From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



a residue of former states of consciousness. The activity 

 of the former reveals a certain unity, while that of the 

 latter is entirely anarchic and disordered. No doubt, 

 he admits, there are obscurities, but these cannot be 

 helped; what we do not understand in psychic individu- 

 ality is only that which it is impossible to understand. 

 We can take note of this avowal of impotence. As 

 to M. Ribot's actual theory, its insufficiency puts it 

 beyond discussion. The data on which it rests take 

 no account of what we may, with M. Dwelshauvers, 

 call the latent active subconsciousness, nor of the 

 supernormal. It has, therefore, no claim to be considered 

 a general theory. 



7. CONCLUSIONS FROM THE STUDY OF CLASSICAL 



PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGY 



Such are the classical explanations of subconscious 

 phenomena. 



The entire and flagrant insufficiency of these explana- 

 tions is obvious. The classical concept of physiological 

 and psychological individuality appears on examination 

 yet more limited and deficient than the classical concept 

 of evolution. 



The latter has, at all events, succeeded in bringing 

 to light the secondary factors; and if mistaken as to 

 their import, if it has not been able completely to explain 

 transformism, it has, at any rate, placed its reality 

 beyond question. The former, on the contrary, has not 

 succeeded in solving any one of the problems which it 

 undertakes. 



Shut in by the narrow limits of polyzoism and poly- 

 psychism, which hide from it the essential reality of 

 things, it is faced by riddles on all sides; the riddle of 

 the formation and the maintenance of the organism, 

 the riddle of Life, the. riddle of personality, the 



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