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THE DISSOCIATION OF
A PERSONALITY

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THE DISSOCIATION OF
A PERSONALITY

A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY m
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY

MORTON PRINCE, M.D.

PROFESSOR OF DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

TUFTS COLLEGE MEDICAL SCHOOL ; PHYSICIAN

FOR DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

BOSTON CITY HOSPITAL

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

LONDON AND BOMBAY

1906

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, V. B. A.

Ed. /Psych.
Library

PEEFACE

nnHB present volume contains Parts I and II of a larger
-*- work, "Problems in Abnormal Psychology," but it is
complete in itself. It is a study of disintegrated person-
ality, as exemplified by the very remarkable case of Miss
Beauchamp. In this study I have (a) traced the develop-
ment of the different personalities which originated through
the disintegration of the normal self, and (6) shown their
psychological relations to one another and to the normal
self. By giving (c) a detailed account of the daily life of
the personalities, after the manner of a biography, I have
sought to show their behavior to the environment and the
way in which a disintegrated personality can adapt itself
to the circumstances of life, and how it fails to do so.

Selections from recorded observations, many times in
number those here given, have been made use of with the
view of familiarizing the reader with the main phenomena,
.80 that when we come to consider in another volume the
psychological problems involved, we shall have a knowl-
edge of the fundamental data. These phenomena have
been briefly discussed in this volume as an introduction
to a deeper study.

By departing from the customary way of treating these
phenomena and introducing them in the course of a

28.5082

vi PREFACE

biography, I have been enabled to present them without
removing them from their psychological setting. This
method, too, has permitted not only greater latitude in
their presentation, but, it seems to me, will tend to give a
deeper meaning to the phenomena themselves and a better
appreciation of those normal and abnormal alterations of
the human mind which are met with in practical life.

While 1 have sought to interpret the various phenomena
observed in ways which seem to me to be the logical
inductions from the observations herein recorded, and from
the established data of abnormal psychology, my first aim
has been to secure the accuracy of the observations
themselves.

A brief preliminary report of this case, under the title
of "The Problem of Multiple Personality," was presented
at the International Congress of Psychology, held in Paris,
August, 1900.

In Part III, which will be issued as a separate volume,
it is my present intention to discuss a series of problems
which will include :

(a) The theory of this case and of disintegrated
personality in general;

(6) The Subconscious under normal and abnormal

conditions ;
(c) Hypnosis, Sleep, Dreams, and Somnambulism ;
(c?) Hysteria ;
(e) Neurasthenic States ;
(/) Alterations of Character;
(^) Hallucinations, Fixed Ideas, Aboulia, Amnesia, etc.

PREFACE vii

Abnormal psychology is fast forging to the front as an
important field of research. The signs of the times point
to this field, which has long awaited investigation by modern
methods, as one to which scientific thought is now being
directed and one which promises results of importance.
Much work has already been accomplished, and a good
beginning made. The ground, however, has only been
opened, and rich rewards await the investigator. I trust
that the present work will prove a contribution to our
knowledge of the subject. •

458 Beacon Street, Boston,
August, 1905.

CONTENTS

PART I

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERSONALITIES

Chapter Page

I. Introductory 1

II. Miss Beauchamp 9

III. The Birth of Sally 20

IV. The Beginnings of Automatism 52

V. Instability and Suggestibility 64

VI. How Sally Got her Eyes Open and the
Subconscious Became an • Alternating

Personality ^ 91

VII. Sally "on Top of the Heap" 102

VIII. Subconscious Battles : Aboulia, Impulsions,

Obsessions 119

IX. Sally as a Subconscious and as an Alter-
nating Personality 144

X. Sally Torments Miss Beauchamp with Prac-
tical Jokes 156

XI. The Birth of B IV, "the Idiot" .... 171

XII. A House Divided against itself .... 187

XIII. The Birth of B I, "the Saint" .... 210

PART II

THE HUNT FOR THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP

XIV. Is not B IV the Real Miss Beauchamp? . 231

XV. Dissociations of Consciousness : Amnesia . 251
XVI. An Important Discovery: B I and B IV when

Hypnotized Become the Same Person . 266

X CONTENTS

Chapter Page

XVII. Studies in Character 283

XVIII. Is B II THE Real Miss Beauchamp? — B la 302
XIX. Sally Hypnotizes B IV and Fights for

Control 310

XX. Dreams. B I and B IV Become the Same

Person when Asleep 326

XXI. The Psychology of Sudden Conversion :
Miss Beauchamp Falls into a State of
Ecstasy and Believes herself Cured . 344
XXII. Sally Plays Medium (Subconscious Writing) 356

XXIII. The Autobiography of a Subconscious Self 367

XXIV. How B I AND B IV were Made One Person,

AND THE Unexpected Consequences . . . 398

XXV. Social Life in 1900 418

XXVI. Sally Succeeds in Becoming Conscious of
B IV's Thoughts and is Astounded at

what she Learns 435

XXVII. B IV a AND Types of Disintegration . . . 444

I XXVIII. Emotion and Disintegration 456

XXIX. Types of Disintegration : Mental Strain as

A Cause 462

XXX. A Contest between Personalities .... 476

XXXI. A Hallucination from the Subconscious . 505
XXXII. The Real Miss Beauchamp at Last, and how

SHE WAS Found 514

Appendices 627

Index 565

PART I

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERSONALITIES

THE

DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

PAET I
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERSONALITIES

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

MISS Christine L. Beauchamp,i the subject of this
study, is a person in whom several personalities
have become developed ; that is to say, she may change
her personality from time to time, often from hour to hour,
and with each change her character becomes transformed
and her memoiies altered. In addition to the real, original
or normal self, the self that was born and which she was
intended by nature to be, she may be any one of three
different persons. I say three different, because, although
making use of the same body, each, nevertheless, has a
distinctly different character; a difference manifested by
different trains of thougKt, by different views, beliefs,
ideals, ^nd temperament, and by different acquisitions,
tastes, habits, 6J!.pBritJllues, and memories, Each varies in
these respects from th6 other' twoV and from the original
Miss Beauchamp. Two of these personalities have no
knowledge of each other or of tlie third, excepting such
information as may be obtained by inference or second

* Pronounced Beecham. This name, which I have adopted for the pur-
pose of disguising the identity of the subject, was originally taken in the
spirit of fun by one only of the personalities to distinguish herself from the
others. I have used the name for all three.

2 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

hand, so that in the memory of each of these two there
are blanks which correspond to the times when the others
are in the flesh. Of a sudden one or the other wakes
up to find herself, she knows not where, and ignorant of
what she has said or done a moment before. Only one of
the three has knowledge of the lives of the others, and this
one presents such a bizarre character, so far removed from
the others in individuality, that the transformation from
one of the other personalities to herself is one of the most
"striking and dramatic features of the case. The person-
alities come and go in kaleidoscopic succession, many
changes often being made in the course of twenty-four
hours. And so it happens that Miss Beauchamp, if I may
use the name to designate several distinct people, at one
moment says and does and plans and arranges something
to which a short time before she most strongly objected,
indulges tastes which a moment before would have been
abhorrent to her ideals, and undoes or destroys what she
had just laboriously planned and arranged.

Aside from the psychological interest of the phenomena,
the s'ocial complications and embarrassments resulting from
this inconvenient mode of living would furnish a multi-
tude of plots for the dramatist or sensational novelist.
Considered simply as a biography, therefore, an account of
Miss Beauchamp's later life could scarcely fail to interest,
if it were told divested of the details which are necessary
for the purpose of scientific study.

Miss Beauchamp is an example in actual life of the
imaginative creation of Stevenson, only, I am hapj)y to say,
the allegorical representation of the evil side of human
nature finds no counterpart in her makeup. The splitting
of personality is along intellectual and temperamental, not
along ^th1(^fl.1 hy^pg n^ ^'pfi^age. .bor although the char-
acters of the personalities widely differ, the variations are
along the lines of nwyr^p, t^mpej^ament, and tastes. Each
personaUty is incapable of doing evil to others.

INTRODUCTORY 8

Cases of this kind are commonly known as " double " or
" multiple personality," accoixiing to the number of persons
represented, but a moTe^coTi^QLijQniOiiQAmMeu^af^d per-
sonality, for each secondary personality is a part Qnly,of_a
normal whole^gglfa^^. No one secondary personality pre-
serves the whole psychical life of the indiyidual. The
synthesis of the original consciousness known as the per-
sonal ego is broken up, so to speak, and shorn of some of
its memories, perceptions, acquisitions, or modes of reaction
to the enyironment. The conscious states that still persist,
synthesized among themselyes, form a new personality ca-
pable of independent activity. This second personality
may alternate with the original undisintegrated personality
from time to time. By a breaking up of the original
personality at different moments along different lines of
cleavage, there may be formed several different secondary
personalities which may take turns with one another.
Again, in the breakup certain conscious states, which are
rejected in the synthesis of the new personality, may remain
outside the consciousness of the latter, synthesized among
themselves, and thus form a second simultaneously/ acting
consciousness. This is called a subconsciousness. It will
thus be seen that secondary personalities are formed by the
disintegration of the original norniul personalities. Dis-
integratrdiaras thus used must not be confused with the
same term sometimes employed in the sense of degenera-
tion, meaning a destroyed mind or organically diseased
brain. Degeneration implies destruction of normal psychi-
cal processes, and may be equivalent to insanity ; whereas
J;he disintegration resulting in multiple personality is only
a functional dissociation of that complex organization which
constitutes a normal self. The elementary psychical pro-
cesses, in themselves normal, aTe capable of being reassoci-
ated into a nonnal whole.

Quite a number of cases of disintegrated or multiple
personality have been observed, sufficient to establish be*

4 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

yond all doubt the bona fide character of tlie phenomena, as
well as the general principles underlying their develop-
ment. The cases thus far studied aiid reported have repre-
sented varying degrees of complexity of organization of
mental Ttates and independence of the personaUties. I u _
me simplerroms the secondary personalities are manifested
through highly syrilhesized " automatic " or hypnotic phe-
nomena, and are recognized only as subconscious states
through so-called automatic writing, and kindred mani-
festations, or else as states of hypnosisv The ^tate called
" Mamie," in the case of Mrs. R., repoi-ted by the writer,^
^J and those of L^ontine and Ldonore in the case of Madame
B., described by Dr. Pierre Janet, are examples of this
■ simpler class.

1^ Inmore fully developedforms the second personalities
are identical with the trance states of mediums, like that
of Miss "Smith," studied by M^ Floui-noy, and that of
Mrs. " Smead,* studied By Professor jlyslop. In such
cases the second personalii^^oes not obtain a completely
independent existence, but comes out of its^shell, so to
speak, only under special conditions when the subject
goes into a "trance." The external life of personalities i
of this sort, so far as it is carried on independently of
the principal consciousness, is extremely restricted, being
confined to the experiences of the so-called "seance."
Although such a personality is complete in having posses-
sion of the faculties of an ordinary human being, there is
very little independence in the sense of a person who
spontaneously and voluntarily moves about in a social
world, and works, acts, and plays like any human being.
It is questionable how far such a personality would be
capable of carrying on all the functions of a social life, and
of adapting itself to its environment; Hypnotic states,
'tlmt is. artificially induced types of disintegration, are

1 Boston Med. and Surgical Jourual, May 15, 1890.

7M.

INTRODUCTORY 5

rarelXi,iL6yer, sufficientl^cfimplete, and possessed of ade-
quate spontaneous iidaptability to the environment to con-
stitute veritable personalities. j

In the most fully developed forms, in cases like^ that-
of Felida X., reported by M. Azam ; of Louis Vive, stud-
ied by several French observers; and of Ansel Bourne,
studied by Dr. Richard Hodgson and Professor William
James, the disintegrated personality retains that large
degree of complexity of mental organization whichTper-
mits complete, free, and spontaneous activity, approx-
imating, at least, that of normal mental life. Though
some cases exhibit glaring mental and physical defects,
others may, to the ordinary observer, exhibit nothing more
than an alteration of character and loss of memory for
certain periods of life. Such persons often pass before
the world as mentally healthy persons, though physically
they may be neurasthenic. But a careful psychological
examination will reveal deviations from the normal which
show the true character of the alteration. It is to this
last category that Miss Beauchamp belongs. In any one
of her mental states she is capable of living her social
life and doing her daily duties, subject only to the limita-
tion set by poor general health ; and, as a matter of fact,
eacli personality leads its own life like any other mortal.^

In some cases there is no loss of memory, and then it may
be difficult to recognize that we have to do with a true dis-
integrated, personality, and not with only a neurasthenic or
hysterical condition. Such cases are generally overlooked.
One of the personalities in this case was of this type.

The mode of development of phenomena of this sort, the
relation of the personalities to one another, and the be-
haviour of the disintegrated minds to artificial excitations
and the environment are fascinating objects of study, not
only for the phenomena themselves, but for the light which
they throw upon the functioning of the human mind.

6 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Miss Beauchamp has been under observation of one kind
or another for many yeai-s, enabling her friends and those
particularly interested in her to know her well. She has
been under the writer's professional care for more than
seven years, that is, since the early part of 1898._ During*
'most of this time she has been under constant and often
for long periods daily observation.

For a satisfactory comprehension of the mental phenom-
ena which are the object of this study, as well as of the
causes, physical and psychical, which led to their develop-
ment, it is desirable that the reader should have some
knowledge of the character of Miss Beauchamp, and of her
heredity and early life.

It will be understood that the writer feels some delicacy
in giving publicity to the private life — even though the
identity be concealed — of a sensitive, refined person,
who, by natural instinct, shrinks from any discussion
of herself ; and, though her free permission has been given
for study and publication, I shall Hmit all account of
her personal and family characteristics to the narrowest
limits that are compatible with the requirements of the
case.

When speaking of the characteristics of "Miss Beau-
champ," or when I say " she " or " her," it may perti-
nently be asked, " Which Miss Beauchamp ? " or " Which
she ? " It wiU facilitate a comprehension of the important
features of the case, and a better appreciation of the various
situations, as they unfolded themselves in this psycholog-
ical drama, if for the present the name Miss Beauchamp is
limited to the pei-son with whom I first became acquainted
and who was known to her intimate friends, schoolmates,
and teachei-s. Whether or not this Miss Beauchamp was
the Real Miss Beauchamp was a question which there was
no reason at that time to raise, and whether she was or not
I shall let the history of this case disclose. My first a<5-

INTRODUCTORY 7

quaintance was entirely professional, and there was no
ground to suspect that any other personality existed.

The Miss Beauchamp whom I first knew was the only
one known to a small but appreciative circle of friends,
whose solicitude she had awakened. She was in college
at the time, highly regarded by her teachers and classmates,
and recognized as a diligent and conscientious student.
Whatever the future was to reveal, it was this person
alone who for years had been known as Miss Beauchamp,
and who had been educated, cared for and esteemed as
Miss Beauchamp. Let it be understood, then, that in
describing Miss Beauchamp, or whenever referring to her,
the name, unless otherwise qualified, refers to the first
Miss Beauchamp, the one who first came under observation.
At a later period, for the sake of brevity, and for the pur-
pose of distinguishing her from the others, she was also
named B I. The other personalities and hypnotic selves
were designated B II, B III, B IV, etc., as they appeared.
These somewhat clumsy terms were employed to avoid
committal to any hypothesis until the phenomena had been
thoroughly studied.

It is important to bear in mind the fact that Miss Beau-
champ was well known, even if her circle was a small one,
and that when she came under observation she had es-
tablished during the course of a number of years strong
bonds of association with her friends. If it turned out
that our protdg^ was not after all the real person who had
been born into this world, it still should be kept in mind
that no reason appeared until a comparatively recent
period, to suspect the possible previous existence of any
other personality.

During the past six years ^ (1898-1904) the three per-
sonalities have been playing a comedy of errors, which has
been sometimes farcical and sometimes tragic. They run

1 Written in 1904.

8 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

on and off the stage in a way confusing to the observer,
changing places from moment to moment, each personating
the others in scenes to which she was but a moment before
a stranger, j,nd_with the exception of Sally, having_no
knovvledge of what has gone before. During these years
the writer has kept copious notes, often made daily, of the
life of Miss Beauchamp. The evidence given by all three
personalities, as well as by the hypnotic selves, has been
laboriously recorded. Every piece of evidence which
would throw light upon, substantiate, or discredit any al-
leged occurrence or mental phenomenon has been made
use of. At all times, including intervals of enforced ab-
sence, as in the summer vacations, a considerable corre-
spondence with each personality has been kept up. Much
of this has been made use of in the following account.

CHAPTER II

MISS BBAUCHAMP

MISS Beauchamp — I mean the one who first pre-
sented herself for professional care in the spring of
1898 (B I) — is extremely reticent and dislikes intensely
any discussion of herself or her circumstances. She is
even reticent in reference to her physical ailments, so
much so that it is never easy to discover any temporary
indisposition from vrhich she may be suffering. She dis-
likes the publicity which her psychical trouble tends to
draw upon her, and has sought jealously to guard her
secret. Indeed, all three personalities have endeavored
by every artifice to conceal the knowledge of their trouble
from friends, and have done so with a success that is aston-
ishing. It has been at the expense of being considered a
strange, incomprehensible person, "unlike other people,"
as may well be the case when three persons have to act one
rSle in life's comedy. The publication of this study has
been consented to by Miss Beauchamp, as a personal favor,
at the sacrifice of all her instinctive tastes and inclinations.
The constant answer to my frequent remonstrance about
her reticence is, "I have never been in the habit of talk-
ing about my private affairs." All this is carried to the
verge of morbidness, or to what more exactly might be
termed ^^ fixed ideas.''^ I mention this merely as evidence
of the absence of any desire for notoriety, or exaggeration.
Nevertheless, I am acquainted with all the important de-
tails of her past and present life.

Besides the reticence in matters pertaining to herself,
already mentioned, she is possessed of a conscientiousness

10 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

which at times has proved embarrassing to her friends.
It, too, is carried sometimes to a degree that may be char-
acterized as morbid. For instance, while in college she
was the recipient of a scholarship ; consequently she con-
sidered it her duty, in return for this benefit, so diligently
to apply herself to her studies that it was impossible for
teacher or physician to enforce sufficient recreation, or
even the rest and hygienic measures which were absolutely
necessary to keep what little health she had.
, Equally embarrassing from a therapeutic point of view
i is a morbid pride which makes her unwilling to be the
' recipient of favors or attention which she may not be
able to repay. The other selves are not always so sensi-
tive in this respect, and bitterly has Miss Beauchamp some-
times suffered when she has come to herself to find that
she has, as one of her other selves, accepted obligations
distasteful to her own pride.

A love of truth which is equally marked in her make-
up, and which has been in constant conflict with the
endeavor to conceal her mental troubles, has led to much
mental perturbation. To be frank and open, and yet not
to " give away " the fact that she has not the remotest
idea, at moments when she comes to hereelf, of how she
happens to be in a given situation, or what her interrogator
is talking about, or even who he is, taxes her innate sense
of truth, though it has developed a capacity for intellec-
tual gymnastics and quick inference which is instructive.
Her power in any one of the three characters of taking in
a new situation, of jumping at correct inferences of what
has gone before, of following leads without betraying her
own ignorance, of formulating a reply which allows of an
interpretation compatible with almost any set of condi-
tions,— her ingenuity in these directions is surprising;
and by showing what can be done by shrewd leads, guesses
and deftly worded responses, gives one an inkling as to

MISS BEAUCHAMP

the possible origin of much of the supposed supernorm^
knowledge of mediums.- In the case of Miss Beauchamp
this is, of course, compulsory from the necessity of adapt-
ing her divided personality to the demands of social
life.

If Miss Beauchamp's eye should peruse this paper, per-
haps she will overlook the personality of the statement
that her refinement of character is out of the ordinary. I
do not mean by this only the kind of refinement which
comes from social education, but rather, that natural
refinement of thought and feeling which is inborn, and
which is largely made up of delicacy of sentiment and
appreciation of everything that is fine in thought and per-
ceptions. This refinement is not easy to analyze, though
readily recognized, and would not be mentioned here,
were it not the basis of other peculiarities of her character
which are of practical moment. It is largely the sponsor
for her conscientiousness and honesty, her power of attract-
ing friends, and, unfortunately, probably in part for her
neurasthenic condition. It has also been the cause of no
end of trouble in the prosecution of this study, for it has
led to her unwillingness to "inflict," as she calls it, her
personal affairs on others, and to her reticence about her
mental life. One could often wish she were less sensitive,
and had a little of that mental and moral callousness which
does not shrink from opening the mind to psychological,
analysis.

In ending this brief account of Miss Beauchamp's char-
acter, I would add, she is well educated and has marked,
literary tastes and faculties. She is essentially a biblio-
phile, and is never so happy as when allowed to delve
amongst books, to live with them and know them.

The little that is known of her heredity from a neuro-
pathic point of view is suggestive of nervous instability.
Her grandfather on her father's side is said to have been a

12 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

man of violent temper, and it would seem without balanced
self-control. Her father apparently inherited the violent
temper of her grandfather. He and her mother were
unhappily married.

The subject of tliis stui?ly,was a nervous, impressipnaljle
/ child, given to, day-dreaming and living in her imagina-
tion. Her mother exhibited a great dislike to her, and for
no reason, apparently, excepting that the child resembled
her father in looks. The general impression left on Miss
Beauchamp's mind to-day is that of her presence having
been ignored by her mother excepting on occasions of a
reprimand. On the other hand, she herself idealized her
mother, bestowing upon her almost morbid affection ; and
believing that the fault was her own, and that her mother's
lack of affection was due to her own imperfections, she
gave herself up to introspection, and concluded that if she
could only purify herself and make hereelf worthy, her
\ mother's affection would be given her. The effect of all
) this upon the child was to suppress all disclosures of her
r own mental life, and to make her morbidly reticent. She
never gave expression to the ordinary feelings of every-
day child life ; never spoke to say that she was tired, hun-
gry, or sleepy. She lived within herself and dreamed.
I When she was thirteen her mother died. This was a
I great shock to her mental system, and for a number of
j weeks she was probably half delirious, or, as we would
now interpret it, disintegrated. The three years follow-
ing her mother's death, when she lived with her father,
were a period of successive mental shocks, nervous strains
and frights. The details of this unhappy period, al-
though of great importance from a psychopathic point of
view, unfortunately cannot be given, as, being well known
to neighbors and friends, they would lead to the identifi-
cation of the subject. It is unlikely that even a strong
•v constitution would withstand the continuous nervous

MISS BEAUCHAMP 13

strain and depressing emotional influences to which her
whole childhood was subjected. At sixteen she ran away
from home, and thus ended this hystero-genetic period.
At a later period anxieties of another kind succeeded those
of her youth.

In Miss Beauchamp's heredity and childhood, then, we
find ample to account for the psychopathic soil which has
permitted her present condition. She was never strong, as
a child, became easily tired, and suffered from headaches
and nightmares. Attacks of somnambulism also occurred.
On one occasion when about fourteen years of age she
walked out into the street at night in her nightgown and
was brought home by a policeman. For yeai-s she was in
the habit, from time to time, of going into spontaneous
trance-like states, lasting a few minutes, and at the time
when she first came under observation she was subject to
these spells (as was subsequently learned), although they
were not nearly so frequent or prolonged as formerly.
For insiajcice,. one day, an attack came on while she was
crossing, the Public Gardens. . At the moment she was
headed for Park Square. When she came to herself she
was walking in an opposite direction, in a different part of
the Gardens.

As a child, then, the subject of our study was morbidly
impressionable, given to day-dreaming and unduly under
the influence of her emotions. She took everything in-
tensely, lived in a land of idealism, and saw the people and
the world about her not as they were but as they were
colored by her imagination. That is to say, she saw people
through her own ideas, which dominated her judgment, and
which tended to be insistent. Even as a child she appeared
to have hallucinations, or at any rate so mixed up her day-
dreams and imaginings with reality that she did not have
a true conception of her environment.

Such a person, under the unhappy circumstances of her

14 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

girlhood, surely never had half a chance. Her very differ-
ences from the conventional person stamped her an " origi-
nal," and attracted other people to her. Intellectually
she was keen, fond of books and study. The knowledge
that she thus acquired being colored by the wealth of her
imagination gave an attraction to her personality.

About 1893 she had a nervous shock which, unfortu-
nately, only came to my knowledge long after I became
acquainted with the fact of there being a division of per-
sonalities; unfortunately, for it played the principal role
in the development of these phenomena. It will be
described in its proper place.

When Miss Beauchamp first came under my professional
care, in 1898, she was, as has been said, a student in one
of our New England colleges ; she was twenty-three yeara
of age and a " neurasthenic " of an extreme type. The
most salient features of her physical condition were heady
aches, insomnia, bodily pains, persistent fatigue, and poor
nutrition. All this unfitted her for any work, mental or
physical, and even for the amount of exercise that ordinary
rules of hygiene required; but in spite of her disability
nothing could dissuade her from diligent and, in fact,
excessive study which she thought it her duty to persist
in. My notes taken at this time, before it was known that
there was any division of personalities, thus describe her
general condition:

" Is a pronounced neurasthenic of extreme type; has never
been able to pursue steadily any occupation in consequence.
Tried three times to do professional nursing and broke down.

Is now studying at College ; ambitious ; good student ;

does good work, but always ill ; always suffering. Over-con-
scientious and mentally and morally stubborn. Is very ner-
vous, and different parts of body in constant motion. General
appearance of an hysteric ; cannot sit still, cannot fix her eyes
to properly test field of vision ; probably slight visual limita-

MISS BEAUCHAMP 15

tion, but this is difficult to determine. No objective anesthesia^
or other physical stigmata. "

At this time Miss Beauchamp was very suggestible and
plainly manifested aboulia, although this was mistaken by
her friends and at first by myself, to speak plainly, for
stubbornness (which was one of her traits), or at least
an unwillingness to be guided by the advice of friends
when this conflicted with her prejudices. ^YabouUa .is,
meant an inhibition of will by which a person is unable
to do what he actually wishes to do.^ There was also a
decided limitation of the field of consciousness, in the
sense that her mind at certain moments was strongly ab-
sorbed in and dominated by certain particular ide¥s. She
was unable to correct her judgments by constant reference
to and comparison with collateral facts, which is always
necessary for wise conduct. In other words, she tended
to be lost in abstraction. These are recognized psychical
stigmata of hysteria.

It was said in the beginning that, in addition to her
normal self, and the hypnotic state known as B II, Mis^
JBgailchamp JQiay be any one of three different pereons, who
are known respectively as B I, B III, and B IV. These
numbers were originally given at an early period of the
study, before the mental states were identified, and when
it was desirable that terms should be used \Vhich were not
a committal to any hypothesis. The numbers were affixed
to the personalities as they were chronologically discov-
ered. That is to say, when Miss Beauchamp first came
under observation she was known of course by her own

1 In typical and extreme cases, for instance, a person with abonlia may
find it impossible to pick up somethipg from the table, or to rise from the
chair, though strongly desiring to do so. In Miss Beaucliamp's case I have
often known her to come to my office for the express purpose of telling some-
thing important, but after struggling a few minutes with attempts to speak,
to utter the words necessary, and finding herself unable, she would give it up
and leave without accomplishing or even explaining her errand.

16 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

name. Later, when she was hypnotized, her mental state
in hypnosis was known as the hypnotic self. Eveiything
was then simple enough, for we had to do only with a
person awake and hypnotized, and no extended nomencla-
ture was required. Later, when another mental state was
discovered, it became necessary to have distinguishing
terms ; so Miss Beauchamp was called B I, the hypnotic
state B II, and the third state (at first thought to be a
second hypnotic state, but later proved to be a personality)
was named B III. Still later, "a fourth state developed
and was termed B IV.

B I was known as Miss Beauchamp.

B III was known as "Chris," in distinction from
"Christine," the Christian name of Miss Beauchamp.'
Later, Chris took the name of Sally.

B IV had no other name, although Sally dubbed her
"the Idiot."

Now these three personalities had very sharply defined
traits which gave a very distinctive individuality to each.
One might say that each represented certain characteristic
elements of human nature, and that the three might serve
as an allegorical picture of the tendencies of man. If
this were not a serious psychological stud}', I might feel
tempted to entitle this volume " The Saint, The Woman,
and The Devil." The ..Salat, the typical saint of litera-
ture, is B I. Her character may fairly be said without
exaggeration to personify those traits which expounders of
various religions, whether Christian, Buddhist, Shinto, or
Confucian, have held up as the ideals to be attained by
human nature. To her mind selfishness, impatience, rude-
ness, uncharitableness, a failure to tell the truth or a sup-
pression of half the truth were literally sins, and their
manifestation wickedness, to be cast out by fasting, vigils,
and prayer. She frequently makes allusion to such sins
in her letters. B_iy, is the Woman, personifying the

MISS BEAUCHAMP 17

frailties of temper, self-concentratiou, ambition., and, gej|-
intereat,__which ordinarily are the dominating factors of
the average human being. Her idea in life is to accom-
plish her own ends, regardless of the consequences to
others, and of the means employed. Sally is the Devil,
not an immoral devil, to be sure, but rather a mischievous
imgj one of that kind which we might imagine would take
pleasure in thwarting the aspirations of humanity. To
her pranks were largely due the moral suffering which
B I endured, the social difficulties which befell B IV,
and the trials and tribulations which were the lot of
both.

Not the least interesting of the curious nervous phe-
nomena manifested, are the different degrees of health
enjoyed by the different personalities. One would imagine
that if ill health were always based on physical alterations,
each personality must have the same ailments ; but such is
not the case. The person known as B I has the poorest
health ; B IV is more robust, and is capable of mental
and physical exertion without ill effects, which would be /
beyond the powei-s of B I; while .BJ[IIJsja^ton^ej;to_g,P^
ache or pain. She does not know what illness means. ' |

This personality, Sally, like the others, at times is an
alternating personality. But, besides this, at other times
it is a group of dissociated conscious states, which, exist-
ing simultaneously with the primary self, whether B I or
B IV, is technically termed a subconsciousness, — a sub-
conscious personality. This subconscious personality and
the waking personality together represent a doubling of
the mind. But this doubling exists because certain mental
states have been dissociated from the main stream of con-
sciousness and have acquired a more or less independent
existence, and formed an extra mind. As a result of long
years of experience, the acquisition of long chains of
memories, this second stream has acquired a wide field of

MiL

18 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

mental life. Nothing of this life is known to the main
personal stream of consciousness.

The theory of a subconscious self will be discussed in
another volume, and it would be premature to enter into
the question here. I merely wish to point out in a general
way that by a subconscious self I mean simply a limited
second, coexisting, extra series of "thoughts," feelings,
sensations, etc., which are (largely) differentiated from
those of the normal waking mind of the individual. In
abnormal conditions these secondary " thoughts " may be
sufficiently organized to have a perception of personality,
in which case they may be regarded as constituting a
second self. Such a second self is not known to the wak-
ing self, which is not even conscious of its existence (ex-
cepting of course by inference from acts). B III was such
a subconscious self. Whether such a self, or any of the
elemental states which comprise such a self belongs to nor-
mal minds, or occurs only under abnormal conditions, is a
secondary question that will be discussed in its proper
place. But the question of what part subconscious states
play in normal minds is one of the most pressing problems
of psychology. However that may be answered, repeated
observations of recent years by different students of these
phenomena have shown that in unstable natures the mind
may be disintegrated in such a way as to produce a doub-
ling or rather a multiplication of consciousness and to form
two, three, or more groups of subconscious states, which at
times are capable of considerable independent activity. At
times when excited they are capable of being stirred into
fury, when they burst forth like a volcano, fermenting and
boiling, in "crises" of a pathological character. Such
were the so-called "demoniac possessions" of the middle
ages, and such are the hysterical crises of modern medicine.
[Appendix A.]

In this account I shall describe with great detail the'

MISS BEAUCHAMP 19

genesis of the different personalities and the conditions
under which they originated, in order that the entire free-
dom from educational and artificial influences, such as
might be suspected to have shaped their characters and
memories, may be evident and put beyond question.

CHAPTER III

THE BIKTH OP SALLY

IN April, 1898, inasmuch as Miss Beauchamp had failed
to be improved by the conventional methods of treat-
ment, and as it was impossible for her to pursue any
vocation in the condition of health in which she was at
the time, it was decided to try hypnotic suggestion. I
have no intention of going into this aspect of the case, but
I transcribe a few of the notes made at the time, as they
show the extreme suggestibility of the subject, and make
clear the beneficial effects which were obtained by this
mode of treatment By suggestion it was found possible
to convert a condition of constant physical distress into
one of at least temporary comfort. If this means proved
ineffectual to remove the existing instability of the ner-
vous system, which constantly allowed painful reactions
to the environment, it was partly because of a primary
faulty organization, but more particularly because of the
condition of psychological disintegration which had al-
ready taken place, but which was unsuspected. There
was no reason to suppose that the first Miss Beauchamp
was psychologically other than she appeared to be, a whole
person, so to speak. It was only after a prolonged study,
which justified itself scientifically, that the secret leaked
out. It then became clear that a permanent cure could
come about only as a result of a synthesis of thejjisinte-
grated elements of personality. Yet it was something to
banish pain whenever it arose.

Miss Beauchamp was hypnotized for the first time April
6th. She went at once into deep hypnosis, followed by

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 21

amnesia (total loss of memory) for the period when she
was in hypnosis. This was repeated on the 6th, 7th, and
8th, appropriate suggestions being given each time, and
was always followed by immediate relief. From notebook :

April 8th. " Reports slept soundly all night without waking;
ravenously hungry at meals ; has felt well ; little or no fatigue ;
pain returned in the side, while in church, and lasted for an
hour ; it was very severe, but suddenly ceased ; no pain in the
morning on awaking, but has now some headache and back-
ache. Her friends comment on her great improvement in
health, and she herself is astonished. In hypnosis patient said
that pain in side was caused by sermon, which made her think
how wicked she was (etc.). No pain from walking."

Api'il 9th. "Reports herself remarkably well; has walked
about all day — out and about since 9 a. m. ; no pain in side,
no headache or backache ; slept well ; quiet ; thinks she is not
nervous ; feels like a different person ; remarks that she ' can't
understand it,' etc., etc.; eats well. Patient appears like a
different person: that is, is much better."

April 25th. " General improvement since April 9th. Is be-
coming stronger ; occasional pain in side, but not nearly so
severe, occasionally brought on by walking, sometimes by
being bothered ; feels stronger and better than for years ; has
been walking about two miles a day, formerly not more than
two or three blocks ; can walk a mile at a stretch without feel-
ing more than reasonably tired; no headache to speak of up to
yesterday."

It has always been easy to remove from time to time
the varying bodily discomforts as they appeared, although
this improvement was not lasting. These somatic symptoms
have a psychological interest in this case, for it has been
easy to demonstrate that they are not based on underlying
structural changes, but are by-products, so to speak, of
emotional states, or fatigue, and in part "association phe-

22 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

nomena," which are dragged into the field of consciousness
by the psychical states to which they are attached.

Particular emotional states, like fear or anxiety, or
general mental distress, have the tendency to disintegrate
the mental organization in such a way that the normal
associations become severed or loosened. Thus it happens
that a mental shock like that of an accident, or an alarm-
ing piece of news, produces a dissociation of the mind,
known as a state of hysteria or " traumatic neurosis."
Such states are characterized by persisting loss of sensa-
tion, paralysis, amnesia, and other so-called stigmata, which
are now recognized to be manifestations of the dissociation
of sensory, motor, and other images from the main stream of
consciousness. A doubling of consciousness is thus brought
about. The dissociated images may still be capable of
functioning, more or less independently of the waking
consciousness; and when they do, so-called automatic
phenomena (hallucinations, tics, spasms, contractures, etc.)
result. Sometimes the mental dissociation produces a
complete loss of memory (amnesia) for long periods of the
subject's life ; when this is the case we have the funda-
mental basis for alternating personalities, of which this
study will offer many examples. In other instances, the
disintegration induced by the emotion results less in
sharply defined somatic disturbances than in a general
loosening of the mental and nervous organization. A
general neurasthenic condition then results, revealed by
all sorts of perverted reactions to the environment in
the form of pains, fatigue, vasomotor disturbances, etc.
Finally, when the neurasthenic systems have been re-
peatedly awakened by an emotion, they form a habit, or
what I have termed an " association neurosis." ^ It then
comes about that (in subjects of nervous instability) when,
through the vicissitudes of life, distressing emotions are

1 Association Neuroses; Journ.of Nervous and Mental Disease, May, 1891.

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 28

awakened, the somatic symptoms, as a kind of tail to a
mental kite, are brought into the field of consciousness.
Fatigue and mental strain have the same genetic influence
as emotion.

The whole history of the Beauchamp " family " has been
like that of a person who has been exposed to an almost
daily series of railroad accidents or nervous shocks. Owing
primarily to a natural, and secondarily to a still greater
acquired, instability of nervous organization, the contre-
temps of ordinary life have acted like a series of mild
shocks, resulting in little traumatic neuroses.^ The im-
mediate effects have been removed from time to time by
suggestion ; but the original fundamental instability, mag-
nified a hundred-fold by the psychological disintegration
which was brought about by a mental accident of recent
date, has made possible a frequent repetition of such shocks.
Most instructive is the fact that with the complete synthesis
of all the personalities into one, with the reintegration of
the shattered mental organization, stability becomes re-
established and the physical health becomes normal. With
this statement the therapeutic aspect of the case will be
dismissed for the present from further discussion.^ ^

Miss Beauchamp has already been described as a very
reserved person. She never drops into familiarity of
speech, nor does she invite it. Her personality is one that
cannot be provoked into rudeness ; rather her tendency is
to bear in silence what othei-s might resent. If any one has
done ill to her she bears it in resignation, without idea of
retaliation by word or deed. Personal dignity, a predom-
inant characteristic, never lets her descend into the vul-
garisms which oi-dinary, though refined, people may be
pardoned for falling into under the stress of petty annoy-

1 Disturbances of the nervous system caused by accidents.

2 In Part III, Vol. II, the neurasthenic state, inclnding the relation of
changes in physical health to psychic states will be considered.

24 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

ances. This I mention here, that the differing characteris-
tics of the separate personalities, as the latter are devel-
oped, may be appreciated. With me and with those who
know her trouble, she has a depressed, rather weary, ex-
pression and manner. Her voice, too, is strongly indica-
tive of this frame of mind; but I am told that with
strangers who know nothing of her infirmity she is more
buoyant and light-hearted.

It is not easy to describe satisfactorily this Miss Beau-
champ in hypnosis ; at least in such a way as to give one
who is not familiar with hypnosis an intelligible under-
standing of her in this state. In essential characteristics
she 1 is not very different from hei"self awake, except as
any one in hypnosis differs from the waking self. If I
said that she is herself intensified, but without the artifi-
cial reserve with which she ordinarily surrounds herself as
a protection to her life, it would give the best idea of her.
In manner, her air of sadness and weariness is accentuated,
and her tastes and desires are the same ; but she does not
hesitate to give freely information which it is essential for
her well-being should be known, and to ask for aid that
will protect her even from herself. In the waking state,
as Miss Beauchamp, she desires to give the same informa-
tion and she often longs to make the same request, but is
as often held back by that intense shrinking from talking
about herself which has already been mentioned. So pro-
hibitive has been this reserve that it has been difficult to
obtain from her while awake, as B I, a reasonable amount
of information regarding her infirmity. This amounts at
times to an actual aboulia. I doubt if the hypnotic self
could be made to do what she in her waking state would
morally object to. Perhaps it is not too far-fetched to say,
metaphorically, that the hypnotic self is the soul of Miss

I This state, being B I hypnotized, was later rechristened B la, and the
term B II waa given to another state with quite different characteristics.

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 25

Beauchamp freed from the artificial restraints of conven-
tionality.

The hypnotic self, then, let it be borne in mind, is dis-
tinctly the same personality as Miss Beauchamp awake.
She speaks of herself as the same person, making no dis-
tinction whatsoever, except that she is now " asleep," or
what " you call asleep." On the other hand, when awake,
as already stated in the introduction, she has no knowledge
or remembrance of herself in the hypnotic state. On
awaking there is complete oblivion of everything said and
done in hypnosis. There is also a large degree of passive-
ness in the hypnotic self. She sits with her eyes closed
(never having been allowed to open them), and though she
converses, and even sometimes argues and defends her
own views, she tends to passiveness, like most subjects in
hypnosis.

Up to this time the only personality with which I was
acquainted, and the only one known to her friends, was
the Miss Beauchamp whom I have just described as B I. But
there now appeared upon the scene a new character, who
was destined to play the leading role in the family drama
that was enacted during a period of six years. This char-
acter at first appeared to be a second hypnotic state, but
later proved a veritable personality, with an individuality
that was fascinatingly interesting to watch ; she largely
determined the dramatic situations, and consequently the
health, happiness, and fortunes of Miss Beauchamp. She
became known successively as B III, Chris, and finally as
SaUy, according as acquaintance with her grew. The way
this character first made herself known I shall let a r^sum^
of my notes, which were made at the time, tell.

One day in April, 1898, while in hypnosis. Miss Beau-
champ surprised me by denying having made certain
statements which she made during the previous state of
hypnosis, and then again later when hypnotized, admitting

26 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

freely, without reserve, what she had previously denied.
She thus alternately denied and admitted the same facts.
The statements themselves were not matters of impor-
tance, but the denials of her own plain statements were
puzzKng. Being on my guard, my first suspicion of
course was of an attempt at deception, but on a repetition
of this experience her honesty became plainly beyond
question. The solution was not long in coming. On one
of the following occasions I was startled to hear her, when
hypnotized, speak of herself in her waking state as " She."
Previously, as already stated, she had always used the first
person, " I," indifferently for herself, whether awake or
asleep in hypnosis. She had never made any distinction
whatever as to personalities, or suggested any difference
between herself while awake and while in hypnosis ; nor
had I made any such suggestions, or even thought of the
matter. I had regarded the hypnotic self simply as Miss
Beauchamp asleep. But now the hypnotic self, for the
first time, used the pronoun " She," in speaking of her
waking self, as if of a third person ; but used " I," of her-
self in hypnosis. The tone, address, and manner were also
very different from what they had been. As bearing on
the question of the possible unconscious education of the
subject on the part of the experimenter, I may say here
that my experience of this case entirely contradicted the
view that I had held up to this time. i^^My conviction had
been growing that so-called personalities, when developed
through hypnotism^ as distinct from the spontaneous va-
riety, were purely artificial creations, — sort of unspoken
and unconscious mutual understandings between the ex-
perimenter and the subject, by which the subject accepted
certain ideas unwittingly suggested by the experimenter.
But in opposition to this view the personality known as
B III, or Chris, which first made its appearance during hyp-
nosis, came as a surprise to me ; and so far from being the

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 27

product of suggestion, originated and persisted against my
protests and in spite of my scepticism. \ In view, there-
fore, of my own lack of preparedness, this complete change
of attitude of the hypnotic self is noteworthy. I hastened
to follow up the lead offered and asked, as if in ignorance
of her meaning, who " She " was. The hypnotic self was
unable to give a satisfactory reply.

" You are ' She,' " I said.

" No, I am not."

" I say you are."

Again a denial.

Feeling at the time that this distinction was artificial, and
that the hypnotic self was making it for a purpose, I made
up my mind that such an artifact should not be allowed to
develop. I pursued her relentlessly in my numerous ex-
aminations, treated the idea as nonsense, and refused to
accept it, but with what success will be noted.

Finally :

" Why are you not « She ' ? "

"Because 'She' does not know the same things that I
do."

" But you both have the same arms and legs, have n't

you?"

" Yes, but arms and legs do not make us the same." f I

"Well, if you are different persons, what are your

names

Here she was puzzled, for she evidently saw that, accord-
ing to her notion, if the hypnotic self that was talking with
me was Miss Beauchamp, the waking self was not Miss
Beauchamp, and vice versa. She appeared to be between
the horns of a dilemma, was evasive, unable to answer, and
made every effort not to commit herself. On another occa-
sion, in answer to the question why she (the apparently
hypnotic state) insisted that Miss Beauchamp in her wak-
ing state was a different peraon from herself at that mo-

28 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

ment, the contemptuous reply was : " Because she is stupid ;
she goes round mooning, half asleep, with her head buried
in a book ; she does not know half the time wliat she is
about. She does not know how to take care of herself."
The contemptuous tone in which she spoke of Miss Beau-
champ (awake) was striking, and her whole manner was
very different from what it formerly had been when hypno-
tized. The weary, resigned, attitude was gone ; she was
bold, self-assertive, unwilling to accept suggestions, and
anything but passive. A few days after this, when hyp-
notized, sill became changed again ; tlie former hypnotic
manner returned.

" Who are you ? " I asked.

" I am Miss Beauchamp."

Then, after a number of questions on another point :

" Listen : now you say you are Miss Beauchamp."

"Yes."

" Then why did you say you were not Miss Beauchamp ? "

[Surprised.] " Why, I never said so."

" The last time we talked you said you were not Miss
Beauchamp."

" You are mistaken. I did not. I said nothing of the
sort."

" Yes, you did."

" No."

" Well, you know who you are ? "

"Yes, Miss Beauchamp."

" Exactly. You have got over that idea of being differ-
ent from other peraons, — that there is a ' She ' ? "

[Surprised and puzzled.] " What * she ' ? I do not know
what you mean."

" Yes, you do."

"No, unless you mean Rider Haggard's 'She.'"

" You used to tell me that you were not Miss Beauchamp."

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 29

« I did not."

"That when you were awake you were a different
person."

[Remonstrating and astounded.] " Dr. Prince, I did not
say so."

" What did you say ? "

" I did not say anything. I told you about my back
and shoulders." [Referring to an experiment tried to
produce a blister by a suggestion given to the hypnotic
self.]

Repeated experiences of this kind made it plain that Miss
Beauchamp when hypnotized fell into one or the other of
two distinct mental states, or selves, whose relations to the
primary waking consciousness, as well as their memories,
were strikingly different. From the very first they claimed
different relations with the waking Miss Beauchamp. The
first hypnotic self either definitely sfcited she was Miss
Beauchamp asleep, or accepted that idea, as a technical
expression, without objection ; though she apparently rec-
ognized the paradox conveyed in the idea of a sleeping
person talking. Still she regarded herself most distinctly
as Miss Beauchamp, though not awake. For the sake of
convenience at this early stage, to distinguish the different
selves, this hypnotic self was noted as B II, in distinction
from the waking Miss Beauchamp, who was now labelled
for the first time B I. In contrast with this attitude of
B II, the second hypnotic self, who was correspondingly
named B III, refused from the very first to accept the idea
of being asleep or being Miss Beauchamp asleep. She in-
sisted she was wide awake, and resented in a way foreign
to either B I or B II every attempt on my part to make
her appear illogical in claiming to be a different person.

It may be well to repeat that B I's name was Christine.
Desiring to have some distinctive term of address for B
III, I gave her the name of Chris. Later, of her own

80 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

volition, she adopted the name Sally Beauchamp, taking it,
I think, from a character in some book.

The following notes of the interview of Apiil 30 make
evident the distinction between the hj'pnotic states :

April SO. " Patient has not been here since April 25th,
when Miss Beauehamp had apparently lost her second per-
sonality ; that is to say, she did not know in hypnosis who
' She ' was, and denied all knowledge as claimed by B III of
any other person than hei'self, and had no recollection of her
previous statement as B III. It appeared as if the second
phase of hypnosis had disappeared. To-day patient returned,
stating that she has been unable to come before because of ill-
ness ; has had a return of old symptoms, etc. Remarks that
she has been unable to read or fix her mind on a book. To-
day is much better. Thinks the cause of her relapse was
catching cold, and possibly the effect of the sermon the pre-
vious Sunday. [This sermon had been the subject of consider-
able discussion between B II and myself at the previous visit.]
Miss Beauehamp is now hypnotized and becomes, as at the last
sitting, B II, the first hypnotic self. She makes the same
statement as to the cause of her relapse as did B I. In re-
sponse to inquiries she goes on to state that her name is/ Miss
Beauehamp.' [Her manner at this early stage used to indicate
great surprise that I should ask her name, as if both of us did
not know.] She does not know anything about any other per-
son, and expresses some annoyance at being told that she^ has
stated that there is another. (This talk about a ' she ' evi-
dently troubles her, as it did at the last interview, and is some-
thing she cannot understand. I take pains not to explain
anything, only asking her such questions as will test her mem-
ory, leaving her in the dark as to the meaning of the questions
and the existence of the other hypnotic self.) [Both B I and
B II were kept in ignorance of B III for a long time.]

" Patient now, without being first waked up, is more deeply
hypnotized by command. She goes into an apparently deeper
trance. At once her whole manner changes. She begins to

1 Tliat 18, in testing her memory (or what had been said by B IIL

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 31

stutter, and again speaks of herself as being a different person
from Miss Beauehamp, whom as before she refers to as ' She '
and ' Her.' Explains that the cause of her illness was partly
the effect of the sermon (referred to by B I), and partly due
to the fact that ' the person in black ' (my secretary, who was
taking stenographic notes) was in the room, and partly to the
fact that I had bothered ' Her ' (i. e. , B II) at the previous sit-
ting by troubling ' Her ' with all sorts of questions which ' She '
did not understand.^ B II, she asserts, does not know anything
of the present person talking, and when I kept asking ' Her '
questions concerning things ' She ' did not know anything about,
it upset ' Her' very much. It also troubled ' Her' (i. e., B I)
having in the room some one to whom ' She ' was afraid ' She '
would expose ' Her ' thoughts, having been told by me that
' She ' talked in hypnosis. All these things conspu-ed to upset
' Her ; ' hence ' Her ' illness of the past week."

It should be noticed that in this explanation the third
self also did not make any distinction between Miss Beau-
champ and B II ; but spoke of Miss Beauehamp as being
upset by my questions, although the disturbing questions
had been put to Miss Beauehamp in hypnosis. Yet, again,
it was when awake that she dreaded being hypnotized with
a stranger in the room. More important is the fact that
B III showed a complete knowledge of all that was said to
B II, — in fact, knew all about B II. She showed an inti-
mate knowledge of the conversation in which B II was
accused by me of having made the claim that she was a
distinct person from "She," and she professed at least a
knowledge of her inmost thoughts and feelings. And so it
was at every interview.

As a test of the memories of B II and B III, I was in
the habit at each interview of asking each to repeat certain
parts of a previous conversation, and to describe what had
occurred during the earlier part of the interview, or during
the previous interview, including insignificant details of
1 That is, as if B II and B III were one and the same person.

82 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

my actions, etc. Miss Beauchamp never had any memory
of what happened while she was Chris, any more than while
she was B II. That was plain enough. Miss Beauchamp
knew nothing of the other two. The hypnotic self, B II,
on the other hand, remembered everything that she, B II,
said during the preceding times when she had been in
existence, and also everything about Miss Beauchamp's
life. She would give at each visit an accurate account
of everything that happened when Miss Beauchamp was
awake, whether in my presence or at her own home. She
would repeat my convereation mth Miss Beauchamp, what
I did when Miss Beauchamp was in the room, and so on,
ad infinitum. She was plainly the "hypnotic self." But
she was in entire ignorance of the new self, Chris (B III).
She always denied any knowledge of what she had said in
this new state, nor could I ever trip her up, though I set
many traps. For instance, at the close of the last inter-
view, just referred to, the new hypnotic self, Chris, volun-
teered to give some information on a matter connected with
Miss Beauchamp's affaire, but did not complete it. This
was the last thing that she said before Miss Beauchamp
was awakened. At the next interview I qiljestioned B II
as to what it was she was going to tell me, as if it were
she and not the new self, Chris, with whom I had been
talking.

" Do you remember the last thing 5'^ou said yesterday ?
You were going to tell me something."

" Going to tell you something ? No, I was not."

*' Yes, you were."

" No, I am sure. I do not remember anything."

Later in the couree of this same interview Chris was
obtained. The same questions were put to her.

" Yesterday you were going to tell me something. What
was it?"

Chris at once showed complete knowledge of the conver-

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 33

sation and continued what she had begun at the interview
in question. Thus it was shown that B II could give ver-
batim my conversation with herself and with B I, but
nothing of that with B III. But B III could repeat
that with all three selves ; and so it was correspondingly
with what was done at those times. So B III knew both
B I and B II, although B I and B II knew nothing of
B III.

This relationship may be expressed by the following
diagram, the arrow indicating the direction of knowledge :

^ B I (a personality)
Chris, B III ^ I

(a personaUty) -~* 3 n (^^ter known as B la, a hypnotic

state)

Of course Chris's memory was continuous for the times
of her own previous existence ; that is, for the times when.
Miss Beauchamp having been put to sleep, Chris was
present as an alternating personality. As to her knowl-
edge of Miss Beauchamp, besides her familiarity with out-
ward circumstances, she could describe the latter's inmost
thoughts and feelings, her moods and her emotions, as after-
waids was verified over and over again. The marked in-
dividuality of Chiis's character, her insistence upon herself
being a separate personality, the wideness of her knowl-
edge, and various other even more important peculiarities
which later became known made her an interesting study.
Although she first disclosed her existence through the
hypnotizing process, she proved to be no ordinary hypnotic
self, but a veritable personality which also exhibited itself
at times as an organized subconsciousness.

One of the most interesting features when the change to
Chris took place was the sudden alteration of character,
which was almost dramatic. It was amazing to see the

84 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

sad, anxious, passive B II suddenly become transformed
into a new personality, stuttering abominably, and exhibit-
ing a lively vivacity, boldness, and saucy deviltry, difficult
to describe.

No longer sad, but gay and reckless, she resented any
attempt to control her. For example : therapeutic sugges-
tions given to B II were accepted with docility, but when
they were tried on this new hj-pnotic self they were met
at once by opposition. " You th-th-think you c-c-c-can
c-c-control me," she stuttered, " b-b-because you c-c-control
' her.' You c-c-can't d-d-do it. I shall d-d-do as I p-p-
please," etc., etc.^

Finding that this tack would not work, another was tried.

" I want your co-operation to help me get Miss Beau-
champ well. Will you help me? "

" Now that is a different kind of talk," she replied, molli-
fied, though still stuttering.

Rebelliousness and above all sauciness like this was
something entirely foreign to Miss Beauchamp's character.
It was clear that there were three different selves, or at
least three different mental states.

Some idea of the memories and characteristics of the
different selves may be had from the following exti-act from
the notes of the next interview, May 1. It was not easy
to exactly transcribe the language, and above all to repre-
sent the tone and mannerism of each. It was found that
the presence of a stranger in the room was so disturbing
to Miss Beauchamp, who naturally feared lest she should
betray her private affairs, that it was necessary to give up
the plan of taking stenographic notes. The difficulty of

^ Chris, when she first appeared on the scene, stuttered badly. Later this
difficulty disappeared, but in tlie early days of her career it was obtrusivrf
Sometimes she would remain silent on account of it, especially at the first
moment of her appearance. She also used to keep her arms and hands in
motion in a nervous way. It was as if she had not yet learned to co-ordinate
her newly acquired muscles, and had general ataxia in consequence. This
too disappeared later.

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 35

taking down verbatim, in longhand, a rapidly held conver-
sation necessarily obliged a condensation of sentences, so
that the style is not fairly represented in these notes, but
the accuracy of the facts as brought out may be insisted
upon. On May 1, the ground of April 30th was gone over
again as follows :

After hearing the report from Miss Beauchamp and
questioning her on various matters, she was hypnotized,
becoming pLainly B II.

Q. " How has Miss Beauchamp been doing ? "

A. [Changing the question to the first person.] " How
have I been doing ? I have been doing very well ? "

Q. " How has ' she ' been doing ? "

A. "'She'? Who?" .

Q. " Don't you know who ' she ' is ? "

A. " You did not say."

Q. " Don't you know ? "

A. "Do you mean Miss K. ? No, I do not know whom
you mean."

B II kept rubbing her eyes. She would not recognize
the existence of any other personality than herself, nor
could I get her to betray any knowledge of having, as
Chris, referred to a " she."

Q. " Have you been going to sleep this past week during
the daytime?" [Referring to spontaneous trances that
had occurred.]

A. "No."

Q. " Are you sure ? "

A. "Yes."

Q. " Have you been reading ? "

A. "No."

Q. "Why?"

A. " I can't."

Q. " Why can't you ? Have you been trying ? "

A. "Yes."

86 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Q. " What prevents you ? "

A. "Nothing."

Q. " Do you mean you can't fix your mind ? " [As al-
ready stated by her when awake as Miss Beauchamp at
the interview of the previous day : page 30.]

A. " Yes, that is what I mean. I can't read — can't fix
my mind at all."

Q. " What happens ? "

A. " I begin thinking of all sorts of things the minute
I try to read. Sometimes I throw the book down on a
chair or table. I throw it down hard and closed after try-
ing to read." [Illustrates at my request]

Q. " Have you ever been so before this past week ? "

A. " No, never."

When pressed for an explanation of her unusual action
her answer was characteristic of subjects exhibiting phe-
nomena which they cannot explain : " People do not
always have a reason for everything they do." This ap-
parently simple action had more significance than would
appear on the surface. Though not open to absolute proof,
it is morally certain that it was an example of a suggested
post-hypnotic phenomenon and the prelude to many similar
exhibitions which I actually observed. For the benefit of
the uninitiated it may be explained that in suitable sub-
jects if a suggestion is given in hypnosis that a certain
action be performed later after waking, the subject
will, at the appointed time, carry out the suggested
idea ; or perhaps more correctly, the suggested idea will
complete itself without the subject knowing why he does
the action, which sometimes is performed in an absent-
minded way without his even knowing he has done it.
Sometimes the subject enters a semi-hypnotic sUite at the
moment of carrying out the command.^

1 The following is an amusing example of this well known phenomenon. I
told a subject, Mrs. K., in hypuosis, to put ou her bonnet ami wear it during

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 37

When Miss Beauchamp, as she and B II reported,
found herself unable to read and threw down the book,
she carried out a command that I had given for therapeu-
tic purposes to Chris, unknown to the other selves. I had
told Chris, rather carelessly, that she was to prevent Miss
B. from reading, without suggesting how the thing was to
be accomplished. Chris, who later explained the phenom-
enon at length, claimed to have been the author of this
automatic action on Miss B.'s part, and to have taken
this drastic method of carrying out my suggestion, thereby
showing considerable subconscious independence, and, I
think, logical reasoning. It is worth noting how sharply
differentiated were the volitions of the two personalities at
this early date. Later, I personally witnessed similar phe-
nomena on numerous occasions. It may be here stated
that though often, for the purposes of a continuous narra-
tive, phenomena are noted as having occurred, on the
strength of the statements of the subject, these, when im-
portant, were accepted only after searching inquiry ; and
secondly, examples of every phenomenon described have
been personally witnessed, at one time or another, over and
over again.

To resume : B II [hearing the scratching of my pencil
taking notes]. " What are you doing ? "

dinner the next day. She had no recollection on awaking of the command.
Mrs. R. thus described what occurred : " As I was going in to dinner, my
girl asked me what I was going out for. * I am not,' says I ; 'I am going to
eat my dinner.' ' Then what have you got your hat on for,' says she. I put
my hand to ray head and there was my bonnet. ' Lord, Mamie,' says I, ' am I
going crazy? ' ' No, mother,' she says, ' you often do foolish things.' I began
to get frightened, but took off my bonnet and went into the next room to din-
ner." There the younger child similarly asked her where she was going,
and called attention to her having her bonnet on. She again took it off ;
later when her husband entered, the same thing was repeated ; but when she
found her bonnet on her head for the third time she made an excuse of the
stormy words that ensued to declare that she would " keep it on till she was
through dinner." After dinner, being alarmed, she consulted a neighbor
about it. (For further observations on the case of Mrs. R. and others, see
" Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," May 15, 1890.)

285082

38 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Q. "What do you think?"

A. " You are scratching something, so — " [Illustrat-
ing.] "What is it?"

Q. " Don't you know what I am doing ? "

A. " No, I don't know."

Q. " Are you awake or asleep ? "

A. [Evidently puzzled.] " I can hear what you say
and I can talk, but I can't see you." [Her eyes are closed.]

Q. " What do you infer from this? "

A. [Evidently puzzled — does not know what to an-
swer.] " I never saw such a person as you are for asking
questions."

Q. " Are you awake or asleep? "

A. [Still puzzled, but finally apparently catching the
suggestion.] " Asleep, I suppose ; yes, asleep."

Q. " What is the difference between you now and when
you are not here ? "

A. " I am asleep now."

Q. " Are you the same person ? "

A. [Emphatically.] " Of course I jim the same per-
son." [This answer should be compared with the answer
of Chris later given.]

Q. "Do you know everything that happens to you
when you are awake?"

A. " Yes, everything."

Q. *' When awake do you know everything that happens
when you are asleep ? "

A. " No, nothing, and I do not think it quite fair. "

Q. "Why?"

A. " Because I like to know things. It is just that —
[with a finger makes a sign imitating my method of hyp-
notizing] and I go to sleep."

Q. " Do you feel tliat you are exactly the same j^erson ? "

A. " Of course. Why should I feel differently ? "

It is interesting to compare the general straightforward,

/
THE BIRTH OF SALLY 39

direct tone of these answers with those of Chris, now to be
given. The change is easily recognized.

B II is now more deeply hypnotized, — to use a com-
mon but incorrect expression,^ — and Chris appears, as
shown by the usual change of manner.

Q. " Why do you let your arms move so ? " [Patient is
fidgeting and moving her hands and arms. Shakes her
head as a negative response, and keeps her lips tightly
closed.]

Q. " Why don't you speak ? "

A. " I d-d-d-don't want t-t-to."

Question repeated.

A. " I d-d-d-d-don't know."

I ask her another question. She replies by shaking her
head in the negative, as if unable to answer.

Q. " Why do you stutter ? "

A. [Annoyed.] " I d-d-d-d-don't st-st-st-stutter. If I
ch-ch-choose t-t-to st-st-stutter I shall."

Q. " Why have }^ou suddenly changed ? "

A. " I have not ch-ch-changed at all."

"You were not stuttering a minute ago."

"I was n-n-not t-t-t-talking a m-m-m-minute ago;
'She' was."

Q. " Who is ' she ' ? "

A. [Showing irritation and annoyance.] " I won't ^-^-
g-go through that n-n-nonsense again. I t-t-told you t-t-
ten d-d-days ago. If you d-d-don't know any better now
I sha'n't t-t-tell you."

[These answers were given with a good deal of resent-
ment.]

Q. " What is your name ? "

A. " I sha'n't t-t-tell you."

Q. " Can't you for politeness ? "

1 The correct way of describing the process would be, B II was by a de-
vice changed to Chris.

40 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

A. " I d-d-don't cli-ch-choose t-to be p-p-polite. I have
t-t-told you many trt-times."

Q. " Why do you stutter ? "

A. ''I d-d-don't stutter — only something wrong with
my t-t-tongue."

Q. " Did you ever stutter in your life ? "

A. " No, and She did not either."

[It will be noticed how quick B III was to make the
distinction between herself and " she " at this time. I here
tried to catch her by the use of the word "you," but
failed.]

