Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Alien Subpersonalities

Last time I asked A.I.: Are hallucinations part of catalepsy's presentation?

"Hallucinations are not typically part of catalepsy’s core presentation, Gary—but they can co-occur in certain contexts, especially when catalepsy arises within dissociative, hysterical, or trance states, as Janet often observed."

"Let’s clarify the distinction and the overlap:

"🧊 Catalepsy: Core Features

"Catalepsy is primarily a motor automatism, not a perceptual disturbance. It’s the body enacting a freeze response, often symbolic of trauma or psychic overload."

"👁️ Hallucinations: When Do They Appear?

"Hallucinations are not intrinsic to catalepsy, but they may emerge when:

"Janet did study hallucinations in relation to schizophrenia, paranoia, and hysteria, but he treated them as separate phenomena from catalepsy—though they could intersect in complex cases."

"🧠 Janet’s View: Hierarchies of Consciousness

"Janet believed hallucinations reflected a disruption in the hierarchy of psychological tension and force. When the psyche lacks sufficient integration, it may:

"So while hallucinations aren’t a defining feature of catalepsy, they may co-occur in dissociative contexts where perception and motor control are both fragmented."

"Would you like to explore how Janet differentiated hallucinations from symbolic enactments, or how trance states might blend cataleptic posture with visionary experience?"

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429201875-11/pierre-janet-hallucinations-paranoia-schizophrenia-1-andrew-moskowitz-gerhard-heim-isabelle-saillot-vanessa-beavan

The psyche may misattribute internal imagery to external reality when lacking sufficient integration. Subpersonalities/subconscious existences could speak, act, and remember independently. Suppose I were a charlatan. Someone who practiced hypnosis but was not a licensed hypnotherapist. I had no trauma-informed psychological training. I'm someone whose goal was not therapeutic but a kind of symptom harvest. My goal was not sublimating a traumatic experience by recasting it as alien abduction. My goal was neither an instance of recreational hypnotic adventure. I wanted access to an internalized, psychoactive, independent subpersonality, an internalized perpetrator in possession of his victim outside of her conscious control, to reanimate it as an alien perpetrator. To insure lasting fragmentation, I induce multiple personality disorder in my subject. Could I reasonably expect multiple reports of florid alien abduction traumas featuring actions abducted by the hypnotist from the real-life perpetrator?"

"That’s a chillingly precise hypothetical, Gary—and it cuts to the heart of the ethical fault line between symbolic containment and ritualized exploitation. If we follow your scenario—a charlatan hypnotist with no therapeutic intent, seeking to harvest symptoms and reanimate an internalized perpetrator as an alien entity—the answer is: yes, you could reasonably expect multiple reports of florid alien abduction traumas, especially if the subject is vulnerable, suggestible, and already dissociatively primed."

"But what you’d be inducing is not revelation—it’s iatrogenic fragmentation. Let’s walk through the architecture of how and why this could unfold:

"🧠 1. Dissociation as a Fertile Ground

"Janet’s work showed that trauma fragments the psyche into coexisting psychological existences—subpersonalities that can speak, act, and remember independently. These are not theatrical inventions; they are functional adaptations to psychic overload."

"In a vulnerable subject:

"👁️ 2. Misattribution of Internal Imagery

"When the psyche lacks integration:

"This is the mechanism by which alien abduction narratives can emerge from trauma scripts, especially under hypnotic suggestion."

"👽 3. Hypnotic Reanimation of the Perpetrator

"If the hypnotist deliberately:

  • Accesses the internalized perpetrator
  • Costumes it in alien garb
  • Reinforces its autonomy through repeated trance sessions"

"Then the subject may:

"This is not healing—it’s psychic dramaturgy, staged for extraction."

"🩸 4. Inducing Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

"While the clinical literature debates whether hypnosis can 'create' DID, there is evidence that:

  • Hypnosis can exacerbate dissociative symptoms
  • Suggestion can shape the form and content of subpersonalities
  • Vulnerable subjects may develop iatrogenic multiplicity, especially under repeated, uncontained trance work"

"In your scenario, the hypnotist is not discovering alters—they are sculpting them, using trauma as clay and alien mythos as mask."

