On Pierre Janet (1859-1947)

"In presenting his model of the mind, Janet distinguished between two different ways that mind functions: activities that preserve and reproduce the past and activities which are directed towards synthesis and creation (i.e., integration). [emphasis added] Normal thought is produced by a combination of the two acts which are interdependent and regulate each other.

Integrative activity "reunites more or less numerous given phenomena into a new phenomenon different from its elements. At every moment of life, this activity effectuates new combinations which are necessary to maintain the organism in equilibrium with the changes of the surroundings." 1n short, this function organizes the present. Reproductive activities only manifest integrations that were created in the past.

Janet felt psychological automatism was best studied in individuals who exhibit it in extreme degrees -- psychiatric patients suffering from hysteria. In them, the integrative activity is significantly diminished, causing the development of symptoms that appear as magnifications of the activity designed to preserve and reproduce the past. Janet discovered that most of them suffered from unresolved (and therefore, dissociated) traumatic memories. In this population he studied catalepsy, paralysis, anesthesia, contractures, monoideic and polyideic somnambulisms, and successive existences (as he then termed multiple personalities). His analysis represented a departure from classical psychology which made a sharp distinction among intellect, affect and will."