-the childishness of the original episode) on the ground that the slight
-to her pride must be viewed in connection with a long series of
-antecedent experiences. These must therefore be viewed as the setting
-which gave meaning to her idea of sexual relations with her husband.
-After this at the sexual approach under conventional marital conditions
-she for a time always volitionally induced this flabby “raw-oyster”
-sensation and feeling. Later it would automatically arise at the first
-indication or suggestion of the approach and counteract the libido. It
-was now no longer necessary to be on guard, knowing she could not be
-taken unawares. The consequence has been that the patient has never
-consciously experienced any sexual feeling beyond those first beginnings
-at the time of the experience when she was fully dressed. The patient
-can produce the “raw-oyster” state at will and exhibited it voluntarily
-during the examination. The state as then observed was one of lethargy
-or extreme relaxation. There was no general anæsthesia; pinching and
-pricking was felt perfectly, but, as she remarked, they carried no
-sensation of discomfort. “I do not care at the moment,” she explained,
-“what any one does to me; no sensation would cause pleasure or
-discomfort.” To arouse the state she thinks of the sexual approach
-first, and then the state comes. The sexual instinct has never been
-aroused by reading, or associative ideas of any kind. “It does not
-exist,” to quote her words.
-
-Clothes became an amulet of protection in the following way: Ever since
-that afternoon when she was taken unawares in her clothes (and “almost
-liked it”) she realized and feared that sexual approaches when she was
-fully clothed might arouse the sexual instinct. Consequently she was
-more on her guard when fully clothed than at night for fear of being
-taken unawares. The idea that she must be on her guard when clothed
-became fixed, and, at first, when in this condition, she was always on
-her guard ready to defend herself by _pugnacity_. Then any approach at
-such times, if accompanied by physical contact, awakened an instinctive
-reaction which became a defense; it aroused the instincts of fear and
-anger. Any affectionate demonstration suggestive of the approach on the
-part of her husband would arouse these defensive instincts. On the other
-hand, when half dressed there has been no such ebullition of emotion;
-she has in consequence always believed that having clothes on would
-protect her against admirers. Indeed, as a fact, this is so, for any
-show of affection from any one manifested by a touch, even the friendly
-pat of the hand, will cause an unnecessary and unreasonable outburst of
-uncontrollable anger, such as to astonish and startle the offender.
-Clothes, becoming thus a sentiment in which the instincts of flight and
-pugnacity are incorporated, have also become a protection in
-themselves—an amulet to ward off danger.
-
-What reason, it may be asked, is there for believing that the sexual
-instinct really exists in this case, and is only repressed or
-dissociated? I may not state all the reasons; it is sufficient to say
-that the evidence is to be found in dreams. The large number of sexual
-dreams which the subject has experienced, many of them accompanied by
-realistic sexual manifestations and not symbolic only, leave no doubt of
-this fact.[235]
-
-_Conflicts with subconscious sentiments._ Thus far we have been
-considering conflicts between sentiments and emotional processes which
-have been in the full light of consciousness. But in previous lectures
-we have seen that ideas with strong emotional tones may be dissociated
-and function below the threshold of consciousness as coconscious
-processes. It is theoretically possible, therefore, that conflicts
-might arise between a dissociated coconscious sentiment and one that
-is antagonistic to it in consciousness. To appreciate this theoretical
-condition let me point out that there is one important _difference
-between the ultimate consequences of the repression of an instinct and
-of a sentiment_. If an instinct is repressed (it being only an innate
-disposition) it ceases to be an active factor in the functioning
-organism. It is inhibited. A stimulus that ordinarily suffices to
-excite it fails to do so, and it may respond only to an
-extraordinarily powerful stimulus, or perhaps none will awaken it.
-Thus abstinence from food fails to awaken a sense of hunger in a
-person who has lost this instinct for any reason, even though
-appetizing food be placed before him.[236] Similarly anger, or fear,
-or tender emotion, or self-assertion, or disgust, in certain persons
-cannot be awakened excepting by very unusual stimuli. In other words,
-the psycho-physiological reflex is completely or relatively in
-abeyance just as much so as is an organic reflex (e. g., the
-knee-jerk) which has been inhibited. Normally, of course, it is rare
-for an instinct to be absolutely inhibited excepting temporarily, as
-has been explained, during a conflict with another instinct. In
-certain pathological conditions (e. g., dissociated personality),
-almost any instinct may be persistently inhibited. In normal
-conditions there is, however, one exception, namely the sexual
-instinct, which, as we have seen from instances cited, may be
-inhibited during long periods of time. In women this inhibition is
-common and is effected, as I believe, by the subtle and insensible
-influence of the environment of the child and by social education, in
-other words, by the social taboo. Wherever inhibition occurs
-observation would seem to show that the psycho-physiological function
-has ceased to take part in the functioning organism.
-
-With sentiments, however, the case stands differently. A sentiment,
-being an idea about which a system of emotional dispositions has been
-organized, when repressed by conflict, or when simply out of mind,
-whether capable of reproduction as memory or not, may, like all ideas,
-still be conserved, as we have seen, as an unconscious neurogram. As we
-have also seen, so long as it is conserved it is still a part of the
-personality. Even though repressed it is not necessarily absolutely
-inhibited but may be simply dissociated and then be _able to take on
-dissociated subconscious activity_. As a subconscious process the idea
-continues still organized with its emotional dispositions, and the
-conative forces of these, under certain conditions, may continue
-striving to give expression to the idea. We have already become familiar
-with one phenomenon of this striving, namely, the emerging into
-consciousness of the emotional element of the sentiment while the idea
-remains subconscious, thus producing an unaccountable fear or joy,
-feelings of pleasure or pain, etc. (p. 381).
-
-1. This being so, it having been determined that _under certain
-conditions_ any conserved experience may become activated as a
-dissociated subconscious process, it is _theoretically_ quite possible
-that the impulses of an activated subconscious sentiment might come into
-conflict with the impulses of a conscious process—the two being
-antagonistic. The resulting phenomena might be the same as when both
-factors to the contest are in consciousness. In such a conflict if the
-impulsive force of the subconscious sentiment is the stronger the
-conscious ideas, sentiments, and feelings—in short, the conscious
-process—would be repressed, and _vice versa_. Or if the subconscious
-sentiment got the worst of the conflict and could not repress the
-conscious process, the former, being dissociated and an independent
-“automatic” process, might theoretically induce various other phenomena
-in the effort to fulfil its aim. If it could not directly overcome the
-impulses of the conscious process it might circumvent the latter by
-inducing mental and physiological disturbances which would indirectly
-prevent the conscious impulses from fulfilling their aim; e. g.,
-inhibition of the will, dissociation or total inhibition of
-consciousness, amnesia for particular memories, motor phenomena
-interfering with normal activity, etc. The subconscious sentiment
-engaging in such a conflict could be excited to activity by any
-associative antagonistic idea in consciousness. It should be noted that
-the subject being entirely unaware of the subconscious process would not
-know the cause of the resulting phenomena.
-
-2. Now, in fact, _such hypothetical conflicts and phenomena are actually
-observed_ in very neat and precise form _under experimental conditions_,
-particularly in pathological or quasi-pathological subjects. These
-conditions are particularly instructive as they allow us to clearly
-recognize the subconscious character of the conflicting process and
-detect the exact sentiment concerned therein.
-
-The following experiment illustrative of such a conflict between a
-conscious and subconscious process I have repeated many times in one
-subject with the same resulting phenomenon. It has been demonstrated on
-several occasions to psychologists and others. On the first occasion
-when the phenomenon was observed it was entirely spontaneous and
-unexpected as also has since been frequently the case.
-
-B. C. A. in one phase of alternating personality (B) was asked to
-mention a certain complex of ideas which was known to have been
-organized about a distressing “sentiment” in another phase (C) causing
-considerable unhappiness. This sentiment included a strong emotion of
-pride in consequence of which she had in the C phase intense objections
-to revealing these ideas. As she herself said, she “would have gone to
-the stake first.” Phase B has no such sentiment, but on the contrary the
-ideas in question were only amusing to her.[237] In phase B, therefore,
-she not only had no objection to revealing the sentiment distressing to
-C but desired for therapeutic reasons to do so. In accordance with this
-difference of sentiments the difference in the attitude of mind in the
-two phases toward the same experience was quite striking. The impulse in
-the one was to conceal the experiences and sentiment, in the other to
-divulge them.
-
-Now, in reply to an interrogatory as to what was distressing in the C
-phase, B begins to mention the sentiment. At once, and to her
-astonishment, her lips and tongue are tied by painful spasms involving,
-also, the throat muscles. She becomes dumb, unable to overcome the
-resistance. She struggles in vain to speak. When she gives up the
-struggle to pronounce the forbidden words she speaks with ease on other
-subjects saying “something prevented me from speaking.” Each time that
-she endeavors to turn State’s evidence and to peach on herself, the same
-struggle is repeated. When she persists in her effort, using all her
-will-power, the effect of the conflicting force extends to
-consciousness. Her thoughts become first confused, then obliterated, and
-she falls back in her seat limp, paralyzed, and apparently unconscious.
-The thoughts to which she strove to give expression have disappeared.
-She now cannot even will to speak.
-
-But she is not really unconscious, it is only another phase; there is
-only a dissociation or inhibition of the consciousness comprising the
-system of ideas making up the B phase and an awakening of another
-restricted system. When automatic writing is tried, it is found that a
-limited field of consciousness is present in which are to be found the
-ideas which opposed the resistance. A precise statement of the opposing
-factors (volition) which offered the resistance and brought about the
-conflict, the spasm of the vocal apparatus, and finally inhibition or
-dissociation of consciousness, is obtained from this dissociated
-restricted field.[238]
-
-This phenomenon carries its own interpretation on its face and cannot be
-doubted. Certain sentiments, for the moment dormant and outside the
-focus of awareness of the subject, are “struck” or stimulated by
-memories within that focus. The conative force of the conscious wishes
-to which the subject seeks to give expression meets with the resistance
-of a similar and more powerful force from the previously dormant
-sentiment. The latter carries itself to fulfilment and _controls the
-vocal apparatus at first, and then, finding itself likely to be overcome
-by the will-power of the personality, annihilates the latter by the
-inhibition and dissociation of consciousness_.
-
-Various forms of the same phenomenon of conflict with subconscious
-processes I have experimentally demonstrated in Miss B. and O. N.
-Spontaneous manifestations of the same have also been frequently
-observed in all three subjects. In the published account of Miss B.[239]
-numerous examples are given. I will merely refer to the attacks of
-aboulia, the dissociations of consciousness and inhibition of thought,
-and of speech resulting in stuttering and dumbness, the inhibition of
-motor activity, the induction of systematized anesthesia and alexia,
-etc. In the prolonged study of the case I was the witness, I was going
-to say, of innumerable exhibitions of such manifestations, and the book
-is replete with examples of conflicts between opposing mental processes.
-B. C. A. in her account, “My Life as a Dissociated Personality,”[240]
-has described similar spontaneous phenomena. It is worth noting in this
-connection that the commonplace phenomena of systematized anesthesia
-(negative hallucinations) may be induced by conflict with a subconscious
-process motivated by strong emotion. Thus Miss B. in one of her phases
-could not see the writing on a sheet of paper which appeared blank to
-her; on another occasion she could not see the printing of the pages of
-a French novel which she therefore took to be a blank book, nor could
-she see a bookcase containing French books.[241] The subconscious
-conflicting ideas were motivated by anger in the one case and jealousy
-in the other. That the conflicting ideas in this case were elements
-synthesized in a large dissociated system or subconscious self in no way
-affects the principle, which is that of conflict between processes. The
-conflicting process in such conditions is a more complex one, that is
-all. Undoubtedly the systematized anesthesia, so easily induced by
-hypnotic suggestion and which has been made the subject of much study,
-may be explained on the same principle, although the affective elements
-are not so obtrusive. The conflict is between the personal volition of
-the subject to see the marked playing-card, if that is the test object
-used in the experiment, and the suggested idea not to see it. The latter
-wins if the experiment is successful and inhibits the perception of the
-card—i. e., dissociates it from the focus of awareness. (The emotional
-tones involved are obscure; possibly they are curiosity on the one hand
-vs. self-subjection on the other.)
-
-The _unconscious resistance to suggestion_ is probably of the same
-nature. Every one knows that it is difficult to hypnotize a person who
-resists the suggestion. This resistance may come from a counter
-auto-suggestion which may be entirely involuntary, perhaps a conviction
-on the part of the subject that she cannot be hypnotized, or an
-unwillingness to be—i.e., desire not to be hypnotized or fear. The same
-is true of waking a person from hypnosis. In other words, an
-antagonistic preparedness of the mind blocks involuntarily the
-suggestion. A very pretty illustration is the following: H. O.
-discovered that she could easily and rapidly hypnotize herself by simply
-passing her own fingers over her eyelids, but she could not wake herself
-out of hypnosis. She then discovered that, if she first gave herself the
-suggestion that she would wake when she desired, she could quickly do
-so. Likewise, if she suggested to herself that she could not hypnotize
-herself the customary procedure was without effect. Though this
-observation is a common phenomenon the rapidity and ease with which the
-phenomenon was demonstrated were as striking as it was amusing to watch
-her struggle to awake when the preparatory anticipatory autosuggestion
-had not been given.
-
-In O. N. _more complicated phenomena_ induced by conflicts with
-subconscious complexes have been equally precise and striking. In this
-subject I find, as the result of repeated observations, that, in order
-that a suggestion, that is antagonistic to a preexisting attitude of
-mind possessing a strong feeling tone, shall not be resisted in
-hypnosis, it must be first formally accepted by the personality _before_
-hypnosis is induced. If this viewpoint is not preformed, after hypnosis
-is induced the blocking attitude cannot be altered. Practically this
-means that the subject shall _bring into consciousness and disclose
-ideas_ with which the intended suggestion will conflict and shall modify
-them voluntarily. This she does by first candidly accepting a new point
-of view, and then, secondly, by a technical procedure of her own,
-namely, by preparing her mind not to resist in hypnosis. This procedure,
-briefly stated and simplified, is as follows: she first says to herself,
-“I will ‘take out’ that [resisting] idea.” Then she arranges in her
-thoughts the ideas of acceptance which she will substitute. Then she
-puts herself into a state of abstraction (hypnosis) and _suggests to
-herself_ that the resisting idea _is_ taken out and that my intended
-suggestion shall be her viewpoint. Even then, sometimes, when the
-resisting idea is one harking back to a long past period of life and
-belonging to a pathologically organized “mood,” known as the “b mood” or
-state, the acceptance of the suggestion may be ineffectual. Under these
-circumstances and _when the hypnotic dissociation is carried too far_,
-so that the hypnotic state is reduced to the “b mood,” the previously
-auto-suggested acceptance of the idea by the patient is thereby
-ostracized from the hypnotic field and is unable to play its part and
-have effect. So much by way of explanation. Now when the precaution has
-not been taken to see that any resisting idea has been “taken out” and
-when the intended suggestion has not been accepted, one of the following
-phenomena is observed: (1) the hypnotic personality when the suggestion
-is given becomes “automatically” and unconsciously restless, endeavors,
-_without knowing why_, to avoid listening, and to push me away, shifting
-her attitude and struggling to withdraw herself from contact or
-proximity—all the time the face expressing hostility and disapproval in
-its features; or (2) complete obnubilation of consciousness supervenes
-so that the suggestions are not heard; or (3) the subject suddenly wakes
-up. The last frequently happens as often as the suggestion is repeated;
-and yet in hypnosis (and also, of course, when awake), the subject is
-unaware of what causes the resistance and the resulting phenomena. But
-if now the subject is warned of what has occurred and accepts the
-suggestion by the procedure mentioned (unless the “b mood” I have
-mentioned recurs), the resistance and other phenomena at once cease and
-the suggestion takes effect. Thus in this case the conflicting ideas can
-always be precisely determined and the conditions of the experiment
-arranged at will and the results controlled. It is obvious that all
-three phenomena are different modes by which the subconscious idea
-resists the suggested idea and accomplishes its aim.
-
-3. _In entire accordance with the experimental results are certain
-pathological disturbances_ which from time to time interrupt the course
-of everyday life of this subject, O. N. These disturbances consist of
-one or more of the following: a dissociative state in which the
-pathological “b mood” is dominant; a lethargic state; twilight state;
-complete repression of certain normal sentiments and instincts; complete
-alteration of previously established points of view; morbid
-self-reproach; nervousness, restlessness, agitation; anger at
-opposition; indecision of thought, etc. Now, whenever such phenomena
-recur, with practical certainty, they can always be traced by the use of
-technical methods to a conflict with a turbulent sentiment (in which
-strong emotional tones are incorporated) previously lying dormant in the
-unconscious. Sometimes the turbulent sentiment can be definitely traced
-to childhood’s experiences. Very often it has been intentionally formed
-and put into her mind by the subject herself for the very purpose of
-inducing the repression of other sentiments, to which for one reason or
-another for the time being she objects, and of changing her habitual
-point of view. Her method of artificially accomplishing this result is
-exceedingly instructive. It is similar to the auto-suggestive process I
-have described in connection with the hypnotic experiments. Having first
-prearranged her psychological plan, she proceeds to put herself into
-abstraction and to “take out”, as she calls it, her previous sentiment
-(or instinct) and substitute an antagonistic sentiment. When she comes
-to herself out of abstraction, the previously objected to sentiment has
-completely vanished. If it is one concerning a person or mode of life,
-she becomes completely indifferent to that person or mode of life as if
-previously no sentiment had existed. If an intimate friend, he becomes
-only an acquaintance toward whom she has entirely new feelings
-corresponding to the new sentiment; if a physician, nothing that he says
-has influence with her, her new feeling, we will say, being that of
-resentment; if a mode of life, she has lost all interest in that mode
-and is governed by an interest in a new mode. Even physiological bodily
-instincts have been in this way suppressed. She has indulged this
-psychological habit for years. Again and again when she has exhibited
-these, and still other, phenomena, I have been able to discover their
-origin in this auto-suggestive procedure.
-
-Some of the other phenomena I have just mentioned are more likely
-to be traced to _autochthonous conflicts between everyday
-ideas_—dissatisfactions with actual conditions of life, and wishes
-for other conditions, unwillingness to forego the fulfilment of
-certain wishes and accept the necessary conditions as they exist,
-etc. The natural consequence is restlessness, agitation, anger,
-indecision, etc. The dissociation of personality, with the
-outcropping of the “b mood,” follows—a conflict due to the
-excitation of certain childhood complexes, conserved in the
-unconscious and embracing sentiments in which are incorporated the
-instinct of self-subjection or abasement. This “b mood” is a study
-in itself. The self-reproaches are, I believe, also traceable to
-this instinct.
-
-_Conflicts may even occur between two processes, both of which are
-subconscious_ and therefore outside of the awareness of the subject.
-Thus, in B. C. A. I have frequently observed the following: while the
-right hand has been engaged in automatic writing, the left hand,
-motivated by a subconscious sentiment antagonistic to the subconscious
-ideas performing the writing, has seized the pencil, broken it, or
-thrown it across the room. The two conflicting systems of thought, each
-with its own sentiments and wishes, have been made to disclose
-themselves and exhibit their antitheses and antipathies.
-
-The principle of emotional conflict and the phenomena we have outlined
-enable us to understand the mechanism of prolonged reaction time and
-blocking of thought observed in the so-called “word association tests.”
-These tests involve too large a subject for us to enter upon them here.
-Let it suffice to say that when a test word strikes an emotional complex
-the response of the subject by an associated word may be delayed or
-completely blocked. The emotional impulse which inhibits the response
-may come from an awakened conscious or subconscious memory.
-
-=The psychogalvanic reaction as physical evidence of actual subconscious
-emotional discharge.=—This reaction may be also used to demonstrate that
-subconscious processes may actually give forth emotional impulses
-without the ideas of those processes entering the personal
-consciousness.
-
-1. I may be permitted to cite here some experiments,[242] which I made
-with Dr. Frederick Peterson, as they leave the minimum of latitude for
-interpretation and come as close as possible to the demonstration of
-emotional discharges from processes entirely outside of awareness. Such
-a demonstration is important for the theory of subconscious conflicts.
-
-The experiments were undertaken in a case of multiple personality (B. C.
-A.) with a view to obtaining the galvanic phenomenon from coconscious
-states. This case offered an exceptional opportunity to determine
-whether the galvanic reaction could be obtained in one personality from
-the dissociated complexes _deposited by the experiences of the second
-alternating personality for which there was complete amnesia on the part
-of the first_. These dissociated experiences, of course, had never
-entered the awareness of the personality tested, who, therefore,
-necessarily could not possibly recall them to memory. With the
-information furnished by the second personality, it was easy to arrange
-test words associated with the emotional ideas of the experiences
-belonging to this personality and unknown to the one tested.
-
-Similarly it was possible to test whether galvanic reaction could be
-obtained from complexes—from subconscious complexes—the residua of
-forgotten dreams, as in this case the dreams were not remembered on
-waking. An account of the dreams could be obtained in hypnosis. The
-dreams were therefore simply dissociated.
-
-Again we could test the possibility of obtaining reactions from
-subconscious perceptions and thoughts which had never arisen into
-awareness. The required information concerning these perceptions and
-thoughts could be obtained in this case in hypnosis.
-
-Now we found that test words which expressed the emotional ideas
-belonging to a forgotten dream gave, in spite of the amnesia, very
-marked rises in the galvanic curve. The same was true of the test words
-referring to dissociated experiences belonging to the _alternating_
-personality for which the tested personality had amnesia, and of the
-subconscious perceptions. For instance (as an example of the latter),
-the word _lorgnette_, referring to a subconscious perception of a
-stranger unnoticed by the conscious personality, gave a very lively
-reaction.
-
-Further, pin pricks, which could not be consciously perceived owing to
-the _anesthesia_ of the skin, gave strong reactions.
-
-Now here in the first two sets of observations were emotional effects
-apparently obtained from what were very precise complexes which were
-definitely underlying, in that they never had been experienced by the
-personality tested and therefore could not come from memories, or from
-associations of which this personality was aware. They could only come
-from the residua of a personality which had experienced them and which
-was now “underlying.” That these experiences had been conserved is shown
-by the recovery of them in a hypnotic state, and by their being
-remembered by the secondary personality. Even the pin pricks, which were
-not felt on account of the anesthesia, gave reactions. It could be
-logically inferred, therefore, that the galvanic reaction was due to the
-activity of subconscious complexes, using the term in the narrow and
-restricted sense of conserved residua without conscious equivalents. But
-the conditions were more complicated than I have described. There was in
-this case a veritable coconscious personality, a split-off,
-well-organized system of conscious states synthesized into a personal
-consciousness—two foci of self-consciousness. Now the coconscious
-personality with its large system of thoughts had full memory of all
-these amnesic experiences; it remembered the dreams and the experiences
-of the second personality, and perceived the pin pricks. Hence we
-concluded that the galvanic phenomena were obtained from the memory and
-perceptions of this coconscious personality.
-
-This demonstration of an actual physical discharge is proof positive
-that an emotional process can function subconsciously. This being so,
-_it only needs this discharge to come into conflict with some other
-process, conscious or subconscious, for one or other phenomenon of
-conflict to be manifested_.
-
-2. This psycho-galvanic phenomenon may be correlated with those
-phenomena which we have already studied (p. 381) wherein the emotional
-element of the process alone rises into consciousness. The former
-phenomenon is therefore the manifestation of the efferent and the latter
-of the central part of the activated emotional disposition. The former
-supports the interpretation of various clinical motor phenomena as being
-the efferent manifestations of purely subconscious emotional processes.
-I refer to hysterical tics, spasms, contractures, etc. The latter
-phenomenon we have had frequent occasion to refer to. You will remember,
-for instance, that in the case of Miss B. on numerous occasions it was
-observed that emotion, particularly of fear, swept over the conscious
-personality without apparent cause. This emotion could be traced to
-specific dissociated and coconscious ideas. Likewise in B. C. A., states
-of anxiety or depression could be related to specific coconscious ideas
-which, having been shunted out of the field of consciousness, continued
-their activity in a coconscious state. Janet, as might be expected of so
-accurate an observer, long ago described the same phenomenon—the
-invasion of the personal consciousness by the emotion belonging to a
-coconscious idea. “Isabella,” he writes, “presents constantly conditions
-which have the same character; we shall cite but one other in the
-interest of the study of dementia. For a week or so she has been gloomy
-and sad; she hides and will not speak to anyone. We have trouble in
-getting a few words from her, and these she says very low, casting her
-eyes down: ‘I am not worthy to speak with other people.... I am very
-much ashamed, I have a crushing load on my mind like a terrible gnawing
-remorse....’—‘A remorse about what?’—‘Ah! that’s just it. I am trying to
-find it out day and night. What is it that I could have done last week?
-for before I was not thus. Tell me candidly, did I do something very bad
-last week?’ This time, as will be seen, the question is no longer about
-an act, but about a feeling, a general emotional state which she
-interprets as remorse; she is equally incapable of understanding and
-expressing the fixed idea which determines this feeling. If you divert
-the subject’s attention, you can obtain the automatic writing, and you
-will see that the hand of the patient constantly writes the same name,
-that of Isabella’s sister who died a short time ago. During the attacks
-and the somnambulic sleep we establish a very complicated dream in which
-this poor young girl thinks she murdered her sister. That is quite a
-common delirium, you will say; perhaps so, but for a hysteric it
-presents itself in a rather curious manner. She suffers only from its
-rebound, experiences only the emotional side of it; of the delirium
-itself she is wholly ignorant; the latter remains subconscious.”...
-
-“It will be seen by this last example that, in some cases, a small
-portion of the fixed idea may be conscious. Isabella feels that she is
-troubled by some remorse, she knows not what. It thus frequently happens
-that hystericals, during their normal waking time, complain of a certain
-mental attitude, so much so that they partly look as if obsessed.
-Celestine experiences thus feelings of anger which she cannot
-explain.”[243]
-
-As might be expected intense conflicts may have wide-reaching
-consequences and lead to the development of pathological conditions.
-Indeed, in the latter we find the most clear-cut exemplars of repression
-(dissociation) and other phenomena produced by conflict. I shall point
-out in later lectures[244] how in a specific case intense religious
-sentiments completely repressed their antagonistic instincts and
-eventuated in dissociation of (multiple) personality (Miss B.) Likewise
-with B. C. A., as I interpret the phenomena, the dissociation of
-personality resulted from a conflict between wishes that could not be
-fulfilled and sentiments of duty, respect, etc. We shall see later the
-significance of this principle for the understanding of other
-pathological states.
-
------
-
-Footnote 220:
-
- ... “Every instinctive process has the three aspects of all mental
- processes, the cognitive, the affective, and the conative. Now, the
- innate psychophysical disposition, which is an instinct, may be
- regarded as consisting of three corresponding parts, an afferent, a
- central, and a motor or efferent part, whose activities are the
- cognitive, the affective, and the conative features respectively of
- the total instinctive process. The afferent or receptive part of the
- total disposition is some organized group of nervous elements or
- neurones that is specially adapted to receive and to elaborate the
- impulses initiated in the sense-organ by the native object of the
- instinct; its constitution and activities determine the sensory
- content of the psychophysical process. From the afferent part the
- excitement spreads over to the central part of the disposition; the
- constitution of this part determines in the main the distribution of
- the nervous impulses, especially the impulses that descend to modify
- the working of the visceral organs, the heart, lungs, blood vessels,
- glands, etc., in the manner required for the most effective excitation
- of the instinctive action; the nervous activities of this central part
- are the correlates of the affective or emotional aspect or feature of
- the total physical process. The excitement of the efferent or motor
- part reaches it by the way of the central part; its construction
- determines the distribution of impulses to the muscles of the skeletal
- system by which the instinctive action is effected, and its nervous
- activities are the correlates of the conative element of the physical
- process, of the felt impulse to action.” William McDougall. An
- introduction to Social Psychology, p. 32.
-
-Footnote 221:
-
- Social Psychology, p. 44.
-
-Footnote 222:
-
- Ibid, p. 159.
-
-Footnote 223:
-
- Not included in this volume.
-
-Footnote 224:
-
- Personally communicated.
-
-Footnote 225:
-
- This theory of the part played by the sensory accompaniments of
- visceral activity I would suggest as a substitute for the James-Lange
- theory.
-
-Footnote 226:
-
- Hilton: Rest and Pain.
-
-Footnote 227:
-
- Note analogues in Sherrington’s mechanism of the spinal reflexes.
-
-Footnote 228:
-
- I follow in the main McDougall’s classification as sufficiently
- adequate and accurate for our purposes.
-
-Footnote 229:
-
- In fact, this was successfully done.
-
-Footnote 230:
-
- For purposes of simplification I leave aside feelings of pleasure and
- pain, excitement and depression, for though their main functions may
- be only to guide or shape the actions prompted by the instincts, as
- McDougall affirms, still I think there is sound reason to believe that
- feelings also have conative force and are coöperative impulsive
- factors.
-
-Footnote 231:
-
- McDougall has proposed the ingenious theory that that which we
- understand, properly speaking, by “will” is a complex form of conation
- issuing from a particular sentiment, viz., the complexly organized
- sentiment of self (“self-regarding sentiment”). The behavior
- immediately determined by the primitive instincts and other sentiments
- cannot be classed as volition, but should be regarded as simple
- instinctive conation. When, therefore, the will reinforces a sentiment
- and determines conduct it is the self-regarding sentiment which
- provides the “volitional” impulse and is the controlling factor. If
- this theory should stand it would give a satisfactory solution of this
- difficult question. Perhaps it receives some support on the part of
- abnormal psychology in that certain observations seem to show, if I
- correctly interpret them, that self-consciousness is a complex capable
- of being dissociated like any idea or sentiment. I shall presently
- describe a quasi-pathological state which may be called
- depersonalization. In this state the “conscious intelligence” present
- is able to think and reason logically and sanely, is capable of good
- judgments, and has an unusually large field of memory, in short, is a
- very intelligent consciousness; nevertheless, it exhibits a very
- strange phenomenon: it has lost all consciousness of self; it has no
- sense of personality, of anything to which the term “I” can be
- applied. This sentiment seems to be absolutely dissociated in this
- state.
-
-Footnote 232:
-
- The repression of the sexual instinct and of sexual wishes plays the
- dominant rôle in the Freudian psychology. If a wish may be correctly
- defined psychologically as the impulsive force of a sentiment striving
- toward an end plus the pleasurable feeling resulting from the imagined
- attainment of that end, i.e., the imagined gratification of the
- impulse, then the repression of a wish belongs to the phenomena of
- repressed sentiments rather than of primitive instincts. This
- distinction, I think, is of some importance, as will appear when we
- consider subconscious sentiments.
-
-Footnote 233:
-
- In making use of suggestion for therapeutic purposes it is essential
- to construct one with strong emotional tones and pleasurable and
- exalting feelings for the purposes of increasing resistances to
- contrary impulses, and carrying the suggestion to fruition. This I
- believe to be one of the secrets of successful suggestive procedure.
- The construction of an effective suggestion is an art in itself and
- must be based on the psychological conditions existing in each case.
-
-Footnote 234:
-
- Of course this attitude is not to be viewed as an isolated event
- standing all alone by itself. It must be read like nearly all events
- of life in relation to a series of antecedent events. These, to her,
- had denoted indifference, and now on this crucial occasion formed the
- real setting and gave the offensive meaning to her spouse’s
- forgetfulness.
-
-Footnote 235:
-
- Notwithstanding the frequency with which asexuality is met with in
- women, I am strongly inclined to the opinion that the sexual instinct
- in the sex is never really absent, excepting, of course, in late life
- and in organic disease. No woman is born without it. When apparently
- absent it is only inhibited or dissociated by the subtle influences of
- the environment, education, conflicting sentiments, etc.
-
-Footnote 236:
-
- A distinction should be made between hunger and appetite. Food may
- excite appetite, although hunger has been appeased.
-
-Footnote 237:
-
- Note that the same idea forms different sentiments in different phases
- or moods, according to the emotions with which it is linked. In this
- case, in phase C, it is linked with mortification, self-abasement,
- possibly anger, pride, and feelings of pain and depression; in phase
- B, with joyful emotions and feelings of pleasure and excitement. Also
- note that the former sentiment, although out of mind at the time of
- the observation, is conserved in the unconscious.
-
-Footnote 238:
-
- At first the subject (B) had no anticipation or supposition that such
- a conflict would occur. Later she learned after repeated experiences
- to anticipate the probable consequences of trying to tell
- tales-out-of-school.
-
-Footnote 239:
-
- The Dissociation, see Index: “Subconscious ideas.”
-
-Footnote 240:
-
- _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, October-November, 1908.
-
-Footnote 241:
-
- The Dissociation, p. 538.
-
-Footnote 242:
-
- _Journal Abn. Psychol._, June-July, 1908.
-
-Footnote 243:
-
- The Mental State of Hystericals, pp. 289-290.
-
-Footnote 244:
-
- Not included in this volume.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE XVI
- GENERAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM EMOTIONAL CONFLICTS
-
-
-The awakening of intense emotional impulses we have seen tends to
-intensify certain activities and to inhibit other conflicting ones.
-Further when that which is inhibited is a sentiment possessing an
-intense emotion the sentiment tends to become dissociated[245] from the
-personal consciousness and free to become by the force of its own
-emotional dispositions a subconscious process. As a consequence of these
-tendencies there may result a number of psycho-physiological conditions
-of personality with some of which we should become familiar. They are
-observable, as would be expected, in every-day life, and when highly
-accentuated become pathological phenomena. Let us now consider some of
-them in detail.
-
-=Contraction of the field of consciousness and of personality.=—In
-every-day life intense emotion excludes from the field of awareness
-thoughts that are unrelated, antagonistic to and incompatible with the
-ideas exciting the emotion, and perceptions of the environment that
-ordinarily would enter awareness. The field of consciousness is thereby
-contracted and limited to thoughts excited by or associated with the
-emotion. Thus, for example, in the heat of anger the mind is dominated
-by the particular object or thought which gave rise to the anger, or by
-anger exciting associated ideas. Conflicting memories and correlated
-knowledge that would modify the point of view and judgment and mollify
-(inhibit) the anger are suppressed and cannot enter the focus of
-attention. Further, a person in such a state may not perceive many
-ocular, auditory, tactile, and other impressions coming from the
-environment; he may not see the people about him, hear what is said, or
-feel what is done to him, or only in an imperfect way. All these
-sensations are either actually inhibited or prevented from entering
-awareness (dissociated) by the conflicting conative force of the
-emotion. In other words there is a dissociation (or inhibition) of
-consciousness and consequent contraction of its field to certain
-emotional ideas.
-
-To take a concrete example, you are playing a game of cards and with
-zest throw yourself into the game. Something happens to arouse your
-anger. At once there is a conflict: The impulsive force of your
-pugnacity instinct meets with the impulsive force of your play instinct
-and its pleasure feelings. If the former is the stronger, the latter
-with the ideas to which it is linked are inhibited, repressed, driven
-out of consciousness. The pleasure of play ceases and its impulses no
-longer determine your thoughts. Further, you forget the cards that have
-been played though you knew them well a moment before, you may forget
-your manners, become oblivious to social etiquette and the environment.
-You can no longer reason on the play of the cards; you forget your card
-knowledge. All these processes are inhibited, and consequently the field
-of consciousness and personality becomes contracted.
-
-On the other hand, the emotion of anger dominating the mind, ideas
-associated with or which tend to carry your pugnacity instinct to
-fruition, arise and direct and determine your conduct. Habit reactions
-are likely to come automatically into play, and you break out into angry
-denunciatory speech, if that is your habit. I leave you to fill out the
-details of the picture for yourselves.
-
-And yet, again through training in self-control, a self-regarding
-sentiment conflicting with the anger impulse may be awakened, and the
-latter in turn be dominated, repressed, inhibited.
-
-In the case of an intense fear it is common observation that this
-contraction may reach a high degree. In the excitement of a railroad
-accident the frightened passenger does not feel the bruising and pain
-which he otherwise would suffer, nor hear the shrieks of his fellow
-passengers nor perceive but a small part of what is occurring about him,
-but driven only by the intensely motivating idea of escape from danger
-he struggles for safety. His field of consciousness is limited to the
-few ideas of danger, escape, and the means of safety. All else is
-dissociated by the conative force of the emotion and cannot enter the
-focus of attention. He could not philosophize on the accident if he
-would. In ordinary concentration of attention or absent-mindedness the
-same phenomenon of contraction of the field of consciousness occurs
-occasioned by interest; but with cessation of interest the field of
-awareness quickly widens. So in contraction of this field from emotion
-the normal is restored so soon as the emotion ceases.
-
-When this same general contraction of the field of consciousness,
-effected by the repressing force of emotion, reaches a certain acme we
-have a pathological condition—the _hysterical state_. The field of
-consciousness is now occupied by the single dissociating idea or complex
-of ideas with its emotion that did the repressing—a condition of
-mono-ideism. All other conscious processes are inhibited or dissociated.
-When the complex is an intensely emotional one, its nervous energy, now
-unbridled, is free to discharge itself in many directions, perhaps
-producing convulsive phenomena of one kind or another.
-
-To attribute these effects of emotion to repression _from conflict_ is
-only to express the facts in different terms. But it would be often an
-over-emphasis to describe what takes place as a specific conflict
-between particular sentiments. It is often rather the discharge of a
-blind impulsive force in every direction which, like a blast of
-dynamite, suppresses or dissociates every other process which might come
-into consciousness and displace it.
-
-_Systematized dissociation._—Quite commonly the dissociated field, by
-whatever force isolated, instead of being general may be systematized.
-By this is meant that only certain perceptions, or groups or categories
-of ideas that have been organized into a system, or have associative
-relations, are prevented from entering the personal synthesis. In other
-respects the conscious processes may be normal. The simplest type is
-probably systematized anesthesia, exemplified in every-day life in
-anyone who fails to perceive his eye-glasses, or any other object he is
-in search of that is lying under his nose on the table before him; and
-by the post-hypnotic phenomenon exhibited by the subject who fails to
-perceive a _marked_ playing card or to hear or see a given person,
-though he perceives all the other cards in the pack and everyone else in
-the room; and by the hysteric who likewise fails to perceive certain
-systematized sensations, such as the printing on a page which, itself,
-therefore appears blank. That which is dissociated in these examples is
-a comparatively very simple complex, but it may involve larger and
-larger groups of remembrances, perceptions, sentiments (with their
-emotions and feelings), settings, attitudes, instincts, and other innate
-dispositions, etc., organized into a system about the sentiment of self.
-Such groups and systems may, as we saw when studying the organization of
-complexes (Lecture IX), be dissociated in that they cease to take part
-in the functioning of the personality. The personality becomes thereby
-contracted.
-
-1. The principle involved is this: When a specific idea or
-psycho-physiological function (memory, sensation, perception, instinct)
-is by any force dissociated, the exiled idea or function tends to carry
-with itself into seclusion other ideas and functions with which it is
-systematized. The dissociation is apt to involve much more than the
-particular psychological element in question in that it “robs” the
-personal consciousness of much else. I have already cited in a previous
-lecture (p. 318) examples of this principle. I need merely remind you of
-the observation with Miss B., where the systematized dissociation of
-auditory images pertaining to the experimenter carried with it the
-associated secondary visual images of him necessary for tactile
-perception of his hand. Similarly, in B. C. A., the general dissociation
-of tactile images carried with it the secondary visual images necessary
-for the visualization of her body. A large number of examples drawn from
-all kinds of dissociative phenomena might be given. I will content
-myself with mentioning two or three more: In automatic writing the
-dissociated muscular control of the hands usually robs the personal
-consciousness, so far as the hand is concerned, of all sensory
-perception, and in automatic speech the dissociation of the faculty of
-speech often robs the personal consciousness of the auditory perception
-of the subject’s own voice. In hysterics, the specific dissociation of
-one class of perceptions carries away others systematized with them. In
-systematized anesthesia it is often easy to recognize this fact. A good
-example of this is that recorded in the case of Miss B., who, believing
-she had lost her finger rings, not only could not be made to see or feel
-them, but also not even the ribbon on which they were hung round her
-neck, or to hear them click together, or to feel the tug of the ribbon
-when I pulled it.[246] The perceptions of these associated sensations
-were therefore also withdrawn. The same principle can be demonstrated by
-suggestion in suitable subjects. Thus, for example, I suggest to one of
-these subjects in hypnosis that she will forget an episode associated
-with a certain person named “August.” After waking she has amnesia not
-only for the episode but for the name of the person and for the word in
-its other meanings, e. g., the name of a calendar month. She cannot
-recall that a month intervenes between July and September.
-
-In these examples the source of the dissociating force is not in every
-case obvious. But this need not concern us now. What I want to point out
-is that when the dissociation is the consequence of an emotional
-discharge the same principle frequently comes into play, the same
-phenomenon of systematization is of common occurrence. It may be
-recognized with considerable exactness when a conflict between
-sentiments has been artificially created. Thus the phenomenon, described
-in the last lecture (p. 476), of inhibition of sentiments by a
-self-suggested antagonistic sentiment, may equally well be cited in
-evidence of this principle. Similarly, O. N. suggested to herself a
-sentiment antagonistic to a specific sentiment which she previously
-entertained regarding a particular person. Not only was the latter
-sentiment dissociated but a number of other allied sentiments
-systematized around the same person were also incidentally and
-unintentionally repressed and withdrawn from consciousness, so much so
-that her whole point of view was altered.[247] (It was easy in hypnosis
-by the procedures already stated to synthesize the sentiments at will so
-as to drive out, with suggested antagonistic sentiments, the undesired
-ones. The change of viewpoint and feeling after waking from hypnosis was
-often quite dramatic.)
-
-2. By this mechanism we can explain the dissociation of large systems of
-sentiments leaving a contracted personality—a mere extract of its former
-self—dissociated and distinguished from what it was by different
-sentiments, instincts and other innate dispositions.[248] The facts seem
-to show that the awakening of the emotional impulses of certain
-sentiments inhibits, not only those particular antagonistic sentiments
-with which the former are incompatible, but large systems of sentiments,
-and many instincts and other innate dispositions with which the
-inhibited sentiments are systematized. The contracted self may or may
-not be able to recall to memory the fact of having previously
-experienced the dissociated sentiments. But whether so or not the latter
-no longer functionally participate in the personality.
-
-This mechanism, to be sure, is an interpretation but the facts are
-easily demonstrated. Minor types of such dissociations result in what we
-have described as “moods.” More extreme types are pathological and
-characterized as phases of personality.
-
-3. The contrast of the sentiments in such moods and phases with the
-habitual sentiments having identically the same objects is striking. In
-other words the object is organized with an entirely different group of
-emotions (instincts). The subject’s sentiment of husband or wife or
-father or son no longer contains the emotions of love and reverence,
-etc.; but, perhaps, there are organized within it the emotions of anger,
-hatred, contempt, etc. A self-regarding sentiment of self-subjection
-with shame, “feelings” of inadequacy and depression may be substituted
-for self-assertion, pride, self-respect, etc. These clinical facts are
-matters of observation. B——n suffers from constantly recurring and very
-intense attacks of asthma which have certain characteristics which stamp
-it as an hysterical tic. In the attacks it is noticeable that her
-personality and disposition—normally amiable, gentle, and
-affectionate—undergo a change. The parental instinct and sentiments of
-affection for her family, of whom she is very fond, of modesty, of
-pride, of consideration for others, etc., disappear and are replaced by
-others of an opposite character. Fear, anger, and resentment are easily
-aroused, etc. B. C. A. in phase B of personality knew nothing of
-remorse, self-reproach, or despair which characterized the normal phase,
-and experienced only emotions and feelings of pleasure and
-happiness.[249]
-
-Janet, with his customary accuracy in observing facts, has noted these
-changes, although I think in his attempt at interpretation he has not
-quite recognized the mechanism by which they are brought about. “With
-Renée,” this author remarks, when noting the facts, “we have gradually
-seen disappearing the taste for finery; her coquetry—vanity,
-even—disappeared. With others, the love of property is gone; they lose
-all that belongs to them and do not care. Bertha formerly had great
-timidity; she now wonders at the loss of it. She goes and comes at
-night; she looks at dead bones of which she was afraid in past years,
-and asks: ‘Why does all this make no impression on me now?’ Marie,
-especially, is very curious as to that. She takes no longer any interest
-in things or people. Overwhelmed with misfortunes, consequences of her
-malady, and, after having been in comfortable circumstances, reduced to
-extreme poverty, she does not perceive that her situation is serious.
-She loses money, when she has only a few pennies left; she mislays her
-clothing, can scarcely keep on the dress she is wearing and does not
-seem to trouble herself about it in the least. Yet we observe that she
-is still intelligent and might provide against her situation. She does
-so very little, and only wonders at her indifference. ‘Formerly I took
-care of my things; now I do not.’ There are some still more
-characteristic facts to be observed in this patient. Formerly she loved
-her husband and was even quite jealous about him. She was devoted to her
-two children. Since her illness she has gradually abandoned her
-children, who have been reared by her sisters, and she finally left her
-husband. For the last three years, instead of her former happy life, she
-leads about Paris the most miserable existence. Not once did she inquire
-about her husband or her children. She heard indirectly of the former’s
-death. ‘Strange!’ she said, ‘it does not affect me in the least; yet, I
-assure you, it does not make me happy, either ... I simply don’t care.’
-‘But if we were to tell you that your little Louis [it was her favorite
-child] is dead, too?’ ‘How do you suppose it can affect me? I have
-forgotten him!’”[250]
-
-4. Janet, when interpreting such phenomena, attributes them to
-“psychological feebleness” in consequence of which the personality
-cannot synthesize more than a certain number of emotions and ideas to
-form the personal self-consciousness. It certainly cannot perform the
-synthesis involved in retaining certain formerly possessed sentiments,
-etc., but it is not because of _feebleness_. Many hysterics can
-synthesize quite as _many_ psychological elements as a normal person,
-but not sentiments and emotions of a certain _character_, i.e., those
-which pertain to certain experiences, to certain systems of
-remembrances. M. Janet has quite correctly pointed out that, in spite of
-the apathy and lack of emotionality of hysterics in certain
-directions,—which, I would insist, in the last analysis means the
-absence of _particular_ sentiments and instincts—in other directions
-these patients are “extremely excitable and susceptible of very
-exaggerated emotions,” which in turn means the retention of particular
-sentiments and instincts. These last dominate the personality. Here is
-the key to the enigma.
-
-From this point of view, the effect of the impulsive force of the
-dominating emotions has been misinterpreted by M. Janet. These emotions
-are the causal factors in determining the apathy, i.e., absence of
-particular sentiments and instincts, and explain _why_ they cannot be
-brought within the personal synthesis. If we bear in mind that emotion
-means discharge of force, an adequate explanation of such phenomena in a
-great many instances, at least, is to be found in the principle of
-conflict and dissociation. The conflict is between the impulsive forces
-of the emotions pertaining either to antagonistic instincts or to
-sentiments organized within different systems. With the excitation of
-emotion, instincts and sentiments which have opposing conative
-tendencies are inhibited, repressed, or dissociated, and with them the
-systems with which they are organized. The emotion does not so much
-cause “psychological feebleness” in consequence of which the personality
-cannot synthesize sentiments, as it inhibits and dissociates
-antagonistic sentiments, etc., which consequently cannot be synthesized.
-The _result_ you may call “feebleness” if you like.
-
-Hence it is that hysterics present the seeming paradox of having, as M.
-Janet observed, “in reality fewer emotions than is generally thought and
-[in] that their principal character is here, as it is always, a
-diminution of psychological phenomena. These patients are in general
-very indifferent, at least to all that is not directly connected with a
-small number of fixed ideas.” According to the view which we are
-maintaining, the “fewer emotions” are due to the dissociation of many
-sentiments and instincts by the dominating emotional complex.
-
-5. Let us not forget that this explanation is a matter of
-interpretation, but the interpretation comports with what is common
-observation of what happens when a new emotion which is incompatible
-with an existing emotion (fear—anger) is excited. In the case of Miss
-B., the alternation of the personality coincident with the excitation of
-an emotion occurred with such frequency, not to say with regularity,
-that there seemed to be no room to doubt the causal factor and the
-mechanism.[251] Sometimes the dissociation resulted in the formation of
-new phases of personality in which Miss B. reverted to a past epoch of
-time in which she lived once more, the experiences of all later epochs
-being dissociated; sometimes in phases with a very contracted field of
-consciousness without orientation in time or place and with little
-knowledge of self or environment; sometimes—and in these instances the
-dissociation of organized systems could most clearly be recognized—in
-the substitution of one of the already established phases (BI, BIV, or
-BIII) for another. It is not always easy without intensive study, to
-determine the exact sentiment or instinct which is responsible for the
-dissociation, although the actual occurrence of the emotional state just
-preceding the development of the phenomenon is obtrusively obvious. “At
-various times as a result of emotionally disintegrating circumstances”
-at least eight different phases were observed in addition to the three
-regularly recurrent phases.[252]
-
-In B. C. A. the gradual organization through the circumstances of life
-of a group of “rebellious” ideas, in which the dominating sentiments and
-instincts were intensely antagonistic to those previously peculiar to
-the subject, could be clearly determined. So antagonistic was this group
-that it was known as the rebellious complex but termed B complex for
-convenience. It became by successive accretions a large system and phase
-of personality. The details are too extensive to enter into at this
-time; suffice it to say that as the result of what is called an
-“emotional shock” the B system came into being. This interpreted means
-that the shock was really the excitation of the rebellious sentiments
-and other emotions belonging to the B system; there was a conflict; the
-habitual sentiments and the system to which they belonged were inhibited
-and replaced by the former (B). Later the displaced sentiments and their
-corresponding A system were awakened, the emotions giving rise to
-another shock, a conflict, and the B system, in turn, was inhibited. And
-so it could be recognized that alternations of systems could be evoked
-by the alternate excitation of sentiments and instincts—or complexes, if
-you prefer the term—pertaining to each.
-
-6. This summary of the phenomena of conflict inducing dissociation of
-personality would be incomplete if the _dissociations effected by
-entirely subconscious processes_ were not mentioned. These can be very
-neatly studied with coconscious personalities, as such personalities can
-give very precise information of the mode by which the displacement of
-the primary personality is effected. In the cases of Miss B. and B. C.
-A. “Sally” and “B,” respectively, have done this. It appears, according
-to this testimony, that coconscious “willing” or strong conation, even
-simply a wish to inhibit the principal consciousness, would effect that
-result. Thus, for instance, B testified: “When A is present I can ‘come’
-voluntarily by willing, i.e., blot A out and then I ‘come.’... By
-willing I mean I would say to A: ‘... Go away’: ‘Get out of the way’:
-‘Let me come: I _will_ come,’ and then A disappeared. She was gone and I
-was there. It was almost instantaneous.... Sometimes the wish to change
-would blot out A without actual willing.”
-
-In the case of Miss B. similar testimony of the effect of coconscious
-willing and wishes was obtained.
-
-When the coconscious wishes, sentiments, etc., are not synthesized into
-a large self-conscious system (i.e., coconscious personality) which can
-give direct testimony as to the subconscious conflicts, the former and
-the process which they incite must be inferred from known antecedent
-factors and the observed phenomena of inhibition or dissociation. That
-general and systematized dissociation are phenomena which can be, and
-frequently are, induced by the conative force of purely subconscious
-processes, in view of the multiform data offered by hysterics can be
-open to no manner of doubt. The process may be also formulated in terms
-of conflict.
-
-=Laws governing the lines of cleavage of personality.=—In systematized
-dissociation there is a cleavage between certain organized systems of
-experiences and functions and the remainder of the personality. The
-contracted personality is consequently shorn of much. But we understand
-only very incompletely the laws which determine _the direction of the
-line of cleavage_ and the consequent extent of the dissociated field.
-Unquestionably this follows the law of organization of complexes in a
-general way, but not wholly so. For instance, it is impossible by this
-law or by any known mechanism to explain the anesthesia which sometimes,
-apparently spontaneously, appears in certain hypnotic states. A given
-subject, e. g., B. C. A., is simply hypnotized by suggestion and
-successively falls into two different states. In one state the subject
-is found to be completely anesthetic and in the other normally esthetic.
-The subject is one and the same and the dissociating suggestion, which
-is the same in each case, contains nothing specifically related to
-sensation; and yet the line of cleavage is within the field of sensation
-in the one case and without it in the other; i.e., that which is
-dissociated includes the sensory field in the one state and not in the
-other. Similarly when the disaggregation of personality is brought about
-by the force of a conflicting emotion, the resulting hysterical state or
-dissociated personality may be robbed of certain sensory or motor
-functions, although these functions are not as far as we can see
-logically related to the emotion or the ideas coupled with it. Thus a
-person receives an emotional shock and develops a one-sided anesthesia
-and paralysis—a very common phenomenon. Louis Vivé used to pass into one
-state in which he had left hemiplegia and into another in which he had
-right hemiplegia, another with paraplegia. Each state had its own
-systematized memories, but why each had its own and different motor and
-sensory dissociations cannot be explained. In Miss B. the dissociation
-which resulted in the formation of the secondary personality, Sally,
-withdrew, without apparent rhyme or reason, the whole general field of
-sensations so that Sally was completely anesthetic.[253] The sensory
-functions seemed to be wantonly ejected along with the repressed
-complexes of ideas. _Per contra_, by the same process which results in
-dissociation, lost functions are often paradoxically synthesized. Mrs.
-E. B. and Mrs. R., anesthetic when “awake,” are found to be normally
-esthetic in hypnosis; i.e., the sensory functions are spontaneously
-synthesized with the hypnotic personality. In other words, in hypnosis
-the personal synthesis is in this respect more normal than in the
-“waking” state.
-
-Again, when amnesia results it may cover a past epoch—retrograde
-amnesia—without obvious reason for the chronological line of cleavage.
-In short the suppression by dissociation of a specific psychological
-element—remembrance, perception, sentiment, etc.—not only tends to rob
-the personality of a whole psychological system in which it is organized
-but of other faculties, the relation of which to the specifically
-dissociated element is obscure. It seems as if the dissociation
-sometimes followed physiological as well as psychological lines.[254] It
-is in accordance with this principle that instincts and sentiments which
-are not immediately concerned in the specific conflict nor antagonistic
-to the dissociating emotion are often suppressed. Thus it is that
-hysterics, as we have seen by examples, have lost so many emotions
-(instincts) and the sentiments involving them, though they are so
-excitable to the emotions that are retained. In the case of B. C. A. the
-secondary personality B, the resultant (as I interpret the case) of the
-conflict between the play instinct and sentiments of duty,
-responsibility, etc., lost the parental instinct with the emotion of
-tender feeling (McDougall) and that of fear, with their corresponding
-sentiments. She was shockingly devoid of filial and maternal love and,
-indeed, of affection, in the true sense, for her friends. Likewise Sally
-(in the case of Miss B.), also the product of conflict between the
-impulses of the play instinct and those of the religious emotions, was
-entirely devoid of fear, of the sexual, and of certain other instincts
-not antagonistic to the dominating play instinct. She had lost also a
-great many, if not all, sentiments involving the tender feeling. As in
-the examples given of dissociation of motor, sensory, and other
-functions, the dissociative line of cleavage had excluded more than was
-engaged in the conflict. Of course, there always must be some reason for
-the direction taken by any line of cleavage, following the application
-of force, whether the fracture be of a psycho-physiological organism or
-of a piece of china; but when the conditions are as complex as they are
-in the human organism their determination becomes a difficult problem.
-When we come to study multiple personality we shall see that the
-suppression of instincts plays an important rôle.
-
-=Amnesia.=—It is a general rule that when a person passes from a
-condition of extreme dissociation to the normal state there is a
-tendency for _amnesia_ to supervene for the previous dissociated state
-(multiple personalities, epileptic and hysterical fugues, hypnotic and
-dream states, etc.). Likewise in everyday life it frequently happens,
-when the dissociation effected by emotion results in an extremely
-retracted field of consciousness, that, after this emotional state has
-subsided and the normal state has been restored, memory for the excited
-retracted state, including the actions performed, is abolished or
-impaired. Even criminal acts committed in highly emotional states
-(anger, “brain storms,” etc.) may be forgotten afterwards. In other
-words, in the normal state there is in turn a dissociation of the
-residua of the excited state. The experiences of this latter state are
-not lost, however, but only dissociated in that they cannot be
-synthesized with the personal consciousness and thereby reproduced as
-memory. That they may be still conserved as neurographic residua is
-shown in those cases suitable for experimental investigation where they
-can be reproduced by artificial devices (hypnotism, abstraction, etc.).
-
-Thus B. C. A. could not recall a certain emotional experience although
-it made a tremendous impression upon her, disrupted her personality, and
-induced her illness. In other respects her memory was normal. Janet has
-described this amnesia following emotional shocks, notably in the
-classical case of Mme. D.
-
-1. On first thought it seems strange that a person cannot remember such
-an important experience as that, for example, of B. C. A., when for all
-else the memory is normal. That this experience had awakened conflicting
-ideas and intense, blazing emotions with great retraction of the field
-of consciousness of the moment is shown by the history. Later there was
-found to be a hiatus in the memory, the amnesia beginning and ending
-sharply at particular points, shortly before and shortly after this
-experience. In other words, the extremely dissociated and retracted
-emotional field could not be synthesized with the personal consciousness
-or, one might say, with the sentiment of self. In hypnosis, however,
-this could be done and the memory recovered. Freud has proposed an
-ingenious theory involving a particular mechanism by which such amnesic
-effects are produced. According to this theory the dissociated
-experience cannot be recalled because it is so painful that it cannot be
-tolerated by consciousness; i.e., attempted emergence as memory meets
-with the resistance of conflicting subconscious thoughts, acting as a
-censor or guardian, and the experience is repressed and prevented from
-entering consciousness. (It would be, perhaps, within the scope of this
-theory to say that the impulsive force of the conflicting sentiments
-(involving pride and self-respect and the instinct of anger) awakened at
-the moment of the experience continued more or less subconsciously to
-repress the memory of the whole experience.)
-
-2. If expressed in the following form I think the theory would equally
-well explain such amnesias, be in conformity with certain known hypnotic
-phenomena and, perhaps, be more acceptable: An experienced desire not to
-face, or think of, i.e., to recall to memory, a certain painful
-experience is conserved in the usual way. When an attempt is made to
-recall the episode _this desire becomes an active subconscious process_
-and inhibits the memory process. The analogue of this we have in
-posthypnotic amnesia induced by suggestion. In the hypnotic state the
-suggestion is given that the subject after waking shall have forgotten a
-certain experience, a name, or an episode. After waking the conative
-force[255] of the suggested idea, functioning _entirely subconsciously_
-(as there is complete forgetfulness for the hypnotic state), inhibits
-the memory of the test experience in that there is found to be amnesia
-for the latter. One may say there has been a subconscious conflict
-followed by inhibition of one of the belligerents. That antecedent
-thoughts of the individual can likewise become activated as subconscious
-processes and come into conflict with other processes and inhibit them,
-thus preventing them from becoming conscious, we have already seen. The
-antagonism of the motives in the two processes is often obvious.
-Numerous examples of inhibitions (induced by conflicts with subconscious
-ideas, emotions, and conations) of mental processes which could
-afterwards be recalled to memory in a secondary state of personality
-have been recorded in the case of Miss B.[256] Likewise in B. C. A.
-similar phenomena were testified to as due to subconscious
-conflicts.[257] There would seem to be no question therefore of either
-the occurrence of subconscious conflicts or their efficiency in
-producing amnesia.
-
-3. However all this may be, there is no need for us now to enter into
-the question of mechanisms. Certain it is, though, that we often forget
-what we want to forget, which means memories that are unpleasant; and
-certain types of pathological amnesia answer to the Freudian mechanism
-or some modification of it. Certain amnesias undoubtedly follow
-deliberate wishes to put certain experiences out of mind, just as they
-follow hypnotic suggestions that they shall be forgotten. A very neat
-example is that of the observation previously given (Lecture III, p. 74)
-of the subject who, in a moment of despair and resentment against
-criticism, expressed a wish to forget her own marriage name, and lo! and
-behold! on waking the next day she found she could not recall it. But
-amnesias of this kind differ in an important respect from the classical
-amnesias of hysteria. In the latter variety the dissociation is so
-extensive that reproduction cannot be effected by any associated idea of
-the personal consciousness; for reproduction another state of
-consciousness (hypnosis, alteration of personality, etc.) with which the
-forgotten experience is synthesized must be obtained or the subconscious
-must be tapped. In the former variety although the reproduction cannot
-be effected through an idea with which it stands in affectively painful
-association, it can be by some other indifferent idea or complex with
-which it is systematized. For instance, in the case of the phobia for
-the ringing of bells in a tower which we have studied, the original
-episode could not be recalled in association with the object of the
-phobia, notwithstanding that this object was an element in the episode,
-but it was readily recalled in association with contemporary events of
-the subject’s life. In the case of C. D., who had experienced a painful
-episode of fainting the same amnesic relations obtained.
-
-4. On the other hand there are other forms of amnesia which the
-_Freudian mechanism is totally inadequate to explain_, or of which it
-offers only a partial explanation. I refer to the persisting amnesias of
-reproduction exemplified by much of the common forgetfulness of
-every-day life (often due to dis-interest); by the amnesias for whole
-systems of experiences in hypnotic states, in different phases of
-multiple personality, fugues, and deliria; by certain retrograde,
-general, and continuous amnesias of hysteria, alcoholic amnesia, etc. In
-some of these the amnesia is a dissociation of systems undoubtedly
-effected by the force of emotional impulses discharged by antagonistic
-complexes. This is to view the amnesia from its psychological aspect.
-But it may also be viewed from its _correlated physiological aspect_.
-
-Let us note first that reproduction is a synthetic process which
-requires some sort of dynamic association between the neurogram
-underlying an idea present in the personal consciousness and the
-conserved neurograms of a past experience. From this view we may in the
-future find the explanation of amnesia (resulting from the dissociative
-effect of emotion) in the configuration of the physical paths of residua
-traveled and engraved by an emotional experience. The emotional
-discharge may have prevented an associative path of residua being
-established with the dissociated experience.[258]
-
-5. Amnesia is too large a subject for us to go into its mechanisms at
-this time and we are not called upon to do so. It is enough to point out
-_the different forms of amnesia_ which at times are the resultants of
-emotion. Inasmuch as experiences are organized in complexes and still
-further in large systems, which include settings (that give meaning to
-the particular experiences) and other associated sentiments, instincts
-and other innate dispositions, the dissociation of a single experience
-may involve a large complex of experiences, or a whole system of such,
-and result either in a simple amnesia alone or in an alteration of
-personality accompanied by amnesia. Such amnesias are generally
-classified as _localized_, _systematized_, _general_, or _continuous_.
-
-6. The first, as it seems to me, is also in principle systematized, the
-distinction being clinical rather than psychological. By _localized_ is
-meant an amnesia extending over an epoch of time. Thus, in the instance
-already cited, Miss B. suddenly found that she could not recall a single
-moment of a particular day, although previously she had remembered well
-the incidents, owing to a distressing experience the memory of which had
-tormented her during the whole day. The amnesia was localized in time.
-It was the result of a suggestion which I gave in hypnosis that the
-painful experience only should be forgotten; but unexpectedly the
-remembrances of the whole day disappeared. In other words, the
-dissociation of a particular remembrance robbed the personal
-consciousness of all other remembrances with which it was systematized.
-That it was so systematized was made evident by the fact that throughout
-the course of the day it had so dominated her mind that she was
-continuously under its emotional influence. The amnesia was therefore
-not only localized but _systematized_ with the day’s experiences. It is
-to be noted that the hypnotic suggestion necessarily exerted its
-dissociating force subconsciously after waking.
-
-Similarly in multiple personality, one alternating phase often has
-complete amnesia for the preceding epoch belonging to another phase.
-This amnesia may extend over a period of from a few minutes to years,
-according to the length of time that the second phase was in existence.
-It is therefore localized. But it is also systematized, not in the sense
-of relating to only a particular category of remembrances, such as those
-of a particular object—father, child, etc.—but in the sense of bearing
-upon all the experiences organized within a large system of sentiments,
-instincts, settings, etc., characteristic of the second personality.
-With the dissociation of this system the remembrances of its experiences
-go, too. Undoubtedly the dissociating force is that of the awakened
-sentiments, etc., of the succeeding phase. These are always antagonistic
-to those of the dissociated phase, although those of the one are not
-necessarily painful to the other. They are simply incompatible with one
-another, and it may quite well be that their force is subconsciously
-discharged. Systematized amnesia, on the other hand, may not be
-localized, bearing as it may only on a particular category of
-remembrances, let us say of a foreign language with which the subject
-previously was familiar.
-
-7. The _retrograde_ type of localized amnesia is common following
-emotional shocks. The case of Mme. D., made classical by Charcot and
-Janet, is a very excellent example. This woman lost not only all memory
-of the painful emotional state into which she was thrown by the brutal
-announcement of her husband’s death, but of the _preceding_ six weeks.
-The amnesia for the episode might be accounted for on the theory of
-conflict, but it is difficult to explain the retrograde extension unless
-it be there was some systematization covering the six weeks’ period
-within the mental life of the patient not disclosed by the examination.
-
-_General and continuous amnesia_, the one covering the whole previous
-life of the subject, the other for events as fast as they are
-experienced, also, though rarely, occur as the sequence of emotion.
-
-=Subconscious traumatic memories.=—When an emotional complex has once
-been organized by an emotional trauma and more or less dissociated from
-the personality by the conflicting emotional impulses, it is conserved
-as a neurogram more or less isolated. The fact of amnesia for the
-experience is evidence of its isolation in that it cannot be awakened
-and synthesized with the personal consciousness. Now, given such an
-isolated neurogram, observation shows that it may be excited to
-autonomous subconscious activity by associative stimuli of one kind or
-another. It thus becomes an emotional subconscious memory-process and
-may by further incubation and elaboration induce phenomena of one kind
-or another.
-
-This is readily understood when it is remembered that such a memory, or
-perhaps more precisely speaking its neurogram, is organized with one or
-more emotional dispositions (instincts) and these dispositions by their
-impulsive forces tend when stimulated to awaken the memory and carry its
-ideas to fulfillment. The subconscious memory thus acquires a striving
-to fulfil its aim. We ought to distinguish in this mechanism between the
-isolation of the neurogram and that of the process. The former is
-antecedent to the latter.
-
-The phenomena which may be induced by such a subconscious memory may be
-of all kinds such as we have seen are induced by subconscious processes
-and emotions—hallucinations, various motor phenomena, disturbances of
-conscious thought, dreams and those phenomena which we have seen are the
-physiological and psychological manifestation of emotion and its
-conflicts, etc.
-
-Undoubtedly the _mental feebleness_, manifested by a feeling of
-exhaustion or fatigue, which so frequently is the sequel of intense
-conscious emotion, favors the excitation to activity of such
-subconscious autonomous processes or memory when antecedent isolation
-has occurred. This enfeeblement of personality probably is the more
-marked the larger the systems included in the dissociation. Certain it
-is that in fatigued states, whether induced by physical or mental “storm
-and stress,” subconscious processes become more readily excited. The
-greater the dissociation the greater the mental instability and
-liability to autonomous processes. Time and again it was noted, for
-instance in the case of Miss B. and B. C. A., that when the primary
-personality was exhausted by physical and emotional strain, the
-subconscious personality was able to manifest autonomous activity
-producing all sorts of phenomena (when it could not do so in conditions
-of mental health) even to inhibiting the whole primary personality.[259]
-The direct testimony of the subconscious personality was to the same
-effect.
-
-=Mental confusion.=—Fortunate is the person who has never felt
-embarrassment when the attention of others has been directed to himself,
-or when some act or thought which he wished to conceal has become patent
-to others, or when called upon without warning to make a speech in
-public. Unless one is endowed with extraordinary self-assurance he will
-become, under such or similar circumstances, bashful, self-conscious,
-and shy, his thought confused, and he will find it difficult to respond
-with ready tongue. Associated ideas _à propos_ of the matter in hand
-fail to enter consciousness, his thoughts become blocked even to his
-mind becoming a blank; he hesitates, stammers, and stands dumb, or too
-many ideas, in disorderly fashion and without apparent logical relation,
-crowd in and he is unable to make selection of the proper words. In
-short, his mind becomes confused, perhaps even to the extent of
-dizziness. The ideas that do arise are inadequate and are likely to be
-inappropriate, painful, and perhaps suspicious. The dominating emotion
-is early reinforced by the awakening of its ally, the fear instinct,
-with all its physiological manifestations. Then tremor, palpitation,
-perspiration, and vasomotor disturbances break out. Shame may be added
-to the emotional state.
-
-1. This reaction becomes intelligible if we regard it as one of conflict
-resulting in painful bashfulness and shame, inhibition of thought; the
-excitation of painful ideas, amnesia, and limitation of the field of
-consciousness. The self-regarding sentiment is awakened and dominates
-the content of consciousness. The conflict is primarily between two
-instincts organized within this sentiment—that of self-abasement
-(negative self-feeling) and that of self-assertion (positive self
-feeling). The impulsive force of the former, awakened by the stimulus of
-the situation—let us say the presence and imagined criticism of
-others—opposes and contends with that of the latter which is excited by
-the desire of the person to display his powers and meet the occasion.
-The result of the struggle between the two impulses is emotional
-agitation or _bashfulness_. If this bashfulness is “qualified by the
-pain of baffled positive self feeling” there results the emotion of
-shame.[260] But these emotional states are not the whole consequences of
-the conflict. Almost always fear comes to the rescue as a biological
-reaction for the protection of the individual and impels to flight. The
-impulsive force of this instinct is now united to that of self-abasement
-and the conjoined force inhibits or blocks the development of ideas,
-memories, and speech symbols appropriate to the occasion and dissociates
-many perceptions of the environment. On the other hand, the
-self-regarding sentiment evokes various associative abasing ideas of
-self and related memories. The victim is fortunate if unfounded
-suspicions and other painful thoughts (through which criticism of self
-is imagined and the situation falsely interpreted) do not arise. Or
-there may be an oscillation of ideas corresponding to the conflicting
-sentiments and instincts. A person in such a condition experiences
-mental confusion and embarrassment. The condition is often loosely
-spoken of as self-consciousness and shyness.
-
-2. Painfully emotional _self-consciousness_ of this type as the sequence
-of special antecedent psychogenetic factors is frequently met with as an
-obsession. Then fear, with its physiological manifestations, is always
-an obtrusive element. Individuals who suffer from this psychosis
-sometimes cannot even come into the presence of strangers or any public
-situation without experiencing an attack of symptoms such as I have
-somewhat schematically described. The phenomena may be summarized as
-bashfulness, emotion of fear, inhibition, dissociation, limitation of
-the field of consciousness, ideas of self, confusion of thought and
-speech, inappropriate and delayed response, delusions of suspicion,
-tremor, palpitation, etc.
-
-=The symptomatic structure of the psychoneuroses.=—When studying the
-physiological manifestations of emotion (Lecture XIV), we saw how a
-large variety of disturbances of bodily functions, induced by the
-discharge of emotional impulses, may be organized into a symptom-complex
-which might, if repeatedly stimulated, recur from time to time. On the
-basis of these physiological manifestations we were able to construct a
-schema of the physiological symptoms occurring in the emotional
-psycho-neuroses. We obtained a structure of such symptoms corresponding
-to the facts of clinical experience. We then went on in the next lecture
-to examine the psychological disturbances induced by emotion and found a
-number of characteristic phenomena. The view was held that emotion is
-the driving force which bears along ideas to their end and makes the
-organism capable of activity. We found conflicts between opposing
-impulses resulting in repression, dissociation, and inhibition of ideas
-and instincts, and limitation of the field of consciousness. We saw that
-sentiments in which strong emotions were incorporated tended to become
-dominating, to the exclusion of other sentiments from consciousness, and
-to acquire organic intensity and thereby to be carried to fruition. We
-saw also that the dominating emotional discharges might come from
-sentiments within the field of consciousness, and therefore of which the
-individual is aware, or from entirely subconscious sentiments of which
-he is unaware. And we saw that conflicts might be between entirely
-conscious sentiments or between a conscious and a subconscious
-sentiment, and so on. (Indeed, a conflict may be between two
-subconscious sentiments as may be experimentally demonstrated with
-corresponding phenomena.)
-
-Now the practical significance of these phenomena of emotion, both as
-observed in every-day life and under experimental conditions, lies in
-the fact that they enable us to understand the symptomatic _structure_,
-and up to a certain point the psychogenesis of certain psychoneuroses of
-very common occurrence. (For a complete understanding of the
-psychogenesis of any given psychoneurosis, such as a phobia, we must
-know all the antecedent experiences which formed the setting and gave
-meaning to the dominating ideas and determined the instincts which have
-become incorporated with them to form sentiments. This we saw when
-studying the settings in obsessions (Lectures XII and XIII).)
-
-It is evident, that, theoretically, if antecedent conditions have
-prepared the emotional soil, and if an emotional complex, an intense
-sentiment, or instinct should be aroused by some stimulus, any one of a
-number of different possible psychopathic states might ensue, largely
-through the mechanism of conflict, according, on the one hand, to the
-degree and extent of the dissociation, inhibition, etc., established,
-and on the other to the character and systematization of the emotional
-complex or instinct. As with the physiological manifestations of
-emotion, we can construct various theoretical schemata to represent the
-psychological structure of these different states. Practically both
-types—the physiological and psychological—must necessarily almost always
-be combined.
-
-1. The impulsive force of the emotion might repress all other ideas than
-the one in question from the field of consciousness, which would then be
-contracted to that of the limited emotional complex awakened; all
-opposing ideas and instincts would then be dissociated or inhibited—a
-state substantially of mono-ideism. Let us imagine the dominating
-emotional complex to be a mother’s belief that her child had been
-killed, this idea being awakened by the sudden announcement of the news.
-The parental sentiment with child as its object would become organized
-into a complex with the emotions of fear, sorrow, painful depressed
-feelings, etc., which the news excited. This complex, being deprived—as
-a result of the ensuing dissociation—of the inhibiting and modifying
-influence of all counteracting ideas, would be free to expend its
-conative force along paths leading to motor, visceral, and other
-physiological disturbances. An emotional complex of ideas would be then
-formed which after the restoration of the normal alert state would
-remain dormant, but conserved in the unconscious. Later, when the
-emotional complex is again awakened by some stimulus (associative
-thoughts), dissociation would again take place and the complex again
-become the whole of the personal consciousness for the time being. This
-theoretical schema corresponds accurately with =one type of hysterical
-attack=.
-
-2. If again the awakened complex should be one which is constellated
-with a large system of dormant ideas and motives deposited in the
-unconscious by the experiences of life, the new field of consciousness
-would not be contracted to a mono-ideism. We should have to do with a
-phase of personality, one which was formed by a rearrangement of life’s
-experiences. In this case the usual everyday settings (or systems) of
-ideas being in conflict with the sentiments of the resurrected system
-would be dissociated and become dormant. The ideas, with their affects,
-which would come to the surface and dominate, would be those of
-previously dormant emotional complexes and their constellated system.
-The prevailing instincts and other innate dispositions would be,
-respectively, those corresponding to the two phases, the antagonistic
-dispositions being in each case inhibited. This schema would accurately
-correspond to a so-called “mood.” If the demarcation of systems were
-sharply defined and absolute so that amnesia of one for the other
-resulted, the new state would be recognized as one of =dissociated or
-secondary personality=. A “mood” and secondary personality would shade
-into one another.
-
-3. Still another theoretical schema could be constructed if, following
-the hysterical dissociated state represented by schema 1, there were not
-a complete return to normality, i.e., complete synthesis of personality.
-The dissociation effected by the impulsive force of the evoked emotional
-complex and the repressed personal self-conscious-system might be so
-intense that, on the restoration of the latter, the former would remain
-dissociated in turn. The emotional complex would then, in accordance
-with what we know of the genesis of subconscious ideas, become split off
-from the personal consciousness and unable to enter the focus of
-awareness. Amnesia for the emotional experience would ensue. Such a
-split-off idea might, through the impulsive force of its emotion and
-that of its setting, take on independent activity and function
-coconsciously and produce various automatic phenomena; that is,
-phenomena which are termed automatic because not determined by the
-personal consciousness. The dissociation might include various sensory,
-motor and other functions, thereby robbing the personal consciousness of
-these functions (anesthesia, paralysis, etc.). Such a schema corresponds
-to the =hysterical subconscious fixed idea= (Janet).
-
-In such a schema also, in accordance with what we know of the behavior
-of emotion, though the ideas of the complex remained subconscious, the
-emotion linked with them might erupt into the consciousness of the
-personal self. The person would then become aware of it without knowing
-its source. The emotion might be accompanied by its various
-physiological manifestations such as we have studied. If the emotion
-were one of fear the subject might be in an =anxious state= without
-knowing why he is afraid—an indefinable fear, as it is often called by
-the subjects of it.
-
-4. If, owing to one or more emotional experiences, an intense sentiment
-were created in which is organized about its object one or more of the
-emotions of fear, anger, disgust, self-subjection, etc., with their
-physiological manifestations (tremor, palpitation, vasomotor
-disturbances, nausea, exhaustion, etc.) and their psychological
-disturbances (contraction of the field of consciousness, dissociation,
-etc.); and if the whole were welded into a complex, we would have the
-structure of an obsession. Such an organized complex would be excited
-from time to time by any associated stimulus and develop in the form of
-attacks: hence termed a recurrent psychopathic state as well as
-obsession. (As we have seen, the psychogenesis of the sentiment is to be
-found in antecedent experiences organized with its object giving meaning
-and persistence to the obsession.)
-
-5. Finally (to add one more schema out of many that might be
-constructed), if a number of physiological disturbances (pain,
-secretory, gastric, cardiac, etc), such as occur as the symptoms of a
-disease, were through repeated experiences associated and thereby
-organized with the idea of the disease, they would recur as an
-associative process whenever the idea was presented to consciousness.
-Here we have the structure of an “=association or habit-neurosis=,” a
-disease mimicry. Numerous examples of the type of cardiac, gastric,
-pulmonary, laryngeal, joint, and other diseases might be given. The
-physical symptoms in such neuroses are obtrusive, while the psychical
-elements (including emotion) which, of course, are always factors,
-conscious or subconscious, remain in the background.
-
-The study of the individual psychoneuroses belongs to special pathology,
-and need not concern us here. We are only occupied with the general
-principles involved in their structure and psycho-genesis.
-
------
-
-Footnote 245:
-
- Inhibition and dissociation, although often loosely used as
- interchangeable terms, are not strictly synonymous, in that,
- theoretically at least, they are not coextensive. That which is
- inhibited may be absolutely, even if temporarily, suppressed as a
- functioning process, as in physiological inhibition (e. g., of
- reflexes, motor acts, etc.); or it may be only inhibited from taking
- part in the mechanisms of the personal consciousness, and thereby
- dissociated from that psychophysiological system. In the latter case
- the inhibited process is not absolutely suppressed, but may be capable
- under favoring conditions of independent functioning outside of that
- system. This is dissociation in its more precise sense. Inhibition may
- be said to have induced dissociation, and then the two may be regarded
- as only different aspects of one and the same thing. In the former
- case (absolute suppression) the inhibited process cannot function at
- all, as in certain types of amnesic aphasia when the memory for
- language is functionally suppressed. Inhibition therefore may or may
- not be equivalent to dissociation. Practically as observed in
- psychological phenomena it is often difficult to distinguish between
- them, and it is convenient to consider them together.
-
-Footnote 246:
-
- The Dissociation, p. 189.
-
-Footnote 247:
-
- One sees the same phenomenon in every-day life. Let a person acquire
- under a sense of injury a dislike of one who previously was a friend,
- and every sentiment involving friendship, admiration, esteem,
- gratitude, loyalty, etc., is repressed with a complete change of
- attitude. Politics furnishes many examples.
-
-Footnote 248:
-
- Exemplified in Miss B. by Sally, in O. N. by the b mood, and in B. C.
- A. by phase B, and also in the earlier stages of the case by phase A.
-
-Footnote 249:
-
- My Life as a Dissociated Personality, _Jl. Ab. Psychol._,
- December-January, 1908-9.
-
-Footnote 250:
-
- The Mental State of Hystericals, p. 205.
-
-Footnote 251:
-
- The Dissociation, cf. Index: “Emotion, the Disintegrating Effect of,”
- and Chapters XXVIII and XXIX.
-
-Footnote 252:
-
- The Dissociation, p. 462.
-
-Footnote 253:
-
- We shall study in other lectures the forces and mechanisms which
- effected the dissociation in this case.
-
-Footnote 254:
-
- See Morton Prince: Some of the Present Problems of Abnormal
- Psychology, _St. Louis Congress of Arts and Sciences_ (1904), Vol. 5,
- p. 772; also, _The Psychological Review_, March-May, 1905, p. 139.
-
-Footnote 255:
-
- Probably derived from the “will to believe,” the desire to please the
- experimenter, or other elements in the hypnotic setting. The
- conception of a “censor” or desire to protect the personal
- consciousness from something painful is an unnecessary complication.
-
-Footnote 256:
-
- The Dissociation.
-
-Footnote 257:
-
- Cf. My Life as a Dissociated Personality, _Jl. Abn. Psychol._,
- October-November, 1908.
-
-Footnote 258:
-
- T. Brailsford Robertson, in a very recent communication on the
- “Chemical Dynamics of the Central Nervous System” and “The
- Physiological conditions underlying heightened suggestibility,
- hypnosis, multiple personality, sleep, etc.” (_Folia Neuro-Biologica_,
- Bd. VII, Nr. 4/5, 1913), has attempted to correlate these conditions
- and also amnesia (as one of their phenomena) with the isolation of
- paths “canalised” by auto-catalysed chemical reactions. These
- processes he concludes, from previous studies, “underlie and determine
- the activities of the central nervous system (and therefore the
- physical correlates of mental phenomena).” (See Lecture V, p. 124.)
-
-Footnote 259:
-
- The Dissociation, Chapter XXIX; My Life as a Dissociated Personality,
- pp. 39 and 41.
-
-Footnote 260:
-
- In this analysis I follow McDougall who seems to me to have analyzed
- clearly and adequately the emotional conditions. (Social Psychology,
- p. 145.)
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE XVII
- THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMIC ELEMENTS OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
-
-
-We ought to be able now to construct out of the various elements we have
-studied a general scheme, if not the details, of that composite whole
-which we call _Personality_. This should include its structure as well
-as its elements and dynamics.
-
-It is obvious that we must have a fairly comprehensive and accurate
-conception of these factors if we would understand those alterations of
-personality which are met with as pathological conditions and
-particularly their psychogenesis. Multiple personality, for instance, as
-it occurs in the alternating and coconscious types can only be
-comprehended through a knowledge of the normal structure and dynamic
-mechanisms. On the other hand the phenomena of this latter pathological
-condition throw a flood of light upon the normal and can be utilized to
-test the validity of theories. I shall complete these lectures by a
-study from the psychogenetic point of view of a case of dissociated and
-multiple personality. Certain phenomena met with in this derangement of
-the normal have been frequently cited in the preceding lectures and
-certain general principles underlying them and the alterations giving
-rise to multiplication of the personality and character in one
-individual have been referred to. A study of the psychogenesis of a
-concrete case will on the one hand illustrate these principles and, on
-the other, the structure and dynamics of normal personality.
-
-Before making such a study, however, we ought to have a working
-conception of the normal; and this we are entitled, from the point of
-view of dynamic psychology, to construct on the basis of data supplied
-by studies of abnormal and normal mental behavior. The older way of
-considering human personality was to conceive it as an “ego” with
-various faculties. We may now consider it as _a composite structure
-built by experience upon a foundation of performed, inherited,
-psycho-physiological dynamic mechanisms (instincts, etc.), containing
-within themselves their own driving forces_.
-
-Let us glance for a moment at this foundation with a view to a full
-comprehension of the significance of the innate instinctive and other
-dispositions composing its structure. The structure and the dynamics of
-these dispositions themselves we have already studied (Chap. XV). Their
-teleological aspect needs further exposition for in their functioning
-the processes which they carry out have a distinctly purposive character
-for the personality.
-
-Every instinct has an aim or end which it strives to fulfil and which
-alone satisfies it; and it contains in itself the driving force which,
-as an urge, or impulse, sets into activity the mechanism and carries the
-instinctive process, unless blocked by some other process, to completion
-and satisfies the aim of the instinct. Thus the instinct of flight
-impelled by the urge of fear has an aim to escape from danger and is not
-satisfied until the danger is escaped. Until that end is gained fear
-will not subside. If impeded in its activity it may awaken the pugnacity
-instinct which coming to the rescue may fight for safety. Similarly the
-instincts of acquisition and self-assertion are not satisfied and their
-urge persists until their ends are gained—the acquisition of certain
-objects in the one case and self-display or domination of other
-individuals or situations in the other case. Obviously the instincts and
-other innate dispositions have a biological significance,
-ontogenetically and phylogenetically, in that they serve the
-preservation of the individual and species and the perpetuation of the
-latter. And obviously in the drive to satisfy their aims they determine
-and govern behavior. But in doing this they become modified and
-controlled by experience—by the dispositions which are acquired by
-experience. In this way the behavior of the individual becomes adapted
-to the specific situations of the environment. Necessarily these
-modifications of the workings of the innate mechanisms by the imposition
-of experience upon and within them become very complicated and the
-problems of instinct and experience thereby evoked have been the object
-of much study and debate.
-
-Now with such fundamental innate mechanisms as a basis the composite
-structure of personality is built up by experience, according to the
-theory I am presenting.
-
-By experience new “dispositions” are deposited (i.e., acquired), and
-organized, systematized, not only amongst themselves but integrated with
-the inherited mechanisms. Thus, on the one hand, are formed new
-mechanisms which in their functioning manifest themselves as mental
-processes and behavior, and, on the other, the instinctive mechanisms
-are brought under control by experience and mental processes acquire a
-driving force, or an extra driving force, from the impulsive forces of
-the integrated instinctive mechanisms.
-
-Accordingly we may say: _Personality_ is the sum total of all the
-biological innate dispositions, impulses, tendencies, appetites and
-instincts of the individual and of all the _acquired_ dispositions and
-tendencies—acquired by experience. And to these it is limited.
-
-The former would embrace inherited, innate psychophysiological
-mechanisms or arrangements, such as those of the emotions, feelings,
-appetites and other tendencies manifested in instinctive reactions to
-the environment; the latter the memories, ideas, sentiments and other
-intellectual dispositions acquired and organized within the personality
-by the experiences of life.
-
-The integration into one functioning organism, or whole, of all these
-innate and acquired dispositions with their mechanisms and inherent
-forces by which they come into play is personality.
-
-As thus defined personality includes more than _character_. Character is
-the sum total of the predominating dispositions, or tendencies,
-popularly called traits. Thus in the domain of the innate dispositions
-every personality includes anger, fear, curiosity, and other instinctive
-reactions, but one personality might possess an angry temperament, while
-another an amiable temperament, meaning that in the one anger is aroused
-quickly and by a large variety of situations; in the other it is rarely
-aroused and by few situations; in the one anger is excited whenever the
-individual is thwarted, opposed, or wounded in his feelings; in the
-other the response is never or rarely anger in such situations but
-perhaps sorrow, or pity, or some other feeling. One is said to be quick
-to anger; the other slow to anger. Hence the character of the one is
-said to be “good tempered,” the other “bad tempered.” Yet every normal
-personality will manifest anger in some situation.
-
-Likewise with fear: one person reacts with fear to all sorts of
-threatening situations; another rarely and to very few. One is said to
-have a timorous, or an apprehensive, the other a brave, or bold,
-“sandy,” character. Yet every one manifests fear in one of its phases
-(apprehension, anxiety, etc.) in some situation. There is no personality
-born without the fear instinct.
-
-Likewise in the domain of acquired dispositions personality includes the
-ideals, “sentiments,” desires, points of view, attitudes, etc., of the
-individual in respect to himself, to life and the environment. These
-being acquired by educational, social and environmental experiences
-largely differ in every individual. Some become common, or substantially
-common to all or many. But those that are peculiar to, or acquire a
-dominating position and influence in the personality, play their
-part—and even a greater part than the primitive instinctive
-dispositions—in distinguishing the character of one personality from
-that of another. For in a large measure they determine the reaction to
-situations, the behavior and the modes of thought as intellectual
-processes. They stamp the _quality_ or character of the intelligence
-(its content) rather than the _degree or capacity_ of the same.[261] On
-this side, then, character is so much of personality as is represented
-by the dominating acquired dispositions of the individual. But as innate
-and acquired dispositions become inter-organized by experience, as
-traits, into complex functioning wholes, or complexes, acquired traits
-include the former.
-
-Thus a personality may exhibit a character recognized as idealistic,
-altruistic, selfish, egotistic, social, anti-social, etc., according to
-what ideals, “sentiments,” morals, etc., have been acquired by
-experience. It is in these respects that he is largely the product of
-his education and environment, the influences of which have also
-organized his innate dispositions (instincts, etc.,) with his
-intellectual processes.
-
-We have already seen (Lectures IX and XV) that the acquired dispositions
-are, by the very experiences by which they are acquired, organized into
-complexes and systems of complexes which are conserved as such in the
-storehouse of the unconscious to be drawn upon by memory or to be
-awakened again to activity as occasion may demand to serve the purposes
-of mental life. Now, large numbers of these complexes have not only an
-organized structure but a dynamic potentiality and in consequence of
-these two characteristics each tends to function as a dynamic psychic
-whole. For in such complexes are incorporated one or more emotional or
-other instinctive mechanisms from which their chief energy and aim are
-derived. (This theory postulates not only a structure of mental
-dispositions but a correlated structure of hypothetical physiological
-dispositions which I have termed the “neurogram.”)[262] In so far as
-dynamic complexes and systems of complexes have structure and tend to
-function as psychic wholes they take on the character of unitary
-mechanisms or systems. From this point of view the most fruitful
-conception of the structure of personality is that which views it as
-built up of dynamic units which may be classed as primary and secondary.
-The primary units are the innate psychophysiological arrangements or
-mechanisms which we have agreed to call the instincts, or innate
-tendencies or dispositions, in many of which are incorporated the
-emotions and other affects. These primary units become organized by
-experience into larger units or unitary systems. Whether they are also
-_innately_ organized amongst themselves and by themselves into larger
-systems as some maintain (Shand) may or may not be the case. It is not
-necessary for our present purposes to consider this problem. It is
-sufficient that those dispositions which are innate, such as those of
-anger, fear, joy, etc., do become organized by and with experiences into
-larger and larger dynamic unitary systems.
-
-The secondary units are the acquired complexes and systems of complexes
-within which are incorporated one or more primary units. In these are
-found as already mentioned the ideals, “sentiments,” wishes,
-aspirations, forebodings, apprehensions, and all other organized systems
-of thought which, on the one hand have their roots in the deposited
-experiences of life and, on the other, their promptings and urges in the
-primitive innate instincts and other dispositions. Thus the innate and
-acquired dispositions are organized into unitary systems of greater and
-greater complexity but each having a tendency and, under certain
-conditions of dissociation, a greater or less freedom to function as a
-psychic whole. And the integration or potential integration of all these
-units and unitary complexes and systems into a functioning whole is
-personality. This does not mean that all the primary and secondary units
-take part in the functioning of the personality; on the contrary, as we
-have seen, many lie dormant, for one reason or the other, in the
-unconscious. But, as we have also seen, they are potentially capable of
-being awakened and determining mental and bodily behavior. Furthermore,
-evidence has been adduced to show that the various units of personality
-do not always coöperate and function harmoniously with one another, as
-no doubt they ought to do, but sometimes are incited to conflicts and
-then they play the deuce with the individual and he fails to be able to
-adapt himself to the realities of life.
-
-Amongst these acquired unitary systems there are certain ones which are
-of preëminent importance for the personality in the determination of
-mental behavior. I refer to those complexes known as the _sentiments_.
-By this term, as we have seen, is understood the organization of an
-acquired disposition—the idea of an object—or complex of such
-dispositions (the psychic whole of idea plus its “meaning” derived from
-the setting of associated experiences) with one or more innate emotional
-dispositions. It must not be overlooked for one moment that a sentiment
-is something more than the organization of an emotion or other affect
-with an idea. There is nothing novel or fruitful in such a limited
-conception of the structure of a sentiment as this. A sentiment in its
-structure is the organization of an idea and meaning with an emotional
-instinct which has an aim and end which the instinct strives to attain
-and which alone satisfies the urge of the instinct. Such a structure has
-great significance and the conception is a most fruitful one. For
-because of this structure the excitation of the idea necessarily
-involves the excitation of the instinct and the impulse of the latter
-determines behavior in reference to the object of the idea and carries
-the instinct to fruition. Thus if the sentiment be one of love the
-excitation of the instincts organized with the object determines through
-their urge the behavior to cherish or possess the object of the
-sentiment. And the attainment of this aim alone satisfies it. If the
-sentiment be one of apprehension of an object the instinct of fear
-incites behavior to escape from the danger contained in the meaning of
-the object. A sentiment in the hierarchy of units is a unitary system
-built up by the organization (through experience) of primary units with
-a secondary unitary complex (idea, meaning, etc.).
-
-The importance of the sentiments in the dynamics of personality and
-therefore in the determination of mental and bodily behavior I have
-already dwelt upon (Lecture XV). But there is one sentiment which plays
-such an important rôle both in these respects and in that unitary system
-which we know as the empirical self, or consciousness of self that
-something more needs to be said about it. This sentiment is that which
-McDougall has termed the “self-regarding sentiment” which is intimately
-bound up with the idea or conception of the empirical self, and both
-should be considered together. It is only by regarding, as it seems to
-me, the conception or idea of the empirical self as a secondary unitary
-complex organized by experience that we can approach the solution of the
-problem of the self and understand the phenomenon of two selves in one
-personality, as so often occurs in multiple personality.
-
-The self-regarding sentiment, according to McDougall’s theoretical
-analysis—and I may say his analysis has been confirmed by my own
-practical analyses of concrete cases—has structurally organized within
-it by experience the two opposing instincts, self-abasement and
-self-assertion, but either may be the dominating one. The idea or
-conception of self, proper, is, according to the theory, a complex and
-integrated whole organized by experience like the self-regarding
-sentiment. “McDougall has argued,” to quote what I have written in a
-study of multiple personality,[263] “and I think soundly ‘that the idea
-of self and the self-regarding sentiment are essentially social
-products; that their development is effected by constant interplay
-between personalities, between the self and society; that, for this
-reason, the complex conception of self thus attained implies constant
-reference to others and to society in general, and is, in fact, not
-merely a conception of self, but always one’s self in relation to other
-selves.’ But, as I would argue, this formulation must be considerably
-broadened. Every sentiment (and therefore the self-regarding sentiment)
-has roots in and is consequently related to what has gone before. And
-the experiences of what has gone before of the self, i.e., what has been
-previously experienced (ideally or realistically) by the individual in
-reference to the object of the sentiment, determines the attitude of
-mind and point of view towards that object, and is responsible for the
-organization of the object and instinct into a sentiment. The sentiment
-is the resultant and the expression of those antecedent experiences.
-They form its setting and give it meaning beyond the mere emotional
-tone. You cannot separate sentiment, conceived as a linked object and
-emotional instinct, from such a setting. They form a psychic whole. This
-is not only theoretically true, but actual dealings with pathological
-sentiments (in which the principle can be most clearly studied), called
-phobias and other emotional obsessions, bring out this intimate relation
-between the sentiment and the conserved setting of antecedent
-experiences. Such practical dealings also show not only that the
-sentiment is the outgrowth of and the expression of this setting, but
-that by changing the setting the sentiment can be correspondingly
-altered.... I want to emphasize that in the dynamic functioning of a
-sentiment the setting coöperates in maintaining and carrying it to the
-fruition and satisfaction of its aim.”
-
-So far as concerns the incorporation of the two instincts,
-self-abasement and self-assertion, “McDougall with keen insight and
-analysis, has argued that the self-regarding sentiment is organized with
-these two innate dispositions, but in different degrees in different
-individuals, and with the growth of the mind one may replace the other
-in the adaptation of the individual to the changing environment. Taking
-two extreme types, he draws a picture of the proud, arrogant,
-self-assertive, domineering person, with the feeling of masterful
-superiority, and angry resentment of criticism and control, and who
-knows no shame and is indifferent to moral approval and disapproval. In
-this personality the instincts of self-assertion and anger are the
-dominating innate dispositions of the self-regarding sentiment. On the
-other hand we have the type of the submissive, dependent character, with
-a feeling of inferiority, when the contrary disposition is the
-dominating one. McDougall’s analysis was beautifully illustrated in the
-case of Miss Beauchamp by two personalities, BI and BIV, fragments of
-the original self, which were actual specimens from real life of his
-theoretic types. Again McDougall’s theoretic analysis of the conception
-of self, showing the idea to be one ‘always of one’s self in relation to
-other selves,’ is concretely illustrated and substantiated by the
-dissection of this mind effected by trauma.”
-
-The study of another case, that of “Maria” furnished the same results as
-respects the two personalities that were manifested, as did that of “B.
-C. A.”
-
-As to the conception of the empirical self and as “an important addition
-to this theory both from a structural and dynamic point of view, I would
-insist again that the complex conception of self includes a setting of
-mental experiences of much wider range, in which the idea of self is
-incorporated and which gives the idea meaning. The range of this setting
-extends beyond ‘other selves’ and ‘society in general’ and may include
-almost any of life’s experiences.” By way of illustration let us take
-the two selves known as the “Saint” (BI) and the “Realist” (BIV) in the
-case of Miss Beauchamp. "Concretely and more correctly the psychological
-interpretation of the ‘reference to others and society in general,’ of
-the relation of one’s self to other selves, would in this particular
-instance be as follows: the Saint’s conception of self (with the
-self-regarding sentiment) was related to an ideal world and ideal selves
-contained in religious conceptions; and hence it became organized in a
-larger setting which gave it a meaning of divine perfection such as is
-obtained, or aspired to by saints, and in which were incorporated the
-emotional dispositions of awe, reverence, love, self-abasement, etc.
-This conception was not a product of, or related to the social
-environment. Rather it was the product of an ideal world. She, as has
-been said, lived in a world of idealism, oblivious of the realities
-round about her, which she saw not ‘clearly and truly’ but as they were
-colored by her imagination. Her idea of self thus became the ‘saintly
-sentiment’ of self-perfection.
-
-“On the other hand the conception of self in BIV, the Realist, was
-related to and set in the realities of this social world as they clearly
-are, the world of her objective environment. And in this conception of
-self the instinctive dispositions of self-assertion and anger
-contributed the promptings and motive force to dominate these realities
-and bend them to her will.”
-
-It must be an obvious conclusion from the numerous and multiform
-subconscious phenomena which were cited in previous lectures that all
-the unitary and complexes and systems which enter into the composite
-structure of personality do not necessarily emerge into awareness. Some
-function subconsciously and in this way determine conscious mental
-processes and behavior. Many remain conserved in the unconscious and
-have only a potential reality in that they remain latent but susceptible
-of being awakened into activity. It is also true that in the course of
-the growth of the personality many become modified by experience and
-metamorphosed into new sentiments, new ideals, new desires, new
-apprehensions, new meanings, etc.
-
-The necessity for adaptation of the personality to the realities of life
-necessarily gives rise to conflicts, for the urges of some unitary
-complexes cannot be satisfied, and some are incompatible with the
-situations which reality presents, or with one another. A practical
-solution of the problem is compulsory. Compensation is sought. Sometimes
-compensation or compromise is successfully attained; sometimes it is
-not. Or the solution may be accepted and the urge of a rebellious system
-incompatible with the demands of reality is suppressed by voluntary or
-automatic repression. When neither compensation nor compromise is
-attained, or when the situation is not accepted and the rebellious urge
-continues, then disruption or disarrangement of the personality may
-follow with such resulting phenomena as have been already described.
-Integrated systems may become disintegrated or dissociated, permitting
-of independent autonomous functioning of conflicting systems. And of the
-unitary systems taking part in such conflicts one or more may, as we
-have seen, function subconsciously. Furthermore, as observation shows,
-dissociated complexes may take on growth independently of the integrated
-systems of the personal consciousness and thus create large subconscious
-systems. On the other hand both one or more primary units (innate
-dispositions) and secondary unitary complexes and systems (acquired
-dispositions) may by the force of conflicts be completely repressed and
-cease to function within the personality. Thus, for example, certain
-instincts may be suppressed and systematic amnesia and other defects be
-produced. And so on.
-
-Without pursuing further this exposition of the empirical personality or
-going into details, it would seem that some such conception of the
-structure of personality as that of which I have given a mere outline
-will alone satisfy the phenomena actually observed under normal and
-abnormal conditions. Indeed the theory would seem to be a compelling
-induction from the phenomena derived from clinical observation and
-experiment.
-
-Against this preliminary sketch of the structure and dynamic mechanisms
-of the normal personality as a background I will in the next lecture
-present a study of a case of dissociated and multiple personality, as
-the alterations of structure and the dynamic manifestations observed in
-cases of this kind, on the one hand, concretely illustrate the
-principles involved, and, on the other, present some of the most
-important data on which the theory is founded.
-
------
-
-Footnote 261:
-
- “Intelligence tests” therefore do not afford tests of character which
- is the most important element of personality from a sociological point
- of view. (See “Character vs. Intelligence in Personality Studies” by
- Dr. Guy Fernald, _Jour. Abnormal Psychology_, Vol. XV, No. 1.)
-
-Footnote 262:
-
- Indeed I cannot see that mental “disposition” has any reality
- excepting so far as it is derived from its correlated physiological
- disposition. (See p. 266.)
-
-Footnote 263:
-
- Miss Beauchamp: “The Theory of the Psychogenesis of Multiple
- Personality”; _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, Vol. XV, Nos. 2-3; pp.
- 108, 120-121.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE XVIII
- THE PSYCHOGENESIS OF MULTIPLE PERSONALITY[264]
- THE CASE OF B. C. A.
-
- I
-
-As an introduction let me say that in a previous lecture (The
-Unconscious, Lecture VIII) I pointed out that in a general way
-alteration of personality is effected through the primary organization
-by experience and later coming into dominating activity of particular
-unitary systems of ideas with their affects, on the one hand, and the
-displacement by dissociation or inhibition of other conflicting systems
-on the other. In slighter degrees and when transient this alteration may
-be regarded as a mood. When the alteration is more enduring, and so
-marked by contrast with the preceding and normal condition as to
-obtrusively alter the character and behavior of the individual and his
-capacity for adjustment to his environment, we have a pathological
-condition. When the alteration is slight and affects few systems it may
-be easily overlooked; or when it is accompanied, as it often is, by
-physiological disturbances, it may be so masked by them as to be
-mistaken for so-called neurasthenia. It is when the dissociation is so
-comprehensive as to deprive the individual of memory of his previous
-phase of personality, or of certain acquired knowledge or other
-particular experiences that the personality is easily recognized as a
-dissociated one. When the inhibiting or repressing force that induces
-dissociation ceases to be effective, that is when the dissociated
-systems come again into activity and repress the temporarily dominant
-systems, then the individual returns to his normal condition (in which
-he may or may not remember the dissociated state), just as a person
-returns to his habitual character after the passing of a mood. We may
-speak of the two phases—the normal and the altered one—as constituting
-together _multiple personality_. As these two phases may continue to
-alternate with one another they are also alternating personalities. The
-second or altered state is also sometimes called a _secondary
-personality_. There may be several such secondary personalities which
-may alternate with each other or the normal personality.
-
-It should be noted that the formation of a secondary personality is
-primarily the result of two processes, _dissociation_ and _synthesis_
-though it is subject to _secondary growth_ through various processes. As
-a result of the first process, dissociation, systems of thought, ideas,
-memories, emotions and dispositions previously habitual in the
-individual may cease to take part in the affected person’s mental
-processes. The influence of these systems with their conative tendencies
-is therefore no longer for the time being in play.
-
-When we pass in review a large number of cases, we find that the systems
-of ideas, which (through the dissociating process) cease to take part in
-personality, may be quite various. One or more “sides” to one’s
-character, for instance, may vanish, and the individual may exhibit
-always a single side on all occasions; or the ethical systems built up
-and conserved by early pedagogical, social, and environmental training
-may cease to take part in the mental processes and regulate conduct; or,
-again, the ideas which pertain to the lighter side of life and its
-social enjoyments may be lost and only the more serious attributes of
-mind retained. There may even be amnesia in consequence of dissociation
-for chronological epochs of the individual’s life, or for certain
-particular episodes, or for certain specific knowledge, such as
-educational acquirements (mathematics, Greek, Latin, music, literature,
-etc., or knowledge of a trade or profession, and even of language).
-Amnesia alone, however, does not constitute alteration of personality
-strictly speaking; for a person may have complete loss of memory for
-certain specific experiences without true alteration of character. It is
-of important significance, as we shall see, that the dissociated or
-inhibited[265] systems may include emotions, instincts and innate
-dispositions.
-
-Examination of recorded cases shows too that besides mental memories,
-physiological functions may be involved in the dissociation. Thus there
-may be loss of sensation in its various forms, and of the special
-senses, or of the power of movement (paralysis), or of visceral
-functions (gastric, sexual, etc.). Dissociation may, then, involve quite
-large parts of the personality including very precise and definite
-physiological and psychological functions. We see examples of these
-different dissociations in numerous cases.
-
-As to the mechanism by which pathological dissociation is effected, it
-may be well to point out here that there is no reason to suppose that it
-is anything more than an exaggeration of the normal mechanism by which,
-on the one hand, mental processes are temporarily inhibited from
-entering the field of consciousness, and, on the other, physiological
-functions are normally suppressed and prevented from taking part in the
-psychophysiological economy. (For instance, the suppression of the
-gastro-intestinal functions by an emotional discharge.) Every mental
-process involves the repression of some conflicting process; otherwise
-all would be chaos in the mind. And every physiological process involves
-some repression of another process. The movements of walking involve the
-inhibition alternatively of the flexor and extensor muscles according as
-which is active in the movement.
-
-This principle is conspicuous in absent mindedness and voluntary
-attention when every antagonistic or irrelevant thought and even
-consciousness of the environment is prevented by a conflicting force
-from entering the field of consciousness. In other words, every mental
-process involves a conflict and inhibition: in physiological terms a
-raising of the threshold of the antagonistic mental process in
-consequence of which it cannot function unless the stimulus be
-increased. This is a normal mechanism and process. The conditions which
-determine absolute and continuous dissociation or inhibition become the
-object of study.
-
-By the second process, synthesis, particular unitary systems of ideas
-with the conative tendencies of their feeling tones rise to the surface
-out of the unconscious and become synthesized with the perceptions, and
-such memories and other mental systems and faculties of the individual
-as are retained. Thus it may be that unitary dispositions, sentiments
-and systems belonging to a particular “side” of the character—the
-amiable or the brutal, the unselfish or the selfish, the ungenerous or
-the generous, the practical or the idealistic, the literary or the
-business, the religious or worldly, the youthful and gay, or the mature
-and serious, etc., to any side may become uppermost and be the dominant
-trait of the secondary personality. Or it may be that the systems of
-ideas, disposition, etc., belonging to childhood and long outgrown, but
-conserved nevertheless in the unconscious, may be resurrected and
-becoming synthesized with other systems form a personality childish in
-character. Or, again, sentiments, thoughts, dispositions, tendencies,
-instincts which, though intimately belonging to the individual, have
-been restrained, repressed, concealed from the world for one reason or
-another, may, being set free through dissociation from the repressing
-thoughts, rise to the surface and take part in the synthesis of the new
-personality.
-
-In other words there is a rearrangement and readjustment of the innate
-dispositions and those deposited by the experiences of life which go to
-form personality. Some by the process of dissociation are expelled from
-the personal synthesis; some which had been previously expelled
-(repressed) by education, maturity of character, direct volition, and
-other processes of mental development are brought back into it.
-
-It is obvious that when such rearrangements and readjustments have
-occurred the mental reactions of the individual will vary largely from
-what they were before. The reaction to the environment will become
-altered. When systems which give rise to the habitual modes of thought
-are dissociated, naturally the reactions of the individual will not be
-influenced by them but by those of the new synthesis, and the character
-will be correspondingly changed. Inasmuch as out of the great storehouse
-of the unconscious any number of combinations of systems may be
-arranged, it is obvious that any number of secondary personalities may
-be formed in the same person. As many as ten or twelve have been
-observed.
-
-A study of cases which have come under my personal observation, and the
-reports to be found in the literature of those cases of multiple
-personality which have been studied with sufficient intensity and
-exhaustiveness, allow these general and preliminary statements, which
-are little more than descriptive of the facts, to be verified.[266] One
-of the best examples is the case of B. C. A. which I had an opportunity
-of studying over a long period of time, and to which reference has been
-frequently made. I shall take this as the object of our study in
-psychogenesis.[267]
-
-This subject has herself written at my request two introspective
-analyses of her own case, one by the normal personality and the other by
-the secondary personality. These analyses are of great value.[268] They
-give different versions of the same facts in accordance with the
-differing memories, knowledge and points of view of the differing
-personalities. The second also gives an account of the claimed
-co-conscious life as experienced by herself and unknown to the normal
-personality. We cannot do better than take them as a basis for a genetic
-study of the case and reproduce portions of them here. In this study I
-have made use, in addition to this material, of a large number of
-personal observations extending over five years, of numerous letters and
-analyses written by the subject at different times in her various phases
-of personality, of the memories in hypnosis, in which state many
-subconscious and dissociated perceptions and thoughts not otherwise
-remembered are brought to light, and of numerous analyses of her
-memories made on many occasions, at the expense of many hours of labor.
-Other sources of information have also been made use of. This
-investigation has resulted in a voluminous collection of records filling
-several large portfolios. In making the analyses and in many of the
-letters the subject, with extreme frankness and in the interests of
-psychology has gone in great detail into and has laid bare the most
-intimate facts of her mental life. This is true of each of the phases of
-personality, so that the point of view from which the same facts were
-seen in different moods has been obtained. This is a matter of no small
-consequence as the same fact often acquires a different aspect or
-meaning according to the view point of the mood in which it is
-experienced. A large amount of data pertaining to the inner life of the
-subject has thus become accessible. It is obvious that data of this sort
-are necessary if the psychological status of any given period of an
-individual’s life is to be related to antecedent mental experiences as
-etiological factors. But this sort of data is that which usually is most
-difficult to obtain. Our inner lives we keep hidden as in a sealed book
-from the world. In all published reports of multiple personality these
-data are lacking, the studies dealing almost entirely with such facts
-only as were open to the observation of the investigator. It necessarily
-results from such a study of the inner life of a person living in the
-circle to which this subject belongs that many of the data are too
-intimate and personal for publication. However much one may be
-interested in science there is a point beyond which one shrinks from
-exposing one’s self in print. I am, therefore, at many points very
-properly limited to the use of general phrases and summarizing
-expressions instead of explicit statements of particular facts which, I
-am aware, would be more satisfactory to the critic. This limitation
-cannot be helped, but is probably compensated for by the fact that, if
-it did not exist, the subject would be one whose introspective
-observations would be of much less value.
-
-I will only add to this statement that the data were not collected in
-support of a preconceived theory or even of a working hypothesis, but
-only after they were gathered—in fact, after much of this material was
-forgotten—were they brought together and studied. It was then found that
-when the different pieces of evidence were pieced together they allowed
-of only one conclusion, namely, that which the subject herself in the
-main reached independently as the facts were laid bare and brought into
-the field of her consciousness by the means I have described.
-
-By way of preface to the subject’s introspective analyses I reproduce
-here the following remarks, which I wrote as an introduction to the
-“Life,” but slightly expanded and with a few verbal changes to make the
-matter clearer.
-
-An account of the various phases of dissociated personality written by
-the patient after recovery and restoration of memory for all the
-different phases cannot fail to be of interest. If the writer is endowed
-with the capacity for accurate introspection and statement such an
-account ought to give an insight into the condition of the mind during
-these dissociated states that is difficult to obtain from objective
-observation, or, if elicited from a clinical narration of the patient,
-to accurately transcribe. In that remarkable book, “A Mind that Found
-Itself,” the author, writing after recovery from insanity, has given us
-a unique insight into the insane mind. Similarly the writer of the
-following account allows us to see the beginnings of the differentiation
-of her mind into complexes, the final development of a dissociated or
-multiple personality, and to understand the moods, points of view,
-motives, and dominating ideas which characterized each phase. Such an
-account could only be given by a person who has had the experience, and
-who has the introspective and literary capacity to describe it.
-
-The writer in publishing, though with some reluctance and at my request,
-her experiences as a multiple personality, is actuated only, as I can
-testify, by a desire to contribute to our knowledge of such conditions.
-The experiences of her illness—now happily recovered from—have led her
-to take an active interest in abnormal psychology and to inform herself,
-so far as is possible by the study of the literature, on many of the
-problems involved. The training thus acquired has plainly added to the
-accuracy and value of her introspective observations.
-
-A brief preliminary statement will be necessary in order that the
-account as told by the patient may be fully intelligible.
-
-The subject was under my observation for about four years. When first
-seen the case presented the ordinary picture of so-called neurasthenia,
-characterized by persistent fatigue and the usual somatic symptoms, and
-by moral doubts and scruples. This condition, at first unsuspected, was
-later found to be a phase of multiple personality and was then termed
-and is described in the following account as state or personality A.
-Later another state, spoken of as personality B, suddenly developed. A
-had no memory of B, but the latter had full knowledge of A. Besides
-differences in memory A and B manifested distinct and markedly different
-characteristics and traits which included moods, tastes, health,
-emotions, feelings, instincts, sentiments, points of view, habits of
-thought, and controlling ideas. In place, for instance, of the
-depression, fatigue, and moral doubts and scruples of A, B manifested
-rather a condition of exaltation, and complete freedom from neurasthenia
-and its accompanying obsessional ideas. A and B alternated during a long
-period of time with one another. After A, for example, had existed as a
-personality for a number of hours or days she changed to B, and vice
-versa. After the first appearance of B it was soon recognized that both
-states were only fragments, so to speak, or phases of a dissociated
-personality, and neither represented the normal complete personality.
-After prolonged study this latter normal state was obtained in hypnosis
-(c´), and on being waked up a personality was found which possessed the
-combined memories of A and B, and was free from the pathological
-stigmata which respectively characterized each. This normal person is
-spoken of as C. Normal C had, therefore, been split and resynthesized
-into two systems of complexes or personalities, A and B. Leaving out for
-the sake of simplicity certain intermediate hypnotic states, A and B
-could be hypnotized into a single hypnotic state which was a synthesis
-that could be recognized as a complete normal personality in hypnosis.
-All that remained to do was to wake up this state and we had the normal
-C. This process could be reversed and repeated as often as desired: that
-is, C could be split again into A and B, then resynthesized in c´ who
-when awakened became C again. This relationship may be diagramatically
-expressed as follows:[269]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The various traits which characterized and differentiated the different
-personalities will appear in the course of this genetic study. With this
-introduction we will proceed to the latter.
-
- II
- THE DISRUPTION OF PERSONALITY
-
-The first of the accounts above mentioned by the _normal_ personality,
-C, written after recovery, is in the form of a letter. She had complete
-memory for both her phases A and B. It will be noticed in passing that
-this normal self speaks of the phases A and B as herself, transformed to
-be sure, but still herself in different “states.” “As A, _I_ felt” so
-and so, “as B, _I_ felt” thus, etc. On the other hand, the secondary
-personality, B, in her account, always refers to the other personalities
-as distinct personages, and uses the third person “she” in speaking of
-them. In this matter of differentiation of personalities B was very
-insistent, maintaining, as has been frequently noted in other cases,
-that she had no sense of identity of her own self-consciousness with
-that of the others. “I am, at any rate, a distinct personality,” she
-remarks. In her consciousness there was no feeling that the
-self-consciousness of C and A was identical with her own, but the
-contrary. This frequent phenomenon presents a standpoint from which the
-problem of the “I” may be studied. What is it that determines the
-self-consciousness of an ego? We are not concerned with this old
-question at present, but it is worth noting that cases of dissociated
-personality offer favorable material for the solution of the problem.
-
-The following extracts from the accounts by “C” and “B” have been taken
-as a basis for our analysis which will further attempt to coordinate the
-two accounts and to clarify the psychological development of the case.
-
- FROM ACCOUNT GIVEN BY THE NORMAL PERSONALITY C AFTER RECOVERY
-
- MY DEAR DR. PRINCE,
-
- You have asked me to give you an account of my illness as it seems to
- me now that I am myself and well; describing myself in those changes
- of personality which we have called “A” and “B.”
-
- It is always difficult for one to analyze one’s self accurately and
- the conditions have been very complex. I think, however, that I have a
- clear conception and appreciation of my case. I remember myself
- perfectly as “A” and as “B.” I remember my thoughts, my feelings, and
- my points of view in each personality, and can see where they are the
- same and where they depart from my normal self. These points of view
- will appear as we go on and I feel sure that my memory can be trusted.
- I recall clearly how in each state I regarded the other state and how
- in each I regarded myself.
-
- As I have said, I have now, as “C,” all the memories of both states
- (though none of the co-conscious life which, as B, I claimed and
- believed I had). _These memories are clearly differentiated in my
- mind._[270] It would be impossible to confuse the two as the moods
- which governed each were so absolutely different, but it is quite
- another thing to make them distinct on paper. I have, however, been so
- constantly under your observation that you can, no doubt, correct any
- statement I may make which is not borne out by your own knowledge.
-
- I am, perhaps, of a somewhat emotional nature, and have never been
- very strong physically though nothing of an invalid. I have always
- been self-controlled and not at all hysterical, as I would use the
- word. On the contrary, I was, I am sure, considered a very sensible
- woman by those who know me well, though I am not so sure what they may
- think of me now. I am, however, very sensitive and responsive to
- impressions in the sense that I am easily affected by my environment.
- For instance, at the theatre I lose myself in the play and feel keenly
- all the emotions portrayed by the actors. _These emotions are
- reflected vividly in my face and manner sometimes to the amusement of
- those with me and, if the scene is a painful one, it often takes me a
- long time to recover from the effect of it. The same is true of scenes
- from actual life._[271]
-
- Before this disintegration took place I had borne great responsibility
- and great sorrow with what I think I am justified in calling
- fortitude, and I do not think the facts of my previous life would
- warrant the assumption that I was naturally nervously unstable. It
- does not carry great weight, I know, for one to say of one’s self,—I
- am sensible, I am stable, I am not hysterical,—but I believe the
- statement can be corroborated by the testimony of those who have known
- me through my years of trial. The point I wish to make is that my case
- shows that such an illness as I have had is possible to a
- constitutionally stable person and is not confined to those of an
- hysterical tendency.
-
- A year previous to this division of personality a long nervous strain,
- covering a period of four years, had culminated in the death of one
- very dear to me—my husband. I was, at the end of that period, in good
- physical health, though nervously worn, but this death occurred in
- such a way as to cause me a great shock, and within the six days
- following I lost twenty pounds in weight. For nearly three months I
- went almost entirely without food, seemingly not eating enough to
- sustain life. I did not average more than three or four hours’ sleep
- out of the twenty-four, but I felt neither hungry nor faint, and was
- extremely busy and active, being absorbed both by home
- responsibilities and business affairs. The end of the year (5 years
- after the beginning of my husband’s illness), however, found me in
- very poor health physically and I was nervously and mentally
- exhausted. I was depressed, sad, felt that I had lost all that made
- life worth living and, indeed, I wished to die. I was very nervous,
- unable to eat or sleep, easily fatigued, suffered constantly from
- headache, to which I had always been subject, and was not able to take
- much exercise. The physician under whose care I was at this time told
- me, when I asked him to give my condition a name, that I was suffering
- from “nervous and cerebral exhaustion.”
-
- _It was at this time that the shock which caused the division of
- personality occurred_ [_resulting_ in period III].
-
-Although this last statement is true so far as concerns the complete
-dissociation of personality which resulted in the birth of an
-independent alternating personality, the first beginning of the genesis
-of that personality can be traced back to a far earlier period when she
-was about twenty years of age, that is to say _nineteen years before the
-final cleavage. These beginnings were an embryonic cluster or unitary
-complex of rebellious ideas, “floating thoughts, impulses, desires,
-inclinations” and intense feelings which came into being at this early
-period in consequence of an emotional trauma._
-
-I propose to trace in the course of this study, first, the gradual
-growth by successive syntheses of this rebellious cluster with other
-idea-clusters during a period of _fourteen_ years.
-
-Second, its incubation, organization and segregation from the main
-personality during a second period of _five_ years as a fairly well
-defined unitary complex known as the _B complex_.
-
-Third, the culmination of the incubating process and, as the result of
-an emotional shock, final bursting into flower of the B complex as the
-_B personality_ (i.e., nineteen years from the time of the beginning of
-disaggregation through rebellious thoughts).
-
-Fourth, the reversion to the original personality, but now one so
-disintegrated, shorn and shattered by the segregation of the autonomous
-B complex and of certain instincts as to be a so-called secondary
-disintegrated _personality_, _A_.
-
-Fifth, the alternation of these two strongly contrasted abnormal
-personalities.
-
-Finally, the reintegration of the two abnormal personalities into one
-normal original personality, C.
-
-In following the evolution of the personalities my main purpose will be
-to bring to light the psychological forces which brought about the
-disaggregation, on the one hand, and the synthetic construction of the
-new personal systems, on the other. The following arrangement of these
-changes in the personality by periods will be convenient for
-reference.[272]
-
- Period I. From wedding to beginning of husband’s illness
- (14 years) characterized by a group of
- rebellious ideas.
-
- Period II. During husband’s illness (4 years) and one year
- thereafter (5 years), characterized by B
- _complex_ and terminating with shock.
-
- Period III. Beginning with shock, characterized by B
- _personality_ and terminating one month later
- by another shock in
-
- Period IV. _Personality_ A, plus B complex, lasting one
- week, followed by
-
- Period V. Characterized by alternations of A and B
- personalities and lasting several years until
- reintegrated in original normal personality,
- C.
-
-All these changes from period I to IV inclusive were caused by emotional
-shocks awakened by a common factor in closely associated situations. In
-period IV the A personality had no amnesia for personality B. This
-amnesia developed in period V.
-
- THE REBELLION
-
- PERIOD I
-
-The writer C in her account passes over the early first period, but she
-remembers clearly the historical facts and has given a very precise
-description of them in the many analyses which have been made and
-recorded. Moreover in the second account,[273] written in the secondary
-B phase of personality, she recognizes the embryonic emotional complex
-of this first period, and its genetic relation to the later B _complex_,
-and to her own still later developed B _personality_. “This complex” she
-(B) wrote, “it seems to me is the same, though only slightly developed,
-as that which appeared later and is described as complex B. In trying to
-explain this condition, which it seems to me was the first start of what
-ultimately resulted in a division of personality, I will divide the time
-into periods, and I will call this period I.” (This same division into
-periods I have thought it well to follow.) She also identified the ideas
-of this early complex with ideas and feelings which she still
-entertained and which formed a marked characteristic of her own
-dissociated (B) personality.
-
-For the sake of clearness and simplicity of phraseology it will be well
-from now on to speak of the subject when in the dissociated B state
-simply as B, and when united in the normal state as C. In this way, as C
-points out, we shall avoid constant repetition and circumlocution in
-such phrases as, “when the subject was in the B state,” etc. You must
-not, however, be misled by the connotation of terms and read into this
-nomenclature more than the psychological facts warrant, or make
-distinctions of personality which transcend in any way psychological
-laws. Dissociated and multiple personality are not novel freak
-phenomena, but are only exaggerations of the normal and due to
-exaggerations of normal processes, and it is for this reason that they
-are of interest and importance. For, being exaggerations, they
-accentuate and bring out into high relief certain tendencies and
-functional mechanisms which belong to normal conditions, and they
-differentiate mental processes, one from another, which normally are not
-so easily recognized.
-
-They are caricatures, so to speak, of the normal. In one respect they
-may be likened to the staining of an anatomical specimen prepared for
-the microscope by which the various anatomical structures are brought
-out into strong contrast with one another and easily differentiated,
-like the boundaries of countries on a colored map. Without the staining
-all would have a homogeneous appearance and differentiation would be
-difficult. So, though a secondary personality is in one sense but a
-phase of the whole personality, it is characterized largely by an
-accentuation or domination of particular constituents to be found in the
-given normal everyday personality, and by the subordination or
-suppression of others, both being effected by the exaggeration of the
-normal processes of dissociation and synthesis. In such a secondary
-personality these constituents and processes are easily recognized
-though they may be hidden under normal conditions. In saying that a
-secondary personality is a phase of the whole personality the latter
-term—whole personality—must be taken in the sense of including all the
-past experiences of life which have been organized, deposited and
-conserved in the unconscious, and all the instincts and innate
-dispositions of the individual. These past experiences form, as we have
-seen,[274] a storehouse of formative material which, for the most part,
-under ordinary conditions, may lie dormant though potential; but any
-elements of this material may, under special influences, be awakened to
-activity and, uniting with particular constituents of the normal
-everyday personality, take part under the urge of their own instinctive
-impulses and dispositions in the formation of a new personality. The
-remainder of the normal personality then becomes submerged and dormant
-in the unconscious.
-
-To return to the evolution of the B personality. If this final phase be
-correctly traced back 19 years to the early antecedent rebellious
-complex above referred to, we shall see that the evolution of multiple
-personality in this case passed through several successive stages and
-was of slow growth. Speaking generally, it may, indeed, be ascribed,
-primarily, on the one hand, to the disruptive or dissociating effect of
-continuous _conflicts_ between the opposing impulses of innate
-dispositions and instincts (emotions), and, on the other, to the gradual
-synthesization of the components of personality repressed by these
-conflicts into the subconscious. The secondary incubation of these
-repressed and other deposited experiences of life followed, with the
-final setting free of all this formative material, when fully matured,
-by the force, awakened by a trauma, of the conative emotional impulses
-belonging to it. The analogues of these phenomena and mechanisms are
-observed in sudden religious conversion which in principle is an
-alteration of personality.[275]
-
-All the historical evidence at hand, derived from searching
-investigation, goes to show that at the early period to which I have
-referred (period I) the subject received an emotional shock, “which,” B
-wrote, “it seems to me, as I look at it now, resulted in the first
-cleavage of personality. This emotion was one of fright and led to
-rebellion [in the form of rebellious thoughts] against a certain
-condition of her life, and formed a small vague complex [of thoughts and
-emotions] which persisted in the sense that it recurred from time to
-time, though it was always immediately suppressed.”[276] And this vague
-complex of rebellious thoughts necessarily soon gave rise to and
-included other “floating thoughts, impulses, desires, inclinations,” all
-of which the subject suppressed or endeavored to suppress during a long
-period of years. “This complex,” she adds, as quoted above, “it seems to
-me, was the same, though only slightly developed, as that which appeared
-later, and is described as complex B.”
-
-The “shock” when more deeply analyzed proved to be the excitation of
-certain emotions which, besides a mild degree of fright, were intense
-repugnance or disgust. They were a reaction to or defense against
-another affect, which was also excited and which we will term, in
-deference to our subject’s good taste, X. The emotion of repugnance was
-so intense as to require considerable fortitude to withstand and gave
-rise to much agitation. It accompanied a cluster of “rebellious” ideas
-awakened by the realization of an unexpectedly disagreeable situation
-and relation. This cluster I shall call the _rebellious complex_ to
-distinguish it from the later B complex into which it became
-constellated. This rebellious complex with the emotion of repugnance
-(instinct of repulsion) was of necessity frequently excited by the
-conditions of life and, therefore, of frequent recurrence, after the
-fashion of an obsession. After the first shock the fright naturally
-subsided, for one reason, from habituation to the conditions. The X
-affect, never experienced before, from the very first was repressed by
-the inhibiting force of the more intense emotion of disgust.[277] Fear
-also was involved in this repression, for there was a conflict between
-the opposing forces of conflicting emotions; and in such a conflict—as,
-for example, between fear and anger—the stronger tends to repress its
-antagonist and whatever it conflicts with. Consequently the recurring
-rebellious complex was habitually accompanied by repugnance alone. The
-exact constitution of this rebellious complex I am not at liberty to
-mention. It may have been a matter of mother-in-law, or of social
-arrangements, or particular duties and responsibilities, or something
-else—it does not matter and it is not necessary to say. It was a
-shrinking from a particular condition of her life. It was certainly not
-a wish unless this repugnance and “kicking against the pricks” can be
-twisted into its opposite as a wish to be free from the objectionable
-condition. Still less was it a morally unacceptable unconscious, being
-just the opposite; for both the rebellious thoughts and the wish to be
-free from the condition objected to were acceptable and justified to
-herself in her mind, and, in her secret thoughts at least, tolerated as
-natural and reasonable.[278] Nor was the X affect an _intolerable_ wish.
-If a wish there was no reason why it should not have been gratified.
-Nevertheless, as B affirms, the rebellious thoughts were put out of
-mind, as thoughts of a disagreeable fact, as they arose from time to
-time; but this was only from a sense of duty in consideration of
-responsibilities undertaken. I could make this clearer if I were at
-liberty to enter into the details of these rebellious thoughts. Her life
-in every other respect was an unusually happy one, surrounded by all
-that one should desire, and included a devoted husband whom she loved,
-admired and respected. For these reasons alone she felt it a duty to
-suppress all expression of her rebellious feelings.
-
-The main point, from the point of view of psychogenesis, is that at this
-early stage we have constantly _recurring conflicts between the conative
-forces pertaining to emotions linked with sentiments of duty, loyalty,
-and affection, on the one hand, and those pertaining to the rebellious
-thoughts with corresponding desires, impulses, etc., reinforced with the
-emotion of repugnance, on the other_. The former always won and the
-latter were inhibited or repressed into the unconscious. These were not
-the only rebellious thoughts that were repressed. There were others from
-which the original rebellion received accretions. That such constantly
-repressed thoughts with their strong feeling tones should be conserved
-in the unconscious was a psychological necessity, and also that they
-should emerge by the force of their own urge into consciousness from
-time to time like an obsession whenever stimulated by environmental and
-personal conditions. I may simply cite the two following simple
-examples.
-
-The subject, governed by the maternal instinct, naturally loved to take
-care of her baby and “make things for him to wear, and fuss over them”;
-and yet there were “floating thoughts” of an opposite character which
-later, as will appear, emerged and became conspicuous in the B complex
-and B personality. “She was very fond of her father-in-law and did
-everything to make him happy,” and yet there were other thoughts which
-conceived of him as a “fussy old bother.” These again were represented
-later in the loss of sentiments of affection and in the point of view of
-the B phases. There was no real dissociation and doubling of
-consciousness; these conflicting attitudes and tendencies were, at least
-in the beginning until the later period of stress and strain when they
-eventuated in corresponding action, merely _evanescent thoughts, wishes
-and impulses which easily passed out of mind_, or an undercurrent of
-thought such as all of us have more or less.
-
-Later, when they became more insistent and persistent, they had to be
-repressed by an effort of will.
-
-Then it followed that C, conscious of these contrary impulses,
-reproached herself for them, thought herself wicked to have them, and
-when they became insistent repressed them. Their intrusion into
-consciousness was probably favored by a considerable degree of
-neurasthenia, for when she was ill they were more frequent and
-obtrusive, while with good health and happiness they disappeared, as is
-the case with all obsessing ideas.
-
-The occurrence of such contrary impulses would probably have been of no
-account and nothing more would have been heard from them, as in the case
-of ordinary mortals, if it had not been for a period of stress and
-strain which she was destined to undergo. As it was, the awakening of
-these contrary thoughts and impulses was fraught with a danger to the
-psychical unity, a danger that actually materialized, namely: as these
-conflicting impulses, being also rebellious against the conditions of
-life, were constantly awakened contemporaneously with the specialized
-frequently recurring “rebellious complex,” the whole tended to become
-synthesized into a large complex which later, during the second period
-of stress and strain, became in turn the nucleus of a still larger
-complex (B). During this latter period, as we shall see, like the forces
-of a growing political revolution, the rebellious thoughts and impulses
-increased in number, frequency and intensity, until there were times
-when they acquired the mastery in the conflicts and repressed the
-previously opposing thoughts of duty, affection, etc., and dominated the
-personality. The effect of such intense conflict was to cause by
-repression a rift in the personality, i.e., to dissociate a large system
-of ideas (with their emotions), from other systems. All this will appear
-as we go on.
-
-There is another point which it is interesting here to note. The
-secondary phase B looking back recognizes (i.e., has a sense of
-awareness) that the “rebellious thoughts” and the various contrary
-impulses were herself. “_I was the rebellion_;” “I think of the
-rebellion as myself;” “I was the rebellion which she kept to herself;”
-“The first complex formed a something I am;” “I think I am made up of
-all the impulses which began to come then;” "It seems to me, as I think
-of it now, that I was always there—sometimes more, sometimes less—in the
-form of conflicting impulses.“ In these and similar phrases B, over and
-over again, in numerous analyses at widely separated intervals,
-identifies these early conscious processes with her own individuality.
-Nevertheless, ”_I was not an_ I _then_, you know," she explains, “but to
-understand what I write you will have to call me so. I remember them now
-as my thoughts, but at that time I never thought of myself as a self.”
-“I never thought, ‘I’ do not like this or that then; _it was like an
-impulse in the other direction_.” Let it not be forgotten, then, that at
-the beginning the rebellious complex and impulses were not synthesized
-and segregated as an ego. Nevertheless, in fact, whenever she attempts
-to describe the early rebellious complex and the impulses she drops into
-the mode of saying, “I felt so and so,” and finds herself obliged to use
-this personal pronoun when thinking of these past thoughts, and the same
-is true when she speaks of the more fully developed subsequent B
-complex.
-
-You will say that there is nothing particularly remarkable or unusual in
-this. We all think of our past thoughts as our own, even when they
-occurred, say, in absent mindedness when there was no consciousness of
-self. _But the unusual thing is that B—the subject in the B phase of
-personality—does not think of C’s other thoughts or conscious
-experiences as her own._ In fact she persistently refuses to recognize
-these others as hers. She has no feeling of their having belonged to her
-own consciousness. “They were not my thoughts,” she says. This is true
-of this other content of the conscious life of the early first period as
-well as of the later periods when the B complex and the B personality
-appeared. “_She_ liked,” such and such a thing; “_I_ didn’t!” "_She_
-thought,“ so and so; ”_I_ didn’t;" referring respectively to the
-thoughts of the dominant consciousness and the contrary thoughts. “Yet
-in referring to the B _complex_,” she writes of the second period, “I
-find myself continually saying ‘I’; it is difficult not to do so. This,
-I think, must show the intimate relation between the two. I think of the
-B complex and I find I think of it as myself, although I do not think of
-A and C as myself, and they do not seem to be my own personality.”
-
-This feeling by a secondary personality that certain conscious
-experiences belong, or belonged, to her own personal consciousness or
-ego and that others do not, or did not, belong is a common phenomenon in
-such cases and is of great significance. It is a phenomenon which
-justifies the inference that the relation which one system of ideas
-bears to that which we call the ego is different from that of the other
-system; it is a phenomenon, too, which must be taken into account in
-solving the problem of the ego. When we study the records of cases of
-multiple personality we find as a frequent observation that the
-secondary personality distinguishes between the conscious experiences
-which belong to itself and those which belong to the principal
-personality, and to other secondary personalities, if more than one.
-This differentiation is based upon the feeling of a particular
-self-consciousness being attached to the former and not to the latter.
-The conception of self and the self-regarding sentiment differ markedly
-in their content in the different phases of personality. The analysis of
-their contents shows this to be the case: e. g., the contained images
-and affects. It is not, therefore, simply a matter of the experiences
-occurring at different chronological epochs. Indeed the two different
-sets of experiences may be synchronous, one being conscious and the
-other co-conscious.
-
-I have passed over a question which is sure to be asked: Why did the
-“unexpectedly disagreeable” situation, whatever it was, occasion the
-“shock” and the rebellious complex? I may say frankly that the situation
-was not one which would induce such a disastrous effect in the ordinary
-individual. The answer is to be found in the principle of settings which
-give meaning to ideas. [Every idea over and above the sensory images
-which take part in its content has meaning; and the meaning is
-determined by antecedent experiences (thoughts, perceptions, feelings,
-etc.) with which it is associated, i.e., in which it is set. An idea of
-a particular individual, for example, has one meaning for one person and
-another meaning for another according to the associated mental
-experiences of each. These experiences form the setting or context which
-determines the meaning, point of view, and attitude of mind towards any
-given object or situation presented to consciousness.][279] Whenever an
-emotional “shock” (one that is not a simple instinct reaction) occurs,
-this setting of antecedent experiences, organized with the idea and
-emotions, acts as a unitary complex, a psychic whole, and behaves as a
-sort of psychological torch which some later experience sets aflame, so
-to speak, as an emotional shock. Because of this setting the idea reacts
-in accordance with the emotions (fear, disgust, etc.) which the
-“meaning” includes, and induces a defense reaction. Now analytical
-investigation revealed settings to the “situation” dating in part from
-early childhood and in part from later experiences. An attitude of mind,
-therefore, already existed which was ready to react with the emotions
-(fear and disgust) which were excited by the meaning of the situation.
-It is easy to see, in the light of the actual facts, that if a certain
-factor of the situation had been altered, without altering the situation
-itself, its meaning would have been altered, i.e., it would not have
-awakened the setting built up by the experiences of life, and would not
-have excited the emotional response (shock) that ensued.
-
- DISSOCIATION
-
-But the organization of an emotional complex was not the whole effect of
-these experiences. In addition, if the memories of B can be trusted—and
-I believe they can—there resulted in a minor degree a cleavage or
-dissociation of personality. This was not so pronounced as to give rise
-to noticeable pathological manifestations, but apparently sufficient to
-make at least a line of indenture, so to speak, which afterwards was
-easily broadened and deepened into a complete dissociation. This is not
-easy to demonstrate at this late date, but there are certain facts that
-have some evidential value.
-
-In the first place, according to the evidence, there developed a
-tendency in what we have called the rebellious complex to take on
-independent activity, or an automatism after the nature of an obsession,
-outside the domain of the will and self-control. No amount of reasoning
-or of self-reproach sufficed to change the point of view. Like an
-obsession it would not down and recurred automatically.
-
-In the second place, it seems, according to B’s memories, that the
-activity of the rebellious complex of ideas began to take place to a
-certain extent outside the focus of the attentive consciousness, in the
-sense that the personal consciousness was not conscious or aware of
-their presence. This means that at times when the ideas in question were
-not in consciousness, and therefore might be supposed to be dormant in
-the unconscious, they recurred nevertheless and were in subconscious
-activity, i.e., were co-conscious. This statement is based upon the
-interrogation of B who to the best of her memory thought that the
-“rebellious ideas were split off and went on by themselves while the
-subject C was thinking of other things, without her being aware of
-them.” “They were co-conscious as I know it now.”
-
-Too much weight should not be laid upon memories of this kind after such
-long intervals of time, and I would not be understood as doing so; but
-that the memories of this secondary personality may be given their just
-value it should be explained that, like some other secondary
-personalities, B’s memory embraces not only the mental states (thoughts,
-perceptions, feelings, etc.,) of the principal personality which were
-within the focus of attention, but those which were in the fringe or
-margin of awareness and those which were entirely outside, i.e., fully
-subconscious. This has proved to be the case by numerous test
-observations and experiments. B might, therefore, remember split off
-(co-conscious) rebellious states if they existed. One reason for this
-enlargement of the field of memory of this phase of personality is that
-besides being an alternating personality[280] she is a co-conscious
-personality. But this is another story which we shall have to postpone
-for the present.
-
-In the third place, the constant invasion of the field of the personal
-consciousness by the contrary impulses, which I have already spoken of,
-suggest, if they do not establish, a certain degree of automatic
-activity arising from the unconscious and dissociated from the rest of
-the conscious field. In the light of what has already been told and of
-later developments, to be described in the next lecture, the inference
-assumes a high degree of probability that these impulses were
-manifestations of ideas and feeling tones belonging to an earlier period
-of life—childhood or girlhood—which had been conserved in the
-unconscious and which now erupted into the field of the personal
-co-consciousness.
-
-I do not want to make too much of these early tendencies to dissociation
-nor is the matter important. For historical comprehension, however, it
-is desirable that the facts should be mentioned for, if our
-interpretation be correct, they were evidently steps in the evolution of
-the final disintegration.
-
-Thus matters went on during this first period, covering a span of 14
-years; sometimes the rebellious complex, enlarged and constellated with
-conflicting thoughts, desires and impulses, recurred with frequency, and
-sometimes they remained dormant for considerable intervals, the state of
-general health apparently often being the conditioning factor.
-
- III
- THE EVOLUTION OF THE B COMPLEX
-
- PERIOD II
-
-At the end of the 14-year span—when the _second period_ begins—the
-subject “received a great shock in the sudden illness of her husband.
-This illness was of such a nature that she knew no complete recovery was
-possible and that death might result at any time.” This second shock
-aroused once more the emotion of fright, and the old rebellion and a
-certain apprehensiveness, a trait which is inherent to a marked degree
-in her character. During the following four years which covered the
-illness of her husband she was almost literally torn to pieces mentally
-by this apprehensiveness—always anticipating the inevitable hanging over
-her.
-
-After the first two weeks, when her husband’s temporary recovery took
-place, the same old rebellious complex returned with intensified force
-as the condition that gave rise to it returned. But she repressed all
-expression of it, resolved that no one should guess her secret because
-she did not wish to give pain to another. So she kept her secret to
-herself, and what she kept to herself became the _beginnings_ of a new
-personality. “Then came the nervous strain of sorrow, anxiety, and care,
-and the inability to reconcile herself to the inevitable. This nervous
-strain continued for four years. C’s life during this time was given up
-entirely to the care of her husband; she tried to live up to her
-ideal—which was a high one—of duty and responsibility, and always having
-the sense of failure, discouragement and apprehension.” Necessarily she
-was cut off from the social world of gaiety by the care that devolved
-upon her or, considering her temperament, thought she was. A person of
-less intense feeling and governed by pure intellect quite likely might
-have reasonably arranged her life so that she could have both given all
-the care she wished to the invalid, on the one hand, and participated in
-the pleasures of social life, on the other. But, like many anxious wives
-and mothers whom all physicians see, her anxiety and feelings were too
-intense for such cool reasoning, her mind became single tracked and she
-shut herself off from the world she loved. Consequently, during this
-period of stress and strain the old rebellious complex not only became
-intensified and more persistent, but also became enlarged and
-systematized with a still larger cluster of rebellious thoughts. To the
-old rebellion there was now added a rebellion against the hardness of
-fate which was about to cheat her out of the happiness which belonged to
-her, and still more against the new conditions of life as she found
-them. This is what the incurable illness of her husband meant to her.
-
- She rebelled bitterly [B writes in a letter;] she _could_ not have it
- so and it _was_ so. No one knew what his illness was and she bent
- every energy to conceal his true condition. She blamed herself for his
- illness [in her ignorance of the pathology of disease], and after a
- time she began to have that sense of being double. More than anything
- else she wanted to be happy; she saw all happiness going and she could
- _not_ let it go—it _must_ not—she _would_ be happy, and she
- _couldn’t_. It was a fight with herself all the time. We were A and B
- then just as much as we are now. The part that afterwards became A
- doing all that a devoted conscientious wife could do, determined that
- her husband should never miss anything of love and care; and the part
- that afterwards became B rebelling against it all, not willing to give
- up her youth, longing for pleasure, and above all for happiness. To be
- happy, that was always the cry, and it was not possible.
-
-It was a longing for conditions which in her mind seemed essential, and
-she could not accept the conditions as they were. “It was a rebellion, a
-longing for happiness, a disinclination to give up the pleasures of life
-which the conditions required; and there was a certain _determination to
-have these pleasures in spite of everything_, and this resulted in a
-constant struggle between C and this complex.” It was that inability,
-which is so common and causes so much mental disturbance and unhappiness
-in so many people, to reconcile and adjust oneself to the actual
-situation of one’s life and accept it. And here, in the case of B. C.
-A., we recognize in the center of the rebellion of this second period of
-stress and strain, the same thoughts which had cropped up evanescently
-during the first period but now become more intense and persistent, more
-disturbing and the fundamental, cause of the inability to adjust herself
-to the situation.
-
-These thoughts, however, were not tolerated by the subject and were put
-out of mind and _repressed into the unconscious by her rightmindedness_.
-It thus became a matter of conflict between the light-hearted gay
-sentiments and temperament of inexperienced youth which, in ignorance of
-life, finds it difficult to accept its serious responsibilities, and the
-sentiments of honor, duty, and affection which were the dominating
-traits. These facts are too intimate to go into in greater detail, but
-each one will probably recognize in himself some such conflicting
-desires and tendencies.
-
-This is the place to point out certain major traits in the character of
-B. C. A. which enable us to recognize more clearly the source of the
-conflicting impulses and help to make intelligible their uprushes. There
-were two strongly marked elements in her character which had always been
-noticeable and which, given the appropriate conditions, were almost
-bound to come in conflict. B. C. A. during all her girlhood days and
-early married life was noted for her happy, buoyant, lively,
-light-hearted disposition. She was ready at all times for pleasure and
-could not bear to give it up, and she had an unusually intense desire to
-be happy; she loved happiness and wanted happiness, and when happiness
-dominated, as it generally did in a person of such a disposition, she
-was filled with the “joy of life.” Responsive to her environment,[281]
-when her surroundings were sympathetic all the joy and mirth of her own
-personality was given out and reflected upon others. She was of an
-intense nature in that she felt all the anxieties, sorrows, and joys of
-life with great and equal intensity. But it was joy and happiness which
-appealed to her as the one thing she must preserve. This was one of her
-character traits.
