MODERN DISSECTION OF THE HUMAN MIND
Dissection of the mind! Can that too be dissected? We hear much nowadays
of dissection of the human body; of organs which have been transplanted
and which perform their functions in the body of another animal; of
marvellous operations, in which tissues and viscera have been removed,
repaired, and replaced--seeming none the worse for their remarkable
experience; of operations which have been performed even upon the brain,
in which whole segments have been cut away, and other delicate
experiments undertaken--all of these marvels we have grown more or less
accustomed to, by reason of the ease and certainty with which they are
performed. But the human mind; _that_ is a different matter. Here is
something which, intangible in itself, seems incapable of dissection or
of objective experimentation, in the ordinary sense of the word. Yet
that is what present-day normal and abnormal psychology has been enabled
to do! Shakespeare's adage: "Who can minister to a mind diseased?" can
now be answered by saying: "To a certain extent, the specialist in
normal and abnormal psychology."
If you shut your eyes, and turn your attention inward, in an attempt to
find your real "self," you will probably find a good deal of difficulty
in catching it. It will be found as illusory as the proverbial figure of
Happiness, which ever flits on before us. The real centre of being, the
self, the ego, the person, the individuality, evades us at every turn.
Each of us has the feeling, under all ordinary and normal circumstances,
that, as James expressed it, "I am the same self that I was yesterday."
And one would be most astonished, I fancy, were he to wake up one fine
morning and find himself some one else! Like the Arab in the tale, he
would be bewildered indeed!
From the solitary desert
Up to Bagdad, came a simple
Arab; there amid the rout
Grew bewildered of the countless
People, hither, thither, running,
Coming, going, meeting, parting,
Clamour, clatter, and confusion,
All around him and about.
Travel-wearied, hubbub-dizzy,
Would the simple Arab fain
Get to sleep,--"But then on waking,
How," quoth he, "amid so many
Waking, know myself again?"
So, to make the matter certain,
Strung a gourd about his ankle,
And, into a corner creeping,
Bagdad and himself and people
Soon were blotted from his brain.
But one that heard him and divined
His purpose, slyly crept behind;
From the sleeper's ankle clipping,
Round his own the pumpkin tied,
And laid him down to sleep beside.
By and by the Arab waking
Looks directly for his signal--
Sees it on another's ankle--
Cries aloud, "Oh, good-for-nothing
Rascal to perplex me so,
That by you I am bewildered,
Whether I be I or no!
If _I_--the pumpkin why on you!
If _You_--then where am I, and who?"
One can quite appreciate the tangled state of our Arab's mind on
awakening under such peculiar circumstances, and, from the point of view
of common sense and common experience, such an awakening would be an
utter impossibility--fit only for fairy tales and the traditions of
savage tribes. Yet, in our own day, here in civilized New York and
London, similar cases have been recorded and studied by experts! Under
peculiar circumstances, patients have gone to sleep one person and
awakened another; and they have remained another, not only during the
first temporary moments of bewilderment, but sometimes for days, weeks,
and months at a time; and in some cases even whole years have elapsed
before the first "self" returned to tenant the body, to look out of the
eyes it had looked out of years before; to take up the self-conscious
life it had lain down in sleep. And to this there may be the added
horror that, during the intervening period of oblivion (for this Self)
the same external body, actuated by another "Self," may have performed
actions and lived a course of life utterly at variance with the tastes
and desires of the primary "Self." The other Self may even have married
the common body in the interval--to a man whom the original self had
never known--does not know now! There may even have been children;
friends, environment, all, all may have been changed in the interim.
Like Rip van Winkle, the setting of life may be found to have altered;
but in some of these cases, the awakening must be the greater nightmare.
The unfamiliarity, even horror, of the situation can be imagined. Yet
many such cases exist; and the two Selves alternately usurp and
manipulate a common body; the Real Self and the Stranger. Who and what
is this Stranger? Apparently it is an alien spirit--another soul,
perchance, entangled miserably in the body of some equally unhappy
mortal! Yet modern psychology contends that such cases represent, for
the most part, mere splits or dislocations or dissociations of the
normal personality; and that the two or more Selves we see before us, at
such times, are none of them a _real_ self; but mere fragments of the
primary self, dissociated from it, owing to some shock or accident or
disease. Let us see if we can penetrate a little deeper into this
mystery of being; and lay bare the secrets of this alien Self, as well
as the original Self which owned the body from birth.
