ne R-. . of Science Library (I. No. 1 i-Monthlv JULY, 1894 Price, 25c Yearly, $1.50 f nlf Number. Price, 15c. Entered at t!.. Chicago Post Office as Second Class Mail Matter. ON Double Consciousness BY ALFRED BINET CHICAGO THE OPEN COURT PC 1LISHING COMPANY > ' •N DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES BY ALFRED BINET CHICAGO THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 1894. COPYRIGHT BY The Open Court Publishing Co. 1889-1890 TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Introductory. Experimental Psychology in France 5 Proof of Double Consciousness in Hysterical Individuals 14 The Relations Between the Two Consciousnesses of Hysterical Individuals 23 The Hysterical Eye 34 Mechanism or Subconsciousness ? 42 The Graphic Method and the Doubling of Consciousness 48 The Intensity of Subconscious States 60 The Role of Suggestion in Phenomena of Double Conscious- ness 72 Double Consciousness in Health 80 INTRODUCTORY. EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY IN FRANCE. It is known that of late years, in France, a great scientific movement has come about in favor of experi- mental psychology. While the professors of our High Schools and Universities are continuing to teach an antiquated science, whose only method is that of in- trospection, there has arisen on all sides in the philo- sophical reviews, and even in journals strictly medical, a body of work in which the investigation of mental phenomena is conducted according to the methods of natural science. Incontestably, the forerunner of this activity in psychological inquiry was M. Taine, who published in 1869 an important treatise upon “The Understanding.” With remarkable penetration M. Taine foresaw, to a certain extent, the most import- ant results obtained in recent years. Thus, the entire chapter upon “Images” may still be consulted with profit. The real inaugurator of the psychological move- ment proper, is M. Ribot. The psychologists of France owe much to M. Ribot. Without him, with- out the Review* which founded, without the work * The Revue Philosophique. 6 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY IN FRANCE. and results of foreign* investigation which he has made known in France, many scientists would never have thought of devoting their attention to psycholog ical research. Further, by instituting a chair at the Sorbonne, and subsequently, at a quite recent date, at the College de France, M. Ribot has helped to give an official consecration, in our country, to the study of experimental psychology. Finally, some few year: past, in conjunction with M. Charcot, M. Ribot founded a Society of Physiological Psychology whici now counts more than fifty active members. In draw- ing together men of different professions, in bringing the psychologist into communication with the physiol ogist, the physician, the alienist, the mathematician, and the linguist, that society has fathered a great number of important productions and substantially contributed to the development of the science of psychology. The personal work of M. Ribot is contained in four valuable monographs upon the Diseases of Memory, of Will, of Personality, and upon the Psychology of Attention. We are informed, moreover, that the author has been at work for some time past, upon the phenomena of emotion, and that he will perhaps pub lish, some day, a monograph upon that attractive topic. It would be difficult to characterize the work of M. Ribot in a few words. We may say, however, tl it he has constantly endeavored to stand upon the ground- work of facts, entertaining a horror of metaphysics that is perhaps exaggerated. Not a metaphysician, he is neither materialist, nor spiritualist, nor monist— * The experimental psychology of England and the experimental psycl ogy of Germany. INTRODUCTORY. 7 nor anything of the kind. He has little love for great systems, and rightly gives precedence to little facts, accurately observed and minutely described. I be- lieve, with him, that the future of psychology lies not in great theories, but in little facts. Respecting the relations of the physical and the spiritual, he regards the matter as a simple concordance, without further going into the problem ; he has frequently compared the state of consciousness to a state superadded, which in no shape modifies physiological processes, and which acts like a shadow opposite a body. He affirms, in different places, that an unconscious phe- nomenon is nothing else than a purely physiological phenomenon. It will be thought, perhaps, that de- spite the repugnance of M. Ribot to metaphysics, a certain metaphysical character attaches to the ideas just noticed. I believe, in fact, that we know abso- lutely nothing regarding the nature of unconscious phenomena. The succeeding essays of this little book, however, will be devoted to the investigation of the latter phe- nomena in their relation to double consciousness ; and I shall there briefly present the experiments made by M. Pierre Janet and by myself (the latter not yet pub- lished) upon the signification of unconscious phe- nomena. The method employed by M. Ribot in his admir- able monographs, consists in elucidating the mechan- ism of the normal state by recourse to mental pathol- ogy. M. Ribot is neither a physician, nor an observer ; the pathological data which he makes use of are always second-hand ; but with an unusually extensive range of knowledge he unites great discernment in the selection and interpretation of facts. And, besides, 8 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY IN FRANCE. he presents his psychological conclusions in language so clear and precise, as to form a happy contrast to the terminology of the classic philosophers. In his studies in pathological psychology, the point to which he has given especial prominence, is the law of mental dissolution. This law can be regarded as the key-stone of the structure he has reared. He has very correctly observed, and better than had been done before him, that there are stable states—strongly organized, resistive ; and weak states—unstable, arti- ficial, and easily lost. For instance, in memory, the stable states are the simple and common movements of adaptation; the more complex are the delicate movements of professional activity, the special mem- ories. In the will, the stable and resistive are the simple impulses, having their origin in an organic state, as hunger, thirst; the less stable are the com- plex determinations ot volition, in combination with mobile moral elements, such as duty, or remote inter- est. In attention, the stable is spontaneous attention, kept alert by an active sensation ; the weak is volun- tary attention and reflection. Now M. Ribot has shown, that in progressive mental dissolutions, the progression invariably follows the same order ; it pro- ceeds from the less stable to the more stable ; from the more delicately organized to the less delicately organized ; from the higher to the lower. In sub- stance, this is a great law of general pathology, of which M. Ribot has made a happy application to psychology. By the side of M. Ribot we shall place M. Char- cot, the eminent professor of the Salpetriere, who by his studies of nervous diseases has taken, of late, a prominent position in psychological science. It is M. INTRODUCTORY. 