-
-On the other hand, the second trait was equally strong, namely,
-unreasonably high moral ideals, so high even in the little every day
-affairs of life that only a strong stern fanatic or ascetic could live
-consistently and perpetually up to them; she was intensely conscientious
-and high-minded with an almost inordinate sense of honor and duty; and
-there was also an overweening pride in her rectitude and moral ideals
-which sometimes seems to have transcended common-sense; and there was
-pride in her pride. Reserved and rather unapproachable to strangers she
-was affectionate to relatives and intimates.
-
-These two traits of character if analyzed would be seen to be two great
-strongly contrasted unitary systems of ideas and sentiments with their
-respective emotions and feelings. They formed two sides to her
-personality, and the conflicts that ensued could be said to have been
-between the two sides.
-
-To say that these two traits or groups of traits—love of the joy of life
-and conscientious devotion to duty—were combined in one person is not of
-course to mention anything out of the ordinary. What was out of the
-ordinary was the intensity with which each existed. Now that she has
-recovered from her illness and has reverted to the normal synthesized
-personality these traits are still easily noticeable. None but a person
-of unusually strong, fixed character, capable of holding an ideal
-continuously in mind, subordinating all else, could have downed the cry
-for happiness and lighter pleasures of life. When we come to the
-secondary split personalities we shall see that the splitting was
-between these two traits or systems; the elements of one gathering about
-itself associated elements, formed one personality with corresponding
-reactions to the environment, and the elements of the other in similar
-fashion formed the other personality. Thus stronger conflicts arose.
-
-The recognition of mental conflicts as disturbances of personality and
-determinants of conduct is as old as literature itself. They have been
-the theme of poets, dramatists and fiction writers of every age. It has
-remained for modern dynamic psychology to study and determine with
-exactness the phenomena, discover the mental mechanisms involved and
-formulate the laws. One school, the so-called psycho-analysts, claims to
-find in practically all conflicts, a very complicated mechanism
-involving repression, unconscious processes (generally a sexual wish for
-the most part from infantile life) a “censor,” a compromise, conversion
-and disguisement of the repressed factor in the form of a
-psycho-neurosis, or other mental and physiological phenomena,
-substitution, etc. I have no intention of entering into a discussion of
-the correctness of such mechanisms. The sole point I wish to make is
-that, even if so, to find such mechanisms and results to be universal is
-the reductio ad absurdum just as it would be to find that a conflict
-between a policeman and a resisting rioter is always carried out by a
-process which is manifested by a black eye and cracked skull, arrest,
-trial and conviction of the rioter. The process of the physical conflict
-may be simple or complex and be manifested and terminated in many ways.
-It may be carried out by and result in simple dissociation of the rioter
-from the crowd and sending him home about his business.
-
-So with mental conflicts which may be manifested in many ways and have
-various results. In previous lectures we have considered some of these
-ways and results. One way and mechanism is, as in the latter example of
-the rioter, the simple repression and dissociation of the weaker factor
-resulting in the domination of the stronger, and the determination of
-conduct according to the impulses and tendencies organized within the
-mental system that has gained the ascendency. But in maintaining social
-law and order we may have to deal, not with a single rioter, but with a
-mob or organized rebellion. Then the repression of the uprising may
-bring into action more men and more systematized forces and may result
-in the repression of organized factions and an alteration of the social
-system. So mental conflicts may involve large systems and result in
-extensive rearrangements and repressions; in other words, an alteration
-with dissociation of personality. This was the mechanism and result in
-the case now under examination.
-
-The conflicts were between the impulses or conative forces discharged
-from the emotions pertaining to youthful sentiments of pleasure and joy
-and play and ideas with exalting pleasure-feeling tones, all
-constituting wishes for the pleasures and happiness of youth—conflicts,
-I mean, between these forces and those of ethical sentiments of duty,
-together with other sentiments involving the emotions of affection,
-anxiety, sympathy, admiration, and depressing pain-feeling tones. _For
-the time being, at least, the latter won and the former were repressed._
-But they were still there, conserved in the unconscious, ready to spring
-to life in response to a stimulus at any favorable opportunity when the
-repressing force of the will power was weakened by stress and strain. So
-we see that the conflicting wishes and impulses which jarred and
-threatened the mental equilibrium of the subject were, after all, only
-impulses or incursions from the unconscious of repressed antecedent
-mental experiences (wishes and conative tendencies) which were elements
-in the normal character.
-
-Thus it came about that the original complex of rebellious thoughts
-against a _particular_ condition had become slowly enlarged into a
-rebellion against _general conditions_, and _constellated with a number
-of specific wishes for pleasure (which were incompatible with her life)
-and their corresponding impulses into a still larger complex_.
-
-It is this latter that we have called the _B complex_.
-
-It had become evolved and organized out of the original “rebellious”
-complex as its nucleus by receiving successive accretions from later
-rebellious ideas and wishes in conflict with the personality, much as
-the pearl in the oyster grows by successive accretions.
-
-From one point of view it was a highly developed “mood.”
-
-It was still under control but later, as we shall find, it was destined
-to assume autonomous activity and play a dominant rôle.
-
-“C was still conscious of these thoughts, [B wrote in her account], but
-they represented to her the selfish and weak part of her nature and she
-tried to suppress them; tried to put them out of her mind but they still
-persisted, and she was always to a greater or less extent aware of them.
-There was no lack of awareness and no amnesia. As the months and years
-went on the sorrow and anxiety of the C group increased, and the
-conflicting thoughts and _rebellion_ of the B group increased. C was
-ashamed of the latter and always tried to suppress such thoughts as they
-arose. If during those years anything happy had come to C the formation
-of this rebellious complex would, I believe, have been retarded, perhaps
-stopped altogether, but nothing pleasant happened; it was all grief, and
-everything went wrong.”
-
-Notwithstanding the continuing stress and strain and lack of joy all
-probably would have gone well if C’s husband had recovered and she had
-retained her physical health. Returning to her normal life, she would
-have been only one more of those who have lived through a period of
-anxious perturbation. But unfortunately, as it happened, “C’s husband
-died suddenly away from home, the one thing she had [dreaded and] felt
-she could not bear.” She received the news over the telephone.
-
- She did not recover [B states] from the shock and became more and more
- nervous, was very much depressed, easily fatigued, suffered constantly
- from headache, and was possessed by all sorts of doubts and fears,
- reproaching herself for things done and undone. She also overtaxed her
- strength in attending to business matters.
-
-C’s physical health immediately and suddenly gave way. Her own account,
-already given, goes more into detail and lets us see the extent to which
-she was handicapped by physical and mental ill-health in her struggle
-against her rebellious impulses—against fate. She was not given half a
-chance. Her description of her condition at this period, as noted at the
-beginning of this account, is worth repeating here in this connection:
-
- I was at that time in good physical health, though nervously worn, but
- this death occurred in such a way as to cause me a great shock and
- within the six days following I lost twenty pounds in weight. For
- nearly three months I went almost entirely without food, seemingly not
- eating enough to sustain life, and I did not average more than three
- or four hours’ sleep out of the twenty-four, but I felt neither hungry
- nor faint, and was extremely busy and active, being absorbed both by
- home responsibilities and business affairs. The end of the year,
- however, found me in very poor health physically and I was nervously
- and mentally exhausted. I was depressed, sad, felt that I had lost all
- that made life worth living and, indeed, I wished to die. I was very
- nervous, unable to eat or sleep, easily fatigued, suffered constantly
- from headache, to which I had always been subject, and was not able to
- take much exercise. The physician under whose care I was at this time
- told me, when I asked him to give my condition a name, that I was
- suffering from “nervous and cerebral exhaustion.”
-
-It is always the case in so-called neurasthenic states that the power of
-self-control is weakened, resistance to obsessing thoughts diminishes
-and the latter tend to take on automaticity and invade and dissociate
-the personality. And there is also a certain degree of repression and
-dissociation of previously dominant systems of ideas. In other words
-every case of real so-called “neurasthenia” and hysteria is a greater or
-less alteration of personality.[282]
-
-Accordingly, although at the beginning of period II the B complex was
-only a loosely organized system of rebellious thoughts, wishes and
-impulses recurring from time to time, this system now began in her
-physically and mentally weakened condition to acquire increased force,
-to invade the personal consciousness, and breaking through the
-repressing force of the will to gain autonomous sovereignty and
-temporarily to dominate the conduct. In the prolonged conflict the
-rebellion with its contrary wishes was at moments to gain the
-ascendency. In other words, these other elements came to the surface and
-gathered to themselves all the discordant elements of personality, much
-as a radical political party gathers to itself all the rebellious
-discordant factions that are in antagonism to the governing conservative
-party. In one sense another side to the character had become
-crystallized and autonomous, and, through the intensity of its feeling
-tones, became periodically dominant. But not without protest from the
-previously dominant elements of personality. This protest, however, had
-certain psychological peculiarities which show that the conditions were
-not quite as simple as this. I will speak of them later.
-
-Soon the repressed wishes, impulses—the B complex—began to manifest
-themselves in a way which indicated that a definite dissociation had
-taken place, although as yet, as I have said, there was no secondary
-_self_ or _I_ properly speaking. All the previous undercurrents of
-thought—the intensified shrinking from the particular condition of life,
-the internal rebellion against the conditions in general, the
-disinclinations, longings, wishes, and determinations—had become
-synthesized, and began to form a separate train of thought, so that at
-one and the same time there was a sense, as is so commonly felt in such
-cases, of a double train of thought; she had “a sense of being double.”
-It seemed to her, C, that there was “all the time a pulling in a
-different way from the way she had to go, a not wanting to live the life
-she had to live.” This “sense of being double” seems to have been so
-pronounced that to B, looking back upon it, it seemed as if these two
-trains of thought (the C personality and the B complex) “occurred
-concurrently and simultaneously, so that it could be said that one was
-co-conscious with the other,” just as much as when there is loss of
-awareness on the part of the principal consciousness for the coconscious
-train. In this case there was, however, at this time, no lack of
-awareness and there is nothing to prove B’s view of concomitance of
-different trains of thought rather than that the two trains did not
-rapidly oscillate or alternate from instant to instant.
-
-The self-accusations and self-reproaches of the principal consciousness,
-C, rendered the pleasure impulses still more intolerable and tended the
-more to repress the rebellious train and thereby to disrupt further the
-personality and to crystallize the secondary synthesis. It became more
-than a matter of inner behavior of mental systems: _the outward behavior
-became affected and changed_.
-
-For corresponding to this invasion and domination of the ideas of the B
-complex the behavior of C became altered, much to her amazement. That
-is, her conduct at times was governed by the impulses of her once
-repressed wishes and she found herself then doing things which normally
-she had not enjoyed or done. _Her health and strength also, at such
-moments, became extraordinarily improved._
-
-This alteration of conduct and character and health became more
-obtrusive and characteristic at a later date when the B complex had
-become developed into the B personality. But the alteration of conduct
-can be easily recognized at these earlier times if some of the previous
-minor characteristics of C in respect to this sort of behavior are
-understood.
-
- Among these characteristics were a great dislike of riding on electric
- cars, an almost abnormal nervousness about bugs and mosquitoes—I
- always disliked going into the woods for this reason—an aversion to
- exercise in summer, and a fear of canoeing. I had never enjoyed
- sitting out from under cover or on the ground as the glare of the sun
- was apt to cause headache and I abhorred all crawling things. I was
- reserved with strangers and not given to making my friends quickly;
- devoted to my family and relatives, fond of my friends, and not in the
- habit of neglecting them in any way. I felt much responsibility
- concerning business matters and had given a good deal of time and
- thought to them. Many more peculiarities might be mentioned.
-
-In the later B personality, as will be presently related, these and
-other traits were replaced by their opposites, but even at this earlier
-time the complete reversal of her tastes and behavior was obvious.
-
- To my surprise [C states in her account] there were times when I did
- some of the things above referred to, such as sitting in the woods,
- etc. I felt a sense of wonder that I should be doing them and a still
- greater wonder that I found them pleasant. There was also a sense at
- times of impatience and irritation at being troubled with business
- matters or responsibility of any kind and an inclination to throw
- aside all care. I wondered at myself for feeling as I did and rather
- protested to myself at many of my acts but still kept right on doing
- them. It seems to me that these ideas and feelings formed a complex by
- which I was more or less governed and that this complex gradually grew
- in strength and can be identified with that of the personality (B)
- which first developed.
-
-A more interesting account of this change of conduct is given by B:
-
- _As she grew more and more neurasthenic_, it seems to me as I look
- back upon it, the _B complex grew stronger and more dominant_, and
- with this increase of strength of this complex, C began to live a life
- _corresponding to the impulses belonging to it_—staying out of doors
- entirely—and then there followed much improvement in her health.[283]
- She took long rides on the electric cars, which she had always
- previously disliked intensively; she had always been very much afraid
- of a canoe, but now she went canoeing often and enjoyed it. She was
- surprised and astonished that she should enjoy these things, as it was
- foreign to her natural and previous ideas and inclinations. There was
- no change of character, properly speaking, but she did things she
- disapproved of and knew at the time that she disapproved of them.
- There was a recognition that she was doing things she would not
- previously have done, and she protested to herself, but even this
- half-protest was suppressed. She would say to herself, “Why am I doing
- these things? I never cared for them before. Why should I care for
- them now?” The old doubts and fears were at this time out of her mind.
- The personality was C, but influenced and dominated by the B complex
- of which, of course, she was perfectly aware.
-
-What is here described is obviously a mood but a mood which included
-altered bodily as well as mental characteristics. The alternation of
-neurasthenic and healthy phases also became more obtrusive when the
-healthy mood became a personality. The apparent recovery then deceived
-the medical attendant.
-
-In these quoted passages we have a description of the uprush from the
-unconscious and successful sovereignty of the conflicting B complex.
-Before continuing with our analysis two points are worth noting. First:
-With the winning of sovereignty by this system of ideas, the previously
-dominating system—or self—sank to an inferior position and assumed the
-protesting, one may say, the rebellious attitude. Like two adversaries
-in a wrestling conflict, in which first one then the other holds the
-vantage and each in turn yields before the superior force of the other,
-so it was turn and turn about, and now the rebellious complex becoming
-the victor, repressed the protests, the self-reproaches, doubts, fears,
-and scruples of the regularly constituted government.
-
-Second: With the eruption of the B complex into the C personality it is
-interesting once more to note the increase of physical strength, and
-improvement in the general health. It was thought by her physician that
-it was really a condition of health which had supervened but, as will be
-seen, this was far from being the case; it was one of psychological
-disintegration. Nevertheless with the one system of ideas—the B
-complex—there were associated all the mental and bodily reactions of
-health, with the other complex the reactions characteristic of the
-neurasthenic condition. This alteration was still more noticeable later
-when the B _personality_ erupted. The same phenomenon was observed in
-the case of Miss Beauchamp. With the appearance of the “Sally” complex
-all the neurasthenic symptoms vanished, and the personality became
-buoyant with health. Identical variations in health have been observed
-in other cases of dissociated personality; one phase of personality
-being characterized by an extreme hysterical condition, another by
-freedom from such symptoms (Felida X., Marcelline R., and others). This
-phenomenon is of great significance for the understanding of the
-neurasthenic and hysteric condition.
-
------
-
-Footnote 264:
-
- This study was first published in the _Journal of Abnormal
- Psychology_, Oct., 1919, but originally was written for this volume.
- It was omitted with other lectures from the first edition to limit the
- size of the volume.
-
-Footnote 265:
-
- Dissociation and inhibition are not coextensive terms for although
- inhibition implies dissociation, a dissociated element may not be
- necessarily inhibited as it may function subconsciously or
- independently of the personal consciousness.
-
-Footnote 266:
-
- Unfortunately most of the reported cases were not studied from a
- genetic point of view and the reports are too meagre to afford
- sufficient data for a study of this kind. But in many cases the
- principles can be recognized. In the article “Hysteria from the Point
- of View of Dissociated Personality,” _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_,
- Oct., 1906, I have given a synopsis in tabulated form of the reports
- accessible up to the date of publication.
-
-Footnote 267:
-
- I would refer those who are interested in this problem of personality
- to a similar but more exhaustive study of the case of “Miss Beauchamp”
- which I have recently published in the _Journal of Abnormal
- Psychology_, Vol. XV, Nos. 2 and 3, 1920. A descriptive account of the
- case was published in 1906: _The Dissociation of a Personality_; New
- York; Longmans, Green & Co., 1906.
-
-Footnote 268:
-
- Published under the title “My Life as a Dissociated Personality” in
- the _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_; Oct.-Nov., 1908 and Dec.-Jan.,
- 1909.
-
-Footnote 269:
-
- The broken lines indicate dissociation; the solid lines, synthesis.
-
-Footnote 270:
-
- I have italicized a number of words and sentences not thus emphasized
- in the original account.
-
-Footnote 271:
-
- Sympathetically excited emotions (instincts).
-
-Footnote 272:
-
- The division into periods follows that given in the second account by
- B.
-
-Footnote 273:
-
- _Journal Abnormal Psychology_, Vol. III, No. 5, p. 311.
-
-Footnote 274:
-
- Lecture IX.
-
-Footnote 275:
-
- Prince: _Jour. Abnormal Psychology_. Vol. I, No. 1, 1906. Also, _The
- Dissociation of a Personality_, 2nd ed., Chap. XXI. James: _Varieties
- of Religious Experiences_.
-
-Footnote 276:
-
- I. e., “Tried not to think of it”; “put it out of her mind as a
- disagreeable fact.”
-
-Footnote 277:
-
- Instinct of repulsion (McDougall).
-
-Footnote 278:
-
- Nor were they the reaction to or the expression of a previously
- repressed sexual wish as any such wish would have met no conscious
- resistance. It is easy to see in the light of all the facts that,
- given a certain change in the conditions, or point of view, there
- would have been no shock and no rebellion.
-
-Footnote 279:
-
- Lecture X; also, “The Meaning of Ideas as Determined by Unconscious
- Settings,” _Journal Abnormal Psychology_, Oct.-Nov., 1912.
-
-Footnote 280:
-
- I use the present tense as more convenient although I am speaking of a
- past condition.
-
-Footnote 281:
-
- As illustrated by her responsive behaviour at the theatre (p. 558), as
- I have witnessed it there and socially.
-
-Footnote 282:
-
- “Hysteria from the Point of View of Dissociated Personality.” _Journal
- Abnormal Psychology_, 1906.
-
-Footnote 283:
-
- It is interesting to note the apparent paradox of an increasing
- physically neurasthenic phase coincident with an increasing physically
- healthy phase. With the subsidence of the latter the neurasthenic
- state became obvious.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE XIX
- (THE SAME CONTINUED)—THE B PERSONALITY
-
-
- PERIOD III
-
-Let us now return to C’s account of the shock which occurred at this
-time, while the B complex was periodically dominant. It was the cause of
-the final complete dissociation of personality and the eruption of the
-secondary personality B.
-
- The shock I received was of an intensely emotional nature. It brought
- to me, suddenly, the realization that my position in life was entirely
- changed, that I was quite alone, and with this there came a feeling of
- helplessness and desolation beyond my powers of description. I felt,
- too, angry, frightened, insulted. For a few minutes these ideas
- flashed through my mind and then—all was changed. All the distressing
- ideas of the preceding moments left me, and I no longer resented what,
- a moment before, had caused me so much distress. _I became the
- personality which we have since called_ “B.” I do not feel now that
- the episode was of a character that would have affected a person of a
- different nature, or even myself had I been in good health.
- Psychologically speaking, I suppose I was already in a somewhat
- disintegrated condition and therefore more susceptible. At any rate it
- did affect me. _From the moment of that shock I was, literally, a
- different person._ Even the episode itself now became of little or no
- importance to me; indeed I looked upon it rather as a lark and really
- enjoyed it, as I did, in this character, succeeding events. _With the
- change to “B” there was no loss of memory as sometimes occurs under
- such conditions._ It seems very curious to me that the effect of this
- shock was to change me not to the despondent, despairing mood of “A”
- which came later, but to the happy mood of “B.”
-
- In describing the two personalities I shall sometimes have to refer to
- them by the letters A and B to avoid the constant repetition of
- “myself as A—myself as B.”
-
- As B, I was, apparently, a perfectly normal person, as will be seen
- from the description which follows, except that I was ruled by the
- fixed idea that upon me, and me alone, depended the salvation, moral
- and physical, of a person who was almost a perfect stranger to me and
- who was the subject of a drug habit. I had known this person but a few
- weeks. This idea became an obsession; all else sank into
- insignificance beside it; _nothing_ else was of any consequence; I
- went to all lengths to help this person, doing things which, though
- quite right and proper, indeed imperative from my point of view as B,
- were unwise and unnecessary. I believed that I was the only one in the
- world who would stand by him; that every one else had given him up as
- hopeless and that his one chance lay in his belief in me.
-
-The writer neglects here to say that it was not only as B that she had
-undertaken the “salvation” of the drug addict. As C she also shared in
-this solicitude and had begun the reformation. B only continued it but
-from different motives as later stated by C herself. B does not refer to
-it in her story apparently not taking it very seriously. Of course in my
-numerous interviews I heard an exhaustive account of the whole affair.
-
-The marked change in health and strength for the better noted in those
-phases, during period II, when the personality was dominated by the B
-complex and mentioned in the last lecture was still more accentuated now
-in the B personality. C thus refers to it:
-
- With the change of personality, which will be clearer as you read,
- there was also a complete change of physical conditions. _Previously
- neurasthenic, I, as B, was perfectly well and strong and felt equal to
- anything in the way of physical exercise._
-
-You will also remember that in the last lecture I spoke of certain minor
-traits which had been characteristic of C and which were markedly
-altered in an opposite direction under the dominance of the B complex
-and induced impulsive alterations of behavior. These changes were
-accentuated in the B personality from the very first as C goes on to
-describe.
-
- The minor traits I have above mentioned were replaced by their
- opposites. A walk of three or four miles did not tire me at all; I
- tramped through the woods during the hottest days of summer, with
- nothing on my head, feeling no discomfort from the heat and no
- fatigue; I sat on the ground in the woods, hours at a time, not
- minding in the least the bugs and the mosquitoes; canoeing I was very
- fond of and felt no fear of the water. I also took long rides on the
- electric cars and found them perfectly delightful. These are small
- things but, as you see, it was a radical change and seems as strange
- to remember as the more important ones.
-
-The change in the emotional and feeling tones, the former representing a
-different set of emotion-instincts, from those that were habitual, is
-illustrated in the following passage:
-
- As B, I was light-hearted and happy and life seemed good to me; I
- wanted to live; my pulses beat fuller, my blood ran warmer through my
- veins than it ever had done before. I seemed more alive. Nothing is
- stranger to remember than the vigorous health of B. Never in my life
- was I so well, before or since. I felt much _younger_ and looked so,
- for the lines of care, anxiety, sorrow, and fatigue had faded from my
- face and the change in expression was remarked upon. I neglected my
- family and friends shamefully, writing short and unsatisfactory
- letters which left them in ignorance of my health and plans; business
- affairs I washed my hands of entirely. I lost the formality and
- reserve which was one of my traits. My tastes, ideas, and points of
- view were completely changed.
-
- I remained in this state for some weeks, enjoying life to the utmost
- in a way entirely foreign to my natural tastes and inclinations as
- described above, walking, boating, etc., living wholly out of doors;
- and also doing many irresponsible things which were of a nature to
- cause me much distress later.
-
- Some of this might, perhaps, be ascribed to improved health though
- different from anything I had ever been before.[284]
-
-A point of considerable significance is the youthfulness of this B
-phase, a trait which the writer C notes and which B in her account
-emphasizes. When later the case came under my observation this
-phenomenon was so noticeable that it arrested the attention.
-
-It may be interesting to hear B’s description of the shock, more
-dramatically told than C’s, and of the changes above mentioned of the
-personality (health, emotional tones, conduct, and youthfulness)
-immediately following.
-
-It runs as follows:
-
- At this time there came to C a third shock of a strongly emotional
- nature, giving rise to events which I call _period III_. It brought to
- her the realization of a fact of which she had been unconscious; she
- had never thought of the possibility of such a thing and she was
- startled, frightened, angry, all in a flash—and I was there. James, in
- explaining “Sudden Religious Conversion,” speaks of a “flowering of
- the subconscious,”—well, I “flowered,” and C disappeared somewhere;
- _the B complex had become a personality_ and I lived a life of my own
- choosing.[285] How slowly this complex gathered form in this case may
- be seen from the fact that it was five years from the time of the
- beginning of her husband’s illness before I came as a personality.
-
- Now, when I came as a personality, I felt much younger than C; my
- ideas of what constituted pleasure were more like those of a girl of
- twenty—as C was when she received the first shock (_period I_). But in
- character, points of view, tastes, emotions, in everything that goes
- to make up personality I was quite different from anything C had ever
- been; also in health. I was strong and vigorous, taking long walks and
- feeling no fatigue. I was also very happy. Life seemed so good to me;
- everything was so beautiful; the outdoor world looked to me as it does
- to one who has been for months shut in through illness. I loved the
- trees, the sky, and the wind; but _I did not love people_. I felt no
- care or responsibility—that is why I was so happy. I remained the only
- personality for about _one month_, when there came the fourth
- emotional shock producing _period IV_.
-
-These accounts need further explanation. C remarks: “It seems very
-curious to me that the effect of this shock was to change me not to the
-despondent, despairing mood of A, which came later, but to the happy
-mood of B.” A consideration of the facts in more detail renders the
-reason obvious. It must be kept in mind that the dominant feature of the
-B mood or personality was the B complex, and the nucleus of this system
-of ideas was the “rebellion” I have described. This rebellion again had
-its first beginnings 19 years before (period I). We have traced it
-through the succeeding years, with its later accretions, growing and
-expanding in intensity and extent, like a political insurrection, until
-it had taken into itself a large field of ideas and became the B
-complex. Bear in mind here that the primitive germinal first rebellion
-was the reaction to an emotional shock in which fright and disgust as
-elements occurred plus the X affect to which they were a defense
-reaction. Now the second shock which was experienced at the third period
-was fundamentally the same in nature as that of the first period. It
-gave rise to the same _affect_, X, and mental awakening, to the same
-kind of realization of her situation, and the reaction, particularly to
-the affect, was the same rebellion. _But the rebellion had meantime, in
-the years that had passed, grown into the B complex, and so it was this
-B constellation of ideas which erupted into consciousness and dominated
-the whole field of personality._ Though the second shock awoke the same
-affect as did the original shock, it was consciously mild and probably
-for the most part subconscious, being repressed and submerged by the
-reacting emotions of fear and anger, which latter blazed forth. And in
-the reaction there were, also, the emotions of disgust and
-self-assertion and the vengeful emotion.
-
-With such emotions, particularly anger and disgust, this affect was in
-conflict as was also fear. When two primary emotions are in conflict
-both cannot live; one will be suppressed. Fear will be suppressed by an
-outburst of blazing anger, and anger cannot exist when an overwhelming
-fear is excited. One will replace the other. So the mild X affect and
-fear were immediately repressed by anger, disgust and the compound
-vengeful emotion, the three not in any way conflicting with one another
-but as allies reinforcing each other in the attack.
-
-Consequently from the B personality, which sprang to life as the
-reaction to the X affect, this affect itself, was completely repressed
-and dissociated, so that this personality _is entirely without this_ and
-other traits of the C personality. Likewise, although this is not so
-easy to determine, owing to the impossibility of reproducing all
-conditions under which a given individual would react normally to any
-given emotion, _fear_ and _tender feeling_ (love) seem to have been
-dissociated from the B personality. It is certainly true that B
-experienced no fear and other emotions with which C habitually reacted
-to certain situations. This question of the involvement of the emotions
-in dissociation will be discussed in another place.
-
-As to the X affect, it is of some significance that later, after the
-development of the third personality, A, which alternated with B, this
-personality retained this affect (as well as fear and others lost to B)
-and the awakening of this affect in A would regularly change this
-personality to B; that is, repress the A personality and awaken B. Many
-times other emotions, particularly anxiety (fear), would have the same
-effect, but the affect in question would always induce the change,
-apparently as a defense reaction.
-
-From one point of view it may be maintained that all this emotional
-reaction, called “shock,” (that primarily called into being the B
-personality) was a defense reaction. It certainly was, as any outburst
-of anger may be a defense reaction, as it is in the bull in the ring of
-a Spanish bull-fight. Under other conditions anger as an element in the
-pugnacity instinct may, like other emotional impulses, be an attacking
-reaction.
-
-But labelling with names does not give us any insight into the mechanism
-of a reaction any more than labelling a machine an automobile gives us
-any idea of its mechanism. It gives only a teleological meaning to the
-machine.
-
-What is a fruitful question, however, is whether the “shock” was a
-defense to an external aggression or to the urge of an unacceptable
-subconscious _wish_ containing the repressed affect X. Some will _wish_
-to make this latter interpretation. It is entirely incompatible,
-however, with the fact that the same conflict and “shock” had previously
-occurred under conditions when, even if there had been such a wish, it
-could not have been unacceptable, as there was no reason therefor, but
-on the contrary it would have been her duty to have fulfilled it. It is
-useless in this case to work that trumpery affect business in this way.
-
-Furthermore, as a matter of experience, we find from a study of cases of
-multiple personality that after two independent systems of ideas have
-been formed, almost any emotional shock is liable to cause the
-displacement of one system and the substitution of the other system.
-This was observed over and over again in the case of Miss
-Beauchamp,[286] as it was in this case. Why it should be so is not
-always obvious at the time of any given occurrence. That there is a
-specific psychological reason and dynamic mechanism we cannot doubt.
-Undoubtedly if we could probe sufficiently extensively into the
-unconscious in each instance we should find that subtile associations in
-the substituted systems had been struck and that the change was thereby
-determined. When the associated element is organized with strong
-emotions the discharge of the emotion more easily represses and
-dissociates the rival conflicting systems. This gives the appearance
-that it was the emotion alone, as an isolated factor, which induced the
-alternation of personality.
-
-What happened then when the change of personality took place was this:
-The acquired B complex, which had been developing in content and
-conative intensity, surged up as a reaction from the unconscious (where
-it had been conserved during the normal mood in a dormant condition),
-came into conflict with the systems of the normal self and repressed and
-replaced this previously dominating side of her nature. By this
-dissociation this side was put out of commission so to speak. In turn it
-remained dormant, of course, conserved as unconscious neurograms, ready
-to be _resurrected_ under favoring conditions by appropriate stimuli.
-
-But in the formation of the B personality there was more than this;
-otherwise there would not have been generated a personality; the
-alteration would have been limited to the incursion into the field of
-consciousness only of the B complex as had so often happened before. On
-the one hand a larger synthesis took place. The B complex dragged out of
-the storehouse of the unconscious the acquired and conserved ideas and
-other experiences of childhood and girlhood that had an associative
-relation to the system which formed the B complex. In this respect it
-was a _reversion_ to the earlier period of life.
-
-On the other hand, there was, as we shall see, a dissociation and
-suppression of certain _innate_ dispositions, instincts and sentiments
-belonging to normal personality that were in conflict with the B phase.
-Specifically the most important of these were, the instinct of
-self-abasement and its corresponding self-regarding sentiment, the
-“tender emotion” (affection) and its parental instinct (McDougall), the
-X affect and its instinct, fear (instinct of flight) and vengeful
-emotion.
-
-The emotions and their instincts and the innate dispositions, appetites
-and tendencies, being psycho-physiological arrangements inborn in the
-organism and not acquired, are the very foundations of human
-personality. Without a recognition of them and without assigning to them
-their proper parts and due weight in determining mental traits and
-behavior alterations of personality cannot be explained or
-understood.[287]
-
-The justification for the interpretation I have given of the genesis of
-the B personality is found in an analysis of its manifested
-characteristics. In the first place this B phase by common consent, even
-in the opinion of those who were in entire ignorance of what had
-psychologically occurred—i.e., the alteration of personality,—was much
-younger in character than the mature C. She appeared to be a young girl
-of 18 or 19 years of age. Her friends spoke of her, when remarking on
-her improved health, as “being as she used to be.” She looked
-younger.[288] As I myself observed her on, I might almost say, hundreds
-of occasions, the contrast between the actual age of the subject and the
-apparent age of B as indicated by expressions of face, the vivacious
-mannerisms, the girlish attitude of mind, points of view, tastes, etc.,
-was remarkable.
-
-All this together with the lack of appreciation of many of the
-responsibilities of life and of the duties and conditions which pertain
-to motherhood, social relations and conventions, the loss of sentiments
-acquired after marriage, etc., made up a picture of youth that was
-unmistakable. The contrast between the mature C and the girlish B became
-almost dramatic when the change of personality took place suddenly as it
-later frequently did in my presence.
-
-When we come to analyze the traits which gave this impression of youth
-we see that it was justified. One side of C’s character, as we have
-seen, was a love of happiness and the pleasures which induce the joy of
-life. This side was dominant in B; but the _kind_ of pleasure which
-appealed to B was not only that which appeals to youth but that which
-had particularly appealed to the subject when a young girl. It was
-“tramping through the woods in the hottest days of summer,” canoeing and
-rowing in boats, walking, riding in electric cars—in fact, the out-door
-life that appealed to her most strongly and was her greatest enjoyment.
-“Oh, wouldn’t I just love to tramp through the woods or sail off over
-the waves, or anything exciting,” she wrote. Such of these things as she
-had been able when a little girl to indulge in she then enjoyed. As a
-child and during girlhood she liked camping out and sailing, but as she
-grew older, say about sixteen or eighteen, she became afraid of the
-water and row boats. Canoeing she had never done before her marriage and
-then was afraid of it.
-
-We have seen that childhood’s experiences are largely conserved, when
-not modified by the growth of personality, in the unconscious
-(neurographic residua) although they may never come to the surface of
-consciousness unless resurrected by some device or accident; and
-repression tends to conserve them as unitary complexes maintaining their
-own urges. Accordingly in the case of B everything points to the
-conclusion that the repressed, conserved sentiments with their organized
-emotions and feelings, of the pleasure of childhood and adolescent life,
-sentiments by which the young girl was governed, _erupted into
-consciousness_. The play-instinct, or innate disposition, long
-repressed, particularly was revived and played a large part in
-determining behavior. The B personality was thus a _reversion_ to an
-early period of life. The rearrangement of the play-instinct and other
-innate dispositions will be more conveniently discussed later in
-connection and contrast with the A personality.
-
-Of course there is no sharp line of division between different periods
-of life, one running into the other, and the ideas, sentiments, desires,
-habits, etc., of one period may continue more or less unchanged well
-into another and beyond. Or, as usually happens, they may be modified by
-the successive experiences of life. So obviously we cannot ascribe with
-precision to a past definite age traits of character of the kind we are
-considering. Such traits belong to the evolutional development of the
-individual; they tend to become modified by the clash with new
-experiences, or, when incompatible with the knowledge and habits
-acquired by new experiences, to become repressed—when not incompatible
-they may persist late into adult life. So some of these traits have
-persisted as a side to, or as elements in the character of B. C. A. into
-her present life; some, however, have been modified or repressed into
-the unconscious. As age advances, as the child passes into adolescence
-and then into maturity, there comes wider knowledge of the facts of the
-environment, of its dangers and other relations, a more true and
-complete conception of the meaning of life, a more extensive world view,
-and a recognition and assumption of duties, cares, and responsibilities.
-And all these acquisitions tend to form a conscious organism with new
-sentiments which give new acquired reactions to stimuli in place of the
-old reactions (traits and other conative tendencies). Activities, for
-example, which once received their impulses from play dispositions are
-later inhibited by sentiments invested with the instinct of fear
-(flight). So B. C. A. acquired a fear of the water (boats, canoeing) and
-a dislike of bugs and mosquitoes and electric cars. Why these changes in
-her mental reactions took place we cannot say without making a more
-extensive search into the experiences of her past life, and the
-information when acquired would hardly repay the time and labor of the
-inquiry. We cannot say, for example, why she has disliked electric cars
-without resurrecting the memories of past experiences pertaining to them
-and other associated ideas. Perhaps the dislike arose simply out of the
-noise and resulting discomfort and headaches; or it may have had a more
-subtile cause in associated ideas of danger which would not appeal to a
-girl, or possibly such objects may more subtilely still be the symbolic
-expression of some unconscious process. It does not bear upon our
-present problem. (The dislike of mosquitoes and bugs very probably arose
-from having been bitten and poisoned badly by them when a child.)
-
-There were certain other youthful traits and tastes in B which are worth
-mentioning. This personality was extravagant in money matters. “She,”
-the personality A wrote, “spends money as I used to, and will not
-acknowledge the necessity of economizing.” That is to say, the
-regulation of the household and personal expenses, according to the
-requirements of business sense, and proper appreciation of the financial
-management was scarcely recognized by B who desired to spend money as B.
-C. A. had done as a girl, before being initiated into the
-responsibilities of domestic management. Like such a girl, to the
-discomforture of the other personality, she spent money as if all were
-pin money, without appreciation of making ends meet in the management of
-the household.
-
-Another and what will seem a strange peculiarity of B was the feeling
-that she was not the mother of her child. “I am not his mother,” she
-would say. “He is not my son”—“_I_ never was married.” “I know all her
-experiences,” she wrote me in a letter, “but they are _her_ experiences
-not _mine_. Why! _I_ was never married, Dr. Prince, and I am not
-Willie’s mother. All those experiences belong to A. I know she _had_
-them, but then, so do you. The only difference is that I know exactly
-what she thought about them.” Indeed she carried this so far as to
-entirely neglect the responsibility of looking after his life. This was
-true also of the time when B. C. A. was ruled by the B complex before
-the change to the B personality. On one such occasion for example, she
-allowed this young boy to take a long journey of many hundred miles
-through the west, roughing it in the woods and canoes, without a care or
-anxious thought on her part during the whole time he was gone. All the
-arrangements were made by others while she herself did not even go to
-the station to see him off. Previously she had always felt the greatest
-motherly solicitude for the boy, even foolishly devoted to him, and
-could not bear to be parted from him even to accompany her husband on a
-journey.
-
-This peculiar trait is easily understood on the theory that rebellious B
-was largely a systematized resurrection of pre-marital complexes but
-with a dissociation of the tender emotion (parental instinct). I have
-already pointed out that B regarded the “rebellious” complexes as
-herself, but not the other ideas of B. C. A. In referring to the former,
-as I have said, she used the word I, saying, I thought so and so, but
-she did not use such expressions regarding the other systems of B. C.
-A.’s thought after the genesis of these rebellious complexes. Likewise
-she regarded as her own the earlier youthful experiences before
-dissociation occurred. In the constellation of her complexes none of the
-experiences of maternity (which occurred after the development of the
-rebellious complex) were synthesized, any more than the sentiments and
-other conflicting thoughts of the A phase. Even in the embryonic
-contrary impulses of the B complex, it will be remembered, there were
-dislikes to “fuss” over the baby conflicting with the maternal instinct.
-She never, therefore, felt that motherhood was a part of her own
-experience. And so her _conception of self_ in its content differed
-materially from that of C and A, in that it contained references to
-entirely different experiences, and, therefore, included entirely
-different images and feelings. And it was organized with a
-self-regarding sentiment in which the instinct of self-assertion
-predominated instead of that of self-abasement.
-
-I said that the parental instinct with the emotion of tender feeling was
-dissociated. This absence of tender emotion (affection) was also
-manifested in her attitude towards the different members of her family
-and her friends. As a girl she was markedly affectionate just as A and
-later C was, but as B she had lost this trait. She neglected her family
-most shockingly, in a way that showed complete absence of the impulses
-that come from tender feeling, and without the slightest compunction or
-recognition of the fact that she was wanting in affection. I might give
-numerous specific instances of this but refrain from doing so for
-obvious reasons.[289] B liked people but for other reasons than those
-which depend on personal affection. This absence, then, of the tender
-emotion with its impulses was the second factor in determining the
-feeling that B had of not being the mother of her child. It also, of
-course, prevented the building up a new sentiment of maternal affection
-through experience. All this is in conformity with our interpretation.
-
-The way other instincts and innate dispositions were affected will be
-better described in connection with the A personality for contrast.
-
-Another peculiarity of B was the change in literary taste. The lighter
-reading in which B found pleasure contrasted strongly with the
-literature dealing with the deeper problems of life that appealed to A.
-This difference has been touched upon by C in her account. It would take
-us too far afield to enter into the psychological reasons for it.
-
-It remains to point out that the reactions of the personality in
-accordance with the new synthesis were intensified and became the sole
-reactions by the fact of the dissociation of those systems of ideas
-which represented the wider world view and which were organized with
-instincts and innate dispositions now inhibited. Those systems were the
-outcome of the cares, anxieties, responsibilities, and sorrows of later
-life. All these, which were acquired and had their origin at a
-comparatively late period, had subsided into the unconscious and ceased
-to influence the conscious life and give rise to their corresponding
-reactions. The emotions and sentiments of anxiety, remorse,
-self-reproach and despair, so conspicuous in the A phase, were
-completely dissociated from the B phase and formed no part of it. Though
-there was no amnesia for them as past experiences they were dissociated
-in the sense that they did not take part as psycho-physiological
-dispositions in the personality. They could be voluntarily recalled in
-an intellectual way as memories, but like many memories they had lost
-their emotional tones and were not awakened by any contemplated or
-actual line of conduct. Not entering the new B synthesis there was no
-clash by which the reactions might be modified. The sole reactions were,
-therefore, those of the B synthesis and were mostly those of pleasure
-and joy. You must not overlook the fact, however, that the dissociated
-elements of personality were still conserved and, as we shall see,
-capable of being resurrected and thereby taking part in the reproduction
-of the original personality, or of forming by themselves another
-dissociated one.
-
-The _temperament_ of the B personality is in accord with the conception
-of a modified reversion to the conserved unconscious personality of
-early life. B. C. A. “was naturally very light-hearted, happy, buoyant.”
-Later when going through the stress and strain of her husband’s illness,
-and later still after becoming neurasthenic, she became apprehensive and
-given to self-reproaches, worry, and depression. She was racked by
-emotions of an anxious depressing kind. All this was enormously
-accentuated in the secondary personality A, (to be presently described)
-whom in banter I used to call “Mrs. Gummidge.” Now B reverted in
-temperament to the earlier period; she was free from depression; “had
-more courage, was light-hearted, merry; conditions did not seem so
-dreadful as they did to A,” and she “took things as they were”; “this
-was the way she used to be.”
-
-If I may anticipate a little the development of the A personality, a
-passage or two from letters will show this difference in temperament as
-manifested by the emotions. B wrote, “A is nearly crazy about those
-papers. She simply ‘tears her hair’ and groans, and then, presto!
-change! and I am here.” Again in a note to her other self (A) she
-writes: “I suppose you have a ‘deep-horror-then-my-vitals-froze’
-expression on your face now. Really, you suffer more to the square inch
-than any one I ever knew.” Although it is hardly fair to ascribe these
-emotional traits of A—a disintegrated personality—to the normal C, still
-they were and are at times noticeable in C as moods, or when under
-stress and strain. (C of course has pleasant affects and joyous moods as
-well.) B on the other hand was a perfect stranger to such feelings; she
-did not know the meaning of them; they were completely dissociated from
-her ideas. B’s sole emotions were those of pleasure and exaltation; C’s
-emotions included unpleasant and depressing ones as well, while A’s
-stock was made up almost entirely of the latter. This dissociation of
-unpleasant and depressing emotions from B is well manifested by her
-memories. When C (or A) recalled (and it is still true) an unpleasant
-experience the memory was accompanied by the original emotion in its
-full intensity. She lived over again the original experience and
-manifested all the feeling in the expression of her face and in gesture.
-But when B recalled this same experience of C (or A) she simple
-remembered it intellectually as a fact, without the feeling tone. In
-fact she would recite a painful fact of C’s experience with a gaiety of
-tone that betokened enjoyment at the other self’s expense. The same
-phenomenon was still more striking in B as a co-conscious
-personality.[290] As a co-consciousness she always insisted that while
-she knew C’s (and A’s) thoughts she did not feel her emotions. “You see
-I know all that A thinks but I do not _feel_ her emotions; she is all
-emotion,” she wrote. This she insisted upon again and again. She only
-knew what the other personalities felt by the way they acted. Similarly
-the affect which was the cause of the “rebellion” was dissociated from
-B. This same phenomenon was observed in the case of Miss Beauchamp.
-Sally as a co-consciousness knew the thoughts of the personal
-consciousness (B I or B IV) but she was not aware of the feelings that
-accompanied the thoughts; the feelings she could only guess from the
-actions of the principal personality, and as an alternating personality
-Sally likewise was entirely devoid of certain emotions which were
-strongly accentuated in the other personalities.[291] This dissociation
-of affects from B helps us to understand the difference in the reactions
-of B, C, and A to the same stimuli.
-
------
-
-Footnote 284:
-
- The same as when dominated by the B complex but in a more extreme way.
- (M. P.)
-
-Footnote 285:
-
- That is, the remainder of the C complex subsided into the
- “unconscious,” where, of course, its experiences were conserved.
- They could be recalled as a memory by B. As a system of ideas the B
- complex had been “flowering” for five years. (M. P.)
-
-Footnote 286:
-
- See _Journal Abnormal Psychology_, 1920, Nos. 2 and 3.
-
-Footnote 287:
-
- The science of human personality is becoming a special branch of
- psychology and is based upon the recognition and study of the innate
- psycho-physiological systems of which a few are mentioned here. Of the
- most recent works on this subject, those of Alexander F. Shand (The
- Foundations of Character) and William McDougall (Social Psychology)
- are the most important contributions. They are based on the study of
- normal behavior. Abnormal alterations, such as are met with in the
- psychoses and multiple personality, will prove to be a more fruitful
- field for study and will provide more valuable contributions to our
- knowledge of normal mechanisms, just as the pathology of the nervous
- system has done for our knowledge of its anatomy and physiology.
- Disease dissects the mind far better than can introspection or
- observation.
-
-Footnote 288:
-
- In a letter written in the phase A to me she writes: “B seems to
- revert to the time before all the sorrow and trouble. She writes in
- the diary [kept at my direction by the different personalities] as I
- used to feel. She ‘won’t be unhappy;’ she ‘will have a good time,’
- etc. She seems younger than I, someway. I find that my friends often
- think me more ‘like myself,’ when B is here; she also spends money as
- I used to and will not acknowledge the necessity of economizing....”
- In another letter she writes: “Then came the time when I was wholly B.
- Everything but my own pleasure was cast to the wind. I felt and acted
- like a girl of 18, and I know that I _looked_ years younger than I do
- now.”
-
-Footnote 289:
-
- C writes: “To me this point of the affections is one of the most
- interesting and curious. As a child and young girl I was affectionate,
- shy, proud, and reserved—everything that B was not. I positively never
- had in me any of these traits that B exhibited during those weeks ...
- except gaiety.”
-
- This statement, when analyzed, is in entire agreement with the results
- of our study. The absence of affection is what would be expected from
- the loss of the primary emotion “tender feeling,” the affective
- element in the parental instinct. Shyness is determined by the
- instinct of self-abasement which was dissociated from B. Likewise with
- the self-regarding sentiment of pride in one of its varieties,
- self-respect. According to McDougall this comprises two instincts:
- that of self-assertion with its emotion of elation, and that of
- self-abasement with its emotion of subjection. The latter instinct we
- have seen reason to conclude was inhibited in B. Hence, on this theory
- of pride, this sentiment was lost.
-
-Footnote 290:
-
- B later became co-conscious with the other personalities as well as
- alternating.
-
-Footnote 291:
-
- “Miss Beauchamp,” etc.; _Jour. Abn. Psychol._, Vol. XV, p. 80.
-
-
-
-
- LECTURE XX
- (THE SAME CONTINUED)—THE A PERSONALITY
-
- PERIOD IV
-
- I
-
-We may now return to C’s account of her dissociated life—to the point
-where she was about to describe the development of another personality,
-A, and at which I digressed.
-
-Bear in mind that it is the B personality that now received the shock
-and that the revelation of the deception, therefore, was to a
-personality whose point of view was not that of duty or affection but of
-mere joy and pleasure.
-
- After a period of a few weeks I received a second[292] shock, which
- was caused by the discovery of deception in matters[293] which my
- “obsession” had taken in charge. The revelation came in a flash, _a
- strong emotion_ swept over me, and the state B, _with all its traits,
- physical characteristics, and points of view disappeared, and I
- changed to another state which we have since called A_. In this state
- my physical condition was much as it was before the first shock,[294]
- that is, I was neurasthenic. From a state of vigorous health I
- instantly changed to one of illness and languor; I could hardly sit
- up, had constant headache, insomnia, loss of appetite, etc. My mental
- characteristics were also different. As before, however, there was no
- amnesia either for the state when I was B or for my life before the
- first shock.
-
- Now, though as A I was filled with most disproportionate horror at
- what had occurred during the weeks of my life as B, I was ruled by the
- same obsession, but with this difference: what I, as B, had done with
- a sense of _pleasure_, I, as A, did with a sense of almost horror at
- my own actions, feeling that I was compelled to do so by what seemed
- at the time a sense of _duty_. I felt that I must carry out certain
- obligations, and I doubt now, as I afterward expressed myself to you,
- if I could have resisted had I tried. [I. e., she was again governed
- as formerly by the B complex.] I would not refuse the demand for help
- which was made upon me because, as B, I had promised my aid, but in
- complying I was obliged to do things which seemed to me, as A,
- shocking and unheard of. I felt that my conduct was open to severe
- criticism but I had promised and must fulfil though the skies fell. It
- seems to me now, in the light of our present knowledge of B, that I,
- while in this A phase, was in a sort of somnambulistic stage governed
- by what I have learned were co-conscious ideas belonging to B; and
- that the impulses of the B complex were too strong to be resisted; but
- in my memory my ideas as B were at this time so curiously intermingled
- with my ideas as A that it is useless to try to analyze my mind more
- accurately. In mood, points of view and ideals I was A, but I _did_
- the things B would have done, though from a different incentive.
-
-To fully appreciate the situation and in that light the meaning of A’s
-point of view in the preceding passage and in that which follows, we
-must remember that, when the original personality B. C. A., as the
-neurasthenic and a disintegrated self that we may call the _A mood_, was
-suddenly changed by the preceding “shock” to the B personality, for a
-few minutes the subject was angry, frightened and felt insulted. There
-can be no doubt that if the change had not occurred she would have
-resented any further continuance of friendly or philanthropic relations
-with the object of her resentment. When she came under my observation
-later, as A, she was overwhelmed with (unjustified) humiliation and
-blazed with wrath at the mere thought of the episode. Her governing
-feeling was vengeful emotion. Even later as the normal C she could not
-forgive or forget.
-
-Now imagine the scene: a person dominated by such feeling suddenly,
-without apparent rhyme or reason, completely changing in her feelings
-and point of view, regarding the episode as a lark, enjoying it and
-smiling and happy. And then in this frolicsome mood continuing to play
-for a month with the object of her previous wrath. Such a scene on the
-stage would be a most dramatic one. Imagine what must have been the
-bewilderment of the victim.
-
-Then, after some weeks of this play, the B personality changes back to
-the disintegrated self, A. As A she remembers what she has done as B in
-complete contradiction to her previous feelings and views of the
-episode, herself and the object. She is overcome with horror on
-remembering her behavior (as B) and yet she finds herself ruled by a
-fixed idea of the B complex and going on doing, but from a different
-motive, the very things which had horrified her.[295]
-
-Keeping this situation in mind we can understand A’s feelings and
-viewpoint bearing in mind that all was morbidly exaggerated.
-
- For a few days I remained A and then owing, I think, to a lessening of
- nervous tension, I changed again to B [personality] and remained in
- that state for two or three weeks during which time I was physically
- well and happy again. At the end of this time, as a result of another
- realization of the actual situation, A reappeared and was the only
- personality for some weeks. These changes were due to successive
- emotional shocks.
-
-The following passage which continues A’s viewpoint accurately describes
-her state of mind when she came under my observation.
-
- When you first saw me I was A at my worst. I had no amnesia for the
- events of the preceding months when, as B, I had been filled with the
- joy of living. There was no thought on my part of any “change of
- personality”—I had never heard of such a thing—but I was like one
- slowly awakening from a dream. I was equally aghast at what I (B) had
- done for _pleasure_, and at what I (A), had done from a sense of duty;
- one seemed as unbelievable as the other.[296]
-
- One of the most shocking things to me, as A, was the fact that I had
- _enjoyed myself_ as B. Had I committed the most dreadful crimes I
- could not have felt greater anguish, regret, and remorse. I had been
- dominated by the fixed ideas and obsessions of B; I had felt that I
- must respond to any call for help made by this person [the
- drug-addict] even though it was against my inclination and judgment to
- do so; there seemed no choice for me in the matter—I _had_ to;[297] I
- could see no point of view but my own. To do what seemed my plain duty
- I was willing to sacrifice myself in every way, but could not see that
- I (A) was now causing as much anxiety to my family as I had previously
- done as B; that I was sacrificing them also, and that my idea of duty
- was entirely mistaken. A, it would seem, was the emotional and
- idealistic part of my nature magnified a thousand times. My emotions
- and ideals as A were not different in kind from those of my normal
- self, but were so exaggerated as to be morbid.
-
- As A I was full of metaphysical doubts and fears, full of scruples. I
- did not attend church because I felt that I could no longer honestly
- say the Creed and the prayers. The service had lost all meaning to me
- and so it seemed hypocritical to take part in it. I felt that I had
- utterly failed in the performance of every duty, and tortured myself
- with the remembrance of every act of omission and commission. I
- accused myself of selfishness, neglect, in fact, of nearly all the
- crimes in the calendar including, in an indirect way, that of
- murder.[298] My conversation was always of the most serious
- character,—religion (I believed in nothing), life after death (of
- which I found no hope), and I dwelt much upon the fact that no one
- should be judged by their deeds alone, that no one could tell what
- hidden motive had prompted any given act. This was because I had (as
- B) done so many things which (as A) I wholly disapproved of and felt
- might be misunderstood. I did not understand them myself but knew that
- my motive had been good. I was frightened, bewildered, shocked,
- agonized—concentrated anguish and remorse. During these weeks I
- suffered more than it ought to be possible for any one ever to suffer
- for anything, and always, over and over in my mind went the same old
- thoughts,—“_Why_ did I do as I did? _How_ could I have done it? Why
- did it seem right? What would my friends think if they knew? I was
- mad! _I was not myself._” Finally I decided to end it all—I could not
- live under such a weight of humiliation and self-reproach. I am sure,
- Dr. Prince, that you must remember how impossible it was to reason
- with me as A, for it was at this time and in this state that I was
- sent to you and you first saw me.
-
-Summing up this statement a new personality had come to the fore—a
-personality that was the antithesis of B. The traits which characterized
-A had been left entirely out of B while those which had characterized B
-were left entirely out of A. Both sets of traits were to be found in C
-though less accentuated and less freely manifested. The gaiety, love and
-pleasure and joy of life, the absence of all thought of responsibility
-and care belonging to B had given place to seriousness, a sense of
-responsibility and duty, a feeling of apprehension, to doubts and fears
-and self-reproaches. Depression and sorrow had taken the place of
-exaltation and joy. The neurasthenic state had replaced buoyant health.
-
-Now it should be noted that these latter were the traits of the subject
-C during the preceding four-year period of stress and strain, and the
-succeeding neurasthenic period, and represented a side of her character
-which was developed, systematized and intensified by the circumstances
-of her life. In accordance with these traits, habits of thought had been
-established and by constant repetition complexes had been built. It is
-of importance to note that it was against these very A traits that the
-“B complex” at that time had rebelled—that very complex which was to
-become the chief component of the “B personality,” and which was the
-other side of the original self. It was during the neurasthenic state
-that the A traits had become abnormally developed and belonged to the
-neurasthenic condition. When the personality changed to B these A traits
-became dissociated but still remained conserved as unconscious
-systematized neurograms; now the A traits were awakened once more, there
-was a conflict and the B traits, the lighter side of her character, were
-repressed, dissociated and subsided into the unconscious. A was,
-therefore, a dissociated personality. She was the original C, if you
-please, but now so shattered and shorn as to be but an abstract and
-wreck of her former self. The normal C possessing both sets of traits
-had been, and now, resynthesized to health, is able to compare, to
-weigh, to modify, to balance the judgments obtained from the point of
-view of the B system with those of the A system and thus keep a fairly
-equitable poise of mind. The one counteracted the other fairly well. The
-A and B phases being respectively deprived of the characteristics of the
-other, each exhibited its own traits in a highly intensified degree, and
-manifested excessive reactions to the environment. The dissociated state
-A was plainly a reversion to the stress-and-strain and neurasthenic
-period. The awakening of A was the awakening of a system of thoughts
-which had lain dormant during the B state. Now the repressed B state was
-dormant.
-
-It is of great significance for an understanding of neurasthenic
-disturbances that the awakening of the A system brought back all the
-neurasthenic symptoms that had as physical reactions accompanied this
-system at the time when it was dominant in C. The A system of thoughts,
-emotions, instincts, innate dispositions, etc., and the physical
-symptoms necessarily went together, for the latter are the expression or
-reaction of a dissociated personality that is deprived of its sthenic
-and exalting emotions. The moment the sthenic emotions were brought back
-(in C or A) the physical symptoms disappeared. The disappearance of the
-neurasthenia even in A when certain emotions were temporarily restored
-by suggestion was remarkable.
-
- II
-
-What caused the awakening of the A system? We have seen that the
-awakening of the rebellious B personality was an emotional trauma which
-was the same in kind as that which originally gave rise to the primitive
-“rebellion” as a reaction to the emotion. A similar trauma later
-awakened the same rebellion but one grown to the large proportions of
-the “B complex.” So in like fashion the new trauma to B awakened the A
-system as a reaction and associative phenomenon. What was the new
-trauma?
-
-C in her written statement does not give the nature of the “strong
-emotion which swept over” her when the “revelation came in a flash.”
-It was very different in character from the other. It was
-_apprehension_—the apprehension of moral disaster to the person whom
-she was trying to save. There was no resentment at the discovered
-deception, no thought of wounded self, no feeling of injury as might
-be inferred from the language of the writer, but only the thought of
-her own _responsibility_ in the circumstances, and of _duty_
-undertaken, and the feeling of _anxiety_ for the future of this other
-person; and there was a sense of _disappointment and failure_. These
-erupted from the submerged A system.
-
-It was this same system of ideas, but organized about her husband as
-their object, which had been dominant in C during the four years period
-of stress-and-strain and “neurasthenia.” They had lain dormant in the
-unconscious during the B period. Now they are struck and excited to
-activity. There is a conflict. The impulses from the conflicting A
-emotions, being the stronger, repress the B impulses and the A system is
-awakened as a personality.
-
-The question at once comes to mind whether the object of B. C. A.’s
-solicitude was not a surrogate for her deceased husband, a sort of
-symbol, and had not become the object of the transference (to use the
-language of the psycho-analysts) of the solicitude which had previously
-been bestowed upon her husband’s health and future well-being; whether
-this new person had not been substituted for the ill husband in that A
-system of ideas which during four years had been characterized by
-responsibility, duty, anxiety, disappointment, failure, etc.; whether,
-indeed, it might not be held that the solicitude for the salvation of
-this drug addict was not a defense reaction against self-reproach for an
-imaginary responsibility for the illness of her husband. Such
-self-reproaches she describes.
-
-If this were true, the awakening of the A system by the discovery of the
-deception (which was only the banal one of money matters) and
-realization of failure, disappointment, etc., would be all the more
-comprehensible in view of the very strong and close associations which
-the new object would have in the system. But if true I cannot see that
-it would have any further or deeper significance. There was no need for
-disguisement. Certainly solicitude for a husband, disguised in another
-person, needs no disguisement and could not be unacceptable. But painful
-_self-reproaches_ for former failure could not be faced, and
-satisfaction could be found in the performance of a new duty as a sort
-of atonement.
-
-Again was there any subconscious sex wish or urge that could not be
-admitted to herself and to which the change to A was a defense reaction?
-I have been unable to discover any. And if there were I am unable to see
-how the revelation of deception in money matters required a defense
-reaction against the fulfillment of this wish. That sounds like Alice in
-Wonderland.
-
-But why did the revelation shock B, who with her traits would not have
-cared? I can answer this from my intimate and fuller knowledge of C’s
-and A’s ideas. It was a revelation of the truth. The true character of
-the object of their solicitude, “whom everyone else had given up as
-hopeless,” was revealed in a flash, and this “revelation” had struck,
-not B, but the submerged A (or C) system, which immediately emerged in
-an uprush from the unconscious. The shock was not to B but to
-subconscious A. And the reaction was “disappointment,” “failure,”
-“apprehension,” etc. Similar phenomena have been observed over and over
-again in psychological studies as I have frequently witnessed them in
-this case.
-
- III
-
-In a previous lecture[299] I called attention to the fact that emotions
-(instincts) innate dispositions and tendencies are fundamental to
-personality and I pointed out that in abnormal alterations the
-dissociation may involve one or more of these. Certain of these innate
-psycho-physiological systems were cited as having been repressed or
-dissociated in this case. It remains to study this phenomenon a little
-more closely.
-
-Psychologists are generally agreed that of the emotions some are
-primary, or elementary, and others are complex, that is compounded of
-two or more emotions. Fear and anger, for example, are primary and the
-conscious elements, like all primary emotions, in biological instincts.
-These instincts serve a purpose in the preservation of the species. Of
-the complex emotions scorn and loathing may be taken as examples, the
-former, it is believed, being compounded of anger and disgust and the
-latter of fear and disgust. There is not a general agreement in regard
-to all the emotions that should be regarded as primary. Joy and sorrow,
-for example, are classed by some as primary and by some as complex. I
-made an effort to note and classify in a tentative way the emotions that
-were present and absent in the two personalities A and B and have
-arranged them in the following table. In this table the classification
-of the primary and complex emotions of McDougall has been followed in
-the main.
-
-Of course it is very difficult to determine with certainty if any given
-emotion is absolutely absent, as it depends upon suitable conditions
-being present for its excitation. An emotion that is repressed might
-still be excited if the stimulus were sufficiently strong. Still, it is
-significant that emotions which would ordinarily excite a given emotion,
-say, tender feeling, or sorrow or fear, in the ordinary normal person,
-or did do so in this subject in the A personality, did not do so in the
-B personality, or would awaken in the latter only an emotion of joy or
-mirth. Under these circumstances, when the A and B personalities
-respectively came into being, these differences were easily observed,
-and it is noteworthy that then certain emotions were never in evidence
-in each respectively, whether potentially present or not.
-
-It is interesting to note that when a primary emotion was absent, for
-instance in personality B, that a compound emotion which included this
-primary emotion was also absent. It is obvious that dissociation of
-personalities in which certain emotions are repressed offer valuable
-data for studying the problem of the classification of emotions, more
-reliable than do the usual methods of introspective analysis.
-
- PRIMARY EMOTIONS, INSTINCTS, FEELINGS AND INNATE DISPOSITIONS
-
- Personality A Personality B
- Anger Present (marked) Never observed,
- although sometimes
- she felt “provoked”
- Fear Present (marked) Never observed
- Disgust Present (marked) Never observed
- Hunger Slight _Absent (?)_
- Sexual Present _Absent_
- Curiosity Present Present
- Joy _Absent_ (present only Present (marked)
- when excited by
- suggestion)
- Sorrow Present (marked) _Absent_
- Parental, Tender- Present _Absent_
- feeling Affection,
- etc.
- Self-assertion—Elation Present (in pride) Present
- Self-abasement—Subjection Present (marked) _Absent_
- Play _Absent_ Present (marked)
- Pleasure-feeling tones _Rare_ Constant (marked)
- Pain-feeling tones Present (marked) _Absent_
-
- COMPOUND EMOTIONS
-
- Personality A Personality B
- Admiration Present ?
- Reverence ? ?
- Gratitude Present (marked) ?
- Scorn { Anger Present (marked) _Absent_
- Disgust
- {
- Loathing { Fear Present (marked) _Absent_
- { Disgust
- Envy ? ?
- { Anger
- Reproach { Tender- Present _Absent_
- { emotion
- Jealousy Present _Absent (?)_
- Vengeful emotion Present _Absent_
- Shame Present _Absent_
- Bashfulness Present _Absent_
- Pity ? _Absent_
- Happiness _Absent_ Constant
-
-As there were differences in emotions and pleasure-pain feelings
-manifested by the two personalities, so also the emotions and feelings
-organized with the same objects differed. That is to say, one and the
-same object often awakened different emotions or feelings. For example,
-the moon excited in A pain, in B pleasure; woods excited in A
-apprehension, in B pleasure; a lake, in A fear; in B joy; relatives, in
-A affection, in B indifference. Situations, too, that gave A sorrow,
-gave B joy, or, it might be, pleased A and bored B. Likewise with
-persons: Y—aroused intense hatred, scorn, etc., in A; in B pleasant
-feelings.
-
- IV
-
-To return to the behavior of the B and A personalities; the B system,
-from the fact that it had become for a month, during the third period,
-segregated as an independent and autonomous system, had become
-crystallized and easily dissociated as _a whole_ from the remainder of
-the personalities. The same happened with the A system after it had
-become emancipated as a result of the fourth shock. The two systems
-readily changed with one another and I had innumerable opportunities of
-observing the changes taking place before my eyes and of studying them.
-C makes the following statement of these alternations:
-
- Shortly after I came to you I began to alternate more frequently
- between those two states, and it is well to emphasize that one marked
- change in the state of A developed. In this state I now had _complete
- amnesia_ for my whole life as B; for everything I thought and
- did.[300] In other respects, however, these states were identical with
- what they had been. The presence of amnesia made no difference in the
- fact of change of personality. As I see it I was just as much an
- altered personality before the amnesia developed as afterward. As B, I
- had no amnesia.
-
- The amnesia made life very difficult; indeed, except for the help you
- gave me I think it would have been impossible and that I should have
- gone truly mad. How can I describe or give any clear idea of what it
- is to wake suddenly, as it were, and not to know the day of the week,
- the time of the day, or why one is in any given position? I would come
- to myself as A, perhaps on the street, with no idea of where I had
- been or where I was going; fortunate if I found myself alone, for if I
- was carrying on a conversation I knew nothing of what it had been;
- fortunate indeed, in that case, if I did not contradict something I
- had said for, as B, my attitude toward all things was quite the
- opposite of that taken by A. Often it happened that I came to myself
- at some social gathering—a dinner, perhaps—to find I had been taking
- wine (a thing I, as A, felt bound not to do)[301] and what was to me
- most shocking and horrifying, smoking a cigarette; never in my life
- had I done such a thing and my humiliation was deep and keen.
-
-The bearing of amnesia on the principle of multiple personality,
-perhaps, needs a few words. From the facts as they developed in this
-case it must be obvious that the presence or absence of amnesia in no
-way affects the reality of altered or secondary personality. B was quite
-as much a personality before the development of amnesia as afterwards.
-Before this appeared the patient as A in no way differed in
-characteristics (other than amnesia) from what she was afterwards, and
-the same is true of B. The amnesia simply made the contrast between the
-phases more obtrusive; that was all. If, therefore, following the
-amnesia each phase can be rightly interpreted—and of this there can be
-no doubt—as a dissociated personality, the same must be true of it
-antecedent to loss of memory. Each phase had lost and gained certain
-traits and peculiarities, and what one had lost the other, to a large
-extent, had retained.
-
-An analysis of the previous life history shows that each represented a
-constellation of mental complexes created out of the formative matter of
-the past conserved in the unconscious. On the other hand it is obvious
-that from another point of view each, before amnesia occurred, was
-rightly entitled to be considered as a highly developed “mood” with
-strong conative tendencies. In principle the amnesia does not affect the
-point of view. One frequently sees in lesser degree such moods in
-so-called normal people of a certain temperament. They are in fact
-really temporary alterations of personality, though it is not customary
-to speak of them as such. After amnesia develops the conditions in other
-respects are in no way changed. If such alterations of personality are
-combined with a neurasthenic condition it is customary to regard the
-phase as one of neurasthenia or hysteria, and, in fact, the state A was
-for a long time so regarded until the other state, B, was discovered.
-
-It is not within the scope of this study to describe in detail the
-behavior of the two personalities A and B. Enough has been said to show
-that they differed in character so widely as to appear to be two
-entirely distinct persons, with contradictory traits, desires, feelings,
-points of view, habits, manners, temperaments, and attitudes towards
-their environment and towards each other. Alternating as they did, the
-situations in which A, at least, was placed were often dramatic and
-comparable to that of the case of Miss Beauchamp[302] with which some of
-you may be familiar.
-
-A good general idea of the two personalities and their behavior has been
-given by the subject herself in the two articles from which I have
-freely quoted. For further details I would refer you to those
-accounts[303] which merit careful study.
-
-Nor can I take up that phase of the problem of dissociation which
-involves _co-conscious_ systems of thought. It is too large a subject
-and must be reserved for a later occasion. I will merely say that when A
-became _unaware_ of the _B complex_ and became amnesic for her
-alternating life as B, the latter, B, continued during the A phase; or,
-in other words, the co-conscious life was a continuation of the B
-alternating life after the change took place to A (or C), but the latter
-was unaware of it.
-
-This seems very difficult to comprehend for those who are not familiar
-with the phenomenon. Yet, as I see it, the mechanism and principle are
-very simple and the phenomenon is only an exaggeration of the normal.
-Otherwise and without a normal mechanism it could not occur. B has also
-given in her account a very valuable description based on introspection
-of the co-conscious life. This merits careful study.
-
- REINTEGRATION OF A AND B INTO A NORMAL PERSONALITY C
-
-You probably will have sufficient curiosity to want to know how the
-reintegration of the dissociated phases into a single normal personality
-was accomplished: that is to say how a cure was brought about and the
-original personality was obtained. It was very simple and can be told in
-a few words. The method was the same as that employed in the case of
-Miss Beauchamp.
-
-Each of the dissociated personalities A and B could be hypnotized. When
-A was hypnotized she went into a state which we will call _a_ and when B
-was hypnotized she went into a state which we will call _b_. Now both
-these states could be still further hypnotized. When the process of
-hypnotizing _a_ was carried further a state was obtained which we will
-provisionally call _x_. When the process of hypnotizing _b_ was carried
-further a state was obtained which we will call provisionally _y_. Now,
-when studying these two hypnotic states, _x_ and _y_, they were found to
-be the same state. That is to say they had the same memories and other
-traits of personality. Furthermore they were found to be a combination
-of both _a_ and _b_, possessing all the memories, emotions and innate
-dispositions which were lost in A and therefore possessed by B and all
-those that were lost in B and therefore possessed by A. In other words,
-it was the complete normal personality but in the hypnotic state. This
-hypnotic state, therefore, which had been previously labeled both _x_
-and _y_ was now labeled _c_. All that remained to do, therefore, was to
-wake up _c_ and the trick would be done, for we would then have,
-theoretically, the normal C personality. So this procedure was carried
-out and the normal personality was obtained.
-
------
-
-Footnote 292:
-
- Fourth according to the division of periods here adopted.
-
-Footnote 293:
-
- Money matters.
-
-Footnote 294:
-
- Second which brought the B personality.
-
-Footnote 295:
-
- Apropos of this B states: “I still continued, in a sense, as the B
- complex in the same way as during the time when C lived the life which
- was in accordance with my nature and opposed to hers, i.e., the out of
- doors life during the latter part of the second period; only, as a
- result of the time (_period III_) when I was the sole personality
- (though I did not think of myself as such) and had lived my own life,
- I had, it seems to me as I look back upon it, become more
- crystallized. There had before seemed to be a conjoining of two
- natures, and there was now, only the second one, myself, was more
- strongly integrated. C, or rather A, as I shall call this new phase,
- had no amnesia for the preceding period (_III_), and as before was
- still perfectly aware of the B complex. She was ruled by this complex,
- as C had before been ruled, and kept right on doing things in
- accordance with the impulses of the B complex. She was something like
- a somnambulist, I think, partly realizing the difference in her
- conduct, which seemed strange to her, and unable to help herself.”
-
-Footnote 296:
-
- At this time A had removed from the environment in which all this that
- has been narrated had taken place, and had come under my care; she was
- then A. There were no longer calls for duty to be performed, no longer
- responsibilities to carry out. B was dormant and it was impossible for
- the fixed idea to act, though undoubtedly if the former situation was
- restored the old parts would have been reënacted; as it was A looked
- upon the past as a closed chapter and she was able to judge herself as
- A and B. In the quiescence of her fixed idea she was able to see
- herself, though in a distorted perspective, and reprobated her conduct
- in both phases of personality, and as she says, was “aghast.”
-
-Footnote 297:
-
- Referring to the fixed idea mentioned above of saving this person.
-
-Footnote 298:
-
- Referring to her husband’s illness and death.
-
-Footnote 299:
-
- Lecture XVII.
-
-Footnote 300:
-
- This came about in the following way: One day while A was in hypnosis
- she suddenly and spontaneously changed to a different hypnotic state
- characterized by change of facial expression, manner, speech, etc. It
- was afterwards recognized that this was the B personality in hypnosis.
- I had not before seen or heard of the B personality as such. I had
- only known that the subject from her own account had been in a
- neurasthenic condition and had been through periods of improvement and
- relapses. I did not suspect that these phases of improvement and
- relapses represented phases of personality such as was soon discovered
- to be the case. A few days after the B personality had appeared in
- hypnosis this phase spontaneously waked and alternated as it had
- previously done, with the A complex. But now, as the writer says,
- there was amnesia on the part of A for B. The explanation for this is
- undoubtedly to be found in the fact that a new synthesis and more
- complete dissociation of the B complex had taken place through the
- experience of hypnosis. Analogous phenomena I have observed in making
- experimental observations but it would take us too far away to enter
- into this question here.
-
-Footnote 301:
-
- During the first weeks of my existence as B I pledged myself to drink
- no wine. The promise was made under such conditions that no reasonable
- person could have felt bound by it. As B I realized this and felt no
- obligation to keep it but as A, I could not feel so, though you had
- assured me over and over again that I was not in honor bound.
-
-Footnote 302:
-
- Prince: The Dissociation of a Personality, Longmans, Green & Co.
-
-Footnote 303:
-
- “My Life as a Dissociated Personality,” _Journal of Abnormal
- Psychology_, Vol. III, Nos. 4 and 5.
-
-
-
-
- SUMMARY AND GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
-
-
-We may now bring this study of human personality to a close, incomplete
-as it is. We have not by any means exhausted all the factors of
-personality, but, guided by practical consideration, we have at least
-examined the chief of its fundamentals, more particularly those which
-are concerned in the disturbances which general psychopathology makes
-the object of study. Such a study should be undertaken preparatory to
-that of special pathology or particular complexes of disturbances of
-function (the functional psychoneuroses). The aim of psychology should
-be to become capable of being an applied science. So far as a science is
-only of academic interest it fails to be of real value to the world.
-Physics, chemistry, astronomy, mineralogy, geology, physiology,
-bacteriology, botany, and many departments of zoology, etc., can be
-applied, and other sciences at least tend to form our notions of the
-universe in which we live, and thus to mould our religious,
-philosophical and other conceptions. Until very recent years it was an
-opprobium of psychology, as studied and taught, that it had not become
-divorced from philosophy[304] and stood amongst the few sciences that
-could not be applied to practical life and was for the most part of
-academic interest only. Now, however, in the field of medicine
-psychology is fast looming to the front as of great practical
-interest—not the older psychology, but the new psychology of functions
-and mechanisms. In the field of human efficiency in the mechanical arts
-it is also fast becoming capable of practical application. With the
-above aim in view we have dealt in these lectures more particularly with
-those psychological activities a knowledge of which can be applied in
-the theory and practice of medicine. But as the laws governing the
-organism are general, not special, what has been found is as applicable
-to normal as to pathological life.
-
-We have not attempted to enter the field of special pathology to study
-the psycho-pathology of special diseases. So far as this has been done
-it has been mainly for the purpose of seeking data. Our aim has been
-rather to obtain that knowledge of functions which will serve as an
-introduction to such medical studies. Even in this limited field there
-are any number of specific problems which have been scarcely more than
-touched upon and any one of which, by itself, would be a rich field of
-investigation.
-
-It is well now, in conclusion, to make a general survey of the fields
-which we have tilled, and gather together into a whole, so far as
-possible, the results of our gleaning.
-
-We have seen on the basis of the phenomena of memory that the “mind”
-includes more than conscious processes; that it includes a vast
-storehouse of acquired “dispositions” deposited by the experiences of
-life, and that these dispositions (by which mental experiences are
-conserved) may be regarded as chemical or physical in their nature, as
-sort of residua deposited (if we are asked to confine ourselves to terms
-of the same order) by the neural processes correlated with the conscious
-experiences of life. This storehouse of acquired dispositions provides
-the material for conscious and subconscious processes; and thus provides
-the wherewithal which enables the personality to be guided in its
-behavior by the experiences of the past. It provides the elements of
-memory which we know must be supplied by the mind in every perception of
-the environment—even the simplest—and which are required for every
-process of thought. Indeed throughout our review of processes and
-manifestations of mind, which we need not recapitulate, we have
-continually come upon evidences of these dispositions playing as I
-foretold in our first lecture an underlying and responsible part.
-
-The fact that brain dispositions are of one order of events (physical)
-while psychological processes are of another (psychical) is in no way an
-objection to such an interpretation, as in this antithesis we have only
-the old mind-matter problem—dualism, or monism, or parallelism.
-
-We have also seen that in neural dispositions, whether acquired or
-innate, we have a conception of the unconscious that is definite,
-precise.
-
-We have also reviewed the evidence going to show that though the main
-teleological function of the unconscious, so far as it represents
-acquired dispositions, is to provide the material for conscious memory
-and _conscious_ processes, in order that the organism may be consciously
-guided in its reactions by experience, yet under certain conditions
-neurographic residua can function as a _subconscious_ process which may
-be _unconscious_, i.e., without being accompanied by conscious
-equivalents. The latter were classed as a sub-order of subconscious
-processes. We saw reason for believing that any neurogram deposited by
-life’s experience can, given certain other factors, thus function
-subconsciously, either autonomously or as a factor in a large mechanism
-embracing both conscious and unconscious elements; and that this was
-peculiarly the case when the neurogram was organized with an emotional
-disposition or instinct. The impulsive force of the latter gives energy
-to the former and enables it to be an active factor in determining
-behavior. The organism may then be subconsciously governed in its
-reactions to the environment.
-
-After a consideration of actions so habitually performed that they
-become automatic and free from conscious direction (so-called
-habit-reactions), of actions performed by decerebrate animals, of
-cerebro-spinal reflexes, and many motor activities of lower forms of
-animal life, we came to the conclusion that they also were performed by
-unconscious neural dispositions and processes, analogous to, or
-identical with (as the case might be) the acquired dispositions and
-processes correlated with conscious processes. Many of them may likewise
-be acquired and in a pragmatic sense intelligent. We thus were able to
-broaden our conception of the unconscious and its functioning, and at
-the same time see the further necessity of distinguishing the
-unconscious as a subdivision of the subconscious.
-
-Proceeding further we found that besides subconscious processes that are
-distinctly unconscious, there are others which are distinctly conscious
-(or at least unconscious processes with conscious accompaniments) but
-which do not enter the focus or fringe of awareness—in other words, true
-subconscious ideas. These were termed _coconscious_ as a second
-subdivision of the subconscious. They may include true perceptions,
-memories, thoughts, volition, imagination, etc. As with unconscious
-processes, any conserved experience of life, _under certain conditions
-and given certain other factors_, may thus function coconsciously,
-particularly if organized with and activated by an innate emotional
-disposition. So we may have subconscious processes both without and with
-conscious equivalents. We have also seen that coconscious processes may
-exhibit intelligence of a high order, and the same thing is possibly
-true in a less degree of unconscious processes. We found evidence
-showing that a conserved idea may undergo subconscious incubation and
-elaboration, and that subconscious processes may acquire a marked degree
-of autonomy, may determine or inhibit conscious processes of thought,
-solve problems, enter into conflicts, and in various modes produce all
-sorts of psychological phenomena (hallucinations, impulsive phenomena,
-aboulia, amnesia, dissociation of personality, etc.).
-
-We have seen how, by the use of the experimental method of “_tapping_,”
-and by hypnotic and other procedures, that this same autonomy can be
-demonstrated, manifesting itself by impulsive phenomena (writing,
-speech, gestures, and all sorts of motor automatisms) on the one hand,
-and sensory automatisms (hallucinations) on the other. And we have seen
-that by similar procedures, in specially adapted individuals,
-remembrances of coconscious processes that have induced identical
-phenomena can be recalled. With this precise knowledge of the processes
-at work these automatisms were correlated with the spontaneous
-occurrence of the same kinds of phenomena in the psychoses and in normal
-conditions. Their occurrence in all sorts of pathological conditions
-thus becomes intelligible.
-
-Evidence has been adduced to show that life’s experiences, and therefore
-acquired dispositions, tend to become organized into groups. The latter,
-termed for descriptive purposes neurograms, thereby acquire a functional
-unity; and they may become compounded into larger functioning groups, or
-complexes, and still larger systems of neurograms. Whether their origin
-is remembered or not they become a part of the personality. Such
-complexes and systems play an important part by determining mental and
-bodily behavior. Amongst other things they tend to determine the points
-of view, the attitudes of mind, the individual and social conscience,
-judgment, etc., and, as large systems, may become “sides to one’s
-character.” When such complexes have strong emotional tones they may set
-up conflicts leading to the inhibition of antagonistic sentiments, and
-sometimes to the contraction and even disruption of the personality. All
-these phenomena can be induced by the artificial creation and
-organization of complexes and this principle becomes an important one in
-therapeutics.
-
-When studying ideas we found that, besides sensory images, they have
-meaning derived from antecedent associated experiences that form the
-setting or context. Further evidence was adduced to show that this
-setting and the idea formed a psychic whole; but that often the former
-remained subconscious while the idea only, or the affect only, or both,
-emerged into the content of consciousness. The significance of this
-mechanism lay in the fact that it enabled us to understand the
-insistency of emotional ideas or obsessions. Indeed reasons have been
-given for holding that subconscious processes perform a part in most
-processes of thought.
-
-Besides acquired dispositions, organized and, so to speak, deposited by
-life’s experiences, personality includes many that are innate, and
-therefore conditioned by inherited pre-formed anatomical and
-physiological arrangements of the nervous system. These function after
-the manner of a physiological reflex; and the theory was adopted that
-the emotions are the central elements in certain of such dispositions.
-These may therefore be called emotional dispositions or instincts. By
-the excitation of such emotional reflexes the organism reacts in an
-emotional manner to the environment.
-
-In the organization of life’s experiences the emotional dispositions
-tend to become synthesized with ideas to form sentiments and therefore
-synthesized with the neurographic residua by which ideas are conserved.
-Thus, on the one hand, neurograms and systems of neurograms become
-organized with innate emotional dispositions, and, on the other, ideas
-become energized by the emotional impulsive force that carries the ideas
-to fruition.
-
-As to general psycho-pathological and certain physiological phenomena, a
-large variety such as anxiety states, hallucinations, and automatic
-motor phenomena, are clearly the manifestations of automatic
-subconscious processes; some are the resultants of conflicts between the
-impulsive forces of distinctly conscious sentiments, others between
-those of conscious and subconscious sentiments; others are the
-physiological manifestation of emotional processes, conscious or
-subconscious. Some, indicative of losses from personality (such as
-amnesia, anesthesia, paralysis, altered personality, etc.), are the
-resultants of inhibitions or dissociations of acquired or innate
-dispositions, effected by the conflicting force of antagonistic factors.
-These resultants may or may not be associated with the excitation and
-dominance of complexes, or large systems of acquired dispositions. If
-so, moods, trance states, fugues, somnambulistic states, secondary
-personalities, and other hysterical states come into being. In all cases
-these various pathological conditions are functional derangements of the
-fundamental factors of a given human personality—expressions of the same
-mechanisms which the organism normally makes use of to adapt itself
-harmoniously to its own past or present experiences and to its
-environment.
-
-Finally, out of the innate and acquired dispositions organized by
-experience to a very large extent into unitary dynamic systems human
-personality is constructed by the integration of these systems (and
-other dispositions) into a composite functioning whole. And according as
-certain systems acquire dominance and determine fixed and predictable
-reactions to the environment character traits are developed. But as
-personality is thus a composite, that is an integrated system of lesser
-systems these latter are capable of being reassembled or integrated in
-varying combinations into many and different composites and thus
-multiple personality may be formed. The forces which bring about the
-disintegration of the normal composite and the resynthesizing of the
-unitary systems into new personalities are to be found in the dynamic
-dispositions of conscious and unconscious mechanisms. And we have also
-seen that as the empirical ego is a unitary system organized by
-experience each personality may contain its own differentiated ego.
-
-Viewing as a whole the phenomena we have studied, we see why it is that
-personality is a complex affair in that in its make-up there enter many
-factors, some acquired and some innate. Each of these is capable of more
-or less autonomy and upon their harmonious coöperation depends the
-successful adaptation of the personality to its environment. It is, we
-may say with almost literal truth, when these factors work to cross
-purposes that a personality ceases to be a harmonious whole; just as the
-individuals composing a group of persons, a football team, for example,
-when they fail to work together and each strives to fulfill his own
-purposes, cease to be a single team. Consciousness is not a unity in any
-sense that the term has any significant meaning beyond that which is a
-most banal platitude. The “unity of consciousness” seems to be a
-cant-expression uttered by some unsophisticated ancient philosopher and
-repeated like an article of faith by each successive generation without
-stopping to think of its meaning or to test it by reference to facts.
-Neither a reference to the evidence of consciousness or to its
-manifestations gives support to the notion of unity. The mind is rather
-an aggregation of potential or functioning activities some of which may
-combine into associative functioning processes at one time and some at
-another; while again these different activities may become disaggregated
-with resulting contraction of personality, on the one hand, and
-conflicting multiple activities on the other.
-
-The unconscious, representing as it does all the past experiences of
-life that have been conserved, is not limited to any particular type of
-experiences; nor are the subconscious and conscious processes to which
-it gives rise more likely to be determined by any particular
-antecedents, such as those of childhood, as some would have us believe.
-Nor are these motivated by any particular class of emotional instincts
-or strivings of human personality. The instincts and other innate
-dispositions which are fundamental factors are, as we have seen,
-multiform, and any one of them may provide the motivating force which
-activates subconscious as well as conscious processes. Impelled by any
-one or combination of these instincts unconscious complexes may undergo
-subconscious incubation and in the striving to find expression may work
-for harmony or, by conflict with other complexes, for discord.
-
-Having grasped the foregoing general principles governing the
-functioning mechanisms of the mind, we are prepared to undertake the
-study of the more particular problems of everyday life and of special
-pathology.
-
------
-
-Footnote 304:
-
- In most universities to-day Psychology is classed as a department of
- Philosophy! How long is this attitude to be continued?
-
-
-
-
- INDEX OF NAMES[305]
-
-Footnote 305:
-
- See Addendum to index on page 654.
-
- Barrows, Ira, 213.
- “B. C. A.”, 159, 302.
- Bergson, viii.
- Bicknel, 428, 429, 430, 431.
- Bidder and Schmidt, 427.
- Bogen, 429, 430.
- Breuer, J., 69.
-
- Cade and Latarjet, 428.
- Cannon, W. B., 426, 428, 432, 439, 452, 453.
- Charcot, 77, 526.
- Coriat, I. H., 76, 145.
-
- De la Paz, D., 432.
- Dickenson, C. Lowe, 19.
-
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 330.
-
- Féré, Ch., 423, 433, 436.
- Flournoy, Th., 304.
- Foster, M., 233, 242.
- Freud, Sigmund, 45, 71, 196, 203, 221, 509.
- Fullerton, G. S., 309.
-
- Goltz, F., 232.
- Gurney, Edmund, 62, 157.
-
- Haldane, (Lord), 307.
- Hartmann, 250, 251.
- Herbart, 250, 251.
- Hilton, 453.
- Hoernlé, R. F., 322, 325.
- “Mrs. Holland,” 22.
- Hornborg, 427, 428, 429.
-
- James, William, 223, 224, 260.
- Janet, Pierre, 56, 62, 77, 157, 252, 281, 317, 364, 485, 498, 499, 500,
- 501, 506, 509, 526.
- Johnson, (Miss) Alice, 22, 62.
- Jung, C. J., 425, 437.
-
- Kant, 250, 251.
-
- Leibnitz, 250, 251.
- Loeb, J., 232, 233, 236.
- Lucretius, 309.
-
- McDougall, William, 241, 446, 447, 448, 449, 450, 455, 456, 458.
- Meltzer, S. J., 123.
- Morgan, Lloyd, 234, 237, 238, 241.
- Mosso, 423.
- Myers, Frederick W. H., 251.
-
- Pawlow, J. P., 139, 235, 426, 427, 428, 429, 430, 431.
- Peterson, Frederick, 106, 425, 437, 481.
- Pilgrim, C. W., 81.
-
- Ribôt, Th., 133, 144.
- Rignano, Eugenio, 127.
- Robertson, T. Brailsford, 124, 125, 127, 514.
- Rothmann, Von M., 232, 234.
- Rumbold, Horace, 223.
-
- Schäfer, E. A., 232.
- Schilling, 250.
- Schrader, Max E. G., 232, 234, 235, 236.
- Semon, Richard, 131.
- Shand, 267, 449.
- Sharp, Elizabeth A., 297.
- Sherrington, C. S., 231, 234, 237.
- Shohl, A. T., 432.
- Sidgwick, Mrs. Henry, 62.
- Sidis, Boris, 75, 104, 145, 183, 315.
- Sidis and Kalmas, 104, 437, 438.
- Sidis and Nelson, 104, 438.
-
- Tallentyre, 271.
- Titchener, E. B., 316, 321.
- Turquan, Joseph, 274.
-
- Umber, 427.
-
- Verrall, (Mrs.), 21.
- Vigouroux, A., 436.
-
- Waterman, G. A., 169, 209.
- Wells and Forbes, 438.
- Wright, W. S., 432.
-
-
- INDEX OF SUBJECTS
-
- =Absent-minded acts=, conservation of, 50.
- =Affective states=, suppression of, by conflict, 455.
- =Affects=, see =Emotion=.
- as conative force of ideas, 448.
- linking of, to ideas fundamental for the pathology of the
- psychoneuroses, 449.
- =Amnesia=, continuous, 76;
- episodic, 69;
- epochal, 74.
- from conflict, 71, 508–518.
- theory of, following emotion, 509–514.
- different forms of, following emotion, 514–517.
- =Anxiety neurosis=, emergence of emotion from a subconscious idea in,
- 382, 526.
- =Association neuroses=, 279, 527.
- =Association psychoses=, 278.
-
- =Bashfulness= as resultant of emotional conflict, 520.
- =Behavior=, acquired and instinctive, 237, 238;
- conscious and unconscious, 230.
-
- =Coconscious=, the meaning of the, 247–254.
- =Coconscious= ideas, 168, 249, 254.
- images, 169–171, 178, 208, 210, 374–376.
- =Coconscious= processes, auto-analysis of the content of, 171, 176.
- =Complex= of ideas, definition of a, 265.
- =Complexes= (systematized), dissociated, as phases of multiple
- personality, 299–302.
- emotional, 267;
- organization of emotional, 267–274.
- systematized, 283:
- Subject systems, 284;
- alternation of, 288;
- in dissociated personality, 288.
- Chronological systems, 290;
- differentiated by amnesia, 290–294.
- Mood systems, 294;
- regarded as a “side to one’s character,” 295;
- illustrated by William Sharp, 296.
- unconscious, organization of, in hypnotic and other dissociated
- conditions, 302–306;
- in pathological states, 305;
- in psychotherapeutics, 288–289, 304;
- underlying the individual, social, civic and national conscience,
- public opinion, Sittlichkeit, etc., 307.
- =Conflict=, from conative force of emotion, 71, 454.
- between conscious and subconscious sentiments, 460, 467–480;
- in pathological conditions, 478;
- under experimental conditions, 470–478.
- =Conflict= between emotional impulses, 454;
- and sentiments, 455.
- between two subconscious processes, 480.
- general phenomena of, 488:
- contraction of field of consciousness and personality, 489–492;
- the hysterical state, 492;
- systematized dissociation, 492–504;
- systematized anesthesia, 492;
- contracted personality, 496;
- change of sentiments, 497;
- alternation of personality, 501;
- multiple personality, 502;
- amnesia, 508–517;
- subconscious traumatic memories, 517;
- mental confusion, 519–521;
- bashfulness, 520;
- self-consciousness, 521.
- suppression of instincts and affective states by, 454–458.
- =Confusion= (mental), as resultant of emotional conflicts, 519;
- theory of, 520.
- =Conservation=, meaning of, 12.
- a residuum of experience, 87.
- considered as psychological residua, 110;
- as coconscious ideas, 111;
- as an undifferentiated psyche, 115;
- as physical residua, 117;
- as neural dispositions, 117.
- evidence of, furnished by automatic writing, 15;
- abstraction, 24;
- hypnosis, 31;
- hallucinatory phenomena, 39;
- dreams, 43.
- =Conservation=, of absent-minded acts, 50
- of forgotten artificial states, 62;
- (hypnosis, 62).
- of forgotten dreams and somnambulisms, 59.
- of forgotten experiences of normal life, 15.
- of forgotten pathological states, 68
- (amnesia, 68;
- deliria, 79;
- fugues, 75;
- intoxications, 80;
- multiple personality, 77).
- of inner life, 85.
- of subconscious perceptions, 52.
-
- =Decerebrate Animal=, behavior of, 231.
- intelligent behavior of, 240.
- =Dissociation=, due to conflict, 71, 469, 472–475, 480, 487, 488,
- 492–504.
- amnesia following, 508.
- effected by subconscious processes, 504.
- laws of cleavage of personality in, 504–508.
- systematized, 492–504;
- principle involved, 493.
- =Dreams=, as a type of hallucinatory phenomena, 222.
- physiological after-phenomena, 101.
- subconscious process underlying, 196–213.
- symbolism in, 200, 202.
-
- =Emotion=, see =Affects=.
- amnesia, as resultant of, 514–517.
- emergence of, from subconscious ideas, 382–386, 387–388, 391, 485.
- general psychopathology of, 440–442.
- James-Lange theory of, 423, 453.
- physiological manifestations of, 423;
- changes in circulation, 424;
- modifications of volume and action of heart, 424;
- of respiratory apparatus, 426;
- of glandular secretions, 426;
- of the functions of the digestive glands, 426;
- of the movements of the stomach and intestines, 426;
- of salivary secretion, 431;
- of secretion of ductless glands, 431;
- of pupils, 433;
- of muscular system, 433;
- the psycho-galvanic reflex, 435.
- physiological symptoms of, caused by subconscious ideas, 377–381.
- phenomena of, due to subconscious processes, 103.
- provides the impulsive force of an instinct, 447;
- one of chief functions of, 451.
- psycho-physiological schema of manifestations of emotion, 441;
- physiological mimicry of disease, 442.
- sensory accompaniments of, 453.
- =Emotion=, sensory disturbances caused by, 438.
- the central psychical element in an innate reflex process, 446.
- the conative function of, 451, 452–460;
- discharge of force in three directions, 452.
- =Emotions=, as the prime-movers of all human activity, 450;
- organization of, with ideas essential for self-control, etc., 451,
- 458.
- primary and compound, 446.
- =Emotional discharge= from subconscious processes, evidence for, 481.
- =Emotional reactions=, acquired, do not always involve subconscious
- processes, 418.
-
- =Fanatics=, 279.
- =Fear neurosis= due to subconscious ideas, 379.
- =Feeling=, may emerge from subconscious complexes, 383–386.
- =Fixed idea= (imperative), 278–279.
- =Fringe (of consciousness)=, considered as a subconscious zone,
- 338–352;
- as a twilight zone, 341;
- consists of definite, real elements, 342;
- ultramarginal or coconscious zone, 343–352.
- content of the, 342–352;
- only recovered by memory, 340, 353.
- effect of attention in shifting the content of focus and, 340, 353.
- =Fringe (of consciousness)=, meaning of ideas may be in the, 352–360.
-
- =Glycosuria=, due to emotion, 432.
-
- =Hallucinations=, see =Visions=.
- as the emergence of secondary sensory images of subconscious ideas,
- 182–183, 204, 209–210, 315.
- =Hysterical attacks=,
- as recurrent complexes, 280, 282;
- laughter and crying due to subconscious processes, 379.
-
- =Idea=, a composite of sign and meaning, 325.
- =Idea and Meaning=, the problem of, 311.
- =Ideas=, content of, includes “Meaning,” 321-331.
- setting of, 321, 330.
- =Images=, of perception, either in the focus of attention or in the
- fringe, 330, 340.
- =Images, secondary=, in perception, 82–183, 313;
- dissociation of, 318–321;
- from subconscious ideas, 204, 209, 315–321, 375, 413.
- =Instinct and Intelligence=, 240.
- =Instinct=, McDougall’s conception of an, 446.
- as an emotional disposition, 447, 467.
- =Instinctive process=, three aspects of an, 446.
- =Instincts=, conduct determined by, 458;
- suppression of, by conflict, 454–458;
- may be lasting, 460–467.
- difference between consequences of repression of, and of sentiments,
- 467–469.
- =Intelligence=, 240.
- and instinct, 240.
- a pragmatic question, 241.
- conscious and unconscious, 240–246.
-
- “=Meaning=,” as a part of the content of ideas, 321–331.
- as determined by a subconscious process, 361.
- as the conscious elements of a larger subconscious complex, 360–362,
- 363.
- derived from the setting, 321, 330.
- may be in the fringe of consciousness, 352–360, 363.
- must be in consciousness, 339.
- the problem of, 311.
- =Melancholia=, depressive feeling in, as emergence from a subconscious
- complex, 386.
- =Memory=, as a process, 1;
- of registration, conservation and reproduction, 2, 134.
- conscious, a particular type, 3;
- without recollection, 144.
- physiological, 3, 135, 229, 238.
- psycho-physiological, 138.
- significance of theory of, 257–264.
- subconscious, 84, 151, 517.
- unconscious, 137.
- =Memories, automatic=, 267;
- outbreak of, 274;
- as hysterical attacks, 280;
- as obsessions, 271, 278, 280;
- as a phobia, 269.
- =Monism=, doctrine of, 246.
-
-=Neurograms=, 109, 131. as organized systems of neurons, 121. as
-physiological dispositions, 131. as subconscious processes, 150–157.
-
- =Obsessions=, clinical characteristics of, 278.
- four types of, 373.
- type A, purely physical disturbances caused by subconscious ideas,
- 374–381.
- type B, emotion plus physical disturbances, 381–386;
- as “anxiety neurosis,” 382.
- type C, emotion plus physical disturbances, plus idea, 387–410.
- type D, idea, meaning, emotion and physical disturbance, 410–415.
- inability to voluntarily modify, 415.
- therapeutics of, 416.
- the setting in, 372.
-
- =Parallelism=, doctrine of, 246.
- =Perception=, a synthesis of primary and secondary images, 312–321.
- may include affects, 330.
- =Personalities, subconscious=, value of, for study of mental
- mechanisms, 160.
- =Personality=, as survival of antecedent experiences, 306–310.
- dissociated, 299–302.
- includes conserved but forgotten experiences of hypnotic states, 66.
- multiple, 299–302.
- =Phobia=, see =Obsessions=.
- as an automatism, 269.
- of steeples (case), 389–410;
- of fainting (case), 355–360;
- of insanity (case), 411–414.
- =Psycho-galvanic phenomenon=, induced by subconscious processes, 103.
- nature of, 435–438.
- a phenomenon of emotion, 435.
- as evidence of subconscious emotional discharge, 481–484.
- =Psycholeptic attack=, as an organized complex, 282.
- =Psychoneuroses=, symptomatic structure of, 521–528;
- the hysterical attack, 524;
- the dissociated personality, 525;
- the subconscious fixed idea, 526;
- the anxiety state, 526;
- an obsession, 527;
- an association neurosis, 527.
- =Psychotherapeutics=, based on organization of complexes, 288–289;
- in hypnosis, 304.
- by the organization of unconscious settings of ideas, 368–372, 416.
- =Psychotherapeutics= of obsessions, 416.
- =Physiological Dispositions=, innate and acquired, 230, 231.
- in the spinal animal, 231.
- in the decerebrate animal, 231.
- determinants of conscious and unconscious behavior, 230.
-
- =Recollection=, 143.
- a more perfect kind of conscious memory, 144.
- =Reflection=, subconscious processes underlying, 225–228.
- =Religious conversion= (sudden), 193, 223.
- =Reproduction=, dissimilarity of types in abstraction and automatic
- writing, 27.
- realistic, 32.
- =Residua=, as neural dispositions, 119.
- chemical and physical theories of, 122;
- analogy with anaphylaxis, 123;
- theory of auto-catalysis, 124–127;
- of nervous accumulators, 127–129.
- =Residual Processes=, underlying automatic motor phenomena, 88;
- hallucinations, 90;
- post-hypnotic phenomena, 96;
- dreams, 98;
- physiological bodily disturbances, 101.
-
- =Self-consciousness=, as resultant of emotional conflict, 521.
- =Sentiment=, definition of a, 449;
- as an organized system of emotional dispositions centered about an
- idea, 449–450.
- difference between the consequences of repression of an instinct and
- of a, 467–469.
- =Sentiments=, essential for self-control and regulation of conduct,
- 451;
- in absence of, emotional life would be chaos, 451;
- suppression of, by conflict, 454–458.
- repression of, may lead to the formation of pathological subconscious
- states, 461.
- “=Settings=,” theory of, 311;
- practical application to everyday life, 331–337.
- not sharply defined groups of ideas, 421.
- as part of an unconscious complex and a subconscious process, 361,
- 363, 367;
- inadequacy of analysis as a method of proof, 364, 368;
- synthetic methods, 365;
- therapeutic application of, 368–372;
- in obsessions, 372–386, 387–415.
- =Subconscious, The=, demarcation between, and the conscious, 419;
- difficulties of interpretation by clinical methods, 220;
- in applied psychology, 213–228.
- meanings of, 247–254;
- three classes of facts included in, 253.
- special problems of, 162.
- subdivisions of, x, 14, 253.
- =Subconscious=, emotional discharge shown by psycho-galvanic reaction,
- 481–484.
- ideas, 249–254.
- intelligence, 150, 153, 163, 164, 177–180, 187, 188;
- underlying spontaneous hallucinations, 188–195;
- underlying dreams, 196–213;
- comparable to a coconscious personality, 211–212.
- mathematical calculations, 96, 167, 169–171, 177–179.
- perception, 52.
- performance of post-hypnotic phenomena, 168, 171.
- personality, 159;
- value of, for study of mind, 159–160.
- process, definition of a, 156.
- processes, evidence for, 151, 163;
- validity of memory as evidence for, 176;
- actuality, intrinsic nature, and intelligence of, 164;
- as coconscious, 157;
- as unconscious, 161;
- conditions required for proof of, 164–166;
- as determinants of behavior, 153, 163;
- of the meanings of ideas, 361, 363;
- of physical symptoms, 377;
- intrinsic nature of, 157, 163, 164;
- underlying artificial visual hallucinations, 180–187;
- spontaneous visual hallucinations, 188–195;
- underlying dreams, 196–213.
- =Subconscious= self, 256.
- solution of problems, 171–176.
- =Symbolism=, in dreams, 200, 202;
- in visions, 222.
-
- =Unconscious, The=, 229;
- as a storehouse of neurograms, 149.
- as a fundamental of personality, 254–264.
- has dynamic functions, 262.
- the meanings of the, 149, 247–254.
- =Unconscious=, calculations, 178;
- intelligence, 187, 210–211.
- complex as the setting of ideas, 361-363.
- complexes, organization of, 265;
- definition of, 265.
- ideas, 249-254.
-
- =Visions=, see =Hallucinations=.
- as the emergence of secondary visual images of subconscious ideas,
- 182–3, 204, 209–210, 315, 413.
- crystal, 42.
- subconscious processes underlying normal, 222.
- symbolism in, 222.
-
- =Will=, McDougall’s theory of the, 458.
- =Word-association= reactions and the principle of conflict, 481.
-
-
-
-
- ADDENDUM: NAMES AND SUBJECTS
-
- =Character= as distinguished from Personality, 533.
-
- =McDougall, Wm.=, 538, 602, 625.
- =Mental Conflicts=, mechanisms of, 582.
- =Multiple personality=, the psychogenesis of, 545;
- product of two processes and secondary growth, 546.
- Case of B. C. A., 551;
- autobiography, 556;
- conflicts between sentiments and rebellious thoughts, 567, 579,
- 583;
- growth of rebellious thoughts into the larger B complex and the
- later B personality, 569, 577–579, 584, 587, 596–598;
- unification of the same in the second ego, 570.
- The B complex, 584, 587;
- manifestations of the B complex in alterations of character and
- conduct, 587–592, 616.
- The B personality, 593;
- the eruption of the B personality from “shock” (conflict), 593,
- 601;
- the evolution of the B personality, 596–598, 601;
- “shock” as a defense reaction, 599;
- analysis of the “shock” 601;
- the B personality as a reversion to youth, 602–612;
- characteristics of the B personality, 603.
- The A personality, 614;
- eruption of the same by “shock,” 614;
- characteristics of the A personality, 612, 614, 619–621;
- mechanisms of the “shock” reaction, 621–624.
- Dissociation and repression of emotional instincts from the A and B
- personalities, 624–627.
- Reintegration of the two personalities into one normal whole, 632.
-
- =Personality=, structure and dynamic elements of, 529;
- definition of, 532;
- primary and secondary units of its structure, 535.
-
- =Self=, the conception of, 541.
- =Sentiments=, structure of, 537;
- the self-regarding sentiments, 538;
- conflicts between sentiments in the case of B. C. A., 583.
- =Shand, Alexander F.=, 535, 602.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Transcriber’s Note
-
-The unmatched ‘)’ at 95.1 ‘recorded subconsciously, coconsciously).’,
-has no simple resolution, based on the grammar and punctuation, and has
-been left as-is.
-
-There appears to be a confusion of quotation marks at 282.15. The final
-phrase contains an opening double quote, which is belied by a short
-single-quoted phrase just above, and the final footnote referring to
-Janet’s text.
-
-The labels on the two graphs in the image on p. 425 were chopped and
-have been added.
-
-Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and
-are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.
-
- xvii.31 The B Personal[l/it]y Replaced.
- 56.28 [(]tactile, visual, etc.) Added.
- 97.23 to say that it[ is] plain Inserted.
- 138.30 process is conserved and rep[r]oduced Inserted.
- 150.12 out of the unconscious.[”] Removed.
- 155.1 devoid of ab[s]truseness, Inserted.
- 187.8 post[ /-]hypnotic Replaced.
- 210.13 coconscious or un[con]conscious Removed.
- 214.10 is apt to meet with difficulties[.] Added.
- 223.27 and His Times[,] Sir Horace Rumbold Added.
- 231.21 that various co[o/ö]perative movements Replaced.
- 258.19 [o/a]bnormal mental conditions Replaced.
- 280.10 [5/4]. _Hysterical attacks._ Misnumbered.
- 436.23 che[x/z] les mélancoliques Replaced.
- 470.19 inhibition of consciousnes[s] Added.
- 504.18 to the subconsc[i]ous conflicts Inserted.
- 525.3 deposited in the uncon[s]cious Inserted.
- 598.24 particularly anger and disgust[;/,] Replaced.
- 600.11 whether the “shock[”] was a defense Added.
- 649.29 [con-]considered as a subconscious zone Removed.
-
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-<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The unconscious, by Morton Prince</p>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
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-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The unconscious</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>The fundamentals of human personality, normal and abnormal</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Morton Prince</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 2, 2023 [eBook #69930]</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
- <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Turgut Dincer, KD Weeks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p>
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UNCONSCIOUS ***</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c000' />
-</div>
-<div class='tnotes'>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
- <div class='nf-center'>
- <div>Transcriber’s Note:</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c001'>Footnotes have been collected at the end of each Lecture, and are
-linked for ease of reference.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please
-see the transcriber’s <a href='#endnote'>note</a> at the end of this text
-for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered
-during its preparation.</p>
-
-<div class='htmlonly'>
-
-<p class='c001'>Any corrections are indicated using an <ins class='correction' title='original'>underline</ins>
-highlight. Placing the cursor over the correction will produce the
-original text in a small popup.</p>
-
-<div class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='c001'>Basic information from the title page was added to the cover image, and
-is placed in the public domain.</p>
-
-<div class='epubonly'>
-
-<p class='c001'>Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will navigate the
-reader to the corresponding entry in the corrections table in the
-note at the end of the text.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
- <div><span class='xlarge'>THE UNCONSCIOUS</span></div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/mcmillanlogo.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
- <div><span class='large'>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span></div>
- <div>NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO</div>
- <div>DALLAS · ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO</div>
- <div class='c000'><span class='large'>MACMILLAN &amp; CO., <span class='sc'>Limited</span></span></div>
- <div>LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA</div>
- <div>MELBOURNE</div>
- <div class='c000'><span class='large'>THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, <span class='sc'>Ltd.</span></span></div>
- <div>TORONTO</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div>
- <h1 class='c003'>THE UNCONSCIOUS</h1>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c004'>
- <div><span class='large'>THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN</span></div>
- <div><span class='large'>PERSONALITY NORMAL AND</span></div>
- <div><span class='large'>ABNORMAL</span></div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
- <div>BY</div>
- <div class='c000'><span class='large'>MORTON PRINCE, M.D., LL.D.</span></div>
- <div class='c000'><span class='small'>PROFESSOR (EMERITUS) OF DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM,</span></div>
- <div><span class='small'>TUFTS COLLEGE MEDICAL SCHOOL; CONSULTING PHYSICIAN</span></div>
- <div><span class='small'>TO THE BOSTON CITY HOSPITAL</span></div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
- <div>SECOND EDITION</div>
- <div>REVISED</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c005'>
- <div><span class="blackletter">New York</span></div>
- <div><span class='large'>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span></div>
- <div>1921</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c005'>
- <div><span class='sc'>Copyright</span>, 1914 and 1921</div>
- <div><span class='large'><span class='sc'>By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span></div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='c006' />
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
- <div class='nf-center'>
- <div>Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1914.</div>
- <div>New Edition, June, 1921.</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>PREFACE</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>This work is designed to be an introduction to
-abnormal psychology. The problems considered,
-however, belong equally to normal psychology in
-that they are problems of psycho-physiological
-functions and mechanisms. I have made no attempt
-to develop any particular school of psychological
-theory but rather, so far as may be, to gather together
-the knowledge already gained and lay a
-foundation which can be built upon by any school
-for the solution of particular problems, especially
-those of special pathology. I have therefore endeavored
-to avoid controversial questions although
-this, of course, has not been wholly possible, and
-indeed so far as special pathological conditions (the
-psychoses) have been considered, it has been for the
-purpose of providing data and testing the principles
-adduced. The inductive method, alone, I believe, as
-in the physical sciences, can enable us to arrive at
-sound conclusions—justify the formulation of theories
-to explain psychological phenomena. Because
-of the very difficulties of this field of research—one
-of which is that of submitting to experimental conditions
-complex psychological phenomena having so
-many factors—it is all the more incumbent that the
-inductive method should be employed. To my way
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span>of thinking we should begin at the bottom and build
-up bit by bit, drawing, as we go, no wider conclusions
-than the facts developed warrant; or if we do,
-these should be recognized clearly as working hypotheses
-or speculative theories. Skyscrapers
-should not be erected until the foundations have been
-examined to see if they will bear the superstructure.
-That I have wholly succeeded in so rigorously restricting
-my own endeavors I can scarcely hope. I
-trust, however, that I have succeeded in consistently
-maintaining the distinction between facts and their
-interpretations.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The present volume consists of selected lectures
-(with the exception of four) from courses on abnormal
-psychology delivered at the Tufts College
-Medical School (1908-10) and later at the University
-of California (1910).<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c009'><sup>[1]</sup></a> These again were based on a
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span>series of papers on the Unconscious published in the
-Journal of Abnormal Psychology (1908-9) of which
-they are elaborations. Since the lectures were delivered
-a large amount of new material has been incorporated
-and the subject matter considered in more
-detail and more exhaustively than was practical before
-student bodies. The four additional lectures
-(X, XI, XII and XIII) appeared in abbreviated
-form in the same Journal (Oct., Nov., 1912) under
-the title “The Meaning of Ideas as Determined by
-Unconscious Settings.” The lecture form has been
-retained, offering as it does many advantages where,
-in the exposition of a difficult subject, much that is
-elemental needs to be stated.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As the subconscious and its processes are fundamentals
-both in the structure of personality and in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span>the many mechanisms through which personality,
-normal and abnormal, finds expression, the first
-eight lectures are devoted to its exposition. Indeed,
-as has been said, the subconscious is not only the
-most important problem of psychology, it is <i>the</i>
-problem. The study of its phenomena must be preliminary
-to that of the functioning mechanisms of
-both the normal mind and of those special pathological
-conditions—the psycho-neuroses—which modern
-investigators are tracing to its perversions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In a recently published article M. Bergson concludes
-with the following prophesy: “To explore
-the most sacred depths of the unconscious, to labor
-in what I have just called the subsoil of consciousness,
-that will be the principal task of psychology
-in the century which is opening. I do not doubt that
-wonderful discoveries await it there, as important
-perhaps as have been in the preceding centuries the
-discoveries of the physical and natural sciences.
-That at least is the promise which I make for it,
-that is the wish that in closing I have for it.”<a id='r2' /><a href='#f2' class='c009'><sup>[2]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>And yet one reads and hears all sorts of contradictory
-statements, made by those who it is presumed
-should know, regarding the actuality of the
-subconscious. Thus one or another writer, assuming
-to know, states most positively that there is no
-such thing as the subconscious. Others, equally emphatic,
-postulate it as an established fact rather
-than a theory, or assume it as a philosophical concept
-or hypothesis to explain particular phenomena.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span>One difficulty is that the term, as commonly used,
-has many meanings, and it has followed that different
-writers have assumed it with respectively
-different meanings. Consequently the subconscious
-as an actuality has been unwittingly denied when
-the intent has been really to deny some particular
-meaning or interpretation, and particular meanings
-have been subsumed which are only philosophical
-concepts.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>There should be no difficulty in deciding what the
-facts permit us to postulate. The subconscious is a
-theory based upon observed facts and formulated to
-explain those facts. There are many precise phenomena
-of different kinds which can only be explained
-as due to explicitly subconscious processes,
-that is, processes which do not appear in the content
-of consciousness; just as the phenomena manifested
-by radium can only be explained by emanations
-(or rays) which themselves are not visible and
-cannot be made the object of conscious experience.
-In each case it is the manifestations of such processes
-of which we become aware. Subconscious
-processes and radio-activity stand on precisely the
-same basis so far as the determination of their
-actuality is concerned. (The latter have the advantage,
-of course, in that being physical they are subject
-to quantitative measurement.) Such being the
-case it ought to be possible to construct the theory
-of the subconscious by inductive methods on the
-basis of facts of observation just as any theory of
-the physical sciences is constructed.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_x'>x</span>This task I have set before myself as well as that
-of giving precision to our conception of the theory
-and taking it out of the domain of philosophical concepts.
-With this purpose in view I have endeavored
-to apply the method of science and construct the
-theory by induction from the data of observation
-and experiment. I dare say this has been a somewhat
-ambitious and some will say, perhaps, overbold
-undertaking. Undoubtedly, too, this attitude
-toward this and other individual problems has not
-been always consistently maintained, nor perhaps
-is it completely possible in the present state of the
-science.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Our formulations should be as precise as possible
-and facts and concepts of a different order should
-not be included in one and the same formula. I
-have, accordingly, divided the subconscious into two
-classes, namely (1) the <em>unconscious</em>, or neural dispositions
-and processes, and (2) the <em>coconscious</em>, or
-actual subconscious ideas which do not enter the
-content of conscious awareness. An unconscious
-process and a coconscious process are both therefore
-<em>subconscious</em> processes but particular types thereof—the
-one being purely neural or physical and the
-other psychological or ideational.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The soundness of the conclusions reached in this
-work I leave to the judgment of my critics, of whom
-I doubt not I shall have many. I do not hesitate to
-say, however, that it is only by practical familiarity
-with the phenomena of mental pathology and artificially
-induced phenomena (such as those of hypnosis,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_xi'>xi</span>suggestion, etc.), requiring a long training in
-this field of research (as in other scientific fields),
-that we can correctly estimate the value of data and
-the conclusions drawn therefrom; and even then
-many of our conclusions can be regarded as only
-provisional.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In these lectures I have also endeavored (Lectures
-XIV-XVI) to develop the phenomena of the emotional
-innate dispositions which I conceive play one
-of the most fundamental parts in human personality
-and in determining mental and physiological behavior.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Experimental methods and the well-known clinical
-methods of investigation have been employed by me
-as far as possible. The data made use of have been
-derived for the most part from my own observations,
-though confirmatory observations of others have not
-been neglected. Although a large number and variety
-of subjects or cases have been studied, as they
-have presented themselves in private and hospital
-practice, the data have been to a large extent sought
-in intensive studies, on particular subjects, carried
-on in some cases over a period of many years.
-These subjects, because of the ease with which subconscious
-and emotional phenomena were either
-spontaneously manifested or could be experimentally
-evoked, were particularly suitable for such
-studies and fruitful in results. It is by such intensive
-studies on special subjects, rather than by casual
-observation of many cases, that I believe the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_xii'>xii</span>deepest insight into mental processes and mechanisms
-can be obtained.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In conclusion I wish to express my great obligation
-to Mrs. William G. Bean for the great assistance
-she has rendered in many ways in the preparation
-of this volume. Not the least has been the
-transcription and typing of my manuscript, for the
-most part written in a quasi shorthand, reading the
-printer’s proofs, and much other assistance in the
-preparation of the text for the press. For this her
-practical and unusually extensive acquaintance with
-the phenomena has been of great value.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I am also indebted to Mr. Lydiard Horton for
-kindly reading the proofs and for many helpful
-suggestions in clarifying the arrangement of the
-text—a most difficult task considering the colloquial
-form of the original lectures.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-l'>
- <div class='linegroup'>
- <div class='group'>
- <div class='line'>Boston.</div>
- <div class='line'>458 Beacon Street.</div>
- </div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_xiii'>xiii</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>The favorable reception which was given to the first
-edition of this work has tempted me in preparing a new
-edition at the request of the publishers to incorporate
-four additional chapters dealing with the general
-principles underlying the structure and dynamic
-elements of human personality (Lecture XVII) and a
-study of a special problem in personality in which these
-principles are involved, namely, the psychogenesis of
-multiple personality as illustrated by a study of the
-case known as B. C. A.<a id='r3' /><a href='#f3' class='c009'><sup>[3]</sup></a> (Lectures XVIII-XX.)
-The latter study was omitted (with other lectures) from
-the first edition in order to limit the number of subjects
-treated and the size of the volume.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Although the theory of the subconscious and that of
-the dynamics of specific conscious and subconscious
-processes (to the fundamental principles of both of
-which these lectures were limited) owe their value to
-our being able through them to explain many mental
-and physiological abnormalities, they possess an equal
-value from the light they throw upon the structure and
-dynamics of that composite whole best termed human
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiv'>xiv</span>personality. Over and above a knowledge of the
-abnormal, what we as human beings want to know is
-not only what sort of physiological beings but what sort
-of conscious beings we are; and how we think and act,
-and what motives and other impulses whether hidden
-or in the clear light of awareness, regulate and determine
-our behavior; what are the forces that do it and
-how. We want to know the answer to a lot of problems
-of this character, all of which involve principles of
-innate and acquired dispositions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>A comprehensive study of human personality would
-include, as far as may be, answers to all these problems
-and would require a volume in itself. I have, therefore,
-not been able more than to give an outline in Lecture
-XVII of what seem to me to be the fundamental principles
-involved and the dynamic unitary systems out of
-which the structure is built up. There are various
-points of view from which the structure of the mind may
-be considered, just as with the structure of a literary
-work of art, or of a complicated mechanism like an
-automobile. We may consider the structure of the latter,
-for instance, as an assembly of complex units
-or mechanisms—cylinders, carburetors, ignition systems,
-etc.,—each analyzed into its elements, without
-regard to the dynamic, integrative functioning of the
-units in the total mechanism. This would be the static
-point of view. Or we may consider these units as wholes
-from the standpoint of the forces they generate, the
-processes they subserve and the parts they play in the
-total functioning of the whole machine. This is the
-dynamic point of view. It is this latter which alone has
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_xv'>xv</span>a vital practical interest. The former is of interest only
-to the technician. So with the mind. The dynamic
-point of view alone is of practical importance and alone
-awakens fascinating interest of stirring intensity. So
-long as psychology held to the static viewpoint it was
-only of academic value. For submitted to the pragmatic
-test it made little difference whether it was right
-or wrong. Nor could it become an applied science.
-Consequently it is from the dynamic viewpoint that I
-have sketched in—and it is little more than a sketch—the
-application of the principles laid down in these
-lectures to the peculiarly appealing problem of personality.
-Closely related to this is multiple personality,
-for it is a special problem in personality, and one that is
-a fascinating study in itself. But aside from its own
-intrinsic interest, its practical interest, its chief value is
-derived from the fact that it is a veritable vivisection of
-the mind by the mind’s own vital forces, and as such
-gives us much more definite and precise data for the
-determination of normal mental mechanisms and
-processes than can introspective analysis; just as the
-vivisection of the body in the laboratory and by disease
-has given us our most precise knowledge of physiology.
-Consequently the phenomena acquire a greater interest
-and value from the insight they give into the normal.
-For there is no more fruitful material for the study of
-the mechanisms and processes of personality than cases
-of this sort where there is a disintegration of the normally
-integrated structural wholes and a reassembling
-of the component elements into new composite wholes.
-In the construction of these new personalities certain
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_xvi'>xvi</span>normal structures and mechanisms are dissected out,
-so to speak, of the original composite by the stress of
-the forces that cause the cleavage between systems and
-are then reassembled into new functioning wholes.
-There is a veritable vivisection of the mind. In a mind
-thus disassembled nearly every mental phenomenon,
-conscious and subconscious—conflicts, hallucinations,
-coconscious processes, defense reactions, etc.,—can be
-observed in an isolated form and systematically studied.
-They are veritable gold mines of psychological phenomena,
-as William James once expressed it to me in
-reference to one of my cases. It is strange, therefore,
-that such cases have been neglected by psychologists
-who would study mental mechanisms. It is true that
-for a complete understanding of multiple personality a
-study of a number of cases should be presented, particularly
-as many variations are to be observed constituting
-differing types. But in a volume of this kind this
-would be impracticable. I have, therefore, limited
-myself to the psychogenesis of a single case, that of
-B. C. A. This will I believe be of interest not only as
-illustrating the basic principles underlying the pathology
-of multiple personality, but because of the data it
-offers for the understanding of the structure and mechanisms
-of the normal self, something that curiously
-appeals to the egoistic interest of human nature.</p>
-
-<div class='c010'><span class='sc'>Morton Prince.</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_xvii'>xvii</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<table class='table0' summary=''>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='11%' />
-<col width='82%' />
-<col width='5%' />
-</colgroup>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>&nbsp;</td>
- <td class='c012'>&nbsp;</td>
- <td class='c013'>PAGE</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>&nbsp;</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Preface to First Edition</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_v'>v</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>&nbsp;</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Preface to Second Edition</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_xiii'>xiii</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>LECTURE</td>
- <td class='c012'>&nbsp;</td>
- <td class='c013'>&nbsp;</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>I.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Theory of Memory as a Process</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>II.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'> Conservation of Forgotten Experiences of Normal, Artificial, and Pathological Life</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_15'>15</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>III.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Conservation of Forgotten Experiences of Normal, Artificial, and Pathological Life</span>—(Continued)</td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_49'>49</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>IV.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Conservation a Residuum of Experiences</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_87'>87</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>V.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Neurograms</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>VI.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Subconscious Processes</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_147'>147</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>VII.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Subconscious Intelligence</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_188'>188</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>VIII.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Unconscious</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_229'>229</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>IX.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Organization of Unconscious Complexes</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_265'>265</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>X.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Meaning of Ideas as Determined by Settings</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_311'>311</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>XI.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Meaning, Settings, and the Fringe of Consciousness</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_338'>338</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>XII.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Settings of Ideas as Subconscious Processes in Obsessions</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_363'>363</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>XIII.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Two Types of Phobia</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_387'>387</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>XIV.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Physiological Manifestations of Emotion</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_423'>423</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>XV.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Instincts, Sentiments and Conflicts</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_446'>446</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>XVI.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>General Phenomena Resulting from Emotional Conflicts</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_488'>488</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>XVII.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Structure and Dynamic Elements of Human Personality</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_529'>529</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>XVIII.</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Psychogenesis of Multiple Personality—The Case of B. C. A.</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_545'>545</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>XIX.</td>
- <td class='c012'>(The Same Continued)—<span class='sc'>The B <a id='corrxvii.31'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Personally'>Personality</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_xvii.31'><ins class='correction' title='Personally'>Personality</ins></a></span></span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_593'>593</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>XX.</td>
- <td class='c012'>(The Same Continued)—<span class='sc'>The A Personality</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_614'>614</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>&nbsp;</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Summary and General Conclusions</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_634'>634</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'>&nbsp;</td>
- <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Index</span></td>
- <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_645'>645</a></td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
- <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_xviii'>xviii</span><span class='xlarge'>THE UNCONSCIOUS</span></div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
- <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span><span class='large'>THE UNCONSCIOUS:</span></div>
- <div class='c000'><span class='large'>THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN PERSONALITY,</span></div>
- <div><span class='large'>NORMAL AND ABNORMAL</span></div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE I <br /> THEORY OF MEMORY AS A PROCESS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c014'>Gentlemen:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The subject which I have chosen for our first
-lecture is the theory of the mechanism of memory.
-I begin with the study of this problem because a
-knowledge of the facts which underlie the theory of
-memory is a necessary introduction to an understanding
-of the Unconscious, and of the part which
-subconscious processes play in normal and abnormal
-mental life.<a id='r4' /><a href='#f4' class='c009'><sup>[4]</sup></a> Speaking more specifically, without
-such a preliminary study I do not believe we
-can interpret correctly a very large number of the
-disturbances of mind and body which are traceable
-to the activity of subconscious processes and with
-which we shall later have to do.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If we consider memory as a <em>process</em>, and not as
-specific phases of consciousness, we shall find that it
-is an essential factor in the mechanisms underlying
-a large variety of phenomena of normal and abnormal
-life. These phenomena include those of both
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>mind and body of a kind not ordinarily conceived of
-as manifestations of memory. I would have you
-dwell in your minds for a moment on the fact that I
-make this distinction between memory as a process
-and memory as a phase of consciousness or specific
-mental experience. What we ordinarily and conventionally
-have in mind when we speak of memory
-is the conscious thought of some past mental experience.
-But when we conceive of memory as a
-process we have in mind the whole mechanism
-through the working of which this past experience
-is <em>registered</em>, <em>conserved</em>, and <em>reproduced</em>, whether
-such reproduction be in consciousness or below the
-surface of consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Memory is usually looked upon as something that
-pertains solely to consciousness. Such a conception
-is defensible if the meaning of the term is restricted
-to those facts alone which come within our conscious
-experience. But when we consider the mechanism
-by which a particular empirical fact of this kind is
-introduced into consciousness we find that this conception
-is inadequate. We find then that we are
-obliged to regard conscious memory as only the end
-result of a process and, in order to account for this
-end result, to assume other stages in the process
-which are not phases of consciousness. Though the
-end result is a reproduction of the ideas which constituted
-the previous conscious experience, this reproduction
-is not the whole process.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>More than this, the conscious experience is not
-the only experience that may be reproduced by the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>process, nor is the end result always and necessarily
-a state of consciousness. <em>Conscious memory is only
-a particular type of memory.</em> The same process
-may terminate in purely unconscious or physiological
-effects, or what may be called physiological
-memory to distinguish it from conscious memory.
-Along with the revived ideas and their feeling tones
-there may be a revival of the physiological experiences,
-or processes, which originally accompanied
-them; such as secretion of sweat, saliva and gastric
-juice, the contraction and dilatation of the blood
-vessels, the inhibition or excitation of the heart,
-lungs and other viscera, the contraction of muscles,
-etc. These visceral mechanisms, being originally
-elements in a complex process and accompaniments
-of the idea, may be reproduced along with the conscious
-memory, and even without conscious memory.
-As this physiological complex is an acquired experience
-it is entitled to be regarded as memory so far
-as its reproduction is the end result of the same
-kind of process or mechanism as that which reproduces
-ideas.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Then, again, investigations into the subconscious
-have shown that the original experience may be reproduced
-subconsciously without rising into awareness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The more comprehensive way, then, of looking at
-memory is to regard it as a process and not simply
-as an end result. The process, as we shall see, is
-made up of three factors—Registration, Conservation,
-and Reproduction. Of these the end result is
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>reproduction; conservation being the preservation
-of that which was registered.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This view is far more fruitful, as you will presently
-see, for memory acquires a deeper significance
-and will be found to play a fundamental and unsuspected
-part in the mechanism of many obscure
-mental processes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From this point of view, upon memory, considered
-<em>as a process</em>, depend the acquired conscious and
-subconscious habits of mind and body.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The process involves unconscious as well as conscious
-factors and may be wholly unconscious (subconscious).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Two of its factors—registration and conservation—are
-responsible for the building up of the unconscious
-as the storehouse of the mind and, therefore,
-primarily for all subconscious processes, other than
-those which are innate.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>To it may be referred the direct excitation of
-many subconscious manifestations of various kinds.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Consciously or subconsciously it largely determines
-our prejudices, our superstitions, our beliefs,
-our points of view, our attitudes of mind.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Upon it to a large degree depend what we call
-personality and character.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It often is the unsuspected and subconscious
-secret of our judgments, our sentiments, and impulses.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is the process which most commonly induces
-dreams and furnishes the material out of which they
-are constructed.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>It is the basis of many hypnotic phenomena.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the field of pathology, memory, through its
-perversions, takes part in and helps to determine
-the form of a variety of disturbances such as obsessions,
-impulsions, tics, habit psychoses and
-neuroses, many of the manifestations of that great
-protean psychosis, hysteria, and other common ailments
-which it is the fashion of the day to term
-neurasthenia and psychasthenia. It is largely responsible
-for the conscious and subconscious conflicts
-which disrupt the human mind and result in
-various pathological states.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Finally, upon the utilization of the processes of
-memory modern psychotherapeutics, or the educational
-treatment of disease, is largely based. For
-many of these reasons an understanding of the
-mechanism of memory is essential for an understanding
-of the subconscious. In short, memory
-furnishes a standpoint from which we can productively
-study the normal and abnormal processes of
-the mind—conscious and subconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>These somewhat dogmatic general statements—which
-I have put before you much after the fashion
-of the lawyer who presents a general statement of
-his case in anticipation of the evidence—I hope
-will become clear and their truth evident as we
-proceed; likewise, their bearing upon the facts of
-abnormal psychology. To make them clear it will
-be necessary to explain in some detail the generally
-accepted theory of memory as a process and to cite
-the numerous data upon which it rests.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>There may be, as, indeed, you will find there are,
-wide differences of opinion as to the exact psychological
-mechanism by which a memory-process plays
-its part in the larger processes of mental life, normal
-and abnormal, such as I have just mentioned,
-but that the memory-process is a fundamental
-factor is revealed by whatever method the problems
-are attacked. A study, therefore, of this fundamental
-factor and a determination of its mechanism
-are a prerequisite for a study of the more complex
-processes in which it takes part. For this reason
-I shall begin the study of the Unconscious (subconscious),
-to which I shall ask your attention in
-these lectures, with a consideration of the processes
-of memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If you ask the average person, as I have often
-done, how or why he remembers he will be puzzled
-and he is apt to reply, “Why, I just remember,” or,
-“I never thought of that before.” If you push him
-a bit and ask what becomes of ideas after they have
-passed out of mind and have given place to other
-ideas, and how an idea that has passed out of mind,
-that has gone, disappeared, can be brought back
-again as memory, he becomes further puzzled. We
-know that ideas that have passed out of mind may
-be voluntarily recalled, or reproduced, as memory;
-we may say that meantime they have become what
-may be called dormant. But surely something
-must have happened to enable these conscious experiences
-to be conserved in some way and recalled.
-Ideas are not material things which, like books, can
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>be laid away on a shelf to be taken up again
-when wanted, and yet we can recall, or reproduce,
-many ideas when we want them just as
-we can go to a shelf and take down any book we
-want.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We learn the alphabet and the multiplication table
-in childhood. During the greater part of our lives
-the sensory images, auditory language symbols, etc.,
-which may be summarized as ideas representing
-these educational experiences, are out of our minds
-and do not form a continuous part of our conscious
-experiences, but they may be recalled at any moment
-as memory. In fact, try as hard as we may, we
-cannot forget our alphabet or multiplication table.
-Why is this?</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The older psychology did not bother itself much
-with these questions which puzzle the average man.
-It was content for the most part with a descriptive
-statement of the facts of conscious memory. It
-did not concern itself with the process by which
-memory is effected; nor, so long as psychology dealt
-only with phases of consciousness, was it of much
-consequence. It has been only since subconscious
-processes have loomed large in psychology and have
-been seen to take part on the one hand in the
-mechanism of conscious thought and on the other to
-produce various bodily phenomena, that the process
-of memory has acquired great practical importance.
-For it has been seen that in these subconscious
-processes previous conscious experiences are resurrected
-to take part as subconscious memory, consequently
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>a conscious experience that has passed out
-of mind may not only recur again as conscious
-memory, but may recur subconsciously below the
-threshold of awareness. The study of subconscious
-processes therefore necessarily includes the processes
-of memory. And so it has become a matter
-of considerable moment to follow the fate of experiences
-after they have passed out of mind with a
-view to determining the mechanism by which they
-can be reproduced consciously and subconsciously.
-More than this it is important that the theory of
-memory should be removed if possible from the
-domain of purely speculative psychological concepts
-and placed on a sound basis of observation
-and experiment like other accepted theories of
-science.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From the point of view of animism, and indeed
-of dualism, nothing becomes of the ideas that have
-passed out of mind; they simply, for the time being,
-cease to exist. Consciousness changes its form.
-Nothing is preserved, nothing is stored up. This
-is still the popular notion according to which a
-mental experience at any given moment—the content
-of my consciousness, for instance, at this moment
-as I speak to you—is only one of a series of
-kaleidoscopic changes or phases of my self-consciousness.
-In saying this what is meant plainly
-must be that the content of consciousness at any
-given moment is a phase of a continuing psychical
-something. We may, perhaps, call this my self-consciousness,
-and say that when I reproduce an
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>experience as memory I simply bring back (by the
-power of self-determination) that same previous
-phase of the psychical something. If I cannot bring
-it back my failure may be due to a failure of the
-power of self-determination or—and here is a weak
-point—to a failure in the formative cohesion of the
-elementary ideas of that experience. In this latter
-alternative no note is taken of a seeming contradiction
-paradox. If nothing is preserved, if nothing
-continues to exist, if memory is only one of a series
-of kaleidoscopic phases of consciousness, how can
-there be any cohesion or organization within what
-does not exist? Consciousness according to this notion
-might be likened to the water of a lake in which
-vortices were constantly being formed, either by the
-current of inflowing springs from the bottom or the
-influences of external agencies. One vortex would
-give place to a succeeding vortex. Memory would
-be analogous to the reproduction of a previously
-occurring vortex.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When, however, such a notion of memory is examined
-in the light of all the facts which have to be
-explained it will be found to be descriptive only
-of our conscious experiences. It does not explain
-memory; it does not answer the question of the
-ordinary man, “How can ideas which have ceased
-to exist be reproduced again as memory?” For,
-putting aside various psychological difficulties such
-as, How can I determine the reproduction of a
-former phase of consciousness—that is, memory—without
-first <em>remembering</em> what I want to determine?,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>or, if this be answered, “By the association
-of phases (ideas),” how can there be any bond of
-association between an existing idea and one that
-does not exist?, and, therefore, how can association
-bring back that which has ceased to exist?—putting
-aside such questions, there are a number of psycho-physiological
-facts which this conception of memory
-will be found inadequate to meet. As a matter of
-fact, investigations into the behavior of mental
-processes, particularly under artificial and pathological
-conditions, have disclosed certain phenomena
-which can be adequately explained only on the
-supposition that ideas as they pass out of mind—the
-mental experiences of the moment—leave something
-behind, some residuum which is preserved,
-stored up as it were, and which plays a subsequent
-part in the process of memory. These phenomena
-seem to require what may be called a psycho-physiological
-theory of memory. Although the theory
-has long been one of the concepts of normal
-psychology it can be said to have been satisfactorily
-validated only by the investigations of recent years
-in abnormal psychology.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The full significance as well as the validity of
-this theory can be properly estimated only in the
-light of the facts which have been revealed by
-modern technical methods of investigation. After
-all, it is the consequences of a theory which count,
-and this will be seen to be true particularly as
-respects memory. The pragmatic point of view of
-counting the consequences, of determining the difference
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>that the theory makes in the understanding
-of the mental processes of normal and abnormal
-life, reveals the importance to us of validating the
-theory. The consequences of the psycho-physiological
-theory are so far-reaching, in view of its
-bearing upon a large number of problems in normal
-and abnormal psychology, that it is worthy of sustained
-and exhaustive examination. I will, therefore,
-briefly résumé the various classes of facts
-which support the theory and which any adequate
-theory of memory must satisfactorily explain. For,
-as will appear, besides the common facts of memory
-pertaining to everyday life, there are a large number
-of other facts which can be observed only when
-the mind is dissected, so to speak, by pathological
-processes, and by the production of artificial conditions,
-and when investigations are carried out by
-special technic. Irrespective of any theory of explanation,
-a knowledge of these facts is extremely
-important for an understanding of many phenomena
-in the domain of both normal and abnormal
-psychology.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>The meaning of conservation.</b>—We all know, as an
-everyday experience of mankind, that at one time
-we can recall what happened to us at some particular
-moment in the past, and at another time we
-cannot. We know that when we have forgotten
-some experience if we stimulate or refresh our
-memory, as the lawyers say to us on the witness-stand,
-by reference to our notes, appropriately
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>called memoranda, the original experience may
-come back to mind. Often at one moment we cannot
-recall a verse, or a name, or a piece of acquired
-knowledge, while at another time, a little later, we
-can. We have a feeling, a perhaps justifiable belief,
-that a desired piece of knowledge is not lost, that it
-is back somewhere in our minds but we cannot get
-at it. If, sooner or later, under one circumstance
-or another, with or without the aid of some kind
-of stimulus, we can recall the desired knowledge
-we say it was preserved (or conserved). If we
-continue, under all circumstances and at all moments,
-to be unable to recall it we say it is lost, that
-our memory of it is not conserved. So the notion
-of conservation of knowledge being something
-apart from recollection enters even into popular
-language. What sort of thing conservation is,
-popular language does not attempt to define. It is
-clear, however, that we may with propriety speak
-of the conservation of experiences, using this term
-in a descriptive sense without forming any definite
-concept of the nature of conservation. Provisionally,
-then, I shall speak of conservation of a given
-experience in this sense only, meaning that the
-memory of it is not permanently lost but that under
-certain particular circumstances we can recall it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now a large mass of observations demonstrate
-that there are an enormous number of experiences,
-belonging to both normal and abnormal mental life,
-which we are unable to voluntarily recall during any
-period of our lives, no matter how hard we try, or
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>what aids to memory we employ. For these experiences
-there is life-long amnesia. Nevertheless,
-it is easy to demonstrate that, though the personal
-consciousness of everyday life cannot recall them,
-they are not lost, properly speaking, but conserved;
-for when the personal consciousness has undergone
-a peculiar change, at moments when certain special
-alterations have taken place in the conditions of the
-personal consciousness, at such moments you find
-that the subject under investigation recalls the
-apparently lost experiences. These moments are
-those of hypnosis, abstraction, dreams, and certain
-pathological states. Again, in certain individuals
-it is possible by technical devices to awaken secondary
-mental processes in the form of a subconsciousness
-which may manifest the memories of the
-forgotten experiences without awareness therefor
-on the part of the personal consciousness. These
-manifestations are known as automatic writing and
-speech. Then, again, by means of certain post-hypnotic
-phenomena, it is easy to study conservation
-experimentally. We can make, as you will
-later see, substantially everything that happened to
-the subject of the experiment in hypnosis—his
-thoughts, his speech, his actions, for all of which
-he has complete and irretrievable loss of memory
-in a waking state—we can make memory for all
-these lost experiences reappear when hypnosis is
-again induced. Thus we can prove conservation
-when voluntary memory for experiences is absolutely
-lost. These experiments, among others, as
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>we shall also see, also give an insight into the
-nature of conservation which is the real problem
-involved in an investigation into the process of
-memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Before undertaking to solve this problem—so far
-as may be done—it is well to obtain a full realization
-of the extent to which experiences which have
-been forgotten may be still conserved. I will therefore,
-as I promised you, résumé the experimental
-and other evidence supporting this principle, making
-use of both personal observations and those of
-others.</p>
-
-<div class='note'>
-
-<p class='c015'><i>NOTE—In the following exposition of the evidence for the theory
-of memory it has been necessary to make use of phenomena subsuming
-subconscious processes before the subconscious itself has been demonstrated.
-A few words in explanation of the terms used is therefore
-desirable to avoid confusing the reader.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c001'><i>Dividing as I do the subconscious into the unconscious and the
-coconscious, the former is either simply a neural disposition, or an
-active neural process without any quality of consciousness; the latter
-is an actual subconscious idea or a process of thought of which, nevertheless,
-we are not aware. An unconscious and a coconscious process
-are both, therefore, only particular types of a subconscious process.
-I might have used the single term subconscious throughout the first
-seven lectures, but in that case, though temporarily less confusing,
-the data necessary for the appreciation of the division of the subconscious
-into two orders would not have been at hand. Typical
-phenomena having been described as unconscious or coconscious (instead
-of simply subconscious), the reader will have already become
-familiar with examples of each type and be thus prepared for the
-final discussion in Lecture VIII. PROVISIONALLY, these three
-terms may be regarded as synonyms. To indicate the synonym, the
-term “subconscious” has often been added in parenthesis in the
-text to one or other of the subdivisional terms, and vice versa.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f1'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. In this connection it is a satisfaction to the author to note
-that more recently a committee was appointed by the American
-Psychological Association (December, 1911) to investigate the relation
-of psychology to medical education. This committee, after an extensive
-inquiry by correspondence with all the medical schools of the
-country, has made a report (Science, Oct. 17, 1913) based upon the
-preponderating opinion of the best medical schools and of the schools
-as a whole. The second (in substance) and third conclusions
-reached in the report were as follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2nd: For entrance in certain schools requiring a preliminary
-college training of greater or less length an introductory or pre-medical
-course in psychology should be required in the same way
-as they now require chemistry, biology, physics, etc., or, in lieu
-thereof, a course in the medical schools.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>3rd: “It is the belief of most of the best schools that a second
-course in psychology should precede the course in clinical psychiatry
-and neurology. This course should have more of a practical nature,
-and should deal especially with abnormal mental processes and with
-the application of psychological principles and facts to medical
-topics. Although this course should deal chiefly with psychopathology,
-it should not be permitted to develop, or degenerate, into a
-course in psychiatry, neurology or psychotherapeutics. This course
-should be clinical in the sense that, as far as possible, clinical
-material should be the basis of the course, but it should not be
-clinical in the sense that the students are given particular cases for
-the purpose of diagnosis or of treatment. The functions of the
-courses in psychiatry and neurology should not be assumed by this
-course.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The courses, from which I have selected twelve lectures for my
-present purpose, were designed for just such instruction as is recommended
-in this report. They were, I believe, the first to be given
-on these subjects in any medical school or college in this country.
