Phenomena of paramnesia, by A. Lemaître, 1904

Reading report published in the Journal of Normal and Pathological Psychology, Volume I, 1904, p. 181-182.   See the original in Gallica

in: IV. Memory, Imagination and Intellectual Operations
(109) — Phenomena of paramnesia, by A. LEMAITRE (Geneva). (Arch- ves of Psychology. Chapter III. No. 9. November 1903.)

Subjects who present paramnesia phenomena do not know general neither where, nor how, nor when the impression which strikes them is already appeared. The subject that L. observed is an exception to this rule. He remember in all cases the where — it was in the same place, — the how — it was in a dream — the when — it was on this approximate date or very precise; the subject was often prey to hallucinations, attacks sleepwalking. It's an excellent visual, very rich in mental images. For him, it is not a question of paramnesia, but simply of dreams that come true. Here is one or two of the sixteen observations reported by L. and which all remain approximately identical in terms of background:

(6) I am combing my hair in front of my mirror and my brush falls. Suddenly, I remember the exact dream I had had two weeks earlier.

(3) I dream that I am walking up the sidewalk in front of the Vandoeuvres dairy and that, from the edge of granite where I was walking, I could see the interior of the tailor's shop which has since moved. I had the dream on November 12th, it came true on December 27th.

Finally the subject notices himself at the same time “underneath his dream” in a diagram of the seasons which is the same for all dreams that come true and does not appear outside of them.

In any case, the feeling of paramnesia is neither wanted nor expected. It lasts a second at most; and the memory of the dream never precedes it. A this feeling does not, moreover, participate in the taste sensations, nor the olfactory sensations.

L. gives an explanation of these facts based on the polygon theory de Grasset. Since it exists in each of us, to varying degrees a higher automatism or polygonal psyche endowed with its own activity which in itself is not conscious and will only become so after communication with the higher centers, we understand that with even a very ephemeral mental dissociation from these centers, the polygon can record, for its part, other perceptions, which are then revealed to the consciousness as something already seen or already felt. Furthermore, we can assume, for the determination of the dates of the dream, that the polygon, thanks to its numerous impregnations of temporal associations, promotes by a special attraction the illusion that very recent perceptions are strong ancient. In all cases, paramnesia will thus consist of a conscious reliving of very slightly previous subconscious perceptions, but which, by virtue of their very subliminal modality, appear at the consciousness as much older.

Jean PAULHAN.