9 Charcot who took the initiative in founding the So- ciety of Physiological Psychology; he is president for life of that society. M. Charcot has written no special treatise upon psychology: in fact, he writes but very little. Aside from a few productions in con- junction with his pupils, the only works that we have from him are the reports of his lectures at the Sal- petriere. In these lectures the psychological method is frequently introduced, whenever the theme demands an explication of the complicated web of psychical phenomena. We shall cite, by way of instance, the lectures upon hystero-traumatic paralysis, wherein the eminent professor has firmly established the in- fluence of the idea upon motory disturbances ; and further mention must be made of the admirable lec- tures upon aphasia, wherein the psychology of lan- guage has been so happily resorted to in explanation of the diseases of that important cerebral function. A former pupil of M. Charcot, M. Charles Richet, at present professor of physiology in the Faculty of Medicine at Paris, has contributed to the advance- ment of experimental psychology in France by a con- siderable number of original works. After 1870, M. Richet was the first investigator to reinaugurate the study of hypnotism ; he was, likewise, the first to see in these studies a field of psychological research, “a method of intellectual and moral vivisection." Among the phenomena of suggestion there are several that belong to him especially; thus, he was the first to show that the personality of a subject put to sleep may be transformed, and every remembrance of the true personality effaced, by suggestion, from his memory, and a fictitious personality substituted. He has also propounded quite ingenious ideas upon the 10 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY IN FRANCE. phenomena of unconsciousness; he has brought out the fact, that in hysterical persons and in a great many individuals reputed normal, there exists a sort of a permanent semi-somnambulism ; in other words, there is, in these subjects, an unconscious ego, an uncon- scious activity, which is constantly on the watch, which contemplates, which gives attention, which re- flects, which forms inferences, and lastly which per- forms acts—all unknown to the conscious ego. Finally, M. Richet has published, during recent years, in the Revue Philosophique, of which he is an assiduous asso- ciate contributor, a long essay upon “ Mental Sugges- tion,” which has attracted considerable notice. His researches tend to the conclusion, which the author regards as probable, that thought is transmitted from one brain to another without the intervention of signs appreciable to our senses. The proof, the author himself confesses, is not complete. M. Richet arrives at a probability merely. The numerous treatises that have been published in France upon this subject, are to be attributed to the impetus given to the question by the article of M. Richet. Another pupil of M. Charcot, M. Fere, now physi- cian at the Bicetre, has distinguished himself in recent years by his many researches in experimental psychol- ogy, the subjects of which have been principally phe- nomena of hysteria. In conjunction with me, M. Fere first entered upon a course of investigations in hypnotism and allied subjects. Our work together, which still continues, has produced as its main result a book upon “Animal Magnetism,” in which this sub- ject is treated of particularly as a branch of psychol- ogy. In this line of ideas, M. F6re has made an especial study of hallucinations, and of systematic INTRODUCTORY. 11 anesthesia and paralysis. The investigations referred to have occasioned a great deal of controversy in the circles known as the School of Nancy. The physicians of Nancy have called in question certain conclusions reached by the School of Salpetriere ; but it must be remarked, that as regards the facts of suggestion all discussions that have arisen have related only to ver- bal differences. M. Fere has lately pursued, in ingenious experi- ments upon hysterical and hyper-excitable subjects, investigations upon the psychology of movements. He has shown that the quantity of movement pro- duced depends upon the nature of the sensation. Every sensor.y excitation, for instance the sight of a red square, at first induces an augmentation of force —a dynamogeny—measurable on the dynamometer ; then, according as the excitation is prolonged, the force diminishes, and dynamogeny gives way to en- feeblement. Such, in rude outlines, are the experi- ments in psycho-mechanics by which M. F6re has es- tablished a quantitative relation between sensations and movements. We are obliged to be brief in the present sketch of French psychologists. In conclusion, therefore, we shall simply note the names of M. Espinas, who has published valuable studies upon animal communities ; Bernard Perez, who has given to the world several attractive volumes upon the psychology of infants; Pierre Janet, to whom we owe the highly ingenious investigations into unconscious manifestations of mind; Egger, known through his highly interesting study of internal audition, auto-observation; Beaunis, who has written upon inhibitions, upon hypnotism, upon the muscular sense, etc. 12 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY IN FRANCE. Accordingly, as may be gathered from the preced- ing sketch, there is not, in France, a school of psychol- ogy ; there are no masters and disciples ; there is not a body of accepted doctrines. We all work upon our own individual score, without being subject to any common word of command ; we are dispersed, like skirmishers, upon the field of research. In his inaugu- ral lecture at the College de France, M. Ribot cor- rectly stated that the characteristic mark of French psychological research was the production of mono- graphs. We possess, in fact, a certain number of ex- perimental studies upon special subjects. We have no universal work, discussing, even in brief, the entire province of psychology. M. Ribot, in adverting to this want, said that two years would be demanded to prepare a treatise upon French psychology, and that, probably, by reason of the rapid advances being made in our knowledge of this subject, when the treatise were finished, it would no longer be available for cur- rent use. This being the character of French psychology, it would be very difficult to state the opinions upon which any great number of thinkers of our country have united. How do we know, for instance, the views of M. Charcot upon Personality, when he has not as yet had occasion to express himself upon that point ? All that we can do is to endeavor to bring into relief the main tendencies of French psychological inquiry and to indicate the methods preferentially employed. With relatively few exceptions, the psychologists of my country have left the investigations of psycho- physics to the Germans, and the study of comparative psychology to the English. They have devoted them- selves almost exclusively to the study of pathological INTRODUCTORY. 