-Necessarily they covered a wider range of topics than the lectures
-now published which more properly serve as an introduction to the
-general subject.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f2'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. “The Birth of the Dream,” <cite>The Independent</cite>, Oct. 30, 1913.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f3'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. A descriptive account of this case, written as a sort of autobiography
-by the subject herself, was published in the <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>
-(Vol. 3, Nos. 4 &amp; 5, 1908-1909) under the title “My Life as a
-Dissociated Personality.” This remarkable account includes an instructive
-description of the coconscious self of considerable value.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f4'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. I divide the Subconscious into two parts, namely the Unconscious
-and the Coconscious. See preface and Lecture VIII.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE II <br />CONSERVATION OF FORGOTTEN EXPERIENCES OF NORMAL, ARTIFICIAL, AND PATHOLOGICAL LIFE</h2>
-</div>
-
-<h3 class='c017'>I. Normal Life</h3>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Evidence obtained by the method of automatic writing.</b>—If
-we take a suitable subject, one in whom “<em>automatic
-writing</em>”<a id='r5' /><a href='#f5' class='c009'><sup>[5]</sup></a> has been developed, and study the
-content of the script, we may find that to a large
-extent it contains references to, i.e., memories
-of, experiences which have long been forgotten
-by the subject and which cannot even by the
-stimulus of memoranda be voluntarily recalled.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>These experiences may be actions performed even
-as far back as <em>childhood</em>, <em>or</em> passages read in books,
-or fragments of conversation, etc. Thus B. C. A.,
-who suffers from an intense fear or phobia of cats,
-particularly <em>white</em> cats, can recall no experience
-in her life which could have given rise to it. Yet
-when automatic writing is resorted to the hand
-writes a detailed account of a fright into which she
-was thrown, when she was only five or six years
-of age, by a white kitten which had a fit while she
-was playing with it. The writing also describes in
-minute detail the furnishings of the room where the
-episode occurred, the pattern of the carpet, the
-decorative designs of the window shades, the furniture,
-etc. As this observation is typical of many
-others, it may be well to dwell upon it long enough
-to describe it in some detail for the benefit of those
-who are not familiar with this class of phenomena.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>After it had been determined, by a searching examination,
-that B. C. A. could not recall any experience
-that might throw light upon her phobia,
-an attempt was made to recover a possible memory
-in hypnosis. As is well known, the memory often
-broadens in hypnosis and events which are forgotten
-when “awake” may be recovered. In this instance
-the subject was put into two different hypnotic
-states, but without success. This, again, is
-a matter of some importance for the principle of
-conservation. Different hypnotic states in the same
-individual may be distinguished in that each, among
-other characteristics, may have different and independent
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>systems of memories, as we shall see later.
-The memories which belong to one state cannot be
-recalled in another. Hence the fact that a memory
-cannot be recovered in one state is not proof that
-it is not conserved, nor is a failure to recover the
-memory of an episode in all states of hypnosis evidence
-of failure of conservation, any more than is
-the failure to recover a memory in the waking state
-at any given moment.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the experiment with B. C. A., after failing to
-awaken a possible memory in either state of hypnosis,
-a pencil was put in her hand while she was
-still hypnotized. The hand then wrote automatically,
-without the knowledge of the hypnotized subject,
-the following account of this childhood episode
-that I have just mentioned:<a id='r6' /><a href='#f6' class='c009'><sup>[6]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“I think I know about the cats. I can remember
-myself, a little child, playing on the floor with a
-kitten, and it began to run about the room and had
-a fit, I think, and it jumped on me, and I was alone,
-and I screamed and cried and called my mother, but
-no one came, and I was very much frightened. I
-do not believe I ever told anyone. It was a white
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>kitten. It ran out of the room and after a bit I
-went on playing.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>To test the extent of the conserved memories still
-further the hand was asked to describe the furnishings
-of the room and the plan of the house. It
-wrote:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“There were two windows on the side of the
-room. The shades were gray, I think, with a border
-of grapes, or something of that color. The carpet
-was green or gray with green figures. There was
-a large old-fashioned sofa between one window and
-the door which led into the dining-room. A bookcase
-and desk-combination, you know. There was a
-mantle, I think, between the windows. It was the
-ground floor.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This childhood episode and the furnishings of the
-room were completely forgotten by B. C. A. in the
-sense that they could not be voluntarily recalled.
-Even after reading the script she could not remember
-them. She had not seen the room since she was
-six years of age, the family having removed at that
-time from the town in which the incident took place.
-As to the accuracy of the “automatic” account and
-the possibility of fabrication, the description of the
-room has been corroborated by the independent and
-written testimony of an older member of the family.
-It was not possible to confirm the incident of the
-kitten as there were no witnesses. This portion of
-the account, therefore, cannot be proved not to be
-a fabrication, but I have never known a fabricated
-statement to be made in this subject’s automatic
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>script, and I have obtained from her a large number
-of statements of different kinds in the course of
-several years’ observation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>However that may be, the point is not essential,
-for the minute description, by a special technic, of
-the furnishings of a room which had not been seen
-since childhood, a matter of some thirty-five years,
-and which were totally forgotten, is a sufficient
-demonstration of the principle of conservation of
-conscious experiences that cannot be voluntarily
-recalled. The reproduction of the conscious experience
-by automatic writing was, of course, an act
-of memory effected by a special device, and this
-fact compels us to postulate the conservation of the
-experience during this long period of time, notwithstanding
-that the experience could not be recalled
-voluntarily. Although the conserved experience
-could not be awakened into memory by voluntary
-processes of the personal consciousness it could be
-so awakened by an artificial stimulus under artificial
-conditions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>An observation like this, dealing with the conservation
-of long forgotten childhood or other experiences,
-is not unique. Quite a collection of
-recorded cases might be cited. Mr. C. Lowe
-Dickinson has put on record<a id='r7' /><a href='#f7' class='c009'><sup>[7]</sup></a> one of a young
-woman (Miss C.), who, in an hypnotic trance, narrated
-a dream-like fabrication of a highly imaginative
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>character. On one occasion, through the imaginary
-intermediation of the spirit of a fictitious
-person, who was supposed to have lived in the time
-of Richard II, she gave a great many details about
-the Earl and Countess of Salisbury, “and other
-personages of the time, and about the manners and
-customs of that age. The personages referred to,
-the details given in connection with them, and
-especially the genealogical data, were found on examination
-to be correct, although many of them
-were such as apparently it would not have been
-easy to ascertain without considerable historical
-research.” Miss C. after coming out of the hypnotic
-trance was in entire ignorance of how she could
-have obtained this knowledge and could not recall
-ever having read any book which contained the
-information she had given. Through automatic
-writing, however, it was discovered that it was to
-be found in a book called <cite>The Countess Maud</cite>, by
-E. Holt. It then appeared—and this is the point of
-interest bearing on the conservation of forgotten
-knowledge—that this book had been read to her by
-her aunt <em>fourteen years previously, when she was
-a child about eleven years old</em>. Both ladies had so
-completely forgotten its contents that they could
-not recall even the period with which it dealt. Here
-were conscious experiences of childhood which, if
-voluntary recollection were to be made use of as a
-test, would be rightly said to have been extinguished,
-but that they had only lain fallow, conserved
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>in some unconscious fashion, was shown by
-their reproduction in the hypnotic trance.<a id='r8' /><a href='#f8' class='c009'><sup>[8]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In this connection I may instance the case of Mrs.
-C. D., who suffers from a fixed fear of fainting.
-She cannot recall, even after two prolonged searching
-examinations, the first occasion when this fear
-developed, or why she has it, and is, therefore,
-ignorant of its genesis. Yet put into abstraction or
-light hypnosis she recalls vividly its first occurrence
-as the effect of an emotional scene of twenty years
-ago. The details of its psychological content come
-clearly into consciousness, and its meaning, as a
-fear of death, is remembered as a part of the original
-episode. That the fixed idea is a recurrence or
-partial memory of the original complex becomes
-logically plain and is recognized as such.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Instances of the reproduction in automatic
-script of <em>forgotten passages from books</em> are to be
-found in Mrs. Verrall’s<a id='r9' /><a href='#f9' class='c009'><sup>[9]</sup></a> elaborate records of her
-own automatic writings. Investigation showed that
-numerous pieces of English, Latin, and Greek script
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>were not original compositions but only forgotten
-passages from authors previously read.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Mrs. Holland’s script records, as investigation
-seemed to show, the exact words expressing a personal
-sentiment contained in a letter written to her
-<em>twenty years</em> before and long forgotten. The letter
-proving this was accidentally discovered.<a id='r10' /><a href='#f10' class='c009'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The following instance of a forgotten experience
-is, in itself, common enough with everybody, but its
-recovery by automatic writing illustrates how conservation
-of the thousand and one simply <em>forgotten
-acts of everyday life</em> may still persist. It forces,
-too, a realization of the reason why it is possible
-that though an act may be forgotten at any given
-moment it may later at any time flash into the mind.
-It is still conserved.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>B. C. A. had been vainly hunting for a bunch of
-keys which she had not seen or thought of for four
-months, having been in Europe. One day, soon
-after her return, while writing a letter to her son
-she was interrupted by her hand automatically and
-spontaneously writing the desired information.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>The letter to her son began as follows: “October
-30, 19—. Dear Boy: I cannot find those keys—have
-hunted everywhere”.... [Here the hand began
-to write the following, automatically.] “<em>O, I
-know—take a pencil</em>” [Here she did as she was
-bidden] “<em>you put those keys in the little box where
-X’s watch is.</em>”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In explanation B. C. A. sent me the following
-letter: “The keys were found in the box mentioned.
-I had hunted for them ever since coming home,
-October 4th. One key belonged to my box in the
-safety deposit vault and I had felt very troubled
-and anxious at not being able to find them. I have
-no recollection now of putting them where I found
-them.” [Nor was recollection subsequently recovered.]</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I could give from my own observation if it were
-necessary as many instances as could be desired of
-“automatic” reproductions of forgotten experiences
-of one kind or another the truth of which
-could be verified by notebook records or other evidence.
-By a forgotten experience of course is
-meant something more than what cannot for the
-moment be voluntarily recalled. I mean something
-that cannot be remembered at any moment nor
-under any conditions, <em>even after the memory has
-been prodded by the reproduction in the script</em>—something
-that is apparently absolutely forgotten.
-The experience may not only be of a trivial nature
-but something that happened long in the past and of
-the kind that is ordinarily absolutely forgotten. I
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>have often invoked the automatic writing (memories)
-of the subject to recover data elicited in the
-past in psychological examinations but which both
-I and the subject had forgotten. Reference to notes
-always verified the automatic memories. The
-records of automatic writing to be found in the
-literature are rich in reproductions showing conservation
-of forgotten experiences. In fact, given a
-good subject who can write automatically it is easy
-to obtain experimentally evidence of this kind at
-will.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Evidence from abstraction.</b>—One of the most striking
-of artificial memory performances is the recovery
-of the details of inconsequential experiences of
-everyday life by inducing simple states of <em>abstraction</em>
-in normal people. It is often astonishing to
-see with what detail these experiences are
-conserved. A person may remember any given
-experience in a general way, such as what he does
-during the course of the day, but the minute details
-of the day he ordinarily forgets. Now, if he allows
-himself to fall into a passive state of abstraction,
-simply concentrating his attention upon a particular
-past moment, and gives free rein to all the associative
-memories belonging to that moment that
-float into his mind, at the same time taking care
-to forego all critical reflection upon them, it will be
-found that the number of details that will be recalled
-will be enormously greater than can be
-recovered by voluntary memory. Memories of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>details of each successive moment follow one another
-in continuous succession. This method requires
-some art and practice to be successfully
-carried out. In the state of abstraction attention to
-the environment must be completely excluded and
-concentrated upon the past moments which it is
-desired to recall. For instance, a young woman, a
-university student, had lost some money several
-days before the experiment and desired to learn
-what had become of it. She remembered, in a general
-way, that she had gone to the bank that day,
-had cashed some checks, made some purchases in
-the shops of the town, returned to the university,
-attended lectures, etc., and later had missed the
-money from her purse. Her memory was about as
-extensive as that of the ordinary person would be
-for similar events after the lapse of several days.
-I put her into a state of abstraction and evoked
-her memories in the way I have just described. The
-minuteness and vividness with which the details of
-each successive act in the day’s experiences were
-recovered were remarkable, and, to the subject, quite
-astonishing. <em>As the memories arose she recognized
-them as being accurate, for she then remembered
-the events as having occurred</em>, just as one remembers
-any occurrence.<a id='r11' /><a href='#f11' class='c009'><sup>[11]</sup></a> In abstraction, she remembered
-with great vividness every detail at the bank
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>teller’s window, where she placed her gloves, purse,
-and umbrella, the checks, the money, etc.; then there
-came memories of seating herself at a table in the
-bank, of placing her umbrella here, her purse there,
-etc.; of writing a letter, and doing other things; of
-absent-mindedly forgetting her gloves and leaving
-them on the table;<a id='r12' /><a href='#f12' class='c009'><sup>[12]</sup></a> of going to a certain shop where,
-after looking at various articles and thinking certain
-thoughts and making certain remarks, she
-finally made certain purchases, giving a certain
-piece of money and receiving the change in coin of
-certain denominations; of seeing in her purse the
-exact denominations of the coins (ten and five-dollar
-gold pieces and the pieces of subsidiary coinage)
-which remained; then of going to another shop
-and similar experiences. Then of numerous details
-which she had forgotten; of other later incidents including
-lectures, exercising in the gymnasium, etc.
-Through it all ran the successive fortunes of her
-purse until the moment came when, looking into
-it, she found one of the five-dollar gold pieces gone.
-It became pretty clear that the piece had disappeared
-at a moment when the purse was out of her
-possession, a fact which she had not previously remembered
-but had believed the contrary. The
-hundred and one previously forgotten details which
-surged into her mind as vivid conscious recollections
-would take too long to narrate.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>(I have made quite a number of experiments of
-this kind with similar results. That the memories
-are not fabrications is shown by the fact that, as
-they arise, they become recollections in the sense
-that the subject can then consciously recall the
-events and place them in time and space as one does
-in ordinary memory, and particularly by the fact
-that many of them are often capable of confirmation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I would here point out that the recovery of forgotten
-experiences by the method of <em>abstraction</em>
-differs in one important psychological respect from
-their recovery by <em>automatic writing</em>. In the former
-case the recalled experiences being brought back
-by associative memories enter into the associations
-and become true conscious recollections, like any
-other recollections, while in automatic writing the
-memories are reproduced in script without entering
-the personal consciousness at all and while the
-subject is still in ignorance. Often even after reading
-the script his memory still remains a blank. It
-is much as if one’s ideas had been preserved on a
-phonographic record and later reproduced without
-awakening a memory of their original occurrence.<a id='r13' /><a href='#f13' class='c009'><sup>[13]</sup></a>
-The significance of this difference for the theory
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>of conservation I will point out later after we have
-considered some other modes of reproduction.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Among the conserved forgotten experiences are
-often to be found fleeting thoughts, ideas, and perceptions,
-so insignificant and trifling that it would
-not be expected that they would be remembered.
-Some of them may have entered only the margin or
-fringe of the content of consciousness, and, therefore,
-the subject was only dimly aware of them.
-Some may have been so far outside the focus of
-awareness that there was no awareness of them at
-all, i.e., they were subconscious. Instructive examples
-of such conserved experiences may be found
-in persons who suffer from attacks of phobia, i.e.,
-obsessions. The experiences to which I refer occur
-immediately before and during the attacks. After
-the attack the ideas of these periods are usually
-largely or wholly forgotten, particularly the ideas
-which were in the fringe of consciousness and the
-idea which, according to my observation, was the
-exciting cause of the attack. By the method of
-abstraction I have been able to recover the content
-of consciousness during the periods in question, including
-the fringe of consciousness, and thus discover
-the nature of the fear of which the patient
-was unaware because the idea was in the fringe.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Mrs. C. D., whom I have mentioned as having
-suffered intensely from attacks of fear, and Miss
-F. E., who is similarly afflicted with such attacks
-accompanied by the feeling of unreality, are instances
-in point. As is well known such attacks
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>come on suddenly in the midst of mental tranquillity,
-often without apparent cause so far as the patient
-can discover. While in the state of abstraction
-the thoughts, perceptions, and acts of the period
-just preceding and during the attack, as they successively
-occurred, could be evoked in these subjects
-in great detail and with striking vividness.
-The recovery of these memories has been always a
-surprise to the patient who, a moment before, had
-been utterly unable to recall them, and had declared
-the attack had developed without cause. In the case
-of Mrs. C. D. it was discovered in this way the real
-fear was of fainting and death, and in that of Miss
-F. E. of insanity. These ideas having been in the
-fringe of consciousness, or background of the mind,
-the subjects were at the time scarcely aware of
-them and, therefore, were ignorant of the true
-nature of their phobias, notwithstanding the overwhelming
-intensity of the attacks. Among the
-memories recovered in these and other cases I have
-always been able to find one of a thought or of a
-sensory stimulus from the environment which immediately
-preceded and which through association
-occasioned the attack. When this particular memory
-was recovered the patient, who had declared
-that the attack had developed without cause, at once
-recognized the original idea which was the cause
-of the attack, just as one recognizes the idea which
-causes one to blush. The idea sometimes has been
-a thought suggested by a casual and apparently insignificant
-word in a sentence occurring in a conversation
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>on indifferent matters, or by a dimly
-conscious perception of the environment, sometimes
-an idea occurring as a secondary train of thought
-perhaps bearing upon some future course of action,
-and so on.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As instances of such dimly-conscious perceptions
-of the environment which I have found I may mention
-a gateway through which the subject was
-passing, or a bridge about to be crossed; these
-particular points in the environment being places
-where previous attacks had occurred. The perceptions
-which precipitated the attack may have been
-entirely subconscious and yet may be brought back
-to memory. With the pathogenesis of the attacks
-we are not now directly concerned. The point of
-interest for us lies in the fact that such forgotten
-casual ideas and perceptions, some of which had
-been actually subconscious and some had only entered
-the margin of the focus of attention may, notwithstanding
-the amnesia, be conserved; and the
-same is true of any succession of trivial ideas occurring
-at an inconsequential moment in a person’s life.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>However that may be, if you will try to recall
-in exact detail the thoughts and feelings which successively
-passed through your mind at any given
-moment say three or four weeks ago—or even days
-ago—and their accompanying acts, and then (if you
-can do this, which I very much doubt) try to give
-them in their original sequence, I think you will
-realize the force of these observations and appreciate
-the significance of the conservation of such
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>minute experiences and of their reproduction in
-abstraction.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Evidence furnished by the method of hypnosis.</b>—It is almost
-common knowledge that when a person is
-hypnotized—whether lightly or deeply—he may be
-able to remember once well-known events of his
-conscious life which he has totally forgotten in the
-full waking state. It is not so generally known that
-he may also be able to recall conscious events of
-which he was never consciously aware, that is to
-say, experiences which were entirely subconscious.
-The same is true, of course, of forgotten experiences
-which originally had entered only the margin
-of the content of consciousness and of which he was
-dimly aware. Among the experiences thus recalled
-may be perceptions of minute details of the environment
-which escape the attentive notice of the individual,
-or they may be thoughts which were in
-the background of the mind and, therefore, never
-in the full light of attention. You must not fall into
-the common error of believing every hypnotized person
-can do this, or that any person can do it in
-any state of hypnosis. There are various “degrees”
-or states of hypnosis representing different
-conditions of dissociation and synthesis. One person
-may successively be put into several different
-states; many persons can be put into only one, but
-the degree of dissociation and capacity for synthesis
-in each state and in every person varies very
-much, and, indeed, according to the technical devices
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>employed. Each state is apt to exhibit different
-systems of memories, that is, to synthesize (recall)
-past conserved experiences in a different degree.
-What cannot be recalled in one state may be in
-another. We may say as a general principle that
-<em>theoretically</em> any experience that has been conserved
-can be recalled in some state, and, conversely,
-there is theoretically some state in which
-any conserved experience can be recalled. Practically,
-of course, we can never induce a state which
-synthesizes all conserved experiences, nor always
-one in which any given experience is synthesized. I
-shall later, in connection with particular types of
-conscious states, give examples of hypnotic memories
-showing conservation of such experiences as I
-have just mentioned. The point you will not lose
-sight of is that we are concerned with hypnotic
-phenomena only so far as they may be evidence of
-the conservation of forgotten experiences.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>There is a class of hypnotic memory phenomena
-which acquire additional importance because of the
-bearing they have upon the <em>psycho-genesis</em> of certain
-pathological conditions. They show the conservation
-of the details of an episode in their
-original chronological order with an exactness that
-is beyond the powers of voluntary memory to reproduce.
-These phenomena consist of the realistic reproduction
-of certain emotional episodes which as
-a whole may or may not be forgotten. The reproduction
-is realistic in the sense that the episodes
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>are acted over again by the individual as if once
-more he were actually experiencing them. Apparently
-every detail is reproduced, including the
-emotion with its facial expressions and its other
-physiological manifestations, and pathological disturbances
-like pain, paralysis, anesthesia, movements,
-etc. I will cite the following three examples:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>M——l, a Russian, living in this country, suffers
-from psycholeptic attacks dating from an episode
-which occurred seven years previously and <em>which
-he has completely forgotten</em>. At that time he was
-living in Russia. It happened that after returning
-from a ball he was sent back late at night by his
-employer, a woman, to look for a ring which she
-had lost in the ballroom. His way led over a lonely
-road by a graveyard. As he was passing this place
-he heard footsteps behind him and became frightened.
-Overcome with terror he fell, partially unconscious,
-and his whole right side became affected
-with spasms and paralysis. He was picked up in
-this condition and taken to a hospital. Each year
-since that time he has had recurring attacks of
-spasms and paralysis.<a id='r14' /><a href='#f14' class='c009'><sup>[14]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In <em>hypnosis</em> he remembers and relates a dream.
-This dream is one which recurs periodically but is
-<em>forgotten after waking from sleep</em>. This is the
-dream: He is back in his native land; it is the night
-of the ball; he sees his employer with outstretched
-hand commanding him to go search for the ring.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>Once more he makes his way along the lonely road;
-he hears footsteps; he becomes frightened, falls,
-and then awakes, with entire oblivion for the dream,
-to find his right side paralyzed and in spasms.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The following experiment is now made. By suggestion
-in hypnosis he is made to believe that he
-is fifteen years of age. As a consequence in his
-hypnotic dream he is once more living in Russia
-before he had learned English. It is now found that
-he has spontaneously lost all knowledge of the
-English language and can speak only Russian. He
-is told it is the night of the ball and, as in a dream,
-he is carried successively through the different
-events of that night. Finally he returns in search
-of the ring, passes again over the lonely road, hears
-the footsteps and becomes frightened. At this
-point his face is suddenly contorted with an expression
-of fright, the whole right side becomes paralyzed
-and anesthetic, and the muscles of face, arm,
-and leg affected with clonic spasms. At the same
-time he moans with pain which he experiences in
-his side, which he hurt when he fell. Though consciousness
-is confused he answers questions and
-describes the pain which he feels. On being awakened
-all passes off.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Mrs. W. on her return to Boston after an absence
-in Europe happened to pass by a certain
-house on her way to her hotel; the house (a private
-hospital) was one with which she had very distressing
-associations. On leaving the steamer she took
-a street car which she left a block distant from the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>hotel. She walked this distance and as she passed
-the house she was seized with a sudden attack of
-fear, dizziness, palpitation, etc. Although it is
-beside the point I may say that she had not noticed
-the locality and did not consciously recognize the
-house until the attack developed. The attack was,
-therefore, induced by a subconscious perception.<a id='r15' /><a href='#f15' class='c009'><sup>[15]</sup></a>
-She recalls the incident and describes the attack,
-remembers that it occurred at this particular spot,
-but without further detail.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now in hypnosis she is taken back to the day of
-her arrival on the steamship. In imagination, as
-in a sort of dream, she is living over again that
-day; she disembarks from the ship, enters the street
-car in which she rides a certain distance; she leaves
-the car at the point nearest her destination and proceeds
-to walk the remainder of the distance; suddenly
-her face exhibits the liveliest emotion; she
-becomes strongly agitated and her respiration is
-short and quick; her head and eyes turn toward the
-left and upward, as if in search of a cause, and
-she exclaims, “Yes, that’s it, that’s it,” as she
-recognizes in imagination the house which had been
-the scene of her previous distress. Then the attack
-subsides as she passes by, continuing her way
-toward her hotel.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Mrs. E. B. suffers from traumatic hysteria as the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>result of a slight but emotional accident—a fall—when
-alighting from a railway train. The accident
-resulted in a sprained shoulder and neuritis of the
-arm. She fully remembers the accident and describes
-it as any one might.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When put into hypnosis, however, the memory
-assumes a different character. She is taken back in
-imagination to the scene of the accident. Once
-more the train is entering the station; she leaves
-the car, steps from the platform upon a truck; then,
-unawares, steps off the truck and falls to the
-ground. As she falls her face suddenly becomes
-distorted with fear; tears stream down her cheeks,
-which become suffused; her heart palpitates; she
-suffers again acute pain in her arm, and so on. Her
-physical and mental anguish is painful to look upon.
-Though I try to persuade her that she is not hurt
-and that the accident is a delusion my effort is not
-very successful.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In this experiment, as in the others, there is substantially
-a reproduction in all its details of the
-content of consciousness which obtained at the time
-of the accident, and also of the emotion and its physiological
-manifestations—all were faithfully conserved.
-Further, each event follows in the same
-chronological sequence as in the original experience.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But in these observations the reproduction differs
-somewhat from that of ordinary memory. It is in
-the form of a dream, hypnotic or normal, and the
-subject goes back to the time of the experience,
-which he thinks is the present, and actually lives
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>over again the original episode. Unlike the conditions
-of ordinary memory the whole content of his
-consciousness is practically limited to that which
-originally was present, all else, the present and the
-intervening past, being dissociated and excluded.
-The original psychological processes and their
-psycho-physiological accompaniments (pain, paralysis,
-anesthesia, spasms, etc.) repeat themselves as
-if the present were the past. Plainly, for such a
-reproduction, the original episode must have left
-conserved dispositions of some kind which when
-excited were capable of reënacting the episode in
-all its psycho-physiological details. From a consideration
-of such phenomena it is easy to understand
-how certain psycho-neuroses may be properly
-regarded as memories of certain past experiences.
-The experiences are conserved and under certain
-conditions reproduced from time to time.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>I may cite one other experiment dealing with the
-conservation of the details of a day’s experiences
-after the lapse of several months. The subject was
-a little girl who suffered from hysterical tics. Hoping
-to discover the exciting cause of her nervous
-disturbance, I put her into deep hypnosis, and
-evoked the memories of the events of the day on
-which her disease developed, <em>about six months previously</em>.
-It was astonishing to hear her recall a
-continuous series of precise thoughts and acts,
-many of them trivial, of the kind that would be
-transient and forgotten by anybody. She began
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>with the events of the early morning, giving her
-own thoughts and acts; the remarks of her father
-and mother, describing exactly the location in the
-house at the time of each member of the family; her
-arrival at school; the several lessons of the day;
-the remarks of the teacher; the happenings during
-recess; her final entry into the laboratory; and the
-sudden onset of the tic. Everything was given in
-chronological order. The memories were vivid and,
-as they came up into her mind, were recognized as
-true recollections.<a id='r16' /><a href='#f16' class='c009'><sup>[16]</sup></a> All this was forgotten when
-she was awake, that is to say, although conserved,
-it could not be reproduced. There was no way, of
-course, of determining the accuracy of these memories
-and, therefore, their correctness lacks scientific
-proof. On the other hand, the facts, which are
-in entire correspondence with similar results obtained
-under conditions where confirmation is possible,
-have value as cumulative evidence.<a id='r17' /><a href='#f17' class='c009'><sup>[17]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is not difficult to arrange experiments which
-will test the accuracy with which the minute details
-of experiences may be conserved when reproduction
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>is at fault. A simple test is to have a suitable subject
-endeavor to repeat <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><em>verbatim</em></span> the contents of a
-letter written by him at some preceding time—one
-week, two weeks, a month, or more. Few people,
-of course, can do this. If, now, the subject is a suitable
-one for the abstraction or hypnotic method it
-may be that he will be able to reproduce by one or
-the other method the test letter, word for word; a
-comparison of the reproduction with the letter will,
-of course, determine the accuracy of the memory.
-In such an experiment I have succeeded in getting
-two subjects, Miss B.<a id='r18' /><a href='#f18' class='c009'><sup>[18]</sup></a> and B. C. A., to repeat <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><em>verbatim</em></span>
-the contents of fairly long letters, and this
-even, on certain occasions, when, on account of the
-subject being a dissociated personality, there was
-no recollection of the letter at all, not even that it
-had been written. Such minute reproduction
-affords further evidence that the conservation of
-experiences may be much more complete and exact
-than ordinary conscious memory would lead us to
-suppose.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Evidence from hallucinatory phenomena</b>.—I may mention
-one more example of conservation of a forgotten
-experience of everyday life as it is an example
-or mode of reproduction which differs in certain important
-respects both from that of ordinary
-memory and that observed under the artificial
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>methods thus far described. This mode is that of
-a <em>visual</em> or an <em>auditory hallucination</em> which may be
-an exact reproduction in vividness and detail of
-the original experience. It is a type of a certain
-class of memory phenomena. One of my subjects,
-while in a condition of considerable stress of mind
-owing to the recurrence of the anniversary of her
-wedding-day, had a vision of her deceased husband,
-who addressed to her a certain consoling message.
-It afterwards transpired that this message was an
-actual reproduction of the words which a friend, in
-the course of a conversation some months previously,
-had quoted to her as the words of her own
-husband just before his death. In the vision the
-words were put into the mouth of another person,
-the subject’s husband, and were actually heard as
-an hallucination. Under the peculiar circumstances
-of their occurrence, however, these words awakened
-no sense of familiarity; nor did she recognize the
-source of the words until the automatic writing,
-which I later obtained, described the circumstances
-and details of the original episode. Then the original
-experience came back vividly to memory. On
-the other hand, the “automatic writing” not only
-remembered the experience but recognized the connection
-between it and the hallucination. (The
-truth of the writing is corroborated by the written
-testimony of the other party to the conversation.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Although such types of hallucinatory memories
-are not actual reproductions of an experience but
-rather translated representations, yet they show
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>the experience must have been conserved in order
-to have determined the representation. The actual
-experience, as we shall see later, is translated into
-a visual or auditory form which pictures or verbally
-expresses it, as the case may be. This type of
-hallucination is common. That which is translated
-may be previous thoughts, or perceptions received
-through another sense. Thus Mrs. Holland records
-a visual hallucination which pictured a verbal description
-previously narrated to her by a friend,
-but forgotten. The hallucination included “the figure
-of a very tall thin man, dressed in gray, standing
-with his back to the fire. He had a long face, I
-think a mustache—certainly no beard—and suggested
-young middle age.”... On a second occasion
-“the tall figure in gray was lying on the bed
-in a very flung-down, slack-jointed attitude. The
-face was turned from me, the right arm hanging
-back across the body which lay on the left side. I
-started violently and my foot seemed to strike an
-empty bottle on the floor.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>There is very little doubt that these visions of
-Mrs. Holland’s represented Mr. Gurney, who had
-died from an accidental dose of chloroform. Mrs.
-Holland “took very little interest” in Mr. Gurney,
-hence she had entirely forgotten that the main facts
-of his death had been told to her a few months previously
-by the narrator, Miss Alice Johnson.<a id='r19' /><a href='#f19' class='c009'><sup>[19]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In an hallucination of this sort we have a dramatic
-pictorial representation of previous though
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>forgotten knowledge which must have determined
-it. In order to have determined the hallucination
-the knowledge must have been conserved somehow.
-I have frequently observed a similar reproduction
-of a forgotten experience, which was not visual,
-through translation into a newly created <em>visual</em>
-representation in the form of an artificial hallucination.
-The following is of this kind: Miss B., looking
-into a crystal,<a id='r20' /><a href='#f20' class='c009'><sup>[20]</sup></a> saw a scene laid in a wood near
-a lake, etc. Several figures appeared in this scene,
-which was that of a murder. Although she had no
-recollection of anything that could have given rise
-to the hallucination, investigation showed that the
-original experience was to be found in one of Marie
-Correlli’s novels which she had read but forgotten.
-The vision was a correct representation of the
-scene as described in the book.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In suitable subjects almost any past experience,
-whether forgotten or not, can be reproduced in this
-way if conserved, and observation shows that the
-number which are conserved is enormous. I shall
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>have occasion to cite further examples in other connections.
-The phenomenon of translation we shall
-find when we come to study it, as we shall do in
-another lecture, throws light upon the nature of
-conservation for here we are dealing with something
-more than simple reproduction; what is conserved
-becomes elaborated into a new composition.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Evidence obtained from dreams.</b>—Another not uncommon
-mode in which forgotten experiences are recovered
-is through dreams. The content of the
-dream may, as Freud has shown, be a cryptic and
-symbolical expression or representation of the experience,<a id='r21' /><a href='#f21' class='c009'><sup>[21]</sup></a>
-or a visualized representation or obvious
-symbolism, much as a painted picture may be a
-symbolized expression of an idea,<a id='r22' /><a href='#f22' class='c009'><sup>[22]</sup></a> or it may be
-a realistic reproduction in the sense that the subject
-lives over again the actual experience. A
-relative of mine gave me a very accurate description
-of a person whom she had never seen from a
-dream in which he appeared. After describing his
-hair, eyes, contour of face, mouth, etc., she ended
-with the words, “He looks like a cross between a
-Scotchman and an Irishman.” After she had most
-positively insisted that she had never seen this
-person or heard him described—against my protest
-to the contrary—I reminded her that I had
-myself described him to her only a few days before
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>in the identical words, ending my description with
-the remark, “He looks like a cross between a
-Scotchman and an Irishman.” Even then she could
-not recall the fact. Von Bechterew has recorded
-the case of a man who frequently after hearing an
-opera dreamed the whole opera through.<a id='r23' /><a href='#f23' class='c009'><sup>[23]</sup></a> One subject
-of mine frequently dreamed over again in very
-minute detail, after an interval of eight or nine
-months, the scenes attending the deathbed of a
-relative. Indeed, in the dream she realistically
-lived them again in a fashion similar to that of
-hypnotic dreams such as I have related. Although
-she had not forgotten these scenes it is highly improbable
-that she could have voluntarily recalled
-them, particularly after the lapse of so long a time,
-without the aid of the dream, so rich was it in detail,
-with each event in its chronological order.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Dream reproductions, whether in a symbolic
-form or not, are too common to need further statement.
-I would merely point out that the frequency
-with which childhood’s experiences occur in dreams
-is further evidence of the conservation of these
-early experiences. The symbolic dream, cryptic or
-obvious, deserves, however, special consideration
-because of the data it offers to the problem of the
-nature of conservation which we shall later study.
-In this type of dream, if the fundamental principle
-of the theory of Freud is correct, the content is a
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>symbolical continuation in some form of an antecedent
-thought (experience) of the dreamer.<a id='r24' /><a href='#f24' class='c009'><sup>[24]</sup></a> When
-this thought, which may be forgotten, is recovered
-the symbolic character of the dream, in many cases,
-is recognized beyond reasonable doubt.<a id='r25' /><a href='#f25' class='c009'><sup>[25]</sup></a> If this
-principle is well established, and nearly all investigators
-are in accord on this point, though we need
-not always accept the given interpretation of individual
-dreams—if the principle is sound, then it
-follows that symbolism includes memory of the original
-experience which must be conserved. So that
-even this type of dream offers evidence of conservation
-of experiences for which there may be total loss
-of memory (amnesia).</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Before closing this lecture I will return to the
-point which I temporarily passed by, namely, the
-significance of the <em>difference in the form of reproduction</em>
-according as whether it is by automatic
-writing or through associative memories in abstraction.
-In the latter case, as we have seen, the memories
-are identical in form and principle with those
-of everyday life. They enter the personal consciousness
-and become conscious memories in the
-sense that the individual personally remembers the
-experience in question. Abstraction may be regarded
-simply as a favorable condition or moment
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>when the subject remembers what he had at another
-previous moment forgotten. We have seen also
-that the same thing is true of remembering in
-hypnosis (excepting those special realistic reproductions
-when the subject enters a dream-like or
-somnambulistic state and lives over again the past
-experience in question). In automatic writing, on
-the other hand, the reproduction is by a secondary
-process entirely separate and independent of the
-personal consciousness. In the examples I cited the
-latter was in entire ignorance of the reproduction
-which did not become a personally conscious memory.
-At the very same moment when the experiences
-could not be voluntarily remembered, and
-without a change in the moment’s consciousness,
-something was tapped, as it were, and thereby they
-were graphically revealed without the knowledge of
-the subject, without memory of them being introduced
-into the personal consciousness, and even
-without the subject being able to remember the incident
-after reading the automatic script. Even
-this stimulus failed to bring back the desired phase
-of consciousness. It was very much like surreptitiously
-inserting your hand into the pocket of another
-and secretly withdrawing an object which he
-thinks he has lost. What really happened was this:
-a secondary process was awakened and this process
-(of which the principal or personal consciousness
-was unaware) revealed the memory lost by the personal
-consciousness. At least this is the interpretation
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>which is the one which all the phenomena of
-this kind pertaining to subconscious manifestations
-compel us to draw.<a id='r26' /><a href='#f26' class='c009'><sup>[26]</sup></a> At any rate the automatic
-script showed that somehow and somewhere <em>outside
-the personal consciousness</em> the experiences were conserved
-and under certain conditions could be reproduced.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We now also see that the same principle of reproduction
-by a secondary process holds in hallucinatory
-phenomena whether artificial or spontaneous,
-and in many dreams. When a person looking into a
-crystal sees a scene which is a truthful pictorial representation
-of an actual past experience which he
-does not consciously remember, it follows that that
-visual hallucination must be induced and constructed
-by some secondary subconscious process
-outside of and independent of the processes involved
-in his personal consciousness. And, likewise,
-when a dream is a translation of a forgotten
-experience into symbolical terms it follows that
-there must be, underlying the dream consciousness,
-some subconscious process which continues and
-translates the original experience into and constructs
-the dream.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This being so we are forced to two conclusions:
-first, in all these types of phenomena the secondary
-process must in some way be closely related to the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>original experience in order to reproduce it; and,
-second, a mental experience must be conserved in
-some form which permits of a subconscious process
-reproducing the experience in one or other of the
-various forms in which memory appears. Further
-than this I will not go at present, not until we have
-more extensively reviewed the number and kinds of
-mental experiences that may be conserved. This
-we will do in the next lecture.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f5'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. Automatic writing is script which has been produced unconsciously
-or involuntarily, although the writer is in an alert state,
-whether it be the normal waking state or hypnosis. The hand writes,
-though the subject does not consciously direct it. Ordinarily, though
-not always, the subject is entirely unaware of what the hand is writing,
-and often the writing is obtained better if the attention is diverted
-and directed toward other matters. The first knowledge then
-obtained by the subject of what has been written, or that the hand
-has written at all, is on reading the script. Some persons can cultivate
-the art of this kind of writing. Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland,
-for example, deliberately educated themselves to write automatically,
-and each published a volume of her records. In other normal people
-automatic writing seems to develop accidentally or under special circumstances.
-In certain types of hysteria it is very easily obtained.
-“Planchette,” which many years ago was in vogue as a parlor game,
-was only a particular device to effect automatic writing.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f6'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. In this particular experiment, when the hand wrote “automatically,”
-the second <em>hypnotic consciousness vanished</em> and the subject
-went into a <em>trance</em> state, or what is equivalent to a third hypnotic
-state. There was no consciousness present, excepting that which was
-associated with the writing hand. At other times, in experiments of
-this class with this same subject, the hypnotic or the waking consciousness,
-as the case might be, persisted <em>alert</em> while the hand wrote.
-For the purpose of the experiment in recovering memories this change
-in the psychological condition is not of importance, the principle remains
-the same.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f7'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r7'>7</a>. <cite>Journal of the S. P. R.</cite>, July, 1906. A fuller account of this
-case was later published in the same journal, August, 1911.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f8'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r8'>8</a>. A remark made by the subject in the trance state, though passed
-over in the report as apparently inconsequential, has really much
-meaning when interpreted through that conception of the unconscious
-memory process which will be developed in succeeding chapters.
-The subject, while in the trance, claimed to be in a mental
-world wherein “is to be found, it is said, not only everything that
-has ever happened or will happen, but all thoughts, dreams, and imagination.”
-In other words, in that psychical condition into which
-she passed, all the conserved conscious experiences of her life could
-be awakened into memory.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f9'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r9'>9</a>. <cite>Proceedings of the S. P. R.</cite>, October, 1906, Chap. XII.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f10'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r10'>10</a>. In the automatic script, which purported to be a spiritistic message
-from a dead friend named Annette, occurred the enigmatical
-sentence: “Tell her this comes from the friend who loved cradles
-and cradled things.” The meaning of this was revealed by the
-above-mentioned letter to Mrs. Holland, written twenty years previously.
-It was from a friend of Annette’s, and quoted an extract
-from Annette’s will, which ran, “because I love cradles and cradled
-things.” When Mrs. Holland was tearing up some old letters she
-came across this one. (“On the automatic writing of Mrs. Holland,”
-by Miss Alice Johnson: <cite>Proceedings of the S. P. R.</cite>, June, 1908, pp.
-288, 289.)</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f11'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r11'>11</a>. It would have required a stenographer, whom I did not have, to
-record fully all these recovered memories. They would fill several
-printed pages, and I can give only a general résumé of them. Some
-weeks later the experiment was repeated and a record taken as fully
-as possible in long hand.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f12'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r12'>12</a>. Later in the day she discovered the loss of her gloves and, not
-remembering where she had left them, was obliged to retrace her
-steps in search of them.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f13'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r13'>13</a>. Of course the memories recovered by either method may be
-fabrications as with ordinary voluntary memory, and the automatic
-script may stimulate the conscious memory to recollect the experiences
-in question. Nevertheless, while the memories are being recorded
-by the script, no “conscious” memory is present with subjects
-who are unaware of what the hand is writing.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f14'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r14'>14</a>. Sidis, Prince, and Linenthal: A contribution to the Pathology
-of Hysteria, <cite>Boston Medical and Surgical Journal</cite>, June 23, 1904.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f15'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r15'>15</a>. The Dissociation of a Personality, by Morton Prince. (New
-York; Longmans, Green &amp; Co., 1906.) P. 77. Hereafter, when this
-work is referred to, the title will be indicated simply by “The Dissociation.”</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f16'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r16'>16</a>. Undoubtedly much was forgotten and, therefore, there must
-have been hiatuses of which she was not aware; but the remarkable
-thing is that not only so much, but so much that was inconsequential
-and evanescent was recalled. If additional technical methods had
-been employed probably more memories could have been recalled.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f17'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r17'>17</a>. The objection will probably be made that the memories and
-statements of hypnotized persons are unreliable on several grounds,
-chiefly suggestibility, liability to illusions and, in some cases, tendency
-to fabrications. This criticism is more likely to come from
-those who have had a special rather than a wide experience with
-hypnotism.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f18'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r18'>18</a>. Miss B., in these pages, always refers to Miss Beauchamp, an
-account of whose case is given in “The Dissociation.” In this
-connection cf. pp. 501, 81 and 238 of that work.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f19'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r19'>19</a>. <cite>Proceedings of the S. P. R.</cite>, June, 1908.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f20'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r20'>20</a>. Crystal or artificial visions are hallucinatory phenomena which,
-like automatic writing, can be cultivated by some people. The common
-technic is to have a person look into a crystal, at the same time
-concentrating the mind, or putting himself into a state of abstraction.
-Under these conditions the subject sees a vision, i.e., has a
-visual hallucination. The vision may be of some person or place, or
-may represent a scene which may be enacted. Because of the use of
-a crystal such hallucinations are called “crystal visions,” but a
-crystal is not requisite; any reflecting surface may be sufficient, or
-even the concentration of the attention. The crystal or other object
-used of course acts only by aiding the concentration of attention
-and by force of suggestion.—<em>The subconscious is tapped.</em></p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f21'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r21'>21</a>. Freud: Traumdeutung, 2 aufl. 1909.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f22'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r22'>22</a>. Morton Prince: The Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams.
-<cite>The Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, October-November, 1910.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f23'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r23'>23</a>. <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Zentralblatt für Nervenheilkunde und Psychiatrie; 1909, Heft
-12.</span></p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f24'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r24'>24</a>. According to Freud and his school it is always the imaginary
-fulfilment of a suppressed wish, almost always sexual. For our purposes
-it is not necessary to inquire into the correctness of this interpretation
-or the details of the Freudian theory.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f25'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r25'>25</a>. For an example, see p. <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f26'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r26'>26</a>. If the physiological interpretation be maintained, i.e., that the
-script was produced by a pure physiological process, this phenomenon
-would be a crucial demonstration of the nature of conservation, that
-it is in the form of physical alterations in nervous structure. I do
-not believe, however, that this interpretation can be maintained.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE III<br /> CONSERVATION OF FORGOTTEN EXPERIENCES OF NORMAL, ARTIFICIAL, AND PATHOLOGICAL LIFE</h2>
-</div>
-
-<h3 class='c017'>I. Normal Life (Continued)</h3>
-
-<p class='c015'>I have directed your attention up to this point to
-the conservation of experiences which at the time
-of their occurrence, although lost beyond voluntary
-recall, for the most part occupied the focus of attention
-of the individual—were within the full light
-of consciousness. If these experiences were the
-only ones which were subject to conservation—and
-I would have you still bear in mind that I am using
-the term only in the limited sense of the ability to
-recover an experience in some favorable condition,
-or moment of consciousness, or through some fortunate
-or technical mode of reproduction—if, I say,
-these were the only ones to be conserved, then the
-conservation of the experiences which make up our
-mental lives would be considerably curtailed. It so
-happens, however, that a large part of our mental
-activity is occupied with acts of which at the moment
-we are only dimly aware—or half aware—in
-that they do not occupy the focus of attention.
-Some of these are what we call absent-minded acts.
-Again, many sensations and perceptions do not enter
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>the focus of attention, so that we are either not
-aware of them, or, if we are, there is so little vividness
-attached to them that they are almost immediately
-lost to voluntary memory. The same is true
-of certain trains of thoughts which course through
-the mind while one’s attention is concentrated on
-some other line of thought. They are sometimes
-described as being in the background of the mind.
-Then, again, we have our dream life, and that of
-reverie, and the important artificial state of hypnosis;
-also certain pathological states to which some
-individuals are subject, such as intoxication, hysterical
-crises, deliria, and multiple personality. Accordingly
-it is important in any investigation into
-the extent of the field of conservation to inquire
-whether all this mental life is only fleeting, evanescent,
-psychological experience, or whether it is
-subject to the same principle of conservation. If
-the latter be the case it presages consequences
-which are portentous in the possible multiplicity
-and manifoldness of the elements which may enter
-into and may govern the mechanism of mental processes.
-But let me not get ahead of my exposition.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Absent-minded acts.</b>—In a study made some time
-ago I recorded the reproduction, as a crystal vision,
-of an absent-minded act, i.e., one which had not fully
-entered the focus of consciousness during deep concentration
-of the attention. It is a type of numerous
-experiments of this kind that I have made.
-Miss B. is directed to look into a crystal. She sees
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>therein a vision of herself walking along a particular
-street in Boston in a brown study. She sees
-herself take out of her pocket some bank notes, tear
-them up, and throw them into the street. Now this
-artificial hallucination, or vision, was a picture of
-an actual occurrence; in an absent-minded reverie
-the subject had actually performed this very act
-under the circumstances portrayed in the vision and
-had retained no memory of it.<a id='r27' /><a href='#f27' class='c009'><sup>[27]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Similarly I have frequently recovered knowledge
-of the whereabouts of articles mislaid absent-mindedly.
-Sometimes the method used has been, as
-in the above examples, that of crystal gazing or
-artificial hallucinations; sometimes hypnotism,
-sometimes automatic writing, etc. By the last two
-methods not only the forgotten acts but the ideas
-and feelings which were outside the focus of attention,
-but in the fringe of consciousness, and
-prompted the acts are described. It is needless to
-give the details of the observations; it suffices to
-say that each minute detail of the absent-minded
-act and the thoughts and feelings that determined it
-are described or mirrored, as the case may be. The
-point of importance is that concentration of attention
-is not essential for conservation, and, therefore,
-among the vast mass of the conserved experiences
-of life may be found many which, though
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>once conscious, only entered the margin of awareness
-(not the focus of attention) and never were
-subject to voluntary recollection. In the absence of
-attentive awareness at the time for such an experience
-(and therefore of recollection), we often can
-only be assured that it ever occurred by circumstantial
-evidence. When this assurance is wanting we
-are tempted to deny its occurrence and our responsibility,
-but experiment shows that the process of
-conservation, like the dictagraph, is a more faithful
-custodian of our experiences than are our voluntary
-memories.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Subconscious perceptions</b>.—It is not difficult to show
-that perceptions of the environment which <em>never
-even entered the fringe of the personal consciousness,
-i.e., of which the individual was never even
-dimly aware</em>, may be conserved. Indeed, the demonstration
-of their conservation is one of the important
-pieces of evidence for the occurrence of coconscious
-perception and, therefore, of the splitting
-of consciousness. Mrs. Holland, both by automatic
-writing and in hypnosis, describes perceptions of
-the environment (objects seen, etc.) of which she
-was not aware at the time. Miss B. and B. C. A. recall,
-in hypnosis and by automatic writing, paragraphs
-in the newspapers read through casual
-glances without awareness thereof. The same is
-true of perceptions of the environment experienced
-under experimental conditions as well as fortuitously.
-I have made a large number of experiments
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>and other observations of this kind, and have been
-in the habit of demonstrating before the students at
-my lectures this evidence of coconscious perception.
-A simple method is to ask a suitable subject to describe
-the dress of some person in the audience, or
-of objects in the environment; if he is unable to do
-this, then to attempt to obtain as minute a description
-as possible by automatic writing or verbally
-after he has been hypnotized. It is often quite surprising
-to note with what detail the objects which almost
-entirely escaped conscious observation are subconsciously
-perceived and remembered. Sometimes
-the descriptions of my students have been quite embarrassing
-from their naïve truthfulness to nature.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The following is an example of such an observation:
-I asked B. C. A. (without warning and after
-having covered her eyes) to describe the dress of a
-friend who was present and with whom she had
-been conversing for perhaps some twenty minutes.
-She was unable to do so beyond saying that he wore
-dark clothes. I then found that I myself was unable
-to give a more detailed description of his dress, although
-we had lunched and been together about two
-hours. B. C. A. was then asked to write a description
-automatically. Her hand wrote as follows (she
-was unaware that her hand was writing):</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“He has on a dark greenish gray suit, a stripe in
-it—little rough stripe; black bow-cravat; shirt with
-three little stripes in it; black laced shoes; false
-teeth; one finger gone; three buttons on his coat.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The written description was absolutely correct.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>The stripes in the coat were almost invisible. I
-had not noticed his teeth or the loss of a finger and
-we had to count the buttons to make sure of their
-number owing to their partial concealment by the
-folds of the unbuttoned coat. The shoe strings I am
-sure, under the conditions, would have escaped
-nearly everyone’s observation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Subconscious perceptions even more than absent-minded
-acts offer some of the most interesting phenomena
-of conservation, for these phenomena give
-evidence of the ability, under certain conditions, to
-reproduce, in one mode or another, experiences
-which were never a phase of the personal consciousness,
-never entered even the fringe of the content
-of this consciousness and of which, therefore, we
-were never aware. For this reason they are not,
-properly speaking, forgotten experiences. Their
-reproduction sometimes produces dramatic effects.
-The following is an instance: B. C. A., waking one
-night out of a sound sleep, saw a vision of a young
-girl dressed in white, standing at the foot of her
-bed. The vision was extraordinarily vivid, the face
-so distinct that she was able to give a detailed description
-of it. She had no recollection of having
-seen the face before, and it awakened no sense of
-familiarity. Suspecting, for certain reasons, the
-figure to be that of a young girl who had recently
-died and whom I knew that B. C. A. had never
-known and was not aware that she had ever seen, I
-placed before her a collection of a dozen or more
-photographs of different people among which was
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>one of this girl. This photograph she picked out
-as the one which most resembled the vision (it was
-a poor likeness) and automatic writing confirmed
-most positively the choice. Now it transpired that
-she had passed by this girl on one occasion while
-the latter was talking to me in the hall of my house,
-but she had purposely, for certain reasons, not
-looked at her. Subconsciously, however, she had
-seen her since she could give, both in hypnosis and
-by automatic writing, an accurate account of the
-incident, which I also remembered. B. C. A., however,
-had no recollection of it. The subconscious
-perception was later reproduced (after having
-undergone secondary elaboration) as a vision.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Similarly I have known paragraphs read in the
-newspapers out of the corner of her eye, so to speak,
-and probably by casual glances, not only, as I have
-said, to be recalled in hypnosis and by automatic
-writing, but to be reproduced with more or less
-elaboration in her dreams. She had, as the evidence
-showed, no awareness at the time of having read
-these paragraphs and no after recollection of the
-same.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Experimentally, as I have said, it is possible to
-demonstrate other phenomena which are the same
-in principle. The experiment consists, after surreptitiously
-placing objects under proper precautions
-in the peripheral field of vision, in having the
-subject fix his eyes on central vision and his attention
-distracted from the environment by intense
-concentration or reading. Immediately after removing
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>the objects it is determined that the subject
-did not consciously perceive them. But in hypnosis
-or by other methods it is found that memory for
-perceptions of the peripheral objects returns, i.e.,
-the perceptions are reproduced. Auditory stimuli
-may be used as tests with similar results.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Likewise, with Miss B., I have frequently obtained
-reproductions of perceptions of which at the
-time she was unaware. This has been either under
-similar experimental conditions, or under accidental
-circumstances when I could confirm the accuracy
-of the reproductions. For instance, to cite one out
-of numerous examples, on one occasion I saw her
-pass by in the street while I was standing on the
-door-step of a house some fifteen or twenty feet
-away, well outside the line of her central vision.
-She was in a brown study. I called to her three
-times saying, “Good morning, Miss B.,” laying the
-accent each time on a different word. She did not
-hear me and later had no recollection of the episode.
-In hypnosis she recalled the circumstances accurately
-and reproduced my words with the accents
-properly placed. Such observations and experiments
-I have frequently made. They can be varied
-indefinitely in form and condition.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The phenomenon of subconscious perception of
-sensory <em>stimulations applied to anesthetic areas</em>
-<a id='corr56.28'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='tactile'>(tactile</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_56.28'><ins class='correction' title='tactile'>(tactile</ins></a></span>, visual, etc.), in hysterics, first demonstrated
-by Janet, is of the same order, but has been
-so often described that only a reference to it is necessary.
-I mention examples here merely that the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>different kinds of phenomena that may be brought
-within the sphere of memory shall be mentioned.
-For instance, Mrs. E. B.<a id='r28' /><a href='#f28' class='c009'><sup>[28]</sup></a> has an hysterical loss of
-sensibility in the hand which, in consequence, can be
-severely pinched or pricked, or an object placed in
-it, etc., without her being aware of the fact. Notwithstanding
-this absence of awareness these tactile
-experiences were conserved since an accurate detailed
-memory of them is recovered in hypnosis, or
-manifested through automatic writing. The same
-phenomenon can be demonstrated in Mrs. R., whose
-right arm is anesthetic.<a id='r29' /><a href='#f29' class='c009'><sup>[29]</sup></a> The same conservation of
-subconscious perceptions can be experimentally
-demonstrated during automatic writing. At such
-times the writing hand becomes anesthetic and if a
-screen is interposed so that the subject cannot see
-the hand he is not aware of any stimulations applied
-to it. Nevertheless such sensory stimulations—a
-prick or a pinch or more complicated impressions—are
-conserved, for the hand will accurately describe
-all that is done.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>An observation which I made on one of my subjects
-probably belongs here rather than to the preceding
-types. Several different objects were successively
-brought into the field of vision, but so far
-toward the periphery that they could not be sufficiently
-clearly seen to be identified. In hypnosis,
-however, they were accurately described, showing
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>the conservation of perceptions that did not enter the
-vivid awareness or clear perception of the subject.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is true, as a study of the coconscious would
-show, that such phenomena of anesthesia and unrecognized
-perceptions are dependent upon a dissociation
-of consciousness and upon coconscious
-perception. But this is a matter of mechanism with
-which we are not now concerned. The point simply
-is that subconscious perceptions which never entered
-the awareness of the personal consciousness
-may be conserved.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I will cite one more observation, one in which the
-reproduction was through secondary translation,
-as we shall see later that it belongs to a class which
-enables us to determine the nature of conservation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>B. C. A., actuated by curiosity, looked into a crystal
-and saw there some printed words which had no
-meaning for her whatever and awakened no memory
-of any previous experience. It was afterward
-found that these words represented a cablegram
-message which she unconsciously overheard while
-it was being transmitted over the telephone to the
-telegraph office by my secretary in the next room.
-She had no recollection of having heard the words,
-as she was absorbed in reading a book at the time.
-The correctness of the visual reproduction is shown,
-not only by automatic writing which remembered
-and recorded the whole experience, but also by comparison
-with the original cablegram.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Again, in other experiments there appear, in the
-crystal, visions rich in detail of persons whom she
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>does not remember having seen, although it can be
-proved that she actually has seen them.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The reproduction of subconscious perceptions and
-forgotten knowledge in dreams, visions, hypnosis,
-trance states, by automatic writing, etc., is interesting
-apart from the theory of memory. Facts of
-this kind offer a rational interpretation of many
-well-authenticated phenomena exploited in spiritistic
-literature. Much of the surprising information
-given by planchette, table rapping, and similar devices
-commonly employed by mediums, depends
-upon the translation of forgotten dormant experiences
-into manifestations of this sort. In clinical
-medicine, too, we can often learn, through reproductions
-obtained by special methods of investigation,
-the origin of obsessions and other ideas which
-otherwise are unintelligible.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Dreams and somnambulisms</b>.—Many people remember
-their dreams poorly or not at all, and, in the latter
-case, are under the belief that they do not dream.
-But often circumstantial evidence, such as talking
-in their sleep, shows that they do dream. Now,
-though ordinarily they cannot remember the
-dreams, by changing the waking state to an hypnotic
-one, or through the device of crystal visions or
-automatic writing, it is possible in some people to
-reproduce the whole dream. Amnesia for dreams,
-therefore, cannot be taken as evidence that they do
-not occur, and forgotten dream consciousness is
-subject to the same principles of conservation and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>reproduction as the experiences of waking life.
-Thus in B. C. A. dreams totally forgotten on awakening
-are easily recovered in hypnosis and in crystal
-visions.<a id='r30' /><a href='#f30' class='c009'><sup>[30]</sup></a> In the case of M——l, which I cited to
-you a little while ago, the forgotten dream in which
-he lived over again the original episode which led to
-the development of his hysterical condition and
-which when repeated in the dream induced each
-successive attack, was easily recovered in hypnosis.
-The same was true of the forgotten dreams of Mrs.
-H. and Miss B.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The reproduction of nocturnal somnambulistic
-acts and the ideas which occupied the content of
-consciousness of the somnambulist can be effected
-in the same manner. I have quite a collection of
-observation of this kind. In the study of visions,<a id='r31' /><a href='#f31' class='c009'><sup>[31]</sup></a>
-to which I have already referred, may be found the
-observation where Miss B., looking into a crystal,
-sees herself walking in her sleep and hiding some
-money under a tablecloth and books lying on the
-table. The money (which was supposed to have
-been lost) was found where it was seen in the
-vision.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In my notebook are the records of numerous artificial
-hallucinations of this kind which reproduce
-sleep-walking acts of B. C. A. To cite one instance:
-in the crystal she sees herself arise from her bed,
-turn on the lights, descend the stairs, enter one of
-the lower rooms, sit by the fire in deep, pensive reflection,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>then get up and dance merrily as her somnambulistic
-mood changes. Presently, as the cinematograph-like
-picture unfolds itself in the crystal,
-she sees herself go to the writing table, write two
-letters, ascend the stairs, dropping one letter on the
-way,<a id='r32' /><a href='#f32' class='c009'><sup>[32]</sup></a> reënter her room, open a glove box, place the
-remaining letter under the gloves, and finally put
-out the lights and get into bed when, with the advent
-of sleep, the vision ends. In the vision the
-changing expression of her face displays each successive
-mood. In hypnosis also the scene is remembered
-and then even the thoughts which accompanied
-each act of the somnambulist are described.
-Here again, then, we have evidence that even forgotten
-dreams and somnambulistic thoughts are not
-lost but under certain special conditions can be revived
-in one mode or another.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'>II. Forgotten Experiences of Artificial and Pathological States</h3>
-
-<p class='c015'>The experiences that I have thus far cited in evidence
-of the principle of the conservation of dormant
-experiences that cannot be voluntarily recalled
-have been drawn almost entirely from normal
-everyday life. We now come to a series of facts
-which are very important in that they show that
-what is true of the experiences of everyday life is
-also true of those of <em>artificial</em> and <em>pathological</em>
-states of which the normal personal consciousness
-has no cognizance. These facts are also vital for
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>the comprehension of post-hypnotic phenomena, of
-amnesia, multiple personality, and allied dissociated
-states. Let us consider some of the states
-from the point of view of conservation.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Artificial states.</b>—After a person passes from one
-<em>dissociated state</em> to another, or from a dissociated
-state to the full waking state, it is commonly found
-that there is amnesia for the previous state. This
-is a general principle. The forgetting of dreams is
-an example from normal life. For the psychological
-state of sleep in which dreams occur is one of normal
-dissociation of consciousness by which the perception
-of the environment, and the great mass of
-life’s experiences, can no longer be brought within
-the content of the dream consciousness. Hence
-there is a general tendency to the development of
-amnesia for dreams after waking when the normal
-synthesis of the personality has been established.
-Yet, as we have seen, forgotten dreams can generally
-be recalled in hypnosis or by some other technical
-method (e. g., crystal visions and abstraction).
-Now <em>hypnosis</em> is an artificially dissociated state.
-After passing from one hypnotic state to another,<a id='r33' /><a href='#f33' class='c009'><sup>[33]</sup></a>
-or after waking, it is very common to find complete
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>amnesia for the whole of the experience belonging to
-the previous hypnotic state. By no effort whatsoever
-can it be recalled and this inability persists
-during the remainder of the life of the subject. And
-yet those hypnotic experiences may have been very
-extensive, particularly if the subject has been hypnotized
-a great many times. Nevertheless, it is
-easy to demonstrate that they are conserved and
-therefore, like all conserved experiences, potentially
-still existing, subject to recall under favoring conditions;
-for, as is well known, if the subject be rehypnotized
-they are recalled as normal memories.
-With the restitution of the hypnotic state the memories
-which were dormant become synthesized with
-the hypnotic personality and conscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The method of producing crystal visions may also
-be used to demonstrate the dormant conservation of
-experiences originating in hypnotic states. By this
-method and that of automatic writing, as I have
-already explained, the memories may be made to
-reveal themselves, without inducing recollection, at
-the very moment when the subject cannot voluntarily
-recall them. The subject, of course, being ignorant
-of what happened in hypnosis cannot recognize
-the visions as pictorial memories. In illustration
-of this I would recall the observation in the
-case of Miss B. where, in such an artificial vision,
-she saw herself sitting on a sofa smoking a cigarette.<a id='r34' /><a href='#f34' class='c009'><sup>[34]</sup></a>
-This vision represented an incident which
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>occurred during one of the subject’s hypnotic states
-when she had smoked a cigarette. Naturally Miss
-B., in her ignorance of the facts, denied the truthfulness
-of the vision. Other examples of a like
-kind might be cited if it were necessary.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>By automatic writing, also, evidence of the same
-principle may be obtained. The conserved memories
-are <em>tapped</em>, so to speak. Thus I suggest to
-Mrs. R. in hypnosis that after waking she shall
-write certain verses or sentences. After being
-awakened she reproduces automatically, as directed,
-the desired verses or sentences which, of
-course, belonged to her hypnotic experiences.<a id='r35' /><a href='#f35' class='c009'><sup>[35]</sup></a> In
-other words, although the personal consciousness
-did not remember the hypnotic experience of having
-received the command and of having given the
-promise to write the verses, etc., the automatic writing
-by the act of fulfilling the command showed that
-all this was conserved; here again was evidence of
-conservation, in some form, of an experience at the
-very moment when the personal consciousness was unable
-to voluntarily recall what had taken place in hypnosis.
-Such experiments may be varied indefinitely.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The following is an instance of the same phenomenon
-obtained by tapping without the use of
-previous suggestion in hypnosis: subject B. C. A.
-One of the hypnotic states, b, was waked up to become
-B, this change being followed, as usual, by amnesia.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>By means of automatic writing an accurate
-account was now obtained of the experiences which
-had taken place during the previous moments in
-hypnosis, the subject being unaware of what the
-hand wrote. Here were complete memories of the
-whole period of which the personal consciousness,
-B, had no knowledge. One of the most striking, not
-to say dramatic, demonstrations of this kind can
-sometimes be obtained in cases exhibiting several
-different hypnotic states. For instance: “c” and
-“b” are two different hypnotic phases belonging
-to the same individual (B. C. A.). c knows nothing
-of the experiences of b, and b nothing of c, each having
-amnesia for the other. Now one has only to
-whisper in the ear of c, asking a question of b, and
-at once, by automatic speech, the dormant b phase
-responds, giving such information as is sought in
-proof of the conservation of any given experience
-belonging to the tapped b phase. The consciousness
-of c apparently continues uninterruptedly during
-the experiment. The same evidence could be obtained
-by automatic writing under the same conditions.
-Again in the b phase another state known as
-“Alpha and Omega” can be tapped, giving similar
-evidence of conservation. In the case of Miss B.
-the same phenomena could be elicited. In this respect
-hypnotic states may show the same behavior as alternating
-personalities of which I shall presently speak.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Suggested <em>post-hypnotic phenomena</em> depend, in
-part, on the conservation of dormant complexes. In
-hypnosis I give a suggestion that the subject on
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>waking shall, at a given moment, take a cigarette
-and smoke it. There is thus formed a complex of
-ideas which becomes dormant and forgotten after
-waking. Later, by some mechanism which we need
-not inquire into now, the ideas of the dormant complex
-enter the field of the personal self; the idea of
-smoking a cigarette arises therein and the subject
-puts the idea into execution. These consequences of
-the suggestion could not occur unless the experiences
-were conserved. Or, we may take an experiment
-where the hypnotic experiences are reproduced
-automatically by writing. Here the conserved
-experiences form a secondary system split off from
-the personal consciousness. This system reproduces
-the hypnotic experiences as memory outside
-of the personal consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>From a practical point of view this principle of
-the conservation of the experiences of the hypnotic
-state is of the utmost importance. The fact that a
-person does not remember them on waking—if such
-be the case—is of little consequence in principle,
-and, practically, this amnesia does not preclude
-these experiences from influencing the waking personality.
-<em>As experiences and potential memories
-they all belong to and are part of the personality.</em>
-The hypnotic experiences being conserved our personality
-may still be modified and determined in its
-judgments, points of view, and attitudes by them, as
-by other unrecognized memories when such modifications
-have been effected in the hypnotic state.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>When the last is the case the hypnotically modified
-judgments, etc., may introduce themselves into
-the content of consciousness in the waking state by
-association without being recognized as memories.
-There may be no recollection of the source of the
-new ideas, of the reason for the modification of a
-given judgment or attitude of mind, because there is
-no recollection of the hypnotic state as a whole;
-but so far as the new judgment or attitude is a reproduction
-of an hypnotic experience it is memory,
-although not perfect memory or recollection in the
-sense of localizing the experience in the past.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This principle can easily be demonstrated experimentally.
-It is only necessary, for instance, to state
-to a suitably suggestible subject that the weather,
-with which previously he was discontented is, after
-all, fine; for although it is raining, still, the crops
-need rain; it will allay the dust and make motoring
-pleasant, it will give him an opportunity to finish
-his neglected correspondence, etc. The whole prospect,
-he is told, is pleasing. He accepts, we assume,
-the new point of view. He is then waked up and has
-complete amnesia for the experience. Now these
-ideas, developed in the hypnotic state, are conserved
-as potential memories. Though with the
-change of the moment-consciousness they cannot be
-voluntarily recalled, they have entered into associations
-to form a new viewpoint. Just speak to him
-about the weather and watch the result. His discontent
-has disappeared and given place to satisfaction.
-He expresses himself as quite pleased with
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>the weather and gives the same reasons for his satisfaction
-as were suggested to and accepted by him
-in hypnosis. He does not recognize his new views
-as reproductions, i.e., memories, of previous experiences
-because he has no recollection of the hypnotic
-state. He does not remember when and how he
-changed his mind; but these experiences have determined
-his views because they have become a part
-of his conscious system of thought. The principle
-applies to a large part of our judgments not formed
-in hypnosis. There is nothing very remarkable
-about it. The process is similar to that of ordinary
-thought though it has had an artificial and different
-origin. The complex of ideas having been
-formed in hypnosis still remains organized and
-some of its elements enter the complexes of the personal
-consciousness, just as in normal life ideas of
-buried experiences of which we have no recollection
-intrude themselves from time to time and shape our
-judgments and the current of our thoughts without
-our realizing what has determined our mental processes.
-We have forgotten the source of our judgments,
-but this forgetfulness does not affect the
-mechanism of the process.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Pathological states.</b>—In the <em>functional amnesias</em> of
-a pathological character we find the same phenomenon
-of conservation. Various types of amnesia are
-encountered. I will specify only the episodic,
-epochal, and the continuous, so commonly observed
-in hysteria. This field has been threshed over by
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>many observers and I need refer only to a few instances
-as illustrations. In the first two types the
-experiences which are forgotten may have occurred
-during the previous normal condition. In the episodic
-the particular episode which is forgotten may
-have been, strangely enough, one which from the
-very important part it played in the life of the subject
-and its peculiar impressiveness and significance
-we should expect would be necessarily remembered,
-especially as memory in other respects is normal.
-But for the same reasons it is not surprising
-to find that the experience has been conserved somehow
-and somewhere although it cannot be recalled.
-The classical cases of Fräulein O. and Lucy R. reported
-by Breuer and Freud<a id='r36' /><a href='#f36' class='c009'><sup>[36]</sup></a> are typical.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From my own collection of cases I will cite the
-following episode from the case of B. C. A. This
-subject received a mental shock as the result of an
-emotional conflict of a distressing character. This
-experience was the exciting factor in the development
-of her psychosis, a dissociation of personality.
-In the resulting “neurasthenic” state, although her
-memory was normal for all other experiences of her
-life, this particular episode with all its manifold details,
-notwithstanding its great significance in her
-life, completely dropped out of her memory.<a id='r37' /><a href='#f37' class='c009'><sup>[37]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This incident was a very intimate one and it is
-not necessary to give the details. When put to the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>test all effort to recall the episode voluntarily is
-without result, and even suggestions in two hypnotic
-states fail to awaken it in those states. Yet when a
-pencil is put in her hand these memories are made to
-manifest themselves by automatic writing. During
-the writing the subject remains in a perfectly alert
-state but is unaware of what her hand is doing. At a
-later period after the subject had been restored to the
-normal condition she could voluntarily recall these
-memories thus, again, showing their conservation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>One other example of episodic amnesia I will cite,
-inasmuch as, aside from the question of conservation,
-it is of practical importance, being typical of
-experiences which lead to obsessions of phobia.
-The subject, O. N., had an intense fear of towers
-such as might contain bells that might ring. She
-had no recollection of the first occasion when the
-fear occurred or of any experience which might
-have given rise to it, and, of course, could give no
-explanation of the obsession. Neither in abstraction
-or hypnosis could any related memories be
-evoked, but by automatic writing she “unconsciously”
-described an emotional and dramatic
-scene which was the occasion of the first occurrence
-of the fear and which had taken place some twenty-five
-years previously when she was a young girl.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>With the reason for the amnesia we are not particularly
-concerned at present excepting so far as
-it serves to make clear the distinction between recollection
-and conservation, and to throw light on the
-nature of the latter. The episodes in both these instances
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>were of a strongly emotional character.
-Now we have known for many years from numerous
-observations that emotion tends to disrupt the mind
-and to dissociate the experiences which give rise
-to the affective state so that they cannot be brought
-back into consciousness. We may particularize
-further and, making use of the known impulsive
-force of emotion, attribute the dissociation (or inhibition)
-in many cases to a conflict between certain
-ideas belonging to the experience and other opposing
-ideas which, with the emotion, they have awakened.
-The impulsive force of the latter ideas, being
-the stronger, dissociates, or, to use the expressive
-term introduced by Freud, represses, the former.
-The principle of dissociation by conflict has been
-formulated and elaborated by Freud in his well-known
-theory which has been made use of to explain
-all functional amnesias. It is not necessary to go as
-far as that, nor does the theory as such concern us
-now. It is sufficient if in certain cases the amnesia
-(or dissociation) is a dissociation (repression) induced
-by the conative force of conflicting emotion.
-If so we should expect that the amnesia would be
-of a temporary nature and would continue only so
-long as the conflict and dissociating force continued.
-In any favorable moment when repression ceased or
-failed to be operative, as in hypnosis or abstraction,
-reproduction (recollection) could occur. But this
-requires that the registration of the experience
-should be something specific that can be dissociated
-without obliteration. And, further, it must be something
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>that can be so conserved, somehow and somewhere,
-<em>during dissociation</em> that, as in the case of
-reproduction by automatic writing, it can escape the
-influence of the repressing force and express itself
-autonomously, i.e., without the expressed memory
-of the experience entering the personal consciousness.
-To this we shall return later.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the two examples I have cited, if my interpretation
-is correct, the amnesia was due to dissociation
-by conflict and hence the conservation, as is the
-rule in functional dissociation, and the reproduction
-by automatic writing. This principle of dissociation
-by conflict and of conservation of the dissociated
-remembrances is of great practical importance
-as we shall see in later lectures. It can be
-best studied experimentally with cases of multiple
-personality. In the case of Miss B. numerous examples
-of amnesia from conflict were observed.
-Owing to the precise organization of the consciousness
-into two distinct personalities it was possible
-to definitely determine beyond question the antagonistic
-ideas of one personality which voluntarily induced
-the conflict and, by the impulsive force of their
-emotion, caused the amnesia in the other personality.<a id='r38' /><a href='#f38' class='c009'><sup>[38]</sup></a>
-The same phenomena were observed in the
-case of B. C. A. As memory for the forgotten experiences
-in these instances returned as soon as the
-conflict ceased, conservation of them necessarily
-persisted during the amnesia.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>Perhaps I may be permitted to digress here
-slightly to point out that this same (in principle)
-phenomenon may be effected experimentally by suggestion.
-The suggested idea which has the force of
-a volition or unexpressed wish, coming in conflict
-with the knowledge of previously familiar facts, inhibits
-or represses the reproduction in consciousness
-of this knowledge as memory. It is easy to
-prove, however, that this knowledge is conserved
-though it cannot be recalled. Thus, I give appropriate
-suggestions to B. C. A. in hypnosis that she
-shall be unable, when awake, to remember a certain
-unpleasant episode connected with a person named
-“August.” After being awakened she has complete
-amnesia, not only for the episode, but even for the
-name. The suppression of the memory of the episode
-carries with it by association the name of the
-person. In fact, the name itself has no meaning for
-her. When asked to give the names of the calendar
-months after mentioning “July” she hesitates, then
-gives “September” as the next. Even when the
-name “August” is mentioned to her it has no meaning
-and sounds like a word of a foreign language.
-The memory of the episode has become dormant so
-far as volitional recollection is concerned. It can,
-however, be <em>recalled as a coconscious process</em>
-through automatic writing, as in the preceding experiment,
-and then the word in all its meanings and
-associations is also awakened in the coconsciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The same phenomenon may be observed clinically
-in transition types standing halfway between
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>the amnesia following emotional episodes and that
-produced by external suggestion. Auto-suggestion
-may then be a factor in the mechanism, as in the
-following example: In a moment of discouragement
-and despair B. C. A., torn by an unsolved problem,
-said to herself after going to bed at night, “I shall
-go to sleep and I shall forget everything, my name
-and everything else.” Of course she did not intend
-or expect to forget literally her name, but she gave
-expression to a petulant despairing conditional wish
-which if fulfilled would be a solution to her problem;
-as much as if she said, “If I should forget who
-I am my troubles would be ended.” Nevertheless
-the auto-suggestion with its strong feeling tones
-worked for repression. The next day, when about
-to give her name by telephone, she discovered that
-she had forgotten it. On testing her later I found
-that she could not speak, write, or read her name.
-She could not even understandingly read the same
-word when used with a different signification, i.e.,
-stone [her name, we will suppose, is Stone], nor
-the letters of the same. This amnesia persisted for
-three days until removed by my suggestion. That
-the lost knowledge was all the time conserved is
-further shown by the fact that during the amnesia
-the name was remembered in hypnosis and also reproduced
-by automatic writing.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>In the epochal type of amnesia a person, perhaps
-after a shock, suddenly loses all memory for
-lost <em>epochs</em>, it may be for days and even for years of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>his preceding life. In the classical case of Mr.
-Hanna, studied by Boris Sidis, the amnesia was for
-his whole previous life, so that the subject was like
-a new-born child. It is easy to show, however, that
-the forgotten epoch is normally conserved by making
-use of the various methods of reproduction at
-our disposal. In the case of Hanna, Sidis was able
-through “hypnoidization” and suggestion to bring
-back memory pictures of the amnesic periods.
-“While the subject’s attention is thus distracted,
-events, names of persons, of places, sentences,
-phrases, whole paragraphs of books totally lapsed
-from memory, and in language the very words of
-which sounded bizarre to his ears and the meaning
-of which was to him inscrutable—all that flashed
-lightning-like on the patient’s mind. So successful
-was this method that on one occasion the patient
-was frightened by the flood of memories that rose
-suddenly from the obscure subconscious [unconscious]
-regions, deluged his mind, and were expressed
-aloud, only to be forgotten the next moment.
-To the patient himself it appeared as if another being
-took possession of his tongue.”<a id='r39' /><a href='#f39' class='c009'><sup>[39]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In another class of cases of epochal amnesia
-known as <em>fugues</em> the subject, having forgotten his
-past life and controlled by fancied ideas, perhaps
-wanders away not knowing who he is or anything of
-the previous associations of his life. The “Lowell
-Case” of amnesia, which I had an opportunity to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>carefully observe and which later was more extensively
-studied for me by Dr. Coriat, may be instanced.<a id='r40' /><a href='#f40' class='c009'><sup>[40]</sup></a>
-A woman suddenly left her home without
-apparent rhyme or reason. When later found
-she had lost all recollection of her name, her personality,
-her family, and her surroundings, and her identity
-was only accidentally discovered through the publication
-of her photograph in the newspaper. She then
-had almost complete amnesia for her previous life.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Another case, also studied by Dr. Coriat and the
-writer, was that of a policeman who suddenly deserted
-his official duty in Boston and went to New
-York, where he wandered about without knowledge
-of who he was, his name, his age, his occupation, indeed,
-as there is reason to believe, of his past life.
-When he came to himself three days later he found
-himself in a hospital with complete amnesia for the
-three days’ fugue. When I examined him some
-days later this amnesia still persisted but Dr. Coriat
-was able to recover memories of his vagrancy in
-New York showing that the experiences of this
-fugue were still conserved. It is hardly necessary
-to remind you that, of course, the memories of his
-normal life which during the fugue it might have
-been thought were lost were shown to have been
-conserved, as on “coming to himself” they were recovered.
-In the “Lowell Case” substantially similar
-conditions were found.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In <em>continuous or anterograde</em> amnesia the subject
-forgets every experience nearly as fast as it happens.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>The classical case of Mme. D., studied by
-Charcot and later more completely by Janet, is an
-example. The conservation of the forgotten experiences
-was demonstrated by these authors.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In <em>multiple personality</em> amnesia for large epochs
-in the subject’s life is quite generally a prominent
-feature. In one phase of personality there is no
-knowledge whatsoever of existence in another
-phase. Thus, for instance, all the experiences of
-BI and BIV, in the case of Miss B., were respectively
-unknown to the other. When, however, the
-change took place from one personality to the other,
-with accompanying amnesia, all the great mass of
-experiences of the one personality still remained
-organized and conserved during the cycle of the
-other’s existence. With the reversion to the first
-personality, whichever it might be, the previously
-formed experiences of that personality became capable
-of manifesting themselves as conscious memories.
-This conservation could also be shown, in
-this case, by the method of tapping the conserved
-memories and producing crystal visions or artificial
-hallucinations. Those who are familiar with the
-published account of the case will remember that
-BIV was in the habit at one time of acquiring knowledge
-of the amnesic periods of BI’s existence by
-“fixing” her mind and obtaining a visual picture of
-the latter’s acts. Likewise, it will be remembered
-that by crystal visions I was enabled to bring into
-consciousness a vision of the scene at the hospital
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>which, through its emotional influence, caused the
-catastrophe of dissociation of personality, and also
-of the scene enacted by BI just preceding the awakening
-of BIV, of all of which BIV had no knowledge.<a id='r41' /><a href='#f41' class='c009'><sup>[41]</sup></a>
-As with Mr. Hanna sometimes these memories
-instead of being complex pictures were scrappy—mere
-flashes in the pan. The same condition of
-conservation of the experiences of one personality
-during the existence of another obtained in the case
-of B. C. A. and numerous cases recorded in the literature.
-In this respect the condition is the same
-as that which obtains in hypnotic states and which I
-mentioned a few moments ago.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We may, in fact, lay it down as a general law that
-during any dissociated state, no matter how extensive
-or how intense the amnesia, all the experiences
-that can be recalled in any other state, whether the
-normal one or another dissociated state, are conserved
-and, theoretically at least, can be made to
-manifest themselves. And, likewise and to the
-same extent, during the normal state the experiences
-which belong to a dissociated state are still
-conserved, notwithstanding the existing amnesia for
-those experiences. Furthermore, if we were dealing
-with special pathology we would be able to show
-that many pathological phenomena are due to the
-subconscious manifestations of such conserved and
-forgotten experiences.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Observation shows that the experiences of <em>trance
-states</em> and allied conditions are similarly conserved.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>Fanny S., as the result of an emotional shock, due
-to a distressing piece of news, goes into a trance-like
-state of which she has no memory afterwards.
-Later, a recollection of this supposedly unconscious
-state, including the content of her trance thoughts
-and the sayings and doings of those about her, is
-recovered by a special device. B. C. A. likewise fell
-into a trance of which there was no recollection.
-The whole incident was equally fully recovered in a
-crystal vision, and also conscious memory of it
-brought back to personal consciousness by a special
-technic. In the vision she saw herself apparently
-unconscious, the various people about her each performing
-his part in the episode; the doctor administering
-a hypodermic dose of medicine, etc. In
-hypnosis she remembered in addition the thoughts
-of the trance consciousness and the various remarks
-made by different people in attendance.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Even <em>delirious states</em> for which there is complete
-amnesia may be conserved. I have observed numerous
-instances of this in the case of Miss B. For instance,
-the delirious acts occurring in the course of
-pneumonia were reproduced in a crystal vision by
-Miss B. and the delirious thoughts as well were remembered
-by the secondary personality, Sally.<a id='r42' /><a href='#f42' class='c009'><sup>[42]</sup></a> I
-have records of several examples of conservation
-of delirium in this case. Quite interesting was the
-repetition of the same delirium due to ether narcosis
-in succeeding states of narcosis as frequently happened.
-A very curious phenomenon of the same order
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>was the following: After the subject had been
-etherized a number of times I adopted the ruse of
-pretending to etherize one of the secondary personalities,
-using the customary inhaler but without
-ether. The efficient factor was, of course, suggestion.
-The subject would, at least apparently, become
-unconscious, passing into a state which had all
-the superficial appearances of deep etherization. At
-the end of the procedure she would slowly return to
-consciousness, repeat the same stereotyped expletives
-and other expressions which she regularly
-made use of when ether was actually used, and make
-the same grimaces and signs of discomfort, etc.
-This behavior would seem to indicate that the mental
-and physical experiences originally induced by a
-physical agent were conserved and later reproduced
-under imaginary conditions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Mental experiences formed in states of <em>alcoholic
-intoxication</em> without delirium may be conserved as
-dormant complexes. Dr. Isador Coriat,<a id='r43' /><a href='#f43' class='c009'><sup>[43]</sup></a> in his
-studies of <em>alcoholic amnesia</em>, was able to restore
-memories of experiences occurring during the alcoholic
-state showing that they were still conserved.
-The person, during the period for which later there
-is amnesia, may or may not be what is ordinarily
-called drunk, although under the influence of alcohol.
-Later, when he comes to himself, he is found to
-have forgotten the whole alcoholic period—perhaps
-several days or a week—during which he may have
-acted with apparently ordinary intelligence, and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>perhaps have committed criminal acts. By one or
-another of several technical methods memory of the
-forgotten period may often be recalled. Dr. C. W.
-Pilgrim<a id='r44' /><a href='#f44' class='c009'><sup>[44]</sup></a> also has reported two cases of this kind in
-which he succeeded in restoring the memories of the
-forgotten alcoholic state. I might also recall here
-the case, cited by Ribot, of the Irish porter who,
-having lost a package while drunk, got drunk again
-and remembered where he had left it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Of course, in order to demonstrate the conservation
-of forgotten experiences it is necessary, when
-abstraction is not sufficient, to employ subjects in
-whom more profound dissociation of consciousness
-can be produced by one or another of the artificial
-means described so as to permit of the reproduction
-of the hidden (conserved) experiences of mental
-life. Such subjects, however, are sufficiently common.
-Often the passive state of abstraction after
-some practice is sufficient.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'>Summary</h3>
-
-<p class='c015'>Although in the above résumé of the phenomena
-of memory I have for the most part made use of
-personal observations, these, so far as the phenomena
-themselves are concerned, are in accord with
-those of other observers. It would have been easy
-to have drawn for corroboration upon the writings
-of Gurney, Janet, Charcot, Breuer, Freud, Sidis,
-Coriat, and others.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>A survey of all the facts which I have outlined in
-this lecture forces us to ask ourselves the question:
-To what extent are life’s experiences conserved?
-Indeed it was to meet this question that I have reviewed
-so large a variety of forgotten experiences
-which experiment or observation in individual cases
-has shown to be conserved. If my aim had been to
-show simply that an experience, which has been lost
-beyond all possible voluntary recall, may still be
-within the power of reproduction when special devices
-adapted to the purpose are employed, it would
-not have been necessary to cover such a wide field
-of inquiry. To meet the wider question it was
-necessary to go farther afield and examine a large
-variety of experiences occurring in multiform conditions
-of mental life.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>After doing this the important principle is forced
-upon us in strong relief that it matters not in what
-period of life, or in what state, experiences have
-occurred, or how long a time has intervened since
-their occurrence; they may still be conserved. They
-become dormant, but under favorable conditions
-they may be awakened and may enter conscious life.
-We have seen, even by the few examples I have
-given, that childhood experiences that are supposed
-to have long been buried in oblivion may be conserved.
-We have seen that the mental life of artificial
-and pathological states is subject to the same
-principle; that the experiences of hypnosis, trance
-states, deliria, intoxication, dissociated personality—though
-there may be absolute amnesia in the normal
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>waking state for them—may still be capable
-of reproduction as memory. Yet of the vast number
-of mental experiences which we have during the
-course of our lives we can voluntarily recall but a
-fractional part. What proportion of the others is
-conserved is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.
-The difficulty is largely a practical one due to the
-inadequacy of our technical methods of investigation.
-In the first place, our technic is only applicable
-to a limited number of persons. In the second
-place, it is obvious that when an episode—occurring
-in the course of everyday life—is forgotten, but is
-recovered under one or another of the conditions I
-have described, it is only in a minority of instances
-that circumstances will permit confirmation of this
-evidence by collateral and independent testimony.
-Still, if we take the evidence as a whole its cumulative
-force is such as to compel the conviction that
-a vast number of experiences, more than we can
-possibly voluntarily recall, are conserved, and that
-it is impossible to affirm that any given experience
-may not persist in a dormant state. It is impossible
-to say what experiences of our daily life have failed
-to be conserved and what are awaiting only a favorable
-condition of reproduction to be stimulated into
-activity as memory. Even if they cannot be reproduced
-by voluntary effort, or by some one particular
-device, they may be by another and, if all devices
-fail, they may be recovered in pathological conditions
-like delirium, trance, spontaneous hallucinations,
-etc., or in normal dissociated states like
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>dreams. The inability to recall an experience is no
-evidence whatever that it is not conserved. Indeed,
-even when the special methods and moments fail it
-is still not always possible to say that it is not conserved.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It would be a gross exaggeration to say, on the
-basis of the evidence at our disposal, that all life’s
-experiences persist as potential memories, or even
-that this is true of the greater number. It is, however,
-undoubtedly true that of the great mass of
-experiences which have passed out of all voluntary
-recollection, an almost incredible, even if relatively
-small, number still lie dormant, and, under favoring
-conditions, many can be brought within the field of
-conscious memory. The significance of this fact
-will become apparent to us later after we have
-studied the nature of conservation. Still more significant,
-particularly for abnormal psychology, is
-the fact we have brought out by our technical methods
-of investigation; namely, that almost any conserved
-experience under certain conditions can
-function as a subconscious memory and become
-translated into, i.e., produce sensory and motor
-automatic phenomena, such as hallucinations, writing,
-speech, etc. It will not be surprising if we shall
-find that various other disturbances of mind and
-body are produced by such subconscious processes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Two striking facts brought out by some of these
-investigations are the minuteness of the details
-with which forgotten experiences may be conserved
-and the long periods of time during which conservation
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>may persist. Thus, as we have seen, experiences
-dating back to early childhood may be shown
-to be preserved in extremely minute detail though
-the individual has long forgotten them. Furthermore,
-it has been shown that even remembered
-experiences may be conserved in far more elaborate
-detail than would appear from so much of the
-experience as can be voluntarily recalled. Probably
-our voluntary memory is not absolutely perfect
-for any experience in all its details but the details
-that are conserved often far exceed those that can
-be recalled.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the survey of life’s experiences which we have
-studied we have, for the most part, considered those
-which have had objective relation and have been
-subject to confirmation by collateral testimony. But
-we should not overlook the fact that among mental
-experiences are those of the inner as well as outer
-life. To the former belong the hopes and aspirations,
-the regrets, the fears, the doubts, the self-communings
-and wrestlings with self, the wishes,
-the loves, the hates, all that we are not willing to
-give out to the world, and all that we would forget
-and would strive not to admit to ourselves. All this
-inner life belongs to our experience and is subject
-to the same law of conservation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Finally, it should be said that much of what is
-not ordinarily regarded as memory is made up of
-conserved experiences. A large part of every mental
-content is memory the source of which is forgotten.
-Just as our vocabulary is memory, though
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>we do not remember how and where it was acquired,
-so our judgments, beliefs, and opinions are in large
-part made up of past experiences which are forgotten
-but which have left their traces as integral
-parts of concepts ingrained in our personalities.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f27'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r27'>27</a>. For a full account of this experiment, see An Experimental
-Study of Visions, <cite>Brain</cite>, Winter Number, 1898; The Dissociation,
-pp. 81, 82.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f28'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r28'>28</a>. The Dissociation, p. 77.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f29'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r29'>29</a>. For numerous observations of this kind, see Pierre Janet: The
-Mental States of Hystericals.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f30'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r30'>30</a>. The Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams, loc. cit.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f31'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r31'>31</a>. Loc. cit. See p. 51.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f32'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r32'>32</a>. See Lecture VI, p. 185.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f33'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r33'>33</a>. Gurney was among the first to demonstrate the induction of
-several states in the same subject. He was able to obtain three different
-hypnotic states (Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IV, p. 515), and
-Mrs. Sidgwick and Miss Johnson eight in one individual, each with
-amnesia for the other. Janet, of course, demonstrated the same
-phenomena. In the cases of Miss B. and B. C. A. I obtained a large
-number of such states.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f34'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r34'>34</a>. Morton Prince: The Dissociation, p. 55; also An Experimental
-Study of Visions, <cite>Brain</cite>, Winter Number, 1898.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f35'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r35'>35</a>. Some of the Revelations of Hypnotism, <cite>Boston Medical and
-Surgical Journal</cite>, May 22, 1890.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f36'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r36'>36</a>. <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Studien über Hysterie.</span></p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f37'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r37'>37</a>. Of course I am not discussing here the genetic mechanism of
-the amnesia, being concerned only with the principle of conservation.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f38'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r38'>38</a>. The Dissociation, pp. 284-5, 456-9.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f39'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r39'>39</a>. Boris Sidis: The Psychology of Suggestion, p. 224; see also
-Multiple Personality, p. 143.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f40'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r40'>40</a>. <cite>The Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, Vol. II, p. 93.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f41'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r41'>41</a>. The Dissociation, pp. 220, 221, 255, 531, 532.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f42'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r42'>42</a>. The Dissociation, p. 83.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f43'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r43'>43</a>. <cite>The Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, Vol. I, No. 3.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f44'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r44'>44</a>. <cite>American Journal of Insanity</cite>, July, 1910.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE IV <br /> CONSERVATION A RESIDUUM OF EXPERIENCES</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>A consideration of all the facts of observation
-and experiment of the kind which I have recited in
-the last two lectures—and I might have multiplied
-them many times—forces us to the conclusion that
-whether or not we can recall any given experience
-it may be still conserved. Bear in mind that I have
-used conservation, thus far, only in the sense that
-under favoring changes in the moment’s consciousness,
-or by special methods of stimulation, a past
-experience may reproduce itself, or may be made
-to reproduce itself, in one form or another of
-memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It may be, for example, that you have to-day only
-a vague and general recollection of the last lecture
-and if you should endeavor to write an account of
-it from memory the result would be but a fragmentary
-report. And yet it is quite possible that, if
-one or another of the various technical methods I
-have described could be applied to some one of you,
-we should be able to recover quite exact memories,
-of certain portions at least, of the lecture—perhaps
-<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>verbatim</i></span> transcripts of certain portions, and large
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>numbers of facts which are quite beyond your present
-recollection.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Our study of those phenomena of memory which
-I cited in the last lecture was carried only so far
-as to allow us to draw the conclusions as to conservation
-which I have just stated. And, in drawing
-these conclusions, let me repeat—we have provisionally
-limited the meaning of the term conservation
-simply to the potential ability to reproduce experiences,
-with or without recollection, either in
-their original form, or translated into a graphic,
-visual, or auditory expression of them. We have
-not attempted from these phenomena to draw conclusions
-as to the nature of conservation, or as to
-whether it is anything apart from reproduction
-under favorable conditions. If we do not look below
-the surface of the phenomena it might be held
-that memory is only a recurrent phase of consciousness,
-and that the term conservation is only a figure
-of speech to express the ability to determine that
-recurrence in our self-consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Let us examine now a little more closely some of
-the phenomena we have already examined but inadequately.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Residual processes underlying automatic motor phenomena:
-writing, speech, gestures, etc.</b>—We will take
-writing as a type and the following as an example:
-In a state of hypnosis a subject learns a verse by
-heart. It is then suggested that this verse shall
-be written automatically after he has been awakened.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>(By arranging the conditions of the experiment
-in this way we make certain that the script
-afterwards written shall express a memory and
-not a fabrication.) After the subject returns to
-the normal waking state he has complete amnesia
-for the whole hypnotic state and therefore for the
-verse. Now, if the experiment is successful, his
-hand writes the given verse without the subject
-being aware of what his hand is writing, and it may
-be without being aware that his hand is writing
-anything at all. The whole thing has been done
-without participation of his consciousness and without
-his knowing that any such phenomenon was to
-occur. (Of course any of his conscious experiences
-while in the hypnotic state might have been used
-as a test, these being known to the experimenter
-as well.) Now the things to be noted are:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>1, that the script expresses a memory; that is,
-reproduces previous <em>conserved</em> conscious ideas—the
-verse. It expresses memory just exactly as it would
-express it if it had been consciously and voluntarily
-written.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2, that these ideas <em>while in a state of conservation</em>
-and without entering consciousness—i.e., becoming
-conscious memory—express themselves in written
-language.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>3, that this occurs while the subject has complete
-amnesia for the conserved ideas and therefore he
-could not possibly reproduce them as conscious
-memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>4, that that which effects the writing is not a
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>recurring phase of the self-consciousness which is
-concerned at the moment with totally different ideas.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>5, that the “state of conservation” is, at least
-during the writing, a specific state existing and
-functioning independently and outside of the personal
-self-consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>6, that in functioning it induces specific processes
-which make use of the same organized physiological
-mechanisms which ordinarily are made use of by
-conscious memory to express itself in writing and
-that these processes are not in, but independent of,
-consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We are forced to conclude therefore that a conscious
-experience—in this case the ideas of the verse—is
-conserved through the medium of some kind of
-residuum of itself capable of specific functioning
-and inducing processes which reproduce in the form
-of written symbols the ideas of the original experience.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We need not consider for the present the nature
-of the residuum, and its process, whether it is the
-ideas themselves or something else.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Residual processes underlying hallucinations.</b>—We will
-take the observation of B. C. A. looking into a
-crystal and reading some printed words—a cablegram—which
-she had previously unconsciously
-overheard.<a id='r45' /><a href='#f45' class='c009'><sup>[45]</sup></a> The words were, let us say, “Best
-Wishes and a Happy New Year.” This visual picture
-was not a literal reproduction of the original
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>experience, which was a subconscious <em>auditory</em> experience
-of the same words, of which she was not
-aware; but plainly, nevertheless, the visual picture
-must have been determined somehow by the auditory
-experience. Equally plainly the visual image
-was not a recurrent phase of the consciousness, for
-the words of the message had not been previously
-<em>seen</em>. What occurred was this: the antecedent auditory
-perception manifested itself in consciousness
-<em>after an interval of time</em> as a visual hallucination
-of the words. There was a reproduction of the
-original experience but not in its original form. It
-had undergone a <em>secondary alteration</em> by which the
-visual perception replaced the auditory perception.
-As a memory it was a conversion or <em>translation</em> of
-an auditory experience into terms of another sense.
-Now the conversion must have been effected by
-some mechanism outside of consciousness; that is
-to say, it was not an ordinary visualization, i.e.,
-intensely vivid secondary images pertaining to a
-<em>conscious</em> memory, as when one thinks of the morning’s
-breakfast table and visualizes it; for there
-was no conscious memory of the words, or knowledge
-that there ever had been such an experience.
-The visualization therefore must have been induced
-by something not in the content of consciousness,—something
-we have called a secondary process, of
-which the individual is unaware.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We can conceive of the phenomenon originating
-in either one of two possible modes. Either the
-hallucination was a newly fabricated conscious experience;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>or it was a reproduction of secondary
-visual images originally belonging to the auditory
-perception at the time of its occurrence and now
-thrust into consciousness in an intensely vivid form.
-In either case, for this to have taken place something
-must have been left by the original experience
-and conserved apart from and independent of the
-content of the personal consciousness at any and
-all moments—something capable of functioning
-after an interval of time as a secondary process <em>outside
-of the personal consciousness</em>. The only intelligible
-explanation of the phenomenon is that the
-original auditory impression persisted, somehow
-and somewhere, in a form capable of conservation
-as a specific and independent residuum during all
-subsequent changes in the content of consciousness.
-This residuum either fabricated the hallucination
-or thrust its secondary images into consciousness
-to become the hallucination.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The phenomenon by itself does not permit a conclusion
-as to the nature of the residuum, whether
-it is psychological or neural; i.e., whether an auditory
-perception, as perception, still persists subconsciously
-outside the focus of awareness of
-consciousness, or whether it has left an alteration of
-some kind in the neurons. Whatever the inner nature
-of the conserved experience it <em>obviously must
-have a very specific and independent existence,
-somehow and somewhere, outside of the awareness
-of consciousness, and one capable of secondary
-functioning in a way that can reproduce the original
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>experience in terms of another sense. In other
-words, conservation must be in the form of some
-kind of residuum, psychological or neural</em>. It must
-be, therefore, something very different from
-reproduction or a recurrent phase of consciousness.
-Further, it must form a stage in the process
-of memory of which reproduction is the final
-result.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This observation of course does not stand alone.
-I have cited a number of observations and might
-cite many more in which the same phenomenon of
-transformation or conversion of sensory images of
-one sense into images of another sense was prominent.
-Indeed a study of hallucinations, artificial or
-spontaneous, which are representations of former
-experiences and where the determining factors can
-be ascertained, will show that in most, if not all, of
-them this same <em>mechanism of conversion</em> is at work.
-Take, for instance, the experiment cited in our last
-lecture, the one in which Miss B. was directed to
-look into a crystal for the purpose of discovering
-the whereabouts of some money she had lost without
-being aware of the fact. In the crystal she sees a
-vision of herself walking along a particular street
-in Boston absorbed in thought. She sees herself in
-a moment of absent-mindedness take some banknotes
-out of her pocket, tear them up, and throw
-them into the street.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now this artificial hallucination was, as we have
-seen, a picture of an actual occurrence for which
-there was amnesia. It must, therefore, have been
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>determined by that experience. The psychological
-phenomena manifested, however, were really much
-more complicated than would appear at first sight.
-An analysis of this vision, which unfolded itself like
-a cinematograph picture, would show that it was a
-composite visual representation of several different
-kinds of experiences—of past perceptions of her
-body and face, of her conscious knowledge of her
-relation to the environment (in the street), of muscular
-movements, and of her knowledge derived
-from subconscious tactile impressions of the act.
-Of these last she was not aware at the time of their
-occurrence. Much of this knowledge must have
-persisted as a residuum of the original experience
-and functioned subconsciously. Thereby, perhaps,
-the original secondary visual images were reproduced
-and emerged into consciousness as the hallucination
-or pictorial memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Similar phenomena indicative of conservation
-being effected by means of a residuum of the original
-experience may be produced experimentally
-in various ways. For instance, in certain hysterics
-with anesthesia if you prick a number of times a
-part of the body—say the hand—in which all tactile
-sensation has been lost, and later direct the subject
-to look into a crystal, he will see a number, perhaps
-written on a hand. This number, let us say five, will
-correctly designate the number of times the hand
-was pricked. Now, because of the loss of sensibility,
-the subject was unaware of the pin-pricks. Nevertheless,
-of course, they were recorded subconsciously,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span><a id='corr95.1'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='sic'>coconsciously)</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_95.1'><ins class='correction' title='sic'>coconsciously)</ins></a></span>. Their subsequent transformation
-into a visual hallucination not only shows
-that they were conserved, but that they left something
-which was capable of taking part, outside
-of consciousness, in a secondary process which gave
-rise to the hallucination.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>An examination of all crystal visions, so far as
-they are translated memories of actual experiences,
-will show this same evidence for a conserved residuum.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>That <em>conservation is not merely a figure of speech</em>
-to express the ability to determine the recurrence
-of a previous experience, but means a specific residuum
-capable of independent and elaborate functioning,
-is brought out more conspicuously in those
-visions which are elaborately fabricated symbolisms
-of an antecedent experience. In other words,
-the vision is not a literal recurrence of a previous
-phase of consciousness, in that the latter has been
-worked over, so to speak, so as to appear in consciousness
-in a reconstructed form. Though reconstructed
-it either still retains its original meaning
-or is worked out to a completion of its thoughts, or
-to a fulfilment of the emotional strivings pertaining
-to them (anxieties, wishes, etc.). These visions,
-perhaps, more frequently occur spontaneously,
-often at moments of crises in a person’s life, but
-also are observed under experimental conditions.
-Sometimes they answer the doubts, scruples and
-other problems which have troubled the subject,
-sometimes they express the imaginary fulfilment of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>intense longings or of anxieties and dreads which
-have been entertained, or disturbing thoughts which
-have pricked the conscience.<a id='r46' /><a href='#f46' class='c009'><sup>[46]</sup></a> We are obliged to
-conclude, in the light of experimental observations
-of the same class, that such phenomena are determined
-by the specific residua of antecedent thoughts
-which must be conserved and function in a specific
-manner to appear in this metamorphosed form.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Similar residual processes underlying post-hypnotic phenomena.</b>—Conserved
-experiences which give rise to
-more complicated secondary elaboration may be
-observed in suggested post-hypnotic phenomena.
-Experiments of this kind may be varied in many
-ways. The phenomenon may be an hallucination
-similar to the one I have just described in hysterics,
-or a so-called subconscious calculation. You suggest
-in hypnosis to a suitable subject that he
-shall multiply certain numbers, or calculate the
-number of seconds intervening between certain
-hours—let us say between 10:43 and 5:13 o’clock—the
-answer to be given in writing on a certain day.
-The subject is then awakened immediately, before
-he has time to do the calculation while in hypnosis.
-Later, if the experiment is successful, at the time
-designated the subject will absent-mindedly or automatically
-write the figures giving the answer.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>There are two modes in which these calculations
-may be accomplished. In a special and limited class
-of cases, where there is a large split-off subconscious
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>personality, or doubling of consciousness, the calculation
-may be made entirely by this secondary
-subconscious self, in the same fashion as it would be
-made by the principal personality if the problem
-were given in the waking state. The subconscious
-personality will go through each conscious step in
-the calculation in the same way.<a id='r47' /><a href='#f47' class='c009'><sup>[47]</sup></a> In a second class
-of cases the <em>calculations are worked out, apparently,
-unconsciously</em>, without participation in the process
-by a subconscious personality even when such exists.
-At most it would seem that isolated numbers representing
-different steps in the calculation arise from
-time to time coconsciously as a limited secondary
-consciousness (of which the personal consciousness
-is unaware) until finally the figures of the completed
-answer appear therein. The calculation itself
-appears to be still another process outside
-both the personal and the secondary consciousness.
-When the problem has been finished the answer is
-finally given automatically. The whole process is
-too complicated to go into at this time before we
-have studied the problems of the coconscious.<a id='r48' /><a href='#f48' class='c009'><sup>[48]</sup></a>
-It is enough to say that <a id='corr97.23'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='it'>it is</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_97.23'><ins class='correction' title='it'>it is</ins></a></span> plain that the hypnotic
-experience—the suggested problem—must be considered
-as some kind of specific residuum, psychological
-or neural, and that this residuum must be
-one capable of quite elaborate independent and subconscious
-intellectual activity before finally becoming
-transformed into the final answer.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span><b>Residual processes underlying dreams.</b>—When citing
-the evidence of dreams for the conservation of forgotten
-experiences I spoke of one type of dream as
-a symbolical memory. I may now add it is more
-than this; it is a fabrication. The original experience
-or thought may appear in the dream after
-being worked over into a fantasy, allegory, symbolism,
-or other product of imagination. Such a
-dream is not a recurrent phase of consciousness, but
-a <em>newly fabricated phase</em>. Further, analytical and
-experimental researches go to show that the fabrication
-is performed by the original phase without
-the latter recurring in the content of the personal
-consciousness. The original phase must therefore
-have been conserved in some form capable of such
-independent and specific functioning, i.e., fabrication
-below the threshold of consciousness. For instance:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The subject dreamed that she was standing where two roads
-separated. One was broad and bright and beautiful, and many
-people she knew were going that way. The other road was the
-rocky path, quite dark, and no one was going that way, but she
-had to go. And she said, “Oh, why must I go this way? Will no
-one go with me?” And a voice replied, “I will go with you.” She
-looked around, and there were some tall black figures; they all
-had names across their foreheads in bright letters, and the one
-who spoke was Disappointment; and all the others said, “We will
-go with you,” and they were Sorrow, Loss, Pain, Fear, and Loneliness,
-and she fell down on her face in anguish.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Now an analysis of the antecedent thought of this
-subject and a knowledge of her circumstances and
-mental life, though we cannot go into them here,
-make it perfectly clear that as a fact, whether there
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>was any causal connection or not, this dream <em>was</em>
-a symbolic expression of those thoughts. The rocky
-path has been shown to be symbolic of her conception
-of her own life entertained through years—the
-other road symbolic of the life longed for and
-imagined as granted to others. Likewise the rest
-of the dream symbolized, in a way which any one
-can easily recognize, the lot which she had in her
-disappointment actually fancied was hers. The
-thoughts thus symbolized had been constantly recurring
-thoughts and therefore had been conserved.
-They were reproduced in the dream, not in their
-original form, but translated into symbols and an
-allegory. Something must, therefore, have effected
-the translation. In other words, the dream is not
-a recurrent phase of consciousness but <em>an allegorical
-fabrication</em> which expresses these thoughts, not
-literally as they originally occurred, but in the form
-of an imaginative story. Now the similarity of the
-allegorical dream thoughts to the original thoughts
-can be explained only in two ways: either as pure
-chance coincidence, or through a relation of cause
-and effect. In the latter case the dream might have
-been determined either by the specific antecedent
-thoughts in question—those revealed as memories
-in the analysis, or both series might have been determined
-by a third, as yet unrevealed, series. For
-the purposes of the present problem it is immaterial
-which so long as the dream was determined by some
-antecedent thought. The very great frequency, not
-to say universality, with which this same similarity
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>or a logical relation with antecedent thoughts is
-found in dreams after analysis renders chance coincidence
-very improbable. We must believe, therefore,
-that the dream was determined by antecedent
-experiences. It is beyond my purpose to enter here
-into an exposition of the theory of the mechanism
-of dreams, although I shall touch upon it later in
-some detail in connection with subconscious processes.
-We need here only concern ourselves with
-this mechanism so far as it bears upon the principle
-of conservation. Suffice it to say that analytical
-observations (Freud) have, it seems to me, conclusively
-shown that conserved experiences may be not
-only the determining factors in dreams, but that
-<em>while in a state of conservation they are capable of
-undergoing elaborate fabrication and afterwards
-appearing so thoroughly transformed in consciousness
-as not to be superficially recognizable</em>. I have
-also been able to reach the same conclusions by the
-method of experimental production of dreams.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The only question is, in what form can a thought
-be so conserved that it can, <em>while still in a state
-of conservation</em>, without itself rising into consciousness,
-fabricate a symbolism, allegory, or other work
-requiring imagination and reasoning? The only
-logical and intelligible inference is that the antecedent
-conscious experience has been either itself specifically
-conserved as such outside of the personal
-consciousness, or has left some neural residuum or
-disposition capable of functioning and constructing
-the conscious dream fabrication.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span><b>Residual processes underlying physiological bodily disturbances.</b>—Before
-proceeding further I would invite
-your attention to another class of facts as these
-facts must be taken into consideration in any theory
-of conservation. These facts show that the residua
-can, by subconscious functioning, induce <em>physiological
-bodily manifestations</em> without reproducing the
-original mental experience as conscious memory.
-In certain abnormal conditions of the nervous system,
-i.e., in certain psychoneuroses, we meet with
-certain involuntary actions of the limbs or muscles
-known as spasms and contractures; also with certain
-impairment of functions such as blindness,
-deafness, loss of sensation (anesthesia), paralysis,
-etc. These disturbances are purely functional,
-meaning that they are not due to any organic disease.
-Now the evidence seems to be conclusive that
-these physiological disturbances are caused sometimes
-by ideas after they have passed out of consciousness
-and become, as ideas, dormant, i.e., while
-they are in a state of conservation and have ceased
-to be ideas—or, at least, ideas of which the subject
-is aware. A moment’s consideration will convince
-you that this means that ideas, or, at least, experiences
-in a state of conservation, and without being
-reproduced as conscious memory, can so function
-as to affect the body in one or other of the
-ways I have mentioned. To do this they must exist
-in some specific form that is independent of the personal
-consciousness of the moment. To take, for
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>example, an actual case which I have elsewhere
-described:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>B. C. A., in a dream, had a visual hallucination of
-a flash of light which revealed a scene in a cave and
-which was followed by blindness such as would
-physiologically follow a tremendous flash. In the
-dream she is warned that if she looks into the cave,
-she will be blinded. She looks; there is a blinding
-flash and loss of vision follows; after waking she
-was still partially blind, but she continued from
-time to time to see momentary flashes of light revealing
-certain of the objects seen in the dream in
-the cave, and these flashes would be succeeded temporarily
-by absolute blindness as in the dream. She
-had no memory of the dream. Now psychological
-analysis disclosed the meaning of the dream; it was
-a symbolical representation of certain conserved
-(subconscious) previous thoughts—thoughts apprehensive
-of the future into which she dared not look,
-thinking she would be overwhelmed. <em>While in a
-state of conservation</em> the residua of <em>these</em> antecedent
-thoughts had translated themselves into the
-symbolical hallucination of the dream and the loss
-of vision. Similarly after waking, although she had
-no memory of the dream, the conserved residua of
-the same thoughts continued to translate themselves
-into visual hallucinations and to induce blindness.<a id='r49' /><a href='#f49' class='c009'><sup>[49]</sup></a>
-It would take too long for me to enter here into the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>details of the analysis which forces this conclusion.<a id='r50' /><a href='#f50' class='c009'><sup>[50]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Similarly, as is well known, convulsions resembling
-epilepsy, paralysis, spasms, tics, contractures,
-etc., may be caused directly or indirectly by ideas,
-after they have passed out of consciousness and
-ceased to take part in the conscious processes of
-thought. At least that is the interpretation which
-the facts elicited by the various methods of investigation
-seem to require.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>There is an analogous class of phenomena which
-ought to be mentioned among the possible data
-bearing upon the theory of memory, although too
-much weight cannot be placed upon them as their
-interpretation is not wholly clear. I will discuss
-them in detail later in connection with the phenomena
-of the emotions. They are certain <em>emotional
-phenomena</em> which are attributed by some writers to
-ideas in a state of conservation. It has been demonstrated
-that ideas to which strong feeling tones are
-attached are accompanied by such physiological
-effects as disturbance of respiration, of the heart’s
-action, of the vaso-motor system, of the secretions,
-etc., and also by certain <em>galvanic phenomena</em> which
-are due to the diminution of the electrical resistance
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>of the body, probably caused by increased
-secretion of sweat.<a id='r51' /><a href='#f51' class='c009'><sup>[51]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now the point is that such phenomena are sometimes
-experimentally obtained in connection with
-certain test words<a id='r52' /><a href='#f52' class='c009'><sup>[52]</sup></a> spoken to the subject experimented
-upon, although he has no recollection of any
-incident in his life which could have given an emotional
-tone to the word and, therefore, can give no
-explanation of the physical reaction. By various
-technical methods, however, memories of a forgotten
-emotional experience in which the idea
-(represented by the word) plays a part and through
-which it derived its emotional tone are resurrected.
-I have been able to obtain such reactions from test
-words which investigation showed referred to the
-incidents of terrifying dreams which were <em>completely
-forgotten</em> in the waking state. When the
-test word was given, the subject might, for instance,
-exhibit a respiratory disturbance—a sudden gasp—without
-conscious knowledge of its significance, and
-the galvanometer, with which the subject was in
-circuit, would show a wide deflection. Recovery of
-the dream in hypnosis would explain the meaning of
-the emotional disturbance excited by the word. The
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>interpretation which has been put upon such phenomena
-is that the residua of the forgotten experience
-are “struck” by the test word. As the forgotten
-experience originally included the emotion
-and its physiological reaction, so the residua are
-linked by association to the emotional mechanism
-and when stimulated function as a subconscious
-process and excite the reaction. If this interpretation,
-strongly held by some, be correct, the phenomena
-are important for the support they give
-to the theory of conservation. They would indicate
-that conscious experiences must be conserved in
-a very specific subconscious form, one that is capable,
-without becoming conscious memory, of exciting
-the physiological apparatus of the emotions in
-a manner identical with that of conscious emotional
-ideas. They are open, however, to a simpler explanation,
-whether more probable or not: namely,
-that it is not the residua of the forgotten experience
-which unconsciously excite the physiological
-reaction, but the auditory symbol, the test word
-itself. The symbol having been once associated
-with the emotional reaction, it afterwards of itself,
-through a short circuit so to speak, suffices to induce
-the reaction, though the origin of the association
-has been forgotten and, therefore, the subject is in
-entire ignorance of the reason for the strong feeling
-manifestation. On the other hand, in some instances
-test words associated with emotional experiences
-which <em>originally</em> were entirely coconscious and <em>had
-never entered conscious awareness at all</em> give the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>reactions in question.<a id='r53' /><a href='#f53' class='c009'><sup>[53]</sup></a> As coconscious memories of
-such experiences can be demonstrated it would seem
-at first sight as if under such conditions the word-reactions
-must come from a true subconscious process—the
-subconscious memory. And yet even here
-it is difficult to eliminate absolutely the possibility
-of the second interpretation. There are, however, a
-large number of emotional phenomena occurring in
-pathological conditions which can only be intelligibly
-interpreted as being due to the residua of previously
-conscious experiences functioning as a subconscious
-process. These phenomena we shall have occasion
-to review in succeeding lectures. They are too complex
-to enter upon at this stage.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Aside, then, from these word-reactions we have a
-sufficient number of other phenomena, such as I
-have cited, which indicate that conscious experiences
-when conserved must persist in a form capable
-of exciting purely physiological reactions
-without the experiences themselves rising into consciousness
-again as memory. The form must also
-be one which permits of their functioning as intelligent
-processes although not within the conscious
-field of awareness of the moment.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>As a final summing up of the experiments and
-observations of the kind which I have thus far cited,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>dealing with forgotten experiences, we may say that
-they lead us to the following conclusions:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>1. That conservation is something very different
-from reproduction.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2. A given experience is conserved through the
-medium of some kind of residuum of that experience.
-This residuum must have a specific existence
-independent of consciousness, in that it is capable of
-specific and independent functioning, coincidentally
-with and outside of the consciousness of any given
-moment. Its nature must be such that it can incite
-through specific processes the following phenomena
-in none of which the conscious processes of the moment
-take part as factors:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>(a) Specific memory for the given experience
-expressed through the established physiological
-mechanisms of external expression (speech, writing,
-gestures) after the manner of a mnesic process.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>(b) A mnesic hallucination which is a representation
-of the antecedent perceptual experience but
-after having undergone translation into terms of
-another sense.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>(c) A mnesic hallucination in which the original
-experience appears synthesized with various other
-experiences into an elaborate representation of a
-complex experience, or secondarily elaborated into
-a symbolism, allegory or other fabrication.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>(d) Mnesic phenomena which are a logical continuation
-of the antecedent conscious experiences
-and such as ordinarily are produced by conscious
-processes of thought—reasoning, imagination, volition
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>(mathematical calculations, versification, fabrication,
-etc.).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>(e) Physical phenomena (paralyses contractures,
-vasomotor disturbances, etc.).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In other words a specific experience while in a
-state of conservation and without being reproduced
-in consciousness can incite or induce processes
-which incite these and similar phenomena.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f45'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r45'>45</a>. Lecture III, p. <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f46'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r46'>46</a>. For specific instances, see Lecture VII.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f47'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r47'>47</a>. Morton Prince: Experimental Evidence for Coconscious Ideation,
-<cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, April-May, 1908.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f48'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r48'>48</a>. For further details, see Lecture VI, p. 169.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f49'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r49'>49</a>. Prince: Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams, <cite>Jour. of
-Abn. Psych.</cite>, October-November, 1910.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f50'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r50'>50</a>. If, lacking this knowledge of the data, any one chooses to insist
-that it was not the conserved residua of previous thoughts, but of the
-dream itself (the only alternative entertainable explanation) which
-induced, <em>after waking</em>, the hallucinatory phenomena and blindness,
-we still fall back upon the same principle, namely, that of the
-subconscious functioning of conserved residua of a conscious experience
-producing a physiological (and psychological) effect.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f51'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r51'>51</a>. According to recent researches of Sidis in conjunction with
-Kalmus, and later with Nelson (The Nature and Causation of the
-Galvanic Phenomenon, Psychological Review, March, 1910) similar
-galvanic phenomena under similar conditions may be caused by the
-<em>generation</em> of an electric current within the body.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f52'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r52'>52</a>. The test word (e. g., boat, stone, hat, etc.) of course represents
-an idea which may have various associations in the mind of the
-subject.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f53'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r53'>53</a>. Morton Prince and Frederick Peterson: Experiments in Psycho-Galvanic
-Reactions from Coconscious (Subconscious) Ideas in a Case
-of Multiple Personality, <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, April-May,
-1908.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE V <br /> NEUROGRAMS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>We have got as far as showing that the phenomena
-of memory to be intelligible require that ideas
-which have passed out of mind must be conserved
-through some sort of residuum left by the original
-experience. But this as a theory of memory is incomplete;
-the question remains, <em>How</em>, and in what
-form, manner, or way, are they conserved? In
-other words, What is the nature of the residuum?
-Is it psychical or physical?<a id='r54' /><a href='#f54' class='c009'><sup>[54]</sup></a> As we have seen,
-from the fact that something outside of the personal
-consciousness can manifest memory of a given experience
-at the very same moment when the personal
-consciousness has amnesia for that experience,
-we are compelled to infer that conservation
-must be by a medium, psychological or physiological,
-capable of being excited as a specific secondary
-process. Now this medium must be either an
-undifferentiated “Psyche” or specific differentiated
-residua. In the former case we postulate a concept
-of a transcendental something beyond experience
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>and of which, like the soul after death, we have and
-can have no knowledge. To this concept of an undifferentiated
-Psyche we shall return presently.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If the second alternative—specific differentiated
-residua—be the medium by which experiences are
-conserved, then the residua must be either specific
-psychological states, i.e., the original psychological
-experience itself as such; or neural residua (or
-dispositions) such as when excited are ordinarily
-correlated with a conscious memory. In either case
-the medium would be such as to permit of the
-experiences manifesting themselves, while so conserved
-outside of the personal consciousness, as a
-very specific secondary process, not only reproducing
-the original experience as memory, but elaborating
-the same and exhibiting imagination, reasoning,
-volition, feeling, etc. Unless the doctrine of
-the undifferentiated Psyche be accepted it is difficult
-to conceive of any other mode in which conservation
-can be effected so as to permit of the phenomena
-of memory outside of consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Conservation considered as psychological residua.</b>—It is
-hypothetically possible that our thoughts and other
-mental experiences after they have passed out of
-mind, out of our awareness of the moment, may
-continue their psychological existence as such
-although we are not aware of them. Such an
-hypothesis derives support from the fact that researches
-of recent years in abnormal psychology
-have given convincing evidence that an idea, under
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>certain conditions, after it has passed out of our
-awareness may still from time to time take on another
-sort of existence, <em>one in which it still remains
-an idea, although our personal consciousness of the
-moment is not aware of it</em>. A coconscious idea, it
-may be called. More than this, in absent-mindedness,
-in states of abstraction, in artificial conditions
-as typified in automatic writing, and particularly in
-pathological conditions (hysteria), it has been
-fairly demonstrated, as I think we are entitled to
-assert, that coconscious ideas in the form of sensations,
-perceptions, thoughts, even large systems of
-ideas, may function and pursue autonomous and
-contemporaneous activity outside of the various
-systems of ideas which make up the personal consciousness.
-It usually is not possible for the individual
-to bring such ideas within the focus of his
-awareness. Therefore, there necessarily results a
-doubling of consciousness,—two consciousnesses, one
-of which is the personal consciousness and the other
-a coconsciousness. These phenomena need to be
-studied by themselves. We shall consider them
-here only so far as they bear on the problem of
-conscious memory. Observation has shown that
-among ideas of this kind it often happens that many
-are memories, reproductions of ideas that once belonged
-to the personal consciousness. Hence, on
-first thought, it seems plausible that conservation
-might be effected by the content of any moment’s
-consciousness becoming <em>coconscious</em> after the ideas
-have passed out of awareness. According to such
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>an hypothesis all the conscious experiences of our
-lives, that are conserved, would form a great coconscious
-field where they would continue their existence
-in specific form as ideas, and whence they
-could be drawn upon for use at any future time.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Various difficulties are raised by this hypothesis.
-In the first place, there is no evidence that coconscious
-ideas have a continuous existence. The technical
-methods of investigation which give evidence
-of such ideas functioning outside of the awareness
-of the personal consciousness do not show that at
-any given moment they are any more extensive than
-are those which fill the field of the personal consciousness.
-Indeed, usually, the coconscious field
-is of very limited extent. There remains an enormous
-field of conserved experiences to be accounted
-for. So far then as coconscious ideas can be discovered
-by our methods of investigation they are
-<em>inadequate to account for the whole of the conservation
-of life’s experiences</em>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the second place, these ideas come and go in
-the same fashion as do those which make up the
-content of the main personal consciousness; and
-many are constantly recurring to become coconscious
-memories. The same problem, of the nature of
-conservation, therefore confronts us with coconscious
-ideas in the determination of the mechanism
-of coconscious memory. To explain conservation
-through coconscious ideas is but a shifting of the
-problem. If a broader concept be maintained,
-namely, that this coconsciousness, which can be
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>demonstrated in special conditions, is but a fraction
-of the sum total of coconscious ideas outside of the
-personal awareness, we are confronted with a concept
-which from its philosophical nature deals with
-postulates beyond experience. We can neither
-prove nor disprove it. There is much that can be
-said in its support for the deeper we dive into the
-subconscious regions of the mind the more extensively
-do we come across evidences of coconscious
-states underlying specific phenomena. Nevertheless,
-the demonstration of coconscious states in any
-number of specific phenomena does not touch the
-problem of the nature of conservation. In weighing
-the probability of the hypothesis on theoretical
-grounds it would seem, as I have already said in a
-preceding lecture, to be hardly conceivable that
-ideas that had passed out of mind, the thoughts of
-the moment of which we are no longer aware, can
-be treasured, conserved as such in a sort of psychological
-storehouse or reservoir of consciousness,
-just as if they were static or material facts. Such
-a conception would require that every specific state
-of consciousness, every idea, every thought, perception,
-sensation and feeling, after it had passed
-out of mind for the moment, should enter a great
-sea of ideas which would be the sum total of all our
-past experiences. In this sum-total millions of
-ideas would have to be conserved <em>in concrete</em> form
-until wanted again for use by the personal consciousness
-of the moment. Here would be found, in
-what you will see at once would be a real subconscious
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>mind beyond the content or confines of our
-awareness, stored up, so to speak, ready for future
-use, the mass of our past mental experiences. Here
-you would find, perhaps, the visualized idea of a
-seagull soaring over the waters of your beautiful
-bay conserved in association with the idea of the
-mathematical formula, a + b = c; the one having
-originated in a perception of the outer world
-through the window of your study while you were
-working at a lesson in algebra which gave rise to
-the latter. And yet conserved as ideas, as such vast
-numbers of experiences would be, we should not be
-aware of them until they were brought by some
-mysterious agency into the consciousness of the moment.
-The great mass of the mental experiences
-of our lives which we have at our command, our
-extensive educational and other acquisitions from
-which we consciously borrow from time to time, as
-well as those which, we have seen, are conserved
-though they cannot be voluntarily reproduced, all
-these mental experiences, by the hypothesis, would
-still have persisting conscious existences in their
-<em>original concrete psychological form</em>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Such an hypothesis, to my mind, is hardly thinkable,
-and yet this very hypothesis has been proposed,
-though in less concrete form perhaps, in the
-doctrine of the “subliminal mind,” a particular
-form of the theory of the subconscious mind. This
-doctrine, which we owe to the genius of the late
-W. H. H. Meyers, has more recently appeared,
-without full recognition of its paternity, in the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>writings of a more modern school of psychology.
-According to this doctrine our personal consciousness,
-the ideas which we have at any given moment
-and of which we are aware, are but a small portion
-of the sum total of our consciousness. Of this sum-total
-we are aware, at any given moment, of only a
-fractional portion. Our personal consciousness is
-but sort of up-rushes from this great sum of conscious
-states which have been called the subliminal
-mind, the subliminal self, the subconscious self.
-These conscious up-rushes make up the personal
-“I,” with the sense of awareness for their content.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The facts to be explained do not require such a
-metaphysical hypothesis. All that is required is
-that our continuously occurring experiences should
-be conserved in a <em>form</em>, and by an arrangement,
-which will allow the concrete ideas belonging to
-them to reappear in consciousness whenever the
-conserved arrangement is again stimulated. This
-requirement, the theory of conservation, which is
-generally accepted by those who approach the problem
-by psycho-physiological methods, fully satisfies.
-Before stating this theory in specific form let me
-mention to you still another variety of the subliminal
-hypothesis, metaphysical in its nature, which
-appeals to some minds of a philosophical tendency.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Conservation considered as an undifferentiated psychical
-something or “psyche.”</b>—It is difficult to state this hypothesis
-clearly and precisely for it is necessarily
-vague, transcending as it does human experience.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>It is conceived, as I understand the matter, or at least
-the hypothesis connotes, that ideas of the moment,
-after ceasing to be a part of awareness, subside and
-become merged in some form or other in a larger
-mind or consciousness of which they were momentary
-concrete manifestations or phases. This consciousness
-is conceived as a sort of unity. Ideas
-out of awareness still persist as consciousness in
-some form though not necessarily as specific ideas.
-According to this hypothesis, it is evident that when
-the ideas of the moment’s awareness subside and
-become merged into the larger consciousness either
-one of two things must happen; they must either be
-conserved as specific ideas, or lose their individuality
-as states of consciousness, and become fused
-in this larger consciousness as an undifferentiated
-psychical something. Some like to call it a
-“psyche,” apparently finding that by using a Greek
-term, or a more abstract expression, they avoid the
-difficulties of clear thinking.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The first alternative is equivalent to the hypothesis
-of conservation in the form of coconscious specific
-ideas which we have just discussed. The second
-alternative still leaves unexplained the mechanism
-by which differentiation again takes place in this
-psychical unity, how a conscious unity becomes differentiated
-again into and makes up the various
-phases (ideas) of consciousness at each moment;
-that is, the mechanism of memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But, aside from this difficulty, the hypothesis is
-opposed by evidence which we have already found
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>for the persistence of ideas (after cessation as
-states of consciousness) in some concrete form capable
-of very specific activity and of producing very
-specific effects. We have seen that such ideas may
-under certain conditions continue to manifest the
-same specific functionating activity as if continuing
-their existence in concrete form (e. g., so-called subconscious
-solution of problems, physiological disturbances,
-etc.). This phenomenon is scarcely
-reconcilable with the hypothesis that ideas after
-passing out of awareness lose their concrete specificity
-and become merged into an undifferentiated
-psychical something.<a id='r55' /><a href='#f55' class='c009'><sup>[55]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Furthermore, for a concept transcending experience
-to be acceptable it must be shown that it adequately
-explains all the known facts, is incompatible
-with none, and that the facts are not intelligible on
-any other known principle. These conditions seem
-to me far from having been fulfilled. Before accepting
-such a concept it is desirable to see if conservation
-cannot be brought under some principle within
-the domain of experience.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Conservation considered as physical residua.</b>—Now the
-theory of memory which offers a satisfactory explanation
-of the mode in which registration, conservation,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>and reproduction occur postulates the
-conserved residua as physical in nature. Whenever
-we have a mental experience of any kind—a thought,
-or perception of the environment, or feeling—some
-change, some “trace,” is left in the neurons of
-the brain. I need not here discuss the relation between
-brain activity and mind activity. It is enough
-to remind you that, whatever view be held, it is
-universally accepted that every mental process is
-accompanied by a physical process in the brain;
-that, parallel with every series of thoughts, perceptions,
-or feelings, there goes a series of physical
-changes of some kind in the brain neurons. And,
-conversely, whenever this same series of physical
-changes occurs the corresponding series of mental
-processes, that is, of states of consciousness, arises.
-In other words, physical brain processes or experiences
-are correlated with corresponding mind
-processes or experiences, and vice versa.<a id='r56' /><a href='#f56' class='c009'><sup>[56]</sup></a> This is
-known as the doctrine of psycho-physical parallelism.
-Upon this doctrine the whole of psycho-physiology
-and psycho-pathology rests. Mental physiology,
-cerebral localization, and mental diseases
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>excepting on its assumption are unintelligible—indeed,
-the brain as the organ of the mind becomes
-meaningless. We need not here inquire into the nature
-of the parallelism, whether it is of the nature
-of dualism, e. g., a parallelism of two different kinds
-of facts, one psychical and the other physical; or
-whether it is a monism, i.e., a parallelism of two
-different aspects of one and the same fact or a
-parallelism of a single reality (mind) with a mode
-of apprehending it (matter)—mind and matter in
-their inner nature being held to be practically one
-and the same. The theory of memory is unaffected
-whichever view of the mind-brain relation be held.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, according to the psycho-physiological
-theory of memory, with every passing state of conscious
-experience, with every idea, thought, or perception,
-the brain process that goes along with it
-leaves some trace, some residue of itself, within the
-neurons and in the functional arrangements between
-them. It is an accepted principle of physiology
-that when a number of neurons, involved, let
-us say, in a coördinated sensori-motor act, are stimulated
-into functional activity they become so associated
-and the paths between them become so
-opened or, as it were, sensitized, that a <em>disposition</em>
-becomes established for the whole group, or a number
-of different groups, to function together and
-reproduce the original reaction when either one or
-the other is afterward stimulated into activity. This
-“disposition” is spoken of in physiological language
-as a lowering of the threshold of excitability—a
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>term which does not explain but only describes
-the fact. For an explanation we must look to the
-nature of the physical change that is wrought in
-the neurons by the initial functioning. This change
-we may speak of as a <em>residuum</em>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Similarly a system of brain neurons, which in any
-experience is correlated in activity with conscious
-experience, becomes, so to speak, sensitized and acquires,
-in consequence, a “disposition” to function
-again as a system (lowering of thresholds?) in a
-like fashion; so that when one element in the system
-is again stimulated it reproduces the whole
-original brain process, and with this reproduction
-(according to the doctrine of psycho-physical parallelism)
-there is a reproduction of the original
-conscious experience. In other words, without binding
-ourselves down to absolute precision of language,
-it is sufficiently accurate to say that every
-mental experience leaves behind a residue, or a
-trace, of the physical brain process in the chain of
-brain neurons. This residue is the physical <em>register</em>
-of the mental experience. <em>This physical register
-may be conserved or not.</em> If it is conserved we have
-the requisite condition for memory; the <em>form</em> in
-which our mental experiences are conserved. But
-it is not until these physical registers are stimulated
-and the original brain experience is reproduced
-that we have memory. If this occurs the reproduction
-of the brain experience reproduces the conscious
-experience, i.e., conscious memory (according
-to whatever theory of parallelism is maintained).
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>Thus in all ideation, in every process of
-thought, the record of the conscious stream may be
-registered and conserved in the correlated neural
-process. Consequently, the neurons in retaining
-residua of the original process become, to a greater
-or less degree, <em>organized into a functioning system</em>
-corresponding to the system of ideas of the original
-mental process and capable of reproducing it.
-When we reproduce the original ideas in the form
-of memories it is because there is a reproduction of
-the physiological neural process.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is important to note that just as, on the psychological
-side, memory always involves the awakening
-of a previous conscious experience by an
-associated idea, one that was an element in the
-previous system of associated sensations, perceptions,
-thoughts, etc., making up the experience, so,
-on the physiological side, we must suppose that it
-involves stimulation of the whole system of neurons
-belonging to this experience by the physiological
-stimulus corresponding to the conscious element
-or stimulus. For instance, if I see my friend
-A, the image is not a memory, though it is one I
-have had many times before and has left residua of
-itself capable of being reproduced as memory. But
-if I see his hat, and immediately previously linked
-pictorial images of him arise in my mind; or, if,
-when I see him, there arise images of his library in
-which I have previously seen him, these images are
-memory. A conscious memory is always the reproduction
-of an experience by an associated idea
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>or other element of experience (conscious or subconscious).
-Similarly we must infer that the
-neurons correlated with any past mental experience
-are stimulated by associated neuron processes.
-This is the foundation-stone of mental physiology;
-for upon the general principle of the correlation of
-mental processes with neural processes rests the
-whole of cerebral localization and brain physiology.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Although we assume newly arranged dynamic
-associations of neurons corresponding to associations
-of ideas, we do not know how this rearrangement
-is brought about, though we may conceive of
-it as following the physiological laws of lowering of
-thresholds of excitability. Nor do we know whether
-the modifications left as residua (by which the
-thresholds are lowered) are physical or chemical in
-their nature, though there is some reason for believing
-they may be chemical.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Chemical and physical theories of residua.</b>—It is possible
-that, through chemical changes of some kind
-left in the system of neurons corresponding to an
-experience, the neurons may become sensitized so
-as to react again as a whole to a second stimulus
-applied to one element. In other words a hyper-susceptibility
-may become established. There is a
-physiological phenomenon, known as anaphylaxis,
-which may possibly prove more than analogous,
-in that it depends upon the production, through
-chemical changes, of hyper-susceptibility to a stimulus
-which before was inert. The phenomenon is
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>one of sensitizing the body to certain previously
-innocuous substances. If, for instance, a serum
-from a horse be injected into a guinea pig no observable
-reaction follows. But, if a second dose be
-injected, a very pronounced reaction follows and
-the animal dies with striking manifestations called
-anaphylactic shock. This consists of spasm of the
-bronchioles of the lungs induced by contraction of
-their unstriated muscles and results in an attack
-of asphyxia.<a id='r57' /><a href='#f57' class='c009'><sup>[57]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The mechanism of anaphylaxis is a very complicated
-one involving the production in the blood of
-chemical substances called antibodies, and is far
-from being thoroughly understood. One theory is
-that sensitization consists in the “fixing” of the
-cells of the tissues with these antibodies. This may
-or may not be correct—probably not—and I am
-far from wishing to imply that sensitization of the
-neurons, as a consequence of functioning, has anything
-in common with the mechanism of sensitizing
-the body in anaphylaxis. I merely wish to point
-out that sensitizing nervous tissue through chemical
-changes is a physiological concept quite within
-the bounds of possibility; and, as all functioning is
-probably accompanied by metabolic (chemical)
-changes, such metabolic changes may well persist in
-neurons after brain reactions produce sensitization.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>If this hypothesis of sensitization should be
-proven it would offer an intelligible mechanism of
-the phenomenon of memory. If the system of neurons
-engaged in any conscious experience were
-sensitized by chemical changes it would acquire a
-hyper-susceptibility. The system as a whole would
-consequently be excited into activity by any other
-functioning system of neurons with which it was
-in anatomical association and might reproduce the
-originally correlated conscious experience.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Various theories based on known or theoretical
-chemical or physical alterations in the neurons have
-been proposed to account for memory on the physiological
-side. Robertson<a id='r58' /><a href='#f58' class='c009'><sup>[58]</sup></a> has proposed that it is
-of the nature of autocatalysis. Catalysis is the
-property possessed by certain bodies called catalyzers
-of initiating or accelerating chemical reactions
-which would take place without the catalyzer, but
-more slowly. “A catalyzer is a stimulus which excites
-a transformation of energy. The catalyzer
-plays the same rôle in a chemical transformation
-as does the minimal exciting force which sets free
-the accumulation of potential energy previous to
-its transformation into kinetic energy. A catalyzer
-is the friction of the match which sets free the
-chemical energy of the powder magazine.”<a id='r59' /><a href='#f59' class='c009'><sup>[59]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Numerous examples of catalytic actions might
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>be given from chemistry. The inversion of sugar
-by acids, the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide
-by platinum black, fermentation by means of a soluble
-ferment or diastase, a phenomenon which may
-almost be called vital, are all instances. According
-to Leduc “the action of pepsin, of the pancreatic
-ferment, of zymase and other similar ferments has
-a great analogy with the purely physical phenomenon
-of catalysis.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In auto-catalysis one of the <em>products</em> of the reaction
-acts as the catalyzer. Now Robertson concluded,
-as a result of his experiments carried out
-on frogs, that the processes which accompany the
-excitation of the cells of the neurons are of the
-nature of catalysis; for he found that they have
-as one effect the production of an acid; and he also
-found that acids accelerate such processes which
-he concludes to be probably of the nature of oxidations.
-“The chemical phenomena which constitute
-the activity of a neuron cell,” he says, “seem to
-us then an <em>auto-catalytic oxidation</em>, that is to say,
-an oxidation in which one of the products of the
-reaction acts as a catalyzer in the reaction.” It
-occurred to him then that the physiological correlate
-of memory might be explained on the principle
-of auto-catalysis. When, to test this hypothesis, he
-came to compare the results of certain psychological
-experiments on memory, made by two different experimenters
-(Ebbinghaus and Smith), with the law
-characteristic of auto-catalytic chemical reactions,
-he found that they corresponded in a surprisingly
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>close way with this law. That is to say, assuming
-the value of the residua of memory (measured by
-the number of syllables learnt by heart) to be proportional
-to the mass of the chemical product of
-auto-catalysis, we should expect that the increase
-of the number of syllables or other experiences retained
-by memory following increase of repetitions
-would obey the law of catalytic reaction as expressed
-in the mathematical formula established
-for the reaction. Now, as a fact, he found that the
-number of syllables that should be so retained in
-memory, as calculated theoretically by the formula,
-corresponded in a remarkable way with the actual
-number determined by experiment. “The agreement
-was closer,” the author states, “than that
-which generally obtained in experiments in chemical
-dynamics carried out <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>in vitro</i></span>.” Robertson sums up
-his conclusions as follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“5th. We have shown that the phenomenon of
-which the subjective aspect is called ‘memory’ is
-of a nature indicating that the autocatalyzed chemical
-reactions form the mechanism conditioning the
-response of the central nervous system to stimuli.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“6th. In admitting that the extent of the trace
-of memory may be proportionate to the mass of a
-product of an autocatalyzed chemical reaction unfolding
-itself in the central nervous system as the
-result of the application of a stimulus, we have
-shown that the relation which one theoretically deduces
-between the mass of memory material and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>the number of repetitions corresponds to that which
-has been found by experience.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“7th. On the basis of the hypothesis above mentioned
-we have shown that the law of Weber-Fechner
-admits of a rational physico-chemical interpretation,
-and that the result thus obtained, provided
-the hypothesis above mentioned be an exact
-representation of facts, is that the intensity of the
-sensation is at each instant proportionate to the
-mass of the product of the autocatalyzed chemical
-reaction above mentioned and, consequently, to the
-extent of the trace of memory.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>While it is easy to understand that auto-catalysis
-may take part in the chemical process which underlies
-the performance of simple volition, as inferred
-by Robertson,<a id='r60' /><a href='#f60' class='c009'><sup>[60]</sup></a> and perhaps reproduction in the
-memory process, it is difficult to understand how
-such a chemical action can explain conservation.
-The problem is not that of acceleration of an action,
-but of something like the storing up of energy.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Rignano<a id='r61' /><a href='#f61' class='c009'><sup>[61]</sup></a> has proposed an hypothesis according to
-which the cells of the nervous system are to be considered
-as so many accumulators, analogous to electric
-accumulators or storage batteries. “The similarities
-and differences which nerve currents present
-in comparison with electric currents warrant
-us in assuming in nerve currents some of the properties
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>of electric currents, and in attributing at the
-same time to the first other properties which the
-electric do not possess, provided these qualities are
-not incompatible with the others.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, according to the hypothesis, the specific
-nervous current set up by any stimulus forms and
-deposits in the nucleus of the cells (through which
-the current flows) a <em>substance</em> which adds itself to
-the others already there without changing them
-and which is capable, under appropriate conditions,
-of being discharged and restoring the same <em>specific</em>
-current by which it was produced. Each cell thus
-becomes what Rignano calls an <em>elementary nervous
-accumulator</em>. He points out that “both the conception
-of <em>accumulators of nervous energy in tension</em>,
-and that of <em>accumulators of a specific nervous energy
-constituting their specific irritability</em>,” which
-the hypothesis includes, are not new but “an ordinary
-conception very generally employed.”...
-“The only new thing which the above definition includes
-is the hypothesis that the substance, which is
-thus capable of giving as a discharge a given nervous
-current, <em>was produced and deposited</em> only by a
-nervous current of the same specificity, but in the
-inverse direction, and could have been produced and
-deposited only by such a current.” "In just this
-capacity of restoring again the same specificity of
-nervous current as that by which each element had
-been deposited one would look for the cause of the
-mnemonic faculty, in the widest sense, which all living
-matter possesses. And further the very essence
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>of the mnemonic faculty would consist entirely in
-this restitution.“</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>”<em>The specific elementary accumulators</em> (previously
-termed specific potential elements) are thus
-susceptible now of receiving a third name, namely,
-that of <em>mnemonic elements</em>." “The preservation
-of memories is to be ascribed to the accumulations
-of substance,” while “the reawakening of these
-memories consists in the restitution of the same currents
-[by discharge of the substance] as had formerly
-constituted the actual sensation or impression.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>By this hypothesis Rignano explains not only
-memory but the inheritance of acquired characters
-and the whole process of specialization of cells, all
-of which phenomena are special instances of such
-elementary accumulators of organic energy being
-formed and discharged.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Any attempt, with our present knowledge, to postulate
-particular kinds of chemical or physical
-changes in the nervous system as the theoretical
-residua of physiological dispositions left by psychological
-experiences must necessarily be speculative.
-And any hypothesis can only have so much validity
-as may come from its capability of explaining the
-known facts. It is interesting, however, to note
-some of the directions which attempts have taken to
-find a solution of the problem. For the present it is
-best to rest content with the theory to which we
-have been led, step by step, in our exposition,
-namely, that conservation is effected by some sort
-of physiological residua. This theory, of course, is
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>an old one, and has been expressed by many writers.
-What we want, however, is not expressions of opinion
-but facts supporting them. It would seem as if
-the facts accumulated in recent years by experimental
-and abnormal psychology all tended to
-strengthen the theory, notwithstanding an inclination
-in certain directions to seek a psychological interpretation
-of conservation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Some minds of a certain philosophical bent will
-not be able to get over the difficulty of conceiving
-how a psychological process can be conserved by
-the physical residuum of a physiological process.
-But this is only the old difficulty involved in the
-problem of the relation between mind and brain of
-which conservation is only a special example. That
-a mind process and a brain process are so intimately
-related that either one determines the other there
-is no question. It is assumed in every question of
-psycho-physiology. The only question is the How.
