Abnormal psychology

Contents

PAGE

Introduction . . . . . . vii

Part I The Exploration Of The Subconscious

CHAPTEK

I. What is the Subconscious? ... 3

1. The Subconscious Defined . . 3

2. The Modern Theories of the Sub-

conscious 8

3. The Subconscious Mechanism in

Everyday Life . . . 14

4. How the Subconscious Becomes

Diseased 22

II. Automatic Writing and Crystal Gazing 28

III. Testing the Emotions ... 42

IV. Analyzing the Emotions ... 67 V. Sleep 88

r VI. Dreams 109

VII. What is Hypnosis? 132

VIII. Analysis of the Mental Life . . 151 The Psycho-Analysis of a Case of v

VI

Introduction

Abnormal psychology, or the study of abnormal mental phenomena, is one of the late developments of scientific medicine. It is not a mere fad, as some of its critics would attempt to make us believe, neither has it sprung up like a mushroom, within a single night. Abnormal psychology is the outcome of the work of small groups of investigators in France, Germany, and America, within the last twenty-five years. Beginning with a study of the phenomena of hypnosis, these researches gradually developed into a series of brilliant psychological discoveries. The most important of these is the principle of dissociation or of splitting of the mind. In a general way we speak of these matters as the theory of the subconscious. This theory has not only thrown an immense amount of light on the nature of human personality, but other peculiar phenomena, such as losses of memory or amnesia, automatic writing, crystal gazing, and such diseases as neurasthenia, hysteria, psychasthenia, have been stripped of the mystery which surviii INTRODUCTION

rounded them for centuries. These phenomena, even more than the modern investigations on the ultimate nature of matter, form the " fairyland of science." Apart from any scientific knowledge, the general reader has a certain interest in these problems, either from curiosity or the light they shed upon human personality or perhaps from the mystery which seems to surround them.

Abnormal psychology has also its practical aspects. Its discoveries have made possible the psychic treatment of certain functional nervous disorders. Technically, this is known as psychotherapeutics. The interpretation of these functional states is based on the principle of the dissociation of consciousness. But psychotherapeutics would be in a very chaotic condition and barren of results, were it not for abnormal psychology, for a scientific psychotherapeutics must be based upon a sound psychopathology.

Most of the investigations on abnormal psychology are widely scattered in medical publications and in psychological journals of a highly specialized character, thereby making these researches almost inaccessible to the general reader. There has been no attempt, so far as known, to bring all this material together within the compass of a single book. It is with this object in view that the present volume

INTRODUCTION ix

was written. In it an attempt will be made, not only to summarize the principal work in this fascinating field, but also some personal observations and experiments will be added.

Most of the problems of abnormal psychology centre around the modern theory of the subconscious. While there is no consensus of opinion as to the exact interpretation of these subconscious phenomena, yet it is admitted by all psychologists that subconscious or dissociated mental states exist. Whether these states depend upon psychological or physiological activities, or whether they are normal or abnormal conditions, seems to be the chief ground of contention. It seems that subconscious manifestations present all grades of complexity, from the absent-mindedness of everyday life to the phenomena of hysteria and multiple personality. Before we can comprehend the more complicated aspects of subconscious mental states we must have a clear understanding of their simpler manifestations. The evidence seems to show that subconscious mental states are not always proofs of disease, but just where the physiological ends and where the pathological begins, is difficult to determine. No hard and fast line can be drawn, there is a decided overlapping, an almost imperceptible shading of one into the other. For in psychology as in patholx INTRODUCTION

ogy, the normal explains the diseased, and the diseased throws light on the normal. Absent-mindedness, the forgetting of familiar names, purposeless or thoughtless actions, all these may be designated as normal states of mental dissociation, because they occur in everyday life. On the other hand, such manifestations as hysteria or multiple personality or losses of memory are distinctly pathological conditions.

