This is plainly a state of so-called ecstasy; but it differs from the ecstasy common in hysterical attacks in one capital point. Not only is it remembered indistinctly, perhaps - by Léonore, who describes herself as having been dazzled by a light on the left side, but also it brings with it the most complex of all the chains of memory, supplementing even Léonore's recollection on certain acts which have been accomplished unconsciously by Léonore herself.

The subjoined scheme, simplified from that given by Professor Janet, may enable the reader to follow the above description with greater ease. The shaded spaces indicate absence of consciousness.

230 B. The greater number of facts reported in L'Automatisme Psychologique, as Professor Janet says in his introduction, were observed in four of his principal subjects, whom he called Léonie, Lucie, Rose, and Marie. Among all the subjects he knew, he regarded these four as the most satisfactory for purposes of psychological experiment; partly because of his long and complete acquaintance with all the details of their maladies and characters, and partly because - having been always observed with care and only by competent persons - they had been as little as possible affected by the example of other patients, or by suggestions imprudently made in their presence. The case of Léonie has just been given, and that of Lucie is almost equally instructive. She was described first in articles published by Professor Janet in the Revue Philosophique, being there called "L.," and the summary here given is founded chiefly on an article in the Revue for December 1886, but adopts the nomenclature of the different personalities or stages of personality - Lucie 1, Lucie 2, Lucie 3 used in L'Automatisme Psychologique.

The subject was a girl of nineteen, who was highly hysterical, having attacks daily of several hours' duration. She was also devoid of the sense of pain, or the sense of contact, so that she "lost her legs in bed," as she put it. I may begin by saying that M. Janet and Dr. Powilewicz completely cured her, mainly by hypnotic suggestion, so that the phenomena which I am about to describe, though morbid in the sense that they occurred in a morbid person, were healthy in the sense that they were incidental to a process of cure.

Post-hypnotic suggestion succeeded easily, with no recollection in the waking state of the hypnotic command. At first, however, it was necessary that the hypnotised subject - Lucie 2 - should assent when she was told to do something on awakening. When the command was an unwelcome one she would say no instead of yes, and would not fulfil it on awaking.

On her fifth hypnotisation, however, Lucie underwent a kind of brief catalepsy, after which she returned to the somnambulic state; but that state was deeper than before. (This was the first appearance of Lucie 3.) She no longer made any sign, whether of assent or refusal, when she received the hypnotic commands; but she executed them infallibly, whether they were to take effect immediately or after awaking. Moreover, the suggested actions became absolutely a portion of the trance-life. She executed them without apparently knowing what she was doing. If, for instance, in her waking state she was told (in the tone which in her hypnotic state signified command) to get up and walk about, she walked about, but, to judge from her conversation, she supposed herself to be still sitting quiet. She would weep violently when commanded, but while she wept she continued to talk as gaily and unconcernedly as if the tears had been turned on by a stop-cock. One day M. Janet begged Lucie, in her waking state (i.e. Lucie 1), to resist his next command. She said that she was not aware that she had ever obeyed him, and would certainly resist now.

The command was given, and she executed it unconsciously, while still protesting that she would certainly resist.

Here, then, was an indication of a new partition of the identity - not merely that partition which is habitually established between the hypnotic trance and the waking state. For this new partition subsisted equally in both states, and the dividing boundary was no obvious gulf, but a line as imaginary as the Equator. For the line was merely this, that any suggestion uttered by M. Janet in a brusque tone of command reached the subliminal self alone; any other remark reached the subject - awake or somnambulic - in the ordinary way.

The next step was to test the intelligence of Lucie 3. M. Janet began with a simple experiment. "When I shall have clapped my hands together twelve times," he said to the entranced subject before awakening her, "you will go to sleep again." There was no sign that the sleeper heard or understood; and when she was awakened the events of the trance were blank to her, as usual. She began talking to other persons. M. Janet, at some little distance, clapped his hands feebly together five times. Seeing that she did not seem to be attending to him, he went up to her and said, "Did you hear what I did just now?" "No, what?" "Do you hear this?" and he clapped his hands once more. "Yes, you clapped your hands." "How often?" "Once." M. Janet again withdrew, and now clapped his hands six times gently, with pauses between the claps. Lucie paid no apparent attention; but when the sixth clap of this second series - making the twelfth altogether - was reached, she fell instantly into the trance again.

It seemed, then, that Lucie 3 had counted the claps through all, and had obeyed the order. M. Janet varied the conditions; ordering that the girl should fall asleep when he should mention the same letter of the alphabet twice in succession: or when the sum of the digits which he mentioned should reach ten. The result showed that Lucie 3 could successfully attend and obey so long as the problem was a simple one, but that when the problem became too complex, confusion ensued.