Q. " Tell me once more your name."

A. [After some hesitation and thought.] "Chris L."
[Her real name, we will say, is Christine L. Brown.]

Q. "What more?"

A. " Th-that is all. You had b-b-better make a note of
it and rememl)er it."

Q. " What does L. stand for ? "

A. " N-n-not at all n-necessary th- th-that you sh-should
know."

Q. " Does it stand for Brown ? " ^

A. [Irritated.] " N-n-no, her name is Brown. It-told
you th-that yesterday."

Q. " Well, I shall call you Miss Brown."

A. " If you ch-choose t t-to c-c-call me Miss Brown you
c-can. I shall have n-nothing t-t-to d-do with you."

Q. " How did you get the name of Chris ? "

A. [Objects to answering, dodges the question and
evades — then says :] " You th-think you c-can make me
t-tell everything b-b-because you c-c-can make her."

I change my tone, upbraiding her for not being frank
and then explain that my only object is to test her memory ;
I add that I know how she got it, and 'she knows that I

1 That is, I mentioned the real name of Miss Beauchamp for which
"Brown" is here sobsti luted.

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 41

know, and I know that she knows, so she might as well
tell, as it is merely a test of continuity of memory. Sub-
ject becomes more placid and says : " You suggested it
to me one day, and I remember everything," [This is
correct.]

The peculiar character traits manifested by Chris, which
distinguished her so unmistakably from Miss Beauchamp,
both when awake and when hypnotized as B II, naturally
gave rise to the suspicion that Chris might be an artificial
product, the result of her own self-suggestion, or simply
hypnotic acting. It seeped possible that Miss Beauchamp
might as a result of shading have acquired some informa-
tion about the m^^re behavior of certain types of second-
ary personalities, and that the ideas thus originated might
have developed themselves afterwards in the hypnotic state
in such a way as to lead Miss Beauchamp in this state to
act out a character after some preconceived theory ; or, if
not deliberate acting, as the psychological development
of auto-suggested ideas. On this theory Miss Beauchamp
was closely questioned on her past reading and knowledge
of psychological phenomena. Nothing was elicited, how-
ever, that in any way supported this theory. I never dis-
covered that she had any knowledge of the literature of
abnormal psychology, or knew anything about modern
researches in this field of inquiry, including hypnotism, mul-
tiple personahty, etc. Thinking possibly that she had read
something which might have been forgotten in the waking
state, B II was similarly catechised, and finally Chris was
put through the same cross-examination. But in no state
was there any memory of Miss Beauchamp's having read
any book or acquired any information which could have
worked itself out as suspected. The final developments
of the case, as will appear, completely negatived such a
hypothesis.

The psychological relations of B II to the waking con-

42 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

sciousness differed in one very important respect from those
of Chris to the same. I am not here concerned with the
'proofs of this difference, or with the psychological phe-
nomena themselves. This evidence will appear m the
course of this study. I am at present concerned merely
with the conditions under which the different hypnotic
states or personaUties developed, and their varying peculi-
arities of character. Yet it will aid in the understanding
of the various phenomena exhibited if certain psychological
relations, which at this time were only hypothetical, but
which were later proved, are mentioned.

It lias been stated that the hypnotic state B II always
spoke of herself as Miss Beauchamp, and never recog-
nized any distinction of pei"Sonality between the two
states. In character they were the same. Now nothing
was ever observed, at this time or later, to indicate that
B II, as such, had a persisting and continuous existence
during the waking state of Miss Beauchamp. It is
frequently assumed by writers that the hypnotic con-
sciousness persists, as a more or less systematized self,
during waking life. This conception is expressed in such
phrases as the " subconscious self," the " hidden self," etc.,
which are loosely used as the equivalent of the " hypnotic
self."

It is a much more difficult matter than would at first sight
seem to be the case, — indeed, much more difficult than is
generally supposed, — to prove the existence of a second-
ary consciousness during the normal waking life. This
idea that the hypnotic self persists after the subject wakes,
aa a concomitant subconscious self, — that is, a self which
has an existence concomitant with, but unknown to, the
waking personal consciousness, — has grown out of cer-
tain suggested post-hypnotic phenomena, and also from
what is observed in certain hysterical states. Post-hyp-
notic phenomena have been already described. Still bet-

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 43

ter our illustrations of subconscious mental action are
those indicating arithmetical calculation, fii-st devised, I
think, by the late Edmund Gurney in England. Success-
ful experiments of this kind I have been able to obtain
with Miss Beauchamp. To make such experiments, a
suitable subject in hypnosis is told, say, to add or multiply
certain figures, or make some other calculation, and per-
haps give the result at the end of a certain period, say
eighteen hours, which would again require the counting of
the passage of time. The subject is instantaneously awak-
ened before he could possibly make the calculation, which
is worked out subconsciously without the personal knowl-
edge of the subject, and later the answer is given in one of
various ways in response to the command.

This problem of the sub-conscious self we shall consider
later in another place (Part III). I will here merely point
out that all such phenomena are artifacts, the artificial pro-
ducts of suggestion (just as hypnosis itself is an artificial
dissociation), and in no way indicate that habitually and
normally there is a subconsciousness so elaborate that it can
be regarded as in any sense a self ; or, when a person can be
deeply hypnotized, that the whole of the stream of con-
sciousness which constitutes hypnosis — the personal hyp-
notic consciousness — persists as such after waking. This
is by no means a denial that some elements of the hypnotic
consciousness, some ideas or emotions may not become by
artifice or other influence dissociated and then persist dur-
ing the waking state as a subconsciousness. On the con-
trary such may be shown to be the case. It is a denial
that, under normal conditions, that stream of conscious-
ness which constitutes the personal self during hypnosis
persists as a whole, or in the large sense of a self, after
waking ; or that we may justifiably speak of the hypnotic
self as a second normal hidden self. The exact mechanism
of artificial subconscious phenomena is somewhat complex,

44 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

but in a general way it is sufficiently correct to say that
the suggestion dissociates a limited number of mental
states (ideas, etc.), from the remainder of the personal
consciousness, and these isolated dissociated ideas take
on what is called " automatic " activity, and carry out the
suggestion subconsciously. They may and often do tem-
porarily rob the personal self of a part of its field. The
dissociation is only temporaiy, and as soon as the experi-
ment has been accomplished, synthesis again takes place,
or the activity of the dissociated ideas subsides. It is true
that when the subject is put again into hypnosis he remem-
bera the subconscious thoughts dissociated by the experi-
ment. He remembers his arithmetical problem. He may
remember how he did it and why he did it ; but he likewise
remembers his waking thoughts, — the thoughts of the
personal self, — and therefore, if continuity of memory be
taken as a criterion, it would show that the hypnotic con-
sciousness is identical with the waking consciousness as
well as the subconscious. But it cannot be identical with
both. The real fact is that when the subject is thrown
into hypnosis the artificially created subconscious memories
become amalgamated with the hypnotic consciousness, and
therefore the previously subconscious thoughts are remem-
bered by it. When he wakes up these memories are
again dissociated, that is, forgotten in the sense that they
cannot be awakened, synthesized, and recalled.

Tlie erroneous assumptions in the notion of the " hidden
self " are that normally and habitually there is a persistent
hypnotic self^ that is, persistent during the waking state as a
subconsciousness, and that this self is a definite entity occu-
pying a definite place in the mental economy. It implies
that whatever subconscious states may be present normally
are coextensive with the whole consciousness which makes
up the personal self during hypnosis. This is the funda-
mental error. The hypnotic self is ordinarily a well devel-

THE BIRTH OF SALLY

oped personality; it is a -great complex grouping of con-
scious processes constituting what is called a self, in fact
is the primary self shorn of some of its faculties. There-
fore if it persisted as a self after waking, we should have a
paradox. The truth of tliis will be recognized if we con-
sider the lighter stages of hypnosis. Here the disintegra-
tion may be so slight that the hypnotic self may have such
a large field of consciousness as to be approximately equiv-
alent to the waking self. Surely such a hypnotic state can-
not exist as an extra self after the subject wakes.

On the other hand, in certain hysterical states, such as
anesthesia and fixed ideas, there is a persistent dissociation
of consciousness, meaning a persistent subconsciousness of
a greater or less extent, ranging from a few isolated sensa-
tions to fairly large groups of ideas. Sometimes these
subconscious ideas spontaneously manifest themselves in
certain outbursts, and thus reveal their presence. At other
times this subconsciousness, by suitable devices, can be
tapped and shown to exist. The lost sensory perceptions,
which constitute the anesthesia, can be shown to be re-
tained subconsciously. The subconscious " fixed ideas "
may sometimes be shown to be a part of a large group of
ideas, — so large as to constitute almost a second person-
ality. Such states, then, exist concomitantly with the
waking consciousness, coexist with it, and indicate a veri-
table doubling of the mind. Such a subconsciousness, as
will appear, was Chris.

But even a subconsciousness of this kind is not identical
in extent with the hypnotic consciousness. The subcon-
sciousness, so long as it is subconscious, has a much nar-
rower field ; it does not (excepting in crises) have control,
for instance, of the arms and legs, or the speech faculties,
and it is not possessed of the intellectual capacities which
the subject in hypnosis possesses. When the subject is
hypnotized and put into a particular state, the subcon-

46 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

sciousness may become fused with this particular hypnotic
consciousness, and, if so, its contents are then remembered
and the whole may then form an alternating personality .^
A subconsciousness is a particular group of mental states^
dissociated from but concomitant with the personal self^; but
we have no way as yet of experimentally determining how
extensive this subconscious group may be. The ordinary
methods of tapping the subconscious stratum (automatic
writing, speech, etc.) are fallacious, as for the very purpose
of manifesting itself the subconscious tends to rob the wak-
ing self of part of its ideas.

Now as a fact, B II never showed any evidence of per-
sisting as a concomitant subconsciousness. If you asked
her what became of herself when Miss Beauchamp was
awake as B I, she would answer she did not know. Did
she exist at such times as B II? No, she was waked up,
that was all: she was B I: she was the same person.
The question itself, in her mind, implied an absurdity or
wrong conception. She was B I; how then could she
otherwise exist at the same time, and as somebody else ?
B I went to sleep, and we called her B II. Nor did B II
have any memory of having had mental experiences when
B I was awake, other than those of B I, including, of
course, the experiences which B I had had, but had for-
gotten.8 Nor were there any spontaneous manifestations
of subconscious mental life, like automatic writing, speech,
or obsessions, which could be traced to a persistent B II.
B II, in other words, was B I " asleep," and was limited

* It may then be hastily, but unwarrantably, assumed that the whole al«
ternatiug personality persists subconsciously after waking, instead of only a
limited number of concomitant states.

* Janet's " L^ontine," in the case of Mme. B., may be taken as a good
instance.

» This statement does not include the isolated subconscious states probar
bly habitual to every normal mind, and which B II remembered. An in-
vestigation sliowed that there were such states, but that they belonged to
B I. To consider this question here would involve too wide a digression.

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 47

to that state. It was for this reason that B II was later
(Chapter XVIII) termed B la, which expresses this re-
lationship ; while the term B II was transferred to another
hypnotic state which was afterwards discovered. This is
important to bear in mind.

With Chris, on the contrary, it was different. From
almost the very first her language implied a concomitant
existence for herself, a double mental life for Miss Beau-
champ. She always spoke as if she had her own thoughts,
perceptions, and will during the time while Miss Beau-
champ was in existence. As an instance of this may be
taken the conversation when Chris was questioned to dis-
cover whether Miss Beauchamp had read any book about
multiple personalities, and also to determine whether the
whole range of ideas gathered by the reading of the wak-
ing self, B I, was retained in Chris's mind. It was after-
wards shown that the latter was only in part the case, but
her answers implied coexistence and parallelism of thought,
for she explained certain lapses of knowledge by asserting
that ordinarily, as she herself was not fond of books, she
did not pay attention while Miss Beauchamp was reading ;
but that when she did so, which was only when interested,
she could understand and remember the text; that she
liked different books from those Miss Beauchamp liked,
and that she understood some things Miss Beauchamp did
not, and vice versa}

1 It may seem a contradiction to say that Chris knew Miss Beauchamp's
thoughts, and yet did not understand all that the latter read. The distinc-
tion is comprehensible, though it proves a limitation of Chris's field of con-
sciousness relative to that of B I, and shows that it was not as full and
complete as the latter's. A distinction must be drawn between Miss Beau-
champ's ordinary thought-knowledge and the knowledge wliich she acquired
as a matter of learning, such as French, shorthand, etc. The former, Chris was
fully conscious of, but beyond a few words she did not know French, though
Miss Beauchamp read it easily. The same was true of shorthand. Indeed,
later, one of the personalities wrote shorthand in her diary so that Chris should
not understand what she had written ; and I was in the habit of using Frencli to
convey ioforniation which it was important should be concealed from Chris.

48 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

A claim of this kind, to be able to pay attention or not
as she pleased, when the waking consciousness was read-
ing, required the coexistence and simultaneous action of
two distinct and unlike streams of thought in one individ-
ual. For a second consciousness to be interested or not, to
pay attention volitionaUy (that is, to will) or not, while the
first consciousness is acting, for the one consciousness to
understand when the other did not, and vice versa, neces-
sitated two coexisting consciousnesses. The fact that Chris
remembered what Miss Beauchamp read did not necessarily
imply coexistence. A person in hypnosis may remember
what occurs in the waking state, though the two mental
states are successive, not coexistent. Chris's claim meant
pamllelism of thought. The idea that Chris might con-
tinue her existence as a subconscious peraonality rested on
nothing more than her own statements at this time. It
became an important psychological problem that required
investigation and to be proved or disproved. It should be
remembered that up to this time Chris had had no inde-
pendent existence excepting in my presence, and if she had
done any independent reading it must have been as a sub-
conscious personality. Continuing the inquiry in regard to
this point, I had accused Chris, in order to draw her out^
of not being able to understand what Miss Beauchamp
read, or to read independently, subconsciously and contem-
poraneously with the waking self.

" What you mean to say is, you can't read."

" I won't read."

" You can read, then ? "

"Yes, but won't."

"Why?"

" I don't like it. I won't pay attention when she reads."

" Never ? "

" Only once in a great while."

" Do you understand what ' she ' reads ? "

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 49

" I understand some things. I pay attention to some
things, and not to others ; sometimes, though, when I do
pay attention I don't understand, but she does ; and some-
times she does not understand and I do." (At this inter-
view her memory was tested for a book which Miss
Beauchamp had read, and was found to be the same as the
latter's.)

Such statements in themselves of course have no scien-
tific value as proof ; a memory of a previous subconscious
personal existence might well be a delusion. Nor would
the fact that she remembered certain previous subconscious
ideas — ideas not possessed by the waking self — prove the
subconscious existence of a " hidden " Chris, any more
than does the memory possessed by the ordinary hypnotic
self prove, as I have already pointed out, the subconscious
persistence of that self. Indeed, no hypnotic self, that has
not exhibited subconscious manifestations, has ever claimed
a persistent subconscious existence. Certainly B II did
not. If Chris's belief was a delusion, it may be asked how
did she come by it, seeing that none of the other pei-sonali-
ties or hypnotic states had such a belief. It certainly was
not suggested to her, for in the beginning I always denied
the truth of it. Nevertheless, in spite of my denials, Chris
always refused to admit the identity of her own personality
with that of B I, whether as a hypnotic or subconscious
personality. " We are not the same person," she would
insist; "we do not think the same thoughts;" meaning
when B I was present. In other words, she claimed, in
her own peculiar language, to be always present as a
subconsciousness.

When asked the direct question if she continued to exist
as a separate and distinct self while B I was awake she
asserted positively and unqualifiedly that she did, and
maintained that at such times her own contemporaneous
thoughts ran in a different stream from those and were

60 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

totally unlike those of her other self whose inmost thoughts
and feelings she then knew.

This question of Chris's being a coexisting as well as an
alternating personality, was more difficult to prove off-hand
than might seem at first sight to be the case. Experimen-
tal methods were unsatisfactory. It was, to be sure, easy
enough, as I soon found, to obtain experimentally automatic
and post-hypnotic phenomena, like that of Miss Beau-
champ's throwing down the book which she was trying to
read, and even to communicate with Chris while a subcon-
scious personality. Numerous observations of this kind
might be cited, all showing the existence of concomitant
states, and the doubling of consciousness ; and it was easy
to identify the second personality communicated with as
Chris. But a doubling obtained experimentally might
well be explained as an artifact and the product of sugges-
tion. Spontaneous phenomena were essential for proof.
These, and plenty of them, and of every variety, were
soon forthcoming, and proved conclusively that there were
moments when there was a veritable doubling of conscious-
ness. They will be found running through this study.

To admit that Chris existed even momentarily as a co-
conscious second self while Miss Beauchamp was awake
may seem inconsistent with the statement made above that
normally the hypnotic self does not peraist as such during
the waking state. I must ask the reader to suspend his
judgment in this and several other matters of this kind
until the case has been more fuUy unfolded. "We shall
soon see that Chris was not simply a hypnotic self, but she
was distinctly a pathological condition, both as an alterna-
ting and as a subconscious self.

But if it shall be found that Chris coexisted as a second
self during any part of B I's life, there still will remain
two questions of psychological importance: first, what
was the extent of the field of her co-conscious life ? That

THE BIRTH OF SALLY 51

is, when she became a co-consciousness, did the mass of her
mental processes remain unchanged, or become augmented,
or did it dwindle to elementary proportions ? Second, was
her subconscious life continuously persistent during that
of B I, or did it come into existence only sporadically
under certain conditions when aroused by special excitants ?
These questions are diiSicult to answer. Chris's own state-
ments, being based on introspection, cannot be accepted as
reliable evidence, though they are free from the artifacts
which experimental methods are liable to produce. For
the present we leave aside this portion of the problem
until the data for any kind of subconscious life have been
presented.

CHAPTER IV

THE BEGINNINGS OP AUTOMATISM

IN these early days of Chris's appearance she was in-
clined to be boastful, or at least to claim a superior
intelligence to that of Miss Beauchamp, whom she
scorned. "She is a stupid chump," she would say,
revelling in the slang as a child might. She also, when
driven into a comer with questions, sought to evade,
rather than appear ignorant or incapable, so that it was
necessary to take some of her assertions with a grain of
salt. This was particularly the case when her powers
relative to those of Miss Beauchamp were in question.
Later, when we came to know each other better, she made
a solemn promise never to deceive or mislead in matters
of serious inquiry. This promise she rigidly kept, and,
excepting when it was a matter of pure fun, I do not
know any deliberate falsification of fact made by her.
Often she sought, as will appear, to throw dust in my
eyes about her own culpable actions, and often she would
refuse information, but when it came to actual confession I
always got the exact truth.

It is a curious fact that from the very beginning of her
career Chris showed an intense dislike and contempt for
her other self. Almost from the first words she spoke,
this attitude was manifested. Even during the first days,
before she was allowed to open her eyes, and l^efore she
developed an independent life, as afterwards came to be
the case, she lost no opportunity of ridiculing Miss B.'s
love of books and religion, and the intense idealism which

THE BEGINNINGS OF AUTOMATISM 53

caused her to respond to life with unnecessary emotional-
ism. " Her " head was in the clouds, Chris declared, and
"her" intensity of thought she called "mooning." She
thought it all "stupid" and "silly." The contrast be-
tween the attitude of Chris and that of B II toward their
waking self was very striking. If I asked B II who she
herself was, with quiet dignity she would say, "I am
myself, Dr. Prince," or "I am Miss Beauchamp," and she
always gave expression to the same feelings and ideals as
when awake. But in Chris, from her first entrance, every
taste and ideal had become changed; and she had no
respect for those of the person to whom she found herself
tiresomely linked in life.

The difference between the ideals of Miss Beauchamp
and her subconscious self offered a constant and entertain-
ing study. One of Miss Beauchamp's prominent character-
istics is a sense of responsibility and duty. Amusement
plays no part in her conception of life, owing to certain cir-
cumstances of her environment. However much one might
from a moral point of view admire this characteristic, there
was a delightful attractiveness in Chris's absolute disregard
of responsibility; she was a child of nature. Though it
was not until much later in her career that she had an oppor-
tunity to put her own ideas into practice, and to please
her own tastes (which she did with a vengeance), she early
let her sentiments be known. It was contempt for Miss
Beauchamp's ideals which led her to try to give the im-
pression of mental superiority. She had, as we shall see,
a certain plausible excuse for this, in that, as a subcon-
scious personality, she observed things^ when Miss Beau-
champ was absorbed in thought, which the latter did not
observe, and remembered much that had been forgotten or
never known by her. When I say that "as a subconscious
personality " she did this I am stating an interpretation of
the phenomena which were later observed rather than the

54 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

actual facts themselves. The facts were that Chris re-
membered and described having seen and heard much of
which Miss Beauchamp was ignorant; such as the face of
a passer-by or sounds in the street. This could be experi-
mentally demonstrated. The now generally accepted in-
terpretation of such phenomena is subconscious perception,
and there seems to be no way of inteipreting the perception
which Chris remembered excepting in this way, but it is
well to bear in mind that it is an interpretation, other-
wise there is danger of statements of fact becoming too
broad. In this sense she also could subconsciously inter-
fere with and influence Miss Beauchamp's actions, as
when she made her fling down the book and diverted her
thoughts to prevent her from reading. Chris thought this
was quite sufficient to constitute mental superiority. To
draw her out I used to insist that she did not know as
much about the psychology of Miss Beauchamp's mind as
she asserted. This would annoy her and put her ou her
mettle to prove her claims. On the first occasion when so
taunted she replied peevishly, " You would be more sen-
sible to be friends with me than to say I don't know things
when I do," and this I found to be the case. Most of
Chris's peculiarities of conduct came from her thoroughly
childlike character. Her point of view and knowledge of
the world being those of a very young girl, she loved to
be thought wicked, though her ideas of wickedness were
youthful. She pretended to like French novels, though
she could not read French and knew nothing about the
literature.

In the course of the interview of May 1, reported in the
last chapter, Chris remarked that she smelled the odor of
a cigarette which I had been smoking. I offered her one.
Delighted at the idea, she accepted, but smoked the cigar-
ette very clumsily. The fact that smoking is something
absolutely repugnant to Miss Beauchamp's tastes added to

THE BEGINNINGS OF AUTOMATISM 55

Chris's enjoyment. Her manner was that of a child in
mischief.

" Won't she be cross ? " she laughed.

"Why?"

"She is not in the habit of smoking cigarettes. /
shall smoke though."

Miss Beauchamp, when awakened, entirely ignorant of
what she had been doing, complained of a bitter taste in
her mouth, but could not identify it, and I did not en-
lighten her. At the next interview I remarked to Chris,
" Was n't it funny to see Miss Beauchamp when she tasted
the tobacco in her mouth, and did not know what it
was?"

Chris laughed and thought it a great joke. " Yes, she
thought you had been putting quinine in her mouth, but
did not dare ask you." This remark, later verified by
Miss Beauchamp, was one of many which showed Chris
had knowledge of Miss Beauchamp 's thoughts.

The sequel to this episode was amusing. At a later
period I was engaged in making an experimental study of
visions,^ and for the purpose had Miss Beauchamp (B I)
look into a glass wherein she saw various visions of one
kind and another. That is to say, the phenomena of so-
called crystal visions were easily produced, and she proved
an excellent subject. These visions were, for the most
part, reproductions of past experiences. In one experi-
ment she was horrified and astonished on looking into the
globe to see the scene of the cigarette rehearsed in all its
details. She saw herself sitting on a sofa — the identical
sofa on which she was at that moment seated — smoking
cigarettes. Her eyes, in the vision, were closed. (Chris's
eyes were always closed at this time. ) It was amusing to
watch the expression of astonishment and chagrin with
which she beheld herself in this Bohemian act. She

1 Brain, Winter Number, 1898.

56 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

indignantly repudiated the fact, declared it was not true,
and that she had never smoked a cigarette in her life.
The childlike expression on her face in the vision —
Chris's face — which she characterized as "foolish" also
annoyed her.

The ease with which visual hallucinations were induced
in Miss Beauchamp indicated great suggestibility, a fact
of considerable significance, as we shall see. For the
present, however, we are concerned only with the indi-
vidual character of the hypnotic and subconscious states.

Continuing the conversation about French novels and
wickedness, Chris remarked laughingly, "She does not
enjoy wickedness. I do. She thinks she is going to be
a sister. She won't as long as I am here."

"Why?"

[With an expression of disgust on her face.] "I have
a great objection to having nothing to eat, and doing
things I am told to do, and going to church and being
preached at. I have other things to do."

"What?"

[Laughing.] "To smoke cigarettes."

For the first two months after Chris's appearance, she
used to remain seated on a sofa before me with her eyes
closed, as did B II. She early developed what at first
appeared to be an inconsequential trick of rubbing her
closed eyelids, as if to remove an uncomfortable feeling.
When asked why she did this, she explained that she
wanted to get her eyes open to see. She could not volun-
tarily open her eyes, owing apparently to the original
suggestion producing hypnosis, including as it did the
idea of closure of the lids. Nevertheless, there was this
difference between this personality and B II. The latter
was ready to accept any reasonable suggestion without
remonstrance, but Chris from the outset showed a will
and individuality of her own, which were in no way sub-

THE BEGINNINGS OF AUTOMATISM 57

ject to anybody else's influence. Now she sought to get
her eyes open, taking every opportunity to rub them when
not prevented. She wanted to see ; she had a " right to
see" and "would see," she declared, and complained
because this was not allowed. It was forbidden on the
theory that, if she succeeded and could thus add true vis-
ual images of her surroundings to her own consciousness,
these same images when seen by Miss Beauchamp would
by association tend to bring Chris spontaneously. This
afterward came to pass, as there is reason to believe. But
though her eyes were kept closed, she was lively and viva-
cious, and very alert to " catch on " to everything going
on in the room. As we became better acquainted, she
gave vent to her spirit of fun and irresponsibility.

At this time some phenomena were reported which were
the prelude to a long series of events which are difficult
of interpretation excepting as interferences by the subcon-
scious personality, Chris, with the mental processes of the
primary or personal consciousness. Up to this time, with
one exception, the manifestations of the mental life of that
group of mental states which we have dubbed Chris, were
. limited to the short periods when, as an unexpected result
of the hpynotizing process, the waking self was trans-
formed into this second ^ personality. During those
periods Chris was, in the slang of the street, "It." For
the time being there was no other personality, and she
had the field to herself. The one exception just referred
to was the few post-hypnotic phenomena, artificially in-
duced. Post-hypnotic phenomena, as already pointed
out, are manifestations of a "doubling of consciousness,"
artificially induced, of a kind to form two more or less
independent mental systems. The independent activity

1 Although labelled B III, she was a second personality ; as B II is, more
correctly, only a hypnotic state of B I. The distinction between a hypnotic
state and a personality is psychologically arbitrary, but practically useful.

58 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

of each system produces the phenomena. But such phe-
nomena, as ordinarily brought about, are not spontaneous,
but the result of artificial interference ; they are of conse-
quence psychologically in that they show the ease with
which even normal minds may be split in two.

The strange behavior now reported by Miss Beauchamp
embraced phenomena which were entirely spontaneous.
Their significance, when scientifically interpreted, con-
sisted in the fact that they were evidence of a duality of
the mind, and the contemporaneous activity of the two
minds, at one and the same moment. Further, the con-
tent of the phenomena implied considerable will and
intelligence in the second mind. At this date, of course,
the truth of the phenomena depended entirely upon the
statements of Miss Beauchamp and of Chris; but at a
later date I had opportunities, over and over again, — a
hundred times, I might say, — personally to witness similar
and even more pronounced "phenomena of automatism,"
as they are called. These early beginnings of automatism
are mentioned here in order that the conditions, under
which the development of the personalities in this case
took place, may be appreciated, as well as the entirely
spontaneous character of the phenomena. At this time,
and indeed up to a much later period. Miss Beauchamp
knew nothing of her dual self, and nothing of what took
place in hypnosis. She knew she was hypnotized, but not
a word was said to her of her own behavior in hypnosis,
either as Chris or B II. Consequently, when she was
the victim of subconscious action, she was at a loss to
understand her own conduct.

May 11. "Miss Beauchamp reports that she has been per-
fectly well since last here, two days ago ; but states that she
has been doing a most extraordinary thing, namely, telling
frightful lies; and the worst of it is she does not care at the
moment though she afterwards feels intensely mortified. She

THE BEGINNINGS OF AUTOMATISM 59

has, howevei", been telling these lies to only one person, her
friend, Miss K. Yesterday, while riding in the street car,
Miss K. asked her where Mrs. Z. lived [Mrs. Z. is a very
wealthy lady, prominent in society, who occupied a beautiful
place in the suburbs]. Miss Beauchamp immediately pointed
to a squalid little house by the roadside. On Miss K. express-
ing surprise that Mrs. Z. should live in such a poor sort of
house. Miss Beauchamp explained by saying that Mrs. Z. had
put all her money in the Five Cents' Savings Bank, and,
through the Bank's failure, had lost it, and that she was now
economizing. Miss K. looked at her in a most surprised way,
as if trying to make her out, but said nothing. Miss Beau-
champ says that she tells a great many lies of this kind to Miss
K., and seems at the moment rather to enjoy doing it. De-
clares that she has not been in the habit of telling lies, and
that it is foreign to her nature.

" Hypnosis. At once put into the state of B III, who stut-
ters as usual. "When asked why Miss Beauchamp told the lies
promptly replied with glee : ' I made her do it. I made her
say that about Mrs. Z's house,' etc. It was no end of fun,
she thought, and she was going to do it again. ' I make her
do all sorts of things,' she boasted ; ' I made her drink three
glasses of wine last night, — she never drinks but one, — and
then I tried to make her talk and tell everything she knew, but
she wouldn't. I could not make her do it, but I tried.' Chris
is in high spirits over her practical joke, and is full of fun. She
is ordered to desist from such things. At first she rebels, but
finally assents."

This promise was not kept, for:

May 12. " Miss Beauchamp reports that she still tells ridi-
culous lies to Miss K. ; does not understand why ; her lies are
palpably untrue, and Miss K. must know them as such. Curi-
ously enough, she finds a certain sort of delight while utter-
ing them. Miss K. thinks she has changed very much in
character. Says that she also contradicts Miss K., instead
of accepting without hesitation all she says, as formerly. In
reply to question as to her attitude of mind toward Miss K.,

60 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

says she is conscious of a certain feeling of bravado and
antagonism, apparently representing a desire to show her
independence."

Chris must be acquitted of all culpability on account of
this last mental attitude. 1 was the culprit, for it was an
artifact, a phenomenon of post-hypnotic suggestion, and
illustrates the influence of ideas originating in this way.
On April 24 Miss Beauchamp had complained of the
strong influence which Miss K. had over her, — making
her do things against her will, etc. This influence Miss
Beauchamp appeared to feel very keenly, and resented.
Accordingly, a counter-suggestion was given to B II,
(which of course was unknown to Miss Beauchamp), that
she should be under nobody's personal influence. This
had apparently worked itself out in the way reported.

Mrs. X. is a great friend of Miss Beauchamp; one
whom she idolizes and looks up to with the greatest
respect and veneration, amounting almost to reverence.
She was therefore much disturbed to find herself telling a
lot of hardly respectful nonsense about j\Irs. X. 's husband,
of which the following memorandum is made in my notes.
It shows Chris's idea of fun, and her love of practical
jokes — always on Miss B.

May 16. " Miss Beauchamp reports that she is still telling
fibs. For example, she told Miss M. that Mr. X. was a grcjit
admirer of Swinburne, and had busts of him all about the
house; that he had named his baby Algernon Swinburne X.;
that this baby was boneless; and tliat Mr. X. fed him and Mrs.
X. on nothing but oatmeal, using up all the samples he had in
the house. Miss Beauchamp is much horrified at telling such
nonsense, but does not seem to be able to help it ; cannot un-
derstand why she does it ; more than this, she tells such pure
nonsense that she feels it mortifying."

THE BEGINNINGS OF AUTOMATISM 61

Phenomena of this kind are psychologically known as
impulsions. The subject is compelled to do or say some-
thing against his own wishes and inclinations. Some-
times, indeed, he is horrified at the impelling idea, from
which he recoils, and often seeks protection against him-
self. Sometimes — and of this we shall later see examples
— it is not so much an impulse to act, as an obsessing idea
which possesses his mind ; an imperative idea^ or obsession.
These impulses and obsessions, being outside the will, are
types of automatisms. Their genesis is not always the
same, but they may have their origin in subconscious
ideas which exist unknown to the personal consciousness,
and which break out from time to time in eruptions, and
then invade the field of the waking consciousness. Miss
Beauchamp's lies plainly had their origin in another con-
sciousness, whose thoughts were hidden from her own.

It may be pointed out here that these impulsions to lie
differed in one respect from similar phenomena which can
be experimentally induced in states of abstraction or ex-
treme absentmindedness in some hysterics, and which I
have often evoked in Miss Beauchamp's case. Miss
Beauchamp was conscious of her automatic thoughts and
speech, but in a second class of impulsive phenomena the
subject is entirely unaware of what he has said or done.
The subject, at the moment, goes into a condition of
abstraction (dissociation), during which the automatic
speech or writing is performed. The subject then is
neither conscious of the ideas which gave rise to the autom-
atism, nor of the words spoken or written. The personal
consciousness does not hear its own voice because of the
temporary division of its own consciousness. We shall
later find examples of this.

In this connection an exceedingly interesting point,
which I will not pass over without at least calling atten-
tion to it, is the relation between Miss Beauchamp's

62 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

thoughts and her compulsory (automatic) language, as
well as the relations between Chris's thoughts and the
speech centres. Did Chris directly make use of the speech
centres, and do the lying directly? and, if so, what were
Miss Beauchamp's thoughts at the time ? Or, did Chris
do it by influencing Miss Beauchamp's thoughts, so that
the latter did the lying directly? When interrogated,
Chris frankly said she did not understand the relations
between herself and Miss Beauchamp psychologically ; that
when she made Af^r talk she (Chris) "simply talked, that
was all," and then Miss Beauchamp thought the things
she (Chris) said. This corresponds with what is known
of some types of automatic writing.

Assuming this statement to represent accurately the facts,
and that Chris at such times is some sort of a contemporary
dissociated subconscious mentality, this would seem to mean
that the act of speaking (or functioning of the various
language centres) aroused in B 1 the correlated thoughts
which were identical with, or part of those of, the sub-
conscious mind. As further evidence of this may be cited
the fact that Miss Beauchamp while talking experienced
in a mild way the delight which was plainly Chris's so
that the correlated emotion was incorporated along with
the thoughts. The same kind of phenomenon may be
observed sometimes in automatic writing, although most
subjects are not aware of what the hand is writing. Mi-s.
H., a patient of mine, and an excellent automatic writer
and speaker, becomes conscious of what the hand is writ-
ing the moment the words are about to be written, although
a second before she had no idea of what they would be. It
is the same with speaking. The written and spoken ideas
thus become so incorporated with her own ideas that she is
unable to determine whether she is responsible for them or
not. The same awakening of consciousness of tlie subcon-
scious ideas is true of Fanny S., whose anesthetic hand

THE BEGINNINGS OF AUTOMATISM 63

automatically records the number of pricks given to it.
This subject also describes by automatic speech objects
placed in the hand.

May 17. " Reports that she is feeling perifeetly well, and
considers herself cured ; has no fatigue to-day, although she
did not go to bed until three o'clock this morning; still tells
fibs."

After this Chris got tired of the joke of making Miss
Beauchamp tell fibs, but it was not long before she adopted
new tricks to worry her waking self.

CHAPTER V

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY

IF the condition of Miss Beauchamp at any particular
moment could be taken as a criterion, the assertion
made by her at the last interview, that she was physi-
cally well, might by the superficial observer be accepted,
so great was her improvement and so free was she from
disabilities of the flesh at this particular time. The
intense fatigue, which had made every task by day a
painful effort, the insomnia, which increased the fatigue
of the day and forbade relief even at night, the neuralgic
pains which nagged at her poor tired body, and the other
various neurasthenic symptoms had gone. It seemed as if
at last she might be able to take an active part in life.

But a closer study showed that this physical restoration
was deceptive, and did not rest on a solid basis. It was
easy to demonstrate a condition of nervous instability
which was in marked contrast with the improved physical
health, and which seemed to offer a paradox for solution
when one tried to understand it. By instability, I mean
that almost any emotion of an unpleasant kind, or sensory
impression, that happened to be associated in her memory
with past emotions, was capable of re-exciting all her
physical infirmities and bringing all back in a jiffy. She
seemed to be still the victim of a series of little nervous
shocks — sort of railroad accidents — which produced the
little attacks of "traumatic neuroses" of which I have
spoken.

The "symptom-complex," as our German confreres like

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 65

to say, was easily understood; but it seemed strange,
almost paradoxical, that an apparently physically normal,
or approximately normal, individual could be so "broken
up " by such slight causes. This slang phrase expresses
with scientific exactness what really occurred. "Disin-
tegrated " is the psychological term. Miss Beauchamp
became from moment to moment psycho -neurologically
disintegrated, so that all sorts of automatisms and per-
verted reactions to the environment were permitted to
the nervous system. This condition is pathologically
hysteria, but is frequently mistaken for true neurasthenia
as the symptoms simulate closely those of real exhaustion.
In fact, a wide experience has convinced me that a large
proportion of the cases which ordinarily pass under the
name of neurasthenia — a fatigue neurosis — are in reality
hysteria, and more properly should be designated as hys-
terical neurasthenia. Certainly every practitioner will
recognize this condition of instability^ which is a marked
feature of hysteria, as one which he has seen in minor
degrees among his so-called neurasthenic patients. The
peculiarity in Miss Beauchamp's case consisted in such
attacks coming out of a clear sky, no matter how well she
might appear to be ; and in the exceedingly slight psychi-
cal causes which induced the attacks. In consequence of
her reticence the degree of her instability was discovered
only gradually. Sensations and memories associated with
some distressing past event particularly tended to re-excite
the original emotion, and the emotion, with shock-like
suddenness, produced its disintegrating effects and out-
bursts of symptoms. Witness the following instance :

One day (May 6), Miss Beauchamp appeared with a dejected
fatigued look upon her face. "It is evident that something
has gone wrong. In obedience to directions, she brings a writ-
ten report, according to which it appears that she felt perfectly
well yesterday up to dinner time, when, while she was in a res-

66 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

taurant, dark clouds came up; on going out she got the idea
that a thunderstorm was coming; was stricken with terror;
had palpitation, nausea, hot and cold feelings, and sinking
feelings; felt as if she could not run home fast enough, but
forced herself not to run. When she got home the old neuralgic
pains in her head and side returned ; these were severe, and ac-
companied with vei'y great fatigue. All these symptoms lasted
about two hours, and were followed, after reading a book, by
depression, which was ascribed to the book. Lay awake until
twelve ; woke twice after that with ' nocturnal palsy ; ' this she
described as not being able to move a single muscle, not even
her eyes, and having no feeling throughout her whole body ;
this lasted five or ten minutes; has often had these attacks.
To-day feels poorly ; has some nausea, but no pain ; very tired
and good-for-nothing. States she has great fear of thunder-
storms, which always throw her into this condition. This has
been so for the last four or five years. Insists she was never
afraid of lightning until five years ago, when she was in Provi-
dence.

" Hypnosis. B II states that she remembers perfectly the
first occasion when she was afraid of lightning. It was in the
Providence Hospital at night. A tremendous storm came up ;
there was a great flash of lightning, and she saw a delirious
patient running down the corridor towards her ; the patient
seized her but did not do her any harm. Seeing the patient in
the flash gave her a great terror, similar to but worse than the
experience of yesterday. Ever since has been afraid of thun-
derstorms, which excite the foregoing symptoms.*

May 7th and 9th. " While feeling well, access of symptoms
from emotional causes, — disappointment on the one occasion,
and fear on the other."

Then again her suggestibility was extraordinary and
apparently equally paradoxical, considering the lack of
hysterical stigmata of an objective chamcter. It allowed
many interesting experiments in anesthesia, negative hallu-

* It later transpired, Chapter XIII, that this was not the whole shock, but
that on this night she was the victim of a nervous catastrophe which affected
her subsequent life.

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 67

cinations (or systematized anesthesia) and crystal visions,
to be made. It may be of interest if one or two of each
sort of these experiments are briefly mentioned. At any
rate it will enable those not familiar with suggestibility
better to appreciate the condition. All these phenomena
were produced by suggestion while Miss Beauchamp was
in the waking state. It is easy enough to produce such
effects in suitable subjects through suggestion in hypnosis,
but no resort was made to hypnosis in these experiments.
The suggestions were made to Miss Beauchamp when
awake. The following illustrates the production of local
anesthesia :

I say to Miss Beauchamp, "Sensation will disappear from
the forefinger of your right hand," at the same time sti'oking
the finger with light touches. The finger becomes profoundly
anesthetic, so that a pin may be thrust into the skin, and the
joints bent without anything being felt. All forms of sensation
are included in the anesthesia, which is profound for all objects
and stimuli.

In the following experiment the anesthesia is of a some-
what different character ;

I hold up a metal rod (an electrode for an electrical machine)
before her eyes and say, " Close your eyes for an instant. AVhen
you open them this electrode will have disappeared." She closes
her eyes and on opening them cannot see the metal rod, though
it is held directly before her. She sees ray hand, as if holding
something, but she sees nothing else. I tell her to feel the rod.
She puts her hand upon it and says she can feel it ; in fact, she
fingers it, and follows the outline of the metal rod and the ball at
the top. She feels something that she cannot see. I now say,
" I shall pass the electrode from one hand to the other. When
it is in the left hand you will see it, but when in the right hand
it will disappear." I pass the rod back and forth from one hand
to the other, and the moment it is grasped by the left hand it be-
comes visible, but disappears as soon as seized by the right.

68 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

A moment's consideration will show that the anesthesia
or failure in perception in this second experiment differa
from that in the first in an important respect. The sub-
ject is not blind for all objects, but only for a particular
object. She sees everything else, everything but a par-
ticular system of visual images, the rod. Later, the
blindness for this system is conditioned by the relation of
the system to the right hand. The rod is not seen when
held by the right hand, but is seen when held by the left:
the psychological conditions have become more complex,
but the systematized nature of the visual anesthesia
remains. TLls anesthesia, aside from the sense involved,
plainly differs from that produced in the forefinger. In
the latter experiment there was no selection of the percep-
tions to be included in the anesthesia, but the loss of
sensation existed impartially for stimuli coming from
whatsoever source.

Anesthesia (whether visual, tactile, auditory, etc.) for
particular objects, without loss of perception for objects in
general, has been termed systematized anesthesia by Binet
and F^rd, because there is a failure to perceive a particular
system of sensory images. This system may include all
visual, tactile, and auditory impressions coming from one
particular object. Thus, a person may not see a particular
individual in a room, while conscious of all others present.
In such a case the affected subject may not hear this indi-
vidual's voice, or feel his touch. He is blind, deaf, and
insensible to every impression coming from him, but sees,
hears, feels every one else.

Bernheim has given to this condition the name negative
hallucination^ because it is an inability to perceive some-
thing that exists, as opposed to positive hallucination
which is the perception of something that does not exist.

The phenomenon has been extensively studied, and has
been the subject of a great deal of discussion. The com-

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 69

mon mode of producing it is to suggest to a person while
in hypnosis that he will not perceive such and such objects,
persons, etc., after waking; that is to say, it is produced
by a post-hypnotic suggestion. Another method devised
by Janet is by the principle of abstraction. But Miss
Beauchamp was neither hypnotized nor put into a condi-
tion of abstraction. She was in her normal waking state,
and was the object of suggestion only.

The psychological principle underlying systematized
anesthesia has been clearly determined by Janet, Binet,
F^r^, and others, though many of the details of the pro-
cess remain to be worked out. The principle is that of
dissociation of the personal consciousness. This is the
main defect in both local and systematized anesthesia
when effected by suggestion. There is not real blindness,
deafness, etc. The subject does subconsciously see, hear,
and feel ; but there is a failure of personal perception ; that
is, the personal ego does not synthesize these sub-conscious
sensations with itself. In other words, there is a dissocia-
tion and doubling of consciousness, the dissociated sensa-
tions being parted from the main current of consciousness
and left to form a little isolated consciousness of their own.
The sensations, however, really arise and are not sup-
pressed. Indeed, paradoxical as it may seem, it is possi-
ble to demonstrate by various devices that, for instance,
objects for which a subject is blind are really seen in order
that he should not see them. For this purpose I may
quote some observations of M. Binet: ^

" From ten cards that were exactly alike I selected one and
showed it to the somnambulist, and suggested to her that she
would not see it when she awoke, but that she would see and
recognize all the others. When she awoke I gave her the ten
cards ; she took them all, excepting the one that we had shown

1 " Alterations of Personality " ; translated by Helen Green Baldwin, 1896 ;
pp. 301, 303.

70 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

her during the somnambulistic state — the one I had made
invisible by suggestion.

" How, we may ask, is it possible for the subject to carry out
so complicated a suggestion? How does it come about that he
does not confuse the invisible card with the others ? It must be
that he recognizes it. If he did not recognize it he would not
refuse to see it. Whence this apparently paradoxical conclu-
sion — that the subject must recognize the invisible object in
order not to see it!

"The necessity for this process of perception, comparison,
and recognition may be easily shown, for when the cards are
too much alike they are often confused — the more frequently
if only a corner of the cards is shown. The subject sees the
card so clearly that if the suggestion is given him not to see
the particular card on which the word ' invisible ' is written
when he wakes, it may be perfectly carried out, notwithstand-
ing the apparent contradiction that this suggestion contains.
. . . But there is more. The invisible object is perceived and
recognized. What happens next? Once perception and recog-
tion have occurred we might suppose that the subject then for-
gets again, that he becomes absolutely blind and deaf, and that
his anesthesia is now complete. But this is not at all the case.
The perception of the object continues, only it now operates
unconsciously."

Janet succeeded in proving the persistence of subcon-
scious perceptions, and therefore the dissociation of per-
sonality, in a more precise way; that is, by making the
two consciousnesses reveal themselves simultaneously and
exhibit parallel activity. For convenience we will let M.
Binet describe Janet's method :

" The methods employed to demonstrate the second con-
sciousness are various, but the simplest and most direct is that
of distraction. I have already said so much on the subject that
it is needless to dwell upon it again at length. Only let us re-
member that the subject's attention is concentrated upon one
thing — for example, by making him chat with another person
— and while he is in this state of distraction some one speaks

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 71

to him in a low voice, and arranges with him that he shall an-
swer questions in writing. In this way his personality is
divided. There is a consciousness that talks with the first
questioner, and another consciousness that exchanges ideas
with the second. By this method the experimenter may be-
come acquainted with the second consciousness, ascertain its
powers, and know in particular how much of the external
world it perceives. If this is carried on after the subject
has received a suggestion of systematized anesthesia, it may
be easily seen whether the forbidden perception has taken
place in the second consciousness, and whether the second
personality is able to describe an object in minute detail
which to the first consciousness, the one that speaks, is quite
invisible.

' ' M. Janet made this observation by applying the suggestion
of anesthesia to an object lying in a collection of similar ob-
jects. This kind of experiment is most instructive, since it
shows better than others how complicated a mechanism sys-
tematized anesthesia involves. Here, for example, is a subject
in a state of somnambulism to whom five white cards are shown,
two of which are marked by a little cross. He is ordered when
he awakes no longer to see the cards marked with the cross.
Although the subject — that is to say, his principal personality
— obeys the suggestion, and on awaking only sees the three
white cards, the second personality behaves quite differently.
If it is spoken to in a low voice and asked to describe what he
is holding, it replies that there are two cards marked with a lit-
tle cross. The same test may be repeated by substituting for
the cross more complicated guiding marks which require calcu-
lation to be recognized. For example, one might suggest to
the subject not to see the squares of paper that have an even
number or a multiple of six upon them, etc. The result of
these experiments is exactly the same as in the preceding cases,
although the second consciousness cannot take in at a single
glance and recognize the card which the other consciousness
ought not to see. This proves to us that the second conscious-
ness may perform an action requiring reasoning. Besides, the
experiments have been varied in a thousand ways, and very
nearly the same result has always been obtained."

72 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

But though the lost perceptions in negative hallucina-
tions are dissociated and subconscious, there is much ob-
scurity regarding the details of the process. Recognition
of the object is necessary for dissociation; but who or
what first recognizes it? Does the personal consciousness
first recognize the marked card ? If so, why is the card
not seen and remembered by it ? Is the marked card first
seen subconsciously ? If so, then dissociation occui*s before
perception, though the latter appears to determine the
former. The question is an intricate one, and it is un-
necessary for us to go into it here. It is probable that
we must have a more complete understanding of the
mechanism of normal perception before that of systema-
tized anesthesia can be fully understood.

Returning to the experiments with Miss Beauchamp, it
was easy to demonstrate that the psychological mechanism
of the local and systematized anesthesia was the same as
that which has just been described. The only difference
was in the device employed to dissociate the sensory im-
pressions. In Janet's experiments the dissociation was
effected by a suggestion given in the unstable state of
hypnosis; in Miss Beauchamp's case by one given in the
waking state. It required only a simple experiment to
prove that the pin pricks were really felt, and the metal
rod really seen, though not by the personal consciousness
of Miss Beauchamp.

To prove this she was hypnotized and changed at once
to B II. The hypnotic self, when questioned, was able
to tell how many times the finger had been pricked, and
whether it had been touched, stroked, or bent. She could
also describe, down to the slightest detail, the various
performances with the rod, when Miss Beauchamp failed
to see it. Inasmuch as the lost sensory impressions were
now remembered in hypnosis, they must have been per-
ceived, in spite of the fact that Miss Beauchamp had not

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 73

felt or seen the respective stimuli. This means that the
perceptions must have remained subconscious,^ that is,
dissociated from the personal perception.

But here another question arises, one to which very-
little attention has been given, though it is of great
importance in solving the problem of the limits of the
subconscious, the most important of present psychological
problems. What sort of consciousness perceived these
subconscious sensations? Or can it be said that any
consciousness that can be called a personality perceived
them? 2 That is to say, technically speaking, were they
perceived at all ? Were they not simply isolated, discrete
sensory impressions? Though B II remembered them, it
could not have been she who perceived them, for this
hypnotic self does not persist as such after waking. But
if B II did not as a personality perceive the sensations
how could she remember them?

The problem seems a paradox, but the answer is simple.
The psychological conditions present were fundamentally
the same as those which exist in hysterical anesthesia.
Whatever the process, the suggestion given, not to feel
the pin pricks and not to see the rod, had produced,
directly or indirectly, a dissociation, not an inhibition, of
consciousness. The sensory impressions from the fore-
finger were no longer synthesized with (and therefore had
become split off from), the personal consciousness, that
great group of perceptions and memories which at any
given moment makes up the ego or pereonality. These
tactile sensations, then, existed in a dissociated state, and

1 The point may be raised whether these perceptions could have formed
part of the subconsciousness Chris. This is not the place to enter into such
questions. The principle of dissociation remains the same whatever tho
answer. It may be said, however, that subconscious Chris was totally an-
esthetic for tactile sensations, but could see and hear what Miss Beauchamp
was blind and deaf to.

2 This question will be discussed at length in Part III.

74 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

to this extent there was a doublmg of consciousness. The
systematized blindness for the metal rod was of the same
character. On the one hand there was the main personal
consciousness, and on the other the concomitant dissoci-
ated sensations. Now, when Miss Beauchamp was put
into the hypnotic state, itself a condition of dissociation,
the memorial images of the previously dissociated pricks of
the forefinger became at once synthesized with a personal
consciousness, and that consciousness the hypnotic one,
B II, which thereby remembered them. It was the same
for the visual memories of the metal rod.

This does not mean — contrary to the assumption of
many writers — that the hypnotic state persists as a whole
or in large part, subconsciously, as a mysterious " hidden
self," after the subject wakes. It seems to me that this
has too often been thoughtlessly assumed to be the case.
This erroneous assumption has been based on the two
fundamental facts that, first, the hypnotic self remem-
bers dissociated perceptions ; and second, after waking, by
suitable devices (automatic writing, abstraction, etc.) sub-
conscious responses can be obtained from an intelligence
which can be identified in part with that of the previous
hypnotic state. I shall hope, at the proper time, to show
that the latter phenomena are largely artifacts.

All that tlie experimental facts of anesthesia due to dis-
sociation allow us to infer is that the memory of the
previously isolated subconscious perceptions becomes syn-
thesized with the personality when the subject is thrown
into hypnosis, and (it may be) becomes dissociated again
when the subject is awakened. The synthesizing process
is the same as when, in hysterical amnesias, lost memories
are regained. Here, too, as soon as the synthesis takes
place the personality remembers the previously forgotten
experiences as its own, as if it had itself experienced them.
Thus Fanny S., a subject of mine, is thrown into an hyster-

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 75

ical epileptoid crisis by an emotion. In this state the per-
sonal consciousness is extremely disintegrated and convul-
sive phenomena are manifested. On coming out of this
crisis she has no memory of what occurred during its con-
tinuance. Later, this amnesia is dispelled by suggestion,
and she remembers everything that has been said and done ;
but she remembers everything as her own experience. The
same is true of another subject, S. B — w, who similarly
remembers the experiences of her epileptoid attack as her
own. Likewise in alternating personalities, as we shall
see, when the memories of two personalities are amalga-
mated the resulting personality remembers the lost experi-
ences as its own, as does any one who recovers forgotten
memories. So with anesthesia, when in hypnosis the
synthesis of the previously dissociated tactile and other
sensations with the hypnotic consciousness takes place, the
latter remembers them as its own.

The principle of dissociation of the mind is very impor-
tant. Only by thoroughly grasping it can one understand
multiple personality and other phenomena of abnormal
psychology. It underlies the great psychosis hysteria, as
well as many manifestations of normal life, like absent-
mindedness, hypnosis, sleep, dreams, visions, etc. Any
extended exposition of the principle must be postponed
until the theory of this case is considered, but it is impor-
tant that the student should be familiar with the data upon
which the psycho-physiological law rests.

The mind may be disintegrated in all sorts of ways. It
may be divided, subdivided, and still further subdivided.
The lines of cleavage may run in all sorts of directions,
producing various sorts of combinations of systems of
consciousness. All sorts, and many distinct groups of
swiconscious states, each separate from the other, may
result. Thus Fanny S. is put into deep hypnosis, a state
of dissociation. Memories of experiences forgotten in the

76 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

waking state are now recovered. That is, a new combina-
tion is formed. The subject is now while in hypnosis still
further disintegrated by dissociating, through suggestion,
the tactile sensations from the arm. She is told that she
cannot feel in this arm, and it becomes anesthetic. The
arm is now pricked four times with a pin, and a pencil
and coin are placed in the palm of the hand, without the
subject's being conscious of what is done. To tap the
dissociated sensation, she is now (while still in hypnosis)
distracted by being held in conversation by my assistant;
at the same time I whisper in her ear that she shall make
as many marks with a pencil as the arm was pricked.
While conversing, the hand automatically makes four
marks. The subject is asked to tell verbally what was
done to the hand. She interjects automatically aloud in
the midst of her conversation, "You put a pencil and a
fifty-cent piece in my hand." (Correct.)

This experiment differs from those quoted by M. Binet,
in that it was the hypnotic state and not the waking self
that was disintegrated and that had the systematized
anesthesia.

All these observations represent very simple forms of
dissociation, but they prepare us to understand the more
complex forms.

It will be well in this connection to point out with more
detail the similarity between these forms of artificially
induced anesthesia and a pathological condition very fre-
quently the result of accidents, namely hysterical anesthe-
sia. The experiments with Miss Beauchamp, I have said,
consisted in the production by artificial means (suggestion)
of the same conditions as underlie hysterical anesthesia.
The anesthesia of hysteria is spontaneous in the sense that
it is brought about by some accident, emotional shock, or
other unintentional genetic factor. That this pathological
form of anesthesia has the same pathology as the experi-

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 77

mentally induced variety has been demonstrated by numer-
ous observers (Janet, Binet, Prince, Sidis, etc.). The
following observation by the writer is a good illustration,
though now somewhat old : ^

Mrs. E. B. met with an accident, and as a result had a com-
plete hysterical anesthesia of the hand. The skin could be
severely pinched and pricked without any sensation resulting.
Under proper precautions, I pricked with a pin " the hand sev-
eral times, then laid gently upon it a pair of small nippers
with flat surfaces (such as are used in microscopical work) and
pinched the skin with the same. She did not feel the pricks of
the pin, nor did she know that anything had been done to her
hand. She was then hypnotized. While in the trance I asked
her, ' What did I do to your hand ? '

"'You pricked it.'

" ' How many times? '

" 'A good many times, more than twelve.'

" ' Where did I prick it? Show me.'

" Patient indicated correctly with her finger the part that had
been pricked.

"'What else did I do?'

" ' You laid something on it.'

"'What?'

" ' Something long and flat.'

"'What else did I do?'

" ' Pinched it.'

'"With what?'

' ' ' Something you had in your hand. I don't know what it
is.'

"The patient was then awakened, and the experiment re-
peated with variations. After being again hypnotized she was
asked what had been done.

" ' You pricked my hand.'

" ' How many times?*

" ' Eighteen.'

"'AH at once?'

1 Boston Medical and Surgical Jonrnal, May 15, 1890; Proceedings of
the Society for Psychical Research, December, 1898.

78 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

'"No; first five times, then thirteen.'

" ' What else was done? '

" 'You pinched it.'

" ' How many times ? '

" ' Five.'

' ' ' What did I pinch it with ? '

" ' Your fingers.'

" These answers were all correct."

Such observations, as well as experimental devices
vehich allow the subconscious perceptions to be tapped,
show not only that the tactile sensations, unfelt by the
hysteric, are really awakened, but that they are dissociated
from the personal stream of consciousness; that is, they
become subconscious. Equally important is the fact that
in certain states of hypnosis the hysteric spontaneously
recovers the tactile sense in the parts which were previ-
ously in the waking state anesthetic. Mrs. R., a subject
with hysterical hemianesthesia, equally with Mrs. E. B.,
when hypnotized feels perfectly in the previously anes-
thetic areas. Mrs. R., when awake, can feel nothing in
her right arm. Hypnotize her, and at once she feels the
lightest touch. Anesthesia has completely disappeared in
hypnosis. In other words, the dissociated tactile impres-
sions have become re-synthesized with the personal conscious-
ness in hypnosis.

Observations of this kind enable us fully to understand
that the localized and systematized anesthesias produced
by suggestion in Miss Beauchamp were due to dissociation,
and were identical with hysterical phenomena. A sugges-
tibility of this degree would necessarily mean instability
and lack of resistance to the environment.

Crystal visions are perhaps in themselves not indicative
of abnormal instability, still the great ease with which
they could be induced in Miss Beauchamp could have
Only this meaning. Considering the part which visions

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 79

have played in history, folklore, and necromancy, artifi-
cially induced crystal visions acquire considerable interest,
for they throw light upon the genesis of such hallucina-
tions. Miss Beauchamp proved to be an excellent subject,
and a series of experiments was begun May 24.

It was found possible, by having Miss Beauchamp gaze
steadfastly at an object, — a glass bulb being used for this
purpose, — to induce visions, which represented, for the
most part, scenes in her past life. Some of these past
experiences, or details of them, had been completely for-
gotten. But although forgotten by Miss Beauchamp,
every detail was remembered accurately by Chris, who
could, in almost every instance, fully explain the vision,
and recall every incident connected therewith. A com-
plete study of these visions will be found in Part III, but
two of them are given here to illustrate this interesting
phenomenon. The details of the composition of these
visions are well worth a careful and analytical study.

When Miss Beauchamp looks into a glass globe she
does not see the details of her vision as small objects re-
flected in the glass, but, after a moment or two the globe
and her surroundings disappear from her consciousness,
and she sees before her a scene in which she herself is
present as a spectator. It seems to her that she is a part
of the scene in which human beings, — herself, perhaps
one of them, — are enacting parts, as in real life. The
characters are life-size, and act like living persons. When
she sees herself as one of the characters of the vision, she
experiences over again all the emotions and feelings that
she observes her vision-self experiencing; and these emo-
tions she exhibits, all-forgetful of her surroundings, to the
onlooker. This kaleidoscopic play of her feelings is most
interesting to watch.

"She appears like one who, at a theatre, is completely ab-
sorbed by the play, and in that sense is unconscious of sur-

80 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

roundiugs, but not at all in a trance state. Her absorption
and the exceeding mobility and expression of her face give the
impression that she is entirely oblivious of all about her, until
spoken to, but not as one hypnotized ; rather as one who is in-
tensely absorbed in a scene and has forgotten where she is.
Every variety of feeling, timidity, surprise, interest, seems to
be expressed by the play of her features, and at times, . . .
she seems rather frightened by the uncanniness of what she
sees."^

After each experiment Miss Beauchamp was changed to
Chris, whose more complete memory of the past enabled
her to give an explanation of many things forgotten by or
unknown to Miss Beauchamp. After explaining the third
vision Chris volunteered the following story, telling it
with great gusto, as a joke on Miss Beauchamp, and
speaking with such rapidity that it was difficult to follow
the sequence of events. The language as quoted is sub-
stantially that of Chris, though condensed.

" She yesterday received a letter from a photographer.
She had it in her hand while walking down Washington
Street, and then put it into her pocket (side pocket of coat)
where She kept her watch and money (banknotes). As
She walked along She took out the money and tore it into
pieces, thinking it was the letter from the photographer. She
threw the money into the street. As She tore up the money,
She said to herself, ' I wish they would not write on this bond
paper.' "

Chris repeated verbatim, the words of the photographer's
letter, which informed Miss B. that some photographs
were ready for delivery. As to the money, there were
two ten-dollar notes; this, at my demand, Chris counted
mentally, with some difficulty and concentration of thought.

* An account of these visions was published in Brain, Winter Number,
1898 ; Part LXXXIV ; "An experimental study of Visions," from which I
quote with a few slight verbal alterations.

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITr 81

The photographer's letter, Chris said, was in "her" pocket
still, and still believed by "Her" to be money. Chris
handed it to me. It was folded into a small square, just
as one often folds banknotes. TJie language of the letter
was exactly as Chris had quoted it from memory.^ Chris ex-
plained further that "She" was absentminded, and think-
ing of something else, when "She" tore up the money. I
gave Chris the letter, which she put back in her pocket,
preparatory to my waking Miss Beauchamp. This impish
personality gleefully remarked upon what a joke it would
be when "She " found the letter there instead of the bank-
notes. The heartless, cold-blooded delight which this
personality found in the loss of the money, — a serious one
to Miss Beauchamp, — might be shocking to the uninitiated
spectator. To Chris the whole thing was only a splendid
practical joke.

Miss Beauchamp was now awakened. When asked
whether she did not have some money, and whether she
had not received a letter from a photographer, she replied
" Yes ; " but seemed to think my asking these questions
rather odd. A series of questions brought out the replies
that she had not the letter with her, having torn it up and
thrown it away; and that she had the banknotes in her
pocket. They were two ten-dollar notes. When asked
to show them to me she put her hand in her pocket and
brought out instead the photographer's letter. It was
plain that she received a shock, although she tried not to
show it. I pressed her to explain where the bills were.
After searching in vain she insisted that she must have left
them at home. I remarked that she must have destroyed
them by mistake instead of the letter, but she refused to
admit it, though plainly anxious. I pointed out the cir-
cumstantial evidence, but she could not and would not
believe it. The loss meant much to her, and she was

1 Ou several occasiong Chris has exhibited a similar feat of raeniory.

82 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

evidently encouraging herself with a forlorn hope. I then
said, taking the glass globe, "We will see whether it is
true. Look in and you will see what you have done."
At first she saw only indifferent things. Then I said,
"Think of banknotes, and the feeling of tearing them
up." Now, to her astonishment, she saw herself walking
along Washington Street and putting the letter in her
pocket; then taking out what looked like banknotes (that
is, green pieces of paper), tearing them into pieces, and
throwing them into the street. The vision, in all its
details, corresponded to the account given by Chris.

