SUBCONSCIOUS 



5598 



SUBCONSCIOUS 



observe that these mechanisms on occasion run 

 themselves. When a man upon touching his 

 watch in dressing for the evening begins to wind 

 it and then to undress and go to bed, we call 

 the lapse a case of absent-mindedness, and say 

 that he does this un (sub) consciously. When 

 we mislay an article and try to think how and 

 when we disposed of it, we are trying con- 

 sciously to follow the clue of our subconscious 

 responses. Such states are characteristic in 

 that they show a division of attention. While 

 dominantly attentive to one action, we carry 

 on another inattentively. In extreme absent- 

 .mindedness sensations do not yield their nor- 

 mal report, and actions are performed without 

 normal awareness of their regulation. The man 

 who carried a closed umbrella under his arm 

 in a rainstorm, because he was convinced that 

 he forgot the article when he left home, ignored 

 the sensations that in a normal state of con- 

 sciousness he would have received from the um- 

 brella, and yet he maintained the contractions 

 of the arm-muscles necessary to hold the um- 

 brella ; these also were defectively perceived. 



Absent-mindedness is a state of dissocia- 

 tion, slight or deep; at the slightest, it gives 

 rise to confusion due to lax attention, such as 

 the instance of the young lady in the train who 

 was eating a banana when the conductor col- 

 lected tickets, and threw her ticket out of the 

 window and offered the conductor the banana 

 peel. In more severe dissociations, it ap- 

 proaches a dream state or a trance. It appears 

 spontaneously in sleepwalking; the sleeper is 

 attentive to the line of action upon which he 

 is bent, but inattentive to all else. To awaken 

 him means to restore him to normal conscious- 

 ness. It appears still more strikingly in hyp- 

 nosis (see HYPNOTISM), in which the range of 

 consciousness can be definitely controlled by 

 suggestion. The hypnotized subject sees, hears 

 and feels only what is related to the action sug- 

 gested ; his state is abnormal in that he ignores 

 obviously present objects if it be suggested that 

 they have disappeared. Upon awakening he 

 may have no recollection of anything done in 

 the hypnotic state. 



Throughout this range of observations it is 

 to be noted that subconscious processes are at 

 work. They are at work constantly to facili- 

 tate habits; in speaking in public we focus the 

 attention upon the ideas we wish to express, 

 and the subconscious mechanisms take care of 

 the formation of the words and their utterance. 

 Some persons talk in their sleep, so subcon- 

 scious has the regulation become. Though con- 



centrated upon one central task, we are giving 

 fractions of attention to our surroundings, to 

 our bodily condition, to the engagements ahead 

 and to the routine of daily life. The relations 

 become more interesting in the unusual cases, 

 such as automatic writing or crystal gazing. 

 In the latter case the subject supports and 

 clarifies the subconscious impressions, bringing 

 to the surface what commonly is vague and 

 near the edge of forgetfulness. Every mind is 

 stored with vast accumulations of impressions 

 which cannot be consciously commanded but 

 which none the less contribute to the imagery, 

 the ideas, the memories, that guide thought. 

 The crystal gazer, also the hypnotized subject, 

 can "tap the subconscious," as it were, more 

 fruitfully, and thus raise the impressions to a 

 conscious value. 



The subconscious plays its part in the field 

 of sensation, in the field of memory and the or- 

 ganization of knowledge, but even more strik- 

 ingly in the field of action. The subconscious 

 there becomes the sub-voluntary ; or, more sim- 

 ply, some irregularity of action and report en- 

 ters. When one finds on attempting to wind 

 his watch that he has already wound it, or on 

 reaching the house door at night to lock it that 

 he has already locked it, the action and inten- 

 tion failed to be registered as usual. When 

 persons are assembled about a table with their 

 hands resting on it and solemnly maintain that 

 no one exerted the slightest pressure, yet the 

 table moved violently and even rose in the air, 

 the actual contractions of their muscles are ig- 

 nored. (They are ignored through the convic- 

 tion which acts as a powerful suggestion that 

 some outside force is responsible for the move- 

 ment.) 



Prejudice blinds to virtues and failings alike; 

 it selects what it shall see ; it also ignores move- 

 ments and intentions. In a more subtle man- 

 ner the same procedure determines mind read- 

 ing (which see), which is really muscle reading. 

 But the movements of the tables .through the 

 subconscious (ignored) contractions of the hands 

 that rest upon it lack any intellectual expres- 

 sion; they proceed upon a powerful emotional 

 interest. When, however, the hand is laid upon 

 a small tripod and moves from letter to letter 

 over an alphabet (ouija board) and thus spells 

 messages in consecutive sentences (while still 

 the sitter claims ignorance of intention or selec- 

 tion of movement), the performance has a more 

 intricate meaning. For the ideas which guide 

 the movements are also subconsciously inspired 

 and regulated. If the instrument holds a pen- 



