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
The following is an instance of the same phenomenon obtained by tapping
without the use of previous suggestion in hypnosis: subject B. C. A. One
of the hypnotic states, b, was waked up to become B, this change being
followed, as usual, by amnesia. By means of automatic writing an
accurate account was now obtained of the experiences which had taken
place during the previous moments in hypnosis, the subject being unaware
of what the hand wrote. Here were complete memories of the whole period
of which the personal consciousness, B, had no knowledge. One of the
most striking, not to say dramatic, demonstrations of this kind can
sometimes be obtained in cases exhibiting several different hypnotic
states. For instance: “c” and “b” are two different hypnotic phases
belonging to the same individual (B. C. A.). c knows nothing of the
experiences of b, and b nothing of c, each having amnesia for the other.
Now one has only to whisper in the ear of c, asking a question of b, and
at once, by automatic speech, the dormant b phase responds, giving such
information as is sought in proof of the conservation of any given
experience belonging to the tapped b phase. The consciousness of c
apparently continues uninterruptedly during the experiment. The same
evidence could be obtained by automatic writing under the same
conditions. Again in the b phase another state known as “Alpha and
Omega” can be tapped, giving similar evidence of conservation. In the
case of Miss B. the same phenomena could be elicited. In this respect
hypnotic states may show the same behavior as alternating personalities
of which I shall presently speak.
Suggested _post-hypnotic phenomena_ depend, in part, on the conservation
of dormant complexes. In hypnosis I give a suggestion that the subject
on waking shall, at a given moment, take a cigarette and smoke it. There
is thus formed a complex of ideas which becomes dormant and forgotten
after waking. Later, by some mechanism which we need not inquire into
now, the ideas of the dormant complex enter the field of the personal
self; the idea of smoking a cigarette arises therein and the subject
puts the idea into execution. These consequences of the suggestion could
not occur unless the experiences were conserved. Or, we may take an
experiment where the hypnotic experiences are reproduced automatically
by writing. Here the conserved experiences form a secondary system split
off from the personal consciousness. This system reproduces the hypnotic
experiences as memory outside of the personal consciousness.
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