-I may point out in passing, but without discussion,
-that if we adopt the doctrine of panpsychism for
-which I have elsewhere argued<a id='r62' /><a href='#f62' class='c009'><sup>[62]</sup></a>—namely, that there
-is only one process—the mental—in one and the
-same individual, and that what we know as the physical
-process is only the mode of apprehending the
-mental process by another individual; if we adopt
-this doctrine of monism the difficulty is solved. In
-other words, the psychical (and consciousness) is
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>reality, while matter (and physical process) is a
-<em>phenomenon</em>, the disguise, so to speak, under which
-the psychical appears when apprehended through
-the special senses. According to this view in their
-last analysis all physical facts are psychical in nature,
-although not psychological (for psychological
-means consciousness), so that physiological and
-psychical are one. To this point I shall return in
-another lecture.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Neurograms.</b>—Whatever may be the exact nature of
-the theoretical alterations left in the brain by life’s
-experiences they have received various generic
-terms; more commonly “brain residua,” and “brain
-dispositions.” I have been in the habit of using
-the term <em>neurograms</em> to characterize these brain
-records. Just as telegram, Marconigram, and
-phonogram precisely characterize the form in
-which the physical phenomena which correspond to
-our (verbally or scripturally expressed) thoughts,
-are recorded and conserved, so neurogram precisely
-characterizes my conception of the form in which a
-system of brain processes corresponding to
-thoughts and other mental experiences is recorded
-and conserved.<a id='r63' /><a href='#f63' class='c009'><sup>[63]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>Of course it must not be overlooked that such
-neurograms are pure theoretical conceptions, and
-have never been demonstrated by objective methods
-of physical research. They stand in exactly the
-same position as the atoms and molecules and ions
-and electrons of physics and chemistry, and the
-“antibodies” and “complements” of bacteriology.
-No one has seen any of these postulates of science.
-They are only inferred. All are theoretical concepts;
-but they are necessary concepts if the phenomena
-of physical, chemical, and bacteriological
-science are to be intelligible. The same may be said
-for brain changes if the phenomena of brain and
-mind are to be intelligible.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>And so it happens that though our ideas pass out
-of mind, are forgotten for the moment, and become
-dormant, their physiological records still remain, as
-sort of vestigia, much as the records of our spoken
-thoughts are recorded on the moving wax cylinder
-of the phonograph. When the cylinder revolves
-again the thoughts once more are reproduced as
-auditory language. A better analogy would be the
-recording and reproducing of our thoughts by the
-dynamic magnetization of the iron wire in another
-type of the instrument. The vibration of the voice
-by means of a particular electrical mechanism
-leaves <em>dynamic traces</em> in the form of corresponding
-magnetic changes in the passing wire, and when the
-magnetized wire again is passed before the reproducing
-diaphragm the spoken thoughts are again reproduced.
-So, when the ideas of any given conscious
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>experience become dormant, the physiological
-records, or dynamic rearrangements, still remain
-organized as physiological unconscious complexes,
-and, with the excitation of these physiological
-complexes, the corresponding psychological
-memories awake.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is only as such physiological complexes that
-ideas that have become dormant can be regarded as
-still existing. If our knowledge were deep enough,
-if by any technical method we could determine the
-exact character of the modifications of the dispositions
-of the neurons that remain as vestiges of
-thought and could decipher their meaning, we could
-theoretically read in our brains the record of our
-lives, as if graphically inscribed on a tablet. As
-Ribot has well expressed it: “... Feelings, ideas,
-and intellectual actions in general are not fixed and
-only become a portion of memory when there are
-corresponding residua in the nervous system—residua
-consisting, as we have previously demonstrated,
-of nervous elements, and dynamic associations
-among those elements. On this condition, and
-this only, can there be conservation and reproduction.”<a id='r64' /><a href='#f64' class='c009'><sup>[64]</sup></a>
-<em>Dormant ideas are thus equivalent to conserved
-physiological complexes.</em> We may use either
-term to express the fact.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The observations and experiments I have recited
-have led us to the conclusion that conservation of
-an experience is something quite specific and distinct
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>from the reproduction of it. They compel us
-to the conclusion that we are entitled, as I pointed
-out at the opening of these lectures, to regard
-memory as a <em>process</em> and the result of at least two
-factors—conservation and reproduction. But as
-conservation is meaningless unless there is something
-to be conserved, we must also assume <em>registration</em>;
-that is, that every conserved mental experience
-is primarily registered somehow and somewhere.
-Conservation implies registration.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Such is the theory of memory as a <em>process of registration,
-conservation, and reproduction</em>. Thus it
-will be seen (according to the theory) that ideas
-which have passed out of mind are preserved, if at
-all, not as ideas, but as physical alterations or records
-in the brain neurons and in the functional
-dynamic arrangements between them.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From this you will easily understand that while,
-as you have seen from concrete observations, we
-can have conservation of experiences without memory
-(reproduction) we cannot have memory without
-conservation. Three factors are essential for memory,
-and memory may fail from the failure of any
-one of them. Unless an experience is registered in
-some form there will be nothing to preserve, and
-memory will fail because of lack of registration. If
-the experience has been registered, memory may
-fail, owing to the registration having faded out, so
-to speak, either with time or from some other reason;
-that is, nothing having been conserved, nothing
-can be reproduced. Finally, though an experience
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>has been registered and conserved, memory
-may still fail, owing to failure of reproduction. The
-neurographic records must be made active once
-more, stimulated into an active process, in order
-that the original experience may be recalled, i.e.,
-reproduced. Thus what we call conscious memory
-is the final result of a process involving the three
-factors, registration, conservation, and reproduction.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Physiological memory.</b>—Memory as commonly regarded
-and known to psychology is a <em>conscious</em>
-manifestation but, plainly, if we regard it, as we
-have thus far, as a process, then, logically, we are
-entitled to regard any process which consists of the
-three factors, registration, conservation, and reproduction
-of experiences, as memory, whether the
-final result be the reproduction of a conscious experience,
-or one to which no consciousness was ever
-attached. In other words, theoretically it is quite
-possible that acquired physiological body-experiences
-may be reproduced by exactly the same process
-as conscious experiences, and their reproduction
-would be entitled to be regarded as memory quite as
-much as if the experience were one of consciousness.
-In principle it is evident that it is entirely immaterial
-whether that which is reproduced is a conscious
-or an unconscious experience so long as the
-mechanism of the process is the same.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, as a matter of fact, there are a large number
-of acquired physiological body-actions which,
-though unconscious, must be regarded quite as much
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>as manifestations of memory as is the conscious
-repetition of the alphabet, or any other conscious
-acquisition. Having been acquired they are <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ipso
-facto</i></span> reproductions of organized experiences. We
-all know very well that movements acquired volitionally,
-and perhaps laboriously, are, after constant
-repetition, reproduced with precision without
-conscious guidance.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>They are said to be automatic; even the guiding
-afferent impressions do not enter the content of
-consciousness. The maintaining of the body in one
-position, sitting or standing, though requiring a
-complicated correlation of a large number of muscles,
-is carried out without conscious volition. It is
-the same with walking and running. Still more
-complicated movements are similarly performed in
-knitting, typewriting and playing the piano, shaving,
-buttoning a coat, etc. We do not even know the
-elementary movements involved in the action, and
-must become aware of them by observation. The
-neurons remember, i.e., conserve and reproduce the
-process acquired by previous conscious experiences.
-But though it is memory it is not conscious memory,
-it is unconscious memory, i.e., a physiological
-memory. The acquired dispositions repeat themselves—what
-is called habit. Precision in games of
-skill largely depend upon this principle. A tennis
-player must learn the “stroke” to play the game
-well. This means that the muscles must be coordinated
-to a delicate adjustment which, once
-learned, must be unconsciously remembered and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>used, without consciously adjusting the muscles
-each time the ball is hit. Indeed some organic memories
-are so tenacious that a player once having
-learned the stroke finds great difficulty even by effort
-of will in unlearning it and making his muscles
-play a different style of stroke. Likewise one who
-has learned to use his arms in sparring by one
-method finds difficulty in learning to spar by another
-method. In fact almost any acquired movement
-is compounded of elementary movements
-which by repetition were linked and finely adjusted
-to produce the resultant movement, and finally conserved
-as an <em>unconscious physiological arrangement</em>.
-As one writer has said, the neuron organization
-“faithfully preserves the records of processes
-often performed.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In what has just been said the fact has not been
-overlooked that the initiation or modification of any
-of the movements which have been classed as physiological
-memory (knitting, typewriting, games of
-skill, etc.), even after their acquisition, is necessarily
-voluntary and therefore, so far, a conscious memory,
-but the nice coördination of afferent and efferent
-impulses for the adjustment of the muscles involved
-becomes, by repetition, an unconscious mechanism,
-and is performed outside the province of the
-will as an act of <em>unconscious memory</em>. By repeated
-experience the neurons become functionally organized
-in such a way as to acquire and conserve a
-functional “disposition” to reproduce the movements
-originally initiated by volition.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>Physiological memory has indeed, as it seems,
-been recently experimentally demonstrated by Rothmann,
-who educated a dog from which the hemispheres
-had been removed to perform certain
-tricks; e. g., to jump over a hurdle.<a id='r65' /><a href='#f65' class='c009'><sup>[65]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Still another variety of memory is <em>psycho-physiological</em>.
-This type is characterized by a combination
-of psychological and physiological elements
-and is important, as we shall see later, because of
-the conspicuous part which such memories play in
-pathological conditions. Certain bodily reactions
-which are purely physiological, such as vaso-motor,
-cardiac, respiratory, intestinal, digestive, etc., disturbances,
-become, as the result of certain experiences,
-linked with one or another psychical element
-(sensations, perceptions, thoughts), and, this
-linking becoming conserved as a “disposition,” the
-physiological reaction is reproduced whenever the
-psychical element is introduced into consciousness.
-Thus, for example, the perception or thought of a
-certain person may become, as the result of a given
-social episode, so linked with blushing or cardiac
-palpitation that whenever the former is thrust into
-consciousness, no matter how changed the conditions
-may be from those of the original episode, the
-physiological reaction of the blood vessels or heart
-is reproduced. Here the original psycho-physiological
-experience—the association of an idea (or
-psychical element) with the physiological process is
-conserved and <a id='corr138.30'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='repoduced'>reproduced</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_138.30'><ins class='correction' title='repoduced'>reproduced</ins></a></span>. Such a reproduction is
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>essentially a psycho-physiological memory depending
-wholly upon the acquired disposition of the neurons.<a id='r66' /><a href='#f66' class='c009'><sup>[66]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Thus, to take an actual example from real life, a
-certain person during a series of years was expecting
-to hear bad news because of the illness of a
-member of the family and consequently was always
-startled, and her “heart always jumped into her
-throat,” whenever the telephone rang. Finally the
-news came. That anxiety is long past, but now
-when the telephone rings, although she is not expecting
-bad news and no thought of the original experience
-consciously arises in her mind, her “heart
-always gives a leap and sometimes she bursts into a
-perspiration.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>A beautiful illustration of this type of memory is
-to be found in the results of the extremely important
-experiments, for psychology as well as physiology,
-of Pawlow and his co-workers in the reflex stimulation
-of saliva in dogs. These experiments show
-the possibility of linking a physiological process to
-a psychological process by education, and through
-the conservation of the association reproducing the
-physiological process as an act of unconscious memory.
-(The experiments, of course, were undertaken
-for an entirely different purpose, namely, that of
-studying the digestive processes only.) It should
-be explained that it was shown that the salivary
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>glands are selective in their reaction to stimuli in
-that they do not respond at all to some (pebbles,
-snow), but respond to others with a thin watery
-fluid containing mere traces of mucin or a slimy
-mucin-holding fluid, according as to whether the
-stimulating substance is one which the dog rejects,
-and which therefore must be washed out or diluted
-(sands, acids, bitter and caustic substances), or is
-an eatable substance and must as a food bolus be
-lubricated for the facilitation of its descent. Dryness
-of the food, too, largely determined the quantity
-of the saliva.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now the experiments of the St. Petersburg laboratory
-brought out another fact which is of particular
-interest for us and which is thus described by
-Pawlow. “In the course of our experiments it appeared
-that all the phenomena of adaptation which
-we saw in the salivary glands under <em>physiological</em>
-conditions, such, for instance, as the introduction of
-the stimulating substances into the buccal cavity,
-reappeared in exactly the same manner under the
-influence of <em>psychological</em> conditions—that is to say,
-when we merely drew the animal’s attention to the
-substances in question. Thus, when we pretended
-to throw pebbles into the dog’s mouth, or to cast in
-sand, or to pour in something disagreeable, or, finally,
-when we offered it this or that kind of food, a
-secretion either immediately appeared or it did not
-appear, in accordance with the properties of the
-substance which we had previously seen to regulate
-the quantity and nature of the juice when
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span><em>physiologically</em> excited to flow. If we pretended to
-throw in sand a watery saliva escaped from the
-mucous glands; if food, a slimy saliva. And if the
-food was dry—for example, dry bread—a large
-quantity of saliva flowed out even when it excited no
-special interest on the part of the dog. When, on
-the other hand, a moist food was presented—for example,
-flesh—much less saliva appeared than in the
-previous case however eagerly the dog may have
-desired the food. This latter effect is particularly
-obvious in the case of the parotid gland.”<a id='r67' /><a href='#f67' class='c009'><sup>[67]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is obvious that in these experiments, when the
-experimenter pretended to throw various substances
-into the dog’s mouth, the action was effective
-in producing the flow of saliva of specific qualities
-because, through repeated experiences, the pictorial
-images (or ideas) of the substance had become
-associated with the specific physiological salivary
-reaction, and this association had been conserved
-as a neurogram. Consequently the neurographic
-residue when stimulated each time by the
-pretended action of the experimenter reproduced
-reflexly the specific physiological reaction and, so
-far as the process was one of registration, conservation,
-and reproduction, it was an act of psycho-physiological
-memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>That this is the correct interpretation of the educational
-mechanism is made still more evident by
-other results that were obtained; for it was found
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>that the effective psychical stimulus may be part of
-wider experiences or a complex of ideas; everything
-that has been in any way psychologically associated
-with an object which physiologically excites
-the saliva reflex may also produce it; the plate
-which customarily contains the food, the furniture
-upon which it stands; the person who brings it;
-even the sound of the voice and the sound of the
-steps of this person.<a id='r68' /><a href='#f68' class='c009'><sup>[68]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Indeed, it was found that any sensory stimulus
-could be educated into one that would induce the
-flow of saliva, if the stimulus had been previously
-associated with food which normally excited the
-flow. “Any ocular stimulus, any desired sound, any
-odor that might be selected, and the stimulation of
-any part of the skin, either by mechanical means or
-by the application of heat or cold, have in our hands
-never failed to stimulate the salivary glands, although
-they were all of them at one time supposed
-to be inefficient for such a purpose. This was accomplished
-by applying these stimuli simultaneously
-with the action of the salivary glands, this action
-having been evolved by the giving of certain
-kinds of food or by forcing certain substances into
-the dog’s mouth.”<a id='r69' /><a href='#f69' class='c009'><sup>[69]</sup></a> It is obvious that reflex excitation
-thus having been accomplished by the education
-of the nerve centers to a previously indifferent
-stimulus the reproduction of the process
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>through this stimulus is, in principle, an act of
-physiological memory.<a id='r70' /><a href='#f70' class='c009'><sup>[70]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The experiences of the dogs embraced quite large
-systems of ideas and sensory stimuli which included
-the environment of persons and their actions,
-the furniture, plates, and other objects; and various
-ocular, auditory, and other sensory stimuli applied
-arbitrarily to the dogs. All these experiences had
-been welded into an associative system and conserved
-as neurograms. Consequently it was only
-necessary to stimulate again any element in the
-neurogram to reproduce the whole process, including
-the specific salivary reaction.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We shall see later that these experiments acquire
-additional interest from the fact that in them is to
-be found the fundamental principle of what under
-other conditions can be recognized as a <em>psycho-neurosis—an
-abnormal or perverted association
-and memory</em>. The effects produced by this association
-of stimuli may be regarded as the germ of the
-habit psychosis, and in these experiments we have
-experimental demonstration of the mechanism of
-these psychoses—but this is another story which we
-will take up by and by.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Recollection.</b>—This is as good a place as any other
-to call attention to a certain special form of memory.
-Recollection and memory are not synonymous
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>terms. We are accustomed to think of memory as
-including, in addition to other qualities, recollection,
-i.e., what is called localization of the experience in
-time and space. It connotes an awareness of the
-content of the memory having been once upon a time
-a previous experience which is more or less accurately
-located in a given past time (yesterday, or a
-year ago, or twenty years ago), and in certain local
-relations of space (when we were at school, or riding
-in a railway car with so and so). But, as Ribot
-points out, this (relatively to physiological memories)
-is ... “only a certain kind of memory
-which we call perfect.” For we have just seen that,
-when memory is considered as a process, reproduced
-physiological processes, which contain no
-elements of consciousness and therefore of localization,
-may be memory. But more than this, I would
-insist, <em>recollection is only a more perfect kind of
-conscious memory</em>. Ribot would make recollection
-a peculiarity of all conscious memory, but this is
-plainly an oversight. As we saw in previous lectures
-there may be <em>conscious memories which do not
-contain any element of recollection</em>, or, in other
-words, such conscious memories resemble in every
-way, in principle, the reproduction of organic neuron
-processes in that they have no conscious localization
-in the past. In dissociated personalities, for instance,
-and in other types of <em>dissociated conditions</em>
-(functional amnesia, post-hypnotic states, etc.), the
-names of persons, places, faces, objects, and even
-complex ideas may flash into the mind without any
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>element of recollection. The person may have no
-idea whence they come, but by experiment it is easy
-to demonstrate that they are automatic memories
-of past experiences.<a id='r71' /><a href='#f71' class='c009'><sup>[71]</sup></a> In the sensory automatisms
-known as <em>crystal visions</em>, pictures which accurately
-reproduce, symbolically, past experiences of which
-the subject has no recollection may vividly arise in
-the mind. Such pictures are real conscious symbolic
-memories. <em>Dreams</em>, too, as we have seen, may
-be unrecognized memories in that they may reproduce
-conscious experiences, something heard or
-seen perhaps, but which has been completely forgotten
-even when awake. Again, modern methods
-of investigation show that numerous ideas that occur
-in the course of our <em>everyday thoughts</em>—names,
-for instance—are excerpts from, or vestiges of, previous
-conscious experiences of which we have no
-recollection, that is to say, they are memories, reproductions
-of formerly experienced ideas. In the
-absence of recollection they seem to belong only to
-the present. Memories which hold an intermediate
-place between these automatic memories and those
-of true recollection are certain memories, like the
-alphabet or a verse or phrase once learned by heart
-which we are able at best to localize only dimly in
-the past. Indeed, the greater part of our <em>vocabulary</em>
-is but conscious memory without localization in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>the past. So we see that recollection is not an essential
-even for conscious memories. It is only a
-particular phase of memory just as are automatic
-conscious memories.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f54'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r54'>54</a>. I use this term physical in the sense in which it is used in the
-physical sciences without reference to any metaphysical concept or
-the ultimate nature of matter or of a physical process.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f55'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r55'>55</a>. The psyche would have to be one which would be capable of
-becoming differentiated at one and the same moment into two independent
-consciousnesses—the personal and the secondary; a soul
-split into two, so to speak. The desire to explain a secondary consciousness
-by this doctrine has probably given rise to the popular
-notion of two souls in a single body!</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f56'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r56'>56</a>. If the theory of the unconscious presented in these lectures be
-firmly established this doctrine will have to be modified to this extent,
-that, while all mental processes are accompanied by brain
-processes, brain processes that ordinarily have conscious equivalents
-can within certain limits occur without them and exhibit all the
-characteristics of intelligence—unconscious cerebration. <em>Indeed, it
-becomes probable that every mental process is a part of a larger
-mechanism in which unconscious brain processes not correlated with
-the specifically conscious processes are integral factors.</em></p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f57'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r57'>57</a>. Dr. S. J. Meltzer has pointed out in a very suggestive article
-(<cite>Journal American Medical Association</cite>, Vol. IV, No. 12) that the
-anaphylactic attack resembles that of bronchial asthma in man, and
-argues that this latter disease may be the same phenomenon.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f58'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r58'>58</a>. T. Brailsford Robertson: <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Sur la Dynamique chimique du système
-nerveux central, Archiv. de Physiol. v. 6, 1908, p. 388.</span> <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Ueber die
-Wirkung von Säuren auf das Athmungs Zentrum, Arch. f. die
-Gesammte Physiologie, Bd. 145, Hft. 5 u. 6, 1912</span>.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f59'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r59'>59</a>. Stéphane Leduc: The Mechanism of Life.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f60'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r60'>60</a>. Further studies in the chemical dynamics of the central nervous
-system, Folio Neuro-Biologica, Bd. VI, Nos. 7 and 8, 1912.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f61'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r61'>61</a>. Eugenio Rignano: Upon the Inheritance of Acquired Characters.
-Trans. by Basil C. H. Harvey, Chicago. Open Court Publishing
-Co., 1911.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f62'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r62'>62</a>. Prince: The Nature of Mind and Human Automatism, 1885:
-Hughlings-Jackson on the Connection between the Mind and Brain,
-<cite>Brain</cite>, p. 250, 1891; The Identification of Mind and Matter,
-<cite>Philosoph. Rev.</cite>, July, 1904.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f63'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r63'>63</a>. Richard Semon (Die Mneme, 1908) has adopted the term
-Engramm with much the same signification that I have given to
-Neurogram, excepting that Engramm has a much wider meaning
-and connotation. It is not limited to nervous tissue, but includes
-the residual changes held by some to be left in all irritable living
-substances after stimulation. All such substances are therefore
-capable of memory in a wide sense (Mneme).</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f64'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r64'>64</a>. Th. Ribot: Diseases of Memory, pp. 154, 155. Translation by
-William Huntington Smith. D. Appleton &amp; Co.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f65'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r65'>65</a>. Cf. Lecture VIII, p. <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f66'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r66'>66</a>. Emotion is a factor in the genesis of such phenomena, but may
-be disregarded for the present until we have studied the phenomena
-of the emotions by themselves.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f67'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r67'>67</a>. The Work of the Digestive Glands (English Translation), p.
-152.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f68'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r68'>68</a>. <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Psychische Erregung der Speicheldrusen, J. P. Pawlow. Ergebnisse
-der Physiologie, 1904, I Abteil., p. 182</span>.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f69'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r69'>69</a>. Huxley Lecture, <cite>Br. Med. Jour.</cite>, October 6, 1906.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f70'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r70'>70</a>. Pawlow overlooked in these experiments the possible, if not
-probable, intermediary of the emotions in producing the effects.
-The principle, however, would not be affected thereby.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f71'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r71'>71</a>. Compare “The Dissociation,” pp. 254, 261. For examples, see
-also “Multiple Personality,” by Boris Sidis, and “The Lowell Case
-of Amnesia,” by Isador Coriat, <cite>The Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>,
-Vol. II, p. 93.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE VI<br /> SUBCONSCIOUS PROCESSES</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>In what I have said thus far I have had another
-purpose in view than that of a mere exposition of
-the psycho-physiological theory of memory. This
-other and chief purpose has been to lay the foundation
-for a conception of the <em>Unconscious</em> in its larger
-aspect. We have seen that thoughts and other conscious
-experiences that have passed out of mind may
-be and to an enormous extent are conserved and,
-from this point of view, may be properly regarded
-as simply <em>dormant</em>. Further we have seen that all
-the data collected by experimental pathology and
-other observations lead to the conclusion that conservation
-is effected in the form of neurographic
-residua or brain neurograms—organized physiological
-records of passing mental experiences of all
-sorts and kinds. We have seen that these neurographic
-records conserve not only our educational
-acquisitions and general stock of knowledge—all
-those experiences which we remember—but a vast
-number of others which we cannot spontaneously
-recall, including, it may be, many which date back
-to early childhood, and many which we have deliberately
-repressed, put out of mind and intentionally
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>forgotten. We have also seen that it is not only
-these mental experiences which occupied the focus
-of our attention that leave their counterpart in
-neurograms, but those as well of which we are only
-partially aware—absent-minded thoughts and acts
-and sensations and perceptions which never entered
-our awareness at all—subconscious or coconscious
-ideas as they are called. Finally, we have seen that
-the mental experiences of every state, normal, artificial,
-or pathological, whatever may be the state of
-the personal consciousness, are subject to the same
-principle of conservation. In this way, in the course
-of any one’s natural life, an enormous field of neurograms
-is formed representing ideas which far transcend
-in multitude and variety those of the personal
-consciousness at any given moment and all moments,
-and which are far beyond the voluntary beck and
-call of the personal consciousness of the individual.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Neurograms are concepts and, by the meaning of
-the concept, they are unconscious. It is not necessary
-to enter into the question whether they are in
-their ultimate nature psychical or physical. That is
-a philosophical question.<a id='r72' /><a href='#f72' class='c009'><sup>[72]</sup></a> They are at any rate unconscious
-in this sense; they are devoid of consciousness,
-i.e., have none of the psychological attributes
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>of any of the elements of consciousness,
-and in the sense in which any physiological arrangement
-or process is not conscious, i.e., is unconscious.
-We have here, then, in the concept of
-brain residual neurograms the fundamental meaning
-of the <em>Unconscious</em>.<a id='r73' /><a href='#f73' class='c009'><sup>[73]</sup></a> <em>The unconscious is the
-great storehouse of neurograms which are the
-physiological records of our mental lives.</em> By the
-terms of the concept neurograms are primarily passive—the
-potential form, as it were, in which psychical
-energy is stored. This is not to say, however,
-that, from moment to moment, certain ones out of
-the great mass may not become active processes.
-On the contrary, according to the theory of memory,
-when certain complexes of neurograms are stimulated
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>they take on activity and function—the potential
-energy becomes converted into dynamic energy.
-In correlation with the functioning of such
-neurographic complexes, the complexes of ideas
-which they conserve—the psychological equivalents—are
-reproduced (according to the doctrines of
-monism and parallelism) and enter the stream of
-the personal consciousness. The unconscious becomes
-the conscious (monism), or provided with
-correlated conscious accompaniments (parallelism),
-and we may speak of the ideas arising out of the <a id='corr150.12'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='unconscious.”'>unconscious.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_150.12'><ins class='correction' title='unconscious.”'>unconscious.</ins></a></span></p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Neurograms may also function as subconscious processes
-exhibiting intelligence and determining mental and bodily
-behavior.</b>—Here two important questions present
-themselves. Is it a necessary consequence that when
-unconscious neurograms become active processes
-psychological equivalents must be awakened; and
-when they are awakened, must they <em>necessarily</em>
-enter the stream of the personal consciousness? If
-both these questions may be answered in the negative,
-<em>then plainly in either case such active processes
-become by definition subconscious processes</em>—of an
-<em>unconscious</em> nature in the one case and of a <em>coconscious</em>
-nature in the other. They would be subconscious
-because in the first place they would occur
-outside of consciousness and there is no awareness
-of them, and in the second place they would be a
-dissociated second train of processes distinct from
-those engaged in the conscious stream of the moment.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>Theoretically such subconscious processes,
-whether unconscious or coconscious, might perform
-a variety of functions according to the specificity of
-their activities.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, in preceding lectures, when marshalling the
-evidence for conservation, we met with a large number
-and variety of phenomena (automatic writing,
-hallucinations, post-hypnotic phenomena, dreams,
-“unconscious” solution of problems, etc.), which
-clearly demonstrated that memory might be manifested
-by processes of which the individual was unaware
-and which were outside the content of consciousness.
-Hence these phenomena presented very
-clear evidence of the occurrence of processes that
-may be properly termed <em>subconscious</em>.<a id='r74' /><a href='#f74' class='c009'><sup>[74]</sup></a> Attention,
-however, was primarily directed to them only so far
-as they offered evidence of conservation and of the
-mode by which conservation was effected. But necessarily
-these evidences were subconscious manifestations
-of forgotten experiences (memory), and in
-so far as this was the case we saw that unconscious
-neurograms can take on activity and function subconsciously;
-i.e., without their psychological equivalents
-(i.e., correlated conscious memory) entering
-the stream of the personal consciousness. We may
-now speak of these processes as <b>subconscious memory</b>.
-But when their manifestations are carefully
-scrutinized they will be found to exhibit more than
-memory. They may, for instance, exhibit logical
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>elaboration of the original experiences, and what
-corresponds to fabrication, reasoning, volition and
-affectivity. <em>Theoretically</em> this is what we should
-expect if any of the conserved residual experiences
-of life can function subconsciously. As life’s experiences
-include fears, doubts, scruples, wishes, affections,
-resentments, and numerous other affective
-states, innate dispositions, and instincts, the subconscious
-memory process necessarily may include any
-of these affective complexes of ideas and tendencies.
-An affective complex means an idea (or ideas)
-linked to one or more emotions and feelings. In
-other words, any acquired residua drawn from the
-general storehouse of life’s experiences may be systematized
-with feelings and emotions, the innate
-dispositions and instincts of the organism. Now it
-is a general psychological law that such affective
-states tend by the force of their conative impulses
-to carry the specific ideas with which they are systematized
-to fulfilment through mental and bodily
-behavior. Consequently, theoretically, it might
-thus well be that the residua of diverse experiences,
-say a fear or a wish, by the force of such impulses
-might become activated into very specific subconscious
-processes with very specific tendencies expressing
-themselves in very specific ways, producing
-very specific and diverse phenomena. Thus
-memory would be but one of the manifestations of
-subconscious processes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, as a matter of fact, there are a large number
-of phenomena which not only justify the postulation
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>of subconscious processes but also the inference
-that such processes, activated by their affective
-impulses, may so influence conscious thought that
-the latter is modified in various ways; that it may be
-determined in this or that direction, inhibited, interrupted,
-distorted, made insistent, and given pathological
-traits. There is also a large variety of
-bodily phenomena which can be explicitly shown to
-be due to subconscious processes, and many which
-are only explicable by such a mechanism. Indeed, a
-subconscious process may become very complex and
-constellated with any one or many of the psycho-physiological
-mechanisms of the organism. In special
-artificial and pathological conditions where
-such processes reach their highest development, as
-manifested through their phenomena, they may exhibit
-that which when consciously performed is understood
-to be <em>intelligence</em>, comprising reasoning,
-constructive imagination, volition, and feeling; in
-short, what is commonly called thought or mental
-processes. Memory, of course, enters as an intrinsic
-element in these manifestations just as it is an
-intrinsic element in all thought. The automatic
-script that describes the memories of a long-forgotten
-childhood experience may at the same time reason,
-indulge in jests, rhyme, express cognition and
-understanding of questions—indeed (if put to the
-test), might not only pass a Binet-Simon examination
-for intelligence, but take a high rank in a Civil
-Service examination. In these more elaborate exhibitions
-of subconscious intelligence it is obvious
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>that there is an exuberant efflorescence of the residua
-deposited in many unconscious fields by life’s
-experiences and synthesized into a <em>subconscious
-functioning system</em>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is beyond the scope of this lecture to examine
-into the particular <em>mechanism</em> by which a subconscious
-process is provoked at all—why, for instance,
-a dormant wish or fear-neurogram becomes activated
-into a subconscious wish or fear, or having
-become activated, the mechanism by which such a
-wish or fear manifests itself in this phenomenon or
-that—or to examine even any large number of the
-various phenomena which are provoked by subconscious
-processes, and it is not my intention to do so.
-Such problems belong to special psychology and
-special pathology. Of recent years, for instance,
-certain schools of psychology, and in particular the
-Freudian school, have attempted to establish particular
-mechanisms by which subconscious processes
-come into being and express themselves. We are
-engaged in the preliminary and fundamental task of
-establishing, if possible, certain basic principles
-which any mechanism must make use of, and, as a
-deeper-lying theoretical question, the nature of such
-processes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The subconscious now belongs to popular speech
-and it is the fashion of the day to speak of it glibly
-enough, but I fear it means very little to the average
-person. It is involved in vagueness if not mystery.
-Yet as a necessary induction from observed
-facts it has a very precise and concrete meaning
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>devoid of <a id='corr155.1'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='abtruseness'>abstruseness</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_155.1'><ins class='correction' title='abtruseness'>abstruseness</ins></a></span>, just as the other has a precise
-and concrete meaning. Although subconscious
-processes were originally postulated on theoretical
-grounds, the theory is fortunately open to experimental
-tests so that it is capable of being placed on
-an experimental basis like other concepts of science.
-It is possible to artificially create such processes
-and study their phenomena; that is to say, the
-modes in which they manifest their activities, their
-influence upon conscious and bodily processes. We
-can study their effect in inhibiting and distorting
-thought, in determining it in this or that direction,
-in creating hallucinatory, emotional, amnesic, and
-other mental phenomena, in inducing physiological
-disturbances of motion, sensation, of the viscera,
-etc. We can also study the capabilities and limitations
-of the subconscious in carrying on intelligent
-operations below the threshold of consciousness.
-Again, we can investigate the phenomena of this
-kind as met with in the course of clinical observations,
-and by technical methods of research explore
-the subconscious and thus explicitly reveal the process
-underlying and inducing the phenomena. By
-such methods of investigation the subconscious has
-been removed from the field of speculative psychology,
-and placed in the field of experimental research.
-We have thus been enabled to postulate a
-subconscious process as a <em>definite concrete process
-producing very definite phenomena</em>. These processes
-and their phenomena have become a field of
-study in themselves and, from my point of view,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>the determination of the laws of the subconscious
-should be approached by such experimental and
-technical methods of research. After its various
-modes of activity, its capabilities and limitations
-have been in this way established, its laws can then
-be applied to the solution of conditions surrounding
-particular problems. Though we can determine
-the actuality of a particular subconscious process
-this does not mean that we can determine all the
-components of that process; we may be able to determine
-many or perhaps none of these: just as
-among the constituents of a crowd we may discern
-an active, turbulent group creating a disturbance,
-though we may not be able to recognize all the components
-of the group or the scattered individuals
-acting in conjunction with it. Nor may we be able
-to determine the intrinsic nature of a subconscious
-process—whether it is a conscious or unconscious
-one, but only the actuality of the process, the conditions
-of its activity, and the phenomena which it
-induces.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><em>A subconscious process may be provisionally defined
-as one of which the personality is unaware,
-which, therefore, is outside the personal consciousness,
-and which is a factor in the determination of
-conscious and bodily phenomena, or produces effects
-analogous to those which might be directly or
-indirectly induced by consciousness.</em> It would be
-out of the question at this time to enter into an exposition
-of the larger subject—the multiform phenomena
-of the subconscious, but as its processes are
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>fundamental to an understanding of many phenomena
-with which we shall have to deal, we should
-have a clear understanding of the grounds on which
-such processes are postulated as specific, concrete
-occurrences. The classical demonstration of subconscious
-occurrences makes use of certain phenomena
-of hysteria, particularly those of subconscious
-personalities and artificial “automatic” phenomena
-like automatic writing. The epoch-making researches
-of Janet<a id='r75' /><a href='#f75' class='c009'><sup>[75]</sup></a> on hysterics and almost coincidently
-with him of Edmund Gurney on hypnotics
-very clearly established the fact that these phenomena
-are the manifestations of <em>dissociated</em> processes
-outside of and independent of the personal consciousness.
-Among the phenomena, for example,
-are motor activities of various kinds such as ordinarily
-are or may be induced by conscious intelligence.
-As the individual, owing to anesthesia, may
-be entirely unaware even that he has performed any
-such act, the process that performed it must be one
-that is subconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>The intrinsic nature of subconscious processes.</b>—Janet
-further brought forward indisputable evidence showing
-that in hysteria these subconscious processes
-are real coconscious processes. It is only another
-mode of expressing this to say that there is a dissociation
-or division of consciousness in consequence
-of which certain ideas do not enter the content
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>of the personal consciousness of the individual.
-It is possible, as he was the first to show, to communicate
-with and, in hypnotic and other dissociated
-states, recover memories of these split-off ideas of
-which the individual is unaware, and thereby establish
-the principle that these ideas are the subconscious
-process which induces the hysterical phenomena.
-(These phenomena are of a great many kinds
-and include sensory as well as motor automatisms,
-inhibition of thought and will, deliria, visceral, emotional,
-and other disturbances of mind and body.)
-The hysterical subconscious process is thus determined
-to be a very specific concrete <em>coconscious</em> process,
-one, the elements of which are memories and
-other particular ideas. This type of subconscious
-process, therefore, may be regarded as the activated
-residua of antecedent experiences with or without
-secondary elaboration. All subsequent investigations
-during the past twenty-five years have served
-but to confirm the accuracy of Janet’s observations
-and conclusions. It would be out of the question at
-this time, before coconscious ideas have been systematically
-studied, to attempt to present the evidence
-on which this interpretation of certain subconscious
-phenomena rests. This will be done in
-other lectures.<a id='r76' /><a href='#f76' class='c009'><sup>[76]</sup></a> I will simply say that this evidence
-for coconsciousness occurring in certain special
-conditions, artificial and pathological, and perhaps
-as a constituent of the normal content of consciousness,
-is of precisely the same character as
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>that for the occurrence of consciousness in any
-other individual but one’s self. If we reject the evidence
-of hysterical phenomena, of that furnished
-by a coconscious personality, and by automatic
-script and speech, etc., we shall have to reject precisely
-similar evidence for consciousness in other
-people than ourselves.<a id='r77' /><a href='#f77' class='c009'><sup>[77]</sup></a> The evidence is explicit
-and not implied.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>A subconscious personality is a condition where
-complexes of subconscious processes have been constellated
-into a personal system, manifesting a secondary
-system of self-consciousness endowed with
-volition, intelligence, etc. Such a subconscious personality
-is capable of communicating with the experimenter
-and describing its own mental processes.
-It can, after repression of the primary personality,
-become the sole personality for the time being, and
-then remember its previous subconscious life, as we
-all remember our past conscious life, and can give
-full and explicit information regarding the nature
-of the subconscious process. By making use of the
-testimony of a subconscious personality and its various
-manifestations, we can not only establish the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>actuality of subconscious processes and their intrinsic
-nature in these conditions, but by prearrangement
-with this personality predetermine any particular
-process we desire and study the modes in
-which it influences conscious thought and conduct.
-For instance, we can prescribe a conflict between
-the subconsciousness and the personal consciousness,
-between a subconscious wish and a conscious
-wish, or volition, and observe the resultant mental
-and physical behavior, which may be inhibition of
-thought, hallucinations, amnesia, motor phenomena,
-etc. The possibilities and limitations of subconscious
-influences can in this way be experimentally
-studied. Subconscious personalities, therefore,
-afford a valuable means for studying the mechanism
-of the mind.<a id='r78' /><a href='#f78' class='c009'><sup>[78]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The conclusion, then, seems compulsory that the
-subconscious processes in many conditions, particularly
-those that are artificially induced and those
-that are pathological, are <em>coconscious</em> processes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>There are other phenomena, however, which require
-the postulation of a subconscious process, yet
-which, when the subconscious is searched by the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>same methods made use of in hysterical phenomena,
-do not reveal explicit evidence of coconsciousness.
-An analysis of the subconscious revelations as well
-as the phenomena themselves seems to favor the
-interpretation that in some cases the underlying
-process is in part and in others wholly <em>unconscious</em>.
-The only ground for the interpretation that all subconscious
-processes are wholly conscious is the
-assumption that, as some are conscious, all must be.
-This is as unsound as the assumption that, because
-at the other end of the scale some complex actions
-(e. g., those performed by decerebrated animals)
-are intelligent and yet performed by processes
-necessarily unconscious, therefore all actions not
-under the guidance of the personal consciousness
-are performed by unconscious processes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If some subconscious processes are unconscious
-they are equivalent to physiological processes such
-as, <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ex hypothesi</i></span>, are correlated with all conscious
-processes and perhaps may be identified with them.
-In truth, they mean nothing more nor less than “unconscious
-cerebration.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We can say at once that considering the complexity
-and multiformity of psycho-physiological phenomena
-there would seem to be no <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>a priori</i></span> reason
-why all subconscious phenomena must be the same
-in respect to being either coconscious or unconscious;
-some may be the one and some the other. It is
-plainly a matter of interpretation of the facts and
-there still exists some difference of opinion. The
-problem is a very difficult one to settle by methods
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>at present available; yet it can only be settled by
-the same methods, in principle, that we depend upon
-to determine the reality of a personal consciousness
-in other persons than ourselves. No amount of <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>a
-priori</i></span> argument will suffice. Perhaps some day a
-criterion of a conscious state of which the individual
-is unaware will be found, just as the psycho-galvanic
-phenomenon is possibly a criterion of an effective
-state. Any conclusions which we reach at present
-should be regarded as provisional.<a id='r79' /><a href='#f79' class='c009'><sup>[79]</sup></a></p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'>SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS</h3>
-
-<p class='c015'>As one of our foremost psychologists has said,
-the subconscious is not only the most important
-problem of psychology, it is <em>the</em> problem. But of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>course it involves many problems of practical and
-theoretical interest. Among them are:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>First of all the evidential justification of the
-postulation of subconscious processes in general.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Second; the intrinsic nature of such processes.
-In other words and more specifically, whether the
-neurograms of experiences after becoming active
-subconscious <em>processes</em> continue to be devoid of consciousness,
-nothing but a brain process,—i.e., unconscious;
-or whether in becoming activated they
-become conscious (monism), or acquire conscious
-equivalents (parallelism), notwithstanding they are
-outside (dissociated from) the content of the personal
-consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Third; the kind and complexity of functions a
-subconscious process can perform. Can it perform
-the same functions as are ordinarily performed by
-conscious <em>intelligence</em> (as we commonly understand
-that term); that is to say memory, perception, reasoning,
-imagination, volition, affectivity, etc.? If
-so, to what extent?</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Fourth; are the processes of the conscious mind
-only a part of a larger mechanism of which a submerged
-part is a subconscious process?</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Fifth; to what extent can and do subconscious
-processes determine the processes of the conscious
-mind and bodily behavior in normal and abnormal
-conditions?</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>These are some of the problems of the subconscious
-which for the most part have been only incompletely
-investigated.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>It is, of course, beyond the scope of these introductory
-lectures to discuss with any completeness
-the evidence at hand bearing upon these problems
-or to even touch upon many of the points involved.
-We may, however, study more deeply than we have
-done some of the phenomena with which we have
-become familiar with a view to seeing what light
-they throw upon some of these problems, particularly
-the first three.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>1, 2, and 3; Actuality, Intrinsic Nature and Intelligence
-of Subconscious Processes.</b>—As to the first question,
-whether subconscious processes can be established
-in principle as a sound induction from experimental
-and clinical facts and not merely as a hypothetical
-concept, I have already pointed out that many manifestations
-of conservation already cited in the exposition
-of the theory of memory are of equal evidential
-value for the <em>actuality</em> of such processes.
-Let us now consider them in more detail from the
-point of view, more particularly, of the second and
-third questions—the <em>intrinsic nature</em> (whether coconscious
-or unconscious) and <em>intelligence</em> of the
-underlying processes at work. In any given case
-however the actuality of the subconscious process
-must always be first demonstrated.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If we leave aside those conditions (hysteria, coconscious
-personalities) wherein specific memory of a
-coconscious process can be recovered, or such a
-process can be directly communicated with (automatic
-writing and speech), the conditions required
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>for the valid postulation of a subconscious process
-underlying any given phenomenon are: first, that
-the causal factor shall be positively <em>known</em>; second,
-that it shall be an antecedent experience; and, third,
-that it shall not be in the content of consciousness
-at the moment of the occurrence of the phenomenon.
-If the causal factor and the phenomenon are both
-known, then the only unknown factor to be determined
-is the process, if any, <em>intervening between
-the two</em>. If this is not in consciousness, a subconscious
-process must be postulated.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Obviously, if the known causal factor is <em>immediately</em>
-related to the caused phenomenon, the subconscious
-process must be the causal factor itself.
-But if the known causal factor is <em>not immediately</em>
-related to the caused phenomenon, there must be an
-intervening process which must be subconscious,
-perhaps consisting of a succession of processes
-eventuating in the final phenomenon. For instance,
-if the causal factor is a hypnotic suggestion (for
-which there is afterwards amnesia) that the subject
-when awake shall automatically raise the right
-arm, a subconscious process which is the memory of
-that suggestion immediately provokes the automatic
-phenomenon. If, however, the suggestion is that
-of a series of automatic actions involving complicated
-behavior, or if it is a mathematical calculation,
-the intervening process which provokes the end result
-must not only be subconscious but must be a
-more or less complicated succession of processes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When, on the other hand, the causal factor is not
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>known but only inferred with greater or less probability,
-the justification of the postulation of a subconscious
-process may be invalidated by the uncertainty
-of the inference. If for example a person
-raises his right hand or has a number come into
-his head without obvious cause, any <em>inferred</em> antecedent
-experience as the causal factor must be open
-to more or less doubt, and, therefore, a subconscious
-process cannot be postulated with certainty. This
-uncertainty seriously affects the validity of conclusions
-drawn from clinical phenomena where the
-antecedent experience as well as a subconscious process
-must be inferred and perhaps even a matter of
-guesswork.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Let us examine then, a few selected phenomena
-where the causal factor in the process is a known
-antecedent conscious experience, one which can be
-logically related to the succeeding phenomenon only
-by the postulation of an intervening process of
-some kind. By an analysis of the antecedent experience
-and the caused phenomenon into their constituent
-elements we shall often be able to infer
-the functional characteristics of this intervening
-process. Then, if the subject is a favorable one,
-by the use of hypnotic and other methods we may
-be able to obtain an insight into the intrinsic nature
-of the subconscious process and determine how far
-it is conscious and how far unconscious. Necessarily
-the most available phenomena are those experimentally
-induced. We can arrange beforehand
-the causal experience and the phenomenon which it
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>is to determine—an hallucination, a motor automatism,
-a dream, a conscious process of thought, or
-the product of an intellectual operation. The number
-of observations we shall examine might be made
-much larger and the types more varied. Those I have
-selected have such close analogies with certain experiences
-of everyday and pathological life that what is
-found to be true of them will afford valuable fundamentals
-in the elucidation of these latter experiences.<a id='r80' /><a href='#f80' class='c009'><sup>[80]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Subconscious processes in which the causal factor was
-antecedently known.</b>—I. The evidential value of <em>post-hypnotic
-phenomena</em> ranks perhaps in the first place
-for our purpose as the conditions under which they
-occur are largely under control. Among these
-showing subconscious processes of a high order of
-intelligence are:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>(a) The well-known subconscious mathematical
-calculations which I cited in a previous lecture
-(p. 96). There is no possible explanation of this
-phenomenon except that the calculation was a subconscious
-process and done either coconsciously or
-unconsciously. That it may be done, in some
-cases, by coconscious processes of which the subject
-is unaware is substantiated by the evidence.<a id='r81' /><a href='#f81' class='c009'><sup>[81]</sup></a> In
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>other cases this does not appear to be wholly the
-case if we can rely upon hypnotic memories. We
-will examine this process in connection with:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>(b) A second class of post-hypnotic phenomena,
-namely, those of suggested actions carried out by
-the subject more or less automatically, in a sort of
-absent-minded way, without his being aware of
-what he is doing. The subject is directed in hypnosis
-to perform such or such an action after being
-awakened. Sometimes the suggested action is performed
-consciously, the suggested ideas with their
-impulses arising in his mind, but without his knowing
-why. In other instances, however, he performs
-the action automatically without being consciously
-aware at the moment that he is doing it, his attention
-being directed toward something else. Such
-actions must be performed by some kind of subconscious
-processes instigated by the ideas suggested in
-hypnosis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now hypnotic and other technically evoked memories
-sometimes reveal the conscious content of the
-processes involved in both classes of phenomena.
-For instance: two intelligent subjects, who have
-been the object of extensive observations on this
-point, are able to recall in hypnosis the previous
-occurrence of coconscious ideas of a peculiar character.
-The description of these ideas has been very
-precise and has carried a conviction, I believe, to
-all those who have had an opportunity to be present
-at these observations that these recollections were
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>true memories and not fabrications.<a id='r82' /><a href='#f82' class='c009'><sup>[82]</sup></a> The statements
-of these subjects is that in their own cases,
-under certain conditions of everyday life, coconscious
-ideas <em>of which the principal consciousness is
-not aware</em> emerge into the subconscious, persist for
-a longer or shorter time, and then subside to be replaced
-by others. So long as the conditions of their
-occurrence continue these coconscious ideas keep
-coming and going, interchanging with one another.
-Sometimes these ideas take the form of images, or
-what is described as visual “pictures.” When the
-conditions are those of the subconscious solution of
-a mathematical calculation then the same “pictures”
-occur and take the form of the figures involved in
-the calculation; the figures come and go, apparently
-add, subtract, and multiply themselves until the
-final result appears in figures. An example will
-make this clear.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>While the subject was in hypnosis the problem
-was given to add 458 and 367, the calculation to be
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>done <em>subconsciously</em> after she was awake. The
-problem was successfully accomplished in the usual
-way. The mode in which the calculation was
-effected was then investigated with the following
-result: In what may be termed for convenience the
-secondary consciousness, i.e., the subconsciousness,
-the numbers 458 and 367 appeared as distinct visualizations.
-These numbers were placed one over
-the other, “with a line underneath them such as
-one makes in adding. The visualization kept coming
-and going; sometimes the line was crooked and
-sometimes it was straight. The secondary consciousness
-did not do the sum at once, but by piecemeal.
-It took a long time before it was completed.”
-The sum was not apparently done as soon as one
-would do it when awake, by volitional calculation,
-“but rather the figures <em>added themselves</em>, in a curious
-sort of way. The numbers were visualized and
-the visualization kept coming and going and the
-columns at different times added themselves, as it
-seemed, the result appearing at the bottom.” In
-another problem (453 to be multiplied by 6) the
-process was described as follows: The numbers
-were visualized in a line, thus, 453 × 6. Then the
-6 arranged itself under the 453. The numbers kept
-coming and going the same as before. Sometimes,
-however, they added themselves, and sometimes the
-6 subtracted itself from the larger number. Finally,
-however, the result was obtained. As in the first
-problem, the numbers kept coming and going in the
-secondary consciousness until the problem was
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>solved and then they ceased to appear. It is to be
-understood, of course, that the <em>principal or personal
-consciousness was not aware of these coconscious
-figures, or even that any calculation was
-being or to be performed</em>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In suggested post-hypnotic actions, the pictures
-that come and go correspond to and represent the
-details of the action as it is carried out. Each
-detail is preceded or accompanied by its coconscious
-image or picture. Likewise, when somatic phenomena
-have followed dreams, pictures representing
-certain elements of the dream have appeared
-as secondary conscious states. When the subject
-has been disturbed by some unsolved moral or social
-problem (not suggested) the pictures have been
-symbolic representations of the disturbing doubts
-and scruples.<a id='r83' /><a href='#f83' class='c009'><sup>[83]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>One of these two subjects, while in hypnosis and
-able to recollect what goes on in the secondary consciousness,
-thus describes the coconscious process
-during the <em>spontaneous</em> subconscious solution of
-problems. “When a problem on which my waking
-self is engaged remains unsettled, it is still kept in
-mind by the secondary consciousness even though
-put aside by my waking self. My secondary consciousness
-often helps me to solve problems which
-my waking consciousness has found difficulty in
-doing. But it is not my secondary consciousness
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>that accomplishes the final solution itself, but it
-helps in the following way: Suppose, for instance,
-I am trying to translate a difficult passage in Virgil.
-I work at it for some time and am puzzled.
-Finally, unable to do it, I put it aside, leaving it
-unsolved. I decide that it is not worth bothering
-about and so put it out of my mind. But it is a
-mistake to say you put it <em>out</em> of your mind. What
-you do is, you put it <em>into</em> your mind; that is to say,
-you don’t put it out of your mind if the problem
-remains unsolved and unsettled. By putting it <em>into</em>
-your mind I mean that, although the waking consciousness
-may have put it aside, the problem still
-remains in the secondary consciousness. In the
-example I used the memory of the passage from
-Virgil would be retained persistently by my secondary
-consciousness. Then from time to time a
-whole lot of fragmentary memories and thoughts
-connected with the passage would arise in this consciousness.
-Some of these thoughts, perhaps, would
-be memories of the rules of grammar, or different
-meanings of words in the passage, in fact, anything
-I had read, or thought, or experienced in connection
-with the problem. These would not be logical, connected
-thoughts, and they would not solve the problem.
-My secondary consciousness does not actually
-do this, i.e., in the example taken, translate the
-passage. The translation is not effected here. But
-later when my waking consciousness thinks of the
-problem again, these fragmentary thoughts of my
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>secondary consciousness arise in my mind, and with
-this information I complete the translation. The
-actual translation is put together by my waking
-consciousness.<a id='r84' /><a href='#f84' class='c009'><sup>[84]</sup></a> I am not conscious of the fact that
-these fragments of knowledge existed previously in
-my secondary consciousness. I do not remember
-a problem ever to have been solved by the secondary
-consciousness.<a id='r85' /><a href='#f85' class='c009'><sup>[85]</sup></a> It is always solved by the waking
-self, although the material for solving it may come
-from the secondary. When my waking consciousness
-solves it in this way, the solution seems to
-come in a miraculous sort of way, sometimes as if
-it came to me from somewhere else than my own
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>mind. I have sometimes thought, in consequence,
-that I had solved it in my sleep.”<a id='r86' /><a href='#f86' class='c009'><sup>[86]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>A series of observations conducted with a fourth
-subject (O. N.) gave the following results, briefly
-summarized. (This subject, like the others, is practiced
-in introspection and can differentiate her
-memories with precision.) She distinguishes “two
-strata” in her mental processes (an upper and
-lower). The “upper stratum” consists of the
-thoughts in the focus of attention. The lower (also
-called the background of her mind) consists of the
-perceptions and thoughts which are not in the focus.
-This stratum, of course, corresponds with what is
-commonly recognized as the fringe of consciousness,
-and, as is usual, when her attention is directed
-elsewhere she is not aware of it. She can, however,
-bring this fringe within the field of attention and
-then she becomes aware of, or rather remembers,
-its content during the preceding moment. To be
-able to do this is nothing out of the ordinary, but
-what is unusual is this: by a trick of abstraction
-which she has long practiced, she can bring the
-memory of the fringe or stratum into the full light
-of awareness and then it is discovered that it has
-been exceedingly rich in thoughts, far richer than
-ordinary attention would show and a fringe is supposed
-to be. It is indeed a veritable coconsciousness
-in which there goes on a secondary stream of
-thoughts often of an entirely different character
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>and with different affects from those of the upper
-stratum. It is common for thoughts which she <em>has
-resolutely put out of her mind as intolerable or unacceptable,
-or problems which have not been solved,
-to continue functioning in the lower stratum without
-entering awareness</em>.<a id='r87' /><a href='#f87' class='c009'><sup>[87]</sup></a> She can, however, at any
-time become aware of them by the trick of abstraction
-referred to, and sometimes they emerge apparently
-spontaneously and suddenly<a id='r88' /><a href='#f88' class='c009'><sup>[88]</sup></a> replace the
-“upper stratum.” In hypnosis also the content of
-the lower stratum can be distinctly recalled.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now the point I have been coming to is, the subject
-has acquired the habit of postponing the decision
-of many everyday problems and giving them,
-as a matter of convenience, to this second stratum
-or fringe to solve. She puts one aside, that is out of
-(or <em>into</em>) her mind and it goes into this stratum.
-Then, later, when the time for action comes, she
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>voluntarily goes into abstraction, becomes aware of
-the subconscious thoughts of the second stratum
-and, lo and behold! the problem is found to be
-solved. If a plan of action, all the details are found
-arranged as if planned “consciously.” If asked a
-moment before what plans had been decided upon
-and decision reached she would have been obliged
-in her conscious ignorance to reply, “I don’t
-know.”<a id='r89' /><a href='#f89' class='c009'><sup>[89]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>An analysis of these different observations shows,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>first, that the post-hypnotic phenomena—calculations
-(a) and actions (b)—were performed by a
-subconscious process. Of this there can be no manner
-of doubt, even if the subsequent hypnotic memories
-of the process be rejected as untrustworthy.
-The phenomenon—the answer to the mathematical
-problem in the one case and the motor acts in the
-other—is so logically related to the suggestion, and
-can be predicted with such certainty, that only a
-causal relation can be admitted.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Second, in the calculation phenomena the process
-is clearly of an intellectual character requiring
-<em>reasoning</em> and the coöperation of mathematical
-<em>memory</em>. (Reasoning is more conspicuous when the
-problem is more complicated, as in the calculation
-of the number of seconds intervening between, say,
-twenty-two minutes past eleven and seventeen minutes
-past three o’clock.)<a id='r90' /><a href='#f90' class='c009'><sup>[90]</sup></a> The phenomenon is the
-solution of a problem.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The final phenomenon was not <em>immediately</em> related
-to the suggested idea. It was the final result
-of a quite long series of logical processes of a more
-or less complex character occurring over a period
-of time as in conscious calculation. <em>Conation</em> (volition?)
-would seem also to be essential to carry the
-suggested idea to fulfilment. <em>Subconscious cognition</em>
-would seem also to be required. There must
-have been an intelligent appreciation of what the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>problem was and as soon as the solution was accomplished
-the process stopped. Random figuring did
-not continue.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the post-hypnotic motor acts conation is obvious.
-Here too there is a series of subconscious processes
-covering a period of time and carrying out a
-purpose. The suggested causal idea did not include
-the acts necessary for the fulfillment of the idea.
-Each step was adapted to an end, ceased as soon as
-it accomplished that end, and was followed by another
-in logical sequence, the whole taking place as
-if performed by an intelligence. Reasoning may or
-may not be involved according to the complexity of
-the actions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Third; <em>the coconscious figures in the calculation
-experiments do not constitute the whole of the process</em>.
-They would seem to be the product of some
-deeper underlying process. The figures “kept coming
-and going” and seemed to “add themselves.”
-There was no conscious process that related the
-figures to one another and determined whether the
-problem was one of addition or multiplication—as
-is the case when we do a calculation consciously;
-that is to say, of course, if the hypnotic personality
-remembered the whole of the conscious calculation.
-It was more as if there was an underlying unconscious
-process which did the calculation, certain
-final results of which appeared as dissociated states
-of consciousness, i.e., figures which did not enter
-the personal consciousness. The process reminds us
-of the printing of visible letters by the concealed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>works of a typewriter; or of visible letters of an
-electrically illuminated sign appearing and disappearing
-according as the concealed mechanism is
-worked. This interpretation is in entire accord
-with the spontaneous occurrence of the coconscious
-images during the everyday life of these subjects.
-These images were pictorial representations of antecedent
-thoughts and seemed to be the products
-or elements of these thoughts apparently functioning
-as underlying unconscious processes. Likewise,
-in post-hypnotic suggested actions, I have not been
-able to obtain memories of coconscious thoughts
-directing the actions, but only the images described.
-These behave as if they were the product of another
-underlying process determining the action. Inferences
-of this sort are as compulsory as the inference
-that the illumination of a sensitive plate observed in
-the study of radio-activity must be due to the bombardment
-of the plate by invisible particles emitted
-by the radio-active substance. These particles and
-the process which ejects them can only be inferred
-from the effects which they produce. So, in the
-above observations, it would seem as if the coconscious
-figures, and other images involved, must be
-ejected as conscious phenomena by an underlying
-process. There is no explicit evidence that this is
-conscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I said advisedly, a moment ago, “if the hypnotic
-personality remembered the whole of the conscious
-calculation,” for, as a matter of fact, we find, when
-we examine several different hypnotic states in the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>same subject, that their memories for coconscious
-ideas are not coextensive, one (or more) being fuller
-than another. Indeed in certain states there may
-not be any such memories at all. It is necessary,
-therefore, to obtain by hypnosis a degree of dissociation
-which will allow the complete memories of
-this kind to be evoked. In the subjects I made use
-of this procedure was followed. Theoretically it
-might be held that, no matter how complete the memories
-evoked in the various states, some other state
-might possibly be obtained in which still more complete
-memory would be manifested. Theoretically
-this is true and all conclusions are subject to this
-criticism. Practically, however, I found, when making
-these investigations, that I seemed to have come
-to the limit of such possibilities, for, obtain as I
-would new dissociated arrangements of personality,
-after a certain point no additional memories could
-be evoked. There is still another possibility that
-there may be coconscious processes for which no
-memories can be evoked by any method or in any
-state.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>II. <em>Artificially induced visual hallucinations</em> with
-which we have already become familiar can, as we
-have seen, only be interpreted as the product of
-subconscious processes. If only because of the important
-part that hallucinations play in insanity
-and other pathological states and of the frequency
-with which they occur in normal people (mystics
-and others), the characteristics of the subconscious
-process are well worth closer study. What is found
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>to be true of the experimental type is probably true
-of the spontaneous variety whether occurring in
-pathological or normal conditions. Indeed, as we
-shall see, spontaneous hallucinations have the same
-characteristics. We have considered them thus far
-only from two points of view, viz. (1) as evidence
-of conservation of forgotten experiences, and (2) as
-evidence for specific residua of such experiences
-functioning as subconscious processes. Now, artificial
-visual hallucinations, like the spontaneous
-ones, may be limited—relatively speaking—to what
-is apparently little more than an exact reproduction
-of an antecedent visual perception, e. g., a
-person or object. But, generally speaking, it is
-more than this and when analyzed will be found
-almost always to be the expression of a complicated
-process. For instance, take the relatively simple
-crystal vision, of the subject smoking a cigarette
-in a particular situation during hypnosis, which I
-have previously cited. (Lecture III.) As a matter
-of fact, the subject had no primary visual perceptions
-at the time of the original episode at all. She
-was in hypnosis, her eyes were closed, and she did
-not and could not see herself (particularly her own
-face) or the cigarette or her surroundings. And
-yet the vision pictured everything exactly as it had
-occurred in my presence, even to the expression of
-her features. Looking into the crystal the subject
-saw herself sitting in a particular place, enacting a
-series of movements, talking and smoking a cigarette
-with a peculiar smile and expression of enjoyment
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>on her face.<a id='r91' /><a href='#f91' class='c009'><sup>[91]</sup></a> For this experience there was
-complete amnesia after waking from hypnosis and
-at the time of the vision.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now consider further the facts and their implications.
-In the mechanism of the process eventuating
-in the visual phenomenon we obviously have two
-known factors: the antecedent causal factor—the
-hypnotic episode—and, after a time interval, the
-end result—the vision. As there was no conscious
-memory of the hypnotic episode the neurograms of
-the latter must have functioned subconsciously to
-have produced the vision. But what particular
-neurograms? As the subject’s eyes had been closed
-in hypnosis, and, in any event, as she could not have
-seen her own face, there were at the time no <em>visual</em>
-perceptions of herself smoking a cigarette, and
-therefore the vision could not have been simply a reproduction
-of a visual experience. There were, however,
-tactual, gustatory, and other perceptions and
-ideas of self and environment, and these perceptions
-and ideas of course possessed <em>secondary visual images</em>.<a id='r92' /><a href='#f92' class='c009'><sup>[92]</sup></a>
-The simplest mechanism would be that the
-neurograms of this complex of perception and ideas
-of self, etc., functioned subconsciously and their
-<em>secondary</em> visual images emerged into consciousness
-to be the vision. I give this as the simplest mechanism
-by which we can conceive of a visual representation
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>of an antecedent experience emerging out of a
-subconscious process.<a id='r93' /><a href='#f93' class='c009'><sup>[93]</sup></a> There is a considerable body
-of data supporting this interpretation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But the original experiences of the episode included
-more than the mere perceptions and movements
-of the subject. They included trains of
-thought and enjoyment of the cigarette smoking
-experience. All formed a complex of which the
-tactual and other perceptions of self were subordinate
-elements. At one moment, of course, one element,
-and, at another moment another element, had
-been in the focus of awareness, the others becoming
-shifted into the fringe <em>where at all times were secondary
-visual images of herself</em>. Did the subconscious
-process underlying the vision include the
-whole of this complex? As to this, one peculiarity
-of the vision has much significance. In behavior it
-acted after the manner of a cinematographic or
-“moving picture,” and delineated each successive
-movement of the episode, as if a rapid series of
-photographs had been taken for reproduction. In
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>this manner even the emotional and changing play
-of the features of the vision-self, expressive of the
-previous thoughts and enjoyment, were depicted.
-Such a cinematographic series of visual images
-would seem to require a concurrent subconscious
-process to produce the successive changes in the
-hallucinatory images. As these changes apparently
-correspond from moment to moment with the
-changes that had occurred in the content of consciousness
-during the causal episode, it would also
-seem that the subconscious process was a reproduction
-in subconscious terms of substantially the whole
-original mental episode. This conclusion is fortified
-by the following additional facts: In many
-experiments of this kind, if the subject’s face be
-watched during the visualization, it will be observed
-that <em>it shows the same play of features as is displayed
-by the vision face</em>,<a id='r94' /><a href='#f94' class='c009'><sup>[94]</sup></a> and the visualizer at the
-same moment <em>experiences the same emotion as is
-expressed by the features of the vision face</em>,<a id='r95' /><a href='#f95' class='c009'><sup>[95]</sup></a> and
-sometimes knows “what her [my] vision self is
-thinking about.” In other words, <em>in particular instances</em>,
-sometimes the feelings alone and sometimes
-both the thoughts and feelings expressed in pantomime
-in the hallucination arise at the same moment
-in consciousness. This would seem to indicate that
-the same processes which determined the mimetic
-play of features in the <em>hallucination</em> were determining
-at the same moment the same play in the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>features of the visualizer, and that these processes
-were a subconscious memory of substantially all the
-original perceptions and thoughts. That is to say,
-this memory in such cases remains sometimes entirely
-subconscious and sometimes emerges into consciousness.
-The hallucination is simply a projected
-visualization induced by what is taking place subconsciously
-in the subject’s mind at the moment.
-Whether this shall remain entirely subconscious or
-shall emerge partially or wholly into consciousness
-depends upon psychological conditions peculiar to
-the subject.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>That even when the thoughts of the causal experience
-emerge in consciousness along with the vision
-a portion of the functioning complex—e. g., the perceptual
-elements—may still remain submerged is
-shown by the following example: The vision, one
-of several of the same kind, portrayed in pantomime
-an elaborate nocturnal somnambulistic act. It represented
-the subject walking in her sleep with eyes
-closed; then sitting before the fire in profound and
-depressing thought; then joyously dancing; then
-writing letters, etc., and finally ascending the stairs,
-<em>unconsciously dropping one of the letters from her
-hand on the way</em>,<a id='r96' /><a href='#f96' class='c009'><sup>[96]</sup></a> and returning to bed. During
-the visualization the thoughts and feelings of the
-vision-self, even the contents of the letters, arose in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>the mind of the visualizer whose features and tone
-of voice betrayed the feelings.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The point to be noted in this observation is that
-the <em>vision reproduced as a detail of the somnambulistic
-act the accidental dropping of a letter from
-the hand of the somnambulist who was unaware of
-the fact</em>; it reproduced what was not in conscious
-experience. How came it that an act for which
-there had been no awareness could appear in the
-vision? The only explanation is that originally in
-the somnambulistic state, as is so commonly observed
-in hypnotic somnambulism, there was a subconscious
-tactual perception (with secondary visual
-images?) of dropping the letter and now the memory
-of this antecedent perception, functioning subconsciously,
-induced this detail of the vision. The
-general conclusion then would seem to be justified
-that this hallucination was determined by a fairly
-large complex of antecedent somnambulistic experiences
-of which a part emerged as the hallucination
-and the thoughts of the somnambulist into consciousness,
-and a part—the tactual and other perceptions—remained
-submerged as the subconscious
-process. How much more may have been contained
-in this process the facts do not enable us to determine.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>An examination, then, of even the more simple
-artificial hallucinations discloses that underlying
-them there is a residual process which is quite an
-extensive subconscious memory of antecedent
-thoughts, perceptions and affective experiences.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>Whether this memory is only an unconscious functioning
-neurogram or whether it is also a coconscious
-memory, or partly both, cannot be determined
-from the data.<a id='r97' /><a href='#f97' class='c009'><sup>[97]</sup></a> The bearing of these results upon
-the interpretation of <em>insane hallucinations</em> is obvious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Our examination of subconscious processes in the
-two classes of phenomena thus far studied—<a id='corr187.8'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='post hypnotic'>post-hypnotic</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_187.8'><ins class='correction' title='post hypnotic'>post-hypnotic</ins></a></span>
-phenomena and artificial hallucinations—permits
-the following general conclusions: First,
-there is positive evidence to show that in some instances,
-in their intrinsic nature, they are coconscious.
-In other instances, in the absence of such evidence,
-it is permissible to regard them as unconscious.
-Second, that in the quality of the functions
-performed they frequently exhibit that which is
-characteristic of Intelligence. This characteristic
-will be seen to be still more pronounced in the phenomena
-which we shall next study.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f72'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r72'>72</a>. I forbear to enter into the question of the nature of consciousness
-and matter. In the last analysis, matter and mind probably
-are to be identified as different manifestations of one and the same
-principle—the doctrine of monism—call it psychical, spiritual, or material,
-or energy, as you like, according to your fondness for names.
-For our purpose it is not necessary to touch this philosophical problem
-as we are dealing only with specific biological experiences.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f73'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r73'>73</a>. Also quite commonly termed the Subconscious. Unfortunately
-the term unconscious, as noun or adjective, is used in two senses,
-viz., (1) pertaining to unawareness (for example, I am unconscious
-of such and such a thing), and (2) in the sense of not having the
-psychological attribute of consciousness, i.e., non-conscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the first sense the adjective is used, as in the phrase “unconscious
-process” to define a process of which we are unaware without
-connotation as to whether it is a psychological process or a brain
-process; also the noun (The Unconscious) is used to signify something
-not in awareness regardless of whether that something is
-psychological or not; on the other hand, as an adjective it is also
-used, as in the phrase “unconscious ideas,” to specifically signify
-real ideas of which we are unaware.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the second sense, as noun or adjective, it is used to denote
-specifically brain residua or processes, which, of course, are devoid
-of consciousness. With this interchange of meaning the term is
-apt to be confusing and is lacking in precision. <em>In the text unconscious
-will be used always with the second meaning, unless inverted
-commas or the context plainly indicate the first meaning.</em>
-(Cf. Lecture VIII, pp. 248-254).</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f74'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r74'>74</a>. Also termed by some writers <em>unconscious</em>. (See preceding footnote.)</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f75'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r75'>75</a>. Pierre Janet: <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L’automatisme psychologique, Paris, 1889</span>, and
-numerous other works.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f76'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r76'>76</a>. Not included in this volume.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f77'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r77'>77</a>. Cf. Prince: The Dissociation; also A Symposium on the Subconscious,
-<cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, June-July, 1907; Experiments
-to Determine Coconscious (Subconscious) Ideation, <cite>Journal
-of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, April-May, 1908; Experiments in
-Psycho-Galvanic Reactions from Coconscious (Subconscious) Ideas in
-a Case of Multiple Personality, <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>,
-June-July, 1908; The Subconscious [<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Rapports et Comptes Rendus,
-6me Congrès International de Psychologie</cite>, 1909</span>]; also, My Life as
-a Dissociated Personality, by B. C. A., <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>,
-October-November, 1908.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f78'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r78'>78</a>. The value of subconscious personalities for this purpose has
-been overlooked, owing, I suppose, to such conditions being unusual
-and bizarre, and the assumption that they have little in common with
-ordinary subconscious processes. But it ought to be obvious that <em>in
-principle</em> it makes little difference whether a subconscious system is
-constellated into a large self-conscious system called a personality,
-or whether it is restricted to a system limited to a few particular
-coconscious ideas. In the former case the possibilities of its interfering
-with the personal consciousness may be more extended and
-more influential, that is all.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f79'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r79'>79</a>. Of course, from a practical (clinical) point of view, it is of no
-consequence whether given phenomena are induced by coconscious or
-unconscious processes; the individual is not aware of either. Let me
-answer, however, a strange objection that has been made to such
-an inquiry. It has been objected that as it makes no practical
-difference whether the subconscious process, which induces a given
-phenomenon, is coconscious or unconscious, and as in many given
-cases it is difficult or impossible to determine the question, therefore,
-that such inquiries are useless. Plainly such an objection only
-concerns applied science, not science itself. It concerns only the
-practicing physician who deals solely with reactions. Likewise it
-makes no difference to the practicing chemist whether some atoms
-are positive and some negative ions, and whether on further analysis
-they are systems of electrons, and whether, again, electrons are points
-of electricity. The practical chemist deals only with reactions. Such
-questions, however, having to do with the ultimate nature of matter
-are of the highest interest to science. Likewise the nature of subconscious
-processes is of the highest interest to psychological science.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f80'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r80'>80</a>. I have passed over the classical hysterical phenomena as they
-open a very large subject which needs a special treatment by itself.
-The subconscious processes underlying them, so far as they have
-been determined, are, as I have explained, admittedly coconscious,
-though some may be in part unconscious. They are too complicated
-to be entered into here.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f81'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r81'>81</a>. Prince: Experiments to Determine Coconscious (Subconscious)
-Ideation, <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, April-May, 1908.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f82'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r82'>82</a>. Among these I might mention the names of a dozen or more
-well-known psychologists and physicians of experience and repute who
-have observed one or both of these cases. Through the kindness of
-Dr. G. A. Waterman I have had an opportunity to investigate a
-third case, one of his patients, who described similar coconscious
-“pictures” accompanying certain impulsive conscious acts. The pictures,
-when of persons, were described as “life size,” and were
-likened to those of a cinematograph. Also, as with one of my cases,
-suggested post-hypnotic actions were accompanied by such coconscious
-pictures representing in successive stages the act to be performed.
-An analysis of both the impulsive and the suggested phenomena
-seemed to clearly show that the pictures emerged from a
-deeper lying submerged process induced by the residuum of a dream
-and of the suggestion, respectively.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f83'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r83'>83</a>. Cf. Lecture IV. These coconscious pictures are so varied and
-occur in so many relations that they need to be studied by themselves.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f84'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r84'>84</a>. This, of course, so far as she could determine from the data
-of memory. The more correct interpretation probably is that
-the thoughts of the “secondary consciousness” were supplied by a
-still deeper underlying subconscious process, certain elements of which
-emerged as dissociated conscious states (not in the focus of attention).
-This same process probably was the real agent in doing the
-actual translation, and later thrust the necessary data into awareness
-in such fashion that the translation seemed to be performed consciously.
-If all the required data is supplied to consciousness the
-problem is thereby done.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f85'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r85'>85</a>. The subject here, of course, refers not to experimental but to
-spontaneous solutions. When experimentally performed the whole
-problem was solved subconsciously. Furthermore, a memory of a detail
-of this kind of remote experiences obviously would not be reliable,
-but only immediately after an experience. In fact, spontaneous
-solutions sometimes occurred entirely subconsciously. (Cf.
-Lecture VII.) In the experimental calculation experiments the
-solution is made subconsciously in accordance with the prescribed
-conditions of the experiment. In other observations on this subject
-the coconscious pictures represented past experiences of the
-subject, much as do crystal visions, and suggest that these past
-experiences were functioning unconsciously.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f86'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r86'>86</a>. Prince: Some of the Present Problems of Abnormal Psychology,
-Congress of Arts and Sciences, St. Louis, 1904, V. 5, p. 770.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f87'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r87'>87</a>. Practically similar conditions I have found in B. C. A., and
-Miss B., though described by the subjects in different phraseology.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f88'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r88'>88</a>. For instance, to take a sensational example, on one occasion in
-the midst of hilarity while singing, laughing, etc., she suddenly became
-depressed and burst into tears. What happened was this: It
-was a sorrowful anniversary, and in the “lower stratum” sad memories
-had been recurring during the period of hilarity. These memories
-had come into consciousness early in the morning, but she had
-resolutely put them out of her mind. They had, however, kept recurring
-in the lower stratum, and suddenly emerged into the upper
-stratum of consciousness with the startling effect described. More
-commonly, however, the emergence of the lower stratum is simply a
-shifting play of thought. It is interesting to note that censored
-thoughts and temptations are apt to go into the lower stratum and
-here with their affects continue at play. <em>These sometimes reappear
-as dreams.</em></p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f89'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r89'>89</a>. The validity of the evidence of memory as applied to subconscious
-processes needs to be carefully weighed. It is a question
-of method, and if the method is fallacious all conclusions fall to the
-ground. In the sciences of normal psychology and psychiatry and
-psychopathology, the data given by memory are and necessarily must
-be relied upon to furnish a knowledge of the content of mental processes
-and the mental symptoms, and all methods of psychological
-analysis are based on the data of memory. Without such data there
-could be no such sciences. As a matter of experience the method is
-found to be reliable when properly checked by multiple observations.
-If by special methods of technique mental processes, which do not
-enter the awareness of the moment, are later brought into consciousness
-as data of memory, are these data <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>per contra</i></span> to be rejected as
-hallucinatory? This is what their rejection would mean. Now, as
-a fact, there are phenomena, like coconscious personalities, which
-compel the postulation of coconscious processes. If this is the case,
-if there are coconscious processes which do not enter awareness, it
-would be the strangest thing if there were not conditions of the
-personality in which a memory of these processes could be obtained.
-This fact would have to be explained. The bringing of coconscious
-processes into consciousness as data of memory does not
-seem therefore to be anything <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>a priori</i></span> improbable and there would
-seem to be no reason why the memory of them should be more unreliable
-than that of conscious processes in the forms of attention.
-Indeed, if the fringe of consciousness be regarded as coconscious, it
-is an every-day act common to everybody. Such data necessarily
-should be checked up by multiple observations.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f90'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r90'>90</a>. For examples of this kind, see Prince, Experiments to Determine
-Coconscious Ideation, <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, April-May,
-1908.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f91'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r91'>91</a>. The Dissociation, pp. 55, 56.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f92'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r92'>92</a>. It is only necessary to close one’s eyes, then grimace and move
-one’s limbs to become conscious of these secondary images which
-picture each movement of the features, etc.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f93'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r93'>93</a>. The mechanism is probably not quite so simple as this, probably
-past visual perceptions of self and the environment took part, so
-that the vision was a fusion or composite of these older primary
-images and the secondary images. The principle of mechanism, however,
-would not be affected by this added element. Sidis (The Doctrine
-of Primary and Secondary Sensory Elements, <cite>Psych. Rev.</cite>,
-January-March, 1908) has maintained that all hallucinations are the
-emerging of the secondary images of previous perceptions. If, on
-the other hand, the vision be interpreted as something fabricated by
-the subconscious process—as must be the case with some hallucinations—then
-this process must have been much more complicated than
-memory. Something akin at least to constructive imagination and
-intelligence that translated the experiences into visual terms.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f94'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r94'>94</a>. That is to say, as described by the visualizer.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f95'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r95'>95</a>. Cf. The Dissociation, pp. 211-220.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f96'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r96'>96</a>. At this point the subject watching the vision remarked, “I drop
-one of the letters, but I do not know I have done so.” In other
-words, conscious of the content of the somnambulist’s consciousness,
-the visualizer knows that there is no awareness of this act. The
-letter was afterward found by the servant on the stairs.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f97'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r97'>97</a>. Coconscious ideas may provoke hallucinations. (For examples
-consult “Hallucinations” in Index to The Dissociation.)</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE VII <br /> SUBCONSCIOUS INTELLIGENCE <br /> (Continued)</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>III. <em>Subconscious intelligence underlying spontaneous
-hallucinations.</em>—Spontaneous hallucinations
-often offer opportunities to study subconscious processes
-exhibiting constructive intelligence. Although
-properly belonging to clinical phenomena, they often
-can be so clearly related to an antecedent experience
-as to allow us to determine the causal factor with the
-same exactness as in the experimental type, and,
-therefore, to infer the connecting subconscious link
-with equal probability. Some of these spontaneous
-visions indicate that the subconscious link must
-be of considerable complexity and equivalent to
-logical processes of reasoning, volition, and purposive
-intelligence. Sometimes the same subconscious
-processes which fabricate the vision determine
-also other processes of conscious thought and
-movements.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In illustration I may cite an incident in the life
-of Miss B., which I have previously described:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Miss B., as a child, frequently had visions of the Madonna
-and Christ, and used to believe that she had actually seen them.
-It was her custom when in trouble, if it was only a matter of her
-school lessons, or something that she had lost, to resort to prayer.
-Then she would be apt to have a vision of Christ. The vision
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>never spoke, but sometimes made signs to her, and the expression
-of His face made her feel <em>that all was well</em>. After the vision
-passed she felt that her difficulties were removed, and if it was a
-bothersome lesson which she had been unable to understand it all
-became intelligible at once. Or, if it was something that she had
-lost, <em>she at once went to the spot where it was</em>.”... [For
-example, while under observation.] "Miss B. had lost a bank
-check and was much troubled concerning it. For five days she
-had made an unsuccessful hunt for it, systematically going through
-everything in her room. She remembered distinctly placing the
-check between the leaves of a book, when some one knocked at
-her door, and this was the last she saw of the check. She had become
-very much troubled about the matter, and in consequence,
-after going to bed that night she was unable to sleep, and rose several
-times to make a further hunt. Finally, at 3 o’clock in the morning,
-she went to bed and fell asleep. At 4 o’clock she woke with
-the consciousness of a presence in the room. She arose, and in a
-moment saw a vision of Christ, who did not speak, but smiled.
-She at once felt, as she used to, <em>that everything was well</em>, and that
-the vision foretold that she should find the check. All her anxiety
-left her at once. The figure retreated toward the bureau, but the
-thought flashed into her mind that the lost check was in the
-drawer of her desk. A search, however, showed that it was not
-there. She then walked automatically to the bureau, opened the
-top drawer, took out some stuff upon which she had been sewing,
-unfolded it, and there was the check along with one or two other
-papers.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>“Neither Miss B. nor BII [hypnosis] has any memory of any
-specific thought which directed her to open the drawer and take
-out her sewing, nor of any conscious idea that the check was
-there. Rather, she did it, so far as her consciousness goes, automatically,
-as she used to do automatic writing.”<a id='r98' /><a href='#f98' class='c009'><sup>[98]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Further investigation revealed the fact that the
-money had been put away absent-mindedly and “unconsciously”;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>in hypnosis the memory of this act
-was recovered.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In this observation we have two so-called automatic
-phenomena of different types—one a sensory
-automatism, the vision, the other a motor automatism
-or actions leading to the finding of the money.
-The motor acts being automatic were necessarily
-determined by subconscious processes and plainly
-required a knowledge of the hiding-place. This
-knowledge also plainly must have been conserved
-in the unconscious and now, in answer to her wish
-to find the lost money, acting as a subconscious process,
-fulfilled her wish in a practical way.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The vision was of Christ smiling. Seeing it the
-subject at once “felt that all was well,” and her
-anxiety vanished. It was plainly therefore a fabricated
-visual symbolism though one which she had
-frequently before experienced. It may be taken as
-a message sent by subconscious processes to her
-anxious consciousness and it is not too much to
-say had a purposive meaning, viz., to allay her
-anxiety. The question is, What was the causal factor
-which determined this symbolism? Logically it
-is a compulsory inference that the same conserved
-knowledge and subconscious processes, which eventuated
-in the motor automatisms, must have been
-the causal factor that determined the visual symbolism
-which carried the reassuring message to consciousness.
-This subconscious knowledge first
-allayed her anxiety and then proceeded to answer
-her problem of the whereabouts of the lost money.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>More specifically, the primary causal factor was
-the preceding anxious wish to find the money; the
-resulting phenomena were the sensory and motor
-automatisms, allaying the anxiety and fulfilling the
-wish; <em>between the two as connecting links were subconscious
-processes of an intelligent, purposive,
-volitional character which first fabricated a visual
-symbolism as a message to consciousness and then
-made use of the conserved knowledge of her previous
-absent-minded act to solve her problem</em>. The
-subconscious process as a whole we thus see was of
-quite a complicated character. In this example it
-is impossible to determine from the data at hand
-whether the subconscious process was coconscious
-or unconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The observation which I have elsewhere described
-as “an hallucination from the subconscious”<a id='r99' /><a href='#f99' class='c009'><sup>[99]</sup></a> is
-an excellent example of an intelligent subconscious
-process indicative of judgment and purpose. The
-hallucination occurred in my presence as a result
-of an antecedent experience for which I was a
-moment before responsible. It was therefore of
-the nature of an experiment and the causal factor
-was known. The antecedent experience consisted
-of certain remarks and behavior of the subject while
-under the influence of an illusion during a dissociated
-state for which there was subsequent amnesia.
-The vision was of a friend whose face was sad, as of
-one who had been injured, and seemed to reproach
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>her. At the same moment she heard his voice which
-said, “How could you have betrayed me?” The
-hallucinatory words and the visual image were in
-no sense a reproduction of the causal, i.e., antecedent,
-experience. They were the expression of a
-<em>subconscious self-reproach</em> in consequence of that
-experience. This reproach connoted a subconscious
-belief or logical judgment, drawn from the experience,
-that she had broken a promise.<a id='r100' /><a href='#f100' class='c009'><sup>[100]</sup></a> It was a subconscious
-reaction to a subconscious belief. I say
-both the reproach and the judgment were subconscious
-because, in the dissociated state, owing to the
-illusion, and in the normal after-state owing to the
-amnesia, she was entirely ignorant of having done
-anything that could be construed into breaking a
-promise. This interpretation of the episode must
-therefore have been entirely subconscious. The self-reproach
-emerged into consciousness but translated
-into visual and auditory hallucinations. These were
-plainly a condemnatory message sent from the subconscious
-to the personal consciousness and might
-aptly be termed “the prickings of a subconscious
-conscience.” The primary causal factor was simply
-certain statements (conserved in the unconscious)
-made to me by the subject and for which
-afterwards there was amnesia. Intervening between
-this antecedent experience and the resulting
-hallucinatory phenomena a subconscious process
-must be postulated as a necessary connecting link.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>This process plainly involved memory and an intelligent
-judgment, an emotional reaction, and an
-expression of this judgment and reaction translated
-into hallucinatory phenomena. Apparently
-also a distinct purpose to upbraid the personality
-was manifested.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The accounts of <em>sudden religious conversion</em> are
-full of instances of hallucinations occurring at the
-time of the “crisis” and these—visions and voices—are
-often logical symbolisms of antecedent
-thoughts of the subject. By analogy with similar
-experimental phenomena we are compelled to interpret
-them in the same way and postulate these antecedent
-experiences as the causal factors. If this
-postulation is sound then the connecting subconscious
-link is often a quite complicated process of
-an intelligent character.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In one instance in which the occurrence was similar
-in principle to sudden religious conversion I
-was able to determine beyond question the causal
-antecedents of the hallucinatory phenomenon. I
-will not repeat the details here;<a id='r101' /><a href='#f101' class='c009'><sup>[101]</sup></a> suffice it to say
-that the hallucination, consisting of a vision and an
-auditory message from the subject’s deceased husband
-(see p. 40), answered the doubts and scruples
-with which the subject had been previously tormented.
-It was a logical answer calculated to allay
-distressing memories against which she had been
-fighting, “the old ideas of dissatisfaction with life,
-the feelings of injury, bitterness, and rebellion
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>against fate and the ‘kicking against the pricks’
-which these memories evoked.” It expressed previously
-entertained ideas which she had tried to
-accept but without success. The exposition of this
-answer in the <em>hallucinatory symbolism</em> required a
-subconscious process involving considerable reasoning.
-<em>The phenomenon as a whole was a message
-addressed to her own consciousness by subconscious
-processes to answer her doubts and anxious questionings
-of herself, and to settle the conflict going
-on in her mind.</em> The logical connection between the
-different elements of this hallucination and certain
-antecedent experiences which had harassed the subject
-are so close that there is no room left for doubting
-that these experiences were the causal factors.
-And so I might analyze a large number of spontaneous
-hallucinations wherein you would find the
-same evidence for subconscious processes <em>showing
-intelligent constructive imagination, reasoning, volition,
-and purposive effort</em>, and expressing themselves
-in automatisms which either solve a disturbing
-problem or carry to fruition a subconscious purpose.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I offer no excuse for multiplying these observations
-of hallucinatory phenomena, even at the expense
-of tedious repetition, for such studies give
-an insight into the mechanism of the hallucinations
-met with in the insanities and other pathological
-states. They offer, too, an insight into the basic
-process involved in dreams as these are a type of
-hallucinatory phenomena. It is by a study of hallucinations
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>experimentally created, and others where
-we are in a position to know the causal factors, that
-we can learn the mechanisms underlying similar
-phenomena occurring in normal pathological conditions.
-As a rule in the latter conditions it is difficult
-to determine beyond question the true causal
-factors and, therefore, the particular subconscious
-processes involved. Such phenomena as I have
-presented justify the conclusion of the “new psychology”
-that the <em>hallucinations of the insane</em> are
-not haphazard affairs but the resultant of subconscious
-processes evoked by antecedent experiences.
-In conclusion, then, we may say that <em>in artificial
-hallucinations as experimentally conducted, and in
-certain spontaneous hallucinations, we have two
-known factors; the causal factor (the antecedent experience)
-and the hallucinatory phenomenon—the
-effect. Intervening between the two is an inferred
-subconscious process of considerable complexity
-which is required to explain the causal connection</em>.
-With the exact mechanism of hallucinatory phenomena
-we are not at present concerned, but only with
-the evidence of the actuality of a subconscious process,
-of its character as an intelligence, and with its
-intrinsic nature.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As to the last problem it is plain that further
-investigations are required and that the methods at
-present at our disposal for its solution leave much
-to be desired. All things considered a conservative
-summing up would be that the subconscious process
-may be both coconscious and unconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>IV. <em>Subconscious intelligence underlying dreams.</em>
-As is well known, Freud advanced the theory, now
-well fortified by numerous observations of others,
-that underlying a dream is a subconscious process
-which fabricates the conscious dream. According to
-Freud and his followers this subconscious process
-is always an antecedent wish and the dream is an
-imaginary fulfillment of that wish. This part of
-the theory (as well as the universality of an underlying
-process) is decidedly questionable. My own observations
-lead me to believe that a dream may be
-also the expression of antecedent doubts, scruples,
-anxieties, etc., or may be an answer to an unsolved
-problem. We need not concern ourselves with this
-particular question here. I refer to it simply to
-point out that its correct solution depends upon the
-correct determination of the true causal factor
-which is necessarily antecedently unknown and must
-be inferred. It is inferred or selected from the associated
-memories evoked by the so-called method of
-analysis. Hence it must be always an element open
-to greater or less doubt. <em>Dreams are a type of
-hallucinatory phenomena</em> and therefore we should
-expect that their mechanism would correspond more
-or less closely with that of other hallucinatory phenomena.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>With the object in view of determining whether
-a dream could be produced <em>experimentally</em> and
-brought within the category of phenomena where
-the causal factor was antecedently known, and thus
-determine the actuality of a subconscious process as
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>a necessary intervening link between the two, I
-made the following experiment. It should be noted
-that a wish <em>fulfilment</em> necessarily means a dream
-content so far different in form from the content of
-the <em>wish itself</em> that the postulation of a connecting
-link, conscious or subconscious, is required. I also
-sought, if a subconscious process could be postulated,
-to discover how elaborate and what sort of
-a work of constructive imagination a subconscious
-wish could evolve.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>To a suitable subject while in a deep hypnotic
-trance state I gave a suggestion in the form of a
-wish to be worked out to fulfilment in a dream. It
-so happened that this subject was going through
-a period of stress and strain for which she sought
-relief. I also knew that she had a very strong desire
-to do a good piece of original psychological
-work and had advised her to take up the work as a
-solution of her difficulties. So, taking advantage
-of this desire, I impressed upon her, for the purpose
-of emphasizing the impulsive force of the desire,
-that she now had the longed-for opportunity as the
-culmination of her previous years of training to
-do the work. I then gave her the following suggestion:
-“You want to do a good piece of original
-work and your dream to-night will be the fulfillment
-of the wish.” No hint as to what form the dream
-fulfilment should take was given, nor had she any
-knowledge before being put into the trance state
-that I intended to make an experiment.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is interesting to note how the dream has a
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>logical form which is unfolded as an argument.
-This itself is an allegorical transcript of the reasons
-previously suggested to her for the particular
-solution of her problem.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The dream was a long one and into it were logically
-introduced as a part of the argument the actual
-distressing circumstances for the relief of which I
-had advised taking up the piece of psychological
-work as an outlet to her feelings and solution of
-her problem of life. I will give in detail only so
-much of the dream as contains the wish fulfilment
-(which became also a part of the dream argument),
-summarizing the remainder. The dream begins
-with an allegorical description of the great task
-involved in the study of psychology by all the workers
-of the world. The science of psychology is symbolized
-by a temple. “I dreamed I was where they
-were building a great temple or cathedral; an enormous
-place covering many acres of ground. Hundreds
-of men were building. Some were building
-spires, some were building foundations, and some
-were tearing down what they had built, some parts
-had fallen down of themselves. I was wandering
-around looking on.” Then she proceeds to help
-one of the builders who was building a particular
-part of the temple by bringing him material in the
-form of stones. This she had actually done, in real
-life, contributing much psychological material out
-of her own experiences. Many of these experiences
-had been very intimate ones from her inner life and
-had involved much suffering; hence the stones which
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>she contributed in her dream were big and heavy
-and were beyond her strength to carry, so that she
-could only roll them,—and some were sharp and
-made her hands bleed, so that her contribution involved
-much suffering. This part of the dream
-was not only a prelude to the suggested wish fulfilment
-but, as interpreted, contained a wish fulfilment
-in itself.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Then there was interjected an allegorical but very
-accurate description of the distressing circumstances
-to which I have referred and for which, as
-a problem of life, the suggested work was advised
-as a solution. Then logically followed the wish
-fulfilment and solution. She heard the voice of the
-builder whom she had been helping say to her,
-“‘Now, here are all the materials and you must
-build a temple of your own,’ and I [she] said, ‘I
-cannot,’ and he said, ‘you can, and I will help you.’
-So I began to build the stones I had taken him. It
-was hard work, but I kept on, and a most beautiful
-temple grew up.... All the stones were very
-brilliant in color, but each one was stained with a
-drop of blood that came from a wound in my heart.
-And the temple grew up; and I handled all the
-stones; but somehow the temple grew up of itself
-and lots of people were coming from all directions
-to look at it, and someone, who seemed to be William
-James, said, ‘It is the most valuable part of the
-temple,’ and I felt very proud....’” After another
-interjection of the distressing problem of her
-life just alluded to, the dream ends with the figure
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>of “a beautiful shining angel with golden spreading
-wings and the word ‘Hope’ written on his forehead.”
-This figure “spread his lovely wings and
-rose right up through the temple and became the
-top of the spire, a gorgeous shining figure of
-Hope.”<a id='r102' /><a href='#f102' class='c009'><sup>[102]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>After this dream was obtained the subject, who
-had no knowledge that any suggestion had been
-given to induce the dream, was told to analyze the
-dream herself by the method of associative memories.
-As is customary in the use of this method,
-in which she had had considerable experience, the
-memories associated with each element of the dream
-were obtained. These memories all led back directly
-to her interest in psychology and desire to
-contribute some original work, and to her own life’s
-experiences. Every one of the dream-elements
-(temple, spires, foundations, stones, bleeding hands,
-drop of blood from the wound in her heart, etc.)
-evoked associative memories which justified the
-inference that these elements were symbolisms of
-past experiences or of constructive imagination.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>That this dream was determined by, and the explicit
-imaginary fulfilment of the antecedent wish
-made use of in the experiment and motivated by
-the suggestion would seem to be conclusively shown.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If, then, in any case a causal relation between an
-antecedent wish and its dream fulfilment exists, it
-follows that there must be some link between that
-wish experienced in the past and the present dream
-fulfilment, some mode, mechanism, or process by
-which a past thought, without entering consciousness,
-can continue to its own fulfilment in a conscious
-work of the imagination, the dream. I say
-without entering consciousness because the original
-specific thought-wish does not appear in the dream
-consciousness, which is only the fulfilment. The
-phenomenon as a whole is also inexplicable unless
-there was some motivating factor or force which
-determined the form of the dream just as in conscious
-fabrication and argument “we” consciously
-motivate and arrange the form of the product. The
-only logical and intelligible inference is that the
-<em>original wish</em>, becoming reawakened (by the preceding
-suggestion) during sleep, <em>continued to function
-outside of the dream consciousness, as a motivating
-and directing subconscious process</em>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But what was the content of this process, and to
-what extent can its elements be correlated with
-those of the dream? The experimental data of this
-dream do not afford an answer to this question.
-(Those of the observation I shall next give will permit
-a deeper insight into the character and content
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>of their process.) It is a reasonable inference,
-however, inasmuch as the different elements of the
-dream—temple, stones, etc., the material out of
-which it is constructed—are found to be logical symbolizations
-of their associative memories, that these
-memories took part in the subconscious process and
-consequently may be correlated with their dream-symbols.
-In other words the content of the subconscious
-process was more than a wish, or wish neurogram,
-it included a large complex of memories
-of diverse experiences that can be recognized
-through their symbolizations in the dream. This
-complex, motivated by a particular wish, fabricated
-the dream, just as in the hallucinations I have cited
-an underlying process fabricated the hallucination
-as a symbolic expression of a subconscious judgment,
-self-reproach, etc. To do this a process that
-must be termed a <em>subconscious intelligence</em> was required.
-The dream was an allegory, a product of
-constructive imagination in the logical form of an
-argument, and if constructed by an underlying process
-the latter must have had the same characteristics.<a id='r103' /><a href='#f103' class='c009'><sup>[103]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>This experimental dream confirms therefore the
-general principle formulated by Freud from the
-analysis of dreams in which the causal factor is an
-inferred wish. It is likewise on the assumption of
-my having correctly inferred this factor that I have
-insisted that a dream may be a fabricated expression
-of thoughts other than wishes or may be the
-solution of an unsolved problem. In this last case
-<em>the dream phenomena and mechanism seem to be
-analogous in every way to the subconscious solution
-of mathematical problems</em> which I have already
-described. In such and other cases the subconscious
-process would seem to be a continuation and
-elaboration of the antecedent suggested problem.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In dreams, then, or, as we should strictly limit
-ourselves for the present to saying, <i>in certain
-dreams</i>, there are, as Freud first showed, two processes;
-one is the conscious dream, the other is a
-subconscious process which is the actuated residuum
-of a previous experience and determines the
-dream.<a id='r104' /><a href='#f104' class='c009'><sup>[104]</sup></a> It would be going beyond the scope of our
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>subject to enter into a full exposition of this interpretation
-at this time and I must refer you for a
-discussion of the dream problem to works devoted
-to the subject.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We have not, of course, touched the further problem
-of the <cite>How</cite>: how a subconscious intelligence induces
-a conscious dream which is not an emergence
-of the elements of that intelligence into self-consciousness,
-but a symbolization of them. This is a
-problem which still awaits solution. From certain
-data at hand it seems likely that so far as concerns
-the hallucinatory perceptual elements of a dream
-they can be accounted for as the <cite>emergence of the
-secondary images</cite> pertaining to the subconscious
-“ideas.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The following observation is an <cite>example of subconscious
-versification and</cite> also of <cite>constructive
-imagination</cite>. It also, I think, gives an insight into
-the character and content of the underlying process
-which constructs a dream. I give the observation
-in the subject’s own words:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>"I woke suddenly some time between three and four in the
-morning. I was perfectly wide awake and conscious of my surroundings
-but for a short time—perhaps two or three minutes—I
-could not move, and I saw this vision which I recognized as such.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>"The end of my room seemed to have disappeared, and I
-looked out into boundless space. It looked misty but bright, as
-if the sun was shining behind a light fog. There were shifting
-wisps of fog blowing lightly about, and these wisps seemed to
-gather into the forms of a man and a woman. The figures were
-perfectly clear and lifelike—I recognized them both. The man
-was dressed in dark every-day clothes, the woman in rather flowing
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>black; her face was partly hidden on his breast; one arm
-was laid around his neck; both his arms were around her, and
-he was looking down at her, smiling very tenderly. They seemed
-to be surrounded by a sort of rosy atmosphere; a large, very
-bright star was above their heads—not in the heavens, but just
-over them; tall rose bushes heavy with red roses in full bloom
-grew up about them, and the falling petals were heaped up around
-their feet. Then the man bent his head and kissed her.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>"The vision was extraordinarily clear and I thought I would
-write it down at once. I turned on the light by my bedside, took
-pencil and paper lying there and wrote, as I supposed, <cite>practically
-what I have written here</cite>. I then got up, was up some
-minutes, went back to bed, and after a while to sleep. The clock
-struck four soon after getting back into bed. I do not think I
-experienced any emotion at the moment of seeing the vision, but
-after writing it down I did.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>"The next morning I picked up the paper to read over what I
-had written and was amazed at the language and the rhythm.
-This is what I had written:</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c020'>
- <div class='linegroup'>
- <div class='group'>
- <div class='line'>"‘Last night I waked from sleep quite suddenly,</div>
- <div class='line in2'>And though my brain was clear my limbs were tranced.</div>
- <div class='line'>Beyond the walls of my familiar room</div>
- <div class='line in2'>I gazed outward into luminous space.</div>
- <div class='line'>Before my staring eyes two forms took shape,</div>
- <div class='line in2'>Vague, shadowy, slowly gathering from the mists,</div>
- <div class='line'>Until I saw before me, you—my Love!</div>
- <div class='line in2'>And folded to your breast in close embrace</div>
- <div class='line'>Was she, that other, whom I may not name.</div>
- <div class='line in2'>A rosy light bathed you in waves of love;</div>
- <div class='line'>Above your heads there shone a glowing star;</div>
- <div class='line in2'>Red roses shed their leaves about your feet.</div>
- <div class='line'>And as I gazed with eyes that could not weep</div>
- <div class='line in2'>You bent your head and laid your lips on hers.</div>
- <div class='line'>And my rent soul’ ... [Apparently unfinished.]</div>
- </div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c021'><span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>“The thoughts were the same as my conscious thoughts had
-been—the vision was well described—but the language was entirely
-different from anything I had thought, and the writing expressed
-the emotion which I had not consciously experienced in
-seeing the vision, but which (I have since learned) I had felt during
-the dream, and which I did consciously feel <cite>after</cite> writing.
-When I wrote I meant simply to state the facts of the vision.”<a id='r105' /><a href='#f105' class='c009'><sup>[105]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The subject was unable to give any explanation
-of the vision or of the composition of the verse.
-She rarely remembers her dreams and had no memory
-of any dream the night of this vision. By hypnotic
-procedure, however, I was able to recover
-memories of a dream which occurred just before
-she woke up. It appeared that in the dream she was
-wandering in a great open space and saw this “picture
-in a thin mist. The mist seemed to blow apart”
-and disclosed the “picture” which was identical
-with the vision. At the climax of the dream picture
-the dreamer experienced an intense emotion well
-described in the verse by the unfinished phrase,
-“My rent soul...” The dreamer “shrieked, and
-fell on the ground on her face, and grew cold from
-head to foot and waked up.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The vision after waking, then, was a repetition of
-a preceding <cite>dream</cite> vision and we may safely assume
-that it was fabricated by the same underlying process
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>which fabricated the dream, this process repeating
-itself after waking.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>So far the phenomenon was one which is fairly
-common. Now when we come to examine the automatically
-written script we find it has a number of
-significant characteristics. (1) It describes a conscious
-episode, (2) As a literary effort for one who
-is not a poetical writer it is fairly well written and
-probably quite as good verse as the subject can consciously
-write; (3) It expresses the mental attitude,
-sentiments and emotions experienced in the dream
-but not at the time of the vision. <cite>These had also
-been antecedent experiences</cite>; (4) Both the central
-ideas of the verse and the vision symbolically represented
-certain antecedent presentiments of the future;
-(5) The script gives of the vision an interpretation
-which was not consciously in mind at the moment
-of writing.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, inasmuch as these sentiments and interpretations
-were not in the conscious mind at the moment
-of writing, the script <cite>suggests</cite> that the process
-that wrote it was not simply a subconscious
-memory of the vision but the same process which
-fabricated the dream. Indeed, the phenomenon is
-open to the suspicion that this same process expresses
-the same ideas in verbal symbolism as a substitution
-for the hallucinatory symbolism. To determine
-this point, an effort was made to recover by
-technical methods memories of this process; that is
-to determine what wrote the verse and by what sort
-of a process. The following was brought out:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>1. The script was written automatically. The
-subject thought she was writing certain words and
-expressing certain thoughts and did not perceive
-that she was writing different words. “Something
-seemed to prevent her seeing the words she wrote.”
-There were two trains of “thought.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2. The “thoughts” of the verse were in her “subconscious
-mind.”<a id='r106' /><a href='#f106' class='c009'><sup>[106]</sup></a> These “thoughts” (also described
-as “words”) were not logically arranged or
-as written in the verse, but “sort of tumbled together—mixed
-up a little.” “They were not like
-the thoughts one thinks in <cite>composing</cite> a verse.”
-There did not seem to be any attempt at selection
-from the thoughts or words. No evidence could be
-elicited to show that the composing was done here.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>3. Concurrently with these subconscious, mixed-up
-thoughts coconscious “images” of the words of
-the verse came just at the moment of writing them
-down. The images were bright, printed words.
-Sometimes one or two words would come at a time
-and sometimes a whole line.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In other words all happened <cite>as if</cite> there was a
-deeper underlying process which did the composing
-and from this process certain thoughts without logical
-order emerged to form a subconscious stream
-and after the composing was done the words of the
-verse emerged as coconscious images as they were
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>to be written. This underlying process, then, “automatically”
-did the writing and the composing.
-Hence it seemed to the subject even when remembering
-in hypnosis the subconscious thoughts and
-images that both were done unconsciously.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As to whether this underlying process was the
-same as that which fabricated the dream and the
-hallucination, the evidence, albeit circumstantial,
-would seem to render this almost certain. In the
-first place the verse was only a poetical arrangement
-of the subconscious thoughts disclosed; the
-vision was an obvious symbolic expression or visual
-representation of the same thoughts (that is, of
-course, of those concerned with the subject matter
-of the vision). The only difference would seem to
-be in the form of the expression—verbal and visual
-imagery respectively.<a id='r107' /><a href='#f107' class='c009'><sup>[107]</sup></a> In the second place the
-vision was an exact repetition of the dream vision.
-It is not at all rare to find certain phenomena of
-dreams (visual, motor, sensory, etc.) repeating
-themselves after waking.<a id='r108' /><a href='#f108' class='c009'><sup>[108]</sup></a> This can only be explained
-by the subconscious repetition of the dream
-process. Consequently we are compelled to infer the
-same subconscious process underlying the dream-vision.
-More than this, it was possible to trace
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>these thoughts back to antecedent experiences of
-the dreamer, so that in the last analysis the dream-vision,
-waking-vision, and poetical expression of the
-vision could be related with almost certainty to the
-same antecedent experiences as the causal factors.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Certain conclusions then seem compulsory: underlying
-the dream, vision, and script was a subconscious
-process in which the fundamental factors
-were the same. As this process showed itself capable
-of poetical composition, constructive imagination,
-volition, memory, and affectivity it was a <cite>subconscious
-intelligence</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As to its intrinsic nature—coconscious or <a id='corr210.13'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='unconconscious'>unconscious</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_210.13'><ins class='correction' title='unconconscious'>unconscious</ins></a></span>—according
-to the evidence at least the
-process that wrote the script contained conscious
-elements—the coconscious thoughts and images.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We may assume the same for the dream and the
-vision. As to the mechanism of the vision it is quite
-conceivable, not to say probable, that, corresponding
-to the coconscious images of the printed words
-during the writing, there were similar images of the
-vision scene (both in the dream and the waking
-state), but these <cite>instead of remaining coconscious
-emerged into consciousness to be the vision</cite>.<a id='r109' /><a href='#f109' class='c009'><sup>[109]</sup></a>
-Whether the still deeper underlying process was
-conscious or unconscious could not be determined
-by any evidence accessible and must be a matter of
-hypothesis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>The chief importance that attaches to this observation,
-it seems to me, is the insight it gives into the
-character of the underlying process of a dream. If
-the conclusions I have drawn are sound, then the
-subconscious process which determines the conscious
-dream may be what is actually an <cite>intelligence</cite>
-and it matters not whether a coconscious or unconscious
-one. This seems to me to be a conclusion
-fraught with the highest significance for the theory
-of dreams and hallucinatory phenomena in general.
-Of course we all know well enough that dissociated
-subconscious processes may be intelligent and influence
-the content of the personal consciousness, as
-witness coconscious personalities. If the underlying
-process of a dream may be something akin to
-such a personality, something capable of reasoning,
-imagination and volition, it renders intelligible the
-fundamental principle of the Freudian theory of a
-double process—the “latent” and “manifest”
-dream. One of the difficulties in the general acceptance
-of this theory has been, I think, the difficulty
-of conceiving a subconscious process—the “latent
-dream”—capable of the intelligent fabrication
-of a “manifest” dream phantasy which is a cryptic
-symbolization of the subject’s thoughts. Such a
-fabrication has all the earmarks of purpose, fore-thought
-and constructive imagination. But if this
-underlying process can be identified, even though it
-be in a single case, with such an intelligence as that
-which wrote the poetical script we have studied, it
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>is plainly quite capable of fabricating the wildest
-dream phantasy.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I have suggested that the <cite>subconscious intelligence</cite>
-may be <cite>comparable to the phenomenon of a
-coconscious personality</cite>. It is worth noting in this
-connection that in the case of Miss B. the coconscious
-personality, Sally, who claimed to be awake
-while Miss B. was dreaming, also claimed that Miss
-B. sometimes dreamed about what Sally was thinking
-of at the moment.<a id='r110' /><a href='#f110' class='c009'><sup>[110]</sup></a> In other words, the thoughts
-of a large systematized coconscious intelligence determined
-the dream just as these thoughts sometimes
-emerged into Miss B.’s mind when awake.
-That a coconscious personality may persist awake
-while the principal personality is asleep I have been
-able to demonstrate in another case (B. C. A.). It
-was also noted in Dr. Barrows’ case of Anna Winsor.
-Moreover, Sally was shown to be a persistent,
-sane coconsciousness while Miss B. was delirious
-and also while she was apparently deeply etherized
-and unconscious.<a id='r111' /><a href='#f111' class='c009'><sup>[111]</sup></a> After all it is difficult to distinguish
-<cite>in principle</cite> the condition of sleep with a persisting
-coconsciousness from a state of deep hypnotic
-trance where the subject is apparently unconscious.
-In this condition, although the waking consciousness
-has disappeared, there can be shown to
-be a persisting “secondary” consciousness which
-can be communicated with by automatic writing and
-which later can exhibit memories of occurrences in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>the environment during the hypnotic trance.
-(B. C. A.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>What has been said does not touch, of course, the
-other mechanisms of the Freudian theory nor the
-unessential, greatly over-emphasized theory that the
-subconscious dream is always a sexual wish. On
-the contrary, the principle throws a strong, <cite>a priori</cite>
-doubt upon the correctness of this generalization.
-It is plainly, however, a matter of fact which might
-be easily determined by observation were it not for
-the difficulty of correctly referring clinical phenomena
-to the correct antecedent experiences as their
-causal factors. In the last analysis it becomes always
-a matter of interpretation.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Applied psychology.</b>—Much has been discovered in
-recent years regarding the part played by subconscious
-processes in the production of normal and abnormal
-phenomena. But we do not as yet know the
-possibilities and limitations of these processes. We
-have as yet but an imperfect knowledge of what
-they can do, what they can’t do, and what they do
-do, and of the mechanisms by which they are called
-into play and provoke phenomena. <cite>Many pathological
-phenomena</cite> have been shown to be due to
-subconscious processes; and it is quite probable that
-these play an important part in determining the
-mental processes of normal life, but this is still
-largely theory. In applied psychology and psychopathology
-the “subconscious” has been made use of
-to explain many phenomena with which we have
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>practically to deal. Assumed as a concept the phenomena
-are explained by it with a greater or less degree
-of probability. In those <cite>hysterical conditions</cite>
-where the subconscious processes have been shown
-to be split-off conscious processes, we can often recover
-memories of the latter and demonstrate their
-relation to the hysterical phenomena by the various
-technical methods already mentioned. But where
-this cannot be done, as is ordinarily the case, some
-conserved antecedent experience must be inferred
-as the causal factor and assumed to be the functioning
-subconscious process which determines the phenomenon.
-To a large extent, then, in applied psychology
-and psychopathology the postulation in specific
-cases of a subconscious process is theoretical
-and open to more or less doubt. In other words, although
-a principle may be established, its application,
-as in all applied sciences, is apt to meet with
-<a id='corr214.10'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='difficulties'>difficulties.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_214.10'><ins class='correction' title='difficulties'>difficulties.</ins></a></span></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now the application of the principle of a subconscious
-process to the explanation of a given phenomenon
-is rendered peculiarly difficult because for
-practical purposes it is not so much the question of
-a subacting process that is at issue as it is of what
-particular antecedent experience is concerned in the
-process. The question is of the causal factor. For
-example, we may know from general experience in a
-large number of instances that a given hysterical
-phenomenon—a tic or a convulsive attack or an hallucination
-or a dream—must be in all probability
-determined by a subconscious process derived from
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>some conserved experience, but what specific experience
-may be a matter of considerable uncertainty.
-<cite>Hence the different theories and schools of interpretation</cite>
-that have arisen. The importance of clearly
-appreciating the nature of such problems and properly
-estimating the different theories at their true
-value is so great that I may be permitted a few
-words in further explanation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Let us take dreams as a type. The conscious
-dream may be made up of fantastic imagery and apparently
-absurd thoughts without apparent logical
-meaning. Now from general experience we may
-believe that the dream is a cryptic symbolic expression
-of a logical subconscious process—perhaps a
-wish. The question is, what wish? The symbolism
-cannot be deciphered on its face. Now, by the analytic
-method associative memories pertaining to
-each element of the dream are recovered in abstraction.
-When a memory of antecedent thoughts of
-which the dream element is a logical symbolism or
-synonym and which give an intelligent meaning to
-the dream is recovered, we infer that these antecedent
-thoughts are contained in the determining subconscious
-process. Further, as it is found that certain
-objects or actions (e. g., snakes, flying, etc.) frequently
-occur in the dreams of different people as
-symbolisms of the same thoughts, it is inferred that
-whenever these objects or actions appear in the
-dream they are always symbolisms of the same underlying
-thoughts.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Obviously the mere fact of an antecedent experience
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>arising as an associative memory is not of itself
-evidence of its being the causal factor. Hundreds
-of such memories might be obtained. To
-have evidential value the memory must give logical
-meaning to the dream or dream element under investigation.
-Now, as a matter of fact, more than
-one memory can often be obtained which answers
-these conditions. Consequently it becomes a matter
-of selection from memories, or interpretation,
-as to which is the correct solution of a given dream
-problem—and <cite>mutatis mutandis</cite> of a pathological
-phenomenon. Naturally the selection is largely determined
-by personal views and <cite>a priori</cite> concepts.
-It also follows that if one accepts the universality
-of a given symbolism and is committed to a given
-theory one can, by going far enough, find associations
-in vast numbers of dreams that will support
-that theory. The correct solution of a dream problem,
-that is, the correct determination of the specific
-underlying process, depends upon the correct determination
-of the causal factor and this must be
-inferred. The inferential nature of the latter factor
-therefore introduces a possible source of error.
-There must frequently be considerable latitude in
-the interpretation. This is not to gainsay that in a
-large number of instances the logical relation between
-antecedent experiences (recovered by associative
-memories) and the dream is so close and obtrusive
-that doubt as to the true subconscious process
-can scarcely be entertained.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>An example of a condensed <cite>analysis of a dream</cite>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>will illustrate the practical difficulty often presented
-in determining by clinical methods the correct
-causal factor and subconscious process of a dream.
-I select a simple one which consists of two scenes:<a id='r112' /><a href='#f112' class='c009'><sup>[112]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c018'>"C. was somewhere and saw an old woman who appeared to be
-a <cite>Jewess</cite>. She was holding a <cite>bottle</cite> and a <cite>glass</cite>, and seemed to be
-drinking whisky. Then this woman changed into her own <cite>mother</cite>,
-who had the bottle and glass, and appeared likewise to be drinking
-whisky.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>“Then the door opened and her <cite>father</cite> appeared. He had on
-her <cite>husband’s dressing gown</cite>, and he was holding <cite>two sticks of
-wood</cite> in his hand.”</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Before interpreting this dream I will state that
-the subject had been tormented (as was brought out
-by the associative memories) by the question
-whether poor people should be condemned if they
-yielded to temptation, particularly that of drinking.
-This problem she could not answer satisfactorily to
-herself. It is the inferred causal factor in the
-dream process. The dream gave an answer to this
-problem.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Let me also point out that the material, that is,
-the elements out of which this dream was constructed
-(indicated by the words italicized), was
-found in the thoughts of the dreamer on the preceding
-day and particularly just before going to
-sleep. The first scene of the dream ends with the
-mother drinking whisky: the second scene represents
-the father appearing with two sticks of wood.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>For the sake of simplicity of illustration I will confine
-myself to the <em>interpretation</em> of this first scene
-as it will answer our present purposes.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“As to the first scene” (by technical methods of analysis) “a
-rich collection of memories was obtained. It appeared that on the
-previous morning the subject had walked with a <cite>poor Jewess</cite>
-through the slums, and had passed by some men who had been
-<cite>drinking</cite>. This led her to think at the time of the lives of these
-poor people; of the <cite>temptations</cite> to which they were exposed; of
-how little we know of this side of life and of its <cite>temptations</cite>.
-She wondered what the effect of such surroundings, particularly
-of seeing people <cite>drinking</cite>, would have upon the child of the
-Jewess. She wondered if such people ought to be condemned if
-they yielded to drink and other temptations. She thought that
-she herself would not blame such people if they yielded, and that
-we ought not to <cite>condemn</cite> them. Then in the psychoanalysis there
-came memories of her mother, whose character she admired and
-who <cite>never condemned any one</cite>. She remembered how her mother,
-who was an invalid, always had a glass of <cite>whisky</cite> and water on
-her table at night, and how the family used to joke her about it.
-Then came memories again of her husband sending <cite>bottles of
-whisky</cite> to her mother; of the latter <cite>drinking</cite> it at night; of the
-men whom she had seen in the slums and who had been <cite>drinking</cite>.
-These, very briefly, were the experiences accompanied by strong
-feeling tones which were called up as associative memories of this
-scene of the dream. With these in mind, it is not difficult to construct
-a logical, though symbolic, meaning of it. In the dream
-<cite>a</cite> Jewess (not <cite>the</cite> Jewess, but a type) is in the act of drinking
-whisky—in other words, the poor, whom the <cite>Jewess</cite> represents,
-yield to the temptation which the dreamer had thought of with
-considerable intensity of feeling during the day. The dreamer’s
-own judgment, after considerable cogitation, had been that such
-people were not to be condemned. Was she right? The dream
-answers the question, for the Jewess changes in the dream to her
-mother, for whose judgment she had the utmost respect. Her
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>mother now drinks the whisky as she had actually done in life, a
-logical justification (in view of her mother’s fine character and
-liberal opinion) of her own belief, which was somewhat intensely
-expressed in her thoughts of that morning, a belief in not condemning
-poor people who yield to such temptations. The dream
-scene is therefore the symbolical representation and justification of
-her own belief,<a id='r113' /><a href='#f113' class='c009'><sup>[113]</sup></a> and answers the doubts and scruples that beset
-her mind.”</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Whether or not this is the correct interpretation
-of this dream depends entirely upon whether the
-true causal factors were found. If through the analysis
-this was the case, as I believe—namely, the
-scruple or ethical problem whether poor people who
-yield to temptation ought to be condemned—then
-the interpretation given is logically sound and the
-dream is an answer to the doubts and scruples that
-beset the dreamer’s mind. But the answer is a pictorial
-symbolism and therefore requires an intervening
-subconscious process which induces and finally
-expresses itself in the symbolism. We may
-suppose that this process in response to and as a
-subconscious incubation of the ethical problem took
-some form like this: “Poor people like the Jewess
-are not to be condemned for yielding to the temptation
-(of drinking) for my mother, who was beyond
-criticism, showed by her life she would not have condemned
-them.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This may or may not be the true subconscious
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>process and the correct interpretation of the dream.
-But it is one possible and logical interpretation
-based upon the actually found antecedent experiences
-and associative memories of the dreamer.
-Now it so happens that this interpretation and that
-of other dreams<a id='r114' /><a href='#f114' class='c009'><sup>[114]</sup></a> which I endeavored to trace to
-antecedent experiences have been warmly challenged
-by certain clinicians because the inferred
-causal factors were not found to be antecedent repressed
-sexual wishes. It is insisted on theoretical
-grounds that the content of the dreams plainly indicated
-that there must have been such wishes and that
-if these had been found this dream would have been
-unfolded as a logical symbolical fulfilment of a sexual
-wish. Which interpretation is correct is inconsequential
-for our present purpose. The controversy
-only relates to the universality of the sexual
-theory of dreams. The point is that this difference
-in interpretation shows the possibility of error in
-the determination of the causal factor and the subconscious
-process by clinical methods. The dream
-may be logically related to two or more antecedent
-experiences and we have no criterion of which is the
-correct one. To insist upon one or the other savors
-of pure dogmatism.<a id='r115' /><a href='#f115' class='c009'><sup>[115]</sup></a> Indeed, the justification for
-the postulation in a dream of any subconscious process
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>in the last analysis depends upon the soundness
-of the postulation of the antecedent experience
-as the causal factor. If this factor falls to the
-ground the subconscious process falls with it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The second point to which this discussion leads
-us is that the latitude of interpretation allowed by
-the method of analysis has given rise to different
-views as to the specific character of the subconscious
-process found in many dreams. According to the
-theory of Freud, to whose genius we are indebted
-for the discovery of this process, it is almost
-always a sexual wish and the dream is always
-the imaginary, even though cryptic, fulfilment of
-that wish. On the other hand, as a result
-of my own studies, if I may venture to lay weight
-upon them, I have been forced to the conclusion that
-<cite>a dream may be the symbolical expression of almost
-any thought</cite> to which strong emotional tones with
-their impulsive forces have been linked, particularly
-anxieties, apprehensions, sorrows, beliefs, wishes,
-doubts, and scruples, which function subconsciously
-in the dream. It may be a solution of unsolved
-problems with which the mind has been occupied,<a id='r116' /><a href='#f116' class='c009'><sup>[116]</sup></a>
-just as in the waking state a mathematical or other
-problem may be solved subconsciously. In some
-subjects the problem is particularly apt to be
-one involving a conflict between opposing impulses,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>therefore one which has troubled the
-dreamer.<a id='r117' /><a href='#f117' class='c009'><sup>[117]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We have seen that in experimental and spontaneous
-hallucinatory phenomena, where the causal factor
-is known, a subconscious process is the essential
-feature of the mechanism. In this respect the mechanism
-is identical with that of certain dreams. Indeed,
-dreams are one type of hallucinatory phenomena.
-In fact we met with one dream the chief element
-of which was repeated afterward in the waking
-state as a vision. We are justified, then, in applying
-the principle of a subconscious process to the
-elucidation of the <cite>visions of normal people</cite>, although
-it may be difficult to determine exactly the specific
-content of the process and the antecedent thought
-from which it was derived. Sometimes the content
-of a vision and the known circumstances under
-which it occurred are sufficient to enable us to interpret
-the phenomenon with reasonable certainty.
-In the following historical examples it is not difficult
-to recognize that the vision was a symbolic answer
-to a problem which had troubled the conscience
-of the Archduke Charles of Austria. Unable to
-solve his problem consciously and come to a decision,
-it was solved for him by a subconscious process.
-Indeed, as a fact, the vision was accepted by
-Charles as an answer to his doubts and perhaps
-changed the future history of Austria.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>“The Archduke Charles (the father of the present Emperor of
-Austria) was also greatly troubled in his mind as to the right to
-waive his claim to the crown in favor of his son. According to
-his own statement he only finally made up his mind when, while
-earnestly praying for guidance in his perplexity, he had <cite>a vision
-of the spirit of his father, the late Emperor Francis, laying his
-hand on the head of his youthful grandson and thus putting all his
-own doubts to rest</cite>.”<a id='r118' /><a href='#f118' class='c009'><sup>[118]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The likeness in type of the dream which we have
-just discussed to this vision is instructive. In the
-former the mother of the dreamer answers the question
-of conscience by drinking the whisky; in the
-latter the father of the visualizer does the same by
-laying his hand on the head of the object of the
-doubt.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I have already pointed out the evidence for a subconscious
-process underlying the hallucinatory phenomena
-of sudden religious conversion.<a id='r119' /><a href='#f119' class='c009'><sup>[119]</sup></a> I may
-further cite here, as an analogous phenomenon, the
-following historical example of not only hallucinatory
-symbolism, but of <cite>explicitly conscious processes
-of thought</cite> which were elaborated by subconscious
-processes. It is Margaret Mary’s vision of
-the Sacred Heart. Margaret earnestly desired (according
-to her biographer)——</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“To be loved by God! and loved by him to distraction (aimé
-jusqu’à la folie)!—Margaret melted away with love at the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>thought of such a thing. Like St. Philip of Neri in former times,
-or like St. Francis Xavier, she said to God: ‘Hold back, O my
-God, these torrents which overwhelm me, or else enlarge my capacity
-for their reception.’”</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The answer and the form of the fulfilment of this
-wish came as an hallucination. She had a vision of
-Christ’s Sacred Heart</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“‘surrounded with rays more brilliant than the sun, and transparent
-like a crystal. The wound which he received on the cross
-visibly appeared upon it. There was a crown of thorns roundabout
-this divine Heart, and a cross above it.’ At the same
-time Christ’s voice told her that, unable longer to contain the
-flames of his love for mankind, he had chosen her by a miracle to
-spread the knowledge of them. He thereupon took out her mortal
-heart, placed it inside of his own and inflamed it, and then replaced
-it in her breast, adding: ‘Hitherto thou hast taken the
-name of my slave, hereafter thou shalt be called the well-beloved
-disciple of my Sacred Heart.’”<a id='r120' /><a href='#f120' class='c009'><sup>[120]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>There is scarcely room to doubt, on the strength
-of the evidence as presented, that the antecedent
-longings of Margaret impelled by the conative force
-of their emotions were the causal factor of this
-vision. These longings, organized in the unconscious,
-must have gone through subconscious incubation
-(as William James has pointed out) and
-then emerged after maturity into consciousness
-as a symbolic visualization accompanied by hallucinatory
-words which were the expression of
-explicit subconscious imagination. Indeed, all such
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>hallucinatory symbolisms—like the mental phenomena
-in general of sudden religious conversion—can
-only be psychologically explained as the emergence
-into consciousness of subconscious processes. The
-problem in each case is the determination of the
-content of the process.<a id='r121' /><a href='#f121' class='c009'><sup>[121]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'><cite>Reflection, consideration, meditation.</cite>—We are entering
-upon more uncertain ground in attempting to
-apply the mechanism of subconscious processes to
-every-day thought. There are certain types of
-thought, however, which behave as if this mechanism
-were at work. When, for instance, we take a problem
-“under advisement,” reflect upon it, give it
-“thoughtful consideration,” it seems as if, in weighing
-the facts pro and con, in looking at it from different
-points of view, i.e., in switching it into different
-settings, in considering all the facts related
-to it, we <cite>voluntarily</cite> recall each fact that comes into
-consciousness. Yet it is quite possible, and indeed
-I think more than probable, reasoning from analogy,
-that the processes which present each fact, switch
-each point of view, or setting into consciousness,
-are subconscious and that what we do is chiefly to
-select from those which are thus brought into consciousness
-the ideas, settings, etc., which fulfil best
-the requirements of the question. In profound reflection
-or attention to thought (a form of absentmindedness)
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>it seems as if it were more a matter of
-attention to and selection from the “free associations”
-which involuntarily come into the mind than
-of determining voluntarily what shall come in. If
-this be so, it is evident that the subconscious plays a
-much more extensive part in the mechanism of
-thought than is ordinarily supposed. We have not,
-however, sufficient data to allow us to do much more
-than theorize in the matter. Yet there are certain
-data which suggest the probability of the correctness
-of this hypothesis. In this connection I would
-point out how entirely confirmatory of this view is
-the testimony of the hypnotic consciousness which
-was cited in the previous lecture and which I will
-ask you to recall. You will remember that this testimony
-was to the effect that when a problem was
-under consideration associative memories required
-for its solution kept emerging out of the unconscious
-into the secondary consciousness.<a id='r122' /><a href='#f122' class='c009'><sup>[122]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Consider certain facts of every-day experience.
-A novel and difficult question is put up to us for decision.
-We have, we will say, to decide whether a
-certain piece of property situated in a growing district
-of a city shall be sold or held for future development:
-or a political manager has to decide
-whether or not to pursue a certain policy to win an
-election; or the President of the United States has
-to decide the policy of the government in certain
-land questions in Alaska. Now each of us would
-probably say that we could not decide such a question
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>offhand; we would want time for consideration.
-If we attempted voluntarily, at the moment the question
-is put, to recall to mind all the different facts
-involved, to consider the given question from all aspects,
-to switch the main facts into their different
-settings, we would find it an impossible thing to do.
-We consequently take the matter “under advisement,”
-to use the conventional expression. We
-want time. Now what we apparently, and I think
-undoubtedly, do is to put the problem <cite>into</cite> our minds
-and leave it, so to speak, to incubate. Then, from
-time to time, as we take up the matter for consideration,
-the various facts involved in the different aspects
-of the question, and belonging to their different
-settings, arise to mind. Then we weigh, compare,
-and estimate the value of these different facts
-and arrive at a judgment. All happens as if subconscious
-processes had been at work, as if the problem
-had been going through a subconscious incubation,
-switching in this and switching in that set of
-facts, and presenting them to consciousness, the final
-selection of the deciding point of view being left to
-the latter. The subconscious garners from the storehouse
-of past experiences, those which have a bearing
-on the question and are required for its solution,
-brings them into consciousness, and then our logical
-conscious processes form the judgment. The degree
-to which subconscious processes in this way take
-part in forming judgments would vary according to
-the mental habits of the individual, the complexity
-of the problem, the affectivity and conflicting character
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>of the elements involved. Under this theory
-we see that there is a deeper psychological basis for
-the every-day practice of taking “under advisement”
-or “into consideration” a matter, before
-giving judgment, than would appear on the surface.
-There is considerable experimental evidence in favor
-of this theory. In discussing above the subconscious
-solution of problems I cited certain evidence,
-obtained from the memories of subjects in hypnosis,
-for coconscious and unconscious processes taking
-part in such solutions. I have been able to accumulate
-evidence of this kind showing the coöperation
-of processes outside of consciousness in determining
-the point of view and final judgment of the subject
-when a matter has been under advisement; particularly
-when the subject has been disturbed by doubts
-and scruples. It is plain that in the final analysis
-any question on which we reserve our judgment is a
-problem which we put <cite>into</cite> our minds. And, after
-all, <cite>it is only a question of degree and affectivity between
-the state of mind which hesitates to decide an
-impersonal question, like a judicial decision, and one
-that involves a scruple of conscience</cite>. This latter
-state often eventuates in hallucinatory and other
-phenomena involving subconscious processes. Scruples
-of conscience, it is true, usually have strong affective
-elements as constituents, but the former may
-also have them, particularly when involving personal
-ambitions, political principles, etc.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f98'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r98'>98</a>. The Dissociation, Appendix L, p. 548.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f99'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r99'>99</a>. The Dissociation, Chapter XXXI.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f100'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r100'>100</a>. As a matter of fact, the judgment was erroneous, though a
-justifiable inference.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f101'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r101'>101</a>. Cf. The Dissociation, 2d edition, p. 567.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f102'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r102'>102</a>. William James had once said to her in my presence that she
-could make a valuable contribution to psychology. It is interesting
-to note, although it is aside from the question at issue, that this
-subject had strenuously denied that there was any “hope,” insisting
-that she was absolutely devoid of any such sentiment. Through
-hypnotic memories, however, I was able to demonstrate that this was
-only consciously true, and that there were very evident and strong
-coconscious ideas of hope of which she was not consciously aware.
-She had refused to acknowledge these ideas to herself and by repression
-had dissociated them from the personal consciousness. These
-ideas now expressed themselves symbolically in the dream.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f103'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r103'>103</a>. We must remember that a dreaming state is a dissociated state
-(like a fugue or trance), and numerous observations have shown that
-in such conditions any of the dormant related experiences of life may
-modify, repress, resist, alter, and determine the content of the dissociated
-consciousness. It is difficult to conceive of a dream allegory
-being constructed by the dream consciousness itself. If that
-were the mechanism, we should expect that the associative ideas for
-which symbols are chosen would appear during the dream construction
-as is the case in waking imagination. The method of the mental
-processes is very different in the latter. We there <em>select</em> from a
-number of associative ideas that crowd into consciousness, choose
-our symbols, and remember the rejected ideas. This is not the case
-with dream imagination. The imagery develops as if done by something
-else.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f104'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r104'>104</a>. It must not be assumed that all dreams are determined by a
-subconscious process or that all are symbolic. On the contrary, from
-evidence in hand, there is reason to believe that some dreams have
-substantially the same mechanism as waking imagination subject to
-the limitations imposed by the existing dissociation of consciousness
-during sleep. Just as, in the waking state, thoughts may or may not
-be determined by subconscious processes, so in the sleeping state.
-We know too little about the mechanisms of thought to draw wide
-generalizations or to dogmatize.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f105'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r105'>105</a>. “For two or three days previously I had been trying to write
-some verses, and had been reading a good deal of poetry. I had
-been thinking in rhythm. I had also been under considerable nervous
-and emotional strain for some little time in reference to the facts
-portrayed in the verse.”</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f106'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r106'>106</a>. By this is meant “thoughts” of which she was not aware.
-Numerous observations on this subject have disclosed such subconscious
-ideas in connection with other phenomena. This corresponds
-with the testimony of other subjects previously cited. (Lecture VI.)</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f107'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r107'>107</a>. As a theory of the mechanism of the vision I would suggest
-that it was the emergence of the secondary visual images belonging
-to the subconscious ideas.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f108'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r108'>108</a>. See page <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>. Also Prince: The Mechanism and Interpretation
-of Dreams. <cite>Jour. Abnormal Psychology</cite>. Oct.-Nov., 1910. G.
-A. Waterman: Dreams as a Cause of Symptoms. Ibid. Oct.-Nov.,
-1910.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f109'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r109'>109</a>. I base this theory on other observations where coconscious
-images or “visions” of scenes occurred. When these images
-emerge into consciousness the subject experienced a vision.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f110'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r110'>110</a>. The Dissociation, p. 332.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f111'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r111'>111</a>. The Dissociation of a Personality, p. 330.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f112'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r112'>112</a>. Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams, <cite>Journal Abnormal
-Psychology</cite>, Oct.-Nov., 1910.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f113'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r113'>113</a>. The symbolic expression of beliefs and symbolic answers to
-doubts and scruples is quite common in another type of symbolism,
-viz., visions. Religious and political history is replete with examples.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f114'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r114'>114</a>. <cite>Loc. cit.</cite></p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f115'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r115'>115</a>. It has been answered that experience in a large number of cases
-shows that dreams always can be related logically to sexual experiences.
-To this it may be answered they can also in an equal number
-of cases, indeed in many of these same cases, be related to non-sexual
-experiences.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f116'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r116'>116</a>. <cite>Loc. cit.</cite> It is possible, however, that sometimes the problem
-has been solved subconsciously in the waking state, the answer then
-appearing in the dream.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f117'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r117'>117</a>. Here we find an analogy with certain allied phenomena—the
-visions and voices experienced as phenomena of sudden religious
-conversion.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f118'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r118'>118</a>. Francis Joseph and His <a id='corr223.27'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Times'>Sir</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_223.27'><ins class='correction' title='Times'>Sir</ins></a></span> Horace Rumbold. Page
-151. (Italics mine.)</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f119'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r119'>119</a>. See also, “The Psychology of Sudden Religious Conversion,”
-<cite>Journal Abnormal Psychology</cite>, April, 1906, and “The Dissociation,”
-2nd Edit., pages 344 and 564; also James’ “The Varieties of Religious
-Experience.”</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f120'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r120'>120</a>. Quoted by William James, page 343.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f121'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r121'>121</a>. Some will undoubtedly read into Margaret’s vision a cryptic
-sexual symbolism. To do so seems to me too narrow a view, in that
-it fails to give full weight to other instincts (and emotions) and to
-appreciate all the forces of human personality.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f122'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r122'>122</a>. Lecture VI, pp. 169-172.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE VIII<br /> THE UNCONSCIOUS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>Our studies up to this point have led us to the
-general conclusion that a large measure of the experiences
-of life are conserved or deposited in what
-may be called a storehouse of neurographic dispositions
-or residua. <cite>This storehouse is the unconscious.</cite>
-From this storehouse our conscious processes
-draw for the material of thought. Further,
-a large amount and variety of evidence, which we
-have briefly and incompletely reviewed, has shown
-that conserved experiences may function without
-arising into consciousness, i.e., as a subconscious
-process. To what extent such processes take part
-in the mechanism of thought, contribute to the formation
-of judgments, determine the point of view
-and meaning of ideas, give direction to the stream
-and formulate the content of consciousness, and in
-particular conditions, by a species of translation,
-manifest themselves consciously as phenomena
-which we designate abnormal constitute special
-problems which require to be studied by themselves.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Physiological memory and processes.</b>—There is one
-phase of the unconscious which for the sake of completeness
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>ought to be touched upon here, particularly
-as it is of considerable importance in any biological
-conception of intelligence. <cite>There is every
-reason to believe that</cite> intrinsically <cite>there is no essential
-difference between those physiological dispositions
-and activities of the lower nervous centers
-(subcortical ganglia and spinal cord), which condition
-and determine unconscious behavior, and those
-dispositions and activities of the higher centers—the
-cortex—which condition and determine both conscious
-and unconscious behavior.</cite> The former are
-undoubtedly innate in that they are primarily conditioned
-by inherited anatomical and physiological
-prearrangements of neurons and the latter are pre-eminently
-acquired through experience although
-probably not wholly so. (Our knowledge of the
-localization of function in the nervous system is not
-sufficiently definite to enable us to delimit the localization
-of either innate or acquired dispositions.)
-The innate activities of the lower nervous centers so
-far as represented by movements can be clearly differentiated
-from those of the higher centers and
-recognized in the behavior of so-called “spinal” animals
-and of animals from which the cerebral hemispheres
-have been removed. In the former the connection
-between the spinal cord and all parts of the
-nervous system above having been severed, whatever
-movements are executed are performed by the
-spinal cord alone and therefore of course by unconscious
-processes. The latter animals, although their
-actions are more complex and closely approximate
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>(with important differences) those of normal animals,
-are also devoid or nearly devoid of consciousness.
-I say “nearly devoid” because in the interpretation
-of the experiments it is difficult to disprove
-that, as some hold, elementary sensations—qua
-sensation—are retained, though others regard
-the animals as purely unconscious physiological machines.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the spinal animal, in response to specific stimuli,
-various movements are elicited which though of
-a purposive character are effected, as has been so
-admirably worked out by Sherington, by complex
-spinal mechanisms of a reflex character. The so-called
-“scratch reflex” and the reflex movements of
-walking, trotting, and galloping (the animal being
-suspended in air) are examples. Such reflexes involve
-not only the excitation of certain movements
-appropriate to the stimulus but the inhibition of antagonistic
-muscles and reflex movements. Further
-in the integration of the spinal system, reflexes are
-compounded, one bringing to the support of another
-allied accessory reflexes so that various <a id='corr231.21'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='cooperative'>coöperative</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_231.21'><ins class='correction' title='cooperative'>coöperative</ins></a></span>
-movements are executed. A constellation
-of reflexes leads to quite complex spinal mechanisms
-responsive to groups of stimuli acting concurrently
-and resulting in behavior which is purposive and
-adaptive to the situation. The neural processes executing
-such movements are necessarily conditioned
-by inherited dispositions and structural arrangements
-of the neurons.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the animal from which the cerebral hemispheres
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>only have been removed there can be little
-doubt that the physiological mechanisms governing
-behavior differ only in complexity, not in kind, from
-those of the spinal reflexes; that in passing through
-successive anatomical levels from the spinal animal
-to this decerebrate animal with the addition of each
-successive ganglion the increasing complexity of behavior
-corresponds to increasing complexity of
-mechanisms or compounding of reflexes. And yet in
-the decerebrate animal without consciousness, as we
-must believe (excepting perhaps elementary sensations),
-the subcortical ganglia and spinal cord continue
-to perform exceedingly complex actions ordinarily,
-as we suppose, guided in the normal animal
-by consciousness. The reptile crawls; the fish
-swims; indeed the lancet fish has no brain, all its
-functions being regulated by its spinal cord. The
-frog hops and swims; the hen preens its feathers,
-walks and flies; the dog walks and runs. These,
-however, are the simplest examples of decerebrate
-behavior. Indeed it may be quite complex. The
-more recent experiments of Schräder on the pigeon
-and falcon and Goltz and Rothmann on the dog,
-not to mention those of earlier physiologists, have
-shown that the decerebrate unconscious (?) animal
-performs about all the movements performed by
-the normal animal.<a id='r123' /><a href='#f123' class='c009'><sup>[123]</sup></a> “A mammal such as a rabbit,
-in the same way as a frog and a bird, may
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>in the complete or all but complete absence of the
-cerebral hemispheres maintain a natural posture,
-free from all signs of disturbance of equilibrium,
-and is able to carry out with success at all events
-all the usual and common bodily movements. And
-as in the bird and frog, the evidence also shows that
-these movements not only may be started by, but in
-their carrying out are guided by and coordinated by,
-afferent impulses along afferent nerves, including
-those of the special senses. But in the case of the
-rabbit it is even still clearer than in the case of the
-bird that the effects of these afferent impulses are
-different from those which result when the impulses
-gain access to an intact brain. The movements of
-the animal seem guided by impressions made on its
-retina, as well as on other sensory nerves; we may
-perhaps speak of the animal as the subject of sensations;
-but there is no satisfactory evidence that it
-possesses either visual or other perceptions, or that
-the sensations which it experiences give rise to
-ideas.”<a id='r124' /><a href='#f124' class='c009'><sup>[124]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Even <cite>spontaneity</cite> which at one time was supposed
-to be lost it is now agreed returns if the animal is
-kept alive long enough. It “wanders about in the
-room untiringly the greater part of the day”
-(Loeb).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Of course there are differences in the animal’s behavior
-when compared with normal behavior, but
-these differences are not so easy to interpret in psychological
-terms. Loeb, apparently following
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>Schräder, does not believe the animal is blind or
-deaf or without sensation for it reacts to light, to
-noise, to smell, to tactile impressions, etc. It avoids
-obstacles and is guided by visual impressions, etc.
-The falcon jumps at and catches a mouse introduced
-in its cage; the dog growls and snaps if its paw is
-pinched and endeavors to get away or bite the offending
-hand; the pigeon flies and alights upon a
-bar, apparently visually measuring distance, and so
-on. But though it is guided by visual and other sensory
-<cite>impressions</cite>, does it have visual, auditory and
-other <cite>images</cite>, that is, conscious sensory states? This
-is not easy to answer. It certainly acts like an animal
-that is not blind nor deaf nor without tactual
-sensation, and yet it is conceivable that it is guided
-simply by sensory mechanisms without conscious
-sensation. The main reason, apparently, for believing
-the animal to be without sensation, as some believe
-(e. g., Morgan) is the absence of the cerebral
-cortex in which alone sensation is believed to be “localized.”
-Recently Rothmann<a id='r125' /><a href='#f125' class='c009'><sup>[125]</sup></a> has succeeded in
-keeping alive for three years a dog from which the
-entire cerebrum was extirpated. It was then killed.
-Although the dog, like Goltz’ dog, in its behavior
-exhibited an abundance of functions in the spheres
-of mobility, sensibility, feeding, barking, etc., Rothmann
-came to the conclusion that it was blind and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>deaf.<a id='r126' /><a href='#f126' class='c009'><sup>[126]</sup></a> Although apparently without taste for bitter,
-sweet, sour, and acid, yet the dog reacted differently
-to edible and non-edible substances, swallowing
-the former and rejecting the latter (moist sand);
-raw flesh was eaten preferably to cooked flesh and
-Goltz’ dog rejected from its mouth food made bitter
-with quinine. Some kind of gustatory processes
-(probably purely reflex as in Pawlow’s association
-experiments) were therefore retained though not
-necessarily taste as such. But blindness and deafness
-in the dog cannot negative the retention in
-birds and other animals of visual and auditory impressions
-of some kind which guide and originate
-behavior. But whether such impressions are psychologically
-sensations or not, the animal certainly
-does not possess visual or other <cite>perceptions</cite>, because
-the “sensations” have no “meaning.”