13 psychology, that is to say psychology affected by dis- ease. Such, if I do not mistake it, is the foremost feature of our work in psychology. One need only glance at the titles of the principal original treatises of M. Ribot to note that they treat of pathological condi- tions : Diseases of Memory, of Will, of Personality, etc. All the other authors have followed his example; they have sought in the pathology of the mind or in the pathology of nervous action, the data to render intelligible the mechanism of the normal state. The marked favor that studies in hypnotism have met with in France, is a further proof of the preponderance ac- quired by pathological psychology. The results ob- tained by the systematic employment of the patholog- ical and clinical methods, have been extensive ; but at the present time they yet remain scattered in a mass of reports accessible only to specialists. Consequently, these results are almost unknown to the psychologists of foreign countries. Thus is explained a circum- stance that does not fail to excite surprise. Although it is well established that pathology has furnished psychology with the most recent and the most numer- our results, yet the works upon psychology appearing in Germany, in Italy, in England, and in America, and which pretend to give a complete picture of the present state of psychological research, say almost nothing of the investigations of mental and nervous pathology. The scientific work, really French, is not recognized, and is practically suppressed. 14 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. Proof of Double Consciousness in Hysterical Individuals. The psychologists of France, during the past few years, have been diligently at work studying the phe- nomena of double consciousness and double person- ality in hysterical individuals. The same problems have also been the subject of numerous investigations in foreign countries, especially in England and in Amer- ica ; and the phenomena of automatic writing, which are now so often described in the scientific periodicals of both the above-mentioned countries, are evidently due to that doubling of personality which is so mani- fest in a vast number of hysterical people. I wish to devote a series of articles to these prob- lems, which are of such high importance to the psy- chology of normal states as well as to the psychology of nervous diseases. After briefly recurring to the results of former studies, published in the Revue Philoso- phique, the Archives de Physiologie, and in the Comptes rendus de l'Academie des Sciences, I shall set forth, with more or less extensiveness, my recent observations. In approaching so delicate a subject we must in the first instance insist upon a question of method. When we undertake to expound such strange phenomena as those of the doubling of consciousness, at the first blush we naturally provoke astonishment and even doubt. In truth, is not the idea extraordinary, that in hys- PROOF OF DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. 15 terical individuals there should exist two distinct per- sonalities, two egos united in the same person ? I have frequently had occasion to speak of the doubling of consciousness to persons who were unfamiliar with science, and even to physicians, and I can verify the fact, that people as a rule regard the phenomena in question as highly doubtful; for they imagine that there do not yet exist precise experiments adequate to es- tablish this duplication of personality. In fact, in or- der to recognize and admit exceedingly delicate in- tellectual perturbations of this order, we must be pre- sented with objective, palpable, and actual evidence of their existence. The experimentalist must strive not only to discover the psychological phenomena which explain so many manifestations of mental alienation, but he must also, and with equal care, seek the method of experiment that commands conviction and that ren- ders such phenomena clear and evident to everybody. The idea of such a method has guided me from my earliest researches, and I have particularly endeavored to discover the simplest possible experiments, such as might be repeated at the bedside of patients without previous preparation by any physician that might be first called in. It is doubtless interesting to know, that at the present day we possess the means of clearly exhibiting the duality of persons in hysterical patients, without being obliged to resort to the hypnotizing of our subjects or to submitting them to any complex and ill-defined influences. The patient, in the normal con- dition, is almost as if awake, and the process employed to reveal the two personalities which he contains is as direct and as simple as that which consists of count- ing the beatings of his pulse. Before presenting the recent researches that I have 16 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. made, I believe it profitable first to recapitulate the processes of investigation employed. I may add that the results that I have obtained, have been fully con- firmed by the researches of other authors, among whom I shall cite my friend, M. Pierre Janet, who has re- cently published a very interesting work upon this topic. * In performing our experiment we must have - .C; course to hysterical patients who in certain parts of the body present a more or less extended region of in- sensibility (anaesthesia). Nothing is more common than hysterical anaesthesia. At times it will appear in the form of small islets, of small spots irregularly scattered about. An hysterical patient, for example, may ex- hibit a small anaesthetical spot in the palm of his hand. On forcing a pin into this spot, or pinching the skin, or burning it, the subject will not experience the slightest sensation of contact, or sensation of pain; while, nevertheless, a few centimeters away from it the same excitations will produce a very keen and pain- ful reaction. With other patients the anaesthesia re- veals a more regular distribution ; it may, for example, comprise an entire limb, as an arm which has become insensible from the extremity of the fingers to the shoulder-joint. With other patients the distribution of insensibility is even still more remarkable ] the patient is divided into two halves by a vertical plane extending through the breast to the back, so that one half of his body—head, trunk, arm, and leg—is com- pletely insensible, while the half corresponding pre- serves its normal sensibility. Finally, it is not rare to meet with hysterical persons whose insensibility ex- tends to the entire body; but in such cases the insen- *L' automat ismepsychologiqtie. Paris: 1889. F. Alcan. PROOF OF DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. 17 sibility is generally more marked in one half of the body than in the other. Let us now turn to a patient exhibiting an insensi- bility extending to an entire limb. Let us fit st assure ourselves by means of a few painful tests that this in- sensibility is not simulated. Several means are adapt- able for this purpose. Thus, whenever a patient feigns the loss of sensibility, if, without Warning him, we suddenly excite his skin from behind a screen and he betrays a movement of surprise, it is a proof that he has felt the sensation. When we allow an electric current of increasing intensity to pass through his limb, there certainly must arrive a moment, in which the pain is so intense that he cannot any longer endure it. But genuine insensibility will come out victorious from all such tests. Let us add that with hysterical individuals the power of pressure upon the dynamom- eter, in the insensible members, is generally weak- ened, and that the time of physiological reaction is prolonged. The tests described, accordingly, maybe regarded as sufficiently numerous and competent to de- feat any attempt at imposition. I suppose, now, that we are occupied with a pa- tient who exhibits a genuine anaesthesia, controlled by all the clinical tests which the modern physician has at his