The older psychology held that the mind was a _unit_; that it was a
separate thing or entity, a sort of _sphere_, which, if it could ever be
caught, would reveal all the secrets of True Being. Accordingly, they
tried to catch this sphere-of-being, by inward reflection or
"introspection." But it was never caught! There are many reasons why
this should be so, the chief reason being that a subject cannot be an
object also; it is as impossible for a thought to catch itself as it
would be to turn a hollow rubber ball inside out without tearing the
cover.[20] But the newer psychology studies the mind objectively, from
the outside, by means of recording instruments, and does not depend upon
introspection for its results. Further, the very conception of the
nature of the "self" is different; it is not now considered an entity,
as of old; but rather a compound thing, a product, a complex, composed
of a variety of elements. Instead of being considered a single gossamer
thread, it is now thought to be rather a _rope_, composed of
innumerable, interwoven elements--and these, in turn, of still finer
threads, until the subdivision seems endless. The mind, in other words,
is thought to be compounded of innumerable separate elements; but held
together, or compounded into one, by the normal action of the will, of
attention, and the grip upon the personality of the true Self. When this
will is weakened; when the attention is constantly slackened, when the
mind wanders, this single strand of rope separates and unravels. The
"threads" branch out in various directions, no longer in control of the
central, governing will; the Self has become dissociated or split-up
into various minor Selves--all but parts of the real, total self; yet
separate and distinct, nevertheless. And if enough of these threads
become joined together, or interwoven, one with another, it can easily
be imagined that this second strand of rope might become a formidable
opponent to the original strand; it might become so large and strong, in
fact, by the constant addition of new threads, and the dissociation of
these from the first, true strand, that it would assume a more important
role, and become stronger, and finally even control the whole. What was
originally but a single fine, divergent thread has become, in course of
time, a successful rival to the original strand of rope.
Now let us apply the analogy. The mind as a whole represents the rope;
its elements or component parts are the threads; and, under certain
abnormal conditions, these can become torn away from the original
Self--like little rivulets, branching off from the main stream of
consciousness, forming independent selves. This is an abnormal
condition; a splitting of the mind, a dissociation of consciousness.
Another fragment of consciousness, distinct in itself, has been formed.
Thus we have a case of so-called double consciousness, of alternating
personality; or, if there are three or more such splits or cleavages, of
multiple personality.[21]
Now we are in a better position to understand the nature of this alien
self which has been formed, and which alternately usurps the common
body. It is no foreign spirit; it is not a demon or fiend which has
entered into the subject; it is merely a portion of the patient's own
mind, acting independently a life of its own. It is a portion of the
real Self, functioning independently. Let us now see how these splits or
dissociations take place.
Often they are the result of some shock to the emotional nature. In one
of Dr. Morton Prince's cases, the patient happened to look up and saw in
the window the face of a man whom she had known years before, and with
whom she had tragic emotional associations. It was storming at the time,
and a lightning flash revealed the face in the window. It was a highly
dramatic scene, and the shock to the patient's emotional nature caused
her consciousness to split-up or become dissociated into various selves;
and thenceforward for years these separate "selves" lived independent
lives, each ignorant of the life of the other. In this case, there were
several such personalities which alternated; and they were only finally
unified and the real Self again restored by means of hypnotic
suggestion, after a careful analysis of the various selves. This
synthesis of the various streams of consciousness, and their ultimate
unification into one primary normal self, is one of the most startling,
as it is one of the most interesting and suggestive, feats of modern
psychological medicine.
The principle upon which many of these cures rest, and the efficacy of
suggestion, is thus apparent. By its aid the skilled specialist in
abnormal psychology is enabled to gather up the "loose ends" of
conscious life, as it were, and unify and consolidate them into one
normal, healthy Self. He is enabled to weave them all together, and
again restore the "sheath" or "wrapper" of the individual human will,
keeping these threads in place henceforth, and restoring the healthy,
normal personality; the _mens sana in corpore sano_.
