PROBLEMS OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 771 



me from somewhere else than my own mind. I have sometimes 

 thought, in consequence, that I had solved it in my sleep." 



The subject of these observations was at the time in good mental 

 and physical condition. Criticism may be made that the subject 

 being one who had exhibited for a long time previously the phe- 

 nomena of mental dissociation, she now, though for the time be- 

 ing recovered, tended to a greater dissociation and formation of 

 subconscious states than does a normal person, and -that the sub- 

 conscious phenomena were therefore exaggerated. This is true. 

 It is probable that the subconscious flora of ideas in this subject 

 are richer than in the ordinary individual. These phenomena prob- 

 ably represent the extreme degree of dissociation compatible with 

 normality. And yet, curiously enough, the evidence tended to 

 show that the more robust the health of the individual the more 

 stable her mind, the richer the field of these ideas. However this 

 may be, the very exaggerations increase the value of the evidence 

 for the limitation of the extent, independence, and activity of the 

 subconscious states. If in such a subject we do not find, as is the 

 case, evidences of subconscious automatism, excepting in absent- 

 mindedness, it is highly improbable that such activity exists in 

 a perfectly healthy subject. 



These observations are only suggestive, not conclusive. To solve 

 the whole problem of concomitant, extra- or subconscious states, 

 further and numerous observations are required, but conducted 

 under conditions which shall exclude artifact and abnormal states. 

 It is interesting, however, here to notice that the direct evidence 

 derived from these observations confirms the theoretical scheme of 

 personal perception offered by Dr. Janet. That scheme is almost 

 a literal representation of the facts as obtained by this method of 

 experimentation. 



Summarizing all the evidence which is at our disposal to-day, 

 derived from actually observed facts, we 'may say, that while a 

 greater or less number of isolated dissociated states are constantly 

 occurring under normal conditions, there is no satisfactory evidence 

 that they normally become synthesized among themselves and exhibit 

 automatism excepting in states of abstraction and as artifacts. 



A study of subconscious states is highly important for the de- 

 termination of the mechanism of consciousness, and I am con- 

 vinced that such studies will throw much light upon the problem 

 of how we think. 



At this time considering the fundamental importance of the 

 problem of the subconscious, it has seemed to me wise to stop and 

 review the evidence for the existence of normal dissociated mental 

 states, and this for the further reason of the enormous part which 

 these states play in pathological conditions and because of the 



