SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 849 



the relation of the human consciousness to the apparently intelligent, pur- 

 posive movements which the body executes is by no means as simple as 

 we thought, any attempt to discuss the problem from the empirical point 

 of view will be welcomed. With the exception of Mr. F. W. H. Myers's 

 papers and reviews, in the publications of the Society for Psychical Ee- 

 search, and of the series by Prof. W. R. Newbold, which recently appeared 

 in this magazine, no discussion of the matter at all commensurate with its 

 importance has appeared, and Mrs. Baldwin's translation of M. Binefs 

 book * will therefore be doubly welcome. 



M. Binet adopts the conception of double personality that is, coexistent 

 personalities and makes use of it consistently for the explanation of all 

 forms of motor autoaiatisra, from the most rudimentary twitchings of an 

 anaesthetic hand to the fully developed automatic script which manifests 

 memories, emotions, and desires unknown to the primary self. All alike, 

 he holds, evince the existence of a " little consciousness by the side of a 

 greater a small luminous point by the side of a great focus of light." The 

 precise character of the secondary consciousness he does not try to deter- 

 mine for all cases, recognizing that it probably varies indefinitely ; and he 

 agrees with Pierre Janet, as against Myers, in regaixling it as essentially a 

 pathological phenomenon. On the whole, he avoids the pitfall of regard- 

 ing evidence for the existence of dissociated states as in the same sense 

 and to the same degree evidence for the existence of a fully equipped 

 secondary self, but in one curious passage (p. 210) he seems fairly to fall 

 into it. 



Especially interesting are Chapters VI to VIII, in which M. Binet tries 

 to determine the relation of the subconscious field to the upper self. The 

 evidence which he has collected the greater part of it, indeed, being based 

 upon tracings taken by himself of the movements of an anassthetic hand 

 under varying conditions is of the highest importance, and bears directly 

 upon the relation of the margin to the focus in the normal consciousness. 

 Chapter VIII, on Ideas of Subconscious Origin, gives a brief account of the 

 brilliant series of experiments by which M. Binet proved that in some pa- 

 tients touch stimuli which were not felt by the patient gave rise neverthe- 

 less to visual hallucinations representing to some degree the object touched, 

 and in one case at least (page 213) extraordinary subconscious hyperses- 

 thesia seems demonstrated. 



M. Binet does not treat of the cognate questions involved in the phe- 

 nomena of normal suggestibility, trance, ecstasy, and hallucination, nor 

 does he endeavor to develop psychological principles of universal appli- 

 cation. In conclusion, he points out how unsatisfactory the common no- 

 tions of association, of unconscious cerebration, and of personality become 

 when viewed in the light of these facts, but, with that exception, he does not 

 show the bearing of the latter upon the more profound problems of mind 

 and brain. Perhaps he feels that the time has not yet come for that ; but 

 he marshals the facts with discretion, and if his coaceptions are not always 

 as clear as they might be, there are few of us who would wish to cast the 

 first stone at him. 



* Alterations of Personality. By Alfred Binet. Translated by Helen Green Baldwin, with Notes 

 and an Introduction by J. Mark Baldwin. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 356, 12mo. Price, 

 S1.50. 



VOL. L. 64 



