Part 33
3. _In entire accordance with the experimental results are certain pathological disturbances_ which from time to time interrupt the course of everyday life of this subject, O. N. These disturbances consist of one or more of the following: a dissociative state in which the pathological “b mood” is dominant; a lethargic state; twilight state; complete repression of certain normal sentiments and instincts; complete alteration of previously established points of view; morbid self-reproach; nervousness, restlessness, agitation; anger at opposition; indecision of thought, etc. Now, whenever such phenomena recur, with practical certainty, they can always be traced by the use of technical methods to a conflict with a turbulent sentiment (in which strong emotional tones are incorporated) previously lying dormant in the unconscious. Sometimes the turbulent sentiment can be definitely traced to childhood’s experiences. Very often it has been intentionally formed and put into her mind by the subject herself for the very purpose of inducing the repression of other sentiments, to which for one reason or another for the time being she objects, and of changing her habitual point of view. Her method of artificially accomplishing this result is exceedingly instructive. It is similar to the auto-suggestive process I have described in connection with the hypnotic experiments. Having first prearranged her psychological plan, she proceeds to put herself into abstraction and to “take out”, as she calls it, her previous sentiment (or instinct) and substitute an antagonistic sentiment. When she comes to herself out of abstraction, the previously objected to sentiment has completely vanished. If it is one concerning a person or mode of life, she becomes completely indifferent to that person or mode of life as if previously no sentiment had existed. If an intimate friend, he becomes only an acquaintance toward whom she has entirely new feelings corresponding to the new sentiment; if a physician, nothing that he says has influence with her, her new feeling, we will say, being that of resentment; if a mode of life, she has lost all interest in that mode and is governed by an interest in a new mode. Even physiological bodily instincts have been in this way suppressed. She has indulged this psychological habit for years. Again and again when she has exhibited these, and still other, phenomena, I have been able to discover their origin in this auto-suggestive procedure.
Some of the other phenomena I have just mentioned are more likely to be traced to _autochthonous conflicts between everyday ideas_—dissatisfactions with actual conditions of life, and wishes for other conditions, unwillingness to forego the fulfilment of certain wishes and accept the necessary conditions as they exist, etc. The natural consequence is restlessness, agitation, anger, indecision, etc. The dissociation of personality, with the outcropping of the “b mood,” follows—a conflict due to the excitation of certain childhood complexes, conserved in the unconscious and embracing sentiments in which are incorporated the instinct of self-subjection or abasement. This “b mood” is a study in itself. The self-reproaches are, I believe, also traceable to this instinct.
_Conflicts may even occur between two processes, both of which are subconscious_ and therefore outside of the awareness of the subject. Thus, in B. C. A. I have frequently observed the following: while the right hand has been engaged in automatic writing, the left hand, motivated by a subconscious sentiment antagonistic to the subconscious ideas performing the writing, has seized the pencil, broken it, or thrown it across the room. The two conflicting systems of thought, each with its own sentiments and wishes, have been made to disclose themselves and exhibit their antitheses and antipathies.
The principle of emotional conflict and the phenomena we have outlined enable us to understand the mechanism of prolonged reaction time and blocking of thought observed in the so-called “word association tests.” These tests involve too large a subject for us to enter upon them here. Let it suffice to say that when a test word strikes an emotional complex the response of the subject by an associated word may be delayed or completely blocked. The emotional impulse which inhibits the response may come from an awakened conscious or subconscious memory.
=The psychogalvanic reaction as physical evidence of actual subconscious emotional discharge.=—This reaction may be also used to demonstrate that subconscious processes may actually give forth emotional impulses without the ideas of those processes entering the personal consciousness.
1. I may be permitted to cite here some experiments,[242] which I made with Dr. Frederick Peterson, as they leave the minimum of latitude for interpretation and come as close as possible to the demonstration of emotional discharges from processes entirely outside of awareness. Such a demonstration is important for the theory of subconscious conflicts.
The experiments were undertaken in a case of multiple personality (B. C. A.) with a view to obtaining the galvanic phenomenon from coconscious states. This case offered an exceptional opportunity to determine whether the galvanic reaction could be obtained in one personality from the dissociated complexes _deposited by the experiences of the second alternating personality for which there was complete amnesia on the part of the first_. These dissociated experiences, of course, had never entered the awareness of the personality tested, who, therefore, necessarily could not possibly recall them to memory. With the information furnished by the second personality, it was easy to arrange test words associated with the emotional ideas of the experiences belonging to this personality and unknown to the one tested.
