From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



grouping takes place round some specially active thought, 

 some emotion, tendency, impression, suggestion, or 

 auto-suggestion, as a nucleus. This primary group 

 partly escapes from the directing centralising control, 

 and collects round it secondary and weaker mental 

 elements. 



From this point there arises in the depths of the 

 mentality a silent struggle between the parasitic per- 

 sonality and the Self. Most frequently the former is 

 vanquished, disintegrates, and is assimilated by the 

 Self. But sometimes by reason of insufficient directing 

 power in the latter, because its evolutionary level is 

 low, or through a want of affinity (original or acquired), 

 or through a congenital tendency of the grouping to 

 decentralisation, the parasitic personality prospers and 

 develops. 



It groups around itself a larger and larger part of 

 the mental activities, annexes imaginative elements, 

 strengthens by daily use, and soon a rupture becomes 

 possible; a new confederation is formed in the mentality 

 and there is a secession from the Self. 



Thenceforward there begins open strife, with variable 

 results, with alternations of failure and success, between 

 the Self and the factitious personality or personalities 

 for the possession of power, for the integrity or the 

 disintegration of the whole, for domination of the 

 psychological field. 



There is no known case of secondary personality 

 which cannot be explained as the result of this process. 



It might be possible to go further still, and to suppose 

 a defect in assimilation of the mental elements by the 

 Self not only within the period since the birth of the 

 actual vital group, but in some anterior grouping. On 

 this hypothesis (which would have to be brought to the 

 test of facts), the possibilities connected with the genesis of 

 secondary personalities would be greatly enlarged. 



Such a one or another of these secondary personalities 



257 