command. I shall take for granted, further, that this insensibility, limited to a single limb,—the right arm, for example,—affects all the tissues of the limb ; that not only the skin, but muscles, tendons, and ar- ticular surfaces have lost all trace of sensibility. The patient feels neither puncture nor compression ; neither pinching, faradization, nor passive movements im- pressed upon his limb, when we have taken care to 18 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. hide from him the sight of his limb by the interposi- tion of a screen. Under the above-mentioned conditions the ex- perimentalist seizes a finger of the insensible hand, and impresses upon the finger in question alternate movements of flexion and of extension ; the patient, be it understood, not being able to see his own hand, does not know what is being done to him; he does not know whether they are bending or stretching one of his fingers. Nevertheless, it frequently happens that the finger thus manipulated spontaneously continues the movement which the experimentalist has im- pressed upon it; we may observe that it bends and straightens out again five or six times. The very same thing would happen if we had caused the wrist or elbow to perform passive movements. Now, what does this experiment prove, which admittedly is very simple and easy of repetition ? Evidently, in order that the finger should spontaneous- ly repeat the movement that has once been impressed upon it, it is necessary that the movement in ques- tion should have been perceived. The patient never- theless declares that he has not felt, or experienced, anything in his finger. We must, accordingly, sup- pose that an unconscious perception of the movement has been produced; there doubtless has been a per- ception; the perception has engendered a similar movement—this too seems evident; but neither the sensation nor its motory effect have entered within the circle of the subject’s consciousness. This little psycho-motory performance has been accomplished without his knowledge, and so to speak, quite outside of him. Let us complicate our experiment a little, in PROOF OF DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. 19 Drder the better to understand it. The eyes of the sub- ject are throughout kept concealed behind a screen. We now place some familiar object into the insen- sible hand ; for instance, we thrust a pen-holder or a pencil between the thumb and the index-finger. As soon as the contact takes place the two fingers draw together, as if to seize the' pen ; the other fingers bend half-way, the wrist leans sideways, and the hand as- sumes the attitude necessary to write. In the same manner by introducing the thumb and index-finger within the rings of a pair of scissors we cause the sub- ject to perform the movements of one who wishes to cut. These experiments, of course, may be varied in- definitely ; further instances, however, would be superfluous; the two given amply suffice for the pur- poses of our analysis. Here also the entire transaction takes place out- side the consciousness of the subject; the pen-holder was seized by the anaesthetic hand, without the sub- ject’s perceiving, in a conscious manner, any contact, and without his knowing that he held a pen-holder in his hand. Now, this very simple act, performed by the hand, is an act of adaptation ; it implies, not only that the object has been felt, but also that this object has been recognized as a pen-holder, for if the object had been a different one a different act of adaptation would have taken place. In this manner, the sen- sation must be said to have provoked an uncon- scious perception, an unconscious reasoning, an un- conscious volition. In short, the event happened just as if the pen-holder had been thrust into the sensible hand; as if the subject had felt the object, had recognized it and decided to write; with the sole 20 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. difference, however, that apparently the whole process was without consciousness. The theories of Huxley and of several English authors concerning the part played by consciousness in psychological phenomena seem here to find direct application; yet, as a matter of fact, this is only apparently so, as we presently shall see. According to Huxley consciousness is an epi-phenomenon, a superfluous phenomenon, superadded to the physio- logical process, but which reacts no more upon that process than the shadow of the individual upon the individual itself; you may suppress consciousness, and yet all physiological phenomena will continue to be produced automatically just as before; objects will continue to be perceived ; unconscious reasonings will develop, followed by acts of adaptation. Let us add a new complication to our last ex- periment, and we shall find as a result, that Huxley’s hypothesis is manifestly too simple to explain it. Up to this point we have limited ourselves to the production of movements in an insensible region; these movements, however, were very elementary, and would not betray a well-developed thought. We may essay to provoke certain acts of a more in- tellectual character and of decidedly higher organi- zation. The following is an example selected, as the preceding ones, from among many others. We put a pen into the anaesthetic hand, and we make it write a word ; left to itself the hand preserves its attitude, and at the expiration of a short space of time repeats the word, often five or ten times. Having arrived at this fact, we again seize the anaesthetic hand, and cause it to write some familiar word, for example, the patient’s own name; but in so doing, PROOF OF DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. 21 we intentionally commit an error in spelling. In its turn the anaesthetic hand repeats the word, but oddly enough, the hand betrays a momentary hesitation when it reaches the letter at which the error in orthography was committed; if a superfluous letter happens to have been added, sometimes the hand will hesitatingly re-write the name along with the supple- mentary letter ; again it will retrace only a part of the letter in question; and again, finally, entirely sup- press it. * Plainly, when the experiment successfully reaches this degree of complication, we cannot explain it by merely invoking unconscious phenomena. The cor- rection of an orthographic error by the anaesthetic hand indicates the presence of a guiding thought; and it is not perfectly clear, why the thought that directs the movements of the writing should be unconscious, while that which controls the movements of the word should alone be regarded as conscious. It would seem more logical to admit, that in these patients there exist two distinct consciousnesses. The first of these conscious- nesses gathers up the sensations proceeding from the sensible members; the second is more especially in connection with the insensible regions. In this manner we are able to verify that doubling of consciousness which in recent years has become the object of so many investigations. There may cer- tainly have been given more striking examples of the phenomena in question ; and there have been published observations in which the two consciousnesses are to be seen each performing a different task, and recipro- cally ignoring each other. But all these curious ob- servations are generally presented under conditions so very complex that it is difficult to combine them for 22 