CONCLUSIONS.

1. There is a type of visual hallucination in which the imagery has its source in a dissociated mental process of which the subject is not consciously aware. Such a process is by definition a subconscious one.

2. The content of this subconscious process contains images identical with the normal imagery of conscious thought.

3. The hallucination is due to the emergence into consciousness of the previously subconscious images. This emergence necessarily results in a hallucination in that the imagery of the latter is not related to the content of the conscious train of thought but is foreign to the latter. This is a necessary consequence of the imagery being normal elements in a separate dissociated train (mental process).

4. The subconscious process is essentially a coconscious one of thought.

5. There is a type of auditory hallucination which has essentially the same mechanism.

6. As there is a type of hallucination (visual and auditory) occurring in the insanities which is identical in form, structure and behaviour with that produced experimentally in this study, the conclusion is justified that such hallucinations of the insane are due to the same mechanism.

7. The implication follows that when hallucinations of this type occur in the pathological psychoses, they are indications of the activity of a dissociated subconscious process as a factor in the psychosis.

8. The hallucinatory phenomenon carries the further implication that the genesis and psychopathology of the psychosis are to be found in the forces which have determined the dissociation and motivated the subconscious process.

9. It is not to be assumed that all hallucinations have the mechanism of the type here studied. It is possible that in those occurring in the intoxication psychoses and in certain forms of organic brain disease, particularly where the hallucination is of a simple unelaborated static structure, the imagery is induced by direct irritation of the cortical or subcortical neurones. It is difficult, however, to exclude the possibility that the intoxicating agent or organic process simply removes inhibition and permits subconscious dissociated processes to function. Nor can we find any analogy with the known effect of irritation of motor and other areas of the brain. Irritation, as observed, produces simple movements and simple sensory phenomena (noises). Still, the possibility of

irritating factors becoming the immediate excitants of organized complexes of neurones underlying the hallucinations, cannot be excluded. This theory needs, however, to be proved. Even the irritative theory, as opposed to the psychogenetic theory, permits of the interpretation that the irritation excites a dissociated subconscious process from which images emerge into consciousness.

10. The psychological problem of differentiating between normal imagery and hallucination disappears in that they are identical, the hallucination being only the normal imagery of a dissociated subconscious process.

11. If the evidence given by subconscious introspection be not accepted, a possible interpretation of the hallucinatory imagery is that the images do not themselves occur primarily as subconscious elements, but by the same mechanism appear in awareness as the conscious correlates of a co-active dissociated physiological process. In other words, a subconscious process is neural, not psychical. On the other hand, such an interpretation does not take into account a large mass of collateral evidence for the psychical nature of processes occurring outside the field of awareness.

12. So far from a hallucination being a regression to an infantile form of thought (Freud), it is an element in highly developed adult thought processes.

13. The mechanism of the imagery of some dreams is the same as that of the hallucinations of the type here studied.

THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PSYCHO

ANALYSIS.

BY BEATRICE M. HINKLE.

MANY statements have been made in recent years to the effect that science and religion are not widely separated and antagonistic, as formerly thought, but are actually near relatives. The discovery of this relationship and the recognition of the possibility of their reconciliation has, however, been made chiefly by those interested in the preservation of religious ideas; there has been practically no consideration of the subject by anyone working from the scientific viewpoint.

Indeed psychoanalysis, which is one of the latest claimants for scientific recognition, has been largely instrumental in bringing into a clear light the soil and roots from which the spiritual arises. As a result of this work it is implied quite generally that the conception of the spiritual and religious nature of man can be regarded with a smile of superiority and this ancient heritage dismissed as having been disintegrated into its primitive elements and therefore of no further value for humanity. On the other hand the enemies of this technique and its findings have hurled as their most deadly weapon against its theories the charges of mysticism, of occultism, and of similar scientific bogies. Furthermore, these charges are for the most part accompanied by evidences of those emotional reactions of fear and anger which reveal something quite different from the cool detached scientific spirit that one expects from scientists; rather is the attitude one with which we have become more familiar in association with the defenders of religion when danger seemed threatening from the encroachments of science. Therefore we must realize that something fundamental is here involved which has a connection with a deep instinct in man. As William James expresses it "science itself has become devout."

