Psychology : an introductory study of the structure and function of human consciousness / by James Rowland Angell.

Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Psychology : an introductory study of the structure and function of human consciousness / by James Rowland Angell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The Subconscious and the Unconscious.—Man}'^ striking and characteristic experiences are connected with regions of our personality which lie distinctly below the level of clear consciousness. Consciousness does not terniinate with sharp edges which mark it off definitely and finally from the non- conscious. On the contrary, as was maintained early in our work, there is a gradual fading out from a focal centre of clearest consciousness toward a dimmer region of partial con- sciousness, which we may designate the zone of the subcon- scious. This subconscious area again gives way to a region of entire non-consciousness. To the activity of the subconscious we are probably in- debted for many of our unreasoned impressions and senti- ments, for many of our unexpected ideas, for certain of our unreflective movements, especially those of the habitual variety. I^ot a few of our personal preferences and preju- dices are probably referable to influences originating here. Such phenomena as those of automatic writing with the plan- chette, where persons may write considerable numbers of words without any clear idea of what is being written, belong to the border-line of influences lying between the subconscious and the unconscious. Taken all in all, subconscious factors must go to make up a very respectable portion of our total personality, and no doubt are accountable for many of the characteristics which sometimes cause us to wonder at our- selves and question whether or no we really have the kind of character we supposed. The unconscious has been made in recent years the great panacea for all psychological and philosophical difficulties. Whatever one cannot explain otherwise may be explained by the action of the unconscious. The asserted facts of telc])- athy, clairvoyance, crystal-gazing, shell-hearing, hypnotism, and all the phenomena of spiritualism, not less than the metaphysical perplexities of personality, mind, matter, and their interrelations, have been treated by the universal elixir