PROBLEMS OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 765 



phenomena of subconscious processes, are likewise artifacts, pro- 

 duced by the methods of the experiment. They prove that the mind 

 may be artificially made to exhibit duality but not that this is true 

 of normal mental life. 



(3) As to the evidence from automatic writing and similar phe- 

 nomena, it seems to have been overlooked that these phenomena 

 too are artifacts. Although they are plainly manifestations of dis- 

 sociation of consciousness and automatism of the dissociated ele- 

 ments, nevertheless this dissociation is the product of the conditions 

 of the experiment. Abstraction, which means dissociation ' of a 

 greater or less degree, is induced, and suggestion directly excites the 

 phenomena. But all such experiments have great significance in 

 another respect. The ease with which the mind, in perfectly healthy 

 persons, can be dissociated, and the dissociated states synthesized 

 into an autonomous system, shows that subconscious synthesized 

 states are not always evidence of disease, as maintained by Janet, 

 though they may be artifacts, but that the whole is dependent upon 

 a physiological process. When a physiological stimulus, like the 

 mere sound of a spoken word, a suggested idea, is capable of inciting 

 a dual activity of the mind in healthy university students, the pro- 

 cess is unintelligible unless it is psycho-physiological, that is to say, 

 a normal reaction of the mind to specially devised stimuli. When 

 critically examined, then, the experimental evidence which is relied 

 upon to establish subconscious ideas as normal processes of menta- 

 tion is found to be fallacious. The resulting phenomena are made 

 subconscious by the very conditions of the experiment. For this 

 reason the problem is impossible to solve by the usual experimental 

 methods. There is, however, some experimental evidence of a differ- 

 ent sort which may be utilized, and which I propose presently to 

 point out. 



(4) The phenomena of absent mindedness, or abstraction, a normal 

 function, indicate both dissociation and automatism. It is not diffi- 

 cult to demonstrate experimentally that auditory, visual, tactile, 

 and other images, which are not perceived by the personal con- 

 sciousness during this state, may be perceived subconsciously. 

 Thus, under proper precautions, I place various objects where they 

 will be within the peripheral field of vision of a suitable subject, C. B. 

 Her attention is strongly attracted listening to a discourse. The 

 objects are not perceived. She is now hypnotized and in hypnosis 

 describes accurately the objects, thus showing that they were sub- 

 consciously recognized. It is the same for auditory perceptions of 

 passing carriages, voices, etc. Likewise, on the motor, side the nu- 

 merous absentminded acts of which we are not conscious show 

 intelligent subconscious automatism. C. B., in hypnosis, remem- 

 bers each step of such an act (putting a book in the bookcase), 



