La folie, pensée organique (A. Hesnard). Mental and nervous disorders have always a primary organic basis. Application of the notion of the unconscious in psychiatry has given valuable results but tends to obscure the organic origin of mental disorders. 'Psychognomonie' is suggested, as the title of a psychological technique to explore the total mental content, in place of "psycho-analysis employed by Freud and his school in the arbitrary and illegitimate sense of the psychological analysis of sexuality." Caractère individuel et aliénation mentale (W. Boven). The character of those predisposed to mental disorder. Relation of type of character to type of disorder. Predisposition in relation to characters of ancestors. La réticence (P. Courbon). An analysis of the forms and use of reticence in insanity. R. I. B. ARCHIVES SUISSES DE NEUROLOGIE ET DE PSYCHIATRIE (An extract from Vol. VIII, No. 1). Sur les reactions musculaires d'ordre affectif. Leur relation avec les mouvements volontaires et les mouvements réflexes. (W. van Woerkom.) Seeks the cause of emotional reactions in the study of motor reactions. Distinguishes two groups of muscular reactions: (1) limited to region stimulated (emotional), (2) adapted towards an end. Discusses emotional reactions of young children and pathological cases. In pathological cases emotion inhibits voluntary action. Motor reactions not directed towards an end have probably been useful in evolution. Affirms that a primitive component of feeling is common to the reactions of those suffering from functional diseases of the brain and normal individuals and that general diffused reactions are the expression of purposive action in which the primitive factors have got the upper hand. R. I. B. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS. 1921. Part I. INTERNATIONALE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR PSYCHO-ANALYSE. 1921. Part I. The main contribution in this number of the Journal is an important article by Ferenczi on the subject of “Tic" (tic convulsif). Its interest lies in the fact that the subject has been little explored, and the position of these symptoms in relation to other mental or physical disorders has not hitherto been ascertained. Ferenczi's remarks are put forward tentatively, with a view to stimulating further observations and exploration of the subject, and are not advanced as final conclusions in any way. Nevertheless the main lines of his suggestions are sufficiently convincing to awake considerable interest and to justify an approximately definite position in relation to the other neuroses being accorded to this malady. Various observations led to the supposition that tics have something to do with narcissism; this is supported by the reflexion that, although automatic, they constitute a preoccupation with the subject's own body, or a hyperaesthesia followed by a defence-reflex (of which a normal example would be the scratching of a pimple). It appears further that narcissistic and infantile traits have been clearly recognised as characteristic of sufferers from tic quite independently of psycho-analysis. Ferenczi gives reason for his belief that tics and stereotypies have a common origin and are essentially one phenomenon; the connection with onanism is brought out, many stereotypies evincing themselves under analysis as "equivalents of onanism -auto-erotism of course has an obvious connection with narcissism. The similarities and differences between this symptom and those of conversion-hysteria are referred to, the latter being described as "an auto-erotic symbolization of an object-relationship." (Incidentally, an elucidation of the mechanism of the hysterical "leap from the mental to the physical" is given in this article, the first, we believe, to appear in psycho-analytic literature.) Tics, on the contrary, seem to have no relation to an external object, but to be derived either from constitutional narcissism, or from the secondary form of it conditioned by physical traumata as when twitching of the eye-lids supervenes on a conjunctivitis. The narcissistic origin suggests a relation to the psychoses, and the author propounds a theory of the interesting connections between tic and catatonic conditions. Another link is shown in the connections between echolalia, tics, and what Freud has called the 'organ-speech' of narcissistic psychotics. Like all the author's work, the article is condensed in form and the presentation entirely without superfluities; it succeeds brilliantly in its design of drawing attention to an important subject which will evidently repay closer investigation. Berkeley-Hill contributes "A Short Study of the Life and Character of Mohammed," which is rendered unnecessarily obscure by presuming an acquaintance with the life of Mohammed on the part of the reader. It has considerable interest, however, on account of the light thrown on the unconscious forces at work in the religion Mohammed bequeathed to "one-fourth of the human race." The difficulties of dealing with Islam might well be lightened by a sympathetic understanding of the psychological factors behind its bewildering manifestations, especially since a peculiarly ambivalent attitude towards authority appears to be the essential element in them. The Nicene creed of the Christian Church is the subject of a rather elementary analytic study by Cavendish Moxon. A mass of quite interesting interpretations, however, will be found put forward in too incoherent and cursory a manner. There follow some minor communications on the analytic interpretation of points in dreams. Five of the extremely valuable Collective Reviews of recent literature on various subjects, which form a feature of this Journal, are contained in this number-namely, on the Unconscious, the Science of Religion, on Aesthetics and the Psychology of the Artist, on Mythology, and on Dream-Interpretation. There are also important book reviews, notably on Lipschütz's work on the Puberty Glands and their Effects (1919). The first number of the Zeitschrift for 1921 contains two papers delivered before the Hague Congress in 1920 by Jelgersma and Stärcke. There is also the second part of Boehm's contribution on Homosexuality contained in the previous number, which offers a very illuminating and entertaining analysis of a recent German pamphlet on a proposed method of dealing with prostitution in large cities, again showing the extremely close unconscious association existing between homosexual tendencies and prostitution. J. R. ARCHIV FÜR KRIMINOLOGIE (KRIMINALANTHROPOLOGIE UND KRIMINALISTIK). Edited by Dr ROBERT HEINDL. Vol. 73, Nos. 3 and 4, 1921. This number contains an article by Dr Wilhelm Ostwald of Leipzig on "The place occupied by Criminology in the whole body of Science." Taking as his basis the theory of Comte, according to which it is possible to deduce the internal structure of a given science from its position in the whole structure of scientific knowledge, Dr Ostwald presents a schematic arrangement of this structure in general and of criminology in particular. His system is as follows. 