From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



part which emerges into consciousness is slight in 

 comparison with that which, though always acting, 

 remains buried. The conscious is always but a small 

 part of the psychic personality. 



' The unity of the Self is not therefore that single 

 entity claimed by spiritualists, manifest in many 

 phenomena, but the co-ordination of a number of states 

 perpetually renewed, having as their only link the 

 vague sensations of our bodies. This unity does 

 not proceed from above downwards, but from below 

 upwards; it is not an initial but a terminal point. . . .' 



' The Self is a co-ordination. It oscillates between 

 two extreme points at each of which it ceases to 

 exist perfect unity or absolute lack of co-ordination. 



* The last word in all this is ; that the consensus 

 of consciousness being subordinate to the consensus 

 of the organism, the problem of the unity of the 

 Self is, in its simplest form, a biological problem. 

 It is for biology to explain, if it can, the genesis of 

 organisms and the solidarity of their parts. The 

 psychological interpretation can but follow.' 



Le Dantec comes to the same conclusions. 1 Indi- 

 vidual consciousness, according to him, is but the sum 

 of consciousness of all the neurons, so that * our Self 

 will be determined by the number, nature, dispositions, 

 and reciprocal connections among the elements of our 

 nervous system.' 



It appears then that for the contemporaneous classical 

 psycho-physiology the conscious Self has no essential 

 unity; it is a mere co-ordination of states, just as the 

 organism to which it is linked is a mere co-ordination of 

 cells. 



The objections which arise to this are the same as 

 those which hold with regard to the physiological concept 

 of the individual ; they take no account of the need for 



1 Le Dantec : Le Determinisme Biologique et la Personnalitt Conscient ; 

 L' Individuality ; Thcorie nouvelle de la Vie. 



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