Exactly _how_ all this can come about I shall now endeavour to show.
Before any of the more complex and complicated disorders of the mind can
be understood, it will be necessary for us to discuss very briefly the
nature of the subconscious mind--since it is upon this that all modern
researches have in a great measure rested--upon the improved
understanding of its nature that many of these cures rest.
It has long been known that there is a sort of mind in us, capable, at
times, of performing complicated and intelligent actions without the
co-operation or knowledge of the conscious mind. We see examples of this
daily--in the absent-minded actions of certain individuals, in the dream
life, in hypnotic trance, and in many of the cases of normal and
peculiar mental action, of which numerous examples might be given, but
which are so well known that it is hardly necessary at this late date to
elaborate in detail. The idea has been so extensively employed by Hudson
in his theory of "the subjective mind," and by others, that the general
theory has pretty well saturated the public mind. Hudson's
theory--otherwise open to many criticisms--is very lax, not to say
erroneous, in its construction, and is not accepted today by any
competent psychologist. Apart from the mysterious powers with which he
endowed the "subjective" mind, he makes it now synonymous with the
_whole_ of the subconscious life outside the field of immediate
consciousness; now as equivalent merely to the hypnotic stratum; now to
a dream-like self, etc., until the term has become so elastic that it
means nothing intelligible but everything in general! As understood by
the modern psychologist, the term "subconscious mind" must be defined
far more accurately before we can proceed to use it as a working
hypothesis. What, then, is understood by the subconscious mind? What
part of us can perform conscious operations without our being conscious
of them? How can we perform intelligent operations without intelligence?
It all depends upon the meaning we give to our terms. We must begin by
explaining just what is meant by the "subconscious mind"; then, perhaps,
we can better understand its operations and aberrations.
There are several theories as to the nature of this subterranean stratum
of our being--this hidden self--each of which finds its champion in the
modern psychological schools. First, there is the theory that it
consists merely in the mechanical workings of the brain--a purely
physiological theory, which makes the subconscious mind synonymous with
certain brain activities--much the same as a series of complex
reactions. It is well known that there is a brain-change corresponding
to every thought we think; and the nature of the connection between the
two has been one of the most debated points in metaphysics, and is one
which, if we thoroughly understood it, would doubtless solve in a great
measure the nature of life and of consciousness. Without going into this
very complex question, however, there remains the undoubted _fact_ of
the connection; the thought, which is known by us in consciousness; and
the brain-change, which has been verified by ingenious mechanical and
electrical instruments, and the effects of which we behold in the
chemical changes in the brain-substance itself after severe thinking.
This being so, it has been said, Why not suppose that so-called
subconscious actions _are_ merely brain activities which take place, but
which have never risen into consciousness? Professor Muensterberg and
others hold this view. It has been conclusively shown, however, by Dr.
Morton Prince and others, that this theory fails to explain adequately
many of the facts--seems indeed contrary to much experimental evidence;
and this view is now given up by all but the most materialistic of the
modern psychological school. We have to search deeper yet for the
mystery of the subconscious mind; and we shall have to grant it a
certain amount of consciousness of its own, apart from all purely brain
activity.
A very opposite theory is that advanced by Mr. F. W. H. Myers--that of
the "subliminal self." This theory says that the conscious mind is but
an infinitely small part of our total self--a mere fragment; that
portion best adapted to meet the needs of everyday life. To borrow an
analogy from physics, "consciousness is only the visible portion of the
spectrum; the invisible, ultra portions are our subconscious selves." I
shall not venture upon a criticism of this theory beyond saying that the
majority of modern psychologists do not hold to it; and hence, whether
it be ultimately true or false, we must disregard it for our present
purposes.