-Schräder’s falcon, for example, would jump at and
-catch with its claws a moving mouse in the cage, but
-there the matter was at an end; it did not devour it
-as would a normal falcon. Any moving object had
-for it the same meaning as a mouse and excited the
-same movement. So the decerebrate dog does not
-distinguish friend from stranger and other dogs
-have no meaning for it. All objects are alike to all
-decerebrate animals. In the popular language of
-the street “all coons look alike” to them. In other
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>words the main defect is loss of memory for conscious
-experiences, of what Loeb calls associative-memory,
-the conscious memory which gives meaning
-to sensations, transforms them by synthesis into
-<cite>perception</cite> of objects and gives still further meaning
-to the objects. Hence for the pigeon without its
-cerebrum “Everything is only a mass in space, it
-moves aside for every pigeon or attempts to climb
-over it, just as it would in the case of a stone. All
-authors agree in the statement that to these animals
-all objects are alike. They have no enemies and no
-friends. They live like hermits no matter in how
-large a company they find themselves. The languishing
-coo of the male makes as little impression
-upon the female deprived of its cerebrum as the rattling
-of peas or the whistle which formerly made it
-hasten to its feeding place. Neither does the female
-show interest in its young. The young ones that
-have just learned to fly pursue the mother, crying
-unceasingly for food, but they might as well beg
-food of a stone.”<a id='r127' /><a href='#f127' class='c009'><sup>[127]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>One of the chief utilities of conscious memory is
-the means it offers the psycho-physiological organism
-to make use of past experiences to adapt present
-conduct to a present situation. This the brainless
-animal cannot do. Hence it is a mindless physiological
-automaton. All the actions performed by it,
-however complex they may be, are unquestionably
-performed and primarily conditioned by inherited
-neural arrangements and dispositions. They may
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>be even regarded as complexly compounded reflex
-processes similar excepting in complexity, as Sherrington
-has held, to the mechanisms of the spinal
-cord. The behavior of the animal is therefore by
-definition instinctive. But even so this fact in no
-way throws light upon the intrinsic nature of the
-physiological process, but only upon the conditions
-of its occurrence. Acquired behavior is also conditioned—conditioned
-by acquired dispositions. The
-difference physiologically between the two is that in
-instinctive behavior the neural processes are confined
-to pathways established by evolutionary development,
-and in acquired behavior to pathways
-established by experience. Both must be conditioned
-by pathways, and the process in its inner nature
-must be the same in both. Many cortical processes,
-to be sure, are conscious—i.e., correlated
-with consciousness—but probably not all. And this
-quality of consciousness permitting of conscious
-memory is of great utility in the organization of acquired
-dispositions that provide the means for the
-adaption of the animal to each new environmental
-situation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Furthermore, it is not at all certain that the behavior
-of the decerebrate animal is not in part determined
-by <cite>secondarily acquired dispositions</cite>. In
-the normal animal instinctive actions become modified
-and perfected after the very first performances
-of the act by conscious experience<a id='r128' /><a href='#f128' class='c009'><sup>[128]</sup></a> and it is not at
-all certain that dispositions so acquired and essential
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>for these modifications are not conserved and
-incorporated in the unconscious neural arrangements
-of the subcortical centers. So far as this may
-be the case the acquired modifications of instinctive
-behavior may be manifested in the actions of the decerebrate
-animals. In other words, the unconscious
-processes of the lower nervous centers motivating
-movements (and visceral functions) may include
-<cite>acquired dispositions or physiological memories</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>That the subcortical centers are capable of memory
-seems to have been shown for the first time by
-Rothmann’s dog. This mindless animal proved to
-be capable of a certain amount of education. It
-learned to avoid hitting against objects, and to do
-certain tricks—jumping over a hurdle and following
-on its hind legs a stool upon which its fore feet
-were placed as the stool was dragged forward. “In
-the perfection of all these performances the influence
-of practice was easily recognized.” This
-means, if the interpretation given is correct, that
-new dispositions and new connections may be acquired
-within the lower centers <cite>without the intervention
-of the integrating influence of the cortex</cite> or
-conscious intelligence.<a id='r129' /><a href='#f129' class='c009'><sup>[129]</sup></a> This is an important contribution
-for apparently the attempt to educate
-brainless animals had not been previously made,
-and their capability for education demonstrated.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The important bearing which this fact has upon
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>this discussion is that it shows that unconscious processes
-are capable of memory, that is physiological
-memory. It may be said that this statement needs
-some modification if the sensory “impressions”
-guiding the decerebrate animal are to be interpreted
-as true psychological, however elementary, “sensations.”
-It would seem to me on the contrary only
-to accentuate the fact that the processes of the
-brainless animal are on a transition level between
-the purely unconscious processes of the spinal animal
-and the purely (if ever wholly so) conscious
-processes of the normal animal, and that intrinsically
-all are of the same nature. If sensation enters
-into the complex reflex reactions of the brainless
-animal it would seem that it can only be an elemental
-conscious factor in a complicated unconscious
-physiological mechanism. In this mechanism
-it can have no more specific importance in determining
-behavior, because of the fact of its being a
-psychological state, than if it were a receptor
-“impression” intercalated in the arc of an innate
-process. It is not linked with any associative memories
-of the past or foresight into the future; it does
-not constitute conscious intelligence. As a conscious
-experience it cannot have that kind of “meaning”
-which in the normal animal modifies instinctive
-processes and determines conduct. It probably
-plays simply the same part in the whole process,
-which otherwise is wholly unconscious, that the
-associative sensory image plays in determining the
-flow of thick or thin saliva in Pawlow’s dogs—simply
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>a single link in a chain of associated reflex processes.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The next point to which I would direct attention
-is that from an objective point of view the behavior
-of the decerebrate animal may be in nature <cite>intelligent</cite>
-in the empirical sense of that word. The dog
-that growls and snaps when his foot is pinched,
-tries to draw it away, and, failing that, bites at the
-offending hand; the “educated” dog that jumps
-over a hurdle, and walks on his hind legs, following
-a stool supporting his front legs, to my way of thinking
-performs intelligent actions whether it has a
-brain or not. If intelligence is arbitrarily limited to
-actions performed by conscious processes, then intelligence
-becomes a mere question of terms.<a id='r130' /><a href='#f130' class='c009'><sup>[130]</sup></a>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>There arises also the practical difficulty that certain
-types of behavior, which by common assent and common
-sense are regarded as purely automatic and
-unintelligent, must be termed intelligent because
-guided by consciousness. I cannot help thinking
-that “intelligence” is a pragmatic question, not a
-biological or psychological one. It would be much
-more conducive to a clear understanding of biological
-problems to use intelligence only as a convenient
-and useful expression, like sanity or insanity,
-to designate certain behavior which conforms
-to a type which, without strictly defining its limits,
-popular language has defined as intelligent. Sanity
-and insanity have ceased to be terms of scientific
-value because they cannot be defined in terms of
-specific mental conditions and much less in terms
-of mental processes. So intelligence cannot be defined
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>in terms of conscious and unconscious processes.
-Any attempt to do so meets with insuperable
-difficulties and becomes “confusion worse confounded.”
-When we say then that the behavior of
-the decerebrate dog may be intelligent, all that is
-meant is that the animal exhibits behavior identical
-with that which in the normal animal we would empirically
-call intelligent. In this sense unconscious
-processes may exhibit intelligence. It was from this
-viewpoint, I think, that Foster concluded: “In
-short, the more we study the phenomena exhibited
-by animals possessing a part only of their brain,
-the closer we are pushed to the conclusion that no
-sharp line can be drawn between volition and lack
-of volition, or between the possession and absence
-of intelligence. Between the muscle-nerve preparation
-at one limit, and our conscious willing selves at
-the other, there is a continuous gradation without
-a break; we cannot fix on any linear barrier in the
-brain or in the general nervous system, and say
-‘beyond this there is volition and intelligence, but
-up to this there is none.’”<a id='r131' /><a href='#f131' class='c009'><sup>[131]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It has already been pointed out (Lecture V) that,
-in man, complicated actions which have been volitionally
-and perhaps laboriously acquired may be
-afterwards involuntarily and unconsciously performed.<a id='r132' /><a href='#f132' class='c009'><sup>[132]</sup></a>
-In other words, after intelligent actions
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>have been acquired by conscious processes, they may
-be performed by subconscious processes for which
-there is no conscious awareness and probably these
-may be either coconscious or entirely unconscious.
-There is no sharp dividing line between the activities
-of the unconscious, coconscious, and conscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When we descend in the scale of animal life to the
-insects (bees, ants, etc.,) we observe motor activity
-of a highly complex character of a kind that is
-termed intelligent, but we are forced to conclude,
-from various considerations, that the elements of
-consciousness have dwindled away to what can be
-nothing more than mere sensibility. In other words
-consciousness is reduced to its lowest terms, but
-behavior and the neural processes are maintained
-at a high level of complexity. Accordingly there is
-a disproportion between the complexity of the motor
-behavior and the inferred simplicity of consciousness,
-for in the higher animals the former
-would be correlated with complex psychological
-processes. If this be so, the motor activities must be
-determined by processes which are mostly unconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In still lower forms of life the motor activities can
-be referred to simple tropisms, and thus necessarily
-are wholly unconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Between the most complex unconscious physiological
-processes performed by the nervous system
-and the simpler cerebral processes accompanied by
-consciousness there is not as wide a step as might
-seem when superficially viewed. The physiological
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>process may, as we have seen, manifest itself in
-acts of quite as intelligent a character as those exhibited
-by the conscious process, and indeed more
-so; for the conscious act may be little more than a
-limited reflex. On the other hand a psychological
-process may be so elementary that it contains nothing
-of awareness of self, of intelligence, or of volition
-in the true sense—nothing more, perhaps, than
-an elementary sensation without even perception.
-But it may be said that the presence of the most
-rudimentary state of consciousness makes all the
-difference and renders the gulf between the two
-impassable.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We are not called upon to discuss that question
-here. It is one which involves the ultimate nature
-of physical processes. A distinction should be made
-between psychological and psychical, these not being
-coextensive and always interchangeable terms.
-Psychological pertains to the empirical data of consciousness,
-(thoughts, ideas, sensations, etc.) while
-psychical pertains to the inner or ultimate nature
-of these data. Though the data as given in consciousness
-are psychical, that which is psychical may
-not be solely manifested as psychological phenomena.
-It may be manifested as physical phenomena
-and perhaps be identified with the energy of the
-universe. Hence the doctrine of panpsychism. And
-so it may be that in its ultimate analysis an unconscious
-process is psychical (monism) although not
-psychological and not manifesting itself as a datum
-of consciousness. Certain it is that, <cite>objectively</cite>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>viewed, there is nothing to distinguish physiological
-from psychological intelligence. If the extraordinary
-instinctive habits exhibited by insects, such
-as bees and ants and by still lower forms of animal
-life, can rightly be interpreted as, in large part at
-least, manifestations of physiological processes, as
-is quite possible, the distinction between the conscious
-and the unconscious in respect to intelligence
-and adaptability to environment would be reduced
-to one only of degree. That some of the lowest
-forms of life are endowed with consciousness, in any
-sense in which the word has psychological meaning,
-seems incredible, though they manifest instinctive
-intelligence of no mean order. The fact probably is,
-as I have just intimated, that those processes we
-call physiological and those we call psychological
-are in their inner nature identical, and the former
-are quite capable of functioning, incredible as it
-may seem, in a fashion that we are accustomed to
-believe can only be the attribute of conscious intelligence.
-This does not mean, of course, that the physiological
-intelligence can reach the same degree of
-perfection as that reached by conscious intelligence,
-though conversely, the latter may be of a lower
-order than physiological intelligence.<a id='r133' /><a href='#f133' class='c009'><sup>[133]</sup></a> From this
-point of view we are logically entitled to regard
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>physiological processes, even of the lower nervous
-centers and even though they are not acquired but
-due to congenital structural and functional arrangement,
-as phases of the unconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Psycho-physical parallelism and monism.</b>—According to
-the doctrine of psycho-physical parallelism every
-mental process is correlated with (accompanied by)
-a brain process. As brain processes thus viewed
-are “unconscious” (in the sense of not having the
-attribute of consciousness) we may express this in
-other terms and say: every “conscious” process is
-accompanied by an “unconscious” process. I have
-no intention of entering here into the question of
-the validity of the doctrine of psycho-physical
-parallelism. I wish merely to point out that if
-parallelism is a true formulation of the mind-brain
-problem, as I have just stated it, the converse
-ought to hold true, namely, that every brain
-process of a certain kind involving intelligence
-ought to be correlated with consciousness. But if
-some subconscious processes manifesting what is
-equivalent to thought, reasoning, judgment, imagination,
-volition, etc., are unconscious—as seems likely
-if not probable—then this converse does not hold
-true. This has some bearing on the validity of the
-doctrine; for if physical processes can perform substantially
-the same function as conscious intelligence
-it is difficult to reconcile this fact with what
-I may call naïve psycho-physical parallelism.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is reconcilable, however, with psychic monism.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>According to this doctrine it is not a question of
-parallelism at all. There is only one process—the
-psychical. The physical brain process is only an
-aspect or special mode of apprehending this one.
-All is psychical but not psychological. That which
-we apprehend in the form of the unconscious is
-really psychical and hence is capable of performing
-the same <cite>kind</cite> of function as it performs when it
-becomes psychological. It is not at all certain that
-unconscious processes may not comprise an intelligence
-possessing faculties identical in kind with
-those of conscious intelligence and indistinguishable
-from the latter. Subconscious processes may
-exhibit perception, cognition, reason, imagination,
-conation (will), feeling, etc., and it is possible that
-some of these processes may be correctly interpreted
-as unconscious. At any rate, from the point
-of view of monism, whether the real psychical process
-or, probably more correctly, how much of it
-shall emerge as a psychological state of consciousness
-depends upon intrinsic conditions. Though we
-cannot penetrate within them it is quite conceivable
-that it is a matter of complexity of synthesization
-and coöperative activity of psychical energies. This
-is a most interesting problem closely related to
-that of awareness and self-consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>The meanings of the unconscious, subconscious, and coconscious.</b>—Though
-the term “unconscious” is in
-general use it has so many connotations derived
-from its various meanings in metaphysics, psychology,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>and physiology that its use has given rise to
-considerable confusion of thought, particularly, I am
-compelled to believe, in the interpretation of specific
-psycho-physiological phenomena. Nevertheless, it
-has been so well established in our nomenclature that
-we could not replace it if we would. Nor is it wholly
-desirable to do so. It is a good and useful term,
-but I believe that with each advance in the precision
-of our knowledge we ought, so far as accumulative
-data permit, to give precision to the concept
-for which it stands. Just as in physical science we
-attempt to give precision to our concept of electricity
-in conformity with new data accumulated
-from time to time, so our psychological concepts
-should be defined and limited in accordance with
-the advance in knowledge. Some do not like to
-define the term, not being quite willing to commit
-themselves unreservedly to the complete acceptance
-of the physiological theory of memory and to cut
-adrift from the metaphysical concept of a subliminal
-mind. If the psycho-physiological theory of
-memory, which is now generally accepted, is sound,
-we have one meaning of the unconscious which is
-a very definite concept, namely, the brain residua,
-physiological “dispositions” or neurograms in
-which the experiences of life are conserved. These
-terms become, therefore, synonyms for the unconscious.
-That, under certain conditions, the passive
-neurograms may, under stimulation, become active
-and function unconsciously (i.e., without corresponding
-psychological equivalents being introduced
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>into the personal consciousness), need not invalidate
-the concept. We are then dealing with an unconscious
-and dynamic process. The effects of such
-functioning are simply the manifestations of the
-unconscious and may be recognized either in modifications
-of the stream of consciousness or in bodily
-disturbances. The term unconscious is an appropriate
-and descriptive term to characterize that
-which is devoid of the attributes of consciousness.
-This use of the term has been sanctioned by common
-usage.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Unfortunately, however, the term has been also
-employed to characterize another and distinct class
-of facts, namely <cite>Co-[or Sub-]conscious Ideas</cite>. We
-shall have occasion to study these psychological
-phenomena in other lectures.<a id='r134' /><a href='#f134' class='c009'><sup>[134]</sup></a> We have seen examples
-in many of the phenomena I have cited. It
-is sufficient to say here, that as conceived of, and as
-we have seen, they are very <cite>definite states of coconsciousness—a
-coexisting dissociated consciousness
-or coconsciousness of which the personal consciousness
-is not aware</cite>, i.e., of which it is “unconscious.”
-Hence they have been called “unconscious ideas”
-and have been included in the unconscious, particularly
-by German writers. But this is plainly using
-the term in a different sense—using it as a synonym
-for the longer phrase, “ideas we are unaware of,”
-and not as a characterization of that which is physiological
-and non-psychological.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“Unconscious ideas” in this sense (the equivalent
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>of coconscious ideas) would include conscious
-states that we are not aware of simply because not
-in the focus of attention but in the fringe of the
-content of consciousness. The term would also include
-pathologically split-off and independently acting
-coconscious ideas or systems of ideas such as
-occur in hysteria, reaching their apogee in coconscious
-personalities and in automatic writings.
-Here we have a series of facts essentially different
-from the conceptual facts of physical residua, the
-form in which experiences are conceived to be conserved.
-Manifestly it is confusing and incorrect to
-define both by “the unconscious.” And to speak
-of the former as “unconscious ideas” and of the
-latter as “unconscious,” although technically correct,
-leads to confusion from using the term “unconscious”
-in two different senses.<a id='r135' /><a href='#f135' class='c009'><sup>[135]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As a concept in a scheme of metaphysics, “unconscious
-ideas”—i.e., ideas of which we are not
-conscious, have long been recognized. Leibnitz was
-the first to maintain, on theoretical grounds and by
-<cite>a priori</cite> reasoning, the existence of ideas of which we
-are not aware, as did likewise Kant, influenced by
-Leibnitz, and later Schilling, and Herbart; while
-Hartmann evolved the unconscious into a biological
-and metaphysical system.<a id='r136' /><a href='#f136' class='c009'><sup>[136]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>By most American, English, and French psychologists
-such ideas, as conceived at least by Leibnitz,
-Kant, and Herbart, would to-day be called subconscious
-or coconscious ideas. Hartmann included
-all physiological processes of the nervous system
-in the Unconscious and ascribed to them special
-attributes (will, purpose, etc.). The Unconscious
-accordingly has connotations from which it is not
-easy to rid ourselves in dealing with it. It is generally
-agreed that it is desirable to have a term
-which shall cover all classes of facts—coconscious
-ideas, conserved experiences, and physiological processes—without
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>committal of opinion as to interpretation.<a id='r137' /><a href='#f137' class='c009'><sup>[137]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It does not follow, however, that the term “unconscious”
-is the one that should be chosen. On
-the contrary, as unconscious has two distinct and
-different meanings (that pertaining to unawareness
-and that which is non-psychological) it is a very
-undesirable term if we wish to be precise in our
-terminology. That we should have a term which shall
-precisely define ideas which are not in awareness and
-which shall distinguish them from physiological
-processes is necessitated by the fact that such ideas
-in themselves form a distinct field of investigation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The term “subconscious” is commonly used, excepting
-by German writers, to characterize these coconscious
-ideas. In fact, by some French medical
-writers, particularly Janet, it is very precisely
-limited to such ideas. By other authors it is employed
-in this sense and also to include the physical
-residua of experiences, and sometimes with the additional
-meaning of unconscious physiological neurograms,
-or processes, which it defines—in fact, to
-denote any conserved experience or process outside
-of consciousness. On the other hand, among these
-authors, some do not admit the validity of the concept
-of coconscious ideas, but interpret all so-called
-subconscious manifestations as the expression of
-the physiological functioning of physiological neurograms
-in which the experiences of life are conserved.
-Subconscious and unconscious are, therefore,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>quite commonly, but not always, employed as
-synonyms to define two or three different classes
-of facts. For practical reasons, as already stated,
-it is desirable to have a term which shall embrace
-all classes of facts, and of the two terms in common
-use, subconscious and unconscious, the former
-is preferable, as it is not subject to the double meaning
-above mentioned. I, therefore, use the term
-subconscious in a generic sense to <cite>include</cite> (<cite>a</cite>) <cite>coconscious
-ideas or processes</cite>; (<cite>b</cite>) <cite>unconscious neurograms,
-and</cite> (<cite>c</cite>) <cite>unconscious processes</cite>. Of course it
-is only a matter of terminology. The conceptual
-facts may then be thus classified:</p>
-
-<div class='column-container'>
- <div class='col25'>The subconscious</div>
- <div class='col5 bot'><img class="inline" style="width:auto;" alt="{" src="images/lbracket_200.jpg"/></div>
- <div class='col25 top'><br />The coconscious<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The unconscious</div>
- <div class='col45 top column-container'>
- <div class='col5 top'>
- <img class="inline" style="width:auto;" alt="{" src="images/lbracket_40.jpg"/><br />
- <img class="inline" style="width:auto;" alt="{" src="images/lbracket_160.jpg"/>
- </div>
- <div class='col95'>
-(synonym: subconscious ideas.)<br /><br />
-a: Conserved dormant neurograms or neural dispositions.<br /><br />
-b: Active functioning neurograms or neuralprocesses.<br />
-(synonym: unconscious processes.)
- </div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>Subconscious as an adjective used to qualify ideas
-is plainly equivalent to coconscious ideas. This
-terminology I have found useful in keeping the different
-classes of conceptual facts separate in my
-mind and I believe it will prove to be equally useful
-to others. With the conceptual facts clearly differentiated
-it will be generally easy to recognize the
-various senses in which the terms are used when
-found in the writings of others.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>The unconscious as a fundamental of personality.</b>—A
-survey of all the facts and their relations, which I
-have outlined in the preceding lectures, brings into
-strong relief the important principle that no matter
-in what state complexes of ideas are formed, so
-long as they are conserved, they become a part of
-our personality. They become dormant, but, being
-conserved, they may under favorable conditions be
-awakened and enter our conscious life. It matters
-not whether complexes of ideas have been formed in
-our personal consciousness, or in a state of hypnosis,
-in dreams, in conditions of dissociated personality,
-in coconsciousness, or any other dissociated
-state. They all become parts of ourselves and may
-afterwards be revived under favoring conditions,
-whether volitionally, automatically, by artificial devices,
-by involuntary stimuli, or other agencies.
-They may or may not be subject to voluntary recall
-as recollections, but, so long as they form part of
-our dormant consciousness as physiological neurograms,
-they belong to the personal self. “After
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>all,” as Miss B. used to say, and correctly, referring
-to her different dissociated personalities, BI, B
-III, and BIV, “after all, they are all myself.” It
-makes no difference in what state an experience has
-occurred. A potential memory of it may persist and
-may, in one way or another, be revived, no matter
-how or when it originated.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Through the conception of the <cite>sub</cite>conscious as
-resolvable, on the one hand, into the <cite>un</cite>conscious,
-passive or active physiological dispositions, and, on
-the other hand, into <cite>co</cite>active conscious states, the
-subconscious becomes simplified and intelligible. It
-offers a basis on which may be constructed comprehensible
-theories of memory, suggestibility, post-hypnotic
-phenomena, dreams, automatic writing
-and similar phenomena, artificial hallucinations, the
-protean phenomena of hysteria, and the psycho-neuroses,
-as well as the mechanism of thought. It
-enables us also to construct a rational concept of
-personality and self. As we shall see, when we take
-up the study of multiple personality in later lectures,
-out of the aggregate of the accumulated and varied
-experience of the past conserved in the unconscious
-may be constructed a number of different personalities,
-each depending upon a synthesis and rearrangement
-of life’s neurograms and innate dispositions
-and instincts. All dormant ideas with their
-feeling tones and conative tendencies belong to our
-personality, but they may be arranged with varying
-instincts and innate dispositions into a number of
-differentiated systems, each synthesized into a corresponding
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>personality. In the unconscious may
-be conserved a vast number of life’s experiences
-ranging in time almost from the cradle to the grave.
-The hopes, the wishes, the anxieties of childhood
-may still be there, lying fallow, but capable of injecting
-themselves under favoring conditions into
-our personalities. Properly speaking, from this
-point of view, aside from certain artificial and pathological
-conditions, there is, <cite>normally</cite>, no distinct
-“subconscious <cite>self</cite>,” or “subliminal <cite>self</cite>,” or “secondary
-<cite>self</cite>,” or “hidden <cite>self</cite>.” In artificial and
-pathological conditions there may be, as has been
-frequently shown, a splitting of consciousness and
-the aggregation into a secondary coconscious system
-of large systems of ideas which have all the
-characteristics of personality. This secondary personality
-(of which the primary personality is not
-aware) may have its own memories, feelings, perceptions,
-and thoughts. It may appropriate to itself
-various complexes of neurograms deposited by the
-experiences of life which are not at the disposal of
-the principal personality. Such a coconscious system
-may properly be spoken of as a subconscious
-<cite>self</cite>. But there is no evidence that, <cite>normally</cite>, such
-systems exist. All that we are entitled to affirm
-is that every individual’s consciousness may include
-ideas of which he is not aware, and that he has at
-his disposal, to a greater or less extent, a large
-unconscious storehouse in which are neurographically
-conserved a large and varied mass of life’s
-experiences. These experiences may be arranged
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>in systems, as we shall see in the next lecture, but
-they do not constitute a “self.” To speak of
-them as a subconscious, subliminal, secondary, or
-hidden self is to construct concepts which are
-allegories, metaphors, symbolisms, personifications
-of concrete phenomena. Their use tends to fallacious
-reasoning and to perverted inductions from
-the facts. Becoming major premises in a syllogism,
-they lead to erroneous interpretations of the
-simplest facts, just as fixed ideas or obsessions
-tend to a perverted interpretation of the environment.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We are now in a position to see that the psycho-physiological
-theory of memory has a far-reaching
-significance. The facts which have been brought
-before you in evidence of the theory have been
-selected largely from those which were capable of
-verification by experimentation and by other objective
-testimony. They include a large variety of experiences
-which occurred in pathological conditions
-like amnesia and multiple personality, and in artificial
-conditions like hypnosis and intoxication.
-Such abnormal conditions enable us to show by testimony,
-independent of the individual, that these
-experiences had actually occurred, and, therefore,
-to show that the reproductions of these experiences
-were in principle truthful memories. They also
-enable us to appreciate the enormous variety and
-quantity of experiences which, although absolutely
-beyond the power of voluntary recall, may be conserved
-nevertheless as neurograms, and also to appreciate
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>the minuteness of detail in which the brain
-records may be preserved.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If you will stop a moment to think, and give play
-to your imagination, you will see that the principle
-of the neurographic conservation of experiences
-must be true not only of our outer life, of our experiences
-with our environment, but of our whole
-<cite>inner life</cite>, normal as well as abnormal. It is always
-possible that any thought, any feeling, however
-trivial and transitory, may leave neurograms in the
-brain. It is always possible that even a fleeting
-doubt or scruple, thoughts which flash into the mind
-and straightway are put out again, all may leave
-their records and dispositions to function again.
-Even a passing doubt which any of you may entertain
-regarding the interpretation of the phenomena
-I have described, and the correctness of our conclusions,
-may be recorded. Indeed, it is a matter
-of some importance for the understanding of <a id='corr258.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='obnormal'>abnormal</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_258.19'><ins class='correction' title='obnormal'>abnormal</ins></a></span>
-mental conditions that many of those horrid
-little sneaking thoughts which we do not like to
-admit to ourselves, the thoughts which for one reason
-or another we endeavor to repress, to put out of
-our minds, may leave their indelible traces. In fact,
-these are the very thoughts, the ones which we try
-hardest to forget, to push aside, which are most
-likely to be conserved. The harder we try, the
-stronger the feelings attached to them, the more
-likely they are to leave neurograms in the brain
-though they may never be reproduced. This has
-been shown by observation of pathological conditions,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>like hysteria and psychasthenia, and by experimentation.
-In repressing our thoughts we do
-not put them out of our minds, but, as the subject
-previously cited, who in hypnosis could recall such
-repressed thoughts, said, we put them <cite>into</cite> our minds.
-In other words, we conserve them as neurograms.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In one sense, I suppose, we may say that every
-one leads a double life. Let me hasten to say to
-you, I mean this not in a moral but in an intellectual
-sense. Every one’s mental life may fairly be said
-to be divided between those ideas, thoughts, and
-feelings which he receives from and gives out to
-his social world, the social environment in which he
-lives, and those which belong more properly to his
-inner life and the innermost sanctuary of his personality
-and character. The former include the
-activities and the educational acquisitions which he
-seeks to cultivate and conserve for future use. The
-latter include the more intimate communings with
-himself, the doubts and fears and scruples pertaining
-to the moral, religious, and other problems of
-life, and the struggles and trials and difficulties
-which beset its paths; the internal contests with the
-temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
-The conventionalities of the social organization require
-that the outward expression of many of these
-should be put under restraint. Indeed, society insists
-that some, the sexual strivings, are aspects of
-life and human nature which are not to be spoken
-or thought of. Now, of course, this inner life must
-also leave its neurographic tracings along with the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>outer life, and must, potentially at least, become a
-part of our personality, liable to manifest itself in
-character and in other directions. But, more than
-this, abnormal psychology, through its technical
-methods of investigation and through the perverted
-manifestations exhibited in sick conditions of mind
-and body, has shown us that the neurograms deposited
-as the experiences of this inner life may
-flower, to use an expression of the lamented William
-James, below the threshold of consciousness, and,
-under certain conditions, where the mind is in unstable
-equilibrium, burst forth in mental and bodily
-manifestations of an unusual character. Thus in
-processes of this kind we find an explanation of
-religious phenomena like sudden conversion; of
-dreams and of certain pathological phenomena like
-the hallucinations, deliria, crises, and bodily manifestations
-of hysteria, and the numerous automatic
-phenomena of spiritualistic mediums. Such phenomena
-may then be interpreted as the <cite>flowering or
-functioning of the unconscious</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The essential difference in the consequences which
-follow from this psycho-physiological conception of
-memory, based as it is on the unconscious, and those
-which follow from that conception which is popularly
-held must be obvious. According to popular
-understanding the mental life which we have outlived,
-the life which we have put behind us, whether
-that of childhood or of passing phases of adult life,
-is only an ephemeral, evanescent phase of consciousness
-which once out of mind, put aside or forgotten,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>need no longer be taken into consideration as pertaining
-to, much less influencing, our personality.
-Writers of fiction who undertake to depict human
-nature almost invariably, I believe, are governed by
-this point of view. They describe their characters
-as throwing overboard their past, their dominating
-beliefs, convictions, and other traits as easily as
-we should toss undesirable refuse into the ocean.
-Their heroes and heroines jettison their psychological
-cargoes as if they were barrels of molasses whenever
-their personalities show signs of going down
-in the storms of life’s experiences. According to
-this view, which is derived from an imperfect conception
-of mental processes, any passing phase of
-consciousness ceases to have potential existence or
-influence as soon as it is forgotten, or as soon as
-it ceases to be a consciously dominating belief or
-motive of life. It is assumed that so long as we
-do not bring it back into consciousness it belongs
-to us no more than as if it had originated in the
-mind of another, or had taken flight on the wings
-of a dove. This is true in part only. A phase of
-consciousness may not be conserved, or it may become
-so modified by the clash with new experiences
-that a rearrangement of its elements takes place and
-it becomes, for instance, a new motive or belief, or
-a new setting to give a new meaning to an idea. On
-the other hand, any passing phase may, as we have
-seen, still belong to our personality even though it
-lies hidden in its depths. That we no longer recall
-it, bring it voluntarily into the field of our personal
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>consciousness, does not negative its continuing
-(though dormant) existence, and its further influence
-upon the personality through the subconscious
-workings of the mind.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In conclusion, and by way of partial recapitulation,
-we may say, first: The records of our lives
-are written in unconscious dormant complexes and
-therein conserved so long as the residua retain their
-dynamic potentialities. It is the unconscious, rather
-than the conscious, which is the important factor
-in personality and intelligence. The unconscious
-furnishes the formative material out of which our
-judgments, our beliefs, our ideals, and our characters
-are shaped.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the second place, the unconscious, besides being
-a <cite>static</cite> storehouse, has <cite>dynamic</cite> functions. It is
-evident that, theoretically, if unconscious complexes
-are once formed they may, under favoring conditions
-of the psycho-physical organism, become revived
-and play an important part in pathological
-mental life. If through dissociation they could be
-freed from the normal inhibition and the counterbalancing
-influences of the normal mental mechanism,
-and given an independence and freedom from
-voluntary control, they might, by functioning, produce
-abnormal states like fixed ideas, delusions, automatisms,
-hallucinations, etc. A study of such abnormal
-phenomena confirms this theoretical view
-and finds in this conception of the unconscious an
-explanation of the origin of many of them. The
-hallucinations and bizarre notions and delusions of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>the insane, the hysteric, and psychasthenic, where
-all seems chaos, without law or order, are often due
-to the resurrection and fabricating effect of unconscious
-complexes formed by the earlier experiences
-of the patient’s life. Of course, the mechanism by
-which such phenomena are produced is a complicated
-one about which there is much difference of
-opinion and which we cannot enter into here. In
-post-hypnotic phenomena and artificial hallucinations
-we have experimental examples of the
-principle.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>More than this, and more important, there is considerable
-evidence going to show that conserved experiences
-functioning as subconscious processes take
-part in and determine the conscious processes of
-everyday life. On the one hand stored neurograms
-may undergo subconscious incubation, assimilating
-the material deposited by the varied experiences of
-life to finally burst forth in ripened judgments, beliefs,
-and convictions, as is so strikingly shown in
-sudden religious conversions and allied mental
-manifestations. Through a similar incubating process,
-the stored material needed for the solution
-of baffling problems is gathered together and oftentimes
-assimilated and arranged and formulated as
-an answer to the question. On the other hand, subconscious
-processes may be but a hidden part of
-that mechanism which determines our everyday
-judgment and our points of view, our attitudes of
-mind, the meanings of our ideas, and the traits of
-our characters. Antecedent experiences functioning
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>as such processes may determine our fantasies
-and our dreams. Thus functioning as dynamic processes
-the stored residua of the past may provide
-the secrets of our moods, our impulses, our prejudices,
-our beliefs, and our judgments.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It remains, however, for future investigation to
-determine the exact mechanism and the relative extent
-to which subconscious processes play their
-parts.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f123'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r123'>123</a>. For a general account of the behavior of decerebrate animals
-and summary of these experiments see Loeb’s “Physiology of the
-Brain,” and Schäfer’s Text Book of Physiology.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f124'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r124'>124</a>. M. Foster: A Text Book of Physiology, 1895, page 726.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f125'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r125'>125</a>. Von M. Rothmann: Demonstration des Hundes ohne Grossirn.
-<cite>Bericht über den V Kongress f. Experiment. Psychol. in Berlin,
-1912</cite>, page 256. The report is too meager to admit of independent
-judgment of the animal’s behavior in many of its details.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f126'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r126'>126</a>. Until the basal ganglia have been microscopically examined it
-cannot be determined that the loss of function was not due to secondary
-organic lesions. In Goltz’ dog, which acted like a blind dog,
-one optic nerve was cut and the corpora striata and optic thalami
-were partly involved in the lesion.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f127'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r127'>127</a>. Quoted from Schräder by Loeb.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f128'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r128'>128</a>. Cf. Lloyd Morgan: Instinct and Experience, 1912.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f129'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r129'>129</a>. Dr. Morgan in his work, “Instinct and Experience,” 1912, published
-before Rothmann’s observations, remarks that this “is not inherently
-improbable” although it had not as yet been demonstrated.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f130'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r130'>130</a>. From the point of view here adopted, the recent discussions and
-controversies over the problems of “instinct and intelligence” have
-been much muddled by the arbitrary denial of conscious elements to
-an instinctive process, and by the acceptation of consciousness or
-conscious experience as the criterion of intelligence. In this view
-instinct and intelligence become contrasted concepts which to my
-way of thinking they are not necessarily at all. If it is admitted
-that instinct is an innate disposition, its contrasted quality is that
-which is <cite>acquired</cite> and not the quality of consciousness. It is true
-that acquired behavior is commonly if not always determined by conscious
-processes (conscious experience), but likewise innate behavior
-may be determined by processes which contain conscious elements.
-Surely fear is instinctive and is a conscious element in an innate
-process; and so must be visual and other sensory images, as in the
-first peck of a chicken. To look upon the first visual image simply
-as conscious “experience,” as an “onlooker,” and reject it as a
-factor in the process which determines that first peck, seems to me
-to be arbitrary psychology if not physiology. If consciousness may
-be a quality of an innate process—and why not?—it cannot be a
-criterion of intelligence. The true converse of the conscious is the
-unconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This adopted antithesis between consciousness and instinct, from
-this point of view as well as the arbitrary limitation of the localization
-of the whole of an instinctive process to the subcortical centers,
-vitiates the force of the very able presentation of the subject by Dr.
-Morgan, if I correctly understand him. I know of no data which
-forbid the cortex to be included in the innate mechanism of an instinctive
-process. On the contrary, it is difficult to understand instinctive
-behavior and its modifications through conscious experience
-unless cortical centers are included in the psycho-physiological arcs.
-At any rate we may define instinct and intelligence in terms of the
-conscious and the unconscious, or in brain terms, but we should not
-mix up these aspects with that of localization in the definition.
-Mr. McDougall’s conception of instinct appeals to me more strongly
-from both a biological and a psychological point of view, and further
-seems to me to be more in consonance with the data of experience.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f131'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r131'>131</a>. A Text Book of Physiology, 1893, page 727.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f132'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r132'>132</a>. The localization of the processes concerned in all such acquired
-automatic behavior—whether it is in the cortex or subcortical centers—is
-an unsolved problem.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f133'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r133'>133</a>. If the subconscious processes which perform a mathematical calculation
-and other problems, which logically determine the symbolism
-of a dream, etc., can be correctly interpreted as unconscious, they
-plainly exhibit a higher order of intelligence than any conscious
-processes in lower animals, or even some conscious processes of man,
-like brushing away a fly.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f134'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r134'>134</a>. Not included in this volume.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f135'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r135'>135</a>. It has been objected that to speak of unconscious ideas is a
-contradiction of terms. This seems to me to smack of quibbling as
-we know well enough that the adjective is used in the sense of unawareness.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f136'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r136'>136</a>. For a good account of the history of the theory of unconscious
-ideas in philosophy see Hartmann’s “Philosophy of the Unconscious,”
-where the following quotations may be found: “To have
-ideas and yet not to be conscious of them—there seems to be a contradiction
-in that—for how can we know that we have them if we
-are not conscious of them? Nevertheless, we may become aware indirectly
-that we have an idea, although we be not directly cognizant
-of the same.” (Kant, Anthropology, sec. 5.) And again: "Innumerable
-are the sensations and perceptions whereof we are not
-conscious although we must undoubtedly conclude that we have
-them, obscure ideas as they may be called (to be found in animals
-as well as in man). The clear ideas, indeed, are but an infinitely
-small fraction of these same exposed to consciousness. That only a
-few spots on the great chart of our minds are illuminated may well
-fill us with amazement in contemplating this nature of ours. (Ibid.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“Now unconscious ideas” are such “as are in consciousness
-without our being aware of them” (Herbart).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is interesting to notice how Kant’s statement might well be
-substituted for that of Myers’ of his “Subliminal.” It is difficult
-to understand the peculiar antagonistic attitude of certain theoretical
-psychologists to the theory of subconscious (coconscious) ideas
-in view of the history of this theory in philosophy. They seem to
-have forgotten their philosophy and not to have kept pace with experimental
-psychology.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f137'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r137'>137</a>. See <a href='#f72'>footnote</a> on p. 149.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE IX <br /> THE ORGANIZATION OF UNCONSCIOUS COMPLEXES</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'><b>Everyday life.</b>—It will be well at this point to state
-in orderly fashion a few general principles governing
-the organization of complexes or syntheses of
-ideas<a id='r138' /><a href='#f138' class='c009'><sup>[138]</sup></a> which, as we shall see, play an important
-part in normal and abnormal life. Although this
-statement will be little more than descriptive of
-what is common experience it will be helpful in classifying
-and obtaining a useful perspective of the
-phenomena with which we shall deal.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, as every one knows, the elemental ideas
-which make up the experience of any given moment
-tend to become organized (i.e., synthesized and conserved)
-into a system or complex of ideas, linked
-with emotions, feelings and other innate dispositions,
-so that when one of the ideas belonging to the
-experience comes to mind the experience as a whole
-is recalled. We may conveniently term such a system
-when in a state of conservation, an <cite>unconscious
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>complex</cite><a id='r139' /><a href='#f139' class='c009'><sup>[139]</sup></a> <cite>or neurogram, or system of neurograms</cite>.
-If we wish to use psychological terms we may speak
-of it as a complex or synthesis of dormant ideas.
-Although we may formulate this principle as the
-“association of ideas” the formula can have only a
-descriptive significance pertaining to a relation in
-time (and not a causal one) unless there be included
-an unconscious factor by which the association becomes
-effective in exciting one idea through another—i.e.,
-through a linking of neural dispositions. We
-cannot conceive of any conscious relation between
-ideas that can possibly induce this effect. It must
-be some <cite>unconscious dynamic relation</cite><a id='r140' /><a href='#f140' class='c009'><sup>[140]</sup></a> and be explained
-in terms of neural dispositions. If this be
-so, all ideas are dynamically associated and related
-in a process which does not appear in consciousness
-and which is essential for organization into a complex.
-Every system of associated ideas, therefore,
-implies conservation through an organized unconscious
-complex.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Complexes may be very feebly organized in that
-the elemental ideas are weakly conserved or weakly
-associated; in which case when we try to recall the
-original experience only a part or none of it is recalled.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>On the other hand, a complex may be strongly
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>organized and include a large number of details
-of an experience. This is usually owing to
-the fact that the original experience was accompanied
-by strong emotional tones, or by marked interest
-and attention, or was frequently repeated.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Emotional Complexes</b>: 1. When the original experience
-was accompanied by an emotion it may be
-regarded as having excited one or more of the emotional
-instincts of anger, fear, disgust, etc. The excitation
-of the instinct or instincts is in one sense a
-<cite>reaction</cite> to the ideas of the experience. The instincts
-then become organized about one or more of the
-ideas to form a sentiment (Shand) and the whole
-is incorporated in a complex which then acquires an
-affective character. The impulsive force of the instinct
-thereafter largely determines the behavior of
-the complex. (To this we shall return later when
-we consider the instincts.) General observation
-shows that emotional experiences are more likely to
-be conserved and also voluntarily recalled. Given
-such an emotional complex nearly anything associated
-with some detail of the experience may, by
-the law of association, automatically or involuntarily
-revive it, or the emotional reaction with a
-greater or less number of its associated memories.
-This tendency seems to be directly proportionate to
-the intensity of the instinct (fear, anger, etc.) incorporated
-in the complex. Sometimes, it is true, a
-strongly emotional experience, even an experience
-of great moment in an individual’s life, is completely
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>forgotten, so completely that no associated idea
-avails as a stimulus to awaken it. Usually in all
-such cases the neurograms are isolated, etc., by dissociation.
-They still, however, may be strongly organized
-and conserved as an unconscious complex
-and sometimes may be excited as a subconscious
-process by an associated stimulus. In such conditions
-it very frequently is found that the dissociation
-is due to conflict between the emotion belonging
-to the complex and another emotional complex. The
-impulsive force of the latter dissociates the former
-complex which then cannot be voluntarily reproduced
-as memory, nor awakened by any association
-under normal conditions. We have then a condition
-of amnesia and often an hysterical condition. To
-this important phenomenon we shall return when
-we consider the emotions. Passing over these exceptional
-conditions of conflicting emotions (which
-being explained “prove the rule”), it still remains
-true that in everyday life emotional experiences are
-not only more likely to be conserved but to be subject
-to voluntary recall, or awakened involuntarily
-by an associated stimulus.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If, for instance, we have experienced a railroad
-accident involving exciting incidents, loss of life,
-etc., the words “railroad,” “accident,” “death,” or
-a sudden crashing sound, or the sight of blood, or
-even riding in a railroad train may recall the experience,
-or at least the prominent features in it.
-The earlier events and those succeeding the accident
-may have passed out of all possibility of voluntary
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>recall. To take an instance commonplace enough, but
-which happens to have come within my recent observation:
-a fireman, hurrying to a fire, was injured
-severely by being thrown from a hose-wagon against
-a telegraph-pole with which the wagon collided. He
-narrowly escaped death. Although three years have
-elapsed he still cannot ride on a wagon to a fire
-without the memory of substantially the whole accident
-rising in his mind. When he does so he again
-lives through the accident, including the thoughts
-just previous to the actual collision when realizing
-his situation he was overcome with terror, and he
-again manifests all the organic physical expressions
-of fear, viz., perspiration, tremor, and muscular
-weakness. Here is a well organized and fairly
-limited complex. It is also plainly an imperative
-memory, that is to say, any stimulus-idea associated
-with some element in the complex reproduces the
-experience as memory whether it is wished or not.
-Try as hard as he will he cannot prevent its recurrence.
-The stimulus that excites such involuntary
-memories may be a spoken word (as in the psycho-galvanic
-and other associative experiments which
-we shall consider in a later lecture), or it may be a
-visual perception of the environment—of a person
-or place—or it may be a repetition of the circumstances
-attending the original experience, however
-induced. The phenomenon may also be regarded as
-an automatism or automatic process. As the biological
-instinct of fear is incorporated in the complex
-it is also a <cite>phobia</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span><cite>Why</cite> our fireman suffered the intense terror that
-he did at the time of the accident, why he experienced
-the thoughts which surged into his mind, why
-he suffered this emotional experience, while another
-man going through the same accident suffers no
-more than the physical injury (if any) at the time,
-and why the experience continues to recur as an
-imperative memory are problems which we are not
-considering now. The fact is that he did suffer the
-terror and its agonizing thoughts, and, this being
-the case, their constant recurrence, i.e., the reproduction
-of the experience, is a memory. And this
-memory consists of a well organized complex of
-ideas, feelings, and physiological accompaniments.
-I emphasize this point because an imperatively recurring
-mental experience of this sort is a psychosis,
-and, so far as the principle of memory enters into it,
-so far memory becomes a part of the mechanism of
-obsessions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The reason why the man at the moment of the
-accident experienced the terrorizing thoughts that
-he did, and why he continued to experience them,
-must be sought in associated conserved experiences
-of his past. These experiences were the psycho-genetic
-factors. It would take us too far out of the
-way to consider this problem, which belongs to the
-obsessions, at this time, but, as I have touched upon
-it, I may say in passing that the accident would have
-awakened no sense of terror and no emotional shock
-if a <cite>psychological torch</cite> had not already been prepared.
-This torch was made up of ideas previously
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>imbibed from the social environment and made
-ready to be set aflame by the match set to it by the
-accident. In the unconsciousness of this man were
-written in neurographic records the dangers attending
-accidents of this kind and dangers which still
-threatened his present and future.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Likewise the <cite>insistence</cite> of the memory can be related
-to a setting of associated thoughts which gave
-meaning to his perception of himself as one affected,
-as he believed, with a serious injury threatening his
-future. His fear was also, therefore, a fear of the
-present and future. Thus not only the experiences
-of the accident itself became organized into a group
-and conserved as a memory, but were organized with
-memories of still other experiences which stood in a
-genetic relation to them. If it were necessary I could
-give from my personal observation numerous examples
-of this mode of organization of complexes
-through emotional experiences and of their reproduction
-as automatic memories.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>An historical example of complex-organizing of
-this kind is narrated in Tallentyre’s delightful life
-of Voltaire. Toward the end of Voltaire’s famous
-residence at the court of Frederick the Great, as
-the latter’s guest, one of those pestiferous friends
-who cannot help repeating disagreeable personal
-gossip for our benefit swore to Voltaire to having
-heard Frederick remark, “I shall want him (Voltaire)
-at the most another year; one squeezes the
-orange and throws away the rind.” From that moment
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>a complex of emotional ideas was formed in
-Voltaire’s mind, that, do what he would, he could
-not get rid of. He wrote it to his friends, thought
-about it, dreamed about it; he tried to forget it, but
-to no purpose; it would not “down”; the rind kept
-constantly rising. It brought with it every memory
-of Frederick’s character and actions that fitted the
-remark.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Voltaire, like many men of genius, was a neurasthenic
-and his ideas with strong emotional tones
-tended to become strongly organized and acquire
-great force. “The orange rind haunts my dreams,”
-he wrote; “I try not to believe it.... We go to sup
-with the king and are gay enough sometimes;—the
-man who fell from the top of a steeple and found the
-fall through the air soft and said, ‘Good, provided
-it lasts,’ is not a little as I am.” The emotional
-complex which so tormented Voltaire that it literally
-became an obsession was a recurring memory. The
-experience had been strongly registered and conserved,
-owing to the emotional tone, but the reason
-<cite>why</cite> there was so much emotion, and <cite>why</cite> it absorbed
-so many associated ideas into itself and kept
-recurring would undoubtedly have been found to
-lie, if we could have probed Voltaire’s mind, in its
-settings—his previous stormy experiences with
-Frederick, his knowledge of Frederick’s character,
-his previous <cite>apprehensions</cite> of what later actually
-occurred, and, most probably, self-reproach for his
-own behavior, <cite>the consequences of which he feared
-to face</cite>. All this, conserved as neurograms, was set
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>ablaze by the remark and furnished not only the
-emotion but the material for the content of the
-complex. These previous experiences, therefore,
-stood in genetic relation to the latter, excited the
-emotional reaction of anger, resentment and fear,
-and prevented the complex from subsiding. The exciting
-cause for each recurrence of the complex was,
-of course, some associated stimulus from the environment,
-or train of thought.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Another interesting historical example is the foolish
-complex which is said to have disturbed the
-pretty Mme. Leclerc (Pauline Bonaparte, who was
-afterward the Princess Borghese). This fascinating
-and beautiful woman was enjoying her triumph
-at a ball. Seated in a little boudoir off the ball-room
-she was entertaining “guests who came to
-admire her and fill her cup to overflowing. There
-was, however, a Mme. de Contades, who had been
-deserted by her own cavaliers at the appearance of
-Pauline. Approaching, now, on the arm of her
-escort, she said in a tone sufficiently loud so that
-every one, including Pauline, could hear perfectly:
-‘Mon Dieu, what a misfortune! Oh, what a pity!
-She would be so pretty but for that!’ ‘But for
-what?’ asked her cavalier. All eyes were turned
-upon poor Mme. Leclerc, who thought there must
-be something the matter with her coiffure and began
-to redden and suffocate. ‘But do you not see
-what I mean?’ persisted Mme. de Contades, with
-the cold cruelty of a jealous woman. ‘What a pity!
-Yes, truly, how unfortunate! Such a really pretty
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>head to have such ears! If I had ears like those I
-would have them cut off. Yes, positively, they are
-like those of a pug dog. You who know her, Monsieur,
-advise her to have it done; it would be a charitable
-act.’ Pauline, more beautiful than ever in
-her blushes, rose, tears blinding her eyes, then sank
-back upon the sofa, hiding her face in her hands,
-sick with mortification and shame. As a matter of
-fact, her ears were not ugly, only a little too flat.
-From that day, however, she always dressed her
-hair over them or concealed them under a bandeau,
-as in the well-known painting of her.”<a id='r141' /><a href='#f141' class='c009'><sup>[141]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Fixed ideas relating to physical blemishes are not
-uncommonly observed as obsessions in psychasthenics.
-With our knowledge of such psychical manifestations
-it is easy to imagine Pauline’s antecedent
-thoughts regarding her own flat ears, and repugnance
-to this defect in others, her suspicions of unfavorable
-criticisms and of not being admired, etc.,
-all organized with the instinct of self-abasement
-(emotion of subjection) and forming a sentiment of
-self-depreciation and shame in her mind.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2. The outbreak of such <cite>automatic memories</cite> is
-particularly prone to occur in persons of a particular
-temperament (the apprehensive temperament, in
-which the biological instinct of fear is the paramount
-factor), in fatigue states, and in so-called neurotic
-people—neurasthenics, psychasthenics, and hysterics.
-In such people the organization of the complex
-probably has been largely a previously <cite>subconscious
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>incubating process</cite>, as in the phenomenon of
-“sudden religious conversion.” Later the sudden
-suggestion or awakening by whatsoever means of
-an idea, which has roots in the antecedent thoughts
-engaged in the subconscious process, readily gives
-occasion for the outbreak of the complex. The latter
-then excites the emotional reaction of anger, horror,
-antipathy, fear, jealousy, etc., which becomes
-incorporated in the complex. When once formed the
-automatism becomes the psychosis. The following
-case is an illustration:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>L. E. W., forty-nine years of age, farmer and
-lawyer by occupation, a man of strenuous disposition,
-broke down under stress and strain with severe
-but common symptoms of mental and physical
-fatigue modified and exaggerated by apprehensions
-of incurable illness. At the end of a year there
-developed scruples and jealous suspicions of his
-wife’s chastity, not persistent but recurring from
-time to time in attacks, and always awakened by
-a suggestion of some kind—an associated idea, a
-remark heard, an act of some kind on the part of
-the wife, etc. Between the attacks he was entirely
-free from such thoughts, but during the attack,
-which came on with the usual suddenness, these
-thoughts—always the same doubts, suspicions, reasonings,
-jealousy, and fear—were dominating, imperative,
-and painful. An open-minded, frank, intelligent
-man he fully realized that his scruples were
-entirely unfounded and even characterized them as
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>“delusions.” It was interesting, so clear was he in
-this respect, to hear him discuss his attacks between
-times with his wife, as if they were recurrent appendicitis.
-The attacks would pass off in a short time
-after discussing his scruples with his wife, and then
-he became natural again; they involved great suffering
-and he feared, as people thus afflicted so often
-do, that they spelled impending insanity. And yet
-it was easy to determine that they were only <cite>imperative
-recurrent memories</cite>, conserved complexes
-emerging from the unconscious. He had been married
-twenty-two years. He was of a jealous nature,
-and before marriage it annoyed him to think that his
-wife had been courted by other men, that she wrote
-them letters, etc. He began to think of her as a
-flirt, that she was going to jilt him, and to have
-misgivings of her character. He grew jealous and
-suspicions of possible unchastity worried him, but
-reasoning with himself he would say, “O, pshaw! it
-is an abominable suspicion,” “an hallucination,”
-and put the thought out of his mind, as he said.
-But we know he really put the thought <cite>into</cite> his
-mind to be conserved in the unconscious, as a complex
-of chastity scruples, and there undergo incubation
-and further development. Later he had had
-spells of jealousy during his married life but no true
-imperative ideas until he broke down in health, and
-then, as he himself expressed it, “the devil got the
-upper hand and said, ‘I’ve got you now.’”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The devil was the complex organized twenty-two
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>years previously with the emotion of jealousy<a id='r142' /><a href='#f142' class='c009'><sup>[142]</sup></a> centered
-about the idea of his wife and the whole neurographically
-conserved. The impulsive force of
-the emotion was constantly striving to awaken and
-give expression to the unconscious complex. He
-was able to hold it in check, to repress it, by the
-conflicting force of other sentiments until these became
-weakened by the development of the psychasthenic
-state. Then these latter controlling elements
-of personality were repressed in turn whenever the
-more powerful jealousy complex was awakened.
-The whole mechanism was undoubtedly more complicated
-than this, in that the jealousy complex had
-a setting in certain unsophisticated and puritanical
-ideas of conduct (brought to light in the analysis)
-which gave a peculiar meaning (for him) to his
-wife’s actions. So long as this setting persisted it
-would be next to impossible to modify the jealousy
-complex.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Whatever the mechanism, ideas with strong
-emotional tones (particularly fear, anger, jealousy,
-and disgust), no matter how absurd or repellent, or
-unjustified, and whether acceptable or unacceptable,
-tend to become organized and welded into a complex
-which is thereby conserved. The impulsive
-force of the incorporated emotion tends to awaken
-and give expression to the complex whenever stimulated.
-The recurrence of such an organized complex
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>so far as it is reproduction is, of course, in principle,
-memory, and an imperative memory or <cite>fixed idea</cite>.
-Whether the complex shall be awakened as such a
-recurrent memory, or shall function as a dissociated
-subconscious process, producing other disturbances,
-or remain quiescent in the unconscious, depends
-upon other factors which we need not now consider.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>3. Clinically the <cite>periodic recurrence</cite> of such complexes
-is an <cite>obsession</cite>. An obsession <cite>as met with</cite> is
-most likely to be characterized by fear not only because
-the instinct of fear is the most painful of the
-emotions, but for another reason. Although biologically
-fear is useful as a defense for the preservation
-of the individual, when perverted by useless associations
-it becomes harmful, in that it is not only painful
-but prevents the adjustment of the individual to
-his environment and thereby takes on a pathological
-taint. Complexes with other emotions are less likely
-to be harmful and therefore less frequently apply
-for relief. Yet imperative ideas with jealousy,
-anger, hatred, love, disgust, etc., centered about an
-object are exceedingly common though their possessors
-less often resort to a physician.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From another point of view abnormal complexes,
-represented by these examples, may be regarded as
-“<cite>association psychoses</cite>.” Sometimes the physiological
-bodily accompaniments form the greater part
-of the complex which is for the most part made up
-of physiological disturbances (vasomotor, cardiac,
-gastric, respiratory, secretory, muscular, etc.); almost
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>pure association <cite>neuroses</cite> they then become.
-Neuroses of this kind we shall consider in a later
-lecture.<a id='r143' /><a href='#f143' class='c009'><sup>[143]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Sometimes, particularly in people of intensive
-temperaments, “imperative ideas” are formed by
-gradual evolution in consequence of the mind constantly
-dwelling with emotional intensity on certain
-phases of thought—i.e., through repetition. This
-we see in the development of religious complexes or
-faiths, but it is also obtrusive in other fields of
-thought, political, industrial, social, etc. Hence the
-evolution of <cite>fanatics</cite>. A. D. is a man of strong
-feeling and great imagination. As a child he was
-a constant witness of quarrels between his father
-and mother. His mind dwelt upon these experiences
-and there developed in him at an early date
-strong aversions toward marriage. Aversion
-means the instinct of repulsion or disgust. This
-instinct therefore became systematized with the
-idea of marriage as its object forming an intense
-sentiment of aversion. Even as a boy the aversion
-impelled him to determine never to marry and later
-he formed strong theoretical anti-matrimonial views
-which became almost a religion. For years he
-talked about his views, argued and preached about
-them like a fanatic to his friends. His aversion
-rose in successful conflict against every temptation
-to matrimony and his anti-matrimonial complex became
-an obsession. The consequences were what
-might have been expected when, later in life, he allowed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>himself in a moment of sympathetic weakness
-and owing to compromising situations to slip within
-the matrimonial noose. The complex then, like that
-of Voltaire’s orange rind, would not down at his
-own bidding, or at that of his devoted spouse for
-whom he had, in other respects, a strong affection
-mingled with personal admiration. The resulting
-situation can be imagined.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><a id='corr280.10'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='5'>4</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_280.10'><ins class='correction' title='5'>4</ins></a></span>. <cite>Hysterical attacks.</cite> It is of practical importance
-to note another part which emotional complexes
-may play in psychopathology. In certain
-pathological conditions in which there is limitation
-of the field of consciousness (involving a disappearance
-of a large part of the normal mental life)
-often all that persists of consciousness and represents
-the personal self is the obsessing complex
-which previously tormented the patient. In hysterical
-crises, psycholeptic attacks, trance, and certain
-types of epilepsy this is peculiarly the case. In these
-states the content of consciousness consists almost
-wholly, or at least largely, of a recurrent memory
-of an experience which originated in the normal life
-and which has been conserved in the unconscious.
-Here the obsessing ideas, which at one time were
-voluntarily entertained by the subject, or, as frequently
-happens, originated in some emotional experience,
-automatically recur, while the remainder
-of the conscious life becomes dissociated and suppressed;
-in other words the obsessing ideas emerge
-out of the unconscious (neurograms) and became
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>substantially the whole conscious field. In hysterical
-attacks, particularly, the complex is accompanied
-by the same strong emotional tone—such as fear,
-anxiety, jealousy, or anger—which belonged to the
-original experience. In such pathological subjects,
-whenever the complex is awakened, the remainder
-of the conscious field tends to become dissociated
-and the psychological state to be reproduced.
-Hence, in such states, the ideas repeat themselves
-over and over again with the recurrence of the attacks.
-The subject lives over again as in a dream
-the original attack, which is a stereotyped revivification
-of the original experience. This peculiarity
-of the mental condition in attacks has been described
-by various writers. The dream of the hystero-epileptic
-is substantially always the same. Janet has
-accurately described the origin and rôle of the fixed
-ideas in the hysterical attack. “These ideas,” he
-says, “are not conceived, invented at the moment;
-they formulate themselves; they are only <cite>repetitions</cite>.
-Thus, the most important of the hallucinations
-which harassed Marcelle during her cloud-attack
-was but the exact reproduction of a scene
-which had taken place the previous year. The fixed
-ideas of dying, of not eating, are the reproduction
-of certain desperate resolutions taken some years
-ago. Formerly these ideas had some sense, were
-more or less well connected with a motive. A desperate
-love affair had been the cause of her attempts
-at suicide; she refused to eat in order to let herself
-die of hunger, etc. To-day these ideas are again
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>reproduced, but without connection and without reason.
-She has, we convinced ourselves, completely
-forgotten her old despair, and has not the least
-wish to die. The idea of suicide comes to her to-day
-without any relation to her present situation, and
-she is in despair at the idea of this suicide which
-imposes itself on her as a relic of her past, so to
-say. She does not know why she refuses to eat;
-the ideas of suicide and refusal of food are dissociated.
-The one exists without the other. At one
-moment she hears the voice, ‘Do not eat,’ and yet
-she has no thought of death; at another, she thinks
-of killing herself and yet she accepts nourishment.
-We always find in fixed ideas this characteristic of
-automatic repetition of the past without <a id='corr282.15'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='“connection'>connection</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_282.15'><ins class='correction' title='“connection'>connection</ins></a></span>,
-without actual logic.”<a id='r144' /><a href='#f144' class='c009'><sup>[144]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When certain emotional and distressing ideas of
-wounded love are awakened in M. C., an hysteric,
-she is thrown into an hysterical attack in which
-these ideas recur over and over again and dominate
-consciousness. In P. M., another hysteric, ideas of
-loneliness and jealousy, which had previously been
-entertained but which had been thrust out of her
-mind again and again in a conscientious struggle
-with her moral nature, recur, emerge from the unconscious
-and dominate the field of consciousness
-in each hysterical attack which they induce.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>6. In the <em>psycholeptic</em>, a variant of the hysteric, the
-same sensations, motor phenomena, and hallucinations,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>and the same bizarre ideas—whatever the
-symptomatic phenomena—characterize each attack.
-This could be shown experimentally in M——l.<a id='r145' /><a href='#f145' class='c009'><sup>[145]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Of course the degree of dissociation of consciousness,
-the content of the fixed idea, and the physiological
-manifestations vary in individual cases, according
-to the nature of the case. Sometimes the
-disturbance of consciousness is slight and the physiological
-manifestations predominant.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From a consideration of all the facts we see that
-a conserved complex associated with strong feeling
-tones may play a disastrous and pathological part
-in certain individuals.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is well to bear in mind here, as before, that in
-these statements we are only giving a literal description
-of the psychological events without attempt
-to form any theory of the mechanism of the
-processes, or the antecedent psychogenetic factors
-which lead to the development of the particular fixed
-ideas or complexes. About this there may be and is
-a difference of view.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Systematized Complexes.</b> In contrast with the limited
-group of fixed ideas, organized with one or
-more emotions (i.e., instincts) I have been describing,
-are the large <cite>systems</cite> of complexes or associated
-experiences which become organized and fairly distinctly
-differentiated in the course of the development
-of every one’s personality. In many, at least,
-of these systems there will be found a predominant
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>emotion and certain instinctive tendencies, and a
-predominant feeling tone—of pleasure or pain, of
-exaltation or depression, etc. It is quite possible
-that careful investigation would disclose that it is
-this conflicting affective force which is responsible
-for the differentiation of one system from another
-with opposing affects and tendencies. The differentiation
-of such systematized complexes is of considerable
-practical importance for normal and abnormal
-personality. Among such systems may here
-be mentioned those which are related to certain <cite>subjects</cite>
-or departments of human experience, or are
-related in <cite>time</cite>, or to certain dispositions or <cite>moods</cite>
-of the individual. The first may be called <cite>subject</cite>
-systems, the second <cite>chronological</cite> systems, and the
-last <cite>mood</cite> systems.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>1. <cite>Subject systems</cite>: I find myself interested, for
-instance, in several fields of human knowledge; (a)
-abnormal psychology; (b) public franchises; (c)
-yachting; (d) local politics; (e) business affairs.
-To each of these I give a large amount of thought,
-accumulate many data belonging to each, and devote
-a considerable amount of active work to carrying
-into effect my ideas in each field. Five large
-systems are thus formed, each consisting of facts,
-opinions, memories, experiences, etc., distinct from
-those belonging to the others. To each there is an
-emotion and a feeling tone which have more or less
-distinctive qualities; these coming from the intellectual
-interest of abnormal psychology differing
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>qualitatively from those of the “joy of battle” excited
-by a public contest with a railroad corporation
-or gas company, as it does from that of the exhilarating
-sport of a yacht race, or from the annoying
-and rather depressing care of business interests;
-and so on.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>These five subject-complexes do not form independent
-automatisms or isolated systems which may
-intrude themselves in any conscious field, but comprise
-large associations, memories of experiences in
-a special field of thought. Within that field the ideas
-of the system are no more strongly organized than
-are ideas in general; but it can be recognized that
-the system as a whole with its affective tones is
-fairly well delimited from the other complexes of
-other spheres of thought. It is difficult, for certain
-individuals at least, to introduce the associations
-of one subject-complex into the focus of attention so
-long as another is invested with personal interest
-and occupies the attention of consciousness. They
-find it difficult to switch<a id='r146' /><a href='#f146' class='c009'><sup>[146]</sup></a> their minds from one subject
-to another and back again. On the other hand,
-it is said of Napoleon that he had all the subjects of
-his experiences arranged in drawers of his mind,
-and that he could open each drawer at will, take out
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>any subject he wished, and shut it up again as he
-wished. Ability of this kind involves remarkable
-control over the mind and is not given to all.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I have frequently made observations like the following
-on myself, showing the organization and differentiation
-of systems: I collect the various data
-belonging to one of the problems discussed in these
-lectures. I arrange all in an orderly fashion in my
-mind, work out the logical relations and the conclusions
-to which they lead, as well as their relations to
-other data and problems. The whole is then
-schematically arranged on paper to await proper
-elaboration the next morning, when it will be written
-out on waking, the preliminary mental arrangement
-having been done at night. A large complex
-has been created, the various details of which are
-luminously clear and the sequence of the ideas vividly
-conceived, the conclusions definite. There is,
-further, an affective tone of joy and exaltation which
-is apt to accompany the accomplishment of an intellectual
-problem and which produces a feeling of
-increased energy.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The next morning, as I awake and gradually return
-to full consciousness, another and very different
-kind of complex almost exclusively fills my mind,
-owing probably to the fatigue following the previous
-night’s work. All sorts of gloomy thoughts, memories
-of experiences better forgotten, course through
-the mind; and entirely different emotions (instincts),
-and a strong feeling of depression dominate
-the mental panorama. The whole—ideas, emotions,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>and feelings—makes a complex which has been
-experienced over and over again, and is recognized
-as such. The same old ideas, emotions, thoughts,
-and memories, conserved as neurograms, repeat
-themselves almost in stereotyped fashion. The mental
-complex has completely changed and the exuberant
-energy of the night before has given place
-to listless inertia.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>All this is commonplace enough, merely morning
-depression you will say, due to fatigue; and so it is.
-But mark the sequel.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I now remember that I have a task to perform
-and before rising take paper and pencil, lying
-ready at my side, to write out the theme previously
-arranged in skeleton. But to my surprise I find that
-it cannot be recalled. To be sure, I can, by effort
-of will, recall individual facts, but the facts have
-lost their associations and meaning, they remain
-comparatively isolated in memory; all their correlated
-ramifications, their associated ideas and relations,
-which the night before stood out in relief and
-crowded into consciousness, have gone. The emotional
-tone and impulses which energized the
-thoughts have also disappeared, and with them the
-system of complexes as a whole. It has been dissociated,
-inhibited, repressed, and there is <cite>amnesia</cite> for
-it. With the fatigue depression a new system, with
-different emotions and feelings, now dominates the
-mind and the desired system cannot be switched in.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This amnesia is not one of conservation but one
-of reproduction; for later in the day the fatigue and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>depression disappear, a new energizing emotional
-tone arises and the sought-for system is switched in
-and returns in its entirety. With this change the depression
-system in turn disappears, and now it is
-difficult to recall it, excepting that as an intellectual
-fact I remember that such thoughts occupied my
-mind in the early morning hours. The two systems
-as a whole are distinctly differentiated from and
-alternate with one another.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>All this is only expressing in somewhat technical
-language a common experience, as most people, I
-suppose, have such <cite>alternations of complexes</cite>. The
-facts are trite enough; but, because they are of
-common experience, it is well to formulate them
-and so, as far as possible, give precision to our conception
-of the psychological relations which have a
-distinct bearing on the principles of dissociated personality
-and other psychoses, on character and psycho-therapeutics.
-When, at a later time, we take up
-for study the subject of dissociated personality<a id='r147' /><a href='#f147' class='c009'><sup>[147]</sup></a>
-we shall find that the dissociation of consciousness
-sometimes takes its lines of cleavage between systems
-of complexes of this kind.<a id='r148' /><a href='#f148' class='c009'><sup>[148]</sup></a> And, above all, the
-formation of complexes <cite>is the foundation stone of
-psycho-therapeutics</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The methods of <cite>education and therapeutic suggestion</cite>
-are variants of this mode of organizing mental
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span>processes. Both, in principle, are substantially the
-same, differing only in detail. They depend for
-their effect upon the implantation in the mind of
-ideational complexes organized by repetition, or by
-the impulsive force of their affective tones, or both.
-Every form of education necessarily involves the
-artificial formation of such complexes, whether in a
-pedagogical, religious, ethical, scientific, social, or
-professional field. So in psychotherapy by artfully
-directed suggestion, or education in the narrower
-sense, complexes may be similarly formed and organized.
-New points of view and “sentiments”
-may be inculcated, useful emotions and feelings excited,
-and the personality correspondingly modified.
-Roughly speaking, this is accomplished by suggesting
-ideas that will form <cite>settings</cite> (associations) that
-give new and desired meanings to previously harmful
-ideas; and these ideas, as well as any others we
-desire to implant in the mind, are organized by suggestion
-with emotions (instincts) of a useful, pleasurable,
-and exalting kind to form desirable sentiments,
-and to carry the ideas to fulfilment. Thus
-sentiments of right, or of ambition, or of sympathy,
-or of altruism, or of disinterestedness in self are
-awakened; and, with all this, opposing emotions are
-aroused to conflict with and repress the distressing
-ones, and the whole welded into a complex which
-becomes conserved neurographically and thereby a
-part of the personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Under ordinary conditions of every-day mental
-life <cite>social suggestion</cite> acts like therapeutic suggestion.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>But the suggestions of every-day life are so
-subtle and insidious that they are scarcely consciously
-recognized.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2. <cite>Chronological systems</cite> (using complex in a
-rather extended sense) are those which embrace the
-experiences of certain epochs of our lives rather
-than the subject material included in them. In a
-general way events as they are successively experienced
-become associated together, and with other
-elements of personality, so that the later recollection
-of one event in the chain of an epoch recalls successively
-the others. Conversely a break in the chain
-of memory may occur at any point and the chain
-only be picked up at a more distant date, leaving between,
-as a hiatus, an epoch for which there is amnesia
-of reproduction. This normally common <cite>amnesia
-affords confirmatory evidence</cite> of the associative
-relation of successive events. Involving as it
-does the unimportant and unemotional experiences
-as well as the important and emotional—though the
-former may be as well conserved as the latter—it
-is not easy to understand. The principle, however,
-plays an important part in abnormal amnesia particularly,
-but not necessarily, where there is a dissociation
-of personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The epoch may be of a few hours, or it may be of
-days, of months, or years. The simplest example is
-the frequent amnesia for the few hours preceding
-a physical injury to the head resulting in temporary
-unconsciousness. In other cases it is the result of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>extensive dissociation effected by suggestion (e. g.,
-in hypnosis), or psychical trauma including therein
-emotional conflicts. Thus, to cite an experimental
-example: Miss B. is troubled by a distressing
-memory which constantly recurs to her mind during
-the twenty-four hours. To relieve her I suggest
-that she will completely forget the original experience.
-To my surprise, though the suggestion is limited
-to the experience alone, the whole twenty-four
-hours are completely wiped out of her memory. She
-cannot recall a single incident of that day. The
-whole epoch which had associations with the memory
-is dissociated.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When the epochal amnesia follows psychical
-trauma the condition of memory is apt to present
-the following peculiarity and the personality may be
-altered. When the epoch is the immediate past, i.e.,
-includes the experiences extending from a certain
-past date up to the present, it sometimes happens
-that memory reverts to that past date. That is to
-say, the personality goes back to the period last remembered
-in which he believes, for the moment, he
-is still living, the memory of the succeeding last
-epoch being dissociated from the personal consciousness.
-Under such conditions there is something
-more than amnesia. The neurographic residua of
-the remembered epoch are revived and its experiences
-remembered as if they had just been lived.
-There is not only a dissociation of the memories of
-one epoch, but a resurrection of the conserved and
-maybe forgotten experiences of a preceding one.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>The synthesis of these memories restores again the
-personal consciousness of that period. Before the
-cleavage took place the recollection of the resurrected
-epoch may have been very incomplete and vague;
-afterward the new personality remembers it as if
-just experienced. The personality is, however,
-in other respects generally (always?) something different
-from the personality of that particular epoch.
-The dissociation is apt to involve a certain number
-of acquired traits and certain innate dispositions
-and instincts, while other outlived and repressed
-traits and innate dispositions and instincts are apt
-to be reawakened and synthesized into an altered abnormal
-personality. But this is another story that
-does not concern us now.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As an example of epochal amnesia I may cite Mrs.
-J——, who, after dissociation occurs, has amnesia
-for all the events of several years succeeding a certain
-hour of a certain day when a psychical trauma
-(shock) occurred. She thinks she is living on that
-day and remembers in great detail its events as if
-they had just occurred.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Miss B. reverts on one occasion to a day, six years
-back, when she received a psychical shock; the complexes
-of her personality of that day are revived as
-if just lived, all the succeeding years being forgotten;
-on another occasion she reverts to a day when
-she was living in another city seven or eight years
-before.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>M——l reverts to an early period of his life when
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>he was living in Russia, and forgets all since including
-even his knowledge of English.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>B. C. A. on several occasions reverts to different
-epochs of her life with complete amnesia for all
-after events. On each occasion she takes up the
-thread of her mental life as if living in the past, and
-recites the events as if just lived.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Likewise, after a subject reverts from the abnormal
-to the normal state, after a short or long condition
-of altered personality, there may be a complete
-amnesia for the abnormal epoch, and although now
-normal he thinks it the same day on which dissociation
-occurred.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Thus, Miss O. develops a condition of dissociated
-personality lasting six months during which, as it
-unfortunately happens, she falls in love with a
-man whom she had never known in her normal state.
-At the end of this period she “wakes up” with a
-complete loss of memory for the phase of altered
-personality and, therefore, to find that her fiancé is
-apparently a stranger to her (!).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The same amnesia in the normal state for prolonged
-epochs in which the personality was altered
-was conspicuous in the case of Miss B. In William
-James’ often-cited case of Ansel Bourne and Dr.
-E. E. Mayer’s case of Chas. W. the subjects returned
-to their normal states with complete amnesia for the
-abnormal epochs of two months and seventeen years
-respectively.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>After all, the common <cite>amnesia for the hypnotic
-state after waking is the same phenomenon</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>Such observations show the possible systematization
-of epoch complexes, although the determining
-conditions are not as yet understood.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>3. <cite>Disposition or Mood systems.</cite>—Among the
-loosely organized complexes in many individuals,
-and possibly in all of us, there are certain dispositions
-toward views of life which represent natural
-inclinations, desires, and modes of activity, which,
-for one reason or another, we tend to suppress or
-are unable to give full play to. Many individuals,
-for example, are compelled by the exactions of their
-duties and responsibilities to lead serious lives, to
-devote themselves to pursuits which demand all
-their energies and thought and which, therefore,
-do not permit of indulgence in the lighter enjoyments
-of life; and yet they may have a natural inclination
-to partake of the pleasures which innately
-appeal to all mankind and which many actually pursue;
-in other words, to yield to the impulsive force
-of the innate disposition, or instinct, of play. But
-these desires are repressed. Nevertheless the longing
-for these pleasures, under the impulses of this
-instinct, recurs from time to time. The mind dwells
-on them, the imagination is excited and weaves a
-fabric of pictures, sentiments, thoughts, and emotions
-the whole of which thus becomes organized into
-a systematized complex.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>There may be a conflict, a rebellion and “kicking
-against the pricks” and, thereby, a liberation of
-emotional force of the instinct, impressing, on the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>one hand, a stronger organization of the whole
-process, and, on the other, repressing all conflicting
-desires. Or, the converse of this may hold and a
-person who devotes his life to the lighter enjoyments
-may have aspirations and longings for the more
-serious pursuits, and in this respect the imagination
-may similarly build up a complex which may similarly
-express itself. The recurrence of such complexes
-is one form of what we call a “mood” which
-has a distinctively emotional tone of its own derived
-from the instincts and sentiments which are dominant.
-Such a “disposition” system is often spoken
-of as “<cite>a side to one’s character</cite>,” to which a person
-may from time to time give play. Thus a person is
-said to have “many sides to his character,” and exhibits
-certain alternations of personality which may
-be regarded as normal prototypes of those which
-occur as abnormal states.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It may be interesting to note in passing that the
-well-known characteristics of people of a certain
-temperament, in consequence of which they can pursue
-their respective vocations only when they are
-“in the mood for it,” can be referred to this principle
-of complex formations and dissociation of rival
-systems. Literary persons, musicians, and artists
-in whom “feeling” is apt to be cultivated to a degree
-of self-pampering are conspicuous in this class.
-The ideas pertaining to the development of their
-craft form mixed subject and mood complexes which
-tend to have strong emotional and feeling tones.
-When some other affective tone is substituted, organized
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>within a conflicting complex, it is difficult
-for such persons to revive the subject complex belonging
-to the piece of work in hand and necessary
-for its prosecution. “The ideas will not come,” because
-the whole subject complex which supplies the
-material with which the imagination is to work has
-been dissociated and replaced by some other. Certain
-elements in the complex can be revived piece-meal,
-as it were, but the complex will not develop in
-mass with the emotional driving energy which belongs
-to it. Not having their complexes and affects
-under voluntary control it is necessary for such persons
-to wait until, from an alteration in the coenesthesis
-or for some other reason, an alteration in
-the “feeling” has taken place with a revival of the
-right complex <cite>in mass</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>No more exquisite illustration of these “disposition
-complexes” could be found than in the personality
-of William Sharp. Sharp’s title to literary
-fame very largely rests upon the writings which he
-gave to the world under the feminine name of Fiona
-Macleod. The identity of the author was concealed
-from the world until his death, and it is still a common
-belief that this concealment and the assumption
-of the feminine pseudonym were nothing more than
-a literary hoax. Nothing could be farther from the
-truth. There were two William Sharps; by which
-I mean, of course, there were two very strongly organized
-and sharply cut sides to his character.
-Each had its points of view, its complexes of ideas,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span>its imaginings, and, above all, its creative tendencies
-and feeling tones. The one side—the one christened
-William Sharp—was the bread and butter
-earner, the relatively practical man who came in
-contact with the world—literary critic, “biographer,
-essay and novel writer as well as poet”—the experienced
-side which was obliged to correct its imagination
-by constant comparison with reality. The
-other side—Fiona Macleod—was the so-called inner
-man; what he himself called his “true inward self.”
-As Fiona he lived in his imagination and dreamed.
-The development of this side of his personality began
-while, as he said, “I was still a child.” “He
-found,” his biographer writes,<a id='r149' /><a href='#f149' class='c009'><sup>[149]</sup></a> “as have other imaginative,
-psychic children, that he had an inner life,
-a curious power of visions unshared by any one
-about him, so that what he related was usually discredited;
-but the psychic side of his nature was too
-intimate a part of his mind to be killed by misunderstanding.
-He learned to shut it away—to keep
-it as a thing apart—a mystery of his own, a mystery
-to himself.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This inner life, as time went on, became a mood
-which he fostered and developed and in which he
-built up great complexes of fancies, points of view,
-and emotions, which, when the other side of his character
-came uppermost, remained neurographically
-conserved and dormant in the unconscious. The
-Fiona complexes he distinctly felt to be feminine in
-type so that when he came to give expression to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span>them, as he felt he must, he concealed this side of
-his character under a feminine pseudonym. “My
-truest self,” he wrote, “the self who is below all
-other selves, and my most intimate life, and joys,
-and sufferings, thoughts, emotions, and dreams must
-find expression, yet I cannot save in this hidden
-way.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“From time to time the emotional, the more intimate
-self, would sweep aside all conscious control;
-a dream, a sudden inner vision, an idea that had lain
-dormant in what he called ‘the mind behind the
-mind’ would suddenly visualize itself and blot out
-everything else from his consciousness, and under
-such impulse he would write at great speed, hardly
-aware of what, or how, he wrote, so absorbed was he
-in the vision with which for the moment he was identified.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“All my work,” he said, “is so intimately
-wrought with my own experiences that I cannot tell
-you about <cite>Pharais</cite>, etc., without telling you my
-whole life.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>William Sharp himself realized the two moods or
-“sides,” which became in time developed into two
-distinct personalities. These he distinctly recognized,
-although there was no amnesia. “Rightly or
-wrongly,” he wrote, “I am conscious of something
-to be done by one side of me, by one-half of me, by
-the true inward mind as I believe—(apart from the
-overwhelmingly felt mystery of a dual mind, and a
-reminiscent life, and a woman’s life and nature
-within concurring with and oftenest dominating the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span>other)....” This dual personality was so
-strongly realized by him that on his birthdays he
-wrote letters to himself as Fiona signed “Will,” and
-<cite>vice versa</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>I have dwelt upon this historical example of the
-exaggerated development of mood complexes because,
-while well within the limits of normal life, it
-brings home to us the recognition of psychological
-facts which we all, more or less, have in common.
-But, more important than this, in certain abnormal
-conditions where the dissociation between systems
-of complexes becomes more exaggerated, mood, subject,
-chronological and other complexes, linked as
-each is with its own characteristic emotions and feelings—instincts
-and other innate dispositions—play a
-paramount part and dominate the personality. In
-the <cite>hysterical personality</cite>, in particular, there is
-more or less complete reversion to or a subconscious
-awakening of one or other such complex. Where
-the hysterical dissociation becomes so extreme as
-to eventuate in amnesia in one state for another the
-different systems of complexes are easily recognized
-as so many phases of <cite>multiple personality</cite>. But in
-so identifying the ideational content of phases of
-personality it should not be overlooked that intensive
-studies of multiple personality disclose the fact
-that the dissociation of one phase for another carries
-with it certain of the instincts innate in every
-organism. What I mean to say is, observation of
-psychopathological states has shown that instincts,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>such as play, hunger, anger, fear, love, disgust, the
-sexual instincts, etc., may be dissociated separately
-or in conjunction with complexes of ideas. In every
-case of multiple personality that I have had the opportunity
-to study each phase has been shorn of
-one or more of these inborn psycho-physiological
-dispositions and I believe this obtains in every true
-case. As a result certain sentiments and traits are
-lost while those that are retained stamp an individuality
-upon the phase. And as the conative forces of
-the retained instincts are not balanced and checked
-by the dissociated opposing instincts, the sentiments
-which they form and the emotional reactions to
-which they give rise stand out as dominating traits.
-Thus one phase may be characterized by pugnacity,
-self-assertion, and elation; another by submission,
-fear and tender feeling; and so on.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This is not the place to enter into an explanation
-of dissociated personality, but I may point out, in
-anticipation of a deeper discussion of the subject,
-that, in accordance with these two principles, in such
-conditions we sometimes find that disposition and
-other complexes conserved in the unconscious come
-to the surface and displace or substitute themselves
-for the other complexes which dominate a personality.
-A complex or system of complexes that is only
-a mood or a “side of the character” of a normal individual,
-may in conditions of dissociation become
-the main complex and chief characteristic of the new
-personality. In Miss B., for instance, the personality
-known as BI was made up almost entirely of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>religious and ethical ideas with corresponding instincts
-which formed one side of the original self.
-In the personality known as Sally we had for the
-most part the chronological and mood complexes of
-youth representing the enjoyment of youthful pleasures
-and sports, the freedom from conventionalities
-and artificial restraints generally imposed by duties
-and responsibilities; she was a resurrection of child
-life. In BIV the complex represented the ambitions
-and activities of practical life. In Miss B., as a
-whole, normal, without disintegration, it was easy to
-recognize all three dispositions as sides of her character,
-though each was kept ordinarily within proper
-bounds by the conflicting influence of the others. It
-was only necessary to put her in an environment
-which encouraged one or the other side, to associate
-her with people who strongly suggested one or the
-other of her own characteristics, whether religious,
-social, pleasure-loving, or intellectual, to see the
-characteristics of BI, Sally, or BIV stand out in
-relief as the predominant personality. Then we had
-the alternating play of these different sides of her
-character.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Likewise in B. C. A. In each of the personalities,
-B and A, similar disposition complexes could be
-recognized each corresponding to a side of the character
-of the original personality C. In A were represented
-the complexes formed by ideas of duty, responsibility,
-and moral scruples; in B were represented
-the complexes formed by the longing for fun
-and the amusements which life offered. When the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>cleavage of personality took place it was between
-these two complexes, just as it was in Miss B. between
-the several complexes above described. This
-is well brought out in the respective autobiographies
-of B<a id='r150' /><a href='#f150' class='c009'><sup>[150]</sup></a> and Sally<a id='r151' /><a href='#f151' class='c009'><sup>[151]</sup></a> in these two cases. In many cases
-of hysteria in which dissociation of personality can
-be recognized the same phenomenon is often manifest.
-A careful study will reveal it also, I believe,
-in other cases of multiple personality, although, of
-course, as we have seen, the dissociation may be
-along other lines; that is, between other complexes
-than those of disposition.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This principle of the conservation, as neurograms
-in the unconscious, of complexes representing
-“sides” to one’s character, gives a new meaning to
-the saying <cite>In vino veritas</cite>. In alcoholic and other
-forms of intoxication there results a loss of inhibition,
-of self-control, and the disposition complexes,
-which have been repressed or concealed by the individual
-as a matter of social defense, arise out of
-the unconscious, and, for the time being, become the
-dominant mood or phase of personality. When
-these complexes represent the true inner life and
-nature of the individual, freed from the repressing
-protection of expediency, we can then truly say “In
-vino veritas.”</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Complexes organized in hypnotic and other dissociated
-conditions.</b>—1. We have been speaking thus far of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span>complexes formed in the course of every-day life and
-which take part in the composition of the normal
-personality. But it is obvious that a complex may
-be organized in any condition of personality so long
-as we are dealing with consciousness, however limited
-or disturbed. Thus in <cite>artificial states</cite>, like hypnosis
-and the subconscious process which produces
-automatic writing, ideas may be synthesized into
-systems as well as in normal waking life. This is
-exemplified by the fact that in hypnosis the memories
-of past hypnotic experiences are conserved and
-form systems of memories dissociated from the
-memories of waking life. When the subject regains
-the normal condition of the personal self, though
-there may be amnesia for the hypnotic experiences
-their neurograms remain conserved to the same extent
-and in the same fashion as do those of the waking
-life. Consequently on the return to the hypnotic
-state the memories of previous hypnotic experiences
-are recovered.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This systematization of hypnotic experiences is
-easily recognized in those cases where several different
-hypnotic states can be obtained in the same
-individual. Each state has its own system of memories
-differing from, and with amnesia for, those of the
-others. Each system also has its own feeling tones,
-one system, for example, having a tone of elation,
-another, of depression, etc. The systematization is
-still more accentuated in cases like the one mentioned
-in the second lecture (p. 19), where the subject
-goes into a hypnotic state resembling a trance,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span>and lives in an ideal world, peopled by imaginary
-persons, and in an imaginary environment, perhaps
-a spirit world or another planet. The content of
-consciousness consists of fabrications which make
-up a fancied life. In the instance I have mentioned
-the subject imagined she was living in a world of
-spirits; in Flournoy’s classical case, Mlle Hélène
-Smith imagined she was an inhabitant of the planet
-Mars, and spoke a fabricated language. In these
-states the same systems of ideas invariably appeared.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2. In consequence of this principle of systematization
-it is in our power by educational suggestion in
-hypnosis to organize mental processes and <cite>build complexes</cite>
-of the same kind and in the same way as when
-the subject is awake. In fact, it is more readily
-done, inasmuch as in hypnosis the critical judgment
-and reflection tend to be suspended. The suggested
-ideas are accepted and education more easily
-accomplished. While in hypnosis the individual
-may thus be made to accept and hold new beliefs,
-new judgments, in short, new knowledge.<a id='r152' /><a href='#f152' class='c009'><sup>[152]</sup></a> After
-waking he may or may not remember his hypnotic
-experiences. Generally he does. If he does the new
-knowledge, if firmly organized (by repetition and
-strong affective tones) is still retained, and if accepted
-(i.e., not repressed by conflicting ideas)
-shapes his views and conduct in accordance therewith.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span>Even if his hypnotic experiences are not remembered,
-they still belong to his personality, inasmuch
-as they are neurographically conserved, and,
-experience shows, may still influence his stream of
-consciousness. His views are modified by his unconscious
-personality. His ideas may and generally do
-awaken the neurograms of associated systems created
-in hypnosis. Not remembering the hypnotic
-state as a whole he does not remember the <cite>origin</cite> of
-his new knowledge; that is all.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>One point to be borne in mind is that conserved
-ideas, whether we can recall them or not, so long as
-they are conserved are a part of our personality, as
-I have previously pointed out, and ideas can emerge
-from the unconscious into the field of the conscious
-though we have completely forgotten their origin.
-It requires but a single experiment in the induction
-of suggested post-hypnotic phenomena to demonstrate
-these principles.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>3. As to those <cite>pathological states</cite> where there is a
-splitting of personality—hysterical crises, psycholeptic
-attacks, trance states, certain types of epilepsy,
-etc.—complexes may similarly be formed in
-them. In these conditions there is a dissociation of
-a large part of the normal mental life, and that
-which is left is only a limited field of consciousness.
-A new synthesis comes into being out of the unconscious
-to represent the personal self. Though the
-content of consciousness is a reproduction of, or determined
-by certain previous experiences, it is also
-true that in these states new experiences may result
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span>in new complexes which then take part in the personality
-as with hypnotic experiences.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Personality as the survival of organized antecedent experiences.</b>—Of
-course all our past mental experiences
-do not persist as organized complexes. The latter,
-after they have served their purpose, tend to become
-disaggregated, just as printer’s type is disaggregated
-or distributed after it has served its purpose
-in printing. In the organization and development of
-personality the elements of the mental experiences
-become sifted, as it were. Normally, in the adaptation
-of the individual to the environment, the unessential
-and useless, the intermediate steps leading
-to the final and useful, tend to drop out without leaving
-surviving residua, while the essential and useful
-tend to remain as memories capable of recall. In
-the unconscious these remain more or less permanently
-fixed as limited ideas, sentiments, and systems
-of complexes. Further, those complexes of experiences
-which persist not only provide the material
-for our memories, but tend, consciously or unconsciously,
-to shape the judgments, beliefs, convictions,
-habits, and tendencies of our mental lives.
-Whence they came, how they were born, we have
-long ceased to remember. We often arrive at conclusions
-which we imagine in our ignorance we have
-constructed at the moment unaided out of our inner
-consciousness. In one sense this is true, but
-that inner consciousness has been largely determined
-by the vestiges furnished by forgotten experiences.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>Many of these we imbibed from our environment
-and the experiences of our fellows; in this
-sense we are all plagiarists of the past.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Furthermore, we react, to a large extent, to our
-environment in a way that we do not thoroughly
-understand because these reactions are determined
-by the impulses of unconscious complexes organized
-with innate dispositions. Indeed, our reactions
-to the environment, our moral and social conduct,
-the affective reactions of our sentiments, instincts,
-feelings, and other conative tendencies, our
-“habits,” judgments, points of view, and attitudes
-of mind—all that we term character and personality—are
-predetermined by the mental experiences of
-the past by which they are developed, organized, and
-conserved in the unconscious. Otherwise all would
-be chaos. We are thus the offspring of our past and
-the past is the present.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>This same principle underlies what is called the
-“social conscience,” the “civic” and “national conscience,”
-patriotism, public opinion, what the Germans
-call “Sittlichkeit,” the war attitude of mind,
-etc. All these mental attitudes may be reduced to
-common habits of thought and conduct derived from
-mental experiences common to a given community
-and conserved as complexes in the unconscious of
-the several individuals of the community.<a id='r153' /><a href='#f153' class='c009'><sup>[153]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>Through education, whether scholastic, vocational,
-or social, we inherit the experiences of our
-predecessors and become “... the heir of all the
-ages, in the foremost files of time.” But the conceptions
-of one age can never represent those of a
-preceding age. The veriest layman in science today
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span>could not entertain the conceptions underlying
-many hypotheses formulated by the wisest of the
-preceding age—of a Galileo, a Descartes, or Pascal.
-Lucretius, in the first century B. C., argued, with
-what for the time was great force, that the soul of
-man was corporeal and that it “must consist of very
-small seeds and be inwoven through veins and flesh
-and sinews; inasmuch as, after it has all withdrawn
-from the whole body the exterior contour of the
-limbs preserves itself entire and not a tittle of the
-weight is lost.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Lucretius gave much thought to this problem, but
-to-day the least cultured person, who has never reflected
-at all on psychological matters, would recognize
-the foolishness of such a conception and reject
-the hypothesis.<a id='r154' /><a href='#f154' class='c009'><sup>[154]</sup></a> He would call it <cite>common-sense</cite>
-which guided him, but common-sense depends upon
-the fact that in the unconscious lie memories, the
-reasons for and origin of which we do not remember;
-these nullify such an hypothesis. These contradicting
-ideas, sifted out of those belonging to the
-social education, have become fixed as dormant or
-organized memories, and determine the judgments
-and trends of the personal consciousness. These
-memory vestiges may work for good or evil, shape
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>our personal consciousness into a useful or useless
-form, one that adapts or unfits the organism to its
-environment. In the latter case they drive the organism
-into the field of pathological psychology.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f138'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r138'>138</a>. I am using this word in the general sense of any mental experience
-as in the common phrase, “the association of ideas,” and
-not in the restricted sense of Titchener as the equivalent of a perception.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f139'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r139'>139</a>. I use this word “complex” in the general sense in which it is
-commonly used and not with the specific meaning given to it by the
-Zurich school, which limits it to a system of ideas to which a strong
-affective tone is attached and which, because of its personally distressing
-character, is repressed into the subconscious.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f140'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r140'>140</a>. Which may be psychical, although not psychological.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f141'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r141'>141</a>. Sisters of Napoleon, by M. Joseph Turquan.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f142'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r142'>142</a>. McDougall (Social Psychology) regards jealousy as a complex
-emotional state in which anger, tender emotion, and other innate
-dispositions are factors.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f143'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r143'>143</a>. Not included in this volume.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f144'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r144'>144</a>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Aboulie et idées fixes, Revue philosophique</span>, 1891, i., p. 279.
-Mental State of Hystericals, p. 408.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f145'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r145'>145</a>. P. 33.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f146'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r146'>146</a>. The switching process is an interesting problem in itself. (Cf.
-Max Levy-Suhl: Ueber Einstellungsvorgänge in normalen und anormalen
-Seelenzuständen. Zeitschrift für Psychotherapie und Medizinishe
-Psychologie, Bd. 11, Hft. 3, 1910.) An example is the well-known
-psychological diagram which may be perceived at one moment
-as a flight of steps and at another as an overhanging wall, according
-as which perception of the same line is switched in.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f147'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r147'>147</a>. Lectures not included in this volume.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f148'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r148'>148</a>. In the case of Miss B., for example, Sally had absolute amnesia
-for certain systems of subject-complexes (Latin, French, etc.) possessed
-by the other personalities.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f149'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r149'>149</a>. William Sharp, A Memoir, by Elizabeth A. Sharp.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f150'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r150'>150</a>. My Life as a Dissociated Personality, <cite>Journal of Abnormal
-Psychology</cite>, October-November, 1908, December-January, 1909.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f151'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r151'>151</a>. The Dissociation, Chapter XXIII.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f152'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r152'>152</a>. Provided, of course, this new knowledge is justified and not
-contradicted by the facts and principles of life. In other words, it
-must be believed, at least, to be the truth.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f153'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r153'>153</a>. While these pages were in press, Lord Haldane in his Montreal
-address (before the American Bar Association), which has attracted
-wide attention, developed the psychological principle of “Sittlichkeit,”
-as applied to communities, the nation and groups of nations.
-By “Sittlichkeit” is meant the social habit of mind and action
-underlying social customs, the instinctive sense of social obligation
-which is the foundation of society. This plainly includes what is
-often called the social conscience and actions impelled thereby. In
-further definition of this principle Lord Haldane quotes Fichte as
-stating “Sittlichkeit” to mean “those principles of conduct which
-regulate people in their relations to each other, and have become
-matter of habit and second nature at the stage of culture reached,
-and of which, therefore, we are not explicitly conscious.” The point
-was made that the citizen is governed “only to a small extent by
-law and legality on the one hand, and by the dictates of the individual
-conscience on the other.” It is the more extensive system of
-“Sittlichkeit” which plays the predominant rôle. Out of this system
-there develops a unity of thought and “a common ideal” which
-can be made to penetrate the soul of a people and to take complete
-possession of it. Likewise there develops “a general will with which
-the will of the good citizen is in accord.” This will of the community
-(inspired by the common ideal) is common to the individuals
-composing it. Lord Haldane goes on to make the point that
-what is now true within a single nation may in time come to be
-true between nations or a group of nations. Thus an international
-habit of looking to common ideals may grow up sufficiently strong
-to develop a general will, and to make the binding power of those
-ideas a reliable sanction for their obligations to each other. With
-this thesis, ably presented and fortified though it be, we are not
-here concerned. The point I wish to make is that this conception of
-“Sittlichkeit” which Lord Haldane in his remarkable address, destined
-I believe to become historic, so ably develops and applies to
-the solution of a world-problem is in psychological terms identical
-with that of complexes of ideas and affects organized in the unconscious.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f154'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r154'>154</a>. Professor G. S. Fullerton, in the course of an essay, “Is the
-Mind in the Body?” interestingly refers to this fact and points out
-that common sense directs the common man in repudiating ancient
-doctrines, and that it is “part of his share in the heritage of the
-race.” “The common sense which guides men is the resultant attitude
-due to many influences, some of them dating very far back
-indeed.” <cite>The Popular Science Monthly</cite>, May, 1907.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE X <br /> THE MEANING OF IDEAS AS DETERMINED BY SETTINGS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>In the preceding lecture when describing the organization
-of emotional complexes, I mentioned,
-somewhat incidentally, that their fuller meaning
-was to be found in antecedent experiences of life;
-and that these experiences conserved in the unconscious
-formed a setting that gave the point of view
-and attitude of mind. It was pointed out also that
-if we wish to know the reason why a given experience,
-like that of Voltaire with Frederick, awakens
-a strong emotional reaction, and why the memory of
-this experience continues persistently organized
-with the emotion or gives rise to the emotional reaction
-whenever stimulated, we must look to this setting
-of antecedent experiences which gives the ideas
-of the complexes meaning. We need now to inquire
-to what extent the unconscious complex in which the
-setting has roots may take part in the process which
-gives meaning to an idea. It is a problem in
-<cite>psychogenesis</cite> and psychological mechanisms. As
-an imperatively recurring emotional complex is an
-obsession the full meaning of any given obsession is
-involved in the psychological problem of “Idea and
-Meaning.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span>Let us, then, take up for discussion this latter
-problem as preliminary to the study of that important
-psychosis—obsessing ideas and emotions.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>A perception, or, what is in principle the same
-thing, an idea of an object, although apparently a
-simple thing, is really, as a rule, a complex affair.
-Without attempting to enter deeply into the psychology
-of perception (and ideas), and particularly into
-the conventional conception of perception as usually
-expounded in the text-books—a conception
-which to my mind is inadequate and incomplete<a id='r155' /><a href='#f155' class='c009'><sup>[155]</sup></a>—it
-is sufficient for our immediate purposes to point
-out in a general rough way the following facts concerning
-perception.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Perception a synthesis of primary and secondary images.</b>—Perception
-may be regarded both as a process
-and as a group of conscious elements some of
-which are within the focus of attention or awareness
-and some of which are outside this focus. As
-<em>a process</em> it undoubtedly may include much that is
-entirely subconscious and therefore without conscious
-equivalents, and much that appears in consciousness.
-As a group of conscious elements it is
-a fusion, amalgamation, or compounding of many
-elements.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_313'>313</span>My perception of X., for example, whom I recognize
-as an acquaintance, is much more than a cluster
-of visual sensations—I mean the sensations of
-color and form that come from the stimulation of my
-retina. Besides these sensations it includes a number
-of imaginal memory images some of which are
-only in the fringe of consciousness and can only be
-recognized by introspection or under special conditions.
-These secondary images, as they are called,
-may be (as they most often are) visual, orienting
-him in space and in past associative relations, according
-to my previous experiences; they may be
-auditory—the imaginal sound of his voice or verbal
-images of his name; or they may be the so-called
-kinesthetic images, etc.; and all these images supplement
-the actual visual sensations of color and form.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>That such images take part in perception is of
-course well recognized in every text-book on psychology
-where they will be found described. It is
-easy to become aware of them under certain conditions.
-For instance, to take an auditory perception
-from every-day life, you are listening through the
-telephone and hear a strange voice speaking. Aside
-from the meaning of the words you are conscious of
-little more than auditory sensations although you do
-perceive them as those of a human voice and not of
-a phonograph. Then of a sudden you recognize the
-voice as that of an acquaintance. Instantly visual
-images of his face, and perhaps of the room in which
-he is speaking and his situation therein, of the furnishings
-of the room, etc., become associated with
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_314'>314</span>the voice. Your perception of the voice now takes
-on a fuller meaning in accordance with these imaginal
-images. In such an experience, common probably
-to everybody, the secondary images which take
-part in perception are unusually clear and easily detected.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Again, let us take a visual perception. You meet
-face to face a person whom at first sight seems unfamiliar;
-then in a flash visual images of a scene in a
-room where you first met, verbal images of his name,
-and the sound of his voice rush into consciousness.
-The comparatively simple perception of a man has
-now given place to a more complex perception (apperception)
-of an acquaintance and has acquired a
-new meaning. This new meaning is in part due to
-these images which have supplemented the visual
-sensations; but it is also due to the coöperation of
-another and important factor—the context—which I
-will presently consider.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Another situation of every-day life in which we
-become aware of the images is when riding in a
-street car at night we look out of the window and
-fail to recognize the individual buildings as we pass
-them though we perceive them as houses. The
-neighborhood being obscured by darkness, the
-buildings have no meaning from the point of view
-of their uses, proprietorship, locality, etc., but only
-from an architectural point of view. Then suddenly,
-by some apparently subconscious process,
-visual memory images of the unseen neighborhood
-(hidden in darkness), and of the interior of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_315'>315</span>buildings, flash into consciousness in conjunction
-with the actual visual pictures of the buildings. In
-imagination we at once see the locality and recognize
-(or apperceive) the buildings which acquire a
-new meaning as particular shops, which we have
-often entered, located in a particular locality, etc.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Again, take a tactual perception: If you close
-your eyes and touch, say a point on your left hand,
-with your finger, you not only perceive the touch but
-you perceive the exact spot that you touched. Your
-perception includes localization. Now if you fix
-your attention and introspect carefully you will find
-that you visualize your hand and see, more or less
-vividly, the point touched (and the touching finger).
-If you draw a figure on the hand you will visualize
-that figure. That is to say imaginal visual images
-of the hand, figure, etc., enter into the tactual perceptions.
-You will probably also be able to feel
-faint tactual “images” of the hand (joints, fingers,
-etc.) which combine with the visualization.<a id='r156' /><a href='#f156' class='c009'><sup>[156]</sup></a> The
-whole complex is the perception proper.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The images which take part in actual perception,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_316'>316</span>or in ideas of objects, vary with the mode of perception
-(whether visual, auditory, tactile, etc.) and
-with objects, and in different people. Reading, or
-the perception of words, is in many people accompanied
-by the sound of the words or kinesthetic images
-of words. If the printed words are those of a
-person whose voice is familiar to us we may actually
-hear his voice.<a id='r157' /><a href='#f157' class='c009'><sup>[157]</sup></a> General kinesthetic images
-may occur in perception, as with objects which look
-heavy, i.e., have secondary tactual sensations of
-heaviness. Likewise tactile and olfactory images
-may enter the perceptual field and supplement the
-visual sensations. When the sensational experiences
-of perception are tactile, auditory, olfactory,
-or gustatory visual images probably always take
-part in the perceptual field if the object is perceived
-as, e. g., the perception of velvet by touch and of
-an orange by smell. Summing all this up we may
-say, using Titchener’s words: “perceptions are selected
-groups of sensations in which images are incorporated
-as an integral part of the whole process.”
-We may further say the secondary images
-give meaning to sensations in forming a perception.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Now, before proceeding further in this exposition,
-I would point out that if memory images are habitually
-synthesized with sensations to form a given perception,
-and if perception is a matter of synthesis,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_317'>317</span>then, theoretically, it ought to be possible to dissociate
-these images. Further, in that case, the perception
-as such ought to disappear. That this theoretical
-assumption correctly represents the facts I
-have been able to demonstrate by the following experiment
-which I have repeated many times. I
-should first explain that it has been shown by Janet
-that by certain technical procedures some hysterics
-can be distracted in such a way that the experimenter’s
-voice is not consciously heard by them, but is
-heard and understood subconsciously. The ordinary
-procedure is to whisper to the subject while his
-attention is focused on something else. The whisper
-undoubtedly acts as a suggestion that the subject
-will not consciously hear what is whispered.
-The whispered word-images are accordingly dissociated,
-but are perceived coconsciously, and whatever
-coconsciousness exists can be in this way surreptitiously
-communicated with and responses obtained
-without the knowledge of the personal consciousness.
-In this way I have been able to make
-numerous observations showing the presence of dissociated
-coconscious complexes which otherwise
-would not have been suspected. Now the experiment
-which I am about to cite was made for the
-purpose of determining whether certain experiences
-for which the subject had amnesia were coconsciously
-remembered, but the results obtained, besides
-giving affirmative evidence on this point, furnished
-certain instructive facts indicative of the dissociation
-of secondary images.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_318'>318</span>The subject, Miss B., was in the state known as
-BIVa, an hypnotic state, <cite>her eyes closed</cite>. While
-she was conversing with me on a subject which held
-her attention I whispered in her ear with the view of
-communicating with coconscious ideas as above explained.
-While I was whispering, she remarked,
-“Where have you gone?” and later asked why I
-went away and what I kept coming and going for.
-On examination it then appeared that it seemed to
-her that during the moments when I whispered in
-her ear I had gone away. That is to say, she could
-no longer visualize my body, the secondary imaginal
-visual images being dissociated with my whispered
-words. At these times, however, she continued
-the conversation and was not at all in a dreamy
-state. Testing her tactile sense it was found that
-there was no dissociation of this sense during these
-moments. She felt tactile impressions while she
-was not hearing my voice, but she explained afterwards
-[while whispering, of course, I could not ask
-questions regarding sensations aloud] that when I
-touched her, and when she held my hand, palpating
-it in a curious way as if trying to make out what it
-was, she felt the tactile impressions, or tactile sensations,
-but not naturally. It appeared as the result
-of further observations that this feeling of
-unnaturalness and strangeness was due to a dissociation
-of the secondary visual images which normally
-occur with the tactile images. (She described
-the tactile impressions of my hand as similar to
-those she felt when she lifted her own hand when it
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_319'>319</span>had “gone to sleep”; it felt dead and heavy as if
-it belonged to no one in particular.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Testing further it was found that, <cite>before abstraction</cite>,
-while she held my hand she could definitely
-visualize my hand, arm, and even face. While she
-was thus visualizing I again abstracted her auditory
-perceptions by the whispering process. At once the
-secondary visual images of my hand, etc., disappeared.
-As with the auditory perceptions she could
-not obtain these visual images, although a moment
-before she could visualize as far as the elbow.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Desiring now to learn whether these dissociated
-visual images were perceived coconsciously I whispered,
-at the same time holding her hand, “Do you
-see my hand, arm, and face?” She nodded (automatically)
-“Yes.” “Does <cite>she</cite> [meaning the personal
-consciousness] see them?” (Answer by nod) “No.”
-(The personal consciousness (BIVa) was unaware
-of the questions and nodding; the latter was performed
-subconsciously.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This experiment was repeated several times. As
-often as she ceased to hear my voice she ceased to
-visualize my hand, though she could feel it without
-recognizing it. It follows, therefore, that the dissociation
-of the auditory perceptions of my voice
-having also robbed the subject’s personal consciousness
-of all visual images of my body, her previous
-tactual perception of my hand lost thereby its visual
-images and ceased to be a perception.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Let us take another observation: We have seen
-that a tactual perception of the body includes secondary
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_320'>320</span>imaginal visual and other sensory images
-besides the tactile sensation. Now, of course, if
-sensation is dissociated so that one has complete
-anesthesia, no tactile sensation can be perceived.
-Under such conditions an anesthetic person theoretically
-might not be able to imagine the dissociated
-tactile sensations and the associated visual images
-included in tactile perception. If so such a person
-would not be able to visualize his body. In other
-words, in accordance with the well-known principle
-that the dissociation of a specific memory robs the
-personal consciousness of other elements of experiences
-synthesized with the specific memory, the dissociation
-of the tactile images carries with it the
-visual images associated in perception. This theoretical
-proposition is confirmed by actual observation.
-Thus B. C. A. in one hypnotic state has general
-anesthesia, so complete that she has no consciousness
-of her body whatsoever. She does not
-know whether she is standing or sitting, nor the
-attitude of her limbs, or her location in space; she
-is simply thought in space. Now it is found that she
-can visualize the experimenter, the room, and the
-objects in the room although she cannot visualize
-any part of her own body. The dissociation of the
-tactual field of consciousness is so complete that she
-cannot evoke imaginal tactual images of the body,
-and this dissociation of these images carries with it
-that of the associated imaginal visual images. Visual
-images of the environment, however, not being
-synthesized with the tactual body images, can be still
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_321'>321</span>evoked. So we see from observations based on introspection
-and experimentation that perception includes,
-besides primary simple sensations of an object,
-secondary imaginal images of various kinds
-and in various numbers.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Besides images the content of ideas includes “Meaning”.</b>—What
-I have said thus far refers to perception
-and idea as the content of consciousness—a
-group of conscious states. But this is not all
-when perception is regarded as a <cite>process</cite>. The objects
-of experience have associative relations to
-other objects, actions, conduct, stimuli, constellated
-ideas, etc., i.e., past experiences represented by
-conserved (unconscious) complexes. As a result of
-previous experiences various associations have been
-organized with ideas and these complexes form the
-setting or the “context” (Tichener) which gives
-ideas meaning. As the secondary images give meaning
-to sensations to form ideas (or perceptions), so
-these associated complexes as settings give meaning
-to ideas. This setting in more general terms may be
-regarded as the attitude of mind, point of view, interest,
-etc. Just as the context in a printed sentence
-gives meaning to a given word, and determines
-which of two or more ideas it is meant to be the sign
-of, so in the process of all perceptions the associated
-ideas give meaning to the perception. Indeed it is
-probable that the context as a process determines
-what images shall become incorporated with sensations
-to form the nucleus of the perception. Perception
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_322'>322</span>thus takes one meaning when it is constellated
-with one complex and another meaning when constellated
-with another complex.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“Meaning” plays such an important part in the
-mental reactions of pathological and everyday life
-that I feel we must study it a little more closely before
-proceeding with our theme.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The idea horse<a id='r158' /><a href='#f158' class='c009'><sup>[158]</sup></a> as the content of consciousness
-includes more than the primary and secondary sensory
-images which constitute a perception of an
-animal with four legs distinguished anatomically
-from other animals: The idea includes the meaning
-of a particular kind of animal possessing certain
-functions, useful for particular purposes and occupying
-a particular place in civilization, etc. We
-are distinctly conscious of this meaning; and although
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_323'>323</span>we may abstract more or less successfully
-the visual image of the animal from the meaning,
-and attend to the former alone, the result is an artifact.
-Likewise we may as an artifice abstract, to a
-large degree, the meaning from the image, keeping
-the latter in the background, and attend to the meaning.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>That meaning—just as much as the sensory image
-of an object—is part of the conscious content of an
-idea becomes apparent at once, the moment the
-setting becomes altered and an object is collocated
-with a new set of experiences (knowledge regarding
-it). X, for example, has been known to the world
-as a pious, god-fearing, moral man, a teacher of the
-Christian religion. My perception of him, so far
-as made up of images, is, properly speaking, that
-which distinguishes him anatomically from other
-men of my acquaintance, that by which I recognize
-him as X and not as Y. But my perception also has
-a distinctly conscious meaning, that of a Christian
-man. This meaning also distinguishes him in his
-qualities from other men. Now it transpires to
-every one’s astonishment that X is a foul, cruel,
-murderer of women—a Jack-the-Ripper. My perception
-of him is the same but it has acquired an
-entirely different meaning. A bestial, villainous
-meaning has replaced the Christian meaning. So
-almost all objects have different meanings in different
-persons’ minds, or at different times in the same
-person’s mind, according to the settings (experiences)
-with which they are collocated. My perception
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_324'>324</span>of A has the meaning of physician, while one
-of his family perceives him as father or husband.
-My perception of a snake, it may be, has the meaning
-of a loathsome, venomous animal, while a naturalist’s
-perception may be that of a vertebrate representing
-a certain stage of evolution, and a psychologist
-holding certain theories may perceive it with
-a meaning given by those theories, viz.: as a sexual
-symbol.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This fact of meaning becomes still more obvious
-when we reflect that the meaning of a perception, as
-of A’s personality as a physician or father, may
-occupy the focus of attention while the images of
-his face, voice, etc., may sink into the background.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Every one is agreed then that every idea or combination
-of ideas has “meaning” of some sort.
-Even nonsense syllables have in a psychological
-sense some meaning, which may be an alliteration of
-sound, or a symbolism of nonsense (e. g., “fol-de-rol-di-rol-dol-day”)
-or as suitable tests for psychological
-experiments. I am speaking now, of
-course, of meaning as dealt with by psychology as
-a content of consciousness, and not as dealt with
-by logic. Every one also will probably agree that
-the content of an idea is a composite of sensory
-elements (images) and meaning—I would like to
-say of perception and meaning; but the use of two
-abstract terms is likely to lead to a juggling with
-words by turning attention away from the concrete
-facts for which the terms stand, and by connoting a
-sharp distinction between perception and meaning
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_325'>325</span>which, as I observe the facts, does not hold. Indeed
-the common though useful habit of psychologists of
-treating meaning as an abstract symbol without
-specific reference to those elements of the content
-of consciousness for which it stands has, it seems
-to me, led to considerable confusion of thought.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Mr. Hoernlé, who has given us one of the clearest
-expositions of <cite>idea and meaning</cite> that I have read,<a id='r159' /><a href='#f159' class='c009'><sup>[159]</sup></a>
-designates that constituent of an idea which is the
-psychical image of an object (e. g., “the visual perception
-of a horse”) by the term “sign.” “Signs,”
-he states “are always sensational in nature, whether
-they are actual sensations (as in sense-perception)
-or ideas (images or ‘revived’ sensations).” Accordingly
-an idea is a composite of sign and meaning,
-or, as Mr. Hoernlé has well expressed it: “Both the
-idea<a id='r160' /><a href='#f160' class='c009'><sup>[160]</sup></a> and its meaning, then, must be present in consciousness.
-Or perhaps it would be more accurate
-to say that they form together a complex psychical
-whole, a ‘psychosis,’ of which the different elements,
-however, enjoy different degrees of prominence in
-consciousness or draw upon themselves different
-amounts of attention.... Normally we apperceive
-merely the meaning, and the image or sign remains
-in the background, in the shade as it were. But of
-course we can make the image or sign the special
-object of attention; we can apperceive it and correspondingly
-the meaning falls into the background.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_326'>326</span>But it does not disappear; it remains in consciousness.”
-And again, “every idea is a concrete whole
-of sign and meaning, in which the meaning, even
-when unanalyzed and ‘implicit’ is what is essential
-and prominent in consciousness. The sign on the
-other hand which we saw reason to identify with
-certain sensational elements in this conscious experience
-is normally subordinate and I have called
-this concrete idea a ‘psychic whole’....”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I quote these passages from Mr. Hoernlé as they
-are admirably clear statements of the theory, but as
-descriptions they are a very incomplete analysis
-of the content of ideas, and fall far short of what
-we require to know when dealing with the problem
-of mental mechanisms. It is all very well to speak
-of meaning in this general way; but to rest content
-with such an abstract term is to only present the
-problem and there stop short. Mr. Hoernlé rests
-content with the negative statement that meaning
-“does not consist in images and other words.”
-What then does it consist in?</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It must be admitted that the problem is a very
-difficult one and therefore it is, I suppose, that most
-psychologists, as if scenting danger, seem to dodge
-the question and rest content to use meaning as a
-symbol like the unknown <cite>x</cite> and <cite>y</cite> of algebra. If
-meaning is a part of the content of consciousness
-it must be analyzable into specific conscious elements
-(images, thoughts, words, feelings or what
-not) representing to some extent and in some way
-past experiences.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_327'>327</span>Obviously a full rounded-out psychology of meaning
-must include an analysis of the content of meaning.<a id='r161' /><a href='#f161' class='c009'><sup>[161]</sup></a>
-I have no intention of entering upon this task
-here and it is not my business. It would, however,
-be of very great assistance in solving many of the
-problems of abnormal psychology if the psychology
-of meaning were better worked out. But conversely,
-I would say, considerable light on the psychology
-of meaning can be derived from the study
-of abnormal conditions, and of the mental phenomena
-artificially provoked by hypnotic procedures.
-Some of the observations which I shall presently
-cite contribute, I believe, to this end.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Permit me also to point out—as the point is one
-which has considerable bearing on our theme—that
-the descriptive statement that ideas are a composite
-of two distinct elements, perception (images, signs)
-and meaning, is inadequate in another respect; it
-is too static and schematic. Although it is convenient
-to distinguish between perception and meaning,
-they shade into one another and indeed there
-does not seem to be any justification for regarding
-them as other than one dynamic process. As we
-have seen, perception is made up of a primary sensory
-image of an object combined with a number of
-secondary images. This in itself is a “psychic
-whole”, and, as I view it, contains meaning. My
-perception of a watch contains secondary images
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_328'>328</span>which give it the meaning of a watch and make it
-something more than a visual image. It may have a
-still larger and different meaning, that of a souvenir
-of a dead friend, and in this larger meaning the
-perception of the watch becomes subordinate, as a
-sign or group of images, and sinks into the background,
-while the added meaning occupies the focus
-of attention. Indeed the primary image of a perception
-may sink into relative insignificance in the
-background, while the secondary images become all-important
-and practically constitute the actual perception
-(or idea) as a psychic whole. Consider, for
-instance, what different secondary images (and
-meaning) are in the focus and how the primary
-image of the word “son” (spoken or written) almost
-disappears, according as the context shows it
-to be <cite>my</cite> son or <cite>your</cite> son; and how correspondingly
-different are those ideas. And so with a wider filial
-meaning of son. It is safe to say that King Lear’s
-idea of “daughter” had not the filial meaning conventionally
-ascribed to that relationship.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>If all this that I have said is valid the difference
-between that which we call perception and that
-which we call meaning is one of complexity. The
-less complex we call perception, the more complex,
-meaning. Both are determined by past experiences
-the residua of which are the settings.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This may be illustrated by the following: We will
-suppose that three persons in imagination perceive
-a certain building used as a department store on
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_329'>329</span>a certain street I have in mind now, in a growing
-section of the city. One of these persons is an architect,
-another is an owner of property on this street,
-and the third is a woman who is in the habit of
-making purchases in the department store. When
-the architect thinks of the building he perceives it
-in his mind’s eye in an architectural setting, that
-is, its architectural style, proportions, features, and
-relations. His perception includes a number of
-secondary images of the neighboring buildings, of
-their styles of architecture, and of their relations
-from an æsthetic point of view. In the perception
-of the owner of property there are also a number of
-secondary images, but these are of the passing people
-and traffic, of neighboring buildings as shops
-and places of business. In the perception of the
-woman the secondary images are of the interior of
-the store, the articles for sale, clothes she would like
-to purchase and possibly bargains dear to every
-woman’s heart. Plainly each perceives the building
-from a different point of view. Each might perceive
-the building from the same point of view, but
-the point of view differs because of the differences
-in the past experiences of each.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the case of the architect these experiences were
-those of previous observations on the architecture
-of the growing neighborhood. In the case of the
-property owner they were of thoughtful reflections
-on the future development of neighboring property,
-on the industrial relations of the building to business,
-and on the speculative future value of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_330'>330</span>property. In the case of the woman they were of
-purchases she had made, of articles she had seen
-and desired, of scenes inside the shop, etc. Out of
-these experiences respectively a complex was built
-and conserved in the mind of each. The idea of the
-building is set in these respective experiences which
-therefore may be called its setting. The imaginal
-perception of the building obviously has a different
-meaning for each of our three observers, and it is
-plainly the setting which governs the meaning, i.e.,
-an architectural, industrial, or shopping meaning,
-as the case happens to be; and we may further say
-the setting determines the point of view or attitude
-of mind or interest. <cite>Either the perception proper
-of the building or the meaning may be in the focus
-of attention and the other recede into the background
-or the fringe of awareness.</cite></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Further, different <cite>affects</cite> may enter into each setting
-and, therefore, into the perception. With the
-architectural perception there may be linked an
-æsthetic joyful emotion; with the industrial perception
-a depressing emotion of anxiety; with the shopping
-perception perhaps one of anger. (This linking
-of an emotion, of course, has a great importance
-for psychopathic states.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The dependence of perceptions upon their settings
-for meaning has been very beautifully expressed by
-Emerson in “Each and All”:</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c022'>
- <div class='linegroup'>
- <div class='group'>
- <div class='line'>“Nothing is fair or good alone.</div>
- <div class='line'>I thought the sparrow’s note from heaven,</div>
- <div class='line'>Singing at dawn on the alder bough;</div>
- <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_331'>331</span>I brought him home, in his nest, at even;</div>
- <div class='line'>He sings the song, but it cheers not now,</div>
- <div class='line'>For I did not bring home the river and sky;</div>
- <div class='line'>He sang to my ear—they sang to my eye.</div>
- <div class='line'>The delicate shells lay on the shore;</div>
- <div class='line'>The bubbles of the latest wave</div>
- <div class='line'>Fresh pearls to their enamel gave,</div>
- <div class='line'>And the bellowing of the savage sea</div>
- <div class='line'>Greeted their safe escape to me.</div>
- <div class='line'>I wiped away the weeds and foam,</div>
- <div class='line'>I fetched my sea-born treasures home;</div>
- <div class='line'>But the poor unsightly, noisome things</div>
- <div class='line'>Had left their beauty on the shore</div>
- <div class='line'>With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar.”</div>
- </div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>The practical application of the theory to emotional outbreaks
-of everyday life.</b>—The significance of these
-principles for our purpose lies in the fact that
-they enable us to understand numerous psychological
-events of everyday and pathological life
-that otherwise would be unintelligible. It is
-worth while then to study a little more closely
-the practical application in everyday life of this
-principle of settings before applying it to the
-more difficult problem of imperative ideas or obsessions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>No psychological event, any more than a physical
-event, stands entirely isolated, all alone by itself,
-without relation to other events. Every psychological
-event is related more or less intimately to antecedent
-events, and the practical importance or value
-of this relation depends for the individual partly
-upon the nature of the relation itself, and partly
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_332'>332</span>upon the ontological value of those anterior events,
-i.e., the part they played and still play in the personality
-of the individual. No event, therefore, if
-it is to be completely interpreted, should be viewed
-by itself but only in relation to preceding ones. For
-example: a husband good humoredly and thoughtlessly
-chaffs his wife about the cost of a new hat
-which she exhibits with pride and pleasure. The
-wife in reply expresses herself by an outburst of
-anger which, to the astonished bystander, seems an
-entirely unjustifiable and inexplicable response to
-an entirely inadequate cause. Now if the bystander
-were permitted to make a psychological inquiry into
-the mental processes of the wife, he would find that
-the chaffing remark had meaning for her very different
-from what it had for him, and probably also
-for the husband; that it meant much more to her
-than the cost of that hat. He would find that it was
-set in her mind in a number of antecedent experiences
-consisting of criticisms of the wife by the husband
-for extravagance in dress; and perhaps criminations
-and recriminations involving much angry
-feeling on the part of both, and he would probably
-find that when the hat was purchased the possibility
-of criticism on the ground of extravagance passed
-through her mind. The chaffing remark of the husband
-therefore in the mind of the wife had for a
-context all these past experiences which formed a
-setting and gave an unintended meaning to the remark.
-The angry response, therefore, was dictated
-by these antecedent experiences and not simply by
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_333'>333</span>the trivial matter of the cost of a hat, standing by
-itself. The event can only be interpreted in the light
-of these past conserved experiences. How much of
-all this antecedent experience was in consciousness
-at the moment is another question which we shall
-presently consider.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I have often had occasion to interpret cryptic occurrences
-of this kind happening with patients or
-acquaintances. They make quite an amusing social
-game. (A knowledge of this principle shows the
-impossibility of outsiders judging the rightness or
-wrongness of misunderstandings and contretemps
-between individuals—particularly married people.)
-To complete the interpretation of this episode of
-the hat—although a little beside the point under
-consideration: plainly the anger to which the wife
-gave expression was the affect linked with and the
-reaction to the setting-complex formed by antecedent
-experiences. To state the matter in another
-way, these experiences were the formative material
-out of which a <cite>psychological torch</cite> had been plastically
-fashioned ready to be set ablaze by the first
-touch of a match—in this case the chaffing remark
-or associated idea. This principle of the setting,
-which gives meaning to an idea, being the conserved
-neurograms of related antecedent experiences is
-strikingly manifest in pathological and quasi-pathological
-conditions. I will mention only two instances.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The first, that of X. Y. Z., I shall have occasion to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_334'>334</span>refer to in more detail in connection with the emotions
-and instincts in a later lecture.<a id='r162' /><a href='#f162' class='c009'><sup>[162]</sup></a> This lady, on
-the first night of her marriage, felt deeply hurt in
-her pride from a fancied neglect on the part of her
-husband. The cause was trivial and could not possibly
-be taken by any sensible person as an adequate
-justification for the resentment which followed and
-the somewhat tragic revenge which she practiced
-(continuous voluntary repression of the sexual instinct
-during many years). But the fancied slight
-had a meaning for her which did not appear on the
-surface. As she herself insisted, in attempted extenuation
-of her conduct, “You must not take it
-alone by itself but in connection with the past.” It
-appeared that during the betrothal period there
-had been a number of experiences wounding to her
-pride and leading to angry resentment. These had
-been <cite>ostensibly but not really forgiven</cite>. The action
-of her spouse on the important night in question had
-a meaning for her of a slight, because it stood in
-relation to all these other antecedent experiences,
-and through these only could its meaning (for her)
-be interpreted. As a practical matter of therapeutics
-it became evident that the cherished resentment
-of years and the physiological consequences could
-only be removed by readjusting the setting—the
-memories of all the antecedent experiences with
-their resentment.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The second instance was a case of hysteria of the
-neurasthenic type with outbreaks of emotional attacks
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_335'>335</span>in a middle-aged woman. It developed immediately,
-in the midst of good health, out of a violent
-and protracted fit of anger, almost frenzy, two years
-ago, culminating in the first emotional or hysterical
-attack. Looked at superficially the fit of anger
-would be considered childish because it was aroused
-by the fact that some children were allowed to make
-the day hideous by firing cannon-crackers continually
-under her window in celebration of the national
-holiday. When more deeply analyzed it was found
-that the anger was really <cite>resentment</cite> at what she
-considered unjustifiable treatment of herself by
-others, and particularly by her husband, who would
-not take steps to have the offense stopped. It is
-impossible to go into all the details here; suffice it
-to say that <cite>below the surface</cite> the experiences of life
-had deposited <cite>a large accumulation of grievances</cite>
-against which resentment had been continuous over
-a long series of years. Although loving and respecting
-her husband, a man of force and character, yet
-she had long realized she was not as necessary to
-his life as she wanted to be; that he could get along
-without her, however fond he was of her; and that
-he was the stronger character in one way. She
-wanted to be wanted. Against all this for years
-she had felt anger and resentment. She had concealed
-her feelings, controlled them, repressed them,
-if you will, but there remained a general dissatisfaction
-against life, a “kicking against the pricks,”
-and a quickness to anger, though its expression had
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_336'>336</span>been well controlled. These were the formative influences
-which laid the mine ready to be fired by a
-spark, feelings of resentment and anger which had
-been incubating for years. Finally the spark came
-in the form of a childish offense. The frenzy of
-anger was ostensibly only the reaction to that offense,
-but it was really the explosion of years of
-antecedent experiences. The apparent offense was
-only the manifested cause, symbolic if you like so
-to express it, of the underlying accumulated causes
-contained in life’s grievances.<a id='r163' /><a href='#f163' class='c009'><sup>[163]</sup></a> After completion
-of the analysis the patient herself recognized this interpretation
-to be the true meaning of her anger and
-point of view.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Similarly in everyday life the <em>emotional shocks</em>
-from fear in dangerous situations, to which most
-people are subject and which so often give rise to
-traumatic psychoses, must primarily find their
-source in the psychological setting of the perception
-of the situation (railroad, automobile, and other
-accidents). This setting is fashioned from the conserved
-knowledge of the fatal and other consequences
-of such accidents. This knowledge, deposited
-by past mental experiences—that which has
-been heard and read—induces a dormant apprehension
-of accidents and gives the meaning of danger
-to a perception of a present situation, and in itself,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_337'>337</span>I may add, furnishes the neurographic fuel ready to
-be set ablaze by the first accident.<a id='r164' /><a href='#f164' class='c009'><sup>[164]</sup></a></p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f155'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r155'>155</a>. In that it takes into account only a limited number of the
-data at our disposal and neglects methods of investigation which
-afford data essential for the understanding of this psychological
-process.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f156'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r156'>156</a>. It is of interest to note again in this connection that these
-secondary images may emerge from a subconscious process to form
-the structure of an hallucination. Various facts of observation
-which I have collected support the thesis advanced by Sidis (loc.
-cit.) on theoretical grounds “that hallucinations are synthesized
-compounds of secondary sensory elements dissociated completely or
-incompletely from their primary elements.” It would carry us too
-far away from our theme to consider here this problem of special
-pathology. Sidis further insists that hallucinations are not central,
-but always “are essentially of peripheral origin,” a view which, it
-seems to me, is incompatible with numerous facts of observation.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f157'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r157'>157</a>. I once dictated into a phonograph a passage of a published
-work. Whenever I read that passage now I hear the sound of my
-own voice as it was emitted by the phonograph.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f158'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r158'>158</a>. I intentionally do not here say idea <cite>of</cite> a horse because the use
-of the preposition (while, of course, correctly used to distinguish
-horse as an idea from a material horse, or the former as a particular
-idea among ideas in general) has led, as it seems to me, insidiously
-to specious reasoning. Thus Mr. Hoernlé (Image, Idea and
-Meaning, <cite>Mind</cite>, January, 1907) argues that every idea has a meaning
-because every idea is an idea <cite>of</cite> some thing. Although this is
-true in a descriptive sense, psychologically idea-of-a-horse is a compound
-term and an imagined horse. The idea itself is horse. The
-speciousness of the reasoning appears when we substitute horse for
-idea; then the phrase would read, a “horse is always a horse of
-something.” I agree, of course, that every idea has a meaning, but
-not to this particular reasoning by which the conclusion is reached,
-as when, for example, Mr. Hoernlé when traversing James’ theory
-cites “image <cite>of</cite> the breakfast table” to denote that the breakfast
-table is the meaning of the image. The image <cite>is</cite> the (imagined)
-breakfast table. They are not different things as are leg and chair
-in the phrase, “leg of the chair,” where chair plainly gives the
-meaning to leg.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f159'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r159'>159</a>. R. F. Hoernlé, Image, Idea and Meaning, <cite>Mind</cite>, January, 1907.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f160'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r160'>160</a>. Idea, according to Mr. Hoernlé’s context, is here used in the
-sense of a word, image or sign.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f161'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r161'>161</a>. Of course the constituents of the content must vary in each individual
-instance, but the kind of conscious elements that in general
-give meaning to the sensory part of the idea can be determined.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f162'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r162'>162</a>. P. 462, Lecture XIV.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f163'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r163'>163</a>. Prince: The Mechanism of Recurrent Psychopathic States, with
-Special Reference to Anxiety States, <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>,
-June-July, 1911, pp. 153-154.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f164'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r164'>164</a>. Ibid., p. 152. It is interesting to note that statistics show that
-traumatic psychoses following railway accidents are comparatively
-rare among trainmen, while exceedingly common among passengers.
-The reason is to be found in the difference in the settings of ideas
-of accidents in the two classes of persons. It is the same psychological
-difference that distinguishes the seasoned veteran soldier from
-the raw recruit in the presence of the enemy.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_338'>338</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE XI<br /> MEANING, SETTING, AND THE FRINGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'><b>The content of the fringe of consciousness considered as a
-subconscious zone.</b>—It is obvious that all the past experiences
-which originate the meaning of an idea
-cannot be in consciousness at a given moment. If I
-carefully introspect my imaginal perception or idea
-of an object, say of a politician, I do not find in my
-consciousness all the elements which have given me
-my viewpoint or attitude of mind toward him—the
-meaning of my idea of him as a great statesman
-or a demagogue, whichever it be—and yet it may
-not be difficult, by referring to my memory, to find
-the past experiences which have furnished the setting
-which gives this viewpoint. Very little of all
-these past experiences can be in the content of consciousness,
-and much less in the focus of attention,
-at any given moment, nevertheless I cannot doubt
-that these experiences really determined the meaning
-of my idea, for if challenged I proceed to recite
-this conserved knowledge. And so it is with everyone
-who defends the validity of the meaning of his
-ideas.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The question at once comes to mind in the case
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_339'>339</span>of any given perception, how much of past experience
-(associated ideas) is in consciousness at any
-given moment as the setting which provides the
-meaning?</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>That the meaning must be in consciousness is obvious;
-else the term “meaning” would have no
-meaning—it would be sheer nonsense to talk of ideas
-having meaning. As I have said, the meaning may
-be in the focus of attention or it may be in the
-fringe or background according to the point of interest.
-If in the focus of attention, meaning plainly
-may, synchronously or successively, include ideas of
-quite a large number of past experiences, but if in
-the background it may be another matter. In this
-case it may be held, and probably in many instances
-quite rightly, that meaning is a short summary of
-past experiences, or summing up in the form of a
-symbol, and that this summary or symbol is in the
-focus of attention or in the fringe of awareness, i.
-e., is clearly or dimly conscious. Thus, in one of the
-examples above given, the industrial meaning of
-the owner’s idea of the building might be a short
-summing up of his past cogitations on the business
-value of the property; in the case of my idea of the
-politician, the symbol “statesman” or “demagogue”—as
-the case might be—might be in consciousness
-and be the meaning. All the rest of the
-past associative experiences in either case would
-furnish the origin of the setting but would not be
-the actual functioning setting itself.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It must be confessed, however, that the content
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_340'>340</span>of meaning, when it is not in the focus of attention,
-often becomes very elusive when we try to clearly
-revive it retrospectively and differentiate the particular
-states of consciousness present at any given
-moment. It is probably because of this elusiveness,
-as of something that seems to evade analysis, that
-it was so long overlooked as an object of psychological
-study. Yet if meaning is not something more
-than an abstract term, and is really a component
-of a moment’s consciousness, we ought to be able
-to analyze it in any given instance provided our
-methods of investigation are adequate. The difficulty,
-I think, largely arises from the fact that the
-minute we direct attention to such elements of the
-content of consciousness of any given moment as
-are not in the focus of attention they at once become
-shifted into the focus and the composition of the
-content also becomes altered. Consequently we are
-never <cite>immediately</cite> vividly or fully aware of the
-whole content. The only method of learning what
-is the whole content at any given moment is by <cite>retrospection</cite>—the
-recovery of it as memory. Further,
-special technical methods are required. Then,
-too, image and meaning are constantly shifting their
-relative positions, at one time the one being in the
-focus of attention, the other in the fringe, and <cite>vice
-versa</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>When speaking colloquially of the content of consciousness
-we have in mind those ideas or components
-of ideas—elements of thought—which are in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_341'>341</span>the focus of attention, and therefore that of which
-we are more or less vividly aware. If you were
-asked to state what was in your mind at a given
-moment it is the vivid elements, upon which your
-attention was focused, that you would describe.
-But, as everyone knows, these do not constitute the
-whole field of consciousness at any given moment.
-Besides these there is in the background of the mind,
-outside the focus, <cite>a conscious margin or fringe</cite> of
-varying extent (<cite>consisting of sensations, perceptions,
-and even thoughts</cite>) <cite>of which you are only
-dimly aware</cite>. It is a sort of twilight zone in which
-the contents are so slightly illuminated by awareness
-as to be scarcely recognizable. The contents
-of this zone are readily forgotten owing to their
-having been outside the focus of attention; but much
-can be recalled if an effort to do so (retrospection)
-is made immediately after any given moment’s experience.
-Much can only be recalled by the use of
-special technical methods of investigation. I believe
-that the more thoroughly this wonderful region
-is explored the richer it will be found to be in
-conscious elements.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It must not be thought that because we are only
-dimly aware of the contents of this twilight zone
-therefore the individual elements lack definiteness
-and positive reality. To do so is to confuse the
-awareness of a certain something with that something
-itself. To so think would be like thinking that,
-because we do not distinctly recognize objects in the
-darkness, therefore they are but shadowy forms
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_342'>342</span>without substance. When, in states of abstraction
-or hypnosis, the ideas of this fringe of attention are
-recalled, as often is easily done, they are remembered
-as <cite>very definite, real, conscious elements</cite>, and
-the memory of them is as vivid as that of most
-thoughts. That these marginal ideas are not
-“vivid” at the time of their occurrence means simply
-that they are not in such dynamic relations with
-the whole content of consciousness as to be the focus
-of awareness or attention. What sort of relations
-are requisite for “awareness” is an unsolved problem.
-It seems to be a matter not only of synthesis
-but of dynamic relations within the synthesis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>However that may be, outside that dynamic synthesis
-which we distinguish as the focus of attention
-we can at certain moments recognize or recall to
-memory (whether through technical devices or not)
-a number of different conscious states. These may
-be roughly classified as follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>1: Visual, auditory, and other sensory impressions
-to which we are not giving attention—(e. g.,
-the striking of a clock; the sound of horses passing
-in the street; voices from the next room; coenæsthetic
-and other sensations of the body.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2: The secondary sensory images of which I
-spoke in the last lecture as taking part in perception.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>3: Associative memories and thoughts pertaining
-to the ideas in the focus of attention.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>4: Secondary independent trains of thought not
-related to those in the focus of attention. (As when
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_343'>343</span>we are doing one thing or listening to conversation
-and thinking of something else. Very likely, however,
-what appear to be secondary trains of thought
-are often only alternating trains. I have, however,
-a considerable collection of data showing such concomitant
-secondary trains in certain subjects (cf.
-Lecture VI). Such a train can be demonstrated to
-be a precisely differentiated “stream” of consciousness
-in absent-minded conditions, where it may constitute
-a veritable doubling of consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Some of these marginal elements may be so distinctly
-within the field of awareness that we are
-conscious of them, but dimly so.<a id='r165' /><a href='#f165' class='c009'><sup>[165]</sup></a> Others, in particular
-cases at least, may be so far outside and
-hidden in the twilight obscurity that the subject is
-not even dimly aware of them. In more technical
-parlance, we may say, they are so far dissociated
-that they belong to <cite>an ultra-marginal zone and are
-really subconscious</cite>. Evidence of their having been
-present can only be obtained through memories recovered
-in hypnosis, abstraction, and by other methods.
-These may be properly termed coconscious.
-Undoubtedly the degree of awareness for marginal
-elements, i.e., the degree of dissociation between
-the elements of the content of consciousness, varies
-at different moments in the same individual according
-to the degree of concentration of attention and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_344'>344</span>the character of the fixation, e. g., whether upon the
-environment or upon inner thoughts. It also varies
-much in different individuals. Therefore some persons
-lend themselves as more favorable subjects for
-the detection of marginal and ultra-marginal states
-than others. Furthermore, according to certain
-evidence at hand, there is, in some persons at least,
-a constant shifting or interchange of elements going
-on between the field of attention and the marginal
-and the ultra-marginal zone—what is within the first
-at one moment is in the second, or is entirely subconscious,
-the next, and <cite>vice versa</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Amnesia develops very rapidly for the contents
-of the twilight region, as I have already stated, and
-this renders their recognition difficult.<a id='r166' /><a href='#f166' class='c009'><sup>[166]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In favorable subjects memory of that portion of
-the content of consciousness which is commonly
-called the fringe can be recovered in abstraction and
-hypnosis. In these states valuable information can
-be obtained regarding the content of consciousness
-at any given previous moment,<a id='r167' /><a href='#f167' class='c009'><sup>[167]</sup></a> and this information
-reveals that there were present in the fringe
-conscious states of which the subject was never
-aware, or of which he is later ignorant owing to
-amnesia. I have studied the fringe of consciousness
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_345'>345</span>by this method in a number of subjects. A
-number of years ago <em>a systematic study</em> of the field
-of the content of consciousness outside the focus of
-awareness, including not only the fringe but what
-may be called the ultra-marginal (subconscious)
-zone, was made in a very favorable subject (Miss
-B.), and the general results were given in an address
-on the “Problems of Abnormal Psychology”<a id='r168' /><a href='#f168' class='c009'><sup>[168]</sup></a>
-at the Congress of Arts and Sciences held in
-St. Louis (1904). I may be permitted to quote that
-summary here. The term “secondary consciousness”
-is used in this passage to designate the fringe
-and ultra-marginal (subconscious) zone.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"A systematic examination was made of the personal
-consciousness in hypnosis regarding the perceptions
-and content of the secondary consciousness
-during definite moments, of which the events
-were prearranged or otherwise known, the subject
-not being in absent-mindedness. It is not within
-the scope of an address of this sort to give the details
-of these observations, but in this connection
-I may state briefly a summary of the evidence, reserving
-the complete observation for future publication.
-It was found that—</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"1. A large number of perceptions—visual, auditory,
-tactile, and thermal images, and sometimes
-emotional states—occurred outside of the personal
-consciousness and, therefore, the subject was
-not conscious of them when awake. The visual
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_346'>346</span>images were particularly those of peripheral vision,
-such as the extra-conscious [marginal or ultra-marginal]
-perception of a person in the street who was
-not recognized by the personal waking consciousness;
-and the perception of objects intentionally
-placed in the field of peripheral vision and not perceived
-by the subject, whose attention was held in
-conversation. Auditory images of passing carriages,
-of voices, footsteps, etc., thermal images of
-heat and cold from the body were similarly found
-to exist extra-consciously, and to be entirely unknown
-to the personal waking consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"2. As to the content of the concomittant (dissociated)
-ideas, it appeared, by the testimony of
-the hypnotic self, that as compared with those of
-the waking consciousness the secondary ideas were
-quite limited. They were, as is always the experience
-of the subject, made up for the most part of
-emotions (e. g., annoyances), and sensations (visual,
-auditory, and tactile images of a room, of particular
-persons, people’s voices, etc). They were
-not combined into a logical proposition, though in
-using words to describe them it is necessary to so
-combine them and therefore give them a rather artificial
-character as ‘thoughts.’ It is questionable
-whether the word ‘thoughts’ may be used to describe
-mental states of this kind, and the word was
-used by the hypnotic self subject to this qualification.
-Commonly, I should infer, a succession of such
-‘thoughts’ may arise, but each is for the most part
-limited to isolated emotions and sensorial images
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_347'>347</span>and lacks the complexity and synthesis of the waking
-mentation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"3. The memories, emotions, and perceptions of
-which the subject is not conscious when awake are
-remembered in hypnosis and described. The
-thoughts of which the subject is conscious when
-awake are those which are concentrated on what she
-is doing. The others, of which she is not conscious,
-are a sort of side-thoughts. These are not logically
-connected among themselves, are weak, and have
-little influence on the personal (chief) train of
-thought. Now, although when awake the subject is
-conscious of some thoughts and not of others, both
-kinds keep running into one another and therefore
-the conscious and the subconscious are constantly
-uniting, disuniting, and interchanging. <cite>There is no
-hard and fast line between the conscious and the
-subconscious, for at times what belongs to one
-passes into the other, and vice versa.</cite> The waking
-self is varying the grouping of its thoughts all the
-time in such a way as to be continually including
-and excluding the subconscious thoughts. The personal
-pronoun ‘I,’ or, when spoken to, ‘you,’ applied
-equally to her waking self and to her hypnotic self,
-<cite>but these terms were not applicable to her unconscious
-thoughts, which were not self-conscious</cite>. For
-convenience of terminology it was agreed to arbitrarily
-call the thoughts of which the subject is conscious
-when awake the <cite>waking consciousness</cite>, and
-the thoughts of which when awake she is not conscious
-the <cite>secondary consciousness</cite>. In making this
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_348'>348</span>division the hypnotic self insisted most positively
-on one distinction, namely that the secondary consciousness
-was in no sense a <cite>personality</cite>. The pronoun
-<cite>I</cite> could not be applied to it. In speaking of the
-thoughts of this second group of mental states alone,
-she could not say ‘I felt this,’ ‘I saw that.’ These
-thoughts were better described as, for the most part,
-unconnected, discrete sensations, impressions, and
-emotions, and were not synthesized into a personality.
