74 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I think we can to some degree and in some cases. In our 

 own familiar dream life we have precisely those conditions real- 

 ized which we suppose obtain in the subconscious realm of a 

 hysteric. Nearly all sensations and most memories and ideas are 

 withdrawn and the fragments remaining work out their own 

 bizarre results free from the control of the organized system. We 

 shall not be far wrong, I think, if we conceive of these subcon- 

 scious states as a mere aggregation of very incoherent dreams. 

 They are probably very much more incoherent than most of the 

 dreams which we remember, although not more so than those 

 that we forget. Under the guidance of a hypnotic suggestion, 

 and under some other circumstances into which I can not now 

 enter, they may become coherent to almost any degree. 



There is a good deal of direct evidence for this. Prof. Janet 

 found that he could sometimes, by awaking Lucie in the midst of 

 a hallucination which he had suggested to her, get her to recall it, 

 and she always spoke of it as a dream. Prof. Janet once tried * 

 some experiments upon a patient whom he had not seen for some 

 months. To his surprise she did not seem to understand him. 

 When he asked why, she told him that she was too far away to 



understand ; that M. X had sent her a month ago to Algiers, 



and he must bring her back before she could understand. This 



was found to be true : M. X had told her she was in Algiers, 



and had forgotten to remove the suggestion. 



Another case will serve both to illustrate this point and also to 

 introduce the question as to the relation between the primary and 

 secondary systems. They need not be entirely distinct. Some- 

 times, as in this next case, the mere existence of the one may 

 seem to disturb the other in some vague fashion, at other times 

 scraps or fragments or consequences of either may appear in the 

 other without their origin being recognized, and in still other 

 cases the two appear to coalesce sufficiently for the one to recall 

 the other while yet they remain dynamically distinct. 



One of Mr. Gurney's patients f was told to write automatically 

 while reading aloud. The result was that both reading and writ- 

 ing were imperfect and confused. He was then hypnotized again 

 and asked what he had been trying to do. He said, " Trying to 

 write, * It has left off snowing.'" Then he was asked if he had 

 been reading, and said : "Reading? No, I haven't been reading. 

 Something seemed to disturb me; something seemed to move 

 about in front of me, so that I got back into bed again." " Did 

 not Mr. Gurney hold a book and make you read aloud ?" "No. 

 Somebody kept moving about. I did not like the looks of them. 



* V Aulomatisme Psychohgiquey second edition, p. 328. 



f Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. iv, p. 319. 