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. the purposes of a correct verification. The methods of investigation, relative to hysterical anaesthesia, that we have just set forth, at least possess the merit of fur- nishing a strict proof of double consciousness. This, however, does not imply that the methods employed yield results with all patients indiscrimi- nately. Many hysterical individuals do not react at all when the experiments mentioned are being performed upon them. But we must mistrust all purely negative experiments, which simply prove that people did not know how to set about the business in hand. I have advanced the hypothesis, that when we are unable to provoke the repetition of the movements, or acts of adaptation, in anaesthetic regions, our failure is due to a defect in the organization of the second con- sciousness; the excitation brought to bear upon the in- sensible region is perfectly perceived, but it does not directly lead to a determined movement; there are no actual associations, ready to play between sensations and movements. Repetition of the experiments, how- ever, may produce these necessary co-ordinations. At this point, accordingly, we are in possession of precise observations; we know that in hysterical in- dividuals there exist phenomena of double conscious- ness, and using this as a starting-point, it now re- mains for us, to develop our knowledge of this phe- nomenon through additional experiments. 23 The Relations between the two Consciousnesses of Hysterical Individuals. Whenever we chance to discover a new fact, we seldom describe it correctly. As a rule, we regard it as simpler than in reality it is. The observers who first investigated double consciousness in hysterical persons occupied themselves particularly with putting in a clear light the phenomenon of the separation of the two consciousnesses ; this was, in fact, the first thing to be done. But the study of the numerous re- lations existing between these separate consciousnesses was almost entirely neglected. It is our purpose, in this paper, to recapitulate and present, in an abridged form, the results of investigation on this topic; and I am convinced that some day it will furnish the clue to a great number of phenomena of mental alienation. Inward voices supposed to be heard by demented in- dividuals, their fixed and impulsive ideas, the delirium of possessed persons, are very probably phenomena produced by the doubling of consciousness, and by the influences that one of the consciousnesses exerts upon the other. For the time being we shall remain true to the methods that we have followed in our previous study. We shall eliminate all complex and ill-defined obser- vations and adhere, by preference, to small, simple, 24 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. and precise experiments, easy of repetition, which, without teaching us the phenomena in their total de- velopment, at least yield an imperative proof of their reality, which certainly must be regarded as a decided advantage. Automatic writing furnishes the first illustration of the relations between the two consciousnesses. It is a most important phenomenon and is worth the trouble of being carefully studied. An examination of the scientific collections of England and America shows that in those countries the subject is frequently inves- tigated. Professor William James has recently sent me a woik in which he recapitulates certain very cu- rious experiments performed by him upon normal in- dividuals, or, at least, individuals who were supposed to be such. The results obtained by him afford me particular interest, since they closely resemble those obtained by myself with hysterical individuals. Automatic writing forms part of a class of move- ments that have now for a long time been the subject of inquiry in France, and which may be described under the general name of unconscious movements produced by ideas. As a result of numerous observa- tions it is now a well-known fact that with excitable individuals every idea produces in the body uncon- scious movements which at times are so precise and clear, that by registering them we are able to guess at the person’s thoughts. The method of the experiment is frequently the following. The individual is asked to think of a word, a number, or of any object whatso- ever, and at the same time a pen is thrust into his hand, with the assurance that his thoughts will be di- vined. It frequently happens then, that the person, although not feeling any movement in his hand, will RELATIONS EETWEI-.X THE TWO CONSCIOUSNESSES. 25 Experiment performed upon P. S h . . . hysterical, hem’-aniEsthetie right hand. The subject with eyes closed, holds in his right insensible hand a rubber tube fastened to a registering appara'us. We ask the patient to think of a number, and not to make any movement. It may be seen from the above tracing that the patient from time to time squeezes the tube that he holds in his hand five successive times; this movement is at the same time involuntary and unconscious. Minimum velocity of the cylinder, a complete revolution in one minute. 26 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. spontaneously write the word that he has thought of. This experiment affords an elementary instance of the operation known as thought-reading, and we at once understand how any clever experimentalist may be able to dispense with the use of the pen, and to guess at a man’s thought by simple contact with the hand. As might be readily expected, such movements provoked by ideas are pro luced in hysterical persons with the greatest facility. When a pen-holder is placed in the hand of an anaesthetic subject, the automatic writing will be produced without his knowledge, and we are thus able to learn the most secret thoughts of the patient. A careful study of these movements will furthermore prove, that they are less simple than is generally supposed. They are no mere reflex-move- ments produced by ideas. This is proven by the fact that the manner in which the idea is expressed de- pends upon the attitude given to the anaesthetic hand. Thus, we ask the subject to think of the number 3. If he holds a pen in his hand he will write the figure 3. If he has no pen, and if before the experiment we have several times shaken the fingers of the insensible hand, the subject will raise his finger three times; the same will apply to the wrist or to the movement of any other member. If the subject has a dynamometer in his hand he will press three distinct times upon this instrument. If the experimentalist himself assumes the initiative by raising the finger of the subject a cer- tain number of times, the finger after having yielded three times to the impressed movement will stiffen, as if it thus wished to inform the experimentalist of the number that had been thought of. All these experi- ments, and particularly the last, show the intervention of the second consciousness i 1 the expression of the RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO CONSCIOUSNESSES. 