-They were not, therefore, self-conscious.
-When the waking self was hypnotized, the resulting
-hypnotic self acquired the subconscious perceptions
-of the second consciousness; she then could say ‘<cite>I</cite>,’
-and the hypnotic ‘<cite>I</cite>’ included what were formerly
-‘subconscious’ perceptions. In speaking of the secondary
-personality by itself, then, it is to be understood
-that self-consciousness and personality are
-always excluded. This testimony was verified by
-test instances of subconscious perception of visual
-and auditory images of experiences occurring in
-my presence.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"4. Part played by the secondary consciousness
-in (a) normal mentation. The hypnotic self testified
-that the thoughts of the secondary consciousness
-do not form a logical chain. They do not have
-volition. They are entirely passive and have no
-direct control over the subject’s voluntary actions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"(b) Part played by the secondary consciousness
-in absent-mindedness. (1) Some apparently
-absent-minded acts are only examples of amnesia.
-There is no doubling of consciousness at the time.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_349'>349</span>It is a sort of continuous amnesia brought about by
-lack of attention. (2) In true absent-mindedness
-there does occur a division of consciousness along
-lines which allow a large field to, and relatively wide
-synthesis of the dissociated states. The personal
-consciousness is proportionately restricted. The
-subconscious thoughts may involve a certain amount
-of volition and judgment, as when the subject subconsciously
-took a book from the table, carried it to
-the bookcase, started to place it on the shelf, found
-that particular location unsuitable, arranged a place
-on another shelf where the book was finally placed.
-No evidence, however, was obtained to show that
-the dissociated consciousness is capable of wider and
-more original synthesis than is involved in adapting
-habitual acts to the circumstances of the moment.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"(c) Solving problems by the secondary consciousness.
-[The statement of the hypnotic self regarding
-the part played by the ‘secondary consciousness’
-has already been given in Lecture
-VI, p. 167.]</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“The subject of these observations was at the
-time in good mental and physical condition. Criticism
-may be made that, the subject being one who
-had exhibited for a long time previously the phenomena
-of mental dissociation, she now, though for
-the time being recovered, tended to a greater dissociation
-and formation of subconscious states than
-does a normal person, and that the subconscious
-phenomena were therefore exaggerated. This is
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_350'>350</span>true. It is probable that the subconscious flora of
-ideas in this subject are richer than in the ordinary
-individual. These phenomena probably represent
-the extreme degree of dissociation compatible with
-normality. And yet, curiously enough, the evidence
-tended to show that the more robust the health of
-the individual, the more stable her mind, the richer
-the field of these ideas.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Of course it is a question how far the findings
-in a particular and apparently specially favorable
-subject are applicable to people in general. I would
-say, however, that I have substantially confirmed
-these observations in another subject, B. C. A., when
-in apparent health. In this latter subject the richness
-of the fringe and what may be called the ultra-marginal
-region in conscious states is very striking.
-The same is true of O. N. (cf. Lecture VI, p. 174).
-Again in psychasthenics, suffering from attacks of
-phobia, association, or habit psycho-neuroses, etc.,
-I have been able to recover, after the attack has
-passed off, memories of conscious states which during
-and preliminary to the attack were outside the
-focus of attention. Of some of these the subject
-had been dimly aware, and of some apparently entirely
-unaware (i.e., they were coconscious). For
-the former as well as the latter there followed complete
-amnesia, so that the subject was ignorant of
-their previous presence, and believed that the whole
-content of consciousness was included in the anxiety
-or other state which occupied the focus of attention.
-Consequently I am in the habit, when investigating
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_351'>351</span>a pathological case, like an obsession, of inquiring
-(by technical methods) into the fringe of attention
-and even the ultra-marginal region, and reviving
-the ideas contained therein, particularly those for
-which there is amnesia. My purpose has been to
-discover the presence of ideas or thoughts which
-as a setting would explain the meaning of the idea
-which was the object of fear (a phobia), the exciting
-cause of psycho-neurotic attacks, etc. To this I
-shall presently return.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If all that I have said is true, it follows that the
-<cite>whole content or field of consciousness at any given
-moment includes not only considerably more than
-that which is within the field of attention but more
-than is within the field of awareness</cite>. The field of
-conscious states as a whole comprises the focus
-of attention plus the marginal fringe; and besides
-this there may be a true subconscious ultra-marginal
-field comprising conscious states of which the personal
-consciousness is not even dimly aware. We
-may schematically represent the relations of the
-different fields by a diagram (Fig. 1).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It will be noted that the field of conscious states
-includes A., B., and C. and is larger than that of
-awareness, which includes A. and B. The field of
-awareness is larger than that of attention (A.), but
-the focus of awareness coincides with the field of
-attention, or, as it is ordinarily termed, the focus of
-attention. Of course there is no sharp line of demarcation
-between any of these fields, but a gradual
-shading from A. to D. Any such diagrammatic
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_352'>352</span>representation, although of help to those who like to
-visualize concepts, must give a false viewpoint; as
-in reality the relations are dynamic or functional,
-and the different fields more properly should be
-viewed as different but inter-related participants
-in a large dynamic mechanism.</p>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<div class='c023'>
-<img src='images/i_352.jpg' alt='illustration' class='c024' />
-<table class='tbl' summary='caption'>
-<tr><td>Fig. 1.</td><td>A. Attention and focus of awareness.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td> <td>B. Fringe of awareness.</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td> <td>C. Subconscious, i.e., coconscious states (ultramarginal).</td></tr>
-<tr><td>&nbsp;</td> <td>D. Unconscious processes.</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>The meaning of ideas may be found in the fringe of consciousness.</b>—Let
-us now return from this general survey
-of the fringe of consciousness to our theme—the
-setting which gives meaning to ideas.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is obvious that, theoretically, when I attend to
-the perceptive images of an idea, the meaning of
-that idea, not being in the focus of awareness, may
-be found among the conscious states that make up
-the fringe of the dynamic field. For instance, if
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_353'>353</span>my idea of a certain politician, my knowledge of
-whom, we will say, has been gained entirely from
-the newspapers, is that of a bad man—a “crook”—this
-meaning may be dimly in the fringe of my
-awareness. It is not necessary that any large part
-of this knowledge should be in the marginal zone
-of the content of consciousness but only a summary
-of all the knowledge I have acquired regarding him.
-The <cite>origin</cite> of this meaning—a crook—I can easily
-find in my associative memories of what I have read.
-But there would seem to be no need of all these to
-persist as a functioning setting—a short summary
-in the form of an idea, secondary image, a word or
-symbol of a bad man would seem to be sufficient.
-The same principle is applicable to a large number
-of the simple images of objects in my environment—a
-book, an electric lamp, a horse, etc.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is not easy with such normal ideas of everyday
-life to analyze the fringe and determine precisely
-its contents. There is no sharp dividing line
-between the various zones—the whole being a dynamic
-system. <cite>The moment attention is directed
-to the marginal zones they become the focus and
-vice versa.</cite> To obtain accurate knowledge of the
-marginal zones we require individuals suitable for
-a special technique by which the constituents of
-these zones can be brought back as memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>For such purposes certain persons with pathological
-ideas (e. g., phobias)<a id='r169' /><a href='#f169' class='c009'><sup>[169]</sup></a> are very favorable subjects
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_354'>354</span>for various reasons not necessary to go
-into.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, as respects the simple normal ideas of everyday
-life, such as I have just cited, a person can
-give very clearly his viewpoint. He has a very
-definite notion of the meaning of his perceptions and
-can give his reasons for them based on his associative
-memories of past experiences which he can recall.
-But in the conditions to which I am now referring
-<cite>a person can give no explanation</cite> of a particular
-viewpoint which may be of a very definite
-but unusual (abnormal) character. Nor can he recall
-any experiences which would explain the origin
-of it. I have in mind particularly the obsessions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, according to my observations, we find in
-the marginal zones of the content of consciousness
-conscious elements which in particular cases may
-even give a hitherto unsuspected meaning to the
-pathological idea. I have found in these zones
-thoughts which gave meaning to emotions and other
-symptoms excited by apparently inadequate objects.
-Thus, in H. O., attacks of recurrent nausea and fear
-almost prohibiting social intercourse were always
-due to thoughts of self-disgust hidden in the fringe.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Let us take a concrete case, that of a person who
-has a pathological fear and who, as we know is often
-the case, can give no explanation of his viewpoint.
-The fear may be that of fainting, or of thunderstorms,
-of a particular disease, say cancer, or of
-so-called “unreality” attacks, or what not. This
-so-called “fear” is of course an idea of self or other
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_355'>355</span>object linked with, or which occasions as a reaction,
-the strong emotion of fear. It recurs in attacks
-which are excited by stimuli, of one kind or another,
-that are associated with the idea. The patient can
-give no explanation of the <cite>meaning</cite> of this idea that
-renders intelligible why it should occasion his fear.
-There is nothing in his consciousness, so far as he
-knows, which gives an adequate meaning to it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Thus, for example, C. D. was the victim of attacks
-of fear; the attacks were so intense that at
-times she had been almost a prisoner in her house,
-in dread of attacks away from home; and yet she
-was unable even after two prolonged searching examinations
-to define the exact nature of the fear
-which was the salient feature of the attacks, or, from
-her ordinary memories, to give any explanation of
-its origin. She remembered many moments in the
-last twenty years when the fear had come upon her
-with great intensity, but she could not recall the
-date of its inception and, therefore, the conditions
-under which it originated; consequently nothing
-satisfactory could be elicited beyond an early history
-of “anxiety attacks” or indefinable fear of
-great intensity attached to no specific idea that she
-knew.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As a result of searching investigation by technical
-methods it was brought out that the specific object
-of the fear was <cite>fainting</cite>. When an attack developed,
-besides intense physiological disturbances
-and confusion of thought, there was in the content
-of consciousness a feeling that her mind was flying
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_356'>356</span>off into space and a definite thought of losing consciousness
-or fainting, and that she was going to
-faint. There was amnesia for these thoughts following
-the attacks. She never had fainted in the
-attacks and, as it later transpired, had fainted only
-once in her life. Here then, <cite>dimly in the content</cite> of
-consciousness, was the object of the fear in an attack.
-But the object was afterwards forgotten;
-hence she could not explain what she was afraid of.
-Why fainting should be such a terrible accident to
-be feared she also could not explain.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The question now was, what possible meaning
-could fainting have for her that she so feared it?
-This she did not know.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, on still further investigation, I found that
-there was always in the fringe of consciousness during
-an attack and also during the anticipatory fear
-of an attack, <cite>an idea and fear of death</cite>. This, to
-use her expression, “was in the background of her
-mind”; it referred to impending fainting. It appeared
-then that in the fringe or ultra-marginal
-zone was the <cite>idea of death as the meaning of fainting</cite>.
-<cite>Of this she was never aware.</cite> It was really
-subconscious. It was the meaning of her idea of herself
-fainting. In consequence of this meaning fainting
-was equivalent to her own death. She would not
-have been afraid of fainting if she had not believed
-or could have been made to believe that in her case
-it did not mean death. We might properly say that
-the real object of the fear was death.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When this content of the fringe of attention was
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_357'>357</span>recovered, the patient voluntarily remarked that
-she had not been aware of the presence during the
-attacks of that idea, but now she remembered it
-clearly, and also realized plainly why she was afraid
-of fainting,—what she had not understood before.
-(It must be borne in mind that this meaning of fainting,
-as a state equivalent to death, did not pertain to
-fainting in general but solely to herself. She knew
-perfectly well that fainting in other people was not
-dangerous; it was only an unrecognized belief regarding
-a possible accident to herself.) Besides this
-content of the fringe of attention it was also easy to
-show that the fringe often included the thought (or
-idea) which had been the immediate excitant of each
-attack. Sometimes this stimulus-idea entered the
-focus of attention; sometimes it was only in the
-fringe. In either case there was apt to be amnesia
-for it, but it could always be recalled to memory in
-abstraction or hypnosis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The content of consciousness taken as a whole,
-i.e., to include both the focus and the fringe of attention,
-then would adequately determine the meaning
-of this subject’s idea of fainting as applied to
-herself.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But why this meaning of fainting? It must have
-been derived from antecedent experiences. An idea
-can no more have a meaning without antecedent experiences
-with which it is or once was linked than
-can the word “parallelopipedon” have a geometrical
-meaning without a previous geometrical experience,
-or “Timbuctoo” a personal meaning without
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_358'>358</span>being set in a personal experience, whether of missionaries
-or hymn-books.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I will not take the time to give the detailed results
-of the investigation by hypnotic procedures that followed.
-I will merely summarize by stating that the
-fear of death from fainting was a recurrent memory,
-i.e., <cite>a recurrence of the content of consciousness</cite> of
-a moment during an incident that occurred more
-than twenty years before, when she was a young
-girl about 18 years of age. At the time as the result
-of a nervous shock she had fainted, and just before
-losing consciousness she definitely thought her
-symptoms meant death. At this thought she became
-frightened, and ever since she has been afraid of
-fainting. There was no conscious association between
-her phobia and this youthful episode. When
-the memory of the latter was recovered she remarked,
-“I wonder why I never thought of that before.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But this again was not all. A searching investigation
-of the unconscious (residua) in deep hypnosis
-revealed the fact that death from fainting was
-organized with still wider experiences involving a
-fear of death. At the moment of the nervous shock
-just before fainting (<cite>fancied as dying</cite>) she thought
-of her mother who was dangerously ill from <cite>cancer</cite>
-in an adjoining room, and a great fear swept over
-her at the thought of what might happen to her
-mother if she should hear of the cause of her (the
-patient’s) nervous shock and of her <cite>death</cite>. It
-further transpired that the idea of death and fear of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_359'>359</span>it were set in a still larger series of experiences.<a id='r170' /><a href='#f170' class='c009'><sup>[170]</sup></a> It
-had, indeed, dated from a childhood experience when
-she was eight years of age. At that time she was
-frightened when a pet animal died and a fear of
-death had been more or less continuously present in
-her mind ever since, but not always consciously so;
-meaning that it was sometimes in awareness and
-sometimes in the <cite>ultra-marginal zone</cite> of consciousness.
-She had been able to conceal the fear until the
-fainting episode occurred and, as she in hypnosis
-asserted, fear afterward had continued to be present
-more or less persistently, although <cite>she was
-not conscious of the fact when awake</cite> (excepting in
-the phobic attacks) and it had attached itself to various
-ideas of intercurrent illnesses. But these
-ideas could all be reduced to two, <cite>fainting and
-cancer</cite>. Ever since her mother’s illness and death
-she had a fear of death from cancer, believing she
-might inherit the disease. This thought and the
-fear it aroused had been constantly in her mind but
-never previously confessed. It was the real meaning
-of her fear of illness which had been conspicuous
-and puzzling to her physician. She had imagined
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_360'>360</span>that each illness might mean cancer, but had successfully
-concealed this thought. The idea of death
-and the fear it excited had thus become constellated
-in a large <cite>unconscious</cite> complex derived from past
-experiences which included the fainting episode, her
-mother’s death from cancer and the possibility of
-having cancer herself. This last was still <cite>consciously
-believed</cite> and was very real to her.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Without pursuing further the details it is evident
-that although the meaning of fainting—death—was
-in the fringe of consciousness and subconscious,
-it had as a setting a large group of fear-inspiring
-experiences, more particularly those involving cancer.
-But there was no conscious association between
-her fear of fainting and that of cancer. <cite>Of this setting,
-during a phobic attack, only the ideas of fainting
-and fear-inspiring death enter the various zones
-of consciousness.</cite></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As to why this apparently unsophisticated idea of
-death still <cite>persisted</cite> in connection with that of fainting
-is another problem with which we are not concerned
-at this moment. We should have to consider
-more specifically the content of the setting in which,
-besides the cancer-belief, probably subconscious self-reproaches
-would be found.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Meaning may be the conscious elements of a functioning
-larger subconscious complex.</b>—However, whatever
-be its conscious constituents, obviously meaning
-must be derived from antecedent experiences
-and without such experiences no idea can
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_361'>361</span>have meaning. If, then, antecedent experiences
-determine the meaning of the idea, it is <cite>theoretically</cite>
-possible, particularly with insistent ideas, that the
-conscious elements involved in meaning are, with
-many ideas at least, only part and parcel of a larger
-complex which is for the most part unconscious.
-That is to say, a portion of this complex—perhaps
-the larger portion represented by the residua of past
-experiences—would, under this hypothesis, be unconscious
-while certain elements would arise in consciousness
-as the meaning of a given idea. Under
-such conditions a hidden subconscious process would
-really determine the conscious setting which gives
-the meaning. The whole setting would be partly
-conscious and partly hidden in the unconscious.
-Such a mechanism may be roughly likened to that of
-a clock, so far as concerns the relation of the chimes
-and hands to the works concealed inside the case.
-Though the visible hands and the audible chimes appear
-to indicate the time, the real process at work is
-that of the hidden mechanism. To inhibit the chime
-or regulate the time rate the mechanism must be altered.
-And so with an insistent idea: The unconscious
-part of the complex setting must be altered to
-alter the meaning of the idea. Of course the analogy
-must not be carried too far as in the case of the clock
-the chimes and hands are only epiphenomena, while
-conscious ideas are elements in the functioning
-mechanism.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Such a theory would afford an adequate explanation
-of the psychogenesis and mechanism of certain
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_362'>362</span>pathological ideas such as the phobia of C. D. At
-any rate, it is plain that an explanation of such ideas
-must be sought, on the one hand, in their meanings
-and in the antecedent experiences to which they are
-related, and, on the other, in the processes which determine
-their insistency or fixation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The facts which support this theory, to which our
-studies have led us, we will take up for consideration
-in our next lecture.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f165'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r165'>165</a>. It is very doubtful whether vivid awareness is a matter of intensity
-because, among other reasons, subconscious ideas of which the
-individual is entirely unaware and elements in the fringe may have
-decided intensity.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f166'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r166'>166</a>. The development of amnesia seems to be inversely proportionate
-to the degree of awareness, provided there are no other dissociating
-factors, such as an emotional complex.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f167'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r167'>167</a>. This is due to the well-known fact (demonstrated in a large
-variety of phenomena) that ideas dissociated from the personal consciousness
-awake may become synthesized as memories with this same
-consciousness in hypnosis.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f168'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r168'>168</a>. See <cite>Proceedings</cite>, also <cite>The Psychological Review</cite>, March-May,
-1905.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f169'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r169'>169</a>. All pathological processes are only the normal under altered
-conditions.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f170'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r170'>170</a>. Among them was the following: A few months later her mother
-died. C. D. was in the room with the body, her back turned toward
-the bed where the body lay. Suddenly she was startled by the window
-curtain blowing out of the window. The noise and the partial
-vision of the curtain gave her a start, for she thought the body had
-risen up in bed. At this point, while in hypnosis, C. D. remarked,
-“Ah! that explains the dream which I am always having. I am
-constantly having a frightful dream of my mother lying dead and
-rising up as a corpse from the bed. This dream always gives me a
-great terror.”</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_363'>363</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE XII<br /> SETTINGS OF IDEAS AS SUBCONSCIOUS PROCESSES IN OBSESSIONS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>In our last lecture we were led to two conclusions:
-(1) that the conscious elements which are the meaning
-of an idea may be in the marginal zones; and
-(2) more important, that “meaning” may be only
-a part of a larger setting of antecedent experiences,
-which is an unconscious complex.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Let us now consider the further question raised
-in the theory finally proposed; namely, whether the
-submerged elements of a complex remain quiescent
-or <cite>whether, in some cases at least, this portion
-functions subconsciously</cite> and takes part as an
-active factor in the whole process by which the
-meaning of an idea and its accompanying emotional
-tone invades the content of consciousness. If the
-latter be true, a hidden subconscious process would,
-according to the theory (to repeat what was previously
-said), really determine the conscious setting
-which gives the meaning. Such a mechanism was
-roughly likened to that of a clock. If such were the
-mechanism in insistent ideas, obsessions, and impulsions,
-it would, as I have intimated, explain their
-insistency, their persisting recurrence, the difficulty
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_364'>364</span>in modifying them, notwithstanding the subject
-realizes their falsity, the point of view often inexplicable
-to the subject, and the persistence of the
-affect. There is a constant striving of affective subconscious
-processes, when stimulated, to carry themselves
-to fulfilment. Consequently as we know from
-numerous observations, the feelings and emotions
-(pleasantness and unpleasantness, exaltation and
-depression; fear, anger, etc.) pertaining to subconscious
-processes tend to emerge into consciousness;<a id='r171' /><a href='#f171' class='c009'><sup>[171]</sup></a>
-and likewise ideational constituents of the process
-often emerge into the fringe of the content of consciousness
-and even the focus of awareness. Given
-such a subconsciously functioning setting to an idea,
-it would necessarily tend by the impulsive force of
-its emotion to make the latter insistent, and resist
-the inhibiting control of the personal consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the case of C. D., cited in the last lecture, we
-were led to the conclusion, as the result of analysis,
-that her insistent phobia might be due to the impulsive
-force of such subconscious complexes. The
-whole problem is a very difficult one, dealing
-as we are with complicated mechanisms and such
-elusive and fluid factors as conscious and subconscious
-processes. It is useless, therefore, to attempt
-to formulate the mechanisms with anything like scientific
-exactness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It must be borne in mind, further, that the
-method of analysis (employed with C. D.), meaning
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_365'>365</span>thereby the bringing to light associated memories
-of past experiences, cannot positively demonstrate
-that those experiences take part as the causal factor
-in a present process. It can demonstrate the
-sequence of mental events, and, therefore, each successive
-link in a chain of evidence leading to the
-final act; or it can demonstrate the material out of
-which we can select with a greater or less degree
-of probability the factor which, in accordance with
-a theory—in this case that of subconscious processes—seems
-most likely to be the causal factor. Thus in
-the analysis of a bacterial culture we can select the
-one which seems on various considerations to be the
-most likely cause of an etiologically undetermined
-disease, but for actual demonstration we must employ
-synthetic methods; that is, actually reproduce
-the disease by inoculation with a bacterium. So
-with psychological processes synthetic methods are
-required for positive demonstration.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>We have <cite>available synthetic methods in hypnotic
-procedures</cite>. These give, it seems to me, positive results
-of value. If a subject is hypnotized and in this
-state a complex is formed, it will be found that this
-complex will determine, after the subject is awakened,
-the point of view and therefore the meaning of
-the central idea when it comes into consciousness,
-and this though the subject has complete amnesia
-for the hypnotic experience. In this manner, if the
-idea is one which previously had a very definite and
-undesirable meaning which we wish to eradicate, we
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_366'>366</span>can organize a complex which shall include that
-idea and yet give it a very different meaning, provided
-it is one acceptable to the subject.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>To take simple examples, and to begin with a hypothetical
-case, but one which in practice I have frequently
-duplicated: A subject is hypnotized and although,
-in fact, the day is a beautifully fair one we
-point out that it is really disagreeable because the
-sunshine is glowing and hot; that such weather
-means dusty roads, drought, the drying up of the
-water supply, the withering of the foliage, that the
-country needs rain, etc. We further assert that this
-will be the subject’s point of view. In this way we
-form a cluster of ideas as a setting to the weather
-which gives it, fair as it is, an entirely different and
-unpleasant meaning and one which is accepted. The
-subject is now awakened and has complete amnesia
-for the hypnotic experience. When attention is directed
-to the weather it is found that his point of
-view, for the time being at least, is changed from
-what it was before being hypnotized. The perception
-of the clear sky and the sunlight playing upon
-the ground includes secondary images of heat, of
-dust, of withered foliage, etc., such as have been
-previously experienced on disagreeable, hot, dusty
-days, and some of the associated thoughts with their
-affects suggested in hypnosis arise in consciousness;
-perhaps only a few, but, if he continues to think
-about the weather, perhaps many. Manifestly the
-new setting formed in hypnosis has been switched
-into association with the conscious perceptions of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_367'>367</span>the environment and has induced the secondary images
-and associated thoughts, emotions, and feelings
-which give meaning. But it is equally manifest,
-though many elements bubble up, so to speak, from
-the unconscious setting into consciousness, that most
-of this setting remains submerged in the unconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In similar fashion I made a subject regard, metaphorically
-speaking, as a cesspool for sewage a river
-which was being converted into a beautiful water
-park by a dam.<a id='r172' /><a href='#f172' class='c009'><sup>[172]</sup></a> It is scarcely necessary to cite
-additional observations.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Manifestly such phenomena belong to the well-known
-class of so-called “suggested post-hypnotic
-phenomena.” These we have already seen (solution
-of problems predetermined actions, &amp;c., Lecture
-VI) require the postulate of a subconscious
-process. It is therefore difficult to resist the conclusion
-that, when the suggested phenomenon is the
-“meaning” of an idea, this also involves a subconscious
-process—that a hypnotically organized setting
-functioning subconsciously ejects the meaning
-into consciousness. In other words, the unconscious
-setting is a part of the whole “psychosis” or complex,
-a factor in the functioning mechanism; it is
-dynamic and not merely static, and is a functioning
-part of the “psychic whole” of the given
-ideas (sign, perception, and meaning). To use the
-analogy of the clock, the unconscious part of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_368'>368</span>complex corresponds in a way to the works and determines
-what shall appear in consciousness. In the
-case of the ideas of everyday life, and particularly
-of pathological insistent ideas, unconscious complexes
-can be shown, by methods of analysis and by
-interpretation, to be existent and to be settings. We
-therefore infer that they similarly take part in the
-functioning process of ideation. But, as I have said,
-as any idea has many different settings and associated
-complexes, it is difficult to determine by this
-method with positiveness which setting or other
-complex, if any, is <cite>in activity</cite> and takes part in the
-process. Hence the different theories that have been
-offered to explain the precise psychogenesis of insistent
-ideas.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Therapeutic application.</b>—By similar procedures in a
-very large number of instances, for therapeutic
-purposes, I have changed the setting, the viewpoint,
-and the meaning of ideas without any realization on
-the patient’s part of the reason for this change.
-This is the goal of psychotherapy, and in my judgment
-the one fundamental principle common to all
-technical methods of such treatment, different as
-these methods appear to be when superficially considered.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is obvious that in everyday life when by arguments,
-persuasion, suggestion, punishment, exhortation,
-or prayer we change the viewpoint of a person,
-we do so by building up complexes which shall act
-as settings and give new meanings to his ideas. I
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_369'>369</span>may add, if we wish to sway him to carry this new
-viewpoint to fulfilment through action we introduce
-into the complex an emotion which by the driving
-force of its impulses shall carry the ideas to practical
-fruition. This is the art of the orator in swaying
-audiences to his views. Shakespeare has given
-us a classic example in Marc Antony’s speech to the
-Roman populace.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The practical application to therapeutics of these
-principles of rearranging the setting of a perception
-by artificial complex building may be seen from the
-following actual case, which I have already cited in
-previous contributions.<a id='r173' /><a href='#f173' class='c009'><sup>[173]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I suggest to B. C. A. in hypnosis ideas of well-being,
-of recovery from her infirmity; I picture a
-future roseate with hope, stimulate her ambitions
-with suggestions of duties to be performed, deeds
-to be accomplished. With all this there goes an
-emotional tone of exaltation which takes the place
-of the depression and of the sense of failure previously
-present. This emotional tone gives increased
-energy to her organization, revitalizing, as it were,
-her psycho-physiological processes [and by conflict
-represses the previously dissociating affect and sentiment].
-The whole I weave artfully and designedly
-into a complex. Whatever neurotic symptoms were
-previously present I do not allow to enter this complex.
-Indeed, the complex is such that they are incompatible
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_370'>370</span>with it. The headache, nausea, and other
-bodily discomforts, pure functional disturbances in
-this instance, are dissociated and cease to torment.
-After “waking” there is complete amnesia for the
-complex. Yet it is still organized, for it can be recovered
-again in hypnosis. It is simply dormant.
-But the emotional tone still persists after waking,
-and invades the personal synthesis, which takes on
-a correspondingly ecstatic tone. The aspect of her
-environment, her conception of her relation to the
-world and her past, present, and future mental life
-have become colored, so to speak, by the new feeling,
-as if under a new light. But, more than this, new
-syntheses have been formed with new tones. If we
-probe deep enough we find that many ideas of the
-dormant complex have, through association with the
-environment (<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>point de repère</cite></span>), become interwoven
-with those of the previous personal consciousness
-and given all a new meaning. A moment ago [her
-view was that] she was an invalid, incapacitated, exiled
-from her social and family life, etc. What was
-there to look forward to? Now: What of that? She
-is infinitely better; what a tremendous gain; at such
-a rate of progress in a short time a new life will be
-open to her, etc.—a radically new point of view.
-Now, too, she feels buoyant with health and energy,
-ready to start afresh on her crusade for health and
-life. Her neurotic symptoms have vanished. Such
-is the change that she gratefully speaks of it as the
-work of a wizard. But the mechanism of the transformation
-is simple enough. The exaltation, artificially
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_371'>371</span>suggested in hypnosis, persists, altering the
-trend of her ideas and giving new energy. The perceptions
-of her environment, cognition of herself,
-etc., have entered into new syntheses which the introduction
-of new <cite>ideas</cite>, new points of view have
-developed; thus the content of her ideas has taken a
-definite, precise shape. Whence came these new
-ideas? They seem to her to have come miraculously,
-for she has forgotten the hypnotic complex. But
-forgetting an experience is not equivalent to its not
-having happened, or to that experience not having
-been a part of one’s own psychic life. The hypnotic
-consciousness remains a part of one’s self (as a
-neurographic complex), however absolutely we have
-lost awareness of it. Its experiences become fixed,
-though dormant, just as do the experiences of our
-personal conscious life. The mechanism is the same.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The following letter from this patient, received
-by chance after these paragraphs were written, well
-expresses the psychological conditions following
-hypnotic suggestion:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“Something has happened to me—I have a new point of view.
-I don’t know what has changed me so all at once, but it is as if
-scales had fallen from my eyes; I see things differently. That
-affair at L—— was nothing to be ashamed of, Dr. Prince. I
-showed none of the common sense which I really possess; I regret
-it bitterly; but I was not myself, and even as [it was] I did nothing
-to be ashamed of—quite the contrary, indeed.... Anyway,
-for some reason—I don’t know why, but perhaps you do—I
-have regained my own self-respect and find to my amazement that
-I need never have lost it. You know what I was a year ago—you
-know what I am now—not much to be proud of, perhaps;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_372'>372</span>but I am the work of your hands, and a great improvement on
-[my poor old self]. I owe you what is worth far more than life
-itself ... namely, the <cite>desire</cite> to live. You have given me life
-and you have given me something to fill it with ... I feel
-more like myself than for a long time. I am ‘my own man
-again,’ so to say, and if you keep me and help me a little longer
-I shall be well.”</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>In interpreting the phenomena it must be remembered
-that in such suggestive experiments the subject
-after waking has complete amnesia for the
-whole hypnotic experience, for all the ideas which
-were organized into the complex to form the setting.
-And yet this viewpoint, in spite of this amnesia,
-is that which was suggested, and he does not
-know why his view has changed. That a large fraction
-of the hypnotic complex (or setting) remains
-submerged in the unconscious can be readily shown.
-The only question is whether it becomes an active
-subconscious process out of which certain elements
-emerge as meaning into consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>The setting in obsessions.</b>—This question of the functioning
-of unconscious complexes as subconscious
-processes is of fundamental importance for psychology,
-whether normal or abnormal, and if well established
-gives an entirely new aspect to its problems.
-We cannot therefore be too exacting in demanding
-proof for the postulation of subconscious
-processes as part of the mechanisms we are considering,
-or, at least, requiring sufficient evidence to
-justify them as a <cite>reasonable theory</cite>. If assumed as
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_373'>373</span>an hypothesis many otherwise obscure phenomena
-become intelligible by one or other theory making
-use of them.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Let us examine for a moment the obsessions as
-one of the most important problems with which abnormal
-psychology has to deal, and which offer
-themselves as exaggerated examples of ideas with
-insistent meanings. The phenomena are psychological
-and physical. They occur in a sporadic form,
-as well as in a recurring obsessional form. Let us
-consider them simply as phenomena irrespective of
-recurrence. They may be arranged by gradations
-in types in which they appear:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>A, as purely physical disturbances;</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>B, as physical disturbances plus conscious emotion;</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>C, as physical disturbances plus conscious emotion
-plus a specific idea of the object of the emotion,
-but <cite>without</cite> logical meaning;</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>D, as physical disturbances plus emotion plus idea
-plus meaning.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the first type the physical phenomena (such
-as commonly attend emotion) can be traced to a
-functioning subconscious emotional complex of
-which the phenomena are physical manifestations;
-in the second to a functioning subconscious complex
-ejecting its emotion into consciousness. In the third
-we find by analysis an associated unconscious complex
-(setting), which logically would account for the
-emotion of the obsessing idea, and infer, by analogy
-with A and B, that it is a dynamic factor in the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_374'>374</span>psychosis. In the fourth we find a similar complex,
-which logically would account for all the physical
-and conscious phenomena.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><cite>Type A</cite>: The following observation may be cited
-as an example. At the conclusion of some experiments,
-made on one subject in the presence of another
-patient and while conversing socially at afternoon
-tea, I noticed that the subject manifested
-marked tremor of the hands to such an extent that
-the cup in her hand shook and rattled in its saucer.
-She herself commented on the fact, and laughingly
-remarked that she did not know what was the matter
-with her; at times she would “get awfully hot
-all over and would break out in perspiration.” She
-could give no explanation of this phenomenon which
-had not been present before the experiments were
-begun. The subject was now put into deep hypnosis,
-in a state in which communication was obtained only
-by writing, and thereby the subconscious tapped.
-Without going into all the details, the sum and substance
-of the information obtained in this hypnotic
-state was this: coconscious images (pictures), of
-which she was not consciously aware, kept coming
-and going; these were the coconscious phenomena I
-have previously described (p. 169). When certain
-images appeared coconsciously the tremor developed,
-and when others appeared the tremor ceased;
-when still others appeared there were vasomotor
-disturbances and perspiration as well as tremor.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The images as I interpret them were the secondary
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_375'>375</span>images belonging to subconscious ideas or
-processes.<a id='r174' /><a href='#f174' class='c009'><sup>[174]</sup></a> To understand the conditions in this instance
-it will be necessary to explain certain antecedent
-facts. I had arranged to make certain hypnotic
-and other experiments on two patients in the
-presence of each other. The one in question, the
-subject of this observation, hesitated to have them
-made on herself in the presence of a second person,
-fearing lest the various subconscious phenomena
-which she exhibited would be regarded as stigmata
-and she be thought “queer.” Each, of course,
-wished to see the experiments on the other. The
-subject in question had for a long time been rather
-obsessed with the insistent foolish idea that if
-people knew she manifested these phenomena they
-would not care to know her socially. It was a
-point of view which had been more or less obstinately
-maintained in spite of all contradictory arguments.
-The idea had specifically recurred from time
-to time in particular situations, and had caused considerable
-emotional disturbance. If not a true obsession
-it was close to one. Nevertheless she wanted
-to take part both for the object of seeing the experiments
-and also of meeting the second patient.
-Still there were anxious doubts and scruples in her
-mind arising from her desire, on the one hand, and
-a fear, on the other, that it was a social mistake to
-do so. This had been going on during several days
-and had been even the subject of correspondence,
-discussions, etc. It was only at the last moment
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_376'>376</span>that she could screw up her courage to take part in
-the experiments.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Finally the experiments were made, with the result
-as above stated. Now the coconscious images
-which were accompanied by the tremors, etc., were
-pictures of herself, of the second patient, and of
-myself. These images coming and going seemed,
-as in a pantomime, to symbolize her previous
-thoughts. Sometimes the image of the second patient
-turned away from the subject, sometimes the
-three images were present, but the one of the subject
-stood apart from the others as if an outcast, and in
-both these latter cases particularly she would shake
-with tremor, and would “get awfully hot all over,”
-and break out in perspiration. Then apparently
-reassuring pictures would come and the tremor
-would cease.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Besides these coconscious images there was a
-train of coconscious thought of which she was not
-personally aware. There was the thought that perhaps,
-after all, it was a mistake to have taken part
-in the experiments, as X, the second patient, was
-not a physician, and her wish to see the subject
-hypnotized must have been largely curiosity. Of
-this train of thought the subject was not aware.
-<cite>At the same time</cite> concurrently there was in her personal
-consciousness the “thought that she liked X,
-that it was very good of her to have come, and
-awfully kind of you to take your time to conduct the
-experiments.” There was also a conscious emotion
-of pleasure and something akin to hope, and nervousness
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_377'>377</span>at the situation. By contrast coconsciously
-there was a greater feeling of nervousness and the
-<cite>emotion of fear</cite> of which she was not consciously
-aware. By a few appropriate suggestions all these
-phenomena were made to disappear.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It would take us too long and be too much of a
-digression to go more deeply into these subconscious
-phenomena. From what has been given,
-which is corroborated by a large number of observations
-of the same sort, it seems to me we are justified
-in concluding that the physical manifestations
-of emotion (tremor, etc.) in the instance were determined
-by subconscious processes which were the
-<cite>functioning residua of antecedent thoughts with
-their emotions</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But more than this these antecedent thoughts
-were obsessing ideas of self-abasement, i.e., of herself
-as a person who socially was stamped with a
-stigma and, therefore, as a sort of outcast. These
-thoughts had formed one setting to the actual situation
-in which she found herself. The subconscious
-complex, therefore, contained a perception plus the
-meaning of the situation plus emotion; in other
-words, the whole of the psychosis including the affect
-was subconscious in that none of its elements
-emerged into consciousness. Another and rival perception
-of the situation was that which was actually
-in consciousness and which has been described. The
-physical phenomena were the manifestation of the
-subconscious affect and would have been equally
-manifested if the affect had become conscious. In
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_378'>378</span>such a case, then, we may say the whole of one setting
-actually functions subconsciously.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The case of H. O. is the same in principle as I interpret
-it, but is distinguished by the fact that the
-dissociation of processes was not so extreme. The
-obsessing idea was in the ultramarginal zone of consciousness
-and, to this extent, subconscious. Briefly
-stated, H. O. for many years was the victim of an
-intense obsession, in consequence of which she had
-practically foregone social life, and found herself
-unable to travel for fear she would be afflicted with
-her psychosis in trains, etc. The physical symptom
-was intense nausea suddenly arising as an attack.
-When attacked with this there developed also depression
-and a mental state which is perhaps best
-described as a mood. She could give no explanation
-of the attacks. On examination it developed that
-always in the “background of her mind,” just preceding
-the attack, there came the idea of disgust of
-self. At once the nausea as the physical expression
-of disgust was experienced. The disgust-idea was
-always excited by some associated stimulus. The
-meaning of this “sentiment” was set in a large complex
-of past experiences. Into all this I will not go.
-The point is that the only conscious elements of her
-obsession were in the extreme fringe of consciousness,
-sufficiently dissociated to be practically coconscious,<a id='r175' /><a href='#f175' class='c009'><sup>[175]</sup></a>
-but the <cite>physical symptoms</cite> were distressingly
-prominent. <cite>Relief was easily effected simply
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_379'>379</span>by organizing a new complex giving a new point of
-view of self.</cite></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Complexes consisting entirely of the physiological
-manifestations of emotion without conscious emotion
-undoubtedly occur. A long time ago I described
-such a neurosis under the name of Fear
-Neurosis<a id='r176' /><a href='#f176' class='c009'><sup>[176]</sup></a> in distinction from psychosis. The symptom
-complex was interpreted as a persisting automatism
-derived from antecedent fear states that had
-been outgrown. From our present standpoint and
-fuller knowledge we must believe that underlying
-this automatism is probably an unconscious complex
-of these antecedent experiences including the fear
-which takes part in the functioning mechanism. It
-may be called, then, a subconscious psychosis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>True <cite>hysterical laughter and crying</cite> are undoubtedly
-phenomena of this type and due to the same
-mechanism. These phenomena are well known to be
-purely automatic; that is to say, they are emotional
-manifestations unaccompanied in consciousness by
-thoughts or even by emotions corresponding to
-them. The subject laughs or cries without knowing
-why and without even feeling merry or sad. I forbear
-to digress sufficiently to present the evidence
-for the interpretation that the phenomena are due
-to subconscious processes of the kind just described.
-Let me merely say that in one instance, N. O., intensely
-studied, the automatic crying was traced by
-experimental and clinical methods to a persisting
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_380'>380</span>and often insistent subconscious childhood’s perception
-and meaning of self—as a lonely, unhappy child.
-This perception, etc., could be differentiated from
-the conscious perception belonging to adult age.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Numerous observations of emotional phenomena
-similar in principle have been recorded in the case
-of Miss B.<a id='r177' /><a href='#f177' class='c009'><sup>[177]</sup></a> These observations included automatic
-facial expressions of pleasure, anger, and fear.
-These expressions could always be traced to subconscious
-processes and in this case to actual ideas
-of a coconscious personality. But the principle is
-the same. <cite>Sometimes the affect linked to the process
-welled up into consciousness and sometimes it did
-not.</cite> When, in the case of Miss B., the automatic
-phenomena were determined by coconscious ideas it
-was because the perceptions of the secondary subconscious
-personality had a humorous, angry, or
-fear setting, as the case might be. These particular
-observations are of especial interest because they
-allow us to clearly distinguish <cite>at almost one and the
-same moment the different manifestations corresponding
-to the different settings with which the
-same idea may be clustered</cite>. While, for instance,
-the personal consciousness of Miss B. perceived a
-person or situation with apprehension and manifested
-this apprehension in her facial expression as
-well as verbally, the subconscious perception of the
-same person or situation was one of joy which broke
-through Miss B.’s apprehensive feature in automatic
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_381'>381</span>smiles. In other words, two different perceptions
-(with opposite meanings) of one and the same
-object functioned at the same time.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>These observations, as interpreted, are of wider
-significance in that they allow us to understand
-the mechanism of many phenomena of everyday
-life. For instance, the <cite>hysteria of crowds</cite> may be
-explained on the same principle; likewise the outbreak
-of emotional physical manifestations in a person
-whose attention is absorbed (abstraction and distraction)
-in reading or hearing something (e. g., at
-a play), which, it may be inferred, touches some inner
-emotional experience of his life. In the kind of
-instance I have in mind introspection fails to reveal
-the presence of conscious thoughts or sometimes
-even emotions which adequately explain the physical
-disturbance. When not abstracted by the reading or
-play, the same ideas he was attending to a moment
-before fail to excite these disturbances.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As has been said, “everyone is a little hysterical,”
-meaning that under certain conditions—particularly
-those of stress and strain and strong emotion—the
-mind becomes a bit disintegrated, and unconscious
-complexes manifest themselves through what
-are called hysterical symptoms.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><cite>Type B</cite>: In this class the subject is afflicted with
-attacks of <cite>conscious emotion</cite>, most conspicuously
-and commonly fear, <cite>plus the same physical disturbances
-as in type A</cite>, but without any specific idea
-in consciousness to which the emotion is related.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_382'>382</span>When we examine certain favorable subjects like
-Miss B., B. C. A., H. O. and O. N., in whom memories
-of subconscious processes can be obtained by technical
-procedures, specific coconscious ideas can be
-demonstrated during the attacks of fear. These
-ideas are those of fear of some specific object. The
-emotion pertaining to these ideas <em>alone</em> emerges
-into consciousness, the subject remaining unaware
-of the ideas themselves. In the case of Miss B.
-numerous observations of this kind were recorded.<a id='r178' /><a href='#f178' class='c009'><sup>[178]</sup></a>
-When the obsessing fear constantly recurs it is a
-so-called “<em>anxiety neurosis</em>,”<a id='r179' /><a href='#f179' class='c009'><sup>[179]</sup></a> as I interpret the
-phenomena.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>A typically perfect example of anxiety neurosis
-was the recurring attacks of intense anxiety accompanied
-by a feeling of suffocation and oppression
-of the chest experienced by one of my subjects. Investigation
-disclosed that the first attack immediately
-followed a dream which was forgotten, but
-recovered in hypnosis. It appeared that in the
-dream she was accused by a certain person of certain
-delinquencies and threatened with exposure. At
-this point in the dream she was overcome with fear
-and anguish as in the after attacks. It also appeared
-that previously she had been and still was apprehensive
-of this person’s loyalty. By inference and
-analogy with the well-established after-phenomena
-of dreams (p. 101), we must assume that the dream
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_383'>383</span>process still functioned subconsciously and produced
-the anxiety attacks.<a id='r180' /><a href='#f180' class='c009'><sup>[180]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In this connection it is well to notice that it is
-a common observation that not only the affect of
-emotion but that of <cite>feeling</cite> also may emerge from
-the subconscious into consciousness and color the
-attitude of the personal consciousness. This may
-be demonstrated by hypnotic procedures. When in
-hypnosis complexes of ideas with strong feeling
-tones, whether of pleasure or displeasure, of exaltation
-or depression, are suggested, the subject after
-awakening experiences these same feeling tones
-which dominate the personality. The subject then
-feels pleasantly exalted or unpleasantly depressed,
-as the case may be, without knowing the reason
-why. In alternating personalities the same phenomena
-may sometimes be observed. In the case
-of Miss B. the feeling tones which dominated the
-one personality invaded the consciousness of the
-other personality, often causing considerable distress
-after the alternation had occurred and although
-there was amnesia for all that had gone before.<a id='r181' /><a href='#f181' class='c009'><sup>[181]</sup></a>
-Thus BIV complained of the feelings of depression
-from which BI shortly before had suffered,
-although her own ideas were far from being
-of a depressing nature. This depression welled up
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_384'>384</span>from the unconscious. It was in consequence of this
-phenomenon that BIV wrote: “BI’s constant grieving
-wears on my nerves. It is harder to endure
-than one would believe possible. I would rather
-give and take with Sally—a thousand times rather.”
-Likewise when a subject has feelings of unpleasantness
-and depression which he cannot explain it is
-easy in certain subjects to demonstrate the concurrence
-of coconscious ideas with these feeling tones.
-The affect in such cases emerges into consciousness,
-though the subject is unaware of the coconscious
-ideas. Correspondingly the feelings may be those
-of pleasantness and exaltation. The demonstration
-of coconscious processes as the sources of the conscious
-feelings of course can only be made in subjects
-in whom memories of coconscious processes
-can be evoked. In such subjects I have observed
-the phenomena on almost numberless occasions. But
-it can be provoked in almost any good hypnotic subject.
-To awake pleasurable and exalting feelings,
-to substitute them for their opposite when such are
-present, belongs to therapeutic art. The skillful
-therapeutist endeavors to provoke the former by the
-various procedures at his command. The important
-principle underlying such procedures is that the
-feeling tones pertaining to ideas may still invade the
-personal consciousness after the ideas have become
-dormant in the unconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This principle, it seems to me, is of far-reaching
-application. The persistence of the feeling tone in
-a pleasant or unpleasant mental attitude after the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_385'>385</span>experience giving rise to it has become dormant is
-<cite>observed in everyday life</cite> and can be explained on
-this principle. We have an exalting experience, engage
-in a spirited game of tennis, watch an exciting
-football match, or take part in an exhilarating dance.
-For the remainder of the day or the next day we
-still experience all the stimulating pleasurable feeling,
-even though in the cares of our vocation the
-memories of the previous experiences have remained
-dormant, not having once been called to mind. The
-only difference between such experiences of everyday
-life and those of hypnosis is that in one case we
-can, if we will, recall the origin of the feeling and in
-the other we cannot. In both we do not.<a id='r182' /><a href='#f182' class='c009'><sup>[182]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Dormant <em>dream</em> complexes may give rise to similar
-phenomena. In a minor way everyone, probably,
-has experienced the persistence of the emotional effects
-of a dream after waking and after the memory
-of the dream has vanished. More commonly, of
-course, the dream is remembered, but in the cases
-of people who do not remember their dreams the
-phenomenon is precise. B. C. A., for example, does
-not as a rule remember her dreams, but nevertheless
-frequently awakes in a state of anxiety or exaltation
-which has considerable persistency. In
-hypnosis the dream which gives rise to the emotional
-state is recovered.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In pathological conditions these post-hypnotic,
-hysterical, dream, and other phenomena suggest,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_386'>386</span>among other questions, whether in depressive and
-excited psychoses the affective element is not derived
-from submerged unconscious complexes. <cite>Melancholias</cite>,
-for example, may in some cases at least derive
-their feeling tone from such complexes.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f171'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r171'>171</a>. Janet: The Mental States of Hystericals, pp. 289-290. Prince:
-The Dissociation, pp. 132-5, 262, 297–8, 324-5, 497.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f172'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r172'>172</a>. The Unconscious, <cite>Journal Abnormal Psychology</cite>, April-May,
-1909.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f173'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r173'>173</a>. Morton Prince: (Psychotherapeutics; A Symposium. Richard
-G. Badger, Boston, 1910.) Also The Unconscious, <cite>Journal of Abnormal
-Psychology</cite>, April-May, and June-July, 1909.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f174'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r174'>174</a>. See p. <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, Lecture VI.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f175'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r175'>175</a>. Memory of them could only be obtained in abstraction and
-hypnosis.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f176'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r176'>176</a>. Fear Neurosis, <cite>Boston Med. and Surg. Journal</cite>, September 28,
-1898.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f177'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r177'>177</a>. The Dissociation, see index, “Subconscious Ideas,” and “Subconscious
-Self.”</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f178'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r178'>178</a>. The Dissociation, loc. cit.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f179'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r179'>179</a>. Ibid., p. 132.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f180'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r180'>180</a>. It is worth noting that this interpretation is supported by the
-therapeutic result. The attacks completely and quickly ceased after
-the setting to her apprehensive idea was so altered, by one single
-explanation, that she no longer feared the loyalty of her friend.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f181'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r181'>181</a>. The Dissociation, pp. 262, 297, 298 and 324, 325, 497; also The
-Unconscious, <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, April-May, 1909.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f182'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r182'>182</a>. Prince: The Unconscious, <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>,
-April-May and June-July, 1909.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_387'>387</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE XIII<br /> TWO TYPES OF PHOBIA <br /> (<cite>Obsessions Continued</cite>)</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'><cite>Type C</cite>: In this type <cite>the affect is linked with an
-idea as its object in consciousness but without meaning</cite>,
-so that whenever this idea is awakened it is
-accompanied by the affect alone. Some of the phobias
-are the most common pathological exemplars.
-Nor is there anything in the content of consciousness
-which gives meaning to the idea as something
-that should occasion anxiety. The subject, in other
-words, does not know why he is afraid of the given
-object. In such cases the restoration of dormant
-memories will disclose antecedent experiences in
-which the idea is set and which explains the origin
-and meaning of the fear. Here again we have the
-principle shown in a clear cut way in conditions of
-alternating personality. For instance take the case
-of Miss B. An emotion, apparently paradoxical,
-would be aroused in BIV in connection with a
-strange person or place, or in consequence of a
-reference by some one to an unknown event. BIV,
-without apparent reason, would feel an intense emotion
-in connection with something or other which
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_388'>388</span>she did not remember to have ever heard or seen
-before. A face, a name, a particular locality where
-she happened to find herself would arouse a strong
-emotional effect without her knowing the reason.
-The memories of the experiences to which these
-emotions belonged were a part of BI’s life and
-could easily be recalled by her when the personalities
-again alternated and BI came into existence.
-When BIV came again these experiences, of course,
-would be forgotten and become dormant, but the
-emotions associated with the visual, auditory, and
-other images of a given person or place, or whatever
-it might be, would be liable to be aroused in
-her by the perception, in spite of the amnesia, whenever
-the given person or place, as it might be, came
-into her daily life. Here the conscious content of
-the psychosis consists of perception plus affect without
-meaning.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I formerly was inclined to interpret such paradoxical
-emotions on the principle of the simple linking
-of an affect to a perception. But when we consider
-that, on the reversion of the personality to
-BI the perception, meaning, and affect still remained
-organized as a conscious psychic whole, it is
-much more probable that the meaning took part as
-a subconscious process in the mechanism of BIV’s
-emotional psychosis and was responsible for the
-paradox. In the case of recurrent fears the antecedent
-experiences which contain their meaning are
-conserved as unconscious complexes. The psychosis
-differs clinically from types A and B only in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_389'>389</span>that another conscious element has been added,—viz.:
-the idea of an object of the fear. It is consistent
-therefore to infer that the unconscious complexes
-are a submerged part of the mechanism by
-which the affect is maintained in association with
-the object. The conscious and the subconscious
-form a psychic whole.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>As an instance let us take the following case of
-phobia. It was ostensibly one of church-steeples
-and towers of any kind. The patient, a woman
-about forty years of age, dreaded and tried in consequence
-to avoid the sight of one. When she passed
-by such a tower she was very strongly affected emotionally,
-experiencing always a feeling of terror
-or anguish accompanied by the usual marked physical
-symptoms. Sometimes even speaking of a tower
-would at once awaken this emotional complex which
-expressed itself outwardly in her face, as I myself
-observed on several occasions. Considering the frequency
-with which church and schoolhouse towers
-are met with in everyday life, one can easily imagine
-the discomfort arising from such a phobia. Before
-the mystery was unraveled she was unable to give
-any explanation of the origin or meaning of this
-phobia, and could not connect it with any episode
-in her life, or even state how far back in her life
-it had existed. Vaguely she thought it existed when
-she was about fifteen years of age and that it might
-have existed before that. Now it should be noted
-that an idea of a tower with bells had in her mind
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_390'>390</span>no meaning whatsoever that explained the fear. It
-had no more meaning than it would have in anybody’s
-mind. In the content of consciousness there
-was only the perception plus emotion and no corresponding
-meaning. Accordingly I sought to discover
-the origin and meaning of the phobia by the
-so-called psycho-analytic method.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When I attempted to recover the associated memories
-by this method, the mere mention of bells in
-a tower threw her into a panic in which anxiety,
-“thrills,” and perspiration were prominent. Before
-making the analysis I had constructed a theory
-in my mind to the effect that a phobia for bells in
-a tower was a sexual symbolism, being led to this
-partly by the suggestiveness of the object and
-partly by the fact that I had found symbolisms of
-a sexual kind in her dreams.<a id='r183' /><a href='#f183' class='c009'><sup>[183]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Analysis was conducted at great length and memories
-covering a wide field of experiences were
-elicited. When asked to think of bells in a tower,
-or each of these objects separately, there was at
-first a complete blocking of thought in that her mind
-became a blank. Later, memories which to a large
-extent, but not wholly, played in various relations
-around her mother (who is dead) as the central
-object came into the field of consciousness. Nothing,
-however, was awakened that gave the slightest
-meaning to the phobia even on the wildest interpretation.
-The patient, who had been frequently hypnotized
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_391'>391</span>by another physician, tended during the
-analysis to go into a condition of unusually deep
-abstraction, to such a degree that on breaking off
-the analysis she failed to remember, save very imperfectly,
-the memories elicited. Such an abstraction
-is hypnosis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Finally, after all endeavors to discover the genesis
-of the phobia by analysis were in vain, I tried
-another method. While she was in hypnosis I put
-a pencil in her hand with the object of obtaining the
-desired information through automatic writing.
-<cite>While she was narrating some irrelevant memories
-of her mother</cite>, the hand rapidly wrote as follows:
-“G.... M.... church and my father took my
-mother to Bi.... where she died and we went to
-Br.... and they cut my mother. I prayed and
-cried all the time that she would live and the church
-bells were always ringing and I hated them.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When she began to write the latter part of this
-script she became depressed, sad, indeed anguished;
-tears flowed down her cheeks and she seemed to be
-almost heartbroken. In other words, it appeared
-as if she were subconsciously living over again the
-period described in the script. I say subconsciously
-for she did not know what her hand had written or
-why she was anguished. During the writing of
-the first part of the script she was verbally describing
-other memories; during the latter part she
-ceased speaking.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>After awakening from hypnosis and when she
-had become composed in her mind she narrated, at
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_392'>392</span>my request, the events referred to in the script. She
-remembered them clearly as they happened when
-she was about fifteen years of age. It appeared that
-she was staying at that time in G.... M....,
-a town in England. Her mother, who was seriously
-ill, was taken to a great surgeon to be operated
-upon. She herself suffered great anxiety and
-anguish lest her mother should not recover. She
-went twice a day to the church to pray for her
-mother’s recovery and in her anguish declared that
-if her mother did not recover she would no longer
-believe in God. The chimes in the tower of the
-church, which was close to her hotel, sounded every
-quarter hour; they got on her nerves; she hated
-them; she could not bear to hear them, and while
-she was praying they added to her anguish. Ever
-since this time the ringing of bells has continued
-to cause a feeling of anguish. This narrative was
-not accompanied by emotion as was the automatic
-script.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It now transpired that it was the <cite>ringing</cite> of the
-church bells, or the <cite>anticipated ringing</cite> of bells, that
-caused the fear, and not the perception of a tower
-itself. When she saw a tower she feared lest bells
-should ring. This was the object of the phobia.<a id='r184' /><a href='#f184' class='c009'><sup>[184]</sup></a>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_393'>393</span>She could not explain why she had never before
-connected her phobia with the episode she described.
-This failure of association as we know is not uncommon,
-and in this case was apparently related to a
-determination to put out of mind an unbearable episode
-associated with so much anguish. There had
-been for years a more or less constant mental conflict
-with her phobia. The subject had striven not
-to think of or look at belfries, churches, schoolhouses,
-or any towers, or to hear the ringing of their
-bells, or to talk about them. She had endeavored to
-protect herself by keeping such ideas out of her
-mind. Before further analyzing the case there are
-two points which are well worth calling attention to:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>1. When the subject subconsciously described the
-original childhood experience by automatic script
-there was intense emotion—fear—which emerged
-into consciousness without her knowing the reason
-thereof. When, on the other hand, she later from
-her conscious memories described the same experience
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_394'>394</span>there was no such emotion. In other words
-it was only when the conserved residua of the experience
-functioned consciously and autonomously
-as a dissociated, independent process that emotion
-was manifested. So long as the memories were
-described from the view-point of the matured adult
-personal consciousness there was no emotion. As a
-subconscious process they were unmodified by this
-later viewpoint. This suggests at least that when
-the phobia was excited by the sight or idea of a
-tower it was due likewise to a subconscious process
-and that this was one and the same as that which
-induced the experimental phobia.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2. The phraseology of the script is noticeable.
-The account is just such as a child might have
-written. It reads as if the conserved thoughts of
-a child had awakened and functioned subconsciously.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From this history, so far as given, it is plain that
-the psychosis in one sense is a recurring antecedent
-experience or memory, but it is only a partial memory.
-The whole of the experience does not recur
-but only the emotion in association with the ringing
-of bells. The rest of that experience, viz., the
-idea of the possible death of her mother with its
-attendant grief and anguish associated with the
-visits to the church, the praying for recovery and
-finally the realization of the fatal ending—all that
-which originally excited the fear and <cite>gave the ringing-of-bells-in-a-tower
-meaning</cite> was conserved as a
-setting in the unconscious. That the rest of the
-experience was conserved was shown by the fact
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_395'>395</span>that it could be recalled not only by automatic
-writing but, although not in association with the
-phobia, to conscious memory. From this point of
-view the fear of bells ringing may be regarded as
-a recurrence of the original fear—that of her
-mother’s death—now derived from a subconsciously
-functioning setting. The child was afraid to face
-her grief and so now the matured adult was also
-afraid.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From another point of view the ringing of bells
-may be regarded as standing for, or a symbol of,
-her mother’s death with which it was so intimately
-associated, and this symbol awakened the same fear
-as did originally the idea itself of the death. An
-object may still be the symbol of another, although
-the association between the two cannot be recalled.
-(The transference of the emotional factor of an
-experience to some element in it is a common occurrence;
-e. g., a fear of knives in a person who has
-had the fear of committing suicide.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The discovered antecedent experiences of childhood
-then give a hitherto unsuspected meaning to
-the ringing of bells. It is a meaning—the <cite>mise en
-scène</cite> of a tragedy of grief and a symbol of that
-tragedy. But was that tragedy with its grief the
-<cite>real</cite> meaning of the child’s fear or, perhaps more
-correctly, the <cite>whole</cite> of the meaning? And is it still
-the meaning in the mind of the adult woman? Does
-the mere conservation of a painful memory of grief
-explain its persistent recurrent subconscious functioning
-during twenty-five years, well into adult life,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_396'>396</span>so that the child’s emotion shall be reawakened
-whenever one element (bell-tower) of the original
-experience is presented to consciousness? And,
-still more, can the persistence of a mere association
-of the affect with the object independently of a subconscious
-process explain the psychosis? Either
-of these two last propositions is absurd on its face
-as being opposed to the experience of the great mass
-of mankind. The vast majority of people have
-undergone disturbing, sorrowful or fear-inspiring
-experiences at some time during the course of their
-lives and they do not find that they cannot for years
-afterwards face some object or idea belonging to
-that experience without being overwhelmed with the
-same emotion. Such emotion in the course of time
-subsides and dies out. A few, relatively speaking,
-do so suffer and then, because contrary to general
-experience, it is called a psychosis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We must, then, seek some other and adequate factor
-in the case under examination. When describing
-the episode in the church, the subject stated that
-on one occasion she omitted to go to church to pray
-and the thought came to her that if her mother died
-it would be due to this omission, and <cite>it would be her
-fault</cite>. The “eye of God”<a id='r185' /><a href='#f185' class='c009'><sup>[185]</sup></a> she thought was literally
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_397'>397</span>upon her in her every daily act and when her mother
-did die she thought that it was God’s punishment
-of herself because of that one failure. Consequently
-she thought <cite>that she was to blame for her mother’s
-death</cite>; that <cite>her mother’s death was her fault</cite>. She
-feared to face her mother’s death, not because of
-grief—that was a mere subterfuge, a self-deception—but
-because she thought she was to blame; and
-she feared to face towers with bells, or rather the
-ringing of bells, because they symbolized or stood
-for that death (just as a tomb-stone would stand for
-it), and in facing that fact she had to face her own
-fancied guilt and self-reproach and this she dared
-not do. <cite>This was the real fear</cite>, the fear of facing
-her own guilt. The emotion then was not only a
-recurrence of the affect associated with the church
-episode but a <cite>reaction to self-reproach</cite>. The ringing
-of bells, somewhat metaphorically speaking, reproached
-her as Banquo’s ghost reproached Macbeth.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>All this was the child’s point of view.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But I found that the patient, an adult woman,
-<cite>still believed and obstinately maintained</cite> that her
-mother’s death was her fault. She had never ceased
-to believe it. Why was this? Why had not the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_398'>398</span>unsophisticated belief of a child become modified by
-the maturity of years? It did not seem to be probable
-that the given child’s reason was the real adult
-reason for self-reproach. I did not believe it. A
-woman forty years of age could not reproach herself
-on such grounds. And, even if this belief had
-been originally the real reason, as a matter of fact
-she had outgrown the child’s religious belief. She
-was a thorough-going agnostic. Further probing
-brought out the following:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Two years before her mother’s death, the patient,
-then thirteen years old, owing to her own carelessness
-and disobedience to her mother’s instructions,
-had contracted a “cold” which had been diagnosed
-as incipient phthisis. By the physician’s advice
-her mother took her to Europe for a “cure” and
-was detained there (as she believed) for two years,
-all on account of the child’s health. At the end of
-this period a serious, chronic disease from which
-the mother had long suffered was found to have so
-developed as to require an emergency operation.
-The patient <cite>still believed</cite> and argued that if her
-mother had not been compelled to take her abroad
-she (the mother) would have been under medical
-supervision at home, would have been operated upon
-long before and in all probability would not have
-died. Furthermore, as the patient had heedlessly
-and disobediently exposed herself to severe cold and
-thereby contracted the disease compelling the sojourn
-in Europe, she was to blame for the train of
-circumstances ending fatally.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_399'>399</span>All this was perfectly logical and true, assuming
-the facts as presented. Here then was the real reason
-for the patient’s persistent belief that her
-mother’s death was her fault and the persistent self-reproach.
-<cite>It also transpired that all this had
-weighed upon the child’s mind and that the child
-had likewise believed it.</cite> So the child had two reasons
-for self-reproach. One was neglecting to pray
-and the other was being the indirect cause of the
-fatal operation. Both were intensely believed in.
-The first based on the “eye of God” theory she had
-outgrown, but the other had persisted.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Summing up our study to this point: All these
-memories involving grief, suffering, self-reproach,
-bells and mother formed an unconscious setting
-which gave meaning to bells in towers and took part
-in the functioning to form a psychic whole. The conscious
-psychosis was first the emergence into consciousness
-of two elements only, the perception and
-the affect, and the fear was a reaction to self-reproach,
-a fear to face self-blame.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Now even if the mother’s death were logically,
-by a train of fortuitous circumstances, the patient’s
-fault, why did an otherwise intelligent woman lay
-so much stress upon an irresponsible child’s behavior?
-The child after all behaved no differently
-from other children. People do not consciously
-blame themselves in after life for the ultimate consequences
-of childhood’s heedlessness. According
-to common experience such self-reproaches do not
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_400'>400</span>last into adult life without some continuously acting
-factor.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>A search in this case into the unconscious brought
-to light a persisting idea that when events in her
-life happened unfortunately it was due to her fault.
-It had cropped out again and again in connection
-with inconsequential as well as consequential matters.
-She had, for instance, been really unable on
-many occasions to leave home on pleasure trips for
-fear lest some accident might happen within the
-home and consequently it would be due to her fault;
-and if away she was in constant dread of something
-happening for which she would be to blame. It
-was not a fear of what might happen—an accident
-to the children, for example—but that it would be
-her fault. I have heard her, when some matter of
-apparently little concern had gone wrong, suddenly
-exclaim, “Was it my fault?” her voice and features
-manifesting a degree of emotion almost amounting
-to terror. When her brother died (still earlier, before
-her mother’s death) she had blamed herself for
-that death, as later with her mother, on the same religious
-grounds. This self-reproach for happenings,
-fancied as due to her fault, has frequently appeared
-in her dreams. It would take us too far afield to
-trace the origin and psychogenesis of this idea. Suffice
-to say, it can be followed back to early childhood
-when she was five or six years of age. She
-was a lonely, unhappy child. She thought herself
-ugly and unattractive and disliked and that so it always
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_401'>401</span>would be through life, and it was all her fault
-because she was ugly, as she thought.<a id='r186' /><a href='#f186' class='c009'><sup>[186]</sup></a> The instinct
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_402'>402</span>of self-abasement (McDougall<a id='r187' /><a href='#f187' class='c009'><sup>[187]</sup></a>) or negative self-feeling
-(Ribot) dominated the personality as the
-most insistent instinct and from its intensity within
-the self-regarding sentiment (McDougall) formed a
-sentiment of self-depreciation. She wanted to be
-liked and believed it to be her own fault that, as
-she fancied, she was not and never would be, and
-reproached herself accordingly. This sentiment of
-self depreciation with its impulse to render self-reproach
-has persisted, as with many people, all her
-life and has been fostered by unwise and thoughtless
-domestic criticism. The persistence to the present
-day of this impulse to self-reproach is shown in the
-following observation:</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Quite recently this subject began to suffer from
-general fatigue, insomnia, distressing dreams, hysterical
-crying, indefinable anxiety and pseudo twilight
-states or extreme states of abstraction. In
-these states she became oblivious of her environment,
-did not hear the conversation going on about
-her, nor answer when directly spoken to. This became
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_403'>403</span>so noticeable that she became the jest of her
-companions. In these states her mind was always
-occupied with reveries (not fantasies), though
-mostly pleasant, regarding a very near relative who
-had died about six months previously. Her distressing
-dreams also concerned this relative. It appeared,
-therefore, probable, on the face of the symptoms
-that they were in some way related to this
-relative’s death.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now it transpired, as I already knew, that the relative
-had died under somewhat tragic circumstances
-and that our subject’s experience during the last
-illness was unusually distressing and sorrowful.
-<cite>This experience, she asserted, she could not bear to
-speak or even think about and over and over again
-had refused to do so and put it out of her mind. She
-further asserted that her reason for this attitude
-was the distressing nature of the scenes in which
-she took part.</cite></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now I did not believe that this was the true reason,
-although given in good faith. It was improbable
-on its face. To say that a grown woman, forty
-years of age, could not do what every woman can
-do, tolerate sorrowful memories simply because they
-were sorrowful, and must perforce put them out of
-her mind, is sheer nonsense. There must be some
-other reason.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>On examining a dream it was found to be peculiar
-in one respect: It was not an imaginative or fantastic
-composition, but a detailed and precise living
-over again of the scenes at the death bed: that is
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_404'>404</span>to say, it was a sort of somnambulistic state. In recalling
-this dream<a id='r188' /><a href='#f188' class='c009'><sup>[188]</sup></a> she could not for some time recover
-the ending. Finally it “broke through,” as
-she expressed it. The dream was as follows: First
-came many details of the vigil of the last night of
-the illness; then she went to her room and to bed
-to snatch a few moments’ sleep; she was waked up
-by the husband of the dying relative appearing in
-her room. He sat on the edge of her bed and said
-to her, “All is over.” Up to this point the facts
-of the dream were actual representations in great
-detail of the actual facts as they had occurred, but
-at this moment the dream presented a fact which
-had not occurred in the real scene; she suddenly, in
-the dream, sat up in bed and exclaimed, “My God!
-then I ought to have sent for the doctor!”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Here was the key to the intolerance for memories
-of the illness of the relative and the death-bed scene.
-What had happened was this: The question had
-arisen early in the illness whether or not a doctor
-should be sent for from London in consultation.
-The expense, owing to the distance, would have been
-considerable. The whole responsibility and decision
-rested upon the subject. Against the opinion of
-other relatives she had decided that it was inadvisable.
-After the fatal ending the question had arisen
-again whether or not she ought to have sent for the
-consultant and she had been tormented by the doubt
-as to whether she did right; <cite>was the fatal result her
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_405'>405</span>fault</cite>? Although she had reasoned with herself that
-her decision was good judgment and right still there
-had always lurked a doubt in her mind. She was
-also somewhat disturbed by the thought of what the
-husband’s opinion might be.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The real reason why she could not tolerate the
-memories of the last illness of this relative, and the
-psychogenesis of the symptoms now were plain:
-they were not grief but self-reproach with its instinct
-of self-abasement. The memories brought to
-her mind that the fault was her’s and with the
-thought came self-reproach. <cite>This self-reproach she
-was afraid of and unwilling to face.</cite> This fact she
-recognized and frankly confessed after the disclosures
-of the analysis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now follows the therapeutic sequel. The relative’s
-illness at the beginning was in no way of a
-dangerous nature and the proposed consultation had
-nothing to do with the question of danger to life.
-The death was due to purely an accidental factor
-and could not have been foreseen. When I assured
-her in hypnosis, with full explanation, that her decision
-had been medically sound, as it was, the
-change in her mental attitude was delightful to look
-upon. “Wasn’t it my fault! Wasn’t it my fault!”
-she exclaimed in excitement. Anxiety, dread, and
-depression gave way to exhilaration and joyousness.
-Thereupon she woke up completely relieved in mind,
-and retained the same feeling of joy, but without
-knowing the reason thereof. The explanation was
-repeated to her in the waking state and she then
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_406'>406</span>fully realized (as she did also in hypnosis) that
-her previous view was a pure subterfuge and fully
-appreciated the truth of the discovered reason for
-her inability to face her painful memories. The
-twilight states, the insomnia, and the distressing
-dreams, the anxiety, and other symptoms ceased at
-once.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Returning to the phobia for bells, in the light of
-all these facts, the patient’s belief that her mother’s
-death was her fault and the consequent self-reproach
-were obviously only a particular concrete example
-of a lifelong emotional tendency originating
-in the experiences of childhood to blame herself;
-and this tendency was the striving to express itself
-of the instinct of self-abasement (with the emotion
-of self-subjection) which, incorporated within “the
-self-regarding sentiment” (McDougall), was so intensely
-cultivated and had played so large a part
-in her life. Indeed this instinct had almost dominated
-her self-regarding sentiment and had given
-rise time and again to self-reproach for accidental
-happenings. It now specifically determined
-her attitude of mind toward the series of events
-which led up to the fatal climax and determined her
-judgment of self-condemnation and self-reproach.
-These last most probably received increased emotional
-force from the large number of roots in painful
-associations of antecedent experiences (particularly
-of childhood) in which the self-regarding
-sentiment, self-debasement, and self-reproaches
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_407'>407</span>were incorporated.<a id='r189' /><a href='#f189' class='c009'><sup>[189]</sup></a> <cite>Nevertheless the fear was of
-a particular concrete self-reproach.</cite> The general
-tendency was of practical consequence only so far
-as it explained the particular point of view and
-might induce other self-reproaches.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As a general summary of this study it would appear
-that we can postulate a larger setting to the
-phobia than the grief inspiring experiences attending
-her mother’s death. The unconscious complex
-included the belief that she was to blame and the
-sentiment of self-reproach, and the whole gave a
-fuller meaning to the ringing of bells in a tower.
-The fear besides being a recurring association was
-also a reaction to the subconsciously excited setting
-of a fancied truth or self-accusation. Although excited
-by towers and steeples the fear was really of
-self-reproach. Towers, steeples, and bells not only
-in a sense symbolized her mother’s death, but her
-own fancied fault. It was in this sense and for this
-reason that she dared not face such objects. The
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_408'>408</span>conscious and the unconscious formed a psychic
-whole.<a id='r190' /><a href='#f190' class='c009'><sup>[190]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now in reaching these conclusions see how far
-we have traveled: Starting with an ostensible phobia
-for towers, we find it is more correctly one of
-ringing-of-bells, but without conscious association;
-then we reach a childhood’s tragedy; then a self-reproach
-on religious grounds; then a belief in a
-fault of childhood’s behavior culminating in a lifelong
-self-reproach—the causal factor and psychologically
-the true object of the phobia: and between
-this last self-reproach and the phobia no conscious
-association.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The <cite>therapeutic</cite> procedure and results are instructive.
-As the fear was induced by a belief in a fancied
-fault exciting a self-reproach, obviously if
-this belief should be destroyed the self-reproach
-must cease and the fear must disappear. Now when
-all the facts were brought to light, the patient, as
-is usual, recognized the truth of them. She also
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_409'>409</span>recognized fully and completely the real nature of
-the fear, of the self-blame and of the self-reproach.
-There remained no lingering doubt in her mind,
-nevertheless the bringing to “the full light of day”
-of all this did not cure the phobia. As the first procedure
-in the therapeusis it was pointed out that it
-was contrary to common sense to blame herself for
-the heedlessness of a child; that all children were
-disobedient; that she would have been a little prig
-if she had been the sort of a child that never disobeyed,
-and that she would not have blamed any
-other child who had behaved in a similar way under
-similar circumstances, and so on. She simply said
-that she recognized all this intellectually as true and
-yet, although it was the point of view which she
-would take with another person in the same situation,
-it did not in any way alter her attitude toward
-herself. In other words the bringing to the full
-light of day of the facts did not cure the phobia.
-It was necessary to change the setting of her belief.
-<cite>To do this either the alleged facts had to be shown
-to be not true or else new facts had to be introduced
-which would give them a new meaning.</cite> This, briefly
-told, was done in the following way:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>She was put into light hypnosis in order that exact
-and detailed memories of her childhood might
-be brought out. Then, through her own memories,
-it was demonstrated, that is to say, the <cite>patient herself
-demonstrated</cite>, that there was considerable
-doubt about her having had phthisis at all; that she
-was not taken to the usual places of “cures” for
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_410'>410</span>phthisis but sojourned in the gay and pleasant cities
-and watering places of Europe; that her mother
-really staid in Europe because she enjoyed it and
-made an excuse of her daughter’s health not to
-come home; that she might have returned at any
-time but did not want to do so; and that the fault
-lay, if anywhere, with her physician at home. When
-this was brought out the patient remarked, “Why,
-of course, I see it now! My mother did not stay
-in Europe on account of my health but because she
-enjoyed it, and might have returned if she had
-wanted to. I never thought of that before! It was
-not my fault at all!” After coming out of hypnosis
-the facts as elicited were laid before the patient; she
-again said that she saw it all clearly, as she had
-done in hypnosis, and her whole point of view was
-changed.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The therapeutics, then, consisted in showing that
-the alleged facts upon which the patient’s logical
-conclusions had been based were false. The setting
-thereby was altered, and a new and true meaning
-given to the real facts. The result was towers
-and steeples no longer excited fears, the phobia
-ceased at once—an immediate cure.<a id='r191' /><a href='#f191' class='c009'><sup>[191]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'><cite>Type D.</cite> In this type <cite>the conscious psychosis consists
-of idea, meaning, affect, and physical disturbance</cite>.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_411'>411</span>F. E. suffered from attacks of so-called “unreality”
-accompanied with intense fear. She was
-unable to give an intelligent explanation as to why
-she was afraid of the attacks—harmless in themselves—until
-it was brought out that there was in
-the <cite>background of her mind</cite> the thought that the
-attacks spelled insanity (or that she was likely to
-go insane) and also death. Following the attacks
-there was amnesia for these thoughts. Her fear
-really, then, was of insanity and death. The content
-of consciousness in the attacks contained the
-perception of herself as an insane person, thoughts
-which expressed the meaning of her attacks, and
-fear. (The usual physical disturbances of course
-accompanied the fear.) No amount of explanation
-of the harmlessness of the unreality syndrome sufficed
-to change her point of view, i.e., its meaning
-to her. But going further it was discovered that
-her self-regarding sentiment and her ideas of insanity
-and death were organized with a large number
-of fear-inspiring antecedent experiences which
-explained why she regarded the attacks as dangerous
-to her mentality and life; and why the biological
-instinct of fear was incorporated with the self-regarding
-sentiment. These experiences had long
-passed out of mind and there was no conscious association
-between them and her phobia, but they could
-be recalled as associative memories.<a id='r192' /><a href='#f192' class='c009'><sup>[192]</sup></a> The unreality
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_412'>412</span>attacks had for her two meanings which were within
-the content of consciousness, viz., 1, insanity, and 2,
-death. The first was derived from (a) antecedent
-girlhood and later experiences which had engendered
-the unsophisticated belief that having the
-mind fixed on one subject, as was obtrusively and
-painfully the case at one time, meant insanity: and
-(b), from the fact that the bewildering, irreconcilable,
-absurd thoughts, conflicts, and emotions in
-which the unreality attacks culminated meant
-insanity.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The second meaning (death) was derived from
-(a) the previous fixed idea (just referred to), organized
-with that of insanity—namely, an unsophisticated
-medieval idea of hell which was conceived
-of as the equivalent of death and which had excited
-an intense horror of both; and (b) from the fact
-that in the unreality attacks there was a <cite>struggling</cite>
-for air; struggling was in her mind, the equivalent
-of convulsions;<a id='r193' /><a href='#f193' class='c009'><sup>[193]</sup></a> convulsions of unconsciousness;
-and unconsciousness of death. All these various
-ideas and the intense fears which each gave rise to
-had become organized into a complex, and, in consequence
-of these antecedent experiences in which self
-took a prominent part, the instinct of fear—as I
-conceive the matter—became incorporated within
-the self-regarding sentiment. (Anything that
-aroused this sentiment tended to arouse the emotion
-of fear, as in another person it would tend to arouse
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_413'>413</span>the emotion of pride, or self-abasement.) At any
-rate this organized complex was the setting which
-gave the meaning to her phobia. There can be, I
-think, no manner of doubt about this. The patient
-herself explained her viewpoint through these ideas
-here briefly summarized. The only question is as
-to the mechanism of the phobia. Now as Type D,
-of which these cases are examples, differs clinically
-from the preceding three types only in the addition
-of one more element—meaning—to the conscious
-psychic whole, a consistent interpretation would
-seem to compel us to postulate also a functioning
-subconscious complex or setting and in this case of
-the antecedent experiences disclosed as a factor in
-the mechanism and a part of the psychic whole. Out
-of this complex emerged into consciousness the idea
-of insanity and death and fear as the meaning of
-the unreality syndrome, the whole constituting the
-phobia psychosis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>That there was in fact a subconsciously functioning
-process derived from this complex would seem
-to be almost conclusively shown by another phenomenon
-manifested. I refer to the vivid <cite>visualization
-of herself in a convulsion, struggling for air
-and manifesting fright</cite>, which she experienced in
-each attack. We have seen that such a visualization
-(i.e., a modified vision) is the expression (secondary
-images?) of a subconscious process (co-conscious
-ideas?). As a matter of fact this particular
-visualization was a pictorial representation of
-antecedent thoughts organized with thoughts of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_414'>414</span>death and insanity and still conserved in the unconscious.
-We must believe, then, that it was these
-antecedent thoughts (in the first place her apprehension
-of inheriting Bright’s disease and convulsions
-from her father, and in the second place her
-conception of the unreality syndrome as a state
-which might possibly end in convulsions) which,
-functioning subconsciously, induced the quasi hallucinatory
-expression of themselves.<a id='r194' /><a href='#f194' class='c009'><sup>[194]</sup></a> It is difficult
-to get away from the conclusion that the remainder
-of the setting from which the ideas of insanity and
-death were derived also functioned as a subconscious
-process. Whether this process was conscious
-or unconscious is a secondary question which
-we need not consider.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In weighing the probabilities of this interpretation
-we should bear in mind that there were two
-conscious beliefs of which the patient was fully
-aware and which were very real to her; namely, the
-liability of becoming insane and to convulsions and
-death. The conative force of the instinct of fear
-linked to such ideas is quite sufficient to drive them
-to expression when out of mind and subconscious.
-Or expressed differently we may say that the fear
-was a reaction to these ideas which the patient dared
-not face.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We ought not, however, to be too sweeping in our
-generalizations and go further than the facts warrant.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_415'>415</span>We are not justified in concluding that the
-linking of an affect to an idea always includes a
-subconscious mechanism. On the contrary, as I have
-previously said, probably in the great majority of
-such experiences, aside from obsessions, no such
-mechanism is required to explain the facts.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><cite>The Inability to Voluntarily Modify Obsessions.</cite>—We
-are now in a position on this theory to look
-a little more deeply into the structure and mechanism
-of an obsession and thereby realize why it is
-that the unfortunate victims are so helpless to modify
-or control them. Indeed this behavior of the
-setting could be cited as another piece of circumstantial
-evidence for the theory that the setting is
-largely unconscious and that only a few elements of
-it enter the field of consciousness. If we simply explain
-to a person who has a true obsession, i.e., an
-insistent idea with a strong feeling tone, the falsity
-of the point of view, the explanation in many cases
-at least has no or little effect in changing the viewpoint,
-though the patient admits the correctness of
-the explanation. The patient cannot modify his idea
-even if he will. But if the original complex, which
-is hidden in the unconscious and which gives rise
-to the meaning of the idea, is discovered, and so
-altered that it takes on a new meaning and different
-feeling tones, the patient’s conscious idea becomes
-modified and ceases to be insistent. This
-would imply that the insistent idea is only an element
-in a larger unconscious complex which is the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_416'>416</span>setting and unconsciously determines the viewpoint.
-The reason why the patient cannot voluntarily alter
-his viewpoint becomes intelligible by this theory, because
-that which determines it is unconscious and
-unknown. He may not even know what his point
-of view is, owing to the meaning being in the fringe
-of consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If this theory of the mechanism is soundly established
-the difficulty of correcting obsessions becomes
-obvious and intelligible. It is also obvious
-that there are theoretically two ways in which an
-obsession might be corrected.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>1. A new setting with strong affects may be artificially
-created so that the perception acquires another
-equally strong meaning and interest.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2. The second way theoretically would be to bring
-into consciousness the setting and the past experiences
-of which the setting is a <cite>sifted</cite> residuum, and
-reform it by introducing new elements, including
-new emotions and feelings. In this way the old setting
-and point of view would become transformed
-and a new point of view substituted which would
-give a new meaning to the perception.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now in practice both these theoretical methods of
-destroying an obsession are found to work, although
-both are not always equally efficacious in the same
-case. In less intense obsessions where the complex
-composing the setting is only partially and inconsequently
-submerged, and to a slight degree differentiated
-from the mass of conscious experiences,
-the first and simpler method practically is amply
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_417'>417</span>sufficient. We might say that the greater the degree
-to which the setting is conscious and the less
-the degree to which it has acquired, as an unconscious
-process, independent autonomous activity the
-more readily it may be transformed by this method.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>On the other hand in the more intense obsessions,
-where a greater part of the setting is unconscious,
-has wide ramifications and has become differentiated
-as an independent autonomous process, the
-more difficult it is to suppress it and prevent its
-springing into activity whenever excited by some
-stimulus (such as an associated idea). In such instances
-the second method is more efficacious. It
-is obvious that, so long as the setting to a central
-idea remains organized and conserved in the unconscious,
-the corresponding perception and meaning
-are always liable under favoring conditions (such as
-fatigue, ill health, etc.) to be switched into consciousness
-and replace the new formed perception. This
-means of course a recurrence. Nevertheless medical
-experience from the beginning of time has shown
-that this is not necessarily or always the case. The
-technique, therefore, of the treatment of obsessions
-will vary from “simple explanations” (Taylor)
-without preliminary analysis to the more complicated
-and varying procedures of analysis and re-education
-in its many forms.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><cite>Affects.</cite>—Here a word of caution in the interpretation
-of emotional reactions is necessary. In the
-building of complexes, as we have seen, an affect
-becomes linked to an idea through an emotional experience.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_418'>418</span>The recurrence of that idea always involves
-the recurrence of the affect. It is not a logical
-necessity that the original experience which occasioned
-the affect should always be postulated as a
-continuing subconscious process to account for the
-affect in association with the idea. It is quite possible,
-if not extremely probable, that in the simpler
-types, at least, of the emotional complexes, the association
-between the idea and affect becomes so
-firmly established that the conscious idea alone,
-without the coöperation of a subconscious process,
-is sufficient to awake the emotion; just as in Pawlow’s
-dogs the artificially formed association between
-a tactile stimulus and the salivary glands is
-sufficient to excite the glands to activity, or as in
-human beings the idea of a ship by pure association
-may determine fear and nausea, the sound of running
-water by the force of association may excite
-the bladder reflex, or an ocular stimulus the so-called
-hay fever complex. So in word-association
-reactions, when a word is accompanied by an affect-reaction
-the word itself may be sufficient to excite
-the reaction without assuming that an “unconscious
-complex has been struck.” The total mechanism
-of the process we are investigating must be
-determined in each case for itself.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>In the study and formulation of psychological
-phenomena there is one common tendency and danger,
-and that is of making the phenomena too schematic
-and sharply defined, as if we were dealing
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_419'>419</span>with material objects. Mental processes are not
-only plastic but shifting, varying, unstable, and undergo
-modifications of structure almost from moment
-to moment. We describe a complex schematically
-as if it had a fixed, immutable, and well-defined
-structure. This is far from being the case. Although
-there may be a fairly fixed nucleus, the
-cluster, as a whole, is ill defined and undergoes considerable
-modification from moment to moment.
-New elements enter the cluster and replace or are
-added to those which previously took part in the
-composition. An analogy might be made with a
-large cluster of electric lights arranged about a
-central predominant light, but so arranged that individual
-lights could be switched in and cut out of
-the cluster at any moment and different colored
-lights substituted. The composition and structure
-of the cluster, and the intensity and color of the
-light, could be varied from moment to moment, yet
-the cluster as a cluster maintained. We might carry
-the analogy farther and imagine the cluster to be
-an advertising sign which had a meaning—the advertisement.
-This meaning might or might not be
-altered by the changes in the individual lamps.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The same indefiniteness pertains to the demarcation
-between the conscious and the subconscious.
-What was conscious at one moment may be subconscious
-the next and <cite>vice versa</cite>. Under <cite>normal</cite> conditions
-there is a continual shifting between the
-conscious and subconscious. I have made numerous
-investigations to determine this point, and the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_420'>420</span>evidence is fairly precise, and to me convincing,
-that this shifting continually occurs,<a id='r195' /><a href='#f195' class='c009'><sup>[195]</sup></a> as might well
-be inferred on theoretical grounds. Nor, excepting
-in special pathological and artificial dissociated conditions,
-is the distinction between the conscious and
-subconscious at any moment always sharp and precise;
-it is often rather a matter of vividness and
-shading, and whether a conscious state is in the
-focus of attention or in the fringe. Experimental
-observation confirms introspection in this respect.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In view of the foregoing we can now appreciate
-a fallacy which has been too commonly accepted in
-the interpretation of therapeutic facts. It is quite
-generally held that it is a necessity that the underlying
-unconscious complexes cannot be modified
-without bringing them to the “full light of day” by
-analysis. The facts of everyday observation do not
-justify this conclusion. The awakening of dormant
-memories of past experiences is mainly of importance
-for the purpose of giving us exact information
-of <cite>what</cite> we need to modify, not necessarily
-for the purpose of effecting the modification. Owing
-to the fluidity of complexes, whether unconscious
-or conscious, our conscious ideas can become incorporated
-in unconscious complexes. This means that
-any new setting in which we may incorporate our
-conscious ideas to give them a new meaning becomes
-effective in the associations which these ideas have
-as a dormant complex. The latter is able to assimilate
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_421'>421</span>from the conscious any new material offered
-to it. Practical therapeutics and everyday experience
-abundantly have shown this. I have accomplished
-this, and I believe every therapeutist has
-done the same time and again. We should be cautious
-not to overlook common experience in the
-enthusiasm for new theories and dramatic observations.
-The difficulty is in knowing what we want to
-modify, and for this purpose analytical investigations
-of one sort or another are of the highest assistance,
-because they furnish us with the required
-information. If we recover the memories of the
-unconscious complex our task is easier, as we can
-apply our art with the greater skill.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>When we speak of a setting to an idea we are
-not entitled to think of it as a sharply defined group
-of ideas, or sharply limited subconscious process.
-When we identify it with the residua of past experiences
-we are not entitled, on the basis of exact
-knowledge, to arbitrarily make up a selected cluster
-of residua which shall exclude those and include
-these residual elements of antecedent associated experiences,
-and dogmatically postulate the composition
-of the complex which we call the setting. Analysis
-by the very limitations of the method fails to
-permit of such arbitrary selection, and synthetic
-methods are not sufficiently exact for the purpose.
-All we can say is that from the residua of various
-past experiences a complex is sifted out to become
-the setting. And even then no process is entirely
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_422'>422</span>autonomous and entirely removed from the interfering,
-directing, and coöperative influence of other
-processes. Even with simple and purely physiological
-processes, such as the knee jerk, this is true.
-Although the knee jerk may be schematically conceived
-as a simple reflex arc involving the peripheral
-nerves and the spinal cord, nevertheless other parts
-of the nervous system—the brain and the spinal
-cord—provide coöperative processes which take
-part, and under special conditions take a very active
-part, in modifying the phenomenon. While we are
-justified, for the clarifying purposes of exposition,
-in schematizing the phenomenon by selecting the
-spinal reflex as the predominant process, yet we
-do not overlook the coöperative processes which
-may control and modify the spinal reflex. If this is
-true of purely physiological processes, it is still
-more true of the enormously more complex processes
-of human intelligence.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We may say, then, not only that with our present
-knowledge and our present methods we are not able
-to precisely differentiate the settings of ideas, but
-that it is highly improbable that settings as complexes
-of residua are with any preciseness functionally
-entirely autonomous and removed from the
-influence of other associative processes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We need further investigations into the psychology
-and processes of settings, and until we have
-wider and more exact knowledge it is well not to
-theorize and still more not to dogmatize. It is an
-inviting field which awaits the psychologist.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f183'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r183'>183</a>. In making the analysis, therefore, I was in no way antagonistic
-in my mind to the Freudian hypothesis.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f184'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r184'>184</a>. I want to emphasize this point, because certain students, assuming
-the well-known alleged sexual symbolism as the meaning of
-steeples and towers, will read and have read such an interpretation
-into this phobia. As a matter of fact, although these objects had
-been originally alleged by the subject herself to be the object of the
-fear it was done thoughtlessly as the result of careless introspection.
-Later she clearly distinguished the true object. They were no more
-the object than the churches and schoolhouses themselves. They bore
-an incidental association only, and only indicated where the ringing
-of bells might be expected to be heard, having been an element in the
-original episode. Nor were bells, qua bells, the object of the phobia,
-but the ringing-of-bells of the kind that recalled the mother’s death.
-In other words, the fear was of bells with a particular meaning.
-Nor was the fear absolutely limited to tower-bells, for it transpired
-that the subject had refrained from having, as she desired, an alarm
-bell arranged in her house in the country (in case of fire, etc.), because
-of her phobia. (This note is perhaps made necessary by the
-violent shaking of the heads of my Freudian friends that I noticed
-at this point during the presentation of this case before the American
-Psychopathological Association.) See <cite>Jour. Abn. Psychol.</cite>, Oct.-Nov.,
-1913.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f185'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r185'>185</a>. This idea had its origin in a child’s fairy tale, and had been
-fostered by the governess as a useful expedient in enforcing good
-behavior. The child accepting the fairy legend believed the Eye of
-God was always on her and every one in the world, and observed all
-that each did or omitted to do. The legend excited her imagination,
-and she used to think about it and wonder how God could keep His
-eye on so many people as there were in the world. At a still earlier
-age, when she was about eight, she had thought her little brother’s
-death was also her fault, because she had neglected one night, at the
-time of his illness, God’s eye being upon her, to say her prayers.
-For a long time afterward she suffered similarly from self-reproach.
-It is interesting to compare the outgrowing with maturity of this
-self-reproach with the persistence of the later one, evidently owing
-to the reasons given in the text.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f186'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r186'>186</a>. Another example of this idea and of the way it induced a
-psychosis is the following: She had an intense dislike to hearing the
-sound of running water. This sound induced an intense feeling of
-<cite>unhappiness and loneliness</cite>. This feeling was so intense that whenever
-she heard the sound of running water she endeavored to get away
-from it. The sound of a fountain or rainwater running from a roof,
-for example, would cause such unpleasant feelings that she would
-change her sleeping room to avoid them. Likewise drawing water to
-fill the bathtub was so unpleasant that she would insist upon the
-door being closed to exclude the sound. She could give no explanation
-of this psychosis. It was discovered in the following way: She
-had been desirous of finding out the cause, and we had discussed the
-subject. I had promised that I would unravel the matter in due time,
-after the other phobia had been cured. I then hypnotized her and,
-while she was in hypnosis and just after we had completed the other
-problem, she remarked that a memory of the running water association
-was on the verge of emerging into her mind. She could not
-get it for some time, and then, after some effort, it suddenly emerged.
-She described it as follows: “It was at Bar Harbor. She was about
-eight years of age. There was a brook there called Duck Brook.
-The older girls used to go up there on Sundays for a walk with the
-boys. I went with them one Sunday, accompanied by the governess,
-and was standing by the brook with a boy. It was a very noisy
-brook, the water running down from the hillside. While I was standing
-by the brook, watching the running water, the boy left me to
-join the other girls, who had gone off. I thought that was the way
-it would always be in life; that I was ugly, and that they would
-never stay with me. I felt lonely and unhappy. During that summer
-I would not join parties of the same kind, fearing or feeling
-that the same thing would happen. I stayed at home by myself, and
-when I refused to go it was attributed to sullenness. They did not
-know my real reasons. Ever since I have been unable to bear the
-sound of running water, which produces the feeling of unhappiness
-and loneliness, the same feeling that I had at that time. I thought
-then that it was all my fault, because I was ugly.” It was then
-tentatively pointed out at some length to the subject that as she
-now knew all the facts which had been brought to the “full light
-of day,” etc., she, of course, would no longer have her former unpleasant
-emotions from the sound of running water. Hereupon, to
-put the question to the test, I reached out my hand and poured
-some water from a caraffe, by chance standing by, into a tumbler,
-letting the water fall from a height to make a sound. At once she
-manifested discomfort, and sought to restrain me with her hand.
-Plainly the setting had to be changed. This was easily done by
-leading her to see that her childhood’s ideas had been proven by
-life’s experiences to be false. When this became apparent she
-laughed at herself, and the psychosis ceased at once.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f187'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r187'>187</a>. Social Psychology.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f188'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r188'>188</a>. This was done in hypnosis, the dream being forgotten when
-awake.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f189'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r189'>189</a>. For instance, when I came to the therapeutics I found in abstraction
-that the patient did not want to give up her point of view
-“because,” as she said, “it forms an excuse so that when I feel
-lonely, if there is nothing else to be lonely about, I have that memory
-and point of view to fall back upon as something to justify my
-crying and feeling lonely and blue.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When she now feels blue and cries, as happens occasionally, and
-she asks herself Why? then she drifts back in her mind to childhood
-and remembers she was lonely and then cries the harder. Then she
-vaguely thinks of her mother’s death being her fault. She likes
-therefore to hold on to this as a peg on which to hang any present
-feeling of blueness and loneliness.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f190'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r190'>190</a>. Some, I have no doubt, will insist upon seeing in towers with
-bells a sexual symbol, and in the self-reproach a reaction to a repressed
-infantile or other sexual wish. But I cannot accede to this
-view first, because a tower was not only not the real object of the
-phobia, but not even the alleged object, which was the ringing of
-bells; secondly, because it is an unnecessary postulate unsupported
-by evidence, and, thirdly, because in fact, the associative memories of
-early life were conspicuously free from sex knowledge, wishes, curiosity,
-episodes and imaginings, nor was there any evidence of the so-called
-“mother complex” or “father-complex,” or any other sexual
-complex that I could find after a most exhaustive probing. The
-impulses of instincts other than sexual are sufficient to induce
-psychical trauma, insistent ideas, and emotion. To hold otherwise
-is to substitute dogma for the evidence of experience.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f191'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r191'>191</a>. It is worth noting that between the bringing to the “full light
-of day” the facts furnished by the analysis and the cure a full year
-and a half elapsed, during which the phobia continued. The “cure”
-was effected at one sitting. The original study was undertaken on
-purely psychological grounds; the cure for the purpose of completing
-the study.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f192'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r192'>192</a>. This account will be clearer if read in connection with the full
-analysis (“A Clinical Study of a Case of Phobia”), published in
-the <cite>Jour, of Abn. Psychol.</cite>, October-November, 1912.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f193'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r193'>193</a>. She was apprehensive of having inherited Bright’s disease from
-her father, who had convulsions.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f194'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r194'>194</a>. It is quite possible that this subconscious process induced the
-unreality syndrome in which struggling for air was the salient
-symptom.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f195'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r195'>195</a>. I am excluding conditions like split personalities, automatic
-writing, etc., and refer rather to normal mental processes.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_423'>423</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE XIV<br /> THE PHYSIOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF EMOTION</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>Emotion,<a id='r196' /><a href='#f196' class='c009'><sup>[196]</sup></a> more particularly fear, plays so large
-a part in the psychogenesis and symptomatology of
-the psychoses that it is desirable to have a clear
-realization of its physiological and psychological
-manifestations and of the disturbances of the organism
-which it can induce. It is not necessary for
-our purpose to discuss the various theories of the
-nature of emotion that have been propounded; we
-need deal only with the <cite>manifestations</cite> of emotion
-and its effect upon the organism.<a id='r197' /><a href='#f197' class='c009'><sup>[197]</sup></a> We will consider
-the physiological manifestations first.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When a strong emotion is awakened in consciousness
-there are a large number of physiological reactions,
-for the most part visceral, which can be
-noted. Some of these may be graphically recorded
-and measured by means of instruments of precision.
-These physiological reactions are numerous and
-have been extensively described by Féré<a id='r198' /><a href='#f198' class='c009'><sup>[198]</sup></a> among
-others. The earlier work of Mosso upon the disturbances
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_424'>424</span>of the respiration and vasomotor apparatus
-induced by sensory stimulation is well
-known.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>More recently considerable experimental work
-has been done, particularly by German investigators,
-to determine the influence of affective states
-upon the circulation and respiration.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Modifications of the <cite>peripheral circulation</cite>, manifested
-through pallor or turgescence of the skin and
-measured by changes recorded by the plethismograph
-in the volume of the limbs; modifications of
-the volume of the <cite>heart</cite> and of the rhythm and
-force of the beats recorded by the sphygmograph,
-and of arterial tension measured by the sphygmomonometer
-are common phenomena. (Fear is
-more particularly accompanied by pallor, and
-shame by turgescence—blushing. Anger in some is
-manifested by pallor and in others by turgescence,
-and so on.) Changes in rate of the heart-beats belong
-to popular knowledge. It is not so well known,
-even to physiologists that the volume of the heart
-may be affected by emotion. In several series of
-observations made under conditions of emotional
-excitement upon a large number of healthy men,
-candidates for civil service appointments, I recorded
-in a high percentage not only alterations in
-the rate and rhythm and force of the heart-beat, but
-temporary dilatation of the heart lasting during the
-period of excitement.<a id='r199' /><a href='#f199' class='c009'><sup>[199]</sup></a> This dilatation in some
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_425'>425</span>cases was sufficient to lead to insufficiency of the mitral
-valve and to give rise to murmurs. The examination
-was purposely conducted so as to induce a
-high degree of emotional excitement, at least in
-many men. In another series of observations (not
-published) the arterial tension was measured, and
-it was found, as would be expected, that an increase
-of tension accompanied the cardiac excitation under
-emotion.<a id='r200' /><a href='#f200' class='c009'><sup>[200]</sup></a></p>
-
-<div class='figcenter id003'>
-<img src='images/i_425.jpg' alt='ecg' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic003'>
-<p>Fig. 2. J., acute katatonic stupor. b is a wave selected from the<br />series in which 6 is sudden call by name. The galvanometer curve (a)<br />is slight, but the change in the pneumograph curve is notable.<br />(Peterson and Jung.<a id='r201' /><a href='#f201' class='c009'><sup>[201]</sup></a>)</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_426'>426</span>As to the <cite>respiratory apparatus</cite> the effect of emotion
-in altering the rate and depth of respiration
-may be shown by the pneumograph; by this method
-the effects of slight emotion that otherwise would
-escape observation may be detected. Such a disturbance
-of respiration is shown in the tracing,
-Fig. 2.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>That emotion will profoundly affect the respiration
-has of course been common knowledge from
-time immemorial, and has been made use of by
-writers of fiction and actors for dramatic effect.
-The same may be said of modifications of the functioning
-of the whole respiratory apparatus, including
-the nostrils and the mouth; and likewise of the
-decrease or increase of secretions (dryness of the
-mouth from fear, and “foaming” from anger).
-These are among the well known physiological effects
-of emotions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Increase of <cite>sweat</cite> sometimes amounting to an outpour,
-and alterations in the amount of the various
-<cite>glandular secretions</cite> (<cite>salivary</cite>, <cite>gastric</cite>, etc.), and
-<cite>rigor</cite> are important phenomena.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The remarkable researches of Pawlow<a id='r202' /><a href='#f202' class='c009'><sup>[202]</sup></a> and his
-co-workers in Russia on the <cite>work of the digestive
-glands</cite>, and those of Cannon<a id='r203' /><a href='#f203' class='c009'><sup>[203]</sup></a> in America on the
-<cite>movements of the stomach and intestines</cite> have revealed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_427'>427</span>that these functions are influenced in an astonishing
-degree by psychical factors.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Although it has long been known that the sight of
-food under certain conditions would call forth a
-secretion of gastric juice in a hungry dog (Bidder
-and Smith, 1852), and common observation has told
-us that emotion strongly affects the gastrointestinal
-functions, increasing or diminishing the secretions
-of saliva and gastric juice, and even producing dyspeptic
-disturbances and diarrhœa, it has remained
-for Pawlow and his co-workers to demonstrate the
-important part which the “appetite,” as a psychical
-state, plays in the process of digestion. In hungry
-dogs a large quantity of gastric juice, rich in ferment,
-is poured out when food is swallowed, and
-even at the sight of food, and it was proved that
-this outpouring was due to psychical influences.
-Simply teasing and tempting the animal with food
-cause secretions, and food associations in the environment
-may have the same effect. “If the dog
-has not eaten for a long time every movement, the
-going out of the room, the appearance of the attendant
-who ordinarily feeds the animal—in a word,
-every triviality—may give rise to excitation of the
-gastric glands.” (Pawlow, p. 73.) This first secreted
-juice is called “appetite juice,” and is an important
-factor in the complicated process of digestion.
-“The appetite is the first and mightiest
-exciter of the secretory nerves of the stomach.”
-(Pawlow, p. 75.) Pawlow’s results have been confirmed
-in man by Hornborg, Umber, Bickel, and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_428'>428</span>Cade and Latarjet. The mere chewing of appetizing
-food, for instance, is followed by a copious discharge
-of gastric juice, while chewing of rubber and distasteful
-substances has a negative result. Depressing
-emotions inhibit the secretion of juice (Bickel).
-More than this, Cannon,<a id='r204' /><a href='#f204' class='c009'><sup>[204]</sup></a> in his very remarkable
-experiments on the movements of the stomach and
-intestines, found that in animals (cat, rabbit, dog,
-etc.), gastric peristalsis is stopped whenever the
-animal manifests signs of rage, distress, or even
-anxiety. “Any signs of emotional disturbance,
-even the restlessness and continual mewing which
-may be taken to indicate uneasiness and discomfort,
-were accompanied in the cat by total cessation
-of the segmentation movements of the small intestines,
-and of antiperistalsis in the proximal colon.”
-Bickel and Sasaki have confirmed in dogs these emotional
-effects obtained by Pawlow and Cannon.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The effect of the emotions on the digestive processes
-is so important from the standpoint of clinical
-medicine that I quote the following summary
-of published observations from Cannon: "Hornborg
-found that when the boy whom he studied
-chewed agreeable food a more or less active secretion
-of the gastric juice was started, whereas the
-chewing of indifferent material was without influence.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_429'>429</span>"Not only is it true that normal secretion is favored
-by pleasurable sensations during mastication,
-but also that unpleasant feelings, such as vexation
-and some of the major emotions, are accompanied
-by a failure of secretion. Thus Hornborg was unable
-to confirm in his patient the observation of
-Pawlow that mere sight of food to a hungry subject
-causes the flow of gastric juice. Hornborg
-explains the difference between his and Pawlow’s
-results by the difference in the reaction of the subjects
-to the situation. When food was shown, but
-withheld, Pawlow’s hungry dogs were all eagerness
-to secure it, and the juice at once began to flow.
-Hornborg’s little boy, on the contrary, became vexed
-when he could not eat at once, and began to cry;
-then no secretion appeared. Bogen also reports
-that his patient, a child, aged three and a half years,
-sometimes fell into such a passion in consequence
-of vain hoping for food, that the giving of the food,
-after calming the child, was not followed by any
-secretion of the gastric juice.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"The observations of Bickel and Sasaki confirm
-and define more precisely the inhibitory effects of
-violent emotion on <cite>gastric secretion</cite>. They studied
-these effects on a dog with an œsophageal fistula,
-and with a side pouch of the stomach which, according
-to Pawlow’s method, opened only to the exterior.
-If the animal was permitted to eat while the
-œsophageal fistula was open the food passed out
-through the fistula and did not go to the stomach.
-Bickel and Sasaki confirmed the observation of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_430'>430</span>Pawlow that this sham feeding is attended by a
-copious flow of gastric juice, a true ‘psychic secretion,’
-resulting from the pleasurable taste of the
-food. In a typical instance the sham feeding lasted
-five minutes, and the secretion continued for twenty
-minutes, during which time 66.7 c. c. of pure gastric
-juice was produced.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"On another day a cat was brought into the presence
-of the dog, whereupon the dog flew into a great
-fury. The cat was soon removed, and the dog pacified.
-Now the dog was again given the sham feeding
-for five minutes. In spite of the fact that the animal
-was hungry and ate eagerly, there was no secretion
-worthy of mention. During a period of
-twenty minutes, corresponding to the previous observation,
-only 9 c. c. of acid fluid was produced,
-and this was rich in mucus. It is evident that in
-the dog, as in the boy observed by Bogen, strong
-emotions can so profoundly disarrange the mechanisms
-of secretion that the natural nervous excitation
-accompanying the taking of food cannot
-cause the normal flow.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"On another occasion Bickel and Sasaki started
-gastric secretion in the dog by sham feeding, and
-when the flow of gastric juice had reached a certain
-height the dog was infuriated for five minutes
-by the presence of the cat. During the next fifteen
-minutes there appeared only a few drops of a very
-mucous secretion. Evidently in this instance a
-physiological process, started as an accompaniment
-of a psychic state quietly pleasurable in character,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_431'>431</span>was almost entirely stopped by another psychic
-state violent in character.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>"It is noteworthy that in both the positive and
-negative results of the emotional excitement illustrated
-in Bickel and Sasaki’s dog the effects persisted
-long after the removal of the exciting condition.
-This fact Bickel was able to confirm in a girl
-with œsophageal and gastric fistulas; the gastric
-secretion long outlasted the period of eating, although
-no food entered the stomach. The importance
-of these observations to personal economics
-is too obvious to require elaboration.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“Not only are the secretory activities of the
-stomach unfavorably affected by strong emotions;
-the movements of the stomach as well, and, indeed,
-the movements of almost the entire alimentary
-canal, are wholly stopped during excitement.”<a id='r205' /><a href='#f205' class='c009'><sup>[205]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>So you see that the proverb, “Better a dinner
-of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred
-therewith,” has a physiological as well as a moral
-basis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Nearly any sensory or psychical stimulus can be
-artificially made to excite the <em>secretion of saliva</em> as
-determined by experimentation on animals by
-Pawlow.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is probable that all the <cite>ductless glands</cite> (thyroid,
-suprarenal, etc.), are likewise under the influence
-of the emotions. The suprarenal glands secrete
-a substance which in almost infinitesimal doses
-has a powerful effect upon the heart and blood vessels,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_432'>432</span>increasing the force of the former and contracting
-the peripheral arterioles. The recent
-observations of Cannon and de la Paz have demonstrated
-in the cat that under the influence of fear or
-anger an increase of this substance is poured into
-the circulation.<a id='r206' /><a href='#f206' class='c009'><sup>[206]</sup></a> Cannon, Shohl and Wright have
-also demonstrated that the glycosuria which was
-known to occur in animals experimented upon in
-the laboratory is due (in cats) to the influence of
-the emotions, very probably discharging through
-the sympathetic system on the adrenal glands and
-increasing their secretion.<a id='r207' /><a href='#f207' class='c009'><sup>[207]</sup></a> The glycosuria is undoubtedly
-due to an increase of sugar in the blood.
-It is interesting to note, in this connection, that there
-is considerable clinical evidence that indicates that
-some cases of diabetes and glycosuria have an emotional
-origin. The same is true of disease of the
-thyroid gland (exophthalmic goiter).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Most of the viscera are innervated by the sympathetic
-system, and the visceral manifestations of
-emotion indicate the dominance of sympathetic impulses.
-“When, for example, a cat becomes frightened,
-the pupils dilate, the stomach and intestines
-are inhibited, the heart beats rapidly, the hairs of
-the back and tail stand erect—all signs of nervous
-discharge along sympathetic paths” (Cannon).
-Cannon and his co-workers have further made the
-acute suggestion that, as adrenalin itself is capable
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_433'>433</span>of working the effects evoked by sympathetic stimulation,
-“the persistence of the emotional state, after
-the exciting object has disappeared, can be explained”
-by the persistence of the adrenalin in the
-blood. There is reason to believe that some of the
-adrenal secretion set free by nervous stimulation
-returning in the blood stream to the glands stimulates
-them to further activity, and this would tend
-to continue the emotional effect after the emotion
-has subsided. “Indeed it was the lasting effect of
-excitement in digestive processes which suggested”
-to Cannon his investigations.<a id='r208' /><a href='#f208' class='c009'><sup>[208]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>According to Féré<a id='r209' /><a href='#f209' class='c009'><sup>[209]</sup></a> the <cite>pupils</cite> may dilate under
-the influence of asthenic emotions and contract with
-sthenic emotions. However that may be, the dilatation
-of the pupils during states of fear may be demonstrated
-in animals.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_434'>434</span>exert force of which he is ordinarily incapable. Or
-this energy, instead of being discharged into the
-channels being made use of by the will, and so augmenting
-its effects, may be so discharged as to inhibit
-the will, and produce paralysis of the will and
-muscular action.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>These muscular vasomotor and secretory changes
-need not surprise us, as indeed they have a biological
-meaning. As Sherrington<a id='r210' /><a href='#f210' class='c009'><sup>[210]</sup></a> has pointed out,
-“there is a strong bond between emotion and muscular
-action. Emotion ‘moves’ us, hence the word
-itself. If developed in intensity, it impels toward
-vigorous movement. Every vigorous movement of
-the body ... involves also the less noticeable co-operation
-of the viscera, especially of the circulatory
-and respiratory [and, I would add, the
-secretory glands of the skin]. The extra demand
-made upon the muscles that move the frame involves
-a heightened action of the nutrient organs which
-supply to the muscles the material for their energy”;
-and also involves a heightened action of the
-sweat glands to maintain the thermic equilibrium.
-“We should expect,” Sherrington remarks, “visceral
-action to occur along with the muscular expression
-of emotion,” and we should expect, it may
-be added, that through this mechanism emotion
-should become integrated with vasomotor, secretory,
-and other visceral functions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Another physiological effect of emotion ought to
-be mentioned, as of recent years it has been the object
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_435'>435</span>of much and intensive study by numerous students
-and has been frequently made use of in the
-clinical study of mental derangements and in the
-study of subconscious phenomena. I refer to the
-so-called “<cite>psycho-galvanic reflex</cite>.” As an outcome
-of all the investigations which have been made by
-numerous students into this phenomenon, it now
-seems clear that there are two types of galvanic
-reactions, distinct from each other, which can be
-recognized. The one type first described by Féré<a id='r211' /><a href='#f211' class='c009'><sup>[211]</sup></a>
-consists in an increase, brought about by emotion,
-of a galvanic current made to pass through the body
-from a galvanic cell. If a very sensitive galvanometer
-is put in circuit with the body and such a cell, a
-certain deviation of the needle of course may be
-noted varying in amplitude according to the resistance
-of the body. Now, if an idea associated with
-emotion—i.e., possessing a sufficient amount of affective
-tone—is made to enter the consciousness of
-the person experimented upon, there is observed an
-increased deflection of the needle, showing an increase
-of current under the influence of the emotion.
-The generally accepted interpretation of this increase
-is that it is due to diminished resistance of
-the skin (with which the electrodes are in contact)
-caused by an increase of the secretions of the sweat
-glands. A similar increase of current follows various
-sensory stimulations, such as the pricking of a
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_436'>436</span>pin, loud noises, etc. It may be interesting for historical
-reasons to quote here Féré’s statement of his
-observations, as they seem to be generally overlooked.
-In his volume, “La Pathologie des Emotions,”
-in 1892, he thus sums up his earlier and later
-observations: "I then produce various sensory
-stimulations—visual (colored glasses), auditory
-(tuning fork), gustatory, olfactory, etc. Whereupon
-there results a sudden deviation of the needle
-of the galvanometer which, for the strongest stimulations,
-may travel fifteen divisions (milliampères).
-The same deviation may also be produced under the
-influence of sthenic emotions, that is to say, it is
-produced under all the conditions where I have previously
-noticed an augmentation of the size of the
-limbs, made evident through the plethysmograph.
-Absence of stimulation, on the contrary, increases
-the resistance; in one subject the deviation was reduced
-by simply closing the eyes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“Since these facts were first described at the Biological
-Society I have been enabled to make more
-exact observations by using the process recommended
-by A. Vigouroux (<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">De la résistance électrique
-<a id='corr436.23'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='chex'>chez</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_436.23'><ins class='correction' title='chex'>chez</ins></a></span> les mélancoliques</span>, Th. 1890, p. 17), and
-I have ascertained that under the influence of painful
-emotions or tonic emotions the electrical resistance
-may, in hystericals, instantaneously vary from
-4,000 to 60,000 ohms.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It will be noticed that Féré attributed the variations
-of the current to variations of resistance of
-the body induced by sensations and emotions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_437'>437</span>The method of obtaining the psycho-galvanic reaction
-may be varied in many ways, the underlying
-principle being the same, namely, the arousing of
-an emotion of some kind. This may be simply
-through imagined ideas, or by expectant attention,
-sensory stimulation, suggested thoughts, verbal
-stimuli, etc. According to Peterson and Jung,<a id='r212' /><a href='#f212' class='c009'><sup>[212]</sup></a>
-“excluding the effect of attention, we find that every
-stimulus accompanied by an emotion causes a rise
-in the electric curve, and directly in proportion to
-the liveliness and actuality of the emotion aroused.
-The galvanometer is therefore a measurer of the
-amount of emotional tone, and becomes a new instrument
-of precision in psychological research.” This
-last statement can hardly be said to be justified, as
-we have no means of measuring the “liveliness and
-actuality” of an emotion and, therefore, of co-relating
-it with a galvanic current, nor have we any
-grounds for assuming that the secretion of sweat
-(upon which the diminished resistance of the body
-presumably depends) is proportionate to the liveliness
-of the emotion, or, indeed, even that it always
-occurs. It is enough to say that the galvanic current
-is in general a means of detecting the presence
-of emotion.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The second type of galvanic reaction, as shown by
-Sidis and Kalmus,<a id='r213' /><a href='#f213' class='c009'><sup>[213]</sup></a> does not depend upon the diminished
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_438'>438</span>resistance of the body to a galvanic current
-passing from without through the body, but is
-a current originating within the body under the influence
-of emotion. Sidis and Kalmus concluded
-that “active psycho-physiological processes, sensory
-and emotional processes, with the exception of
-purely ideational ones, initiated in a living organism,
-bring about electromotive forces with consequent
-galvanometric deflections.” In a later series
-of experiments Sidis and Nelson<a id='r214' /><a href='#f214' class='c009'><sup>[214]</sup></a> came to the conclusion
-that the origin of the electromotive force
-causing the galvanic deflection was in the muscles.<a id='r215' /><a href='#f215' class='c009'><sup>[215]</sup></a>
-Wells and Forbes,<a id='r216' /><a href='#f216' class='c009'><sup>[216]</sup></a> on the other hand, conclude from
-their own investigation that the origin of the galvanic
-current is to be found in the sweat gland activity
-and believe the muscular origin improbable.
-From a clinical standpoint the question is unimportant.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><cite>Sensory disturbances.</cite> On the sensory side the
-effect of emotions, particularly unpleasant ones, in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_439'>439</span>awakening “thrills” and all sorts of sensations in
-different parts of the body is a matter of everyday
-observation. <cite>Nausea</cite>, <cite>dizziness</cite>, <cite>headache</cite>, <cite>pains</cite> of
-different kinds are common accompaniments. Such
-reactions, however, largely vary as idiosyncrasies
-of the individual, and are obviously not open to experimentation
-or measurement. Whether they
-should be spoken of as physiological or aberrant reactions
-is a matter of terminology. They are, however,
-of common occurrence. In pathological conditions
-disagreeable sensations accompanying fear,
-grief, disgust, and other distressing forms of emotion
-often play a prominent part, and as symptoms
-contribute to the syndromes of the psychosis. The
-following quaintly described case quoted by Cannon
-from Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy is as good
-as a more modern illustration: “A gentlewoman of
-the same city saw a fat hog cut up; when the entrails
-were opened, and a noisome savour offended her
-nose, she much disliked, and would not longer abide;
-a physician in presence told her, as that hog, so was
-she full of filthy excrements, and aggravated the
-matter by some other loathsome instances, insomuch
-this nice gentlewoman apprehended it so deeply that
-she fell forthwith a vomiting; was so mightily distempered
-in mind and body that, with all his art and
-persuasion, for some months after, he could not restore
-her to herself again; she could not forget or
-remove the object out of her sight.” Cannon remarks:
-“Truly, here was a moving circle of causation,
-in which the physician himself probably played
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_440'>440</span>the part of a recurrent augmenter of the trouble.
-The first disgust disturbed the stomach, and the disturbance
-of the stomach, in turn, aroused in the
-mind greater disgust, and thus between them the influences
-continued to and fro until digestion was
-impaired and serious functional derangement supervened.
-The stomach is ‘king of the belly,’ quotes
-Burton, ‘for if he is affected all the rest suffer with
-him.’”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Such cases could be multiplied many fold from the
-records of every psychopathologist. I happen by
-chance to be interrupted while writing this page by
-a patient who presents herself suffering from a
-phobia of fainting. When this fear (possibly with
-other emotions) is awakened she is attacked by
-nausea and eructation of the gastric contents, and,
-if she takes food, by vomiting of the meal. (Owing
-to a misunderstanding of the true pathology by her
-physician, her stomach was washed out constantly
-for a period of two years without relief!)</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>General psychopathology.</b>—In the light of all these
-well-known physiological effects of emotion it is
-apparent that when an idea possessing a strong emotional
-tone, such as fear or its variants, enters consciousness,
-it is accompanied by a complex of physiological
-reactions. In other words, fear, <cite>as a biological
-reaction</cite> of the organism to a stimulus, does
-not consist of the psychical element alone, but includes
-a large syndrome of physiological processes.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_441'>441</span>We can, indeed, theoretically construct a schema
-which would represent the emotional reaction. This
-schema would undoubtedly vary in detail in particular
-cases, according to the excitability of the different
-visceral functions involved in different individuals
-and to the mixture of the emotions taking part
-(fear, disgust, shame, anger, etc.). As one type, for
-instance, of a schema, taking only the most obtrusive
-phenomena which do not require special technique
-for their detection, we would have:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Fear (or one of its variants, anxiety, apprehension,
-etc., or a compound emotion that includes fear).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Inhibition of thought (confusion).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Pallor of the skin.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Increased perspiration.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Cardiac palpitation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Respiratory disturbances.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Tremor.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Muscular weakness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Gastric and intestinal disturbances.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>(Blushing or congestion of the skin would replace
-pallor if the fear was represented or accompanied
-by shame or bashfulness, etc. (self-debasement and
-self-consciousness),<a id='r217' /><a href='#f217' class='c009'><sup>[217]</sup></a> or if the affective state was
-anger.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>On the sensory side we would have various paresthesiæ
-varying with the idiosyncrasies of the individual,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_442'>442</span>and apparently dependent upon the paths
-through which the emotional energy is discharged:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“Thrills.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Feeling of oppression in the chest.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Headache.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Nausea (with or without vomiting).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Pains, fatigue, etc.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is of practical importance to note that attacks
-of powerful emotions, according to common experience,
-are apt to be followed by exhaustion; consequently
-in morbid fears fatigue is a frequent
-sequela.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'>Physiological Mimicry of Disease.</h3>
-
-<p class='c015'>Now, theoretically, one or more of these physiological
-disturbances might be so obtrusive as to be
-the predominant feature of the syndrome and to
-mask the psychical element which might then be
-overlooked. Gastric and intestinal disturbances, for
-instance, or cardiac distress, might be so marked as
-not to be recognized as simply manifestations of an
-emotion, but be mistaken for true gastric, intestinal,
-or heart disease. Going one step further, if a person
-had a frequently recurring fear, as is so common,
-and the physiological symptoms were obtrusively
-predominant, these latter would necessarily
-recur in attacks and, overshadowing the psychical
-element, might well have all the appearance (both to
-the subject and the observer) of true disease of the
-viscera.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, as a fact this theoretical possibility is just
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_443'>443</span>what happens. It is one of the commonest of occurrences,
-although it is too frequently misunderstood.<a id='r218' /><a href='#f218' class='c009'><sup>[218]</sup></a>
-A person, we will say, has acquired—owing
-to no matter what psychogenetic factor—a recurrent
-fear. This fear, or, in less obtrusive form, anxiety,
-or apprehension, is, we will say, of disease—heart
-disease or insanity or fainting or cancer or epilepsy
-or what not. It recurs from time to time when awakened
-by some thought or stimulus from the environment.
-At once there is an outburst of physiological,
-i.e., functional disturbances, in the form of an “attack.”
-There may be violent cardiac and respiratory
-disease, tremor, flushing, perspiration, diarrhœa,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_444'>444</span>sensory disturbances, etc., followed by more
-or less lasting exhaustion. On the principle of complex
-building, which we have discussed in a previous
-lecture, the various physiological reactions embraced
-in such a scheme as I have outlined tend to
-become welded into a complex (or association
-psycho-neurosis), and this complex of reactions in
-consequence recurs as a syndrome every time the
-fear is reëxcited. On every occasion when the anxiety
-recurs, a group of symptoms recurs which is
-made up of these physical manifestations of emotion
-which are peculiar to the individual case. The
-symptoms, unless a searching inquiry is made into
-their mode of onset, sequence, and associative relations,
-will appear a chaotic mass of unrelated phenomena;
-or only certain obtrusive ones, which in the
-mind of the patient point to disease of a particular
-organ, are described by him. The remainder have to
-be specifically sought for by the investigator. The
-latter, if experienced in such psycho-neuroses, can
-often from his knowledge of the phenomena of emotion
-anticipate the facts and in a large degree foretell
-to the patient the list of symptoms from which
-he suffers. By those who lack familiarity with these
-functional disturbances mistakes in diagnosis are
-frequently made. Disease of the heart, or of the
-stomach, or of the nervous system is frequently
-diagnosed when the symptoms are simply the
-product of emotion. Quite commonly, when the
-symptoms are less related to particular organs, but
-more conspicuously embrace vasomotor, sensory,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_445'>445</span>digestive disturbances (inhibition of function), and
-fatigue, the syndrome is mistaken for so-called
-<cite>neurasthenia</cite>.<a id='r219' /><a href='#f219' class='c009'><sup>[219]</sup></a> Thus it happens that in recurrent
-morbid fears—known as the phobias or obsessions—a
-group of symptoms are met with which at first
-sight appear to be unrelated bodily disturbances,
-but which when analyzed are seen to be only a certain
-number of physiological manifestations of emotion
-welded into a complex. On every occasion that
-the fear recurs this complex is reproduced.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It now remains to study the effect of the emotions
-on the psychical side. This we shall do in the next
-lecture.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f196'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r196'>196</a>. I use the word, not in the strict but in the popular and general
-sense, to include feeling, indeed all affective states, excepting
-where the context gives the strict meaning.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f197'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r197'>197</a>. The James-Lange theory is disregarded here as untenable.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f198'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r198'>198</a>. La Pathologie des Emotions, 1892.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f199'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r199'>199</a>. Physiological Dilatation and the Mitral Sphincter as Factors in
-Functional and Organic Disturbances of the Heart, <cite>The American
-Journal of the Medical Sciences</cite>, February, 1901; also, The Occurrence
-and Mechanism of Physiological Heart Murmurs (Endocardial)
-in Healthy Individuals, <cite>The Medical Record</cite>, April 20, 1889.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f200'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r200'>200</a>. The emotional factor is a source of possible fallacy in all observations
-on arterial tension and must be guarded against.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f201'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r201'>201</a>. Frederick Peterson and C. G. Jung: Psycho-Physical Investigations
-with the Galvanometer and Pneumograph, <cite>Brain</cite>, Vol. XXX,
-July, 1907, p. 153.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f202'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r202'>202</a>. The Work of the Digestive Glands (English Translation), London,
-02.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f203'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r203'>203</a>. For a summary of Cannon’s work, see his article, Recent Advances
-in the Physiology of the Digestive Organs Bearing on Medicine
-and Surgery, <cite>The Medical Journal of Medical Sciences</cite>, 1906,
-New Series, Vol. CXXXI, pp. 563-578.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f204'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r204'>204</a>. <cite>American Journal of Medical Sciences</cite>, 1906, p. 566. See also
-“The Influence of Emotional States on the Functions of the Alimentary
-Canal,” by the same writer (<cite>ibid.</cite>, April, 1909) for an interesting
-résumé of the subject.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f205'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r205'>205</a>. <cite>American Journal of the Medical Sciences</cite>, April, 1909.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f206'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r206'>206</a>. Cannon and de la Paz: <cite>American Journal of Physiology</cite>, April
-1, 1911.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f207'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r207'>207</a>. Cannon, Shohl, and Wright, Ibid., December 1, 1911.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f208'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r208'>208</a>. These effects of adrenalin suggest that the secretion may take
-some part in pathological anxiety states.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f209'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r209'>209</a>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Pathologie des Emotions</span>, 1892.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The influence of emotion on the <em>muscular system</em>
-need hardly be more than referred to. Tremor,
-twitchings, particularly of the facial muscles, and
-other involuntary movements, as well as modifications
-of the tonus of the muscles, are common effects.
-All sorts of disturbances occur, ranging from
-increase of excitability to paralysis. Everyone
-knows that under the influence of powerful emotion,
-whether of joy, anger, or fear, there is discharged
-an increase of energy to the muscles, sometimes
-of an intensity which enables an individual to</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f210'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r210'>210</a>. The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, p. 266.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f211'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r211'>211</a>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Note sur les modifications de la résistance électrique sous l’influence
-des excitations sensorielles et des émotions, <cite>C. R. Soc. de
-Biologie</cite></span>, 1888, p. 217.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f212'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r212'>212</a>. Psycho-Physical Investigations with the Galvanometer and Pneumograph
-in Normal and Insane Individuals, <cite>Brain</cite>, Vol. XXX, July,
-1907.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f213'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r213'>213</a>. <cite>Psychological Review</cite>, November, 1908, and January, 1909.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f214'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r214'>214</a>. The Nature and Causation of the Galvanic Phenomena, <cite>Psychological
-Review</cite>, March, 1910, <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, June-July,
-1910.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f215'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r215'>215</a>. Having demonstrated the development of electromotive force
-within the body, these experimenters assumed that every psycho-galvanic
-reaction was of this type. But plainly, their results do not
-contradict the phenomenon of diminished resistance of the body to
-an electric current brought about by emotion stimulating the sweat
-glands. The evidence indicates, as I have said, two types of psycho-galvanic
-phenomena.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f216'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r216'>216</a>. On Certain Electrical Processes in the Human Body and Their
-Relation to Emotional Reactions, <cite>Archives of Psychology</cite>, March,
-1911.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f217'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r217'>217</a>. Morbid self-consciousness is commonly accompanied by fear and
-other emotions. Nausea, although the specific manifestation of disgust,
-not rarely is induced by fear.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f218'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r218'>218</a>. A good example is that of an extreme “neurasthenic,” who
-had been reduced to a condition of severe inanition from inability to
-take a proper amount of food because of failure of digestion, nausea,
-and vomiting. Examined by numerous and able physicians in this
-country and Europe, none had been able to recognize any organic
-disease or the true cause of the gastric difficulty which remained a
-puzzle. As a therapeutic measure her stomach had been continuously
-and regularly washed out. Yet it was not difficult to recognize, after
-analyzing the symptoms and the conditions of their occurrence, that
-the disturbances of the gastric functions were due to complex mental
-factors, the chief of which, emotion, inhibited the gastric function,
-as in Cannon’s experiments, and indirectly or directly, induced the
-nausea and vomiting. The correctness of this diagnosis was recognized
-by the attending physician and patient. Sometimes a phobia
-complicates a true organic disease and produces symptoms which
-mimic the symptoms of the latter—heart disease, for example. In
-this case it is often difficult to recognize the purely phobic character
-of the symptoms. O. H. C. was such a case. Though there was
-severe valvular disease of the heart, compensation was good and there
-was little if any cardiac disability. The attacks of dyspnœa and
-other symptoms were unmistakably the physical manifestation of a
-phobia of the disease. The phobia had been artificially created by
-overcautious physicians.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f219'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r219'>219</a>. One has only to compare routine out-patient hospital records
-with the actual state of patients to verify the truth of this statement.
-For purposes of instruction I have frequently done this before
-the class. The true nature of the psycho-neurosis and the irrelevancy
-of the routine record and diagnosis have, I believe, been commonly
-made manifest. Sometimes, however, of course, phobias complicate
-other diseases, and we have a mixed symptomatology.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_446'>446</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE XV<br /> INSTINCTS, SENTIMENTS, AND CONFLICTS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>It is generally agreed that emotions proper (as
-distinguished from other affective states) may be
-divided into those which are primary (anger, fear,
-disgust, etc.), and those (jealousy, admiration,
-hatred, etc.), which are compounded of two or more
-primary emotions. McDougall has made a great
-contribution to our knowledge in having made clear
-that a primary emotion is not only instinctive, but
-is the central or psychical element in a reflex process
-consisting, besides, of an ingoing stimulus and an
-outgoing impulse. The whole process is the instinct.<a id='r220' /><a href='#f220' class='c009'><sup>[220]</sup></a>
-It is of course innate, and depends on congenital
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_447'>447</span>prearrangements of the nervous system.
-The central element, the emotion, provides the conative
-or impulse force which carries the instinct to
-fulfilment. It is the motive power, the dynamic
-agent that executes, that propels the response which
-follows the stimulus. Though we speak of anger
-and fear, for example, as instincts, McDougall is
-unquestionably right in insisting that more correctly
-speaking the activated instinct is a process in which
-the emotion is only one factor—the psychical. The
-instincts of anger and fear should more precisely be
-termed respectively “pugnacity with the emotion of
-anger” and “flight with the emotion of fear.” In the
-one case, the emotion, as the central reaction to a
-stimulus, by its conative force impels to pugnacity;
-in the other fear impels to flight; and so with the
-other instincts and their emotions which I would
-suggest may be termed arbitrarily the <cite>emotion-instincts</cite>,
-to distinguish them from the more general
-instincts and innate dispositions with which animal
-psychology chiefly deals, and in which the affective
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_448'>448</span>element is feebler or has less of the specific psychical
-quality. For brevity’s sake, however, we may speak
-of the instinct of anger, fear, tender feeling, etc. Of
-course they are biological in their nature.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This formulation, by McDougall, of emotion as
-one factor in an instinctive process must be regarded
-as one of the most important contributions
-to our knowledge of the mechanism of emotion. It
-can scarcely be traversed, as it is little more than a
-descriptive statement of observed facts. It is
-strange that this conception of the process should
-have been so long overlooked. Its value lies in replacing
-vagueness with a precise conception of one
-of the most important of psychological phenomena,
-and enables us to clearly understand the part played
-by emotion in mental processes. It also shows
-clearly the inadequacy of the objective methods of
-normal psychology when attempting to investigate
-emotion by measuring the discharge of its impulsive
-force in one direction only, namely, the disturbances
-of the functions of the viscera (vasomotor, glandular,
-etc.). It discharges also along lines of mental
-activity and conduct.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When studying the organization of complexes,
-and in other lectures, we saw, as everyone knows in
-a general way, that <cite>affects may become linked with
-ideas</cite>, and that the force derived from this association
-gives to the ideas intensity and conative influence.
-Further, it was developed that the linking of
-a strong affect tends to stronger registration and
-conservation of experiences. This linking of an affect
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_449'>449</span>to an idea is one of the foundation stones of
-the pathology of the psycho-neuroses. One might
-say that upon it “hangs all the law and the
-prophets.”</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Inasmuch as a sentiment, even in the connotations
-of popular language, besides being an idea always
-involves an affective element, it is obvious that <cite>a
-sentiment is an idea of an object with which one or
-more emotions are organized</cite>. But, obvious as it is,
-it remained for Mr. Shand, as McDougall reminds
-us, to make this precise definition. It is hardly a
-discovery as the latter puts it, as the facts themselves
-have been long known; but it is a valuable
-definition and its value lies in helping us to think
-clearly. Nearly every idea, if not every idea, has an
-affective tone of some kind, or is one of a complex of
-ideas endowed with such tone. This tone may be
-weak so as to be hardly recognizable, or it may be
-strong. Now, if emotion is one factor in an instinctive
-process, it is evident that a sentiment more precisely
-is an idea of an object linked or organized
-with one or more “emotion-instincts.” As McDougall
-has precisely phrased it, “A sentiment is
-an organized system of emotional dispositions centered
-about the idea of some object.” The impulsive
-force of the emotional dispositions or linked
-instincts becomes the conative force of the idea, and
-it is this factor which carries the idea to fruition.
-This is one of the most important principles of functional
-psychology. Its value can scarcely be exaggerated.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_450'>450</span>Without the impulse of a linked emotion
-ideas would be lifeless, dead, inert, incapable of determining
-conduct. But when we say that an emotion
-becomes linked to, i.e., organized with that composite
-called an idea, <cite>we really mean (according to
-this theory of emotion) that it is the whole instinct,
-the emotional innate disposition of which the emotion
-is only a part that is so linked</cite>. The instinct has
-also afferent and efferent activities. The latter is
-an impulsive or conative force discharged by the
-emotion. Thus the affective element of an instinctive
-process—a process which is a biological reaction—provides
-the driving force, makes the idea a
-dynamic factor, moves us to carry the idea to fulfilment.
-As McDougall has expressed it:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>"We may say, then, that directly or indirectly the instincts are
-the prime movers of all human activity; by the conative or impulsive
-force of some instinct (or of some habit derived from
-some instinct), every train of thought, however cold and passionless
-it may seem, is borne along toward its end, and every bodily
-activity is initiated and sustained. The instinctive impulses determine
-the ends of all activities and supply the driving power
-by which all mental activities are sustained; and all the complex
-intellectual apparatus of the most highly developed mind is but
-a means toward these ends, is but the instrument by which these
-impulses seek their satisfactions, while pleasure and pain do but
-serve to guide them in their choice of the means.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>“Take away these instinctive dispositions with their powerful
-impulses, and the organism would become incapable of activity of
-any kind; it would lie inert and motionless like a wonderful clockwork
-whose mainspring had been removed, or a steam engine
-whose fires had been drawn. These impulses are the mental forces
-that maintain and shape all the life of individuals and societies,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_451'>451</span>and in them we are confronted with the central mystery of life
-and mind and will.”<a id='r221' /><a href='#f221' class='c009'><sup>[221]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Furthermore <em>the organization of the emotions
-with ideas to form sentiments is essential for self-control
-and regulation of conduct</em>, and becomes a
-safeguard against mental, physiological, and social
-chaos.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>“The growth of the sentiments is of the utmost importance for
-the character and conduct of individuals and of societies; it is the
-organization of the affective and conative life. In the absence of
-sentiments our emotional life would be a mere chaos, without
-order, consistency, or continuity of any kind; and all our social
-relations and conduct, being based on the emotions and their impulses,
-would be correspondingly chaotic, unpredictable, and unstable.
-It is only through the systematic organization of the emotional
-dispositions in sentiments that the volitional control of the
-immediate promptings of the emotions is rendered possible. Again,
-our judgments of value and of merit are rooted in our sentiments;
-and our moral principles have the same source, for they are
-formed by our judgments of moral value.”<a id='r222' /><a href='#f222' class='c009'><sup>[222]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Summing up, then, we may say <cite>one of the chief
-functions of emotion</cite> is to provide the conative force
-which enables ideas to fulfill their aims, and one
-of the chief functions of sentiments to control and
-regulate the emotions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Besides the instinctive dispositions proper there
-are other innate dispositions which similarly provide
-conative force and determine activities. For
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_452'>452</span>the practical purposes of the problems with which
-we are concerned, the conative or impulsive forces
-of all such innate dispositions and the sentiments
-which they help to form are here, it should be understood,
-considered together and included under instincts.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>The conative function of emotion.</b>—I shall take up in a
-later lecture<a id='r223' /><a href='#f223' class='c009'><sup>[223]</sup></a> (in connection with the psychogenesis
-of multiple personality) the instincts and sentiments
-for discussion in more detail. The point to
-which I wish in this connection to call attention is
-that when a simple emotion-instinct, or an idea
-linked with an instinct (a sentiment) is awakened
-by any stimulus, <cite>its impulsive force is discharged
-in three directions</cite>: the <cite>first</cite> is toward the excitation
-of those articulated movements and ideas which
-guide and carry the instinct to fruition—to fight in
-the case of anger, to flee in the case of fear, to cherish
-in the case of love, etc. <cite>Second</cite> (accessory to the
-first) the excitation of many of the various visceral
-functions which we have reviewed reinforces the instinctive
-movements; e. g., for pugnacity or flight
-the increased respiration and activity of the heart
-increase the supply of oxygen and blood to the muscles;
-the secretion of sweat regulates the temperature
-during increased activity, the increased secretion
-of adrenalin and the increased secretion of
-sugar may, as Cannon suggests, respectively keep
-up the emotional state (after the cause of the fear
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_453'>453</span>or anger has subsided) and meet the demand of the
-muscles for an extra supply of food, etc.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Later experiments of Cannon seem to show that
-the adrenal secretion removes the fatigue of muscles;
-and, further, that stimulation of the splanchic
-nerves will largely recover fatigued muscles, increasing
-the efficiency as much as 100 per cent.<a id='r224' /><a href='#f224' class='c009'><sup>[224]</sup></a> As
-emotion discharges its impulses along splanchic
-pathways to the adrenal glands, the inference as to
-the function of emotion in overcoming fatigue is
-obvious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As to the <cite>sensory accompaniments of emotion</cite>, it
-is quite reasonable to suppose that their rôle is to
-supplement and reinforce in consciousness the affect,
-thereby aiding in arousing the individual to a
-full appreciation of the situation and to such voluntary
-effort (whether to guide and assist the instinct
-to its fulfillment or to repress it) as, in the light of
-past experiences, his judgment dictates. These
-sensory disturbances on this theory act as additional
-warnings in consciousness where the affect proper
-might be too weak.<a id='r225' /><a href='#f225' class='c009'><sup>[225]</sup></a> Their function would be like
-that of pain in the case of organic disease. Pain
-is a biological reaction and a warning to the individual
-to rest the diseased part,<a id='r226' /><a href='#f226' class='c009'><sup>[226]</sup></a> as well as a danger
-signal.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The <cite>third</cite> direction which the discharge of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_454'>454</span>impulsive force of the emotion takes is toward the
-repression of the conflicting conative force of such
-other emotions as would act in an antagonistic direction.<a id='r227' /><a href='#f227' class='c009'><sup>[227]</sup></a>
-The utility of the discharge in this direction
-is supplementary to that of the excitation of the
-visceral functions: <cite>the former protects against the
-invasion of counteracting forces, the latter strengthens
-the force of the impulse in question</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><cite>Conflicts thus arise.</cite> When an emotion is aroused
-a conflict necessarily occurs between its impulse and
-that of any other existing affective state, the impulse
-of which is antagonistic to the aim of the former.
-Consequently instincts and sentiments which,
-through the conative force of their emotion, tend
-to drive the conduct of the individual in a course in
-opposition to that of a newly aroused emotion (instinct)
-meet with resistance. Whichever instinct or
-sentiment, meaning whichever impulse, is the
-stronger necessarily downs the other; inhibits the
-central and efferent parts of the process—ideas,
-emotions and impulses—though the afferent part
-conveys the stimulus to the central factor. Thus
-processes of thought to which the inhibited sentiment
-or instinct would normally give rise, or
-with which it is systematized, are likewise inhibited
-and behavior correspondingly modified. These
-statements are only descriptive of what is common
-experience. If one recalls to mind the principal
-primary emotions (instincts) such as the sexual, anger,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_455'>455</span>fear, tender feeling, hunger, self-abasement,
-self-assertion, curiosity, etc., this is seen to be an
-obvious biological truth.<a id='r228' /><a href='#f228' class='c009'><sup>[228]</sup></a> Fear is suppressed by
-anger, tender feeling, or curiosity (wonder), and
-<cite>vice versa</cite>; hunger and the sexual instinct by disgust.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>What is true of the primitive instincts and
-their primary emotions is also true of compound
-instincts (emotions) and of sentiments, i.e., ideas
-about which one or several emotions are systematized.
-We may, therefore, for brevity’s sake, speak
-of a conflict of ideas or sentiments or emotions or
-instincts indiscriminately. In other words, <cite>any affective
-state may be suppressed by conflict with another
-and stronger affective state</cite>. A timid mother,
-impelled by the parental instinct, has no fear of
-danger to herself when her child is threatened. The
-instinct of pugnacity (anger) in this case not being
-antagonistic (in conflict) is not only not suppressed
-but may be awakened as a reaction to aid in the
-expression of the parental instinct. <cite>Per contra</cite>,
-when anger would conflict with this instinct, as when
-the child does wrong, the anger is suppressed by
-the parental instinct. Conversely, the sentiment
-of love for a particular person may be completely
-suppressed by jealousy and anger. Hatred of a
-person may expel from consciousness previous sentiments
-of sympathy, justice, pity, respect, fear, etc.
-The animal under the influence of the parental instinct
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_456'>456</span>may be incapable of fear in defense of its
-young, particularly if anger is excited. Fear may
-be suppressed in an animal or human being if either
-is impelled by great curiosity over a strange object.
-Instead of taking to flight, the animal may stand
-still in wonder. Similarly in man, curiosity to examine,
-for example, an explosive—an unexploded
-shell or bomb—inhibits the fear of danger often, as
-we know, with disastrous results. The suppression
-of the sexual instinct by conflict is one of the most
-notorious of the experiences of this kind in everyday
-life. This instinct cannot be excited during an
-attack of fear and anger, and even during moments
-of its excitation, if there is an invasion of another
-strong emotion the sexual instinct at once is repressed.
