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Prof. Dunlap sets out to 'make plain the psychologists' fundamental objection to the concept of unconscious mind and unconscious mental processes' with direct reference to Freudian analysis. The first lance is broken in so wise: granting that certain mediums really do speak more fluently and that they can give more form to hitherto vague ideas under the alleged control of spirits, he then considers the factors in extemporaneous composition. Thought is here simultaneous and identical with speech: they are one process. Having contrasted written composition, the causes of unsatisfactory spoken composition are discussed. But where does this composition arise? Prof. Dunlap supplies, presumably on somebody's behalf, one answer—'the work is done by the unconscious mind'. But no, that would be as if to say 'God did it'. Better approach the matter from the point of view of habit. This he then does for memorised or previously thought out speech1—and so to cures for bad speech habits. Hey, presto! 'So much for the foundation of the medium's belief in inspiration and its interpretation on ordinary psychological grounds rather than in terms of unconscious mind.'
Scarcely taking breath, Prof. Dunlap is off full tilt at the 'Freudian notion of unconscious symbolism'. The play of unconscious activity as against habit formation is to be tested, in the case of the male and female triangle, by a statistical consideration of answers to a questionnaire formulated during the exhibition of these signs (amongst others, which of these signs would you use as a trademark 'for a line of heavy machinery'?).
It is scarcely necessary to describe this attack as a flight, the more so that the author does not await the results of his own investigation, but proceeds in the same paper to lay down why the conception of the unconscious is superfluous. To make assurance doubly sure he postulates the synonymity of 'conscious' and 'mental', Why then experiment?