Part 1

Transcriber’s Note:

This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_.

Footnotes have been moved to follow the Lecture in which they are referenced.

Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.

THE UNCONSCIOUS

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO DALLAS · ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO

THE UNCONSCIOUS

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN PERSONALITY NORMAL AND ABNORMAL

BY

MORTON PRINCE, M.D., LL.D.

PROFESSOR (EMERITUS) OF DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, TUFTS COLLEGE MEDICAL SCHOOL; CONSULTING PHYSICIAN TO THE BOSTON CITY HOSPITAL

SECOND EDITION REVISED

=New York= THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1921

COPYRIGHT, 1914 and 1921 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1914. New Edition, June, 1921.

PREFACE

This work is designed to be an introduction to abnormal psychology. The problems considered, however, belong equally to normal psychology in that they are problems of psycho-physiological functions and mechanisms. I have made no attempt to develop any particular school of psychological theory but rather, so far as may be, to gather together the knowledge already gained and lay a foundation which can be built upon by any school for the solution of particular problems, especially those of special pathology. I have therefore endeavored to avoid controversial questions although this, of course, has not been wholly possible, and indeed so far as special pathological conditions (the psychoses) have been considered, it has been for the purpose of providing data and testing the principles adduced. The inductive method, alone, I believe, as in the physical sciences, can enable us to arrive at sound conclusions—justify the formulation of theories to explain psychological phenomena. Because of the very difficulties of this field of research—one of which is that of submitting to experimental conditions complex psychological phenomena having so many factors—it is all the more incumbent that the inductive method should be employed. To my way of thinking we should begin at the bottom and build up bit by bit, drawing, as we go, no wider conclusions than the facts developed warrant; or if we do, these should be recognized clearly as working hypotheses or speculative theories. Skyscrapers should not be erected until the foundations have been examined to see if they will bear the superstructure. That I have wholly succeeded in so rigorously restricting my own endeavors I can scarcely hope. I trust, however, that I have succeeded in consistently maintaining the distinction between facts and their interpretations.

The present volume consists of selected lectures (with the exception of four) from courses on abnormal psychology delivered at the Tufts College Medical School (1908-10) and later at the University of California (1910).[1] These again were based on a series of papers on the Unconscious published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology (1908-9) of which they are elaborations. Since the lectures were delivered a large amount of new material has been incorporated and the subject matter considered in more detail and more exhaustively than was practical before student bodies. The four additional lectures (X, XI, XII and XIII) appeared in abbreviated form in the same Journal (Oct., Nov., 1912) under the title “The Meaning of Ideas as Determined by Unconscious Settings.” The lecture form has been retained, offering as it does many advantages where, in the exposition of a difficult subject, much that is elemental needs to be stated.

As the subconscious and its processes are fundamentals both in the structure of personality and in the many mechanisms through which personality, normal and abnormal, finds expression, the first eight lectures are devoted to its exposition. Indeed, as has been said, the subconscious is not only the most important problem of psychology, it is _the_ problem. The study of its phenomena must be preliminary to that of the functioning mechanisms of both the normal mind and of those special pathological conditions—the psycho-neuroses—which modern investigators are tracing to its perversions.

In a recently published article M. Bergson concludes with the following prophesy: “To explore the most sacred depths of the unconscious, to labor in what I have just called the subsoil of consciousness, that will be the principal task of psychology in the century which is opening. I do not doubt that wonderful discoveries await it there, as important perhaps as have been in the preceding centuries the discoveries of the physical and natural sciences. That at least is the promise which I make for it, that is the wish that in closing I have for it.”[2]

And yet one reads and hears all sorts of contradictory statements, made by those who it is presumed should know, regarding the actuality of the subconscious. Thus one or another writer, assuming to know, states most positively that there is no such thing as the subconscious. Others, equally emphatic, postulate it as an established fact rather than a theory, or assume it as a philosophical concept or hypothesis to explain particular phenomena. One difficulty is that the term, as commonly used, has many meanings, and it has followed that different writers have assumed it with respectively different meanings. Consequently the subconscious as an actuality has been unwittingly denied when the intent has been really to deny some particular meaning or interpretation, and particular meanings have been subsumed which are only philosophical concepts.

