From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



Moreover, while intellectual effort is intermittent, 

 and cerebral function demands long periods of repose, 

 the capacities of the subconscious remain permanent. 

 Not only does it not disappear in this repose of the 

 brain, but it takes its highest flights in states of cerebral 

 torpor, reverie, and distraction. It is in these very various 

 states, all characterised essentially by the absence of 

 work and effort, that inspiration reveals its full powers 

 and spontaneity. 



The dissociation of subconscious output from activity 

 of the brain and voluntary effort cannot be over- 

 emphasised. 



In this subconscious output everything happens as 

 if it were entirely independent of cerebral physiology. 



5. - ABSENCE OF PARALLELISM BETWEEN CRYPTOMNESIA 

 AND CEREBRAL PHYSIOLOGY 



Parallelism is as absent from cryptomnesia as it is 

 from cryptopsychism. As has already been shown at 

 length, the registration, the retention, and the recollec- 

 tion of states of subconscious memory, do not depend 

 on effort, and, strictly speaking, are independent of the 

 conditions and contingencies of the normal cerebral 

 memory. 



Further, the subconscious memory is vastly more 

 extended and deeper than the normal memory; and, 

 above all, it is as indelible as the normal memory is 

 ephemeral, like the neurons with which it is associated. 



Nowhere can there be found any trace of psycho- 

 physiological parallelism for the subconscious. 



6. - ABSENCE OF CEREBRAL LOCALISATIONS FOR THE 

 SUBCONSCIOUS 



We are told that ' psychological faculties proceed 

 from clearly defined (cerebral) localisations.' 



132 



