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
Likewise, with Miss B., I have frequently obtained reproductions of
perceptions of which at the time she was unaware. This has been either
under similar experimental conditions, or under accidental circumstances
when I could confirm the accuracy of the reproductions. For instance, to
cite one out of numerous examples, on one occasion I saw her pass by in
the street while I was standing on the door-step of a house some fifteen
or twenty feet away, well outside the line of her central vision. She
was in a brown study. I called to her three times saying, “Good morning,
Miss B.,” laying the accent each time on a different word. She did not
hear me and later had no recollection of the episode. In hypnosis she
recalled the circumstances accurately and reproduced my words with the
accents properly placed. Such observations and experiments I have
frequently made. They can be varied indefinitely in form and condition.
The phenomenon of subconscious perception of sensory _stimulations
applied to anesthetic areas_ (tactile, visual, etc.), in hysterics,
first demonstrated by Janet, is of the same order, but has been so often
described that only a reference to it is necessary. I mention examples
here merely that the different kinds of phenomena that may be brought
within the sphere of memory shall be mentioned. For instance, Mrs. E.
B.[28] has an hysterical loss of sensibility in the hand which, in
consequence, can be severely pinched or pricked, or an object placed in
it, etc., without her being aware of the fact. Notwithstanding this
absence of awareness these tactile experiences were conserved since an
accurate detailed memory of them is recovered in hypnosis, or manifested
through automatic writing. The same phenomenon can be demonstrated in
Mrs. R., whose right arm is anesthetic.[29] The same conservation of
subconscious perceptions can be experimentally demonstrated during
automatic writing. At such times the writing hand becomes anesthetic and
if a screen is interposed so that the subject cannot see the hand he is
not aware of any stimulations applied to it. Nevertheless such sensory
stimulations—a prick or a pinch or more complicated impressions—are
conserved, for the hand will accurately describe all that is done.
An observation which I made on one of my subjects probably belongs here
rather than to the preceding types. Several different objects were
successively brought into the field of vision, but so far toward the
periphery that they could not be sufficiently clearly seen to be
identified. In hypnosis, however, they were accurately described,
showing the conservation of perceptions that did not enter the vivid
awareness or clear perception of the subject.
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