Therefore, in order that clearness may not be sacrificed, we must pass by slow gradations from the simplest to the most complex forms of subconscious mental states. We must understand the normal before we can hope to grasp the abnormal. Without adopting this method, we would become lost in a maze of psychological theories. After we have learned, so to speak, the grammar of abnormal psychology, by this meaning the psychopathology of everyday life, we are then in a position to understand the work on hysteria, neurasthenia, amnesia, multiple personality, etc. These subjects will be discussed from the standpoint of dissociated mental states, without entering into the field of psychical research. We shall see that these phenomena can be explained by purely psychological and physiological mechanisms based on well-recognized laws of body and mind, and

INTRODUCTION xi

that there is no need of supernormal interpretations.

This volume is, therefore, divided into two parts, which are indicated by the titles " The Exploration of the Subconscious " and the " Diseases of the Subconscious." In the first section, after a discussion of subconscious phenomena in general, we will pass to the methods of analyzing these phenomena and making them objective facts. The second section will be devoted to a study of certain functional disturbances which, either in whole or in part, are due to perversions of subconscious mental states.

In general what can psychotherapy, in its purely practicable aspects learn from these complex theories? What can psychotherapy do and how does it do it? That the principles are eminently practicable is shown by the results of psychotherapy. The modern concepts of the principles of mental dissociation and mental synthesis, of subconscious and unconscious mental states were the forces which were responsible for the birth of this new psychology in its practicable application to medicine. Popular ideas on suggestion are so loose and vague that a restatement of the scientific principles upon which suggestion is based may have a certain value. It seems to be the general idea that suggestion is a kind of magic wand in the hand xii INTRODUCTION

of the physician, and that the waving of this wand can make diseases appear or disappear in the same manner that a rabbit appears to suddenly pop out of the magician's silk hat. So suggestion has come to have a certain occult or mystical meaning, in the same way that the term subconscious has been popularly interpreted as a supernatural state of mind. We hope to show that nothing of this sort is possible and that psychotherapy cannot change one iota of the laws of the mechanism of consciousness. Functional neuroses do not get well by a presto change method. Their treatment requires long study, numerous examinations, a knowledge of the theoretical and practical principles of abnormal psychology and of all the diagnostic methods of modern medicine.

Boston, Ja/tmary, 1910.

PART I

THE EXPLORATION OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY

CHAPTER I

WHAT IS THE SUBCONSCIOUS?

1. The Subconscious Defined

The word " subconscious," so important as to be almost a key, has been twisted by popular usage to mean almost anything beyond the pale of ordinary experience. It is applied in these pages only to certain well-attested psychological phenomena, phenomena which present themselves in different ways according to the standpoint of the observer. The student of diseased conditions looks upon the subconscious as a derangement of certain functions of the nervous system; to one interested in the functions themselves, the subconscious means an inability to reproduce, at will, the images of past experiences; the psychologist regards the subconscious as an independent consciousness, co-existent with the healthy consciousness but detached from it.

It is this latter standpoint which is the most fruitful of mistake and misconception in the popular mind. Let it be stated at the beginning that while this detached portion of consciousness is able to do any mental task, it cannot, however, perform so-called supernatural feats, at least so far as any reliable scientific evidence has shown.

Since these states of mental dissociation are phenomena of the nervous system, we will first very briefly turn our attention to a few of them. The nervous system is the domain of consciousness, associative memory, and reflex action. The chief functional characteristics of the nervous system are — the storing up of impressions and their reproduction in the order in which they are stored up, reflex action, and conduction. The first of these functions, the storing up of impressions, is the most important, as it probably forms the basis of memory. However, the exact correlation of mental processes with physical changes in the brain is impossible. As Tyndall says, " The passage from physics to the phenomena of consciousness is unthinkable." We may state in general, however, although this will not bear rigid critical analysis, that the brain probably stores up impressions in the manner that the phonograph cylinder stores up sound vibrations and reproduces these as sounds. Or the analogy might be carried a little further, by referring to one of the phenomena of living nerve tissue. The retina of the eye stores up ether vibrations, and their persistence in the retinal nerve elements form what is known in physiology as " after images." For instance, if one looks very intently at a bright light for a second or two and then closes the eyes, one will still see the image of that light for a brief period of time. The impression of light has outlasted the objective stimulus which caused it. Probably phenomena of a like nature take place in the brain, but of this we cannot be certain. No one has yet shown absolutely how physical changes in the nerve cells can cause mental phenomena, or vice versa, how mental phenomena can cause physical changes excepting perhaps in the domain of the physiological accompaniments of the emotions. Our knowledge is limited to the statement that the brain is the organ of consciousness, but exactly how brain activity produces consciousness is a riddle which probably will never be solved.