-Under these conditions, as with other
-instincts, even habitual excitants can no longer initiate
-the instinctive process. Chloe would appeal in
-vain to her lover if he were suddenly seized with
-fright or she had inadvertently awakened in him
-an intense jealousy or anger. Similarly the instinct
-may be suppressed, particularly in men, as every
-psycho-pathologist has observed, by the awakening
-of the instinct of self-subjection with its emotion
-of self-abasement (McDougall) with fear, shown in
-the sentiments of incapacity, shame, etc. The authors
-of “<cite>Vous n’avez rien à declarer</cite>” makes this
-the principal theme in this laughable drama. Indeed
-the principle of the suppression of one instinct
-by conflict with another has been made use of by
-writers of fiction and drama in all times.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_457'>457</span>This principle of inhibition by conflict allows us
-to understand the imperative persistence (if not
-the genesis) of certain sexual perversions in otherwise
-healthy-minded and normal people who have
-a loathing for such perversions in other people but
-can not overcome them in themselves. H. O., for
-example, has such a perversion, and yet the idea
-of this perversion in another person excites a lively
-emotion of disgust. In other words, at bottom, as
-we say, she is right-minded. How then account for
-the continuance of a self practice which she reprobates
-in another, censures in herself, and desires to
-be free of, and why does not the instinct of repulsion,
-and the sentiment of self respect, etc., act in
-herself as a safeguard? Introspective examination
-shows that when the sexual emotion is awakened,
-disgust and the sentiments of pride and self respect
-are suppressed, and the momentarily activating instinct
-determines all sorts of sophistical reasoning
-by which the perversion is justified to herself. As
-soon as the instinct accomplishes its aim it becomes
-exhausted, and at once intense disgust, meeting with
-no opposition, becomes awakened and in turn determines
-once more her right-minded ideas. Based
-upon this mechanism one therapeutic procedure
-would be to organize artificially so intense sentiments
-of disgust for the perversion and of self-respect
-that they would suppress the sexual impulse.<a id='r229' /><a href='#f229' class='c009'><sup>[229]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Likewise the intense religious emotions (awe, reverence,
-self-abasement, divine love, etc.) may, if
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_458'>458</span>sufficiently strong, suppress the opposing instincts
-of anger, fear, play, and self-assertion, and emotions
-compounded of them. Examples might be cited
-from the lives of religious martyrs and fanatics.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If it is true that “the instincts are the prime
-movers of all human activity,” and that through
-their systematic organization with ideas into sentiments
-they are so harnessed and brought under
-subjection that they can be utilized for the well-being
-of the individual; and if through this harnessing
-the immediate promptings of the emotions
-are brought under volitional control, then <cite>all conduct,
-in the last analysis, is determined by the conative
-force of instincts</cite><a id='r230' /><a href='#f230' class='c009'><sup>[230]</sup></a> (and other innate dispositions)
-harnessed though they be to ideas. For
-though volition itself can control, reinforce, and determine
-the particular sentiment and thus govern
-conduct,—reinforce, for instance, a weaker abstract
-moral sentiment so that it shall dominate any lower
-brutish instinct or sentiment with which it conflicts,
-still, volition must be a more complex form of conation
-and itself issue from sentiments.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We need not enter into this troublesome problem
-of the nature of the will;<a id='r231' /><a href='#f231' class='c009'><sup>[231]</sup></a> nor does it concern us.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_459'>459</span>It is enough for our purpose to recognize that volition
-can reinforce a sentiment and thus take part
-in conflicts. In this way undesirable instincts and
-sentiments can he voluntarily overcome and inhibited
-or repressed and mental processes and conduct
-determined.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Nor are we concerned here with conduct which
-pertains more properly to social psychology. Our
-task is much more limited and simple, namely to
-inquire into the immediate conscious phenomena
-provoked by emotion, just as we have studied the
-physiological phenomena. We have seen that one
-such phenomenon is inhibition or repression of antagonistic
-instincts and sentiments provoked by conflict.
-(We shall see later that a conflict may arise
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_460'>460</span>between a conscious and an entirely subconscious
-sentiment with similar resulting phenomena.)</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Repression of individual instincts may be lasting.</b>—The
-repressions resulting from conflict which we have
-just been considering have been of a temporary nature
-lasting only just so long as the conflict has
-lasted. It is instructive to note that just as an
-instinct can be cultivated until it becomes a ruling
-trait in the character, so it can be permanently repressed,
-or so intensely repressed that it cannot be
-awakened excepting by unusual excitants or under
-unusual conditions. Such a persisting repression
-may be brought about either directly by volitional
-conflict or indirectly through the cultivation of antagonistic
-sentiments. The cultivation of an instinct
-is a common enough observation. Every one
-can point to some one of his acquaintance who has
-so fostered his instinct of anger or fear, has so
-cultivated the habit of one or the other reaction that
-he has become the slave of his emotion. Conversely,
-by the conative force of the will, and still more successfully
-by the cultivation of appropriate moral
-and religious and other sentiments, and complexes
-or “settings” systematized about those sentiments,
-a person can inhibit any instinct or any sentiment
-organized with that instinct. A bad-tempered person
-can thus, if he chooses, become good-tempered;
-a coward, a brave person; a person governed by the
-instinct of self-subjection can repress it by the cultivation
-of sentiments of self-assertion, and so on.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_461'>461</span>The complete repression of unchristian instincts
-and sentiments is the acquired characteristic of
-the saintly character. The cultivation and repression
-of character traits and tendencies along these
-lines obviously belong to the domains of the psychology
-of character, social psychology, and criminology.
-But the persisting repression of at least
-one instinct—the sexual instinct—may take on
-pathological significance<a id='r232' /><a href='#f232' class='c009'><sup>[232]</sup></a> while that of sentiments
-may lead to pathological dissociation and to the
-<cite>formation of disturbing subconscious states</cite>. To
-this latter type of repression we shall presently return.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>That the sexual instinct may be involuntarily and
-persistently repressed by conflict is shown by the
-following case:</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>F. S. presented herself at the hospital clinic because
-of hysterical epileptiform attacks of six
-months’ duration. The attacks, which had been
-caused by an emotional trauma, were easily cured
-by suggestion. After recovery she fell into lamentations
-over the fact that she was sterile owing to
-both ovaries having been removed three years before
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_462'>462</span>because of pelvic disease. Just before the
-operation she had also suffered from an emotional
-trauma (fear). Although complete recovery from
-her symptoms had followed the operation, the sexual
-instinct had been abolished for three years. She
-was now much distressed over her inability to have
-children, complaining it had led to domestic infelicity,
-and apprehending divorce which had been
-threatened on the ground of her sterility. Having
-confidence in the strength of certain fundamental
-principles of human nature, and disbelieving the
-reasons alleged by the husband for divorce, I was
-able to restore domestic felicity, as well as demonstrate
-the psycho-physiological principle that the
-instinct was not lost but only inhibited. A single
-suggestion in hypnosis, psychologically constructed
-so as to bear a strong conative impulse that would
-overcome any other conflicting affective impulses
-and carry itself to fruition, restored not only the
-lost function<a id='r233' /><a href='#f233' class='c009'><sup>[233]</sup></a> but conjugal happiness. That the instinct
-had only been inhibited is obvious. Whether
-the repressing factor had been fear or an involuntary
-auto-suggestion was not determined.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The following case is instructive not only because
-of the lasting dissociation of this instinct as a
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_463'>463</span>result of a conflict, but because the dissociation was
-volitionally and intentionally effected as a revenge.
-Other interesting features are the transference of
-the repressing revenge affect to an object (clothes
-which became an amulet or fetish to protect from
-sexual approaches, and the building of a complex
-(“raw oyster”) which became the bearer of the
-repressing force. X. Y. Z. received a deep wound
-to her pride on the first night of her honeymoon
-when her husband forgot his bride of a few hours
-who was awaiting him in the nuptial chamber.
-Happening to meet in the hotel some political acquaintances
-after the bride had retired, he became
-absorbed in a political discussion and—forgot!
-When he appeared after a prolonged absence and
-presented his excuses she was hurt in her pride
-and offended to think that she was of so little importance
-to him that he could become interested in
-talking politics.<a id='r234' /><a href='#f234' class='c009'><sup>[234]</sup></a> There was anger too, and she
-vowed to herself to show, or, to use her own words,
-she “would be hanged if” she would show that she
-had any liking for or any interest in the marital
-intimacy. (She had never hitherto experienced any
-sexual feelings and, like most young girls, was entirely
-ignorant of the physical side. Nevertheless,
-from what she had been told, she had idealized the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_464'>464</span>spiritual union of husband and wife and anticipated
-pleasurable experiences.) So purposely she repressed
-any interest, made herself absolutely indifferent
-to her spouse’s amorous attentions and
-experienced absolutely no sexual feeling; and so
-it continued for some days. In view of what later
-happened, and what we know of conflicts, we must
-believe that the impulses which carried her volition
-to fruition came from the emotions of anger, pride,
-and revenge.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Then one afternoon, just after she had finished
-dressing herself preparatory to going out, her husband
-came into her room and made advances to
-her. The idea appealed to her and she became
-emotionally excited at the thought. But in the
-middle of the act when the libido began to be
-aroused, suddenly she remembered that she had been
-snubbed at the first and that her rôle was to show
-no liking or interest. There were reawakened the
-emotions of pride, anger, and revenge, although not
-malicious revenge. Impelled by these emotions she
-actually gave herself suggestions to effect her purpose—a
-determination to get square with the past.
-She said to herself, “I must not like it; I must put
-it away back in my mind, I must become flabby as
-an oyster.” Thereupon she became “perfectly
-limp and uninterested and the feelings of flabbiness
-came over” her, and the beginning sexual feeling
-subsided at once. (That day she had eaten some
-raw oysters and had been impressed by them as the
-essence of flabbiness.) She admitted having continued
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_465'>465</span>during succeeding years to cherish this revengeful
-feeling as to the sexual relation—to get
-square with the past. She defended it, however,
-(although admitting the childishness of the original
-episode) on the ground that the slight to her pride
-must be viewed in connection with a long series of
-antecedent experiences. These must therefore be
-viewed as the setting which gave meaning to her
-idea of sexual relations with her husband. After
-this at the sexual approach under conventional
-marital conditions she for a time always volitionally
-induced this flabby “raw-oyster” sensation and
-feeling. Later it would automatically arise at the
-first indication or suggestion of the approach and
-counteract the libido. It was now no longer necessary
-to be on guard, knowing she could not be taken
-unawares. The consequence has been that the patient
-has never consciously experienced any sexual
-feeling beyond those first beginnings at the time
-of the experience when she was fully dressed. The
-patient can produce the “raw-oyster” state at will
-and exhibited it voluntarily during the examination.
-The state as then observed was one of lethargy or
-extreme relaxation. There was no general anæsthesia;
-pinching and pricking was felt perfectly,
-but, as she remarked, they carried no sensation of
-discomfort. “I do not care at the moment,” she
-explained, “what any one does to me; no sensation
-would cause pleasure or discomfort.” To arouse
-the state she thinks of the sexual approach first,
-and then the state comes. The sexual instinct has
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_466'>466</span>never been aroused by reading, or associative ideas
-of any kind. “It does not exist,” to quote her
-words.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Clothes became an amulet of protection in the
-following way: Ever since that afternoon when she
-was taken unawares in her clothes (and “almost
-liked it”) she realized and feared that sexual approaches
-when she was fully clothed might arouse
-the sexual instinct. Consequently she was more on
-her guard when fully clothed than at night for
-fear of being taken unawares. The idea that she
-must be on her guard when clothed became fixed,
-and, at first, when in this condition, she was always
-on her guard ready to defend herself by <cite>pugnacity</cite>.
-Then any approach at such times, if accompanied
-by physical contact, awakened an instinctive reaction
-which became a defense; it aroused the instincts
-of fear and anger. Any affectionate demonstration
-suggestive of the approach on the part of
-her husband would arouse these defensive instincts.
-On the other hand, when half dressed there has
-been no such ebullition of emotion; she has in consequence
-always believed that having clothes on would
-protect her against admirers. Indeed, as a fact,
-this is so, for any show of affection from any one
-manifested by a touch, even the friendly pat of the
-hand, will cause an unnecessary and unreasonable
-outburst of uncontrollable anger, such as to astonish
-and startle the offender. Clothes, becoming
-thus a sentiment in which the instincts of flight and
-pugnacity are incorporated, have also become a protection
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_467'>467</span>in themselves—an amulet to ward off danger.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>What reason, it may be asked, is there for believing
-that the sexual instinct really exists in this case,
-and is only repressed or dissociated? I may not
-state all the reasons; it is sufficient to say that the
-evidence is to be found in dreams. The large number
-of sexual dreams which the subject has experienced,
-many of them accompanied by realistic sexual
-manifestations and not symbolic only, leave no
-doubt of this fact.<a id='r235' /><a href='#f235' class='c009'><sup>[235]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'><cite>Conflicts with subconscious sentiments.</cite> Thus
-far we have been considering conflicts between sentiments
-and emotional processes which have been
-in the full light of consciousness. But in previous
-lectures we have seen that ideas with strong emotional
-tones may be dissociated and function below
-the threshold of consciousness as coconscious processes.
-It is theoretically possible, therefore, that
-conflicts might arise between a dissociated coconscious
-sentiment and one that is antagonistic to
-it in consciousness. To appreciate this theoretical
-condition let me point out that there is one important
-<cite>difference between the ultimate consequences
-of the repression of an instinct and of a sentiment</cite>.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_468'>468</span>If an instinct is repressed (it being only an innate
-disposition) it ceases to be an active factor in the
-functioning organism. It is inhibited. A stimulus
-that ordinarily suffices to excite it fails to do so,
-and it may respond only to an extraordinarily powerful
-stimulus, or perhaps none will awaken it.
-Thus abstinence from food fails to awaken a sense
-of hunger in a person who has lost this instinct for
-any reason, even though appetizing food be placed
-before him.<a id='r236' /><a href='#f236' class='c009'><sup>[236]</sup></a> Similarly anger, or fear, or tender
-emotion, or self-assertion, or disgust, in certain
-persons cannot be awakened excepting by very unusual
-stimuli. In other words, the psycho-physiological
-reflex is completely or relatively in abeyance
-just as much so as is an organic reflex (e. g.,
-the knee-jerk) which has been inhibited. Normally,
-of course, it is rare for an instinct to be absolutely
-inhibited excepting temporarily, as has been explained,
-during a conflict with another instinct. In
-certain pathological conditions (e. g., dissociated
-personality), almost any instinct may be persistently
-inhibited. In normal conditions there is, however,
-one exception, namely the sexual instinct,
-which, as we have seen from instances cited, may
-be inhibited during long periods of time. In women
-this inhibition is common and is effected, as I believe,
-by the subtle and insensible influence of the
-environment of the child and by social education,
-in other words, by the social taboo. Wherever
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_469'>469</span>inhibition occurs observation would seem to show
-that the psycho-physiological function has ceased
-to take part in the functioning organism.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>With sentiments, however, the case stands differently.
-A sentiment, being an idea about which
-a system of emotional dispositions has been organized,
-when repressed by conflict, or when simply out
-of mind, whether capable of reproduction as memory
-or not, may, like all ideas, still be conserved, as
-we have seen, as an unconscious neurogram. As we
-have also seen, so long as it is conserved it is still
-a part of the personality. Even though repressed
-it is not necessarily absolutely inhibited but may
-be simply dissociated and then be <cite>able to take on
-dissociated subconscious activity</cite>. As a subconscious
-process the idea continues still organized
-with its emotional dispositions, and the conative
-forces of these, under certain conditions, may continue
-striving to give expression to the idea. We
-have already become familiar with one phenomenon
-of this striving, namely, the emerging into consciousness
-of the emotional element of the sentiment
-while the idea remains subconscious, thus
-producing an unaccountable fear or joy, feelings of
-pleasure or pain, etc. (p. 381).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>1. This being so, it having been determined that
-<cite>under certain conditions</cite> any conserved experience
-may become activated as a dissociated subconscious
-process, it is <cite>theoretically</cite> quite possible
-that the impulses of an activated subconscious sentiment
-might come into conflict with the impulses of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_470'>470</span>a conscious process—the two being antagonistic.
-The resulting phenomena might be the same as
-when both factors to the contest are in consciousness.
-In such a conflict if the impulsive force of
-the subconscious sentiment is the stronger the conscious
-ideas, sentiments, and feelings—in short, the
-conscious process—would be repressed, and <cite>vice
-versa</cite>. Or if the subconscious sentiment got the
-worst of the conflict and could not repress the conscious
-process, the former, being dissociated and
-an independent “automatic” process, might theoretically
-induce various other phenomena in the
-effort to fulfil its aim. If it could not directly overcome
-the impulses of the conscious process it might
-circumvent the latter by inducing mental and physiological
-disturbances which would indirectly prevent
-the conscious impulses from fulfilling their
-aim; e. g., inhibition of the will, dissociation or
-total inhibition of <a id='corr470.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='consciousnes'>consciousness</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_470.19'><ins class='correction' title='consciousnes'>consciousness</ins></a></span>, amnesia for particular
-memories, motor phenomena interfering
-with normal activity, etc. The subconscious sentiment
-engaging in such a conflict could be excited
-to activity by any associative antagonistic idea in
-consciousness. It should be noted that the subject
-being entirely unaware of the subconscious process
-would not know the cause of the resulting phenomena.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2. Now, in fact, <cite>such hypothetical conflicts and
-phenomena are actually observed</cite> in very neat and
-precise form <cite>under experimental conditions</cite>, particularly
-in pathological or quasi-pathological subjects.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_471'>471</span>These conditions are particularly instructive
-as they allow us to clearly recognize the subconscious
-character of the conflicting process and
-detect the exact sentiment concerned therein.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The following experiment illustrative of such a
-conflict between a conscious and subconscious process
-I have repeated many times in one subject with
-the same resulting phenomenon. It has been
-demonstrated on several occasions to psychologists
-and others. On the first occasion when the phenomenon
-was observed it was entirely spontaneous
-and unexpected as also has since been frequently
-the case.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>B. C. A. in one phase of alternating personality
-(B) was asked to mention a certain complex of
-ideas which was known to have been organized
-about a distressing “sentiment” in another phase
-(C) causing considerable unhappiness. This sentiment
-included a strong emotion of pride in consequence
-of which she had in the C phase intense
-objections to revealing these ideas. As she herself
-said, she “would have gone to the stake first.”
-Phase B has no such sentiment, but on the contrary
-the ideas in question were only amusing to her.<a id='r237' /><a href='#f237' class='c009'><sup>[237]</sup></a>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_472'>472</span>In phase B, therefore, she not only had no objection
-to revealing the sentiment distressing to C but desired
-for therapeutic reasons to do so. In accordance
-with this difference of sentiments the difference
-in the attitude of mind in the two phases
-toward the same experience was quite striking. The
-impulse in the one was to conceal the experiences
-and sentiment, in the other to divulge them.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now, in reply to an interrogatory as to what was
-distressing in the C phase, B begins to mention the
-sentiment. At once, and to her astonishment, her
-lips and tongue are tied by painful spasms involving,
-also, the throat muscles. She becomes dumb,
-unable to overcome the resistance. She struggles
-in vain to speak. When she gives up the struggle
-to pronounce the forbidden words she speaks with
-ease on other subjects saying “something prevented
-me from speaking.” Each time that she
-endeavors to turn State’s evidence and to peach
-on herself, the same struggle is repeated. When
-she persists in her effort, using all her will-power,
-the effect of the conflicting force extends to consciousness.
-Her thoughts become first confused,
-then obliterated, and she falls back in her seat limp,
-paralyzed, and apparently unconscious. The
-thoughts to which she strove to give expression have
-disappeared. She now cannot even will to speak.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But she is not really unconscious, it is only another
-phase; there is only a dissociation or inhibition
-of the consciousness comprising the system of
-ideas making up the B phase and an awakening of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_473'>473</span>another restricted system. When automatic writing
-is tried, it is found that a limited field of consciousness
-is present in which are to be found the
-ideas which opposed the resistance. A precise
-statement of the opposing factors (volition) which
-offered the resistance and brought about the conflict,
-the spasm of the vocal apparatus, and finally
-inhibition or dissociation of consciousness, is obtained
-from this dissociated restricted field.<a id='r238' /><a href='#f238' class='c009'><sup>[238]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This phenomenon carries its own interpretation
-on its face and cannot be doubted. Certain sentiments,
-for the moment dormant and outside the
-focus of awareness of the subject, are “struck” or
-stimulated by memories within that focus. The
-conative force of the conscious wishes to which the
-subject seeks to give expression meets with the resistance
-of a similar and more powerful force from
-the previously dormant sentiment. The latter carries
-itself to fulfilment and <cite>controls the vocal apparatus
-at first, and then, finding itself likely to be
-overcome by the will-power of the personality, annihilates
-the latter by the inhibition and dissociation
-of consciousness</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Various forms of the same phenomenon of conflict
-with subconscious processes I have experimentally
-demonstrated in Miss B. and O. N.
-Spontaneous manifestations of the same have also
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_474'>474</span>been frequently observed in all three subjects. In
-the published account of Miss B.<a id='r239' /><a href='#f239' class='c009'><sup>[239]</sup></a> numerous examples
-are given. I will merely refer to the attacks
-of aboulia, the dissociations of consciousness and
-inhibition of thought, and of speech resulting in
-stuttering and dumbness, the inhibition of motor
-activity, the induction of systematized anesthesia
-and alexia, etc. In the prolonged study of the case
-I was the witness, I was going to say, of innumerable
-exhibitions of such manifestations, and the book
-is replete with examples of conflicts between opposing
-mental processes. B. C. A. in her account, “My
-Life as a Dissociated Personality,”<a id='r240' /><a href='#f240' class='c009'><sup>[240]</sup></a> has described
-similar spontaneous phenomena. It is worth noting
-in this connection that the commonplace phenomena
-of systematized anesthesia (negative hallucinations)
-may be induced by conflict with a subconscious
-process motivated by strong emotion. Thus
-Miss B. in one of her phases could not see the writing
-on a sheet of paper which appeared blank to
-her; on another occasion she could not see the
-printing of the pages of a French novel which she
-therefore took to be a blank book, nor could she
-see a bookcase containing French books.<a id='r241' /><a href='#f241' class='c009'><sup>[241]</sup></a> The subconscious
-conflicting ideas were motivated by anger
-in the one case and jealousy in the other. That the
-conflicting ideas in this case were elements synthesized
-in a large dissociated system or subconscious
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_475'>475</span>self in no way affects the principle, which is that
-of conflict between processes. The conflicting process
-in such conditions is a more complex one, that
-is all. Undoubtedly the systematized anesthesia, so
-easily induced by hypnotic suggestion and which
-has been made the subject of much study, may be
-explained on the same principle, although the affective
-elements are not so obtrusive. The conflict is
-between the personal volition of the subject to see
-the marked playing-card, if that is the test object
-used in the experiment, and the suggested idea not
-to see it. The latter wins if the experiment is successful
-and inhibits the perception of the card—i.
-e., dissociates it from the focus of awareness.
-(The emotional tones involved are obscure; possibly
-they are curiosity on the one hand vs. self-subjection
-on the other.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The <cite>unconscious resistance to suggestion</cite> is probably
-of the same nature. Every one knows that it
-is difficult to hypnotize a person who resists the
-suggestion. This resistance may come from a
-counter auto-suggestion which may be entirely involuntary,
-perhaps a conviction on the part of the
-subject that she cannot be hypnotized, or an unwillingness
-to be—i.e., desire not to be hypnotized
-or fear. The same is true of waking a person from
-hypnosis. In other words, an antagonistic preparedness
-of the mind blocks involuntarily the suggestion.
-A very pretty illustration is the following:
-H. O. discovered that she could easily and
-rapidly hypnotize herself by simply passing her
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_476'>476</span>own fingers over her eyelids, but she could not wake
-herself out of hypnosis. She then discovered that,
-if she first gave herself the suggestion that she
-would wake when she desired, she could quickly do
-so. Likewise, if she suggested to herself that she
-could not hypnotize herself the customary procedure
-was without effect. Though this observation
-is a common phenomenon the rapidity and ease with
-which the phenomenon was demonstrated were as
-striking as it was amusing to watch her struggle
-to awake when the preparatory anticipatory autosuggestion
-had not been given.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In O. N. <cite>more complicated phenomena</cite> induced by
-conflicts with subconscious complexes have been
-equally precise and striking. In this subject I find,
-as the result of repeated observations, that, in order
-that a suggestion, that is antagonistic to a preexisting
-attitude of mind possessing a strong feeling
-tone, shall not be resisted in hypnosis, it must be
-first formally accepted by the personality <cite>before</cite>
-hypnosis is induced. If this viewpoint is not preformed,
-after hypnosis is induced the blocking attitude
-cannot be altered. Practically this means that
-the subject shall <cite>bring into consciousness and disclose
-ideas</cite> with which the intended suggestion will
-conflict and shall modify them voluntarily. This
-she does by first candidly accepting a new point of
-view, and then, secondly, by a technical procedure
-of her own, namely, by preparing her mind not to
-resist in hypnosis. This procedure, briefly stated
-and simplified, is as follows: she first says to herself,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_477'>477</span>“I will ‘take out’ that [resisting] idea.” Then
-she arranges in her thoughts the ideas of acceptance
-which she will substitute. Then she puts herself
-into a state of abstraction (hypnosis) and <cite>suggests
-to herself</cite> that the resisting idea <cite>is</cite> taken out
-and that my intended suggestion shall be her viewpoint.
-Even then, sometimes, when the resisting
-idea is one harking back to a long past period of
-life and belonging to a pathologically organized
-“mood,” known as the “b mood” or state, the
-acceptance of the suggestion may be ineffectual.
-Under these circumstances and <cite>when the hypnotic
-dissociation is carried too far</cite>, so that the hypnotic
-state is reduced to the “b mood,” the previously
-auto-suggested acceptance of the idea by the patient
-is thereby ostracized from the hypnotic field
-and is unable to play its part and have effect. So
-much by way of explanation. Now when the precaution
-has not been taken to see that any resisting
-idea has been “taken out” and when the intended
-suggestion has not been accepted, one of the following
-phenomena is observed: (1) the hypnotic
-personality when the suggestion is given becomes
-“automatically” and unconsciously restless, endeavors,
-<cite>without knowing why</cite>, to avoid listening,
-and to push me away, shifting her attitude and
-struggling to withdraw herself from contact or
-proximity—all the time the face expressing hostility
-and disapproval in its features; or (2) complete
-obnubilation of consciousness supervenes so
-that the suggestions are not heard; or (3) the subject
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_478'>478</span>suddenly wakes up. The last frequently happens
-as often as the suggestion is repeated; and
-yet in hypnosis (and also, of course, when awake),
-the subject is unaware of what causes the resistance
-and the resulting phenomena. But if now the
-subject is warned of what has occurred and accepts
-the suggestion by the procedure mentioned (unless
-the “b mood” I have mentioned recurs), the resistance
-and other phenomena at once cease and the
-suggestion takes effect. Thus in this case the conflicting
-ideas can always be precisely determined
-and the conditions of the experiment arranged at
-will and the results controlled. It is obvious that
-all three phenomena are different modes by which
-the subconscious idea resists the suggested idea and
-accomplishes its aim.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>3. <cite>In entire accordance with the experimental results
-are certain pathological disturbances</cite> which
-from time to time interrupt the course of everyday
-life of this subject, O. N. These disturbances consist
-of one or more of the following: a dissociative
-state in which the pathological “b mood” is dominant;
-a lethargic state; twilight state; complete repression
-of certain normal sentiments and instincts;
-complete alteration of previously established
-points of view; morbid self-reproach; nervousness,
-restlessness, agitation; anger at opposition;
-indecision of thought, etc. Now, whenever
-such phenomena recur, with practical certainty,
-they can always be traced by the use of technical
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_479'>479</span>methods to a conflict with a turbulent sentiment (in
-which strong emotional tones are incorporated)
-previously lying dormant in the unconscious.
-Sometimes the turbulent sentiment can be definitely
-traced to childhood’s experiences. Very often it
-has been intentionally formed and put into her mind
-by the subject herself for the very purpose of inducing
-the repression of other sentiments, to which
-for one reason or another for the time being she
-objects, and of changing her habitual point of view.
-Her method of artificially accomplishing this result
-is exceedingly instructive. It is similar to the auto-suggestive
-process I have described in connection
-with the hypnotic experiments. Having first
-prearranged her psychological plan, she proceeds
-to put herself into abstraction and to “take out”,
-as she calls it, her previous sentiment (or instinct)
-and substitute an antagonistic sentiment. When
-she comes to herself out of abstraction, the previously
-objected to sentiment has completely vanished.
-If it is one concerning a person or mode of
-life, she becomes completely indifferent to that
-person or mode of life as if previously no sentiment
-had existed. If an intimate friend, he becomes only
-an acquaintance toward whom she has entirely new
-feelings corresponding to the new sentiment; if a
-physician, nothing that he says has influence with
-her, her new feeling, we will say, being that of
-resentment; if a mode of life, she has lost all interest
-in that mode and is governed by an interest in
-a new mode. Even physiological bodily instincts
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_480'>480</span>have been in this way suppressed. She has indulged
-this psychological habit for years. Again
-and again when she has exhibited these, and still
-other, phenomena, I have been able to discover their
-origin in this auto-suggestive procedure.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Some of the other phenomena I have just mentioned
-are more likely to be traced to <cite>autochthonous
-conflicts between everyday ideas</cite>—dissatisfactions
-with actual conditions of life, and wishes for other
-conditions, unwillingness to forego the fulfilment
-of certain wishes and accept the necessary conditions
-as they exist, etc. The natural consequence
-is restlessness, agitation, anger, indecision, etc.
-The dissociation of personality, with the outcropping
-of the “b mood,” follows—a conflict due to
-the excitation of certain childhood complexes, conserved
-in the unconscious and embracing sentiments
-in which are incorporated the instinct of self-subjection
-or abasement. This “b mood” is a study in
-itself. The self-reproaches are, I believe, also
-traceable to this instinct.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><cite>Conflicts may even occur between two processes,
-both of which are subconscious</cite> and therefore outside
-of the awareness of the subject. Thus, in B.
-C. A. I have frequently observed the following:
-while the right hand has been engaged in automatic
-writing, the left hand, motivated by a subconscious
-sentiment antagonistic to the subconscious ideas
-performing the writing, has seized the pencil,
-broken it, or thrown it across the room. The two
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_481'>481</span>conflicting systems of thought, each with its own
-sentiments and wishes, have been made to disclose
-themselves and exhibit their antitheses and antipathies.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The principle of emotional conflict and the phenomena
-we have outlined enable us to understand
-the mechanism of prolonged reaction time and
-blocking of thought observed in the so-called “word
-association tests.” These tests involve too large a
-subject for us to enter upon them here. Let it suffice
-to say that when a test word strikes an emotional
-complex the response of the subject by an
-associated word may be delayed or completely
-blocked. The emotional impulse which inhibits the
-response may come from an awakened conscious
-or subconscious memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>The psychogalvanic reaction as physical evidence of actual
-subconscious emotional discharge.</b>—This reaction may be
-also used to demonstrate that subconscious processes
-may actually give forth emotional impulses without
-the ideas of those processes entering the personal
-consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>1. I may be permitted to cite here some experiments,<a id='r242' /><a href='#f242' class='c009'><sup>[242]</sup></a>
-which I made with Dr. Frederick Peterson,
-as they leave the minimum of latitude for interpretation
-and come as close as possible to the demonstration
-of emotional discharges from processes entirely
-outside of awareness. Such a demonstration
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_482'>482</span>is important for the theory of subconscious conflicts.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The experiments were undertaken in a case of
-multiple personality (B. C. A.) with a view to obtaining
-the galvanic phenomenon from coconscious
-states. This case offered an exceptional opportunity
-to determine whether the galvanic reaction
-could be obtained in one personality from the dissociated
-complexes <cite>deposited by the experiences of
-the second alternating personality for which there
-was complete amnesia on the part of the first</cite>.
-These dissociated experiences, of course, had never
-entered the awareness of the personality tested, who,
-therefore, necessarily could not possibly recall them
-to memory. With the information furnished by the
-second personality, it was easy to arrange test
-words associated with the emotional ideas of the
-experiences belonging to this personality and unknown
-to the one tested.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Similarly it was possible to test whether galvanic
-reaction could be obtained from complexes—from
-subconscious complexes—the residua of forgotten
-dreams, as in this case the dreams were not remembered
-on waking. An account of the dreams could
-be obtained in hypnosis. The dreams were therefore
-simply dissociated.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Again we could test the possibility of obtaining reactions
-from subconscious perceptions and thoughts
-which had never arisen into awareness. The required
-information concerning these perceptions and
-thoughts could be obtained in this case in hypnosis.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now we found that test words which expressed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_483'>483</span>the emotional ideas belonging to a forgotten dream
-gave, in spite of the amnesia, very marked rises in
-the galvanic curve. The same was true of the test
-words referring to dissociated experiences belonging
-to the <cite>alternating</cite> personality for which the
-tested personality had amnesia, and of the subconscious
-perceptions. For instance (as an example
-of the latter), the word <cite>lorgnette</cite>, referring to a
-subconscious perception of a stranger unnoticed by
-the conscious personality, gave a very lively reaction.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Further, pin pricks, which could not be consciously
-perceived owing to the <cite>anesthesia</cite> of the
-skin, gave strong reactions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now here in the first two sets of observations
-were emotional effects apparently obtained from
-what were very precise complexes which were definitely
-underlying, in that they never had been
-experienced by the personality tested and therefore
-could not come from memories, or from associations
-of which this personality was aware. They
-could only come from the residua of a personality
-which had experienced them and which was now
-“underlying.” That these experiences had been
-conserved is shown by the recovery of them in a
-hypnotic state, and by their being remembered by
-the secondary personality. Even the pin pricks,
-which were not felt on account of the anesthesia,
-gave reactions. It could be logically inferred, therefore,
-that the galvanic reaction was due to the activity
-of subconscious complexes, using the term in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_484'>484</span>the narrow and restricted sense of conserved residua
-without conscious equivalents. But the conditions
-were more complicated than I have described.
-There was in this case a veritable coconscious personality,
-a split-off, well-organized system of conscious
-states synthesized into a personal consciousness—two
-foci of self-consciousness. Now the
-coconscious personality with its large system of
-thoughts had full memory of all these amnesic experiences;
-it remembered the dreams and the experiences
-of the second personality, and perceived
-the pin pricks. Hence we concluded that the galvanic
-phenomena were obtained from the memory
-and perceptions of this coconscious personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This demonstration of an actual physical discharge
-is proof positive that an emotional process
-can function subconsciously. This being so, <cite>it only
-needs this discharge to come into conflict with some
-other process, conscious or subconscious, for one or
-other phenomenon of conflict to be manifested</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>2. This psycho-galvanic phenomenon may be correlated
-with those phenomena which we have already
-studied (p. <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>) wherein the emotional element
-of the process alone rises into consciousness. The
-former phenomenon is therefore the manifestation
-of the efferent and the latter of the central part of
-the activated emotional disposition. The former
-supports the interpretation of various clinical motor
-phenomena as being the efferent manifestations of
-purely subconscious emotional processes. I refer
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_485'>485</span>to hysterical tics, spasms, contractures, etc. The
-latter phenomenon we have had frequent occasion
-to refer to. You will remember, for instance, that
-in the case of Miss B. on numerous occasions it was
-observed that emotion, particularly of fear, swept
-over the conscious personality without apparent
-cause. This emotion could be traced to specific dissociated
-and coconscious ideas. Likewise in B. C. A.,
-states of anxiety or depression could be related to
-specific coconscious ideas which, having been
-shunted out of the field of consciousness, continued
-their activity in a coconscious state. Janet, as might
-be expected of so accurate an observer, long ago described
-the same phenomenon—the invasion of the
-personal consciousness by the emotion belonging to
-a coconscious idea. “Isabella,” he writes, “presents
-constantly conditions which have the same
-character; we shall cite but one other in the interest
-of the study of dementia. For a week or so she has
-been gloomy and sad; she hides and will not speak
-to anyone. We have trouble in getting a few words
-from her, and these she says very low, casting her
-eyes down: ‘I am not worthy to speak with other
-people.... I am very much ashamed, I have a
-crushing load on my mind like a terrible gnawing remorse....’—‘A
-remorse about what?’—‘Ah!
-that’s just it. I am trying to find it out day and
-night. What is it that I could have done last week?
-for before I was not thus. Tell me candidly, did I do
-something very bad last week?’ This time, as will
-be seen, the question is no longer about an act, but
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_486'>486</span>about a feeling, a general emotional state which she
-interprets as remorse; she is equally incapable of
-understanding and expressing the fixed idea which
-determines this feeling. If you divert the subject’s
-attention, you can obtain the automatic writing, and
-you will see that the hand of the patient constantly
-writes the same name, that of Isabella’s sister who
-died a short time ago. During the attacks and the
-somnambulic sleep we establish a very complicated
-dream in which this poor young girl thinks she murdered
-her sister. That is quite a common delirium,
-you will say; perhaps so, but for a hysteric it presents
-itself in a rather curious manner. She suffers
-only from its rebound, experiences only the
-emotional side of it; of the delirium itself she is
-wholly ignorant; the latter remains subconscious.”...</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“It will be seen by this last example that, in some
-cases, a small portion of the fixed idea may be conscious.
-Isabella feels that she is troubled by some
-remorse, she knows not what. It thus frequently
-happens that hystericals, during their normal waking
-time, complain of a certain mental attitude, so
-much so that they partly look as if obsessed. Celestine
-experiences thus feelings of anger which she
-cannot explain.”<a id='r243' /><a href='#f243' class='c009'><sup>[243]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As might be expected intense conflicts may have
-wide-reaching consequences and lead to the development
-of pathological conditions. Indeed, in the
-latter we find the most clear-cut exemplars of repression
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_487'>487</span>(dissociation) and other phenomena produced
-by conflict. I shall point out in later lectures<a id='r244' /><a href='#f244' class='c009'><sup>[244]</sup></a>
-how in a specific case intense religious sentiments
-completely repressed their antagonistic instincts
-and eventuated in dissociation of (multiple)
-personality (Miss B.) Likewise with B. C. A., as I
-interpret the phenomena, the dissociation of personality
-resulted from a conflict between wishes
-that could not be fulfilled and sentiments of duty,
-respect, etc. We shall see later the significance of
-this principle for the understanding of other pathological
-states.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f220'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r220'>220</a>. ... “Every instinctive process has the three aspects of all
-mental processes, the cognitive, the affective, and the conative. Now,
-the innate psychophysical disposition, which is an instinct, may be
-regarded as consisting of three corresponding parts, an afferent, a
-central, and a motor or efferent part, whose activities are the cognitive,
-the affective, and the conative features respectively of the
-total instinctive process. The afferent or receptive part of the total
-disposition is some organized group of nervous elements or neurones
-that is specially adapted to receive and to elaborate the impulses
-initiated in the sense-organ by the native object of the instinct; its
-constitution and activities determine the sensory content of the psychophysical
-process. From the afferent part the excitement spreads
-over to the central part of the disposition; the constitution of this
-part determines in the main the distribution of the nervous impulses,
-especially the impulses that descend to modify the working of the
-visceral organs, the heart, lungs, blood vessels, glands, etc., in the
-manner required for the most effective excitation of the instinctive
-action; the nervous activities of this central part are the correlates
-of the affective or emotional aspect or feature of the total physical
-process. The excitement of the efferent or motor part reaches it by
-the way of the central part; its construction determines the distribution
-of impulses to the muscles of the skeletal system by which
-the instinctive action is effected, and its nervous activities are the
-correlates of the conative element of the physical process, of the felt
-impulse to action.” William McDougall. An introduction to Social
-Psychology, p. 32.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f221'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r221'>221</a>. Social Psychology, p. 44.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f222'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r222'>222</a>. Ibid, p. 159.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f223'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r223'>223</a>. Not included in this volume.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f224'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r224'>224</a>. Personally communicated.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f225'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r225'>225</a>. This theory of the part played by the sensory accompaniments
-of visceral activity I would suggest as a substitute for the James-Lange
-theory.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f226'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r226'>226</a>. Hilton: Rest and Pain.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f227'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r227'>227</a>. Note analogues in Sherrington’s mechanism of the spinal reflexes.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f228'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r228'>228</a>. I follow in the main McDougall’s classification as sufficiently
-adequate and accurate for our purposes.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f229'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r229'>229</a>. In fact, this was successfully done.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f230'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r230'>230</a>. For purposes of simplification I leave aside feelings of pleasure
-and pain, excitement and depression, for though their main functions
-may be only to guide or shape the actions prompted by the
-instincts, as McDougall affirms, still I think there is sound reason to
-believe that feelings also have conative force and are coöperative impulsive
-factors.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f231'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r231'>231</a>. McDougall has proposed the ingenious theory that that which
-we understand, properly speaking, by “will” is a complex form of
-conation issuing from a particular sentiment, viz., the complexly
-organized sentiment of self (“self-regarding sentiment”). The behavior
-immediately determined by the primitive instincts and other
-sentiments cannot be classed as volition, but should be regarded as
-simple instinctive conation. When, therefore, the will reinforces a
-sentiment and determines conduct it is the self-regarding sentiment
-which provides the “volitional” impulse and is the controlling factor.
-If this theory should stand it would give a satisfactory solution
-of this difficult question. Perhaps it receives some support on the
-part of abnormal psychology in that certain observations seem to
-show, if I correctly interpret them, that self-consciousness is a complex
-capable of being dissociated like any idea or sentiment. I shall
-presently describe a quasi-pathological state which may be called
-depersonalization. In this state the “conscious intelligence” present
-is able to think and reason logically and sanely, is capable of good
-judgments, and has an unusually large field of memory, in short, is a
-very intelligent consciousness; nevertheless, it exhibits a very strange
-phenomenon: it has lost all consciousness of self; it has no sense of
-personality, of anything to which the term “I” can be applied.
-This sentiment seems to be absolutely dissociated in this state.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f232'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r232'>232</a>. The repression of the sexual instinct and of sexual wishes plays
-the dominant rôle in the Freudian psychology. If a wish may be
-correctly defined psychologically as the impulsive force of a sentiment
-striving toward an end plus the pleasurable feeling resulting from
-the imagined attainment of that end, i.e., the imagined gratification
-of the impulse, then the repression of a wish belongs to the phenomena
-of repressed sentiments rather than of primitive instincts.
-This distinction, I think, is of some importance, as will appear when
-we consider subconscious sentiments.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f233'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r233'>233</a>. In making use of suggestion for therapeutic purposes it is essential
-to construct one with strong emotional tones and pleasurable
-and exalting feelings for the purposes of increasing resistances to
-contrary impulses, and carrying the suggestion to fruition. This I
-believe to be one of the secrets of successful suggestive procedure.
-The construction of an effective suggestion is an art in itself and
-must be based on the psychological conditions existing in each case.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f234'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r234'>234</a>. Of course this attitude is not to be viewed as an isolated event
-standing all alone by itself. It must be read like nearly all events
-of life in relation to a series of antecedent events. These, to her,
-had denoted indifference, and now on this crucial occasion formed the
-real setting and gave the offensive meaning to her spouse’s forgetfulness.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f235'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r235'>235</a>. Notwithstanding the frequency with which asexuality is met
-with in women, I am strongly inclined to the opinion that the sexual
-instinct in the sex is never really absent, excepting, of course, in late
-life and in organic disease. No woman is born without it. When
-apparently absent it is only inhibited or dissociated by the subtle influences
-of the environment, education, conflicting sentiments, etc.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f236'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r236'>236</a>. A distinction should be made between hunger and appetite.
-Food may excite appetite, although hunger has been appeased.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f237'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r237'>237</a>. Note that the same idea forms different sentiments in different
-phases or moods, according to the emotions with which it is linked.
-In this case, in phase C, it is linked with mortification, self-abasement,
-possibly anger, pride, and feelings of pain and depression;
-in phase B, with joyful emotions and feelings of pleasure and excitement.
-Also note that the former sentiment, although out of mind
-at the time of the observation, is conserved in the unconscious.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f238'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r238'>238</a>. At first the subject (B) had no anticipation or supposition that
-such a conflict would occur. Later she learned after repeated experiences
-to anticipate the probable consequences of trying to tell tales-out-of-school.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f239'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r239'>239</a>. The Dissociation, see Index: “Subconscious ideas.”</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f240'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r240'>240</a>. <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, October-November, 1908.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f241'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r241'>241</a>. The Dissociation, p. 538.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f242'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r242'>242</a>. <cite>Journal Abn. Psychol.</cite>, June-July, 1908.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f243'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r243'>243</a>. The Mental State of Hystericals, pp. 289-290.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f244'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r244'>244</a>. Not included in this volume.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_488'>488</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE XVI<br />GENERAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM EMOTIONAL CONFLICTS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>The awakening of intense emotional impulses we
-have seen tends to intensify certain activities and
-to inhibit other conflicting ones. Further when that
-which is inhibited is a sentiment possessing an
-intense emotion the sentiment tends to become dissociated<a id='r245' /><a href='#f245' class='c009'><sup>[245]</sup></a>
-from the personal consciousness and free
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_489'>489</span>to become by the force of its own emotional dispositions
-a subconscious process. As a consequence
-of these tendencies there may result a number of
-psycho-physiological conditions of personality with
-some of which we should become familiar. They
-are observable, as would be expected, in every-day
-life, and when highly accentuated become pathological
-phenomena. Let us now consider some of
-them in detail.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Contraction of the field of consciousness and of personality.</b>—In
-every-day life intense emotion excludes from
-the field of awareness thoughts that are unrelated,
-antagonistic to and incompatible with the ideas exciting
-the emotion, and perceptions of the environment
-that ordinarily would enter awareness. The
-field of consciousness is thereby contracted and limited
-to thoughts excited by or associated with the
-emotion. Thus, for example, in the heat of anger the
-mind is dominated by the particular object or
-thought which gave rise to the anger, or by anger exciting
-associated ideas. Conflicting memories and
-correlated knowledge that would modify the point of
-view and judgment and mollify (inhibit) the anger
-are suppressed and cannot enter the focus of attention.
-Further, a person in such a state may not
-perceive many ocular, auditory, tactile, and other
-impressions coming from the environment; he
-may not see the people about him, hear what
-is said, or feel what is done to him, or only in
-an imperfect way. All these sensations are either
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_490'>490</span>actually inhibited or prevented from entering
-awareness (dissociated) by the conflicting conative
-force of the emotion. In other words there is a
-dissociation (or inhibition) of consciousness and
-consequent contraction of its field to certain emotional
-ideas.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>To take a concrete example, you are playing a
-game of cards and with zest throw yourself into the
-game. Something happens to arouse your anger.
-At once there is a conflict: The impulsive force of
-your pugnacity instinct meets with the impulsive
-force of your play instinct and its pleasure feelings.
-If the former is the stronger, the latter with the
-ideas to which it is linked are inhibited, repressed,
-driven out of consciousness. The pleasure of play
-ceases and its impulses no longer determine your
-thoughts. Further, you forget the cards that have
-been played though you knew them well a moment
-before, you may forget your manners, become oblivious
-to social etiquette and the environment. You
-can no longer reason on the play of the cards;
-you forget your card knowledge. All these processes
-are inhibited, and consequently the field
-of consciousness and personality becomes contracted.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>On the other hand, the emotion of anger dominating
-the mind, ideas associated with or which tend
-to carry your pugnacity instinct to fruition, arise
-and direct and determine your conduct. Habit reactions
-are likely to come automatically into play,
-and you break out into angry denunciatory speech,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_491'>491</span>if that is your habit. I leave you to fill out the details
-of the picture for yourselves.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>And yet, again through training in self-control, a
-self-regarding sentiment conflicting with the anger
-impulse may be awakened, and the latter in turn
-be dominated, repressed, inhibited.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the case of an intense fear it is common observation
-that this contraction may reach a high degree.
-In the excitement of a railroad accident the
-frightened passenger does not feel the bruising and
-pain which he otherwise would suffer, nor hear the
-shrieks of his fellow passengers nor perceive but a
-small part of what is occurring about him, but
-driven only by the intensely motivating idea of escape
-from danger he struggles for safety. His field
-of consciousness is limited to the few ideas of danger,
-escape, and the means of safety. All else is
-dissociated by the conative force of the emotion and
-cannot enter the focus of attention. He could not
-philosophize on the accident if he would. In ordinary
-concentration of attention or absent-mindedness
-the same phenomenon of contraction of the field
-of consciousness occurs occasioned by interest; but
-with cessation of interest the field of awareness
-quickly widens. So in contraction of this field from
-emotion the normal is restored so soon as the emotion
-ceases.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>When this same general contraction of the field
-of consciousness, effected by the repressing force of
-emotion, reaches a certain acme we have a pathological
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_492'>492</span>condition—the <cite>hysterical state</cite>. The field of
-consciousness is now occupied by the single dissociating
-idea or complex of ideas with its emotion
-that did the repressing—a condition of mono-ideism.
-All other conscious processes are inhibited or dissociated.
-When the complex is an intensely emotional
-one, its nervous energy, now unbridled, is free to
-discharge itself in many directions, perhaps producing
-convulsive phenomena of one kind or
-another.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>To attribute these effects of emotion to repression
-<cite>from conflict</cite> is only to express the facts in different
-terms. But it would be often an over-emphasis to
-describe what takes place as a specific conflict between
-particular sentiments. It is often rather the
-discharge of a blind impulsive force in every direction
-which, like a blast of dynamite, suppresses or
-dissociates every other process which might come
-into consciousness and displace it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><cite>Systematized dissociation.</cite>—Quite commonly the
-dissociated field, by whatever force isolated, instead
-of being general may be systematized. By this is
-meant that only certain perceptions, or groups or
-categories of ideas that have been organized into a
-system, or have associative relations, are prevented
-from entering the personal synthesis. In
-other respects the conscious processes may be
-normal. The simplest type is probably systematized
-anesthesia, exemplified in every-day life
-in anyone who fails to perceive his eye-glasses,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_493'>493</span>or any other object he is in search of that is
-lying under his nose on the table before him; and
-by the post-hypnotic phenomenon exhibited by the
-subject who fails to perceive a <cite>marked</cite> playing
-card or to hear or see a given person, though
-he perceives all the other cards in the pack and
-everyone else in the room; and by the hysteric
-who likewise fails to perceive certain systematized
-sensations, such as the printing on a
-page which, itself, therefore appears blank. That
-which is dissociated in these examples is a comparatively
-very simple complex, but it may involve
-larger and larger groups of remembrances, perceptions,
-sentiments (with their emotions and feelings),
-settings, attitudes, instincts, and other innate
-dispositions, etc., organized into a system about the
-sentiment of self. Such groups and systems may,
-as we saw when studying the organization of complexes
-(Lecture IX), be dissociated in that they
-cease to take part in the functioning of the personality.
-The personality becomes thereby contracted.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>1. The principle involved is this: When a specific
-idea or psycho-physiological function (memory, sensation,
-perception, instinct) is by any force dissociated,
-the exiled idea or function tends to carry
-with itself into seclusion other ideas and functions
-with which it is systematized. The dissociation is
-apt to involve much more than the particular psychological
-element in question in that it “robs” the
-personal consciousness of much else. I have already
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_494'>494</span>cited in a previous lecture (p. 318) examples of this
-principle. I need merely remind you of the observation
-with Miss B., where the systematized dissociation
-of auditory images pertaining to the experimenter
-carried with it the associated secondary
-visual images of him necessary for tactile perception
-of his hand. Similarly, in B. C. A., the general
-dissociation of tactile images carried with it the
-secondary visual images necessary for the visualization
-of her body. A large number of examples
-drawn from all kinds of dissociative phenomena
-might be given. I will content myself with mentioning
-two or three more: In automatic writing
-the dissociated muscular control of the hands usually
-robs the personal consciousness, so far as the
-hand is concerned, of all sensory perception, and
-in automatic speech the dissociation of the faculty
-of speech often robs the personal consciousness of
-the auditory perception of the subject’s own voice.
-In hysterics, the specific dissociation of one class of
-perceptions carries away others systematized with
-them. In systematized anesthesia it is often easy
-to recognize this fact. A good example of this is
-that recorded in the case of Miss B., who, believing
-she had lost her finger rings, not only could not
-be made to see or feel them, but also not even the
-ribbon on which they were hung round her neck, or
-to hear them click together, or to feel the tug of the
-ribbon when I pulled it.<a id='r246' /><a href='#f246' class='c009'><sup>[246]</sup></a> The perceptions of these
-associated sensations were therefore also withdrawn.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_495'>495</span>The same principle can be demonstrated by
-suggestion in suitable subjects. Thus, for example,
-I suggest to one of these subjects in hypnosis that
-she will forget an episode associated with a certain
-person named “August.” After waking she has
-amnesia not only for the episode but for the name
-of the person and for the word in its other meanings,
-e. g., the name of a calendar month. She cannot
-recall that a month intervenes between July
-and September.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>In these examples the source of the dissociating
-force is not in every case obvious. But this need
-not concern us now. What I want to point out is
-that when the dissociation is the consequence of an
-emotional discharge the same principle frequently
-comes into play, the same phenomenon of systematization
-is of common occurrence. It may be recognized
-with considerable exactness when a conflict
-between sentiments has been artificially created.
-Thus the phenomenon, described in the last lecture
-(p. 476), of inhibition of sentiments by a self-suggested
-antagonistic sentiment, may equally well be
-cited in evidence of this principle. Similarly, O. N.
-suggested to herself a sentiment antagonistic to a
-specific sentiment which she previously entertained
-regarding a particular person. Not only was the
-latter sentiment dissociated but a number of other
-allied sentiments systematized around the same person
-were also incidentally and unintentionally repressed
-and withdrawn from consciousness, so much
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_496'>496</span>so that her whole point of view was altered.<a id='r247' /><a href='#f247' class='c009'><sup>[247]</sup></a> (It
-was easy in hypnosis by the procedures already
-stated to synthesize the sentiments at will so as to
-drive out, with suggested antagonistic sentiments,
-the undesired ones. The change of viewpoint and
-feeling after waking from hypnosis was often quite
-dramatic.)</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>2. By this mechanism we can explain the dissociation
-of large systems of sentiments leaving a contracted
-personality—a mere extract of its former
-self—dissociated and distinguished from what it
-was by different sentiments, instincts and other innate
-dispositions.<a id='r248' /><a href='#f248' class='c009'><sup>[248]</sup></a> The facts seem to show that the
-awakening of the emotional impulses of certain sentiments
-inhibits, not only those particular antagonistic
-sentiments with which the former are incompatible,
-but large systems of sentiments, and many
-instincts and other innate dispositions with which
-the inhibited sentiments are systematized. The
-contracted self may or may not be able to recall
-to memory the fact of having previously experienced
-the dissociated sentiments. But whether so or not
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_497'>497</span>the latter no longer functionally participate in the
-personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This mechanism, to be sure, is an interpretation
-but the facts are easily demonstrated. Minor types
-of such dissociations result in what we have described
-as “moods.” More extreme types are
-pathological and characterized as phases of personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>3. The contrast of the sentiments in such moods
-and phases with the habitual sentiments having
-identically the same objects is striking. In other
-words the object is organized with an entirely different
-group of emotions (instincts). The subject’s
-sentiment of husband or wife or father or son no
-longer contains the emotions of love and reverence,
-etc.; but, perhaps, there are organized within it the
-emotions of anger, hatred, contempt, etc. A self-regarding
-sentiment of self-subjection with shame,
-“feelings” of inadequacy and depression may be
-substituted for self-assertion, pride, self-respect,
-etc. These clinical facts are matters of observation.
-B——n suffers from constantly recurring and very
-intense attacks of asthma which have certain characteristics
-which stamp it as an hysterical tic.
-In the attacks it is noticeable that her personality
-and disposition—normally amiable, gentle, and
-affectionate—undergo a change. The parental instinct
-and sentiments of affection for her family,
-of whom she is very fond, of modesty, of pride,
-of consideration for others, etc., disappear and are
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_498'>498</span>replaced by others of an opposite character. Fear,
-anger, and resentment are easily aroused, etc. B.
-C. A. in phase B of personality knew nothing of
-remorse, self-reproach, or despair which characterized
-the normal phase, and experienced only emotions
-and feelings of pleasure and happiness.<a id='r249' /><a href='#f249' class='c009'><sup>[249]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Janet, with his customary accuracy in observing
-facts, has noted these changes, although I think in
-his attempt at interpretation he has not quite
-recognized the mechanism by which they are
-brought about. “With Renée,” this author remarks,
-when noting the facts, “we have gradually
-seen disappearing the taste for finery; her coquetry—vanity,
-even—disappeared. With others, the love
-of property is gone; they lose all that belongs to
-them and do not care. Bertha formerly had great
-timidity; she now wonders at the loss of it. She
-goes and comes at night; she looks at dead bones of
-which she was afraid in past years, and asks:
-‘Why does all this make no impression on me now?’
-Marie, especially, is very curious as to that. She
-takes no longer any interest in things or people.
-Overwhelmed with misfortunes, consequences of her
-malady, and, after having been in comfortable circumstances,
-reduced to extreme poverty, she does
-not perceive that her situation is serious. She loses
-money, when she has only a few pennies left; she
-mislays her clothing, can scarcely keep on the dress
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_499'>499</span>she is wearing and does not seem to trouble herself
-about it in the least. Yet we observe that she is still
-intelligent and might provide against her situation.
-She does so very little, and only wonders at her
-indifference. ‘Formerly I took care of my things;
-now I do not.’ There are some still more characteristic
-facts to be observed in this patient. Formerly
-she loved her husband and was even quite
-jealous about him. She was devoted to her two
-children. Since her illness she has gradually abandoned
-her children, who have been reared by her
-sisters, and she finally left her husband. For the
-last three years, instead of her former happy life,
-she leads about Paris the most miserable existence.
-Not once did she inquire about her husband or her
-children. She heard indirectly of the former’s
-death. ‘Strange!’ she said, ‘it does not affect me in
-the least; yet, I assure you, it does not make me
-happy, either ... I simply don’t care.’ ‘But if we
-were to tell you that your little Louis [it was her
-favorite child] is dead, too?’ ‘How do you suppose
-it can affect me? I have forgotten him!’”<a id='r250' /><a href='#f250' class='c009'><sup>[250]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>4. Janet, when interpreting such phenomena, attributes
-them to “psychological feebleness” in consequence
-of which the personality cannot synthesize
-more than a certain number of emotions and ideas
-to form the personal self-consciousness. It certainly
-cannot perform the synthesis involved in retaining
-certain formerly possessed sentiments, etc.,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_500'>500</span>but it is not because of <cite>feebleness</cite>. Many hysterics
-can synthesize quite as <cite>many</cite> psychological elements
-as a normal person, but not sentiments and
-emotions of a certain <cite>character</cite>, i.e., those which
-pertain to certain experiences, to certain systems
-of remembrances. M. Janet has quite correctly
-pointed out that, in spite of the apathy and lack of
-emotionality of hysterics in certain directions,—which,
-I would insist, in the last analysis means
-the absence of <cite>particular</cite> sentiments and instincts—in
-other directions these patients are “extremely excitable
-and susceptible of very exaggerated emotions,”
-which in turn means the retention of particular
-sentiments and instincts. These last dominate
-the personality. Here is the key to the enigma.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From this point of view, the effect of the impulsive
-force of the dominating emotions has been misinterpreted
-by M. Janet. These emotions are the causal
-factors in determining the apathy, i.e., absence of
-particular sentiments and instincts, and explain
-<cite>why</cite> they cannot be brought within the personal
-synthesis. If we bear in mind that emotion means
-discharge of force, an adequate explanation of such
-phenomena in a great many instances, at least, is
-to be found in the principle of conflict and dissociation.
-The conflict is between the impulsive forces
-of the emotions pertaining either to antagonistic
-instincts or to sentiments organized within different
-systems. With the excitation of emotion, instincts
-and sentiments which have opposing conative
-tendencies are inhibited, repressed, or dissociated,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_501'>501</span>and with them the systems with which they
-are organized. The emotion does not so much
-cause “psychological feebleness” in consequence
-of which the personality cannot synthesize sentiments,
-as it inhibits and dissociates antagonistic
-sentiments, etc., which consequently cannot be synthesized.
-The <cite>result</cite> you may call “feebleness” if
-you like.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Hence it is that hysterics present the seeming
-paradox of having, as M. Janet observed, “in
-reality fewer emotions than is generally thought
-and [in] that their principal character is here, as
-it is always, a diminution of psychological phenomena.
-These patients are in general very indifferent,
-at least to all that is not directly connected with a
-small number of fixed ideas.” According to the
-view which we are maintaining, the “fewer emotions”
-are due to the dissociation of many sentiments
-and instincts by the dominating emotional
-complex.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>5. Let us not forget that this explanation is a matter
-of interpretation, but the interpretation comports
-with what is common observation of what happens
-when a new emotion which is incompatible with an
-existing emotion (fear—anger) is excited. In the
-case of Miss B., the alternation of the personality
-coincident with the excitation of an emotion occurred
-with such frequency, not to say with regularity,
-that there seemed to be no room to doubt
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_502'>502</span>the causal factor and the mechanism.<a id='r251' /><a href='#f251' class='c009'><sup>[251]</sup></a> Sometimes
-the dissociation resulted in the formation of new
-phases of personality in which Miss B. reverted to
-a past epoch of time in which she lived once more,
-the experiences of all later epochs being dissociated;
-sometimes in phases with a very contracted field of
-consciousness without orientation in time or place
-and with little knowledge of self or environment;
-sometimes—and in these instances the dissociation
-of organized systems could most clearly be recognized—in
-the substitution of one of the already
-established phases (BI, BIV, or BIII) for another.
-It is not always easy without intensive study, to
-determine the exact sentiment or instinct which is
-responsible for the dissociation, although the actual
-occurrence of the emotional state just preceding the
-development of the phenomenon is obtrusively obvious.
-“At various times as a result of emotionally
-disintegrating circumstances” at least eight different
-phases were observed in addition to the three
-regularly recurrent phases.<a id='r252' /><a href='#f252' class='c009'><sup>[252]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In B. C. A. the gradual organization through the
-circumstances of life of a group of “rebellious”
-ideas, in which the dominating sentiments and instincts
-were intensely antagonistic to those previously
-peculiar to the subject, could be clearly
-determined. So antagonistic was this group that
-it was known as the rebellious complex but termed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_503'>503</span>B complex for convenience. It became by successive
-accretions a large system and phase of personality.
-The details are too extensive to enter
-into at this time; suffice it to say that as the result
-of what is called an “emotional shock” the B system
-came into being. This interpreted means that
-the shock was really the excitation of the rebellious
-sentiments and other emotions belonging to the B
-system; there was a conflict; the habitual sentiments
-and the system to which they belonged were
-inhibited and replaced by the former (B). Later
-the displaced sentiments and their corresponding A
-system were awakened, the emotions giving rise to
-another shock, a conflict, and the B system, in turn,
-was inhibited. And so it could be recognized that
-alternations of systems could be evoked by the
-alternate excitation of sentiments and instincts—or
-complexes, if you prefer the term—pertaining to
-each.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>6. This summary of the phenomena of conflict inducing
-dissociation of personality would be incomplete
-if the <cite>dissociations effected by entirely subconscious
-processes</cite> were not mentioned. These
-can be very neatly studied with coconscious
-personalities, as such personalities can give very
-precise information of the mode by which the displacement
-of the primary personality is effected.
-In the cases of Miss B. and B. C. A. “Sally” and
-“B,” respectively, have done this. It appears, according
-to this testimony, that coconscious “willing”
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_504'>504</span>or strong conation, even simply a wish to
-inhibit the principal consciousness, would effect that
-result. Thus, for instance, B testified: “When
-A is present I can ‘come’ voluntarily by willing,
-i.e., blot A out and then I ‘come.’... By willing
-I mean I would say to A: ‘... Go away’: ‘Get
-out of the way’: ‘Let me come: I <cite>will</cite> come,’ and
-then A disappeared. She was gone and I was there.
-It was almost instantaneous.... Sometimes the
-wish to change would blot out A without actual
-willing.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the case of Miss B. similar testimony of the
-effect of coconscious willing and wishes was obtained.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When the coconscious wishes, sentiments, etc., are
-not synthesized into a large self-conscious system
-(i.e., coconscious personality) which can give direct
-testimony as to the <a id='corr504.18'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='subconscous'>subconscious</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_504.18'><ins class='correction' title='subconscous'>subconscious</ins></a></span> conflicts, the former
-and the process which they incite must be
-inferred from known antecedent factors and the
-observed phenomena of inhibition or dissociation.
-That general and systematized dissociation are
-phenomena which can be, and frequently are, induced
-by the conative force of purely subconscious
-processes, in view of the multiform data offered by
-hysterics can be open to no manner of doubt. The
-process may be also formulated in terms of conflict.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Laws governing the lines of cleavage of personality.</b>—In
-systematized dissociation there is a cleavage between
-certain organized systems of experiences and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_505'>505</span>functions and the remainder of the personality.
-The contracted personality is consequently shorn of
-much. But we understand only very incompletely
-the laws which determine <cite>the direction of the line
-of cleavage</cite> and the consequent extent of the dissociated
-field. Unquestionably this follows the law
-of organization of complexes in a general way, but
-not wholly so. For instance, it is impossible by
-this law or by any known mechanism to explain the
-anesthesia which sometimes, apparently spontaneously,
-appears in certain hypnotic states. A given
-subject, e. g., B. C. A., is simply hypnotized by suggestion
-and successively falls into two different
-states. In one state the subject is found to be
-completely anesthetic and in the other normally
-esthetic. The subject is one and the same and the
-dissociating suggestion, which is the same in each
-case, contains nothing specifically related to sensation;
-and yet the line of cleavage is within the field
-of sensation in the one case and without it in the
-other; i.e., that which is dissociated includes the
-sensory field in the one state and not in the other.
-Similarly when the disaggregation of personality is
-brought about by the force of a conflicting emotion,
-the resulting hysterical state or dissociated personality
-may be robbed of certain sensory or motor
-functions, although these functions are not as far
-as we can see logically related to the emotion or the
-ideas coupled with it. Thus a person receives an
-emotional shock and develops a one-sided anesthesia
-and paralysis—a very common phenomenon.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_506'>506</span>Louis Vivé used to pass into one state in which he
-had left hemiplegia and into another in which he
-had right hemiplegia, another with paraplegia.
-Each state had its own systematized memories, but
-why each had its own and different motor and
-sensory dissociations cannot be explained. In Miss
-B. the dissociation which resulted in the formation
-of the secondary personality, Sally, withdrew, without
-apparent rhyme or reason, the whole general
-field of sensations so that Sally was completely
-anesthetic.<a id='r253' /><a href='#f253' class='c009'><sup>[253]</sup></a> The sensory functions seemed to be
-wantonly ejected along with the repressed complexes
-of ideas. <cite>Per contra</cite>, by the same process
-which results in dissociation, lost functions are often
-paradoxically synthesized. Mrs. E. B. and Mrs. R.,
-anesthetic when “awake,” are found to be normally
-esthetic in hypnosis; i.e., the sensory functions are
-spontaneously synthesized with the hypnotic personality.
-In other words, in hypnosis the personal
-synthesis is in this respect more normal than in the
-“waking” state.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Again, when amnesia results it may cover a past
-epoch—retrograde amnesia—without obvious reason
-for the chronological line of cleavage. In short
-the suppression by dissociation of a specific psychological
-element—remembrance, perception, sentiment,
-etc.—not only tends to rob the personality
-of a whole psychological system in which it is
-organized but of other faculties, the relation of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_507'>507</span>which to the specifically dissociated element is obscure.
-It seems as if the dissociation sometimes followed
-physiological as well as psychological lines.<a id='r254' /><a href='#f254' class='c009'><sup>[254]</sup></a>
-It is in accordance with this principle that instincts
-and sentiments which are not immediately concerned
-in the specific conflict nor antagonistic to the
-dissociating emotion are often suppressed. Thus
-it is that hysterics, as we have seen by examples,
-have lost so many emotions (instincts) and the sentiments
-involving them, though they are so excitable
-to the emotions that are retained. In the case of
-B. C. A. the secondary personality B, the resultant
-(as I interpret the case) of the conflict between the
-play instinct and sentiments of duty, responsibility,
-etc., lost the parental instinct with the emotion of
-tender feeling (McDougall) and that of fear, with
-their corresponding sentiments. She was shockingly
-devoid of filial and maternal love and, indeed,
-of affection, in the true sense, for her friends.
-Likewise Sally (in the case of Miss B.), also the
-product of conflict between the impulses of the play
-instinct and those of the religious emotions, was
-entirely devoid of fear, of the sexual, and of certain
-other instincts not antagonistic to the dominating
-play instinct. She had lost also a great many, if not
-all, sentiments involving the tender feeling. As in
-the examples given of dissociation of motor, sensory,
-and other functions, the dissociative line of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_508'>508</span>cleavage had excluded more than was engaged in
-the conflict. Of course, there always must be some
-reason for the direction taken by any line of cleavage,
-following the application of force, whether the
-fracture be of a psycho-physiological organism or
-of a piece of china; but when the conditions are as
-complex as they are in the human organism their
-determination becomes a difficult problem. When
-we come to study multiple personality we shall see
-that the suppression of instincts plays an important
-rôle.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Amnesia.</b>—It is a general rule that when a person
-passes from a condition of extreme dissociation to
-the normal state there is a tendency for <cite>amnesia</cite> to
-supervene for the previous dissociated state (multiple
-personalities, epileptic and hysterical fugues,
-hypnotic and dream states, etc.). Likewise in everyday
-life it frequently happens, when the dissociation
-effected by emotion results in an extremely retracted
-field of consciousness, that, after this emotional
-state has subsided and the normal state has
-been restored, memory for the excited retracted
-state, including the actions performed, is abolished
-or impaired. Even criminal acts committed in
-highly emotional states (anger, “brain storms,”
-etc.) may be forgotten afterwards. In other words,
-in the normal state there is in turn a dissociation
-of the residua of the excited state. The experiences
-of this latter state are not lost, however, but only
-dissociated in that they cannot be synthesized with
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_509'>509</span>the personal consciousness and thereby reproduced
-as memory. That they may be still conserved as
-neurographic residua is shown in those cases suitable
-for experimental investigation where they can
-be reproduced by artificial devices (hypnotism, abstraction,
-etc.).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Thus B. C. A. could not recall a certain emotional
-experience although it made a tremendous impression
-upon her, disrupted her personality, and induced
-her illness. In other respects her memory
-was normal. Janet has described this amnesia following
-emotional shocks, notably in the classical
-case of Mme. D.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>1. On first thought it seems strange that a person
-cannot remember such an important experience as
-that, for example, of B. C. A., when for all else
-the memory is normal. That this experience had
-awakened conflicting ideas and intense, blazing emotions
-with great retraction of the field of consciousness
-of the moment is shown by the history. Later
-there was found to be a hiatus in the memory, the
-amnesia beginning and ending sharply at particular
-points, shortly before and shortly after this experience.
-In other words, the extremely dissociated and
-retracted emotional field could not be synthesized
-with the personal consciousness or, one might say,
-with the sentiment of self. In hypnosis, however,
-this could be done and the memory recovered.
-Freud has proposed an ingenious theory involving
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_510'>510</span>a particular mechanism by which such amnesic
-effects are produced. According to this theory the
-dissociated experience cannot be recalled because
-it is so painful that it cannot be tolerated by consciousness;
-i.e., attempted emergence as memory
-meets with the resistance of conflicting subconscious
-thoughts, acting as a censor or guardian,
-and the experience is repressed and prevented from
-entering consciousness. (It would be, perhaps,
-within the scope of this theory to say that the impulsive
-force of the conflicting sentiments (involving
-pride and self-respect and the instinct of anger)
-awakened at the moment of the experience continued
-more or less subconsciously to repress the
-memory of the whole experience.)</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>2. If expressed in the following form I think the
-theory would equally well explain such amnesias,
-be in conformity with certain known hypnotic phenomena
-and, perhaps, be more acceptable: An experienced
-desire not to face, or think of, i.e., to
-recall to memory, a certain painful experience is
-conserved in the usual way. When an attempt is
-made to recall the episode <cite>this desire becomes an
-active subconscious process</cite> and inhibits the memory
-process. The analogue of this we have in posthypnotic
-amnesia induced by suggestion. In the
-hypnotic state the suggestion is given that the subject
-after waking shall have forgotten a certain
-experience, a name, or an episode. After waking
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_511'>511</span>the conative force<a id='r255' /><a href='#f255' class='c009'><sup>[255]</sup></a> of the suggested idea, functioning
-<cite>entirely subconsciously</cite> (as there is complete
-forgetfulness for the hypnotic state), inhibits the
-memory of the test experience in that there is found
-to be amnesia for the latter. One may say there
-has been a subconscious conflict followed by inhibition
-of one of the belligerents. That antecedent
-thoughts of the individual can likewise become activated
-as subconscious processes and come into conflict
-with other processes and inhibit them, thus preventing
-them from becoming conscious, we have
-already seen. The antagonism of the motives in
-the two processes is often obvious. Numerous examples
-of inhibitions (induced by conflicts with subconscious
-ideas, emotions, and conations) of mental
-processes which could afterwards be recalled to
-memory in a secondary state of personality have
-been recorded in the case of Miss B.<a id='r256' /><a href='#f256' class='c009'><sup>[256]</sup></a> Likewise in
-B. C. A. similar phenomena were testified to as due
-to subconscious conflicts.<a id='r257' /><a href='#f257' class='c009'><sup>[257]</sup></a> There would seem to be
-no question therefore of either the occurrence of
-subconscious conflicts or their efficiency in producing
-amnesia.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_512'>512</span>3. However all this may be, there is no need for
-us now to enter into the question of mechanisms.
-Certain it is, though, that we often forget what we
-want to forget, which means memories that are
-unpleasant; and certain types of pathological amnesia
-answer to the Freudian mechanism or some
-modification of it. Certain amnesias undoubtedly
-follow deliberate wishes to put certain experiences
-out of mind, just as they follow hypnotic suggestions
-that they shall be forgotten. A very neat
-example is that of the observation previously
-given (Lecture III, p. <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>) of the subject who, in a
-moment of despair and resentment against criticism,
-expressed a wish to forget her own marriage
-name, and lo! and behold! on waking the next day
-she found she could not recall it. But amnesias of
-this kind differ in an important respect from the
-classical amnesias of hysteria. In the latter variety
-the dissociation is so extensive that reproduction
-cannot be effected by any associated idea of the
-personal consciousness; for reproduction another
-state of consciousness (hypnosis, alteration of personality,
-etc.) with which the forgotten experience
-is synthesized must be obtained or the subconscious
-must be tapped. In the former variety although
-the reproduction cannot be effected through an idea
-with which it stands in affectively painful association,
-it can be by some other indifferent idea or complex
-with which it is systematized. For instance,
-in the case of the phobia for the ringing of bells
-in a tower which we have studied, the original
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_513'>513</span>episode could not be recalled in association with the
-object of the phobia, notwithstanding that this object
-was an element in the episode, but it was
-readily recalled in association with contemporary
-events of the subject’s life. In the case of C. D.,
-who had experienced a painful episode of fainting
-the same amnesic relations obtained.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>4. On the other hand there are other forms of amnesia
-which the <em>Freudian mechanism is totally inadequate
-to explain</em>, or of which it offers only a partial
-explanation. I refer to the persisting amnesias
-of reproduction exemplified by much of the common
-forgetfulness of every-day life (often due to dis-interest);
-by the amnesias for whole systems of experiences
-in hypnotic states, in different phases of multiple
-personality, fugues, and deliria; by certain
-retrograde, general, and continuous amnesias of
-hysteria, alcoholic amnesia, etc. In some of these the
-amnesia is a dissociation of systems undoubtedly
-effected by the force of emotional impulses discharged
-by antagonistic complexes. This is to view
-the amnesia from its psychological aspect. But it
-may also be viewed from its <cite>correlated physiological
-aspect</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Let us note first that reproduction is a synthetic
-process which requires some sort of dynamic association
-between the neurogram underlying an idea
-present in the personal consciousness and the conserved
-neurograms of a past experience. From this
-view we may in the future find the explanation of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_514'>514</span>amnesia (resulting from the dissociative effect of
-emotion) in the configuration of the physical paths
-of residua traveled and engraved by an emotional
-experience. The emotional discharge may have prevented
-an associative path of residua being established
-with the dissociated experience.<a id='r258' /><a href='#f258' class='c009'><sup>[258]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>5. Amnesia is too large a subject for us to go into
-its mechanisms at this time and we are not called
-upon to do so. It is enough to point out <cite>the different
-forms of amnesia</cite> which at times are the resultants
-of emotion. Inasmuch as experiences are organized
-in complexes and still further in large systems,
-which include settings (that give meaning to the
-particular experiences) and other associated sentiments,
-instincts and other innate dispositions, the
-dissociation of a single experience may involve a
-large complex of experiences, or a whole system of
-such, and result either in a simple amnesia alone
-or in an alteration of personality accompanied
-by amnesia. Such amnesias are generally classified
-as <cite>localized</cite>, <cite>systematized</cite>, <cite>general</cite>, or <cite>continuous</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_515'>515</span>6. The first, as it seems to me, is also in principle
-systematized, the distinction being clinical
-rather than psychological. By <cite>localized</cite> is
-meant an amnesia extending over an epoch of time.
-Thus, in the instance already cited, Miss B. suddenly
-found that she could not recall a single moment
-of a particular day, although previously she
-had remembered well the incidents, owing to a distressing
-experience the memory of which had tormented
-her during the whole day. The amnesia was
-localized in time. It was the result of a suggestion
-which I gave in hypnosis that the painful experience
-only should be forgotten; but unexpectedly the
-remembrances of the whole day disappeared. In
-other words, the dissociation of a particular remembrance
-robbed the personal consciousness of all
-other remembrances with which it was systematized.
-That it was so systematized was made evident
-by the fact that throughout the course of the
-day it had so dominated her mind that she was continuously
-under its emotional influence. The amnesia
-was therefore not only localized but <cite>systematized</cite>
-with the day’s experiences. It is to be noted
-that the hypnotic suggestion necessarily exerted its
-dissociating force subconsciously after waking.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Similarly in multiple personality, one alternating
-phase often has complete amnesia for the preceding
-epoch belonging to another phase. This amnesia
-may extend over a period of from a few minutes to
-years, according to the length of time that the second
-phase was in existence. It is therefore localized.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_516'>516</span>But it is also systematized, not in the sense
-of relating to only a particular category of remembrances,
-such as those of a particular object—father,
-child, etc.—but in the sense of bearing upon
-all the experiences organized within a large system
-of sentiments, instincts, settings, etc., characteristic
-of the second personality. With the dissociation
-of this system the remembrances of its experiences
-go, too. Undoubtedly the dissociating force is that
-of the awakened sentiments, etc., of the succeeding
-phase. These are always antagonistic to those of the
-dissociated phase, although those of the one are not
-necessarily painful to the other. They are simply
-incompatible with one another, and it may quite
-well be that their force is subconsciously discharged.
-Systematized amnesia, on the other hand,
-may not be localized, bearing as it may only on a
-particular category of remembrances, let us say of
-a foreign language with which the subject previously
-was familiar.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>7. The <cite>retrograde</cite> type of localized amnesia is common
-following emotional shocks. The case of Mme.
-D., made classical by Charcot and Janet, is a very
-excellent example. This woman lost not only all
-memory of the painful emotional state into which
-she was thrown by the brutal announcement of her
-husband’s death, but of the <cite>preceding</cite> six weeks.
-The amnesia for the episode might be accounted for
-on the theory of conflict, but it is difficult to explain
-the retrograde extension unless it be there was
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_517'>517</span>some systematization covering the six weeks’ period
-within the mental life of the patient not disclosed
-by the examination.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><cite>General and continuous amnesia</cite>, the one covering
-the whole previous life of the subject, the other
-for events as fast as they are experienced, also,
-though rarely, occur as the sequence of emotion.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Subconscious traumatic memories.</b>—When an emotional
-complex has once been organized by an emotional
-trauma and more or less dissociated from the personality
-by the conflicting emotional impulses, it is
-conserved as a neurogram more or less isolated.
-The fact of amnesia for the experience is evidence
-of its isolation in that it cannot be awakened and
-synthesized with the personal consciousness. Now,
-given such an isolated neurogram, observation
-shows that it may be excited to autonomous subconscious
-activity by associative stimuli of one kind or
-another. It thus becomes an emotional subconscious
-memory-process and may by further incubation and
-elaboration induce phenomena of one kind or
-another.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This is readily understood when it is remembered
-that such a memory, or perhaps more precisely
-speaking its neurogram, is organized with one or
-more emotional dispositions (instincts) and these
-dispositions by their impulsive forces tend when
-stimulated to awaken the memory and carry its
-ideas to fulfillment. The subconscious memory thus
-acquires a striving to fulfil its aim. We ought to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_518'>518</span>distinguish in this mechanism between the isolation
-of the neurogram and that of the process. The
-former is antecedent to the latter.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The phenomena which may be induced by such a
-subconscious memory may be of all kinds such as
-we have seen are induced by subconscious processes
-and emotions—hallucinations, various motor phenomena,
-disturbances of conscious thought, dreams
-and those phenomena which we have seen are the
-physiological and psychological manifestation of
-emotion and its conflicts, etc.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Undoubtedly the <cite>mental feebleness</cite>, manifested
-by a feeling of exhaustion or fatigue, which so frequently
-is the sequel of intense conscious emotion,
-favors the excitation to activity of such subconscious
-autonomous processes or memory when antecedent
-isolation has occurred. This enfeeblement of
-personality probably is the more marked the larger
-the systems included in the dissociation. Certain
-it is that in fatigued states, whether induced by
-physical or mental “storm and stress,” subconscious
-processes become more readily excited. The
-greater the dissociation the greater the mental instability
-and liability to autonomous processes. Time
-and again it was noted, for instance in the case of
-Miss B. and B. C. A., that when the primary personality
-was exhausted by physical and emotional
-strain, the subconscious personality was able to
-manifest autonomous activity producing all sorts of
-phenomena (when it could not do so in conditions of
-mental health) even to inhibiting the whole primary
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_519'>519</span>personality.<a id='r259' /><a href='#f259' class='c009'><sup>[259]</sup></a> The direct testimony of the subconscious
-personality was to the same effect.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>Mental confusion.</b>—Fortunate is the person who has
-never felt embarrassment when the attention of
-others has been directed to himself, or when some
-act or thought which he wished to conceal has become
-patent to others, or when called upon without
-warning to make a speech in public. Unless one is
-endowed with extraordinary self-assurance he will
-become, under such or similar circumstances, bashful,
-self-conscious, and shy, his thought confused,
-and he will find it difficult to respond with ready
-tongue. Associated ideas <cite>à propos</cite> of the matter in
-hand fail to enter consciousness, his thoughts become
-blocked even to his mind becoming a blank;
-he hesitates, stammers, and stands dumb, or too
-many ideas, in disorderly fashion and without apparent
-logical relation, crowd in and he is unable to
-make selection of the proper words. In short, his
-mind becomes confused, perhaps even to the extent
-of dizziness. The ideas that do arise are inadequate
-and are likely to be inappropriate, painful, and perhaps
-suspicious. The dominating emotion is early
-reinforced by the awakening of its ally, the fear instinct,
-with all its physiological manifestations.
-Then tremor, palpitation, perspiration, and vasomotor
-disturbances break out. Shame may be
-added to the emotional state.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_520'>520</span>1. This reaction becomes intelligible if we regard
-it as one of conflict resulting in painful bashfulness
-and shame, inhibition of thought; the excitation of
-painful ideas, amnesia, and limitation of the field of
-consciousness. The self-regarding sentiment is
-awakened and dominates the content of consciousness.
-The conflict is primarily between two instincts
-organized within this sentiment—that of
-self-abasement (negative self-feeling) and that of
-self-assertion (positive self feeling). The impulsive
-force of the former, awakened by the stimulus
-of the situation—let us say the presence and imagined
-criticism of others—opposes and contends with
-that of the latter which is excited by the desire of
-the person to display his powers and meet the occasion.
-The result of the struggle between the two
-impulses is emotional agitation or <cite>bashfulness</cite>. If
-this bashfulness is “qualified by the pain of baffled
-positive self feeling” there results the emotion
-of shame.<a id='r260' /><a href='#f260' class='c009'><sup>[260]</sup></a> But these emotional states are not the
-whole consequences of the conflict. Almost always
-fear comes to the rescue as a biological reaction
-for the protection of the individual and impels to
-flight. The impulsive force of this instinct is now
-united to that of self-abasement and the conjoined
-force inhibits or blocks the development of ideas,
-memories, and speech symbols appropriate to the
-occasion and dissociates many perceptions of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_521'>521</span>environment. On the other hand, the self-regarding
-sentiment evokes various associative abasing
-ideas of self and related memories. The victim is
-fortunate if unfounded suspicions and other painful
-thoughts (through which criticism of self is imagined
-and the situation falsely interpreted) do not
-arise. Or there may be an oscillation of ideas corresponding
-to the conflicting sentiments and instincts.
-A person in such a condition experiences
-mental confusion and embarrassment. The condition
-is often loosely spoken of as self-consciousness
-and shyness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>2. Painfully emotional <cite>self-consciousness</cite> of this
-type as the sequence of special antecedent psychogenetic
-factors is frequently met with as an obsession.
-Then fear, with its physiological manifestations,
-is always an obtrusive element. Individuals
-who suffer from this psychosis sometimes cannot
-even come into the presence of strangers or any
-public situation without experiencing an attack of
-symptoms such as I have somewhat schematically
-described. The phenomena may be summarized as
-bashfulness, emotion of fear, inhibition, dissociation,
-limitation of the field of consciousness, ideas
-of self, confusion of thought and speech, inappropriate
-and delayed response, delusions of suspicion,
-tremor, palpitation, etc.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><b>The symptomatic structure of the psychoneuroses.</b>—When
-studying the physiological manifestations of emotion
-(Lecture XIV), we saw how a large variety of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_522'>522</span>disturbances of bodily functions, induced by the discharge
-of emotional impulses, may be organized
-into a symptom-complex which might, if repeatedly
-stimulated, recur from time to time. On the basis
-of these physiological manifestations we were able
-to construct a schema of the physiological symptoms
-occurring in the emotional psycho-neuroses.
-We obtained a structure of such symptoms corresponding
-to the facts of clinical experience. We
-then went on in the next lecture to examine the psychological
-disturbances induced by emotion and
-found a number of characteristic phenomena. The
-view was held that emotion is the driving force
-which bears along ideas to their end and makes the
-organism capable of activity. We found conflicts
-between opposing impulses resulting in repression,
-dissociation, and inhibition of ideas and instincts,
-and limitation of the field of consciousness. We
-saw that sentiments in which strong emotions
-were incorporated tended to become dominating,
-to the exclusion of other sentiments from consciousness,
-and to acquire organic intensity and
-thereby to be carried to fruition. We saw also that
-the dominating emotional discharges might come
-from sentiments within the field of consciousness,
-and therefore of which the individual is aware, or
-from entirely subconscious sentiments of which he
-is unaware. And we saw that conflicts might be between
-entirely conscious sentiments or between a
-conscious and a subconscious sentiment, and so on.
-(Indeed, a conflict may be between two subconscious
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_523'>523</span>sentiments as may be experimentally demonstrated
-with corresponding phenomena.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now the practical significance of these phenomena
-of emotion, both as observed in every-day life
-and under experimental conditions, lies in the fact
-that they enable us to understand the symptomatic
-<cite>structure</cite>, and up to a certain point the psychogenesis
-of certain psychoneuroses of very common occurrence.
-(For a complete understanding of the
-psychogenesis of any given psychoneurosis, such as
-a phobia, we must know all the antecedent experiences
-which formed the setting and gave meaning to
-the dominating ideas and determined the instincts
-which have become incorporated with them
-to form sentiments. This we saw when studying
-the settings in obsessions (Lectures XII and
-XIII).)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is evident, that, theoretically, if antecedent conditions
-have prepared the emotional soil, and if an
-emotional complex, an intense sentiment, or instinct
-should be aroused by some stimulus, any one of a
-number of different possible psychopathic states
-might ensue, largely through the mechanism of conflict,
-according, on the one hand, to the degree and
-extent of the dissociation, inhibition, etc., established,
-and on the other to the character and
-systematization of the emotional complex or instinct.
-As with the physiological manifestations
-of emotion, we can construct various theoretical
-schemata to represent the psychological
-structure of these different states. Practically both
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_524'>524</span>types—the physiological and psychological—must
-necessarily almost always be combined.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>1. The impulsive force of the emotion might repress
-all other ideas than the one in question from
-the field of consciousness, which would then be
-contracted to that of the limited emotional complex
-awakened; all opposing ideas and instincts would
-then be dissociated or inhibited—a state substantially
-of mono-ideism. Let us imagine the dominating
-emotional complex to be a mother’s belief
-that her child had been killed, this idea being awakened
-by the sudden announcement of the news. The
-parental sentiment with child as its object would
-become organized into a complex with the emotions
-of fear, sorrow, painful depressed feelings, etc.,
-which the news excited. This complex, being deprived—as
-a result of the ensuing dissociation—of
-the inhibiting and modifying influence of all
-counteracting ideas, would be free to expend its
-conative force along paths leading to motor, visceral,
-and other physiological disturbances. An
-emotional complex of ideas would be then formed
-which after the restoration of the normal alert state
-would remain dormant, but conserved in the unconscious.
-Later, when the emotional complex is
-again awakened by some stimulus (associative
-thoughts), dissociation would again take place and
-the complex again become the whole of the personal
-consciousness for the time being. This theoretical
-schema corresponds accurately with <b>one type of hysterical
-attack</b>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_525'>525</span>2. If again the awakened complex should be one
-which is constellated with a large system of dormant
-ideas and motives deposited in the <a id='corr525.3'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='unconcious'>unconscious</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_525.3'><ins class='correction' title='unconcious'>unconscious</ins></a></span>
-by the experiences of life, the new field of
-consciousness would not be contracted to a mono-ideism.
-We should have to do with a phase of personality,
-one which was formed by a rearrangement
-of life’s experiences. In this case the usual everyday
-settings (or systems) of ideas being in conflict
-with the sentiments of the resurrected system would
-be dissociated and become dormant. The ideas,
-with their affects, which would come to the surface
-and dominate, would be those of previously dormant
-emotional complexes and their constellated
-system. The prevailing instincts and other innate
-dispositions would be, respectively, those corresponding
-to the two phases, the antagonistic dispositions
-being in each case inhibited. This schema
-would accurately correspond to a so-called “mood.”
-If the demarcation of systems were sharply defined
-and absolute so that amnesia of one for the other
-resulted, the new state would be recognized as one
-of <b>dissociated or secondary personality</b>. A “mood” and
-secondary personality would shade into one another.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>3. Still another theoretical schema could be constructed
-if, following the hysterical dissociated
-state represented by schema 1, there were not a
-complete return to normality, i.e., complete synthesis
-of personality. The dissociation effected by the
-impulsive force of the evoked emotional complex
-and the repressed personal self-conscious-system
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_526'>526</span>might be so intense that, on the restoration of the
-latter, the former would remain dissociated in turn.
-The emotional complex would then, in accordance
-with what we know of the genesis of subconscious
-ideas, become split off from the personal consciousness
-and unable to enter the focus of awareness.
-Amnesia for the emotional experience would ensue.
-Such a split-off idea might, through the impulsive
-force of its emotion and that of its setting,
-take on independent activity and function coconsciously
-and produce various automatic phenomena;
-that is, phenomena which are termed automatic because
-not determined by the personal consciousness.
-The dissociation might include various sensory,
-motor and other functions, thereby robbing the personal
-consciousness of these functions (anesthesia,
-paralysis, etc.). Such a schema corresponds to the
-<b>hysterical subconscious fixed idea</b> (Janet).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In such a schema also, in accordance with what
-we know of the behavior of emotion, though the
-ideas of the complex remained subconscious, the
-emotion linked with them might erupt into the consciousness
-of the personal self. The person would
-then become aware of it without knowing its source.
-The emotion might be accompanied by its various
-physiological manifestations such as we have studied.
-If the emotion were one of fear the subject
-might be in an <b>anxious state</b> without knowing why
-he is afraid—an indefinable fear, as it is often called
-by the subjects of it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>4. If, owing to one or more emotional experiences,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_527'>527</span>an intense sentiment were created in which is
-organized about its object one or more of the emotions
-of fear, anger, disgust, self-subjection, etc.,
-with their physiological manifestations (tremor,
-palpitation, vasomotor disturbances, nausea, exhaustion,
-etc.) and their psychological disturbances
-(contraction of the field of consciousness, dissociation,
-etc.); and if the whole were welded into a complex,
-we would have the structure of an obsession.
-Such an organized complex would be excited from
-time to time by any associated stimulus and develop
-in the form of attacks: hence termed a recurrent
-psychopathic state as well as obsession. (As we
-have seen, the psychogenesis of the sentiment is to
-be found in antecedent experiences organized with
-its object giving meaning and persistence to the obsession.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>5. Finally (to add one more schema out of many
-that might be constructed), if a number of physiological
-disturbances (pain, secretory, gastric, cardiac,
-etc), such as occur as the symptoms of a disease,
-were through repeated experiences associated
-and thereby organized with the idea of the disease,
-they would recur as an associative process whenever
-the idea was presented to consciousness. Here
-we have the structure of an “<b>association or habit-neurosis</b>,”
-a disease mimicry. Numerous examples
-of the type of cardiac, gastric, pulmonary, laryngeal,
-joint, and other diseases might be given. The
-physical symptoms in such neuroses are obtrusive,
-while the psychical elements (including emotion)
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_528'>528</span>which, of course, are always factors, conscious or
-subconscious, remain in the background.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The study of the individual psychoneuroses belongs
-to special pathology, and need not concern us
-here. We are only occupied with the general principles
-involved in their structure and psycho-genesis.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f245'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r245'>245</a>. Inhibition and dissociation, although often loosely used as interchangeable
-terms, are not strictly synonymous, in that, theoretically
-at least, they are not coextensive. That which is inhibited may
-be absolutely, even if temporarily, suppressed as a functioning process,
-as in physiological inhibition (e. g., of reflexes, motor acts,
-etc.); or it may be only inhibited from taking part in the mechanisms
-of the personal consciousness, and thereby dissociated from that
-psychophysiological system. In the latter case the inhibited process
-is not absolutely suppressed, but may be capable under favoring conditions
-of independent functioning outside of that system. This is
-dissociation in its more precise sense. Inhibition may be said to have
-induced dissociation, and then the two may be regarded as only different
-aspects of one and the same thing. In the former case (absolute
-suppression) the inhibited process cannot function at all, as in
-certain types of amnesic aphasia when the memory for language is
-functionally suppressed. Inhibition therefore may or may not be
-equivalent to dissociation. Practically as observed in psychological
-phenomena it is often difficult to distinguish between them, and it is
-convenient to consider them together.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f246'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r246'>246</a>. The Dissociation, p. 189.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f247'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r247'>247</a>. One sees the same phenomenon in every-day life. Let a person
-acquire under a sense of injury a dislike of one who previously was
-a friend, and every sentiment involving friendship, admiration, esteem,
-gratitude, loyalty, etc., is repressed with a complete change of
-attitude. Politics furnishes many examples.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f248'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r248'>248</a>. Exemplified in Miss B. by Sally, in O. N. by the b mood, and
-in B. C. A. by phase B, and also in the earlier stages of the case by
-phase A.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f249'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r249'>249</a>. My Life as a Dissociated Personality, <cite>Jl. Ab. Psychol.</cite>, December-January,
-1908-9.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f250'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r250'>250</a>. The Mental State of Hystericals, p. 205.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f251'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r251'>251</a>. The Dissociation, cf. Index: “Emotion, the Disintegrating Effect
-of,” and Chapters XXVIII and XXIX.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f252'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r252'>252</a>. The Dissociation, p. 462.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f253'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r253'>253</a>. We shall study in other lectures the forces and mechanisms
-which effected the dissociation in this case.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f254'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r254'>254</a>. See Morton Prince: Some of the Present Problems of Abnormal
-Psychology, <cite>St. Louis Congress of Arts and Sciences</cite> (1904), Vol. 5,
-p. 772; also, <cite>The Psychological Review</cite>, March-May, 1905, p. 139.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f255'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r255'>255</a>. Probably derived from the “will to believe,” the desire to
-please the experimenter, or other elements in the hypnotic setting.
-The conception of a “censor” or desire to protect the personal consciousness
-from something painful is an unnecessary complication.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f256'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r256'>256</a>. The Dissociation.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f257'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r257'>257</a>. Cf. My Life as a Dissociated Personality, <cite>Jl. Abn. Psychol.</cite>,
-October-November, 1908.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f258'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r258'>258</a>. T. Brailsford Robertson, in a very recent communication on the
-“Chemical Dynamics of the Central Nervous System” and “The
-Physiological conditions underlying heightened suggestibility, hypnosis,
-multiple personality, sleep, etc.” (<cite>Folia Neuro-Biologica</cite>, Bd.
-VII, Nr. 4/5, 1913), has attempted to correlate these conditions and
-also amnesia (as one of their phenomena) with the isolation of paths
-“canalised” by auto-catalysed chemical reactions. These processes
-he concludes, from previous studies, “underlie and determine the
-activities of the central nervous system (and therefore the physical
-correlates of mental phenomena).” (See Lecture V, p. <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>.)</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f259'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r259'>259</a>. The Dissociation, Chapter XXIX; My Life as a Dissociated Personality,
-pp. 39 and 41.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f260'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r260'>260</a>. In this analysis I follow McDougall who seems to me to have
-analyzed clearly and adequately the emotional conditions. (Social
-Psychology, p. 145.)</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_529'>529</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE XVII<br /> THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMIC ELEMENTS OF HUMAN PERSONALITY</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>We ought to be able now to construct out of the
-various elements we have studied a general scheme, if
-not the details, of that composite whole which we call
-<cite>Personality</cite>. This should include its structure as well
-as its elements and dynamics.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is obvious that we must have a fairly comprehensive
-and accurate conception of these factors if we
-would understand those alterations of personality which
-are met with as pathological conditions and particularly
-their psychogenesis. Multiple personality, for instance,
-as it occurs in the alternating and coconscious types
-can only be comprehended through a knowledge of the
-normal structure and dynamic mechanisms. On the
-other hand the phenomena of this latter pathological
-condition throw a flood of light upon the normal and
-can be utilized to test the validity of theories. I shall
-complete these lectures by a study from the psychogenetic
-point of view of a case of dissociated and
-multiple personality. Certain phenomena met with
-in this derangement of the normal have been frequently
-cited in the preceding lectures and certain general
-principles underlying them and the alterations giving
-rise to multiplication of the personality and character
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_530'>530</span>in one individual have been referred to. A study of
-the psychogenesis of a concrete case will on the one
-hand illustrate these principles and, on the other, the
-structure and dynamics of normal personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Before making such a study, however, we ought to
-have a working conception of the normal; and this we
-are entitled, from the point of view of dynamic psychology,
-to construct on the basis of data supplied by
-studies of abnormal and normal mental behavior.
-The older way of considering human personality was
-to conceive it as an “ego” with various faculties. We
-may now consider it as <cite>a composite structure built
-by experience upon a foundation of performed, inherited,
-psycho-physiological dynamic mechanisms (instincts,
-etc.), containing within themselves their own
-driving forces</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Let us glance for a moment at this foundation with a
-view to a full comprehension of the significance of the
-innate instinctive and other dispositions composing its
-structure. The structure and the dynamics of these
-dispositions themselves we have already studied
-(Chap. XV). Their teleological aspect needs further
-exposition for in their functioning the processes which
-they carry out have a distinctly purposive character
-for the personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Every instinct has an aim or end which it strives to
-fulfil and which alone satisfies it; and it contains in
-itself the driving force which, as an urge, or impulse,
-sets into activity the mechanism and carries the instinctive
-process, unless blocked by some other process,
-to completion and satisfies the aim of the instinct.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_531'>531</span>Thus the instinct of flight impelled by the urge of fear
-has an aim to escape from danger and is not satisfied
-until the danger is escaped. Until that end is gained
-fear will not subside. If impeded in its activity it may
-awaken the pugnacity instinct which coming to the
-rescue may fight for safety. Similarly the instincts of
-acquisition and self-assertion are not satisfied and
-their urge persists until their ends are gained—the
-acquisition of certain objects in the one case and self-display
-or domination of other individuals or situations
-in the other case. Obviously the instincts and other
-innate dispositions have a biological significance,
-ontogenetically and phylogenetically, in that they
-serve the preservation of the individual and species
-and the perpetuation of the latter. And obviously in
-the drive to satisfy their aims they determine and
-govern behavior. But in doing this they become
-modified and controlled by experience—by the dispositions
-which are acquired by experience. In this way
-the behavior of the individual becomes adapted to
-the specific situations of the environment. Necessarily
-these modifications of the workings of the innate mechanisms
-by the imposition of experience upon and
-within them become very complicated and the problems
-of instinct and experience thereby evoked have been
-the object of much study and debate.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now with such fundamental innate mechanisms as a
-basis the composite structure of personality is built up
-by experience, according to the theory I am presenting.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>By experience new “dispositions” are deposited
-(i.e., acquired), and organized, systematized, not only
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_532'>532</span>amongst themselves but integrated with the inherited
-mechanisms. Thus, on the one hand, are formed new
-mechanisms which in their functioning manifest themselves
-as mental processes and behavior, and, on the
-other, the instinctive mechanisms are brought under
-control by experience and mental processes acquire a
-driving force, or an extra driving force, from the impulsive
-forces of the integrated instinctive mechanisms.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Accordingly we may say: <cite>Personality</cite> is the sum total
-of all the biological innate dispositions, impulses,
-tendencies, appetites and instincts of the individual
-and of all the <cite>acquired</cite> dispositions and tendencies—acquired
-by experience. And to these it is limited.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The former would embrace inherited, innate psychophysiological
-mechanisms or arrangements, such
-as those of the emotions, feelings, appetites and other
-tendencies manifested in instinctive reactions to the
-environment; the latter the memories, ideas, sentiments
-and other intellectual dispositions acquired and organized
-within the personality by the experiences of life.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The integration into one functioning organism, or
-whole, of all these innate and acquired dispositions
-with their mechanisms and inherent forces by which
-they come into play is personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As thus defined personality includes more than
-<cite>character</cite>. Character is the sum total of the predominating
-dispositions, or tendencies, popularly called
-traits. Thus in the domain of the innate dispositions
-every personality includes anger, fear, curiosity, and
-other instinctive reactions, but one personality might
-possess an angry temperament, while another an
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_533'>533</span>amiable temperament, meaning that in the one anger
-is aroused quickly and by a large variety of situations;
-in the other it is rarely aroused and by few situations;
-in the one anger is excited whenever the individual is
-thwarted, opposed, or wounded in his feelings; in the
-other the response is never or rarely anger in such
-situations but perhaps sorrow, or pity, or some other
-feeling. One is said to be quick to anger; the other
-slow to anger. Hence the character of the one is said
-to be “good tempered,” the other “bad tempered.”
-Yet every normal personality will manifest anger in
-some situation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Likewise with fear: one person reacts with fear to
-all sorts of threatening situations; another rarely and
-to very few. One is said to have a timorous, or an
-apprehensive, the other a brave, or bold, “sandy,”
-character. Yet every one manifests fear in one of its
-phases (apprehension, anxiety, etc.) in some situation.
-There is no personality born without the fear instinct.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Likewise in the domain of acquired dispositions personality
-includes the ideals, “sentiments,” desires,
-points of view, attitudes, etc., of the individual in
-respect to himself, to life and the environment. These
-being acquired by educational, social and environmental
-experiences largely differ in every individual.
-Some become common, or substantially common to all
-or many. But those that are peculiar to, or acquire a
-dominating position and influence in the personality,
-play their part—and even a greater part than the
-primitive instinctive dispositions—in distinguishing the
-character of one personality from that of another. For
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_534'>534</span>in a large measure they determine the reaction to
-situations, the behavior and the modes of thought as
-intellectual processes. They stamp the <cite>quality</cite> or
-character of the intelligence (its content) rather than
-the <cite>degree or capacity</cite> of the same.<a id='r261' /><a href='#f261' class='c009'><sup>[261]</sup></a> On this side, then,
-character is so much of personality as is represented by
-the dominating acquired dispositions of the individual.
-But as innate and acquired dispositions become inter-organized
-by experience, as traits, into complex functioning
-wholes, or complexes, acquired traits include
-the former.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Thus a personality may exhibit a character recognized
-as idealistic, altruistic, selfish, egotistic, social,
-anti-social, etc., according to what ideals, “sentiments,”
-morals, etc., have been acquired by experience.
-It is in these respects that he is largely the product of
-his education and environment, the influences of which
-have also organized his innate dispositions (instincts,
-etc.,) with his intellectual processes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We have already seen (Lectures IX and XV) that
-the acquired dispositions are, by the very experiences
-by which they are acquired, organized into complexes
-and systems of complexes which are conserved as such
-in the storehouse of the unconscious to be drawn upon
-by memory or to be awakened again to activity as occasion
-may demand to serve the purposes of mental life.
-Now, large numbers of these complexes have not only an
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_535'>535</span>organized structure but a dynamic potentiality and in
-consequence of these two characteristics each tends to
-function as a dynamic psychic whole. For in such complexes
-are incorporated one or more emotional or other
-instinctive mechanisms from which their chief energy
-and aim are derived. (This theory postulates not only
-a structure of mental dispositions but a correlated
-structure of hypothetical physiological dispositions
-which I have termed the “neurogram.”)<a id='r262' /><a href='#f262' class='c009'><sup>[262]</sup></a> In so far as
-dynamic complexes and systems of complexes have
-structure and tend to function as psychic wholes they
-take on the character of unitary mechanisms or systems.
-From this point of view the most fruitful conception of
-the structure of personality is that which views it as
-built up of dynamic units which may be classed as
-primary and secondary. The primary units are the
-innate psychophysiological arrangements or mechanisms
-which we have agreed to call the instincts, or
-innate tendencies or dispositions, in many of which are
-incorporated the emotions and other affects. These
-primary units become organized by experience into
-larger units or unitary systems. Whether they are
-also <cite>innately</cite> organized amongst themselves and by
-themselves into larger systems as some maintain
-(Shand) may or may not be the case. It is not necessary
-for our present purposes to consider this problem.
-It is sufficient that those dispositions which are innate,
-such as those of anger, fear, joy, etc., do become organized
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_536'>536</span>by and with experiences into larger and larger
-dynamic unitary systems.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The secondary units are the acquired complexes and
-systems of complexes within which are incorporated
-one or more primary units. In these are found as
-already mentioned the ideals, “sentiments,” wishes,
-aspirations, forebodings, apprehensions, and all other
-organized systems of thought which, on the one hand
-have their roots in the deposited experiences of life and,
-on the other, their promptings and urges in the primitive
-innate instincts and other dispositions. Thus the
-innate and acquired dispositions are organized into
-unitary systems of greater and greater complexity but
-each having a tendency and, under certain conditions
-of dissociation, a greater or less freedom to function as
-a psychic whole. And the integration or potential
-integration of all these units and unitary complexes and
-systems into a functioning whole is personality. This
-does not mean that all the primary and secondary
-units take part in the functioning of the personality; on
-the contrary, as we have seen, many lie dormant, for
-one reason or the other, in the unconscious. But, as
-we have also seen, they are potentially capable of being
-awakened and determining mental and bodily behavior.
-Furthermore, evidence has been adduced to show that
-the various units of personality do not always coöperate
-and function harmoniously with one another, as no
-doubt they ought to do, but sometimes are incited to
-conflicts and then they play the deuce with the individual
-and he fails to be able to adapt himself to the
-realities of life.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_537'>537</span>Amongst these acquired unitary systems there are
-certain ones which are of preëminent importance for
-the personality in the determination of mental behavior.
-I refer to those complexes known as the
-<cite>sentiments</cite>. By this term, as we have seen, is understood
-the organization of an acquired disposition—the
-idea of an object—or complex of such dispositions (the
-psychic whole of idea plus its “meaning” derived from
-the setting of associated experiences) with one or more
-innate emotional dispositions. It must not be overlooked
-for one moment that a sentiment is something
-more than the organization of an emotion or other
-affect with an idea. There is nothing novel or fruitful
-in such a limited conception of the structure of a sentiment
-as this. A sentiment in its structure is the organization
-of an idea and meaning with an emotional
-instinct which has an aim and end which the instinct
-strives to attain and which alone satisfies the urge of
-the instinct. Such a structure has great significance
-and the conception is a most fruitful one. For because
-of this structure the excitation of the idea necessarily
-involves the excitation of the instinct and the impulse
-of the latter determines behavior in reference to the
-object of the idea and carries the instinct to fruition.
-Thus if the sentiment be one of love the excitation of the
-instincts organized with the object determines through
-their urge the behavior to cherish or possess the object
-of the sentiment. And the attainment of this aim
-alone satisfies it. If the sentiment be one of apprehension
-of an object the instinct of fear incites behavior to
-escape from the danger contained in the meaning of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_538'>538</span>object. A sentiment in the hierarchy of units is a
-unitary system built up by the organization (through
-experience) of primary units with a secondary unitary
-complex (idea, meaning, etc.).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The importance of the sentiments in the dynamics of
-personality and therefore in the determination of mental
-and bodily behavior I have already dwelt upon
-(Lecture XV). But there is one sentiment which
-plays such an important rôle both in these respects and
-in that unitary system which we know as the empirical
-self, or consciousness of self that something more
-needs to be said about it. This sentiment is that which
-McDougall has termed the “self-regarding sentiment”
-which is intimately bound up with the idea or
-conception of the empirical self, and both should be
-considered together. It is only by regarding, as it
-seems to me, the conception or idea of the empirical
-self as a secondary unitary complex organized by
-experience that we can approach the solution of the
-problem of the self and understand the phenomenon of
-two selves in one personality, as so often occurs in
-multiple personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The self-regarding sentiment, according to McDougall’s
-theoretical analysis—and I may say his analysis
-has been confirmed by my own practical analyses of
-concrete cases—has structurally organized within it by
-experience the two opposing instincts, self-abasement
-and self-assertion, but either may be the dominating
-one. The idea or conception of self, proper, is, according
-to the theory, a complex and integrated whole
-organized by experience like the self-regarding sentiment.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_539'>539</span>“McDougall has argued,” to quote what I
-have written in a study of multiple personality,<a id='r263' /><a href='#f263' class='c009'><sup>[263]</sup></a> “and
-I think soundly ‘that the idea of self and the self-regarding
-sentiment are essentially social products;
-that their development is effected by constant interplay
-between personalities, between the self and
-society; that, for this reason, the complex conception of
-self thus attained implies constant reference to others
-and to society in general, and is, in fact, not merely a
-conception of self, but always one’s self in relation to
-other selves.’ But, as I would argue, this formulation
-must be considerably broadened. Every sentiment
-(and therefore the self-regarding sentiment) has roots
-in and is consequently related to what has gone before.
-And the experiences of what has gone before of the
-self, i.e., what has been previously experienced (ideally
-or realistically) by the individual in reference to the
-object of the sentiment, determines the attitude of
-mind and point of view towards that object, and is
-responsible for the organization of the object and
-instinct into a sentiment. The sentiment is the resultant
-and the expression of those antecedent experiences.
-They form its setting and give it meaning
-beyond the mere emotional tone. You cannot separate
-sentiment, conceived as a linked object and emotional
-instinct, from such a setting. They form a psychic
-whole. This is not only theoretically true, but actual
-dealings with pathological sentiments (in which the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_540'>540</span>principle can be most clearly studied), called phobias
-and other emotional obsessions, bring out this intimate
-relation between the sentiment and the conserved
-setting of antecedent experiences. Such practical
-dealings also show not only that the sentiment is the
-outgrowth of and the expression of this setting, but
-that by changing the setting the sentiment can be
-correspondingly altered.... I want to emphasize
-that in the dynamic functioning of a sentiment the
-setting coöperates in maintaining and carrying it to
-the fruition and satisfaction of its aim.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>So far as concerns the incorporation of the two instincts,
-self-abasement and self-assertion, “McDougall
-with keen insight and analysis, has argued that the
-self-regarding sentiment is organized with these two
-innate dispositions, but in different degrees in different
-individuals, and with the growth of the mind one may
-replace the other in the adaptation of the individual
-to the changing environment. Taking two extreme
-types, he draws a picture of the proud, arrogant, self-assertive,
-domineering person, with the feeling of
-masterful superiority, and angry resentment of criticism
-and control, and who knows no shame and is
-indifferent to moral approval and disapproval. In
-this personality the instincts of self-assertion and
-anger are the dominating innate dispositions of the
-self-regarding sentiment. On the other hand we have
-the type of the submissive, dependent character, with
-a feeling of inferiority, when the contrary disposition
-is the dominating one. McDougall’s analysis was
-beautifully illustrated in the case of Miss Beauchamp
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_541'>541</span>by two personalities, BI and BIV, fragments of the
-original self, which were actual specimens from real
-life of his theoretic types. Again McDougall’s theoretic
-analysis of the conception of self, showing the idea to
-be one ‘always of one’s self in relation to other selves,’
-is concretely illustrated and substantiated by the
-dissection of this mind effected by trauma.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The study of another case, that of “Maria” furnished
-the same results as respects the two personalities that
-were manifested, as did that of “B. C. A.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As to the conception of the empirical self and as “an
-important addition to this theory both from a structural
-and dynamic point of view, I would insist again
-that the complex conception of self includes a setting of
-mental experiences of much wider range, in which the
-idea of self is incorporated and which gives the idea
-meaning. The range of this setting extends beyond
-‘other selves’ and ‘society in general’ and may include
-almost any of life’s experiences.” By way of illustration
-let us take the two selves known as the “Saint”
-(BI) and the “Realist” (BIV) in the case of Miss Beauchamp.
-"Concretely and more correctly the psychological
-interpretation of the ‘reference to others and
-society in general,’ of the relation of one’s self to other
-selves, would in this particular instance be as follows:
-the Saint’s conception of self (with the self-regarding
-sentiment) was related to an ideal world and ideal
-selves contained in religious conceptions; and hence it
-became organized in a larger setting which gave it a
-meaning of divine perfection such as is obtained, or
-aspired to by saints, and in which were incorporated
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_542'>542</span>the emotional dispositions of awe, reverence, love, self-abasement,
-etc. This conception was not a product of,
-or related to the social environment. Rather it was the
-product of an ideal world. She, as has been said, lived
-in a world of idealism, oblivious of the realities round
-about her, which she saw not ‘clearly and truly’ but as
-they were colored by her imagination. Her idea of self
-thus became the ‘saintly sentiment’ of self-perfection.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“On the other hand the conception of self in BIV, the
-Realist, was related to and set in the realities of this
-social world as they clearly are, the world of her objective
-environment. And in this conception of self
-the instinctive dispositions of self-assertion and anger
-contributed the promptings and motive force to dominate
-these realities and bend them to her will.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It must be an obvious conclusion from the numerous
-and multiform subconscious phenomena which were
-cited in previous lectures that all the unitary and complexes
-and systems which enter into the composite
-structure of personality do not necessarily emerge into
-awareness. Some function subconsciously and in this
-way determine conscious mental processes and behavior.
-Many remain conserved in the unconscious and have
-only a potential reality in that they remain latent but
-susceptible of being awakened into activity. It is also
-true that in the course of the growth of the personality
-many become modified by experience and metamorphosed
-into new sentiments, new ideals, new desires,
-new apprehensions, new meanings, etc.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The necessity for adaptation of the personality to
-the realities of life necessarily gives rise to conflicts, for
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_543'>543</span>the urges of some unitary complexes cannot be satisfied,
-and some are incompatible with the situations which
-reality presents, or with one another. A practical solution
-of the problem is compulsory. Compensation is
-sought. Sometimes compensation or compromise is
-successfully attained; sometimes it is not. Or the
-solution may be accepted and the urge of a rebellious
-system incompatible with the demands of reality is
-suppressed by voluntary or automatic repression.
-When neither compensation nor compromise is attained,
-or when the situation is not accepted and the
-rebellious urge continues, then disruption or disarrangement
-of the personality may follow with such
-resulting phenomena as have been already described.
-Integrated systems may become disintegrated or dissociated,
-permitting of independent autonomous functioning
-of conflicting systems. And of the unitary
-systems taking part in such conflicts one or more may,
-as we have seen, function subconsciously. Furthermore,
-as observation shows, dissociated complexes
-may take on growth independently of the integrated
-systems of the personal consciousness and thus create
-large subconscious systems. On the other hand both
-one or more primary units (innate dispositions) and
-secondary unitary complexes and systems (acquired
-dispositions) may by the force of conflicts be completely
-repressed and cease to function within the
-personality. Thus, for example, certain instincts may
-be suppressed and systematic amnesia and other defects
-be produced. And so on.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Without pursuing further this exposition of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_544'>544</span>empirical personality or going into details, it would
-seem that some such conception of the structure of
-personality as that of which I have given a mere outline
-will alone satisfy the phenomena actually observed
-under normal and abnormal conditions. Indeed the
-theory would seem to be a compelling induction from
-the phenomena derived from clinical observation and
-experiment.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Against this preliminary sketch of the structure and
-dynamic mechanisms of the normal personality as a
-background I will in the next lecture present a study of a
-case of dissociated and multiple personality, as the
-alterations of structure and the dynamic manifestations
-observed in cases of this kind, on the one hand,
-concretely illustrate the principles involved, and, on
-the other, present some of the most important data on
-which the theory is founded.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f261'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r261'>261</a>. “Intelligence tests” therefore do not afford tests of character which
-is the most important element of personality from a sociological point
-of view. (See “Character vs. Intelligence in Personality Studies” by
-Dr. Guy Fernald, <cite>Jour. Abnormal Psychology</cite>, Vol. XV, No. 1.)</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f262'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r262'>262</a>. Indeed I cannot see that mental “disposition” has any reality excepting
-so far as it is derived from its correlated physiological disposition.
-(See p. 266.)</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f263'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r263'>263</a>. Miss Beauchamp: “The Theory of the Psychogenesis of Multiple
-Personality”; <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, Vol. XV, Nos. 2-3;
-pp. 108, 120-121.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_545'>545</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE XVIII<br /> THE PSYCHOGENESIS OF MULTIPLE PERSONALITY<a id='r264' /><a href='#f264' class='c009'><sup>[264]</sup></a> <br /> <span class='sc'>The Case of B. C. A.</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<h3 class='c017'>I</h3>
-
-<p class='c015'>As an introduction let me say that in a previous lecture
-(The Unconscious, Lecture VIII) I pointed out
-that in a general way alteration of personality is effected
-through the primary organization by experience and
-later coming into dominating activity of particular
-unitary systems of ideas with their affects, on the one
-hand, and the displacement by dissociation or inhibition
-of other conflicting systems on the other. In
-slighter degrees and when transient this alteration
-may be regarded as a mood. When the alteration is
-more enduring, and so marked by contrast with the
-preceding and normal condition as to obtrusively alter
-the character and behavior of the individual and
-his capacity for adjustment to his environment, we
-have a pathological condition. When the alteration is
-slight and affects few systems it may be easily overlooked;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_546'>546</span>or when it is accompanied, as it often is, by
-physiological disturbances, it may be so masked by
-them as to be mistaken for so-called neurasthenia. It is
-when the dissociation is so comprehensive as to deprive
-the individual of memory of his previous phase of personality,
-or of certain acquired knowledge or other
-particular experiences that the personality is easily
-recognized as a dissociated one. When the inhibiting or
-repressing force that induces dissociation ceases to be
-effective, that is when the dissociated systems come
-again into activity and repress the temporarily dominant
-systems, then the individual returns to his normal
-condition (in which he may or may not remember the
-dissociated state), just as a person returns to his habitual
-character after the passing of a mood. We may
-speak of the two phases—the normal and the altered
-one—as constituting together <cite>multiple personality</cite>. As
-these two phases may continue to alternate with one
-another they are also alternating personalities. The
-second or altered state is also sometimes called a <cite>secondary
-personality</cite>. There may be several such secondary
-personalities which may alternate with each
-other or the normal personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It should be noted that the formation of a secondary
-personality is primarily the result of two processes,
-<cite>dissociation</cite> and <cite>synthesis</cite> though it is subject to <cite>secondary
-growth</cite> through various processes. As a result
-of the first process, dissociation, systems of thought,
-ideas, memories, emotions and dispositions previously
-habitual in the individual may cease to take part in the
-affected person’s mental processes. The influence of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_547'>547</span>these systems with their conative tendencies is therefore
-no longer for the time being in play.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When we pass in review a large number of cases, we
-find that the systems of ideas, which (through the dissociating
-process) cease to take part in personality, may
-be quite various. One or more “sides” to one’s character,
-for instance, may vanish, and the individual may exhibit
-always a single side on all occasions; or the ethical
-systems built up and conserved by early pedagogical,
-social, and environmental training may cease to take
-part in the mental processes and regulate conduct; or,
-again, the ideas which pertain to the lighter side of life
-and its social enjoyments may be lost and only the more
-serious attributes of mind retained. There may even
-be amnesia in consequence of dissociation for chronological
-epochs of the individual’s life, or for certain
-particular episodes, or for certain specific knowledge,
-such as educational acquirements (mathematics, Greek,
-Latin, music, literature, etc., or knowledge of a trade or
-profession, and even of language). Amnesia alone,
-however, does not constitute alteration of personality
-strictly speaking; for a person may have complete loss
-of memory for certain specific experiences without true
-alteration of character. It is of important significance,
-as we shall see, that the dissociated or inhibited<a id='r265' /><a href='#f265' class='c009'><sup>[265]</sup></a>
-systems may include emotions, instincts and innate
-dispositions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_548'>548</span>Examination of recorded cases shows too that besides
-mental memories, physiological functions may be involved
-in the dissociation. Thus there may be loss of
-sensation in its various forms, and of the special senses,
-or of the power of movement (paralysis), or of visceral
-functions (gastric, sexual, etc.). Dissociation may,
-then, involve quite large parts of the personality including
-very precise and definite physiological and
-psychological functions. We see examples of these
-different dissociations in numerous cases.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As to the mechanism by which pathological dissociation
-is effected, it may be well to point out here
-that there is no reason to suppose that it is anything
-more than an exaggeration of the normal mechanism
-by which, on the one hand, mental processes are
-temporarily inhibited from entering the field of consciousness,
-and, on the other, physiological functions
-are normally suppressed and prevented from taking
-part in the psychophysiological economy. (For instance,
-the suppression of the gastro-intestinal functions
-by an emotional discharge.) Every mental
-process involves the repression of some conflicting
-process; otherwise all would be chaos in the mind. And
-every physiological process involves some repression of
-another process. The movements of walking involve
-the inhibition alternatively of the flexor and extensor
-muscles according as which is active in the movement.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This principle is conspicuous in absent mindedness
-and voluntary attention when every antagonistic or
-irrelevant thought and even consciousness of the environment
-is prevented by a conflicting force from
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_549'>549</span>entering the field of consciousness. In other words,
-every mental process involves a conflict and inhibition:
-in physiological terms a raising of the threshold of the
-antagonistic mental process in consequence of which
-it cannot function unless the stimulus be increased.
-This is a normal mechanism and process. The conditions
-which determine absolute and continuous dissociation
-or inhibition become the object of study.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>By the second process, synthesis, particular unitary
-systems of ideas with the conative tendencies of their
-feeling tones rise to the surface out of the unconscious
-and become synthesized with the perceptions, and
-such memories and other mental systems and faculties
-of the individual as are retained. Thus it may be that
-unitary dispositions, sentiments and systems belonging
-to a particular “side” of the character—the amiable
-or the brutal, the unselfish or the selfish, the ungenerous
-or the generous, the practical or the idealistic, the
-literary or the business, the religious or worldly, the
-youthful and gay, or the mature and serious, etc.,
-to any side may become uppermost and be the dominant
-trait of the secondary personality. Or it may be that
-the systems of ideas, disposition, etc., belonging to
-childhood and long outgrown, but conserved nevertheless
-in the unconscious, may be resurrected and becoming
-synthesized with other systems form a personality
-childish in character. Or, again, sentiments, thoughts,
-dispositions, tendencies, instincts which, though intimately
-belonging to the individual, have been restrained,
-repressed, concealed from the world for one
-reason or another, may, being set free through dissociation
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_550'>550</span>from the repressing thoughts, rise to the
-surface and take part in the synthesis of the new personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In other words there is a rearrangement and readjustment
-of the innate dispositions and those deposited
-by the experiences of life which go to form personality.
-Some by the process of dissociation are expelled from
-the personal synthesis; some which had been previously
-expelled (repressed) by education, maturity of character,
-direct volition, and other processes of mental
-development are brought back into it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is obvious that when such rearrangements and
-readjustments have occurred the mental reactions of the
-individual will vary largely from what they were before.
-The reaction to the environment will become
-altered. When systems which give rise to the habitual
-modes of thought are dissociated, naturally the reactions
-of the individual will not be influenced by them
-but by those of the new synthesis, and the character
-will be correspondingly changed. Inasmuch as out
-of the great storehouse of the unconscious any number
-of combinations of systems may be arranged, it is
-obvious that any number of secondary personalities
-may be formed in the same person. As many as ten or
-twelve have been observed.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>A study of cases which have come under my personal
-observation, and the reports to be found in the literature
-of those cases of multiple personality which have
-been studied with sufficient intensity and exhaustiveness,
-allow these general and preliminary statements,
-which are little more than descriptive of the facts, to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_551'>551</span>be verified.<a id='r266' /><a href='#f266' class='c009'><sup>[266]</sup></a> One of the best examples is the case of
-B. C. A. which I had an opportunity of studying over a
-long period of time, and to which reference has been
-frequently made. I shall take this as the object of our
-study in psychogenesis.<a id='r267' /><a href='#f267' class='c009'><sup>[267]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This subject has herself written at my request two
-introspective analyses of her own case, one by the
-normal personality and the other by the secondary
-personality. These analyses are of great value.<a id='r268' /><a href='#f268' class='c009'><sup>[268]</sup></a>
-They give different versions of the same facts in accordance
-with the differing memories, knowledge and
-points of view of the differing personalities. The
-second also gives an account of the claimed co-conscious
-life as experienced by herself and unknown to the
-normal personality. We cannot do better than take
-them as a basis for a genetic study of the case and
-reproduce portions of them here. In this study I have
-made use, in addition to this material, of a large number
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_552'>552</span>of personal observations extending over five years, of
-numerous letters and analyses written by the subject at
-different times in her various phases of personality,
-of the memories in hypnosis, in which state many
-subconscious and dissociated perceptions and thoughts
-not otherwise remembered are brought to light, and of
-numerous analyses of her memories made on many
-occasions, at the expense of many hours of labor.
-Other sources of information have also been made use
-of. This investigation has resulted in a voluminous
-collection of records filling several large portfolios. In
-making the analyses and in many of the letters the
-subject, with extreme frankness and in the interests
-of psychology has gone in great detail into and has
-laid bare the most intimate facts of her mental life.
-This is true of each of the phases of personality, so that
-the point of view from which the same facts were seen
-in different moods has been obtained. This is a matter
-of no small consequence as the same fact often acquires
-a different aspect or meaning according to the view
-point of the mood in which it is experienced. A large
-amount of data pertaining to the inner life of the subject
-has thus become accessible. It is obvious that data of
-this sort are necessary if the psychological status of
-any given period of an individual’s life is to be related to
-antecedent mental experiences as etiological factors.
-But this sort of data is that which usually is most
-difficult to obtain. Our inner lives we keep hidden as
-in a sealed book from the world. In all published reports
-of multiple personality these data are lacking, the
-studies dealing almost entirely with such facts only as
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_553'>553</span>were open to the observation of the investigator. It
-necessarily results from such a study of the inner life
-of a person living in the circle to which this subject
-belongs that many of the data are too intimate and
-personal for publication. However much one may be
-interested in science there is a point beyond which one
-shrinks from exposing one’s self in print. I am, therefore,
-at many points very properly limited to the use of
-general phrases and summarizing expressions instead
-of explicit statements of particular facts which, I am
-aware, would be more satisfactory to the critic. This
-limitation cannot be helped, but is probably compensated
-for by the fact that, if it did not exist, the
-subject would be one whose introspective observations
-would be of much less value.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I will only add to this statement that the data were
-not collected in support of a preconceived theory or
-even of a working hypothesis, but only after they were
-gathered—in fact, after much of this material was
-forgotten—were they brought together and studied.
-It was then found that when the different pieces of
-evidence were pieced together they allowed of only one
-conclusion, namely, that which the subject herself in
-the main reached independently as the facts were laid
-bare and brought into the field of her consciousness by
-the means I have described.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>By way of preface to the subject’s introspective
-analyses I reproduce here the following remarks, which
-I wrote as an introduction to the “Life,” but slightly
-expanded and with a few verbal changes to make the
-matter clearer.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_554'>554</span>An account of the various phases of dissociated personality written
-by the patient after recovery and restoration of memory for all the
-different phases cannot fail to be of interest. If the writer is endowed
-with the capacity for accurate introspection and statement
-such an account ought to give an insight into the condition of the
-mind during these dissociated states that is difficult to obtain from
-objective observation, or, if elicited from a clinical narration of the
-patient, to accurately transcribe. In that remarkable book, “A
-Mind that Found Itself,” the author, writing after recovery from
-insanity, has given us a unique insight into the insane mind. Similarly
-the writer of the following account allows us to see the beginnings
-of the differentiation of her mind into complexes, the final
-development of a dissociated or multiple personality, and to understand
-the moods, points of view, motives, and dominating ideas
-which characterized each phase. Such an account could only be
-given by a person who has had the experience, and who has the
-introspective and literary capacity to describe it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The writer in publishing, though with some reluctance and at my
-request, her experiences as a multiple personality, is actuated only, as
-I can testify, by a desire to contribute to our knowledge of such conditions.
-The experiences of her illness—now happily recovered from—have
-led her to take an active interest in abnormal psychology and to
-inform herself, so far as is possible by the study of the literature, on
-many of the problems involved. The training thus acquired has plainly
-added to the accuracy and value of her introspective observations.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>A brief preliminary statement will be necessary in order that the
-account as told by the patient may be fully intelligible.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The subject was under my observation for about four years.
-When first seen the case presented the ordinary picture of so-called
-neurasthenia, characterized by persistent fatigue and the usual
-somatic symptoms, and by moral doubts and scruples. This condition,
-at first unsuspected, was later found to be a phase of multiple
-personality and was then termed and is described in the following
-account as state or personality A. Later another state, spoken of as
-personality B, suddenly developed. A had no memory of B, but the
-latter had full knowledge of A. Besides differences in memory
-A and B manifested distinct and markedly different characteristics
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_555'>555</span>and traits which included moods, tastes, health, emotions, feelings,
-instincts, sentiments, points of view, habits of thought, and controlling
-ideas. In place, for instance, of the depression, fatigue, and
-moral doubts and scruples of A, B manifested rather a condition of
-exaltation, and complete freedom from neurasthenia and its accompanying
-obsessional ideas. A and B alternated during a long period
-of time with one another. After A, for example, had existed as a
-personality for a number of hours or days she changed to B, and
-vice versa. After the first appearance of B it was soon recognized
-that both states were only fragments, so to speak, or phases of a
-dissociated personality, and neither represented the normal complete
-personality. After prolonged study this latter normal state
-was obtained in hypnosis (c´), and on being waked up a personality
-was found which possessed the combined memories of A and B, and
-was free from the pathological stigmata which respectively characterized
-each. This normal person is spoken of as C. Normal C
-had, therefore, been split and resynthesized into two systems of
-complexes or personalities, A and B. Leaving out for the sake of
-simplicity certain intermediate hypnotic states, A and B could be
-hypnotized into a single hypnotic state which was a synthesis that
-could be recognized as a complete normal personality in hypnosis.
-All that remained to do was to wake up this state and we had the
-normal C. This process could be reversed and repeated as often as
-desired: that is, C could be split again into A and B, then resynthesized
-in c´ who when awakened became C again. This relationship
-may be diagramatically expressed as follows:<a id='r269' /><a href='#f269' class='c009'><sup>[269]</sup></a></p>
-
-<div class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i_555.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_556'>556</span>The various traits which characterized and differentiated
-the different personalities will appear in the
-course of this genetic study. With this introduction
-we will proceed to the latter.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'>II <br /> <span class='sc'>The Disruption of Personality</span></h3>
-
-<p class='c015'>The first of the accounts above mentioned by the
-<em>normal</em> personality, C, written after recovery, is in the
-form of a letter. She had complete memory for both
-her phases A and B. It will be noticed in passing that
-this normal self speaks of the phases A and B as herself,
-transformed to be sure, but still herself in different
-“states.” “As A, <em>I</em> felt” so and so, “as B, <cite>I</cite> felt”
-thus, etc. On the other hand, the secondary personality,
-B, in her account, always refers to the other personalities
-as distinct personages, and uses the third
-person “she” in speaking of them. In this matter of
-differentiation of personalities B was very insistent,
-maintaining, as has been frequently noted in other
-cases, that she had no sense of identity of her own self-consciousness
-with that of the others. “I am, at
-any rate, a distinct personality,” she remarks. In
-her consciousness there was no feeling that the self-consciousness
-of C and A was identical with her own,
-but the contrary. This frequent phenomenon presents
-a standpoint from which the problem of the
-“I” may be studied. What is it that determines the
-self-consciousness of an ego? We are not concerned
-with this old question at present, but it is worth noting
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_557'>557</span>that cases of dissociated personality offer favorable
-material for the solution of the problem.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The following extracts from the accounts by “C”
-and “B” have been taken as a basis for our analysis
-which will further attempt to coordinate the two
-accounts and to clarify the psychological development
-of the case.</p>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
- <div class='nf-center'>
- <div>FROM ACCOUNT GIVEN BY THE NORMAL PERSONALITY C AFTER RECOVERY</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c025'><span class='sc'>My dear Dr. Prince</span>,</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>You have asked me to give you an account of my illness as it
-seems to me now that I am myself and well; describing myself in
-those changes of personality which we have called “A” and “B.”</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>It is always difficult for one to analyze one’s self accurately and
-the conditions have been very complex. I think, however, that I
-have a clear conception and appreciation of my case. I remember
-myself perfectly as “A” and as “B.” I remember my thoughts, my
-feelings, and my points of view in each personality, and can see
-where they are the same and where they depart from my normal
-self. These points of view will appear as we go on and I feel sure
-that my memory can be trusted. I recall clearly how in each state
-I regarded the other state and how in each I regarded myself.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>As I have said, I have now, as “C,” all the memories of both
-states (though none of the co-conscious life which, as B, I claimed
-and believed I had). <cite>These memories are clearly differentiated in my
-mind.</cite><a id='r270' /><a href='#f270' class='c009'><sup>[270]</sup></a> It would be impossible to confuse the two as the moods
-which governed each were so absolutely different, but it is quite
-another thing to make them distinct on paper. I have, however,
-been so constantly under your observation that you can, no doubt,
-correct any statement I may make which is not borne out by your
-own knowledge.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'><span class='pageno' id='Page_558'>558</span>I am, perhaps, of a somewhat emotional nature, and have never
-been very strong physically though nothing of an invalid. I have
-always been self-controlled and not at all hysterical, as I would use
-the word. On the contrary, I was, I am sure, considered a very
-sensible woman by those who know me well, though I am not so
-sure what they may think of me now. I am, however, very sensitive
-and responsive to impressions in the sense that I am easily affected
-by my environment. For instance, at the theatre I lose myself in
-the play and feel keenly all the emotions portrayed by the actors.
-<cite>These emotions are reflected vividly in my face and manner sometimes
-to the amusement of those with me and, if the scene is a painful one, it
-often takes me a long time to recover from the effect of it. The same is
-true of scenes from actual life.</cite><a id='r271' /><a href='#f271' class='c009'><sup>[271]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c019'>Before this disintegration took place I had borne great responsibility
-and great sorrow with what I think I am justified in calling
-fortitude, and I do not think the facts of my previous life would
-warrant the assumption that I was naturally nervously unstable.
-It does not carry great weight, I know, for one to say of one’s self,—I
-am sensible, I am stable, I am not hysterical,—but I believe the
-statement can be corroborated by the testimony of those who
-have known me through my years of trial. The point I wish to
-make is that my case shows that such an illness as I have had is
-possible to a constitutionally stable person and is not confined to
-those of an hysterical tendency.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>A year previous to this division of personality a long nervous
-strain, covering a period of four years, had culminated in the death
-of one very dear to me—my husband. I was, at the end of that
-period, in good physical health, though nervously worn, but this
-death occurred in such a way as to cause me a great shock, and
-within the six days following I lost twenty pounds in weight. For
-nearly three months I went almost entirely without food, seemingly
-not eating enough to sustain life. I did not average more than three
-or four hours’ sleep out of the twenty-four, but I felt neither hungry
-nor faint, and was extremely busy and active, being absorbed both
-by home responsibilities and business affairs. The end of the year
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_559'>559</span>(5 years after the beginning of my husband’s illness), however,
-found me in very poor health physically and I was nervously and
-mentally exhausted. I was depressed, sad, felt that I had lost all
-that made life worth living and, indeed, I wished to die. I was
-very nervous, unable to eat or sleep, easily fatigued, suffered constantly
-from headache, to which I had always been subject, and
-was not able to take much exercise. The physician under whose
-care I was at this time told me, when I asked him to give my condition
-a name, that I was suffering from “nervous and cerebral exhaustion.”</p>
-
-<p class='c019'><cite>It was at this time that the shock which caused the division of personality
-occurred</cite> [<cite>resulting</cite> in period III].</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Although this last statement is true so far as concerns
-the complete dissociation of personality which
-resulted in the birth of an independent alternating personality,
-the first beginning of the genesis of that
-personality can be traced back to a far earlier period
-when she was about twenty years of age, that is to say
-<i>nineteen years before the final cleavage. These beginnings
-were an embryonic cluster or unitary complex of rebellious
-ideas, “floating thoughts, impulses, desires, inclinations”
-and intense feelings which came into being at this early
-period in consequence of an emotional trauma.</i></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I propose to trace in the course of this study, first,
-the gradual growth by successive syntheses of this
-rebellious cluster with other idea-clusters during a
-period of <cite>fourteen</cite> years.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Second, its incubation, organization and segregation
-from the main personality during a second period of
-<cite>five</cite> years as a fairly well defined unitary complex
-known as the <cite>B complex</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Third, the culmination of the incubating process and,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_560'>560</span>as the result of an emotional shock, final bursting into
-flower of the B complex as the <cite>B personality</cite> (i.e.,
-nineteen years from the time of the beginning of
-disaggregation through rebellious thoughts).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Fourth, the reversion to the original personality, but
-now one so disintegrated, shorn and shattered by the
-segregation of the autonomous B complex and of certain
-instincts as to be a so-called secondary disintegrated
-<cite>personality</cite>, <cite>A</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Fifth, the alternation of these two strongly contrasted
-abnormal personalities.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Finally, the reintegration of the two abnormal
-personalities into one normal original personality,
-C.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In following the evolution of the personalities my
-main purpose will be to bring to light the psychological
-forces which brought about the disaggregation, on the
-one hand, and the synthetic construction of the new
-personal systems, on the other. The following arrangement
-of these changes in the personality by
-periods will be convenient for reference.<a id='r272' /><a href='#f272' class='c009'><sup>[272]</sup></a></p>
-
-<table class='table1' summary=''>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='8%' />
-<col width='5%' />
-<col width='85%' />
-</colgroup>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'>Period</td>
- <td class='c011'>I.</td>
- <td class='c027'>From wedding to beginning of husband’s illness (14 years) characterized by a group of rebellious ideas.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'>Period</td>
- <td class='c011'>II.</td>
- <td class='c027'>During husband’s illness (4 years) and one year thereafter (5 years), characterized by B <cite>complex</cite> and terminating with shock.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><span class='pageno' id='Page_561'>561</span>Period</td>
- <td class='c011'>III.</td>
- <td class='c027'>Beginning with shock, characterized by B <cite>personality</cite> and terminating one month later by another shock in</td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'>Period</td>
- <td class='c011'>IV.</td>
- <td class='c027'><cite>Personality</cite> A, plus B complex, lasting one week, followed by</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'>Period</td>
- <td class='c011'>V.</td>
- <td class='c027'>Characterized by alternations of A and B personalities and lasting several years until reintegrated in original normal personality, C.</td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class='c001'>All these changes from period I to IV inclusive were
-caused by emotional shocks awakened by a common
-factor in closely associated situations. In period IV the
-A personality had no amnesia for personality B. This
-amnesia developed in period V.</p>
-
-<h4 class='c028'><span class='sc'>The Rebellion</span></h4>
-
-<h4 class='c028'><span class='sc'>Period I</span></h4>
-
-<p class='c015'>The writer C in her account passes over the early
-first period, but she remembers clearly the historical
-facts and has given a very precise description of them
-in the many analyses which have been made and recorded.
-Moreover in the second account,<a id='r273' /><a href='#f273' class='c009'><sup>[273]</sup></a> written in
-the secondary B phase of personality, she recognizes
-the embryonic emotional complex of this first period,
-and its genetic relation to the later B <cite>complex</cite>, and to
-her own still later developed B <cite>personality</cite>. “This
-complex” she (B) wrote, “it seems to me is the same,
-though only slightly developed, as that which appeared
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_562'>562</span>later and is described as complex B. In trying to
-explain this condition, which it seems to me was the
-first start of what ultimately resulted in a division of
-personality, I will divide the time into periods, and I
-will call this period I.” (This same division into
-periods I have thought it well to follow.) She also
-identified the ideas of this early complex with ideas
-and feelings which she still entertained and which
-formed a marked characteristic of her own dissociated
-(B) personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>For the sake of clearness and simplicity of phraseology
-it will be well from now on to speak of the subject
-when in the dissociated B state simply as B, and when
-united in the normal state as C. In this way, as C
-points out, we shall avoid constant repetition and circumlocution
-in such phrases as, “when the subject was
-in the B state,” etc. You must not, however, be misled
-by the connotation of terms and read into this
-nomenclature more than the psychological facts warrant,
-or make distinctions of personality which transcend
-in any way psychological laws. Dissociated and
-multiple personality are not novel freak phenomena,
-but are only exaggerations of the normal and due to
-exaggerations of normal processes, and it is for this
-reason that they are of interest and importance. For,
-being exaggerations, they accentuate and bring out
-into high relief certain tendencies and functional
-mechanisms which belong to normal conditions, and
-they differentiate mental processes, one from another,
-which normally are not so easily recognized.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>They are caricatures, so to speak, of the normal. In
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_563'>563</span>one respect they may be likened to the staining of an
-anatomical specimen prepared for the microscope by
-which the various anatomical structures are brought
-out into strong contrast with one another and easily
-differentiated, like the boundaries of countries on a
-colored map. Without the staining all would have a
-homogeneous appearance and differentiation would be
-difficult. So, though a secondary personality is in one
-sense but a phase of the whole personality, it is characterized
-largely by an accentuation or domination
-of particular constituents to be found in the given
-normal everyday personality, and by the subordination
-or suppression of others, both being effected by the
-exaggeration of the normal processes of dissociation
-and synthesis. In such a secondary personality these
-constituents and processes are easily recognized though
-they may be hidden under normal conditions. In
-saying that a secondary personality is a phase of the
-whole personality the latter term—whole personality—must
-be taken in the sense of including all the past
-experiences of life which have been organized, deposited
-and conserved in the unconscious, and all the instincts
-and innate dispositions of the individual. These past
-experiences form, as we have seen,<a id='r274' /><a href='#f274' class='c009'><sup>[274]</sup></a> a storehouse of
-formative material which, for the most part, under
-ordinary conditions, may lie dormant though potential;
-but any elements of this material may, under special
-influences, be awakened to activity and, uniting with
-particular constituents of the normal everyday personality,
-take part under the urge of their own instinctive
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_564'>564</span>impulses and dispositions in the formation of a
-new personality. The remainder of the normal personality
-then becomes submerged and dormant in the
-unconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>To return to the evolution of the B personality. If
-this final phase be correctly traced back 19 years to the
-early antecedent rebellious complex above referred to,
-we shall see that the evolution of multiple personality
-in this case passed through several successive stages
-and was of slow growth. Speaking generally, it may,
-indeed, be ascribed, primarily, on the one hand, to the
-disruptive or dissociating effect of continuous <cite>conflicts</cite>
-between the opposing impulses of innate dispositions
-and instincts (emotions), and, on the other, to the
-gradual synthesization of the components of personality
-repressed by these conflicts into the subconscious.
-The secondary incubation of these repressed
-and other deposited experiences of life followed, with
-the final setting free of all this formative material, when
-fully matured, by the force, awakened by a trauma, of
-the conative emotional impulses belonging to it. The
-analogues of these phenomena and mechanisms are
-observed in sudden religious conversion which in principle
-is an alteration of personality.<a id='r275' /><a href='#f275' class='c009'><sup>[275]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>All the historical evidence at hand, derived from
-searching investigation, goes to show that at the early
-period to which I have referred (period I) the subject
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_565'>565</span>received an emotional shock, “which,” B wrote, “it
-seems to me, as I look at it now, resulted in the first
-cleavage of personality. This emotion was one of
-fright and led to rebellion [in the form of rebellious
-thoughts] against a certain condition of her life, and
-formed a small vague complex [of thoughts and emotions]
-which persisted in the sense that it recurred from
-time to time, though it was always immediately suppressed.”<a id='r276' /><a href='#f276' class='c009'><sup>[276]</sup></a>
-And this vague complex of rebellious
-thoughts necessarily soon gave rise to and included
-other “floating thoughts, impulses, desires, inclinations,”
-all of which the subject suppressed or endeavored
-to suppress during a long period of years.