There should be no difficulty in deciding what the facts permit us to postulate. The subconscious is a theory based upon observed facts and formulated to explain those facts. There are many precise phenomena of different kinds which can only be explained as due to explicitly subconscious processes, that is, processes which do not appear in the content of consciousness; just as the phenomena manifested by radium can only be explained by emanations (or rays) which themselves are not visible and cannot be made the object of conscious experience. In each case it is the manifestations of such processes of which we become aware. Subconscious processes and radio-activity stand on precisely the same basis so far as the determination of their actuality is concerned. (The latter have the advantage, of course, in that being physical they are subject to quantitative measurement.) Such being the case it ought to be possible to construct the theory of the subconscious by inductive methods on the basis of facts of observation just as any theory of the physical sciences is constructed.

This task I have set before myself as well as that of giving precision to our conception of the theory and taking it out of the domain of philosophical concepts. With this purpose in view I have endeavored to apply the method of science and construct the theory by induction from the data of observation and experiment. I dare say this has been a somewhat ambitious and some will say, perhaps, overbold undertaking. Undoubtedly, too, this attitude toward this and other individual problems has not been always consistently maintained, nor perhaps is it completely possible in the present state of the science.

Our formulations should be as precise as possible and facts and concepts of a different order should not be included in one and the same formula. I have, accordingly, divided the subconscious into two classes, namely (1) the _unconscious_, or neural dispositions and processes, and (2) the _coconscious_, or actual subconscious ideas which do not enter the content of conscious awareness. An unconscious process and a coconscious process are both therefore _subconscious_ processes but particular types thereof—the one being purely neural or physical and the other psychological or ideational.

The soundness of the conclusions reached in this work I leave to the judgment of my critics, of whom I doubt not I shall have many. I do not hesitate to say, however, that it is only by practical familiarity with the phenomena of mental pathology and artificially induced phenomena (such as those of hypnosis, suggestion, etc.), requiring a long training in this field of research (as in other scientific fields), that we can correctly estimate the value of data and the conclusions drawn therefrom; and even then many of our conclusions can be regarded as only provisional.

In these lectures I have also endeavored (Lectures XIV-XVI) to develop the phenomena of the emotional innate dispositions which I conceive play one of the most fundamental parts in human personality and in determining mental and physiological behavior.

Experimental methods and the well-known clinical methods of investigation have been employed by me as far as possible. The data made use of have been derived for the most part from my own observations, though confirmatory observations of others have not been neglected. Although a large number and variety of subjects or cases have been studied, as they have presented themselves in private and hospital practice, the data have been to a large extent sought in intensive studies, on particular subjects, carried on in some cases over a period of many years. These subjects, because of the ease with which subconscious and emotional phenomena were either spontaneously manifested or could be experimentally evoked, were particularly suitable for such studies and fruitful in results. It is by such intensive studies on special subjects, rather than by casual observation of many cases, that I believe the deepest insight into mental processes and mechanisms can be obtained.

In conclusion I wish to express my great obligation to Mrs. William G. Bean for the great assistance she has rendered in many ways in the preparation of this volume. Not the least has been the transcription and typing of my manuscript, for the most part written in a quasi shorthand, reading the printer’s proofs, and much other assistance in the preparation of the text for the press. For this her practical and unusually extensive acquaintance with the phenomena has been of great value.

I am also indebted to Mr. Lydiard Horton for kindly reading the proofs and for many helpful suggestions in clarifying the arrangement of the text—a most difficult task considering the colloquial form of the original lectures.

Boston. 458 Beacon Street.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

The favorable reception which was given to the first edition of this work has tempted me in preparing a new edition at the request of the publishers to incorporate four additional chapters dealing with the general principles underlying the structure and dynamic elements of human personality (Lecture XVII) and a study of a special problem in personality in which these principles are involved, namely, the psychogenesis of multiple personality as illustrated by a study of the case known as B. C. A.[3] (Lectures XVIII-XX.) The latter study was omitted (with other lectures) from the first edition in order to limit the number of subjects treated and the size of the volume.

Although the theory of the subconscious and that of the dynamics of specific conscious and subconscious processes (to the fundamental principles of both of which these lectures were limited) owe their value to our being able through them to explain many mental and physiological abnormalities, they possess an equal value from the light they throw upon the structure and dynamics of that composite whole best termed human personality. Over and above a knowledge of the abnormal, what we as human beings want to know is not only what sort of physiological beings but what sort of conscious beings we are; and how we think and act, and what motives and other impulses whether hidden or in the clear light of awareness, regulate and determine our behavior; what are the forces that do it and how. We want to know the answer to a lot of problems of this character, all of which involve principles of innate and acquired dispositions.