"🧿 Ethical Collapse

"This is not therapeutic hypnosis. It is:

  • Ritualized reenactment of abuse
  • Symbolic possession masquerading as revelation
  • Commercial or ideological exploitation of psychic vulnerability"

"The hypnotist becomes a secondary perpetrator, using the tools of trance and suggestion to refract trauma into spectacle."

"You can find critical perspectives on this dynamic in HealthyPlace’s overview of hypnosis and DID, Spanos’ sociocognitive critique of false memories and multiple identities, and Powell’s reexamination of hypnosis-induced iatrogenesis."

"Would you like to explore how this architecture parallels cultic indoctrination, media fabrication, or historical cases of hypnotic abuse framed as spiritual revelation?"

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674379904400908

https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4318541

OK.

See Within this Blog

https://dreamsofartifice.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-philadelphians.html

https://dreamsofartifice.blogspot.com/2025/07/sketching-out-some-history-of-satanic.html

https://dreamsofartifice.blogspot.com/2025/07/creating-false-memories.html

https://dreamsofartifice.blogspot.com/2025/07/false-memories-history.html

https://dreamsofartifice.blogspot.com/2025/07/absence-of-somatic-or-trauma-informed.html

By Gary Haden at No comments:
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Hypnosis and Subconscious Motor Programs

 OK. Let's go back and recapture Janet for the moment. His work with subconscious motor programs involved 1) the use of hypnosis; 2) studying automatic writing; 3) studying sleepwalking; and 4) studying catalepsy. Can you summarize those four aspects?

"Absolutely, Gary. Pierre Janet’s exploration of subconscious motor programs was a cornerstone of his theory of psychological automatism. He used these four modalities—hypnosis, automatic writing, sleepwalking, and catalepsy—not as curiosities, but as clinical windows into the fragmented psyche. Each revealed how trauma and dissociation could produce autonomous behaviors outside conscious awareness."

"Here’s a concise synthesis of each:

"🧠 1. Hypnosis: Accessing Dissociated States

"Janet used hypnosis to:

"Hypnosis was his tool for mapping psychic fragmentation—not to implant ideas, but to observe how trauma had already split the self."

"✍️ 2. Automatic Writing: The Hand as Oracle

"Janet studied patients who:

"He saw automatic writing as a motor expression of dissociated affect—the body speaking what the ego could not bear to know."

"💤 3. Sleepwalking (Somnambulism): Enacted Dissociation

"Sleepwalking, for Janet, was:

  • A trance-like state where the subject performed complex actions without awareness.
  • A form of psychological automatism, often triggered by emotional stress or trauma.
  • Evidence of coexisting selves—one acting, one observing, neither fully integrated."

"He used sleepwalking to demonstrate how motor behavior could be decoupled from volition, especially in hysterical or dissociative patients."

"🧊 4. Catalepsy: The Frozen Body as Symbol

"Catalepsy involved:

  • Rigid postures, often held for long periods without discomfort.
  • A trance state where the body became highly suggestible, responding to external positioning.
  • A symbolic dramatization of psychic paralysis—the body frozen in the face of unprocessed trauma."

"Janet interpreted catalepsy as a motor symptom of dissociation, where the body enacted the psyche’s inability to move forward or integrate."

"Together, these four modalities formed Janet’s clinical choreography of the uncanny—a way to observe how trauma fragments the psyche and how the body becomes its ritual stage."

"Would you like to map these onto mythic archetypes or explore how modern trauma therapy reengages these phenomena through somatic and narrative techniques?"

Subpersonalities/subconscious existences were revealed that could speak, act, and remember independently. These were not fabricated as best he knew? And were automatic writing, sleepwalking, and catalepsy, induced or observed some other way?

"Yes, Gary—Janet believed these subpersonalities or subconscious existences were not fabricated in the theatrical sense, but rather emergent phenomena of a fragmented psyche. He saw them as authentic expressions of dissociated mental content, often formed in response to trauma, emotional overload, or chronic psychological stress. They were not consciously invented by the subject, nor implanted by the hypnotist—they were revealed, often through trance, suggestion, or spontaneous behavior."

