New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-07-27
Literary .Nese's and Criticism.

!ni'Jakable sugsastibty we have had no difficulty
- demonstrating numerous and evident traces of
60 '1t u'se-se more or less grave. such as exces-
)slFe absence Of mind. or even anesthesias AT
IdChs' paralyses, fixed ideas. Suggestibilitv
WIN Such persons should not be considered sim
ne eA8-Eeration Of docty and normal belief
Iiley nave an unsteady, undiscipned disposition
lieE are incapable of voluntary obedience. For
my Fart have never seen fine suggestfhIe sub
yec' "ho was not clearly hystericaI; and inverseIy
-" 'HS aLWaFs ''eH able to make all the expert
lnehts Of suggestion on The subjects who had de-
oucd morbid accidents Suggestion presents itself
oXpe-lmontaly and accidentally only with bvsteri-
Gals: and iHVersely. al hystericals when we study
them from this standpoint, present this phenoni-
enon in a higher or lower degree. The most i'm
bility.
AS phases Of this same SUCCESSFULLY and
hystcrla, NJ. Janet finds exaggerated absent
mindedRess and subconscious actions; one might
almost say, we told, that the whole disease
Of hysteria is only a form of observation-disclosures.
one of whose natural manifestations is hypnotic
suggestbility. What the psychologists call 'the
held OF consciousness or the totality Of all
things experienced at a given moment clearly
or vaguely, is the true scene of the disturbances
which science recognizes under the name cf hys-
terra. This field of consciousness becomes
strangely contracted, and in hystericals, In
normal persons who are attending with great IN
tensity to something important the few ideas
most vivid in mind crowd out and keep out all
other ideas leaving the latter to express their
subconscious presence through motions wholly
unfet and unsupported by the individual. Some
of the most curious phenomena in hysteria are
10 be traced TO this limiting of the field of con-
scioUsness by reason OF the further fact that,
when this field is contracted, nothing can be
added 10 1t without crowding out something al
ready there. Thus hysterical patient whose
right hand became inSensibie to ell feeling sue
CeCded in having SensibIlty restored 10 the in
tured member by hypnotic suggestion; but with
IN twenty-four hours after the sensations from
tho right hand had begun to come in normally,
the left hand suddenly became anesthetic;
when it was cured in the same manner as the
right hand had been, the right hand lost its
sens.biIity again! In short, the poor womans
field of consciousness was so narrow that ii had
room for sensations from two hands This
phenomenon of Attenuation Equivalence,
which has been 4 stumbling block to medical
mon who have neglected the psychological in
depreciation. thus becomes fairly ineligible.
We wish ". Janet had taken time in these
lectures TO explain more fully how this con-
traction of the field Of consciousness may be
conveniently explained the result of INSULT
Cient neural energy, or Of imperfect transmission
of such energy from one system of brain cen
tres 10 another Doubtless the learned neuro-
pathic scientist assumed that his hearers and
readers would not need any such instruction.
Nevertheless. we think that his admirable pres
entation would have gained in CONTINGENCIES
II something more than the field OF conscious
ness had been used in explanations In spite
Of the fact that physiological theorists have
despaired Of distinguishing and explaining
hysteria in purely physiological terms; in spite.
too OF the great value OF such mora! diagnoses
as those of NJ Janet, there IS still need for
theory which will show clearly the precise re-
lation between mental abnOrmalities and the
structure and functions Of the nervous sys-
TEN. Although NJ. Janet minimizes the possible
value Of such a physiological theory it seems
rash to prophesy that It would not materially
assist in the treatment OF hyster!a