NATURAL SOMNAMBULISM--HYPNOTIC SOMNAMBULISM--DREAMS.
The first of these more accessible conditions to claim attention is
natural somnambulism, or sleep-walking. The phenomena of this peculiar
state have been observed from time immemorial, and have always been looked
upon as one of the most wonderful and interesting subjects in the domain
of the old psychology.
In this state the subject, while apparently in ordinary sleep, arises from
his bed and proceeds, sometimes to perform the most ordinary, everyday
actions--cooking a dinner, washing clothes, sawing wood, or going out to a
neighboring market town to transact business; sometimes, on the other
hand, he does the most unusual things; he performs perilous journeys in
dangerous and unfamiliar places in perfect safety and with unusual ease;
sometimes intellectual work of a difficult nature, such as had baffled the
student in his waking hours, is easily accomplished, and he finds the
solution of his mathematical problem or the needed point in his argument
all plainly wrought out and prepared for him when he goes to his desk the
following morning; moreover, if the work from any cause should be
interrupted, and the same conditions recur upon the following or some
subsequent night, it may be resumed at the point where it was interrupted;
or if the somnambulist talks, as well as acts, in his sleep the
conversation shows that each succeeding occasion is connected with
previous ones, all together constituting a chain of memories similar to
that of the different personalities which have been presented in the four
cases already described.
Sometimes all these different actions are accomplished without light or
with the eyes fast closed, or else open and staring, but without vision.
Sometimes, however, the new personality developed in the sleep of the
somnambulist fails to come into proper relations with his surroundings,
when he may also fail to accomplish the dangerous journey, and may walk
from an open window or an unguarded balcony with disastrous results.
The second condition which presents analogies to the duplex or multiplex
personalities, which are under consideration, is that of the somnambulism
which occurs in the hypnotic sleep. While usually the hypnotic subject is
passive and unconsciously receives the suggestions which are impressed
upon him, not unfrequently a personality comes to the front which acts
independently, and presents all the characteristics which we have found
pertaining to a distinct personality.
A rare example of this alternating personality brought about by hypnotism
is afforded by the French subject, Mme. B., whose acquaintance we have
already made as a subject upon whom hypnotism at a distance was
successfully carried out by Prof. Janet and Dr. Gibert of Havre. As we
have already seen, in her ordinary condition Mme. B. is a stolid,
substantial, honest French peasant, about forty years of age, of very
moderate intelligence, and without any education or any ambition for
notoriety. In this state Prof. Janet calls her Leonie.
Hypnotized, she is at once changed into a bright, vivacious,
mischief-loving, rather noisy personality, who considers herself on
excellent terms with the doctor, and whom the professor names Leontine.
Later, by further hypnotization and a deeper trance, there appears a
sedate, sensible personality, intellectually much superior to Leonie, the
primary self, and much more dignified than the vivacious Leontine, and
this third personality Prof. Janet calls Leonore.
Leontine, the hypnotic or second self, knows Leonie, the original Mme. B.,
very well, and is very anxious not to be confounded with her. She always
calls her "the other one," and laughs at her stupidity. She says, "That
good woman is not I, she is too stupid." One day Prof. Janet hypnotized
Leonie, and as usual at once Leontine was present. Prof. Janet then
suggested to Leontine that when she awoke and Leonie had resumed the
command, she (Leontine) should take off the apron of Leonie, their common
apron, on their one physical personality, and then tie it on again. She
was then aroused from her hypnotic condition, and at once Leonie was
present without the slightest knowledge of Leontine, for she never knew of
this second personality, nor of hypnotic suggestion in any form. Leonie,
supposing the professor's experiment was over, was conducting him to the
door, talking indifferently in her slow, dull way, and at the same time
unconsciously her fingers were working at her apron-strings. The loosened
apron was falling off when the professor called her attention to it. She
exclaimed, "Why, my apron is falling off!" and then, fully conscious of
what she was doing, she replaced and tied it on again. She then continued
her talk. She only supposed that somehow accidentally the apron had come
untied and she had retied it, and that was all.
