Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 February 2018
Of all the physical phenomena which interest philosophers and psychiatrists there are none more interesting than hallucinations. Psycho-sensory disorder is a complex aggregate in which the psyche in its entirety is mingled with organic disorders, an association which is still a mystery to us. The study of the affective states in the hallucinated is, therefore, of the highest importance, since it allows us to bring psychic and physiological disorders together in their reciprocal relations. “The hallucination,” says Hesnard, “which has always for the patient a personal affective significance more or less distinct, is only the symbolical translation, in comparison with a normal perception, of an interior positive psychic fact, of an affective productivity.”
In a paper read at the Spring Meeting of the South-Eastern Division, May 2, 1922 (vide Journ. Ment. Sci., July, 1922), my colleague and friend, Dr. G. W. B. James, very kindly made known in England a syndrome, studied by myself, under the name of “Lilliputian Hallucinations.” These psycho-sensory disorders, particularly frequent in alcoholism, have been the subject in France of an important bibliography. I believe that they are but meagrely studied in the land of Gulliver's creator. That is why I am presuming to return to this subject, considered from another point of view.
A paper presented at the Annual Meeting held in Belfast, July 3, 1924.
Ribot, Psychologie des Sentiments, p. 32.
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