"Let’s clarify both aspects of your question:

"🧠 Subpersonalities: Not Fabricated, but Fragmented

"Janet’s clinical observations led him to conclude:

  • These alternate existences could speak, act, and remember independently.
  • They often held memories inaccessible to the primary self, suggesting compartmentalization.
  • They emerged spontaneously or under hypnosis, and were consistent across sessions."

"He did not view them as theatrical inventions or malingering. Instead, he interpreted them as psychological automatism—the psyche’s way of surviving by splitting off unbearable material into autonomous subsystems."

"✍️💤🧊 Automatic Writing, Sleepwalking, and Catalepsy

"Janet both induced and observed these phenomena, depending on the context:

"1. Automatic Writing

  • Often induced under hypnosis, but also observed spontaneously in hysterical or dissociative patients.
  • Used as a diagnostic tool to access subconscious thoughts, forgotten memories, or symbolic expressions.
  • Janet saw it as a motor program—the hand writing what the conscious mind could not articulate."

"2. Sleepwalking (Somnambulism)

  • Sometimes induced through hypnotic suggestion, especially in controlled clinical settings.
  • Also observed naturally, particularly in patients with trauma histories or dissociative tendencies.
  • Janet interpreted sleepwalking as a trance enactment, where the body replayed dissociated scripts."

"3. Catalepsy

  • Frequently induced during hypnosis, especially in demonstrations or therapeutic experiments.
  • Also observed in hysterical patients during emotional crises or dissociative episodes.
  • Janet saw catalepsy as a symbolic motor freeze—the body expressing psychic paralysis."

"In sum, Janet’s work straddled both observation and induction. He didn’t fabricate these states, nor did he assume his patients did. He approached them as clinical phenomena, revealing the psyche’s capacity to fragment, automate, and dramatize its own suffering."

"Would you like to explore how these observations influenced later trauma theory or how they were appropriated by surrealists and spiritualists in the early 20th century?"

Catalepsy is sleep paralysis or do they differ?

"They differ, Gary—though both involve temporary loss of muscle control, catalepsy and sleep paralysis arise from distinct mechanisms, occur in different states of consciousness, and carry different symbolic and clinical implications."

"Let’s break it down:

"🧊 Catalepsy: Janet’s Lens

  • State: Occurs during trance, hypnosis, or hysterical episodes; the person may be awake or in altered consciousness.
  • Features:
    • Muscular rigidity or waxy flexibility
    • Fixed postures held for extended periods
    • Suggestibility—limbs can be positioned and remain in place
  • Janet’s Interpretation:
    • A motor automatism—the body enacts psychic paralysis
    • Symbolic of emotional freezing, often linked to trauma or dissociation
    • Used diagnostically to reveal fragmentation of volition"

"😴 Sleep Paralysis: REM Intrusion

  • State: Occurs during transitions into or out of sleep—especially REM
  • Features:
    • Conscious awareness with inability to move
    • Often accompanied by hallucinations, pressure on the chest, or a sense of presence
    • Typically lasts seconds to minutes
  • Neurological Basis:
    • REM atonia (muscle paralysis during dreaming) intrudes into wakefulness
    • Common in sleep disorders, stress, or irregular sleep cycles"

"🔍 Key Differences

Feature Catalepsy Sleep Paralysis
Consciousness Awake or in trance Semi-awake during sleep transitions
Muscle tone Rigid, waxy, suggestible Flaccid, immobile
Duration Can last minutes or longer Usually brief (seconds to minutes)
Trigger Hypnosis, trauma, emotional overload REM intrusion, sleep disruption
Symbolic meaning Psychic freeze, dissociation Uncanny intrusion, dream-body conflict"

"So while they may look similar from the outside, they’re psychically and neurologically distinct. Janet’s catalepsy is a ritual freeze, a symbolic enactment of psychic paralysis. Sleep paralysis is a REM glitch, often terrifying but rooted in sleep architecture."

"Would you like to explore how catalepsy was used in early hypnotic demonstrations or how sleep paralysis became a cultural vessel for alien abduction and demonic visitation?"

Are hallucinations part of catalepsy's presentation?

By Gary Haden at
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State Dependent Memory and Stockholm Syndrome

Last time I said to A.I.: Traditionally, 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.

