CHAPTER VII.

ANALOGIES OF DREAMING AND INSANITY.

DREAMERS AND MANIACS.

EDWARD BINNS, M.D.

"We believe that dreaming and insanity are nearly allied; for maniacs are inundated with a flow of thoughts, a superabundance of ideas, and a catenation of impressions, which invert order, escape arrangement, and defy control, exactly similar to images in dreams. Their cerebral organs riot in confusion; they exhibit burning and brilliant flashes of wit, but they are lost in the coruscations that follow; they enjoy glimpses of elevated genius, but the prospect is soon obscured; they sometimes reason acutely, but their premises are unfounded; they talk eloquently and write vigorously, but their images are unconnected by detail, their reasoning unsupported by evidence, and their arguments unrestrained by any rule of precedent, mode of thought, or law of logic. Is not this the case in dreams? How, then, can persons be found who say that we reason, argue, think, and even act, in our dreams with more judgment and acumen than in the waking state? Yet this is the recorded opinion of one great man—nay, of the greatest man of his age-Henry, Lord Brougham! But if his lordship's opinion cannot be admitted, it is at least entitled to respect."-The Anatomy of Sleep.

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TRANSFORMATION OF PERSONALITY.

TIME IN DREAMING AND INSANITY.

M. MOREAU.

"Insanity implies a real transformation of personality. There are cases in which this transformation is so evident that the line of demarcation between the waking and the dreaming state could not be more clear and precise. There are among the insane, for instance, persons whose whole life previously to the delirium offers not a trace of its existence.

"Every act of the thinking faculty, performed without our free and voluntary assent, appertains to the state of dreaming.

"The mind cannot quit its ordinary wakeful condition, without passing into that of dreaming; in any other state its actions must be destroyed or suspended, as in profound sleep

or coma.

"Sleep may be compared to the repose of a pendulum, which is still susceptible of new oscillations under the slightest impulse, so long as the machinery by which it is set in motion retains its integrity. Death may be closely represented by this same pendulum, when the destruction of its wheels has put it for ever beyond the possibility of moving. Time exists only in its relation to the succession of our thoughts.

"It follows from what has been said, that the impression made upon the thinking faculty by loss of consciousness is the same, whatever may be its duration. Every person can recall that of which he is sensible at the moment of waking; whatever may be the length of time that has lapsed during sleep, the state of mind is the same; there is a feeling of a new existence, the primary parts of which are supplied by the memory. It is perfectly true that in this state there is no difference between a moment and an age; so that, if an individual were to awake at the end of many thousand years, his first impressions would not differ from what he would have experienced had he slept only a few hours.

"What occurs when an individual has been transformed

RECOVERY OF REASON.

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by delirium, and coming to himself, with his inner consciousness annihilated, recovers his reason after ten, fifteen, or thirty years of mental disease? Exactly what would have occurred had he awoke from several hours' sleep. He is surprised that he does not find everything in the same state as at the moment when he was struck by insanity. His eyes seek the old objects, his affections look for the same persons. Every person and object round him, among whom he has passed so many years, he sees now for the first time, or has but a confused recollection of having seen them. He cannot recognize in the grown-up persons around him his own children; he is not sure of his own identity,-whence these wrinkles, these grey hairs, these indications of advancing age?”—On the Identity of Dreaming with Insanity.

HALLUCINATIONS AND THEIR MODIFICATIONS.

BRIERRE DE BOISMONT.

"The nightmare presenting a strong analogy to madness, it is not surprising that it is combined with hallucinations.

"The hallucinations of nightmare are observable in childhood. They are also noticed at different stages of life.

"Hallucinations have often been observed in nightmare under an intermittent form.

"In nightmare, as in madness, it sometimes happens that persons are conscious the phenomena they experience are not real.

"The hallucinations produced by nightmare usually cease on waking; but they may be continued during waking hours, and be taken for realities.

"The hallucinations of nightmare are frequently observed in insanity.

"The hallucinations of nightmare serve as a natural transition to those of sleep, which only differ from waking hallucinations by their intensity, and by certain psychological

conditions. Indeed, it was long ago remarked that an hallucinated person was only a waking dreamer.

'During sleep, the operations of the mind are no longer subjected to the control of the will, and all ideas that are then formed are received as so many realities.

"The hallucinations of dreams may be traced to bygone reminiscences, or the association of ideas.

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'Many authentic facts seem to prove that the hallucinations of dreams may communicate the knowledge of an event that is passing at a given time. In this case it is probable, however, that it is but a simple coincidence or a reminiscence.

"Presentiments are often naturally explained; but there are cases in which they may be attributed to unknown physical or moral influences, or to the real phenomena of somnambulism or magnetism.

"If impressions are generally weakened in dreams, there are cases which prove that the operations of the mind may take place, as in a waking state, and even be exercised with remarkable precision, rapidity, and power.

"In general, the hallucinations of dreams cease on waking; or, if they still retain a certain energy, they have no influence on the conduct. In insanity, on the contrary, they exhibit an extreme intensity and great fixedness of character, and remain deeply engraven on the memory.

"Popular belief and religious opinions have concurred in imparting great influence to the hallucinations of sleep. It is, therefore, not surprising that some persons, extremely impressed by their dreams, have succeeded in imparting their opinions to the mass of the people. It is also possible that in this case, the recollection of nocturnal hallucinations has been entirely lost, and the mind has accepted as reality that which was, in fact, but a dream.

"Some authors think that the cases of second-sight, are only hallucinations of sleep.

"Dreams in cases of nervousness and insanity may furnish many valuable indications of the malady.

DREAMS AND INSANITY ILLUSTRATED.

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"Many insane persons reason during the day in conformity with the ideas and perceptions of the night.

"The disorders that have occurred during mental alienation may be reproduced during sleep, after a cure has been effected.

"Nocturnal hallucinations have sometimes exhibited themselves in an epidemic form.

"Hallucinations, after having been repeated several nights periodically, may become permanent during the day."-Hallucinations; or, the Rational History of Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism.

ANALOGICAL CAPRICES OF REVERIE.

SIR HENRY HOLLAND, M.D., F.R.S., ETC.

"In many points, the phenomena, both of dreaming and insanity, find more illustration from the waking moods of mind than is generally supposed. Dreams appear inconsecutive, in the series of impressions and thoughts which compose them; and are so in fact in different degrees, according to the varying conditions of sleep. But let any one follow with consciousness or immediate recollection the ramblings and transitions of the waking state, when the mind is not bound down to any one subject, and no strong impressions are present to the senses, and he will often find these no less singular, abrupt, and rapid in change, though the effect of such irregularity is here subordinate to certain regulating causes, which are absent during sleep.

"The admission of external sensations is amongst the most important of these. Their influence in correcting aberrant trains of thought is marked in numerous familiar instances, still more remarkably when causes of actual disorder are present. A person on the verge of intoxication feels confusion of thought rapidly coming on him when he closes his eyes, which is lessened or removed when opening them again; and