From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



even madness are pure enigmas from the point of view 

 of pathological anatomy. 



We shall see that, far from explaining the mechanism 

 of abnormal or superior psychism, neuroses receive 

 their explanation from the deeper study of the essential 

 nature of the subconscious. 



But this is not all, even if we suppose the theories of 

 morbidity justified, they in no way solve the problems 

 which the manifestations of subconsciousness set before 

 us. To say ' genius is neurosis or madness ' does not 

 help us to understand the mechanism of the works of 

 genius. The great thinker, artist, or man of science, 

 brings something new to humanity; he creates. You 

 say he is mad ! So be it, but how is madness creative ? 

 Until you have laid before our eyes the mechanism of 

 the subconscious psychism, you have only put the 

 difficulty one step back by affixing the epithet ' morbid ' 

 to it. 



To say that secondary personalities are only products 

 of the disintegration of the Self, is not to make them 

 comprehensible, rather the contrary. The disintegration 

 of a psychic entity may give the key to alterations of 

 personality, but only to those alterations which diminish 

 the personality. 



This diminution of personality is evident in certain 

 cases of amnesia 1 following on cranial wounds, on 

 great emotions, severe infection, epilepsy, etc. 



Diminished personality appears also in the psycho- 

 logic automatism described by P. Janet. But in the 

 cases of complete and autonomous secondary personalities 

 it is not observable. When these secondary personalities 

 occupy the whole psychic field of the subject, when they 

 show a very original will, and give proof of powers and 

 knowledge different from those of the patient and some- 

 times much above those which he normally possesses, 

 one can no longer invoke the disintegration of the Self 



1 Loss of memory. 

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