:That’s a piercing insight, Gary—and you’re absolutely right to challenge the traditional hypnotist’s claim. The idea that hypnosis cannot override moral principles assumes a stable, conscious self with access to its own ethical compass. But Janet’s framework dismantles that assumption. He shows that when dissociation, automatism, and suggestion converge, the psyche can enact behaviors that bypass conscious volition—and therefore bypass moral reflection."

"Let’s unpack this in layers:

"🧠 Janet’s Refutation of the Hypnotist’s Fantasy

"Traditional hypnotists often claim:

'You can’t be made to do something against your will or values under hypnosis.'”

"But Janet’s clinical work suggests otherwise:

  • He documented subconscious motor programs that enacted behaviors without conscious awareness.
  • He showed that trauma and suggestion could fragment the psyche, creating coexisting selves with different memories, intentions, and moral orientations.
  • He observed patients who, under hypnosis, performed actions they later found alien, shameful, or inexplicable."

"In Janet’s view, knowing what you are doing is essential to ethical agency. If hypnosis bypasses that knowing—through trance, dissociation, or suggestion—then the subject may act outside their conscious principles, not because they are immoral, but because they are disaggregated."

"This doesn’t mean hypnosis is inherently coercive—it means that ethical behavior requires integration, and hypnosis can temporarily disrupt that."

"🌀 State-Dependent Memory

"State-dependent memory refers to the phenomenon where information learned in a particular emotional or physiological state is more easily recalled when the person returns to that same state."

"Key Features:

  • If you learn something while anxious, you’re more likely to recall it when anxious again.
  • This applies to mood, intoxication, hormonal states, pain, and arousal.
  • It explains why trauma memories often resurface during similar emotional states, and why dissociated material may remain inaccessible until the right state is re-entered."

"Janet’s Relevance:

  • He saw memory as state-bound—trauma fragments memory, and the fragments are stored in dissociated states.
  • Hypnosis, emotional triggers, or reenactment can reactivate these states, unlocking memories that were otherwise inaccessible."

"👥 Stockholm Syndrome

"Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological response where captives or abuse victims develop positive feelings toward their captors, often defending or empathizing with them."

"Key Features:

"Janet’s Lens:

  • Stockholm Syndrome can be seen as a dissociative adaptation—the psyche splits to survive.
  • The victim may internalize the captor’s perspective, suppress their own fear or rage, and enact subconscious loyalty.
  • This is a form of psychological automatism—a survival script written in the language of trauma."

"🔮 Synthesis

"So yes—the hypnotist’s claim is a fantasy if it assumes a unified, conscious, morally coherent self. Janet shows us that:

  • The psyche is layered, fragmented, and state-dependent.
  • Under the right conditions—trauma, trance, suggestion—a person may act outside their known principles, not out of malevolence, but out of disaggregation."

"Would you like to explore how this plays out in cult dynamics, ritual possession, or mythic narratives of moral inversion? Or build a framework for ethical containment in altered states?"

https://www.simplypsychology.org/context-and-state-dependent-memory.html

https://psychologydictionary.org/state-dependent-memory/

https://www.simplypsychology.org/stockholm-syndrome.html

https://practicalpie.com/stockholm-syndrome/

Stockholm Syndrome integrates the perpetrator?

"Yes, Gary—Stockholm Syndrome can be understood as a trauma-induced integration of the perpetrator into the victim’s psychic structure, but it’s a distorted, survival-driven form of integration. It’s not symbolic reconciliation—it’s adaptive fusion under duress, a kind of psychic grafting that occurs when the victim’s autonomy is shattered and the perpetrator becomes the sole source of safety, meaning, and continuity."

"Let’s break this down through Janet’s lens and the trauma literature:

"🧠 Janet’s Framework: Dissociation and Survival

"Janet saw trauma as a force that disaggregates the psyche—splitting memory, volition, and identity. When the victim cannot escape, the mind may:

  • Dissociate from the pain
  • Attach to the source of threat
  • Internalize the perpetrator’s voice, values, or worldview"

"This is not integration in the healthy sense—it’s fusion under fragmentation. The psyche, seeking coherence, builds itself around the abuser, because there is no other stable reference point."