1. Mathetics: (a) Logic, (b) Mathematics, (c) Geometry and Kinematics. 2. Energetics: (d) Mechanics, (e) Physics, (f) Chemistry. 3. Biotics: (g) Physiology, (h) Psychology, (i) Sociology. Applying this system to criminology, he concludes that this science in its most restricted sense falls under the heading 3 i (Sociology) and represents the synthesis of all other branches of criminological science. In an article entitled "The Criminal Police System and Anthropology," Arthur Macdonald of Washington discusses how far police records, and in particular the results of technical methods of identification, e.g. the taking of finger-prints, may serve the purpose of anthropological research. Professors Allfeld and Beling and Dr Max Alsberg (barrister-at-law in Berlin) contribute papers criticising a treatise by Dr Robert Heindl on "Special Treatment of Habitual Criminals," being a supplementary proposal to the most recent German Criminal Procedure Bill. Dr Heindl recommends that in the new criminal procedure account be taken of the political revolution and that the rights of the accused and of his counsel be extended, while special rights (of arrest and search) be accorded to the State in the case of proved habitual criminals. The proposal is intended as a compromise, for the time of transition from old to new, which shall reconcile the most liberal general policy with the requirements of a sound policy of criminal law. Prof. Mittermaier treats from the point of view of criminal jurisprudence the subject of the employment of means to procure abortion. The Journal contains further the following articles: "Necrophilia and Necrosadism," by J. P. L. Hulst (University of Leyden). "The Value for Criminal Psychology of Recent Researches in the subject of Internal Secretion," by Dr M. H. Goring. "Attempted Murder with Pathogenic Bacteria," by Dr Lempp. "Ill-Treatment of Children," by Dr F. Siegfried (Public Prosecutor in Switzerland), and various notices and reviews of German, English, American, French, Spanish and Italian books and journals. C. M. B. AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE MECHANISM OF HALLUCINATIONS1. BY MORTON PRINCE. I ASSUME that the members of this Association are familiar with the traditional theories of the mechanism of hallucinations. I shall, therefore, not refer to them beyond remarking that they may be all classed under one or the other of two groups, viz. the anatomico-physiological theories and the psychological theories; and that all are inadequate and unsatisfactory. It remains therefore to attack the problem anew and, if possible, by experimental methods. We have open to us several methods of attack: 1. By inducing artificially hallucinations, particularly visions depicting known antecedent experiences. A study of their content permits of inferences regarding an underlying process related to the antecedent experiences. 2. Hypnotic methods by which through introspection memories of subconscious processes correlated with the hallucination are obtained. 3. Subconscious, or so-called automatic, script recording subconscious processes during a correlated hallucination. 4. A combination of all three methods. 1. Artificial Hallucinations. I have made studies of a large number of artificial hallucinations in the course of many years experimentation and some twenty years ago published one such study2. They are commonly called 'crystal visions,' because the usual technique is to direct the attention by the use of a crystal into which the subject gazes (crystal gazing). A crystal of course is not essential. Merely fixing the attention with expectation of the development of the phenomenon is sufficient with susceptible subjects. An examination of the content of visualizations thus produced shows that they are identical in structure and action with many of the hallucinations of the insane as well as with the spontaneous hallucinations of the sane (Joan of Arc, Fra Angelico, Catherine of Sienna, Margaret Mary of the Sacred Heart, Arch-Duke Charles of Austria, et alii). They are 1 Presented at the eleventh annual meeting of the American Psychopathological Association, Atlantic City, 11 June, 1921. 2 "An Experimental Study of Visions," Brain, LXXXIV, Winter Number, 1898. J. of Psych. (Med. Sect.) I 11 essentially and psychologically hallucinations artificially induced. (Parenthetically I may remark that it is an extraordinary thing that psychiatrists and psychologists have neglected them as objects of study, as plainly we have here phenomena that can be subjected to experimentation and are capable of giving an insight into the mechanisms of the mind and, as we shall see, into the relation of subconscious processes to conscious processes. One would expect that psychiatrists seeking to determine the mechanism of hallucinations of the insane would begin with artificial hallucinations and that psychologists interested in the problems of imagery would do the same.) An examination of the content of the hallucinations thus induced reveals that they may be: (a) Visual memories, i.e. reproductions of past visual experiences; (b) visualized memories of past experiences that were not visual (e.g. of knowledge gained in other ways); (c) pure fabrications showing constructive imagination which may represent past thoughts (repressed or not), wishes, forebodings, etc., or attempts to solve problems and doubts, answer questions, etc. Further, when the visualizations are of persons the thoughts of the vision-personality (i.e. those underlying the hallucinations) may emerge into consciousness; and I may mention in passing that the affect pertaining to these thoughts or to elements in the hallucination often wells up into consciousness. (This is a phenomenon of importance bearing on the problem of moods or affectivity.) More important for our present study, the behaviour of these hallucinations shows that an active process is going on that is not in awareness (i.e. is subconscious), but is inducing the visualization (e.g. when the hallucination has the action of a cinema picture, or represents in visual imagery past thoughts, and is not simply a reproduction or memory of a past visual experience). If we can find out what sort of a process it is, identify it, and discover its relation to the hallucination we shall advance a step towards solving the problem of hallucinations in the insane. 2. Hypnotic Methods (Coconscious Images). There is another class of phenomena which I have called coconscious images. The finding of these came from hypnotic methods, i.e. introspection in hypnosis. They are as extraordinary as they are interesting, but I do not expect you to believe them until you have confirmed their reality by your own observations. My own findings have, however, |