To the now submerged Leontine, however, this was not enough; her mission
had not been completed, and at her silent prompting Leonie again fumbled
at the apron-strings; unconsciously she untied and took off the apron, and
then put it on again without her attention having been drawn to what she
had now the second time done. The next day Prof. Janet again hypnotized
Leonie and Leontine made her appearance.
"Well," said she, "I did what you told me yesterday. How stupid 'the other
one' looked while I took her apron off? Why did you tell her that her
apron was falling off? Just for that, I had to do the job all over again."
Here the hypnotic or secondary self, as in my own reported case, appears
as a persistent entity, remembering and reasoning, while the primary self
was at the same time in command of their common body. Leontine not only
caused Leonie to untie and retie her apron, but she enjoyed the fun,
remembered it, and told it the next day.
Again Leonore was as much ashamed of Leontine's flippancy as Leontine was
of Leonie's stupidity.
"You see well enough," she said, "that I am not that prattler, that
madcap. We do not resemble each other in the least."
In fact, she sometimes gave Leontine good counsel in regard to her
behavior, and in a peculiar manner--by producing the hallucination of
hearing a voice, thus again showing the conscious activity of the
submerged self while a primary self was at the same time dominant and
active. As Dr. Janet relates the incident, Leontine was one day in an
excited, hysterical condition, noisy and troublesome with her chatter,
when suddenly she stopped her senseless talk and cried out with terror:
"Oh! Who is it there talking to me like that?"
"No one was speaking to you."
"Yes, there on the left." And she opened a closet door in the direction
indicated, to see that no one was hidden there.
"What is it that you hear?" asked the professor.
"I hear a voice on the left there which keeps saying to me: 'Enough,
enough; be quiet. You are a nuisance!'" which, the professor remarks, was
exactly the truth.
Leonore, in her turn, was then brought to the surface.
"What was it that happened," asked Prof. Janet, "when Leontine was so
frightened?"
"Oh, nothing," she replied. "I told her she was a nuisance and to keep
quiet. I saw she was annoying you. I don't know why she was so
frightened."
I may be pardoned for mentioning one other fact regarding the relationship
of these singular personalities, because it illustrates more pointedly if
possible than anything else their entire duplex and separate character.
Leonie or Madame B. is married, but Leontine is not. Madame B. however,
was hypnotized at her accouchements, and became Leontine. So Leontine was
the presiding personality when the children were born. Leontine therefore
considers herself the mother of two children, and would be greatly grieved
were any doubts expressed regarding her right of motherhood in them.
The analogies between the mental conditions presented respectively in
ordinary somnambulism and the somnambulism of the hypnotic trance, and the
mental conditions presented in the four cases previously recited are
numerous and obvious; in fact, they seem as indeed they are, like the
same conditions differently produced and varying in the length of time
they occupy, and it is evident that in them there is brought to view a
mental state of sufficient uniformity, as well as of sufficient interest
and importance, to be worthy of serious consideration.
The facts thus far brought into view are these: That in a considerable
number of persons there may be developed, either spontaneously or
artificially, a second personality different in character and distinct in
its consciousness and memories from the primary or original self; that
this second personality is not a mere change of consciousness, but in some
sense it is a different entity, having a power of observation, attention
and memory not only when the primary self is submerged and without
consciousness or volition, but also at the same time that the primary self
is in action, performing its usual offices, and in its turn it is equally
capable of managing the affairs and performing the offices properly
pertaining to the common body whenever needed for that purpose.
Reckoning these different personalities as No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, etc., No.
1 has no knowledge of No. 2, nor of any succeeding personality, nor of
their acts, but the time occupied by them is to No. 1 a blank, during
which it is without volition, memory, or consciousness. No. 2 has a
distinct consciousness and chain of memories of its own, but it also knows
more or less perfectly the history and acts of No. 1--it knows this
history, however, only as pertaining to a third person; it knows nothing
of No. 3, nor of any personality subsequently coming into activity. No. 3
has also its distinct personality, and knows both No. 1 and No. 2, but
knows them only as separate and distinct personalities; it does not know
any personality coming into activity after itself.