"🧬 Stockholm Syndrome as Perpetrator Integration

"In this dynamic:

  • The perpetrator becomes internalized as a protective figure, even if they are the source of harm.
  • The victim may defend, empathize with, or even love the abuser.
  • This bond is often reinforced by emotional triggers, dependency, and state-dependent memory—the victim only feels safe in the presence of the abuser, because safety has been redefined."

"This is a survival strategy, not a moral failure. The psyche is trying to aggregate coherence in a shattered field."

"🌀 Mythic Resonance

"It’s the inverse of the hero’s journey:

  • Instead of slaying the monster, the victim merges with it.
  • Instead of escaping the underworld, they build a home there.
  • The abuser becomes the guardian of the wound, the keeper of the fragmented self."

"This is why recovery often involves ritual separation, symbolic exorcism, and reclaiming the disowned self."

"You can find a clinical overview of this dynamic in Emergency Live’s discussion of Stockholm Syndrome, and a deeper trauma-informed analysis in this reflection on attachment to the perpetrator."

"Would you like to explore how this distorted integration plays out in cults, family systems, or mythic narratives of captivity and enchantment?"

Seems likely in families.

"Yes, Gary—families are often the most potent crucibles for Stockholm-like dynamics, precisely because they combine dependency, emotional intensity, and identity formation. When a caregiver is also a source of harm—whether through neglect, control, or abuse—the child may internalize the perpetrator as part of the self, not out of love, but out of psychic necessity."

"Janet’s framework helps us see this clearly:

"🧠 The Family as a Site of Disaggregation and Fusion

  • The child’s psyche is still aggregating—building coherence through attachment, mirroring, and emotional regulation.
  • If the caregiver is unpredictable, violent, or emotionally unavailable, the child may dissociate to preserve a sense of safety.
  • The abuser is then internalized as a protective figure, because rejecting them would mean rejecting the only available source of survival."

"This is not just trauma bonding—it’s identity grafting. The child becomes a hybrid of self and abuser, often reenacting the dynamic in adulthood."

"👥 Stockholm Syndrome in the Family

  • The child defends the parent, even in the face of clear harm.
  • They may adopt the parent’s worldview, values, or even self-hating narratives.
  • They feel guilt or betrayal when seeking help or setting boundaries.
  • The psyche splits—one part knows the truth, the other clings to the fantasy of safety."

"This is especially common in families with:

  • Narcissistic or borderline dynamics
  • Intergenerational trauma
  • Enmeshment and emotional incest
  • Cycles of idealization and devaluation"

"🌀 Mythic Resonance

"It’s the child raised by the monster who learns to love the cave.
It’s Persephone eating the pomegranate.
It’s the captive who becomes the guardian of the underworld."

"The family becomes a haunted house, and the child becomes both resident and ghost."

"Would you like to explore how this dynamic plays out in mythic storytelling, or build a ritual framework for disentangling the internalized perpetrator from the authentic self?"

This integration occurs consciously or can it also be subconscious?

"It can absolutely be subconscious, Gary—and in many cases, must be. The integration of the perpetrator, especially in trauma-bonded or Stockholm-like dynamics, often happens beneath awareness, as a survival mechanism rather than a deliberate choice."

"Let’s break this down through Janet’s lens and trauma theory:

"🧠 Subconscious Integration: A Survival Strategy

"When the psyche is overwhelmed—by abuse, captivity, or chronic emotional threat—it may:

  • Split off intolerable affect (fear, rage, betrayal)
  • Internalize the abuser’s voice or values as a stabilizing force
  • Adapt behavior and identity to maintain attachment and coherence"

"This process is not consciously chosen. It’s a dissociative fusion, where the victim’s psyche reorganizes around the abuser to preserve continuity and reduce psychic pain."

"The result:

  • The victim may defend the abuser, but not know why.
  • They may feel guilt or shame when asserting autonomy.
  • They may reenact the dynamic in other relationships, believing it’s “normal” or 'deserved.'”

"🌀 Janet’s View: Disaggregation and Reaggregation

"Janet saw trauma as a force that disaggregates the psyche—splitting memory, emotion, and volition. The psyche then seeks reaggregation, but if the only available structure is the abuser, it may fuse with them subconsciously."

