iS2 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



which mental excitation moves. Trains of sensations thus arise which 

 can not he called either adjustive nor disjustive. They move through 

 the brain along the line of greatest surplus energy and of themselves 

 yield results of neither value nor detriment. The child would live, 

 think, remember and forget; he would neither gain nor suffer by this 

 automatic thought. Only after bones grow can it make the motor 

 coordinations on which adjustment depends. 



Very different effects follow strong, vivid impressions to which the 

 motor powers are not ready to respond. These strong stimuli passing 

 over into action prematurely tax the motor organs and disarrange them. 

 Such effects are permanent, and motor strains are brought on that 

 render future development abnormal. When a child walks too soon, the 

 strains are readily seen, and it is generally recognized that the ill effects 

 endure. If this is true of a child a year old, would not strong mental 

 excitement in a child four weeks old produce even greater disorders, 

 disturb motor development, and, reacting on the mental life, make it 

 abnormal? Mental disorders are usually interpreted as wrong associa- 

 tion of ideas bound together by strong sensory connections. The de- 

 rangement is thought to be confined to the sensory system. The dis- 

 orders are, however, not sensory, but motor. The premature activity of 

 motor powers caused by sensory excitement produces strains that persist. 

 The abnormal parts when excited arouse trains of thought that are dis- 

 justive. A strong person can repress them; he can even exclude them 

 from consciousness ; but when he sleeps or is weakened in any way, they 

 intrude into his consciousness and disturb the normal flow of ideas. 



Another way of presenting this thought is to contrast it with the 

 theory of a subconscious mind. Here it is assumed that a sensory 

 underworld exists in which ideas are stored. From this mental cavern, 

 they break forth to disturb the normal consciousness on which adjust- 

 ment depends. The connection between thoughts should not be associa- 

 tions, but movements. Subconscious trains of thought are in reality 

 movements. They are, however, morbid disjustive movements, per- 

 formed beyond the realm of consciousness. Could we really see what 

 takes place, their motor origin would become apparent. The subcon- 

 scious is a disjustive motor realm deprived of normal external con- 

 nections. 



Sensory excitement in an infant starts premature motor reactions 

 which strains the unformed parts. It thus leaves permanent effects that 

 appear in consciousness as disjustive trains of thought. There is thus 

 a disjustive world in the background of every individual who has experi- 

 enced sensory storms in infancy. The shock he then felt was not a 

 shock to his mental associations, but to his motor coordinations. The 

 child should live in his present sense impressions, and forget them when 

 other agencies start new trains of thought. The lasting impressions 

 have another origin. Strong stimuli, whether coming from the external 



