DOUBLE PERSONALITY. 75 



Kept wandering to and fro. Horrible, awful. I thought to myself, 

 * I'll get into bed.' It looked so savage it quite unnerved me.'' 

 Here the reciprocal interference seems quite clear, and the sub- 

 conscious state, instead of evolving on the lines laid down by the 

 suggestion, has been perturbed and developed into a vague dream. 



Another good case of interference is given by Prof. Janet : * 



" M came to me one evening complaining of sundry troubles, 



and after putting her into her second state I talked to her and gave 

 her some advice, then wakened her without thinking of repeating 

 the same advice in her waking state. Some days later she wrote 

 me the following letter : * I can not make out what is the matter 

 with me. I must be very queer. I understand with difficulty, 

 and it seems to me that everybody is looking at me, perhaps be- 

 cause I express myself badly. I feel absolutely nothing, and I let 

 nearly everything fall, which makes me seem very stupid. I can 

 not work, and if any one in the house should notice it I should be 

 the loser. I may be wrong, but I have a dim idea that I ought to 

 do something. For two days I have tried in every way to discover 

 what it can be.'" All this annoyance was easily removed by 

 destroying the subconscious suggestion. 



Upon this conception of the interference between the two 

 states without coalescence and without the formation of a mem- 

 ory bond, Prof. Janet has based a most interesting and important 

 theory as to the origin of the hysterical and nervous troubles 

 which so often follow a severe accident or fright where no actual 

 injury can be detected. It is well known that such an experience 

 often becomes a conscious fixed idea, and "haunts" one. But 

 sometimes where there is no conscious " haunting," and even 

 where the experience is forgotten, the same results are traceable. 

 In these cases he believes that the fixed idea exists subconsciously 

 as a continuous or frequently recurring dream. 



Thus, Vel is a young man of twenty-four.f About every 



five minutes while awake and often while asleep he expels his 

 breath violently through the left nostril and the muscles of the 

 right cheek are contracted. He has had this spasm for eight 

 years and can not explain why. He thinks it may be connected 

 with a severe haemorrhage from the nose which he had as a 

 child. He is easily hypnotized and then affirms most positively 

 that there is an obstruction in his nose which he must get rid of. 

 " No matter when he is put to sleep, he makes the same state- 

 ment; it is probable that this idea has existed more or less clearly 

 in the patient's mind, and in any case unknown to him, for eight 

 years. This dream was modified and suppressed very easily in 

 the somnambulic state." 



* Lcs Accidents Meidaux, p. 13*7. { Ibid., p. 102. 