So distinct are these personalities that No. 2 not only may not possess
the acquirements, as, for instance, the book knowledge, trade, or
occupation of No. 1, but may possess other capabilities and acquirements
entirely foreign to No. 1, and of which it possessed no knowledge.
Ansel Bourne was a farmer and preacher, and knew nothing of storekeeping.
A. J. Brown, the second personality, was a business man, neither farmer
nor preacher. Louis V., as No. 2, was a tailor, and a very good boy; as
No. 3, he was a private of marines, and knew nothing of tailoring, and he
was a moral monster; while, in what might be called his No. 5 condition,
he was again an undeveloped child, as he was before his fright.
Still another fact which comes prominently into view in examining these
cases is that the No. 2 personality may not, by any means, be inferior to
the No. 1, or original self. In none of the cases cited has the
intellectual capacity of the later developed personality been inferior to
that of the original self, and generally it was notably superior; only in
the No. 3 personality of Louis V. was the moral state worse than in No. 1,
and, in general, the moral standing of No. 2 or No. 3 was fully equal to
the primary self.
The emergence and dominance of a secondary personality, therefore, does
not by any means imply that the general standing of the individual
dominated by this second personality, as judged by disinterested
observers, is in any way inferior to the same individual dominated by the
primary self, but, on the contrary, a superior personality is rather to be
expected, and especially is this true when the secondary personality is
intelligently sought and brought to view by means of hypnotism.
It is, however, quite impossible by any _a priori_ reasoning, or from the
character of the primary self, to form any definite estimate concerning
the character or general characteristics of any new personality which may
make its appearance, either spontaneously or through the aid of
hypnotism.
Having become to a certain degree familiarized with the idea that in some
persons, at least, and under some peculiar circumstances, a second
personality may come to the surface and take the place for a longer or
shorter time of the primary self, it may be asked whether, after all,
these comparatively few persons in which this unusual phenomena has been
observed are essentially different in their mental constitution from other
people.
When those best acquainted with the slender and melancholy Felida N., or
the ordinary, quiet, well-behaved Louis V.; the industrious and respected
evangelist Ansel Bourne, or the large-brained, intellectual leader of
women, Alma Z., saw them in their ordinary state, before any subliminal
personality had emerged and made itself known, no one of those most
intimate acquaintances, no expert in character-reading, no student of
mental science could have given any reasonable intimation that any one of
them would develop a second personality, much less give any trustworthy
opinion as to the character which the new personality would possess.
A few months ago I was called in haste to see a patient, a large, strong
man of one hundred and eighty pounds weight, who had been thrown down and
trampled upon by his nineteen-year-old son during an attack of
somnambulism, and had received such serious injuries as to require
immediate surgical aid. The next day this son came to consult me regarding
his unfortunate habit of sleep-walking, which has often got him into
trouble before, and has now resulted in serious injury to his father. He
is a slight youth of one hundred and twenty pounds weight, light hair,
gray eyes, and a bright, frank face, expressive of good health and good
nature--"a perfect gentleman," as his father expressed it, "when himself,
but ten men cannot manage him when he gets up in his sleep; he will do
what he sets out to do."
Who would ever imagine that this slender, good-natured, gentlemanly lad,
sooner than any other lad, would in his sleep develop somnambulism and a
second personality, or that when it came that second personality should
prove a stubborn Samson?
Little could Prof. Janet imagine that beneath the surface consciousness of
that serene and stupid Leonie dwelt the frisky, vivacious, fun-loving
Leontine, waiting only the magic key of hypnotism to unlock and bring her
to the surface to reign instead of the heavy Leonie.
The people who, in various ways, develop second personalities may not
differ, it seems, in any perceptible manner from other people; is it not
quite possible, then, that other normal, ordinary people, possess a second
personality, deep-down beneath their ordinary, everyday self, and that
under conditions which favor a readjustment, this hidden subliminal self
may emerge and become for a longer or a shorter time the conscious, acting
one; and not only so, but may prove to be the brighter and better
organized of the two?
Having now, as it were, a chart, imperfect though it be, of this outlying
region, having some idea what to look for, and in what direction to look
for it, it is possible that glimpses of this subliminal personality which
each one unconsciously carries with him may be obtained under ordinary
conditions and in everyday life, more frequently and more easily than we
had imagined; for, as Ribot expresses it, the ordinary conscious
personality is only a feeble portion of the whole psychical personality.
