including another that involved going to the kitchen, mixing the ingredients for a pie, and placing it in the lighted gas-range, the charred remains astonishing the nocturnal cook the next morning; or of still others recounting the prowling about at night in response to the sensations of hunger, or seeking coats and wraps because of sensations of cold. Subconscious doing in sleep as in waking reflects the motor versatility of our habits adjusted by training to the complex life in which we live and move.[1]
The Sensory Lapse.[2]
The sensory side of the process demands equal recognition. It is well to repeat that all of these several types of subconscious action, the motor aspects of which have been singled out for analysis, do also involve a recognition of the situation, a sensitiveness to the suggestions of the environment, that both realizes—though it may be imperfectly or mistakenly—and responds thereto with submerged awareness. The first group of instances, in which actions are entered upon in oblivion of their accomplished performance, shows how readily sensations, that would ordinarily be registered, fail to make an impression; but this 'absent-minded' insensibility is still more neatly illustrated when an article is deliberately sought, and yet the sensations by which its presence would normally be recognized remain persistently ignored. This is indeed an accepted trait of the distrait. My collection is replete
- ↑ I have not regarded it as necessary to include in this survey the familiar association of habits in the routine of complicated actions, by which the one step leads to the next, even though the occasion is an unintentional, inappropriate one. This type of lapse is extremely common and is apt to occur under but slight release of tension of the directing consciousness. It is also directly involved in several of the groups of unintentional motor actions just described. Its most typical form, however, is in 'absently' winding one's watch when changing one's waistcoat, or in continuing the undressing reaction to an unnecessary degree, simply because that act is more particularly associated with the complete undressing of the retiring hour; while as the feminine counterpart I am given the unintentional release of the hairpins when negligee is assumed; and in my collection, a frequent occurrence corresponding to this formula is the turning of the electric button, when entering the room, resulting at times in turning on the lights at daytime, or in an inadvertent turning off the light in passing the door, thus leaving the other occupants of the room in the dark.
- ↑ I pass by with slight mention instances of simple 'anaesthesia,' that is, the failure of sensations, through inattention, to enter the perceptive field. I do this because the relation involved, clearly important, is not likely to be overlooked. The inevitable contraction of the sensory field is familiar; and we have only to recall occasions when a question must be repeated, and we confess that we did not hear, at least with the mind's ear, what was said. Such is merely the common and necessary, but here untimely, relaxation in the attention wave. Occasionally such insensibility does give rise to peculiar
