TEE LAPSES OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 493 



including another that involved going to the kitchen, mixing the in- 

 gredients for a pie, and placing it in the lighted gas-range, the charred 

 remains astonishing the nocturnal cook the next morning; or of still 

 others recounting the prowling about at night in response to the sensa- 

 tions of hunger, or seeking coats and wraps because of sensations of 

 cold. Subconscious doing in sleep as in waking reflects the motor 

 versatility of our habits adjusted by training to the complex life in 

 which we live and move.* 



The Sensory Lapse. 

 The sensory side of the process demands equal recognition. It is 

 well to repeat that all of these several types of subconscious action, the 

 motor aspects of which have been singled out for analysis, do also 

 involve a recognition of the situation, a sensitiveness to the suggestions 

 of the environment, that both realizes — though it may be imperfectly 

 or mistakenly — and responds thereto with submerged awareness. The 

 first group of instances, in which actions are entered upon in oblivion 

 of their accomplished performance, shows how readily sensations, that 

 would ordinarily be registered, fail to make an impression; but this 

 ' absent-minded ' insensibility is still more neatly illustrated when an 

 article is deliberately sought, and yet the sensations by which its pres- 

 ence would normally be recognized remain persistently ignored. This 

 is indeed an accepted trait of the distrait. My collection is replete 



* I have not regarded it as necessary to include in this survey the familiar 

 association of habits in the routine of complicated actions, by which the one 

 step leads to the next, even though the occasion is an unintentional, inappro- 

 priate one. This type of lapse is extremely common and is apt to occur under 

 but slight release of tension of the directing consciousness. It is also directly 

 involved in several of the groups of unintentional motor actions just described. 

 Its most typical form, however, is in ' absently ' winding one's watch when 

 changing one's waistcoat, or in continuing the undressing reaction to an un- 

 necessary degree, simply because that act is more particularly associated with 

 the complete undressing of the retiring hour; while as the feminine counter- 

 part I am given the unintentional release of the hairpins when negligee is 

 assumed; and in my collection, a frequent occurrence corresponding to this 

 formula is the turning of the electric button, when entering the room, result- 

 ing at times in turning on the lights at daytime, or in an inadvertent turning 

 off the light in passing the door, thus leaving the other occupants of the room 

 in the dark. 



| I pass by with slight mention instances of simple ' anaesthesia,' that is, 

 the failure of sensations, through inattention, to enter the perceptive field. 

 I do this because the relation involved, clearly important, is not likely to be 

 overlooked. The inevitable contraction of the sensory field is familiar; and 

 we have only to recall occasions when a question must be repeated, and we 

 confess that we did not hear, at least with the mind's ear, what was said. 

 Such is merely the common and necessary, but here untimely, relaxation in 

 the attention wave. Occasionally such insensibility does give rise to peculiar 