One example of this more usual form of double personality is afforded in
ordinary dreaming. The dream country, like most of this outlying
territory, has for the most part been studied without chart or compass.
There is scarcely a point connected with the discussion of the subject
upon which the most eminent authorities are not divided; it is Locke
against Descartes, Hamilton against Locke, and Hobbes against the field.
If there be any one point, however, on which there is tolerable unanimity
among all writers, ancient and modern, great and small, it is the absence
in dreams of the normal acts and processes of volition, and, especially,
of the faculty of attention. Now, this is exactly the condition which is
conducive to the more or less perfect emergence and activity of the
subliminal self, under whatever circumstances it occurs.
There is first, loss of consciousness from catalepsy, fright, depressing
illness, hypnotism, or natural sleep, that is to say, the power of
attention or volition in the primary self is abolished; then comes a
readjustment of personalities, varying in completeness according to the
ease with which, in different persons, this readjustment may be effected,
and according to the completeness of the abolition of the power of
attention and volition.
In sleep the conditions are favorable for this readjustment, and the
subliminal self comes more or less perfectly to the surface; then appears
that most peculiar and interesting series of pictures and visions which we
call dreams; sometimes the rearranged, or rather unarranged, impressions
and perceptions of the waking hours brought together, possibly just before
the power of attention is entirely lost; sometimes the Puck-like work of
the subliminal personality, the Leontines of the dream-country influencing
the unconscious or semi-conscious primary self; sometimes the veridical or
truth-telling dreams, which have been the wonder of all ages, and
sometimes giving complete and active supremacy to the subliminal self as
in natural somnambulism. Another portion of the field in which it might be
profitable to look for evidence of the existence of a subliminal
personality is in the eccentric work of genius; and still another, in the
unexpected and often heroic actions of seemingly ordinary persons under
the stress and stimulus of a great emotion, as of joy, sorrow, or anger,
or of intense excitement, as for instance, the soldier in battle, the
fireman at the post of danger, or the philosopher or astronomer on the eve
of a new discovery; in all these cases the ordinary personality with its
intense self-consciousness and self-considering carefulness is
submerged--it disappears--the power of voluntary attention to mental
states or physical action is lost; a new and superior personality comes to
the surface and takes control. The supreme moment passes, and the primary
self resumes sway, scarcely conscious of what has been done or how it was
accomplished; even sensation has been abolished, and it is only now that
he discovers the bleeding bullet-wound, the charred member, or the broken
bone.
In physical science, whenever some new fact or law or principle has been
discovered, it is at once seen that many things which before were obscure,
or perhaps could only be accounted for by a theory of chance, or of direct
interference by an omnipotent Deity, are now illuminated by a new light,
and order reigns where before only confusion and darkness were visible.
Something of the same sort is beginning to be recognized in the world of
mental and psychical phenomena. If the mathematical exactness which
measured the force of gravity, or placed the sun in one of the foci of an
ellipse instead of the centre of a circle cannot be applied here, it is
only on account of the vast complexity of the problem presented, and of
which we know so few of the elements.
When matter alone is concerned we know exactly how it will act under given
conditions. When life is added, the problem becomes more complex. The
general law of evolution and the special law of natural selection in the
development of species are accepted facts, although we cannot with success
apply to them mathematical formulae. When mind is added to life, the
problem becomes still more complicated and mathematical exactness still
less likely to be attained. Many facts, however, are being ascertained in
psychical science, and some principles are being established which help to
bring order out of confusion and shed light on some dark places.
The recognition of a subliminal self as forming a part of the psychical
organization of man will throw light upon many obscure mental phenomena
and bring order out of seemingly hopeless confusion. Placed before us as a
working hypothesis, many other facts, before errant and unclassified,
group themselves about it in wonderful clearness and harmony.
Granting, then, provisionally at least, the reality of the secondary self,
what are its relations to the primary self and their common physical
organization, and how came it to occupy these relations? Mr. Frederick W.