-“This complex,” she adds, as quoted above, “it seems
-to me, was the same, though only slightly developed, as
-that which appeared later, and is described as complex
-B.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The “shock” when more deeply analyzed proved to
-be the excitation of certain emotions which, besides a
-mild degree of fright, were intense repugnance or disgust.
-They were a reaction to or defense against
-another affect, which was also excited and which we
-will term, in deference to our subject’s good taste, X.
-The emotion of repugnance was so intense as to require
-considerable fortitude to withstand and gave rise to
-much agitation. It accompanied a cluster of “rebellious”
-ideas awakened by the realization of an unexpectedly
-disagreeable situation and relation. This
-cluster I shall call the <cite>rebellious complex</cite> to distinguish
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_566'>566</span>it from the later B complex into which it became constellated.
-This rebellious complex with the emotion
-of repugnance (instinct of repulsion) was of necessity
-frequently excited by the conditions of life and, therefore,
-of frequent recurrence, after the fashion of an
-obsession. After the first shock the fright naturally
-subsided, for one reason, from habituation to the conditions.
-The X affect, never experienced before, from
-the very first was repressed by the inhibiting force of
-the more intense emotion of disgust.<a id='r277' /><a href='#f277' class='c009'><sup>[277]</sup></a> Fear also was
-involved in this repression, for there was a conflict
-between the opposing forces of conflicting emotions;
-and in such a conflict—as, for example, between fear
-and anger—the stronger tends to repress its antagonist
-and whatever it conflicts with. Consequently the
-recurring rebellious complex was habitually accompanied
-by repugnance alone. The exact constitution
-of this rebellious complex I am not at liberty to mention.
-It may have been a matter of mother-in-law, or
-of social arrangements, or particular duties and responsibilities,
-or something else—it does not matter
-and it is not necessary to say. It was a shrinking from a
-particular condition of her life. It was certainly not a
-wish unless this repugnance and “kicking against the
-pricks” can be twisted into its opposite as a wish to
-be free from the objectionable condition. Still less
-was it a morally unacceptable unconscious, being just
-the opposite; for both the rebellious thoughts and the
-wish to be free from the condition objected to were
-acceptable and justified to herself in her mind, and, in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_567'>567</span>her secret thoughts at least, tolerated as natural and
-reasonable.<a id='r278' /><a href='#f278' class='c009'><sup>[278]</sup></a> Nor was the X affect an <cite>intolerable</cite> wish.
-If a wish there was no reason why it should not have
-been gratified. Nevertheless, as B affirms, the rebellious
-thoughts were put out of mind, as thoughts of a
-disagreeable fact, as they arose from time to time; but
-this was only from a sense of duty in consideration of
-responsibilities undertaken. I could make this clearer
-if I were at liberty to enter into the details of these
-rebellious thoughts. Her life in every other respect
-was an unusually happy one, surrounded by all that
-one should desire, and included a devoted husband
-whom she loved, admired and respected. For these
-reasons alone she felt it a duty to suppress all expression
-of her rebellious feelings.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The main point, from the point of view of psychogenesis,
-is that at this early stage we have constantly
-<cite>recurring conflicts between the conative forces pertaining
-to emotions linked with sentiments of duty, loyalty, and
-affection, on the one hand, and those pertaining to the
-rebellious thoughts with corresponding desires, impulses,
-etc., reinforced with the emotion of repugnance, on the
-other</cite>. The former always won and the latter were
-inhibited or repressed into the unconscious. These
-were not the only rebellious thoughts that were repressed.
-There were others from which the original
-rebellion received accretions. That such constantly
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_568'>568</span>repressed thoughts with their strong feeling tones
-should be conserved in the unconscious was a psychological
-necessity, and also that they should emerge by
-the force of their own urge into consciousness from
-time to time like an obsession whenever stimulated by
-environmental and personal conditions. I may simply
-cite the two following simple examples.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The subject, governed by the maternal instinct,
-naturally loved to take care of her baby and “make
-things for him to wear, and fuss over them”; and yet
-there were “floating thoughts” of an opposite character
-which later, as will appear, emerged and became
-conspicuous in the B complex and B personality. “She
-was very fond of her father-in-law and did everything
-to make him happy,” and yet there were other thoughts
-which conceived of him as a “fussy old bother.” These
-again were represented later in the loss of sentiments
-of affection and in the point of view of the B phases.
-There was no real dissociation and doubling of consciousness;
-these conflicting attitudes and tendencies
-were, at least in the beginning until the later period of
-stress and strain when they eventuated in corresponding
-action, merely <cite>evanescent thoughts, wishes and impulses
-which easily passed out of mind</cite>, or an undercurrent
-of thought such as all of us have more or
-less.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Later, when they became more insistent and persistent,
-they had to be repressed by an effort of
-will.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Then it followed that C, conscious of these contrary
-impulses, reproached herself for them, thought herself
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_569'>569</span>wicked to have them, and when they became insistent
-repressed them. Their intrusion into consciousness
-was probably favored by a considerable degree of neurasthenia,
-for when she was ill they were more frequent
-and obtrusive, while with good health and happiness
-they disappeared, as is the case with all obsessing
-ideas.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The occurrence of such contrary impulses would
-probably have been of no account and nothing more
-would have been heard from them, as in the case of
-ordinary mortals, if it had not been for a period of
-stress and strain which she was destined to undergo.
-As it was, the awakening of these contrary thoughts
-and impulses was fraught with a danger to the psychical
-unity, a danger that actually materialized, namely:
-as these conflicting impulses, being also rebellious
-against the conditions of life, were constantly awakened
-contemporaneously with the specialized frequently
-recurring “rebellious complex,” the whole tended to
-become synthesized into a large complex which later,
-during the second period of stress and strain, became
-in turn the nucleus of a still larger complex (B). During
-this latter period, as we shall see, like the forces of a
-growing political revolution, the rebellious thoughts and
-impulses increased in number, frequency and intensity,
-until there were times when they acquired the mastery
-in the conflicts and repressed the previously opposing
-thoughts of duty, affection, etc., and dominated the
-personality. The effect of such intense conflict was to
-cause by repression a rift in the personality, i.e., to
-dissociate a large system of ideas (with their emotions),
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_570'>570</span>from other systems. All this will appear as we go
-on.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>There is another point which it is interesting here to
-note. The secondary phase B looking back recognizes
-(i.e., has a sense of awareness) that the “rebellious
-thoughts” and the various contrary impulses were
-herself. “<cite>I was the rebellion</cite>;” “I think of the rebellion
-as myself;” “I was the rebellion which she kept to
-herself;” “The first complex formed a something I
-am;” “I think I am made up of all the impulses which
-began to come then;” "It seems to me, as I think of it
-now, that I was always there—sometimes more, sometimes
-less—in the form of conflicting impulses.“ In
-these and similar phrases B, over and over again, in
-numerous analyses at widely separated intervals,
-identifies these early conscious processes with her own
-individuality. Nevertheless, ”<cite>I was not an</cite> I <cite>then</cite>, you
-know," she explains, “but to understand what I write
-you will have to call me so. I remember them now as
-my thoughts, but at that time I never thought of myself
-as a self.” “I never thought, ‘I’ do not like this or
-that then; <cite>it was like an impulse in the other direction</cite>.”
-Let it not be forgotten, then, that at the beginning the
-rebellious complex and impulses were not synthesized
-and segregated as an ego. Nevertheless, in fact, whenever
-she attempts to describe the early rebellious complex
-and the impulses she drops into the mode of saying,
-“I felt so and so,” and finds herself obliged to use this
-personal pronoun when thinking of these past thoughts,
-and the same is true when she speaks of the more fully
-developed subsequent B complex.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_571'>571</span>You will say that there is nothing particularly remarkable
-or unusual in this. We all think of our past
-thoughts as our own, even when they occurred, say, in
-absent mindedness when there was no consciousness of
-self. <cite>But the unusual thing is that B—the subject in the
-B phase of personality—does not think of C’s other
-thoughts or conscious experiences as her own.</cite> In fact
-she persistently refuses to recognize these others as
-hers. She has no feeling of their having belonged to
-her own consciousness. “They were not my thoughts,”
-she says. This is true of this other content of the conscious
-life of the early first period as well as of the later
-periods when the B complex and the B personality
-appeared. “<cite>She</cite> liked,” such and such a thing; “<cite>I</cite>
-didn’t!” "<cite>She</cite> thought,“ so and so; ”<cite>I</cite> didn’t;" referring
-respectively to the thoughts of the dominant consciousness
-and the contrary thoughts. “Yet in referring
-to the B <cite>complex</cite>,” she writes of the second period,
-“I find myself continually saying ‘I’; it is difficult not
-to do so. This, I think, must show the intimate relation
-between the two. I think of the B complex and I find
-I think of it as myself, although I do not think of A and
-C as myself, and they do not seem to be my own personality.”</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>This feeling by a secondary personality that certain
-conscious experiences belong, or belonged, to her own
-personal consciousness or ego and that others do not,
-or did not, belong is a common phenomenon in such
-cases and is of great significance. It is a phenomenon
-which justifies the inference that the relation which
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_572'>572</span>one system of ideas bears to that which we call the ego
-is different from that of the other system; it is a phenomenon,
-too, which must be taken into account in
-solving the problem of the ego. When we study the
-records of cases of multiple personality we find as a
-frequent observation that the secondary personality
-distinguishes between the conscious experiences which
-belong to itself and those which belong to the principal
-personality, and to other secondary personalities, if
-more than one. This differentiation is based upon the
-feeling of a particular self-consciousness being attached
-to the former and not to the latter. The conception
-of self and the self-regarding sentiment differ
-markedly in their content in the different phases of
-personality. The analysis of their contents shows
-this to be the case: e. g., the contained images and
-affects. It is not, therefore, simply a matter of the
-experiences occurring at different chronological epochs.
-Indeed the two different sets of experiences may be
-synchronous, one being conscious and the other co-conscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I have passed over a question which is sure to be
-asked: Why did the “unexpectedly disagreeable”
-situation, whatever it was, occasion the “shock” and
-the rebellious complex? I may say frankly that the
-situation was not one which would induce such a
-disastrous effect in the ordinary individual. The
-answer is to be found in the principle of settings which
-give meaning to ideas. [Every idea over and above
-the sensory images which take part in its content has
-meaning; and the meaning is determined by antecedent
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_573'>573</span>experiences (thoughts, perceptions, feelings, etc.) with
-which it is associated, i.e., in which it is set. An idea
-of a particular individual, for example, has one meaning
-for one person and another meaning for another according
-to the associated mental experiences of each. These
-experiences form the setting or context which determines
-the meaning, point of view, and attitude of mind
-towards any given object or situation presented to
-consciousness.]<a id='r279' /><a href='#f279' class='c009'><sup>[279]</sup></a> Whenever an emotional “shock”
-(one that is not a simple instinct reaction) occurs, this
-setting of antecedent experiences, organized with the
-idea and emotions, acts as a unitary complex, a psychic
-whole, and behaves as a sort of psychological torch
-which some later experience sets aflame, so to speak,
-as an emotional shock. Because of this setting the
-idea reacts in accordance with the emotions (fear, disgust,
-etc.) which the “meaning” includes, and induces
-a defense reaction. Now analytical investigation revealed
-settings to the “situation” dating in part from
-early childhood and in part from later experiences. An
-attitude of mind, therefore, already existed which was
-ready to react with the emotions (fear and disgust)
-which were excited by the meaning of the situation. It
-is easy to see, in the light of the actual facts, that if a
-certain factor of the situation had been altered, without
-altering the situation itself, its meaning would have
-been altered, i.e., it would not have awakened the setting
-built up by the experiences of life, and would not
-have excited the emotional response (shock) that ensued.</p>
-
-<div>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_574'>574</span>
- <h5 class='c028'>DISSOCIATION</h5>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c015'>But the organization of an emotional complex was
-not the whole effect of these experiences. In addition,
-if the memories of B can be trusted—and I believe they
-can—there resulted in a minor degree a cleavage or
-dissociation of personality. This was not so pronounced
-as to give rise to noticeable pathological manifestations,
-but apparently sufficient to make at least a line
-of indenture, so to speak, which afterwards was easily
-broadened and deepened into a complete dissociation.
-This is not easy to demonstrate at this late date, but
-there are certain facts that have some evidential value.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the first place, according to the evidence, there
-developed a tendency in what we have called the rebellious
-complex to take on independent activity, or an
-automatism after the nature of an obsession, outside
-the domain of the will and self-control. No amount of
-reasoning or of self-reproach sufficed to change the
-point of view. Like an obsession it would not down and
-recurred automatically.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the second place, it seems, according to B’s
-memories, that the activity of the rebellious complex of
-ideas began to take place to a certain extent outside
-the focus of the attentive consciousness, in the sense
-that the personal consciousness was not conscious or
-aware of their presence. This means that at times
-when the ideas in question were not in consciousness,
-and therefore might be supposed to be dormant in the
-unconscious, they recurred nevertheless and were in
-subconscious activity, i.e., were co-conscious. This
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_575'>575</span>statement is based upon the interrogation of B who to
-the best of her memory thought that the “rebellious
-ideas were split off and went on by themselves while the
-subject C was thinking of other things, without her
-being aware of them.” “They were co-conscious as I
-know it now.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Too much weight should not be laid upon memories
-of this kind after such long intervals of time, and I
-would not be understood as doing so; but that the
-memories of this secondary personality may be given
-their just value it should be explained that, like some
-other secondary personalities, B’s memory embraces
-not only the mental states (thoughts, perceptions,
-feelings, etc.,) of the principal personality which were
-within the focus of attention, but those which were in
-the fringe or margin of awareness and those which
-were entirely outside, i.e., fully subconscious. This
-has proved to be the case by numerous test observations
-and experiments. B might, therefore, remember
-split off (co-conscious) rebellious states if they existed.
-One reason for this enlargement of the field of memory
-of this phase of personality is that besides being an
-alternating personality<a id='r280' /><a href='#f280' class='c009'><sup>[280]</sup></a> she is a co-conscious personality.
-But this is another story which we shall have to
-postpone for the present.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the third place, the constant invasion of the field
-of the personal consciousness by the contrary impulses,
-which I have already spoken of, suggest, if they do not
-establish, a certain degree of automatic activity arising
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_576'>576</span>from the unconscious and dissociated from the rest of
-the conscious field. In the light of what has already
-been told and of later developments, to be described in
-the next lecture, the inference assumes a high degree of
-probability that these impulses were manifestations of
-ideas and feeling tones belonging to an earlier period
-of life—childhood or girlhood—which had been conserved
-in the unconscious and which now erupted into
-the field of the personal co-consciousness.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I do not want to make too much of these early
-tendencies to dissociation nor is the matter important.
-For historical comprehension, however, it is desirable
-that the facts should be mentioned for, if our interpretation
-be correct, they were evidently steps in the
-evolution of the final disintegration.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Thus matters went on during this first period,
-covering a span of 14 years; sometimes the rebellious
-complex, enlarged and constellated with conflicting
-thoughts, desires and impulses, recurred with frequency,
-and sometimes they remained dormant for
-considerable intervals, the state of general health
-apparently often being the conditioning factor.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'>III <br /> <span class='sc'>The Evolution of the B Complex</span></h3>
-
-<h4 class='c028'>PERIOD II</h4>
-
-<p class='c015'>At the end of the 14-year span—when the <em>second
-period</em> begins—the subject “received a great shock in
-the sudden illness of her husband. This illness was of
-such a nature that she knew no complete recovery was
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_577'>577</span>possible and that death might result at any time.”
-This second shock aroused once more the emotion of
-fright, and the old rebellion and a certain apprehensiveness,
-a trait which is inherent to a marked degree
-in her character. During the following four years
-which covered the illness of her husband she was
-almost literally torn to pieces mentally by this apprehensiveness—always
-anticipating the inevitable hanging
-over her.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>After the first two weeks, when her husband’s
-temporary recovery took place, the same old rebellious
-complex returned with intensified force as the condition
-that gave rise to it returned. But she repressed all
-expression of it, resolved that no one should guess her
-secret because she did not wish to give pain to another.
-So she kept her secret to herself, and what she kept to
-herself became the <cite>beginnings</cite> of a new personality.
-“Then came the nervous strain of sorrow, anxiety, and
-care, and the inability to reconcile herself to the inevitable.
-This nervous strain continued for four years.
-C’s life during this time was given up entirely to the
-care of her husband; she tried to live up to her ideal—which
-was a high one—of duty and responsibility, and
-always having the sense of failure, discouragement and
-apprehension.” Necessarily she was cut off from the
-social world of gaiety by the care that devolved upon
-her or, considering her temperament, thought she was.
-A person of less intense feeling and governed by pure
-intellect quite likely might have reasonably arranged
-her life so that she could have both given all the care
-she wished to the invalid, on the one hand, and participated
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_578'>578</span>in the pleasures of social life, on the other. But,
-like many anxious wives and mothers whom all physicians
-see, her anxiety and feelings were too intense for
-such cool reasoning, her mind became single tracked
-and she shut herself off from the world she loved.
-Consequently, during this period of stress and strain
-the old rebellious complex not only became intensified
-and more persistent, but also became enlarged and
-systematized with a still larger cluster of rebellious
-thoughts. To the old rebellion there was now added a
-rebellion against the hardness of fate which was about
-to cheat her out of the happiness which belonged to her,
-and still more against the new conditions of life as she
-found them. This is what the incurable illness of her
-husband meant to her.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>She rebelled bitterly [B writes in a letter;] she <cite>could</cite> not have it
-so and it <cite>was</cite> so. No one knew what his illness was and she bent
-every energy to conceal his true condition. She blamed herself for
-his illness [in her ignorance of the pathology of disease], and after a
-time she began to have that sense of being double. More than
-anything else she wanted to be happy; she saw all happiness going
-and she could <cite>not</cite> let it go—it <cite>must</cite> not—she <cite>would</cite> be happy, and
-she <cite>couldn’t</cite>. It was a fight with herself all the time. We were A and
-B then just as much as we are now. The part that afterwards became
-A doing all that a devoted conscientious wife could do, determined
-that her husband should never miss anything of love and
-care; and the part that afterwards became B rebelling against it all,
-not willing to give up her youth, longing for pleasure, and above all
-for happiness. To be happy, that was always the cry, and it was not
-possible.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>It was a longing for conditions which in her mind
-seemed essential, and she could not accept the conditions
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_579'>579</span>as they were. “It was a rebellion, a longing for
-happiness, a disinclination to give up the pleasures of
-life which the conditions required; and there was a
-certain <cite>determination to have these pleasures in spite of
-everything</cite>, and this resulted in a constant struggle
-between C and this complex.” It was that inability,
-which is so common and causes so much mental disturbance
-and unhappiness in so many people, to reconcile
-and adjust oneself to the actual situation of one’s
-life and accept it. And here, in the case of B. C. A.,
-we recognize in the center of the rebellion of this
-second period of stress and strain, the same thoughts
-which had cropped up evanescently during the first
-period but now become more intense and persistent,
-more disturbing and the fundamental, cause of the
-inability to adjust herself to the situation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>These thoughts, however, were not tolerated by the
-subject and were put out of mind and <cite>repressed into the
-unconscious by her rightmindedness</cite>. It thus became a
-matter of conflict between the light-hearted gay sentiments
-and temperament of inexperienced youth which,
-in ignorance of life, finds it difficult to accept its serious
-responsibilities, and the sentiments of honor, duty, and
-affection which were the dominating traits. These
-facts are too intimate to go into in greater detail, but
-each one will probably recognize in himself some such
-conflicting desires and tendencies.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>This is the place to point out certain major traits in
-the character of B. C. A. which enable us to recognize
-more clearly the source of the conflicting impulses and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_580'>580</span>help to make intelligible their uprushes. There were
-two strongly marked elements in her character which
-had always been noticeable and which, given the
-appropriate conditions, were almost bound to come in
-conflict. B. C. A. during all her girlhood days and
-early married life was noted for her happy, buoyant,
-lively, light-hearted disposition. She was ready at all
-times for pleasure and could not bear to give it up, and
-she had an unusually intense desire to be happy; she
-loved happiness and wanted happiness, and when
-happiness dominated, as it generally did in a person
-of such a disposition, she was filled with the “joy of
-life.” Responsive to her environment,<a id='r281' /><a href='#f281' class='c009'><sup>[281]</sup></a> when her surroundings
-were sympathetic all the joy and mirth of
-her own personality was given out and reflected upon
-others. She was of an intense nature in that she felt
-all the anxieties, sorrows, and joys of life with great and
-equal intensity. But it was joy and happiness which
-appealed to her as the one thing she must preserve.
-This was one of her character traits.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>On the other hand, the second trait was equally
-strong, namely, unreasonably high moral ideals, so
-high even in the little every day affairs of life that
-only a strong stern fanatic or ascetic could live consistently
-and perpetually up to them; she was intensely
-conscientious and high-minded with an almost inordinate
-sense of honor and duty; and there was also an
-overweening pride in her rectitude and moral ideals
-which sometimes seems to have transcended common-sense;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_581'>581</span>and there was pride in her pride. Reserved and
-rather unapproachable to strangers she was affectionate
-to relatives and intimates.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>These two traits of character if analyzed would be
-seen to be two great strongly contrasted unitary systems
-of ideas and sentiments with their respective
-emotions and feelings. They formed two sides to her
-personality, and the conflicts that ensued could be
-said to have been between the two sides.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>To say that these two traits or groups of traits—love
-of the joy of life and conscientious devotion to duty—were
-combined in one person is not of course to mention
-anything out of the ordinary. What was out of the
-ordinary was the intensity with which each existed.
-Now that she has recovered from her illness and has
-reverted to the normal synthesized personality these
-traits are still easily noticeable. None but a person of
-unusually strong, fixed character, capable of holding an
-ideal continuously in mind, subordinating all else, could
-have downed the cry for happiness and lighter pleasures
-of life. When we come to the secondary split personalities
-we shall see that the splitting was between these
-two traits or systems; the elements of one gathering
-about itself associated elements, formed one personality
-with corresponding reactions to the environment, and
-the elements of the other in similar fashion formed the
-other personality. Thus stronger conflicts arose.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The recognition of mental conflicts as disturbances of
-personality and determinants of conduct is as old as
-literature itself. They have been the theme of poets,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_582'>582</span>dramatists and fiction writers of every age. It has remained
-for modern dynamic psychology to study and
-determine with exactness the phenomena, discover the
-mental mechanisms involved and formulate the laws.
-One school, the so-called psycho-analysts, claims to
-find in practically all conflicts, a very complicated
-mechanism involving repression, unconscious processes
-(generally a sexual wish for the most part from infantile
-life) a “censor,” a compromise, conversion and disguisement
-of the repressed factor in the form of a
-psycho-neurosis, or other mental and physiological
-phenomena, substitution, etc. I have no intention of
-entering into a discussion of the correctness of such
-mechanisms. The sole point I wish to make is that,
-even if so, to find such mechanisms and results to be
-universal is the reductio ad absurdum just as it would
-be to find that a conflict between a policeman and a
-resisting rioter is always carried out by a process which
-is manifested by a black eye and cracked skull, arrest,
-trial and conviction of the rioter. The process of the
-physical conflict may be simple or complex and be
-manifested and terminated in many ways. It may be
-carried out by and result in simple dissociation of the
-rioter from the crowd and sending him home about his
-business.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>So with mental conflicts which may be manifested
-in many ways and have various results. In previous
-lectures we have considered some of these ways and
-results. One way and mechanism is, as in the latter
-example of the rioter, the simple repression and dissociation
-of the weaker factor resulting in the domination
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_583'>583</span>of the stronger, and the determination of conduct
-according to the impulses and tendencies organized
-within the mental system that has gained the ascendency.
-But in maintaining social law and order
-we may have to deal, not with a single rioter, but with a
-mob or organized rebellion. Then the repression of the
-uprising may bring into action more men and more
-systematized forces and may result in the repression of
-organized factions and an alteration of the social system.
-So mental conflicts may involve large systems and
-result in extensive rearrangements and repressions; in
-other words, an alteration with dissociation of personality.
-This was the mechanism and result in the
-case now under examination.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The conflicts were between the impulses or conative
-forces discharged from the emotions pertaining to
-youthful sentiments of pleasure and joy and play and
-ideas with exalting pleasure-feeling tones, all constituting
-wishes for the pleasures and happiness of
-youth—conflicts, I mean, between these forces and
-those of ethical sentiments of duty, together with
-other sentiments involving the emotions of affection,
-anxiety, sympathy, admiration, and depressing pain-feeling
-tones. <cite>For the time being, at least, the latter won
-and the former were repressed.</cite> But they were still there,
-conserved in the unconscious, ready to spring to life
-in response to a stimulus at any favorable opportunity
-when the repressing force of the will power was weakened
-by stress and strain. So we see that the conflicting
-wishes and impulses which jarred and threatened
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_584'>584</span>the mental equilibrium of the subject were, after
-all, only impulses or incursions from the unconscious of
-repressed antecedent mental experiences (wishes and
-conative tendencies) which were elements in the normal
-character.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Thus it came about that the original complex of
-rebellious thoughts against a <cite>particular</cite> condition had
-become slowly enlarged into a rebellion against <cite>general
-conditions</cite>, and <cite>constellated with a number of specific
-wishes for pleasure (which were incompatible with her
-life) and their corresponding impulses into a still larger
-complex</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is this latter that we have called the <cite>B complex</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It had become evolved and organized out of the
-original “rebellious” complex as its nucleus by receiving
-successive accretions from later rebellious ideas and
-wishes in conflict with the personality, much as the
-pearl in the oyster grows by successive accretions.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From one point of view it was a highly developed
-“mood.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It was still under control but later, as we shall find,
-it was destined to assume autonomous activity and
-play a dominant rôle.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>“C was still conscious of these thoughts, [B wrote in
-her account], but they represented to her the selfish
-and weak part of her nature and she tried to suppress
-them; tried to put them out of her mind but they still
-persisted, and she was always to a greater or less extent
-aware of them. There was no lack of awareness and no
-amnesia. As the months and years went on the sorrow
-and anxiety of the C group increased, and the conflicting
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_585'>585</span>thoughts and <cite>rebellion</cite> of the B group increased.
-C was ashamed of the latter and always tried to suppress
-such thoughts as they arose. If during those
-years anything happy had come to C the formation
-of this rebellious complex would, I believe, have been
-retarded, perhaps stopped altogether, but nothing
-pleasant happened; it was all grief, and everything went
-wrong.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Notwithstanding the continuing stress and strain and
-lack of joy all probably would have gone well if C’s
-husband had recovered and she had retained her
-physical health. Returning to her normal life, she
-would have been only one more of those who have
-lived through a period of anxious perturbation. But
-unfortunately, as it happened, “C’s husband died
-suddenly away from home, the one thing she had
-[dreaded and] felt she could not bear.” She received
-the news over the telephone.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>She did not recover [B states] from the shock and became more
-and more nervous, was very much depressed, easily fatigued,
-suffered constantly from headache, and was possessed by all sorts of
-doubts and fears, reproaching herself for things done and undone.
-She also overtaxed her strength in attending to business matters.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>C’s physical health immediately and suddenly gave
-way. Her own account, already given, goes more into
-detail and lets us see the extent to which she was
-handicapped by physical and mental ill-health in her
-struggle against her rebellious impulses—against fate.
-She was not given half a chance. Her description of
-her condition at this period, as noted at the beginning
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_586'>586</span>of this account, is worth repeating here in this connection:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>I was at that time in good physical health, though nervously
-worn, but this death occurred in such a way as to cause me a great
-shock and within the six days following I lost twenty pounds in
-weight. For nearly three months I went almost entirely without
-food, seemingly not eating enough to sustain life, and I did not
-average more than three or four hours’ sleep out of the twenty-four,
-but I felt neither hungry nor faint, and was extremely busy and
-active, being absorbed both by home responsibilities and business
-affairs. The end of the year, however, found me in very poor health
-physically and I was nervously and mentally exhausted. I was
-depressed, sad, felt that I had lost all that made life worth living
-and, indeed, I wished to die. I was very nervous, unable to eat or
-sleep, easily fatigued, suffered constantly from headache, to which
-I had always been subject, and was not able to take much exercise.
-The physician under whose care I was at this time told me, when I
-asked him to give my condition a name, that I was suffering from
-“nervous and cerebral exhaustion.”</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>It is always the case in so-called neurasthenic states
-that the power of self-control is weakened, resistance to
-obsessing thoughts diminishes and the latter tend to
-take on automaticity and invade and dissociate the
-personality. And there is also a certain degree of repression
-and dissociation of previously dominant systems
-of ideas. In other words every case of real so-called
-“neurasthenia” and hysteria is a greater or less
-alteration of personality.<a id='r282' /><a href='#f282' class='c009'><sup>[282]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Accordingly, although at the beginning of period II
-the B complex was only a loosely organized system of
-rebellious thoughts, wishes and impulses recurring
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_587'>587</span>from time to time, this system now began in her physically
-and mentally weakened condition to acquire
-increased force, to invade the personal consciousness,
-and breaking through the repressing force of the will
-to gain autonomous sovereignty and temporarily to
-dominate the conduct. In the prolonged conflict the
-rebellion with its contrary wishes was at moments to
-gain the ascendency. In other words, these other elements
-came to the surface and gathered to themselves
-all the discordant elements of personality, much as a
-radical political party gathers to itself all the rebellious
-discordant factions that are in antagonism to the
-governing conservative party. In one sense another
-side to the character had become crystallized and
-autonomous, and, through the intensity of its feeling
-tones, became periodically dominant. But not without
-protest from the previously dominant elements of
-personality. This protest, however, had certain psychological
-peculiarities which show that the conditions
-were not quite as simple as this. I will speak of them
-later.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Soon the repressed wishes, impulses—the B complex—began
-to manifest themselves in a way which
-indicated that a definite dissociation had taken place,
-although as yet, as I have said, there was no secondary
-<cite>self</cite> or <cite>I</cite> properly speaking. All the previous undercurrents
-of thought—the intensified shrinking from
-the particular condition of life, the internal rebellion
-against the conditions in general, the disinclinations,
-longings, wishes, and determinations—had become
-synthesized, and began to form a separate train of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_588'>588</span>thought, so that at one and the same time there was a
-sense, as is so commonly felt in such cases, of a double
-train of thought; she had “a sense of being double.”
-It seemed to her, C, that there was “all the time a
-pulling in a different way from the way she had to go,
-a not wanting to live the life she had to live.” This
-“sense of being double” seems to have been so pronounced
-that to B, looking back upon it, it seemed as
-if these two trains of thought (the C personality and
-the B complex) “occurred concurrently and simultaneously,
-so that it could be said that one was co-conscious
-with the other,” just as much as when there is
-loss of awareness on the part of the principal consciousness
-for the coconscious train. In this case there was,
-however, at this time, no lack of awareness and there is
-nothing to prove B’s view of concomitance of different
-trains of thought rather than that the two trains did
-not rapidly oscillate or alternate from instant to instant.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The self-accusations and self-reproaches of the principal
-consciousness, C, rendered the pleasure impulses
-still more intolerable and tended the more to repress the
-rebellious train and thereby to disrupt further the
-personality and to crystallize the secondary synthesis.
-It became more than a matter of inner behavior of
-mental systems: <cite>the outward behavior became affected
-and changed</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>For corresponding to this invasion and domination of
-the ideas of the B complex the behavior of C became
-altered, much to her amazement. That is, her conduct
-at times was governed by the impulses of her once repressed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_589'>589</span>wishes and she found herself then doing things
-which normally she had not enjoyed or done. <cite>Her
-health and strength also, at such moments, became extraordinarily
-improved.</cite></p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This alteration of conduct and character and health
-became more obtrusive and characteristic at a later
-date when the B complex had become developed into
-the B personality. But the alteration of conduct can
-be easily recognized at these earlier times if some of
-the previous minor characteristics of C in respect to
-this sort of behavior are understood.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Among these characteristics were a great dislike of riding on
-electric cars, an almost abnormal nervousness about bugs and
-mosquitoes—I always disliked going into the woods for this reason—an
-aversion to exercise in summer, and a fear of canoeing. I had
-never enjoyed sitting out from under cover or on the ground as the
-glare of the sun was apt to cause headache and I abhorred all
-crawling things. I was reserved with strangers and not given to
-making my friends quickly; devoted to my family and relatives,
-fond of my friends, and not in the habit of neglecting them in any
-way. I felt much responsibility concerning business matters and
-had given a good deal of time and thought to them. Many more
-peculiarities might be mentioned.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>In the later B personality, as will be presently related,
-these and other traits were replaced by their opposites,
-but even at this earlier time the complete reversal of
-her tastes and behavior was obvious.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>To my surprise [C states in her account] there were times when I
-did some of the things above referred to, such as sitting in the
-woods, etc. I felt a sense of wonder that I should be doing them and
-a still greater wonder that I found them pleasant. There was also a
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_590'>590</span>sense at times of impatience and irritation at being troubled with
-business matters or responsibility of any kind and an inclination to
-throw aside all care. I wondered at myself for feeling as I did and
-rather protested to myself at many of my acts but still kept right on
-doing them. It seems to me that these ideas and feelings formed a
-complex by which I was more or less governed and that this complex
-gradually grew in strength and can be identified with that of the
-personality (B) which first developed.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>A more interesting account of this change of conduct
-is given by B:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'><cite>As she grew more and more neurasthenic</cite>, it seems to me as I look
-back upon it, the <cite>B complex grew stronger and more dominant</cite>, and
-with this increase of strength of this complex, C began to live a life
-<cite>corresponding to the impulses belonging to it</cite>—staying out of doors
-entirely—and then there followed much improvement in her health.<a id='r283' /><a href='#f283' class='c009'><sup>[283]</sup></a>
-She took long rides on the electric cars, which she had always previously
-disliked intensively; she had always been very much afraid
-of a canoe, but now she went canoeing often and enjoyed it. She
-was surprised and astonished that she should enjoy these things, as
-it was foreign to her natural and previous ideas and inclinations.
-There was no change of character, properly speaking, but she did
-things she disapproved of and knew at the time that she disapproved
-of them. There was a recognition that she was doing things she
-would not previously have done, and she protested to herself, but
-even this half-protest was suppressed. She would say to herself,
-“Why am I doing these things? I never cared for them before.
-Why should I care for them now?” The old doubts and fears were
-at this time out of her mind. The personality was C, but influenced
-and dominated by the B complex of which, of course, she was perfectly
-aware.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_591'>591</span>What is here described is obviously a mood but a
-mood which included altered bodily as well as mental
-characteristics. The alternation of neurasthenic and
-healthy phases also became more obtrusive when the
-healthy mood became a personality. The apparent
-recovery then deceived the medical attendant.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In these quoted passages we have a description of
-the uprush from the unconscious and successful sovereignty
-of the conflicting B complex. Before continuing
-with our analysis two points are worth noting.
-First: With the winning of sovereignty by this system
-of ideas, the previously dominating system—or self—sank
-to an inferior position and assumed the protesting,
-one may say, the rebellious attitude. Like two adversaries
-in a wrestling conflict, in which first one then
-the other holds the vantage and each in turn yields
-before the superior force of the other, so it was turn and
-turn about, and now the rebellious complex becoming
-the victor, repressed the protests, the self-reproaches,
-doubts, fears, and scruples of the regularly constituted
-government.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Second: With the eruption of the B complex into the
-C personality it is interesting once more to note the
-increase of physical strength, and improvement in the
-general health. It was thought by her physician that
-it was really a condition of health which had supervened
-but, as will be seen, this was far from being the
-case; it was one of psychological disintegration. Nevertheless
-with the one system of ideas—the B complex—there
-were associated all the mental and bodily reactions
-of health, with the other complex the reactions characteristic
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_592'>592</span>of the neurasthenic condition. This alteration
-was still more noticeable later when the B <cite>personality</cite>
-erupted. The same phenomenon was observed in the
-case of Miss Beauchamp. With the appearance of the
-“Sally” complex all the neurasthenic symptoms vanished,
-and the personality became buoyant with health.
-Identical variations in health have been observed in
-other cases of dissociated personality; one phase of personality
-being characterized by an extreme hysterical
-condition, another by freedom from such symptoms
-(Felida X., Marcelline R., and others). This phenomenon
-is of great significance for the understanding of the
-neurasthenic and hysteric condition.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f264'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r264'>264</a>. This study was first published in the <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>,
-Oct., 1919, but originally was written for this volume. It was
-omitted with other lectures from the first edition to limit the size of
-the volume.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f265'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r265'>265</a>. Dissociation and inhibition are not coextensive terms for although
-inhibition implies dissociation, a dissociated element may not be necessarily
-inhibited as it may function subconsciously or independently of
-the personal consciousness.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f266'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r266'>266</a>. Unfortunately most of the reported cases were not studied from a
-genetic point of view and the reports are too meagre to afford sufficient
-data for a study of this kind. But in many cases the principles can be
-recognized. In the article “Hysteria from the Point of View of Dissociated
-Personality,” <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>, Oct., 1906, I
-have given a synopsis in tabulated form of the reports accessible up
-to the date of publication.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f267'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r267'>267</a>. I would refer those who are interested in this problem of personality
-to a similar but more exhaustive study of the case of “Miss Beauchamp”
-which I have recently published in the <cite>Journal of Abnormal
-Psychology</cite>, Vol. XV, Nos. 2 and 3, 1920. A descriptive account of
-the case was published in 1906: <cite>The Dissociation of a Personality</cite>;
-New York; Longmans, Green &amp; Co., 1906.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f268'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r268'>268</a>. Published under the title “My Life as a Dissociated Personality”
-in the <cite>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</cite>; Oct.-Nov., 1908 and Dec.-Jan.,
-1909.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f269'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r269'>269</a>. The broken lines indicate dissociation; the solid lines, synthesis.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f270'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r270'>270</a>. I have italicized a number of words and sentences not thus emphasized
-in the original account.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f271'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r271'>271</a>. Sympathetically excited emotions (instincts).</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f272'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r272'>272</a>. The division into periods follows that given in the second account
-by B.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f273'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r273'>273</a>. <cite>Journal Abnormal Psychology</cite>, Vol. III, No. 5, p. 311.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f274'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r274'>274</a>. Lecture IX.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f275'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r275'>275</a>. Prince: <cite>Jour. Abnormal Psychology</cite>. Vol. I, No. 1, 1906. Also,
-<cite>The Dissociation of a Personality</cite>, 2nd ed., Chap. XXI. James:
-<cite>Varieties of Religious Experiences</cite>.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f276'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r276'>276</a>. I. e., “Tried not to think of it”; “put it out of her mind as a disagreeable
-fact.”</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f277'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r277'>277</a>. Instinct of repulsion (McDougall).</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f278'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r278'>278</a>. Nor were they the reaction to or the expression of a previously repressed
-sexual wish as any such wish would have met no conscious
-resistance. It is easy to see in the light of all the facts that, given a certain
-change in the conditions, or point of view, there would have been
-no shock and no rebellion.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f279'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r279'>279</a>. Lecture X; also, “The Meaning of Ideas as Determined by Unconscious
-Settings,” <cite>Journal Abnormal Psychology</cite>, Oct.-Nov., 1912.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f280'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r280'>280</a>. I use the present tense as more convenient although I am speaking
-of a past condition.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f281'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r281'>281</a>. As illustrated by her responsive behaviour at the theatre (p. 558),
-as I have witnessed it there and socially.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f282'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r282'>282</a>. “Hysteria from the Point of View of Dissociated Personality.”
-<cite>Journal Abnormal Psychology</cite>, 1906.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f283'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r283'>283</a>. It is interesting to note the apparent paradox of an increasing physically
-neurasthenic phase coincident with an increasing physically
-healthy phase. With the subsidence of the latter the neurasthenic state
-became obvious.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_593'>593</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE XIX<br /> (THE SAME CONTINUED)—THE B PERSONALITY</h2>
-</div>
-
-<h4 class='c029'>PERIOD III</h4>
-
-<p class='c015'>Let us now return to C’s account of the shock which
-occurred at this time, while the B complex was periodically
-dominant. It was the cause of the final complete
-dissociation of personality and the eruption of the
-secondary personality B.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The shock I received was of an intensely emotional nature. It
-brought to me, suddenly, the realization that my position in life
-was entirely changed, that I was quite alone, and with this there
-came a feeling of helplessness and desolation beyond my powers of
-description. I felt, too, angry, frightened, insulted. For a few
-minutes these ideas flashed through my mind and then—all was
-changed. All the distressing ideas of the preceding moments left
-me, and I no longer resented what, a moment before, had caused
-me so much distress. <cite>I became the personality which we have since
-called</cite> “B.” I do not feel now that the episode was of a character
-that would have affected a person of a different nature, or even
-myself had I been in good health. Psychologically speaking, I
-suppose I was already in a somewhat disintegrated condition and
-therefore more susceptible. At any rate it did affect me. <cite>From
-the moment of that shock I was, literally, a different person.</cite> Even the
-episode itself now became of little or no importance to me; indeed I
-looked upon it rather as a lark and really enjoyed it, as I did, in this
-character, succeeding events. <i>With the change to “B” there was no
-loss of memory as sometimes occurs under such conditions.</i> It seems
-very curious to me that the effect of this shock was to change me
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_594'>594</span>not to the despondent, despairing mood of “A” which came later,
-but to the happy mood of “B.”</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>In describing the two personalities I shall sometimes have to refer
-to them by the letters A and B to avoid the constant repetition of
-“myself as A—myself as B.”</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>As B, I was, apparently, a perfectly normal person, as will be seen
-from the description which follows, except that I was ruled by the
-fixed idea that upon me, and me alone, depended the salvation,
-moral and physical, of a person who was almost a perfect stranger to
-me and who was the subject of a drug habit. I had known this
-person but a few weeks. This idea became an obsession; all else
-sank into insignificance beside it; <cite>nothing</cite> else was of any consequence;
-I went to all lengths to help this person, doing things which,
-though quite right and proper, indeed imperative from my point
-of view as B, were unwise and unnecessary. I believed that I was
-the only one in the world who would stand by him; that every one
-else had given him up as hopeless and that his one chance lay in his
-belief in me.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The writer neglects here to say that it was not only as
-B that she had undertaken the “salvation” of the drug
-addict. As C she also shared in this solicitude and had
-begun the reformation. B only continued it but from
-different motives as later stated by C herself. B does
-not refer to it in her story apparently not taking it very
-seriously. Of course in my numerous interviews I
-heard an exhaustive account of the whole affair.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The marked change in health and strength for the
-better noted in those phases, during period II, when
-the personality was dominated by the B complex and
-mentioned in the last lecture was still more accentuated
-now in the B personality. C thus refers to it:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>With the change of personality, which will be clearer as you read,
-there was also a complete change of physical conditions. <cite>Previously
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_595'>595</span>neurasthenic, I, as B, was perfectly well and strong and felt equal to
-anything in the way of physical exercise.</cite></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>You will also remember that in the last lecture I
-spoke of certain minor traits which had been characteristic
-of C and which were markedly altered in an
-opposite direction under the dominance of the B complex
-and induced impulsive alterations of behavior.
-These changes were accentuated in the B personality
-from the very first as C goes on to describe.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>The minor traits I have above mentioned were replaced by their
-opposites. A walk of three or four miles did not tire me at all; I
-tramped through the woods during the hottest days of summer, with
-nothing on my head, feeling no discomfort from the heat and no
-fatigue; I sat on the ground in the woods, hours at a time, not
-minding in the least the bugs and the mosquitoes; canoeing I was
-very fond of and felt no fear of the water. I also took long rides on
-the electric cars and found them perfectly delightful. These are
-small things but, as you see, it was a radical change and seems as
-strange to remember as the more important ones.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The change in the emotional and feeling tones, the
-former representing a different set of emotion-instincts,
-from those that were habitual, is illustrated in the
-following passage:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>As B, I was light-hearted and happy and life seemed good to me;
-I wanted to live; my pulses beat fuller, my blood ran warmer
-through my veins than it ever had done before. I seemed more
-alive. Nothing is stranger to remember than the vigorous health
-of B. Never in my life was I so well, before or since. I felt much
-<cite>younger</cite> and looked so, for the lines of care, anxiety, sorrow, and
-fatigue had faded from my face and the change in expression was
-remarked upon. I neglected my family and friends shamefully,
-writing short and unsatisfactory letters which left them in ignorance
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_596'>596</span>of my health and plans; business affairs I washed my hands of
-entirely. I lost the formality and reserve which was one of my
-traits. My tastes, ideas, and points of view were completely
-changed.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>I remained in this state for some weeks, enjoying life to the utmost
-in a way entirely foreign to my natural tastes and inclinations as
-described above, walking, boating, etc., living wholly out of doors;
-and also doing many irresponsible things which were of a nature to
-cause me much distress later.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>Some of this might, perhaps, be ascribed to improved health
-though different from anything I had ever been before.<a id='r284' /><a href='#f284' class='c009'><sup>[284]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c015'>A point of considerable significance is the youthfulness
-of this B phase, a trait which the writer C notes
-and which B in her account emphasizes. When later
-the case came under my observation this phenomenon
-was so noticeable that it arrested the attention.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It may be interesting to hear B’s description of the
-shock, more dramatically told than C’s, and of the
-changes above mentioned of the personality (health,
-emotional tones, conduct, and youthfulness) immediately
-following.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It runs as follows:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>At this time there came to C a third shock of a strongly emotional
-nature, giving rise to events which I call <cite>period III</cite>. It brought to
-her the realization of a fact of which she had been unconscious; she
-had never thought of the possibility of such a thing and she was
-startled, frightened, angry, all in a flash—and I was there. James,
-in explaining “Sudden Religious Conversion,” speaks of a “flowering
-of the subconscious,”—well, I “flowered,” and C disappeared
-somewhere; <cite>the B complex had become a personality</cite> and I lived a life
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_597'>597</span>of my own choosing.<a id='r285' /><a href='#f285' class='c009'><sup>[285]</sup></a> How slowly this complex gathered form in
-this case may be seen from the fact that it was five years from the
-time of the beginning of her husband’s illness before I came as a
-personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>Now, when I came as a personality, I felt much younger than C;
-my ideas of what constituted pleasure were more like those of a girl
-of twenty—as C was when she received the first shock (<cite>period I</cite>).
-But in character, points of view, tastes, emotions, in everything that
-goes to make up personality I was quite different from anything C
-had ever been; also in health. I was strong and vigorous, taking
-long walks and feeling no fatigue. I was also very happy. Life
-seemed so good to me; everything was so beautiful; the outdoor
-world looked to me as it does to one who has been for months shut
-in through illness. I loved the trees, the sky, and the wind; but
-<cite>I did not love people</cite>. I felt no care or responsibility—that is why I
-was so happy. I remained the only personality for about <cite>one month</cite>,
-when there came the fourth emotional shock producing <cite>period IV</cite>.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>These accounts need further explanation. C remarks:
-“It seems very curious to me that the effect of
-this shock was to change me not to the despondent,
-despairing mood of A, which came later, but to the
-happy mood of B.” A consideration of the facts in
-more detail renders the reason obvious. It must be
-kept in mind that the dominant feature of the B mood
-or personality was the B complex, and the nucleus of
-this system of ideas was the “rebellion” I have described.
-This rebellion again had its first beginnings
-19 years before (period I). We have traced it through
-the succeeding years, with its later accretions, growing
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_598'>598</span>and expanding in intensity and extent, like a political
-insurrection, until it had taken into itself a large field
-of ideas and became the B complex. Bear in mind
-here that the primitive germinal first rebellion was the
-reaction to an emotional shock in which fright and
-disgust as elements occurred plus the X affect to which
-they were a defense reaction. Now the second shock
-which was experienced at the third period was fundamentally
-the same in nature as that of the first period.
-It gave rise to the same <cite>affect</cite>, X, and mental awakening,
-to the same kind of realization of her situation, and
-the reaction, particularly to the affect, was the same
-rebellion. <cite>But the rebellion had meantime, in the years
-that had passed, grown into the B complex, and so it was
-this B constellation of ideas which erupted into consciousness
-and dominated the whole field of personality.</cite> Though
-the second shock awoke the same affect as did the
-original shock, it was consciously mild and probably
-for the most part subconscious, being repressed and
-submerged by the reacting emotions of fear and anger,
-which latter blazed forth. And in the reaction there
-were, also, the emotions of disgust and self-assertion
-and the vengeful emotion.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>With such emotions, particularly anger and <a id='corr598.24'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='disgust;'>disgust,</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_598.24'><ins class='correction' title='disgust;'>disgust,</ins></a></span>
-this affect was in conflict as was also fear. When two
-primary emotions are in conflict both cannot live; one
-will be suppressed. Fear will be suppressed by an
-outburst of blazing anger, and anger cannot exist when
-an overwhelming fear is excited. One will replace the
-other. So the mild X affect and fear were immediately
-repressed by anger, disgust and the compound vengeful
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_599'>599</span>emotion, the three not in any way conflicting with one
-another but as allies reinforcing each other in the attack.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Consequently from the B personality, which sprang
-to life as the reaction to the X affect, this affect itself,
-was completely repressed and dissociated, so that this
-personality <cite>is entirely without this</cite> and other traits of the
-C personality. Likewise, although this is not so easy
-to determine, owing to the impossibility of reproducing
-all conditions under which a given individual would
-react normally to any given emotion, <cite>fear</cite> and <cite>tender
-feeling</cite> (love) seem to have been dissociated from the B
-personality. It is certainly true that B experienced no
-fear and other emotions with which C habitually reacted
-to certain situations. This question of the involvement
-of the emotions in dissociation will be discussed in
-another place.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As to the X affect, it is of some significance that
-later, after the development of the third personality,
-A, which alternated with B, this personality retained
-this affect (as well as fear and others lost to B) and the
-awakening of this affect in A would regularly change
-this personality to B; that is, repress the A personality
-and awaken B. Many times other emotions, particularly
-anxiety (fear), would have the same effect, but
-the affect in question would always induce the change,
-apparently as a defense reaction.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>From one point of view it may be maintained that all
-this emotional reaction, called “shock,” (that primarily
-called into being the B personality) was a defense
-reaction. It certainly was, as any outburst of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_600'>600</span>anger may be a defense reaction, as it is in the bull in
-the ring of a Spanish bull-fight. Under other conditions
-anger as an element in the pugnacity instinct may, like
-other emotional impulses, be an attacking reaction.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But labelling with names does not give us any insight
-into the mechanism of a reaction any more than labelling
-a machine an automobile gives us any idea of its
-mechanism. It gives only a teleological meaning to
-the machine.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>What is a fruitful question, however, is whether the
-<a id='corr600.11'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='“shock'>“shock”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_600.11'><ins class='correction' title='“shock'>“shock”</ins></a></span> was a defense to an external aggression or to
-the urge of an unacceptable subconscious <cite>wish</cite> containing
-the repressed affect X. Some will <cite>wish</cite> to make this
-latter interpretation. It is entirely incompatible, however,
-with the fact that the same conflict and “shock”
-had previously occurred under conditions when, even
-if there had been such a wish, it could not have been
-unacceptable, as there was no reason therefor, but on
-the contrary it would have been her duty to have fulfilled
-it. It is useless in this case to work that trumpery
-affect business in this way.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Furthermore, as a matter of experience, we find from
-a study of cases of multiple personality that after two
-independent systems of ideas have been formed, almost
-any emotional shock is liable to cause the displacement
-of one system and the substitution of the other system.
-This was observed over and over again in the case of
-Miss Beauchamp,<a id='r286' /><a href='#f286' class='c009'><sup>[286]</sup></a> as it was in this case. Why it
-should be so is not always obvious at the time of any
-given occurrence. That there is a specific psychological
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_601'>601</span>reason and dynamic mechanism we cannot doubt.
-Undoubtedly if we could probe sufficiently extensively
-into the unconscious in each instance we should find
-that subtile associations in the substituted systems had
-been struck and that the change was thereby determined.
-When the associated element is organized with
-strong emotions the discharge of the emotion more easily
-represses and dissociates the rival conflicting systems.
-This gives the appearance that it was the emotion
-alone, as an isolated factor, which induced the alternation
-of personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>What happened then when the change of personality
-took place was this: The acquired B complex, which
-had been developing in content and conative intensity,
-surged up as a reaction from the unconscious (where it
-had been conserved during the normal mood in a
-dormant condition), came into conflict with the systems
-of the normal self and repressed and replaced this
-previously dominating side of her nature. By this
-dissociation this side was put out of commission so to
-speak. In turn it remained dormant, of course, conserved
-as unconscious neurograms, ready to be <cite>resurrected</cite>
-under favoring conditions by appropriate stimuli.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But in the formation of the B personality there was
-more than this; otherwise there would not have been
-generated a personality; the alteration would have
-been limited to the incursion into the field of consciousness
-only of the B complex as had so often happened
-before. On the one hand a larger synthesis took place.
-The B complex dragged out of the storehouse of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_602'>602</span>unconscious the acquired and conserved ideas and
-other experiences of childhood and girlhood that had
-an associative relation to the system which formed the
-B complex. In this respect it was a <cite>reversion</cite> to the
-earlier period of life.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>On the other hand, there was, as we shall see, a dissociation
-and suppression of certain <cite>innate</cite> dispositions,
-instincts and sentiments belonging to normal personality
-that were in conflict with the B phase. Specifically
-the most important of these were, the instinct of self-abasement
-and its corresponding self-regarding sentiment,
-the “tender emotion” (affection) and its parental
-instinct (McDougall), the X affect and its instinct, fear
-(instinct of flight) and vengeful emotion.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The emotions and their instincts and the innate
-dispositions, appetites and tendencies, being psycho-physiological
-arrangements inborn in the organism and
-not acquired, are the very foundations of human personality.
-Without a recognition of them and without
-assigning to them their proper parts and due weight in
-determining mental traits and behavior alterations of
-personality cannot be explained or understood.<a id='r287' /><a href='#f287' class='c009'><sup>[287]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_603'>603</span>The justification for the interpretation I have given
-of the genesis of the B personality is found in an analysis
-of its manifested characteristics. In the first place this
-B phase by common consent, even in the opinion of
-those who were in entire ignorance of what had psychologically
-occurred—i.e., the alteration of personality,—was
-much younger in character than the mature C.
-She appeared to be a young girl of 18 or 19 years of
-age. Her friends spoke of her, when remarking on her
-improved health, as “being as she used to be.” She
-looked younger.<a id='r288' /><a href='#f288' class='c009'><sup>[288]</sup></a> As I myself observed her on, I might
-almost say, hundreds of occasions, the contrast between
-the actual age of the subject and the apparent age of
-B as indicated by expressions of face, the vivacious
-mannerisms, the girlish attitude of mind, points of
-view, tastes, etc., was remarkable.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>All this together with the lack of appreciation of
-many of the responsibilities of life and of the duties and
-conditions which pertain to motherhood, social relations
-and conventions, the loss of sentiments acquired
-after marriage, etc., made up a picture of youth that was
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_604'>604</span>unmistakable. The contrast between the mature C
-and the girlish B became almost dramatic when the
-change of personality took place suddenly as it later
-frequently did in my presence.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When we come to analyze the traits which gave this
-impression of youth we see that it was justified. One
-side of C’s character, as we have seen, was a love of
-happiness and the pleasures which induce the joy of
-life. This side was dominant in B; but the <cite>kind</cite> of
-pleasure which appealed to B was not only that which
-appeals to youth but that which had particularly
-appealed to the subject when a young girl. It was
-“tramping through the woods in the hottest days of
-summer,” canoeing and rowing in boats, walking, riding
-in electric cars—in fact, the out-door life that appealed
-to her most strongly and was her greatest enjoyment.
-“Oh, wouldn’t I just love to tramp through
-the woods or sail off over the waves, or anything exciting,”
-she wrote. Such of these things as she had been
-able when a little girl to indulge in she then enjoyed.
-As a child and during girlhood she liked camping out
-and sailing, but as she grew older, say about sixteen or
-eighteen, she became afraid of the water and row boats.
-Canoeing she had never done before her marriage and
-then was afraid of it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We have seen that childhood’s experiences are
-largely conserved, when not modified by the growth of
-personality, in the unconscious (neurographic residua)
-although they may never come to the surface of consciousness
-unless resurrected by some device or accident;
-and repression tends to conserve them as unitary
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_605'>605</span>complexes maintaining their own urges. Accordingly
-in the case of B everything points to the conclusion that
-the repressed, conserved sentiments with their organized
-emotions and feelings, of the pleasure of
-childhood and adolescent life, sentiments by which the
-young girl was governed, <cite>erupted into consciousness</cite>.
-The play-instinct, or innate disposition, long repressed,
-particularly was revived and played a large part in
-determining behavior. The B personality was thus
-a <cite>reversion</cite> to an early period of life. The rearrangement
-of the play-instinct and other innate dispositions
-will be more conveniently discussed later in connection
-and contrast with the A personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Of course there is no sharp line of division between
-different periods of life, one running into the other, and
-the ideas, sentiments, desires, habits, etc., of one
-period may continue more or less unchanged well into
-another and beyond. Or, as usually happens, they
-may be modified by the successive experiences of life.
-So obviously we cannot ascribe with precision to a
-past definite age traits of character of the kind we are
-considering. Such traits belong to the evolutional development
-of the individual; they tend to become
-modified by the clash with new experiences, or, when
-incompatible with the knowledge and habits acquired
-by new experiences, to become repressed—when not
-incompatible they may persist late into adult life. So
-some of these traits have persisted as a side to, or as
-elements in the character of B. C. A. into her present
-life; some, however, have been modified or repressed
-into the unconscious. As age advances, as the child
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_606'>606</span>passes into adolescence and then into maturity, there
-comes wider knowledge of the facts of the environment,
-of its dangers and other relations, a more true and
-complete conception of the meaning of life, a more
-extensive world view, and a recognition and assumption
-of duties, cares, and responsibilities. And all these
-acquisitions tend to form a conscious organism with
-new sentiments which give new acquired reactions to
-stimuli in place of the old reactions (traits and other
-conative tendencies). Activities, for example, which
-once received their impulses from play dispositions are
-later inhibited by sentiments invested with the instinct
-of fear (flight). So B. C. A. acquired a fear of the
-water (boats, canoeing) and a dislike of bugs and
-mosquitoes and electric cars. Why these changes in
-her mental reactions took place we cannot say without
-making a more extensive search into the experiences of
-her past life, and the information when acquired would
-hardly repay the time and labor of the inquiry. We
-cannot say, for example, why she has disliked electric
-cars without resurrecting the memories of past experiences
-pertaining to them and other associated ideas.
-Perhaps the dislike arose simply out of the noise and
-resulting discomfort and headaches; or it may have had
-a more subtile cause in associated ideas of danger which
-would not appeal to a girl, or possibly such objects may
-more subtilely still be the symbolic expression of some
-unconscious process. It does not bear upon our present
-problem. (The dislike of mosquitoes and bugs very
-probably arose from having been bitten and poisoned
-badly by them when a child.)</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_607'>607</span>There were certain other youthful traits and tastes
-in B which are worth mentioning. This personality was
-extravagant in money matters. “She,” the personality
-A wrote, “spends money as I used to, and will not
-acknowledge the necessity of economizing.” That is
-to say, the regulation of the household and personal
-expenses, according to the requirements of business
-sense, and proper appreciation of the financial management
-was scarcely recognized by B who desired to
-spend money as B. C. A. had done as a girl, before being
-initiated into the responsibilities of domestic management.
-Like such a girl, to the discomforture of the
-other personality, she spent money as if all were pin
-money, without appreciation of making ends meet in
-the management of the household.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Another and what will seem a strange peculiarity of
-B was the feeling that she was not the mother of her
-child. “I am not his mother,” she would say. “He is
-not my son”—“<cite>I</cite> never was married.” “I know all
-her experiences,” she wrote me in a letter, “but they
-are <cite>her</cite> experiences not <cite>mine</cite>. Why! <cite>I</cite> was never married,
-Dr. Prince, and I am not Willie’s mother. All
-those experiences belong to A. I know she <cite>had</cite> them,
-but then, so do you. The only difference is that I know
-exactly what she thought about them.” Indeed she
-carried this so far as to entirely neglect the responsibility
-of looking after his life. This was true also of the time
-when B. C. A. was ruled by the B complex before the
-change to the B personality. On one such occasion for
-example, she allowed this young boy to take a long journey
-of many hundred miles through the west, roughing
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_608'>608</span>it in the woods and canoes, without a care or anxious
-thought on her part during the whole time he was gone.
-All the arrangements were made by others while she
-herself did not even go to the station to see him off.
-Previously she had always felt the greatest motherly
-solicitude for the boy, even foolishly devoted to him,
-and could not bear to be parted from him even to
-accompany her husband on a journey.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This peculiar trait is easily understood on the theory
-that rebellious B was largely a systematized resurrection
-of pre-marital complexes but with a dissociation
-of the tender emotion (parental instinct). I have already
-pointed out that B regarded the “rebellious”
-complexes as herself, but not the other ideas of B. C. A.
-In referring to the former, as I have said, she used
-the word I, saying, I thought so and so, but she did
-not use such expressions regarding the other systems of
-B. C. A.’s thought after the genesis of these rebellious
-complexes. Likewise she regarded as her own the
-earlier youthful experiences before dissociation occurred.
-In the constellation of her complexes none
-of the experiences of maternity (which occurred after
-the development of the rebellious complex) were synthesized,
-any more than the sentiments and other
-conflicting thoughts of the A phase. Even in the embryonic
-contrary impulses of the B complex, it will
-be remembered, there were dislikes to “fuss” over the
-baby conflicting with the maternal instinct. She
-never, therefore, felt that motherhood was a part of
-her own experience. And so her <cite>conception of self</cite> in
-its content differed materially from that of C and A,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_609'>609</span>in that it contained references to entirely different
-experiences, and, therefore, included entirely different
-images and feelings. And it was organized with a
-self-regarding sentiment in which the instinct of
-self-assertion predominated instead of that of self-abasement.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>I said that the parental instinct with the emotion of
-tender feeling was dissociated. This absence of tender
-emotion (affection) was also manifested in her attitude
-towards the different members of her family and her
-friends. As a girl she was markedly affectionate just
-as A and later C was, but as B she had lost this trait.
-She neglected her family most shockingly, in a way
-that showed complete absence of the impulses that
-come from tender feeling, and without the slightest
-compunction or recognition of the fact that she was
-wanting in affection. I might give numerous specific
-instances of this but refrain from doing so for obvious
-reasons.<a id='r289' /><a href='#f289' class='c009'><sup>[289]</sup></a> B liked people but for other reasons than
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_610'>610</span>those which depend on personal affection. This absence,
-then, of the tender emotion with its impulses was
-the second factor in determining the feeling that B
-had of not being the mother of her child. It also, of
-course, prevented the building up a new sentiment of
-maternal affection through experience. All this is in
-conformity with our interpretation.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The way other instincts and innate dispositions were
-affected will be better described in connection with the
-A personality for contrast.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Another peculiarity of B was the change in literary
-taste. The lighter reading in which B found pleasure
-contrasted strongly with the literature dealing with the
-deeper problems of life that appealed to A. This
-difference has been touched upon by C in her account.
-It would take us too far afield to enter into the psychological
-reasons for it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It remains to point out that the reactions of the
-personality in accordance with the new synthesis were
-intensified and became the sole reactions by the fact
-of the dissociation of those systems of ideas which
-represented the wider world view and which were organized
-with instincts and innate dispositions now
-inhibited. Those systems were the outcome of the
-cares, anxieties, responsibilities, and sorrows of later
-life. All these, which were acquired and had their
-origin at a comparatively late period, had subsided into
-the unconscious and ceased to influence the conscious
-life and give rise to their corresponding reactions. The
-emotions and sentiments of anxiety, remorse, self-reproach
-and despair, so conspicuous in the A phase,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_611'>611</span>were completely dissociated from the B phase and
-formed no part of it. Though there was no amnesia for
-them as past experiences they were dissociated in the
-sense that they did not take part as psycho-physiological
-dispositions in the personality. They could be voluntarily
-recalled in an intellectual way as memories,
-but like many memories they had lost their emotional
-tones and were not awakened by any contemplated or
-actual line of conduct. Not entering the new B synthesis
-there was no clash by which the reactions might
-be modified. The sole reactions were, therefore, those
-of the B synthesis and were mostly those of pleasure
-and joy. You must not overlook the fact, however,
-that the dissociated elements of personality were still
-conserved and, as we shall see, capable of being resurrected
-and thereby taking part in the reproduction of
-the original personality, or of forming by themselves
-another dissociated one.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The <cite>temperament</cite> of the B personality is in accord
-with the conception of a modified reversion to the conserved
-unconscious personality of early life. B. C. A.
-“was naturally very light-hearted, happy, buoyant.”
-Later when going through the stress and strain of her
-husband’s illness, and later still after becoming neurasthenic,
-she became apprehensive and given to self-reproaches,
-worry, and depression. She was racked by
-emotions of an anxious depressing kind. All this was
-enormously accentuated in the secondary personality
-A, (to be presently described) whom in banter I used
-to call “Mrs. Gummidge.” Now B reverted in temperament
-to the earlier period; she was free from depression;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_612'>612</span>“had more courage, was light-hearted, merry; conditions
-did not seem so dreadful as they did to A,” and
-she “took things as they were”; “this was the way she
-used to be.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If I may anticipate a little the development of the A
-personality, a passage or two from letters will show this
-difference in temperament as manifested by the emotions.
-B wrote, “A is nearly crazy about those papers.
-She simply ‘tears her hair’ and groans, and then,
-presto! change! and I am here.” Again in a note to her
-other self (A) she writes: “I suppose you have a ‘deep-horror-then-my-vitals-froze’
-expression on your face
-now. Really, you suffer more to the square inch than
-any one I ever knew.” Although it is hardly fair to
-ascribe these emotional traits of A—a disintegrated
-personality—to the normal C, still they were and are at
-times noticeable in C as moods, or when under stress
-and strain. (C of course has pleasant affects and joyous
-moods as well.) B on the other hand was a perfect
-stranger to such feelings; she did not know the meaning
-of them; they were completely dissociated from her
-ideas. B’s sole emotions were those of pleasure and
-exaltation; C’s emotions included unpleasant and
-depressing ones as well, while A’s stock was made up
-almost entirely of the latter. This dissociation of
-unpleasant and depressing emotions from B is well
-manifested by her memories. When C (or A) recalled
-(and it is still true) an unpleasant experience the
-memory was accompanied by the original emotion in
-its full intensity. She lived over again the original
-experience and manifested all the feeling in the expression
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_613'>613</span>of her face and in gesture. But when B recalled
-this same experience of C (or A) she simple remembered
-it intellectually as a fact, without the feeling
-tone. In fact she would recite a painful fact of C’s
-experience with a gaiety of tone that betokened enjoyment
-at the other self’s expense. The same phenomenon
-was still more striking in B as a co-conscious personality.<a id='r290' /><a href='#f290' class='c009'><sup>[290]</sup></a>
-As a co-consciousness she always insisted
-that while she knew C’s (and A’s) thoughts she did not
-feel her emotions. “You see I know all that A thinks
-but I do not <cite>feel</cite> her emotions; she is all emotion,”
-she wrote. This she insisted upon again and again.
-She only knew what the other personalities felt by the
-way they acted. Similarly the affect which was the
-cause of the “rebellion” was dissociated from B.
-This same phenomenon was observed in the case of
-Miss Beauchamp. Sally as a co-consciousness knew
-the thoughts of the personal consciousness (B I or
-B IV) but she was not aware of the feelings that accompanied
-the thoughts; the feelings she could only
-guess from the actions of the principal personality, and
-as an alternating personality Sally likewise was entirely
-devoid of certain emotions which were strongly accentuated
-in the other personalities.<a id='r291' /><a href='#f291' class='c009'><sup>[291]</sup></a> This dissociation
-of affects from B helps us to understand the difference
-in the reactions of B, C, and A to the same stimuli.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f284'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r284'>284</a>. The same as when dominated by the B complex but in a more extreme
-way. (M. P.)</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote c030' id='f285'>
-<p class='c031'><a href='#r285'>285</a>. That is, the remainder of the C complex subsided into the “unconscious,”
-where, of course, its experiences were conserved. They could
-be recalled as a memory by B. As a system of ideas the B complex had
-been “flowering” for five years. (M. P.)</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f286'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r286'>286</a>. See <cite>Journal Abnormal Psychology</cite>, 1920, Nos. 2 and 3.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f287'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r287'>287</a>. The science of human personality is becoming a special branch of
-psychology and is based upon the recognition and study of the innate
-psycho-physiological systems of which a few are mentioned here. Of
-the most recent works on this subject, those of Alexander F. Shand (The
-Foundations of Character) and William McDougall (Social Psychology)
-are the most important contributions. They are based on the study of
-normal behavior. Abnormal alterations, such as are met with in the
-psychoses and multiple personality, will prove to be a more fruitful
-field for study and will provide more valuable contributions to our
-knowledge of normal mechanisms, just as the pathology of the nervous
-system has done for our knowledge of its anatomy and physiology.
-Disease dissects the mind far better than can introspection or observation.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f288'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r288'>288</a>. In a letter written in the phase A to me she writes: “B seems to
-revert to the time before all the sorrow and trouble. She writes in the
-diary [kept at my direction by the different personalities] as I used to
-feel. She ‘won’t be unhappy;’ she ‘will have a good time,’ etc. She
-seems younger than I, someway. I find that my friends often think me
-more ‘like myself,’ when B is here; she also spends money as I used
-to and will not acknowledge the necessity of economizing....” In
-another letter she writes: “Then came the time when I was wholly B.
-Everything but my own pleasure was cast to the wind. I felt and acted
-like a girl of 18, and I know that I <cite>looked</cite> years younger than I do now.”</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f289'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r289'>289</a>. C writes: “To me this point of the affections is one of the most
-interesting and curious. As a child and young girl I was affectionate,
-shy, proud, and reserved—everything that B was not. I positively
-never had in me any of these traits that B exhibited during those
-weeks ... except gaiety.”</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This statement, when analyzed, is in entire agreement with the results
-of our study. The absence of affection is what would be expected from
-the loss of the primary emotion “tender feeling,” the affective element
-in the parental instinct. Shyness is determined by the instinct of self-abasement
-which was dissociated from B. Likewise with the self-regarding
-sentiment of pride in one of its varieties, self-respect. According
-to McDougall this comprises two instincts: that of self-assertion
-with its emotion of elation, and that of self-abasement with its emotion
-of subjection. The latter instinct we have seen reason to conclude was
-inhibited in B. Hence, on this theory of pride, this sentiment was lost.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f290'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r290'>290</a>. B later became co-conscious with the other personalities as well as
-alternating.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f291'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r291'>291</a>. “Miss Beauchamp,” etc.; <cite>Jour. Abn. Psychol.</cite>, Vol. XV, p. 80.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_614'>614</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>LECTURE XX<br /> (THE SAME CONTINUED)—THE A PERSONALITY</h2>
-</div>
-
-<h4 class='c029'>PERIOD IV</h4>
-
-<h5 class='c028'>I</h5>
-
-<p class='c015'>We may now return to C’s account of her dissociated
-life—to the point where she was about to describe the
-development of another personality, A, and at which I
-digressed.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Bear in mind that it is the B personality that now
-received the shock and that the revelation of the
-deception, therefore, was to a personality whose point
-of view was not that of duty or affection but of mere
-joy and pleasure.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>After a period of a few weeks I received a second<a id='r292' /><a href='#f292' class='c009'><sup>[292]</sup></a> shock, which
-was caused by the discovery of deception in matters<a id='r293' /><a href='#f293' class='c009'><sup>[293]</sup></a> which my
-“obsession” had taken in charge. The revelation came in a flash,
-<cite>a strong emotion</cite> swept over me, and the state B, <cite>with all its traits,
-physical characteristics, and points of view disappeared, and I changed
-to another state which we have since called A</cite>. In this state my physical
-condition was much as it was before the first shock,<a id='r294' /><a href='#f294' class='c009'><sup>[294]</sup></a> that is, I was
-neurasthenic. From a state of vigorous health I instantly changed
-to one of illness and languor; I could hardly sit up, had constant
-headache, insomnia, loss of appetite, etc. My mental characteristics
-were also different. As before, however, there was no amnesia either
-for the state when I was B or for my life before the first shock.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'><span class='pageno' id='Page_615'>615</span>Now, though as A I was filled with most disproportionate horror
-at what had occurred during the weeks of my life as B, I was ruled
-by the same obsession, but with this difference: what I, as B, had
-done with a sense of <cite>pleasure</cite>, I, as A, did with a sense of almost horror
-at my own actions, feeling that I was compelled to do so by what
-seemed at the time a sense of <cite>duty</cite>. I felt that I must carry out
-certain obligations, and I doubt now, as I afterward expressed myself
-to you, if I could have resisted had I tried. [I. e., she was again
-governed as formerly by the B complex.] I would not refuse the
-demand for help which was made upon me because, as B, I had
-promised my aid, but in complying I was obliged to do things which
-seemed to me, as A, shocking and unheard of. I felt that my conduct
-was open to severe criticism but I had promised and must fulfil
-though the skies fell. It seems to me now, in the light of our present
-knowledge of B, that I, while in this A phase, was in a sort of somnambulistic
-stage governed by what I have learned were co-conscious
-ideas belonging to B; and that the impulses of the B complex were
-too strong to be resisted; but in my memory my ideas as B were at
-this time so curiously intermingled with my ideas as A that it is
-useless to try to analyze my mind more accurately. In mood,
-points of view and ideals I was A, but I <cite>did</cite> the things B would have
-done, though from a different incentive.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>To fully appreciate the situation and in that light
-the meaning of A’s point of view in the preceding
-passage and in that which follows, we must remember
-that, when the original personality B. C. A., as the
-neurasthenic and a disintegrated self that we may
-call the <cite>A mood</cite>, was suddenly changed by the preceding
-“shock” to the B personality, for a few minutes
-the subject was angry, frightened and felt insulted.
-There can be no doubt that if the change had not occurred
-she would have resented any further continuance
-of friendly or philanthropic relations with
-the object of her resentment. When she came under
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_616'>616</span>my observation later, as A, she was overwhelmed with
-(unjustified) humiliation and blazed with wrath at
-the mere thought of the episode. Her governing feeling
-was vengeful emotion. Even later as the normal C she
-could not forgive or forget.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now imagine the scene: a person dominated by such
-feeling suddenly, without apparent rhyme or reason,
-completely changing in her feelings and point of view,
-regarding the episode as a lark, enjoying it and smiling
-and happy. And then in this frolicsome mood continuing
-to play for a month with the object of her
-previous wrath. Such a scene on the stage would be a
-most dramatic one. Imagine what must have been the
-bewilderment of the victim.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Then, after some weeks of this play, the B personality
-changes back to the disintegrated self, A. As A she
-remembers what she has done as B in complete contradiction
-to her previous feelings and views of the
-episode, herself and the object. She is overcome with
-horror on remembering her behavior (as B) and yet
-she finds herself ruled by a fixed idea of the B complex
-and going on doing, but from a different motive, the
-very things which had horrified her.<a id='r295' /><a href='#f295' class='c009'><sup>[295]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_617'>617</span>Keeping this situation in mind we can understand
-A’s feelings and viewpoint bearing in mind that all
-was morbidly exaggerated.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>For a few days I remained A and then owing, I think, to a lessening
-of nervous tension, I changed again to B [personality] and remained
-in that state for two or three weeks during which time I was
-physically well and happy again. At the end of this time, as a result
-of another realization of the actual situation, A reappeared and was
-the only personality for some weeks. These changes were due to
-successive emotional shocks.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The following passage which continues A’s viewpoint
-accurately describes her state of mind when she came
-under my observation.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>When you first saw me I was A at my worst. I had no amnesia
-for the events of the preceding months when, as B, I had been filled
-with the joy of living. There was no thought on my part of any
-“change of personality”—I had never heard of such a thing—but I
-was like one slowly awakening from a dream. I was equally aghast
-at what I (B) had done for <cite>pleasure</cite>, and at what I (A), had done
-from a sense of duty; one seemed as unbelievable as the other.<a id='r296' /><a href='#f296' class='c009'><sup>[296]</sup></a></p>
-
-<p class='c019'><span class='pageno' id='Page_618'>618</span>One of the most shocking things to me, as A, was the fact that I
-had <cite>enjoyed myself</cite> as B. Had I committed the most dreadful crimes
-I could not have felt greater anguish, regret, and remorse. I had
-been dominated by the fixed ideas and obsessions of B; I had felt
-that I must respond to any call for help made by this person [the
-drug-addict] even though it was against my inclination and judgment
-to do so; there seemed no choice for me in the matter—I <cite>had</cite>
-to;<a id='r297' /><a href='#f297' class='c009'><sup>[297]</sup></a> I could see no point of view but my own. To do what seemed
-my plain duty I was willing to sacrifice myself in every way, but
-could not see that I (A) was now causing as much anxiety to my
-family as I had previously done as B; that I was sacrificing them
-also, and that my idea of duty was entirely mistaken. A, it would
-seem, was the emotional and idealistic part of my nature magnified a
-thousand times. My emotions and ideals as A were not different
-in kind from those of my normal self, but were so exaggerated as to
-be morbid.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>As A I was full of metaphysical doubts and fears, full of scruples.
-I did not attend church because I felt that I could no longer honestly
-say the Creed and the prayers. The service had lost all meaning
-to me and so it seemed hypocritical to take part in it. I felt
-that I had utterly failed in the performance of every duty, and
-tortured myself with the remembrance of every act of omission and
-commission. I accused myself of selfishness, neglect, in fact, of
-nearly all the crimes in the calendar including, in an indirect way,
-that of murder.<a id='r298' /><a href='#f298' class='c009'><sup>[298]</sup></a> My conversation was always of the most serious
-character,—religion (I believed in nothing), life after death (of
-which I found no hope), and I dwelt much upon the fact that no
-one should be judged by their deeds alone, that no one could tell
-what hidden motive had prompted any given act. This was because
-I had (as B) done so many things which (as A) I wholly disapproved
-of and felt might be misunderstood. I did not understand them
-myself but knew that my motive had been good. I was frightened,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_619'>619</span>bewildered, shocked, agonized—concentrated anguish and remorse.
-During these weeks I suffered more than it ought to be possible for
-any one ever to suffer for anything, and always, over and over in
-my mind went the same old thoughts,—“<cite>Why</cite> did I do as I did?
-<cite>How</cite> could I have done it? Why did it seem right? What would
-my friends think if they knew? I was mad! <cite>I was not myself.</cite>”
-Finally I decided to end it all—I could not live under such a weight
-of humiliation and self-reproach. I am sure, Dr. Prince, that you
-must remember how impossible it was to reason with me as A, for
-it was at this time and in this state that I was sent to you and you
-first saw me.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>Summing up this statement a new personality had
-come to the fore—a personality that was the antithesis
-of B. The traits which characterized A had been left
-entirely out of B while those which had characterized
-B were left entirely out of A. Both sets of traits were
-to be found in C though less accentuated and less
-freely manifested. The gaiety, love and pleasure and
-joy of life, the absence of all thought of responsibility
-and care belonging to B had given place to seriousness, a
-sense of responsibility and duty, a feeling of apprehension,
-to doubts and fears and self-reproaches. Depression
-and sorrow had taken the place of exaltation and
-joy. The neurasthenic state had replaced buoyant
-health.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Now it should be noted that these latter were the
-traits of the subject C during the preceding four-year
-period of stress and strain, and the succeeding
-neurasthenic period, and represented a side of her
-character which was developed, systematized and
-intensified by the circumstances of her life. In accordance
-with these traits, habits of thought had been established
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_620'>620</span>and by constant repetition complexes had been
-built. It is of importance to note that it was against
-these very A traits that the “B complex” at that time
-had rebelled—that very complex which was to become
-the chief component of the “B personality,” and which
-was the other side of the original self. It was during the
-neurasthenic state that the A traits had become abnormally
-developed and belonged to the neurasthenic
-condition. When the personality changed to B these
-A traits became dissociated but still remained conserved
-as unconscious systematized neurograms; now
-the A traits were awakened once more, there was a
-conflict and the B traits, the lighter side of her character,
-were repressed, dissociated and subsided into
-the unconscious. A was, therefore, a dissociated personality.
-She was the original C, if you please, but now
-so shattered and shorn as to be but an abstract and
-wreck of her former self. The normal C possessing both
-sets of traits had been, and now, resynthesized to
-health, is able to compare, to weigh, to modify, to
-balance the judgments obtained from the point of
-view of the B system with those of the A system and
-thus keep a fairly equitable poise of mind. The one
-counteracted the other fairly well. The A and B phases
-being respectively deprived of the characteristics of
-the other, each exhibited its own traits in a highly
-intensified degree, and manifested excessive reactions
-to the environment. The dissociated state A was
-plainly a reversion to the stress-and-strain and neurasthenic
-period. The awakening of A was the awakening
-of a system of thoughts which had lain dormant
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_621'>621</span>during the B state. Now the repressed B state was
-dormant.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is of great significance for an understanding of
-neurasthenic disturbances that the awakening of the
-A system brought back all the neurasthenic symptoms
-that had as physical reactions accompanied this system
-at the time when it was dominant in C. The A system
-of thoughts, emotions, instincts, innate dispositions,
-etc., and the physical symptoms necessarily went
-together, for the latter are the expression or reaction
-of a dissociated personality that is deprived of its
-sthenic and exalting emotions. The moment the
-sthenic emotions were brought back (in C or A) the
-physical symptoms disappeared. The disappearance
-of the neurasthenia even in A when certain emotions
-were temporarily restored by suggestion was remarkable.</p>
-
-<h5 class='c028'>II</h5>
-
-<p class='c015'>What caused the awakening of the A system? We
-have seen that the awakening of the rebellious B personality
-was an emotional trauma which was the same in
-kind as that which originally gave rise to the primitive
-“rebellion” as a reaction to the emotion. A similar
-trauma later awakened the same rebellion but one
-grown to the large proportions of the “B complex.”
-So in like fashion the new trauma to B awakened the
-A system as a reaction and associative phenomenon.
-What was the new trauma?</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>C in her written statement does not give the nature of
-the “strong emotion which swept over” her when the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_622'>622</span>“revelation came in a flash.” It was very different in
-character from the other. It was <cite>apprehension</cite>—the
-apprehension of moral disaster to the person whom she
-was trying to save. There was no resentment at the
-discovered deception, no thought of wounded self, no
-feeling of injury as might be inferred from the language
-of the writer, but only the thought of her own <cite>responsibility</cite>
-in the circumstances, and of <cite>duty</cite> undertaken, and
-the feeling of <cite>anxiety</cite> for the future of this other person;
-and there was a sense of <cite>disappointment and failure</cite>.
-These erupted from the submerged A system.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It was this same system of ideas, but organized
-about her husband as their object, which had been
-dominant in C during the four years period of stress-and-strain
-and “neurasthenia.” They had lain dormant
-in the unconscious during the B period. Now they
-are struck and excited to activity. There is a conflict.
-The impulses from the conflicting A emotions, being
-the stronger, repress the B impulses and the A system
-is awakened as a personality.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The question at once comes to mind whether the
-object of B. C. A.’s solicitude was not a surrogate for her
-deceased husband, a sort of symbol, and had not become
-the object of the transference (to use the language
-of the psycho-analysts) of the solicitude which
-had previously been bestowed upon her husband’s
-health and future well-being; whether this new person
-had not been substituted for the ill husband in that A
-system of ideas which during four years had been
-characterized by responsibility, duty, anxiety, disappointment,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_623'>623</span>failure, etc.; whether, indeed, it might not
-be held that the solicitude for the salvation of this
-drug addict was not a defense reaction against self-reproach
-for an imaginary responsibility for the illness
-of her husband. Such self-reproaches she describes.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>If this were true, the awakening of the A system by
-the discovery of the deception (which was only the
-banal one of money matters) and realization of failure,
-disappointment, etc., would be all the more comprehensible
-in view of the very strong and close associations
-which the new object would have in the system.
-But if true I cannot see that it would have any further
-or deeper significance. There was no need for disguisement.
-Certainly solicitude for a husband, disguised
-in another person, needs no disguisement and
-could not be unacceptable. But painful <cite>self-reproaches</cite>
-for former failure could not be faced, and satisfaction
-could be found in the performance of a new duty as a
-sort of atonement.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Again was there any subconscious sex wish or urge
-that could not be admitted to herself and to which the
-change to A was a defense reaction? I have been
-unable to discover any. And if there were I am unable
-to see how the revelation of deception in money matters
-required a defense reaction against the fulfillment of
-this wish. That sounds like Alice in Wonderland.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>But why did the revelation shock B, who with her
-traits would not have cared? I can answer this from
-my intimate and fuller knowledge of C’s and A’s ideas.
-It was a revelation of the truth. The true character
-of the object of their solicitude, “whom everyone else
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_624'>624</span>had given up as hopeless,” was revealed in a flash, and
-this “revelation” had struck, not B, but the submerged
-A (or C) system, which immediately emerged in an
-uprush from the unconscious. The shock was not to
-B but to subconscious A. And the reaction was “disappointment,”
-“failure,” “apprehension,” etc. Similar
-phenomena have been observed over and over again in
-psychological studies as I have frequently witnessed
-them in this case.</p>
-
-<h5 class='c028'>III</h5>
-
-<p class='c015'>In a previous lecture<a id='r299' /><a href='#f299' class='c009'><sup>[299]</sup></a> I called attention to the fact
-that emotions (instincts) innate dispositions and tendencies
-are fundamental to personality and I pointed
-out that in abnormal alterations the dissociation may
-involve one or more of these. Certain of these innate
-psycho-physiological systems were cited as having been
-repressed or dissociated in this case. It remains to
-study this phenomenon a little more closely.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Psychologists are generally agreed that of the emotions
-some are primary, or elementary, and others are
-complex, that is compounded of two or more emotions.
-Fear and anger, for example, are primary and the conscious
-elements, like all primary emotions, in biological
-instincts. These instincts serve a purpose in the
-preservation of the species. Of the complex emotions
-scorn and loathing may be taken as examples, the
-former, it is believed, being compounded of anger and
-disgust and the latter of fear and disgust. There is not
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_625'>625</span>a general agreement in regard to all the emotions that
-should be regarded as primary. Joy and sorrow, for
-example, are classed by some as primary and by some
-as complex. I made an effort to note and classify in a
-tentative way the emotions that were present and
-absent in the two personalities A and B and have
-arranged them in the following table. In this table the
-classification of the primary and complex emotions of
-McDougall has been followed in the main.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Of course it is very difficult to determine with certainty
-if any given emotion is absolutely absent, as it
-depends upon suitable conditions being present for its
-excitation. An emotion that is repressed might still be
-excited if the stimulus were sufficiently strong. Still,
-it is significant that emotions which would ordinarily
-excite a given emotion, say, tender feeling, or sorrow or
-fear, in the ordinary normal person, or did do so in this
-subject in the A personality, did not do so in the B
-personality, or would awaken in the latter only an
-emotion of joy or mirth. Under these circumstances,
-when the A and B personalities respectively came into
-being, these differences were easily observed, and it is
-noteworthy that then certain emotions were never in
-evidence in each respectively, whether potentially
-present or not.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is interesting to note that when a primary emotion
-was absent, for instance in personality B, that a compound
-emotion which included this primary emotion
-was also absent. It is obvious that dissociation of personalities
-in which certain emotions are repressed offer
-valuable data for studying the problem of the classification
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_626'>626</span>of emotions, more reliable than do the usual
-methods of introspective analysis.</p>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
- <div class='nf-center'>
- <div>PRIMARY EMOTIONS, INSTINCTS, FEELINGS AND INNATE DISPOSITIONS</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<table class='table1' summary=''>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='33%' />
-<col width='33%' />
-<col width='33%' />
-</colgroup>
- <tr>
- <td class='c032' colspan='2'>Personality A</td>
- <td class='c033'>Personality B</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Anger</td>
- <td class='c012'>Present (marked)</td>
- <td class='c033'>Never observed, although sometimes she felt “provoked”</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Fear</td>
- <td class='c012'>Present (marked)</td>
- <td class='c033'>Never observed</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Disgust</td>
- <td class='c012'>Present (marked)</td>
- <td class='c033'>Never observed</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Hunger</td>
- <td class='c012'>Slight</td>
- <td class='c033'><cite>Absent (?)</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Sexual</td>
- <td class='c012'>Present</td>
- <td class='c033'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Curiosity</td>
- <td class='c012'>Present</td>
- <td class='c033'>Present</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Joy</td>
- <td class='c012'><cite>Absent</cite> (present only when excited by suggestion)</td>
- <td class='c033'>Present (marked)</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Sorrow</td>
- <td class='c012'>Present (marked)</td>
- <td class='c033'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Parental, Tender-<br />feeling Affection, etc.</td>
- <td class='c012'>Present</td>
- <td class='c033'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Self-assertion—Elation</td>
- <td class='c012'>Present (in pride)</td>
- <td class='c033'>Present</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Self-abasement—Subjection</td>
- <td class='c012'>Present (marked)</td>
- <td class='c033'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Play</td>
- <td class='c012'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- <td class='c033'>Present (marked)</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Pleasure-feeling tones</td>
- <td class='c012'><cite>Rare</cite></td>
- <td class='c033'>Constant (marked)</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c012'>Pain-feeling tones</td>
- <td class='c012'>Present (marked)</td>
- <td class='c033'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c000'>
- <div>COMPOUND EMOTIONS</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<table class='table1' summary=''>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='14%' />
-<col width='2%' />
-<col width='17%' />
-<col width='32%' />
-<col width='31%' />
-</colgroup>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034'>&nbsp;</td>
- <td class='c035'>&nbsp;</td>
- <td class='c036' colspan='2'>Personality A</td>
- <td class='c037'>Personality B</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034' colspan='3'>Admiration</td>
- <td class='c034'>Present</td>
- <td class='c037'>?</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034' colspan='3'>Reverence</td>
- <td class='c034'>?</td>
- <td class='c037'>?</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034' colspan='3'>Gratitude</td>
- <td class='c034'>Present (marked)</td>
- <td class='c037'>?</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034'>Scorn</td>
- <td class='c035'><span class='xlarge'>{</span></td>
- <td class='c035'>Anger<br />Disgust</td>
- <td class='c034'>Present (marked)</td>
- <td class='c037'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034'><span class='pageno' id='Page_627'>627</span>Loathing</td>
- <td class='c035'><span class='xlarge'>{</span></td>
- <td class='c035'>Fear<br />Disgust</td>
- <td class='c034'>Present (marked)</td>
- <td class='c037'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034' colspan='3'>Envy</td>
- <td class='c034'>?</td>
- <td class='c037'>?</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034'>Reproach</td>
- <td class='c035'><span class='xxlarge'>{</span></td>
- <td class='c035'>Anger<br />Tender-emotion</td>
- <td class='c034'>Present</td>
- <td class='c037'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034' colspan='3'>Jealousy</td>
- <td class='c034'>Present</td>
- <td class='c037'><cite>Absent (?)</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034' colspan='3'>Vengeful emotion</td>
- <td class='c034'>Present</td>
- <td class='c037'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034' colspan='3'>Shame</td>
- <td class='c034'>Present</td>
- <td class='c037'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034' colspan='3'>Bashfulness</td>
- <td class='c034'>Present</td>
- <td class='c037'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034' colspan='3'>Pity</td>
- <td class='c034'>?</td>
- <td class='c037'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c034' colspan='3'>Happiness</td>
- <td class='c034'><cite>Absent</cite></td>
- <td class='c037'>Constant</td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class='c015'>As there were differences in emotions and pleasure-pain
-feelings manifested by the two personalities, so
-also the emotions and feelings organized with the same
-objects differed. That is to say, one and the same
-object often awakened different emotions or feelings.
-For example, the moon excited in A pain, in B pleasure;
-woods excited in A apprehension, in B pleasure; a lake,
-in A fear; in B joy; relatives, in A affection, in B indifference.
-Situations, too, that gave A sorrow, gave
-B joy, or, it might be, pleased A and bored B. Likewise
-with persons: Y—aroused intense hatred, scorn, etc., in
-A; in B pleasant feelings.</p>
-
-<h5 class='c028'>IV</h5>
-
-<p class='c015'>To return to the behavior of the B and A personalities;
-the B system, from the fact that it had become for
-a month, during the third period, segregated as an
-independent and autonomous system, had become
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_628'>628</span>crystallized and easily dissociated as <cite>a whole</cite> from the
-remainder of the personalities. The same happened
-with the A system after it had become emancipated as a
-result of the fourth shock. The two systems readily
-changed with one another and I had innumerable
-opportunities of observing the changes taking place
-before my eyes and of studying them. C makes the
-following statement of these alternations:</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Shortly after I came to you I began to alternate more frequently
-between those two states, and it is well to emphasize that one
-marked change in the state of A developed. In this state I now had
-<cite>complete amnesia</cite> for my whole life as B; for everything I thought
-and did.<a id='r300' /><a href='#f300' class='c009'><sup>[300]</sup></a> In other respects, however, these states were identical
-with what they had been. The presence of amnesia made no difference
-in the fact of change of personality. As I see it I was just as
-much an altered personality before the amnesia developed as afterward.
-As B, I had no amnesia.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'><span class='pageno' id='Page_629'>629</span>The amnesia made life very difficult; indeed, except for the help
-you gave me I think it would have been impossible and that I should
-have gone truly mad. How can I describe or give any clear idea of
-what it is to wake suddenly, as it were, and not to know the day of
-the week, the time of the day, or why one is in any given position?
-I would come to myself as A, perhaps on the street, with no idea of
-where I had been or where I was going; fortunate if I found myself
-alone, for if I was carrying on a conversation I knew nothing of what
-it had been; fortunate indeed, in that case, if I did not contradict
-something I had said for, as B, my attitude toward all things was
-quite the opposite of that taken by A. Often it happened that I
-came to myself at some social gathering—a dinner, perhaps—to
-find I had been taking wine (a thing I, as A, felt bound not to do)<a id='r301' /><a href='#f301' class='c009'><sup>[301]</sup></a>
-and what was to me most shocking and horrifying, smoking a
-cigarette; never in my life had I done such a thing and my humiliation
-was deep and keen.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>The bearing of amnesia on the principle of multiple
-personality, perhaps, needs a few words. From the
-facts as they developed in this case it must be obvious
-that the presence or absence of amnesia in no way
-affects the reality of altered or secondary personality.
-B was quite as much a personality before the development
-of amnesia as afterwards. Before this appeared
-the patient as A in no way differed in characteristics
-(other than amnesia) from what she was afterwards,
-and the same is true of B. The amnesia simply made
-the contrast between the phases more obtrusive; that
-was all. If, therefore, following the amnesia each
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_630'>630</span>phase can be rightly interpreted—and of this there
-can be no doubt—as a dissociated personality, the same
-must be true of it antecedent to loss of memory. Each
-phase had lost and gained certain traits and peculiarities,
-and what one had lost the other, to a large extent,
-had retained.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>An analysis of the previous life history shows that
-each represented a constellation of mental complexes
-created out of the formative matter of the past conserved
-in the unconscious. On the other hand it is
-obvious that from another point of view each, before
-amnesia occurred, was rightly entitled to be considered
-as a highly developed “mood” with strong conative
-tendencies. In principle the amnesia does not affect
-the point of view. One frequently sees in lesser degree
-such moods in so-called normal people of a certain
-temperament. They are in fact really temporary
-alterations of personality, though it is not customary to
-speak of them as such. After amnesia develops the
-conditions in other respects are in no way changed.
-If such alterations of personality are combined with a
-neurasthenic condition it is customary to regard the
-phase as one of neurasthenia or hysteria, and, in fact,
-the state A was for a long time so regarded until the
-other state, B, was discovered.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>It is not within the scope of this study to describe in
-detail the behavior of the two personalities A and B.
-Enough has been said to show that they differed in
-character so widely as to appear to be two entirely
-distinct persons, with contradictory traits, desires,
-feelings, points of view, habits, manners, temperaments,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_631'>631</span>and attitudes towards their environment and
-towards each other. Alternating as they did, the
-situations in which A, at least, was placed were
-often dramatic and comparable to that of the case
-of Miss Beauchamp<a id='r302' /><a href='#f302' class='c009'><sup>[302]</sup></a> with which some of you may be
-familiar.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>A good general idea of the two personalities and
-their behavior has been given by the subject herself
-in the two articles from which I have freely quoted.
-For further details I would refer you to those accounts<a id='r303' /><a href='#f303' class='c009'><sup>[303]</sup></a>
-which merit careful study.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Nor can I take up that phase of the problem of dissociation
-which involves <cite>co-conscious</cite> systems of thought.
-It is too large a subject and must be reserved for a
-later occasion. I will merely say that when A became
-<cite>unaware</cite> of the <cite>B complex</cite> and became amnesic for her
-alternating life as B, the latter, B, continued during the
-A phase; or, in other words, the co-conscious life was a
-continuation of the B alternating life after the change
-took place to A (or C), but the latter was unaware
-of it.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>This seems very difficult to comprehend for those
-who are not familiar with the phenomenon. Yet, as I
-see it, the mechanism and principle are very simple and
-the phenomenon is only an exaggeration of the normal.
-Otherwise and without a normal mechanism it could
-not occur. B has also given in her account a very
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_632'>632</span>valuable description based on introspection of the
-co-conscious life. This merits careful study.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'>REINTEGRATION OF A AND B INTO A NORMAL PERSONALITY C</h3>
-
-<p class='c015'>You probably will have sufficient curiosity to want to
-know how the reintegration of the dissociated phases
-into a single normal personality was accomplished: that
-is to say how a cure was brought about and the original
-personality was obtained. It was very simple and can
-be told in a few words. The method was the same as
-that employed in the case of Miss Beauchamp.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Each of the dissociated personalities A and B could
-be hypnotized. When A was hypnotized she went
-into a state which we will call <cite>a</cite> and when B was hypnotized
-she went into a state which we will call <cite>b</cite>.
-Now both these states could be still further hypnotized.
-When the process of hypnotizing <cite>a</cite> was carried further a
-state was obtained which we will provisionally call <cite>x</cite>.
-When the process of hypnotizing <cite>b</cite> was carried further a
-state was obtained which we will call provisionally <cite>y</cite>.
-Now, when studying these two hypnotic states, <cite>x</cite> and
-<cite>y</cite>, they were found to be the same state. That is to say
-they had the same memories and other traits of personality.
-Furthermore they were found to be a combination
-of both <cite>a</cite> and <cite>b</cite>, possessing all the memories,
-emotions and innate dispositions which were lost in A
-and therefore possessed by B and all those that were
-lost in B and therefore possessed by A. In other words,
-it was the complete normal personality but in the
-hypnotic state. This hypnotic state, therefore, which
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_633'>633</span>had been previously labeled both <cite>x</cite> and <cite>y</cite> was now
-labeled <cite>c</cite>. All that remained to do, therefore, was to
-wake up <cite>c</cite> and the trick would be done, for we would
-then have, theoretically, the normal C personality.
-So this procedure was carried out and the normal personality
-was obtained.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f292'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r292'>292</a>. Fourth according to the division of periods here adopted.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f293'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r293'>293</a>. Money matters.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f294'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r294'>294</a>. Second which brought the B personality.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f295'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r295'>295</a>. Apropos of this B states: “I still continued, in a sense, as the B
-complex in the same way as during the time when C lived the life which
-was in accordance with my nature and opposed to hers, i.e., the out of
-doors life during the latter part of the second period; only, as a result
-of the time (<cite>period III</cite>) when I was the sole personality (though I did
-not think of myself as such) and had lived my own life, I had, it seems to
-me as I look back upon it, become more crystallized. There had before
-seemed to be a conjoining of two natures, and there was now, only the
-second one, myself, was more strongly integrated. C, or rather A,
-as I shall call this new phase, had no amnesia for the preceding period
-(<cite>III</cite>), and as before was still perfectly aware of the B complex. She
-was ruled by this complex, as C had before been ruled, and kept right on
-doing things in accordance with the impulses of the B complex. She
-was something like a somnambulist, I think, partly realizing the difference
-in her conduct, which seemed strange to her, and unable to help
-herself.”</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f296'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r296'>296</a>. At this time A had removed from the environment in which all this
-that has been narrated had taken place, and had come under my care;
-she was then A. There were no longer calls for duty to be performed,
-no longer responsibilities to carry out. B was dormant and it was impossible
-for the fixed idea to act, though undoubtedly if the former
-situation was restored the old parts would have been reënacted; as it
-was A looked upon the past as a closed chapter and she was able to
-judge herself as A and B. In the quiescence of her fixed idea she was
-able to see herself, though in a distorted perspective, and reprobated her
-conduct in both phases of personality, and as she says, was “aghast.”</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f297'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r297'>297</a>. Referring to the fixed idea mentioned above of saving this person.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f298'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r298'>298</a>. Referring to her husband’s illness and death.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f299'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r299'>299</a>. Lecture XVII.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f300'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r300'>300</a>. This came about in the following way: One day while A was in
-hypnosis she suddenly and spontaneously changed to a different hypnotic
-state characterized by change of facial expression, manner, speech,
-etc. It was afterwards recognized that this was the B personality in
-hypnosis. I had not before seen or heard of the B personality as such.
-I had only known that the subject from her own account had been in a
-neurasthenic condition and had been through periods of improvement
-and relapses. I did not suspect that these phases of improvement and
-relapses represented phases of personality such as was soon discovered
-to be the case. A few days after the B personality had appeared in
-hypnosis this phase spontaneously waked and alternated as it had
-previously done, with the A complex. But now, as the writer says,
-there was amnesia on the part of A for B. The explanation for this is
-undoubtedly to be found in the fact that a new synthesis and more complete
-dissociation of the B complex had taken place through the experience
-of hypnosis. Analogous phenomena I have observed in making
-experimental observations but it would take us too far away to enter
-into this question here.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f301'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r301'>301</a>. During the first weeks of my existence as B I pledged myself to
-drink no wine. The promise was made under such conditions that no
-reasonable person could have felt bound by it. As B I realized this and
-felt no obligation to keep it but as A, I could not feel so, though you
-had assured me over and over again that I was not in honor bound.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f302'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r302'>302</a>. Prince: The Dissociation of a Personality, Longmans, Green
-&amp; Co.</p>
-</div>
-<div class='footnote' id='f303'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r303'>303</a>. “My Life as a Dissociated Personality,” <cite>Journal of Abnormal
-Psychology</cite>, Vol. III, Nos. 4 and 5.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_634'>634</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>SUMMARY AND GENERAL CONCLUSIONS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c008'>We may now bring this study of human personality
-to a close, incomplete as it is. We have not
-by any means exhausted all the factors of personality,
-but, guided by practical consideration, we have
-at least examined the chief of its fundamentals,
-more particularly those which are concerned in the
-disturbances which general psychopathology makes
-the object of study. Such a study should be undertaken
-preparatory to that of special pathology or
-particular complexes of disturbances of function
-(the functional psychoneuroses). The aim of psychology
-should be to become capable of being an
-applied science. So far as a science is only of
-academic interest it fails to be of real value to the
-world. Physics, chemistry, astronomy, mineralogy,
-geology, physiology, bacteriology, botany, and many
-departments of zoology, etc., can be applied, and
-other sciences at least tend to form our notions of
-the universe in which we live, and thus to mould
-our religious, philosophical and other conceptions.
-Until very recent years it was an opprobium of psychology,
-as studied and taught, that it had not become
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_635'>635</span>divorced from philosophy<a id='r304' /><a href='#f304' class='c009'><sup>[304]</sup></a> and stood amongst
-the few sciences that could not be applied to practical
-life and was for the most part of academic interest
-only. Now, however, in the field of medicine
-psychology is fast looming to the front as of great
-practical interest—not the older psychology, but the
-new psychology of functions and mechanisms. In
-the field of human efficiency in the mechanical arts
-it is also fast becoming capable of practical application.
-With the above aim in view we have dealt
-in these lectures more particularly with those psychological
-activities a knowledge of which can be
-applied in the theory and practice of medicine. But
-as the laws governing the organism are general, not
-special, what has been found is as applicable to
-normal as to pathological life.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We have not attempted to enter the field of special
-pathology to study the psycho-pathology of special
-diseases. So far as this has been done it has been
-mainly for the purpose of seeking data. Our aim has
-been rather to obtain that knowledge of functions
-which will serve as an introduction to such medical
-studies. Even in this limited field there are any
-number of specific problems which have been scarcely
-more than touched upon and any one of which, by
-itself, would be a rich field of investigation.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'>It is well now, in conclusion, to make a general
-survey of the fields which we have tilled, and gather
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_636'>636</span>together into a whole, so far as possible, the results
-of our gleaning.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We have seen on the basis of the phenomena of
-memory that the “mind” includes more than conscious
-processes; that it includes a vast storehouse
-of acquired “dispositions” deposited by the experiences
-of life, and that these dispositions (by which
-mental experiences are conserved) may be regarded
-as chemical or physical in their nature, as sort of
-residua deposited (if we are asked to confine ourselves
-to terms of the same order) by the neural
-processes correlated with the conscious experiences
-of life. This storehouse of acquired dispositions
-provides the material for conscious and subconscious
-processes; and thus provides the wherewithal
-which enables the personality to be guided in its
-behavior by the experiences of the past. It provides
-the elements of memory which we know must be
-supplied by the mind in every perception of the
-environment—even the simplest—and which are required
-for every process of thought. Indeed
-throughout our review of processes and manifestations
-of mind, which we need not recapitulate, we
-have continually come upon evidences of these dispositions
-playing as I foretold in our first lecture
-an underlying and responsible part.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The fact that brain dispositions are of one order
-of events (physical) while psychological processes
-are of another (psychical) is in no way an objection
-to such an interpretation, as in this antithesis we
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_637'>637</span>have only the old mind-matter problem—dualism, or
-monism, or parallelism.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We have also seen that in neural dispositions,
-whether acquired or innate, we have a conception of
-the unconscious that is definite, precise.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We have also reviewed the evidence going to show
-that though the main teleological function of the
-unconscious, so far as it represents acquired dispositions,
-is to provide the material for conscious
-memory and <cite>conscious</cite> processes, in order that the
-organism may be consciously guided in its reactions
-by experience, yet under certain conditions
-neurographic residua can function as a <cite>subconscious</cite>
-process which may be <cite>unconscious</cite>, i.e., without
-being accompanied by conscious equivalents.
-The latter were classed as a sub-order of subconscious
-processes. We saw reason for believing that
-any neurogram deposited by life’s experience can,
-given certain other factors, thus function subconsciously,
-either autonomously or as a factor in a
-large mechanism embracing both conscious and unconscious
-elements; and that this was peculiarly the
-case when the neurogram was organized with an
-emotional disposition or instinct. The impulsive
-force of the latter gives energy to the former and
-enables it to be an active factor in determining
-behavior. The organism may then be subconsciously
-governed in its reactions to the environment.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>After a consideration of actions so habitually performed
-that they become automatic and free from
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_638'>638</span>conscious direction (so-called habit-reactions), of
-actions performed by decerebrate animals, of cerebro-spinal
-reflexes, and many motor activities of
-lower forms of animal life, we came to the conclusion
-that they also were performed by unconscious
-neural dispositions and processes, analogous to, or
-identical with (as the case might be) the acquired
-dispositions and processes correlated with conscious
-processes. Many of them may likewise be acquired
-and in a pragmatic sense intelligent. We thus were
-able to broaden our conception of the unconscious
-and its functioning, and at the same time see the
-further necessity of distinguishing the unconscious
-as a subdivision of the subconscious.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Proceeding further we found that besides subconscious
-processes that are distinctly unconscious,
-there are others which are distinctly conscious (or
-at least unconscious processes with conscious accompaniments)
-but which do not enter the focus or
-fringe of awareness—in other words, true subconscious
-ideas. These were termed <cite>coconscious</cite> as a
-second subdivision of the subconscious. They may
-include true perceptions, memories, thoughts, volition,
-imagination, etc. As with unconscious processes,
-any conserved experience of life, <cite>under certain
-conditions and given certain other factors</cite>, may
-thus function coconsciously, particularly if organized
-with and activated by an innate emotional disposition.
-So we may have subconscious processes
-both without and with conscious equivalents. We
-have also seen that coconscious processes may exhibit
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_639'>639</span>intelligence of a high order, and the same thing
-is possibly true in a less degree of unconscious processes.
-We found evidence showing that a conserved
-idea may undergo subconscious incubation
-and elaboration, and that subconscious processes
-may acquire a marked degree of autonomy, may
-determine or inhibit conscious processes of thought,
-solve problems, enter into conflicts, and in various
-modes produce all sorts of psychological phenomena
-(hallucinations, impulsive phenomena, aboulia, amnesia,
-dissociation of personality, etc.).</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>We have seen how, by the use of the experimental
-method of “<cite>tapping</cite>,” and by hypnotic and other
-procedures, that this same autonomy can be demonstrated,
-manifesting itself by impulsive phenomena
-(writing, speech, gestures, and all sorts of motor
-automatisms) on the one hand, and sensory automatisms
-(hallucinations) on the other. And we
-have seen that by similar procedures, in specially
-adapted individuals, remembrances of coconscious
-processes that have induced identical phenomena
-can be recalled. With this precise knowledge of the
-processes at work these automatisms were correlated
-with the spontaneous occurrence of the same
-kinds of phenomena in the psychoses and in normal
-conditions. Their occurrence in all sorts of pathological
-conditions thus becomes intelligible.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Evidence has been adduced to show that life’s
-experiences, and therefore acquired dispositions,
-tend to become organized into groups. The latter,
-termed for descriptive purposes neurograms, thereby
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_640'>640</span>acquire a functional unity; and they may become
-compounded into larger functioning groups, or complexes,
-and still larger systems of neurograms.
-Whether their origin is remembered or not they become
-a part of the personality. Such complexes and
-systems play an important part by determining
-mental and bodily behavior. Amongst other things
-they tend to determine the points of view, the attitudes
-of mind, the individual and social conscience,
-judgment, etc., and, as large systems, may become
-“sides to one’s character.” When such complexes
-have strong emotional tones they may set up conflicts
-leading to the inhibition of antagonistic sentiments,
-and sometimes to the contraction and even
-disruption of the personality. All these phenomena
-can be induced by the artificial creation and organization
-of complexes and this principle becomes an
-important one in therapeutics.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>When studying ideas we found that, besides sensory
-images, they have meaning derived from antecedent
-associated experiences that form the setting
-or context. Further evidence was adduced to show
-that this setting and the idea formed a psychic
-whole; but that often the former remained subconscious
-while the idea only, or the affect only, or both,
-emerged into the content of consciousness. The significance
-of this mechanism lay in the fact that it
-enabled us to understand the insistency of emotional
-ideas or obsessions. Indeed reasons have
-been given for holding that subconscious processes
-perform a part in most processes of thought.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_641'>641</span>Besides acquired dispositions, organized and, so
-to speak, deposited by life’s experiences, personality
-includes many that are innate, and therefore
-conditioned by inherited pre-formed anatomical and
-physiological arrangements of the nervous system.
-These function after the manner of a physiological
-reflex; and the theory was adopted that the emotions
-are the central elements in certain of such dispositions.
-These may therefore be called emotional dispositions
-or instincts. By the excitation of such
-emotional reflexes the organism reacts in an emotional
-manner to the environment.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>In the organization of life’s experiences the emotional
-dispositions tend to become synthesized with
-ideas to form sentiments and therefore synthesized
-with the neurographic residua by which ideas are
-conserved. Thus, on the one hand, neurograms and
-systems of neurograms become organized with innate
-emotional dispositions, and, on the other, ideas
-become energized by the emotional impulsive force
-that carries the ideas to fruition.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>As to general psycho-pathological and certain
-physiological phenomena, a large variety such as
-anxiety states, hallucinations, and automatic motor
-phenomena, are clearly the manifestations of automatic
-subconscious processes; some are the resultants
-of conflicts between the impulsive forces of distinctly
-conscious sentiments, others between those
-of conscious and subconscious sentiments; others
-are the physiological manifestation of emotional
-processes, conscious or subconscious. Some,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_642'>642</span>indicative of losses from personality (such as amnesia,
-anesthesia, paralysis, altered personality, etc.), are the
-resultants of inhibitions or dissociations of acquired or
-innate dispositions, effected by the conflicting force
-of antagonistic factors. These resultants may or
-may not be associated with the excitation and dominance
-of complexes, or large systems of acquired
-dispositions. If so, moods, trance states, fugues,
-somnambulistic states, secondary personalities, and
-other hysterical states come into being. In all cases
-these various pathological conditions are functional
-derangements of the fundamental factors of a given
-human personality—expressions of the same mechanisms
-which the organism normally makes use of
-to adapt itself harmoniously to its own past or present
-experiences and to its environment.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Finally, out of the innate and acquired dispositions
-organized by experience to a very large extent into
-unitary dynamic systems human personality is constructed
-by the integration of these systems (and other
-dispositions) into a composite functioning whole. And
-according as certain systems acquire dominance and
-determine fixed and predictable reactions to the environment
-character traits are developed. But as
-personality is thus a composite, that is an integrated
-system of lesser systems these latter are capable of
-being reassembled or integrated in varying combinations
-into many and different composites and thus
-multiple personality may be formed. The forces which
-bring about the disintegration of the normal composite
-and the resynthesizing of the unitary systems into new
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_643'>643</span>personalities are to be found in the dynamic dispositions
-of conscious and unconscious mechanisms. And
-we have also seen that as the empirical ego is a unitary
-system organized by experience each personality may
-contain its own differentiated ego.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Viewing as a whole the phenomena we have studied,
-we see why it is that personality is a complex
-affair in that in its make-up there enter many factors,
-some acquired and some innate. Each of these
-is capable of more or less autonomy and upon their
-harmonious coöperation depends the successful adaptation
-of the personality to its environment. It is,
-we may say with almost literal truth, when these
-factors work to cross purposes that a personality
-ceases to be a harmonious whole; just as the individuals
-composing a group of persons, a football team, for
-example, when they fail to work together and each
-strives to fulfill his own purposes, cease to be a single
-team. Consciousness is not a unity in any sense that
-the term has any significant meaning beyond that
-which is a most banal platitude. The “unity of consciousness”
-seems to be a cant-expression uttered by
-some unsophisticated ancient philosopher and repeated
-like an article of faith by each successive generation
-without stopping to think of its meaning or to
-test it by reference to facts. Neither a reference to
-the evidence of consciousness or to its manifestations
-gives support to the notion of unity. The mind is
-rather an aggregation of potential or functioning activities
-some of which may combine into associative
-functioning processes at one time and some at another;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_644'>644</span>while again these different activities may become
-disaggregated with resulting contraction of personality,
-on the one hand, and conflicting multiple activities
-on the other.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The unconscious, representing as it does all the
-past experiences of life that have been conserved,
-is not limited to any particular type of experiences;
-nor are the subconscious and conscious processes
-to which it gives rise more likely to be determined
-by any particular antecedents, such as those of childhood,
-as some would have us believe. Nor are these
-motivated by any particular class of emotional instincts
-or strivings of human personality. The instincts
-and other innate dispositions which are fundamental
-factors are, as we have seen, multiform, and any one
-of them may provide the motivating force which
-activates subconscious as well as conscious processes.
-Impelled by any one or combination of these instincts
-unconscious complexes may undergo subconscious
-incubation and in the striving to find expression may
-work for harmony or, by conflict with other complexes,
-for discord.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Having grasped the foregoing general principles
-governing the functioning mechanisms of the mind,
-we are prepared to undertake the study of the more
-particular problems of everyday life and of special
-pathology.</p>
-
-<hr class='c016' />
-<div class='footnote' id='f304'>
-<p class='c001'><a href='#r304'>304</a>. In most universities to-day Psychology is classed as a department
-of Philosophy! How long is this attitude to be continued?</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_645'>645</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>INDEX OF NAMES<a id='r305' /><a href='#f305' class='c009'><sup>[305]</sup></a></h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote' id='f305'>
-<p class='c008'><a href='#r305'>305</a>. See Addendum to index on page <a href='#Page_654'>654</a>.</p>
-</div>
-
-<ul class='index'>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_646'>646</span>Barrows, Ira, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>“B. C. A.”, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Bergson, <a href='#Page_viii'>viii</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Bicknel, <a href='#Page_428'>428</a>, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>, <a href='#Page_430'>430</a>, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Bidder and Schmidt, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Bogen, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>, <a href='#Page_430'>430</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Breuer, J., <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Cade and Latarjet, <a href='#Page_428'>428</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Cannon, W. B., <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>, <a href='#Page_428'>428</a>, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>, <a href='#Page_439'>439</a>, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a>, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Charcot, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Coriat, I. H., <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>De la Paz, D., <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Dickenson, C. Lowe, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Emerson, Ralph Waldo, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Féré, Ch., <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Flournoy, Th., <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Foster, M., <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Freud, Sigmund, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Fullerton, G. S., <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Goltz, F., <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Gurney, Edmund, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_647'>647</span>Haldane, (Lord), <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Hartmann, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Herbart, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Hilton, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Hoernlé, R. F., <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>“Mrs. Holland,” <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Hornborg, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>, <a href='#Page_428'>428</a>, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>James, William, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Janet, Pierre, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>, <a href='#Page_498'>498</a>, <a href='#Page_499'>499</a>, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a>, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>, <a href='#Page_506'>506</a>, <a href='#Page_509'>509</a>, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Johnson, (Miss) Alice, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Jung, C. J., <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Kant, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Leibnitz, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Loeb, J., <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Lucretius, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>McDougall, William, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a>, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a>, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a>, <a href='#Page_456'>456</a>, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Meltzer, S. J., <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Morgan, Lloyd, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Mosso, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Myers, Frederick W. H., <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_648'>648</span>Pawlow, J. P., <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>, <a href='#Page_428'>428</a>, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>, <a href='#Page_430'>430</a>, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Peterson, Frederick, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Pilgrim, C. W., <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Ribôt, Th., <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Rignano, Eugenio, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Robertson, T. Brailsford, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_514'>514</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Rothmann, Von M., <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Rumbold, Horace, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Schäfer, E. A., <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Schilling, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Schrader, Max E. G., <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Semon, Richard, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Shand, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Sharp, Elizabeth A., <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_649'>649</span>Sherrington, C. S., <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Shohl, A. T., <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Sidgwick, Mrs. Henry, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Sidis, Boris, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Sidis and Kalmas, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>, <a href='#Page_438'>438</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Sidis and Nelson, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_438'>438</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Tallentyre, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Titchener, E. B., <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Turquan, Joseph, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Umber, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Verrall, (Mrs.), <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Vigouroux, A., <a href='#Page_436'>436</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>Waterman, G. A., <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Wells and Forbes, <a href='#Page_438'>438</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'>Wright, W. S., <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_650'>650</span>
- <h2 class='c039'>INDEX OF SUBJECTS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<ul class='index c004'>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_651'>651</span><b>Absent-minded acts</b>, conservation of, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Affective states</b>, suppression of, by conflict, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Affects</b>, see <b>Emotion</b>.
- <ul>
- <li>as conative force of ideas, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>.</li>
- <li>linking of, to ideas fundamental for the pathology of the psychoneuroses, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Amnesia</b>, continuous, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>episodic, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</li>
- <li>epochal, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>.</li>
- <li>from conflict, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_508'>508–518</a>.</li>
- <li>theory of, following emotion, <a href='#Page_509'>509–514</a>.</li>
- <li>different forms of, following emotion, <a href='#Page_514'>514–517</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Anxiety neurosis</b>, emergence of emotion from a subconscious idea in, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Association neuroses</b>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>, <a href='#Page_527'>527</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Association psychoses</b>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Bashfulness</b> as resultant of emotional conflict, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Behavior</b>, acquired and instinctive, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>conscious and unconscious, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Coconscious</b>, the meaning of the, <a href='#Page_247'>247–254</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Coconscious</b> ideas, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>, <a href='#Page_249'>249</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>images, <a href='#Page_169'>169–171</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_374'>374–376</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_652'>652</span><b>Coconscious</b> processes, auto-analysis of the content of, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Complex</b> of ideas, definition of a, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Complexes</b> (systematized), dissociated, as phases of multiple personality, <a href='#Page_299'>299–302</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>emotional, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>organization of emotional, <a href='#Page_267'>267–274</a>.</li>
- <li>systematized, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>:</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>Subject systems, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>alternation of, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>;</li>
- <li>in dissociated personality, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>Chronological systems, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>differentiated by amnesia, <a href='#Page_290'>290–294</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>Mood systems, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>regarded as a “side to one’s character,” <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>;</li>
- <li>illustrated by William Sharp, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>unconscious, organization of, in hypnotic and other dissociated conditions, <a href='#Page_302'>302–306</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>in pathological states, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>;</li>
- <li>in psychotherapeutics, <a href='#Page_288'>288–289</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>;</li>
- <li>underlying the individual, social, civic and national conscience, public opinion, Sittlichkeit, etc., <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Conflict</b>, from conative force of emotion, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_454'>454</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>between conscious and subconscious sentiments, <a href='#Page_460'>460</a>, <a href='#Page_467'>467–480</a>;</li>
- <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_653'>653</span>in pathological conditions, <a href='#Page_478'>478</a>;</li>
- <li>under experimental conditions, <a href='#Page_470'>470–478</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Conflict</b> between emotional impulses, <a href='#Page_454'>454</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>and sentiments, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a>.</li>
- <li>between two subconscious processes, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a>.</li>
- <li>general phenomena of, <a href='#Page_488'>488</a>:
- <ul>
- <li>contraction of field of consciousness and personality, <a href='#Page_489'>489–492</a>;</li>
- <li>the hysterical state, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>;</li>
- <li>systematized dissociation, <a href='#Page_492'>492–504</a>;</li>
- <li>systematized anesthesia, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>;</li>
- <li>contracted personality, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>;</li>
- <li>change of sentiments, <a href='#Page_497'>497</a>;</li>
- <li>alternation of personality, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>;</li>
- <li>multiple personality, <a href='#Page_502'>502</a>;</li>
- <li>amnesia, <a href='#Page_508'>508–517</a>;</li>
- <li>subconscious traumatic memories, <a href='#Page_517'>517</a>;</li>
- <li>mental confusion, <a href='#Page_519'>519–521</a>;</li>
- <li>bashfulness, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>;</li>
- <li>self-consciousness, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>suppression of instincts and affective states by, <a href='#Page_454'>454–458</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Confusion</b> (mental), as resultant of emotional conflicts, <a href='#Page_519'>519</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>theory of, <a href='#Page_520'>520</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Conservation</b>, meaning of, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>a residuum of experience, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>.</li>
- <li>considered as psychological residua, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>as coconscious ideas, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>;</li>
- <li>as an undifferentiated psyche, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>;</li>
- <li>as physical residua, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>;</li>
- <li>as neural dispositions, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>evidence of, furnished by automatic writing, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>abstraction, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>;</li>
- <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_654'>654</span>hypnosis, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>;</li>
- <li>hallucinatory phenomena, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</li>
- <li>dreams, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Conservation</b>, of absent-minded acts, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>
- <ul>
- <li>of forgotten artificial states, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>(hypnosis, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>).</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>of forgotten dreams and somnambulisms, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.</li>
- <li>of forgotten experiences of normal life, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.</li>
- <li>of forgotten pathological states, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>
- <ul>
- <li>(amnesia, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>;</li>
- <li>deliria, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>;</li>
- <li>fugues, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>;</li>
- <li>intoxications, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>;</li>
- <li>multiple personality, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>).</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>of inner life, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.</li>
- <li>of subconscious perceptions, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Decerebrate Animal</b>, behavior of, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>intelligent behavior of, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Dissociation</b>, due to conflict, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_469'>469</a>, <a href='#Page_472'>472–475</a>, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a>, <a href='#Page_487'>487</a>, <a href='#Page_488'>488</a>, <a href='#Page_492'>492–504</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>amnesia following, <a href='#Page_508'>508</a>.</li>
- <li>effected by subconscious processes, <a href='#Page_504'>504</a>.</li>
- <li>laws of cleavage of personality in, <a href='#Page_504'>504–508</a>.</li>
- <li>systematized, <a href='#Page_492'>492–504</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>principle involved, <a href='#Page_493'>493</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Dreams</b>, as a type of hallucinatory phenomena, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>physiological after-phenomena, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>
- <li>subconscious process underlying, <a href='#Page_196'>196–213</a>.</li>
- <li>symbolism in, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_655'>655</span><b>Emotion</b>, see <b>Affects</b>.
- <ul>
- <li>amnesia, as resultant of, <a href='#Page_514'>514–517</a>.</li>
- <li>emergence of, from subconscious ideas, <a href='#Page_382'>382–386</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387–388</a>, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>.</li>
- <li>general psychopathology of, <a href='#Page_440'>440–442</a>.</li>
- <li>James-Lange theory of, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>.</li>
- <li>physiological manifestations of, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>changes in circulation, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>;</li>
- <li>modifications of volume and action of heart, <a href='#Page_424'>424</a>;</li>
- <li>of respiratory apparatus, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>;</li>
- <li>of glandular secretions, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>;</li>
- <li>of the functions of the digestive glands, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>;</li>
- <li>of the movements of the stomach and intestines, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>;</li>
- <li>of salivary secretion, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>;</li>
- <li>of secretion of ductless glands, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>;</li>
- <li>of pupils, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>;</li>
- <li>of muscular system, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>;</li>
- <li>the psycho-galvanic reflex, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>physiological symptoms of, caused by subconscious ideas, <a href='#Page_377'>377–381</a>.</li>
- <li>phenomena of, due to subconscious processes, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
- <li>provides the impulsive force of an instinct, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>one of chief functions of, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>psycho-physiological schema of manifestations of emotion, <a href='#Page_441'>441</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>physiological mimicry of disease, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>sensory accompaniments of, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_656'>656</span><b>Emotion</b>, sensory disturbances caused by, <a href='#Page_438'>438</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>the central psychical element in an innate reflex process, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>.</li>
- <li>the conative function of, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>, <a href='#Page_452'>452–460</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>discharge of force in three directions, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Emotions</b>, as the prime-movers of all human activity, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>
- <ul>
- <li>organization of, with ideas essential for self-control, etc., <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>primary and compound, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Emotional discharge</b> from subconscious processes, evidence for, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Emotional reactions</b>, acquired, do not always involve subconscious processes, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Fanatics</b>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Fear neurosis</b> due to subconscious ideas, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Feeling</b>, may emerge from subconscious complexes, <a href='#Page_383'>383–386</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Fixed idea</b> (imperative), <a href='#Page_278'>278–279</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Fringe (of consciousness)</b>, <a id='corr649.29'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='con-considered'>considered</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_649.29'><ins class='correction' title='con-considered'>considered</ins></a></span> as a subconscious zone, <a href='#Page_338'>338-352</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>
- <ul>
- <li>as a twilight zone, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>;</li>
- <li>consists of definite, real elements, <a href='#Page_342'>342</a>;</li>
- <li>ultramarginal or coconscious zone, <a href='#Page_343'>343–352</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>content of the, <a href='#Page_342'>342–352</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>only recovered by memory, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>effect of attention in shifting the content of focus and, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_657'>657</span><b>Fringe (of consciousness)</b>, meaning of ideas may be in the, <a href='#Page_352'>352–360</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Glycosuria</b>, due to emotion, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><a id='HALLUCINATIONS'></a><b>Hallucinations</b>, see <b><a href='#VISIONS'>Visions</a></b>.
- <ul>
- <li>as the emergence of secondary sensory images of subconscious ideas, <a href='#Page_182'>182–183</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209–210</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Hysterical attacks</b>,
- <ul>
- <li>as recurrent complexes, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>laughter and crying due to subconscious processes, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Idea</b>, a composite of sign and meaning, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Idea and Meaning</b>, the problem of, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Ideas</b>, content of, includes “Meaning,” <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>-331.
- <ul>
- <li>setting of, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Images</b>, of perception, either in the focus of attention or in the fringe, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Images, secondary</b>, in perception, <a href='#Page_82'>82–183</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>dissociation of, <a href='#Page_318'>318–321</a>;</li>
- <li>from subconscious ideas, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315–321</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Instinct and Intelligence</b>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Instinct</b>, McDougall’s conception of an, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>as an emotional disposition, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a>, <a href='#Page_467'>467</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Instinctive process</b>, three aspects of an, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_658'>658</span><b>Instincts</b>, conduct determined by, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>
- <ul>
- <li>suppression of, by conflict, <a href='#Page_454'>454–458</a>;</li>
- <li>may be lasting, <a href='#Page_460'>460–467</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>difference between consequences of repression of, and of sentiments, <a href='#Page_467'>467–469</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Intelligence</b>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>and instinct, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li>
- <li>a pragmatic question, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</li>
- <li>conscious and unconscious, <a href='#Page_240'>240–246</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'>“<b>Meaning</b>,” as a part of the content of ideas, <a href='#Page_321'>321–331</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>as determined by a subconscious process, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.</li>
- <li>as the conscious elements of a larger subconscious complex, <a href='#Page_360'>360–362</a>, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>.</li>
- <li>derived from the setting, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.</li>
- <li>may be in the fringe of consciousness, <a href='#Page_352'>352–360</a>, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>.</li>
- <li>must be in consciousness, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>.</li>
- <li>the problem of, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Melancholia</b>, depressive feeling in, as emergence from a subconscious complex, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Memory</b>, as a process, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>
- <ul>
- <li>of registration, conservation and reproduction, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>conscious, a particular type, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>without recollection, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>physiological, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</li>
- <li>psycho-physiological, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</li>
- <li>significance of theory of, <a href='#Page_257'>257–264</a>.</li>
- <li>subconscious, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#Page_517'>517</a>.</li>
- <li>unconscious, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_659'>659</span><b>Memories, automatic</b>, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>outbreak of, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>;</li>
- <li>as hysterical attacks, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a>;</li>
- <li>as obsessions, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a>;</li>
- <li>as a phobia, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Monism</b>, doctrine of, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<p class='c015'><b>Neurograms</b>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>.
- as organized systems of neurons, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.
- as physiological dispositions, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>.
- as subconscious processes, <a href='#Page_150'>150–157</a>.</p>
-<ul class='index'>
- <li class='c038'><a id='OBSESSIONS'></a><b>Obsessions</b>, clinical characteristics of, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>four types of, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>type A, purely physical disturbances caused by subconscious ideas, <a href='#Page_374'>374–381</a>.</li>
- <li>type B, emotion plus physical disturbances, <a href='#Page_381'>381–386</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>as “anxiety neurosis,” <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>type C, emotion plus physical disturbances, plus idea, <a href='#Page_387'>387–410</a>.</li>
- <li>type D, idea, meaning, emotion and physical disturbance, <a href='#Page_410'>410–415</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>inability to voluntarily modify, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</li>
- <li>therapeutics of, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>.</li>
- <li>the setting in, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Parallelism</b>, doctrine of, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Perception</b>, a synthesis of primary and secondary images, <a href='#Page_312'>312–321</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>may include affects, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_660'>660</span><b>Personalities, subconscious</b>, value of, for study of mental mechanisms, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Personality</b>, as survival of antecedent experiences, <a href='#Page_306'>306–310</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>dissociated, <a href='#Page_299'>299–302</a>.</li>
- <li>includes conserved but forgotten experiences of hypnotic states, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.</li>
- <li>multiple, <a href='#Page_299'>299–302</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Phobia</b>, see <b><a href='#OBSESSIONS'>Obsessions</a></b>.
- <ul>
- <li>as an automatism, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.</li>
- <li>of steeples (case), <a href='#Page_389'>389–410</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>of fainting (case), <a href='#Page_355'>355–360</a>;</li>
- <li>of insanity (case), <a href='#Page_411'>411–414</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Psycho-galvanic phenomenon</b>, induced by subconscious processes, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>nature of, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a>–438.</li>
- <li>a phenomenon of emotion, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a>.</li>
- <li>as evidence of subconscious emotional discharge, <a href='#Page_481'>481–484</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Psycholeptic attack</b>, as an organized complex, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Psychoneuroses</b>, symptomatic structure of, <a href='#Page_521'>521–528</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>the hysterical attack, <a href='#Page_524'>524</a>;</li>
- <li>the dissociated personality, <a href='#Page_525'>525</a>;</li>
- <li>the subconscious fixed idea, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a>;</li>
- <li>the anxiety state, <a href='#Page_526'>526</a>;</li>
- <li>an obsession, <a href='#Page_527'>527</a>;</li>
- <li>an association neurosis, <a href='#Page_527'>527</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Psychotherapeutics</b>, based on organization of complexes, <a href='#Page_288'>288–289</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>
- <ul>
- <li>in hypnosis, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>by the organization of unconscious settings of ideas, <a href='#Page_368'>368–372</a>, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_661'>661</span><b>Psychotherapeutics</b> of obsessions, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Physiological Dispositions</b>, innate and acquired, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>in the spinal animal, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</li>
- <li>in the decerebrate animal, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</li>
- <li>determinants of conscious and unconscious behavior, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Recollection</b>, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>a more perfect kind of conscious memory, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Reflection</b>, subconscious processes underlying, <a href='#Page_225'>225–228</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Religious conversion</b> (sudden), <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Reproduction</b>, dissimilarity of types in abstraction and automatic writing, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>realistic, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Residua</b>, as neural dispositions, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>chemical and physical theories of, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>analogy with anaphylaxis, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>;</li>
- <li>theory of auto-catalysis, <a href='#Page_124'>124–127</a>;</li>
- <li>of nervous accumulators, <a href='#Page_127'>127–129</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Residual Processes</b>, underlying automatic motor phenomena, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>hallucinations, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>;</li>
- <li>post-hypnotic phenomena, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>;</li>
- <li>dreams, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>;</li>
- <li>physiological bodily disturbances, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Self-consciousness</b>, as resultant of emotional conflict, <a href='#Page_521'>521</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_662'>662</span><b>Sentiment</b>, definition of a, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>
- <ul>
- <li>as an organized system of emotional dispositions centered about an idea, <a href='#Page_449'>449–450</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>difference between the consequences of repression of an instinct and of a, <a href='#Page_467'>467–469</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Sentiments</b>, essential for self-control and regulation of conduct, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>
- <ul>
- <li>in absence of, emotional life would be chaos, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>;</li>
- <li>suppression of, by conflict, <a href='#Page_454'>454–458</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>repression of, may lead to the formation of pathological subconscious states, <a href='#Page_461'>461</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'>“<b>Settings</b>,” theory of, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>
- <ul>
- <li>practical application to everyday life, <a href='#Page_331'>331–337</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>not sharply defined groups of ideas, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a>.</li>
- <li>as part of an unconscious complex and a subconscious process, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>inadequacy of analysis as a method of proof, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>;</li>
- <li>synthetic methods, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>;</li>
- <li>therapeutic application of, <a href='#Page_368'>368–372</a>;</li>
- <li>in obsessions, <a href='#Page_372'>372–386</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387–415</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Subconscious, The</b>, demarcation between, and the conscious, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>
- <ul>
- <li>difficulties of interpretation by clinical methods, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>;</li>
- <li>in applied psychology, <a href='#Page_213'>213–228</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>meanings of, <a href='#Page_247'>247–254</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>three classes of facts included in, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_663'>663</span>special problems of, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
- <li>subdivisions of, <a href='#Page_x'>x</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Subconscious</b>, emotional discharge shown by psycho-galvanic reaction, <a href='#Page_481'>481–484</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>ideas, <a href='#Page_249'>249–254</a>.</li>
- <li>intelligence, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177–180</a>, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>underlying spontaneous hallucinations, <a href='#Page_188'>188–195</a>;</li>
- <li>underlying dreams, <a href='#Page_196'>196–213</a>;</li>
- <li>comparable to a coconscious personality, <a href='#Page_211'>211–212</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>mathematical calculations, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_169'>169–171</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177–179</a>.</li>
- <li>perception, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</li>
- <li>performance of post-hypnotic phenomena, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.</li>
- <li>personality, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>value of, for study of mind, <a href='#Page_159'>159–160</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>process, definition of a, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</li>
- <li>processes, evidence for, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>validity of memory as evidence for, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>;</li>
- <li>actuality, intrinsic nature, and intelligence of, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>;</li>
- <li>as coconscious, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>;</li>
- <li>as unconscious, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</li>
- <li>conditions required for proof of, <a href='#Page_164'>164–166</a>;</li>
- <li>as determinants of behavior, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</li>
- <li>of the meanings of ideas, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>;</li>
- <li>of physical symptoms, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>;</li>
- <li>intrinsic nature of, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>;</li>
- <li>underlying artificial visual hallucinations, <a href='#Page_180'>180–187</a>;</li>
- <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_664'>664</span>spontaneous visual hallucinations, <a href='#Page_188'>188–195</a>;</li>
- <li>underlying dreams, <a href='#Page_196'>196–213</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Subconscious</b> self, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.
- <ul>
- <li>solution of problems, <a href='#Page_171'>171–176</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Symbolism</b>, in dreams, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>in visions, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Unconscious, The</b>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>as a storehouse of neurograms, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>.</li>
- <li>as a fundamental of personality, <a href='#Page_254'>254–264</a>.</li>
- <li>has dynamic functions, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</li>
- <li>the meanings of the, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_247'>247–254</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Unconscious</b>, calculations, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>intelligence, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210–211</a>.</li>
- <li>complex as the setting of ideas, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>-363.</li>
- <li>complexes, organization of, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>definition of, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>ideas, <a href='#Page_249'>249</a>-254.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><a id='VISIONS'></a><b>Visions</b>, see <b><a href='#HALLUCINATIONS'>Hallucinations</a></b>.
- <ul>
- <li>as the emergence of secondary visual images of subconscious ideas, <a href='#Page_182'>182–3</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209–210</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</li>
- <li>crystal, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>.</li>
- <li>subconscious processes underlying normal, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
- <li>symbolism in, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Will</b>, McDougall’s theory of the, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Word-association</b> reactions and the principle of conflict, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_665'>665</span>
- <h2 class='c007'>ADDENDUM: NAMES AND SUBJECTS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<ul class='index c004'>
- <li class='c038'><span class='pageno' id='Page_666'>666</span><b>Character</b> as distinguished from Personality, <a href='#Page_533'>533</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>McDougall, Wm.</b>, <a href='#Page_538'>538</a>, <a href='#Page_602'>602</a>, <a href='#Page_625'>625</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Mental Conflicts</b>, mechanisms of, <a href='#Page_582'>582</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Multiple personality</b>, the psychogenesis of, <a href='#Page_545'>545</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>
- <ul>
- <li>product of two processes and secondary growth, <a href='#Page_546'>546</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>Case of B. C. A., <a href='#Page_551'>551</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>autobiography, <a href='#Page_556'>556</a>;</li>
- <li>conflicts between sentiments and rebellious thoughts, <a href='#Page_567'>567</a>, <a href='#Page_579'>579</a>, <a href='#Page_583'>583</a>;</li>
- <li>growth of rebellious thoughts into the larger B complex and the later B personality, <a href='#Page_569'>569</a>, <a href='#Page_577'>577–579</a>, <a href='#Page_584'>584</a>, <a href='#Page_587'>587</a>, <a href='#Page_596'>596–598</a>;</li>
- <li>unification of the same in the second ego, <a href='#Page_570'>570</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>The B complex, <a href='#Page_584'>584</a>, <a href='#Page_587'>587</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>manifestations of the B complex in alterations of character and conduct, <a href='#Page_587'>587–592</a>, <a href='#Page_616'>616</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>The B personality, <a href='#Page_593'>593</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>the eruption of the B personality from “shock” (conflict), <a href='#Page_593'>593</a>, <a href='#Page_601'>601</a>;</li>
- <li>the evolution of the B personality, <a href='#Page_596'>596–598</a>, <a href='#Page_601'>601</a>;</li>
- <li>“shock” as a defense reaction, <a href='#Page_599'>599</a>;</li>
- <li>analysis of the “shock” <a href='#Page_601'>601</a>;</li>
- <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_667'>667</span>the B personality as a reversion to youth, <a href='#Page_602'>602–612</a>;</li>
- <li>characteristics of the B personality, <a href='#Page_603'>603</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>The A personality, <a href='#Page_614'>614</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>eruption of the same by “shock,” <a href='#Page_614'>614</a>;</li>
- <li>characteristics of the A personality, <a href='#Page_612'>612</a>, <a href='#Page_614'>614</a>, <a href='#Page_619'>619–621</a>;</li>
- <li>mechanisms of the “shock” reaction, <a href='#Page_621'>621–624</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>Dissociation and repression of emotional instincts from the A and B personalities, <a href='#Page_624'>624–627</a>.</li>
- <li>Reintegration of the two personalities into one normal whole, <a href='#Page_632'>632</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Personality</b>, structure and dynamic elements of, <a href='#Page_529'>529</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>definition of, <a href='#Page_532'>532</a>;</li>
- <li>primary and secondary units of its structure, <a href='#Page_535'>535</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
-</ul>
-<ul class='index c000'>
- <li class='c038'><b>Self</b>, the conception of, <a href='#Page_541'>541</a>.</li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Sentiments</b>, structure of, <a href='#Page_537'>537</a>;
- <ul>
- <li>the self-regarding sentiments, <a href='#Page_538'>538</a>;</li>
- <li>conflicts between sentiments in the case of B. C. A., <a href='#Page_583'>583</a>.</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li class='c038'><b>Shand, Alexander F.</b>, <a href='#Page_535'>535</a>, <a href='#Page_602'>602</a>.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c000' />
-</div>
-<p class='c001'><a id='endnote'></a></p>
-<div class='tnotes'>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
- <div class='nf-center'>
- <div><span class='large'>Transcriber’s Note</span></div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c001'>The unmatched ‘)’ at <a id='c_95.1'></a><a href='#corr95.1'>95.1</a> ‘recorded subconsciously, coconsciously).’,
-has no simple resolution, based on the grammar and punctuation, and has been left
-as-is.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>There appears to be a confusion of quotation marks at <a id='c_282.15'></a><a href='#corr282.15'>282.15</a>. The
-final phrase contains an opening double quote, which is belied by a
-short single-quoted phrase just above, and the final footnote referring to
-Janet’s text.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>The labels on the two graphs in the image on p. <a href='#Page_425'>425</a> were chopped and
-have been added.</p>
-
-<p class='c001'>Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and
-are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.</p>
-
-<table class='table1' summary=''>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='12%' />
-<col width='69%' />
-<col width='18%' />
-</colgroup>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_xvii.31'></a><a href='#corrxvii.31'>xvii.31</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>The B Personal[l/it]y</td>
- <td class='c027'>Replaced.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_56.28'></a><a href='#corr56.28'>56.28</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>[(]tactile, visual, etc.)</td>
- <td class='c027'>Added.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_97.23'></a><a href='#corr97.23'>97.23</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>to say that it[ is] plain</td>
- <td class='c027'>Inserted.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_138.30'></a><a href='#corr138.30'>138.30</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>process is conserved and rep[r]oduced</td>
- <td class='c027'>Inserted.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_150.12'></a><a href='#corr150.12'>150.12</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>out of the unconscious.[”]</td>
- <td class='c027'>Removed.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_155.1'></a><a href='#corr155.1'>155.1</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>devoid of ab[s]truseness,</td>
- <td class='c027'>Inserted.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_187.8'></a><a href='#corr187.8'>187.8</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>post[ /-]hypnotic</td>
- <td class='c027'>Replaced.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_210.13'></a><a href='#corr210.13'>210.13</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>coconscious or un[con]conscious</td>
- <td class='c027'>Removed.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_214.10'></a><a href='#corr214.10'>214.10</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>is apt to meet with difficulties[.]</td>
- <td class='c027'>Added.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_223.27'></a><a href='#corr223.27'>223.27</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>and His Times[,] Sir Horace Rumbold</td>
- <td class='c027'>Added.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_231.21'></a><a href='#corr231.21'>231.21</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>that various co[o/ö]perative movements</td>
- <td class='c027'>Replaced.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_258.19'></a><a href='#corr258.19'>258.19</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>[o/a]bnormal mental conditions</td>
- <td class='c027'>Replaced.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_280.10'></a><a href='#corr280.10'>280.10</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>[5/4]. <cite>Hysterical attacks.</cite></td>
- <td class='c027'>Misnumbered.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_436.23'></a><a href='#corr436.23'>436.23</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>che[x/z] les mélancoliques</td>
- <td class='c027'>Replaced.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_470.19'></a><a href='#corr470.19'>470.19</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>inhibition of consciousnes[s]</td>
- <td class='c027'>Added.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_504.18'></a><a href='#corr504.18'>504.18</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>to the subconsc[i]ous conflicts</td>
- <td class='c027'>Inserted.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_525.3'></a><a href='#corr525.3'>525.3</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>deposited in the uncon[s]cious</td>
- <td class='c027'>Inserted.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_598.24'></a><a href='#corr598.24'>598.24</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>particularly anger and disgust[;/,]</td>
- <td class='c027'>Replaced.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_600.11'></a><a href='#corr600.11'>600.11</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>whether the “shock[”] was a defense</td>
- <td class='c027'>Added.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c026'><a id='c_649.29'></a><a href='#corr649.29'>649.29</a></td>
- <td class='c026'>[con-]considered as a subconscious zone</td>
- <td class='c027'>Removed.</td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-
-</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UNCONSCIOUS ***</div>
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