27 idea of the number three. The first consciousness fur- nishes the idea, and the second consciousness deter- mines the manner in which the idea shall be expressed ; there is, accordingly, a concurrence of the two con- sciousnesses, a collaboration of the two egos for one common task. By a singular phenomenon the automatic writing does not limit itself to making known what takes place in the principal consciousness of the subject; it is at the same time in the service of the second conscious- ness, so that, according to the nature of the cases at issue, the first consciousness sometimes directs the hand of the subject and at other times the second con- sciousness. We have collected several observations which leave no doubt on this point. Let us begin with the very simplest. Letting the subject hold a pen in his anaesthetic hand, we trace a letter, or some such sign, upon the back of the hand. The automatic writing will at once reproduce the word that has been traced ; the word itself, be it understood, not having been perceived by the principal consciousness, because the excitation was performed upon the skin of an anaesthetic member, and because anaesthesia in some way is the barrier separating the two consciousnesses. If the word has been reproduced, it accordingly must be because the second consciousness has perceived it, and conse- quently this simple experiment proves that the second consciousness can express itself by automatic writing. It may be remarked, in passing, that automatic writing affords us a very convenient means of explor- ing the sensibility of any apparently anaesthetic limb; and we are also able by employing this method to measure the sensibility with an aesthesiometer. In 28 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. Automatic writing of a patient called Lavr an hysterical subject totally anaesthetic. The patient gazed fixedly at a blue cross; the position and arrangement of the cross, by simultaneous contrast, caused the production of a yellow color about the cross. During this time the right hand; into which, without the patient’s knowledge, a pen had been slipped, did not cease to write : “ bleu (blue), Jaune (yellow), bleu,jaune, etc." RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO CONSCIOUSNESSES. 29 fact, nothing is simpler. Let us prick the insensible hand with one of the points of a pair of compasses: the automatic writing will trace a single point. There- upon let us apply at the same time both points, and the automatic writing, after a little practice, will be able to tell us whether the points have been distinguished or confounded; their distance apart, in millimeters, will give us the respective degree of sensibility. Every time that I applied this method to hysterical subjects I was able to verify that notwithstanding anaesthesia sensibility had remained normal; we can easily under- stand that the contradiction here is only in the terms employed. Automatic writing does not only serve to express sensations perceived by the second consciousness; it is likewise able to express the thoughts that this sec- ond consciousness spontaneously combines. Hyster- ical persons have been found who, when a pen was put into their hands and their attention diverted, began to write, unconsciously, entire well-connected phrases, recitals, confessions, etc. The principal subject—the one with whom we communicate by word—suspects nothing, and does not see what his anaesthetic hand is doing; it is the second consciousness which employs this mode of expression. I myself have made this ex- periment upon a subject, and other authors have like- wise reported several instances. The latter form oi experiment is evidently the one that approaches nearest to the experiments upon au- tomatic writing which at the present time are being conducted in England and America. They consist in asking a person to place his hand upon a planchette that can serve for the purposes of writing and to re- main immovable without thinking of anything. When 30 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. the subject is nervous it will sometimes happen that the planchette becomes agitated and begins to write thoughts entirely foreign to the subject; the latter re- mains motionless and has no consciousness of any- thing. It may be assumed, with great likelihood, that under such conditions an intellectual doubling of the subject takes place, analogous to that which we have observed in our hemi-anaesthetic, hysterical patients. Only, in the case of an hysterical individual, the doub- ling is easier, in consequence of the insensibility which reigns in a part of the body; it being easily compre- hensible that the acts of the second consciousness, pro- duced by preference in the insensible regions, remain unknown to and concealed from the principal con- sciousness. It may happen, however, with certain non- hysterical subjects that experiments of doubling bring about a transitory anaesthesia, and Mr. W. James has recently observed, that while one of his patients was writing with the planchette he did not feel the painful excitations inflicted upon his arm, whereas the second consciousness perceived them distinctly, and com- plained of the same by means of the automatic writing. Such complications of phenomena produce conse- quences which it is easy to foresee. It may happen that at the moment at which the principal conscious- ness wishes to write a word, the second consciousness may have the same intention, and may wish to write an entirely different word : hence a conflict. A very simple experiment will illustrate this conflict. Let us seize the anaesthetic hand, and let us cause it to trace behind a screen the word “Paris.” We know that this word will be repeated several times. Thereupon addressing ourselves to the principal subject, we will ask him to write the word “ London.” The subject, RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO CONSCIOUSNESSES. 31 entirely ignorant of what has just taken place, eagerly seizes the pen with the intention to carry out our wish, but to his utter astonishment the indocile pen instead of writing London, writes Paris. Is not this a phe- nomenon analogous to those irresistible impulses which, in madness, consciously reveal themselves,—impul- sions to theft, murder, arson, etc., which suddenly manifest themselves to the great surprise of the pa- tient, the latter submitting to the impulse without com- prehending it. It is evident that these kinds of ex- periments are destined to throw a flood of light upon several still obscure points of mental pathology. In the preceding exposition we have studied the motory relations of the two consciousnesses ; we have seen them either uniting their efforts to accomplish the same act, or conflicting with regard to something to be accomplished. But there exists a second kind of relations between the two consciousnesses; namely, the relations of sensations and of images. It may hap- pen that the sensation which has possession of a first consciousness awakens an associated image in the sec- ond consciousness, so that, by a unique intellectual process, one of the parts will be conscious for one of the egos, and the other for the second ego. The facts pertaining to this order of relations are extremely cu- rious and instructive. We shall limit ourselves to those that are the simplest and most easily produced. Let us once more turn our attention to an anaes- thetic, hysterical patient ; we will make a series of im- pressions upon his insensible hand ; our subject feels absolutely nothing. It would, accordingly, be idle to ask him how many impressions we have made, be- cause he does not even suspect that his hand has been pressed. And yet, the highly extraordinary fact re- OX DOUBLE COX.lv I ;US v|-.SS. 32 mains, that the subject, although apparently not hav- ing felt anything, possesses an idea of the number of excitations