772 ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 



credence which has been given to the theory of a normal subcon- 

 scious self. 



If the foregoing review is sound, it would seem that great cau- 

 tion is required in applying the inductions derived from a study 

 of abnormal subconscious phenomena to normal conditions, and 

 that the tendency has been to attribute too extensive a field and 

 too great capabilities to this hidden mental life. The facts at our 

 disposal do not support the hypothesis of a normal subconscious 

 mind excepting within very strict limitations. 



Nature of the Dissociating Process 



But the problem of the subconscious brings into stronger relief 

 the still broader problem. What is the nature of the dissociating 

 process by which the duality is brought about? Is the explana- 

 tion to be found in psychical or in physiological laws? It was a 

 great advance to show, as has been done, that a large number of 

 abnormal functional phenomena like anesthesia, amnesia, para- 

 lysis, aboulia, are all different types of the splitting of conscious- 

 ness. They must, therefore, be due to some dissociating process: 

 Janet interprets these different mental conditions as chronic forms 

 of absentmindedness, a persistent failure of the personal conscious- 

 ness to make more than a few syntheses. This failure is the con- 

 sequence of exhaustion. The dissociation is, therefore, primary 

 and the resulting automatism secondary. Janet is careful to point 

 out that this is not an explanation. It is in fact only a classi- 

 fication. Breuer and Freud, on the other hand, would make the 

 dissociation secondary to the development of what they call the 

 hypnoid state, a group of fixed ideas, which are unable to make 

 the synthesis with the personal consciousness. 



None of these theories are satisfactory as explanations. Absent- 

 mindedness is not only " insufficient as an explanation of the pro- 

 cess, but even as a classification fails to take into account the dif- 

 ferences in phenomena, such as the dissociation brought about as 

 artificial abstraction by merely whispering in the subject's ear. 

 I whisper in the ear of B and straightway she does not hear, but 

 inquires, " Where have you gone to? " I speak aloud and she 

 hears again. (The whispered voice is of course heard by a mo- 

 mentarily dissociated group of states which respond.) Why, if this 

 phenomenon is the same as absentmindedness, and is due to ex- 

 haustion, cannot the " personal perception " (Janet) synthesize 

 the whispered voice as well as the conversational voice? Again, 

 multiple personalities with alternating memories are not exhausted, 

 but can make any amount of other syntheses, including their own 

 respective memories: Why not also with the lost memories of 



