Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Neurasthenia | Page 5

psycho-analysis.
Our subconscious mind does not let the past jar with the present, for
life would be made bitter by the eternal vivid recollection of incidents
best forgotten. Every set of ideas, as it is done with, is locked up
separately in the dungeons of subconsciousness, and these imprisoned
ideas form the basis of memory. Nothing is ever forgotten, though we
may never again "remember" it this side the grave.
In a few cases we can unlock the cell-door and release the prisoner--we
"remember"; in some, we mislay the key for awhile; in many, the wards
of the lock have rusted, and we cannot open the door although we have
the key--we "forget"; finally, our prisoner may pick the lock, and make
us attend to him whether we wish to or not--something "strikes us".
Normally, only one set of ideas (a complex) can hold the stage of
consciousness at any one time. When two sets get on the boards
together, double-consciousness occurs, but even then they cannot try to
shout each other down; one set plays "leading lady", the other set the
"chorus belle" and so life is rendered bearable.
This "dissociation of consciousness" occurs in all of us. A skilled
pianist plays a piece "automatically" while talking to a friend; we often
read a book and think of other things at the same time: our full attention
is devoted to neither action; neither is done perfectly, yet both are done
sufficiently well to escape comment.
Day-dreaming is dissociation carried further. "Leading lady" and

"chorus belle" change places for a while--imaginary success keeps us
from worrying about real failure. Dissociation, day-dreaming, and
mental epilepsy are but few of the many milestones on a road, the end
of which is insanity, or complete and permanent dissociation, instead of
the partial and fleeting dissociation from which we all suffer. The
lunatic never "comes to", but in a world of dreams dissociates himself
forever from realities he is not mentally strong enough to face.
The writing of "spirits" through a "medium" is an example of
dissociation, and though shown at its best in neuropaths, is common
enough in normal men, as can be proved by anyone with a planchette
and some patience.
If the experimenter puts his hands on the toy, and a friend talks to him,
while another whispers questions, he may write more or less coherent
answers, though all the time he goes on talking, and does not know
what his hand is writing. His mind is split into two smaller minds, each
ignorant of the other, each busily liberating memory-prisoners from its
own block of cells in the gaol of the subconscious. The writing often
refers to long-forgotten incidents, the experiment sometimes being of
real use in cases of lost memory.
Dreams are dissociations in sleep, while the scenes conjured up by
crystal-gazing are only waking dreams, in which the dissociation is
caused by gazing at a bright surface and so tiring the brain centres,
whereupon impressions of past life emerge from the subconscious, to
surprise, not only the onlookers to whom they are related, but also the
gazer herself, who has long "forgotten them".
It is childish to attach supernatural significance to either dreams or
crystal-gazing, both of which mirror, not the future, but only the past,
the subject's own past.
It is noteworthy that women dream more frequently and vividly than
men. When a dreamer has few worries, he usually dreams but forgets
his dream on waking; when greatly worried, he often carries his
problems to bed with him, and recent "representative dreams" are
merely unprofitable overtime work done by the brain. Occasionally,

dreams have a purely physical basis as when palpitation becomes
transformed in a dream into a scene wherein a horse is struggling
violently, or where an uncovered foot originates a dream of
polar-exploration; in this latter type the dream is protective, in that it is
an effort to side-track some irritation without breaking sleep.
Since Freud has traced a sex-basis in all our dreams, many worthy
people have been much worried about the things they see or do in
dreams. Let them remember that virtue is not an inability to conceive of
misconduct, so much as the determination to refrain from it, and it may
well be that the centres which so determinedly inhibit sexual or
unsocial thoughts in the day, are tired by the very vigour of their
resistance, and so in sleep allow the thoughts they have so stoutly
opposed when waking to slip by. The man who is long-suffering and
slow to wrath when awake, may surely be excused if he murders a few
of his tormentors during sleep.
Epileptiform Seizures are convulsions due to causes other than epilepsy,
and only a doctor can tell if an attack be epileptic or not and prescribe