DUAL PERSONALITIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3100, 13 August 1913, Page 76

DUAL PERSONALITIES.

DOCTOR’S STARTLING THEORY. In the course of an interesting paper on dual personalities, Mr John Naylor referred the British Phrenological Society recently to the case of William Sharp, the essayist and poet, who, in his youth, ran away with some gipsies and lived almost away from civilisation. On returning to social life he took up literature, and wanted to be a poet. He had a great love of beauty and of Nature, and ho felt he had ideals and aspirations which lie could not voice as William Sharp. In 1894 his dual personality came into existence. Ho would sit down, take upon himself a feminine tone, and write books as “ Fiona Macleod.” He need to say he could write out of his heart in a way he could not do as William Sharp. “Fiona” was always spoken of as a separate person, and he even wrote letters to her. There was a real difference in the literary style, and even in the handwriting. Saint and Another ca<so was that of a Miss Beauchamp, who had what Mr Naylor described as a multiple personality. It was recorded of her that she could change her personality hour by hour. In one of her characters she was described as a saint, very prim and rigidly conscientious, quite incapable of dishonesty. In another character she relaxed somewhat, and in the third personality she was known as “ Sally,” chiefly because of her mischievous. troublesome, and nasty behaviour. Miss Beauchamp, like most ladies, disliked spiders intensely, but it was astonishing to find that her third personality, “ Sally,” loved them, and collected them in her trinket box. Often she would scream at discovering the very spider she had so carefully placed in the trinket box herself. ’* Sallv ” would write letters to people to whom Miss Beauchamp would not speak. In this wav she found herself in for appointments with perrons she would nob think of meeting as Miss Beauchamp. Ib was easy to sea which character was in possession' by the way she WAikeJ, by the clothes she* wor?, and by tin manner in which she shook hands. Again, there was the case of the Rev. Ansel I Banghan. who woke up one day to find himself living under the name of Brown a Jong way from his home. He had wandered there, and had been living there for two months keeping a shop. Ten Persons in One.— A.s Science Siftings, from which we onote, remarks, even these extraordinary cases of dual personality are eclipsed by one described to a representative of the

Daily Citizen by a famous West End physician. Ibis case first formed the subject of an address delivered bv Dr Albert Wilson before the Society for Psychical Research. Dr W ilson s patient evidenced the possession of no fewer than 10 different personalities, one of which was, of course, her normal self. Her abnormal slates were:— 1. -V childish mood, in which she referred to herself as a “thing," or a “good tiling, even signing letters in this fashion. 2. A passionate mood, in which she became intensely irate, and even went so far as to bite her clothes. This personality was very much better educated than that of the ‘-thing," and the letters written by her while under its influence were in a vastly different handwriting. During this mood she referred to herself as “Old Nick." 3. Every now and again the patient would become deaf and dumb. During these stages she would communicate with her fellows only by talking on her fingers, the method of which language she understood slightly in her normal state. Always her transition from this mood would be that of the “ good thing," but frequently she would he a deaf mute for days at a time. 4. ,A mood in which she imagined herself only three days old. 5. An even more remarkable mood :n which she thought that she had been born only the night' before. 6. A terrible mood, in which many degeneracies were evidenced. While under this control she invariably referred to herself as “ the dreadful wicked creature,” and gloried in her wickedness. 7. A surprisingly moral and docile mood, in which she referred to herself as “pretty dear,” “good creature,” or ‘'Tom’s darling.” 8. Several periods in which she was proved to he quite blind, but—in spite of this—able to draw with wonderful skill; 9. A state of paralysis reproduced from a former illness. “ Dr Wilson’s investigations,” says the Citizen authority, “ proved that memory of one personality continued from the last appearance of, that same personality. There was thus a continuity of the same personality, though each one was ignorant of every other one. Another remarkable thing is that it was onlv in her good or ‘pretty dear’ mood or in that when she became the ‘dreadful wicked creature,' that she ever talked French. Even more remarkable was the personality in which she was blind and a draughtswoman at the one time. To describe this properly I should nerhaps quote Dr Wilson’s own words: ‘She sat on the hearthrug, was cross and stupid, and finally her mind became a blank. This condition developed in the course of the next two or three days till she became a blind imbecile.

Drawing in Colours Though Blind.— “‘A few mornings later she was observed to he drawing with a pencil. Because she was drawing correctly it was thought that sight had returned, but it was not so.

“‘lt should be noted that while the patient in her normal self could not draw at all. this blind personality could draw perfectly. Was this a hereditary ancestral faculty suddenly called into exercise, or an unknown latent power? She used to draw the fashion-plates or pictures which one sees in the illustrated papers. They were very well done, even to small details of laces and patterns, etc. At a later stage she began colour-drawing with crayons. She was absolutely blind, as was proved by placing books between her eyes and the paper, which made no difference either to the rapidity or accuracy of her

performance. “ ‘ We also proved that she was guided by touch. If the drawing was pulled away, she would put out her left finger and ask for it to be placed on the part she had been drawing by calling out the name, say the veil or nose. Then if her fingers were so placed, she would resume, loiter she became so sensitive that she could herself detect bv touch where the pencil marks were, and if the paper "was chitted could begin again correctly.’ ” Another well-known doctor has advanced the theory that all human beings are in a sense possessed of multiple personality. “One theory of the constitution of the ego accepted bv many scientists.” he savs,

“i s that only a small portion of it is ever manifest during lifetime in our present snhero. .As the physical conditions vary, different portions of the ego become manifest.—frequently the chance being so comtdete as to lead the practised observer- to think that I,r * is meeting a totally different personality.