Consciousness is a feature of all brain activity,) but whether it is a result of this activity, or whether it runs parallel to it, opens up the enormous field of the interaction of mind on body and body on mind. If we assume that it is probably the action of the molecules within the nerve cell which causes consciousness, we must also assume that what comes to me as consciousness would be visible to an outsider merely as molecular activity. Even in the deepest hypnotic and somnambulistic states, consciousness is very active, but it is probably absent or reduced to a very low level in sleep and certainly completely absent in deep chloroform or ether anesthesia. Strong says,1 " The doctrine thus reached is variously expressed by saying that brain action ' causes,' ' generates,' ' manufactures,' or ' calls into existence ' states of consciousness; that consciousness is dependent on the brain." This doctrine of the causal relation between mind and brain activity is called the theory of automatism. It is directly opposed to what is known as parallelism, which states that brain activity and mind run side by side — in other words, are simultaneous events* The storing up of objective experiences is principally through the complex organs of sensation,— the eye, the ear, and the skin. These experiences are stored up in the nerve cells of the brain, their traces forming what are known as physiological dispositions or complexes. The revival of these stored-up experiences is called memory; but only those experiences are capable of revival which have produced sufficient traces. Memory may preserve not only what is worth having, but also what is not worth having. Usually these experiences are stored up in the order in which they are received, and the revival

1C. A. Strong: "Why the Mind Has a Body."

of one portion of the experience tends to revive the others which are connected with it. This forms the physiological basis of association. Of conscious experiences or rather of experiences which remain in consciousness we are usually aware, and we can revive and suppress them at will. In other words, they lack automatism and independent activity. When an experience is stored up, but cannot be voluntarily reproduced, we speak of it as dissociated or subconscious. A synthesis cannot be formed except through special devices. A mental dissociation is, therefore, directly opposite to a mental synthesis. By the former, we mean that experiences are detached or split off — by the latter, that these split off experiences are made whole again.

In normal mental life, except under special and very transitory conditions, stored-up experiences do not tend to become split off from consciousness. When an experience or complex has become dissociated, it tends to act automatically, and cannot be controlled by the will. This is well seen in those abnormal mental states which are termed obsessions and in some forms of automatic writing. In certain hysterical states, in functional losses of memory, or in multiple personality, the subject is not aware of the dissociated experiences. The chief factors in dissociation, whether simple or complex, seem to be automatism, independent activity, lack of awareness, and the inability to reproduce conserved experiences. By what is known as " tapping " the subconscious, as in hypnosis and in states of abstraction, in crystal gazing or automatic writing or through various other devices, we can bring these dissociated activities into full consciousness, or in psychological terms, produce a synthesis.

2. The Modem Theories of the Subconscious

We are now prepared to briefly discuss the principal dominant theories of the subconscious. All psychologists agree on one fundamental principle, however conflicting their interpretation of the various phenomena may be, namely, that our minds are made up of certain states, for some of which we are conscious and for some not conscious. Whether in normal minds these extra or subconscious states are merely isolated phenomena, such as ideas or feelings, without being grouped into systems, or whether they are composed of more complex states capable of independent activity, is the crux of the whole question. By some this splitting of consciousness is always considered an indication or sign of disease, but it can be shown that normal everyday activities exist in which there is a transitory dissociation, although this may consist of merely isolated ideas without organization. Of course, it is in the realm of mental pathology that we get the best known examples of subconscious phenomena.

The theories of the subconscious are several and can be divided into various groups.1 The first theory states that the subconscious is that portion of the field of consciousness which at a given moment is outside the focus of attention. It is a marginal state in which the sense of awareness is more or less prominent. If we are aware of a certain matter it is conscious; if we are only partially aware of it, it is suppressed or dormant; if we are not aware of it, then it is subconscious, or dissociated.