Thirdly, there is the theory that the subconscious mind is composed
entirely of dissociated or split-off ideas--ideas which have been
dissociated or split off from the main stream of consciousness, much as
a few freight cars might be shunted on to a side track by the
switch-engine. This hypothesis is very similar to another theory, which
contends that the subconsciousness consists of dissociated
experiences--mental happenings which have been forgotten or passed
beyond voluntary recall. For these mental states, or rather trains of
thought, Prince has suggested the term "co-conscious," because they are
conscious processes in operation at the same time as the normal
consciousness. This theory is doubtless far nearer an adequate
explanation of the facts than that which contends that the subconscious
is merely a portion of the field of consciousness which happens to lie
outside the field of _attention_, because _that_ is a theory certainly
inadequate to cover the facts. This last hypothesis is one which seems
to be favoured by Coriat and others, but it is certainly limited in its
application.
Now let us see if we cannot obtain a clearer grasp of the facts, in view
of the above discussion as to the nature of the subconscious mind. We
may sum-up the facts as follows:--
As the result, either of some sudden shock, or by reason of certain
subjective psychological practices carried to an extreme, we have a
splitting of the mind into two or more separate streams, which function
separately and independently, and generally with no memory connection
between the two, so that each is ignorant of what the other stream, or
self, is doing. This is already an abnormal condition, a pathological
state, and its severity depends upon the degree of cleavage between the
streams of thought. If this be deep and lasting, we have a well-marked
case of hysteria, or other disorders to be noted immediately; if, on the
other hand, the cleavage be slight, we have merely absent-mindedness,
wandering of the mind, and many lesser symptoms which indicate this
tendency to dissociation, and which should be checked at all costs in
their inception, since they are symptomatic of the tendency to
disintegration of the mind, and which, if unchecked, would lead to grave
disturbances later on. It is because of this fact that too much
automatic writing, crystal-gazing, meditation, attendance at spiritistic
circles, etc., is harmful; they one and all induce a passive state of
the mind which favours dissociation and disintegration. Many of the
insanities start in this fashion; and all such practices, instead of
being encouraged, should be discouraged; and all experienced and
intelligent students of psychical research warn those who "dabble" in
the subject against the repeated and promiscuous indulgence in such
practices--because of the dangerous, even disastrous, effects upon the
mind, in many instances.
But we have not yet reached a distinctly morbid state. This dissociation
may be slight, and of little consequence; and may even be completely
"healed" without the knowledge of the patient; without his knowledge
that anything strange has taken place at all--just as tubercular lesions
of the lungs may be healed without the patient ever having known that he
had suffered from tuberculosis. The co-conscious stream may again be
diverted into the main, healthy channel; the threads of the wounded mind
may again be bound up, with only a scar to indicate where the delicate
protective covering had been ruptured. If such is the case, all is well
thenceforward.
But the termination of the accident may not be so fortunate. If, as
before said, the cleavage be deep and lasting; and if, instead of
attempting to bind up the wounded mind, those practices which caused the
original "split" be persisted in; if shock follow shock--to the mental,
moral, emotional, or physical nature; if great exhaustion, lack of
sleep, or of proper food, or other causes of a like nature, be
present--then it is evident that the cleavage must become deeper and
deeper yet; and, in a short time, the few stray, wandering thoughts
become grouped and bound together, and begin to form a veritable
psychological entity. A secondary, an alien self, has been formed. And
just as it is increasingly difficult to dam-up a river which has once
found its way to some unaccustomed channel, so this secondary stream of
consciousness will soon become a rushing, mighty torrent, incapable of
being checked or dammed in its mad course.
So long as this split-off portion remains a mass of sporadic thoughts,
not much damage has been done; but when they become abnormally linked or
associated together, forming groups, then the abnormal conditions have
begun in earnest. These masses of subconscious experiences are called
"complexes," and give rise to all sorts of trouble. It must not be
thought that this complex formation is always harmful; on the contrary,
this very process, when normally conducted, is the basis of our
educational processes. But when they are thus conglomerated and
consolidated outside the conscious mind, and function automatically,
involuntarily, by themselves, then they have become dangerous to the
mental stability. Their pressure and influence may be felt in the
conscious life--in fantastic imaginations, in fears, phobias, and
obsessions--in morbid dreams--in morbid emotional and moral reactions
throughout the entire psycho-physical life. It is these automatic,
self-acting complexes which originate many of the disorders of the mind.