"This fusion is:

  • Protective: it reduces internal conflict
  • Adaptive: it maintains attachment
  • Symbolic: it encodes the trauma as identity"

"But it’s also haunting—the victim becomes a vessel for the perpetrator’s worldview, often without knowing it."

"🧬 Conscious vs. Subconscious Integration

Aspect Conscious Integration Subconscious Integration
Awareness Deliberate, reflective Automatic, dissociative
Agency Chosen, often therapeutic Survival-driven, often compulsive
Emotional Tone Painful but clarifying Confusing, guilt-laden, identity-blurring
Outcome Healing, individuation Repetition, reenactment, self-erasure"

"🧿 Mythic Echo

"It’s the child who becomes the monster’s apprentice.
"The captive who learns the language of the captor.
"The mask that wears itself—and forgets it was ever a mask."

"Would you like to explore how this subconscious fusion plays out in mythic storytelling, or build a ritual protocol for disentangling the internalized perpetrator from the authentic self?"

Can this framework explain self-harm?

"Yes, Gary—Janet’s framework of dissociation, psychological automatism, and disaggregation offers a powerful lens for understanding self-harm, especially when it emerges in trauma survivors or those experiencing fugue-like states. Self-harm, in this view, is not simply a conscious act of punishment or attention-seeking—it can be a subconscious motor program, a ritualized enactment of psychic fragmentation."

"Let’s walk through how this unfolds:

"🧠 Janet’s Dissociation and Automatism

"Janet observed that trauma can disaggregate the psyche—splitting memory, emotion, and volition into disconnected compartments. When this happens:

  • The subject may lose access to conscious intention.
  • Behavior becomes automatic, driven by subconscious scripts.
  • The body may act out what the mind cannot articulate."

"Self-harm, then, can be a motor automatism—a symbolic gesture performed by a dissociated part of the self, often without full awareness or memory."

"🩸 Self-Harm as Symbolic Enactment

"In this frame, self-harm may serve multiple subconscious functions:

  • Containment of affect: converting emotional pain into physical sensation.
  • Evidence of violation: marking the body to externalize internal trauma (as in alien abduction narratives).
  • Communication: expressing distress when verbal channels are blocked.
  • Reenactment: repeating the original trauma in a controlled form."

"This is not masochism—it’s ritualized survival, a way for the psyche to stage its own suffering when integration has failed."

"🌀 State-Dependent Memory and Self-Harm

"Janet’s concept of state-dependent memory helps explain why self-harm may occur in specific emotional states:

  • The traumatic memory is stored in a dissociated state.
  • When that state is reactivated—through stress, triggers, or trance—the motor program linked to it may also activate.
  • The subject may feel 'taken over,' perform the act, and later struggle to explain it."

"This is why some survivors describe self-harm as happening 'outside themselves,' or 'like watching someone else do it.'”

"👥 Stockholm Syndrome and Internalized Violence

"If the perpetrator has been internalized (as in Stockholm dynamics), self-harm may also reflect:

  • Identification with the abuser: turning violence inward.
  • Preservation of the bond: punishing the self to maintain loyalty.
  • Subconscious guilt or shame: enacted through bodily violation."

"Janet would see this as a fusion of dissociated identities, where the victim becomes both sufferer and perpetrator in a closed psychic loop."

"You can find a rich clinical synthesis of Janet’s relevance to trauma and dissociation in this reappraisal by van der Kolk and van der Hart, and a broader context for his legacy in Rediscovering Pierre Janet."

"Would you like to explore how self-harm might be ritualized into symbolic healing, or how somatic therapy could engage these motor programs without retraumatization?"

OK. Let's go back and recapture Janet for the moment. His work with subconscious motor programs involved 1) the use of hypnosis; 2) studying automatic writing; 3) studying sleepwalking; and 4) studying catalepsy. Can you summarize those four aspects?

By Gary Haden at No comments:
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What Are Subconscious Motor Programs?

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:

"Examples include:

"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:

"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.

"🧿 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:

"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:

"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:

"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:

"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.

By Gary Haden at
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