Janet argued that “hysterical symptoms are due to subconscious fixed ideas that have been isolated and usually forgotten. Split off from consciousness – ‘dissociated’ – they embody painful experiences, but become autonomous by virtue of their segregation from the main stream of consciousness” (E.L. Bliss, Multliple personality, allied disorders, and hypnosis, N.Y., Oxford University Press, 1986). This predated Breuer and Freud’s announcement of their virtually identical discovery (No. 4977.3) by four years.

Janet was the first to describe psychasthenia.

Janet’s summary of his work with hypnosis, including one of the most detailed histories of hypnosis available. English translation, as Psychological healing, 2 vols., 1925.