A TRIPLE PERSONALITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13859, 23 March 1907, Page 2

A TRIPLE PERSONALITY

STRIFE OF 'HIRER SOULS FOR. ONE BODY. AN AMERICAN DOCTOR'S STORY. A sensational story, which has the authority of an eminent American physician— Dr Morton. Prince, Protestor of Diseases of tlio Nervous System in Tuft's College Medical School and Physician for Diseases of the Nervous System at Boston City Hospital* —is reproduced in (he Contenuwrary Review. It tells of the disintegration of a human individual into three independent, personalises, all of ' tliem using the 'same body, but all possessed of widely different' physical, moral, and intellectual characteristics. • Tlio story is told in a book just published by ■Dr Prince, whose patient this amazing triple lifo was, and tho book is reviewed in the Contemporary by Emma Marie Caillard. The subject's uamo is given as Miss Beau-, champ. Owing to an unhappy childhood' and an inherited nervous temperament, she developed into a physically weak . and acutely sensitive but intellectually gifted' girl.

She tried nursing as a. profession, but tho strain of the life was ioo great, and when it happened that, she, received a certain' ; severe norvous shock the extraordinary result, was that- she split up into three distinct personalities, styled, for convenience, 81, ■ ]}2, and 83. ■ . As. 81, a nourasthciuo of an extreme type.-, suffering constantly, but with courage, and ' of a. saintly disposition, she first came to !• T)r Prineo as a patient. Other curative ; methods failing, he tried hypnotism, and' ; it. was then that lie discovered the existence - of 82. In the condition of hypnosis she. would ttlludo to her waking self as "she," , claiming identity with her, but at, the same timo an absolutely distinct existence for.' : herself. a This latter claim was supported by tho . ,5 eompleto difference between the physical' >i and mental attributes of tho t.wo personalities. 82, who finally dubbed himself: $ "Sally," stuttered, was slangy and only I half-educated.. fond of practical joking, iobustly Jiealthy, and supremely eontemptuous of 81. The latter was for long ignorant of "Rally's" existence, whereas " Sally " knew all about 81, even to the extent of knonrinw her thoughts. Dr Prince's efforts wero first directed towards Keeping " Sally " from encroachin.; on the conscious life of 81, whom lie- then regarded as tho real Miss Beaiushamp; but I " Salty" would not have this. She took i the opportunity one day of " willing'" Bl to ] rub and open her eyes. Bl complied, where- j upon "Sally" entered into supreme control { and jubilantly wrote io Dr Prince that she j was "'on ton of tho heap" and meant to j remain there.

As a matter of fact, " Solly" clioee. to alternate with Bl in the control of the unfortunate body of Miss Beauchamp, being cute enough to see that otherv-'isc the bodv which they shared might be placed under re.str.iint- (All this time Miss Beauchamp's friends had no idea, of the real situation.) 1 But "Sally" vented her intense dislike of Bl in endless pranks, sueh as writing absurd letters lo her friends, making appointments with people she did not; wish to meet, hiding her money, and wearing her out by long walks. The next stage ivas the appoarancc of 83, This new personality suddenly ea-mo into being before the doctor's eyes. Summoned to visit his patient, he found her (Bl) nervously .agitated, depressed, nil--sociable, and apparently with something on her mind. They talked for a few minutes, and then an entire eliangc eitme over her. She appeared natural, tranquil in mind and body, and sociable. All nervousness and signs of fatigue ceased, She . . . chatted pleasantly—in fact, seemed a new character, healthy-minded, and with every hit of reseryo gone. The doctor's astonishment was increased by finding that, she did not know liini, and believed herself to be in tho hospital, where, six years previously, there occurred the nervotft shock which was responsible for the original sylitting-up of her identity. t B3 now became one of the regular alternate inhabitants of Miss Beauchamp's body, and she it was who ultimately provided tho key to tho solution of the whole mystery. She was much more normal in mind and body than 81, but her memory was identical with that of Bl up to tho period of the nervous shook received at the hospital, sines when her recollections ceased. Dr Prince came to the conclusion, despite the angry protests of "Sully," who feared as well as disliked 83, l.hat the latter, and not 81, was tho real Miss Beauchamp. He therefore altered the direction of his I efforts towards putting B3 ill permanent j possesion of the. body which sho now! occupied only intermittently, and sending Bl " hack into tho unknown whence she came"—"a psychical murder," as the doctor elsewhoro describes it. For a long tipio this was prevented by the. worrinpr of "Sally" and 83, who used to communicate with one another by writing letters while in possession of the common body, which were left for those temporarily in abeyance to read when their turn for control of tho physical powers came round: and it was finally rendered unnecessary by the doctor arriving at the correct answer to the problem—namely, that tho real Miss Beauchamp was neither B] nor B3 singly, but a fusion of the. two. How to accomplish this fusion was the task now reman-in? for him. Tho ordinarv difficulty v/as increased by'"an unholy alliance " between " Sallv" and B3 to prevent it, both of them being agreed in a Hisliko for poor 81. But- a quarrel between these allies caused the withdrawal of '• Sally's" opposition, with tho result that the doctor w-ae allowed to induce, by hypnotic suggestion, tho identical memories possessed by Bl and B3 to continuo into the waking state of t-ho patient. Thus, in tho net of waking up, tho real Mies Beauchamp camo into undisputed ■possession of her own.