Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 9.djvu/114

 100 CRITICAL NOTICES: functional disorder ceases to be the result of neurosis simply ; it is then the result of an organic lesion. One of the features of these two volumes is the superb skill shown in discriminating between the mental concomitants of organic lesions and those of mere neuroses. In chapter ii., Dr. Janet discusses the methods of measuring attention. The essence of his case against accepting reaction-time as a measure of attention is that it fails to discriminate between reactions of absolute inattention and reactions of very acute attention. The extremes meet and so the measure fails. The demonstration of this by the method of graphics will not be easy to refute. Dr. Janet shows that it is quite possible, without apparatus, to arrange graded tests of attention, and he insists on the necessity of minute description of mental states during the experiments. In general, his method of graphics succeeds in showing a very clear difference between the reactions of subconsciousness and those of consciousness. " En mesurant les temps de reaction, on a plus souvent qu'on ne le croit mesuro des phenomenes automatiques. . . . L'attention ne se borne pas a maintenir une image presente dans 1'esprit, mais elle travaille encore a combiner cette image avec les autres, a constituer des syntheses qui deviendront plus tard le point de depart d'un nouvel automatisme " (p. 108). Hence the necessity of critical combination of mathematical and descriptive methods. This is an excellent chapter. Chapter iii. " L'amn^sie continue " is the reproduction of a communication to the Congress of Experimental Psychology held in London in 1892. Dr. Janet here applies his method to memory. The special " maladie de la m^moire " here investigated is that " les malades deviennent, a partir d'un certain moment, incapables d'acquerir de nouveaux souvenirs " (p. 110). This condition is named " amnesie continue," since it persists during the life of the patient. The most interesting feature of the chapter is the graphic method of recording the phases of amnesia in relation to the total personality. The condition is distinctly traced to emotional shock, followed by fixed ideas, primary and derivative. The hypnotic state is the revealer of the true beginning of dissociation. " La maladie decompose et analyse mieux la memoire que n'a pu faire la psychologie " (p. 13S). Besides conservation and reproduction, " il faut qu' une sorte de synthese reunisse les sensations produites et les rattache a la masse des idees anterieures, des sentiments passes et presents, de la coenaesthesie actuelle dont 1'ensemble constitue la personnalite " (p. 135). To this, Dr. Janet gives the name "perception personnelle," or " personnification," and the notion plays a very large part in all the investigations. The detailed correlation of " amnesie continue " with the fixed ideas is as elaborate as in the case of aboulia, and contains a multitude of psychological " asides " that do not admit of summary. The fixed idea disturbs the sleep, distracts the attention, and exhausts the