The next day Miss Beauchamp reported that she had
been unable to find the money at home, and that she was
satisfied of the truth of the vision. In hypnosis, Chris
now volunteered the further information that Miss Beau-
champ ("She") was so much upset by the loss of the
money that in the middle of the night "she" had to get
up in her sleep, without knowing it, and that "she" had
taken the remainder of " her " money and hidden it under
" that floppy thing " on the table. It was now " under a
red book, a blue book, and that floppy thing " (by this is
meant either a tablecloth or a folded piece of material).
"She " knows nothing about it, but thinks "she " has lost
the money and has none left. Chris does not know how
much money there is. Miss Beauchamp is now awakened.
I charge her with the loss of the money, the last of her
present financial resources. She is reticent, plainly does
not like my knowing about her finances, and will not
admit the loss. It is clear that she is anxious, for she
has discovered that the money is not where she last left
it, in the bureau drawer. Without further discussion,
and without disclosing my knowledge^ I presented a glass
globe to her telling her to think of the money and she
would see what had become of it. Looking into the
globe, she saw herself in bed in her room. She then saw

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 83

herself get up, her eyes closed, and walk up and down the
room; then going to the bureau drawer her vision-self
took out the money, went to the table, raised the cloth
with the books, put the money on the table and covered it
with the cloth, putting the red book and the green book
on top of it. The vision thus exactly corresponded to the
statement of Chris. ^ Miss Beauchamp reported at the
next visit that she had found the money where she saw it
in the globe.

The vision of Chris smoking cigarettes has been already
given. It is interesting, as the hallucination which wells
up into the mind of the primary personality represents an
experience of the secondary personality.

The following experiment (5) is of interest for the rea-
son that, first, it represents a delirious act; and, second,
that the explanation given by Chris implies that simulta-
neously with the delirious consciousness there must have
existed a second sane consciousness which saw everything
as it really was, free from delusion of every kind. I see no
other interpretation. Chris's memory showed differences
in perceptions, — two different perceptions going on at the
same time. The vision represents a previous experience
when Miss Beauchamp was delirious from pneumonia.

" Miss B. looked again into the globe ; she saw a room with
a bed in it. There was a figure in the bed; the figure threw off
the bedclothes and got up. Miss B. exclaimed, ' Why, it is I ! '
(Appeared rather frightened at what she saw, but went on to
describe it, largely in answer to my promptings, such as, ' Go
on,' ' What do you see? ' etc.) She saw herself walking to and
fro, up and down the room. Then she climbed on to the win-
dow sill which is the deep embrasure of a mansard roof. Then
she climbed outside the window and from the sill looked down
into the street. It was night — the street lamps were liglited,

1 Excepting the color of the book, " bhie " or " green." This esca])e(l my
attention at the time ; perhaps it was blue-green, and looked blue to Chris
and green to Miss B., or it may be an error on my part.

84 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

there was also the gasliglit in the room. As she looked down
she felt dizzy. Here Miss li. turned away frightened, saying
she felt dizzy as if she were standing there. She soon continued.
She saw her vision-self throw into the street below an inkstand,
whicli she had just seen herself pick up before climbing on to
the window sill. Miss B. was again obliged to stop looking
because of dizziness. After a time she returned to the globe.
She saw herself go back into the room and walk up and down ;
tlie door opened and she jumped into bed and lay quiet. Miss
L. (a friend) entered, went out and returned several times ;
brought a poultice which she put on Miss B.'s chest ; Miss B.
herself remaining quiet. Then Miss L. went out and Miss
B. got up and took the poultice, rolled it up into a little bunch
and hid it in a corner, putting a towel over it. Here the experi-
ment ended. ^

" Miss B. stated, on being questioned, that she could not re-
member any incident like the vision, excepting that she recog-
nized the room as the first one she occupied when she came to
Boston four or five years ago. It was in the top story of a house

on Street; she was ill there, and Miss L. took care of her.

But she did not remember ever having climbed on to the win-
dow, or having thrown an inkstand, or any of the incidents
of the vision. She could throw no light on the affair.

'■^ Deep hypnosis: B III appeared. With great vivacity and
amusement B III explained the whole scene. ' She ' had pneu-
monia and was delirious; and 'She' imagined 'She 'was on
the seashore and was walking up and down the sand. This
was why ' She ' walked up and down the room, and ' She ' stuck
her toes in the carpet thinking it was the sand. There were rocks
there, and the window sill was one of them, and when ' She *
climbed out upon the window sill ' She ' thought ' She ' was
climbing upon a rock, and ' She ' took up a stone, as ' She '
thought, and threw it into the sea. This was the inkstand that
' She ' threw into the street. Then when ' She ' took the poul-
tice and hid it in the corner ' She ' thought ' She * had buried it
in the sand. Ink had been found in her shoes, but ' She ' had

1 Miss L., a physician, has confirmed her own part in this scene and the
general facts of the illuesa as she knew them. Another physician had diag-
nosed pneumonia.

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 85

not poured ink into her shoes, but her hand shook and ' She '
had spilled it into her shoes. Miss L. seeing the inkstains had
inferred that Miss B. had poured the ink into the shoes, and
had told Miss B. so. B III was highly amused at all the
mistakes of Miss B.'s delirium."

I may point out here that visions belong to the class of
phenomena known as sensory automatisms. Considerable
difference of opinion exists regarding their genesis, which
is unquestionably complex, but they are automatic in that
while they arise within the field of the personal conscious-
ness, they come and go entirely independently of personal
control. It can be experimentally demonstrated that in
many instances their exciting causes may be in forgotten
memories and subconscious ideas, which also determine
the content of the visions. Aside from the question of
suggestibility, some of these experiments, of which quite
a number were made, are very instructive from two other
points of view, namely: in showing first, the distinctive-
ness of the two coexistent conscious selves, as far at least
as concerns the separateness of the simultaneous percep-
tions ; and, second, the greater completeness of the mem-
ories of Chris /or a certain class of facts.

This last point, which I have italicized, I am disposed
to dwell upon here even at the expense of interrupting my
narrative, as there is danger of erroneously inferring that
because a person in hypnosis or a secondary self of any
kind, remembers more completely and fully certain details
of the past, recalls facts and even lost knowledge, like the
rudiments of a forgotten language acquired in childhood,
that therefore the hypnotic self has a wider memory in all
respects, and is a superior intelligence. There is a certain
class of facts which a person in hypnosis remembers more
completely than does the waking self ; but these facts, for
the most part, are the details of every-day life, which,
unimportant in themselves, the waking self neglects to

86 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

observe and remember, because occupied at the time in
profounder thought, in more important reflections which
necessarily require comparatively abstract ideas. The
child mind occupies itself with such details, but the adult
mind neglects them. The child mind, probably, like the
mind of animals, is occupied with the observation of
details; if observing a man, for instance, it notes every
detail of his appearance and movements. The adult
mind makes an abstraction (relatively speaking) of any
given man, and weaves this abstraction into a mass of
thoughts. If this were not so, intellectual accomplish-
ment would be impossible for the adult.

But with the adult the minor details of life are not en-
tirely neglected. They are more or less observed and re-
corded in an absent-minded sort of way, and as isolated
perceptions, form what is known as the normal secondary
consciousness ; that is, they are subconsciously perceived.
(^Part Ill.y In hypnosis the memories of this secondary
consciousness are synthesized with the hypnotic self and
are remembered by it. In this respect a person in hypnosis
may have a more complete memory than when awake. Then
again, in hypnosis, certain acquisitions, like a forgotten
language, may be more or less remembered, and hundreds
of forgotten experiences of the past — forgotten by the
waking self — may become synthesized with the hypnotic
self and be recalled, just as forgotten experiences are re-
produced in dreams. But the accumulated stores of learn-
ing, the laborious product of burning the midnight oil, the
expert knowledge of the linguist, of the scientist, the phy-
sician, the lawyer, as well as the wisdom drawn from the
past experiences of the ordinary man, — the memory for all
this is not spontaneously revived and made use of by the
so-called hypnotic self ^ as it is by the unmutilated con-

* The term " hypnotic self " is only a convenient expression for a hypno-
tized person, or a person in hi/pnosis. There is no special hypnotic self,

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 87

sciousness of the normal waking person. Above all, the
accumulated knowledge of the past is not at the command
of the hypnotic self for deliberate judgment, for the de-
termination of conduct, and the expression of the will.
Hence, largely, the passiveness of the hypnotic mind. To
maintain the contrary is to maintain in principle that a
dissociated mind is as good as a normal one. But to return
to our visions :

Miss Beauchamp occasionally had spontaneous visions,
similar to those experimentally induced. These played
an important part in her career. Sometimes a vision seen
by one personality represented scenes enacted by another
(and therefore unknown to the former), as in the vision of
Chris smoking the cigarettes. Sometimes visions were
intentionally induced by me for the purpose of acquiring
information about obscure events, and sometimes one of
the personalities (excepting Chris, who could see nothing,
as she complained) would make use of the same device
for the same purpose. These phenomena, so far as I feel
at liberty to use them, will be described in the course of
this narrative.

The following incident, which occurred May 18, illus-
trates what has been said about the ease with which
sensory impressions revived within her emotions and ideas
that had become associated by some event of the past. It
has been stated in the introduction that Miss Beauchamp
had been in the habit from time to time of going into som-
nambulistic or trance-like states lasting a few moments.
This was first learned about this time when she reported
that while crossing the Public Gardens, headed for Park
Square, an attack of this kind came on; when she came
to herself she found that she was in a different part of the
Gardens, and walking in an opposite direction.

On the night of the eighteenth, being at the time in

88 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

good physical health, while brushing her hair preparatory
to going to bed, Miss Beauehamp fell into a trance.
When she awoke she found herself sitting in a chair.
The clock was striking nine when she went into the
trance, and it was half-past nine when she awoke. It
seemed certain that the cause of this trance state must
have been psychical; something like subconscious ideas,
or, if not, at least certain remembrances of past events,
connected perhaps with a previous nervous shock, and
now awakened by an association of some sort. Investi-
gation revealed the following : Just before going into the
trance she found herself thinking of an old girl friend.
How she came to be thinking of this friend she did not
know, but this girl once gave her a severe nervous shock,
and she has noticed that the occasion of going into trances of
late years almost always has been while thinking of this girl,
or while hearing certain music, or the sound of the wind,
or while feeling the air blowing on her face, and other
sensations, all of which are associated with this friend.
It came about originally in this way: A long time ago,
while in church and while the organist was playing the
Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Oratorio, this friend
leaned toward her and told her something that gave her a
severe shock, — much as if she had told her the news of
some one's death. At the time she smelled the odor of
incense in the church, heard the wind blowing through
the open window, and felt it on her face. All this she
was distinctly conscious of at the time, as well as of the
neiTOUs shock. Then she remembered nothing more for
a few minutes. Now anything that recalls this girl, or
the scene in church to her mind, — such as the Hallelujah
Chorus, the smell of incense, the sound. of the wind, or
the wind blowing on her face, — is apt to send her into a
trance. But, as has just been said, what made her think
of the girl on this occasion she does not remember. What

INSTABILITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY 89

Miss Beauchamp was told in church concerned an old
friend, one of whom we shall hear more, and whom we
have agreed to call "William Jones." This person, unin-
tentionally, and perhaps all unconsciously, — who shall
say ? — has played an important part in the pathological
drama of Miss Beauchamp's life. In the frequent hunts
for the hystero-genetic influences which induced the vari-
ous hysterical accidents, it too often happened that the
exciting cause was found, as in this incident, to be past
and present associations which acquired in her mind an
intensity characteristic of hysteria.

After recounting this experience. Miss Beauchamp was
hypnotized. B II then supplied the missing link in the
chain of events. The window was open while Miss
Beauchamp was brushing her hair, and the air blew upon
her face just as it had done long before in church. The
feeling of the air recalled the girl and the scene in church ;
then she went into a trance just as she had when she re-
ceived the shock. In quest of further evidence I brought
Chris, who in tvirn corroborated, in her own contemptuous
way, all that the other two had said.

" What were you doing at the time? " I asked.

"What was I doing? /wasn't doing anything. She
was brushing her hair. She was thinking about school,
when the wind began to blow outdoors. I, too, heard it
and felt it. The window was open; the air blew on her
face, and then she began thinking of church; and the
music, the Hallelujah Chorus, came ; and she went off to
sleep, and she looked very silly, and she settled down so
[illustrating contemptuously]."

Chris also corroborated everything that Miss Beauchamp
had said in her narrative of the original episode, stating
that whenever either Miss Beauchamp or herself heard
that peculiar sound of the wind, the scene in church came
back to them, no matter where they might be. Chris was

90 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

reminded of it by the sound, as well as Miss Beauchamp.
"' She' heard the music, and I heard it, too," Chris ex-
plained. " When ' she ' heard it last night ' she ' saw the
whole thing over again, and ' she ' wanted to sit down and
cry, but ' she ' would n't. ' She ' just sat in the chair and
looked like a fool. ' She ' sat down, and dropped back,
and did so — [illustrates position], 'Her' eyes were not
shut."

" What were you doing ? "

"I was meditating."

"What about?"

"How silly ' she ' looked."

Chris could not say what her other self's psychical state
was while in the trance, excepting that she denied it was
herself (Chris). Later investigations seemed to show that
at such times it was neither of the other selves; that is to
say, the spontaneous somnambulistic conditioii is a state
by itself.

As will appear in the course of this biography, a sugges-
tibility of the degree indicated by these observations would
necessarily also mean so great an instability and lack of
resistance to the environment that ideas, feelings, and
emotions would acquire such a degree of fixity and inten-
sity that they would tend from moment to moment to
dominate a person's life. Therefore Miss Beauchamp,
like many other people with the hysterical temperament,
would tend to become the slave of her own mind. That
instability and suggestibility should persist, no matter how
well she might be physically, was difficult to understand ;
for during all this time there was no reason to suspect
that Miss Beauchamp was not what might be called, with-
out using particularly figurative language, a real person;
a complete and normal personality, excepting so far as she
was affected by physical infirmities. It was not until a
year later that the secret leaked out.

CHAPTER VI

HOW SALLY GOT HER EYES OPEN AND THE SUBCON-
SGIOUS BECAME AN ALTERNATING PERSONALITY

MISS Beauchamp's life at this time was a quiet one.
She had left college to come to Boston for medical
treatment; and when not in the consulting room, where
many hours a week were occupied, she passed her time
between her books, her friends, and pursuing a hygienic
regime. It must be borne in mind that as yet she had
no knowledge whatsoever of the existence of any second
self, or of any consciousness beyond her own waking one.
Everything she said and did as B II, and as Chris, was
kept strictly from her. Her knowledge was limited to the
fact that she went to sleep by command and waked up
again. She was therefore in complete ignorance of her sub-
conscious mental life, and of the fact that there was reason
to suspect that there were within her trains of thought
entirely out of harmony with her waking consciousness.
It will be remembered that both B II and Chris used
to try to rub their closed eyelids with the hands, though,
as far as possible, I prevented both from doing this, often
using physical force. B II never could explain why she
did it ; but Chris, speaking for herself, always said up and
down from the first that it was her deliberate purpose to
get her eyes open, and even went so far as to threaten in-
subordination, insisting that she would see, and that she
"had a right to see." She complained rather piteously
that it was not fair Miss Beauchamp should be allowed to
see, while she was forbidden.

92 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

So sometimes when B II rubbed her eyelids, as Chiis
later confessed, it was not B II herself who did it but
Chris, "inside," as it were, who took B II's hands and
rubbed her eyes. At such times Chris thought that if her
eyes were opened (the joint eyes of B II and hei-self), she
(Chi-is) would be able to see, and thereby would awake in
the place of B II. It was not surprising, then, that at such
times B II did not know why she rubbed her eyes, for it
was another self, Chris, who was doing it. That all this
is true there can be no doubt ; especially as it was noted
at a later period that whenever Chris Avanted " to come "
while Miss Beauchamp was in hypnosis, the hands used to
rub the closed eyelids (the eyelids of B II), and, unless
forcibly prevented, the eyes would open and Chris would
appear upon the scene. As the meaning of this device to
get the eyes open early became manifest, neither B II nor
Chris, as has already been stated, was permitted to make
use of it. I felt it to be unwise that either of these selves,
and particularly Chris, should be allowed to form inde-
pendent groups of mental experiences and thereby chains
of memories, thinking that if such should take place either
self might become educated into an independent person-
ality. Inasmuch as our visual perceptions form the largest
and perhaps the most important part of our sensory ex-
periences, it seemed probable that the possession of the
visual apparatus would tend to enable the second person-
ality to acquire a large degree of independence. Neither
B II nor any of the hypnotic states proper has ever been
allowed to open the eyes in hypnosis, to the present day.
As to Chris, such a precaution was felt to be particularly
important, for as long as her eyes were kept closed, her
independent activity would be limited and she could be kept
under control. It was also sought to confine lier hypnotic
experiences within the naiTowest limits compatible with
therapeutic ends. All attempts, however, to limit the mental

HOW SALLY GOT HER EYES OPEN 93

experiences of Chris were hopeless. She proved herself
made of different stuff, and, as it transpired, had an exist-
ence which, if her own story is to be believed, long ante-
dated her first appearance in my presence.

To explain still further this device for getting the eyes
open, it may be stated here, although it is anticipating
somewhat, that, according to the testimony of Chris, the
mechanical device of itself alone was without effect. Be-
sides rubbing her eyes she was obliged to " will " to come.
" Willing," as a part of her conscious processes, plays a
very prominent part in the psychological phenomena mani-
fested by this personality, particularly in those which are
the effect of her influence upon the others.

" How did you make her do this or that ? " I frequently
asked,

" I just ' willed,' " was the reply.

In passing I may also call attention to the value of the
information which Chris as a subconscious personality was
able to give concerning many phenomena which otherwise
would have been inexplicable, or, apparently, insignificant.
Such information, of course, rests largely, as in the in-
stance of willing, upon the statement of Chris, and is not
open to objective verification, as must often be the case
when we have to do with subjective phenomena. But I
believe that the statements of Miss Beauchamp and Cliris,
as far as they concern facts of which they have knowledge,
— such, for example, as their own acts or thoughts and
feelings, — are as reliable as any statement based on per-
sonal experience or introspective knowledge can be.
Some of the statements of this sort could to a certain ex-
tent be verified. Over and over again, at a later period, I
have seen B II while convening, lier face expressive of
sadness and weariness, rub her eyelids in an unaccountable
way, until of a sudden, Chris, laughing and gay, would
burst out of her chrysalis into her butterfly existence. The

94 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

one phenomenon would follow the other so regularly that
it is dull scepticism to disbelieve the assertions of Chris
that it was she who rubbed Miss Beauchamp's eyelids and
" willed " to come. As has just been said, B II did not
know at such times why she rubbed her eyes ; she felt
herself impelled to do it. Her actions, then, being ac-
complished by another consciousness, were further ex-
amples of subconscious automatic movements.

At other times Chris would disclaim all responsibility
for the act, saying that it was B II herself who did it,
and that she, Chris, did not know the reason for it. The
explanation was found in the fact that at such times B
II complained that her eyes " stung " and " burned," and
she felt that she must rub them to relieve the sensation,
which was intense. This sensation, it was discovered, was
due to the effect of " willing " by Chris. Although she
did not make use of B II's hands, yet at such times she
" willed " the eyelids to open. This sensory phenomenon
is an association phenomenon, or what is known as
akinesia algera, — the association of pain with voluntary
movements. It is probably similar to what is observed in
eye-strain, when, as a result of strong muscular effort to
use the eyes, one or another form of paresthesia is ex-
perienced. At such times B II was simply trying to re-
lieve the disagreeable feelings caused by Chris's " willing "
to control the muscles of the eyelids.

I dwell upon these facts, longer than would seem to
be called for, at the risk of tiring the reader, for two
reasons : first, because, as will presently appear, tliey play
an important part in the development of the case and
enable us to undei-stand how Chris finally succeeded in
getting her liberty ; and, second, because from one point
of view they are of great significance, namely, as evidence
of the coexistence of two separate and distinct conscious-
nesses. If it be true, while Miss Beauchamp or B II is

HOW SALLY GOT HER EYES OPEN 95

conversing on one subject, some other consciousness is
using the hands and " willing " something entirely outside
the field of consciousness of the first, and unknown to the
first, there must be two distinct, separate, and coexisting
trains of thought.

To return to our story ; Miss Beauchamp, in June, had
gotten into a nervous condition again, owing to various
outside matters which disturbed her. Without going
into these in detail, it is sufficient to say that, among
other troubles, she brooded over the fact that she was
not allowed to go back to college, and that certain emo-
tions of the past had been revived. A certain episode
which had recently occurred (as was afterwards learned)
had brought back the recollections and associations of a
painful event which had once given her a profound
shock. This and other things threw her again into a
nervous condition, accompanied by insomnia. All this
was hard on Miss Beauchamp, but the conditions were
propitious for Chris.

One day toward the end of June Miss Beauchamp was
sitting by the open window reading. She fell into what
Chris afterward called a half " mooning " state. She would
read a bit, then look out of the window and think ; then
turn to her book and again read. Thus she would alter-
nately read and dream, — day-dreaming, it was. All her
life she had been in the habit of falling into these states of
abstraction (for such they were), when she lived in the
clouds. Here was Chris's opportunity. The physical and
mental conditions were ripe. Chris was not one to let
such a golden chance slip by. So while Miss Beaucliani[)
was dreaming in her chair, Chris took both her hands, —
Miss Beauchamp's hands, — rubbed her eyes, and "willed";
then, for the moment, Miss Beauchamp disappeared and
" Sally " came, mistress of herself, and, for the first time,
able to see. From this time on, we shall call Chris by the

96 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

name of Sally; for though it was much later tliat Chris
took the name, the complete independent existence of this
personality dates from this event.

Sally had gotten her eyes open at last, and with the
opening of her eyes she may be said to have been truly
born into this world, though she claimed to have really
existed before. Sally was delighted with her success, so
she must celebrate her birthday by smoking two cigarettes.^
Her belief in the naughtiness of it all, and a consciousness
of the displeasure which it would occasion Miss Beauchamp,
added to her enjoyment. But her delight did not last long.
She became frightened. The thought came to her that
perhaps Miss Beauchamp might be "dead," and would
never come back ; perhaps she could not bring her back.
What would she do then ! She became alarmed at the
thought. She knew that she did not know how to wake
up Miss Beauchamp, and, as she realized her inability,
her fright increased and she did not want to stay. An
idea came to her. She remembered that sometimes I used
to employ a strong Faradic battery to wake Miss Beau-
champ when she (Chris) would not go at command.^ So
Sally took the lighted cigarette, burned her arm sharply,
and Miss Beauchamp woke up.

. The following letter (A), unfinished, written by Sally to
me, as well as the second (B), written to "William Jones,"
gives a better glimpse into her mind. The first is a tri-
umphant Hallelujah, for at last she had gotten her eyes
open. This was written immediately after the event. The
second is of later date, probably some time in the next week.

(A)

" My dear Dr. Prince, — Rejoice with me and be exceed-
ing glad, for I am on the top of the heap at last ! Never again

' Previously given her by me.

2 This probably acted by awakeuing the lost tactile feelings belonging to
B I and which Sally did not possess (Chap. IX).

HOW SALLY GOT HER EYES OPEN 97

shall I be squeezed ^ — never again be bored ! Ah, how good
it is ! and you — unkind — refused it to me. Hereafter I know
you not — you shall be as "

(B)

[To W. J.] ' ' To-morrow, mio caro amico, we go to the
shore for the day. Please stop at P. & S.'s^ first and then
meet me at the Union Station at tea.

" As always,"

Miss Beauchamp had captured these letters and sent
them to me. If one compares them with the following
extracts from her own letter, in which they were enclosed,
the difference in personalities is strikingly shown :

" Dear Dr. Prince, — I do really think that, like those poor
people of old, I must be possessed of devils. . . .

All this is to explain my sending you the enclosed notes.
. . . To-day my sin consisted in telling but half the truth, as
you will see by looking at the notes, one of which [(A)] is very
absurd, and wholly without meaning, as I told you. The other
[(B)], as I did not tell you, is apparently a perfectly natural
note. But it is not natural or like me at all. I do wish
you would believe me, Dr. Prince. I know you won't. It is
not because the note is wicked that I disclaim it. . . . You
must know that, from what I have told you of my life. I want
you to believe me, because I am frightened, and afraid of my-
self if such things are liable to occur at any time. I knoio that
these two last attacks are different from any I have ever had.
It is as though I were filled with the spirit of mischief incar-
nate. . . .

"And now, hoping most sincerely that you will forgive me,
and won't be very cross because I have troubled you with this
appeal, 1 remain, etc."

1 This was a term invented by Sail}- to describe a peculiar psycliical state
of some importance. In this state she lost tlie power to inflnence Miss B. or
to "come" herself. She used to say she felt "squeezed." I uever could get
any more precise explanation of her mental condition.

* A confectioner.

98 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

During the next ten days or so Sally used to come and
go, more or less, but she could not always do it when she
wanted to. It depended largely upon Miss Beauchamp's
condition of health, and particularly upon a condition of
fatigue which was necessary. The better Miss Beau-
champ^s^ health, the more deeply and strongly was Sally
imprisoned, — " squeezed," to use her expression.

Things soon came to a climax. On Thursday, June 23,
Miss Beaucharap, in a condition of some alarm, telephoned
that she had lost ten hours after leaving my office the pre-
ceding afternoon. When she came to heraelf she found in
her hand a lighted cigarette which had burned her finger,
and, apparently, waked her up. Her dress and clothing
were dusty, as if she had returned from a walk in the
country. She was tired and worn out. The next day,
Friday, she reported that not only had she again gone into
a trance, but that she had also lost some money in an unac-
countable way. On the following morning I received this
note, in which the hand of Sally was immistakable :

"Dear Dr. Prince, — I wish you would not be so awfully
wrathy and superior — it spoils half my fun — and Jones's an-
ger, if it were not too amusing, would quite spoil the other half.
It is unkind of you to desert me, and to refuse to uphold the
new order of things. You reduce me to one small victim, who
is both tiresome and absurd. Please be amiabUy and you shall
have half the P. & S. — which is an abbreviation for something
very nice indeed. Also I will tell you many things good for
you to know and useful, but not here, for you say ' dam * (I
have heard you, my child) both to notes and telephone. So I
make this most brief, that you may favorably hear my petition.
Miss Beauchamp does not go to Winchester to-night * — she is
much more useful here and infinitely more entertaining.. I shall
take her walking again presently. It is so good for her, don't
you think so? And she goes very fast for me.

" Please be nice, and believe me,

"Your obdt. seiTt.,"
* She had an engagement to pay a visit to a friend in Winchester.

HOW SALLY GOT HER EYES OPEN 99

Hastening to visit her, I found Miss Beauchamp in her
room in a wretched condition of extreme fatigue, going
easily and spontaneously from time to time into a trance.
She could not remember anything about her whereabouts
since her visit to my office the preceding afternoon, or
where she had passed the night, although from the testi-
mony of the servant she had been at home. Presently
going into one of the spontaneous trances she became
Sally, who now gave a full explanation of her doings.
Sally had been at home, but had gone the day before to
the confectioner's (P. & S.'s) and bought a box of candy,
spending about two dollars (the empty box was on the
floor) ; then she had had a royal lunch out of Miss Beau-
champ's exchequer, but had had the mishap to lose quite a
sum of money by its being blown away while she was on
an electric street-car.

After administering a judicious lecture to Sally, with
suggestions, Miss Beauchamp was awakened, apparently in
good condition, so much so that she refused to go to the
hospital ; but in the evening a messenger brought a note in
which was hastily scrawled the following :

" Please let me go to the hospital, and at once. I am awfully
frightened."

On the way to the hospital she kept relapsing into trance
states, the exact character of which it was not easy to de-
termine. Her stay in the hospital, where she came under
the care of Dr. Y., lasted about ten days. There an amus-
ing thing happened. It was reported to me that Miss
Beauchamp was recovering rapidly and was free from in-
somnia. Feeling pleased with the rapid improvement un-
der ray brother practitioner's charge, I hastened to make her
a visit. As I walked into the room I was astonished to see
not Miss Beauchamp, but Sally, stuttering and merry as a
grig, and having a delightful time impersonating her other

100 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

self. It came to light that Sally had conceived the idea
that as she herself was free from ailments, if she could im-
personate Miss Beauchamp she would be considered well,
and so escape from the hospital and go to Europe, as had
been previously planned. So, when the night nurse looked
in upon her, Sally was always found " asleep " ; the day
nurse had an equally good report to make, and Miss Beau-
champ was soon, in spite of my warnings, discharged
" well." A few days after this I caught Sally just in time,
on the verge of her departure for Europe, and changed her,
against her will,^ to Miss Beauchamp, who was astounded

1 The scene which took place on this occasion illustrates very well Sally's
attitnde towards the world in general and towards her superior self. Though
I recognized her at once, she pretended to be Miss Beauchamp, copying her
air, her mode of speech, and mood. But finally when appealed to for her
confidence she confessed all, saying that she did not want to be in her normal
state ; she enjoyed life much more as she was ; she wanted to go to Europe
and have a good time ; and she positively refused to let Miss Beauchamp be
awakened. Arguments, expostulations, even threats were of no avail. She
did not want to be the otheiyone, of whom she spoke in contempt. She simply
defied me to wake Miss Beauchamp, and in fact every attempt ou my part
was unsuccessful. Finally wo compromised : she agreed to allow Miss Beau-
champ to be awakened, and I, on my part, agreed (may the ruse be pardoned !)
that Sally should come again wlien Miss Beauchamp was well. She then ex-
plained that verbal suggestion was not sufficient : I must imitate the cigarette
burning to awaken her. Taking the hint, a strong electric battery was em-
ployed to do the work, and Miss Beauchamp awoke, frightened at finding
herself where she was.

The following letter, written while in the hospital, is interesting psycho-
logically; it sliows that Sally could, at times at least, realize responsibilities
and had a certain fulness of cliaracter. I had threatened Sally that if she
did not behave, did not cease writing to Jones, etc., etc., I should report her
conduct to Mrs. X. This brought from Sally the following letter :

" Dear Dr. Prince, — You simply mnst not spring Mrs. X. on me now,
for I too care for her more than for all else. Indeed you must not. I will
promise you anything, and I have kept my promises. I would take the most
solemn oath that that is true. I have never broken but one, and although
that one seems to affect you more than any other I did it only because you
first broke yours, and because I wanted to see if it were possible for me to do
certain things. I can do them, but alas, I cannot undo them. I think you
can. I am sure you can if I do not oppose you. Don't misunderstand me
and think that I am sorry or ashameil : I am neither, but always I have
worsiiipped Mrs. X., and it is for her. Don't speak to her until you have
straightened this out. These people can never do it. They are content if I

HOW SALLY GOT HER EYES OPEN 101

to find herself in my office, her last recollection being her
entrance into the hospital ten days previously.

It was thus by a lucky chance that Sally did not go to
Europe instead of Miss Beauchamp. The latter left Boston
the next day for Europe, and aside from a few exceptional
hours remained herself during the rest of the summer.

am quiet and sleep, and yon know I am strong-willed enough even for that —
if it be necessary. Do consider this seriously. I can be serious, whether you
believe it or not."

CHAPTER VII

SALLY "on top OF THE HEAP*'

IN the fall Miss Beauchamp returned from Europe.
She was much improved in health, being practically
free from the distressing symptoms which for several years
had made life almost unendurable. As far as physical
well-being was concerned, life had become fairly enjoy-
able. If she had been more stable, or had not been ex-
posed to constantly repeated, even if mild, nervous shocks,
to which her impressionable temperament contributed,
there would have been little of which to complain. But
this instability, and her unfortunate emotional make-up,
together with one particular disturbing factor of her en-
vironment, were destined to bring about new mental
troubles, which, though highly interesting and at times
dramatic from a psychological point of view, were very
hard for her to bear. In short, her comparative health
soon came to an untimely end.

In the latter part of September Miss Beauchamp reported
that she had had a number of attacks of somnambulism of
a very curious sort. During the summer abroad she had
had several such attacks, each of several hours' duration.
She would go into them spontaneously; usually, but not
necessarily, as a consequence of fatigue. If this were all
there would have been nothing remarkable about them, as it
will be remembered that she had been subject to attacks of
somnambulism during much of her life, and had had several
attacks in June. To her, the' curious part of it now was
that in these attacks she played tricks, not on other people
but with the evident desire of tormenting herself. Miss

SALLY "ON TOP OF THE HEAP" 103

Beauchamp was very much discouraged by this new phase
of her infirmity, as the results were extremely annoying
and often embarrassing. She felt mortified, too, that she
should indulge in such tomfooleries, even though it was
done in a trance. The following extract from my note-
book gives an idea of the general condition of affairs :

October 28, 1898. " Miss Beauchamp to-day is very much
distressed over her doings in these trances. In such states the
desire shown to torment herself is most absurd. She writes to
herself letters which she finds on awaking in the morning. In
these communications she indulges in personal abuse of herself,
criticising her own actions, and calling herself names. The
information which she received in this way, together with that
contained in letters written to W — J — are her principal sources
of knowledge of what she does in the trance state, and even of

the fact of having gone into one. J is not aware that the

letters to him are written in a trance, and she herself learns of
her own letters only through him. In stj'le, these trance letters
are not at all like those of her normal self. In her last trance
she tore up four or five pages of mathematical work which had
been accomplished after many hours of labor as a part of her
college exercises.^ This is only a sample of what she does. In
one attack she took a long walk into the country, and in another
made a call on Mrs. X. [Mrs. X. later reported that she no-
ticed nothing unusual about Miss Beauchamp during this call,
except that she stuttered.] Miss Beauchamp herself learned of
the visit and of her behavior at the time only through one of the
letters written to herself."

Besides being the victim of trances, Miss Beauchamp
complained that she was "tormented" by some other very
curious phenomena in the waking state, similar to the
impulsive lying previously noted.

[From notebook.] " She often feels an irresistible impulse,
as if possessed by something inside of her, to do and say things
which she has no desire to do and say. For instance, a day or

^ She had bcgnu to take a coarse in a college in Boston.

104 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

two ago, she found the greatest difficulty in coming to see me
because she felt something trying to prevent her ; though she
succeeded in coming to the house, yet after awaiting my arrival
some little time she found it impossible to wait longer; some-
thing inside of her made her nervous and forced her to go away
in spite of herself. There is something, she feels, that is trying
to prevent her seeing me. To-day, while in the waiting-room,
she felt an impulse, devoid of desire but difficult to resist, to
lock me in my office. [To conceive of Miss B.'s committing a
breach of propriety like this is to imagine the sister superior of
a convent dancing a can-can.] It also troubles her that she
makes remarks of an impertinent character to Miss K."

It is difficult to give accurately Miss Beauchamp's keen
analysis and detailed description of these uncontrollable
impulses. That she was disturbed by such mental aber-
rations goes without saying. Not to know what one will
do next, what false position one will awake to find oneself
placed in, or what responsibility unconsciously assumed,
would be trying to the most reckless character ; and if we
imagine an over-conscientious nature, with a strong sense
of responsibility, finding herself compelled to do and say
what is repellant to her instincts, we can undei"stand
the sense of hopeless tangle into which she seemed to be
getting.

Though Miss Beauchamp, who, it will be remembered,
was still ignorant of Sally as a personality, naturally sought
an explanation of these phenomena, it did not seem wise
that she should be enlightened. Aside from the possible
ill effect of such knowledge upon her nerVous system, I
was deterred also by the possibility that the accuracy of
her observations of herself might be disadvantageously
affected if she should have any psychological theories in
mind ; and as long as ignorance could do no harm it was
desirable that her knowledge should not extend beyond the
observations of her own actual experiences.

SALLY "ON TOP OF THE HEAP" 105

My first suspicion, amounting, of course, almost to a
moral certainty, was that it was Sally who was at the
bottom of all this mischief. It was most probable that
when Miss Beauchamp went into a trance she changed to
Sally, who, being now independent, played these pranks
and followed her own bent. It must have been Sally also,
who, as a hidden self, made her, when awake, do things
against her will. Miss Beauchamp had laid great stress
on the difficulty she had had in coming to see me, and in
staying after her arrival, having been hindered by this
something inside of her. I knew that Sally objected to
Miss Beauchamp's being helped; indeed she had every
reason for keeping out of my way. It was most probable,
therefore, that it was Sally, as a second consciousness,
who caused the irresistible impulses in Miss B. But of
course this theory remained to be proved. And, if true,
there still remained the psychological problem. What kind
of personality is Sally ? I mean what relation did she bear
to the normal consciousness ? One or two hypotheses had
already forced themselves forward, — but all this will be
discussed later in its appropriate place.

The next day any doubt ^ about the correctness of my
surmise was set at rest by the receipt of the following
letter :

" My dear Dr. Prince, — Yon are most absurd and idiotic
to waste yonr time and sympathy on such a perfect chnmp as onr
friend is. I do not like it at all, and I won't have you doing it.
And moreover I won't have you trying hypnotism again on any
account. Do you understand ? We do not need it, and we won't
have it, and we are not interesting psychology [sic]. You make
me so angry talking a lot of absurd nonsense that you know
is n't one bit true. Goose ! Why won't you be reasonable ?
Our friend is going to weep salt tears when she knows I have

1 Assuming, of course, the following letter authentic, about which subse-
quent events allow no room for doubt.

106 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

written you. Won't it be jolly? and serve her quite right too,
for she thinks altogether too much of ' dear Dr. Prince ' and
too little of my long-suffering Jones. She needs discipline and
my tender care. I know her a great deal better than you To,
and I know she is really awfully wicked. Do believe what I
tell you. ... I want you to very much — and you know you
are awfully busy with people now. Please be good and let me
alone. Don't heed her foolish appeals — she is a perfect baby.
Even Jones says, and he is clever too, that she has absolutely
no comprehension of things. He gets so cross. You may have
those notes, if you want them. They are very nice ones too.
Much better than hers."

Even if the contents of this letter had not shown the
mind of a different personality, the tone was so unlike
Miss Beauchamp's that it would have been impossible to
attribute it to her. The handwriting alone was hers.
Some of the expressions refer to remarks I had made to
Miss Beauchamp, such as that her case was very interest-
ing "psychology" [psychologically] (Sally meant to use
the adjective, but always found it too much either to pro-
nounce or write), and my request for the notes which had
been written to herself in trances. The possession of this
knowledge by the writer showed that she was familiar with
what had occurred between Miss Beauchamp and myself
during the interview of the preceding day, and therefore
had no amnesia for this time ; and if the writer was a sub-
conscious personality it looked very much as if she must
have been consciously awake at the time and heard the
conversation. A comparison of the tone of this note with
that of the following two letters, written at this same time,
is interesting. These latter, written by Miss Beauchamp
herself, give an idea of her point of view and general atti-
tude of mind.

" Dear Dr. Prince, — I am so anxious to see you and talk
with you a little — if you are not utterly exasperated with me.

SALLY "ON TOP OF THE HEAP" 107

And I do want you, please, please, to hypnotize me again.
You know it is the only thing that has ever helped me, and I
,l,am sure it is the only way, save by fasting and vigil — which
,you know I am not up to — to cast out this demon of mischief,
which rules me as it will. The last two attacks have not come
because of sleeplessness, or pain, or because of any of those
reasons you suggested for my consolation, — and really, Dr.
Prince, I cannot believe you, much as I should like to, when
you say that it is a common thing for people to be afflicted in
this way. You have been wonderfully good about it all, but I
realize perfectly what you must think, knowing me as well as
you do. And I know that you do not believe that the rest of
the world is just as bad. If you are to be at the office again
soon, will you send me a note? I was so sorry not to see you
yesterday, — and I am afraid that you won't understand if I
say that much as I wanted to see you I could not stay [i. e. , in
my office]. Has Dr. Y. told you that I went to him while you
were away because I was in such terror of another attack ? "

" Dear Dr. Prince, — I hope you will forgive me for troubling
you again so soon. I would not except that I need advice so
very much, and no one else understands. It is all that horrible,
incomprehensible f reakishness, — or whatever you choose to call
it, — which seems to take possession of me at its own sweet
will. You know it has troubled me more or less all this autumn,
and because of it I have tried to keep away from people just as
much as possible, and have especially avoided Mrs. X., for
I feared greatly that seeing her might bring on one of those
attacks when I seem to be possessed of forty devils. Please
don't be amused. I am in despair when 1 think of it all, for
yesterday, while I was still possessed, I went to see her, and
although I have reason to believe that I did nothing worse than
to stutter,^ yet I cannot be sure. I do know or believe that
I was very much frightened on seeing Mr. X. appear, and that
the only thing I said was to beg him not to tell Dr. Prince that I
stuttered. Is n't it too dreadful ! and what can I do? Shall I
try to explain to Mrs. X., or will that only make matters worse?
I am a sure-enough prodigal — there is no doubt of that —

1 See notebook record, October 28.

108 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

but I think it is rather hard lines to lose one's head so literally
as I do. You have been awfully good about it all, but I beg
you won't desert me yet. No one would ever believe in such
an impossible affliction, I am sure. It is such an unheard-of
thing. I can hardly believe myself that it is true, — my doing all
those things which ordinarily I have the greatest coiitempt for.
Perhaps it is a case for fasting and vigil. Sometimes it seems
as if it must be. If you will send me just a word saying whether
it would be better to try to explain to Mrs. X., I will be most
grateful to you."

Sally was evidently afraid of " catching a wigging " if
she were told on, hence her request to Mr. X. not to men-
tion that she stuttered, by which her personality would be
known. Miss B. learned this fact from one of her letters
to herself.

During the next few days (the last of October and the
early part of November) several opportunities occurred to
confirm by personal observation the character of the trances
and the nature of the "irresistible impulses." At each
interview I was treated to an exhibition of rebelliousness
on the part of Sally, who would appear spontaneously and
unbidden. I also had an opportunity to witness several
scenes in which Miss Beauchamp was "possessed by some-
thing inside of her," thus confirming her statement by
actual observation. These phenomena will presently be
described. Before long, sufficient were manifested in my
presence to support all that Miss Beauchamp had said.
Sally plainly had broken loose again.

One of the most embaiTassing things in Sally's conduct
was her making engagements with people, and with one
person in particular who may easily be guessed. Aside
from the effect which these engagements had of putting
Miss Beauchamp into trances, there was no particular harm
in Sally's youthful loyalty, or there would have been no
harm if Miss Beauchamp herself had not felt so strongly
about discontinuing the old relations. It was many months

SALLY "ON TOP OF THE HEAP" 109

before the secret of the past and the psychological reason
for the anxiety of Miss Beauchamp were revealed. Long
afterward, when the history of a psychological catastrophe
was obtained, all became clear. Thus it was that, mor-
bidly exaggerating in her own mind the seriousness of it
all, Miss Beauchamp had gone so far as to promise to
break with the past. Now she found herself, in spite of
her will, faithless to her solemn promise. The breaking
of her promise was the basis of her unhappiness and
anxiety.

The way it worked practically was this: Sally would
make an engagement for a definite hour. This to all
appearance would act as a post-hypnotic suggestion.
When the hour arrived — just as a hypnotic subject
carries out a suggestion previously given in hj'pnosis, so
Miss Beauchamp, no matter what her own engagements
were, where she was, or what she was doing, would
change to Sally, and off Sally would go to carry out the
pre-arranged programme. How I did bless Jones, and how
much trouble he did cause ! I dare say he was innocently
unconscious of it all, nevertheless the trouble was just as
great and the consequences as disastrous as if all had been
done with dire intent.

It was found necessary to lecture Sally severely on her
conduct, although it soon became evident that scolding
had very little permanent effect. Sally was too childlike
and volatile in character to be influenced in this way for
long. Nor did pleading have more than a temporary
effect. She would respond to be sure by becoming re-
pentant and would then promise anything, but she simply
could not keep her promises. The only other practical
methods to influence her were b)- suggestions to B II,
which Sally found it difficult to counteract, and by hyp-
notizing Sally herself. The latter was a disagreeable
process, as it had to be done forcibly against her will, she

110 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

all the time kicking and struggling, both mentally and
physically. Consequently it was never resorted to except
in emergencies.

My time was largely occupied in thwarting Sally's
plans, and for this her wrath would be called down upon
my head. It is fair to say, however, that her anger did
not last long. She could be easily turned to merry amia-
bility by a pleasant word. You had only to distract her
attention from a grievance, to suggest a new pleasure, and
the look of anger was gone and that of friendly merriment
beamed upon you. I was always sorry to have to play the
stern moralist. Those savage letters which she sometimes
wrote in no way did her amiability justice or gave an idea
of her character, beyond that of her entire lack of any con-
ception of responsibility and of worldly knowledge. Ex-
cepting in these moods, her frolicsomeness, gayety, and
love of fun were irresistible.

An apparently thoughtless word at this time was the
cause of a foolish annoyance. Sally got it into her child-
ish head that she was seriously invited to go to Europe.
The plan was preposterous, and probably arose from some
jocose suggestion on the part of her old-time friend Jones.
Nevertheless Sally took it seriously, as will appear from
her letters. Miss Beauchamp, hearing of it, also took it
seriously, and was in a state of terror, not knowing what
Sally might do. Sally seemed to her mind capable of any-
thing. Two letters found by Miss Beauchamp on coming
out of a trance, and written while in that state, referred
to this European trip in a way that gave no doubt about
Sally's view. They were sent to me by Miss Beauchamp,
enclosed in the following letter:

" I enclose two of the notes you wished to see. I cannot tell
you how ashamed I am that I could liave written such things,
whether consciously or unconsciously. Forgive me for muti-
lating them. I really had to, a little. The third, from Jones,

SALLY "ON TOP OF THE HEAP" 111

it is impossible to send you because it does not seem quite fair
to him. Are you cross with me for making that arrangement
this morning without consulting you ? I am so sorry if you are,
but it can be easily undone. It was only my extreme terror
that suggested it. It seemed as if I must keep in touch with
some one, and I wanted that some one to be you. But it was
very thoughtless and foolish of me, and I am truly sorry.

"Thanking you so much for all your kindness and patience,
I remain,"

The first of the enclosed notes was from Sally to me and
ran as follows :

" I hate you, hate you, hate you, for an utter barbarian —
and we are never coming to you again. She shall not be hyp-
notized — do you understand ? Jones is going to take us away
— very, very far away, where you cannot possibly come, and
we are going to stay with him and love him for always. And you
may walk on the hip. You shall not make me any more trouble,
and you shall not have the pleasure of seeing me squeezed ^
again. She cannot do it now, for she is awfully wicked herself,
although she does n't tell lies as you do. This from,"

" Please be good, and write her that you are so busy she must
not come at present. Please^ please do."

[Sally to Jones.] " Won't you please come and take me away
right at once? Some one — I cannot tell you who — is going
to hypnotize me and make me so awfully good that I won't ever
be allowed to see j'ou again. And I want you not to let it be
done. Please take me aioay. I do truly want to go, and I 'm
not making a fool of you this time. I 'm going to be awfully
reasonable, and I won't forget any of the notes I write or the
things I say, and I will love you a great deal, — if only you
please won't be so very much in earnest. I don't like it, you

know. Come to about five-thirty to-morrow, and we will

do our planning all over again. It will be such fun, won't it?
and we will leave all this dreary unhappy life behind us, and
never be sorry any more. But you must not let me be hypno-

* See footnote, p. 97.

112 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

tized again — that is true really — it spoils everything. Don't
ask me any more about it, for there is a very special reason why
I cannot tell you. Only we must stop it. Isn't this a very nice
note? Until to-morrow, then,"

The childlike character of these last two letters is too
obvious not to be seen. One might imagine them written
by a child of twelve or thirteen years. In interpreting
Sally's actions this child character must always be kept in
mind. But her individuality was complicated by the fact
that though a child in mental development, she had had
the benefit of the adult experiences of Miss Beauchamp,
and therefore had more knowledge and culture than a
child. Yet she looked at everything from a child's point of
view. Her general attitude of mind and her actions were
those of a very young girl, as were some of her ideas of fun,
and particularly her love of mischief. One of the principal
difficulties in managing her was the impossibility of making
her see her own conduct from an adult point of view.

There are two or three expressions in these letters
which are very suggestive. In the second Sally says,
" I 'm not making a fool of you this time. I 'm going to
be awfully reasonable, and I won't forget any of the notes
I write or the things I say." Reading between the lines,
it is easy to understand to what this refers. It was Sally
who had written the letters, made the engagements, etc.
Later, the personality changing to Miss Beauchamp, not
only the attitude and manner changed from friendliness to
great reserve, but Miss Beauchamp denied everything she
had said and done, and even the authenticity of the letters.
It must indeed have seemed that she was making a fool of
her correspondent. But Sally, who of course knew the
ins and outs of it all, protests that " this time " she is not
going to make a fool of him, because she hopes that if she
can prevent herself and Miss B. from being hypnotized she
(Sally) can stay always.

SALLY "ON TOP OF THE HEAP" 113

1 have often been asked how Miss Beauchamp managed
to get on while she led such a double life. In one sense
she did not get on, except at the expense of enduring every
sort of annoyance and disappointment. The following
incident illustrates one kind of annoyance, for which, how-
ever, Sally was not directly responsible.

It had been arranged that Miss Beauchamp was to tele-
phone every morning in regard to her condition. On
Christmas morning I was called to the telephone, and at
once recognized the voice of one member of the family by
the stuttering, cheerfulness, and general tone. It was
unmistakably Sally. The next day, Monday, I received
the following note, written Christmas night, showing that
the writer had no knowledge of having (as Sally) tele-
phoned me Christmas morning:

" I beg that you will forgive me for neglecting to telephone
you as you wished this morning. I have lost the past twenty-
four hours absolutely — as if it were twenty-four seconds.
" Very sincerely yours,"

I soon learned what had happened from both Miss
Beauchamp and Sally.

On Saturday afternoon, the day before Christmas, Miss
Beauchamp was in church, sitting on the right hand side,
and the choir was singing the processional. Then all of a
sudden, so to speak, she found herself on the left hand
side of the church, though they were still singing the pro-
cessional. How she had changed her place she did not
know, though at the time she supposed she might have
had a trance and made the change. Having learned by
experience not to give herself away, she said nothing, but
after leaving the church with her friend Miss K. she
remarked to her, "We are going to have a cold Christ-
mas." At this Miss K. laughed, which she thought
queer. She had sufficient presence of mind to say nothing

114 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

more, but was rather surprised that Miss K., who had pre-
viously asked her to spend Christmas Eve with her, said
nothing about it. She was further surprised on reaching
home to find Christmas gifts about. All seemed to have
changed since she left home for church. It was not long
before she discovered that twenty-four hours had elapsed
since she first entered the church, and that during this
time Christmas had come and nearly gone, though she
remembered nothing of it. The music of the processional
had apparently put her into a trance, and this same music
had, twenty-four hours later, waked her up again.

It transpired that Sally had enjoyed Christmas Eve with
Miss K., and in fact had fulfilled all the family engage-
ments. Therefore Sally had her Christmas, but Miss
Beauchamp, to her disappointment, lost hers.

Another incident, illustrating how Miss Beauchamp did
not get on, is worth recording on account of its psycho-
logical importance. It shows not„only the coexistence of
two mincls>.hut.tha_£oexistence of a subconscious sane mind
with a delirious mind.

I was summoned to visit Miss Beauchamp at the house
of Miss K., where she was said to have arrived the previous
evening in a delirious condition. She was still delirious
on my arrival, and did not know me or her surroundings ;
but Sally, with whom she kept alternating, was perfectly
sane, and rather delighted with the condition of affairs.
I was never able to learn exactly what had happened to
cause the catastrophe, nor could Miss Beauchamp recall
the incident excepting in a fragmentary way.^ It is fairly.

1 Miss B. afterward wrote : " All the arrangements for leaving there [her
own lodgings] were made by Sally, who pretended that she was acting under
yonr instructions. I believed that she was, — yet your strange silence, and my
own inability to speak of the hospital made me very uneasy. I felt there was
something wrong, although I did not know what. The last day there made
me fearfully nervous, frightened, hysterical : everything was so strange, and
you did not come or send any word. From that time my recollections are
very scrappy indeed. I remember being in some station in the evening ( ,

SALLY "ON TOP OF THE HEAP" 115

clear, however, that Sally, taking advantage of a sugges-
tion of mine that it would be advisable for Miss Beau-
champ to go to a hospital for a few days, and pretending
that she was acting under my instructions, had packed her
trunks and sent them away, leaving only a handbag with
the few things necessary for travelling. The scheme must
have been very carefully planned, but where Sally carried
Miss Beauchamp before ending at Miss K. 's is a mystery.
The next scene of which I was a witness was psychologi-
cally impressive, not to say dramatic.

Miss Beauchamp did not recognize me, or Miss K., or
her surroundings. In her delirium she was living over
again, I think, some event of the past. She imagined
herself at Cohasset, and awaiting some one. She was
in great distress. When I endeavored to bring her to
herself, Sally at once appeared instead, laughing and
treating the matter as a great joke. There was not the
slightest trace of delirium or mental disturbance about
this secondary consciousness, who disclosed the content
of her other self's delirium. The two personalities, the
delirious and the sane, kept spontaneously disappearing
and alternating with each other. Sally even agreed to act
as nurse, and to "come" at intervals and take the pre-
scribed food which delirious Miss Beauchamp refused, —
an agreement which Sally carefully observed.

larger, I think), and afterward I remember being driven slowly over some
very bumpy roads. It was still dark, and raining hard. Tliere was no one
with me, I am sure, for I kept wondering why you should have sent me alone
instead of coming with me as you had before. Then I remember a nurse or
maid — some one all in white with white cap — bringing me a cup of hot
beef-tea; then Miss K.., sitting opposite me in her room talking; tlien look-
ing at my watch and finding it a quarter to four. From a quarter to four
until a little after si.K I remember everything. Then after that nothing, —
except my despair at finding your letter destroyed and the pieces threaded ou
a long hat pin in my hand. In the evening I saw tlie street very distinctly
for some minutes ; then I remember being startled by a tremendous report
close to my head, and turning I saw Miss K. with a pistol in Iier hand. . . .
Then it was morning again and I saw " — [unfinisiied]. Miss K. informed me
she had fired off the pistol with the idea of producing a shock that would
briug Miss B. back to consciousness.

116 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

When one stops to think about it, the coexistence of a
normal mind with a delirious mind in the same individual
seems a curious phenomenon, but it is one which has
been recorded before. To observe before one's eyes a
delirious personality suddenly change to a sane one, and
vice versa, would have been startling if we had not become
accustomed to strange things in this strange case. Then,
again, to be informed by one mind of the delirious vagaries
of the other mind showed very conclusively the distinction
between the two. To state the matter in another way,
here was a delirious person within whom there apparently
existed a sane personality, cognizant of every delirious
thought and action, able to report upon everything tliat
took place within and without, acting as nui-se to the
delirious consciousness, coming at the appointed time to
take the prescribed remedies, and giving warning to the
physician of the mental perturbation.

Miss Beauchamp became a puzzle to her friends, who
did not understand her changing moods. These " moods "
really meant a transformation into and from Sally, who
thus came more frequently into touch with social life.
Indeed, Sally was fast getting to "the top of the heap,"
as she wrote when she first got her eyes open. She was
" coming " more readily and more often, so that Miss
Beauchamp seemed to herself to be " losing " a greater
amount of time. Miss B. felt too, as she wrote in one of
her letters, that she was "possessed." "Losing time"
meant that Sally was absorbing a greater part of Miss
Beauchamp's life.

Sometimes, though this was more common at a later
date, the transition from one pereonality to the other
would take place during the course of a conversation.
Then Sally, knowing Miss Beauchamp's thoughts, could
go on with the conversation and play her part; but Miss
Beauchamp, if she came to herself at such timeSy exchang-

SALLY "ON TOP OF THE HEAP" 117

ing places with Sally, would be at a loss to know what
had gone before, and at her wits' end not to betray herself.
Sally, on the other hand, used to impersonate Miss Beau-
champ, copying as far as she was able her mannerisms and
tone. At other times, forgetful or heedless of Miss B.'s
character, she would throw herself into the game, regard-
less of consequences, giving vent to her own frolicsome
irresponsibility, while her friends would gape at the sudden
transformation of serious, dignified, reticent Miss Beau-
champ. It must have been puzzling, as I have been
assured it was, to see a person suddenly change in mood
and expression, without apparent rhyme or reason ; at one
moment exhibiting tlie irresponsible, heedless, high spirits
of youth, and the next moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, becoming depressed, sombre, and grave. Again, as
Sally she would make statements, assertions, promises,
and engagements which as Miss Beauchamp she would
deny, to the discomfort and confusion of her friends.
Many of the contretemps resulting from this, sometimes
amusing, sometimes annoying, will come out in the course
of this study. But it is not fair to credit Sally with
naughtiness only: the Recording Angel must inscribe
many good deeds against her name. She was not always
reckless and regardless of the family reputation. Except-
ing where her own amusements or her own special wishes
were concerned, she generally protected Miss Beauchamp,
particularly with strangei-s, pretending as I have said to be
the same personality, copying her manner, going on with
the same conversations, and doing the same things that
Miss Beauchamp had been doing a moment before. Simi-
larly she would perform her daily duties and even loyally
carry out her engagements, provided they did not conflict
with her own plans.

Sally should be credited also with keeping me informed
of the various disturbing elements in Miss Beauchamp's

118 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

life (at least those for which Sally herself was not respon-
sible) that from day to day acted injuriously upon her
nervous system, exciting the nerve storms and shocks to
which reference has already been made. Often it was
Miss Beauchamp's own meditations and emotions which
were the offending factors, and on these Sally kept me
well posted. Miss Beauchamp, for reasons already given,
was exasperatingly reticent about such matters, and kept
me in the dark about much that it was important to know.
Sally's information, which always proved to be correct,
was a great help.

On the other hand, Sally's motives were not always so
lofty, for with me it was often for the purpose of obtaining
her own way that she would impersonate Miss Beauchamp.
When blocked in some design I have seen Sally over
and over again attempt to pass herself off as Miss Beau-
champ, but the pretension could always be detected after
a moment's observation. I have also frequently seen Miss
Beauchamp struggling against "something inside of her,"
as she termed it, which it required no prophetic knowledge
to guess was Sally trying to compel her to act against
her own wish. And when Sally was foiled in this, owing
to my intervention, that young phenomenon would force
Miss Beauchamp out of existence, and coming herself
would seek in disguise to escape from the room.

In these scenes two closely related phenomena of con-
siderable psychological importance were brought under
direct observation, namely, ahoulia and impuhions. The
latter phenomena had been frequently complained of by
B I, and frequent reference has been made to them, but
no opportunities to actually observe them had been pre-
sented. The incidents which will be related in the next
chapter confirm the statements of the victim of these
obsessions.

CHAPTER VIII

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES: ABOULIA, IMPULSIONS,
OBSESSIONS

IT probably will be asked in connection with the phe-
nomena and events about to be described in this chap-
ter, How much did Miss Beauchamp know at this time
about the nature of her infirmity? In a psychological
sense she knew very little, but regarded herself as one
"possessed" in much the same sense as it is said in the
Bible that a person is " possessed." She was well aware
that she went into trances and in those trances did extra-
ordinary things, and behaved in a way that shocked her
sense of propriety. She realized, too, though in a somewhat
indefinite manner, that her possessions at times influenced
her every-day actions, and in some way interfered with the
freedom of her will. But the psychological nature of these
attacks was unknown to her, and in fact was carefully
concealed, so that her knowledge was very indefinite. She
was ignorant of the phenomena of the multiple personali-
ties, and was not allowed to know that her trance state was
a second veritable personality which persisted in a more or
less sharply differentiated form as a subconsciousness dur-
ing her normal waking state. It was necessary at times
to infonn her of what she had done during her trances, and
sometimes to warn her of plans and intended escapades
which in this state she had concocted, but her trance
doings were always spoken of as her own, as if done by
herself in a state of somnambulism. Sally's letters she
regarded as her own trance vagaries, and Sally's signature

120 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

as a name used by herself for the purpose of canying out
a part. Her feelings of being " possessed " she connected
in an indefinite way with her trances and realized that from
time to time her mind and body were controlled much as
one might be controlled by convulsive phenomena. Al-
though her idea was somewhat vague, she inferred that
this control was due to one part of her mind acting upon the
other part and upon her body. This really was the actual
feeling that she had when "possessed," and against this
possession, when it came upon her, she struggled with all
her will. I think this conception, too, was vaguely con-
nected with the ethical idea of punishment for sins, and
hence the diabolical nature of the possession ; and she half
believed that by punishment and prayer her devil was to
be cast out of her. But her conception involved no defi-
nite notion that that which possessed her was in any sense
of the word a distinct subconscious personality, differen-
tiated from herself, anything to which a personal name
might be given.^ With this explanation in mind, it will
be easy to properly interpret her position in connection
with tlie following phenomena :

Ahoulia and impulsions. It has been already explained
that by ahoulia is meant an enfeeblement or paralysis of
the will. It may originate in several ways. It may, for
instance, originate in conditions confined entirely to the
field of the waking consciousness. The ordinary aboulia
which Miss Beauchamp exhibited, that which expressed
itself in morbid reticence, for instance, had such a pathol-
ogy. But it also may result from the influence of sub-
conscious ideas. On several occasions Miss Beauchamp
gave manifestations of this variety. Then Sally, by exert-
ing her will against that of her other self, could produce

1 Such a notion would involve an interpretation of the phenomena. At
this stage of our study I do not wish to bo understood as committing myself
by implication to any precise hypothesis, beyond that of a subcousciousnesA
of some sort.

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 121

an inhibition of such a degree that Miss Beauchamp would
find herself unable to will the simplest act, whether it were
speaking, writing, studying, or walking.

It has been also explained that by impulsions (syno-
nyms: obsessions, imperative ideas, zwangsvorstellungen)
are meant imperious impulses to some action which may be
against the person's own wish and will. The person is often
painfully and helplessly conscious of their domination. It
is now well recognized, thanks to the work of Janet, that
these phenomena may in certain cases be the action of fixed
ideas or emotions in a second consciousness unknown to
the waking self. The impulses by which Miss Beauchamp
complained that she was tormented were plainly of this
nature. The way she told ridiculous lies at an earlier
period has been already described, as well as the impulses
of a different form, which soon after her return from
Europe gave her the sense of being "possessed." The
evidence for these facts had thus far rested upon the com-
plaints of the subject, but the following incident illustrates
a struggle actually observed between two consciousnesses ;
the action of one upon the other resulting in both aboulia
and impulsion. Miss Beauchamp, at first unable to write
a letter, ends by being the victim of an imperative impulse.

One day, early in November, Miss Beauchamp came to
the consulting room, for the purpose of writing a letter in
my presence. This letter was intended to explain the
nature of her malady to her unconsciously troublesome
coiTespondent, Jones, who was ignorant of her mental dis-
ability. It was hoped that the letter, being countersigned
by me, would put an end to the correspondence and en-
gagements in which her irresponsible self still persisted. It
never occurred to me tlrat Sally could thwart this scheme.

