Decembek 28, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



849 



on with physical perfection and certain teleo- 

 logicality, and are somehow registered. The 

 standard cases of alteration of personality are 

 cited in some detail, but their bearing on the 

 general problem, aside from their nature as 

 extreme cases of dissociation, is not made 

 clear. 



This part of the book is rather a miscellany 

 of illustration and comment which might be 

 interesting to the lay reader, than a systematic 

 treatise available for the student. 



In the third or theoretical part the author 

 goes again over the whole field, discussing the 

 participation of the subconscious, and raising 

 the question of its status, but evading any 

 answer more definite than that it * though 

 not in consciousness may be said to be of it.' 

 La the second part he expressed his belief 

 that dissociation involves a ' central domi- 

 nating agency from which the dissociation 

 takes place,' that an experience is made ours 

 only by a synthetic ' act of incorporation,' 

 and that the nebulously conceived subcon- 

 scious is the 'non-personal, non-synthetized ' 

 experience. To this factor of selfhood he now 

 adds two others, leading finally to the state- 

 ment that it is the privilege of the psychic 

 experience to arouse a realization of its place 

 in the series (incorporation), and of the back- 

 ground that is passing (orientation), and of 

 the fact that it is moving (initiative). Such 

 realization involves the conception of a con- 

 scious self. Anesthesias of abstraction, som- 

 nambulism, hypnosis and hysteria are 'prac- 

 tical symbols ' of impairments of incorpora- 

 tion, ' a state of mind in which the psychic 

 movement persists, but without obtaining nor- 

 mal acknowledgment.' Loss of orientation 

 manifests itself characteristically as confusion 

 of subjective and objective: the crediting of 

 hallucination as in hypnosis, delirium and 

 hysteria, being consequent on anesthesia, 

 which cuts off the normal corrective judgment 

 on which orientation is based. Light forms 

 may be mere bewilderment or doubt. Im- 

 paired initiative is ' impulsion ' or loss of con- 

 trol over motor activities, as in automatism. 

 The typical form is * substitution for spon- 

 taneous action of an impulse imposed from 

 another source than the directive will.' 



These three realizations are the character- 

 istics of self, and therefore, when they are 

 impaired, the self is impaired. The various 

 abnormalities previously treated lend them- 

 selves very nicely to generalization under these 

 heads, which, however, to the reviewer seem 

 to add very little to the explanation or better 

 understanding of the phenomena. 



The general course of the schematization in 

 terms of the three components of selfhood 

 would lead us to expect a vital impairment of 

 all three in decided alteration of personality. 

 * With the conjoint impairment of all, an 

 altered state (of the self) is induced,' the 

 author says, but comes no nearer to an an- 

 alytical application to the cases of alteration 

 cited in Part II., leaving us, therefore, to be 

 content with the inference that although ' con- 

 joint impairment ' luould produce decided al- 

 teration of personality, the typical and ac- 

 cepted cases depend entirely or largely on 

 'loss of incorporation.' 



In spite of the few criticisms above incor- 

 porated the book is a strong and interesting 

 one, displaying the extent and intent of Dr. 

 Jastrow's grasp on the field which it covers. 

 It is to be hoped that the volume is what it 

 appears to be, namely, an expression of inten- 

 tion or preliminary filing on the said field, 

 and that it will be followed shortly by a more 

 exact and basic work from his pen, a contribu- 

 tion which would be highly appreciated by all 

 students of this obscure portion of the psy- 

 chological domain. 



Knight Dunlap. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



Bird-Lore for November-December opens 

 with an account, by Edgar F. Stead, of ' The 

 Wry-bill Plover of New Zealand,' the only 

 bird in which the bill is noticeably bent side- 

 wise. It is stated that this bird is dying out 

 without apparent cause. Other articles are 

 ' Our Garden Mockingbird,' by Mrs. F. W. 

 Eoe ; ' Tame Wild Geese ' (visitors to Golden 

 Gate Park), by W. K Fisher and 'Italian 

 Bird Life as it impresses an American To- 

 day,' by F. H. Herrick. This might better 

 be called, the ahsence of bird life, small birds 

 being scarce in Italy, their place as insect 