H. Myers, to whom I have already referred, whose acute intellect and
scholarly attainments have been of the highest value to the society in
every department of its investigations, has also taken up this subject
with his usual skill and judgment. He looks upon it from the standpoint
of evolution, commencing with the earliest period of animal life. He
compares the whole psychical organization, together with its manifesting
physical organization, to the thousand looms of a vast manufactory.
The looms are complex and of varying patterns, for turning out different
sorts of work. They are also used in various combinations, and there are
various driving bands and connecting machinery by which they may severally
be connected or disconnected, but the motive power which drives the whole
is constant for all, and all works automatically to turn out the styles of
goods that are needed.
"Now, how did I come to have my looms and driving-gear arranged in this
particular way? Not, certainly, through any deliberate choice of my own.
My ancestor, the ascidian, in fact, inherited the business when it
consisted of little more than a single spindle; since his day my nearer
ancestors have added loom after loom."
Changes have been going on continually; some of the looms are now quite
out of date, have long been unused, and are quite out of repair or fallen
to pieces. Others are kept in order because the style of goods which they
turn out is still useful and necessary. But the class of goods called for
has greatly changed of late. For instance, the machinery at present in
operation is best adapted to turning out goods of a decidedly egoistic
style, for self-preservation, persistence in the struggle for life, and
for self-gratification; but a style is beginning to be called for of the
altruistic pattern. For this kind of goods the machinery is not well
adapted. It is old-fashioned, and changes are necessary. If there are any
looms in the establishment unknown and unused which can be turned to
account, or any way of modifying such as we have to meet the demand, it is
for our interest to know it.
But the methods of adjustment, and arrangements for bringing new looms
into operation are hidden and difficult of access, so we observe factories
where spontaneous readjustments are going on and new looms, not known to
have been in the establishment, are being brought automatically into
action and are found to work fairly well. Such instances are found in the
establishment of Felida X. or Louis V., from which valuable hints are
obtained regarding changes and readjustments.
Furthermore, in hypnotism, we find a safe and, at the same time, powerful
lever, for readjustment, by means of which in some establishments new
looms can be brought into play and shut off again almost at will; and
often while the new looms are at work doing good service we are able to
get at the old ones, repair and modernize them so as to make them useful,
and the immense value of hypnotism in this educational and reformatory
work has hardly begun to be known or appreciated. A single instance out of
many must suffice for illustration.
In the summer of 1884 there was at the Salpetriere a young woman of a
deplorable type, Jeanne S., who was a criminal lunatic, filthy, violent,
and with a life history of impurity and crime. M. Auguste Voisin, one of
the physicians of the staff, undertook to hypnotize her May 31st. At that
time she was so violent that she could only be kept quiet by a
strait-jacket and the constant cold douche to her head. She would not look
at M. Voisin, but raved and spat at him. He persisted, kept his face near
and opposite to hers, and his eyes following hers constantly. In ten
minutes she was in a sound sleep, and soon passed into the somnambulistic
condition. The process was repeated many days, and gradually she became
sane while in the hypnotic condition, but still raved when she awoke.
Gradually, then, she began to accept hypnotic suggestion, and would obey
trivial orders given her while asleep, such as to sweep her room, etc.;
then suggestions regarding her general behavior; then, in her hypnotic
condition, she began to express regret for her past life and form
resolutions of amendment, which she fully adhered to when she awoke. Two
years later she was a nurse in one of the Paris hospitals, and her conduct
was irreproachable. M. Voisin has followed up this case by others equally
striking.
Such is an imperfect sketch of the discoveries, experiments, and studies
which have been made in the domain of human personality. It is merely a
sketch, and certainly it is in no spirit of dogmatism that it is
presented; but as a collection of facts relating to human nature and the
constitution and action of the human mind, it is at least curious.
It need not destroy our convictions regarding the essential unity of
personality, but it must necessarily enlarge our conceptions of what
_constitutes an individual_, and how under various circumstances that
individual may act.
From many points of view, and in relation to many departments of study and
of human development--legal, moral, social, and educational--the subject
presents important bearings; and, furthermore, in the solution of other
psychological problems it will be found to possess the greatest possible
interest and value.