THE SUBCONSCIOUS[5]
Man’s nerve cell organization may be classified into two main
systems:
(I) The inferior, the reflex, the instinctive, the automatic
centers.
(II) The superior, the controlling, selective, and inhibitory
brain-centers of the cortex.
The double systems of nerve-centers have correspondingly a double
mental activity, or double-consciousness as it is sometimes called,
the inferior, the organic, the instinctive, the automatic, the
reflex consciousness, or briefly termed the _subconsciousness_,
consciousness below the threshold of self-consciousness; and
the superior, the choosing, the willing, the critical, the
_will-consciousness_. This controlling will-consciousness may also
be characterized as the guardian-consciousness of the individual.
From an evolutionary standpoint, we can well realize the biological
function or importance of this guardian-consciousness. The external
world bombards the living organism with innumerable stimuli. From
all sides thousands of impressions come crowding upon the senses of
the individual. Each neuron system with its appropriate receptors
has its corresponding system of reactions which, if not modified or
counteracted, may end in some harmful or fatal result.
It is not of advantage to an individual of a complex organization
to respond with reaction to all impressions coming from the
external environment. Hence, that organism will succeed best in the
struggle for existence that possesses some selective, critical,
inhibitory “choice and will” centers. The more organized and the
more sensitive and delicate those centers are, the better will the
organism succeed in its life existence.
The guardian-consciousness wards off, so far as it is possible, the
harmful blows given by the stimuli of the external environment. In
man, this same guardian consciousness keeps on constructing, by a
series of elimination and selection, a new environment, individual
and social, which leads to an ever higher and more perfect
development and realization of the inner powers of individuality
and personality.
Under normal conditions man’s superior and inferior centers with
their corresponding upper, critical, controlling consciousness
together with the inferior automatic, reflex centers and their
concomitant subconscious consciousness, keep on functioning in
full harmony. The upper and lower consciousness form one organic
unity,--one conscious, active personality.
Under certain abnormal conditions, however, the two systems of
nerve-centers with their corresponding mental activities may become
dissociated. The superior nerve-centers with their critical,
controlling consciousness may become inhibited, split off from the
rest of the nervous system. The reflex, automatic, instinctive,
subconscious centers with their mental functions are laid bare,
thus becoming directly accessible to the stimuli of the outside
world; they fall a prey to the influences of external surroundings,
influences termed _suggestions_.
The critical, controlling, guardian-consciousness, being cut off
and absent, the reduced individuality lacks the rational guidance
and orientation given by the upper choice- and will-centers,
and becomes the helpless plaything of all sorts of suggestions,
sinking into the _trance states of the subconscious. It is this
subconscious that forms the highway of suggestions._ Suggestibility
is the essential characteristic of the subconscious.
The subconscious rises to the surface of consciousness, so to
say, whenever there is a weakening, paralysis, or inhibition of
the upper, controlling will and choice-centers. In other words,
whenever there is a disaggregation of the superior from the
inferior nerve-centers, there follows an increase of ideo-sensory,
ideo-motor, sensori-secretory, reflex excitability; and
ideationally, or rationally there is present an abnormal intensity
of suggestibility.[6]
FOOTNOTES:
[5] The theory of the subconscious was first developed by me in my
volume “The Psychology of Suggestion,” 1898.
[6] I object to the term “Subliminal,” because it is understood
in a cosmic, or metaphysical sense. The term “co-conscious” is
limited and refers to independently functioning, contemporaneous
personalities, or mental systems. The term “Unconscious” is
_misleading_, because it may refer to the metaphysics of Hartmann.
At best it simply means nervous processes which, as such, belong to
neurology, physiology, but not to the domain of abnormal psychology.
The term “subconscious,” used by me in “The Psychology of
Suggestion,” means _tracts of mental states which may or may not
function in the total mental reaction of the individual_.