A comprehensive study of human personality would include, as far as may be, answers to all these problems and would require a volume in itself. I have, therefore, not been able more than to give an outline in Lecture XVII of what seem to me to be the fundamental principles involved and the dynamic unitary systems out of which the structure is built up. There are various points of view from which the structure of the mind may be considered, just as with the structure of a literary work of art, or of a complicated mechanism like an automobile. We may consider the structure of the latter, for instance, as an assembly of complex units or mechanisms—cylinders, carburetors, ignition systems, etc.,—each analyzed into its elements, without regard to the dynamic, integrative functioning of the units in the total mechanism. This would be the static point of view. Or we may consider these units as wholes from the standpoint of the forces they generate, the processes they subserve and the parts they play in the total functioning of the whole machine. This is the dynamic point of view. It is this latter which alone has a vital practical interest. The former is of interest only to the technician. So with the mind. The dynamic point of view alone is of practical importance and alone awakens fascinating interest of stirring intensity. So long as psychology held to the static viewpoint it was only of academic value. For submitted to the pragmatic test it made little difference whether it was right or wrong. Nor could it become an applied science. Consequently it is from the dynamic viewpoint that I have sketched in—and it is little more than a sketch—the application of the principles laid down in these lectures to the peculiarly appealing problem of personality. Closely related to this is multiple personality, for it is a special problem in personality, and one that is a fascinating study in itself. But aside from its own intrinsic interest, its practical interest, its chief value is derived from the fact that it is a veritable vivisection of the mind by the mind’s own vital forces, and as such gives us much more definite and precise data for the determination of normal mental mechanisms and processes than can introspective analysis; just as the vivisection of the body in the laboratory and by disease has given us our most precise knowledge of physiology. Consequently the phenomena acquire a greater interest and value from the insight they give into the normal. For there is no more fruitful material for the study of the mechanisms and processes of personality than cases of this sort where there is a disintegration of the normally integrated structural wholes and a reassembling of the component elements into new composite wholes. In the construction of these new personalities certain normal structures and mechanisms are dissected out, so to speak, of the original composite by the stress of the forces that cause the cleavage between systems and are then reassembled into new functioning wholes. There is a veritable vivisection of the mind. In a mind thus disassembled nearly every mental phenomenon, conscious and subconscious—conflicts, hallucinations, coconscious processes, defense reactions, etc.,—can be observed in an isolated form and systematically studied. They are veritable gold mines of psychological phenomena, as William James once expressed it to me in reference to one of my cases. It is strange, therefore, that such cases have been neglected by psychologists who would study mental mechanisms. It is true that for a complete understanding of multiple personality a study of a number of cases should be presented, particularly as many variations are to be observed constituting differing types. But in a volume of this kind this would be impracticable. I have, therefore, limited myself to the psychogenesis of a single case, that of B. C. A. This will I believe be of interest not only as illustrating the basic principles underlying the pathology of multiple personality, but because of the data it offers for the understanding of the structure and mechanisms of the normal self, something that curiously appeals to the egoistic interest of human nature.

MORTON PRINCE.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION v

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION xiii

LECTURE

I. THEORY OF MEMORY AS A PROCESS 1

II. CONSERVATION OF FORGOTTEN EXPERIENCES OF NORMAL, 15 ARTIFICIAL, AND PATHOLOGICAL LIFE

III. CONSERVATION OF FORGOTTEN EXPERIENCES OF NORMAL, 49 ARTIFICIAL, AND PATHOLOGICAL LIFE—(Continued)

IV. CONSERVATION A RESIDUUM OF EXPERIENCES 87

V. NEUROGRAMS 109

VI. SUBCONSCIOUS PROCESSES 147

VII. SUBCONSCIOUS INTELLIGENCE 188

VIII. THE UNCONSCIOUS 229

IX. THE ORGANIZATION OF UNCONSCIOUS COMPLEXES 265

X. THE MEANING OF IDEAS AS DETERMINED BY SETTINGS 311

XI. MEANING, SETTINGS, AND THE FRINGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS 338

XII. SETTINGS OF IDEAS AS SUBCONSCIOUS PROCESSES IN 363 OBSESSIONS

XIII. TWO TYPES OF PHOBIA 387

XIV. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF EMOTION 423

XV. INSTINCTS, SENTIMENTS AND CONFLICTS 446

XVI. GENERAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM EMOTIONAL CONFLICTS 488

XVII. THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMIC ELEMENTS OF HUMAN PERSONALITY 529

XVIII. THE PSYCHOGENESIS OF MULTIPLE PERSONALITY—THE CASE OF B. 545 C. A.

XIX. (The Same Continued)—THE B PERSONALITY 593

XX. (The Same Continued)—THE A PERSONALITY 614

SUMMARY AND GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 634

INDEX 645

THE UNCONSCIOUS

THE UNCONSCIOUS:

