132 CONSCIOUSNESS 



is a monopoly of mankind's. We can, of course, 

 only judge of the mental states of the lower 

 animals by observing their behaviour. Dogs 

 may show some slight traces of self-conscious 

 bashfulness. Other animals do not appear to 

 experience this feeling. 



We are surrounded with things that are inex- 

 plicable : self-consciousness is the nearest to us 

 of them all. It appears, from the phenomena of 

 hypnotism, to be a delicate outgrowth of conscious- 

 ness, which may, so to speak, be amputated without 

 depriving our conscious faculties of their acute- 

 ness, although their purposeful unity is withered 

 by the severance. The most striking, and 

 probably the essential, feature of the hypnotic 

 condition is the complete loss of self-conscious- 

 ness the indifference of the hypnotized person 

 to the figure which he may present to by- 

 standers, and his readiness to behave in a manner 

 which would ordinarily cost him agonies of shame. 

 There is no failing of awareness to externals : his 

 consciousness of impressions, and of the move- 

 ments of his own limbs, may indeed be abnormally 

 effective, enabling him to overcome difficulties 

 which would ordinarily baffle him. At the same 

 time he becomes exceedingly amenable to sug- 

 gestions : the imitative impulse completely dom- 

 inates him. He acts, it is true, only upon the 

 suggestions of the hypnotist, and this seems to 

 indicate that the imitative impulse is swayed by 

 an influence subtly exercised by the hypnotist's 

 mind. These conditions are not unparalleled in 

 ordinary life : the less self-conscious a man is 

 the less he is impressed with a sense of his own 

 individuality the more prone he will be to mould 

 his behaviour upon that of others ; and we are 



