État second (

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

for ''Second State'') refers to the state of mind into which some

authors go when writing

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

. It mixes

abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...

and

concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', '' molar concentration'', '' number concentration'', ...

at the same time, ironically telling sometimes more facts than in conscious writing. The

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

writer

Julio Cortázar Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine and naturalised French novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenc ...

often used this method to write, as he called it "the moment of maximum

creativity Creativity is the ability to form novel and valuable Idea, ideas or works using one's imagination. Products of creativity may be intangible (e.g. an idea, scientific theory, Literature, literary work, musical composition, or joke), or a physica ...

Concept

Pierre Janet Pierre Marie Félix Janet (; ; 30 May 1859 – 24 February 1947) was a pioneering French psychologist, physician, philosopher, and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory. He is ranked alongside William James ...

was one of the first to subscribe to the concept of État second and he maintained that it is created through the synthesis of a split consciousness. Here, the first state is designated the normal state while the second, the exceptional state. It is in the second state where experiences are united in the closed personality with each personality may know nothing about each other. In État second, the

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...

is clouded so that two personalities that are very different override each other with one appearing in place of the other. The personalities involved one that is normal while the other is aberrant and they follow each other in successions. In

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

, État second is also referred to as the "new state" in the condition called alternating personality. This is manifested in the mental state of hysterics. It is said that the notion of '' idee fixe'', the

subconscious In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness. The term was already popularized in the early 20th century in areas ranging from psychology, religion and spirituality. The concept was heavily popu ...

that separated from ordinary consciousness, forms the nucleus of the État second. For instance, a patient falls to a hysterical sleep and forgets all his previous existence upon waking. However, it is said that all of the ordinary faculties such as speaking and movement are transferred to the new state.

Cultural references

*The French version of the American movie '' Fearless'' (1993), directed by

Peter Weir Peter Lindsay Weir ( ; born 21 August 1944) is a retired Australian film director. He is known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (1975), '' Gallipoli'' (1981), '' The Y ...

, was called ''État Second''. *The Argentine

online magazine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to an online only magazine was the comput ...

''L´Etat Second mag'' also took its name from this term.

References

Cognition Concepts in aesthetics Concepts in epistemology Concepts in the philosophy of mind Creativity Fiction-writing mode French literature History of literature Imagination Innovation Julio Cortázar Literary concepts Mental processes Mental states Philosophy of literature Psychological concepts Style (fiction) Writing {{psych-stub Literary theory