Miss Beauchamp sat down to write the letter, but
at once met with a difiiculty. She succeeded in writ-
ing a few lines, but all the time kept repeating, " Don't

122 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

let me go [meaning, out of the room], Don't let me go."
Her tone was pleading, and her manner nervous and
agitated. She gave the impression of struggling against
some controlling force, — something that waa taking pos-
session of her brain and muscles against her will. Tlie
expression of her face was worried and depressed; her
movements halting and jerky. She made every effort to
write, but kept stopping and constantly shifting her posi-
tion, sometimes half rising, then sitting again; at one
moment tlirowing down her pen, then taking it up, repeat-
ing meanwhile in a supplicating way, " Don't let me go."
I changed my seat to one between her and the door, re-
marking that it was now physically impossible for her to
go. Thereupon she became more quiet. Presently she
altered her tone and said, "Please let me go." This phrase
she would repeat in reply to every remark made to her.
The nervous manner had disappeared ; her face was placid
and serious ; her movements no longer agitated ; the tone
of her voice, although composed, was not depressed. What
did the change mean? Plainly the obsession had ceased.
I felt certain that it was Sally trying to pass herself off as
Miss Beauchamp, and in this disguise escape. Charged
with the fact, and put to the test of reading French, which
this personality could not do, she at first evaded, but soon,
seeing that she was caught, burst out laughing and showed
herself in her customary' colors, enjo3dng the joke.

Such scenes as this were the outcome of a contest of
wills, — of Sally's will against Miss Beauchamp's will.
Later and frequent investigations demonstrated this origin
of the phenomena. In these contests Sally usually won,
and Miss Beauchamp's will would be paralyzed. The latter
would not only find herself unable to will to do what she
wished, but often was actually compelled to do something
she did not wish to do. Over and over again Miss Beau-
champ has tried to tell me something of importance, —

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 123

something concerning her welfare, and of which she had
purposely come to give me information, but which if told
might thwart Sally's schemes, and as often, after vain
effort to speak, she has given it up, remarking, " Well, it
doesn't matter." The same phenomenon has been mani-
fested by B II. This was nothing more nor less than
ahoulia. Arising in the numner described, it was of im-
portance in that it showed the existence of a secondary
consciousness, concomitant or coexisting with the habitual
consciousness. For two wills to contend against each other
they must coexist. Sally, then, did not simply alternate
with Miss Beauchamp, she coexisted with her.

In connection with the matter of detecting Sally when
masquerading as Miss Beauchamp, I have often been asked
how one personality differs from the other. Of coui-se the
mode of speech and mannerisms of each differ, but more
than this, it is a very interesting fact that with both Miss
Beauchamp and Sally every mood, feeling, and emotion
is accompanied automatically by its own facial expres-
sion, so that, as each individuality has a dominant, and
for the most part continuous, emotional state of mind, each
wears a corresponding expression, different muscles coming
into play in each. By this expression alone it is generally
possible at a glance to recognize the personality. As
this expression is purely automatic and the accompanying
resultant of the emotion, it is impossible for one person-
ality completelj'^ to simulate the other. When Sally tries
to impersonate Miss Beauchamp the best she can do
is to look serious; but as she does not feel serious, or
actually have the emotion or mood of Miss Beauchamp,
her face does not assume the expression of that personality.
Occasionally Sally will have for a moment, under the in-
fluence of some event, such as a scolding or threat of punish-
ment, a depressing or anxious emotion identical with that
of Miss Beauchamp ; then her face will wear an expres-

124 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

sion indistinguishable from the latter's, but as a rule these
variations are only momentary.

Three weeks later, November 21, another and similar
incident, in which abouUa and impulsions were manifested,
occurred. This incident had an amusing side, though it led
to what almost might be called " a fight to a finish " between
the two personalities. The first letter to Jones, eventually
written and sent, having failed to accomplish its purpose,
owing I suppose to the fact that it was too great a tax
upon the creduhty of her correspondent (Such is the wis-
dom of the uninformed !), it was arranged that this time I
should dictate the letter, Miss Beauchamp merely copying
it. She had come for this purpose. On entering the con-
sulting room she appeared restless and nervous, saying
constantly that she " must go," she could not stay, she
would come back, etc., etc. Her manner plainly indicated
that she was struggling against some force which was
impelling her to go. Finally she said that she felt as if
" possessed " ; that something not herself was trying to
prevent her from staying. For its moral effect, I locked
the door. Still she was so restless that after making a
futile attempt to write the letter she had to give it up.
Soon, as might have been anticipated, she changed to Sally,
who as before attempted to escape in the disguise of her
other self. As usual, Sally enjoyed the joke, but her merri-
ment turned to rebellion as soon as an attempt was made
to control her. With much violence of feeling she objected
to the letter, and to anything being done for Miss Beau-
champ, calling her " a chump," " stupid," etc. It became
necessary to resort to hypnotism, which resulted in the
confession of the details of an engagement for the follow-
ing Wednesday at eight o'clock in the evening. After
quite a scene and the usual lecture on her behavior, Sally
became submissive and promised not to keep the engage-

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 125

ment. She was then changed back to Miss Beauchamp, who
calmly and easily wrote the letter as dictated.

Miss Beauchamp complained again of her position, saying
it was " terrible," that it was a " fiend " that was bothering
her, etc., etc. A few minutes later Sally again came upon
the scene and at once revealed herself by mimicking and
jeering at her other self. She was irresistibly funny, in
spite of the tragic side of it all. " Really," she said, copy-
ing the tone and manner and repeating the very words of
Miss Beauchamp, " Really, Dr. Prince, I must be possessed ;
a perfect fiend is in me. I don't know Avhat I shall do 1
Such a horrible thing ! I should think, Dr. Prince, you
would hate me." Then she broke into a peal of laughter.

The appointed hour for Sally's escapade, be it remem-
bered, was eight o'clock in the evening of the following
Wednesday. In the afternoon of the same day, at three
o'clock. Miss Beauchamp had agreed to pay me a visit.
When these hours arrived there was witnessed by those
about her a most remarkable exhibition of phenomena,
which can only be interpreted as those of impulsions on
the one hand, and on the other, as a struggle between two
coexistent minds in one body. My information about it
came in this way: In the afternoon or early evening I
received two notes : one from Miss Beauchamp, and one
from Mrs. R., with whom she was boarding. Miss Beau-
champ's letter ran as follows :

"Will you please send me some morphia? The bromide
does n't help, and I am thoroughly upset. I can remember,
really I do remember, but things are trying to slip from me,
and I am so nervous and tired. I want to sleep too, and I am
stuttering awfully. It is so dreadful — all of it — but if you
will send me the morphia I shall surely be all right to-morrow.
Please, please do."

The other letter, from Mrs. R., stated that Miss Beau-
champ was in poor condition and asked advice.

126 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Later in the evening Mrs. R. telephoned that she was
quite alarmed about her charge, who was restless and ner-
vous and in a queer state. On my arrival, about 11 o'clock,
I found Miss Beauchamp stuttering badly, and in a mental
condition resembling that of a person lightly hypnotized.
A few suggestions restored her to herself. The following
facts were then learned : Mrs. R. stated that at about three
o'clock Miss Beauchamp had acted very curiously ; " jump-
ing and squirming and wriggling about " in the most re-
markable manner. At about eight o'clock this was repeated.
Miss Beauchamp stated on her part that at the earlier
hour she had made an effort to leave the house to keep her
appointment with me, but that she simply could not keep
it. She felt herself controlled by something which pre-
vented her. She had become very restless and was obliged
to give up her intention. Later in the evening she had an
almost irresistible desire to go out of the house, without
any definable aim. Between seven and eight o'clock this
desire became strongest, and she was then at her worst.
Concluding that this impulse was one of her possessions
she determined to fight it. Though beaten in the after-
noon this time she had won the victory, much to her
delight, but from all accounts it had been a "nervous"
afternoon. As to the stuttering, she felt as if some
one had control of her tongue. The next morning Miss
Beauchamp received the following letter from Sally :

" I am positively ashamed of you, my sainted Christine, that
you should pretend to be shocked because I choose to go to

with ix)or dear W. I shall go with him just as often as

I choose, in spite of you, and in spite of Dr. Prince too, and
you know that you liave been no end of times. You are sneaky,
just sneaky, and if I were you I 'd confess my own sins before
I began bewailing those of other people. And please let Dr.
Prince alone. He tells lies and squeezes people, and he is per-
fectly horrid to you too. Do' be reasonable and we can get on

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 127

loads better. I won't be squeezed. I just won't. I '11 make
you all dead first. Your prayer book is in the salt-box covered
way up, if you want it. Perhaps you 'd better rescue it so that
you can pray out of it. And your silly old examples for the
red-haired one ^ are all in tiny wee pieces which you may enjoy
putting together again, as long as it is so awfully important
you should do that sort of thing. You are afraid of everybody
— you are — nobody wanted you to go with W. last night and
you ought to be sorry you did not take me for a walk instead
of staying at home and kicking up such a row. Dr. Prince
wanted to shake you, and so did Mrs. R., and I just wish they
had. Nobody shakes you even when you have ultrer*^ motives
and I am always getting [word omitted; scolded?]. The Mar-
garet Margaret ^ is all gone too. I made cigarette papers out
of it. Are n't you glad? I did it all for you. I knew you'd
like it, so good-bye dearie, and don't you dare go anywhere un-
less I tell you you may.

" Your affectionate guardian."

That same afternoon Sally boasted that she had made
Miss Beauchamp stutter ; that she had prevented her keep-
ing her appointment with me ; and that she had produced
the desire to go out in the evening, although she had no
intention of keeping the engagement, intending simply " to
take a walk." She had done all this by the process of
" willing."

A comparison of Sally's letter with the following from
Miss Beauchamp enclosing it is interesting as showing the
difference in the characters of the two personalities :

" I do hope this evening's accident* has proved less serious
than Mrs. feared when I saw her, aud if my delaying you

1 One of her teachers.

^ Ulterior. This was a new word Sally had learned from me, aud it was
evidently too much for her.

8 Some literary work which represented much labor.

* Referring to a carriage accident by which my horse was killed. The
accident occurred while my carriage was waiting for me during Miss Beau-
champ's visit.

128 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

was in any degree responsible for it all I can only hope that you
will believe I regret it from the very depths of my soul. You
must not tell me to come to you again, ever; not wholly because
of this that has occurred, but partly because for a long time I
have felt that I have been trespassing far too deeply on your
time and patience. And through it all I have done so little to
help you, so much to hinder ! It is only childish, as you say,
to keep repeating that one is sorry, so very sorry, for all these
things. This time I hope to be stronger. I enclose the note
you asked for and only wish it may be of some interest psycho-
logically — it is utterly absurd from any other point of view.
Do forgive me as many of my sins and shortcomings as you
can, and believe that I shall be always infinitely more grateful
to you than I can say."

The habit which Sally had of making engagements un-
known to Miss Beauchamp was becoming seriously trouble-
some. It not only interfered with Miss Beauchamp's own
plans but it distressed her to discover later that in this in-
terval of lost time she had carried out plans objectionable
to hereelf, even to reversing what she had previously said
and done. Then as Sally found amusement in writing
letters to Miss Beauchamp, telling just enough of what slie
had done to allow Miss Beauchamp to infer the woi'st, the
latter's imagination would run riot, conjure up all sorts of
possioixities, and inspire a state of terror. The letters
would allude to matters of which she was ignorant, and
therefore keep her mind in a state of apprehension.

Here is a specimen of Sally's letters; others will be
given in the next chapter:

"You dear, sweet, good, little girl! Never heard of Jones
before, did you? No wonder Dr. Prince is utterly disgusted
with you. Cannot even confess straight! I shall tell him
everything, and then you '11 see what he thinks of you.
' Damned from here to eternity,' just as Jones says.

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES V129

1. Childish 6. Foolish

2. Emotional 7. Imprudent

3. Stupid 8. No discretion

4. Selfish 9. False ideas

5. Inconsiderate 10. Infant.

Miss Devil Lady."

The final epithet, referring to Miss Beauchamp's feeling
of being possessed by a_^vil, Sally frequently scribbled
over Miss B.'s letters. The ten sins are expressions which
she had picked out of various criticisms made upon her by
Jones, without regard to the context. The sins with which
poor Miss Beauchamp was charged are presumptive evi-
dence of mistaken identity, for no one could look upon her
as childish, or inconsiderate, or selfish, unless they mistook
her for her subconscious self, Sally. The ingenuity wliich
that self displayed in sticking mental pins into Miss Beau-
champ by means of letters was quite remarkable, hinting
as she did in a most subtle way at all sorts of occurrences
dreadful to contemplate.

What was the secret of all this tormenting, this abuse of
her other self? They were after all the same being, in-
habiting the same body, — though no amount of argument
could persuade Sally to admit the fact. Why then should
Sally delight in annoying herself? There were several
reasons:

In the first place, Sally disliked the Hfe she was perforce
obliged by Miss Beauchamp to live. Sally loved an out-
door, breezy life; sports, amusements, physical activity,
games, and the theatre. It was tales of adventure and of
outdoor life, of hunting and riding, that she delighted in,
and that I often had to tell her to satisfy her longing.
And here was Miss Beauchamp devoted to duty and study I
In the Litter's life pleasure and recreation rarely entered.
Sally complained bitterly of Miss Beauchamp's studious
habits, and used to paralyze her will so that she could not

130 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

study. " I hate those stupid old books," she would plead
in extenuation. " What does she always want to be reading
them for ? What is there for me to do ? " She thought it
hard that she must be quiet and passive while Miss Beau-
champ could do as she pleased. And it was dull for her
when her other self was occupied with such uninteresting
matters.

Then, in the second place, teasing seems to be the natural
outlet of youthful minds. It seems to appeal to the sense
of fun of every boy and girl, particularly when a vent for
animal spirits cannot be found in physical exercise.

But above all, perhaps, the reason is to be found in the
fact that, strange as it may seem, Sally hated Miss Beau-
champ. " I hate her, I just hate her," she would reply to
every remonstrance on her conduct, and whenever up-
braided for molesting herself, — her other self. The rea-
son for this hatred was still more strange. Jt.was jealousy.
This showed itself in various ways. She was jealous of
Miss Beauchamp's superior attainments, of her culture, and
above all of her popularity with her friends, and of the care
anS solicitude shown for her. She was jealous that we who
were interested in her case were trying to keep Miss Beau-
champ in existence in preference to her secondary con-
sciousness, Sally. " Nobody seems to care what becomes
of me," she would complain, when a plea was made that
Miss Beauchamp's life should not be interfered with.

The following letter from Miss Beauchamp shows her
condition of mind resulting from the various trials she had
undergone ;

" I have been losing time again, and hasten to let you know
at once, as I promised ; althougii I am much afruid that you
will consider it my own fault because I have not been taking
things philosophically. But, really, everything is upside down,
and when things are in that condition it is hard to be philosophi-
cal, even though one realizes that not to be ' shows a lamentable

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 131

want of strength.' I got extremely tired on Friday, going

about with Miss , and by the time I had seen her off on

the train, I was not merely tired, but nervous and overwrought,
so that coming upon Jones unexpectedly in the evening was a
great shock to me. He was so angry — more angry than I
have ever known him — and was delightfully frank in telling
me not merely what he thought, but what you must of necessity
think concerning me. But, indeed, Dr. Prince, you cannot think
such things if your knowledge and understanding of me are as
absolute as I believe them to be. You simply cannot, — and yet
I have been able to think of little else these last few days. I
have tried to tell you everything — not at first, I know, but since
then — and even without my telling you know my very inmost
thoughts. There is only one thing I have kept from you and that
is nothing you would wish to hear. ... I am afraid this note is
not very coherent, as I am writing in the greatest haste and my
ideas are mixed, but you will forgive that, I know, and believe
me,

" Sincerely yours,"

One of the most distressing things to Miss Beauchamp
was her inability to keep her promises, owing to the freaks
of Sally. The fear of failure was a source of constant
anxiety, for never in practice did she look upon herself as
irresponsible, or consider that in her trances she was an-
other person. Her point of view was simply that she was
transformed at such times and acted differently from what
she desired in her normal condition. " It is myself, after
all," she would say, pathetically. So when she promised,
for example, to keep me informed by letter of her doings,
or what was more important, not to correspond or keep up
associations with certain persons, she was in constant ter-
ror of breaking these promises, though the one who broke
them was Sally, not herself. To her it seemed to be her-
self. Indeed, Sally did everything she could to break any
promise of Miss Beauchamp if it crossed her own pur-
poses. As we have seen, she destroyed Miss B.'s letters

182 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

as fast as they were written, she corresponded when for-
bidden, and she made engagements which Miss Beauchamp
was in honor bound not to fulfil.

Mrs. X., one of Miss Beauchamp's friends, did not
realize this, and in putting her on honor, so to speak,
naturally, though always charitably, thought it Miss Beau-
champ's fault if she failed in her promises. Miss Beau-
champ never sought to exculpate herself by putting the
blame on her subconscious demon. Her only answer was
self-accusing silence, or " It is myself," though to me she
would explain her situation that I might understand,
making no attempt, however, to excuse herself. The fol-
lowing letter gives an insight into her mind :

" I have failed miserably in keeping my promise to tell you
about things, but you will believe that I have tried? tried until
I am nearly beside myself with pain and vexation, but it is
useless. My attendant demon is too much for me and destroys
faster than I can write. You know it has always had a strong
dislike for you for some reason or other, and it is very much de-
voted to Jones. I dare not make this explanation fuller lest this
note follow the others. You will understand, I am sure."

Suhconscious fixed fear. One very interesting phenom-
enon noted at this time, and frequently observed Liter in
varying forms, was a feeling of fear whicli seemed to well
up, so to speak, out of the depths of the subconscious
strata of her mind. She complained of an indefinable,
unreasoning fear, without any particular basis or specific
object. It would come over her in attacks many times a
day, and particularly at night, last a few moments, and then
subside. It was another form of obsession.

The obsession of fears (fixed-fears, Angst-Neurose'), is
well recognized in neurology, though a knowledge of its
pathology is not as widespread as it should be. A great
many people are its victim;^ and often go through life tor-

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 133

tured by apparently groundless fears, and misunderstood by
their physicians as well as by those about them. Some-
times the fear is indefinable and not associated with any
particular object. More often it is connected with some
particular thing, as fire, disease, or drugs ; very commonly
it takes the form of shyness. Such fears may have their
origin in subconscious mental states of which the habitual
self has little or no knowledge. Such fears always arise
originally, of course, in some conscious experience, but later
they become dissociated and crystallized as a secondary
subconsciousness,^ along with the memoiy of the event
which gave rise to them ; then from time to time the fear,
without the associated memories, becomes synthesized with
the waking self, and the subject experiences an objectless,
indefinable fear which appears to be without cause.

Fears of this kind form a well-recognized psychosis, one
with which we have to deal in e very-day practice. If this
were the proper place I could give from my notebook
numerous instances of this phenomenon in other subjects.
A. B., a schoolboy, is overwhelmed by attacks of indefinable
fear, which the history showed originated in a fright at the
thought of an imaginary illness. Mrs. C. D. has similar
attacks, which hypnosis discloses developed out of a faint-
ing attack in early girlhood twenty years before. In other
instances the fear or anxiety is not absolutely indefinable,
but is associated with certain indefinite memories and
thoughts which, however, lack clearness and are incom-
pletely formulated. In such cases a portion only of the
memories upon which the fear depends remains subcon-
scious and dissociated. In still other cases the whole of
the obsession belongs to the waking consciousness, and
then the fear is precise and definite.

1 It should be understood that by the secondary subconsciousness is meant,
in the case of Miss Beauchamp, not the group of conscious states called Sally,
but another group which in hypnosis becomes a part of the hypnotic self, B IL

184 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Manifestations of one or the other kind of subconscious
phenomena have often been observed in Miss Beauchamp.
It has only been necessary to catechise the hypnotic self to
learn their whole content and origin. In the present in-
stance the subconscious fear originated from a very specific
fear and anxiety about a specific matter which is quite dis-
tinct in her mind and which she now distinguishes from
the indefinable fear. This specific fear was that she would
break a promise made to Mrs. X. and it had come upon her
as a nervous shock on discovering that this danger threat-
ened her. It arose in the following way : Miss Beauchamp
had received a letter from Jones which plainly indicated
that she as Sally, aild therefore unknown to herself, had
made a promise which involved the breaking of her prom-
ise to Mrs. X. When she read the letter she discovered
her danger, and it aroused in her a great fear, — a fear that
in spite of herself she would break her promise. I taxed
Sally with this intended escapade, harmless in itself, but
she obstinately persisted in her purpose, saying, childlike,
that she didn't see why she shouldn't, and so on. Al-
though Miss Beauchamp knew nothing of this beyond what
was contained in the letter, she knew enough, remembering
the past, to feel herself upon a powder magazine.

" I am afraid," she wiites, " of everything now — of myself
most of all — for Mrs. X. in trusting me has in a way put me
on honor, and if I fail her again what shall I do? And yet I
have the most dreadful feeling that somehow I shall fail. It
seems to me as if Satan himself were mocking me, playing with
me as a cat with a mouse. 'Absurd,' you will say, and yet it
is horrible beyond words to have such fear. Do you under-
stand? Can you understand without having experienced it?
Mrs. X. does not, and cannot, and is only distressed by hearing
about it, — and there is no one else to whom I can go. You
will be confessor again and forget the note? It could not
have been true, you know. Really it could not, for lots of
reasons."

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 135

The origin of the attacks of indefinable fear was thus
quite intelligible : the fear of breaking her promise had
passed into the secondary consciousness from which it
penetrated at moments into the waking self, as an isolated
phenomenon without its associated thoughts. This was
easily shown by catechizing B II, who was able to give a
full account of the origiYi of the obsession and the nature
of the attacks. It will be noticed that the secondary con-
sciousness (dissociated idea of danger) is not Sally's con-
sciousness, but another group of subconscious states, the
memory of which is retained by B II. We shall meet
with numerous instances of such subconscious emotions.
They correspond with the subconscious sensations in hys-
terical anesthesia, systematized anesthesia, etc.

Apropos of this subconscious phenomenon it is also in-
teresting to note that in a vague way Miss Beauchamp
was conscious of Sally's enjoyment of the situation. It
seemed as if the emotions, pleasurable in this instance and
previously aroused in the consciousness of this second per-
sonality, invaded in a mild way the field of consciousness
of the primary self, B I. Miss Beauchamp stated that she
had a sensation as if there were a part of her that had a
feeling of pleasure when she had this fear and anxiety
about breaking her promise. She was unable to give a
more definite or analytical description of this psychical
state, always coming back to the idea that there was some-
thing in her which seemed to enjoy it.^

The following incident was amusing, even if annoying to
the victim :

Miss Beauchamp, as a protection against breaking her
promise, had purposely concealed her address from one of

1 If this be the correct interpretation it would seem that the primary wak-
ing self can be invaded by subconscious emotions belonging to B III as well
as by those which, originally belonging to itself, become split off to form the
ordinary subconsciousness.

136 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

her friends. She was therefore naturally annoyed when she
received a letter from this person, and was much perplexed
to know how her address, which was a new one, could
have become known. But she was not astonished, because,
as she said, " Jones always does know everything." After
discussing this matter with me awhile and just as she was
going out of the door, she changed to Sally, who began at
once, most amusingly and with much seriousness, to mimic
Miss Beauchamp. "I can't possibly imagine how Jones
could know ; it is most annoying," she repeated, and went
on, using the exact words just used by Miss Beauchamp,
and mimicking the tone of her voice and her manner.
Sally of course was the culprit, and, as she confessed, had
written Jones, giving him full information. That Sally, as
usual, enjoyed Miss Beauchamp's anxiety about all these
things, and was absolutely without mercy for her, goes
without saying.

Sally's increasing escapades and interference with Miss
Beauchamp's life and peace of mind were becoming a seri-
ous matter, and it was absolutely essential Sally should be
controlled. But it was one thing to vote the suppression
of the culprit and another to do it. Threats, scoldings,
personal appeals to her loyalty, and hypnotism were the
most effective measures, and each was used in turn, but no
method produced more than temporary results.

First, the secret of her plans or past doings had to be
discovered. This was no easy matter, though sometimes
one could extract from her the details of an intended esca-
pade, for, childlike, she was pretty sure to betray herself
by a guilty expression or gesture of some kind ; and then
carefully worded questions, or threats of punishment or
of interference, would bring out the whole. Sometimes,
when the circumstances were serious, it was necessary to
put her upon a sort of hj^pnotic rack and elicit the infor-
mation by torture, a form of inquisition which perhaps

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 137

could only be justified by the end, — Miss Beauchamp's
moral peace. One day, for instance, when asked whether
she had made any more secret engagements, she admitted
that she had, but refused to tell more because I would stop
her fun. Remonstrances proved vain, so I told her she
would be compelled by other means to submit. Putting
my finger to her forehead, I made her believe I had the
power of exorcism. The effect was remarkable. She
shrank from me much as the conventional Mephistopheles
of the stage shrinks from the cross on the handle of the
sword, at the same time complaining that it made a " ter-
rible " painful sensation run through her body. This was
a feeling of coldness ^ so intense that from its very painful-
ness it paralyzed her will and reduced her power of resist-
ance. She feared it more than anything that could be
done to her. Still she doggedly persisted in refusing either
to reveal the secret of her engagement or to promise to
break it. In spite of the pain, slirinking and crouching
upon her knees, she fought on for a long time. Finally,
unable to endure it longer, she yielded and confessed the
details of her intended escapade. But even then her com-
plaint was long that her fun had been spoiled, and she
sought to make it a condition of surrender that nothing
should be done for Miss Beauchamp, who in Sally's vo-
cabulary was a "chump." Nevertheless the rack had
brought confession.

But to control Sally, besides threats and scoldings which
were sometimes effective, pleading and appeals to her in-
nate kindliness and regard for others often won her, —
with one exception: no request made on behalf of Miss
Beauchamp had the slightest effect. On this point she
was implacable. But what good were her promises be-

1 I had often used as a suggestion to suppress Sally that she " should be
dead." It is probable, therefore, that this feeling of coldness arose by asso-
ciation with the idea of death, or a corpse. After a time it ceased to be felt.

138 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

yond a few days ? She could not keep them, and always
said so frankly.

Here is a letter from Sally. I give it as a specimen of
her frivolity after a stem moral lecture :

" Know all men by these presents that I, Sally, being of
sound mind and in full possession of all my senses, do hereby
most solemnly promise to love, honor, and obey Morton Prince,
M. D., situate in the city of Boston, state of Massachusetts,
from this time forth, toujours. Amen, amen, amen.

" Toujours is French, you know."

Sally had been guilty of unusual offence. Miss Beau-
champ had been put to the mortification of learning that
in a trance she had borrowed a large sum of money, had
given forty dollars to a beggar, and then, to cap the climax,
had lost a treasured watch. The latter, as I learned, Sally
had pulled to pieces, — " It would be such fun to see if she
could take the works out," — and then, finding she was no
watchmaker, she had hidden the pieces.

Plainly the time had come to apply the disagreeable but
drastic measure of hypnotism.

So Sally was condemned. Here are two specimen appli-
cations of the punishment : She was rebellious and declared
war. The contest began. Again I reproduced the cold
feeling. She fought to counteract my influence and the
suggestions by giving to herself counter-suggestions mut-
tered under her breath: "I won't be hypnotized. I can
open my eyes. I can speak," and so on, opposing every
suggestion of mine by one of her own. Against the cold
feeling she struggled valiantly. I pretended to etherize
her with mock ether. She coughed and choked and sput-
tered as if it were real. " From this time forth," I com-
manded, "you shall be dead to the world. You shall
never again have power to influence or to molest Miss
Beauchamp. Your will power is lost. You shall go back

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 139

to where you came from," etx)., etc. I paralyzed her
tongue, her limbs, her will power. But from moment to
moment she would struggle and mutter, as well as she
could with the little control left over her tongue, that
she would not die, would not disappear, etc. Finally,
after half an hour, she became lethargic and passive, and
the final therapeutic suggestions both for Miss Beauchamp
and hereelf were given.

The effect lasted — just four days! During this time
Sally was suppressed, or as she afterwards used to express
it, she had gone back to where she came from ; Miss Beau-
champ was herself, well and happy. Then Sally broke
loose again. My notes four days later read : " Hypnotized.
Same thing repeated as on Monday ; same fight ; same re-
belliousness ; same suggestions." And so it became appar-
ent that the effect of hypnotizing Sally was not lasting.

Psychologically and therapeutically it was interesting to
discover that the effect of suggestions to Sally hypnotized
was twofold. First, such suggestions influenced Sally her-
self. She found it difficult to influence her waking con-
sciousness, to change Miss Beauchamp to herself, to write
letters, to play pranks. In fact, Sally was to a large extent
" squeezed " out of existence. Second, and more inter-
esting psychologically, suggestions to Sally influenced the
waking self the same as if given to B 11. This showed a
relationship between the two groups of conscious states
(personalities) in spite of their apparent disunion. But it
was not at all clear what that relationship was. By sug-
gestions to Sally in hypnosis, neurasthenic symptoms, in-
somnia, and what not, could be made to disappear in tlie
twinkling of an eye, just as when given to B II ; but un-
fortunately, as an effect of the anxiety induced by Sally's
pranks, they would reappear almost in another twinkling.

The following letter from Miss Beauchamp expresses her
attitude of mind toward her trouble :

140 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

" Please forgive me for troubling you with this note. You
need not answer it. I write only because I am tired and dis-
couraged and full of all sorts of fancies which writing may dis-
pel. And then too I do want to talk to you. I wish I had told
you simply and frankly this afternoon just why 1 wanted infor-
mation. It would have been so much easier for you and there
was no earthly reason for not telling you. Jones has been dis-
cussing various matters lately, as j'ou doubtless know from your
reference to Dr. G,, and among other things — perhaps you
know this too — he told me that just so long as I continued to
be in thought, word, and deed the child ^ that I was ten years
ago, just so long would it be hard for him and dangerous for
myself. Do you understand better now? And do you see
why I want to know everything that you have patience to
tell me ? everything that other people know. It is all horribly
puzzling . . ."

But even if hypnotizing Sally was only temporary in its
results it would have proved a powerful influence in treat-
ing the case, had it not been that Sally on her part made a
discovery which was worth two of mine. She found that
though I could hypnotize her I could not wake up Miss
Beaucharap unless she (Sally) chose to let me : that is to
say, even in hypnosis Sally had sufficient control left to.,
thwart the command that she should change to B I and__
wake up. Here it may be added that Sally, after waking as
herself, does not have amnesia for her own hypnotic state.
She remembers everything said and done to her while
hypnotized. She could therefore plan in anticipation of
the attack against her in hypnosis, and as long as she
resisted she could not be changed to B I. At every attempt
to do this Sally would wake from hypnosis, and instead of
obtaining Miss Beauchamp I would have Sally, who would
insist upon remaining. Suggestions that she should like

* Apparently referring to her conduct as Sally, for which Miss B. got the
credit. The division of personality was not understood or recognized by her
friends.

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 141

Miss Beauchamp, and other suggestions intended to have a
moral influence, were resisted and were without result. " I
hate her," she would answer. Sally's good-will and co-
operation became essential. This obtained, all was easy :
Miss Beauchamp would wake up in good spirits, light-
hearted, and physically without ailment.

The following scene is an illustration of the pass to
which we had come. It also exhibits the other side of
Sally's character, — a soft, kindly side, to which one could
always appeal with success, provided it was not in behalf
of Miss Beauchamp. It was this side tpo which was seen
when we treated Sally as the personality she claimed to be,
— the equal of her waking self.

It will be remembered that Miss Beauchamp had lost
her Christmas Day in consequence of having changed to
Sally. After Sally had given me her side of the story I
told her she must let Miss Beauchamp wake up, but this
she had no intention of doing. The flag of rebellion was
hoisted at once, and to all my urging she would only reply
in a prevaricating way, " I am awake." Finding arguments
of no avail I hypnotized her against her will, making her
feel, as usual, icy cold. She remonstrated and struggled
with considerable vigor against this hypnotic effect, re-
peating, " I won't, I won't. I won't be dead," etc., etc.
Finding myself baffled, I made her inhale from a mock
bottle of ether, which in the hypnotic state she smelled;
she coughed and breathed as if she were being suffocated.
Nevertheless every time I suggested that B I should wake
up, Sally would appear instead. Her mental resistance
was so strong that it was finally necessary to give up
this method and to take another tone. I pretended to
be very much hurt by her conduct, and to be discouraged
and sorry. I drew a picture of the result of her behavior,
— how it had ruined the afternoon. I told her of a very
ill patient whom I had been unable to visit, and who was

142 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

at the moment suffering and without a physician. In fact,
I played the sympathetic act, putting on a sorrowful ex-
pression as one might with a child whose conduct one
wished to reprove. Sally seemed very much affected. All
the joyousness went out of her face and she appeared much
disturbed by the picture I drew of the consequences of her
conduct and of the trouble which she was causing other
people. Then I told her that if she really were sorry, as
she professed, she could make amends by letting B I wake
up. But afc this suggestion her manner changed in an in-
stant to resentment. Finally, as a compromise she said
that if I would promise never again to let Miss Beauchamp
come to see me, and would have nothing to do with her, she
would let her be waked up. Her jealousy of Miss Beau-
champ was easily detected, revealing itself as the secret of
her uncompromising persistency in annoying her. She did
not hesitate to say as usual that she hated Miss Beau-
champ, giving in explanation the usual answers ; that Miss
B. was always interested in books and stupid things of that
kind, was foolish, did foolish things, and so on. The mo-
tive of jealousy was plain. Of coui*se this offer of Sally's
was refused. An hour had already been consumed in
fruitless effort, but it was not until after another hour of
moral urging in which the evil of her ways was still further
emphasized that she was ready to make the concession.
The picture of the trouble and unhappiness she caused
other people, which I drew for her with a melodramatic
hand, induced in her a real regret, and a real sorrow. But
when it came to the question of Miss Beauchamp she was
still implacable. It was only out of consideration for others
that she finally acquiesced. Then her promise was given
that every time Miss Beauchamp went into a trance she
(Sally) would immediately, on the moment, wake her up ;
and that she would do this for the next month.

Sally pleaded that slie had "just as much right to live"

SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLES 143

as had Miss Beauchamp ; that she " enjoyed life just as
much " as her other self, and complained bitterl}'^ of the dull
time she had when she could not get out of her shell.
Almost piteously she pleaded, " Why can't I live as well
as she ? I have got.just as much right to live as she has."
To her it was a question which should die and which
should live. She never could be made to recognize the
identity of the two personalities.

It must not be thought that Miss Beauchamp was always
ill or in dire distress. The events and scenes I have de-
scribed were episodes in a life that was like a river which
sometimes runs smoothly and sometimes is troubled by
rapids and whirlpools. Unless Sally was particularly ag-
gressive, Miss Beauchamp could always count upon three
or four days, and occasionally upon a week of peace of
mind and good physical health, after receiving therapeutic
suggestions. Then there would be three or four days of
annoying interference from Sally, to be put an end to in
turn by therapeutic suggestion. To see Miss Beauchamp
enter the consulting room weary, worn, depressed, hope-
lessness written upon her face and expressed in every tone
of her voice, and then to see her depart with a light step,
every trace of weariness gone, and the vigor of hope in her
heart, — well, to see her go away so tiunsf ormed by a few
therapeutic suggestions amply repaid all the care and time
this strange case exacted.

CHAPTER IX

SALLY AS A SUBCONSCIOUS AND AS AN ALTERNATING
PERSONALITY

■T"TTHAT is Sally ? What sort of a consciousness is this
VV personality? And what relationship exists between
her consciousness and the waking B I ?

An answer to this problem cannot be given until many
more facts in the psychology of this complex case are
studied. On the basis, however, of the facts thus far
adduced we are warranted in definitely drawing certain
conclusions :

In the first place, Sally is a distinct personality in the
sense of having a character, trains of thought, memories,
perceptions, acquisitions, and mental acquirements, differ-
ent from those of B I.

Secondly : She is an alternating personality in that dur-
ing the times when the primary self has vanished Sally is
for the time being the whole conscious personality, having
taken the place of the other. As an alternating peraon-
ality so much of the whole field of consciousness as
persists belongs to her and there is no other self. At
such times B I does not become a subconsciousness to
Sally but as a pei-sonality is wiped out.

Thirdly: Sally does not simply alternate with B I.
There are times when Sally manifests herself as a concomi-
tant extra-consciousness, concomitant with the primary
personality, B I and also B II. A greater or less number
of the groups of conscious states which make up her per-
sonality, her perceptions, her thoughts, and her will,
coexist with those of B I. In other words, there is a

SALLY AS A PERSONALITY 145

doubling of the personality. It is convenient to speak of
this second group, whether large or small, as Sally,
whether it is the whole of Sally or not. Sally may there-
fore be termed a co-consciousness^ or a subconsciousness.

The evidence for coexistence is found in the many
manifestations already recited of another consciousness
while Miss Beauchamp has been present. The phenomena
of automatic movements, aboulia, obsessions, imperative
impulses, and the conflict between the two wills, may be
particularly mentioned. Even more conclusive are the
phenomena of "automatic writing" and speech which
were later frequently observed. Proofs of this doubling
of consciousness will be found running through this study.

A curious fact, dithcult to interpret satisfactorily ex-
cepting on the theory of the persistence of " Sally " as a
subconscious self, is that on several occasions when Miss
Beauchamp was delirious the evidence indicated the co-
incident presence of Sally as a perfectly sane subcon-
sciousness.

Fourthly : It does not follow that the extent of Sally's
mind as a subconscious self is coextensive with her mind
as an alternating self.

One of the most interesting problems, and one which has
an important bearing upon that of the limits of subcon-
scious life, is whether or not Sally, when not present as an
alternating self, is always in existence as a subconscious
self. Sally maintains that she is; that (subconsciously)
she knows everything Miss Beauchamp (and B II) does at
the time she does it, — knows what she thinks, hears what
she says, reads what she writes, and sees what she does ;
that she knows all this as a separate co-self, and that her
knowledge does not come to her afterwards, when an alter-
nating self, in the form of memory. We shall soon see
that the same claim is made for a pei-sistent existence dur-
ing the presence of B IV.

146 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

This is a very broad claim for subconscious life, even
when pathological. It is not, however, very much more
extreme than the interpretation which is connoted by the
published description of some reported cases.^

If we confine ourselves in the case of Sally to the sub-
conscious phenomena which are open to objective investi-
gation and have been actually observed, we shall find that
they are subject to two interpretations, namely :

(A.) Sally may subconsciously come to life only at the
moment when the automatic phenomena are manifested.
After the cessation of the automatism the subconscious self
may subside as any idea or feeling may subside. In tliis
case the sub-self would have only a series of spasmodic
existences, each of which would be of only relatively mo-
mentary duration. Her knowledge of Miss Beauchamp's
life would be acquired almost entirely through memory
when she becomes an alternating self ; just as a hypnotic
self reraembei'S the waking state. Sally's belief (the sin-
cerity of which is beyond question) in her own continuous
existence must, under this interpretation, be an illusion of
memory.

(B.) Sally, or some of her mental processes, may have a
continuQjis existence during the whole of Miss Beauchamp's
(and B IV's) life, or during certain periods, for example,
during a period of delirium. In this case the automatic
manifestations would be merely ebullitions in the mental
life of a persistent subconscious self. A subconsciousness
of this extent would, however, not necessarily be more
than an exaggeration of that which is shown by the sub-
conscious solution of arithmetical problems.

Besides the objective evidence, the introspective testi-
mony of Sally ought to be at least weighed.

A consideration of these two interpretations will be post-
poned until we have all the data of the case before us. It

1 Compare Janet's account of Mme. B. ; Rev. Fhilosoph., March, 1888.

SALLY AS A PERSONALITY 147

should, however, be insisted upon that the first, the more
conservative of the two, should be held until it can be shown
to be inadequate. "We should be on our guard against
hastily ascribing to subconscious activity and doubling of
consciousness phenomena which may quite as well be
explained as alternations of mental states. Much of the
automatic activity, like writing, speaking, etc., which in well
known reported cases has been inteipreted as subconscious
phenomena, has been, in my judgment, in large part at least,
merely exhibitions of alternations of consciousness. The
subject goes into a dreamy state in which little or nothing is
left of the primary consciousness, while a newly organized
self comes to the front and gives the exhibition. Some of
the automatic action exhibited by Miss Beauchamp was of
this character. In such instances Sally, though apparently
acting subconsciously, was practically an alternating self.
The internal as well as the external evidence must often be
weighed in determining the reality of co-conscious activity.

If the phraseology of the text appears to definitely postu-
late a continuous subconscious self, I would have it borne in
mind that for the present we are mainly concerned with the
description of the phenomena, rather than their interpreta-
tion. Whatever interpretation we shall be obliged finally
to adopt, both B I and B IV were compelled by the exigen-
cies of their " possession " to conduct themselves as if their
" demon " were always " inside," a spectator of their lives.

There are certain other peculiarities of Sally wliich ought
to be stated now :

Sally has a peculiar form of anesthesia. With her eyes
closed she can feel nothing. The tactile, pain, thermic,
and muscular senses are involved. You may stroke, prick,
or burn any part of her skin and she does not feel it. You
may place a limb in any posture without her being able to
recognize the position which lias been assumed. But let
her open her eyes and look at what you are doing, let her

148 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

join the visual sense with the tactile or other senses, and
the lost sensations at once return. The association of
visual perceptions with these sensations brings the latter
into the field of her personal consciousness. The same
thing is true of auditory perceptions. If Sally hears a
sound associated with an object, she can feel the object.
For instance, place a bunch of keys in her hand and she
does not know what she holds. Now jingle the keys and
she can at once feel them, as is shown by her being able
to recognize the different parts of their forms.

jSensation may also be restored hy suggestion. But the
restoration is only temporary, lasting for a few hours or
for the day. I used frequently to restore sensation in this
way for Sally. Seeing how easily it was done, Sally took
the tip and every morning, when at the height of her
career, used to make the suggestions to herself, using my
language. She would thus secure to herself the advantage
of sensory perceptions. It was possible to suggest, to a
limited extent at least, painful sensations, that is, the
feeling of intense, painful coldness. This was utilized in
controlling her. No experiments were made in producing
other forms of pain.

Curiously, Sally does not have, as we should expect,
limitation of the field of vision unless she is " squeezed " ;
then there is moderate limitation. Nor is there impair-
ment of the special senses.

This peculiar anesthesia is not as bizarre as may appear
at fii-st sight, although I do not happen to have run across
any references to it in the literature showing that it has
been previously observed. Yet it is analogous to a form
of hysterical blindness when monocular. Such a subject,
as pointed out and proved by Parinaud, Pitres, Charcot,
and other French observers, as well as by myself,^ cannot

^ Hysterical Monocular Amblyopia. Amer. Jour. Med. Sciences, February,
1897.

SALLY AS A PERSONALITY 149

see with the blind eye, if the other is closed. But as
soon as the opposite eye is opened, sight returns at once
to the affected eye, that is, as soon as the images of the
affected eye are associated with those of the sound eye.
(The recognition of this peculiarity of the amblyopia of
some hysterics is important, as such subjects are often
charged with malingering.) Another analogous phenom-
enon is what is known as Lasegue's Symptom. A hysteric
who with eyes closed has muscular weakness (or paresis)
of a degree which will prevent him from recording more
than a few degrees on the dynamometer, will, if his eyes
are open (and he has visual perception of his hand), have
an increase of power of grasp that will record 80° or 90°.
The association of the visual images has the effect of
restoring to the personal consciousness the kinesthetic
images necessary for muscular movements. ^

The explanabion of such phenomena at present is diffi-
cult, if not impossible. It is undoubtedly to be found in
the reintegration of the field of consciousness, but I am
inclined to the view that the data at hand point to an
integration along physiological lines, — that is, the neuron
systems, rather than along the lines of association of
ideas.

Sally's anesthesia extends to the somatic feelings. She
is never hungry or thirsty. If she eats she does so as a
matter of form or social requirement. There is also an
entire absence of bodily discomforts. This anesthesia
probably explains in large part Sally's freedom from ill
health. She does not know the meaning of fatigue, of
pain, of ill health. She always is well. It is probabl}',
in part at least, in consequence of this anesthesia that
Sally does not share the pain or other physical ailments of
Miss Beauchamp, or any of the personalities. Let Miss
Beauchamp be suffering from abdominal pain, or headache,
or physical exhaustion, and let her change to Sally and at

150 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

once all these symptoms disappear. Sally knows of the
symptoms of the other personalities only through their
thoughts or their actions. She does not feel the symptoms
themselves. The same is true of the sense of muscular
fatigue. Sally can walk miles without being conscious
of the physiological effect. Curiously enough, however,
Miss Beauchamp may afterwards suffer from the fatigue
effects of Sally's exertions.

What is true of Sally in these respects as an alternating
personality is also true of her as a subconsciousness.
Subconsciously/, Sally is always anesthetic. If Miss Beau-
champ's eyes are closed and any portion of the skin is
touched or pricked, or if a limb is placed in any posture,
subconscious Sally is unconscious of the tactile pain or
muscular sensations, although the other personalities are
not anesthetic, but perceive each sensation perfectly.

It was found possible to take advantage of this fact and
by pressure upon certain so-called hypnogenetic points
on B I, B II, or B III, to produce suggestive effects in
one of the other personalities or hypnotic states without
Sally's being able to discover the procedure employed.
In one epoch of this study I was in this way able to
produce therapeutic results without Sally's being able,
because of her ignorance, to thwart my efforts as she was
desirous of doing.

Sally's knowledge of Miss Beauchamp's thoughts shows
certain curious paradoxical peculiarities. Although she
knows Miss Beauchamp's thoughts at any given moment
she has not Miss Beattchamp' s culture. This is true
whether Sally is a subconsciousness or an alternating per-
sonality. She does not know French or other foreign
languages, nor can she write shorthand. In brief, she
has little of the Primary Self's education, but she reads,
writes, and speaks English well. Some unusual words,
like "psychology," bother her, and sometimes she insists,

SALLY AS A PERSONALITY 151

in a childlike way, upon the prerogative of coining words
of her own.

Here, again, it was found possible to take advantage of
this curious ignorance of the subconscious Sally, to com-
municate with Miss Beauchamp without betraying what
was said to Sally. By conversing in French with Miss
Beauchamp it was possible to communicate information
which it was desirable that Sally should not have. This
often brought retaliation from the latter. Also Miss
Beauchamp, to conceal her thoughts from her other self,
has been in the habit of writing her diary in shorthand.

It is not easy to give a psychological explanation of this
difference in the conscious assimilation of Miss Beau-
champ's intellectual processes by this secondary conscious-
ness, according as to whether those processes are made up
of thoughts of the moment or of memories of what passes
under the head of learned acquisitions. It would seem
that it is the memory of those intellectual processes which
were formed by laborious attention and repetition which
are not synthesized with Sally's consciousness, — in other
words, the memory of certain educational mental processes.
Yet Sally can write and has an elementary education.
On the other hand, the memory of Miss Beauchamp's past
experiences, which might be in a general way classified as
social, or the experiences of conduct, are all synthesized
with Sally's mind. Sally's memory for these experiences
is probably better than that of Miss Beauchamp. Can
these peculiarities depend upon the fact that the subcon-
scious Sally pays little or no attention to matters which
occupy Miss Beauchamp's mind as objects of study ? Can
it be possible that Sally had really become well differen-
tiated as a secondary consciousness at the time when Miss
Beauchamp pursued her school and college education, and
was able by voluntary effort to neglect those thoughts which
were occupied with study ? If Sally's autobiography can be

152 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

accepted as evidence, there is something to be said in favor
of such a hypothesis. Sally herself has rather strongly
intimated it and there was some evidence of it to be found
in the experiences of Miss Beauchamp and Sally when the
former was studying shorthand during the period of this
study. Yet I think there is a profounder reason to be
found in an intellectual limitation of the capacity for syn-
thesis. If Sally is directed to concentrate her mind on a
mathematical problem, or other similar subject, Sally tends
to change to Miss Beauchamp. That is to say, by syn-
thesizing Miss Beauchamp's knowledge with that of Sally,
the latter disappears, and the main personality becomes
dominant.

Of course it is manifest that one of the most marked
peculiarities of Sally's personality is its childlike imma-
turity. Sally is a child. This suggested the idea that
Sally might be a reversion to an early period of Miss
Beauchamp's life. It is a well-known fact that in hyp-
notic experiments certain states may be artificially pro-
duced in which the subject is found to have reverted to a

particular period of his life. A subject named M ,

for instance, studied by Dr. Sidis, Dr. Linenthal, and my-
self, was made to revert to a period in his life when he
was sixteen years of age. He then spontaneously, unin-
fluenced by suggestion, lost his knowledge of the English
language and spoke his own native dialect, Russo-German,
which he spoke when a boy. The same phenomenon has
been observed in multiple personality. The classical case
of Louis Viv^ in several of his personalities^ reverted to
corresponding epochs in his life, and in each personality he
was afflicted with the same paralytic infirmity with which
he was afflicted at the time: in one case hemiplegia, in
another, paraplegia, etc. A moment's consideration, how-
ever, will disprove such a theory if applied to Sally. In the
first place her memory is not limited to any particular epoch,

SALLY AS A PERSONALITY 153

but she has a continuous memory of her whole life. Such
necessarily could not be the case in the reversion type of
personality. In the second place, as an alternating person-
ality she remembers numerous previously subconscious
states, showing a distinctly different type of dissociation.

With this brief description of Sally's personality it would
seem advisable to dismiss further discussion of her psy-
chology until we come to discuss the theory of the case
as a whole, and the theory of the secondary consciousness.
It may be said simply in the way of summary that Sally is
a dissociated group of conscious states. These are probably
entirely pathological and have no analogy in normal life.
I am unable to see that, unlike some other subconscious
states shown to exist in this case, Sally, as a subconscious-
ness fulfils any useful function in the mental economy.

Sally claims never to sleep, but it is very likely that
this is an illusion on her part. She claims to know the
dreams of Miss Beauchamp to the minutest detail, includ-
ing those dreams which are not remembered on waking,
and the external agencies, such as sounds in the street,
which give rise to them. By comparing Sally's statements
with those of Miss Beauchamp it is possible to verify
Sally's claim in regard to the dreams which Miss Beau-
champ remembers, but, of course, these dreams Sally would
be expected to know, whether she slept or not. More
interesting is the fact that this subconscious personality
insists that there are many other dreams which Miss Beau-
champ does not remember on waking, and which she,
Sally, claims to be conscious of and remember. These
dreams are more extensive than those that are remembered.
It has not been found possible to verify this testimony
which must be judged on its intrinsic evidence.

Most curious is Sally's absolute ignorance of time. She
cannot compute it. A day, a week, a month are almost
the same to her. Things happened " a short time ago, "

>7^

154 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

or "a long time ago," in her calendar. But even these
expressions do not connote the same ideas to her as to the
rest of us. One year is the same as ten years ; ten seconds
as ten minutes. Ask her to guess a minute, and she is as
likely to call time at the end of ten seconds as five minutes.
It would seem as if this absolute inability to measure time
might, if experimentally studied, throw some light on our
psychological time perceptions. It would seem as if time
could not be entirely measured by the memory of the
succession of events, for Sally experiences events as well
as any one else. She does not know her own age.

Can there be a time sense ? If not, what prevents Sally
from estimating time?

Sally is also suggestible. It is possible to hypnotize
her, although she has no amnesia on awaking, and to pro-
duce various phenomena of suggestion ; to produce closure
of the lids, to make her blind, deaf, and dumb. Further,
through suggestions to this self, it is possible to affect
the waking self; to produce sleep, relieve uncomfortable
symptoms, etc.

One of the most diflScult and at the same time interest-
ing problems offered by Sally is the extent of her mind as
a subconsciousness. When Sally disappears as an alter-
nating personality and becomes subconscious, does her
mind in the transformation lose something of its faculties
and dwindle in the range of its mental processes? This
would mean conversely that, when Sally emerges from her
subconscious position and becomes an alternating person-
ality, by the very process she robs the primary conscious-
ness of a part of its mind, and to that extent acquires a
wider field of consciousness herself.

This question is difficult to answer in its entirety, as,
for reasons which will be explained when we inquire into
the problem of the subconscious, ^ it is not open to experi-

1 Vol. U.

SALLY AS A PERSONALITY 155

mental methods of investigation. We have to rely chiefly
upon the evidence derived from the spontaneous phenom-
ena, such as will be described in the further course of this
study. I will here merely point out that there is evidence
of the curtailment, in one respect, at least, of Sally's mind
as a subconsciousness, namely: Sally does not possess,
save under exceptional conditions, the kinesthetic images
of muscular movements. This is only another way of
saying that Sally does not possess the use of the limbs
and body nor the faculty of speech. The primary con-
sciousness alone has control of the motor centres of the
brain. It is only under exceptional conditions or when
Sally becomes an alternating personality that these centres
become associated with her consciousness. It is possible,
therefore, if not probable, that there is some curtailment of
subconscious Sally's mind in other directions. Evidence
of this is seen when Sally becomes "squeezed." Then she
constantly complains that she is limited in the freedom of
her actions. This is shown by the difficulty that she has
at such times in writing, either as a subconsciousness, or
as an alternating personality. Her writing loses its free-
dom, it becomes crabbed, cramped, and, it may be, illeg-
ible, until, if the " squeezing " process is carried further,
she is obliged to resort to printing (Appendix Q.) to
express her thoughts, and may not be able to do even
that. At such times, as an alternating self, she has been
known to be reduced to cutting printed words and letters
from the newspapers, and by pasting them together to
transmit her messages. And yet the content of the vari-
ous subconscious phenomena which have been frequently
manifested by Sally indicates a large field of conscious
thought. We shall be in a better position to consider the
range of the subconsciousness after the study of the phe-
nomena is completed.

CHAPTER X

SALLY TORMENTS MISS BEAUCHAMP WITH PRACTICAL

JOKES

ONE day in April Miss Beauchamp reported the mys-
terious disappearance of some money. In the early
days of her trials I had on several occasions discovered for
her the whereabouts of lost ^ articles, either by hypnotizing
her and questioning B II and Sally, or by producing a
" cr}'^stal " vision. Miss Beauchamp now applied for aid
in recovering her money. She was sorely worried. To be
constantly plagued by Sally as she had been was bad
enough, but to begin now losing money was a matter
of anxiety. It goes without saying that whenever any-
thing went wrong suspicion always at once fell on the sub-
conscious " devil," but in this case we did her satanic
ladyship a gross injustice.

On hypnotizing Miss Beauchamp she became, not Sally,
as had been the case of late, but B II, who had not been
seen for a long time. Presently the old struggle of the
hands began. In spite of B IPs resistance, the hands at-
tempted to rub her eyes as they used to do before Sally's
advent as a personality. Suspecting that Sally was at
work, I held the hands, being obliged to use considerable
force, and gave commands that the hypnotic B II should
keep her hands still, etc. In reply to this B II kept re-
peating that she could n't help it, that she did not know
what she was doing, that she wanted to rub her eyes,
etc., etc.

1 That ifl, when absentmindedly mislaid, or when taken by Sally.

SALLY TORMENTS MISS BEAUCHAMP 157

The battle between B II and the hands, as I watched it,
gave the impression of severance of control on the part of
the former, who did not seem to be clearly conscious of
what she was doing. It was as if some invisible stranger
had hold of her arms and was trying to wrest them from
my grasp and to use them regardless of the owner, who also
endeavored to keep control and to prevent their being used.
This struggle went on for some ten minutes : at one time B
II would obtain control and the hands would become quiet ;
then the invisible stranger would return to the attack and
the struggle would be renewed ; then the hands would gain
the ascendency and I would be obliged to come to B IPs
assistance and hold them by main force. Finally, I let go
to see what would happen. Immediately the hands began
to rub her eyes, and then, as I suspected would be the
case, her eyes almost immediately opened and Sally ap-
peared laughing.

The battle was only another of many instances of the
second consciousness acting coincidently with the first ; the
two consciousnesses willing, acting, and thinking along sep-
arate and opposed lines at one and the same time. An
automatic phenomenon of this kind requires to be seen to
be appreciated. Several instances of automatisms actu-
ally observed have already been given in a preceding chap-
ter. They were very common and were not confined to
movements of the limbs. Over and over again I have
witnessed such things as this : While impressing on B I or
B II that she was or was not to do something contrary to
what was known to be Sally's wish, suddenly out of the
depths, so to speak, would come like an explosion a deep,
" I won't," or " I will." The voice would be changed in
tone to a bass note and be accompanied by a momentary
expression on her face, not easy to describe or pleasant
to look upon. The voice was Jacob's voice, but the hands
were the hands of Esau. After this Miss Beauchamp, all

158 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

oblivious^ of the incident, would speak naturally, as if
nothing had happened. Or the automatism would take a
sensory form, that of an auditory illusion. The plain
words of my command would be perverted and be heard
by Miss Beauchamp as illusory words having the contrary
meaning. Thus Miss Beauchamp would understand me to
say the opposite of what I really said. This could be
brought out by having Miss Beauchamp repeat what she
believed had been said to her.

One of the most curious of these automatisms was the
flashing of Sally's facial expression — revealing her pres-
ence and amusement — through Miss Beauchamp's sadness.
This is the way it would happen : I would be talking with
Miss Beauchamp when she was in a state of depression,
her face weary and sad. Suddenly the gleeful expression
of Sally would fliish over it momentarily, as if Sally's joy
at the scene was too intense to be hidden. These were
some of the ways by which Sally would seek to circumvent
every attempt at control, and sometimes, to my chagrin,
she succeeded.

To return to the incident just described : Pretending
ignorance of the reason for B II's rubbing her eyes, I
asked Sally if she knew why B II had done it, thus assum-
ing that it had been B II. Sally immediately replied, " I
did it."

I questioned her statement, as was my habit in order to
draw her out, denied her power, and demanded that she
explain how she could do it when she was not present.

Her reply was, " I am always present. I can make her
do things : I have told you that over and over again, lots
of times. I wanted to get her eyes open. If her eyes

1 The primary consciousness, it will be noted, was unconscious of having
spoken : the phenomenon thus differs from that other type of automatic
speech already described (telling lies), where the'subject knows what is said.
The difference depends on the extent of dissociation of consciousness.

SALLY TORMENTS MISS BEAUCHAMP 159

were open she would not be here ; I should be here. You
told her I should not come any more, and I wanted to
come." (Laughs.)^

The search for the lost money led to a h3rpnotic vision,!
according to which the money had dropped, unnoticed by
Miss Beauchamp, out of a book which she was reading.
The money had fallen upon the window-sill, and had been
blown out by a draught upon the deep ledge of the coping
outside the window in the mansard roof. There was no
opportunity to verify the vision ; in fact, it scarcely seemed
possible to do so. Whether it was true or not, therefore,
cannot be stated, if the testimony of Sally (given in part
below) be disregarded. Nevertheless the vision had serious
consequences for Miss Beauchamp. Such careless absent-
mindedness was not to be condoned, was the judgment of
her subconscious guardian. After learning the content of
the vision. Miss Beauchamp returned home to hunt for the
money, if by chance it had lodged in the gutter. (Miss
Beauchamp had frequently found in this gutter lost articles
wliich had fallen off the window-sill.) On this occasion it
was not she who found the lost money, if Sally is to be
believed, for a day or two later the following was received
from Sally :

"It is really a very long time since I wrote you, isn't it?
and lots of things have been happening that I want to tell you
about, so you won't be cross with me for sending you this?
* She ' does n't even read my letters now, so that it is only ex-
asperating writing her, and I must talk to some one, you know.
Was n't it curious, part * of the money was really there in the
gutter, all curled up in a disreputable heap; and I rescued it
and have hidden it where she can never, never find it, for she is
not responsible, you know, and I am going to take charge of all

* In hypnosis the suggestion had been given that B I should not go into
trances any more.

2 Sally found, as she claimed later, a $2 bill and two $1 bills; originally
there was $7 in all, so that $3 must have blown away.

160 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

such things and allow her only ten cents to amuse herself with.
But she does n't care apparently for anything I may do, and
it is trying. Won't you speak severely to her, Dr. Prince,
please? I am sure it would do her no end of good. I do want
you to. And she has destroyed all those pictures * of you —
every one — which were n't really hers anyway, and 1 miss them.
She had much better have destroyed the absurd books that she
buries herself in — they are full of such ' stuff.' I would send
you the slips if I were not sure of being sat upon for playing
tricks. Hoping this may find you neither tired nor sorry, but
very happy, I remain,"

" P. S. I don't like [the name] Sally, for it is very childish,
but it does n't matter. ' She ' swears too, and is degenerating
awfully. Is that psychological ? "

Miss Beauchamp had indeed cause to repent bitterly of
her absentmindedness and lack of care, for she was pun-
ished by being put upon an aUowance which was doled
out to her in amounts of from five to ten cents a day. It
was about twenty-four hours after returning home that
she received a note from Sally with the first instalment.
The note said, in substance, that she could have ten cents
to amuse herself with, but no more, and that henceforth
the writer was going to take charge of her finances. The
rest of her money was thereupon confiscated and a deluge
of letters followed, reminding Miss Beauchamp in no
gentle way, that she was not fitted to take care of money,
that she was an incapable, and declaring that she was to
be put upon an allowance. The sum, however, was never
fixed. Sometimes it proved to be five cents, and some-
times two cents. At other times she would find ten cents
lying on a sheet of paper with a message accompanying it.
Sometimes it would be rolled up in a package or in an
envelope, and left somewhere about the room. If she re-
fused to open or read the letters, a piece of paper, on which

* Some drawings (caricatures ?) of Sally's.

SALLY TORMENTS MISS BEAUCHAMP 161

a saucy message was written, would be pinned up on the
wall where she could not help seeing it.

No amount of pleading would induce Sally to allow Miss
Beauchamp to have more money than her allowance. Thus
was Miss Beauchamp corrected for her carelessness.

But this was only a small part of the torment to which
she was subjected. Her punishment did not end here.
Her postage stamps were taken, and with her small allow-
ance she did not have money enough to buy them or to
pay street-car fares. So, in the want of the latter, she
walked ; and as for letters, when she wrote one, she was
compelled by her tyrant to place it on the table for ap-
proval. If it was approved, she found it stamped and was
allowed to post it ; if not approved, it did not go, and that
was the end of it. " She writes too many letters," said
Sally. " She sha'n't write, excepting to people whom I
choose, and she sha'n't have any money excepting what I
give her."

Miss Beauchamp has a nervous antipathy to spiders,
snakes, and toads ; she abhors them to a degree that con-
tact with them throws her into a condition of terror. One
day she found in her room a small box neatly tied up, as
if it were a present for herself. On opening it six spiders
ran out. " She screamed," said Sally, " when she opened
the box, and they ran out all over the room." It turned out
that Sally had gone into the country and gathered these
spiders as a treat for Miss Beauchamp, On other occasions,
there is reason to believe that Sally provided snakes.

