Diseases of memory : an essay in the positive psychology / by Th. Ribot ; tr. from the French by William Huntington Smith.

  • Théodule-Armand Ribot
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of memory : an essay in the positive psychology / by Th. Ribot ; tr. from the French by William Huntington Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    extremely weak. They seem to be strong, not because they are so in reality, bnt because no other stronger state exists to force them into a secondary position. From the moment of awak- ening the conditions change. Images disappear before perceptions, perceptions before a state of sustained attention, a state of sustained attention before a fixed idea. In fact, consciousness during the majority of dreams is at a minimum of in- tensity. The difficulty is in explaining why, in the pe- riod following the epileptic attack, consciousness falls to a minimum. Neither physiology nor psy- chology is able to solve the problem, since each ignores the conditions of the genesis of conscious- ness. The question is the more difficult when amnesia is allied with epileptic delirium, and with it alone. Note, for instance, what happens when the subject is at once the victim of alcoholism and epilepsy. A patient is seized during the day with an epileptic attack, breaks everything within his reach, and conducts himself with great violence. After a brief period of respite he is seized in the night with alcoholic delirium, characterized by the usual terrifying visions. The next day, on coming to himself, he remembers the delirium of the night; but of the delirium of the day no rec- ollection remains.* * Magi]an, Clinique de Sainte-Anne, March 3, 1879.