"Divided Consciousness" by Ernest Hilgard
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:32 am
If you can get a hold of a used copy or find it at the library (it's out of print), I recommend reading Ernest Hilgard's Divided Consciousness: Multiple Controls in Human Thought and Action.
It's a great book on hypnosis by the famous Stanford professor (an early reviewer of Jaynes), and topics discussed in the book are relevant to Jaynes's theory. Chapters 1, 2, and 8 were assigned by Jaynes to his students in his class at Princeton University.
Chapter 1: Divided Consciousness and the Concept of Dissociation
"The unity of consciousness in an illusion. Man does more than one thing at a time — all the time — and the conscious representation of these actions is never complete. His awareness can shift from one aspect of whatever is currently happening inside his body or impinging on him from without, or events that are remembered or imagined. Furthermore, as an active agent, he is always making decisions and formulating or implementing plans, and he likes to believe that he exerts control over what he is doing; often, however, he may be deceived about the causes of his behavior" (p. 1).
Chapter 2: Possession States, Fugues, and Multiple Personalities
"The idea of spirit possession is age old. There is the familiar Biblical story of Jesus casting out devils from the disturbed Gadarene. The devils ("My name is Legion") requested that they be sent into the herd of swine, and the possessed herd rushed down the bank and perished in the sea. The fact that, presumably, both the demoniac host and the demons spoke to Jesus suggests the possibility of something like multiple personality. The idea of demoniac possession has persisted, in some circles, to the present time. The motion picture, The Exorcist, brought the matter to light in the 1970s, somewhat ot the embarrassment of the Catholic Church, whose rituals for exorcism still exist, although their use is largely frowned upon" (p. 19).
"A fugue is defined in modern psychiatry as a dissociation characterized by amnesia in which the person runs away from his conflicts or problems by seeking a new environment, or in some other manner demonstrates his flight from reality. During the episode of the fugue, he may behave quite normally in the new environment, but very differently from his usual behavior. When he returns to his usual condition he picks up where he left off and does not remember the events of the fugue. The fugue may be short or long, and it may be a single episode that is not reported" (p. 22).
Chapter 3: Hypnotic Age Regression
Chapter 4: Amnesia and Repression
Chapter 5: Dreams, Hallucinations, and Imagination
Chapter 6: Voluntary and Involuntary Controls of Muscular Movement
Chapter 7: Automatic Writing and Divided Attention
Chapter 8: The Hypnotizable Person and Hypnotic Experience
Chapter 9: Divided Consciousness and the "Hidden Observer"
Chapter 10: The Hidden Observer Perceived and Interpreted
Chapter 11: A Neodissociation Interpretation
Chapter 12: Neodissociation in a Wider Context
It's a great book on hypnosis by the famous Stanford professor (an early reviewer of Jaynes), and topics discussed in the book are relevant to Jaynes's theory. Chapters 1, 2, and 8 were assigned by Jaynes to his students in his class at Princeton University.
Chapter 1: Divided Consciousness and the Concept of Dissociation
"The unity of consciousness in an illusion. Man does more than one thing at a time — all the time — and the conscious representation of these actions is never complete. His awareness can shift from one aspect of whatever is currently happening inside his body or impinging on him from without, or events that are remembered or imagined. Furthermore, as an active agent, he is always making decisions and formulating or implementing plans, and he likes to believe that he exerts control over what he is doing; often, however, he may be deceived about the causes of his behavior" (p. 1).
Chapter 2: Possession States, Fugues, and Multiple Personalities
"The idea of spirit possession is age old. There is the familiar Biblical story of Jesus casting out devils from the disturbed Gadarene. The devils ("My name is Legion") requested that they be sent into the herd of swine, and the possessed herd rushed down the bank and perished in the sea. The fact that, presumably, both the demoniac host and the demons spoke to Jesus suggests the possibility of something like multiple personality. The idea of demoniac possession has persisted, in some circles, to the present time. The motion picture, The Exorcist, brought the matter to light in the 1970s, somewhat ot the embarrassment of the Catholic Church, whose rituals for exorcism still exist, although their use is largely frowned upon" (p. 19).
"A fugue is defined in modern psychiatry as a dissociation characterized by amnesia in which the person runs away from his conflicts or problems by seeking a new environment, or in some other manner demonstrates his flight from reality. During the episode of the fugue, he may behave quite normally in the new environment, but very differently from his usual behavior. When he returns to his usual condition he picks up where he left off and does not remember the events of the fugue. The fugue may be short or long, and it may be a single episode that is not reported" (p. 22).
Chapter 3: Hypnotic Age Regression
Chapter 4: Amnesia and Repression
Chapter 5: Dreams, Hallucinations, and Imagination
Chapter 6: Voluntary and Involuntary Controls of Muscular Movement
Chapter 7: Automatic Writing and Divided Attention
Chapter 8: The Hypnotizable Person and Hypnotic Experience
Chapter 9: Divided Consciousness and the "Hidden Observer"
Chapter 10: The Hidden Observer Perceived and Interpreted
Chapter 11: A Neodissociation Interpretation
Chapter 12: Neodissociation in a Wider Context