One of Miss Bcauchamp's constant trials was to find a
piece of worated work she was making unravelled as fast
as she made it. She had been asked by a very dear friend
(Mrs. X.) to make a baby's blanket. Her heart was in the
work and she was anxious to finish it. She had worked at
it for months, but often complained to me that whenever it
neared completion she would find it almost wholly unrav-

162 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

elled. Then, like Sisyphus, she would have to begin her
task all over again. Finally, when at last the blanket was
finished and ready to send, the climax came. Sally pulled
the whole of it to pieces, and drawing out the yam wound
it round about the furniture, carrying it from picture to
picture, back to the different articles of furniture, then
round herself many times, then back to the furniture,
finally hiding the ends somewhere in the bed. Then
Sally, standing in the midst of this perfect tangle of
yarn, wakened Miss Beauchamp, who came to herself
in the maze. So great was the tangle that she had to cut
^ the yarn to get out.

; Another of Sally's pranks which had serious conse-
* quences to Miss Beauchamp's health was to take her on
walks too long for her strength. On one occasion she
went out into a suburban town ( Watertown) and there took
a long walk, so far beyond Miss Beauchamp's strength that
it left the latter exhausted. Miss Beauchamp came to her-
self in this suburb, weary and helpless, unable to recognize
the place, and ignorant of the waj'^ home.

One very curious phenomenon was the difference be-
tween the physical condition of Sally and that of Miss
Beauchamp after a fatiguing walk of this kind. On this
occasion two days later Miss Beauchamp was still extremely
fatigued and worn out. Then suddenly changing in my
presence to Sally, this personage appeared perfectly fresh
and unaffected by the walk. Then changing back to
Miss Beauchamp, the fatigue returned with the change
of personality.

Sally's enjoyment at making Miss Beauchamp tell non-
sensical lies has already been related, as well as the way
this young scapegrace would spend the latter's money. I
do not think I have mentioned how Sally took advantage
of Miss Beauchamp's sense of dignity. Knowing this feel-
ing was acute, Sally, to punish her, would make her sit

SALLY TORMENTS MISS BEAUCHAMP 163

with her feet on another chair, or even on the mantelpiece.
Miss Beauchamp could not take her feet down, but would
have to sit there undergoing the torture of mortification.
On numerous occasions (Miss Beauchamp now says " innu-
merable ") Sally tore up many manuscript pages of her
school work, the product of much labor. She used to try
her best at times to prevent Miss Beauchamp's doing things
the latter wanted to do ; then Miss Beauchamp would feel
an "irresistible impulse," as if "possessed," as she de-
scribed it.

Of course, Sally, on the principle of giving a dog a bad
name, got blamed for much she did not do. Naturally,
when anything went wrong she was the first to be sus-
pected. Although it amused her to make Miss Beauchamp
miserable, nevertheless at times, when she went too far
and Miss Beauchamp became ill from anxiety, Sally would
be alarmed and would write me a letter asking for help,
saying she could " not do anything with Miss Beauchamp " ;
and that I " really must help " her.

The above are but a small number of the practical jokes
which Sally played on her other self. It would seem as if
practical jokes and hazing were trials enough for one per-
son to bear ; but of all the trials which Miss Beauchamp
had to undergo, I think what she minded most were the
lettei-s she received from her other self. She was deluged
with letters ; and if she refused to read them Sally would
pin upon the wall sheets of paper with messages written
thereon, and so placed that she could not help seeing them.
Sally knew her sensitiveness, her keen sense of honor, as
well as all her little weaknesses, and these she played upon
in a highly artistic manner. Then again Sally would
wi'ite letters to different people, telling all sorts of thmgs
about Miss Beauchamp's private affaire, exaggerating and
distorting them beyond recognition, and even telling things
not true. She would describe extraordinary and impos-

164 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

sible things she proposed to do, pretended engagements
objectionable to Miss Beauchamp, — all of which was suffi-
cient to frighten the latter out of her senses. These letters
Sally had no intention of sending, but she would leave
them open where they could be read by Miss Beauchamp,
who, taking them seriously, would be made to feel she
lived over a dynamite magazine. Sometimes, however,
Sally would actually send letters which expressed her own
peculiar ideas. These naturally would be extremely disa-
greeable to Miss Beauchamp, who would learn of them
from her friends or from the letters received in reply.

Of all thejo letters, perhaps the most diabolical and the
most troublesome for me were those in which Sally misrep-
resented my attitude towards Miss Beauchamp. For in-
stance, she wrote B I that I accused her of not keeping
her word and of telling untruths, and that I was so annoyed
with her that I wished her never to come again for treat-
ment. _Sally's game was to prevent Miss Beauchamjp's
-being the object of pare. In spite of constant warnings
not to believe Sally's statements, B I always accepted them
as true. A despairing letter from her would follow, de-
claring her ignorance of everything she had ever done in
her "lapses," and asking forgiveness for anything that was
displeasing. Here is a letter from Sally to me which
suggests her state of mind in relation to Miss Beauchamp :

" You are a perfectly charming correspondent — much more
interesting and unconventional than Jones — and I am sure I
shall enjoy writing to you no end, especially if you continue to
ignore everything I tell you. Do you fancy that makes one
feel snubbed and repentant ? because it does n't, the least little
bit in the world. I am ' made of sterner stuff,' as the books
say. The enclosed youth ^ I am much interested in, and hope
you will appreciate his expression, which is strongly like Miss
Beauchamp's during the wee sma' hours when she cannot

1 An illostration cut from one of Miss Beauchamp's favorite books.

SALLY TORMENTS MISS BEAUCHAMP 165

sleep. Don't show it to lier on any account, for it is taken
from one of her cherished books, and she might perhaps not
approve."

The following are a few of the letters Miss Beauchamp
received from the same correspondent. The great mass of
them was destroyed, as many referred to private matters
in a disagreeable way, and Miss Beauchamp felt so keenly
the mortification of her acts that it was with difficulty she
could be prevailed upon to show the letters.

"The enclosed with my compliments, Mistress Chris, and
you will permit me to congratulate you on so successful an
issue to your evening's work. After this you will hardly have
need of me or of my assistance in your financial afifairs. I
regret not having the proverbial shilling for you, yet you are
' such a sweet child ' that I know you won't murmur. Are you

going to tell all about ? It would be awfully nice and

unconventional, and he would appreciate your confiding in him,
I am sure, almost if not quite as much as Dr. Prince himself.
Do tell him. I hope you may enjoy life very much indeed dur-
ing these next few weeks. 1 am going to make it just as lively
and interesting for you as I possibly can, and you know that
means a great deal when I say it. Does n't your fancy conjure
up all sorts of visions ? You shall have all my thought and care
and attention to keep you from brooding. Think of it ! Your
knight sans peiir and sans reproche could hardly do more, how-
ever you might thrill and agonize for him. He 's not exactly
interested you know, as I am, and of course cannot help getting
awfully tired of you. But I sha'n't tire — not till ' stoodent C.
is very dead and puts a bullet through her head.' How long
will that be, do you think? Days, weeks, — not longer, surely,
for you love your friends, you know, and would not cause them
a moment's pain. You never did, dear, did you? You will
sacrifice yourself at the earliest opportunity."

" If you do not write Nan immediately — this very day — I
shall, and I give you fair warning that I shall entertain her at
your expense — not a difficult thing, you know, and it would

166 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

please her immensely, I am sure. Also, I do not approve of
the blue book, and shall sew up your skii't again if you read it.^
Remember ! "

"I have such good news for you, my dearest Chris. Just
fancy, Z. knows where there is a whole colony of lovely cool,
green snakes — little slippery, sliddery ones, you know — and
I 'm going to get them to amuse you at night and keep you from

dreaming of your dear . Are n't you glad ? But I know

you 're not the least little bit grateful — but you will be before
we have finished our course together. Do you smart to-daj',
awfully? It's good for you, you know; you must always
remember that, Chris, dear. I enclose a stamp for you too."

" You little wretch ! What did you kill my nice spiders for?
I wish they 'd bitten you all over. It would have served you
just exactly right for destroying things that don't belong to
you. ' Soul of honor ' indeed ! ' How are the mighty fallen ! '
You were a thief to touch my pictures, and a wicked, wicked
girl ! You had nothing to do with them. They were all mine,
and you shall wear the sack for your sins. There are more
spiders, and there are caterpillars too, all squashy, if the sack
is not happiness enough for you."

" It was a horribly mean advantage to take of any one. Mis-
tress Chris, and you know it, and you shall be punished for it.
I have the greatest mind in the world to send the letter directly
to Dr. Prince, and then you 'd see whether even for her sake
he 'd tolerate you. I never heard of anything so outrageous,
and yet you are proud, yes, and honorable, and quite shocked
at your humble servant's disregard of conventions. How I hate
you for a hypocrite ! But I must not spare the rod, for by it
you may be saved even yet. It will be better after all than an
appeal to Dr. Prince. He does " — [Remainder of letter lost.]

" How awfully amusing you are, my dear, with all your shifts
and evasions ; but you cannot escape me so. You are to do just
exactly what I tell you concerning Z., and moreover you are to

* Sally at night used to sew np Miss Beanchamp's clothes, so that \n the
morning, when in a harry, she could not get into them.

SALLY TORMENTS MISS BEAUCHAMP 167

do it at once. I simply won't have this nonsense about B.

You shall love J , always and forever, or if you don't you

ought to and you shall. I will make you — just make 3'ou — you
wicked, wicked girl. Do you want to be all bluggy and wear
the sack again? One would certainly think so, and if it comes
to it I won't deny you. You may have until evening to con-
sider, and then, ' O, I 'm sorry for Mrs. Bluebeard, sorry to
cause her pain, but a terrible spree there 's sure to be when I
come back again,' if you have n't done as 1 told you. There is
none to help you — no, not one. We all hate j'ou. Only some-
times occasionally one pities you a little for being such an
idiot and tries to help you, but it is useless. My way is better.
B. is a goose, and so is ."

These notes were enclosed in the following from Miss
Beauchamp to the writer:

' ' I am sending you with this such of the notes as I have
been able to find. There are more doubtless, scattered about,
and I shall be very glad to send you those too as I come across
them, if you think they would be of any interest. Sally's feel-
iug toward rae is very strong, as you know, and she does not
hesitate to give expression to it both by word and deed. I
have shrunk from telling you much of the 'discipline' to which
you will find reference in some of the letters, and don't think it
is necessary to do so even now, except, perhaps, for your fuller
comprehension. The other notes referred to, I think you under-
stand as well, or perhaps much better than I do myself. [Let-
ter goes on to state what seem to be the principal ' grievances
in Sally's mind ' and then continues ;] Most of the letters in which
she enlarges upon this I have unfortunately destroyed, for 1 did
not want them to fall into any one's hands. They were really
dreadful. . . . One would almost swear she was bitterly jealous.
Oh, Dr. Prince, save me from her, from myself, from whatever
it is that is so absolutely merciless ! I can bear the ' sack,'
' discipline,' anything that is physical — but not the mockery of
this devil. You cannot imagine the torture I have endured in
these few months — no one could.

"But this brings me to your letter [written to tell her that

168 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Sally's message to the effect that she was to be dismissed was
untrue, etc.] . . . No one has the slightest control over this
devil that possesses me save you. You won't leave me to its
mercy

V»'

The child mind in Sally's compositions is too obvious to
be dwelt upon. The letters remind one of the way in
which a child might upbraid her doll ; and yet Sally could
write kindly, sympathetic letters — childlike too — of which
I have often been the recipient. She affected to Miss Beau-
champ to dislike any one whom Miss Beauchamp held in
esteem, and yet I knew from personal knowledge that
Sally held some of these persons in equal regard. Sally
and the writer were the best of friends, though she made
Miss Beauchamp believe the contrary. In judging Sally,
all this must be kept in mind. But Sally hated Miss
Beauchamp, and the secret of her hatred was unquestion-
ably jealousy, as Miss Beauchamp suspected, Sally fre-
quently complained that everybody seemed to care about
what was going to become of Miss Beauchamp, but nothing
about her own fate. She felt hurt too that she was told
she was childish and irresponsible and broke her promises,
while Miss Beauchamp was treated with great respect.
"Nobody cares what becomes of me," she would repeat.
Then she felt her lack of mental accomplishments as com-
pared with Miss Beauchamp. And even when made much
of by friends who did not know of the split in the family,
she knew that the attentions were intended for Miss Beau-
champ and not for herself.

[Notebook] April 28, 1899. " As Sally had been tormenting
Miss Beauchamp, I took occasion to upbraid her. In answer
to the question why she behaved so badly, she replied, ' I hate
her, and I won't give her any more money, and I won't give her
any more postage stamps. I just hate her more and more! '

" ' But why do you hate her ? You are only hating yourself,
for she is yourself,'

SALLY TORMENTS MISS BEAUCHAMP 169

" ' No, she is n't.' [With resentment.]

" ' Yes, she is.'

" ' No, she is n't. I won't have it so ! We are not the same
person. We don't think alike, and we don't have the same
thoughts,' etc., etc. Her indignation increased, and she ended
again with, 'I certainly hate her. She thinks she won't let me
come [that is, into active existence as Sally]. She has been say-
ing it all day. I made her stay awake all last night, and I will
to-night, and I will every night. I am going to make a collec-
tion of other things too besides spiders. I am going to do every-
thing I can think of, and I can think of all sorts of things when
I try hard. I tried to cut off her hair the other day, but she
woke up before I could do it. I think the scissors waked her
up.'

" ' You will cut off your own hair ; it is your hair.'

[Laughing.] " ' I don't care. She will look a guy — just like
one of those monkeys. I don't care how I look.'

" A few minutes later, after discussing the way the spiders
ran out of the box, Sally burst out with, ' I wish she were
dead!'

' ' ' Dead and buried ? '

" ' Yes, only I don't know where I should be.*

" ' Well, where would you be? '

" At this question she manifested much displeasure, as It sug-
gested horrid possibilities ; she was unwilling to continue the
conversation, but as I persisted she finally remarked, ' 1 don't
see how I could be dead, but I suppose I would have to be.'
[Sally never liked to admit that she and Miss Beauchamp were
one person.]

" ' Why would you have to be?'

" I don't know. I don't think it would be nice to be all
mouldy and shut up in a box with nasty worms and things.'
Her mobile face as she said this was most expressive of these
horrible possibilities. She seemed to think it possible for her-
self to be alive while Miss Beauchamp was dead, and yet she
could not reconcile this idea with what she knew of material
things. (There is some logic in this, as in her present life she
regards IVIiss Beauchamp and speaks of her, though in a meta-
phorical sense as ' dead ' when she, Sally, is in existence. At

170 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

such times Sally has no consciousness of Miss Beauchamp's
existence. 'Where is she now?' Sally often asks.)

" ' You both have the same arms and legs, have n't you? ' I
argued.

"'Yes.'

' ' ' Then if her arn[is and legs were all mouldy, yours would be
too, would n't they ? '

"This capped her displeasure, and as she seemed to think it
must be so she refused to talk more about it."

CHAPTER XI

THE BIRTH OP B IV, " THE IDIOT "

IN June of this year (1899) there occurred some impor-
tant developments which were not only of psychological
interest, but which were destined to give an entirely new
aspect to the case. Another personality appeared. Up
to this time the psychological problem had been compara-
tively simple. Two persons had been contending for the 7
mastery of life, each insisting on her own prerogative to '
live, but there had been no doubt about which was the
Real Miss Beauchamp. Now a third person came upon
the scene; one whom we had never met before, but who
seemed quite as much a real person as did the Miss Beau- ;
champ whom we all knew. " Where did she come from ? "
"How did she get here?" and "Who is she?" were the
questions. Her advent plainly brought new problems to
be solved, and raised doubts about the identity and origin
of our old friend. More than this, her coming brought
new complications into the life of Miss Beauchamp, who
had more and sorer trials to undergo, worse than any-
thing she had as yet passed through. I shall give in con-
siderable detail the circumstances under which this new
personality came, in order that no doubt about the absolute
spontaneity of her origin may be raised :

One day (the evening of June 7) I was summoned to
visit Miss Beauchamp at her house. On my arrival I
found her in a condition of intense nervous agitation, and
looking extremely fatigued and depressed. So nervous
was she that she was scarcely able to keep her limbs in
repose a moment. She had left my office in good condition

172 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

only a few lioura before, and the sudden change was diffi-
cult to understiind. It was not until several months after-
ward, in the autumn, that the real exciting cause of this
evening's events was revealed, — a mental shock of great
significance, which, unknown to me, she had received that
afternoon shortly after leaving my house. I will narrate
the events in the order in which they were disclosed:

On my arrival, as I have said, Miss Beauchamp exhib-
ited great depression, fatigue, and nervousness, a condition
usually observed in her when under mental strain. She
was reticent, answering questions in monosyllables, and
volunteered almost no information. She was anything
but sociable. Her reticence seemed to amount to an
aboulia, and she gave the impression that something was
on her mind. After a few minutes of this an extraordinary
change came over her. She appeared natural, tranquil in
mind and body, and sociable. All nervousness and signs
of fatigue ceased. She was without aboulia and chatted
pleasantly; in fact, seemed a new character, healthy-
minded, and with every bit of reserve gone. I had never
seen her so natural and sociably disposed, and the change
was puzzling. A few moments before she had complained
of insomnia, which had frequently played havoc with her
nerves, and as this is always easily controlled by sugges-
tion, I arose from my seat and approaching her made a
gesture as if to stroke her forehead and eyelids for the pur-
pose of inducing hypnosis. To my surprise she strongly
resented this, saying, "No one shall do that but Dr.
Prince." It was evident, then, in spite of her naturalness,
that she had a hallucination and mistook me for some one
else. I asked her for some writing paper for notes. She
walked across the room and brought me some sheets of
blue note paper and some of white. ^ On these I made the
notes from which this account is written.

1 These and other details are important, as will later appear a^ the evi-
dence is brought out.

THE BIRTH OF B IV, "THE IDIOT" 173

"Am I not Dr. Prince?" I said in reply to her last
remark.

"You know you are not."

"Who am I?"

"You ought to know,"

"Who?"

"Will."

"What am I?" [Refemng to my profession.]

" You ought to know." Then, offended as if I had been
flippant, "Don't talk that way."

I persisted in maintaining my identity, trying every sort
of argument to prove it. At first she treated my state-
ments as a joke ; then responsively played her part, saying
that, if I would have it so and wished to play that part
it should be so, only she knew I was n't Dr. Prince. She
was bright, lively, and quick at badinage. There was
nothing for me to do but accept the situation and play the
part of William Jones. Presently she asked, "Why do
you come here? You run great risks."

"Why?"

"You ought to know. I am not going to preach," etc.,
etc. " Things are different from what they were ten years
ago."

Her whole mental attitude showed that she believed
that I, as Jones, knew the facts and circumstances as well
as she did, and therefore what was the use of masquer-
ading? But I was entirely in the dark as to the meaning
of it all, particularly as I did not suppose at the time that
she imagined herself somewhere else than in Boston.

"How do I risk anything?" I persisted.

"You risk breaking your neck, for one thing," she
laughed.

This answer puzzled me, but in reply to my question
as to how she supposed I camo there, she answered, " Of
course you came through the window."

174 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

As we were on the third floor of the house, this answer,
though in my ignorance it appeared to explain the joke,
seemed to me at the time some fantastic idea. I denied
this statement, so after some fencing she asked facetiously,
"Did you knock at the door?"

I explained that I had rung the front-door bell in the
customary way and had asked for her.

[Horrified. ] " You did n't ! "

"Why not?"

" You know why not. I never saw any one so absolutely
-reckless."

As a matter of fact, I did not see why William Jones,
or I myself, or any one else should not ask for her at the
door in that way. (It is only completely intelligible by
the light of later revelations.) But remembering Miss
Beauchamp's views, and what I knew of the affair, I
attributed it (wrongly) to social considerations. After
some further discussion, in which she still insisted upon
the unwisdom of my coming, but at the same time took it
all in the spirit of a lark, I put a series of questions to her
to determine whether her memory was continuous for the
events of the evening, — that is to say, whether she was
in the same state of consciousness as at the time of my
arrival, when she recognized me as Dr. Prince.

"Who was here a minute ago?"

"There wasn't any one here."

[In a surprised tone.] "What! there wasn't?"

"No. You are perfectly mad."

Again I repeated the question, insisting emphatically
that some one had been there, but again she insisted upon
the contrary, as if the question were an utter absurdity
and it was impossible any one could have been there.
(This tone also struck me at the time as curious.)

Coming directly to the point, I asked, "Wasn't Dr.
Prince here ? "

THE BIRTH OF B IV, "THE IDIOT" 175

" What an absurd question! "

"Well, was n't he?"

"Why, no."

I insisted that he had been.

"It is absurd."

"Why is it absurd? He is your physician."

"I don't require him."

"Yes, you do."

"Not here.^ I am not sick enough for that."

"They told me downstairs," I continued, "that he was
here."

" What on earth did you come here for, then ? " (The
recklessness of my conduct at once strikes her.)

I repeat my last remark, but she replies, "Will, you
know perfectly well that isn't true."

It was thus i^iade plain that Miss Beauchamp had no
memory for the events of the early part of the visit when
she had recognized me. Her memory was not continuous
for the whole evening, but went back only to the moment
when the outward visible change came over her. It was
also plain that a change of some kind had occurred since
my entrance, and that I was either dealing with something
different from any state I had met before, or else that
Miss Beauchamp herself had suddenly become free from
her peculiar stigmata, but at the same time the victim of
amnesia and an illusion. The change in character and
physical condition, and the cleavage in memory pointed
to the former view ; just as the perfectly logical attitude
of her mind, the normality of her character, her spon-
taneity, and the absence of all nervousness, rendered the
latter hypothesis improbable. But there still remained
much that was puzzling.

If on the other hand she was B I and was the subject of
an illusion, the latter was not extraordinary as I had
1 Note the reference to the locality.

176 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

known Miss Beauchamp, when nervously ill, and even
when in hypnosis, to have illusions, but it was difficult to
reconcile it with her amnesia for the early part of the
evening and at the same time with her normality in other
respects. I did not realize at this time, what I afterward
learned, that she imagined hei-self in a distant city. There-
fore it seemed odd that she should believe I had come in
through the window — the room was on the third story —
and that she should be disturbed because I (Jones) had
asked for her at the door. Still I put it down to a freak
of delirium, or to an idea of a breach of the social con-
venance. The real reason appeared only in the sequel.
1/ But I would again emphasize certain peculiarities of her
delusion which have great significance, and which should
be kept in mind. First, I was mistaken for some one else;
second, she mistook her surroundings ; third, she thought
that I, as another person, had come in by the window;
fourth, my visit was a great indiscretion, and it was un-
desirable that any one should know of my being there.
(Even supposing I were Jones there did not seem to be
any reason for this.) Fifth, she did not require Dr. P.
(myself) in the place where she supposed herself to be.

All these details afterwards became clear when the true
explanation of this episode was found. At the moment,
so marked was the change, the question arose whether this
was a real peraonality, distinct from Miss Beauchamp,
and if so, who it was, and why these illusions. It plainly
was not Sally; and Sally herself, who came later, dis-
claimed the identity. At the moment, making the test
for anesthesia,^ it was found that cutaneous sensation was
normal ; but on giving her a French book she was unable
to read it, as Miss Beauchamp could do; so that she
lacked certain peculiarities of Sally and B I, respectively.

^ One of the tests for Sail}', who, it will be remembered, had a peculiar
form of anesthesia.

THE BIRTH OF B IV, " TIIPJ IDIOT" 177

On further testing her memory, what seemed a contra-
dictory condition developed; namely, she remembered
many incidents, but not all of that same day, though she
must have experienced these as B I. So that if she was
a personality distinct from B I, then her relation to B I
seemed on this evidence to be like that of B II or B III;^
or the cleavage was not complete, and, on her side at
least, her consciousness dovetailed into that of Miss Beau-
champ. I may anticipate here by saying that the true
explanation, which developed some time later, showed
that this knowledge of B I's later life was more apparent
than real, and that it consisted of fragmentary, abbrevi-
ated, and occasional sort-of-clairvoyant glimpses, which
offered for study some very interesting psychological
phenomena. 2 These came automatically out of the depths,
without logical conscious associations, and contributed
temporarily to a wrong understanding of her memory.
As a matter of fact, the cleavage was, or shortly became,
complete, and the new personality, for such it proved
to be, had no direct consciousness of the events of B I's
life. These facts are mentioned here for the sake of
completeness, and to show some of the difficulties of the
problem at this time. Her knowing some of the occur-
rences of the day misled me into thinking that she had a
wider knowledge.

Thus spontaneously in my presence a new personality
was born.

After observing her for some time it became essential
that the illusion regarding my identity should be dispelled.
This was finally accomplished by showing her my name
engraved in the back of my watch. The effect was pecu-

1 That is, she knew Miss Beauchamp's life.

2 See Chapter XV. Of this character was the apparent knowledge of me
implied by her remark that no one should hypnotize her but Dr. Prince
(page 172).

178 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

liar. As she gazed at it she seemed for the moment con-
founded. "How did you come by that?" she asked,
astonished, and as she tried to reconcile in her mind my
(Jones's) possession of another person's watch, she became
abstracted and confused; a change came over her, and
suddenly Miss Beauchamp reappeared with entire oblivion
of everything that had happened since her disappearance.

r" Later still, Sally came, but she was unable to throw
light upon the new personality. She noticed her pecu-
liarities, including her amnesia for the early events of the
evening, and her apparent memory for other events in Miss
Beauchamp's life, such as having been hypnotized by me;
but nevertheless Sally insisted, and to this she adhered
for a long time with pertinacity, that " She " was not a
"person." "There are not three of us, and there sha'n't
be, and that 's all there is about it," she declared.^

A day or two after this episode the new personality
walked into my consulting room. This time, completely
free from her illusion, she addressed me by name, but
manifested an air of formality such as might have been
shown by any patient with whom one has not a long-stand-
ing acquaintance. Indeed, she was conspicuously formal
in her attitude, more so than Miss Beauchamp had ever
been. There was no difficulty in recognizing her as the
^ new personality, but so far as the extent of her memory
went, everything seemed to be so much a matter of course
with her on this occasion that I was misled. She remem-
bered, or rather professed to remember, her illusion of
taking me for Jones on the evening of June seventh, but
could not give an explanation of it. In manner she was
very quiet and composed, much as she had been on her
first appearance, — and strikingly different from Miss

1 In the months that followed, Sally at times studied this new personality
with considerable interest and intelligence, and contributed considerably to
our knowledge of her.

THE BIRTH OF B IV, "THE IDIOT" 179

Beauchamp. She was affable and agreeable in conversa-
tion, and did not exhibit the slightest evidence of aboulia.
She conversed as if she had the same knowledge of past
events as had B I, B II, and Sally. It did not occur to
me at this time, so cleverly she acted her part, and so mis-
led was I by the previous knowledge shown, to question
this assumption. By her conversation she allowed, or
rather encouraged, me to infer that she knew all about
B 1,1 just as B II and Sally did. The time was not propi-
tious for a thorough investigation, which would probably
have been resented, so that the interview was little more
than a social one. Her mental characteristics were strik-
ingly different from those of B I, but to avoid repetition
these will be mentioned later in connection with certain
observations which give a deeper insight into the pecu-
liarities of her character.

Afterwards, when I began to revise my notes and to
think over the interview, it was impressed upon me that
this new member of the family volunteered very little
information regarding the past, that it was I who spoke of
past events and of herself as if she were familiar with all,
and that she simply assented in a way to convey the im-
pression that she knew everything. As a matter of fact,
later revelations showed that at this second interview she
was playing a part. She did know my name,^ and there-
fore of course the character of my profession. But it is
questionable whether she had any real knowledge based
on past professional relations, or any real memory. Both
she and Sally now say she did not. She now explains that
from the professional character of the room, the drift of
my questions, and my attitude towards her, she was able
to infer much, to follow the leads given, and to avoid
betraying her ignorance. Not being subjected at this

^ That is, all about her life when B I was iu existence.
2 Possibly from the doorplate.

180 TriE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

interview to a critical psychological examination, as after-
wards was done, her replies to questions, if they were not
direct fibs, were so adroitly framed that they intentionally
conveyed the idea of familiarity with and knowledge of
the subjects in question.

It was only later, ^ when I made a thorough investigation
of this personality, that it was discovered that her position
was much like that of some one who had dropped from the
planet Mars and found herself amongst people who were
complete strangers to her, and with whom she had no
sympathy or associations; but it was more than that, for
she found these people knowing all about herself, talking
about events of her immediate past of which she knew
nothing, and yet which she was convinced from the evi-
dence must be true. Determined not to give herself
away, she cleverly parried dangerous questions. This
meant also that she knew nothing of herself as B I or as"
Sally, and therefore was ignorant that she had other per-
sonalities. She believed herself the sole individuality and
that she had no other life. This is an important fact to
keep in mind if the psychological situation is to be under-
stood. She soon came to be known as B IV, and by this
title it will be convenient to speak of her now. From the
time of her first appearance she kept changing places with
the other two personalities, but knew nothing of what
was done by either of them. She was ignorant of the
places and persons associated with their lives. My office,
for instance, as has just been stated, was strange to her;
and many persons with whom she found herself in friendly
relations she looked upon as total strangers. She would
lose her way in the streets, and often wandered about
hopelessly, disliking to ask her way and exhibit her igno-
rance. Consequently, to inform herself, she was obliged
to resort to guessing, inferring, and "fishing." She was

1 Chapter XIV.

THE BIRTH OF B IV, '' THE IDIOT " 181

keenly alert for every clew, and extraordinarily clever in
"catching on." Sally, who became informer, noticed all
this and had no patience with her.^

Now, it should be stated here that, although Sally
knows 2 everything B IV does, nevertheless Sally does not
know B IV 's thoughts. This in itself shows a very inter-
esting psychological difference between the relations of
Sally to B I and to B IV. Sally is conscious of B I's
inmost soul; of B IV's mind she knows nothing; she can
only infer B IV's thoughts from what she says and does.
But Sally studied B IV closely, and arrived herself at the
conclusion that B IV, in spite of her pretensions, knew
nothing of the events of the past few years of Miss Beau-
champ's life, but was always "fishing" for information
and guessing. In her astonishment, — for Sally could
not understand the meaning of this new personality, — she
repeatedly exclaimed, '' Why, she doesn't know anything!
She is alwaj's ' fishing ' and guessing! "

Sally always spoke of her as "She," as she did of B I,
and similarly refused to admit the identity with herself.
It took Sally a long time to get accustomed to B IV's
ignorance, for she, too, at first, was taken in by the new
person's pretences; consequently there came to her a con-
stant series of surprises in finding that the new one was

1 The reader will probably wonder, as I did, how B IV happened to come
to my office as she previously had not known me, and did not know where I
lived, or that she as Miss Beauchamp was under my care. At the time of
her visit, supposing that she had a thorough knowledge of the past, I inferred
that she had come to fulfil an engagement made with Miss Beauchamp.
Later, after her ignorance of the past was discovered, I elicited the fact that
it was B I who had started to make the call, and on the way had changed
several times, back and forth, with Sally and B IV. B IV walked on in a
mechanical sort of way without any particular knowledge of what she was
going to do. It was B I who had rung the door bell, changing on entering
the house to B IV, then back again to B I on the staircase, finally entering
the room as B IV.

^ It is not necessary, at this time, to inquire whether her knowledge
came to her directly as a subconsciousness, or afterwards as a memory while
an alternating personality. (Compare Chapter IX.)

182 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSO'NALITY

ignorant of a large part at least of Miss Beauchamp's past
life, and of all the present when B I and Sally were on
the stage. Watching her intently, she found her doing
and saying things that were incompatible with a knowl-
edge of such periods, and also found that her remarks
were largely based on the "fishing" and guessing. Nor
could Sally understand why B IV did not know. When
at last Sally discovered the new person's ignorance and
her pretences, her contempt for her became unbounded.
She dubbed her the "Idiot," and by this name B IV was
known for a long time. I mention this to emphasize the
ignorance of B IV in regard to her immediate surroundings,
and to the facts of Miss Beauchamp's life. But later,
when the opportunity offered to make a study of her, it
turned out that this ignorance was not of Miss Beau-
champ's whole life but only of the past few years. So
that at some, as yet undetermined, period, her memory
ceased for eveiything, and began again on the night of
June 7, 1899. As B IV did not know of B I or Sally,
there were, of course, gaps in her memory, corresponding
to the times when the other two members of the family
were present, and B IV showed great acuteness in trying
to find out what happened at such times.

It was not as easy as it would seem to be to determine
the reality of this amnesia. For a long time I could not
feel sure that she was conscious of the gaps, and that one
period of consciousness did not seem to her to run into
another, in spite of the interval of oblivion ; for our new
friend resented as an impertinence all inquiry into her
private affairs. Her attitude was perfectly intelligible.
She found herself suddenly surrounded by strangers, who
advised, directed, and controlled her life by some appar-
ently occult power (though it was really through B I and
Sally). One of these impertinent strangers, myself, most
inquisitively pried into her thoughts and directed her life.

THE BIRTH OF B IV, " THE IDIOT " 183

She was quick-tempered (Sally called it a " nasty temper "),
and this surveillance irritated her. Indeed she not only
objected to any interference, but resented it as an imperti-
nence. I must confess that, from her point of view, there
was much to justify her attitude, and one can hardly blame
her when her strange situation is kept in mind. She
determined that submit she would not, and so did every-
thing in her power to foil inquiry. ^ She refused to admit
the gaps in her memory and declared that she knew every-
thing. I mention all this here to show the difficulties
besetting this study. Every interview during the early
months of B IV's life began with tiresome sparring. Yet
it was not difficult to convict her of ignorance by a few
test questions aDout her doings when B I or Sally was in
the flesh. After quibbling, evading, inferring, and guess-
ing, she would break down and confess she did not know;
and this was the fact.

But whatever the memory of the "Idiot" for the facts
of her life as B I, it was easy to show that our oldtime
friend knew nothing regarding the "Idiot." The memory
of B I was absolutely blank for everything that occurred,
everything said and done in this new state. For a long
time she never had a glimmer of a suspicion that there was
anybody beside herself and Sally; and, indeed, imagined
that when she was in this new state of consciousness she
had simply "lost time," and had been masquerading as
Sally. In fact, it too often happened that later Sally got
the credit or discredit for many acts of which she was
guiltless.

To summarize briefly the results of later long-continued
study, B IV had individual peculiarities of character, of
disposition, of tastes, of habits, of memory, and of phy-
sique. Her physiological reactions to the environment,

1 She later analyzed and wrote out for me an account of her mental atti-
tude at this time. See Chapter XIV, p. 244.

184 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

and her mental acquisitions, too, were in some respects
different. Her state of health was different from that of
B I. She was much more normal, more healthy in mind
and in body than was Miss Beauchamp. She was without
aboulia, had more self-control, more courage, less reserve,
and in sum and substance, less and more of a number of
peculiarities not difficult to describe, but which I prefer to
let appear in connection with later phenomena.

Thus the new mental condition exhibited by Miss Beau-
champ was clearly shown to be a personality, and was
rightfully given the title of B IV.
r The relation of the different personalities then to one
/ another was this: B I knew nothing of either of the other
I two personalities; B IV knew apparently something, but 1
j really nothing directly, beyond scrappy isolated memories, I
I of B I and nothing of B III; B III knew all about the I

I acts of the other two, but the thoughts of B 1 only. J

And so it came about that, from this time on, three per-
sonalities, instead of two, kept changing with one another.
The social complications became at times hopeless. The
length of time when each personality would be in existence
wwiid yary.froma few minutes to several hours or days.
Sometimes two would hold the field for several days, when
the third would appear. On one occasion B I was absent,
or " dead, " as Sally called it, for a month. I must defer
to another chapter all but a reference to the extraordinary
adventures and misunderstandings of these three persons,
brought about in part by the ignorance of Miss Beauchamp
and the "Idiot" of each other, and the consequent conflict
of their plans and doings; in part by the difference in
character of all three; and in part by the mischievousness
of Sally, who concocted a little Midsummer Night's Dream
of her own, and as Puck, with a little dash of lago, played
her pranks on both. Some of these adventures were
laughable, and some tragic.

THE BIRTH OF B IV, "THE IDIOT" 185

Thus a new problem had been brought into the situation
which was this: Up to June 7, 1899, we had apparently
Miss Beauchamp, neurasthenic and unstable, it is true, but
still the primary personality, and a second person known
as Sally, who may be termed a secondary personality.
Now a third one had come, more normal in some respects
than Miss Beauchamp. Who was she? — and for that
matter who was who, and which was the Real Miss Beau-
champ, or was any one of the family the real one? The
normality of B IV threw suspicion on the identity of our
Miss Beauchamp, the one whom we had known so long.
Could it be possible that our Miss Beauchamp, the saint,
was not real? The thought was startling. But the firet
idea to suggest itself was that the new person was B II,
who had of late largely dropped out of sight. If so, she
was in a more highly developed state. But various con-
siderations at once disposed of this idea. Sally, when
questioned, asserted most positively that B IV was not
B II, and gave various reasons for this assertion, the most
cogent being that Sally knew nothing of the new person-
ality's thoughts, although she knew all about those of B II.
More than this, B IV, unlike B II, knew nothing of B I.
Clearly, therefore, they could not be the same personal-
ity. ^ Eliminating this theory there did not seem to be
any law or order in the psychological developments. The
question was what relation did the different personalities
bear to one another. Which was the Real Miss Beau-
champ? And there was the second important question,
What was it that had brought them into being? or at
least, What had happened that afternoon to bring the
Idiot. The answer to this latter question I was not des-
tined to learn for some months, and then it was found to
be bound up with the mystery underlying this whole case.

^ At a later period I was able to bring both B II and B IV as distinct
dtates, and then it was found that B IV knew nothing of B II.

186 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

With the exception of Sally, all seemed higgledy-piggledy.
Unless law and order could be shown to govern the psy-
chical phenomena they were incomprehensible, and intel-
ligent therapeusis was impossible.

As has just been intimated, close observation of B IV
soon awakened the suspicion that it was she who was the
original and true Miss Beauchamp, who, for some unex-
plained reason, had disappeared at some time in the past,
and had only reappeared for the first time on the night
~oT June seventh. Many cases of this kind are known.
For instance, the case of Reverend Ansel Bourne may be
mentioned, as it was carefull}'^ studied and investigated by
Prof. William James and Dr. Richard Hodgson. The
reverend gentleman awoke one day to find himself living
under the name of Brown in a country town in Penn-
sylvania. Here he had been living two months, keep-
ing a small shop which he had opened. On coming to
himself, he did not know where he was or how he had got
there. It was proved that two months previously a sud-
den change of personality had occurred, and that he had
wandered from his home in Rhode Island to this town in
Pennsylvania, where he had since been living. His mem-
ory in his normal state was a complete blank for this period
of his secondary personality.

This hypothesis — that B IV, like Mr. Bourne, was the
real self — would explain why I and others were strangers
to her, and also why she was not familiar with many facts
of her life and with her surroundings. Possibly, if the
circumstances of her disappearance were known, they
might explain her peculiar delusions on the night of her
awakening. But at this time there was little to make this
idea more than a hypothesis. If it were true, then it
would follow that B I, Miss Beauchamp, was nothing but
a pathological entity, a somnambulist perhaps, having no
right or title to existence, and must be made to disappear.

CHAPTER XII

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF

DURING the following summer B IV came and went,
changing places with Sally and Miss Beauchamp as
in a stage comedy. The complications had been bad
enough when there were only two persons, but now that
there were three, the situations became wofuUy tangled.
I saw nothing of any of them during July and August,
though in frequent correspondence ^ with Miss Beauchamp
and Sally, but I learned afterwards of their doings. A
pretty mess they made of it, each playing her own game
regardless of the others. Poor Miss Beauchamp was in
despair, and got into a hopeless state of mind not to be
wondered at. Slie had not only " lost much time " — the
greater part of the summer, in fact — but had also lost a
number of valuables, including some rings, a necklace, a
watch, and several borrowed books. She had written un-
consciously to Jones letters which put her in false positions,
to say nothing of the usual flood of letters to herself (from
Sally, of course). To cap the climax, she learned from one
of Sally's letters that she had borrowed quite a sum of
money and had promptly lost it. Miss Beauchamp, of
course, was in the dark about the way all this had happened,
and ignorant of the fate of her valuables. Whatever
meagre information she had came from Sally's letters. In

1 The nnmeroDS letters received were from B I and B III only, — a fact
of some significance. B IV never wrote me during the summer: our ac-
quaintance was too new and formal for correspondence, being limited to a
couple of interviews not of her seeking. Naturally, therefore, she refrained
from bringing her affairs to me, nor did she want my interference.

188 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

her anxiety for news she had sought Dr. Hodgson's help,
under the natural assumption that Sally was the culprit.
It was again the old story of a bad name, for she did not
realize that there were now in the family besides herself
two others, instead of one.

It was through the aid of Sally and B IV that the snarl
of events was unravelled and the plot explained. To lose
the money which had to be repaid and which she could ill
afford to lose was bad enough, but it was galling to have
been put into such a false position. All this led to a series
of adventures which had an amusing side, and which will
be told presently. It was B IV who had borrowed the
money, and it was also B IV who had lost a ring which
Miss Beauchamp treasured, wearing it on a chain around
her neck. One day, while sitting on the rocks by the sea,
B IV was absentmindedly fingering the chain; it came
apart and ring and chain fell into the water, where they
could not be recovered. The other rings were not lost, as
Miss Beauchamp supposed, although she (B I) could not
find them ; this was owing to negative hallucinations.
They were literally directly under her nose — yet, owing to
this psychical phenomenon, she could not see or feel them.
Sally had strung them for safety on a ribbon about her
neck, where they were later found. The borrowed books
Sally — this time acting as guardian angel — had sent to
the Storage Warehouse for safe-keeping, but had not
thought it necessary to acquaint Miss Beauchamp with the
fact. But it was B IV who had carried on with Jones the
correspondence which, as it directly reversed the attitude
in certain matters which B I had taken before B IV came,
particularly annoyed the former.

Then Miss Beauchamp had disappeared for weeks during
the summer, leaving Sally and B IV to alternate with each
other and to run the campaign. B IV managed the family
affairs according to her own ideas, which agreed with

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 189

those of Miss Beauchamp about as well as Katherine
agreed with Petruchio. Then Sally would just drop a line
to B I that she miglit know what IV had done, if it hap-
pened to be particularly galling to I's feelings.

Finally, Miss Beauchamp conceived the project of going
to New York to recoup her financial losses. The adven-
tures which followed from her attempt to carry out this
plan are amusing. She actually got as far as New Haven,
as will be presently narrated. The following are the de-
tails of the observation showing:

Spontaneous Negative Hallucinations. [Notebook, October^
1899.] " Apropos of the rings, some very unusual phenomena,
of the order of spontaneous negative hallucinations, as well as the
history of the simultaneous action of two consciousnesses, were
brought to light to-day. Miss Beauchamp had accused Sally of
having taken some rings which she cherished. Sally explained
in her own defence that all the rings were not lost ; that ' She '
thought she had lost her rings but hadn't; 'She' had lost
one old ring which was attached to a chain around her neck.
'The other two rings are not lost,' said Sally, 'but I can't
make her see them. I have put them on her finger, but she
won't see them, Dr. Prince ; and I have taken her hand and
made her take hold of the rings, but she won't feel them.
They are round her neck now on a ribbon. I have made her
take the rings in her fingers while she is here and I am
" gone," and I have put them on her finger ; but it is no use, she
won't see them.'

" B III was examined very closely on this episode, with a view
to obtaining light on the relationship between I and III. If
B Ill's statements could be established they would show that:

" (1) B I had negative hallucinations induced by the strong
auto-suggestion that the rings were lost.

" (2) B III as a coexisting subconsciousness had tried
through a logical process of reasoning to make B I see the rings ;
and that as a subconsciousness Sally had ' taken her hand '
and tried to make her feel the rings. This meant that Sally
had thought and acted like a person who was in existence con-

190 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

temporaneously with B I. There would have been a coexisting
motive, a coexisting desire, a coexisting process of reasoning,
and a co-action. This meant two coexisting real personalities,
that is, a primary and a subconsciousness."

Introspective evidence of this kind of course cannot be
confirmed experimentally, but the negative hallucinations
could be demonstrated.

" B I was now awakened with Sally's consent, and was in-
formed about the rings as follows : ' You think you have lost
your rings.' She assented. ' Well, you have n't. I know
where two of them are. The third, the one that was on the
chain, is lost, but I can put my hand on the others whenever I
please.'

" ' Can I find them?' she inquired.

" In reply I bade her unloosen her collar. About her neck
was tied a ribbon, and on the ribbon were the two rings, as
Sally had said. I made every effort to have Miss Beauchamp
see the rings and ribbon, to hear the click when they were struck
together, and to feel them with her fingers, but without result.
She simply could not see, hear, or feel them, and at first thought
me joking. Though it was sought by suggestion to dispel the
hallucination, the only effect of persisting was to make her think
she was being guyed. After a while she assented to the sug-
gestion, but it was evident that she did so to agree with me.
Then, in response to my insistence, ' Well, you say I see them,
and I am willing to say I do, if you wish it, but I don't see
them.' I pulled the ribbon hard enough to jerk her head and to
make her lose her balance. At this she remonstrated, ' Don't
jerk my head.'

" ' How can I jerk your head if I have nothing in my hand
[the ribbon], as you insist? In that case there can be no
connection.'

" ' I see your hand move so, and I feel my head go so ; ' and
from this she inferred some kind of hypnotic connection, with-
out understanding its nature."

Spontaneous phenomena of this sort, of the intensity
manifested in this observation and which cannot be dis-

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 191

pelled by external suggestion or by the subject's voluntary
attention, are, I believe, unique. Miss Beauchamp stood
in the middle of the room, the rings suspended from her
neck, while I pulled the ribbon and dangled the rings be-
fore her eyes in the vain effort to make her see them. Un-
der the dominant idea that they were lost, heightened by
the emotional effect — worry and intense regret — that this
idea had caused, she could not see what was under her nose.
When one remembers that it was one of her own selves
who, in distrust of the primary self's absentmindedness, had
attached the rings to the ribbon for safe-keeping, the situa-
tion seems curious, to say the least. The study of negative
hallucinations of this sort is interesting from the light that
it throws on some of the ordinary phenomena of absent-
mindedness, such for example as the time-honored instances
of people, generally professors, who cannot find their eye-
glasses which lie on the table under their eyes.

The systematized anesthesia for the rings differed in no
way from that previously noted in the experuuent with the
metal rod (p. 67), excepting that the former was sponta-
neous, and in this respect was exceptional, considering the
number of senses involved and the intensity and persistence
of the (negative) hallucinations. The blindness was syste-
matized in that it embraced only a special system or group
of visual images, namely, the rings and ribbon about her
neck. The same is true of the deafness for tlie sound of
the rings clicking against one another, and of the tactile
anesthesia when the rings were touched. The subject was
anesthetic for any sensory impression associated with tlie
rings. For all else there was no impairment of sight, hear-
ing, or touch. In the experimental instance of the rod, the
cause of the anesthesia was a suggestion from without.
In the spontaneous case of the rings it was a suggestion
from within, — an auto-suggestion. The intense belief
that the rings were lost, and the consequent emotion,

192 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

induced the anesthesia in the personal consciousness of B I.
That the images were formed nevertheless, although they
remained isolated, is shown by the fact that not only Sally
but B II remembered having seen the rings. " / did not
see the rings at the time" ^ said B II, " but /remember them
nowy The images as memories became united in hypnosis
to this self.

This raises the question which was asked (p. 73), but
passed over when discussing systematized anesthesia in a
previous chapter (V). Speaking not of tliis particular
case, but of systematized anesthesia in general, — What
becomes of the isolated images ? Do they remain isolated
by themselves, or are they united to some other conscious-
ness sufficiently complex to form a second personality
capable of personal perceptions? By this I mean a con-
sciousness that can say, " / see, / hear, / feel." From here
on the problem becomes complicated and can only be
touched upon in this place. The answer must vary with
individual cases, depending upon the degree of dissociation
of consciousness present.

(1) In mildly dissociated cases the images probably con-
stitute the whole of the secondary consciousness, and
simply are isolated states without sufficient complexity to
be described as a personality or personal perception, or to
justify the use of the pronoun I. Such a condition may be
observed in ordinary absentmindedness. When an object
lying under the nose of an abstracted individual is not
seen, we call it absentmindedness, which really correctly
designates the condition. The mind is absent or dissoci-
ated. " Dissociated-miudedness " would be a more precise
term. When a pereon in such a condition momentarily
fails to see his spectacles which lie on the table before
him, he has a negative hallucination. But the spectacles
are seen subconsciously, which, be it always remembered,

1 That i8, at any of the times when R I did not see them.

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 193

means dissociated images. This may be easily proved ex-
perimentally. I have made numerous experiments on this
point, and have found that sounds in the street, voices,
visual images of passers-by, or surrounding objects which
are not perceived by the primary personality, nevertheless
give rise to dissociated sensory images, and thereby to a
limited doubling of consciousness. When absentmindedly
we do not hear what is said, see what is going on, or feel
the tickling of a fly on the skin, the apparently unheard
word, the unseen object, and the unfelt touch, are really
heai-d, seen, and felt. It is only necessary to hypnotize the
subject to demonstrate the fact. When the subject is
hypnotized, the hypnotic self remembers and is able to
describe these sensory experiences. But from my obser-
vations I believe that these sensory images — the spec-
tacles in the supposititious case — remain isolated, and that
there is no self — subconscious self — to which they be-
come attached to form a personality and allow personal
perception.

While the fundamental psycho-physiological principle of
absentmindedness is dissociation, as is easily proved, never-
theless Dr. Janet is in error, in my judgment, in identifying
hysterical anesthesia with the normal state of distraction.
Both are forms of dissociation, but all forms of dissocia-
tion are not distraction. Slee)), trance, epileptoid states^
hypnosis, etc., are forms of dissociation, but they are not
absentmindedness. The demonstration of dissociation and
doubling of consciousness in absentmindedness is of great
psychological importance, for it means that dissociation is
a normal process, and that there must exist some psycho-
physiological mechanism for bringing it about. Here, too,
it may be pointed out that concentration of attention may-
be regarded as a form of volitional absentmindedness and
probably makes use of the same apparatus. Abnormal dis-
sociation may be only a perversion of this same apparatus.

194 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

(2) In more extensively dissociated cases, such as the
profounder forms of hysteria, there may be a secondary
consciousness of such complexity as to constitute a verita-
ble personality. With this secondary consciousness the
sensory images of anesthesia (dissociated from the primary
personality) may be united, and such a subconsciousness
could veritably say, "/see," "/hear." Dr. Barrow's case
of Miss Anna Winsor (" Old Stump ") was of this type.
"While the patient was engaged in conversation, the sub-
consciousness, making use of the right (paralyzed) hand,
called " Old Stump," wrote poetry, drew pictures, etc.
During an attack of delirium it wrote a prescription.

In the case of Miss Beauchamp and the negative hallu-
cinations of the rings, the conditions are very complex. A
secondary consciousness of considerable extent (Sally)
already existed. The dissociated sensory images of the
rings formed a part of this consciousness, which, if her
statement be accepted, could say, " / saw them." There
was subconscious personal perception. This is in accord
with numerous observations made in this case. In contrast
with Sally's personal perception, B II could only say: "2
did not see the rings, at the time, but / remember them
now." The images apparently belonged to more than one
subconscious group.

Sometimes Miss Beauchamp's negative hallucinations
were caused, not by the intensity of her own ideas, but by
the mischievousness of Sally, who deliberately and wilfully
would act by "willing" on Miss Beauchamp's conscious-
ness, and prevent her seeing what was before her. In-
stances of this kind also occurred about this time, as will
presently appear.

To return to the adventures of the trio : The part which
B IV played in demoralizing Miss Beauchamp's life be-
comes intelligible if it is kept in mind that she knew noth-
ing of Miss Beauchamp's thoughts or feelings; nothipg

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 195

about her life during late years ; nothing of her ties or
duties assumed ; and that necessarily she knew nothing of
her wishes, intentions, or relations with people and events.
For her there was no other ego but herself. Naturally
therefore she was, from her own point of view, a free lance
to do as she pleased. And in the doing she went back
in her mind to the life of six years before, which she
imagined herself to be still living. Yet it must be con-
fessed that later, when she did learn something of her
other self, she refused to show any consideration for any
one's wishes but her own. She was such a different char-
acter, in tastes, points of view, opinions, and modes of
thought, that whatever she did would necessarily be re-
pugnant to Miss Beauchamp. She had no affihations,
apparently cared for nobody, and had no sense of responsi-
bility to any one. Add to this an imtable temper, which
made her angry whenever restrained or placed under cir-
cumstances which she did not enjoy, and we have the key
to her conduct.

Sally meanwhile was enjoying it all, and did not miss
any opportunity to stick pins into both the others. She
wrote them letters, taking pains to let poor Miss Beau-
champ, especially, know what terrible things she had been
doing, calling her all sorts of names, and magnifying the
enormity of her sins. Miss Beauchamp took it all au pied
de la lettre, imagined much more, and was very unhappy.
A feeling of terror was created in her mind, by not know-
ing what she might have done when she was " gone," and
by imagining from Sally's lago-like letters all sorts of
possibilities. The times when she disappeared increased
in lengtli and frequency, until, finally, she was " gone "
for a month, — from the end of July to the last week in
August.

The following letter of July 27 hints at her state of
mind :

196 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

" I am glad to hear from you, but I can't imagine what the

note is to which you refer, for I have n't written J ^ this

summer, and yet there is no one else whom you would be at all
likely to confuse with him. I am sorry. Perhaps it is, as you
say, something written by my other self, or one of my other
selves, for, if ' Sally ' is to be believed, there are several. About
seeing you — you ai'e awfully good, but I cannot come just yet,
much as I need and would like to. I am too nervous and would
only annoy you. But I do wish you would tell me if there is
any one to whom I could appeal in case of emergency while you
are away — any one who would not think me wholly mad, or
who would in the least understand what to do. I am afraid
to be so entirely alone. As for my plans, they are in a most

chaotic state, I am sorry to say. I hoped to remain in all

summer, but it was impossible, and so I am back on St.

for the present, where it is at least quiet, as there is no one
in the house except the caretaker. I don't know how long
I shall be here. Do you know, Dr. Prince, I have forgotten
everything — absolutely everything that I learned with such
difficulty ^ during this last year. Will it come back to me again,
do you think? Please tell me. And if it does n't, what shall I
do? Don't tell Mrs. X., — don't tell any one yet. Let me get
a little used to it. . . . Hoping I have not taxed your patience
too severely, I remain, believe me,"

It will be noticed that Sally has taken pains to tell her
that there is more than one devil inside her, but as yet she
does not thoroughly realize it. The acquisitions she has
lost are the ability to write shorthand, and her knowledge
of French ^ and other foreign languages.

The following letter was received from Sally, August 2,
in reply to one of mine reproaching her for breaking the
promises which she had given not to tease Miss Beau-

1 A letter written by IV to J , and either by mistake or through Sally,

put in the wrong envelope and mailed to me.

2 Referring to the constant alternation of personalities, and Sally's destruc-
tion of the notes of tlie lectures, etc. This amnesia was only another example
of dissociation and was temporary.

* The languages had been learned in college, but shorthand the preceding
winter.

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 197

champ. What she says is literally true ; she could not
keep promises of this kind, and always said so.

" I wonder if you half realize how very unfair you are to me.
It is n't true that I tell lies and break all my promises and have
no sense of honor. You know it is n't true. I have never lied to
you except concerning one thing, and that was absolutely neces-
sary — absolutely, really — and I think even you would forgive
me if you knew all about it. Nor have I tried to deceive you ever,
save half in fun when I wanted you to think me Miss Beau-
champ — but you always knew at once that I was n't. As for
breaking promises, have I ever broken one that was given vol-
untarily? When you wring them from me by sheer force of
arms, and I tell you, even as I give them, I cannot keep them,
it seems to me that is very different. Won't you make the
smallest allowance for me, Dr. Prince ? I cannot bear to have
you speak so.

" She has not waked up at all since Monday. I think she
is really dead.

"P. S. Please don't be cross — you know you said I might
write if I chose, and this is n't a very long letter." ^

There is a point to which it may be worth while to call
attention here. In her letter of July 27 (page 196) Miss
Beauchamp asked if there was not some one to whom she
could go for help. Dr. Richard Hodgson had kindly
offered to stand in loco parentis^ in my absence, and I di-
rected her to him. On August 22 she writes again to the

1 The difference in style of this letter from that of her usual letters is
noticeable. Now and then, under the dominant force of an idea or feeling
such as Miss Beauchamp might have had, the expression of her thoughts
took on a form which might have been used by the primary personality. It
was the same with the facial expression. But I never knew her to exhibit
the sadness and weariness of B I. In the last part of this letter Sally
relapses to lier old style.

2 To Dr. Hodgson I desire to express my gratitude for the valuable as-
sistance whioh he rendered in the practical supervision of the case during tlie
earlier period of this study, when it was desirable to keep Miss Beauchamj)
under daily observation. Dr. Hodgson has thus had an opportunity to be-
come personally acquainted with the different personalities and to continuously
observe them during long periods of time.

198 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

same effect, though on August 19, and on several occa-
sions previously she had gone to Dr. Hodgson, but it was
in the chai-acter of Sally. Miss Beauchamp did not know
this, for she had disappeared for the whole or nearly the
whole of the preceding four weeks. The following is the
letter from B I written August 22 :

" I am awfully sorry, believe me, to trouble you again, but I
think you wrote about some one to whom I could go in case of
emergency. I need that some one now — very, very much —
but unfortunately I have forgotten both the name and address
you gave me. Can jou send it again ? I have lost weeks, —
whole weeks this time. What does it avail struggling against
it? I am so tired, so very tired ! "

In September the family again came under observation.
It had just had an adventure, the one already referred
to, which was the outcome of Miss Beauchamp's project
of going to New York. This is worth narrating, as it
shows how the different members of the family played
their parts and lived together, as well as the individuality
of the different personalities. The family altogether was
much like a barometer house with three inmates — when
one was out, the others were inside. On September 3
Miss Beauchamp wrote as follows :

" I shall be awfully glad to see you any time you wish during

the next few days. You will forgive me? I have been doing

the most dreadful things — things I cannot bear to think of.

. . . Is it possible or credible that there should be another —

I hardly know what to call it — another thing like ' Sally ' ?

" P. S. Address Street." ^

On September 5 the following note arrived from Sally,
who evidently was frightened at the effect which all these
escapades were having on Miss Beauchamp :

1 This letter gave a different address from the usual oue, and indicated
that her residence liad been changed. ,

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 199

" Won't you please write and say that she may come to-
day? I want you to — so very much. I'm afraid she is go-
ing to be really ill, and I don't know what to do, and there 's no
one here, and it's perfectly dreadful altogether. I want you to
come to Boston. Please, please do. Dr. Prince. I won't talk
to you at all, and I 'm awfully sorry to have annoyed you with
that letter. Truly I am."

I will let my notebook tell the story :

September ftth : ^ " To-day Miss Beauchamp called by ap-
pointment. She was in much distress, discouraged, and ex-
pressed a desire to end the whole thing afld give up the fight.
She said that she was mentally worse, having lost whole weeks
and in fact the greater part of the summer ; that she had done
awful things, which she ' could n't,' that is, ' would n't ' tell me,
and evidently has been getting into terrible messes, putting her-
self into false positions, etc., etc. She appeared distressed by
all that had happened, exhibited some aboulia of speech and
slight stammering, and expressed a desire to commit suicide,
saying that nothing else was left for her. Moderately nervous
in movement. While I was talking to her she changed to Sally,
who laughed as usual over the tribulations of her other self, but
appeared more considerate and sympathetic for B I than she
had ever been before. Sally disclaimed being responsible for
all that had happened, declaring that she had done very little,
and that what had taken place was not her fault. When ques-
tioned closely as to who was responsible, she was clearly puz-
zled. It was the 'Idiot' who was the cause of the trouble ;
that was clear in her mind, and exculpated herself. But who
was the ' Idiot '? She could give no explanation of this point,
nor of the relationship between the ' Idiot ' and B I. It was
plain, too, that the 'Idiot' eould not be identified with B I.
Nevertheless, Sally insisted, ' There are not three of us, only
two ' ; but how it was that B I became the ' Idiot,' or who the
'Idiot' was, etc., she could not understand. As Sally described

1 It was at this and subsequent interviews that the first thorough study of
B IV as a personality was made. Up to this time, since the seventh of
June, she had been observed only twice.

200 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

the course of events, her attitude was that of one who had
watched with relish B I changing to B IV and back again,
and the messes in which they became involved, much as one
watches a play upon the stage.

"The following is Sally's account of the New Haven ad-
venture. Both B I and B IV corroborated their respective
parts in the affair, so that this narrative is supported by the
testimony of the whole family. There is in addition some
documentary evidence in the form of a telegram sent to me
from New Haven, and a pawnbroker's ticket which I redeemed.
Miss Beauchamp, being unable to discover the whereabouts of
her missing property, decided that she would go to New York to
earn some money for the purpose of paying back that which
had been borrowed. Thereupon B IV wrote a letter to Jones,
telling him of B I's intention. At this point in the narrative,
Sally paused meditatively, and remarked that the * Idiot ' seemed
to know some things and not to know others. How she knew
that Miss Beauchamp was going to New York Sally could not
understand, but ' anyhow she did.' ^ The reply from Jones was
received, not by B IV, but by Miss Beauchamp, who was dis-
tressed that Jones had been informed. Jones wrote that it was
not safe for her to go alone to New York, and that * Anna '
must go with her as chaperone. Now this was just what Miss
Beauchamp did not want. So, to shorten the storj', after much
difficulty she managed to give ' Anna ' (who had joined her in
Boston) the slip, and took a different train from the one intended.
For some reason [which my notes fail to give] she took tickets
to New Haven, instead of to New York. On arrival at New
Haven, she went to the Young Women's Christian Associa-
tion, and applied to the matron for work, saying she knew
only writing, reading, and that sort of thing. The matron

1 Sally pondered upon this for some little time. It was probably an example
of what was occasionally observed, namely, sort of memory-flashes from B I's
mind into that of B IV. They were generally merely isolated facts which B
IV got hold of. Phenomena of thi.s kind are well known p.sychologically, and
are based on established laws. These scrappy memories used to puzzle Sally.
Later, B IV devised a method of awakening memories of B I's life. The
whole was an interesting .stndy, although made difficult by the fact that at
first B IV wonld give no assistance. The phenomena will be later dis-
cussed (Chapter XV).

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 201

asked if she could wait on table. Miss Beauchamp thought
she could, although she had never done it. So a place was

obtained for her at a hotel on Street, kept by a Mrs. S.