The second theory is that subconscious activities consist of dissociated or split-off ideas. These are split off from the main stream of consciousness and may become isolated, like the losses of sensation in hysterical anesthesia, or changes in the personality, as in amnesic states and multiple personality.

The third theory is Frederick Myers' poetical though most unpractical theory of the subliminal self.2 Myers' doctrine is purely metaphysical and states that consciousness or what

*For a more detailed statement of these theories the reader is referred to Dr. Prince's article in the symposium on " The Subconscious."— Journal Abnormal Psychology, Vol. II, Nos. 1-2, 1907.

2 " Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death."

he calls the superliminal self, is only a small portion of that underlying great reservoir of consciousness which he terms the subliminal self, this latter making up the greater portion of our personality. We are only conscious of a small portion of our consciousness; the greatest part of it is submerged in the same way that the greatest portion of an iceberg is submerged and only a fragment shows above the surface of the water. He bases his ideas upon the psychological theory of thresholds of a mental level, above which sensation must rise before it can be manifest. Below this threshold of sensation lies what he calls the subliminal self. Or to draw an analogy from physics, consciousness is only the visible portion of the spectrum — the invisible, ultra portions are our subconscious selves.

The fourth theory states that the subconscious consists of dissociated experiences, things forgotten and that cannot be recalled, in other words, out of mind. To use a physical term, this is consciousness at rest, or consciousness which is not active. These inactive states of consciousness, while they may be recalled as memories either spontaneously or through certain technical devices, for the moment are out of mind, because our thoughts are occupied with something else.

The fifth theory is the physiological idea of the subconscious, the theory known as unconscious brain-thinking, unconscious cerebration, which states that all subconscious manifestations, such as hysteria, automatic writing, the subconscious solution of mathematical problems, are merely pure nerve processes unaccompanied by any thought whatsoever. According to Miinsterberg, the subconscious is not psychical at all; he would interpret it merely as a physiological process.

A more practical theory, and one better supported by the evidence, is that active thinking processes may exist although we may not be aware of them. These subconscious mental states of which we are unaware may have intense emotions, may fabricate, or may even work out complex intellectual problems.

Thus the phenomena called automatic writing, which will be described at length in a subsequent chapter is, briefly stated, obtained by placing a suitable subject in a state of abstraction, putting a pencil in his hand, whereupon without any act of willing or conscious control, words, sentences, and even mathematical sequences are written.

One automatic writer, Mile. Helene Smith, reported by Flournoy,1 described thus in detail,

^h. Flournoy: "From India to the Planet Mars."

the conditions on the planet Mars. For some time these descriptions were held to signify that the subconscious subject was capable of supernatural communications, but careful analysis established two facts, both of which this chapter is concerned with emphasizing, first, that subconscious processes were not mechanical reproductions, but might be very complicated new combinations of ideas; and, second, that Mile. Smith, in her automatic writings, told nothing that might not have been gathered from her previous reading and experiences, in other words, it is unnecessary to call upon spiritual realms for an explanation. Concerning this latter, Flournoy states, that several years before the automatic writing developed to such a degree in his subject that she claimed to be able to communicate with the planet Mars, she had more than once directed her conversation to the habitability of this planet and to the discovery of the famous canals.

Also as the result of certain experiments with hypnosis, and the galvanic reactions in cases of multiple personality, it has been shown that under these circumstances complex calculations and translations could be done, and it would be inconceivable to think that these were pure physiological processes without thought. In this sense of an active thinking process, Freud has also conceived the subconscious. In it lie, according to Freud, unconscious ideas, feelings, and records of past experiences, all of which may have a disturbing influence on the normal and abnormal mental life.