Unfortunately, although the ideas of man may change his need does not change. His desire and longing to-day are the same as they were through the long stretches of prehistoric time out of which the myths of the race and the earliest of the Gods were evolved. He who in one age prayed "Our Father which art in Heaven" cannot, in another, eliminate this ancient human longing merely because it comes into conflict with

his intellect, while his entire emotional disposition remains the same. Yet there is for him no returning to the "God of his Fathers," and those who attempt to return meet with the disillusionment of a man who returns to the toys of his childhood. He humbles his pride and attempts to ignore his hard-won knowledge only to find the God who was once warm, living and near, is now a pale emasculated abstraction, a ‘Lifeforce,' a 'Spirit of Universal Good,' a 'Universal Energy.'

With the development of science and the emphasis on material and concrete fact, there began that objectification and formalizing of the Idea which inevitably destroys the spirit, and in this process the conception of God became deeply involved. Any effort to bring God into the realm of concrete reality, an object of the senses, or to make of him a purely intellectual and formalized being could not result in anything else than the loss of God altogether; for it is God as love, as a spirit, an unseen power, psychologically real, but not sensibly real, who is the object of worship. With the loss of this purely spiritual and personal God, the supreme object of love and adoration has also disappeared, and man is without an object great enough to act as a lure and lead him to reach beyond himself.

The knowledge that the old image of God and the religions belonging to it were the product of fear on the one hand, and the infantile wish for a loving, perfect parent on the other, in no way disposes of the problem nor renders the great need of humanity less poignant. For the real loss sustained by humanity in the materialization of the God image and the disappearance of faith in the power and greatness of religion for the development of individuals, has thrown a great amount of energy (libido) formerly bound up with these conceptions into the unconscious, and to this is due, in great measure, the disturbed, dissatisfied state of present day humanity.

Therefore, we are forced to seek for another way of solving the problem which shall at once recognize man's inner need and yet conform to the scientific attitude and the resulting reality of to-day. It is for him to face himself as object, to delve into his own depths to discover the origin and meaning of this need in himself and then deliberately to set himself the task of meeting it in an attitude satisfying to his intellect as well as to his feelings.

But this task is not one that can easily be accomplished by the individual unaided. Self-knowledge is not born of introspection, for introspection deals only with consciousness, and the springs of action and desire lie in the unconscious. He has need of a help outside of

himself, of an object conceived of as beyond himself, on whom he can project his love, and here he finds that the forces which destroyed his Gods, the forces of science, are already busied with the task of helping him to a new fulfilment.

Psychological science is largely occupied in these days with the problem of resolving the complex into the simple, and the disintegration of man's most cherished conceptions and ideals into what appears inferior and unworthy is not the least of the causes of his present disturbed condition. However, the tearing down which is the particular function of science can at the same time be the necessary process in the service of a new and better utilization of those great forces which are the basis of all man's achievement and strength as well as of his weakness and failure.

It is the aim of this paper to show that in psychoanalysis, paradoxical as it may appear, we have a method which has the power of awakening in the individual the very subjective experiences which we call spiritual, and which make for the kind of psychic growth and development that religion in all ages has aimed at calling forth. It seems an extraordinary fact that out of science, known chiefly as the destroyer of individual values, there has arisen something new and potentially creative, not only of individual values but of more highly evolved and integrated individuals themselves.

Psychoanalysis concerns itself with the feelings and emotions, not as many imagine that it may destroy them or rob man of something beautiful and precious, but in order to give him an understanding of them and thus help to release him from bondage and lead him to a greater power and freedom. The very nature of this task, dealing as it does with the strongest and deepest elements in man, namely those of love and its allied forces, must of necessity produce a great disturbance in the mind, for reason plays a poor second where strong emotions are aroused. However, when the real significance of the work is grasped, it will be seen that something has been added to man; a new power produced by the widening and deepening of his consciousness. Conceptions and ideas concerning love and religion, heretofore only intuitively expressed, now become actualities subject to scientific examination, and when interpreted psychologically are intellectually acceptable and become capable of conscious direction. Although originally developed entirely as a therapeutic measure, the technique of psychoanalysis has so greatly increased the understanding of human conduct that its usefulness has been broadened far beyond that of a treatment for the sick. It is this