The unconscious : $b The fundamentals of human personality, normal and abnormalPrince, Morton
Science
The unconscious : $b The fundamentals of human personality, normal and abnormal
Prince, Morton
Psychology, Pathological; Subconsciousness
An analysis of these different observations shows, first, that the
post-hypnotic phenomena—calculations (a) and actions (b)—were performed
by a subconscious process. Of this there can be no manner of doubt, even
if the subsequent hypnotic memories of the process be rejected as
untrustworthy. The phenomenon—the answer to the mathematical problem in
the one case and the motor acts in the other—is so logically related to
the suggestion, and can be predicted with such certainty, that only a
causal relation can be admitted.
Second, in the calculation phenomena the process is clearly of an
intellectual character requiring _reasoning_ and the coöperation of
mathematical _memory_. (Reasoning is more conspicuous when the problem
is more complicated, as in the calculation of the number of seconds
intervening between, say, twenty-two minutes past eleven and seventeen
minutes past three o’clock.)[90] The phenomenon is the solution of a
problem.
The final phenomenon was not _immediately_ related to the suggested
idea. It was the final result of a quite long series of logical
processes of a more or less complex character occurring over a period of
time as in conscious calculation. _Conation_ (volition?) would seem also
to be essential to carry the suggested idea to fulfilment. _Subconscious
cognition_ would seem also to be required. There must have been an
intelligent appreciation of what the problem was and as soon as the
solution was accomplished the process stopped. Random figuring did not
continue.
In the post-hypnotic motor acts conation is obvious. Here too there is a
series of subconscious processes covering a period of time and carrying
out a purpose. The suggested causal idea did not include the acts
necessary for the fulfillment of the idea. Each step was adapted to an
end, ceased as soon as it accomplished that end, and was followed by
another in logical sequence, the whole taking place as if performed by
an intelligence. Reasoning may or may not be involved according to the
complexity of the actions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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