Her stay here lasted about two days, and was varied by the
' Idiot,' Sally, and Miss Beauchamp coming and going, each
bobbing in and bobbing out in the most confusing manner.
Sally described the whole adventure and the different scenes in
detail with a great deal of gusto and volubility, speaking so
rapidly that it was difficult to follow her, and seeming to enjoy
the complications that ensued, and the different things that
befell the different personalities by the unexpected events thrust
upon each. All went well until the ' Idiot ' suddenly appeared
and found herself waiting upon table, a position which she
looked upon with the utmost disgust. Nevertheless, angry and
disgusted as she was, she went on doing the work for a time.
Then Miss Beauchamp and Sally would each come in turn. ' I
did n't like to work either,' said Sally, in a tone of superior
virtue, ' but I did it. B I did n't like it, but did it because
she thought she could earn money. The "Idiot" lost her
temper,' Sally continued, ' and stamped her foot at the ele ator
boy. She has a nasty temper.' "

To digress for a moment : the difference in the mental
attitudes of the different personalities towards the position
in which they were placed is psychologically interesting.
The attitude of B I was that of penance, of meekness, and
of resignation to a duty to be done and for which all per-
sonal feeling was to be sacrified. Her self-respect and
honor compelled her to do it. That of B IV was rebel-
liousness, unwillingness to acquiesce in the conditions
which she found, or to accept what was distasteful. She
awoke to find herself in a disagreeable situation, without
knowing the why or the wherefore, a situation not of her
choosing. She saw no good reason for it, and rebelled.
Sally alone found amusement and variety. To her it was
at least adventure, which she loved, and she was able to
enjoy the discomfiture of the others.

202 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

" Finally the * Idiot ' would n't stand it any longer, and went
to Mrs. S., telling her she did not like the work and was going
away. Mrs. S., who liked Miss Beauchamp very much, said she
was very sorry, and tried to persuade her to stay — but not being
able to do so, told her if she would wait till Mr. S. returned, he
would pay her. But the ' Idiot ' would n't ; she said she did n't
want the money anyway, and left then and there. Regardless
of her finances, she ordered the elevator boy to send for a car-
riage; she wanted one, and at once. No carriage appearing
at the end of two or three minutes, she turned upon him in a
rage, and stamping her foot, told him she wanted a carriage ' at
once — at once.' At the station, after paying for the carriage,
she found herself with only a little silver, less than a dollar, in
her pocket, not enough to pay her fare. Then followed a period
of deep thought and a walk through the city, believing that if
she could think hard enough [as she afterwards told me] she
would find a way out of her dilemma. The solution came. She
pawned her watch for four dollars, and returned to Boston.
When Miss Beauchamp (B I) later found her watch gone, she
was much distressed, because it belonged to Miss Z. Now, in
addition to the loss of her money, she had lost another person's
watch. Her trials had indeed multiplied. Thanks to Sally,
the watch was located in the pawnbroker's shop, and later I re-
deemed it. It is only fair to the ' Idiot ' to say that she had
a right to keep the watch if she so chose, having, unknown to
Miss Beauchamp, exchanged her own for it, and further she
had the pawnbroker's card carefully preserved. After the re-
turn of the family to Boston, Miss Beauchamp (B I) in her
turn waked up to find herself in a strange lodging house on

Street, which Sally claimed the honor of selecting in the

following simple way : After arriving, Sally walked along the
street, saw a placard in the window of a house, went in and
engaged the room. Here they remained for some time, for
Sally, to her credit be it said, showed considerable judgment
in her selection.

" Notwithstanding Sally's enjoyment of the details and com-
plications of this adventure, she was evidently frightened at
Miss Beauchamp's condition, as is shown by the letter which
has just been given. Miss Beauchamp, harrowed and worried

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 203

by it all, was ready to give up the fight, and had tried to com-
mit suicide. One night, soon after returning to Boston, she
had closed tight the windows of her room, turned on the gas
and got into bed, but Sally — again a guardian angel — imme-
diately got up, turned off the gas, opened the windows, and
thus saved her life. The attempt at suicide evidently impressed
Sally, who pondered upon it awhile and then asked me whether,
if Miss Beauchamp killed herself, she, Sally, would be dead
too. On learning that this would be the case, she shuddered,
and said, ' I should n't like that.' "

It was plain that Sally had conceived a dislike for the
" Idiot " just as she had for Miss Beauchamp, but her
dislike was more of the nature of contempt than hatred.
She described the " Idiot " as irritable, bad-tempered, and
given to telling lies, — the last a rather uncharitable in-
terpretation on Sally's part of B IV's unwillingness to
confess ignorance of the past, and her pretence of knowl-
edge. These were great sins in Sally's eyes. Sally was of
the opinion that B I and B IV were in some obscure way
the same person, and later used to speak of B IV as B I
" rattled."

At this same interview an opportunity was offered to
observe B IV and to study the crystallization of her per-
sonality after the summer's experience. These observations
of her personality have already been incorporated in the
text (Chapters XI and XII). It was to be expected that,
by this time, an adjustment of her mental processes to her
environment would have taken place, and that habits of
thought would have been established.

" This is the way B IV made her appearance upon the scene :
[After Sally had told her story B I was awakened again.]
While talking with Miss Beauchamp, who had been relating her
woes, the expression of her face changed ; the anxious, de-
pressed look was gone ; her voice became deeper, and at times
low and hard in contrast with the soft, high-pitched tone of

204 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Miss Beauchamp. The change was puzzling. I wondered
whether it was B I, calm and peaceful, or Sally, masquerading
asB I.

" ' Well,' I said, ' Who are you9'

" ♦ I 'm Miss Beauchamp.'

" ' No, you are not.'

" ' I think I may be allowed to know my own name.'

" Her tone was reserved, as if resenting an impertinence, and
very different from that of either B I or B III.

" She rose to go, and walked toward the door. Taking her
by the wrist, I attempted to lead her back to her seat. This
she resented as a familiarity, which neither B I nor B III
would have done. Apparently it was neither of these personali-
ties, but B IV, whom I had not seen since June. I took her in
hand at once for a rigid examination that should test her mem-
ory and character. In appearance she was calm, quiet, dignified,
and natural. Testing cutaneous sensation, it was found to be
normal, thereby distinguishing her from Sally. Mentally she
appeared a normal person, but was more formal and distant
with me than were B I and B III, more like one not on terms
of intimacy with her interlocutor. She did not know the amount
of money in her hand, or how she became possessed of it; how
she happened to come to my house, ^ or how she got there ; but
she prevaricated, dodged, and tried to cover her ignorance by
evasive replies. By pushing home the questions, it was easy
to convict her of ignorance. She admitted the New Haven es-
capade, and gave her side of the story, though surprised at my
knowledge of the affair. Though she tried to preserNc a reti-
cence about her affairs, my fuller knowledge of them gave me
such an advantage, that in questioning her, she furnished con-
siderable information. She said that she felt at times ' as if
possessed ' (Sally thought this a mere figure of speech), and that
often she was prevented from doing things she wished to do.
She wrote letters and tore them up again, or * some one did.' "

I have often been asked concerning the frequency with
which the characters would change their parts in this
drama, and the length of time each would remain on the

* B I had come by appointment.

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 205

stage. Any one of the three might remain any length of
time, from a few minutes to several days, though as a rule
many changes were made in a day. In the course of an
interview of an hour, the personalities would perhaps change
several times, though often this was brought about inten-
tionally for purposes of study. During the interview just
described, lasting probably two hours, the following was
the oi'der of appearance of each character :

B I ; on entrance.

B III; spontaneous.

B I ; brought intentionally by suggestion.

B IV; spontaneous.

B III; spontaneous, in place of IV.

B I ; intentional. ^

The following letter from B I is more than amusing. It
is one of Sally's little jokes, but it has a psychological in-
terest in showing the power of an inner consciousness to
act upon the primary consciousness ; that is to say, it ex-
hibits not only the synchronous action of two conscious-
nesses and two wills^ but the action of one upon the other.
The letter may be recognized at once by its style of expres-
sion and thought as B I's, but Sally's fine hand is seen in
the transposition of the letters in the individual words so
as to make what looks like a sort of cipher language. B I
wrote the letter, as was later learned, but Sally, while B 1
was writing it, transposed the letters hi B I^s mind (Sally
of course, being " inside "), so that B I wrote the words
as thus dictated. It will be observed that the letters of
each individual word are correct ; they are only misplaced.
This required considerable thought and will on Sally's part
and gives a clue to the extent of the field of her conscious-
ness when she is " inside." ^

^ Appendix B.

"^ Sally described how she did this. Her statement is of value in throwing
light on the way we think and use language. Since discovering her power,
she has frequently mixed up Miss I}eau(lianij)'s writing.

206 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

[Letter of October 17, 1899, from B I ; lettei-s of each
word transposed by Sally acting as a subconsciousness.]

" I spoek revy hastyli and unavdisdely tadoy in prosiming to
sden yuo lal ^ Sally's nesto. I catnon. I cloud ton sden meth
ot nay eno. And sa orf ym thero presimo atoub mooing ot
rouy ofceif if I vahe anthero seegi vviht my deah ti si learly
ipmossible orf me ot peek taht oto. phlsycialy ipraossible. You
wonk I nact tindissbguisnight a tofo waay and nact klaw arcosa
the moor vase with the treagest tidyficulf I shodlu ton dear skir
gniog ton of roods. I ma rorsy fauwUy, rorsy you shodlu veah
enve blotrued tabou it sthi meit. I idd ton mared of Mrs.

lephtenoing you orn idd I wonk yangthin tabou it niltu

treafward."

[Translation.] "I spoke very hastily and unadvisedly to
day in promising to send you all Sally's notes. I cannot. I
could not send them to any one. And as for my other promise
about coming to your office, if I have another siege with my
head it is really impossible for me to keep that too — physi-
cally impossible. You know I can't distinguish things a foot
away, and can't walk across the room save with the greatest
difficulty. I should not dare risk going out of doors. I am
sorry, awfully sorry, you should have been troubled about it

this time. I did not dream of Mrs. telephoning you, nor

did I know anything about it until afterward."

Sally had been threatened with a sanatorium as a punish-
ment for her behavior, and had been put on probation.
She promised reform and agreed to wake up Miss Beau-
champ whenever the latter relapsed into herself or B IV.
Hence the following letter in fear of being suspected :

"I am in for another wigging, I suppose, for She 's
vanished again and is n't to be gotten hold of, though I 've
tried three hurdy-gurdies and an organ-man and an ancient
piano — and virtue is n't its own reward, for in spite of all this
I feel as guilty and as unhappy as possible to-night. But I am

1 Note the italics, indicating that B I thought she had written all.^

A HOU^E DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 207

sending you the card you wanted and my new address,

Street.^ I hope you won't be very cross with me. I really
have n't done anything, and have written only three letters

— this to-night to you, one yesterday to Mrs. , and one

to-day to Miss . If I were to learn French, and sleep a

great deal . . . would you let me stay? I don't see why you
all disapprove of me, — why you all think me just a psycho-
logical phenomenon. I can't understand."

The idea of learning French had come to Sally as an
inspiration. In spite of her hatred for study she set to
work to learn the language. If she only knew French
perhaps we should think her quite as much of a person as
B I or B IV, and perhaps we would let her stay. So
Sally got a French book and a dictionary and plodded
away on her road to culture. But her career as a student
soon came to an untimely end. She appeared one day,
stuttering badly and in bad temper, but very funny.

" Everything is just upside down," she complained.
" The Idiot has been laughing at my French, and I
c-c-can't t-t-talk to-day, and I c-c-can't feel things." ^

She pouts and flounces about the room in a most amus-
ing way. I tell her she is now catching it in her turn,
but encourage her to go on with her story, which is a long
one. The Idiot, it appeared, had picked up some notes
written by Sally and had laughed at the French. Sally
became angry, and the Idiot paid for her indiscretion.
That night she (the Idiot) could not leave the house, but,
a lonesome prisoner, she passed a weary evening in a chair,
with her feet perched high up on the back of another.
" She looked just like an actress," said Sally, " and was so
angry because she could n't go out. She could n't get her
feet down."

1 The house selected by Sally after returning from New Haven.

2 It will be remembered that Sally could recover sensibility by auto-
saggestion.

208 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

[From B I, September 24.] "You are very good, but
there is little I can tell you, for I have lost most of the time
since the evening of the twelfth [12 days], only coming to my-
self for a few hours on Friday last, and again this afternoon. I
am quite well physically, save that I have a bad headache, and
am awfully tired and sleepy — my usual condition after one of
these attacks, you know. As for my sins, I can't confess yet,
for I am still in ignorance concerning them. I really do not
know what I have been doing this time. It will ' out ' soon
enough. There is a perfectly tantalizing heap of thirteen
envelopes on my table (received since I was last here), from
which all the letters have been taken, and I suppose that means
trouble and confusion sooner or later, but I am almost too tired
to care. I thank you again — a thousand times — for your
patience ! It must be awfully hard for you. I do realize it,
and that I ought to fight this thing out alone, and yet it seems
so impossible to do it. I have tried, believe me."

To this there was appended the following postscript,
"A nasty old letter — Amen," by Sally, of course.

Here are three letters written by Sally to Miss Beau-
champ, and one from the latter enclosing them :

[Sally to B I.] "I shall never forgive you last night's
madness — never, never, never ! But it has settled one thing
at least, and that is my having anything more to do with you.
I disown you absolutely, forever, and entirely, and you may go
to the devil in your own sweet way, for all me. I give you a
week to get there — oh, no, less than that, if your friend the
Idiot assists, much less. You shall call for me then^ but I will
not hear you. I will not answer.

" P. S. I shall not hinder you in anything, neither shall I
help you. Go your way."

[Sally to B I.] " Do you know what I shall do if you don't
write me about the three farthings man immediately, as I asked
you to? I shall put a little, creepy, gray mouse with cold
feet, and a long, long, twisty tail down your back, and fasten

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 209

him in so he will bite you. Consider this, little sister mine, and
hump yourself. You don't half appreciate me — not half."

[Sally to B I.] " You do like 433} You think it's per-
fectly delightful here, and you are going to stay all winter.
Please commit this text to memory, ragazza, for you 've slipped
up twice within twenty-four hours, and my patience is fast
vanishing. Don't make me write about it again. I 'm too
busy."

[Letter of October 11 to me from Miss Beauchamp, enclos-
ing the above three notes from Sally :] " This note [No. 1] has
made me so uneasy. But it is absurd, is n't it, for how can one
disown oneself, how hate oneself, or how exult in one's own
destruction, one's own undoing? It is madness to think of.
Keep me from it, I pray you ! I have not lost more than an
hour or two since I left you yesterday, and have slept be-
tween six and seven hours. Were it not for my uneasiness
concerning ' Sally ' and the ' Idiot ' I should feel quite well."

^ The number of the house which Sally had selected after the return from
New Haven. Miss Beauchamp did not like the house.

CHAPTER XIII

THE BIETH OF B I, "tHB SAINT "

IT will be easily undei-stood from what has been said in
the last chapter that B IV, by her coming and going,
constantly found herself in awkward situations. She
would suddenly appear out of the nowhere to discover
herself in familiar conversation with an apparent stranger,
who would refer to events of which she knew nothing; or
she would receive letters in reference to engagements or
past occurrences of which she was in entire ignorance.
Many embariussing predicaments were the consequence.
It required all her mental ingenuity to keep posted on the
doings of B I ; or rather, to state the fact from her point
of view (for she knew nothing of B I as a personality), on
that part of her life when she herself was absent. As we
shall later see, she had several methods of getting this
information ; one was by visions. She discovered that by
*'*' fixing her mind,^' as she called it, she could create a
vision of almost any event in which she had taken part,
either as herself or in those blank periods of her life when
she was B I. These visions were similar in character to
the crystal visions which used to be obtained with Miss
Beauchamp for purposes of experiment. Unlike Sally,
therefore, both personalities were good subjects for these
phenomena. The process of " fixing her mind " consisted
in thinking intently, to the extent of absentmindedness,
on any subject upon which she wished information, and if
it was a scene in which one or other member of the family
had played a part, the whole would rise before her like a
panorama.

THE BIRTH OF B I, "THE SAINT" 211

I sometimes took advantage of this, as 1 did with B I,
to learn additional facts about her past life. I never knew
a vision to be in error in the slightest detail, about facts
of which I myself had accurate records or personal knowl-
edge; yet a vision, when reproducing a past experience,
must represent the scene as the subject saw it, not neces-
sarily as it was. The reliability of the evidence must
therefore depend on the accuracy of the subject's observa-
tions. When these are perverted by emotion, the vision
must exhibit a corresponding perversion.

At this time, September, 1899, with a particular pur-
pose in view, I sought to obtain a vision of the episode of
the seventh of June last, when B IV made her first appear-
ance. Without other suggestions of any kind, I directed
B IV to " fix her mind " upon the event, and describe
what she saw. She sat before me, her mind "fixed on
vacancy." As she watched the scenes of the vision pass-
ing before her, the changing expression of her face re-
flected all the passing emotions which at the time of the
actual events she had experienced. This is always the
case with her as well as with B I in seeing visions. The
feelings originally actually felt are re-excited. Sometimes
she is so overcome that she breaks away from the sight.
In interpreting this vision, it must be kept in mind that
B IV remembers only that part of the episode in which she
herself took part. She has no recollection of the scenes
when B I and Sally were present. Hence her surprise
at those portions of the vision. This was the vision
(scene, her room: B I is present);

[Surprised and objecting.]^ " I am not like that! I am not
like that ! [Shocked at the picture she sees of her other miser-

^ In brackets are enclosed such comments as will render the meaning
clearer. The words describing the vision are those of B IV, so far as I
could write them down, — a difficult undertaking. Some of the statements
were in reply to my questions.

212 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

able self, B I, she breaks ofif ; then looks again.] I see myself
walking up and down. [This was B I, agitated and nervous,
and before my entrance.] You are not there. ^ Oh, my head !
[Feels her headache as B I.] Oh, yes, I see you. It is n't the
window; it is the door.^ You are coming through the door.
You take hold of my arm — so [illustrating]. You sit down.
No, I can't hear what you say. Oh, Dr. Prince [annoyed and
incredulous], I am not like that! [Referring to the great ner-
vousness of B I.] You sit down, and I get up and walk back
and forth. I am very nervous. I seem to be talking very fast.
No, I can't hear what I say.^ I am very much upset. It is Dr.
Prince who is present.^ I am all right now — not so nervous.^
Why [surprised], Dr. Prince is gone! It isn't you. It is
some one else — some one you don't know. [Stamps her foot,
annoyed and angry.] It is Jones [this after much reluctance].^
He is talking — talking. He throws himself back on the couch.
Now I get up. I am standing, talking again. I get some
scraps of writing paper — some blue, some white " — and a long
square thing. He is talking and writing, writing, writing. He
throws down the paper and tries to take hold of me. He does
that [makes passes in imitation of hypnotizing]. I resent it
strongly. He sits down again. He shows me his watch. He
puts it back in his pocket, and takes hold of me again. I go
like that [shuts her eyes, sways, rubs her eyes]. It is the same
room. All is changed again. You have come back and are
standing near the door. I am nervous again [B I]. You are
gone."

B IV, for a moment, was annoyed by the revelations of
this vision, for she personally knew, and therefore remem-
bered only that part of the scene which followed her own
awakening and which ended with B I's reappearance.
She still knew nothing of her different personalities as
such; she knew only losses of time. Further, to see now
a scene in which two other persons (Jones and myself)

1 In reply to a question.

2 Here B I has changed to B IV, with the illusion of my identity.
' For me to take notes ou. See p. 172.

THE BIRTH OF B I, "THE SAINT" 213

alternately took part — one changing into the other — was
contradictory, and, as she could not understand it, annoy-
ing. The first thing of which she has conscious knowl-
edge is Jones, sitting on the sofa and asking for writing
paper, etc.^ Irritated and perplexed, she exclaimed,
"Who was there? [Stamping her foot.] Anyway, you
couldn't both be there. You were there, then. Jones
was there," etc., etc.

The theory, which arose as a suspicion soon after B TV's
appearance, had been growing in strength until the idea
had become almost a conviction. This theory was, it will
be remembered, that B I was not the Real Miss Beauchamp,
but that B IV was more nearly the true one; and that at
some time in the past a psychical catastrophe had taken
place by which a cleavage had occurred in the original
consciousness, and B I had become split off as a quasi-
somnambulistic personage; and that with the appearance
of B IV there had been a return of or waking up of the
original Miss Beauchamp. ^ It has been pointed out that
other cases of this kind had occurred, and that of Rev.
Ansel Bourne was instanced. The case of Rev. Thomas
C. Hanna, studied by Dr. Boris Sidis, may also be cited.
If it were not for interrupting this narrative numerous
cases might be mentioned to give support to this interpre-
tation. It was the simplest explanation. It was merely a
question of evidence.

With this hypothesis in mind, all three members of
"the family," as Sally used to speak of them, were inter-

^ All the details of what took place while B IV was present, B IV recol-
lects distinctly. Her memory is in entire accord with both my notes and the
vision.

* It was difficult at this time to determine how closely B IV approximated
the original Miss Beauchamp either in memories or character, owing to the
fact of my being practically a stranger to B IV, and the consequent difficulty
of obtaining her confidence. It was a long time before she was willing to
disclose her consciousness to me.

214 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

rogated, in search of some accident or emotional shock
which might have caused a split in consciousness. It was
now for the first time that I learned from all three (Sally,
B IV, and B I), and again later from B II, the secret which
had thus far been closely guarded.^ The stories of all
three agreed in every particular, so far as the memories of
each went. This is what was first learned from Sally :

It is necessary to go back six years to the year 1893.
In 1893 Miss Beauchamp was a nurse in a hospital in
a neighboring city — let us call it "Providence." The
passion of her life had been to be a medical nurse, and at
last, in a fit of idealism, she had entered this hospital.
One night, while in the nurses' sitting-room conversing
with a friend, Miss K., she was startled, upon looking up,
to see a face at the window. It was the face of her old
friend, William Jones, a man whom with the idealism of
girlhood she worshipped as a being of a superior order.
He was much older than she, cultivated, and the embodi-
ment of the spiritual and the ideal. At first Miss Beau-
champ thought the face a hallucination, but in a moment,
seeing that it was a real person, she hastily got Miss K.
out of the room, making the excuse that she herself was
needed in the wards. As soon as Miss K. left, Miss Beau-
champ went down to the door where she met Jones. It
transpired that he had stopped over in Providence, en
route to New York, and had wandered up to the hospital.
Seeing a ladder which had been left by workmen) leaning
against the side of the building, he had, in a spirit of fun,
climbed up and looked into the window. At the hospital
door an exciting scene occurred. It was to Miss Beau-
champ of an intensely disturbing nature, and gave her a
tremendous shock. Perhaps I should say here, as I have
told so much of the story, that it was the kind of thing

1 Sally told the story October 26 ; B IV, November 1 ; B I, NoTember
3; B II, November 8 (1899).

THE BIRTH OF B I, "THE SAINT" 215

which upon the ordinary person would not have had
much influence — though it was of an emotional charac-
ter. Miss Beauchamp, with her sensitive and idealistic
nature, probably exaggerated its meaning and gave it an
intensity that an ordinary person would not have given.
At any rate, it did give her a violent shock. ^ The sur-
roundings, too, were dramatic. It was night, and pitch
dark. A storm was passing over, and great peals of
thunder and flashes of lightning heightened the emotional
effect. It was only by these flashes that she saw her
companion.

Miss Beauchamp returned to her duties much agitated.
For several days she was in an excited state. She walked
the wards by night, and, in the day time when off duty
and supposed to be asleep, slipped out of the hospital and
wandered about the fields. Then she began, according to
Sally's account, gradually to change in character. She
became nervous, excitable, and neurasthenic. All her
peculiarities became exaggerated. She became unstable
and developed aboulia. She grew, too, abnormally reli-
gious. In other words, she became changed in character,
and has been changed ever since, " and Jones thinks so,
too,'^ said Sally. .

It seemed that at last we had a clew, though as yet in-
complete, both to the origin of the two personalities, B I
and B IV, and to the puzzling behavior of B IV on her
first appearance, June 7. If the hypothesis suggested —
that B IV is approximately the Real Miss Beauchamp
— be correct, then several things would be expected to
follow at her awakening:

1 The shock of this incident was undoubtedly intensified by Miss Bean-
champ's nerves having been shaken earlier in the evening by a scene with a
delirious patient. There was a terrific thunderstorm at the time. Miss B.
was walking down a dark corridor, when suddenly, in a flash of lightning,
she saw this patient running toward her. She was much shaken by the
incident. (See Chapter V, p. 66.)

216 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

First, she would imagine it to be the same day of the
year and the same time of day that it was when she " went
to sleep " and disappeared. She would imagine the sur-
roundings and circumstances to be the same, and the
whole interval of time which had elapsed during her Rip
Van Winkle sleep, between her changing to B I and
her reappearance as B IV, would be a blank. She would
tend to go on with the occupations she was engaged in
at that time. This, then, would be the explanation of
her awakening on June 7, the details of which are intel-
ligible by this hypothesis. She had " gone to sleep " on
that eventful night in the hospital and had changed to
B I. Waking again, June 7, she thought herself still in
the hospital, in the same room and on the same night
when Jones appeared at the window. Under the influence
of this general idea she interpreted her surroundings:
objects became illusions ; the room became that of the hos-
pital; and I became Jones. (This creation of an illusion
by the force of a suggested associated idea has been
often brought about experimentally with B IV. B I's
negative hallucinations in regard to the rings are of the
same order.) Logically, she inferred that I had come in
through the window, having seen me there a moment
before. Her criticism of the impropriety of my conduct
in coming to a hospital in that way was intelligible, as
well as the criticism of my being there at all at that hour.
Hence her remarks about the unwisdom of asking for
her, even at the door, and her joke about my break-
ing my neck had a point, seeing that she thought the
room was in the second story of the hospital. Even the
reason for the illusion was apparent in the association
of the several events. All this was intelligible by the
hypothesis.

Secondly, if this hypothesis were true, B IV would
have a perfect memory for her whole life antecedent to

THE BIRTH OF B I, "THE SAINT" 217

the hospital episode; while all between that and her
awakening would be forgotten. ^

One point of psychological interest may be pointed out
in passing. The disintegrating emotional shock occurred
at the hospital door. The moment when the amnesia of
B IV began was not as yet quite clear, but presumably the
loss of memory went back farther, to the moment when
she saw the face at the window. This is what is known as
retrograde amnesia^ and frequently follows accidents. The
loss of memory goes back over a period antedating the
exciting cause.

There still remained the testimony of the Idiot herself.
This was not so easy to obtain. Her habit of pretending
to know events that occurred during the times when Sally
and B I were in existence has been already dwelt upon.
This habit she fortunately has now (1900) given up to a
large extent. In moments of contrition and friendliness
she makes a clean breast of everything, but at that time
she would not only audaciously insist that she had this
knowledge, but would also maintain an obstinate silence
regarding herself, to the extent of resenting every inquiry
into her thoughts and doings. Every interview opened
with tiresome sparring, which ended only when her defeat
was crushing. She claimed to know everything — even
what took place in my presence with Sally and B I. It
was easy to mislead her, "fishing and guessing" only as
she was, by deftly worded questions, and then when her
foot was well in, spring the trap. Thus, it was not difficult,
by examining her on events of which I had pei"sonal knowl-
edge, to convict her of pretence, but it was not until com-

1 I should point out that there was a curious hiatus in her memory.
Though she remembered Jones's face at the window, she did not apparently
remember that Miss K. liad been present up to that moment, as shown by her
denial in .answer to a question. (See Chapter XI., p. 174.) Such freaks of
memory are not uncommon in these hysterical amnesias.

218 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

pletely cornered that she would become tractable or admit
that she did not know.

Sally disliked her almost as much as she did B I, and
constantly harped upon what she bluntly called her " ly-
ing." While, strictly speaking, "lying" was the plain
English of it, yet from B IV's point of view this was jus-
tifiable, in self-defence. The difficulty of getting the exact
truth from B IV was increased by the fact that she did,
indirectly, acquire some imperfect knowledge of the life
of B I and Sally, by what her friends let drop, and by
"fishing and guessing," as well as by visions. Occa-
sional isolated memory pictures also would emerge out of
the depths of B I's life, and pass into her own conscious-
ness.^ It was proved, however, that, aside from these
memory flashes, B IV knew nothing of her life since
June 7 as B I or Sally. Had she any continuous memory
of Miss Beauchamp's life before the hospital episode, or
of the six years intervening between that event and her
awakening on the seventh of June?

To understand B IV's attitude of mind, as has been so
frequently insisted upon, we must not lose sight of the
fact that she could not appreciate that we really knew
her intimately ; and, when I stopped to think, I found it
equally hard to realize that this person, whom I had
known well for years (though as another personality), felt
herself a complete stranger to me. It was equally difficult
for me to assume a manner of formality and drop that of
intimacy, and vice vei'sa^ from moment to moment as the
personalities changed before me. Any other attitude than
that of distant formality B IV resented.

It became essential that B IV's confidence should be
gained. I waited patiently an opportunity, when she
should show a conciliatory mood. One day, November 1,

1 Never out of Sally's consciousness. See Chapter XV.

THE BIRTH OF B I, "THE SAINT" 219

1899,1 after the usual preliminary sparring, she broke
down and confessed ; apparently becoming tractable, frank,
and repentant. In this mood she described the events of
the seventh of June as they appeared to her at the time,
and also described the hospital affair of six years before.
My notes of her statement run as follows:

\_Notehook.'] " When she saw me on the seventh of June for
the first time, she imagmed she was in the hospital, and that I
was Joues. She thought it was that same night, six years be-
fore, when she was sitting in the nurses' room and saw the face
of Jones at the window. She loas unaware that these six years
had passed. She mistook me for Jones [by an ilhision], and
therefore thought that I must have come in through the win-
dow. This last was an inference, which she had made from the
fact that she had seen me (as she supposed) a feio moments he-
fore (instead of years) on the ladder, and therefore supposed I
had entered in that way. It was (she imagined) the same night,
and the ladder was there.

"As to the original adventure, it now seemed to her only
about one year ago.^ It was about one or two o'clock when
Jones appeared at the window of the hospital. He had done it
for a joke. (Here B IV drew a diagram of the room, showing
the relative positions of the window, Miss K. and herself.)
' When Miss K. went upstairs I went into the ward because a
child was crying. I stayed there a few minutes. I don't re-
member what I did, but I stayed on duty the rest of the night.'

"'Did n't you go out?'

" ' No, I could n't go out. I may have gone downstairs.'

" ' Did n't you see Jones again that night? '

"'No; I am sure.'"

Note the fact that B IV's memory of the event stops
at the point where she went into the ward ; that is, just

J See Chapter XIV.

2 That is, instead of six years. B IV's reappearance was on June 7,
1899; therefore, since 1893 she had really had about five montiis' existence
to date, November 1, 1899.

220 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

before the exciting interview. There was therefore retro-
grade amnesia, as suspected. She did not remember
going downstairs. Her statement that she had not seen
Jones again that .night or the next day could not be
shaken; nor could she say when she saw him again. ^

"I now said, '"Fix" your mind [for a vision], and see
whether you saw him again that night.' She looks straight
forward and falls into a dreamy state. ' I have got it. Dr.
Prince. It is curious. I see there are two. No, I don't get it.'
[Then, much agitated, and withdrawing from what she sees:]
' No, it is impossible ! No, it is not true ! No, no, no ! I see
nothing true ! I hear nothing ! ' [She shrinks as if in great
mental distress.] I urge her on, saying, ' Look, you see your-
self outside the hospital.' She repeats again, ' It is not true !
That did not take place! I see nothing true! I hear nothing
true!' She continues denying and resisting. I insist, though
she seems in mental anguish, as if re-enacting what is before
her. She again ' fixes ' her mind, and apparently follows a
scene. ' I can see two — [a pause.] No ! I would tell you
if what I see were true! We separate — [a pause.] No.
I can't tell you ! '

" 'Do you see yourself?*

" ' Yes, I see myself.'

'"With whom?'

"'Jones; but not like himself. All is dark except for the
flashes of lightning.' She seems abstracted and answers
dreamily : ' It is not Jones at all, — his face is all drawn, and
he is very much excited.' Then, coming more to herself, ' He
was very nervous and excited — not like himself — and as I
saw myself I seemed so, too. It was dark, and lightning
flashes lighted up my face and his. I was frightened.'

" ' Where were you? '

"'It must be outside the hospital door. I am absolutely
sure it is not true. The vision is gone. It was all very horrid.
I don't like visions like that. It never happened. [Looking

1 B IV has since stated that she has no recollection of meeting Jones
again until the summer of 1899, that is, six years later; though Miss Beau-
champ and Sally have seen him frequently in the last few years.

THE BIRTH OF B I, "THE SAINT" 221

again.] I can't tell you more. No, I can't hear anything.
Now, I see only the trees. He seemed perfectly mad. [She
shrinks and shudders.] Don't ask me to tell you more ; I can't ! '
[She moves her lips inarticulately, as if physically unable to
speak (aboulia?) and I allow her to come to herself.]

"B IV says that she has had this same vision several times
this summer, and that it was 'always the same,' which was
' queer.' ^ It had made an impression on her in her relations
with Jones, as if something had come between them. She has
no idea that the vision is anything more than a fantasy, or an
experiment without any basis in fact ; and I allow her to re-
main in this belief, for if B IV is the true Miss Beauchamp
and is to remain in existence it would be unkind to awaken a
distressing recollection of this kind.

"Sally now bounced into existence, highly excited, and be-
gan vehemently to contradict B IV's statement that the vision
' was not true.' ' It is true. It is true,' she exclaimed. Then
Sally, while thinking about the vision, became sad, dreamy, and
depressed; then suddenly changed back to B IV,^ who said the
vision had come again but that it was not true.

"As she was about to leave the room, she again changed to
Sally, who, however, refused to give further details, for it was
thinking about the vision, she said, which had brought B IV.
I insisted upon Sally's thinking of the vision, though she ob-
jected and accused me of wishing to bring B IV. 'Think
about it,' I persisted. 'Put your mind on it.' She became
dreamy, as if half-hypnotized. I bade her tell more. She re-
fused, shuddered, fought, saying she could n't and I must n't
ask; 'I can't help telling!' etc. Here I desisted, feeling that
her wishes should be respected.' It was evident — what I

1 See Appendix C.

2 This suppression of Sally, when dwelling in her mind on the thoughts of
B IV or B I, has a significance which will be reverted to in another con-
nection.

8 It is only right to add that I am certain from what I have since learned
that it wasonly the youth, inexperience, and extreme impressionability of Miss
Beauchamp that allowed her feelings to be so wrought upon ; and tliat a more
experienced person would not have found sufficient in tlie interview to justify
such an exhibition of emotion. Further tlian this, as I have pointed out
above, such a vision represents a scene as it was originally seen by the sub-

222 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

wished to learn — that whatever occurred had produced a
profound shock, and had left a horrible remembrance in
B I and Sally."

Summing up what had been learned, the testimony of
Sally and of B IV was in agreement up to the moment of
going into the ward, when the memory of B IV ceased.
After that moment, the statements of Sally were corrobo-
rated by the vision induced in B IV.

There remained the evidence of B I and B II. Miss
Beauchamp was, of course, in entire ignorance of what
had been stated by the others, and therefore of the fact
that I had any knowledge of the hospital affair. At fii*st
surprised and startled at my knowledge, she soon accepted
the situation and told with complete frankness the whole
story, just as Sally and B IV had told it, going into every
detail, with such exceptions as she considered confidential,
— a reservation the others had made also. She remembered
everything that B IV remembered, and, besides, all that
occurred after going into the ward, when B IV's memory
ceased. Her memory was continuous for the whole epi-
sode. She confirmed Sally's statements, word for word,
up to the point of her own change of character, of which
she had no realization, although, of course, she appreciated
the impairment of her general health following the shock.

She added, what I had not realized before, that what
particularly distressed her was the fact that since that
eventful night she had tried to break with the past, while
Sally, by corresponding and making engagements, and
thereby breaking the promises that B I made, was con-
stantly putting her in false positions. This was the secret
of her dread of Sally's correspondence.

The testimony of B II was not of so much value from

ject and therefore possibly perverted by the emotions experienced at the
time. This should be said in extenuation of the other actor in the sceDO
in case one is tempted to draw uu warranted inferences.

. THE BIRTH OF B I, "THE SAINT" 223

one point of view, because she necessarily knew all that
B I and B IV said. From another point it was the most
valuable of all, for she never quibbled or prevaricated or
withheld information. She might be called the " soul " of
Miss Beauchamp, so straight and true were all her thoughts
and dealings. B II said the account was all true in every
particular, and, at my request, repeated it again in detail.

Thus we have the testimony of all four personalities in
agreement.

Our previously put questions, whether B IV remem-
bered the whole of her life antedating the hospital episode,
in 1893, and whether she had amnesia for the six years
following, up to June 7, 1899, may now be answered,
though the answers were not easily obtained. Searching
inquiry demonstrated that B IV remembered the events of
the first period as well as Miss Beauchamp remembered
them; for those of the second period she had no more
knowledge than she had of the present periods when B I
was in the flesh. These six years were a blank to her.
It is unnecessary to enter into the details of the inquiries
establishing these facts. It would be merely a tedious
recital of the events of her early life on the one hand, and
an inability to mention any (excepting "mind-fixing"
phenomena) belonging to the second six-years' period on
the other. The observations, continued through the whole
seven years covering the period of this study, corroborate
these earlier determined data.

Putting together all the facts thus far learned which
bear upon the development of B I and B IV, we are able
to make the following historical summary, for which the
evidence is conclusive: Miss Beauchamp was distinct as a
unity, a single consciousness, up to the summer of 1893.
At that time there occurred a psychical catastrophe which
produced a disintegration of consciousness, by which her
personality changed and she developed into B I.

224 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

B I retained all the memories of her youth, as well as
of the accident which led to her development; and also,
of course, of her whole life (that is, exclusive of Sally's
entrances) during the six years succeeding the accident of
1893, that is, up to June 7, 1899. She also retained a
memory of those periodical times when she had been in
existence since the latter date. She differs from her orig-
inal state in certain bodily characteristics known as neuras-
thenia, and in certain mental characteristics — instability
and suggestibility — and, above all, in certain alterations
of character. B I therefore remained the sole personality
in existence for six years — to June 7, 1899 — when, ow-
ing to some cause thus far unknown, a hitherto unobserved
personality was awakened, which in associations of mem-
ory reverted to a past period of life, namely, that which
antedated and ended with the aforesaid catastrophe of
1893.

This personality (IV) apparently belonged to that earlier
period, and remembered the events of her life up to a cer-
tain hour, namely, that just preceding the incident which
caused the psychical shock, at which time her memory
ceased. From that eventful moment this new personality
had absolutely no memory of anything that occurred dur-
ing the ^* "^llowinof six years, ending June 7, 1899. Since
this last date she knows and remembers only the events
that have happened during those interrupted periods when
she herself has been in existence. Since her appearance
she has been constantly alternating with B I and with
B III.

The life of Miss Beauchamp has been a constant suc-
cession of independent mental states known as B I, B IV,
and B III. B IV has known nothing of B I, and B I
nothing of B IV, while Sally (B III) has had a knowledge
of both the others, although her knowledge of each has
differed in some important particular. Thus B IV and

THE BIRTH OF B I, "THE SAINT" 225

B I each has knowledge of the events which happened to
the unaltered personality before 1893; but since the dis-
integration, each has been cognizant only of the events
experienced by herself as a separate personalit}'.

Such were the facts as they had developed up to Novem-
ber, 1899. But there remained one fact in the develop-
ment of B IV which was as yet undisclosed. What was
it that caused B IV to be awakened June 7? Thus far
I had no inkling that anything had occurred which could
have brought it about. But I became convinced that
something must have occurred to reawaken B IV, — if
that is the proper interpretation. As an inquisitor I set
about the task, and closely interrogated B II, Sally, and
B I. B IV, of course, could have no knowledge of any
event of this kind, for she was then "asleep." After
close questioning, B II told the following:

On the afternoon of June 7 Miss Beauchamp was in
my office. After leaving she went to the Boston Public
Library. B II had a vivid memory of this afternoon. She
described accurately the people whom she saw in my office,
and each succeeding event after her departure. She told
the route she took in her walk to the Library, and the title
of the book read after her arrival. At this point I put
abruptly the question, "What else did you *^ jthere?"
She became frightened, shrinking from me as one might
from some horrible dream. Her features were expressive
of mental distress, and she begged to be allowed to open
her eyes. It was evident that something had happened.
Finally, though hesitatingly, B II completed her story:

In the Library Miss Beauchamp, quite accidentally, so
far as she was concerned, met a messenger who was the
bearer of a letter from Jones. ^ The letter was couched
in the same sort of language as that which he had used
on the memorable night in August, 1893. The tone and

1 Probably this had been arranged by Sally.
15

226 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

language of the letter recalled the scene of that night,
bringing the whole vividly back to her. She became highly
nervous and excited, and then and there had a vision of
the scene in which she met Jones outside the hospital
door. She could hear his voice speaking as he did then ;
and the whole — the letter and the memory — gave her a
profound shock, agitating her as she had been agitated
six years before. She was profoundly moved and upset.
While in this condition of extreme agitation she went into
the Newspaper Room and there had a hallucination. In
large headlines in a newspaper there was the announce-
ment of the death of a relative of mine. Miss Beauchamp
either misread the name, or, more probably, through a
hallucination, saw it as mine. Under this additional
shock she returned home in a state of great nervousness.
The succeeding events of the day I knew. Her condi-
tion after reaching home was such that even Sally became
alarmed, and, hoping to quiet her, scribbled the following
note on a piece of paper:

" Are you mad ? Dr. Prince is as much alive as you are. It
is his father who is dead." ^

Almost immediately after her return home I was sent
for. On arrival I found her as she has been previously
described. Then followed the awakening of B IV, her
mistaking me for Jones, etc. Undoubtedly, then, what
had awakened B IV was the reawakening of the hospital
episode by suggestion and association of ideas. Later
Miss Beauchamp herself corroborated this story.

While B II was giving this account a characteristic inci-

1 This note I have. The dramatic character of the sitaatiou is striking.
Imagine a highly excited hysterical, rattled consciousness ; besides this,
another consciousness, calm and observant, taking in the scene, and finally,
becoming alarmed about the consequences, writing a message to the first con-
scioDsness to correct its delusion. The second consciousness both recognized
the deloBion and clearly oriented the environment.

THE BIRTH OF B I, "THE SAINT" 227

dent occurred. She began to repeat the Public Library
letter verbatim, when suddenly her lips refused to speak.
She was seized with aboulia. Sally had interfered, stopped
her, and then came herself. She refused to allow her to
tell more, but said it was all true.
Was B IV the Real Miss Beauchamp ?

PART II

THE HUNT FOR THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP

PART II

THE HUNT FOR THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP
CHAPTER XIV

IS NOT B IV THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP?

ON reviewing the results of our studies up to this point,
it will be apparent that we are still far from being in
possession of an adequate psychological explanation of the
phenomena of multiple personality, as manifested by this
case.

What has been shown is : 1st, the reality of a number of
distinct groups of mental states in the same individual,
and that these groups may be accurately characterized as
personalities ; 2d, the historical course of their develop-
ment; 3d, the etiological conditions which gave rise to
them, that is, the immediate exciting causes ; 4th, at times,
the coexistence and, autonomous activity of one particular
(B III) with each of the others ; 5th, the successive inter-
changing of each of the personalities. Finally the fact is
worth emphasizing that each one, if not interfered with by
the others or by the emotional shocks of her environment,
might have monopolized existence and pursued her social
life as any other freeborn citizen, — as B I actually did
for six years. In other words. Miss Beauchamp, if not
interfered with, might have continued indefinitely in any
one of her states.

In dealing in geneml with the broad problem of mul-
tiple, or, more correctly, disintegrated personality, several

232 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

important questions await us, such as, What is a person-
ality? Is there any particular normal real self? and,
What are the psychological or physiological alterations
which determine the division of personality and permit one
and the same individual to have multiple mental lives?
For the present, however, we are concerned only with the
specific problems of this specific case, and of these perhaps
the primary question at this particular epoch of this study
was : Which of the personalities is the true and original
Miss Beauchamp, or is any one of them she ? If not, where
is the real self ? What has become of her ? These ques-
tions had to be answered before the others could be solved.
It may be argued, and with force, that underlying this
question of the Real Miss Beauchamp is that of whether
there is any particular normal real self. It must be ad-
mitted that the question of what constitutes a normal and
real self is fundamental to the understanding of multiple
personality. " What constitutes a disintegrated self?" is
the same question in another form. It is a very practical
one, and enters more than is generally supposed into the
every-day clinical problems of the psychoses. A want of
proper consideration of this question has given rise in not
a few instances, as I view the matter, to a wrong interpre-
tation of the psychological phenomena of disintegrated per-
sonality. The conception has even been entertained that
any one of the secondary states into which the original self
may be broken up may be quite as normal as the original,
and may be equally entitled to be regarded as the " real self."
Indeed in specific instances the secondary self, or what has
been supposed to be a secondary self, has been considered
to be superior to the normal self. Thus, for instance,
Binet describes the " secondary " state of F^lida X. as
superior to the normal self, in that " all her faculties seem
to be more fully developed .and more complete." ^

1 AlteratiouB of Personality, p. 9.

IS NOT B IV THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP? 233

The suspicion does not seem to have arisen that the so-
called secondary state may have been the normal state ; and
yet this interpretation of the superior self's being a second-
ary one has come in not a few instances, as I hope to show
in another place, from mistaking a disintegrated state be-
cause first observed, for the real self and the real self for
a disintegrated state. The state which has been observed
secondarily in time has been assumed to be psychologically
secondary though it may well have been the normal state.^

Again, approaching the subject from a purely psycho-
logical point of view, it has been held that of the various
possible selves which may be formed out of the " mass of
consciousness " belonging to any given individual, there is
no particular real or normal self ; one may be just as real
and just as normal as another, excepting so far as one or the
other is best adapted to a particular environment. If the
environment were changed, another self might be the nor-
mal one. But the psychological point of view is too
limited. What test have we of adaptation? There is a
physiological point of view as well, and also a biological
point of view, from which personality must be considered.
A normal self must be able to adjust itself physiologically
to its environment, otherwise all soi-ts of perverted re-
actions of the body arise (anesthesia, instability, neuras-
thenic symptoms, etc.), along with psychological stigmata
(amnesia, suggestibility, etc.), and it becomes a sick self.
Common experience shows that, philosophize as you will,
there is an empirical self which may be designated the real
normal self. However, I shall put aside this question for
tlie present and assume that there is a normal self, a par-
ticular Miss Beauchamp, who is physiologically as well as
psychologically best adapted to any environment.

' Besides the cnse of Felida X., that of Marcelline R., reported by Dr. Jules
Janet, and that of Mary Reynolds, republished by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, may
be cited as further examples.

234 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

This self should be free from mental and physical stig-
mata (suggestibility, amnesia, aboulia, anesthesia, etc.),
which commonly characterize the disintegrated states mak-
ing up multiple personality. Such a self may be termed
the real self, in the sense that it is not an artificial
product of special influences, but the one which is the re-
sultant of the harmonious integration of all the processes,
both physiological and psychological, of the individual.
Any other self is a sick self. I shall return to this ques-
tion at another time and in another place. Meanwhile I
shall ask that this view be provisionally accepted, as I be-
lieve it will be justified in this case by the final outcome,
and that it can be shown to be the correct interpretation
of the phenomena of multiple personality.

In the hunt for the real self the greatest difficulty lay
in deciding between B I and B IV. Sally, whoever she
might be, was clearly not the original Miss Beauchamp,
and not a normal person. All the evidence pointed con-
clusively to the view that Sally, by all odds the most
interesting of the personalities, was some sort of a dis-
sociated group of conscious states, and therefore the psy-
chological explanation of this young lady was, to this
extent at least, comparatively simple.
^ The explanation that first suggested itself was that
which has already been given in the last chapter, namely,
that Miss Beauchamp was a somnambulistic personage, and
that B IV was the real and original self who had at last
waked up. As already pointed out, persons to whom this
has happened are not so very uncommon. Instances of this
mental accident are chronicled from time to time in the
daily press, and awaken more or less sensational interest.
Besides the cases already cited in the last chapter, another
and more recent case ^ is that of Charles W., who, after the

1 Reported by Dr. Edward E. Mayer, Jonmal of the American Medical
Association, December 14, 1901. This case in many ways resembles that of

IS NOT B IV THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP? 235

shock of a railway accident, changed in disposition and
other mental as well as bodily characteristics. Seventeen
years later, as the result of another shock, he woke up
with complete loss of memory for everything that had oc-
curred during this interval, and found himself married and
the father of four children ! On waking, he thought the
time was that immediately following the railway accident,
and his first words were, "Am I much hurt ? " When
asked if he would like to see his children he exclaimed, " I
am not married. It is a nice thing for a man twenty-four
years of age to wake up and be told that he is the father of
four children I "

While these studies in Miss Beauchamp's case were be-
ing pursued, another case of double personality, Mrs.

J n, came under my observation. Nine years before

she had been subjected to a mental shock, and ever since
had been in poor health and exhibited various nervous
symptoms. Thus far she resembled B I. One day, while
I was attempting to hypnotize her, she suddenly changed in
manner, her attitude and mode of speech became different
from what they had been, her symptoms vanished, her
memory for the past nine years became obliterated, and she
thought it was the morning of the day nine years before,
when she had received the nervous shock. She thought
she had come into the city to do some errands, as she had
done on that day, and that she was now on her way home.
This case disappeared from observation before I had a
chance to complete my study of it, but I was struck with
the resemblance of the new Mrs. J. to B IV, and the same
question arose. Is it the original personality who has
awakened out of somnambulism?

In respect to amnesia. Dr. Hodgson's case of Bourne, and

Miss Beauchamp, and possibly deeper study might have disclosed phenomena
which would require the same explanation which was finally arrived at in
Miss Beauchamp's case, instead of the interpretation given by Mayer,

236 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Dr. Mayer's case differed, to be sure, from that of Miss
Beauchamp. Bourne and Charles W. in their second states
had no memory of their previous lives, while B I's memory
was continuous for her whole life preceding the accident.
But we have seen that amnesia is in no way an essential
part of disintegrated personality. Sally indeed was with-
out amnesia, if we limit our tests to the facts of conduct
and external life and do not include those of the intellectual
processes.

There was no serious objection, then, to regarding B I as
a quasi-disintegmted somnambulistic person, in spite of the
continuity of her memory. According to this hypothesis,
the failure of B IV to remember the period following the
hospital accident in 1893 might be classed as what is known
as anterograde amnesia ; just as her loss of memory for
the short period intervening between her leaving the room
and the emotional shock in the doorway, that is, for the
period immediately preceding the shock, would be classed
as retrograde amnesia. The former is called anterograde
because it goes ahead of the emotional crisis, while the
retrograde amnesia involves a period of time antedating
the accident ; just as a person who has received a cerebral
concussion may lose all memory, not only for the acci-
dent itself, but for a definite period of time immediately
preceding it.

Following this point of view, if we suppose that Miss
Beauchamp had a severe emotional shock in the doorway of
the hospital, we may also suppose that she only partially
waked up after recoveiy from the emotion-psychosis, al-
though seeming comparatively nonnal. In this state she
may be supposed to have remained for six years, when she
awoke completely as B IV, with anterograde amnesia for
the preceding six years.

The somnambulistic theory, then, and the reawakening
of the original person, in spite of the persistence of memory

IS NOT B IV THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP? 237

in B I, was the simplest explanation of this strange case,
and was in accord with what we know may occur in certain
individuals of unstable mental equilibrium. There was
nothing forced or unusual in this theory. But it must be
borne in mind that this, though as yet only a working
hypothesis, had already borne fruit in leading to the dis-
covery of the hospital catastrophe and the scene in the
Public Library. The hypothesis rested thus far on inade-
quate data, and on inferences. There was much to be said
in its favor. It explained the various peculiarities of
memory and behavior in B IV on her first appearance, and
by it many peculiarities manifested by Miss Beauchamp
herself became intelligible. Some of these latter pheno-
mena were difficult to reconcile with a normal personality,
even though neurasthenic. They plainly were the stig-
mata of hysteria, and if Miss Beauchamp was a disin-
tegrated personality, as the hypothesis made her, she would
be expected to exhibit them.

Among the most striking of these phenomena may be
instanced : her aboulia ; her extreme suggestibility in the
waking state ; her impressionability to her environment ;
the ease with which visions and negative hallucinations
were created ; the dissociation of consciousness by which
another coexistent personality (B III) manifested automa-
tisms ; the mobility of her neurasthenia, exhibited by the
rapidity with which it was induced by a passing emotion
and removed by a suggestion ; and finally, the way in which
the ideas and emotions of the moment dominated her mmd
to the exclusion of everything else and acquired an inten-
sity unusual in normal minds. The intensity of her
religious feelings may be recalled in illustration of the
last. Whether the very saintliness of her character, her
absolute freedom from the petty weaknesses which char-
acteiize liuman nature, is compatible with a normal human
being, I do not pass upon. I merel}^ point out that no one

238 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

seems ever to have observed in her irritability of temper,
rudeness of speech, retaliation for injury, jealousy, envy,
or malice, which in some degree characterize stronger
mortals.

Then, too, the hypothesis made attractively simple why
B IV, on her first appearance, imagined that she was living
at almost the exact time and place that she went to sleep,
so to speak, six years previously. Her apparent health,
also, both mental and physical, supported the hypothesis.

The chief obstacles to the verification of the hypothesis
were : lack of personal knowledge of Miss Beauchamp's
character before the accident of 1893 ; B IV's obstinate
refusal to disclose her own present mental life, and Sally's
ignorance of it, Sally chafed, too, at being obliged to talk
psychology and " that kind of stuff," so that it was difficult
to get much out of her. One day, however, she gave a
flood of information regarding the personality of B IV,
much of which has already been related in Chapters XI
and XIII. Sally became for the moment serious and
earnest, showing great intelligence and perspicacity in her
analysis of the psychological and other facts. She discussed
them with intelligence and interest, went over the history
of the past year, explained many facts which were obscure,
and recalled others which I had overlooked. Reference
to my notebook showed that Sally's memory was correct.^
Her theory of B IV, which she was careful to explain was
only a theory, was afterward written out by her at length.

[Notebook.] " Sally prefaced her theory by saying with some
diffidence that she did not know whether or not she was right.
She thinks the Idiot like Miss Beauchamp as she used to be,

1 The accuracy of Sally's memory was extraordinary, and would furnish
a study in itself. I have known her to repeat word for word the contents
of a letter written a long time previously, and she could remember the minutest
details of incidents such as I could not possibly remember, but could verify by
my records. It is also true that all t)ie persoualities have extraordinarily accu-
rate memories for their own respective lives.

IS NOT B IV THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP? 239

but not 'up to date.' She is like Miss Beauchamp as slae was
wheu a young girl about fourteen years of age, and ' Jones says
so too.' [About years and dates Sally is not accurate, having
very little comprehension of time ; twenty years and fourteen
would be the same to her.] ■ She thinks the Idiot goes back
mentally to about the time of the hospital episode, when she
received the mental shock. She does not mean that to the Idiot
it is exactly that time, but that she is living in her imagination
at about that time, and has forgotten all between that time and
now. ' Don't you remember,' said Sally, ' that she did not
know you when she first came, and thought you had come
through the window? She thought the time was that of the hos-
pital affair. You remember she did n't recognize your office at
her first visit here, and she only half knows you. She does n't
know much about you. She goes back partly to old times, with
a sprinkling of modern times ; that is, she is always fishing and
guessing, and what she gets from modern times she gets by
suggestions from other people. When she is talking with Jones
she almost invariably goes back to old times and speaks of
them as if they were present. I think she has impressions as
if she were living at that time. She knoios it is n't years ago,
but all the same she talks hardly at all of things that have hap-
pened between, excepting wheu people suggest to her events
that have happened since.' "

Sally then went on to illustrate her views by recalling
various facts, such as that the Idiot had referred to Mrs.
X. by her maiden name. Miss D. (Miss D. had been mar-
ried since the hospital affair), that she kept calling Dr.
Hodgson Dr. Y., some one she had known in Providence,
and that she had written Jones two letters (destroyed by
Sally) referring to hospital times as if she were still living
in them, etc.

" She knows," Sally argued, " everything relating to the
present that has occurred while she herself is in existence,
and guesses from what she sees and hears about the times
when she is ' dead.' "

The rest of Sally's statement may be briefly summarized

240 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

as follows : B IV and B II were not identical because she
(Sally) knew the thoughts of B II but not of B IV ; B IV
never appeared until June 7 ; B II knew all about B I
while B IV knew nothing of her ; B II had no spontaneity,
but confined herself simply to answering questions like a
person in hypnosis ; and the Idiot was without the maturity
which the last six years' experience, if she had had it,
would have given her.

In other woids, according to Sally's idea, the problem
was very simple : B IV, the original Miss Beauchamp (as
she was before the nervous shock at Providence), now
waking up, after a six years' sleep, had not as yet become
accustomed to the changed circumstances in which she
found herself. As all her associations were those of the
year 1893, she went back in her mind to tliat time and
spoke and acted as if she were living then. She was not
actually under the delusion that she was living then, for
she had learned the contrary, but her thoughts kept relaps-
ing from time to time.

These latter statements were observations of fact about
which there was no question. Whether the inference was
justifiable that this personality was the original self was
another question, and largely depended upon the deter-
mination of her character, and of her mental and physical
qualities as well as memories.

The question then, whether this personality was the
original self or not, was of the greatest importance, for on
its solution hung Miss Beauchamp's fate. Plainly, if
B IV were the real self, she must be kept and the others
annihilated. Poor Miss Beauchamp, the saint, whom we
knew so well, whom we had protected and cared for,
would be only a dissociated personality, a somnambulist,
and must no longer be allowed to live. This person must
never be seen again. Every friendly association must be
broken as through physical death. But how obtain the

IS NOT B IV THE EEAL MISS BEAUCIIAMP ? 241

evidence sufficient for proof ? Here were two people,
either of whom might be the real self, while there was no
reason to suspect that there was any other personality not
yet known. Which was the real one ? The only way to
solve the problem was to study the personalities day by
day ; to follow every thread of evidence ; to study the
characteristics, the habits, the memories, the thoughts, the
mental reactions of each ; to determine which personality
was comportable with abnormality and which with nor-
mality, and so find the real seK ; then, regardless of per-
sonal associations, annihilate the other.

The difficulty of understanding the Idiot is illustrated
by the fact that even Sally, upon the very day she elabo-
rated her theory, began to wobble a bit in her opinion.

"I am sending you the letters/' she wrote, "the spooky
message,^ and also some objections to my theory concerning the
Idiot, though I am afraid you know all about her and have
only been teasing me to-day. But if she really is Miss B.,
why is she so unlike her in some ways ; for instance, in being
so awfully impatient and quick-tempered? Miss B. never was.
And in telling lies, and forgetting, and all that sort of
thing — that isn't like Miss B. really, not in the least — nor
even like me, bad as you all think me. And then she knows
some things that we have acquired recently, as shorthand,
though I believe she fishes for her shorthand in some such way as
she does for other things. But you know best. Do let me help
you, if I can. I never dreamed of all this stuff making any dif-
ference, or being of any real interest in your work, — and even
now I don't quite see its importance? But I will tell you every-
thing I can, nevertheless, and if you won't please criticise the
. . . letters, perhaps I may get them or copies of them for you.
Shall I, or are they too old now ? "

These objections could not be taken too seriously. All
the departures noticed by Sally from Miss Beauchamp's

1 Some automatic writing.
16

242 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

foiiner habits of thought and conduct could be logically
explained by the change of times, circumstances, and con-
ditions in which she found herself. The saintliest of
characters might find a justification in prevaricating and
fibbing if she should wake up after a six yeai-s' sleep to
find herself in a strange land and among strange people,
who not only had an unaccountable familiarity with her
life, but were constantly inquiring into and managing
her affairs and herself. Such a saint could hardly be ex-
pected to be patient under the surveillance of a stranger,
or to submit to it without remonstrance. If there were
some old acquaintances as well as strangers, times had
changed and B IV could not be expected to realize the
change in her relations to former friends thus brought
about. Also, Sally did not know what B IV really
thought, so her moral criticisms, which, after all, were
made from the point of view of a child, could not be taken
too seriously. She was shocked as a child might be.

A psychological objection to B I V's being the Real Miss
Beauchamp lay in the very fact that Sally did not know
her thoughts, as she knew those of Miss Beauchamp before
1893. But it might be argued that some internal modi-
fication had occurred, and it did not seem safe to lay too
much stress upon this fact.

One day (November 1) I took the Idiot into my con-
fidence and explained what we were trying to do to help
her, her relations to her new friends, how it had come
about that she was under professional care, and some
things of her past life which were unknown to her, but
nothing of the hospital accident in 1893. Confidence begets
confidence. She listened intently to the story which made
clear the conditions in which she had found herself mys-
teriously placed; the fact, previously incomprehensible,
that we were not strangers, but friends of long standing ;
and finally, the motives of those of us who were interested

IS NOT B IV THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP ? 243

in her welfare. It all came to her as a revelation, and she
seemed deeply grateful. For the first time she became
candid, natural, and frank. Apparently desirous of coop-
erating in every way, without knowing that I had already
been informed by Sally {October 26), she told her side of the
story of the episode of June 7 (already narrated) ,i and gave
a full account of her childhood up to the eventful evening
in the hospital in 1893. Of this early hfe she exhibited
a complete knowledge up to that date. Now for the first
time she admitted the periods of amnesia which had been
proved against her over and over again, and explained her
apparent knowledge of these periods. It came from, first,
what had been told her, and guessing and inferring (she
has learned from friends that she was lately taught short-
hand, and is thus able to account for her knowledge of this
subject) ; second, occasionally from certain things coming
hazily and unconsciously into her mind out of the nowhere,
without connection with anything else ; third, from volun-
tarily producing visions ; and fourth, from " fixing her
mind." She gave an exhibition of the last method. Her
knowledge of her life in college, relatively meagre as it is,
has been supplemented by frequent references made to it by
her friends.

In all these ways she has artfully gained considerable
knowledge of certain blank periods in her life ; enough to
convey to an ordinary observer the impression that she
knows all. B IV — she can no longer be called the Idiot
— further very frankly explained her motives for not ad-
mitting her ignorance. She thought that she would veri-
tably appear as an " idiot " if she seemed not to know about
herself. As most of her present acquaintances, including
myself, are strangers to her, she is reticent about confiding

* This was the occasion described in Chapter XIII, when IV corroborated
Sally's statement, and had the crystal vision of the scene outside the hospital
door.

244 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

her affairs to them. It was difficult, she went on to say,
to realize that I knew her well, and she found it hard to
accommodate herself to this idea.

As B IV told her story, her whole line of conduct seemed
consistent with rationalism from her point of view. It is
worth while pointing out here that the accuracy of B IV's
statements was shown by the fact that frequently when my
memory of the events (which I knew about personally)* was
at fault, B IV corrected me, and always rightly, as shown
by my records. B IV herself, at a later period, analyzed her
conduct in a way that gave it a rational interpretation.