At the sixth International Congress of Psychology, held at Geneva during August, 1909, a discussion of the subconscious formed one of the important subjects. This discussion was led by Max Dessoir, Pierre Janet, and Morton Prince. Max Dessoir drew a close analogy between the field of consciousness and the field of vision. From the psychological standpoint, in the visual field we have the centre of the field which corresponds, according to Dessoir, to the focus of consciousness, and the periphery or edge, of the field, which corresponds to the subconscious. In the periphery or edge, the contents of consciousness are either very dimly perceived or not at all, and these peripheral contents can become dissociated, split off, from the main or focal consciousness and lead an independent existence. Morton Prince suggested that the term subconscious be discarded and the word co-conscious be substituted in its place. The expression " co-conscious," relates to dissociated mental processes of which the subject is not aware, such processes (in passing from the simple to the complex) as automatic writing, hypnosis, and hysterical states. These processes are not mere blind automatisms, but possess intelligent psychological qualities, such as reasoning, calculation, memory, and volition. Furthermore, in cases of multiple personality, these disintegrated mental processes may lead an independent existence, in every way analogous to a normal mind. He would limit the term " unconscious " to certain physiological brain dispositions, such as conserved memories, which do not become psychic processes until stimulated.1 Janet in this discussion limited the term subconscious to certain phenomena observed only in hysterical conditions.

3. The Subconscious Mechanism in Everyday Life

In everyday life a number of these dissociations may take place; for instance the forgetting of a name, absent-mindedness, slips of

1 Dr Prince has also suggested the following classification. He would use the term " subconscious " in a generic sense, as implying all detached states of consciousness. This term he further subdivides into " co-conscious," meaning an active thinking process, and " unconscious," which is equivalent to unconscious brain thinking, a process which is unaccompanied by consciousness of any sort. The following scheme will make this clear:

Subconscious

I

Co-Conscious Unconscious the tongue, purposeless actions, the feeling of having experienced an entirely new sensation before or having previously been in a place which we are visiting for the first time (paramnesia or illusions of memory). The forgetting of a name is a very prominent instance of a normal dissociation of consciousness. How many times has it occurred that when one tries to recall the name of a person or a place it lingers in a most aggravating manner on the tip of the tongue but later, perhaps hours later, probably while engaged in something else, when we have put the thing out of our mind, the name will suddenly flash into consciousness. Here is an example of a normal amnesia, and the principle of the sudden return of the forgotten name while in a later state of abstraction, when the effort to remember the name has been put out of mind, is of great value in abnormal psychology, particularly in the psychological device of the synthesis of certain amnesic states, as will be pointed out later in the chapter on memory. Sometimes also, following severe intellectual work, a temporary forgetfulness for recent things may take place. When subjects are in a state of abstraction or absent-mindedness, a question may be asked to which they apparently pay no attention. Ten or fifteen minutes later they will suddenly look up and answer. The whole question was there, but at the moment it was asked, the person was in this state of abstraction and there was an immediate dissociation of the question, it became split off from the main stream of consciousness. When the state of abstraction was terminated a synthesis took place, the question became conscious where before it was subconscious. Here we have an example of the conservation of an absent-minded experience, although the conserved experience was dissociated. As will be shown later, suggestibility is increased in normal abstraction or absent-mindedness, a feature which makes it closely related to the artificial hypnotic states. Although absent-mindedness may be looked upon as a special condition, yet it is nothing more or less than a severe form of inattention or concentrated attention, as shown by the negative hallucinations which sometimes occur in this condition, namely, a failure to perceive what is immediately in front of the eyes. Normal forgetfulness in some ways is allied to the pathological amnesias; absent-minded acts and apparently purposeless actions are simpler forms resembling the automatism of automatic writing or some hysterical symptoms.

What takes place in normal absent-mindedness to show that we have a state of temporary mental dissociation? In absent-mindedness the attention is focussed on one thing, either internal or external. This focussing of attention narrows the field of personal consciousness and the portion of consciousness which lies outside this narrowed field is subconscious or dissociated. In this dissociated state, many acts may be done automatically, such as buttoning of a coat, tearing up papers, etc. But all these automatic acts are preserved and can be revived later by appropriate methods. All absent-minded states are not dissociations, it is only severe grades where attention is intensely focussed on some stimulus from without or some idea from within, that can be termed dissociated.

