État second ( French for ''Second State'') refers to the state of mind into which some French authors go when writing

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. It mixes 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 writer Julio Cortázar often used this method to write, as he called it "the moment of maximum

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed Literature ...

Concept

Pierre Janet 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 sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

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

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, 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. Scholarly use of the term The word ''subconscious'' represents an anglicized version of the French ''subconscient'' as coined in 1889 by the psycho ...

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 August 21, 1944) is a retired Australian film director. He's known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (1975), ''Gallipoli'' (1981), ''Witness ...

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

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

References

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