"I am afraid," she wrote, " I can hardly analyze my conduct
toward you. It has depended partly on my own mood, and
partly on the spirit in which it seemed you met me. I dis-
liked exceedingly your assuming such control over me, as
if I were indeed as helpless as I felt. And I disliked, too,
your continually calling me to account for things I had said
and doire — things I could not possibly remember at the mo-
ment, with your ' eagle eye ' fixed upon me. You had me
at the greatest disadvantage always — a disadvantage which
should have taught me humility and a becoming submission,
I suppose. But it did not. It simply annoyed and irritated
me, and made me determine not to give in to you. I
thought you could not know the things you asserted, while
practically every one else was ignorant of them. Your as-
sertions must be founded on the same bases as my own,
and they were worth no more. I would deny everything,
defy you, and fight it out. And in doing this I quickly saw
that, to a certain extent at least, I was right. You were
puzzled. You half believed what I said. And so I kept
on. Does this make it clear to you? Rather a disgraceful
confession, is it not? but you would have it. ... I believe
— I do, really — in spite of the preceding, that once upon a
time I used to be almost morbidly conscientious in regard to
the truth, even refraining from the use of many conventional,
every-day — "

IS NOT B IV THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP? 245

This was unfinished, as if at this point she had changed
to Sally — a common experience with the two superior
members of the family.

B IV was so natural and simple during the interview
which has just been described, and explained her point of
view so logically, that the hypothesis that she was the real
and original self gained greatly in favor. The evidence for
this view had become exceedingly strong. From the data
thus far accumulated it seemed fairly certain that she was
the real Miss Beauchamp, and therefore, if we were to bring
about a cure, must be made to stay, while the Miss Beau-
champ who up to this time had been the object of our care,
had been educated in college, had been the solicitude of
many friends, who belonged to a circle in which she was
literally beloved and respected by every one with whom she
was brought into close contact, — this Miss Beauchamp was
not, properly speaking, a real person, but a dissociated per-
sonality, a quasi-somnambulist, rightfully distinguished as
B I. She must be made to disappear, to go back into the
unknown whence she came. This, under the hypothesis,
seemed to be the hard logic of events.

The situation was a dramatic one. If one pauses to think
over all that this meant, and to apply it to oneself (for each
one of these personalities is as individual as any one of us),
one can realize the full meaning of the verdict that a self,
with all its memories, feelings, and sentiments, must be
annihilated. It was the annihilation of the individual.

The evidence seemed to be sufficiently strong to justify
the hypothesis being accepted, provisionally at least, and
B I was condemned to be sacrificed. So all therapeutic
effort was directed toward extinguishing B I and keeping
B IV in existence. As a matter of fact, during the
summer and autumn the new character had tended spon-
taneously to keep more and more in existence, while Miss
Beauchamp receded correspondingly into oblivion. The

246 THE DISSOCIATION OP' A PERSONALITY

latter's discouragement grew as she found herself, not-
withstanding improved physical health, apparently relaps-
ing mentally more and more. What we thought was a
return to health (B IV) to her was increasing ailment.
If the disagreeable job had to be done, the quicker and
more thoroughly the better. So again and again by sug-
gestion she was changed to B IV. Sally's cooperation
was also secured ; she agreed to extinguish B I as often
as she came, and to transform her to B IV. So between
us B I had but few moments of existence. It seemed to
her, when she did come, that her malady was hopeless, and
her discouragement became overwhelming.

After this had been going on for some time Sally, who
was on her good behavior and in a helpful mood (in con-
sequence of a threat to send her to an asylum), one day
" folded herself up," ^ fixed her thoughts upon B I, and
as she did so a change came over her and Miss Beau-
champ was in her place. At once the vivaciousness and
gayety of Sally were gone, and in place of smiles and fun
her face wore an expression of weariness and sadness.
She was manifestly agitated. What was going on in her
mind was plain : she had awakened to find herself in my
ofl&ce, without remembrance or knowledge of how she
got there. The lights were burning, so that she knew
it was late, and from past experience guessed that she had
been there a long time — probably since early afternoon —
and, what always troubled her, had absorbed a correspond-
ing portion of my time. She had come to herself for the
first time in several days, and the consciousness of the time
she had lost, and of the increasing frequency of her relapses,
showing that her condition was growing worse instead of
better, — for to her the annihilation of self was increase of
disease, — all this gave her a feeling of hopelessness which

1 Sally's expression for patting herself into a state of abstraction and
changing herself to B I or to B IV.

IS NOT B IV THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP? 247

expressed itself in her face, in her voice, and in her every
movement. It was impossible to explain that her extinc-
tion meant the growth of her true self, of whom she knew
nothing.

As she sat before me, the embodiment of nervousness,
unable to keep her body in repose a single second, trying
to explain why she had come (which she did not know),
apologizing for detaining me, and finally wearily telling, in
response to my inquiry, her mental troubles, one would not
have been human not to sympathize with and pity her.
She told of how she was unceasingly losing time (what
I was trying to bring about), until she knew almost noth-
ing of the past week, of what she had done or what new
responsibilities had been assumed. For the first time she
missed the letters of Sally, for, stinging though they were,
they at least kept her informed of how her days had been
passed. Physically, she was a great deal better than she
had ever been, and she could not understand why she was
worse mentally. She had fought the fight, she said, and
had done her best, but in spite of all, her trouble was
increasing. To go on in this condition was impossible.
It would trouble no one, she thought, if she ended her
life, and she felt that she would be justified in doing so.

The most callous must have been moved by this pathetic
figure, hopeless and dejected. As she talked, my mind
went back over the events of the past two years. I re-
membered all that she had gone through — her trials,
anxieties, and physical sufferings — and the unending
patience with which she had borne not only the physical
ailments, the sleepless nights and days of pain, but the
false positions in which she was persistently placed, the
constant misconceptions by friends of her character and
actions, all unexplainable and about which she must be
silent, the taunts and jibes aimed at herself in Sally's
letters which she believed to be true, and the loss of pre-

248 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

cious possessions, to say nothing of the countless petty
daily annoyances, like the destruction of the product of
days and weeks of labor, — all this passed through my
mind. The patience with which it had been borne showed
a heroism rarely seen, even in the sick room. Though it
might be that she was not her real and original self, she
was as truly an individual as any one that ever lived. She
had her friends and associations, equally dear to her. Now
all her psychical life was disappearing, though what to
her was only deepening mental trouble was really, as we
believed, her salvation, the bringing of her true self. She
could not be told this, however. It would be impossi-
ble for her to be satisfied with a cure which was self-
annihilation ; and not only the annihilation of self, but of
her ideals and of every sentiment and thought she held
dear. It would be useless to tell her that she would, though
another character, still live, for that still meant the anni-
hilation of all her associations and memories of the past
six years. She could not understand who or what she was
to be, and how could this be sufficient for life ? It meant
too that she would become a character of whom she highly
disapproved, whose actions for months had caused her infi-
nite distress, and whose conduct, as she interpreted it
from her limited data, seemed to depart from the high
ideals which she had set before herself. Such a character
she could never reconcile herself to be.

In my thoughts the annihilation of Miss Beauchamp
seemed in no way different from saying that she must be
satisfied with death. It seemed hard to tell her that this
annihilation was being purposely brought about. It seemed
kinder to let her disappear, ignorant of her coming fate,
unconscious of the future that awaited her as her Real
Self. There would be less mental pain for her, — and
yet, it seemed like a crime we were committing. It was a
psychical murder.

IS NOT B IV THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP ? 249

Venturing tentatively to hint at the question of self-
annihilation, I asked her whether she would be content to
get perfectly well, at the sacrifice of all memory of her life
from the hospital episode to the present time, remembering
everything before that event, and from this moment on.
As she thought about it she fell into a state of revery in
which she did not seem to hear my voice. Again her face
changed : the expression of weariness and sadness vanished,
and in its place was one of strength and self-reliance, as
of one quite capable of wrestling with the world. When
she spoke her voice too had changed, no longer expressing
discouragement, but the manner and thought of a person
in normal relations with her environment. The tone was
natural, dignified, and indicative of self-confidence. The
character of the personality had plainly changed. She had
no shattered ideals, no intensity of sentiment, no discour-
agement from overwhelming obstacles, but, content with
the conditions as she found them, she sought only to pro-
long her own personality. It was B IV.

B IV appeared to great advantage. Her conversation
was most natural and rational in contrast with those pre-
vious interviews, taken up as they had been with tiresome
debate. In extenuation of her habit of bringing visions,
she said that this was the only practical way she had of
informing herself of what had happened in her life, of her
relations to other people and events. She then went on
to explain the embarrassing positions in which she was
constantly being placed. She would find herself in strange
places without any idea of how she got there, talking to
strange people, and in intimate relationship witli persons
whom she did not know. People talked to her as if she
were familiar with things of which she knew nothing, and
as if she had done things of which she was totally igno-
rant. She was thus constiintly placed in embarrassing
positions, and was afraid of appearing like an idiot if she

250 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

confessed her ignorance. Thus it was that she had got
into the habit of fishing, inferring, and guessing ; pretend-
ing to know things about which she was absolutely ig-
norant. She most frankly described how she quibbled,
evaded, guessed, and jumped at conclusions which were
often wrong. Thus the habit of fibbing had grown up to
conceal her ignorance.

Believing that this at last was the Real Miss Beauchamp,
I told her she was entitled to know everytliing, and in
time should know all (meaning the phenomena of per-
sonalities). I then explained briefly that she had re-
ceived a shock in the hospital at Providence (emphasis
being put upon the fright from the lightning and from the
delirious patient, though Jones was mentioned), in conse-
quence of which she had changed, and that now, from time
to time, she continued to change so as to lose and regain
her memories. I explained the two personalities, B I and
B IV, but said nothing of Sally or of the real shock. To
this she replied that if this were all she was content to
wait for a full explanation. She had inferred that there
had been some terrible calamity which we were trying
to keep from her.

No one, hearing the conversation and regarding her,
could have recognized anything abnormal, or observed in
B IV any characteristics other than those of an intelligent
person. She was not discouraged, as was Miss Beau-
champ ; only annoyed at difficulties to be overcome. Her
earnestness in telling her story was convincing. Finally
she rose to go, apparently relieved in her mind, and ready
to pursue any course essential for a cure. As she went
out of the door she turned, and Sally's face smiled at me.
" Rubbish," said Sally, and ran off laughing.

And it waa "rubbish," in one sense. Although B IV
spoke the truth, she was not the Real Miss Beauchamp
after all ; neither was B I.

CHAPTER XV

DISSOCIATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS: AMNESIA

"TTTTTICHEVER was the real self, B I or B IV, the other
Y V was a dissociated group of conscious states, and the
memories lost to one were not destroyed, only dissociated ;
they reappeared when the proper personality awakened.
But this knowledge in no way solved the problem. There
was nothing for it but to make a study of the " Idiot."
This study was continued over a period of several months,
during which, against every obstacle, a fact here and a fact
there were obtained, until, a large number being accumu-
lated, each was fitted in so far as possible in its proper place
in the psychological puzzle. Some of these data bore upon
the hypothesis in question, while others threw light upon
the individuality of B IV. Sometimes a paradoxical phe-
nomenon would be observed, like that of the remembrance
by the Idiot of episodes in the life of B I which seemed
to controvert the apparently esteiblished amnesia. Only
later, after some weeks of observation, would the explana-
tion of the paradox be discovered in phenomena purposely
concealed from me. This study, indeed, had been going
on for some weeks before the secret of the Providence I
catastrophe was wrung out of the personalities, though the
probability of some such occurrence had been suggested
by the hypothesis itself.

Before these biographical details were known, the ex-
tent of B IV's memory, one of the most important ques-
tions to be solved, had already been determined.

This determination of memory may seem easy enough,
but the inquiry was hampered, as already pointed out, by

252 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

two circumstances : first, I V's claim that she remembered
everything; and second, the fact that she did get at certain
isolated incidents in B I's career, a fact which was paradox-
ical, at least, and seemed to substantiate her claim. These
latter phenomena, which proved in fact to be phenomena of
abstraction, became a very interesting subject of study.

As to the first, it led to the tiresome sparring at every
interview, and brought out the curious fact that, during
the early months at least of her career, she was not wholly
conscious of the gaps in the continuity of her memory cor-
responding to those times when B I and Sally were on the
stage. One event seemed to slide into the next without
regard to the interval of oblivion which really existed for
times when she changed to one of the others. Still, this
in no way exonerates her from the persistent, unyielding
determination, like a defeated political candidate, to admit
nothing and claim everything. Every interview was begun
in this way. It was only by convicting her out of her
own mouth of deliberate fibbing that, staggered by the
evidence, she would break down, and confess the ignorance
she exhibited. Then she would acquiesce and become
obedient — until the next interview.

For instance : Sally or Miss Beauchamp, while convers-
ing would change to the Idiot, who at once would be put
through a rigid examination as to the events of the pre-
vious half-hour or so. You could almost see lier mind
working, as she first parried the questions, then fished, then
guessed and inferred, all the time being led on to put her-
self deeper in the mire. Finally, when well in, she would
be told the real facts, which, as they had occurred under
my own eye, she saw there was no use in denying. Thus
she always had to be beaten to a finish before she could
be controlled.^

* In farther corroboration of this ignorance were her actions, which were
in entire accordance therewith. She was constantly getting herself into

DISSOCIATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS 253

The sciuppy, fragmentary, and apparently paradoxical
memory of the life of B I which she manifested was at first
puzzling, particularly as it was difficult to determine how
extensive this memory was. A study of these pamdoxi-
cal bits of memory showed that they could be divided
into three classes of psychical phenomena, which are
of importance not only in solving the riddle of Miss
Beauchamp, but in understanding the problem of multiple
personality :

(1) those which were a spontaneous synthesizing with
her own personal self of isolated fragmentary memory pic-
tures belonging to B I ; (2) those which were phenomena
of abstraction; (3) those which were artificially induced
visions, — so-called " crystal visions."

These three classes differ from one another not so much
in principle as in detail and process.

The first class comprised memory flashes which were
perfectly spontaneous, uninfluenced by any volitional effort
of her own. They were the emerging into her mind of
isolated memory images, such as a name, a face, or a place,
which seemed to come from out of nowhere, without any
connection with anything else. These did not bring with
them any extended associations and were unimportant so
far as affording definite aid in adapting herself to her envi-
ronment went. Finding herself speaking with an apparent
stranger, for instance, the correct name of this person
would flash into her mind, or the face of an apparent
stranger in a street-car would suddenly become familiar,
but there was nothing more extensive than this. Of this
character was the recollection (?) and mention of my name
on the evening of her first appearance, June 7. As she
afterwards explained, the name came into her mind, but it

trouble, doing things entirely ag<ainst her own interests, and, like B I, allow-
ing herself to be the victim of Sally, — all in consequence of her ignorance of
her other life.

254 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

might just as well have been Smith, Brown, or Robinson,
for all that it conveyed to her.^ (Appendix D.)

The second class of memory phenomena was due to an
artifice which she secretly employed. It consisted in " fix-
ing her mind," as she called it ; or, more technically, using
the process of abstraction in the same way that it is used
for experimental purposes to get at subconscious ideas. A
specific instance will give an idea of the way she employed
this method and the results obtained :

On one occasion (October 20), to test the extent of her
memory for the past, she was asked if she could remember
the first time I saw her. I supposed that she would men-
tion the incident of the previous June 7, the day of her
first appearance. To my surprise, she described with
accuracy the day when Miss Beauchamp, while a student
in College, for the first time appeared for a profes-
sional consultation, a year and a half before. She stated
the various ailments of which Miss Beauchamp had com-
plained, and the details of the prescriptions and directions
given her, and even described my clothes.

" How long ago was that ? "

" It was four or five years ago — I don't remamber
exactly." Tries hard to remember. (Note the inability to
measure the time.)

" Through whom did you come to see me ? "

"Through Miss D. — Mrs. X. — she wasn't Mrs. X.
then — Miss D." (Correct.)

Similarly, B IV described the New Haven escapade — at
least, as much of it as belonged to B I and herself, but
nothing of Sally's part. At first, her memory was very
hazy, but by taking her through each step in succession, and
by allowing her to think hard she recalled the events. On
a previous occasion, before she used her " mind-fixing "

» Cliapter XI, p. 172.

DISSOCIATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS 255

process, she could not recall this adventure. This memory,
in contrast with her amnesia, seemed paradoxical.

Here was evidence of quite an extensive memory of the
life of B I, showing apparently that the division of person-
alities was not as complete as previous observations had
seemed to indicate. At the time, the contradictory evi-
dence was puzzling. Later, she confessed the trick. When
she appeared to the onlooker to be in deep thought she
was, in reality, in a condition of abstraction.

She now demonstrates the device in my presence. She
puts herself into a condition of mental abstraction, appear-
ing partly oblivious of her surroundings, like a person in
deep concentration of thought. She looks straight before
her, fixedly, in the distance. She sees me, dressed as I was
then, hears my voice and is able to reproduce the whole
scene more accurately than she could possibly do by simple
memory. While abstracted, she fails to hear when spoken to.

Later, I frequently caught her trying to use this trick.
When prevented from falling into the condition of ab-
straction she failed to remember.

The third class of memory phenomena, that of visions,
was similar in every way to the crystal visions which had
been experimentally induced in Miss Beauchamp.

In the case of B IV, we know that the amnesia was not
absolute, because the lost memories were retained in the
mental life of B I. But suppose that B I had not reap-
peared after B I V's advent — should we have been justified
in concluding that the memory of the previous six years
had been obliterated for good? This phenomenon would
have proven that the memories of B I's life were only dis-
sociated, and that by a proper device they might be resyn-
thesized. In principle, the amnesia of B IV and B I
resembles in every way the hysterical anesthesia which
has already been discussed, only that the amnesia involv-
ing large groups of memory experiences is more complex.

256 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Some observations made by Dr. Boris Sidis and myself

on the subject M 1,^ already mentioned, may be cited

in evidence of dissociation being the basis of hysterical

amnesia. M 1 was put artificially into a state in which

he lost all memory of the experiences gained during the pre-
vious five years, including his knowledge of the English
language. His memories were only those which he pos-
sessed five years previously, while he was Uving in his home
in Russia. He therefore believed himself to be sixteen
years old, and to be living in his native town. He under-
stood and spoke only his native dialect, Russo-German.

This state in every way resembled one which B IV spon-
taneously entered on several occasions (Chapter XXVI, B
IV b) when she thought she was living seven or eight
years before in Providence, in fact was living in the hos-
pital. Her memories were limited to that period. Now
to show that in the case of M 1 the memory of the En-
glish language was not lost, but only dissociated from the
personal consciousness of the time being, and that it could
be tapped and made to manifest itself, he was engaged in
conversation in his native tongue by Dr. Sidis. While he
was thus conversing, I stepped behind him and whispered
in his ear in English that he should raise his right hand.
At once his right hand was raised. Similarly he was asked
in English where he was now living. In the midst of a
German sentence, he interpolated the answer " Boston."
Although his personal consciousness did not understand
the words addressed in English, the dissociated conscious
states responded.

Again Miss Beauchamp falls into a state of extreme dis-
integration (on one occasion as an after effect of etheriza-
tion, and on another from causes not necessary to mention
now). She does not recognize me or her suiToundings, nor
know her own name. She does not know the day of the

1 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, June 23, 1904.

DISSOCIATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS 257

week, and little or nothing about herself. She is in a de-
lirious state, showing some temper when restrained, and
keeps repeating a stereotyped phrase over and over again
in a most tiresome way, " Let me go," " Let me go." Eveiy
question brings out only this response. I whisper in her
ear that she is to answer my questions by raising her right
hand for "yes" and her left hand for "no." She is then
asked in a whisper the day of the week, the days being
slowly recited to her. When the correct day, Thursday,
is mentioned, the right hand is raised, while the left is
raised when the other days are mentioned, this in the midst
of the eternal repetition of her tiresome phrase. In this
way she signals she does not want to go, recognizes my
name and the place where she is, and gives much other
information, showing the momentary presence of a dissoci-
ated sane consciousness coexisting with the poor dissociated
one. In the same way she answers by speech. The deli-
rious consciousness was unaware of the whispered ques-
tions and of the subconscious sane replies. The second
consciousness, as was afterwards shown, was not Sally.
Such observations show the character of this kind of am-
nesia, but in these experiments no attempts were made at
synthesizing the disintegrated fragments of consciousness.

These phenomena confirm what Janet has so strongly
insisted upon as the characteristic of hysterical amnesia ;
namely, that from one point of view it is not amnesia at all,
that the lost memories are conserved, but so dissociated from
the personal consciousness that they cannot be recalled.
They can, however, be awakened as automatic phenomena.

The classical case of Mme. D. is a good illustration of
extensive amnesia of this kind in an otherwise intelligent
mind. It was studied by Charcot,^ and later by Souques,^
and Janet.^ On August 28, 1891, the poor woman received

1 Revue de Mcdecine, February, 1892. * Revue de Medecine, May, 1892.
8 Mental State of Hystericals, p. 90.
17

258 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

a terrible mental shock. She was working in her house
when suddenly a strange man entered and roughly called
out to her, " Your husband is dead. They are bringing
him home. Prepare a bed, Madame D." The news was
false, but the neighbors assembled and there was much
emotional excitement. In the midst of it one of the
women, seeing the husband approaching in the distance,
was unfortunate enough to cry out, " There he is ! " On
hearing these words, Mme. D., believing that her hus-
band was being brought home dead, fell into a hysterical
attack, characterized by delirium and convulsions. This
attack lasted three days. At the end of that time Madame
D. came to herself, but then it was found that a curious
thing had happened. She had forgotten everything that
had occurred since July 14, six weeks previous to the
shock, — a retrograde amnesia. But this was not all. She
continued to forget everything that happened, everything
she experienced, as fast as it occurred, hour by hour and
minute by minute. (This is called continuous amnesia.)
She lived her life as usual, but under the restrictions of
this amnesia, which lasted nine months, until May, 1892.
Among other experiences she was bitten by a mad dog, and
was taken to Paris to the Pasteur Institute to be immun-
ized. Her husband, taking advantage of her being in Paris,
brought her to Charcot, at the Salpetriere, November 23.
She had no recollection whatever of anything that had
taken place subsequent to July 14. For everything pre-
vious to that date her memory was good. She remembered
nothing of the accident that caused her troubles, nothing of
being bitten by the dog, of the journey to Paris, or of being
treated at the Pasteur Institute. Later, after having been
some time at the hospital, she could not remember, at any
particular moment, where she was, or recall the names of
those whom she daily met. Charcot was the sole exception.
She had seen his portrait before July 14, and remembered
his face. (Appendix E.)

DISSOCIATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS 259

Now it was easy to show that these lost memories were
only dissociated, and not absolutely effaced. In the first
place the patient was heard to talk in her sleep ; that is,
she dreamed about events which had occurred during the
periods of the retrograde and anterograde amnesia. " That
dirty dog," for instance, she said, " he has bitten me and
torn my dress." In the second place, when hypnotized
she recalled all the forgotten events and related them with
exactness. She recounted the scene of August 28, the
bite of the dog, her arrival in Paris, her inoculation against
rabies, her visits in Paris, her entrance in the Salpetriere,
etc., with striking care and accuracy.

It thus was shown that in hypnosis the memories of past
experiences were associated among themselves, systema-
tized, and preserved, as if in the memory of a second per-
sonaUty. Janet, experimenting still further on the same
subject, showed that the lost memories could be recovered
in the waking state by the process of abstraction and auto-
matic writing. The memorial images, therefore, were not
obliterated but were merely dissociated from the wak-
ing personality. It required only a device to awaken
the systematized memories, dissociated from the personal
consciousness.

But the facts were something more than this. It was
not alone that by an artifice Mme. D. was made to recall
what she had forgotten. We do this in a different way
every day of our lives. It is rather that at a time when
the subject is unable to remember anything of a certain
period, at this same time while in another state, she pos-
sesses completely the lost memories, and loses them again
when she goes back to the waking state. With the alter-
nating states there is an alternation of memory and amnesia,
but during amnesia the memories almost seem to be wait-
ing, as it were, to be recalled by the proper signal or
device.

260 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

The case of Mr. Hanna, studied by Sidis and Goodhart,*
also illustrates this principle. Mr. Hanna, it will be re-
membered, in consequence of a slight accident, suddenly,
like Mary Reynolds, lost all recollection of his previous
life. When he came to himself he could remember nothing
that he had learned. He could not understand or speak
the English language. The names of objects, and even their
uses, were unknown to him. He did not know the mean-
ing of an apple, or a pencil, or anything else. Even spatial
relations were not recognized. The objective world seemed
flat, and without perapective. In short, as far as his mem-
ory went, his mind was that of an infant ; but it was that
of an adult in its capacity to think, to reason, and to form
judgments. It became necessary to begin his education
over again, as with a child, teaching him to speak, to un-
derstand, to write, and to recognize objects and their
uses.

By the process of abstraction — for which Sidis coins the
word hypnoidization — vivid memory-pictures were awak-
ened. Hanna was made to close his eyes, to " listen with
all possible effort and attention to the reading of the
Hebrew " scriptures, or anything else. While his atten-
tion is thus distracted "events, names of persons, of
places, sentences, phrases, whole paragraphs of books totally
lapsed from memory, and in languages the very words of
which sounded bizarre to his ears and the meaning of
which was to him inscrutable — all that flashed lightning-
like on the patient's mind. So successful was this method,
that on one occasion the patient was frightened by the
flood of memories that rose suddenly from the obscure sub-
conscious regions, deluged his mind, and were expressed
aloud, only to be forgotten the next moment. To the

* Multiple Personality (D. Appleton & Co., 1905); p. 95 et seq. See also
"The Psychology of Snggestiou," by Boris Sidi.s, 1898.

DISSOCIATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS 261

patient himself it appeared as if another being took posses-
- sion of his tongue." ^ As with B IV, sometimes these
memories, instead of being complex pictures, were scrappy,
— mere flashes in the pan.^

The " mind-fixing " remembrances of B IV have their
counterpart in these and similar observations. The condi-
tion of abstraction into which B IV put herself was one
of semi-hypnosis, — one in which experimentation, in her
case as well as in Mr. Hanna's, has shown it is easy for
sensory automatisms, that is, visual and auditory repre-
sentations, or memorial pictures of past experiences, to
arise. These memory-pictures were the same in principle
as those which flashed into B IV's consciousness when she
" fixed her mind," and the method was the same. There
was this difference : with Hanna these revived experiences
were never recognized as in any way familiar; in B IV's
case the synthesis of memory with the personal conscious-
ness was more complete, for the visualized and other
memories were recognized as her own experiences and
remembered as her own.

In the case of B IV the spontaneous "scrappy" mem-
ories were of the same nature, though they did not occur
in states of abstraction, but more closely resembled ordinary
but partial memory. They were the incomplete synthe-
sizing of the dissociated memories belonging to state B I.
The difficulty in determining all this was due to the per-
sistent concealment of the facts by B IV.

Associated with this class of memory flashes there was

often experienced another phenomenon which was liable to

be the cause of embarrassment. The recognition of this

• phenomenon is of practical importance as it is not rarely

observed in the neurasthenic psychoses. It was the sudden

^ The Psychology of Suggestion, Boris Sidis ; p. 224.
2 Multiple Personality, p. 143.

262 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

awakening of an apparently paradoxical emotion in connec-
tion with a strange person or place, or in consequence of a
reference by some one to an apparently unknown event.
Or, the emotion might arise in connection with a memory
flash, but in neither case was there to B IV any account-
able reason for the emotion. It can be imagined that the
experiences were disagreeable enough. To find yourself
suddenly, without rhyme or reason, feeling an intense emo-
tion in connection with something or other which you
scarcely remember to have seen or heard of before is
annoying, at least.

The explanation was not difficult. These experiences
were plainly emotional automatisms, and, as such, associa-
tion phenomena connected with experiences in the life of
B I. They belonged to a class of phenomena which I have
termed association neuroses.^ They differed essentially from
the subconscious fears described in Chapter VIII. Those
emotions belonged to ideas which were subconscious, and
invaded the waking consciousness without the memories to
which they were attached. But B I's- mental life was not
subconscious in respect to B IV. It was dissociated, for-
gotten, but not subconscious. These paradoxical emotions
were not, then, excited by subconscious memories, but by
perceptions (of persons, places, etc.) which were in the pri-
mary consciousness. The memories associated with these
perceptions belonged entirely nevertheless to B I's con-
sciousness and therefore were forgotten ; nevertheless the
visual, auditory, and other images of a person or a place,
or whatever it might be, aroused in B IV, in spite of her
amnesia, the emotions which had been previously associated
by B I with these images. The visual image of anything
with which any emotion had been associated in B I re-

1 " Association Nenroses," Jonm. of Nervons and Mental Diseases, May,
1891. "Three Cases of Association Neuroses," John E. Donley, M. D.
Boston Med. and Sorg. Jonrn., Nov. 3, 1904.

DISSOCIATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS 263

excited in B IV that emotion, although the associated expe-
rience had belonged to B I.

The same thing in principle one frequently observes as a
neurosis in so-called neurasthenics. Mrs. W., for instance,
while passing a certain house, suddenly experienced an emo-
tional symptom-complex (palpitation, feeling of suffocation,
general exhaustion, etc.). She had not noticed the neigh-
borhood and did not consciously recognize the house, which
resembles in design the neighboring houses in the same
block. Startled by her symptoms, she looked up, half in
search of a cause, and then for the first time recognized the
house she had just passed as a private hospital where three
years before she had had a very harrowing experience con-
nected with her child's illness. Associations of the hospital
are so unpleasantly strong that she cannot bring herself
even to engage a nurse connected with it. This experience
is similar to numerous others of the same kind which Mrs.
W. has had and in which the same symptoms have been ex-
cited by association of ideas. The explanation of this par-
ticular experience which first suggests itself is that Mrs. W.
subconsciously recognized the hospital as she was passing,
and that the subconscious unpleasant memories aroused the
symptoms. But a careful examination in hypnosis failed
to show any subconscious recognition or any perceptions
different from those of the waking consciousness. We
are forced to conclude that the peripheral visual images of
the house alone by pure association aroused the emotional
symptom complex, as an automatism.

Aside from the interest of unravelling the mysteries of
a particular case, the psychological importance of these
isolated memory-pictures lies in the light they throw upon
the problem of multiple personalities. They indicate the
purely dissociative character of the amnesia. In the par-
ticular case of Miss Beauchamp, we know that when B IV
was present, the memories of B I were not effaced, for B

264 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

I alternated with B IV, and on the former's reappearance
the memories of that personality's life were regained, and
B IV's experiences in turn dissociated.

But suppose, as I have said above, the case had not
come under observation until after the appearance of B IV
on the night of June 7, and that she had not again re-
verted to Miss Beauchamp (B I). It might then have been
hastily concluded that B IV's amnesia for the preceding
six years showed that the memory for this period had been
absolutely effaced.^ The phenomena we have been de-
scribing would have shown that such was not the case, but
that they were only dissociated from a particular personal
consciousness, and for some unknown reason a complete
synthesis could not be made.

In thus explaining these memory phenomena Sally has
been left out of account. There never has been any evi-
dence that Sally's memories were the source of B IV's
" mind-fixing " or " scrappy " memories. If this had been
the case, it is inconceivable that the regained memories
should not have included some of Sally's own experiences
as well as those of B I. This was never the case. B IV
never recalled any facts by these processes other than those
of B I's life, never one of Sally's. This is a curious and
interesting fact. The process of abstraction failed to re-
vive any memories pertaining to Sally's existence. With
true visions it was different. By this method she occa-
sionally got at Sally's experiences. For instance, she once
saw herself (in a vision) as Sally driving in a carriage with
a friend. The reason for this difference is not entirely
clear, but the facts corresponded with certain results
obtained by myself experimentally.

The " mind-fixing " phenomena were largely the result
of memorizing processes. The pictures which she called

1 Assoming also there was no third personality (Sally), as is often the
cas«.

DISSOCIATIONS OF CDNSCIOUSNESS 265

up were vivid, to be sure, as in visions, — more vivid than
occurs in ordinary memory, but the visualized experiences
were remembered as experiences of her own. On the other
hand, the visions were pure automatisms, excrescences in her
mind, without conscious association with the other experi-
ences of the life which they pictured. When seeing a vision
she did not recognize the pictorial experiences as her own,
even though it was of B I's life; there was no sense
of memory connected with it.

Now it was found experimentally easy to amalgamate by
suggestion the dissociated experiences of B I with those
of B IV so that they were remembered, but impossible to
amalgamate Sally's with either. These latter could ex-
perimentally only be awakened as sensory automatisms (for
example, vision of Sally smoking cigarettes). CoiTespond-
ing therefore to these results, B IV could by " mind fixing "
synthesize with herself some of B I's experiences, but the
same method failed to do this with those of Sally. She
could get from Sally's life only a vision, which still remained
without conscious relation to any part of her life.*

1 For an interesting theory of hallucinations, see " An Inquiry into the
Nature of Hallucinations," by Boris Sidis, Psychological Review, Vol. XI.
No. I, January, 1904.

CHAPTER XVI

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY: B I AND B IV WHEN HYP-
NOTIZED BECOME THE SAME PERSON

November, 1899

VERY little has been said since Sally's arrival about
B II, and little more than a reference has been made
to the fact that the Idiot could be hypnotized, and that
this was habitually done for therapeutic purposes. As to
B II, the fact is, little had been seen of her since Sally's
advent. Sally, whether with premeditation or not, almost
always came in her place when B I was hypnotized, and
being the most interesting personality, and the one who
tfcad to be reckoned with, I got into the way of calling for
this young woman. Still, a state of hypnosis which was
supposed to be the original B II was occasionally obtained.
It was never encouraged to develop any spontaneity, but
was made to remain with the eyes closed, answering ques-
tions, and receiving therapeutic suggestions. Under the
circumstances there was no reason to suspect that it was
not the original B II.

When B IV was hypnotized she went into deep hypnosis.
A very extraordinary change came over her. When, in
the original observation, B I was changed to B II the lat-
ter retained all the fundamental characteristics of B I.
When B IV was h3rpnotized her character became com-
pletely metamorphosed : no longer hostile and reticent, but
friendly and frank, she ceased to prevaricate, and made no
effort to conceal her thoughts or the facts of her life. She
answered questions freely and openly, frankly confessing
her ignorance as B IV and the falseness of her pretences.

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY 267

She stated, for instance, that what she had said a moment
before as B IV was not true, and that as B IV she had no
knowledge whatever of what had occurred in the room
when B I and Sally were present. She was docile and
obedient, accepting suggestions without remonstrance.
For purposes of convenience this state was labelled B VI. ^
On waking B IV had complete amnesia for this state. Of
course the same was true of B I.

Beyond this, B VI had not been particularly studied at
this time, being looked upon as a simple hypnotic state.
A discovery was soon to be made which was not only
psychologically instructive, but was to give an entirely new
aspect to the problem.

On November 5, 1899, B VI was present for awhile;
then, changing to Sally, the latter was hypnotized and
transformed in turn to B I. B I was now put into hypno-
sis, and became B II, — the original B II, as was supposed.

I was in the act of giving B II some suggestions abt t
sleeping, when suddenly Sally bounced out and exclaimed
excitedly, "Oh, Dr. Prince, I came to tell you that I
think the Idiot hypnotized is the same person as B I hyp-
notized, for I know the Idiofs thoughts when she is asleep
just as I do B Ts then. I may be wrong, but I think so."

We talked it over, and I pointed out to Sally that if her
discovery should turn out to be true, then the memory of
B II must be the same as that of B VI, and vice versa.
As B II knew all about B I, and B VI knew all about
B IV, then this combined hypnotic self must know all
about both B I and B IV. It was agreed that observa-
tions should be made to test the theory, and then Sally
"folded herself up," and disappeared to watch the game.
Sally's discovery was most exciting. Even Sally, the
hater of psychology, caught the contagion of the chase
for the moment. If it was true we might at last have a

* B V was Sally hypnotized.

268 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

clue to the solution of the mystery; a solution, that is,
which would explain the relationship of the different per-
sonalities and disclose the real self. B VI would be more
than simply B IV in hypnosis. Her memory would be as
complete as that of both the other personalities, B I and
B IV, put together, a synthesis of the two; and as her char-
acter manifestly differed (for the better, thank Heaven!)
from that of B IV, she might he another personality (in
hypnosis') , perhaps the real one we had been seeking. In this
personality, too, all the experiences of the two others would
be already organized. It was plain, if the discovery should
be verified, that an alternative theory offered itself in place
of the one that made B IV the real self.

The import of the discovery occurred entirely indepen-
dently to Sally, for the next day she wrote the following
letter setting forth the new theoiy as her own. Though
psychologically crude, it expresses quite clearly some of the
facts we expected to prove. It will be noticed that, rightly
or wrongly, Sally wobbles, abandoning her previous theory
that B IV is the real self, and harks back to her old
insistence that the " Idiot " is not a real person.

" ' Tis the voice of the lobster.*

[Nor. 6, 1899.]
" Start with Miss B. and the 'Idiot,' and call them number one
and number two. Hypnotized each becomes number threcy^ and
this number three remembers everything concerning both one and
two. Then can't one call number three the real, complete Miss
B. ? But one is n't sure whether this number three on being
awakened will become number one or two. Putting it that way
is confusing. It is simpler if you say that one can't be sure
whether number three on being awakened will or will not remem-
ber all that has happened since that shock in ' Providence.' If
she does remember, she becomes number one^ if she does n't then
she 's number two. But I still think there is n't a number two

1 Called II in this accoant.

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY 269

[Idiot] properly speaking — not a real person — distinct from
number one. For number two only appears when certain old
memories are recalled. She is like number one in a rattled and
irresponsible condition, does remember number one's life in
some way other than by getting it through visions, remembers
it at least as well as she does her own. Also number one
knows much of number iwo, which is one reason she thinks
she loses so much less time than she really does. How does
she know it? How does number two get her scrappy informa-
tion unless from three where they (one and two, that is) become
three f I dare say my reasoning seems very absurd to you.
It does to me rather, for I don't seem to have expressed it
clearly as it is in my mind. I am too squeezed — worse than
ever before in my short existence. Amen. S. B. 49."

Sally's language implies that Miss Beauchamp and the
Idiot had more knowledge of each other than they really
had; more than Sally intended to suggest, for she did not
know the Idiot's thoughts. This knowledge was, as we
have seen, and as Sally says, only "scrappy," welling up
into consciousness from apparently nowhere. This was
further demonstrated by the fact that this knowledge on
the part of one of the personalities did not follow imme-
diately the events of the other's life, but came only after
long intervals, rising as out of a mist. At most, it was
indeed "scrappy," with great blanks when the cleavage
of memory was complete; as, for example, when Miss
Beauchamp was "gone " for the month of August she lost
this amount of time completely out of her life, without a
vestige of memory of it at the time of her return. Another
instance is contained in Miss Beauchamp' s letter of Sep-
tember 24, in which she savs :

" There is little I can tell you, for I have lost most of the
time since the evening of the twelfth [12 days], only coming
to myself for a few hours on Friday last, and again this
afternoon."

270 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Sally more correctly expressed the facts of memory the
next day in a second statement of the theory, which may
be epitomized as follows, the nomenclature being that used
in this account:

Let X = the real original Miss Beauchamp. Then X is B II
or B VI, who are one and the same.

X wakes and becomes B I or B IV, but B III cannot tell
which will come to the front.

Both B I and B IV can get at sorne of the experiences of
each other, but B III does not know to what extent each can
do this.

B I tends to get rattled and pass into B IV when incidents
occur which tend to make her mind dwell on a certain " cause
of perturbation."

My theory that B II (B VI) might be the Real- Miss
Beauchamp was subject to one difficulty. By the theory,
if we hypnotize B I and B IV they become synthesized
to the real self in hypnosis. If this self be waked up it
ought to remain X ; yet, in fact, on waking B II becomes,
not X, but dissociated into either B I or B IV again. Why
should not B II, if she is the real self, remain synthesized
and become X on being awakened? As we shall see, this
has great significance.

As has been said, Sally's discovery of the identity of
B II and B VI, if verified, was of the utmost value. It
might prove to be the long sought for key to the riddle ;
or, at any rate, it would make intelligible several appar-
ently paradoxical phenomena, and might lead to the dis-
covery of the real self. All previous hypotheses were in
doubt. Not only B I but B IV might have to go, to give
way to a stranger whom we had never seen, but who in
hypnotic sleep might be B II (B VI). What sort of a
person would this prove to be ?

The next day, November 8, an opportunity was offered
to test the theory of the identity of B VI and B II.

AN BIPORTANT DISCOVERY 271

B IV was hypnotized and changed to the hypnotic self,
B VI. Was this self identical with B II ? That was the
point to be tested. She was questioned on the conver-
sation between myself and B IV five minutes earlier, and
about B IV's movements in the room. She knew all
this, and repeated the conversation word for word.

The next test was for her knowledge of B I. The
following was selected: Miss Beauchamp had been much
distressed about some letters in her own handwriting which
she had seen at a previous interview, lying on my table.
She had assumed that they were written by Sally, who,
she believed, had probably said a lot of "mad things," and
she wanted the letters back. Worrying over this had
caused her sleepless nights. B IV had had no opportunity
to see these letters. There were three of them, — either in
envelopes or folded so that they could not be read : one
from B I herself, one from B IV, and one from Sally.

The hypnotized B IV was asked to repeat the substance
of these letters. She repeated accurately the contents of
that from B I as well as that from B IV, but she had not
the slightest knowledge of the contents of Sally's. She
further remembered, as B 7, seeing Sally's letter on the
table, and described its appearance; it was easily distin-
guished from the other two by being written on foolscap.
It must be kept in mind — though it is hardly necessary
to give the details here of the demonstration — that B I
awake did not know B IV's letter, nor did B IV awake
know B Fs letter.

Testing further the hypnotic self of B IV for knowledge
of B I, it was found that she knew all that part of the
hospital episode of 1893 for which the memory of B IV
awake was blank, but which B I knew; that is, what
occurred after she left the ward. She described with
accuracy everything that had taken place, just as B I and
Sally had described it. This self also described accurately

272 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

the visions which B IV had had. In the same way a large
number of events in the lives of B I and B IV were gone
over and it was found that she remembered accurately the
lives of both. Likewise, when B I was put into hypnosis
the resulting hypnotic self, B II, knew all about her life as
B IV as well as her life as B I.

The memories of B II were the same as those of B VI.

So, then, Sally was right in saying that so far as memory
went B VI and B II were the same person; or, putting it
in other words, that B I and B IV when hypnotized be-
came the same person. All future experiences confirmed
this result. The hypnotic self always had a complete
knowledge of both personalities, — of their actions and
thoughts.

It remained to compare the characters of B II and B VI
as distinguished from their memories. Perhaps it may be
as well to anticipate here by saying that in everything
that goes to make up character — habits of thought, tem-
perament, aspirations, wishes, tastes, mode of reaction to
environment — they were one and the same personality.
Consequently from this time on, this hypnotic self was
always designated as B II, and there was no longer a
B VI.

So B II had now become a very important factor in the
problem. In contrast with B II 's complete knowledge of
Miss Beauchamp and the Idiot, was the complete ignorance
which she exhibited of Sally. Never, on any occasion, at
any time since she has been under observation, has B II
had the faintest glimpse into her life as Sally. Sally's life
is a sealed book to her.

Pursuing now the method which had already been prac-
tised with gratifying results — that of interrogating each
self in regard to its own psychical life and its relations to
the other selves — some interesting and corroborative in-
formation was obtained from B II. She considered, ^he

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY 273

said, the personalities called B I and B IV the same as
herself, only that when awake as B IV she (B II) becomes
"confused," and then says all sorts of "mad things" and
fibs. Why she fibs she does not know, but she is not her-
self then and cannot help it. She does not consider that
she (B II) " loses time " when confused : when she " loses
time " it is different. (By this she refers to the periods of
Sally's existence.) For instance, to-day she "lost time"
only from half-past twelve to half-past one, and from half-
past two to six o'clock, for she has no knowledge of these
hours. (From 2.30 to 6 o'clock Sally was with me.) She
does not consider it " losing time " during the other periods
when she is B I or B IV. The logical attitude of B II in
this analysis of herself is self-evident. As she knew
everything she did and thought as B I and as B IV, there
could be no oblivion for her during those periods, and
she could only regard herself as changing in character.
Neither did she speak of B I or B IV as different persons,
as Sally does. She did not call either "She," but used
the words " myself " and " I " for each personality, as
well as for herself as she was at the moment asleep:
"/ became confused." "/don't know why J fib." Simi-
larly, at later interviews, when to test the personality I
used to ask who she was, she would reply, " I am myself. "

"Where is B I?"

"lamBI."

"Where is B IV?"

"I am B IV."

On this occasion, in reply to questions, she went on to
say that she (meaning B I) had changed in character since
the hospital time; but she found difficulty in describing
how, except that she had grown morbid and nervous and
was not herself (Miss Beauchamp). She appealed for help,
as she did many a time afterward, begging me pathetically
to wake her up and make her herself, — make her so that

274 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

she would remember everything and not have gaps in her
memory; not prevaricate and not tell fibs (B IV). Most
piteously she pleaded that this should be done ; that she ^
should be made herself. She seemed to mind Sally's
coming most, for she knew nothing of what was done at
such times. From the after evidences, from the letters to
herself and others, from the devilish humiliations she was
forced to undergo, the hundred and one torments she
endured, she knew that she had been acting a part, and
living a life that belied her character and was mortifying
to her pride. Her conduct as B IV, when, as it seemed to
her, she was not herself, almost equally troubled her.

The personal testimony of B II, then, clearly corrobo-
rated that derived from experimental tests and other obser-
vations, and showed that B II and B VI were the same
person. This interview terminated with a scene which
was full of dramatic effect:

The discovery pointed to a way to synthesize all the
memories of Miss Beaucharap and B IV, and to combine
them in one person, which after all was one of the main
objects sought. If B II could be waked and be made
to retain in the waking state everything that she knew
of B I and IV, the resulting personality, whether B I,
B IV, or the real self, would at least be a great improve-
ment over anything we had had. If B IV was not the^
real self there was no object in keeping her. According
to the new hypothesis B II, hitherto like Cinderella neg-
lected and passed by, might be the very self for whom
we had been hunting. Before it could be determined
further experiments had to be undertaken, but for the
present it seemed worth while seeing what would happen
if B II was awakened, her eyes opened, and made by
suggestion to retain her present memories. A preliminary
suggestion was given as follows:

"When you awake, you will know everything. You

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY 275

will be yourself as you were before ' Providence.' You
will remember everything."

While saying this I was startled to hear the words,
uttered in a deep, angry tone, "She sha'n't know my ^
thoughts." Her face had been that of complete placidit}'. I
For a second the features became ruffled with anger,
and then subsided again into their former calm. After
the first surprise, I recognized Sally's interference. B II
of course did not hear her own voice. I scolded Sally
severely, — talking to her through B II, — knowing that
she would hear. But II, being all unconscious of what
had happened, did not understand my real intention. My
manner was severe, and to B II it seemed that I was up-
braiding her who had just been pleading for life. She
asked why I spoke in such a way. What had she done ?
She seemed to feel it keenly. "Don't pay any attention \
to what I say, " I replied ; " I am speaking, not to you, but I
to Sally, who hears." "Sally? Oh, yes," she answered; I
"she writes me letters — " her sentence remained unfin-
ished, and she became dumb. She could not speak a
word, her lips were sealed and her tongue tied. Again
I scolded Sally for interfering. The scolding had its
effect. B II was proceeding once more to appeal for help,
when she exclaimed: "Oh, Dr. Prince, I can't think any
more ! I feel just as if something had taken hold of my
brain and stopped my thinking. It is just as when that
thing makes me see and do things I don't want to see and
do, — as if a part of my brain were held."

Again I scolded Sally, who yielded at last, and B II
went on with what she was saying. She was then simply
waked, without more ado, and the resulting personality
was only B IV.

It remained to determine what relation B II bore to the
real self, which self might be X, or when in hypnosis B II
herself. This question was postponed for future study.

276 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

It was not long before B IV began to relapse again into
her earlier condition of antagonism and independence. Thff"
open-minded mood of November 1 and 3 soon came to an
end, and, as her character gradually unfolded itself, it be-
came evident that, however strong a personality she might
be, the idea that she was the real and original Miss Beau-
champ was, as Sally said, "rubbish."

The following from B IV, written immediately after
the interview of November 1 (Chapter XIV), when her
trouble was explained to her, speaks for itself:

[From B IV, Nov. 3, 1899.] " I have been thinking over
what you said this evening, and while I appreciate your kind-
ness, I believe it better not to trouble you with my woes, so
long as they are only such as any one can help me out of. I
have never known until to-day just what was wrong and, not
daring to ask, have fancied that perhaps something dreadful —
something horrible — had happened which people were keeping
from me intentionally ; but if it is only something growing out

of that summer in , a sort of dream life, why, it simplifies

things wonderfully, for Mr. J will, I am sure, tell me every-
thing that has happened since — all about the things done and
those left undone — and that will save your time too, which I
am afraid you have been giving me freely. And I shall take
up nursing again now — the old life which I love so much —
better than any other in the world, — as you probably know.
I can hardly wait to see about it — I am so excited.

'* You have been awfully good, I am sure, and I hope you
will believe me both grateful and appreciative. I know how
infinitely trying I am as a patient, and am afraid it has been

hard for you sometimes. Mrs. X did not know all my

' outs ' or she would hardly have taxed you so. I shall try if
possible to see you before I go and thank you. You have lifted
such a weight from my mind.

" P. S. I am going to enclose a note in this which I have
just received, and beg that you will tell me who the writer
is. I cannot get her myself, — have no other letters from her,
and yet she evidently knows me very well indeed. Unless you

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY 277

can enlighten me, I am afraid we shall not ' talk ourselves to
death.' "

As we went on to study B IV we found that her habits
of thought and her conduct were as different from those
of the original Miss Beauchamp as chalk is from cheese,
however plausible she at times made herself appear. One
unfortunate trait which she exhibited was that of falling
into uncontrollable fits of anger if thwarted. This led
frequently to the destruction of documents which, as I
view it, were an irreparable loss.

Sally had agreed to write the autobiography of her own
(subconscious) life, and for this purpose used to come to
my office during the mornings. It was impossible to take
B IV into my confidence, because if there was one thing
more than another to which she objected it was revealing
her private affairs, no matter how trivial. She simply
refused to allow it. Then again, much that Sally wrote
was unknown to B IV, and therefore the latter would and
did deny its truth. So Sally used to come mornings and
write. One day B IV was found with a number of crum-
pled sheets of Sally's manuscript in her hand. She was
moody, angry, uncompromising. It happened that while
writing Sally had had the ill luck to change accidentally
to B IV, who thereupon read the autobiography. The cat
was out of the bag. The danger of the destruction of the
manuscript was imminent. Diplomacy proved useless,
and the papers were carried away. There was a faint
chance that Sally would somehow prevent the threatened
destruction, but B IV came out on top and the work was
destroyed. The following letter came the next day :

[From B IV.] " My coming here mornings — however amus-
ing it may be — is utterly out of the question. You have made
it awfully hard for me in losing this whole week. I cannot
afford such things, believe me.

278 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSON A.LITY ^

" P. S. I don't know what papers you wished me to leave
for you. Those I had in my hand were only some scribbled
sheets of my own — nothing concerning you in the least"

The "sheets" were Sally's autobiography. It was not
far advanced and the loss could be easily retrieved, but
shortly afterward IV succeeded in inflicting a greater dam-
age. Sally had begun again, and the autobiography, after
weeks of labor, was well under way, — perhaps half done.
Entering the room one day, I found B IV with a pile of
torn pieces of paper in her lap, each piece about the size
of a postage stamp, and enough pieces to fill a half -gallon
bowl. It was the precious manuscript. Let me tell why
it was regarded as of such importance.

Shortly before this, on October 26 (1899), Sally had
entered at great length into the question of her own inde-
pendent existence, apart from that of B IV and B I. She
insisted that she had always existed as a real and separate
person from early childhood. By this she did not mean,
of course, that at this period there were times when she
was the sole or an alternating consciousness, when she
walked about and led a life independent of the primary
consciousness, as she does at present ; but that within, or
alongside of. Miss Beauchamp's consciousness there has
always existed a conscious nucleus which thought and felt
independently of the primary consciousness, and which
had its own memories of which Miss Beauchamp knew
nothing.

In evidence of this she recalled successive events in her
own psychological life at different ages. She described
her own thoughts at such times and contrasted them with
what B I thought at the same moment. She claimed to
remember what she, as distinct from Miss Beauchamp,
thought at the time when she was learning to walk. Then
B I was frightened, she said, and wanted to go back, but
subconscious Sally was not at all frightened and wanted to

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY 279

go ahead. She described B I as having had a butterfly
mind as contrasted with her own. She, as a small child,
disliked the things that B I liked, and vice versa. She
described her school life, her own feelings when B I did
things, and the different sensations of the two selves when,
for example, B I was punished and felt badly, while she
herself was entirely indifferent and without remorse.

Then, coming to a later period, she instanced the occa-
sion (brought out in a crystal vision), when she saw J.,
who was standing behind her, crush a watch which he
held in his hand, although this was not observed by Miss
Beauchamp.

" I often saw things that she never saw. I saw J

crush the watch when she didn't."

"Did you hear it?"

" I saw it, and heard it, too. "

" How could you see it? You said he was behind you."

" He was not exactly behind, but behind my shoulder.
I may have seen it out of the corner of my eye, just as
I see this table now out of the corner of my eye, though I
am looking at you. "

"Why didn't she see it?"

"I don't know." Then, meditatively, "Why can't I
see crystal visions ? I can't. When she sees things and
doesn't remember them, I often can. She forgets, but I
don't. I suppose this is because her mind is busy with one
kind of thing, and my mind is busy with another kind."

And so Sally went on, recalling many instances of
double consciousness during her girlhood, but it was not
until she got her eyes open that she had an independent
existence. Before this, as she maintained, she could think
separately, but could not act as an independent con-
sciousness excepting on rare occasions when she could
make "her" do things. With the exception of these
occasional instances she had had very little power over

280 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

"her" body until she "got her eyes open." (I have often
seen Sally, co-consciously, smile through Miss Beau-
champ's tears, so to speak, producing a most curious
effect.) Sally harps upon the fact that getting her own
eyes open made herself "alive," and gave an independ-
ent existence in the sense of having sole and complete
use of the body. In explanation of these statements she
agreed to write an autobiography of herself, of her own
consciousness as distinct from Miss Beauchamp's, begin-
ning with the earliest years.

We need not enter here into the credibility of Sally's
statements, for, whether credible or not, from this general
r^sumd, it will be seen how important it was that Sally
should herself write a continuous account of her own
mental life, contrasting it with the mental life of Miss
Beauchamp, as Sally saw both. The reliability and value
of such an account could be determined later. The first
thing, whatever its value, was to get it. It was this
precious manuscript which B IV had destroyed.
r This vandalism, the fits of temper, the relapses from
1 the periods of rationalism, the lack of self-control, the sug-
\ gestibility, all indicated abnormality and strengthened the
I belief that B IV was not, after all, the true Miss Beau-
j champ. Indeed, everything warned us that we must still
be on the hunt for the real self. We had got as far as
identifying B II and B VI. Was B II the real self, after
all? If not, who or what was the real self? If B II were
this self there followed consequences of importance, for
then neither B I nor B IV was real, but each was a sort
of somnambulist. If B II were the original Miss Beau-
champ, then it probably would be found that if the sug-
gestion were given that, on waking, she should remain
herself and not change to B I or B IV, ^ and then were

* B II had been told many times to open her eyes and awake — this was
the customary way of awaking her — bat always on awaking she changed to

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY 281

simply told to open her eyes, she would awake with all
her faculties, complete and whole, — the original Miss
Beauchamp as she was before being overwhelmed by the
various psychical accidents that had befallen her. This
experiment had been tried, tentatively, on November 8,
but was balked by Sally. ^ It did not seem wise to rashly
persist until it was positively determined that B II was the
real self ; for if B II should get her eyes open and obtain
an independent existence, and then prove after all not to
be the right person, there would be a pretty " howdy-do. " j
We should have four personalities instead of three to~'
take care of, and we had our hands quite full enough
already. It remained then to study B II as well as
BIV.

After all Sally's theorizing the following came as an
anti-climax :

[Letter of Nov. 27, 1899, from Sally.] " Don't reckon posi-
tively on my coming Tuesday morniog, and don't — please don't
— lay too much stress on my theories. / hate psychology.

" P. S. I don't want to be a ' subliminal.' ..."

The relations of B I, B IV, and B II with one another,
as thus far made out, could be diagrammatically expressed
in the form of a genealogical tree as follows:

BI BIV

BII

The solid line indicates both descent and synthesis.
Where was the original B ?

B I or B IV. It was therefore necessary by suggestion to prevent her from
changing her personality, which by the hypothesis was the real self as it
existed before " Providence."
1 Page 275.

282 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Attention has already been called to one more point,
which needs to be kept in mind, that when B I and B IV
became B II a very wide synthesis took place. B II had
the memories of both I and IV. She was more, then,
than a mere hypnotic state of either. She was a synthesis
of both, though in hypnosis.

CHAPTER XVII

STiroiES IN CHARACTER

IT will be remembered that it was determined in the
course of the study of B I that that personality was
subject to grave instability and suggestibility. It remained
to make a similar study of B IV. Besides amnesia (Chap-
ter XV) such a study necessarily included :

(A) Phenomena of dissociation and automatism.

(B) Health.

(A) Dissociation and automatisjii. A high degree of
suggestibility is a departure from the normal, and belongs
among the stigmata of hysteria. The crystal vision of the
hospital adventure, and of her "coming," June 7, as well
as those visions which she induced in herself, were indica-
tive of suggestibility of no mean degree. The automatism
was further evidenced by the spontaneous outburst of sub-
conscious activity ; for instance, Sally's inhibiting or per-
verting the thought of the personal self. Systematized
anesthesia and positive hallucinations could also be in-
duced in her from within, that is to say, by the influence
of a subconscious idea, — the subconscious idea being
Sally's. Such phenomena must be regarded as evidence of
a mind that has undergone some degree of disintegration.
I emphasize the word "spontaneous," because, by artificial
means (hypnotic suggestion) a mental dissociation in some
apparently healthy people can be experimentally induced
which is capable of exhibiting such automatic phenomena

284 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

(post-hypnotic suggestion, etc.). We shall later see that,
to the degree to which B I and B IV were restored to the
normal, Sally lost the power of influencing the resulting
personality.

Numerous observations might be given of the sponta-
neous action of the dissociated extra-consciousness (Sally)
on the personal consciousness (B IV). A sufficient num-
ber of examples will be found in the Appendix. The
resulting phenomena consisted of hallucinations, paralysis,
aboulia, amnesia, automatic speech and writing, etc. Thus
Sally on one occasion by an act of volition altered the
details of a "mind-fixing" vision through which B IV
endeavored to obtain information of the circumstances of
her stay as B I in a private hospital. B IV, in conse-
quence, saw in the room Dr. S. whom she did not know,
etc. (Appendix F.)

On another occasion, subconscious Sally, paralyzing
B IV's tongue and lips, made her dumb. B IV, however,
was in a hypnotic state at the time, and therefore the
observation must be taken only as illustrating the ease
with which a disintegrated mind can be influenced,
whether from within or from without, to exhibit abnormal
phenomena. When the primary waking consciousness
exhibits such phenomena it is presumptive evidence of
abnormality. (Appendix G. )

On another occasion Sally produced motor automatism
and systematized anesthesia (negative hallucinations) in
B IV. In this observation B IV seized a pencil out of my
hand and threw it across the room, and then was stricken
with blindness for written messages intended for Sally.
(Appendix H.)

On another occasion B IV became blind for the text of a
French book which appeared to her to be a blank notebook.
Then, when directed to pick out a French book from the
bookcase, she saw no bookcase at all, but insisted that the

STUDIES IN CHARACTER 286

walls were sheathed with wooden panels like the rest of
the room (positive hallucination). The dominant idea and
belief that there was no bookcase in front of her induced
the positive hallucination of wooden panelling. B IV
owed this hallucination to Sally's jealousy of B IV's ac-
complishment of reading French. (Appendix I.)

On another occasion I saw an exhibition of the contest
between two wills — between that of the personal and that
of the dissociated consciousness. Sally tried to make
B IV dumb; B IV, bound that she would talk and not be
controlled, succeeded by dint of much stuttering, in mak-
ing herself understood. (Appendix J.) '

Again B IV was afflicted with amnesia for the name of
a person of whom Sally is jealous. Sally would not allow
that name to be mentioned.

Automatic writing and speech were very common.
Numerous records of the former will be found in Chapters
XXII and XXIII, and instances of the latter are inter-
spersed throughout this account.

Phenomena of the kind just recorded are indicative of
more than suggestibility; namely, of the dissociation of
consciousness, and the coactivity of the dissociated men-
tal states (Sally). It may be pointed out in passing that
some of the hallucinatory phenomena in this case illustrate
the relation between such phenomena and the dominating
ideas (beliefs, etc.) which directly give rise to them; for
instance, the illusion on the part of B IV of mistaking
me for some one else, on her advent, June 7, 1899. The
illusion was the psychical expression of her belief. Believing
the time was 1893, the scene the room in the hospital, and
that she had just seen Jones at the window, the illusion
was suggested by this belief. So, also, when B I failed
to see the rings upon the ribbon tied to her neck, this
negative hallucination was the expression of the belief that
she had lost the rings. Again, when B IV believed for

286 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

the moment that there was no bookcase in front of her, the
hallucination of the panelling was the expression of this
belief.

Similarly, another patient, Mrs. J n, previously re-
ferred to, who, like B IV, on " waking up " went back nine
years in her life, and who at the time of her " disappear-
ance " was slight of figure but in the interim had grown
fat, with a girth of waist of thirty-four inches, insisted, by
an illusion, on reading the tape measure twenty-one inches,
that having been her measurement at the earlier period.
She could only see herself, too, as slight in figure.

Such phenomena answer the famous question of Gries-
singer, " Why do insane people believe in their hallucina-
tions?" The answer in many cases, though not in all,
must be. They have their hallucinations because they
believe the content of them to be true. The hallucination
is the expression of their belief.

In other cases, however, the hallucination, as well as the
systematized anesthesia, is not dependent on the belief in
the primary mind, but is plainly the action of subconscious
mental states upon the waking consciousness. When B I
failed to see the rings, the primary belief originated entirely
in her personal mind ; but when B IV failed to be conscious
of the bookcase and of the writing on the sheets of paper
placed before her, the systematized blindness was induced
in some way, — unnecessary for us to inquire into in this
place, — by the action of a subconscious, dissociated mind
(Sally) upon the personal mind, robbing it of some of its
visual perceptions. Psychologically, a negative halluci-
nation, the failure to see or hear something present, is
very different from a positive hallucination, yet both may
have their origin in the action of extra-conscious ideas
upon the personal consciousness. Examples of positive
hallucination arising in that way will occur all through
this biography. It would seem that observations of this

STUDIES IN CHARACTER 287

kind, and they are manifold in variety and number, open
up to the alienist a field for experimental inquiry which
should produce a rich harvest.

These observations, as well as numerous others of auto-
matic writing, showed first, abnormal suggestibility on the
part of B IV; and second, that Sally, as a group of auton-
omous dissociated states, coexisted with B IV.