that have been made upon him. The fol- lowing is proof: Let us make ten punctures in the in- sensible hand and thereupon let us ask the subject, who, as a matter of course, has not seen his hand, which is hidden behind a screen, to think of some num- ber and to name it; very frequently the subject will answer that he is thinking of the number ten. In the same manner let us put a key, a piece of coin, a nee- dle, a watch into the anaesthetic hand, and let us ask the subject to think of any object whatsoever; it will still happen, yet less frequently than in the preceding experiment, that the subject is thinking of the precise object that has been put into his insensible hand. It is important to note, that in all these cases the subject believes he is thinking voluntarily and without constraint; the experimentalist, while compelling him to think of the number ten, not depriving him of the illusion of his freedom of will. How shall we explain this result? How is it pos- sible that, in consequence of an excitation not felt, the subject should have a determined idea? We shall be able to explain ’’everything by supposing simply, that the unconscious peripheral excitation, for example the puncture of the anaesthetic hand, awakens, by way of association, corresponding phenomena of ideation. But in reality matters are more complex. We have to admit rather, that when we excite the anaesthetic hand, in different ways, by puncture or by contact with an object, the second consciousness perceives the sen- sation, counts the punctures, recognizes the object, and, for the purposes involved, abandons itself to more or less complicated intellectual acts. These intellect- RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO CONSCIOUSNESSES. 33 ual acts are the final stage of the process, which has had its origin in a sensation ; now this final point, this result, this conclusion is the thing that alone penetrates into the first consciousness. For example, when punct- ures are made in the skin, one of the consciousnesses counts the sensations, finds their sum-total, and this sum-total it is that reaches the other consciousness, not indeed under the form of tactile sensations, but under the abstract form of a number. To sum up. From the foregoing we perceive that the separation of the two consciousnesses does not in- terrupt all communications between them. The asso- ciations of ideas, of images, perceptions, and move- ments, that is, of all that pertains to the sphere of lower psychology, is preserved nearly intact; and hence an idea in the first consciousness provokes a movement in the second, and inversely, a sensation perceived by the second consciousness can awaken an idea in the first consciousness. In the following essay we shall apply these results to the study of the hysterical eye. 34 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. THE HYSTERICAL EYE. The various forms of retinal sensibility which are met with in hysterical individuals have been carefully studied by M. Charcot and his pupils, who have shown that the phenomena in question, which persist during the interval of hysterical crises, and which can exist where there are no crises, constitute permanent stig- mata, enabling us to discover hysteria without the aid of convulsive attacks of any sort. At the present time we are quite well acquainted with hysterical amaurosis, with the concentric contraction of the field of vision, with disturbances affecting the perception of colors, and disorders of adjustment. What is much less known, is the reason, the mech- anism, of this anaesthesia of the retina. The many ex- perimentalists who have hitherto studied the subject in question, have pointed out a number of peculiar features rather difficult of comprehension, in fact so strange and striking, that some have Ascribed them to simulation on the part of the subjects. To furnish a precise and clear instance of this, we may state, that there are hysterical individuals who, with both eyes open, perceive colors which they cannot distinguish with one of their eyes alone ; while it seems even more wonderful that there should be hysterical persons who do not see at all with one eye, when that eye alone is open, but whose unilateral blindness disappears as THE HYSTERICAL EYE. 35 soon as the function of vision is performed simulta- neously with both eyes. Let us dwell for a moment upon the instance given, and later we shall endeavor to explain it. We have for examination an hysterical person who has entirely lost the sight of the right eye. Let us place before the patient’s eyes a ‘box of Flees’; that is, a box furnished with two eye-holes. On the bottom of the box are placed two points of different colors, the one to the right, the other to the left, and by a skillful arrangement the patient sees with his right eye the point situated to the left, and with his left the point situated to the right. This is the method employed to detect shamming and simulation; for instance, in the case of soldiers drafted for the army. Thus the shamming individual, who pretends not to see with his right eye, will say that he does not see the point which appears to the right; but that is the point which is seen by the left eye. The hysterical individual acts somewhat differently, for he actually sees the two points—that to the left, and that to the right; he accordingly sees with both eyes. A great many hypotheses have been advanced in order to explain these apparent contradictions—ana- tomical hypotheses, like that of M. Parinaud, and psy- chological hypotheses, like that of M. Bernheim. For the time being we shall leave this matter aside. It will be far more profitable to begin by setting forth our recent observations; for a simple observation can often better point out the incorrectness of an hypothesis than any number of arguments. Experiments which we have made in the preceding essays with reference to the insensibility of the sense of touch in hysterical subjects, have shown us of what 36 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. nature this insensibility really is. As a matter of fact the hysterical subject is doubled ; he possesses two distinct consciousnesses ; and one of these conscious- nesses accurately perceives all the excitations that have been impressed upon the insensible region. We might already suppose, ‘a priori’, that insen- sibility of the retina cannot in any respect differ from insensibility of the skin in hysterical persons. The facts that we have previously set forth, confirmed by different authors and derived from our own experi- ments, are too significant not to be general. But, we cannot be satisfied with purely theoretical views. I long sought in vain for some simple, decisive, and purely clinical experiment which might prove that the sensibility of the retina, in cases of hysterical anaesthesia, was only dissociated and not destroyed. Chance, aided in some degree by perseverance, has enabled me to establish the following fact. We place the hysterical subject before a scale of printed letters, and tentatively seek the maximum distance from the board at which the subject is able to read the largest letters. It frequently happens with hysterical per- sons that the vision of forms at a distance is very imperfect ; a circumstance which may be owing either to weakness of visual acuteness or to a defect in the mechanism of adjustment. For the present we are not attempting to distinguish these two facts from one another. After