Similarly it was possible to test whether galvanic reaction could be obtained from complexes—from subconscious complexes—the residua of forgotten dreams, as in this case the dreams were not remembered on waking. An account of the dreams could be obtained in hypnosis. The dreams were therefore simply dissociated.
Again we could test the possibility of obtaining reactions from subconscious perceptions and thoughts which had never arisen into awareness. The required information concerning these perceptions and thoughts could be obtained in this case in hypnosis.
Now we found that test words which expressed the emotional ideas belonging to a forgotten dream gave, in spite of the amnesia, very marked rises in the galvanic curve. The same was true of the test words referring to dissociated experiences belonging to the _alternating_ personality for which the tested personality had amnesia, and of the subconscious perceptions. For instance (as an example of the latter), the word _lorgnette_, referring to a subconscious perception of a stranger unnoticed by the conscious personality, gave a very lively reaction.
Further, pin pricks, which could not be consciously perceived owing to the _anesthesia_ of the skin, gave strong reactions.
Now here in the first two sets of observations were emotional effects apparently obtained from what were very precise complexes which were definitely underlying, in that they never had been experienced by the personality tested and therefore could not come from memories, or from associations of which this personality was aware. They could only come from the residua of a personality which had experienced them and which was now “underlying.” That these experiences had been conserved is shown by the recovery of them in a hypnotic state, and by their being remembered by the secondary personality. Even the pin pricks, which were not felt on account of the anesthesia, gave reactions. It could be logically inferred, therefore, that the galvanic reaction was due to the activity of subconscious complexes, using the term in the narrow and restricted sense of conserved residua without conscious equivalents. But the conditions were more complicated than I have described. There was in this case a veritable coconscious personality, a split-off, well-organized system of conscious states synthesized into a personal consciousness—two foci of self-consciousness. Now the coconscious personality with its large system of thoughts had full memory of all these amnesic experiences; it remembered the dreams and the experiences of the second personality, and perceived the pin pricks. Hence we concluded that the galvanic phenomena were obtained from the memory and perceptions of this coconscious personality.
This demonstration of an actual physical discharge is proof positive that an emotional process can function subconsciously. This being so, _it only needs this discharge to come into conflict with some other process, conscious or subconscious, for one or other phenomenon of conflict to be manifested_.
2. This psycho-galvanic phenomenon may be correlated with those phenomena which we have already studied (p. 381) wherein the emotional element of the process alone rises into consciousness. The former phenomenon is therefore the manifestation of the efferent and the latter of the central part of the activated emotional disposition. The former supports the interpretation of various clinical motor phenomena as being the efferent manifestations of purely subconscious emotional processes. I refer to hysterical tics, spasms, contractures, etc. The latter phenomenon we have had frequent occasion to refer to. You will remember, for instance, that in the case of Miss B. on numerous occasions it was observed that emotion, particularly of fear, swept over the conscious personality without apparent cause. This emotion could be traced to specific dissociated and coconscious ideas. Likewise in B. C. A., states of anxiety or depression could be related to specific coconscious ideas which, having been shunted out of the field of consciousness, continued their activity in a coconscious state. Janet, as might be expected of so accurate an observer, long ago described the same phenomenon—the invasion of the personal consciousness by the emotion belonging to a coconscious idea. “Isabella,” he writes, “presents constantly conditions which have the same character; we shall cite but one other in the interest of the study of dementia. For a week or so she has been gloomy and sad; she hides and will not speak to anyone. We have trouble in getting a few words from her, and these she says very low, casting her eyes down: ‘I am not worthy to speak with other people.... I am very much ashamed, I have a crushing load on my mind like a terrible gnawing remorse....’—‘A remorse about what?’—‘Ah! that’s just it. I am trying to find it out day and night. What is it that I could have done last week? for before I was not thus. Tell me candidly, did I do something very bad last week?’ This time, as will be seen, the question is no longer about an act, but about a feeling, a general emotional state which she interprets as remorse; she is equally incapable of understanding and expressing the fixed idea which determines this feeling. If you divert the subject’s attention, you can obtain the automatic writing, and you will see that the hand of the patient constantly writes the same name, that of Isabella’s sister who died a short time ago. During the attacks and the somnambulic sleep we establish a very complicated dream in which this poor young girl thinks she murdered her sister. That is quite a common delirium, you will say; perhaps so, but for a hysteric it presents itself in a rather curious manner. She suffers only from its rebound, experiences only the emotional side of it; of the delirium itself she is wholly ignorant; the latter remains subconscious.”...
