Page:Philosophical Review Volume 26.djvu/256

244 evolution advances. There is in evolution a double movement; the progressive attenuation of the primitive essence, and the formation and conservation of new concrete realities, which in their turn become attenuated. This "depouillement" of the 'same' is essential. In a sense the end of evolution is evanescence. There the primitive essence is conserved and transformed in a superior being, its finality is subordinated to a vaster finality, and its action continued, although it disappears as a distinct and individual being.

Normal suggestion consists merely in conveying to another person an idea, which he may accept or reject. Hypnosis is an abnormal state whose chief characteristic is a greatly increased suggestibility, a suggestibility whose power is generally irresistible. The school of Nancy, however, holds that hypnosis is itself merely a function of normal suggestibility. We produce sleep by suggestion, just as we produce laughter by suggestion. Hypnotic sleep is identical in essence with ordinary sleep. The Nancy school also claims that hypnosis can be produced only by suggestion. But other operators produce hypnosis by purely physical means, such as prolonged fixation on a brilliant point. Dr. Lajoie tells of the case of a boy who fell into hypnosis at home, presumably alone, by looking at the reflection of the sun in a bowl. The boy, of course, had no idea of hypnotizing himself. Hypnotic sleep, moreover, is absolutely dissimilar to ordinary sleep. In hypnosis we have either a continuation of the sensory and motor functions, or else complete insensibility; we often have retrogressive amnesia; the patient is in rapport with the operator, and awakens only upon specific command. The school of Nancy holds that these peculiar phenomena of hypnosis are suggested to the subject, either by the operator, or by the subject himself. But oftentimes we hypnotize persons ignorant of the characteristics of hypnosis who at once show all of the usual symptoms. Other persons, familiar with the nature of hypnosis, and desiring to be hypnotized, only incompletely show these symptoms. According to the Nancy school, suggestions are always carried out unless they are checked by counter-suggestions arising from the fundamental ideas of the subject. In hypnosis these fundamental ideas are paralyzed, and so foolish suggestions are accepted. But why are these ideas paralyzed in hypnosis? Thus the Nancy theory itself presupposes another principle. Psychological conditions depend upon physical conditions. Hypnosis must be the result of some abnormal physical condition. Suggestion is only one characteristic of hypnosis. Sometimes we have a superficial hypnotic state accompanied by great suggestibility, and sometimes a profound state of hypnosis with little suggestibility. There are two kinds of hypotheses: (1) A theoretical hypothesis, which seeks to explain known facts; (2) an experimental hypothesis, which serves merely as a working basis for the discovery of new facts, which may prove or disprove the hypothesis. The school of