From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



present states of consciousness by an activity, which is 

 immanent though mostly latent, and links them to the 

 past by its cryptic memory; in fine, it possesses the 

 so-called supernormal faculties. 



If we would express the new psycho-physiological 

 concept in philosophical terms, we must say that the 

 organic representation, far from constituting the whole 

 individual, is only the lower and coarser objectification of 

 his essential dynamo-psychism. Above the organic 

 representation (i.e. the organism) and conditioning it, is 

 a superior representation the ' vital dynamism.' Above 

 the representations known as the ' organism ' and the 

 * vital dynamism ' there is a third and yet higher repre- 

 sentation belonging to the mental order. 



These concepts are not new. Pythagoras and 

 Aristotle distinguished between the body and the vital 

 dynamism which they called the psych 6, and between 

 the psyche* and the mental dynamo-psychism which they 

 called the Nous. Similarly animists and spiritualists of 

 the old school admitted analogous categories. But 

 there is a great difference between the old and the new 

 ideas. In the first place the new idea is based on facts 

 and demonstrated by facts. As we shall see more clearly 

 in the sequel, it rests also upon reasoning everything 

 occurs as though things were thus. 



Then further, the new idea does not imply differences 

 of essence between the body, the vital dynamism, and 

 the mental dynamo-psychism. All are graded representa- 

 tions of the same essential principle. Their differences 

 are only in degree of evolution, of activity, and of 

 realisation. 



But this cannot be fully understood till we have 

 completed our study of the Self. Let us therefore put 

 aside for the moment the analysis of the representations, 

 and pass on to the investigation of the Self considered 

 as essentially a dynamo-psychism. 



216 