having experimentally determined the max- imum distance at which the subject can read the larg- est letters of the series, we invite him to read certain smaller letters that are placed below the former. Na- turally enough the subject is unable to do so; but, if at this instant, we slip a pencil into the anaesthetic THE HYSTERICAL EYE. 37 hand, we are able, by the agency of the hand, to in- duce automatic writing, and this writing will repro- duce precisely the letters which the subject is in vain trying to read. This process of experimentation has the pre-em- inent advantage of taking the subject in his natural condition—while awake and at rest; for the power of automatic writing persists with him, and this auto- matic writing has moreover the advantage of revealing to us the latent depths of consciousness that remain unknown to the subject. After the investigations which we have made upon the hysterical anaesthesia of the skin, an explanation of the preceding phenomenon seems to me wholly super- fluous, and I shall be satisfied with the assertion that the second consciousness possesses a stronger visual acuteness than the first consciousness. It is highly interesting to observe, that during the very time the subject is repeatedly declaring, that he does not see the letters, the anaesthetic hand, unknown to him, writes out the letters one after another. If, interrupting the experiment, we ask the subject to write, of his own free will, the letters of the printed series, he will not be able to do so, and when asked simply to draw what he sees, he will only produce a few zig-zag marks that have no meaning. Let us further remark, that although the subject maintains that he sees nothing, the automatic writing nevertheless reproduces all the letters marked on the black-board with perfect regularity, without omitting a single letter, beginning at the first and finishing with the last. We must, accordingly, suppose that during the experiment the second consciousness di- 38 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. rects the line of sight, without the knowledge of the principal subject. The visual acuteness of this second consciousness in the subjects which I have examined has seemed to me to be equal to the normal acuteness. If we place the subject at too great a distance from the black-board the automatic writing will begin to hesitate ; the sub- ject will thereupon commit real mistakes ; for example, he will read “Lucien” instead of “ Louisa,” which, incidentally observed, proves that the phenomenon wrongly bears the name of automatic writing ; an au- tomaton does not mistake ; the second consciousness, on the contrary, is subject to error because it is a consciousness, because it is a thing that reasons and combines thoughts. In the course of investigations of this kind there sometimes arise certain perturbations which are very important to understand, and which afford a fresh proof of those manifold relations existing between the two consciousnesses that we investigated in a former pa- per. Thus, when the subject is convinced that he can- not read the letters on the board, it may happen that the automatic writing, controlled by this state of con- sciousness, will confine itself to translating the same, so that the anaesthetic hand will indistinctly trace the words which the subject is muttering in a low voice to himself, as “I do not see, I do not see.. .. ” A second perturbation arises from the fact, that the subject, during the time that the hand is unconsciously writing the word, believes he has a vague perception of this same word. In reality this is only an illusory perception. To produce this phenomenon we have to call into play the automatic writing, by putting a pen- cil into the anaesthetic hand ; and, as a matter of fact, THE HYSTERICAL EYE. 39 it is the more or less vague perception of these move- ments of automatic writing that makes the subject be- lieve he has a visual perception of the word, whereas he has only a visual image of the same. Even this image, at times, is rather vague. Thus, one of our subjects, while his hand wrote the word “ Marguerite,” said he thought he saw the name of a woman. But, how could it be possible to perceive, with his eyes, that a word is the name of a woman, if he could not spell the word in question ? Evidently, in this case, visual or muscular sensations belonging to the second consciousness, have provoked in the first conscious- ness an idea of the same kind. We have already observed an analogous fact in the experiments before reported upon the anaesthesia of the skin and of the muscles; we there saw, that if we shake twice in succession an insensible finger, the subject will think of the number two. The perception of the movements of the finger by the second con- sciousness had called forth in the domain of the first consciousness an analogous idea, expressed in an ab- stract form. Let us remark, in passing, that through these ex- periments there possibly exists a means of studying abstract ideas. We have now studied the perception of forms in an eye presenting a weak visual acuteness. The same func- tion may be studied in a completely amaurotic eye, that is, in an eye afflicted with total blindness. It is rare to meet with hysterical patients in whom insensi- bility of the retina reaches the verge of blindness ; but we can very easily produce this phenomenon by way of hypnotic suggestion. I have had occasion to study two hysterical subjects in whom by suggestion all man- 40 ON DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS. ner of vision had been suppressed in the right eye. I was easily able to establish the fact, that after closing the left eye of the subject, and putting into his anaes- thetic hand, without his knowledge, a pencil, the au- tomatic writing was brought to reproduce all the let- ters which we passed before the amaurotic eye. This amaurotic eye, accordingly, did see, notwithstanding its apparent blindness ; in other words, the second con- sciousness was the one that saw ; it had not been struck with blindness at the same time as the first conscious- ness. This latter experiment enables us absolutely to re- ject any anatomical theory that has been designed to explain the singular phenomena of which we have spoken at the beginning of this paper. We have said that certain subjects, who with their right eye do not perceive a certain color—for example, violet—will, when seeing with both eyes, easily distinguish this same color, even when, owing to the experimental ar- rangement employed, the color mentioned is not placed in the visual field of the left eye. This experiment, and many others of a similar kind, lead us to sup- pose, that the conditions of binocular vision are dif- ferent from those of monocular vision. To speak a little more precisely, it has been ad- mitted that there exist two different kinds of visual centres within the cerebral cortex; in the first place monocular centres, which act, when only one eye is open; and further, binocular centres, that perform their functions when both eyes are at the same time open. Cerebral physiology, with its usual compla- cency, has furnished more than one argument in favor of this hypothesis, which, however, ought to be re- garded as open to considerable suspicion. This be- THE HYSTERICAL EYE. 41 ing admitted, nothing seemed more easy than to ex- plain, how and why hysterical individuals see certain colors when both eyes are open, and not when