“It will be seen by this last example that, in some cases, a small portion of the fixed idea may be conscious. Isabella feels that she is troubled by some remorse, she knows not what. It thus frequently happens that hystericals, during their normal waking time, complain of a certain mental attitude, so much so that they partly look as if obsessed. Celestine experiences thus feelings of anger which she cannot explain.”[243]
As might be expected intense conflicts may have wide-reaching consequences and lead to the development of pathological conditions. Indeed, in the latter we find the most clear-cut exemplars of repression (dissociation) and other phenomena produced by conflict. I shall point out in later lectures[244] how in a specific case intense religious sentiments completely repressed their antagonistic instincts and eventuated in dissociation of (multiple) personality (Miss B.) Likewise with B. C. A., as I interpret the phenomena, the dissociation of personality resulted from a conflict between wishes that could not be fulfilled and sentiments of duty, respect, etc. We shall see later the significance of this principle for the understanding of other pathological states.
Footnote 220:
... “Every instinctive process has the three aspects of all mental processes, the cognitive, the affective, and the conative. Now, the innate psychophysical disposition, which is an instinct, may be regarded as consisting of three corresponding parts, an afferent, a central, and a motor or efferent part, whose activities are the cognitive, the affective, and the conative features respectively of the total instinctive process. The afferent or receptive part of the total disposition is some organized group of nervous elements or neurones that is specially adapted to receive and to elaborate the impulses initiated in the sense-organ by the native object of the instinct; its constitution and activities determine the sensory content of the psychophysical process. From the afferent part the excitement spreads over to the central part of the disposition; the constitution of this part determines in the main the distribution of the nervous impulses, especially the impulses that descend to modify the working of the visceral organs, the heart, lungs, blood vessels, glands, etc., in the manner required for the most effective excitation of the instinctive action; the nervous activities of this central part are the correlates of the affective or emotional aspect or feature of the total physical process. The excitement of the efferent or motor part reaches it by the way of the central part; its construction determines the distribution of impulses to the muscles of the skeletal system by which the instinctive action is effected, and its nervous activities are the correlates of the conative element of the physical process, of the felt impulse to action.” William McDougall. An introduction to Social Psychology, p. 32.
Footnote 221:
Social Psychology, p. 44.
Footnote 222:
Ibid, p. 159.
Footnote 223:
Not included in this volume.
Footnote 224:
Personally communicated.
Footnote 225:
This theory of the part played by the sensory accompaniments of visceral activity I would suggest as a substitute for the James-Lange theory.
Footnote 226:
Hilton: Rest and Pain.
Footnote 227:
Note analogues in Sherrington’s mechanism of the spinal reflexes.
Footnote 228:
I follow in the main McDougall’s classification as sufficiently adequate and accurate for our purposes.
Footnote 229:
In fact, this was successfully done.
Footnote 230:
For purposes of simplification I leave aside feelings of pleasure and pain, excitement and depression, for though their main functions may be only to guide or shape the actions prompted by the instincts, as McDougall affirms, still I think there is sound reason to believe that feelings also have conative force and are coöperative impulsive factors.
Footnote 231:
McDougall has proposed the ingenious theory that that which we understand, properly speaking, by “will” is a complex form of conation issuing from a particular sentiment, viz., the complexly organized sentiment of self (“self-regarding sentiment”). The behavior immediately determined by the primitive instincts and other sentiments cannot be classed as volition, but should be regarded as simple instinctive conation. When, therefore, the will reinforces a sentiment and determines conduct it is the self-regarding sentiment which provides the “volitional” impulse and is the controlling factor. If this theory should stand it would give a satisfactory solution of this difficult question. Perhaps it receives some support on the part of abnormal psychology in that certain observations seem to show, if I correctly interpret them, that self-consciousness is a complex capable of being dissociated like any idea or sentiment. I shall presently describe a quasi-pathological state which may be called depersonalization. In this state the “conscious intelligence” present is able to think and reason logically and sanely, is capable of good judgments, and has an unusually large field of memory, in short, is a very intelligent consciousness; nevertheless, it exhibits a very strange phenomenon: it has lost all consciousness of self; it has no sense of personality, of anything to which the term “I” can be applied. This sentiment seems to be absolutely dissociated in this state.
Footnote 232:
The repression of the sexual instinct and of sexual wishes plays the dominant rôle in the Freudian psychology. If a wish may be correctly defined psychologically as the impulsive force of a sentiment striving toward an end plus the pleasurable feeling resulting from the imagined attainment of that end, i.e., the imagined gratification of the impulse, then the repression of a wish belongs to the phenomena of repressed sentiments rather than of primitive instincts. This distinction, I think, is of some importance, as will appear when we consider subconscious sentiments.
