"I place five new postage stamps upon a white card and ask (a hypnotized Hindu subject) to count them, which he does correctly pointing his finger to each in turn. I then point to two of the stamps and tell him they will be no longer there when he again looks at the card. I then ask him to count the three stamps again, and he points to and counts the three stamps and denies that the others are there. I then shuffle the stamps, while hidden from his vision, and ask him to count again. In spite of the changes of position of the stamps. still neglects and denies the two tabooed stamps. This illustrates two points: first, that the two stamps are really in some sense perceived; secondly, that they are perceived and finely discriminated from the other three; for, if they were not thus perceived and discriminated, they could not be singled out for neglect. But nevertheless, the two stamps are, in some sense, really invisible to the subject."The paradox that the stamps are seen and yet not seen by the patient," concludes Professor McDougall, "can only be resolved by the hypothesis that he at the same time is a divided personality, one part of which sees the two stamps and prevents the other from seeing them." This supposition, so appealing to the mystic or the animist and so convenient for hasty interpretations, is devoid of scientific meaning, as it cannot be, or at least has never been, translated into physiological terminology. In absence of any alternative hypothesis, scientists may be forced to resort to it.
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