From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



higher direction of the Self over the decentralised 

 individual grouping. Hypnotism may act, exceptionally, 

 on the mental elements, but it seems unnecessary to 

 point out that it acts chiefly on the cerebral psychism. 



The commonplace hypnotic state referred to in 

 classical theory is primarily due to the secession of the 

 lower group (the vital dynamism and the body) from 

 the higher group (the mentality and the Self). This 

 lower group acts as an automaton, slavishly, under the 

 suggestion of the magnetiser. The automatism and the 

 extreme suggestibility are thus easily comprehensible. 



Both in hypnosis and somnambulism the automatism 

 acts with remarkable precision. 



In UEtre Subconsdent I explained this precision of 

 action by the fact that all the vital forces grouped round 

 a single idea without consideration or distractions give 

 great power and sureness of action. This, no doubt, is 

 true, but there is more in it than this; there appears 

 to be a curious regression towards animality. The lower 

 group, deprived of conscious direction, seems to recover 

 for the time the sureness characteristic of animal instinct. 



8. ALTERATIONS OF PERSONALITY 



Nothing puts the truth of our concept of the individual 

 in a clearer light than the ease with which it enables 

 us to understand alterations of personality. 



These manifestations have, up to the present, been 

 either absolute riddles or have received pseudo-inter- 

 pretations which have been crude or meaningless when 

 they have not been empty verbalism distinguishing 

 the subconsciousness from infra-consciousness, super- 

 consciousness, or co-consciousness! 



The root and original cause of the phenomenon is 

 the setting aside of the central direction of the Self. 



The factitious personalities are due to isolated 



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