Footnote 233:
In making use of suggestion for therapeutic purposes it is essential to construct one with strong emotional tones and pleasurable and exalting feelings for the purposes of increasing resistances to contrary impulses, and carrying the suggestion to fruition. This I believe to be one of the secrets of successful suggestive procedure. The construction of an effective suggestion is an art in itself and must be based on the psychological conditions existing in each case.
Footnote 234:
Of course this attitude is not to be viewed as an isolated event standing all alone by itself. It must be read like nearly all events of life in relation to a series of antecedent events. These, to her, had denoted indifference, and now on this crucial occasion formed the real setting and gave the offensive meaning to her spouse’s forgetfulness.
Footnote 235:
Notwithstanding the frequency with which asexuality is met with in women, I am strongly inclined to the opinion that the sexual instinct in the sex is never really absent, excepting, of course, in late life and in organic disease. No woman is born without it. When apparently absent it is only inhibited or dissociated by the subtle influences of the environment, education, conflicting sentiments, etc.
Footnote 236:
A distinction should be made between hunger and appetite. Food may excite appetite, although hunger has been appeased.
Footnote 237:
Note that the same idea forms different sentiments in different phases or moods, according to the emotions with which it is linked. In this case, in phase C, it is linked with mortification, self-abasement, possibly anger, pride, and feelings of pain and depression; in phase B, with joyful emotions and feelings of pleasure and excitement. Also note that the former sentiment, although out of mind at the time of the observation, is conserved in the unconscious.
Footnote 238:
At first the subject (B) had no anticipation or supposition that such a conflict would occur. Later she learned after repeated experiences to anticipate the probable consequences of trying to tell tales-out-of-school.
Footnote 239:
The Dissociation, see Index: “Subconscious ideas.”
Footnote 240:
_Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, October-November, 1908.
Footnote 241:
The Dissociation, p. 538.
Footnote 242:
_Journal Abn. Psychol._, June-July, 1908.
Footnote 243:
The Mental State of Hystericals, pp. 289-290.
Footnote 244:
Not included in this volume.
LECTURE XVI GENERAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM EMOTIONAL CONFLICTS
The awakening of intense emotional impulses we have seen tends to intensify certain activities and to inhibit other conflicting ones. Further when that which is inhibited is a sentiment possessing an intense emotion the sentiment tends to become dissociated[245] from the personal consciousness and free to become by the force of its own emotional dispositions a subconscious process. As a consequence of these tendencies there may result a number of psycho-physiological conditions of personality with some of which we should become familiar. They are observable, as would be expected, in every-day life, and when highly accentuated become pathological phenomena. Let us now consider some of them in detail.
=Contraction of the field of consciousness and of personality.=—In every-day life intense emotion excludes from the field of awareness thoughts that are unrelated, antagonistic to and incompatible with the ideas exciting the emotion, and perceptions of the environment that ordinarily would enter awareness. The field of consciousness is thereby contracted and limited to thoughts excited by or associated with the emotion. Thus, for example, in the heat of anger the mind is dominated by the particular object or thought which gave rise to the anger, or by anger exciting associated ideas. Conflicting memories and correlated knowledge that would modify the point of view and judgment and mollify (inhibit) the anger are suppressed and cannot enter the focus of attention. Further, a person in such a state may not perceive many ocular, auditory, tactile, and other impressions coming from the environment; he may not see the people about him, hear what is said, or feel what is done to him, or only in an imperfect way. All these sensations are either actually inhibited or prevented from entering awareness (dissociated) by the conflicting conative force of the emotion. In other words there is a dissociation (or inhibition) of consciousness and consequent contraction of its field to certain emotional ideas.
To take a concrete example, you are playing a game of cards and with zest throw yourself into the game. Something happens to arouse your anger. At once there is a conflict: The impulsive force of your pugnacity instinct meets with the impulsive force of your play instinct and its pleasure feelings. If the former is the stronger, the latter with the ideas to which it is linked are inhibited, repressed, driven out of consciousness. The pleasure of play ceases and its impulses no longer determine your thoughts. Further, you forget the cards that have been played though you knew them well a moment before, you may forget your manners, become oblivious to social etiquette and the environment. You can no longer reason on the play of the cards; you forget your card knowledge. All these processes are inhibited, and consequently the field of consciousness and personality becomes contracted.
On the other hand, the emotion of anger dominating the mind, ideas associated with or which tend to carry your pugnacity instinct to fruition, arise and direct and determine your conduct. Habit reactions are likely to come automatically into play, and you break out into angry denunciatory speech, if that is your habit. I leave you to fill out the details of the picture for yourselves.