The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2)James, William
Philosophy
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
I say 'tend to appear' rather than 'appear,' on account of those facts
of sub-conscious personality, automatic writing, etc., of which we
studied a few in the last chapter. The buried feelings and thoughts
proved now to exist in hysterical anæsthetics, in recipients of
post-hypnotic suggestion, etc., themselves are parts of _secondary
personal selves_. These selves are for the most part very stupid and
contracted, and are cut off at ordinary times from communication with
the regular and normal self of the individual; but still they form
conscious unities, have continuous memories, speak, write, invent
distinct names for themselves, or adopt names that are suggested; and,
in short, are entirely worthy of that title of secondary personalities
which is now commonly given them. According to M. Janet these secondary
personalities are always abnormal, and result from the splitting of
what ought to be a single complete self into two parts, of which one
lurks in the background whilst the other appears on the surface as
the only self the man or woman has. For our present purpose it is
unimportant whether this account of the origin of secondary selves is
applicable to all possible cases of them or not, for it certainly is
true of a large number of them. Now although the _size_ of a secondary
self thus formed will depend on the number of thoughts that are
thus split-off from the main consciousness, the _form_ of it tends
to personality, and the later thoughts pertaining to it remember
the earlier ones and adopt them as their own. M. Janet caught the
actual moment of inspissation (so to speak) of one of these secondary
personalities in his anæsthetic somnambulist Lucie. He found that when
this young woman's attention was absorbed in conversation with a third
party, her anæsthetic hand would write simple answers to questions
whispered to her by himself. "Do you hear?" he asked. "_No,_" was the
unconsciously written reply. "But to answer you must hear." "_Yes,
quite so._" "Then how do you manage?" "_I don't know._" "There must be
some one who hears me." "_Yes._" "Who?" "_Someone other than Lucie._"
"Ah! another person. Shall we give her a name?" "_No._" "Yes, it will
be more convenient." "_Well, Adrienne, then._" "Once baptized, the
subconscious personage," M. Janet continues, "grows more definitely
outlined and displays better her psychological characters. In
particular she shows us that she is conscious of the feelings excluded
from the consciousness of the primary or normal personage. She it is
who tells us that I am pinching the arm or touching the little finger
in which Lucie for so long has had no tactile sensations."[217]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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