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN PERSONALITY, NORMAL AND ABNORMAL

LECTURE I THEORY OF MEMORY AS A PROCESS

Gentlemen:

The subject which I have chosen for our first lecture is the theory of the mechanism of memory. I begin with the study of this problem because a knowledge of the facts which underlie the theory of memory is a necessary introduction to an understanding of the Unconscious, and of the part which subconscious processes play in normal and abnormal mental life.[4] Speaking more specifically, without such a preliminary study I do not believe we can interpret correctly a very large number of the disturbances of mind and body which are traceable to the activity of subconscious processes and with which we shall later have to do.

If we consider memory as a _process_, and not as specific phases of consciousness, we shall find that it is an essential factor in the mechanisms underlying a large variety of phenomena of normal and abnormal life. These phenomena include those of both mind and body of a kind not ordinarily conceived of as manifestations of memory. I would have you dwell in your minds for a moment on the fact that I make this distinction between memory as a process and memory as a phase of consciousness or specific mental experience. What we ordinarily and conventionally have in mind when we speak of memory is the conscious thought of some past mental experience. But when we conceive of memory as a process we have in mind the whole mechanism through the working of which this past experience is _registered_, _conserved_, and _reproduced_, whether such reproduction be in consciousness or below the surface of consciousness.

Memory is usually looked upon as something that pertains solely to consciousness. Such a conception is defensible if the meaning of the term is restricted to those facts alone which come within our conscious experience. But when we consider the mechanism by which a particular empirical fact of this kind is introduced into consciousness we find that this conception is inadequate. We find then that we are obliged to regard conscious memory as only the end result of a process and, in order to account for this end result, to assume other stages in the process which are not phases of consciousness. Though the end result is a reproduction of the ideas which constituted the previous conscious experience, this reproduction is not the whole process.

More than this, the conscious experience is not the only experience that may be reproduced by the process, nor is the end result always and necessarily a state of consciousness. _Conscious memory is only a particular type of memory._ The same process may terminate in purely unconscious or physiological effects, or what may be called physiological memory to distinguish it from conscious memory. Along with the revived ideas and their feeling tones there may be a revival of the physiological experiences, or processes, which originally accompanied them; such as secretion of sweat, saliva and gastric juice, the contraction and dilatation of the blood vessels, the inhibition or excitation of the heart, lungs and other viscera, the contraction of muscles, etc. These visceral mechanisms, being originally elements in a complex process and accompaniments of the idea, may be reproduced along with the conscious memory, and even without conscious memory. As this physiological complex is an acquired experience it is entitled to be regarded as memory so far as its reproduction is the end result of the same kind of process or mechanism as that which reproduces ideas.

Then, again, investigations into the subconscious have shown that the original experience may be reproduced subconsciously without rising into awareness.

The more comprehensive way, then, of looking at memory is to regard it as a process and not simply as an end result. The process, as we shall see, is made up of three factors—Registration, Conservation, and Reproduction. Of these the end result is reproduction; conservation being the preservation of that which was registered.

This view is far more fruitful, as you will presently see, for memory acquires a deeper significance and will be found to play a fundamental and unsuspected part in the mechanism of many obscure mental processes.

From this point of view, upon memory, considered _as a process_, depend the acquired conscious and subconscious habits of mind and body.

The process involves unconscious as well as conscious factors and may be wholly unconscious (subconscious).

Two of its factors—registration and conservation—are responsible for the building up of the unconscious as the storehouse of the mind and, therefore, primarily for all subconscious processes, other than those which are innate.

To it may be referred the direct excitation of many subconscious manifestations of various kinds.

Consciously or subconsciously it largely determines our prejudices, our superstitions, our beliefs, our points of view, our attitudes of mind.

Upon it to a large degree depend what we call personality and character.