How, then, are we to diagnose this condition when once it has been
reached; and, when once diagnosed, how is it to be treated? These are
the all-important questions which modern psychological students have set
themselves to solve, with more or less success. As briefly as may be,
these are the methods.
In the first place, a careful system of observation, question, and
experiment will yield many important results. An analysis of the dream
life will prove of great value in this connection also. If the dreams
cannot be voluntarily recalled, they are brought to light by means of
hypnotism, psycho-analysis, or the employment of what is known as the
"hypnoidal" state--as induced by Dr. Boris Sidis. This is an
artificially induced condition, half-way between sleeping and waking, in
which many half-forgotten experiences again merge into the mind; and
even thoughts which had _never_ been in the conscious mind at
all--subconscious observations, etc., or the content of the dream life.
These dreams are then analysed. It is a very striking fact that
differing or alternating selves may have entirely different dreams; or,
on the other hand, different and distinct selves may have a common
meeting-place in the dream world. By means of dreams, it has thus been
possible to come in touch with the thoughts of the other Self, which had
been impossible by any other means at our disposal. A study and analysis
of the dream life has thus assumed great importance within the past few
years, and bids fair to assume greater and greater importance as the
study of the subconscious, and abnormal psychology, increases.
Other methods of tapping the subconscious mental life are: planchette,
automatic writing and crystal-gazing. In the former cases, a pencil is
placed in the hand of the subject, or the hand is placed on a
planchette; and, while the conscious mind is occupied in conversation,
or reading aloud, etc., the hand is, nevertheless, writing out an
account of its experiences--its thoughts and feelings--which prove
highly valuable to the investigator. Or the patient may be asked to look
into a crystal, and describe what, if any, visions and pictures form
within the ball. These pictures are, of course, hallucinatory; but they
indicate, none the less, the content of the subconscious mind; since
they are the externalized thoughts and feelings of that stratum of the
mind. Here, again, we have a valuable means of diagnosis.
Again, we have a purely experimental method of studying the emotions--by
means of the galvanometer. An electric current being passed through the
body, variations in the current are detected by means of an electric
needle, which fluctuates as the current varies. Now, it has been found
that these fluctuations vary in accordance with changed emotional
states; and that in certain conditions of the mind, such as dementia,
the variations are almost entirely absent, because of the lack of
emotional reactions. It has thus been found that this form of insanity
is largely a disease of the emotional life. On the other hand, when the
emotions are strong, the fluctuations of the needle are very marked and
prolonged. We have thus another most valuable method of testing the
emotional life--always largely subconscious--by means of purely
mechanical instruments.
Finally, we have hypnotism, the skilled employment of which has been
found of inestimable value in laying bare the secrets of the
subconscious life. By its aid it has been found possible to disclose the
secrets of being, to tap the subconscious mind at will, to explore the
hidden regions of Self, which would otherwise have remained for ever
inaccessible to the experimenter. For, by placing the patient in the
hypnotic condition, the subconscious mind is exposed to view, as it
were, and its secrets made manifest. The wounds and scars are thus
rendered visible to the mental eye of the physician, and he is enabled
to treat his case accordingly.
Yes, hypnotism has been found one of the chief means of cure as well as
of diagnosis. By its aid the tangled skein of the mental life may be
unravelled, the mental knots may be untied, and the threads may be woven
and plaited together again into one normal, healthy chain of being. This
may be accomplished by means of suggestion rightly applied. When once
the hidden complex has been brought to the surface, when its story is
told, its secrets laid bare, it seems incapable of doing more damage, of
again influencing the mental life detrimentally. Its life, its vitality,
seems to have gone; its ammunition has been stolen, it has "shot its
bolt," it is incapable of doing more injury to the normal self. Many
hidden fears, depressions, and obsessions have been removed in this
manner, simply by bringing these hidden fears and thoughts to the
surface and disposing of them by means of suggestion. Many seemingly
miraculous cures have been effected in this manner. The "demons" have
been expelled, the brooding thoughts have vanished. This method of
dispelling them is technically known as the cathartic method, and
consists simply in a frank and full confession. When this has been
brought about, when the brooding thoughts have been brought to
light--confessed and discharged, as it were, from the mind--then a cure
will be found to have been wrought; the man has again been made whole--a
very significant fact if taken in connection with religious conversion,
communion, confession, and prayer.
