nscious" activities are those which have developed late
in the history of the race, and which develop comparatively late in the
history of the individual. The "conscious" is the product of the racial
education of the "unconscious"; the first is the man, the modern, the
civilized; the last is the child, the primitive, the savage. Between the
two there is no gulf fixed, and the Oxford metaphysician need not go to
Timbuctoo to seek a superstitious savage; he may find one within himself.

In hysteria, Janet says, the field of consciousness is narrowed, and the
patient lives through subconscious experiences, which she forgets when she
again "comes to". She journeys back into the past, back a few years
individually, back centuries or aeons racially, and becomes a savage child
again.

Normally, when anything goes wrong, or we suffer from excessive emotion, we
give vent to our feelings by tears, abuse, anger, or impulsive action; in
some way we "hit back", and relieve ourselves of the feeling of oppression.
Then we forget, which heals the sore, and closes the experience.

If, at the moment, we bottle up our emotions, they obtrude later at
inconvenient times until we "get them off our mind" by confiding in some
one, when we get peace of mind. Open confession _is_ good for the soul, and
it is better to "cry your eyes out" than to "eat your heart out".

There are some experiences, however, to which we cannot react by anger or
confidence, and so we imprison our emotions, and try to obtain peace of
mind by forgetting the irritation.

Freud thinks perverted sex ideas are thus repressed, and cause hysteria by
coming into conflict with the normal sex life. If these old sores can be
laid bare by psycho-analysis, and the mental abscess drained by confession
and contrition, cure follows.

The biologists consider hysteria as an adult childishness, a primitive mode
of dodging difficulties. Victims cannot live up to the complicated
emotional standard of modern life, and so act on a standard which to us
seems natural only in children and uncivilized races.

Savill gives the following differences between neurasthenia and hysteria:

NEURASTHENIA HYSTERIA

Sex Both sexes equally. 97 per cent females.

Age Any age. First attack before
page of 25.

Mental Intellectual weakness; Deficient will power,