" This duality of the mind in normal absent-mindedness has been pointed out by various observers. Its phenomena simulate those of artificial abstraction as they occur in automatic writing and hysterical states. There is nothing surprising in this, as the term ' absent-mindedness ' means dissociation of consciousness, a failure to perceive that which before was perceived and a failure to be conscious of acts intelligently performed. On the other hand, normal absent-mindedness is a distinctly special condition. We don't go about in an absent-minded state. Absent-minded phenomena are manifestations of the temporary disintegration of the personal self. But here the significant fact, the most significant of all, should not be lost sight of, .that in the normal process of abstraction we find evidence of the existence of a normal prearranged mechanism for dissociating consciousness and producing subconscious states." x

Dissociation is plainly a function of the mind or brain as was shown above.' These normal dissociations are not limited to absent-mindedness and forgetting of names, but may comprise' other phenomena of our everyday life, such as ' the solution of problems by the secondary consciousness during sleep, the origin of dreams in subconscious motives and desires, slips of the tongue and pen, certain apparently accidental and purposeless actions, and those tricks of mind called illusions of memory. Sleep and dreams are so important that they will be made the subjects of separate chapters. In a most interesting little volume Freud has discussed in . detail some of the phenomena which we have briefly mentioned here, under the title of the psychopathology of everyday life.

Bot*h this observer and others attempt to explain the acts of everyday life, many of which seem purposeless, accidental, and without reason unless carefully studied. The mechanism which produces disturbances in the thoughts and actions of normal people is identical with

1 Morton Prince: "Problems of Abnormal Psychology." — Psychological Review, March-May, 1905.

the mechanism which causes the disturbances in the insane and in abnormal mental dissociation. Automatic acts may be caused by an unconscious, suppressed complex. Dreams are frequently the manifestation of hidden desires or memories; the haunting of the mind by a popular melody resembles a pathological obsession. It is popularly supposed that most mental life is forgotten beyond recovery, but Freud has shown that a great deal may be recovered through proper devices, provided sufficient traces had been left in the nervous system.

The phenomena of hypnosis and a great many of the phenomena of hysteria seem to be merely more intense and protracted states of this absent-mindedness or abstraction, which, we have shown, is a dissociation of consciousness. So we see that there is nothing supernormal or supernatural in these subconscious or dissociated manifestations, startling as some of these phenomena may appear. The gradations from the normal to the abnormal are slow; there is no distinct line; there is an overlapping of types, and one cannot say where the normal ends and where the abnormal begins.

Two examples will show the presence of temporary subconscious phenomena in everyday life. In the first instance to be given it can be demonstrated that normal abstraction is a mental condition of increased suggestibility and thus resembles the artificially produced state of hypnosis. In the second case it can be shown that normal forgetfulness is a dissociation of memory, allied to the pathological amnesias. In common with these amnesias, it is possible to restore or synthetize the lost experience because the experience is really not lost, but is present in the subconscious.

In the first case, three men were members of a party of seven seated at dinner. Dessert was being served and some of the party were already supplied. One of the members of the dinner party, Professor H., was talking to another member, Mr. G., in a low tone, and the latter was listening very intently. The dessert consisted of chocolate pie and squash pie, and as some had already been brought in Mr. G. had time to decide which he preferred. Mrs. R., who was sitting beside Mr. G., inquired which he would have. The latter was so abstracted in the conversation, that apparently he did not hear, and even on a repetition of the question, he gave no reply. Meanwhile another member of the party, in a spirit of jest, spoke softly to Mrs. R., but in such a manner that Mr. G. could hear, and said, " Mr. G. always takes chocolate pie." Immediately Mr. G. quickly replied, " Chocolate pie, please." This was done because it was well known to the other members of the party that Mr. G. had a profound distaste for chocolate pie. Meanwhile the waiter had brought the dessert (chocolate pie) to Mr. G., who by that time had finished his conversation with Professor H. Then, as if just coming to himself, Mr. G. turned to his companion and said, "Who said chocolate pie? I wanted the other kind."