Earlier, you mentioned subconscious motor programs. Can you elaborate on what Pierre Janet was getting at with that phrase?
"Absolutely, Gary. When Pierre Janet spoke of subconscious motor programs, he was describing a foundational mechanism in his theory of psychological automatism—a way the psyche, under duress or dissociation, delegates behavior to unconscious routines that bypass volition and awareness."
"Let’s break it down:
"🤖 What Are Subconscious Motor Programs?
"In Janet’s framework, these are automatic, embodied actions that occur without conscious intention. They are:
- Learned or imprinted sequences of movement or behavior
- Activated by emotional triggers, trauma, or hypnotic suggestion
- Often split off from the main field of consciousness"
"Examples include:
- Automatic writing: the hand moves, the subject watches
- Posthypnotic suggestion: the body performs a task without knowing why
- Trance gestures: repetitive movements, ritual enactments, or cataleptic poses"
"Janet saw these as motor expressions of dissociated mental content—the body speaking what the ego cannot bear to know."
"🧠How Do They Relate to Dissociation?
"Janet believed that trauma fragments the psyche, leading to a narrowed field of consciousness. When this happens:
- The integrative capacity of the mind breaks down
- Subsystems (like motor programs) operate independently
- The subject may feel possessed, alienated, or haunted by their own actions"
"These motor programs are not random—they are symbolic enactments of unresolved affect. The body becomes a ritual vessel, staging the drama of the disowned self."
"🌀 Mythic and Clinical Resonance
"Subconscious motor programs are the ritual choreography of the uncanny:
- The zombie walk, the trance dance, the possessed gesture
- The body as oracle, medium, or automaton
- The ego as spectator to its own enactment"
"Janet’s insight was that these programs are not merely pathological—they are adaptive responses to psychic overload. They allow the psyche to externalize and contain unbearable material."
"Would you like to map these motor programs onto mythic archetypes—like the puppet, the sleepwalker, or the possessed vessel? Or explore how somatic therapy might engage and re-script these subconscious routines into conscious ritual?"
Suppose all three factors of activation--emotional triggers, trauma, and hypnotic suggestion--are present. Is the likelihood of subconscious movement, that is without "conscious intention", increased?
"Yes, Gary—when emotional triggers, trauma, and hypnotic suggestion converge, the likelihood of subconscious movement—what Janet called psychological automatism or subconscious motor programs—is significantly heightened. This triad creates a kind of ritual threshold, where the psyche is primed for dissociation, symbolic enactment, and uncanny embodiment."
"Let’s break down why this convergence is so potent:
"🧠1. Trauma: The Fragmentation of Synthesis
"Janet believed trauma disrupts the integrative capacity of the psyche.
- Memory, emotion, and volition become disaggregated.
- The subject may lose access to conscious intention, especially under stress.
- The body begins to act out what the ego cannot contain—through gestures, postures, or automatic behaviors."
"🔥 2. Emotional Triggers: Reactivation of Dissociated Material
"Emotional stimuli—especially those linked to the original trauma—can reactivate split-off states.
- These triggers bypass rational processing and activate state-dependent memory.
- The body may respond with motor enactments: trembling, pacing, writing, or even self-harm.
- The subject may feel 'taken over' or 'outside themselves'—hallmarks of doubling and possession."
"🌀 3. Hypnotic Suggestion: Lowered Threshold for Automatism
"Hypnosis lowers the barrier between conscious and subconscious processes.
- It induces narrowed awareness, making the subject more receptive to symbolic content.
- Suggestion can activate latent motor programs, especially those linked to unresolved affect.
- In Janet’s experiments, hypnosis reliably produced automatic writing, trance speech, and somnambulistic behavior."
"🧿 When All Three Are Present
"This is the perfect storm for subconscious movement:
- Trauma provides the split.
- Emotion provides the charge.
- Hypnosis provides the channel."
"The result is often a ritual enactment—the body staging the drama of the disowned self. This can include:
- Possession-like gestures
- Somatic symptoms
- Symbolic self-injury (as “evidence” of violation or abduction)
- Automatic behaviors that feel alien yet familiar"
"Janet saw these not as deception, but as psychic truth enacted through the body—a kind of embodied myth-making."
"Would you like to explore how this triad maps onto alien abduction narratives, religious ecstasy, or shamanic crisis? Or build a containment protocol for safely engaging these motor programs in therapeutic or ritual settings?"
https://www.empty-memories.nl/files/articles/treatmentptsd.pdf
I'm put in mind of the Veteran who experiences fugue states. Hears something reminiscent of the battle field. Enters a trance like reenactment. Janet's term 'disaggregated' contains more clarity if you keep in mind his view the psyche seeks integration as a natural function. That integration and aggregation describe the same natural psychical process.
"Exactly, Gary. That veteran’s fugue state—triggered by a battlefield echo and followed by a trance-like reenactment—is a living illustration of Janet’s concept of disaggregation. And you’re right to emphasize that Janet didn’t see disaggregation as a static pathology, but as a rupture in a naturally integrative process. The psyche, in his view, is always striving toward aggregation—a coherent synthesis of memory, emotion, perception, and volition."
"Let’s unpack this through Janet’s lens:
"🧠Disaggregation: Breakdown of Psychic Synthesis
"Janet saw the mind as a dynamic system of psychological functions:
- Memory (especially autobiographical)
- Attention and perception
- Volition and motor control
- Affective regulation"
"When trauma overwhelms the system, these functions disaggregate—they no longer operate in concert. The result is:
- Fugue states: the self splits off and acts autonomously
- Trance reenactments: motor programs replay traumatic scripts
- Amnesia or time loss: memory fragments, leaving gaps in continuity"
"The veteran doesn’t just remember the battlefield—he becomes it, because the trauma lives in a dissociated motor-affective loop, not in narrative memory."
"🔄 Aggregation: The Psyche’s Natural Drive
"Janet believed that integration is the default—the psyche wants to heal, to reassemble, to make meaning. Aggregation is:
- The re-linking of dissociated functions
- The restoration of volitional control
- The symbolic containment of traumatic material"
"This is why ritual, storytelling, and somatic therapy can be so powerful—they offer structures of aggregation, allowing the psyche to metabolize what was once split."
"🌀 Fugue as Ritual Reenactment
"In mythic terms, the fugue state is a ritual possession:
- The veteran is 'taken' by the past
- The body becomes a vessel for the unspoken
- The reenactment is not madness—it’s uncontained memory seeking form"
"Janet’s brilliance was in seeing this not as moral failure or supernatural intrusion, but as psychic choreography—the body staging what the mind cannot yet narrate."
"Would you like to explore how this model of aggregation/disaggregation maps onto Jung’s individuation or Solms’ affective consciousness? Or build a ritual framework for helping the veteran re-integrate the battlefield into symbolic memory?"
Tradtionally, hypnotists have contended they cannot make you do something against your principles. Janet's framework seems to refute that. Assuming knowing what you are doing is essential to being conscious of your principles in the first place. Seems a fantasy on the part of the hypnotist. Talk about that and in the same vein, can you define state dependent memory and Stockholm Syndrome.