We have somewhat diverged, however, from our main theme, to which we
must now return. We have seen that the subconscious mind may become, so
to speak, _diseased_--this consisting very largely in the processes of
dissociation, complex formation, etc. Further, we have seen that this
dissociated, automatically-acting "self" may exist either as a separate
stream of thought running alongside of, or rather _below_ the main
current; or may alternate with it, by rising to the surface and
occupying the whole stage to the exclusion of the normal
consciousness--when we have those cases of alternating or multiplex
personality which have so puzzled psychologists for many years--and the
correct interpretation of which we are only just beginning to realize.
When this complete change of "self" has taken place, we have those cases
of altered personality referred to at the beginning of this
chapter--cases which are tragic in the extreme in many instances, but
which represent merely extreme types of those losses of memory from
which we all suffer, to a greater or lesser extent, even in our normal
life. The restoration of lost memories by means of suggestion--the
synthesis of the dissociated states--_this_ is the key to the mystery,
the great secret of modern psychotherapy.
And this theory of dissociation of consciousness has enabled us to
explain many puzzling facts hitherto inexplicable. Thus _hysteria_, with
its multiform symptoms and its internal contradictions, has long been
the stumbling-block of medicine. Now it is no longer thought to be a
morbid state (dependent usually upon sexual disturbances), but it is
regarded rather as an indication of the splitting of the mind, a
dissociation which embraces all the motor, physical, and psychical
activities. On this theory, hysteria is easily explained and all its
multiplex symptoms understood. In treating it, the self is unified,
abnormal suggestibility is removed, and the patient is cured!
_Psychaesthenia_ again, with its obsessions and fears, may be explained
in the same manner, and its cure rests upon the same principles. The
"attacks" cease so soon as the psychical synthesis is effected and the
morbid self-consciousness removed.
_Neurasthenia_, long regarded as a pathological state, due to
auto-intoxication and similar causes, is now thought to be due chiefly
to dissociation, caused by excessive fatigue--one of the known
contributory causes to this condition. _Psycho-epilepsy_--a sort of
fictitious imitation of the real disease--is due to precisely similar
causes, and may be cured in a similar manner.
A word of caution may not be out of place in this connection. Inasmuch
as hypnotism is itself a method of inducing a passive psychological
state--one peculiarly open to suggestion of all kinds--it can readily be
seen that its employment may be exceedingly dangerous, save in the
hands of a skilled operator. It may be the very _cause_ of a splitting
of the mind--if improperly administered--if the patient is not
thoroughly awakened, the effects of suggestion completely removed, etc.
In this lies the great danger--of which we hear so much, usually with so
little foundation! The _real_ danger in the process is thus apparent;
but, properly applied, hypnotism is doubtless of great therapeutic
utility and of great practical value to the psychologist.
Just _how_ these dissociations of the mind take place we do not yet know
with any degree of certainty. We might suppose that certain areas in the
brain-cortex become detached in their functionings, as it were, from the
general activities, and set up a little "monarchy" of their
own--interactions and associations going on within that area, but never
extending beyond its periphery; that each one of these centres or areas
corresponds to a "self," a personality; and that a cure consists,
physiologically speaking, in bringing about a healthy and normal
interaction between this "self" and the rest of the brain area, so that
associations go on thenceforward in a complete and uniform manner. But
this is pure speculation, for which there is no experimental evidence,
though it probably represents something of the truth. At all events, the
dissociation of the mind is the chief cause of the trouble, and its
synthesis the chief means of cure. _That_ much has been rendered certain
by the newer researches in the field of the subconscious, and by the
persistent search for that greatest of all secrets--the Mystery of
Being.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] It can be shown, theoretically, that this is possible in the
"fourth dimension," but not in the third. This illustrates the
difference between theory and practice--a point it might be well for
Christian Scientists to keep in mind!
[21] Although this theory of the "composite" nature of mind is now
generally held, Mr. Myers has contended that the Self must have a
_fundamental_ unity--to enable it to withstand the shock of death.