308 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



the same forgetfulness and the same surprise at finding 

 the papers. I asked her to give them to me one by 

 one; she handed me fourteen, leaving six untouched; 

 these six bore the multiples of three. I am convinced 

 that she did not see them." * In the first of these ex- 

 amples, those taken from everyday life, the division of 

 consciousness is unimportant. When I converse on an 

 interesting theme and at the same time dress myself, 

 brush my hair, wash myself, take a key from the 

 basket, etc., without being able to remember it after- 

 ward, it is not at all improbable that my consciousness 

 wandered many times during the talk to the habitual 

 acts. In the hypnotic cases we can not suppose any 

 such glancing off of waking consciousness; there is a 

 deep gorge between the principal and the neighbour- 

 ing peaks. There are in the same brain two related 

 but independent dynamic complexes. 



How is it, then, with conscious self -illusion? Here 

 self-forgetfulness, the losing sight of the habitual I, is, 

 as a rule, more pronounced than in the earlier in- 

 stance. The child goes about his play very differently 

 from a man engaging in conversation, and many ob- 

 servers testify that playing animals often become blind 

 and deaf to approaching danger, so great is their ab- 

 sorption. But, on the other hand, conscious connec- 

 tion with real life is not so completely broken as in 

 the negative or positive hallucinations of hypnotism, 

 for the sham occupation does not at any time become 

 so absorbing that it can not be changed at will to the 

 reality. Thus it is that division of consciousness as it 

 appears in play forms the medium between the two 

 groups of phenomena which we have considered. Play- 



* Pierre Janet, LVaitomatisme psjchologiquc, p. 277. 