(B) Health. The matter of health was of some impor-
tance in deciding upon B IV's identity even, as it offered
an interesting study of neurasthenia and the influence of
the mind on the body. If she were free from neurasthenic
symptoms it would be another point in favor of her nor-
mality and identification with the true self. B IV did not
require, indeed refused, medical advice. She claimed to
be strong and free from symptoms. Was this true, or was
it only a bluff, to escape supervision ? It took some time
to determine this point, and it was not settled until one
day when, unable to stick it out, she broke down and
asked for medical help. It then transpired, and was after-
ward frequently confirmed, that she was more or less of a
neurasthenic; but still the interesting fact was brought
out by degrees that there was a vast difference between
the physical health of B I and that of B IV. B IV was
much the stronger of the two, so much so that she herself
scarcely recognized any unusual limitation to her powers,
and, if she had not been the victim of constant harassing
troubles, she would have had fair health. The depend-
ence of physical infirmities^ like pain, fatigue, and insom-
nia, upon a mental change of personality is a matter of
considerable significance from the point of view of the
pathology of the neurasthenic state. This was particu-
larly illustrated by Sally, who was absolutely free from ill
health. She did not know the meaning of pain and fatigue.
In health B IV stood half-way between the other two.

288 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

logical, moral, and intellectual characteristics of B I and
B IV. It is written in the first person, the Real Miss
Beauchamp describing her own traits, according as she is
in state B I or B IV, but it has been carefully collated and
discussed between us. The greater number of these con-
trasted peculiarities have been the object of my personal
observation, and for their accuracy I can vouch. It was
often easy to recognize whether it was B I or B IV who
entered the room by certain plainly manifested traits, — the
character of her clothes, the way her hair was dressed, her
response to physical contact, as in shaking hands, and her
replies to questions that brought out her moods. Even
the single conventional greeting, "How do you do?"
would elicit a response that left no doubt. A study of
the table will suggest that some of these traits must
necessarily have carried with them mannerisms that would
be characteristic and unmistakable. This was the case.

TASTES {pliysiological)

Those marked with an * were characteristic of childhood, before disinte-
gration into B I and B IV took place (1893). The Real Miss Beauchamp has
a normal memory of herself as B I and B IV and of her childhood.

(I) (IV)

Appetite usually very poor ; Appetite usually very good ;
care little for the pleasures of like good food,
the table.

Eat things which are con- Eat only what I like,
sidered good for one.

Take black coffee, as stimu- Take coffee (with sugar and
lant (never with sugar or cream), and love both taste
cream), but dislike both the and odor,
taste and odor of it. The
latter nauseates me.

Like milk and take a great Dislike milk and do not drink
deal of it and regularly.* it unless obliged to.

STUDIES IN CHARACTER

289

Like lemonade with sugar.*

Like soda with syrups, etc. ;
do not like it plain.*

Rarely take wine, though I
like it. Am easily affected by
it. Never drank a whole
glassful at a time.*

Like lemonade without sugar ;
cannot drink it if sweetened.

Like plain soda ; cannot drink
it with syrups.

Always take wine. Have a
strong head, and can drink
several glasses without being
in the least affected. Have
drunk what would be the
equivalent of at least eight or
ten glasses without being con-
scious of any effect whatever.

Very fond of vegetables and Dislike all vegetables and
would gladly be a vegetarian, never eat them.*

Never use vinegar.*

Never use oil.*

Like soups, broths, etc.*

Cannot eat 05'sters.

Use a great deal of vinegar.
Use a great deal of oil.
Never eat soups or broths.

Very fond of oysters.*

Like graham bread, rye bread. Never eat anything but white
etc. bread.*

Fond of ice cream.*

Cannot take sherbet.

Dislike the smell of cigarettes ;
never smoked one in my life ;
have moral objections to smok-
ing and feel distressed on
learning I have smoked as B
IV ; have been nauseated from
effect of B IV's smoking.*

Never eat ice cream.

Very fond of sherbet.*

Extravagantly fond of smok-
ing, and can smoke almost
innumerable cigarettes with-
out feeling any ill effects.

290 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Have a strong aversion to
taking medicine of any kind
unless absolutely obliged to ;
am almost invariably nau-
seated by the mere thought of
taking it.*

Am always experimenting
with drugs, patent medicines,
etc.

Rather averse to out-of-door

exercise, though chiefly, I

think, because of not feeling
up to it.

Extravagantly fond of all out-
of-door things, and apt to in-
dulge in them regardless of
fatigue.

TASTES (moral)

Always wear hair low.

Cannot bear tight clothing,
because of pain and discom-
fort.

Always wear hair high; am
made extremely nervous by
the way B I wears it.

Like clothes very tight — so
tight as to cause B I acute
suffering.

Like black, white, and soft Never wear black — hate it;

shades of color in dress ; dis-
like practically everything af-
fected by B IV.

am fond of white, and, gen-
erally, of more vivid colors
than B I ; generally change
clothes I find myself wearing
asBL

Like rings very much, and
wear them.

Dislike rings ; find them un-
comfortable and irritating ;
never wear them.

Like button boots of soft flex-
ible material ; high laced boots
cause acute discomfort ; by
choice wear low shoes.

Like high-laced boots of firm
material ; dislike button boots
and cannot wear them without
being made tired and nervous ;
dislike low shoes and never
wear them.

STUDIES IN CHARACTER

291

Dislike sunlight and the glare
of the streets; keep shades
low in order to have dim light
in room ; am very apt to have
headache if light is strong.

Love sunlight and the glare
of the streets; fasten shades
at the very top of the window
in such a way as to make it
difficult for B I to change
them.

Very fond of church and of
church services.*

Like devotional books
read a great many.*

and

Never read newspapers, and
care very little about what is
going on in the world.

Am like other people in this
respect.

Never, voluntarily, enter
church or attend any service.

Never read devotional books,
and am annoyed by having
them lying about.

Devour newspapers with great
enjoyment, and take an eager
interest in general affairs.*

Dislike intensely being touched
by any one, even shaking hands
with any one.

MORAL CHARACTERISTICS

(I)

Patient

Considerate of others.

Even temperament, though
tinged with depression ; ami-
able; never angry.

Never rude or intolerant.

(IV)
Most impatient.

Consider only myself and my
personal convenience.

Quick-tempered, and subject
to violent rages which noth-
ing will restrain ; circum-
stances which depress B I
arouse anger in B IV.

Rude if opposed, and apt to
be intolerant at all times.

292 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Fight Sally day and night.

Never quarrel with Sally or
attempt retaliation.

Never enter into a contest
vrhen opposed.

Always ready for a contest if
opposed.

Nothing suggests retaliation ;
never take offence.

Very dependent.

Quick to take offence and to
retaliate for what would be
immaterial to B I. "I wear
a chip on my shoulder."

Extremely self-reliant.

Strong will only in pursuing Indomitable will and obstinacy,
an ideal ; otherwise, easily in- even if only to have own way ;
fluenced and yielding. rarely influenced by others.

Ready to take advice, and Unwilling to take advice or
need the moral help of control, submit to any control.

Practically free from vanity Vain, and extremely conceited,
and conceit. " Imagine I am quite capable

of running the world."

Rarely make suggestions, and Am constantly making sug-
never volunteer advice. gestions, volunteering advice,

etc.

As a rule, yield to emotions. Never yield to emotions.

Spend a great deal of time in Never spend a moment dream-
dreaming, and lead a medita- ing ; lead an exceptionally ac •
tive, dreamy life. tive life.

Read a great deal, and find Read very little, and do not

reading one of my greatest care about it; prefer books

pleasures; have catholic tastes; dealing with facts ; care noth-

STUDIES IN CHARACTER

293

also love the beauty of the ing for the binding or form of
book itself as well. Fond of the book. Never read B I's
books of devotion, poetry, and books,
novels. Never read B IV's
books.*

Dislike writing, and do very Write a great deal and like it.
little.

Hate sewing.

Like sewing.

Morbidly averse to meeting Delighted to meet new people,
people, and to forming new but quite as averse to forming
friendships. friendships as B I.

Devoted to old people.

Detest old people.

Love to be with people who Hate illness, and have morbid
are ill or suffering. horror of everything connected

with it.

Very fond of children.*

I think children a great nuis-
ance.

Enjoy doing charitable or al-
truistic work, visiting and
reading to invalids or old
people, visiting the poor, etc.

Hate such things.

Religious in thought, and lay
much emphasis on outward
observance. Fond of church
and church services, of keep-
ing fasts and doing penance.

Converse of this.

Given to idealizing friends, and
even mere acquaintances.

Entirely without this.

294 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Have different set of friends
from B IV, with consequent
social difficulties.

Am emotionally affected by
religious services and indulge
these emotions.

No fear of the dark.

Have different set of friends
from B I ; cannot, as a rule,
endure the people she likes.

Also emotionally affected, but,
knowing that I have been
profoundly affected by these
things in the past, I avoid them
and all mention of them when-
ever possible. When not pos-
sible, I endeavor to abstract
myself as much as I can in
order not to be influenced and
not to remember.
Great fear of the dark.

ACQUISITIONS

Knowledge that was obtained
by B I through study, such as
French, Latin, shorthand, etc.,

was often not possessed by
B I unless lost by B IV.

was often found not to be
possessed by B IV unless
lost by B I.

What was learned by B IV

[That is to say, these acquisitions alternated between B I
and B IV: when B I could read French, B IV could not, and
vice versa, — that is, the memory of these languages was al-
ternately synthesized with the two personalities, but it is not
possible to say it was never synthesized by both, for obvious
reasons.]

Emotionalism. There is one trait common to both I
and IV which deserves more particular mention on account
of the part it played in the psychological drama of this
case. In both personalities the emotions ordinarily asso-

STUDIES IN CHARACTER 295

ciated with specific experiences were felt with extraor-
dinary intensity and rushed upon them with flash-like
rapidity. Music, religion, scenery, a poem, a story, or
the personality of an individual aroused intense feelings,
pleasant or unpleasant, which swayed B I irresistibly and
threatened to dominate IV. Even in recalling to memory
a scene of the past each lived over again all the feelings
experienced at the time. (The power of visualization is
80 marked in both that a mere verbal description of an
event awakens a visualized picture of the whole.) Of the
two, probably the feelings of IV were the more intense.
But there was a great difference in the behavior of I and
IV to these emotions. B I's life was given up to their
influence. In the play of her mobile features every feel-
ing could easily be read. But IV fought against them,
trampled upon them, resisted them with all her might
and main. She was determined that she would not be
under the influence of her emotions, whether of religion or
music, or of those coming from the pereonal influence of
another. She indeed concealed this side of her character
successfully for a long time, pretending that she was in-
different to all that really affected her intensely. Sally
was completely hoodwinked by her. IV even wrote per-
verted analyses of her mental reactions to various experi-
ences (music, books, religion, etc.), in order that the truth
might not be guessed. She was bound that she would not
be the slave of her emotions, which meant idealism, but
would be free.

Insistent ideas. " When we examine the demeanor and
thought of certain patients, particularly hystericals, " says
Janet, " we soon discover that their thoughts are not like
those of other people. While with others ordinary ideas,
sensations called forth by the sight of surrounding objects
or accidental convereations, retain some sort of normal
calm — their balance, so to say, along with other psy-

296 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

chological phenomena — with hystericals it is otherwise.
One particular notion will at once assume an undue impor-
tance — an importance altogether out of proportion to their
other ideas — and play a chief part in their lives. This
fact has often been observed and pointed out by students. "^

We may say that there is a limitation of the field of
consciousness in the sense that only one point of view at
a time can be made use of by the subject. There is a
restriction at any given moment of the total number of
associated ideas. The subject is unable constantly to
readjust his ideas according to the requirements of the
moment; to compare and shift his point of view and thus
get a balanced judgment. The content of consciousness
becomes contracted to a single idea which dominates the
mind. The consequence is, that the hysteric tends to be
under the domination of the particular idea which is
present at any given moment, while one or more tend to
be pereistent and may even become fixed ideas. This was
the case with both B I and B IV. Whatever idea came
into their minds respectively tended to dominate the judg-
ment and control the conduct of each, regardless of the
wisdom or unwisdom of the resulting act.

This was particularly the case when an idea was accom-
panied by a strong emotion. Then it was simply impos-
sible for either personality to see any other point of view.
Argument and expostulation were in vain, and what practi-
cally was equally inconvenient, nearly every act or word of
others was interpreted from this point of view. The only
remedy was hypnosis and suggestion, and then in a moment
all would be changed.

This incapacity correctly to interpret the environment is
a marked peculiarity of certain types of the hysteric mind,
but one which is generally overlooked. The hysteric given
over to insistent ideas is unable correctly to interpret his

1 The Mental State of Hystericals.

STUDIES IN CHARACTER 297

environment. His perceptions are perverted, owing to a
faulty translation of everything through his own ideas.
Visual and auditory images are aroused in his mind with
abnormal vividness, and in consequence the ideas associated
with any given perception, especially when of an emotional
character, are revived with an undue intensity and give a
distorted meaning to the perceptions. The associated
ideas fill his conscious field instead of the perception.
This largely accounts for the supposed lying to which in
text-books hysterics are erroneously regarded as prone.
They do not intend to lie, but simply narrate their own
distorted perceptions.

This domination of ideas in B I and B IV tended to
greatly add to the difficulties of the management of the
case. It interfered with the daily routine of life and led
to the assumption of responsibilities and tasks far beyond
the strength and capacity of either personality to fulfil.

There was one other very curious peculiarity in the rela-
tions of B I and B IV, which has already been described
but which should be mentioned in this connection. It had,
moreover, certain practical results, both in the undoing
of the personalities and in their restoration to normality.
It was this : though B IV and B I had, respectively, am-
nesia for the ideas and sensory experiences of each other,
the emotions of the one awakened by such ideas and experi-
ences were often retained by the other, and were, therefore,
more or less common to both. If, for instance, B I for
some cause became anxious or fearful about some partic-
ular matter, when she changed to B IV the latter felt anx-
ious or fearful without knowing why. The resulting
phenomenon was much like one of those obsessions of
which I have already spoken (Chapter VIII), and which
play such a prominent role in clinical medicine. Although
B I and B IV as personalities were not subconscious — in
the sense in which this term is used in this study — to

298 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

each other, yet certain isolated, disconnected, "scrappy"
memories of each sometimes persisted and formed a co-
consciousness to the other. At least there is experimental
evidence tending to show this. The emotions of the wak-
ing personality, then, came from the subconscious memo-
ries, just as did B I's indefinable fears before the advent
of B IV (p. 133). Finally, the effect of the same emo-
tion produced interestingly different results in the two
personalities. In B IV worry or anxiety produced insom-
nia or fatigue, which in turn excited bad temper. Then
all good resolutions were thrown to the winds; all sorts
of obsessing ideas arose; the world was against her, and
she was against the world and defied it by rebellion. On
the other hand, in B I the same emotion produced insom-
nia and fatigue also, but instead of bad temper there fol-
lowed depression, weariness, a feeling of helplessness,
penitence, and recourse to prayer. The following in-
stance will illustrate:

B IV had temporarily reformed. Suddenly, and appar-
ently without motive, she became angry, rebellious, bel-
ligerent. After passing most of the night, as a relief for
insomnia, in writing some records for me, she pitched the
whole thing into the fire in the morning, in a fit of anger.
When reprimanded, she complained of a feeling of anxiety
and dread, unconnected with any known idea, and of the
origin of which she was ignorant. It was a distinct feel-
ing of being anxious about something, but she did not
know what that something was. It was discovered
through hypnosis (by methods to be described in the next
chapter) that B I was anxious about a particular matter.
Her apprehension was so intense that it induced insomnia,
but, saintlike, she sought relief in prayer and church.
B IV did not definitely know what the trouble was, but
she, too, felt the anxiety, which likewise in her induced
insomnia; her relief was not prayer and church, however,

STUDIES IN CHARACTER 299

but anger and the destruction of the records. The evi-
dence obtained showed that it was the same emotion that
was experienced by both B I and B IV.

These extraordinary differences in the characteristics of
B I and B IV furnish data for determining the psychology
of character of which we shall make a further study in
Part III. That a person's character may change in a
moment, becoming in a second of time the antithesis of
what it was, opens up the questions. What is character?
and, What makes character? The phenomena of disinte-
grated personality suggest that our characters are wholly
a matter of brain associations, and that they may be altered
for good or for ill, by anything that will bring about a
rearrangement of these associations.

At first in the course of this study it seemed as if the
differences in character between B I and B IV might be
determined by differences in memory. It has been held ^
that disorders of character are dependent upon disorders of
memory; but when one studies the differences in the
fhysiological reactions manifested by B I and B IV it
seems inconceivable that they can be brought about by
differences in memory, as that term is ordinarily under-
stood. Surely the susceptibility to alcohol of B I, who
felt uncomfortable from one glass of wine, and the immu-
nity of B IV, who has taken without conscious effect
three or four glasses of champagne, followed by as many
cocktails and several glasses of liqueur, cannot be ex-
plained in any way by memory. Nor can the differences
in tastes, such as the fondness for sugar, oil, vinegar,
etc., on the part of one personality, and the dislike on
the part of the other for the same things, be made intelli-
gible on the ground of memory, in the absence of any
known experiences, pleasant or unpleasant, in connection
with them. Miss Beauchamp can recall nothing that

1 Pierre Janet, The Mental State of Hjstericals (1901), p. 78.

300 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

would suggest a reason for these differences. The vary-
ing hyperesthesia in the two personalities, such as the
intense dislike of being touched by another person, the
dislike of finger rings and buttoned boots, ma,nifested by
B IV, and B I's dislike of tight clothing, high-laced
boots, etc., cannot be explained on the basis of memory.
The same is true of B I's depression and of its absence
in B IV.

Even when we include in memory all the half-consciously
associated experiences, ideas, and emotions grouped about
any particular thing in the object world, it is difficult to
understand through such associations the different reac-
tions to sunlight and color which we find in our table.
These led to differences in habits and in dress ; peculiar-
ities which plainly enter into at least the "caprices" and
"whims" of the subject. And what shall be said to ex-
plain through memories the differences in the religious
feelings? Each personality remembered their mutual
early life, when the religious education took place. And
when we pass to moral and intellectual attitudes, which
essentially belong to character, the memories must be
exquisitely subtle that can oppose vanity to unconscious-
ness of self, quick temper to serenity, and indomitable will
and mule-like obstinacy to yielding docility.

It seems to me that such great differences can be ex-
plained only through differences in the reactions of the
mind (or brain) to the environment; such differences in
the reactions being due to dissociations of mental processes
and reassociations of them in new systems of mental states.
The cards, so to speak, have been reshuffled and. a new
hand dealt.

That B IV is a very different character from the Miss
Beauchamp who first presented herself in 1898 must be
plainly manifest to the most casual reader. But did the
change portend a return to a previous state ? The extreme

STUDIES IN CHARACTER 301

mobility of the psychical states, the suggestibility, the
readiness with which dissociation took place, and the ease
with which she was influenced by the subconscious state
(Sally), implied an unstable condition and tendency to
disintegration, and were against normality. But B I
showed the same peculiarities, and between the two in
these respects there was nothing to choose. If mobility,
dissociation, and suggestibility were taken as criteria,
B IV was quite as normal as our Miss Beauchamp, and
quite as likely to be the real original self.

On the other hand, many of IV 's other characteristics,
especially the absence of aboulia, the lowered impression-
ability and emotionalism, the lessened neurasthenia, the
self-reliance, etc., etc., pointed to a greater degree of
normality, with the possibility that she was the real self.

The more the two personalities were studied, the more
abnormal both appeared, and the less there seemed to
choose between them.

CHAPTER XVITI

IS B n THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP? — B la

DECEMBER, 1899, was passed in studying B II. The
best idea of B II can be gained, I think, if her mode
of speech and manner when she makes her appearance are
described, as well as the way in which it is customary to
bring her. B II never comes spontaneously, like B I and
B IV. When the other characters change parts they do
it with one another, never with B II. It is necessary to
bring B II by word of command. B I or B IV, as the
case may be, is hypnotized in any one of the conventional
ways, — a word of command for the eyes to close and for the
personahty to sleep being ordinarily sufficient. Then the
command, " Change ; B II," is given, and if successful
B II is there.

As a test of identity I have been in the habit of putting
certain questions which are answered differently by each.
Not only the answers but the manner of each is so different
that it is almost impossible to mistake the character. SaUy,
as a joke, used sometimes to imitate B II, but the imita-
tion was so poor it was easily detected. B IV at a later
period, being in rebellion against the new order of things,
would try to prevent my getting B II, and at times while
apparently half hypnotized ^ would claim that she was B II,
but a single test question of memory would settle the
matter, aside from her mannerisms, which were as different
from those of B II as, we will say, Sarah Bernliai'dt's

1 At such times, as will later appear, B IV was in another hypnotic
condition, B IV a and, correspondingly, B I in what was known as B I a.

IS B II THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP ? 303

from Duse's. But aside from these times of active rebel-
lion and war, when the question, "Who is this?" was
asked, if the change of personality was not complete, the
answer would be, " B I " or " B IV," as the case might be,
the individual being in what seemed a half-hypnotic con-
dition. When the change was complete, the answer would
be, " I am myself," or " I am Miss Beauchamp." There
was a quiet dignity in her manner that was impressive.
Then would follow the colloquy already mentioned:

« Where is B I ? "

" I am B I, Dr. Prince."

" Where is B IV?"

" I am B IV."

Every attempt to confuse her would fail, and she would
never allow one to make any distinction between herself
and these personalities, or even between B I and B IV.
She recognized the fact that she behaved differently in the
respective roles of B I and B IV, but I could never speak
of B I or B IV as such without being reminded that it was
herself ; consequently I was obliged, as a rule, to use some
such phrase as, " You as B I," or " When you were B IV."
She insisted, in sorrow, upon assuming full responsibility for
B IV's conduct, saying that it was herself after all, and she
could not shirk the responsibility. She recognized the fact
that as B IV she did not know what she did as B I, and
viee versa ; but she, B II, knew everything.^ She could
give no explanation of the metamorphosis from one to the
other of the personalities, or why at one time she could not
remember what had been done at another time.

Then, as a character, she was in many respects different
from B I, and totally different from B IV. With a full
knowledge of the past six years, the spectacle of hereelf as
B IV rebelling against her friends, fibbing, and prevaricat-
ing, was a source of great pain to her ; and when later
1 Exceptiug, of course, about Sally.

804 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

B IV plotted to get rid of all control, terrorizing B I into
a belief that every one was tired of her, B II would beg not
to be given up, not to be allowed to leave us, not to be de-
serted. She would ask, " Why do I behave so ? " and then
plead not to be permitted to do it. She would humbly
apologize for her conduct, which she took deeply to heart.

In character B II seemed to answer all the requirements
of the Miss Beauchamp we were in search of. She was
without the morbid idealism and impressionability of B I,
and without those traits of B IV which all recognized to
be departures from the original self. But of course, as she
had never been allowed to live a life of her own, indepen-
dent of the other selves, had never indeed opened her eyes,
what kind of a person she would be, how she would behave,
how she would react to her environment, if her eyes were
opened, could not be foretold.

It was evident that B II had developed in many respects
since those early days, nearly two years before, when she
was described as the soul of Miss Beauchamp. She still
seemed to be that, but she was more. There was an ab-
sence of that melancholy sadness and weariness that had
formerly characterized her. She was less nervous, showed
less humility, less morbid conscientiousness ; she was more
natural, more light-hearted, and possessed greater sponta-
neity and intellectual grasp. The significance of this change,
which was ascribed to psychological growth following
wider experience, was not recognized for some time. When
the true explanation was found the problem acquired wider
proportions. B II then had apparently grown into a
character differing almost as widely from B las from B IV.

Two hypotheses were now admissible : (l)BI-l-BIV
might be the real self, that is, B X (not yet found) ; (2) B II
might be the actual real self, but in hypnosis, which self
became disintegrated at one time into B I and at another
into B IV. In either case it was plain that B 11 was

IS B II THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP? 305

not a hypnotized fragment of B I or B IV alone, for she
had a larger field of consciousness than either, and her
memories included the memories of both. The real self,
then, might be X, some one we had not yet seen, or it might
be B II awake. If the second hypothesis was the correct
one, then B II would be the real self (in hypnosis) whom
I had been hunting for. Under both hypotheses B I and
B IV would each be mutilated selves, parts only of the real
self, each a sort of somnambulistic personage.

It was quite possible, however, that the hypotheses were
not exclusive of one another, but that both hypotheses
might be correct ; which would mean that B X (or B I +
B IV) in hypnosis was B II.

We have spoken always of B I and B IV being hypno-
tized into B 11. According to the second hypothesis, as
B II was a synthesis of B I and B IV, the process was
in part the reverse of this; instead of being hypnotized
into B II, B I and B IV would be each partially waked
up when changing to B II, — partially, because the person
was in hypnosis. The process, instead of hypnotizing,
would be one of awakening into real life, because it was
a synthesizing of dissociated groups of mental states.
Conversely, when B II was said to wake up, what really
happened was that she became disintegrated. Her mind
became cleft into two dissociated systems, one system
representing B I and the other B IV. From a technical
point of view she would be said to go into two somnam-
bulistic conditions respectively. Whether she went into
one state or the other was apparently a matter of chance.
. If the cleavage was in one direction she became B I ; if in
another, B IV. In each state certain portions of the mind
or brain became dormant. The first of the new hypotheses
also involved a similar cleavage of B X into B I and B IV.

It remained to test the hypotheses. If B II was the
real self asleep, it would be necessar}^ only to keep her

306 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

herself and have her open her eyes and awake, and she
would straightway walk forth resurrected, whole, and un-
mutilated. In spite of the risks I determined to try the
experiment.

One day B II was brought. After talking to her a short
time, I said, " Listen to what I say. I want you to open
your eyes; to remain yourself as you are now; not to
change to B I or B IV, but be yourself," etc. ; then finally
I commanded, " Open your eyes." Her eyes opened. She
looked about with a vacant look on her face. She did
not know me or the room. She knew very little about
herself, or, in fact, anybody else. She said she must go,
but did not know where she was going or where she
lived. Her mental associations were completely dis-
organized. She seemed to be a dement.

The experiment was plainly a failure. It was evident
that she could not be allowed to go about in that state, so
I closed her eyes again and brought B II, who, however,
could throw no light on the matter. She did not know
why she had developed such confusion when her eyes were
opened, though she remembered the fact of having been a
moment before in that condition. The experiment was
repeated later, but again failed.

It remained necessary to test the first hypothesis and see
if B I and B IV could be blended into one personality, —
the real self.

This is a good place, before describing the results of
these experiments, to record another discovery, although it
was not made until a much later period. This discovery
explained the apparent change that had taken place in
\^the character of B II, and her identity with B VI. Our
present B II was not the original B 11^ the hypnotic self
which appeared the first time Miss Beauchamp was hypno-
tized, before Sally's advent.

IS B II THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP ? S07

It will be remembered that the original B II was de-
scribed as a passive hypnotic state, having for the most part
the characteristics of B I and into which the latter went
when hypnotized. Later this B II was replaced by Sally
and very little was seen of her until about the time when
the discovery was made that B I and B IV became the
same when hypnotized. It was assumed that the resulting
hypnotic self was the same as the original B II, though the
differences which have been pointed out were noticed. The
changes in character were attributed to the effect of educa-
tion, as they well might be. But as time went on it was
found that while the original B II was plainly B I in char-
acter, the present B II showed distinct differences, which be-
came more and more marked as Miss Beauchamp's trouble
subsided. She did not have the saintlike attitude of B I
any more than she had the belligerent irascibility of B IV ;
rather, she exhibited a well-balanced poise of mind which
spoke for normality. She was not only simple and
truthful, but her point of view was plain common-sense.
The suspicion arose that the original conception of B II
was erroneous, but later the original state reappeared. It
was then found that this state was an entirely different
one from the New B II with which we had been dealing
of late. The test of memory alone proved this. This
original state which frequently reappeared had no knowl-
edge of B IV, as the New B II had. She knew only her-
self as B I, as formerly was the case. In character, too,
she was easily recognized as the original B II : there was
no mistaking her. In other words, she was only B I
hypnotized ; she in no way partook of B IV. It seemed
best then to rename the original hypnotic state, B la.

From these observations it was plain that B I when hyp-
notized went into two different states: B la, and B II
(= B VI).

We may construct a scheme to illustrate the relations to

308 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

each other of the different psychical groups and the mem-
ories which each possessed, dissociation being indicated by
broken lines and synthesis by solid lines :

Bla

BIV

BII

The memories of B la were not perceptibly broader
than those of Miss Beauchamp, but if the process of " hypno-
tizing " was carried farther, a very great change took place.
The memories of B IV became added to those of B I, and
she became B II; so that in this rearrangement of the
mental groups there was more than a dissociation (hyp-
nosis) ; there was a putting together of the memories of
previously dissociated groups (B I and B IV).

Later still, as will appear, it was found that B IV could
be put into a hypnotic state corresponding to Bla, and
this state was named B IV a. It played a very important
and obstreperous part in the solution of the problem. As
with I a, when IV a was still further " hypnotized " (really
synthesized), it became B II.

We could then add to our scheme as follows :

B la

BIV

BlVa

B 11

IS BII THE REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP ? 309

It had been hoped that by waking up B II the real self
would be obtained. This experiment had proved a failure,
for on being awakened B II became only a sort of dement.
That she should be such was a paradox. The question
now was, Can B I be synthesized with B IV, and will the
resulting personality, X, be the real self ? If so, it would
follow that by the disintegration of B X, B I, and B IV
had- resulted. Our scheme might then hypothetically be
thus enlarged :

B X [unknown]

BIV

BlVa

B II

It is to be understood that these symbols represent alterna-
ting or successive states, and not contemporaneous states.

A series of experiments was now undertaken with the
view of synthesizing the memories of B I and B IV by
means of suggestion to B II. They were interrupted by
the outbreak of family rows which compelled the postpone-
ment of the study. As far as they went, some very inter-
esting results were obtained. As these experiments were
resumed at a later period, the details may be deferred until
those more complete observations are described. It may
here simply be stated that it was found possible by means
of suggestions to B II to bring back to B I and B IV,
respectively, memories of specific events in the life of the
other ; in other words, to synthesize specific mental states.
Beyond this at this time the experiments were not carried.

CHAPTER XIX

SALLY HYPNOTIZES B IV AND FIGHTS FOR CONTROL

WE must now take up again the thread of Miss Beau-
champ's life.

During the autumn and winter (1899-1900), while these
studies were being made, the vicissitudes of a triple person-
ality were going on. Sally had largely transferred her
interests from B I to B IV, whom she liked better. Leav-
ing B I, whom she regarded as a weakling, a sentimentalist,
to go her own way alone, she expended her energy on
B IV, whom she persisted in hazing as she used to haze
B I. It must not be thought that Sally was actuated
solely by a desire to annoy and torment ; that was not her
idea. The trouble was that she found the daily life of B I
and B IV dull and boresome, and, as she used to say in
reply to remonstrances, " What is there for me to do ? "
Tormenting the others was a game which, childlike, she
delighted to play. She could n't sit at home, twirling her
thumbs and doing nothing, and so she occupied the time
writing notes that would bring a return volley on her head ;
or in doing or undoing, as the case might be, something
which the others disliked or liked, if only the arrangement
of the furniture in the room.

Then, too, she wanted her way as much as the others
wanted theii"S. She would promise again and again to have
no intercourse whatsoever with the family, but, as she used
to say even while promising, she could not keep promises
of this kind. It was really impossible to provide her with
amusement. The outdoor sports, the adventures, and the

SALLY HYPNOTIZES B IV 311

strenuous life which she loved were impossible for Miss
Beauchamp. One can imagine the difficulty of providing
three kinds of lives, for one and the same individual, to be
pursued at different hours, and even the same hour of the
same day. The result was that Sally, having nothing to
do, found her enjoyment in teasing the others. She did not
hate IV as she hated B I ; with IV it was more the excite-
ment of playing the game. Then too, IV took it all dif-
ferently from what B I did. B I was terrorized by Sally.
IV was unterrified, defiant, determined to be mistress of
herself, " If Sally is only a part of myself," she would
say, " I will conquer tliis thing ; " and she insisted on fight-
ing it out. Sally, on her part, would say, " I cannot
frighten her as I can Miss Beauchamp," at the same time
pointing out that she herself was at a great disadvantage
because she did not know IV's thoughts. Sometimes one
would get the upper hand, and sometimes- the other, B IV's
point of weakness being that B I's anxiety and her own
battling would bring insomnia and fatigue to the family
body, and then, lier physical strength going, she would
become temporarily discouraged, but never for a moment
thought of yielding.

She was able to take advantage in an ingenious way of
Sally's ignorance of her thoughts. Believing that Sally
was watching and listening, spying upon her every act, and
ready to infer her thoughts and motives from what she did,
she would do all kinds of things to mislead Sally as to her
own real character and intentions. She would lead her on
false scents, give her, to use the slang of school parlance,
" crooked steers," making herself appear by her woixls and
acts heartless, without emotion, and indifferent to every-
thing that Miss Beauchamp held dear. Once or twice at a
somewhat later date (June, 1900), Sally, by a device, dis-
covered IV's thoughts, and then her astonishment at the
revelation was extreme, for she found them very different

812 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

from what she had imagined. The same surprise constantly
awaited her when accidental discoveries revealed TV's real
motives and intentions. IV would go to no end of pains to
deceive Sally; as, for instance, one day, being much dis-
tressed by a certain event, she wound a cloth around her
head, as if it were a headache that was oppressing her and
not her mental agitation.

Sally used at first to take things au pied de la lettre^ but
later caught on to IV's dodges. One difficulty one always
had to contend with, namely, Sally's childhke credulity.
IV would play upon this, telling Sally all sorts of things
in order to circumvent me and bring about her own ends.
" IV says you really don't want me to do " so and so ; " IV
says you want this " ; or " IV says that," Sally would say,
— each thing being directly contrary to my wishes, and
generally of great importance.

IV and Sally kept up a mutual correspondence, which
was carried on sometimes by Sally's using IV's hand and
writing automatically as a subconscious self, and sometimes
by writing in the waking state, as the personalities changed
back and forth. IV would in this way artfuUy make use
of Sally to keep herself informed of all that took place
when B I and Sally were in the flesh, in return for which
information she would throw Sally a sop in the way of a
present, or acquiesce in some particular forbidden fruit's
being plucked.

Sometimes the two would engage in bickerings, like two
squabbling children, each scribbling cutting remarks and
retorts to the other. On some of these occasions, coming
unexpectedly into the room, I would find pieces of paper
scribbled over with conversations of this kind. Sally was
obliged to write her own little pleasantries, but IV could
communicate hers by speaking aloud ; so Sally would hear
many a little muttered, left-handed compliment, as well as
matters of interest. " Little beast," or " Fool," IV would

SALLY HYPNOTIZES B IV 313

mutter ; or, if in a friendly mood, words of information or
advice.

There were times when IV and Sally would enter into
systematic campaigns of hostilities, each determined to
down the other. Then IV would gird on her armor, and
set forth resolute, uncompromising, with blood in her eye,
determined to suppress Sally for good and all. She would
do her best to destroy everything that her enemy wrote —
many a letter to me was destroyed — and to undo every-
thing done. Whatever she discovered Sally was doing, or
imagined she was doing, she would reverse. If, for ex-
ample, she found herself on the way to my house, she
would turn about and retrace her steps, or at least would
try to do so, for Sally, in her role as a subconsciousness,
would at once make a dive for the muscular steering gear,
there would be a temporary struggle with arms and legs, a
sort of aboulia, and then it usually happened that Sally,
victorious, would reverse the machinery and head her again
for her destination. At night, too, Sally would have another
turn. As fast as IV would get into bed, Sally, coming
herself, would get up, and then, changing heraelf back to
IV, the latter would find herself to her disgust out of bed
again. And so it went on all night; and if IV got off
without the bed and furniture being turned upside down,
she was lucky.

Then again Sally would refuse to write IV a line of in-
formation, thus leaving her in the dark as to the course of
events. This would worry IV more than the hazing, for
without information she was lost. At the end of about
two weeks of hostilities IV would appear, with her plu-
mage plucked, like the historical parrot after the scrap
with the monkey, and then, thoroughly worn out, she
would consent to my mediation. But during it all poor
B I would come from time to time, to find before her the
mortifying evidences of her other selves' behavior.

314 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

The continuing difficulties arising from the correspond-
ence with Anna and others added to the confusion. Sally,
upon whose shoulders the culpability must be placed,
was in constant communication with forbidden correspond-
ents, to Miss Beauchamp's annoyance. They must have
been sorely puzzled, not to say distracted, by the con-
tradictory actions of the family. All this correspondence,
harmless in itself, might have been disregarded if it had
not given encouragement to Sally's independence.

But aside from this particular influence, when, as was at
times the case, Sally passed the bounds of all control, there
was one card which it was possible to play with telling
effect. In such emergencies, when B I or B IV was
driven to distraction by Sally's hazing, I would threaten to
lay the whole case before one high in authority. Sally,
remembering the past, and terrified by the danger whicli
threatened others, would thus be brought to her knees and
reduced to submission — for about two weeks 1

Some knowledge of all this is necessary to understand
her correspondence, and the other scraps of writing which
are included in this account. It will also enable one to
understand some of the difficulties in the way of thera-
peutics, which at times made it impossible to pui-sue any
systematic method of care, and even of experimentation.

Here are some scraps I surprised IV in the act of writ-
ing, while Sally Avas trying to reproduce automatically
some of the destroyed autobiogi'aphy :

" My precious Sally — Have you eaten my manuscript? If
not, kindly produce it. I am waiting, and so is the doctor. "

" Ah ho ! Ah ho ! wake up Sally, Ton are afraid.
But oh the fear lest a thought should " —

" O Sally dear, my lips shall be mute if you will only come
back to me. You may have the [photograph] frame and all
else that you wish."

SALLY HYPNOTIZES B IV 315

Here are two notes written by Sally, but apparently to
Miss Beaucbamp rather than IV :

^ Thou has sinned, '^

Thou hast done amiss and dealt wickedly, ^

\ The sorrows of death shall compass thee about. ^

f The pains of hell shall come upon thee, "^

^ Thou Shalt find no help, ^ "

\ No comfort in heaven or in earth." ^

[To B IV.]

" My Chris she hauls me round the house.
She hoists me up the stairs.
I only have to will her.
And she takes me every wheres.

" Because she loves me so.

"Written by Sally's friend, G. B."

'■'• FOURTEEN^ in one day, you abandoned little wretch!
And after all you have n't deceived them. You are reckoning
without S. B. She corrects all your errors for you."

The last three were found by B I and inclosed in the fol-
lowing note to me. There was also inclosed (either acci-
dentally or by Sally) a fragment, the eleventh page of
another letter to some one else.

"Can I see you for a few moments some time this week?
AVednesday afternoon, if possible? You misunderstood my im-
patience yesterday ; it was not with you — only with myself,
and my own weakness."

[Fragment of letter from B I to Z .] "But sometimes

the weight of this strange curse presses so heavily upon me
that it seems as if it would crush my very life out, and I hardly
know what I say or what I do. And it tires me so ! You know
how long it has lasted — how great the strain. ..."

^ Lies.

316 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Unlike B I, B IV had a fine appetite and liked good
food. Sally frequently guyed her on this human weak-
ness. One day IV, coming to herself, found herself con-
templating with great interest the following nonsense
verses :

" The greedy piglet 1
See her mug
Upturned to suck
The honey jug.
Oh, shame !
Oh, shame ! "

After writing this poetic reflection (whether original or
not I do not know) on IV's carnal appetite, Sally had
changed herself to IV to enjoy the result.

Here is a note from Sally to me, after her first attempt
at the autobiography, describing her difficulty in analyzing
her thoughts as a subconscious self and making clear how
they ran synchronously along side of Miss Beauchamp's
thoughts. On the outside of the envelope was written:
" B IV is not a person. Why do you all insist that she
is ? I know she 's rattled."

" Can't you somehow make me more clever, so that I can write
this old thing decently? It really is n't half expressed, and the
nasty thing won't say at all what I mean. Perhaps it would be
better if I divided the page [into parallel columns] and carried
it on that way, would it? That was really the way the thought
went, you know, until I got my eyes open. She could cor-
rect her side if you wished — if you think she would be more
accurate.

" B IV will probably have a very woeful tale to relate when
she sees you. She thinks the millennium farther off than ever,
for I have made her sick as a little dog on cabanas [cigarettes].
I want her to realize the superiority of her better self. Is n't it
awfully good of me, for I 'd heaps rather smoke them myself,
you know ? She 's too done up to be even cross."

SALLY HYPNOTIZES B IV 317

A failure on my part to recognize the manuscript of the
autobiography, and the consequent scolding of Sally over
the head of B IV, brought this wrathful letter from the
former :

" Autobiography.
" If you no longer want it, please put it in the fire. I 'm not
repentant, nor sorry for my sins, nor anxious to comfort the
poor afflicted family. They may go to the devil.
" Amen, amen."

[From Sally to B L] " You may tell Dr. Prince that III is
absent from home on a scouting expedition for Dicky, and that
you don't know when she will return. Repeat this exactly, but
don't show him this paper or you may be very, very sorry. I do
not choose to be psychologized by any one.

"Amen."

But Sally soon became alarmed by the consequences of
her pranks, which resulted in making IV ill and spoiling
her own fun. Sally's confession is contained in the follow-
ing letter, which aroused IV's indignation when she read
Sally's msulting reference : —

[Sally to Dr. P.] " You won't be cross with me, please, if I
confess that I 've been teasing B IV lately — much more than
she told you about. And I am beginning to be afraid that it
has n't been very good for her, for she seems to be getting all
tired or sick or something. What shall I do with her? She
is n't a real person — I know she is n't ; yet one cannot help
feeling sorry for her sometimes, she is so perfectly helpless.
Perhaps I 'm responsible for some of her bad temper, too. I
may as well tell you everything. But she is the most exasper-
ating monkey you ever saw. One needs must take her ..."

" Thursday. [January, 1900.]
[From Sally.] " Many thanks for your note. Being a brick
is loads nicer than gaining a moral victory. I hate morals and
victories too. Do you know Dicky and I are great friends

818 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

now. I go to see him. He does u't consider me a subliminal
at all, on his honor ; and I may stay, and he 's going to hyp-
notize me to get at the real subliminal. Is n't it amusing ?
Will he call it B V, and will he make it tell him all about me ?
I think it 's awfully funny, but I can't conceive of things being
done without my knowledge, even in hypnosis. They never have
been, you know, since that very, very early time when I used
to sleep. Shall I tell you more about the experiments as we
go on, or do you prefer getting it all from Dicky's point of
view, as more scientific ? Perhaps I may not know much about
it anyway, except the things I do to [B] I and IV.

" Which of the family do you want to see to-morrow? You
have a wide choice — I, II, III, IV, and V, if Dicky gets it.
I is blue ; II f uzzling ; III ; IV cranky. IV is also dis-
turbed, enough so to lie awake all last night because of Mr.
C.'s determination to have her confirmed this year. She never
has been, you know ; but it is really impossible now, for she 's
not fit. She 's always erring and straying. She can't be con-
firmed. Dr. Prince — you know she can't, for she is n't going to
stay. B I won't like it. I never dreamed of your knowing
Mr. C. Please say she must not be confirmed. 1 'm sorry this
is so long, for I see you are awfully tired, but I wanted just to
tell you these things. Shall I go on with the writing, or is it
too bad? Please leave the books for me. Dicky says anything
will suit him. He won't be critical, and he is very anxious to
have it. Not from Sally Beauchamp but from [here Sally
writes her real name].

' ' Le roi est mort. Vive le roi ! "

[January 24, 1900.]
[From B IV.] " It is really too absurd for me to bore you
with complaints of Sally, for I know you think I deserve all I
get from her, and perhaps I do. I won't come again or write
you. My only thought in asking you to let me come regularly
and tell you everything that had happened was that by so doing
you might perhaps control both Sally and myself and make one
real person, as she would say, out of us. I know she does n't
think very much of me. I don't myself. I know that what she
says is true enough. I am perfectly unresponsive to all the things

SALLY HYPNOTIZES B IV 319

that used to touch me most nearly.^ Not that I care, for I
don't ; yet I am conscious of my deficiencies, and I suppose they
are what trouble her. Emotionally and spiritually I am dead,
although still knowing that I ought to feel and to do certain
things. But I don't feel them and I donH do them. Why? I
cannot say. I had hoped that you could, and that you would help
me. You seem to know so much. But I am afraid I have
taxed you beyond all reason. You must pardon me for being
so inconsiderate. Very truly yours,"

[From Sally.] "... She 's [IV] so stuffy. . . . She's spend-
ing all her allowance on carfares. I call it sheer extravagance !

I 've taken her stamps away so she can't write you again. You
are glad of that, are n't you ? It 's such a bother when you are
busy to keep getting letters."

On Februciiy 4 some interesting psychological phe-
nomena were observed. They are too complicated to make
it desirable to interrupt this narrative with a detailed ac-
count of them. But the important thing is that Sally was
told to hypnotize IV and bring B II. This Sally did, but
her influence was not complete, or else she did not go
about it right. At any rate, instead of obtaining the real

II she put IV into what Sally called a half -hypnotic state.
In other words, IV was disintegrated into another quasi-
personality. In this condition B IV was half hypnotized, —
disintegrated, or " rattled " as Sally expressively called it,
— was very confused as to lier sun'oundings, and scarcely
recognized any one, but replied to all questions by simply
following leads and answering as it seemed to her she was
expected to do.

As will appear when we come to study disintegration,
it is possible to break up temporarily B I, B IV, and cnen
B II, so that they will lose their cognition of surroundings,
and many of their chains of memory. These different

1 This whole statement ia a characteristic lie, and intended equally for
Sally's consiun])tioii.

820 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

disintegrated states of consciousness might then, if one
chooses, be numbered, and possibly educated into person-
alities, if a sufficient quantity of consciousness persisted.
Now making use of Sally to influence IV was playing
with edged tools, for Sally was so delighted when she dis-
covered her " hypnotic " power that she immediately pro-
ceeded surreptitiously to make use of it. She kept putting
IV into this " half-hypnotic state " and then, the better to
make her enemy realize her power, wrote her a letter saying
that she could hypnotize her, had done so, and would do so
again. In this Sally was diabolically clever ; for it was for
the deliberate purpose that she might make IV conscious
of the fact that she was being hypnotized, and therefore in
Sally's power, that she did the deed by means of a letter,
copying the method and the exact words I once employed
to overcome insomnia in Miss Beauchamp. The letter ran
as follows :

" Tell M. P. to chase himself, Becky,^ and, as you read,
slowly, slowly, your lids grow heavy — they droop, droop, droop ;
you 're going, going, gone."

When B IV opened the letter and read it, she promptly
went into an hypnotic trance. This effect of this written
suggestion I had the opportunity, though unintentionally,
of corroborating. Wishing to record the letter with my
notes, I read it into the phonograph in Miss Beauchamp's
presence. As she heard the words, the expression of her
face changed, her lids drooped, and she went again into a
half-hypnotic state.

To hypnotize thus either of the other personalities was
too dangerous a power to leave in Sally's hands, so of
course Sally came in for a good drubbing for her behavior
and never to my knowledge tried her hypnotic power
again. But meanwhile IV was much perturbed at finding

1 Becky Sharp, oue of Sally's nickuames for IV.

SALLY HYPNOTIZES B IV 321

the battle going against her and herself in Sally's power,
and as usual the final result was mental agitation, headache,
and insomnia.

It was at the end of the investigation into these goings
on and the various psychical phenomena manifested that
there were witnessed some very amusing hallucinations in
IV induced by Sally. But more important from the j)oint
of view of guardianship, my authority became endangered
and I found myself engaged in a battle for control; for
Sally, having defeated IV, turned her guns upon me. It
was evident that either Sally or I must be master. If I
gave in, my authority was at an end.

It came about in this wise. I had endeavored to change
IV into B II, but could obtain only the hypnotic state
B I V a,^ evidently prevented by Sally, whose hand was ap-
parent from certain characteristic manifestations. It ended
in Sally's coming instead of B II, and I proceeded to lec-
ture her on her conduct ; but while in the act of doing so
she cleverly escaped by changing herself back again to IV.
To this personality an attempt was made to explain the
situation.

" Sally has been behaving very badly," I began.

IV repeated the sentence as she heard it, the woidsj
being transformed into others having an opposite meaning.

" Sally has been behaving heautifullyy

" No," I said, " badly r

" Yes," she repeated, " beautifully.''''

" No, no ; badly r

" Yes, beautifully.^^

" No ; badly, not beautifully ^

" Yes, I understand ; beautifully^ beautifully ^

Thus for the moment I was circumvented. It was in
vain that I sought to make her hear the word " badly."
It became apparent tliat Sally twisted in her mind every-

1 Chapter XXVII.
21

322 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

thing that I said so as to give it an opposite meaning.
She became deaf to certain words (negative hallucinations)
and heard in their places other words of a different signifi-
cation. Everything that was said in criticism of Sally
she heard and understood in Sally's praise ; she even said
repeatedly that she liked Sally, had no fault to find with
her, was reconciled to her, was perfectly satisfied with her,
and so on. Finally she ended by refusing to obey, assert-
ing that she was her own mistress, would go where she
pleased, and do as she pleased. This, too, was plainly the
V^work of Sally, who had taken possession of her tongue.
But most dramatic was the assertion of her own personality
in the midst of these sentences. Every now and then,
like one pursued by an invisible demon, and as if momen-
tarily she had broken away from the power that bound her,
she would exclaim, " Don't let me speak like that I " and
then the next instant she would give utterance to Sally's
words.

It was impossible to make her understand anything de-
rogatory to Sally, or even the directions I gave for her own
guidance. However, I was not to be beaten so easily.
Sally, as already told, had often been defeated by being
hypnotized with mock ether. It occurred to me that pos-
sibly I could produce the same effect on Sally while she
was still a subconsciousness ; that is, while B II was present.
My scheme was to hypnotize B II and at the same time
hypnotize Sally as a co-consciousness, by the suggestion
that both were being etherized. Accoixiingly, Sally not
suspecting the ruse, I obtained B II, and then, after a
suggestion or two, I went through the form of shaking a
bottle of suppositious ether, pouring it on some cotton, and
holding it to her nose in a professional way. At the same
time I repeatedly gave the suggestion, "This will etherize
Sally. Sally is now feeling the ether," etc. At first there
was a struggle, then her muscles became relaxed, her

SALLY HYPNOTIZES B IV 823

breathing deep, and she was in an apparent deep narcosis.
I was now able to give my instructions, which were re-
ceived without resistance or perversion ; but more impor-
tant was the fact that Sally was completely beaten. It
was a moral and physical victory. Later, when Sally
awoke, she admitted defeat, and that she had been " ether-
ized " and " squeezed ; " that is to say, her will overcome.
Her word of honor was given that she would write no more
letters, would not interfere with B IV, would not hypno-
tize or tease her, — in short, would leave her alone. In ful-
filment of this promise the next day a letter arrived which
laid bare the inmost thoughts of her own soul, as well as
those of Miss Beauchamp as Sally knew them. I give
only an abstract:

["February 5, 1900."]
[From Sally.] "... You really are mistaken in fancying
that I am jealous of any one, excepting occasionally of Miss
C. I hate B I, not because of Mrs. X.'s feeling for her, but
because of hers. She [B I] loves her so much more devotedly
and reverently than I ever can with all my willing. I am not
jealous of her — how could I be ? — but I envy her. I envy
her. She is infinitely beyond me — always — even in her pain
and suffering. . . ."

[Signed with real initials of Miss Beauchamp.]

"P. S. Please believe that I want to help you, and don't
be cross with me again. I don't want you to be ever."

The following shows the acuteness of Sally's mind in
both observing and interpreting : —

[February 8, 1900. From Sally.] "If Becky has really
reformed, why don't you make her write out some more things ?
For instance, the visions are presumably common to both her
and B I. That is, B I remembers all that she herself has, and
all that B IV has. B IV romembers her own, and we all be-
lieve that she remembers B Ts too. But if she does remember

324 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

B I's, why is it that she insists that she has never had but one

vision concerning ? Do you believe it? ... Is this a

sensible note?"

[True initials signed.]
" Dicky says what I got Saturday is B n."

The instability of B IV is brought out by the varying
moods which she would exhibit from day to day. One
day she would appear contrite and reasonable, ready to co-
operate and to do her part to bring about a synthesis of the
dissociated mental states, and thereby effect a cure. Then
the next day all would be changed. She would present
herself as an nngry, belligerent, unyielding, and uncompro-
mising foe, and perhaps after having thrown into the fire
the records of herself which she had laboriously written as
a contribution to this study.

Sometimes the exciting cause of this change of mood
would be found to be an emotion of anxiety or fear which
had welled up into her consciousness from out of the no-
where, and was unconnected with any specific idea, but
which could be traced to a similar emotion in the mind of
B I, but aroused therein by some specific idea. As already
pointed out,i though in B I and B IV there was a dissocia-
tion of experiences and of memories, the associated emotions
were common to both personalities. Emotion is one of the
most potent factors in producing disintegration ; and so in
this case an emotion of a depressing, anxious, or startling
kind was one of the most common influences in producing
instability and change of personality.

Per contra, we shall see when we come to study the
neurasthenic state, and the methods by which the Real
Miss Beauchamp was prevented from relapsing into her
previous disintegrated states, that the induction of an ex-
alting emotion was the most powerful agent in maintaining
a state of integration and of mental and bodily stability.

» Page 298.

SALLY HYPNOTIZES B IV 325

The induction of joy, of the emotion of well-being, of the
excitement that goes with present pleasure and expecta-
tion of happiness produced a stability that resisted in a
remarkable degree the disintegrating influences of a de-
pressing environment. No better illustration could be had
of the psychological law: "States of Pleasure are con-
comitant with an increase and states of Pain with an
abatement of some or all of the vital functions." ^

The striking difference between the psychology of emo-
tions and that of ideas is worth noting. B IV and B I
had amnesia for practically all the ideas and sensory ex-
periences of each other, but the emotions awakened by such
ideas and experiences were often retained, and were more
or less common to both.

A perusal of the extensive records which were kept
would make clear the peculiar instability of the disin-
tegrated personality, the constant conflicts which in con-
sequence were going on, and the difficulties offered in the
management of the case.

1 Bain's Mental Science

CHAPTER XX

DREAMS. B I AND B IV BECOME THE SAME PERSON
WHEN ASLEEP

NOT the least interesting of the many psychological
phenomena of this case were the dreams. The case
is unique in one respect. Ordinarily, our knowledge of
the contents of our dreams and of their relation to our
environment is limited to our ability to recollect them upon
awaking, and to inferences as to their origin, duration, etc.
But in the case of Miss Beauchamp, one of the family
(Sally), according to her own statement, was awake a large
part of the night, while the main personality was sleeping,
and therefore^ conscious of the dreams that went on,
just as she was conscious of Miss Beauchamp's thoughts
during the day. She therefore knew when a dream began
and when it ended, knew it in its entirety and often was
able to connect it with its origin, external or internal.

The accounts which Sally has given me of the dream
life of Miss Beauchamp contain, I think, some facts of
value as well as of interest. They corroborate the theory
that long and elaborate dreams may occupy a long or a
short time between their beginning and ending. If what
is true of Miss Beauchamp is true of the rest of us, what
we remember as our dreams is but a small fraction of our
psychological activity when asleep.

" I don't exactly understand what you mean by dreams,"
said Sally. " Miss Beauchamp's mind is ' going,' off and

1 Sally insists upon this as a fact, claiming indeed never to sleep ; at any
rate Sally remembered dreams and other nocturnal experiences of which the
primary personality had no recollection whatsoever.

DREAMS 327

on, all night long. She imagines then all sorts of things.
Some of the things that she thinks [that is, dreams] she re-
members when she wakes up, and some she doesn't. If
she remembers them, you call them dreams, and the others
you don't. I don't see why all the other things she thinks
are not just as much dreams as what she remembers."

As to the amount of psychological activity that goes on
during sleep, Sally made a statement which is of some
interest from a psycho-physiological point of view. How
far the evidence of her testimony, admitting that she
correctly describes Miss Beauchamp's consciousness, is
applicable to normal people is a question needing further
investigation. It is probable that Miss Beauchamp's sleep-
ing consciousness exhibits a very great exaggeration of
what goes on in the minds of ordinary people during sleep ;
but even so, this very exaggeration, if corroborated by other
observations, serves to bring out into relief the nature of
dream processes and to show their relation to the personal
consciousness. I am afraid it will be difficult to make
Sally's statement intelligible without entering in great
detail into the question of secondary subconscious states
and thus anticipating what has been reserved as a problem
for investigation in Part III. By secondary subconscious
states, I mean not Sally's consciousness but those subcon-
scious states which are supposed to form a part of the
conscious experiences of normal people, — the true secon-
dary consciousness. These include the sensory experiences
which at one moment we are conscious of, and one moment
not ; which at one moment are synthesized with the personal
consciousness, and one moment are left out of the synthesis,
but wliich though left out still persist as secondary percep-
tions. The extent to which such conscious perceptions
are present in normal people I pass by entirely for the pres-
ent, until we shall be able to discuss the Avhole subject with
all the data in hand.

328 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

In order to explain dreams Sally took up this subject of
secondary conscious states as follows, without, I have every
reason to believe, having previously had any knowledge of
psychological doctrines :

"When you are writing out anything, when you are
writing as you are now, for example [takmg notes], you
seem to think that the only thing you see is the thing you
are writing. Well, it is n't so. You see and you know a
great many more things. You see things out here and
out there [referring to peripheral vision], and you hear
the music which is now being played in the street, and
you feel lots of things — the wind blowing through the
windows, and the sounds in the house, and all sorts of
things like that. Now while you are thinking of what you
are writing these things go througli your mind as images
or sort of impressions. Some of them are not quite clear,
but they are all there. They are not connected thoughts,
but each makes its own image or impression, or sensation
as the case may be. They are disconnected from one
another. All this is going on all the time." ^

Now these images or impressions, of which Miss B is
not conscious, make up what Sally calls a second con-
sciousness, which she has always called CXI. (This is the
CII to which Sally refers in her autobiography .2) It
should be here stated that I made numerous experimental
observations on the existence of such secondary conscious
states in the Real Miss Beauchamp, and the results cor-
roborated this statement so far as it goes.

Sally, after further elaborating the above statement with
many details of the content of this secondary subconscious-
ness, made use of it to explain dreams. According to her ob-
servations, dreams are for the most part made up of ideas

* In writing Sally's explanation I supplied the technical words, but always
after she had assented to their use as expressing her meaning.
9 Page 371.

DREAMS 329

belonging to this secondary consciousness, although memo-
rial images from any past conscious experiences may by
association be woven into them. What is going on in the
daytime is going on all the time during sleep at night.
" It never stops the whole night long. The sounds from
outside, the touch of the bed-clothes, the draughts of air,
make sensory images or impressions in the same way as
in the daytime." These weave themselves into dreams,
but they also recall memories of what she has seen and
heard and read, in fact, everything that she has ever been
conscious of, so that in this way they arouse connected
dreams. Wlien she is asleep, she hears every sound just as
when she is awake and is listening. ^ That is, the secondary
consciousness hears. It feels the bed-clothes. The sensa-
tions sometimes give her horrible dreams. For instance,
they sometimes make her feel as if she were smothering.

^ This would explain the recognition and differentiation by a sleeping per-
son of sounds, as the recognition by a mother of the cry of her child, or by a
wife of the sounds of her husband's footsteps. The so-called premonitions
through dreams would iu some instances at least find an explanation iu these
facts. If the secondary consciousness has knowledge not possessed by the
primary self, and if dreaming is done mainly by the secondary consciousness,
then plainly a dream would convey information which would seem supernor-
mal to tiie primary self. Suppose the second consciousness overheard a re-
mark, or read in the newspapers by peripheral vision the news of some one's
illness whicli was unknown to the primary self, then this fact coming out in
a dream would seem miraculous. Indeed, Sally positively asserts that some-
times the images of words in the newspaper, for example, are seen by Miss
Beauchamp out of the corners of her eyes while she is reading with cen-
tral vision, and afterwards these peripheral images, of which she personally
is not conscious, may come out in dreams. The peripheral vision, how-
ever, is limited and consists of a mere image of the printed words without
any "meaning" (associated ideas?) being attached to it. Later the meaning
becomes attached. By this, perhaps, is meant that in dreams the symbol
recalls the ideas which are symbolized by the word. For herself, too, Sally
claims, that while B I is concentrating her mind on central vision, she,
Sally, need not pay attention to that, but cau concentrate her own mind on
peripheral vision and recognize things in the periphery. In test observations
Sally has frequently described to me objects seen out of the corners of the
eyes (peripheral vision), although BI or B IV was entirely oblivious of
having seen them.

330 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

and then that brings up things she has read, that is, bits
of different things.

Some of these ideas she remembers after waking, and
then calls them dreams. (Hence it is that Sally thinks it
most illogical " to call dreaming only what one remembers,
because the same thing is going on all the time. If you
call one thing dreams why should n't you call the other
dreams ? " To Sally, who remembered the whole di-eam,
remembering a part of it was an inconsequential fact.)

Sally's statement, that she never slept, was difficult to
prove or disprove, though the fact is unlikely, and it is
probable that she is unaware of the lapse of time during
which she sleeps. The conditions did not permit nocturnal
observation, but there can be no doubt Sally herself be-
lieved her claim. More important is the question whether
Sally is awake at all while the principal personalities slept.
There is reason to believe that she was, or that some part
of her was, a portion of the time at least. An analogous
phenomenon which I personally observed has a bearing on
the question : it was the persistence of Sally while B IV
was so deeply etherized that she was unable to speak or
move and was apparently unconscious. A good large
quantity of ether was used. During this stage of etheri-
zation Sally gave prearranged signals, and afterwards
remembered some nursery rhjones which I recited to her as
a test of consciousness, it having been previously agreed
that she was to repeat after coming out of the ether what
I had said (see reference to " Hickory, dickory, dock,"
etc., in letter, Appendix O). On carrying the etherization
still deeper the signals ceased. A possible fallacy in such
experiments lies in the difficulty of distinguishing between
unconsciousness from ether, and hypnotic sleep, the latter
as the effect of suggestion.

The phenomenon of a dissociated consciousness, con-
tinuing in activity while the primary consciousness sleeps,

DREAMS 331

has been noted before. In the case of Anna Winsor, re-
ported by Dr. Ira Barrows, it was observed that she was
asleep while the secondary consciousness, nicknamed " Old
Stump," was awake and performed many of its most strik-
ing feats. " Old Stump " was believed never to sleep.
During sleep the hand, taken possession of by this dis-
sociated state, not only wrote but conversed by signs,
watched over the sleeper, summoned the nurse by rapping
on the bedstead, and showed every sign of independent
wakefulness.

If it were safe to generalize from the evidence of Sally
in a particular instance like this, which, of course, is not the
case, we should have to conclude that our minds must be
in more or less constant activity during sleep ; and that we
are ignorant of the fact because for the greater part of the
ideation there is amnesia on awaking. We recollect but
a small part as our dreams. In this respect, the condi-
tions are comparable to what occurs during and after hyp-
nosis, trances, somnambulistic states, etc. Though those
states are characterized by continuous mental activity, we
fail to remember our thoughts afterward. It is improb-
able that in a normal person the ideation during sleep is
as extensive as is the case with Miss Beauchamp, and
hysterics generally ; but it is quite likely that the flora of
our dreams is much richer than we have any idea of.

Sally's statement regarding the time of origin and per-
sistence of some dreams corroborates a generally accepted
theory of psychology, namely, that very long dreams may
occur at the moment only of waking up, and yet seem to
the dreamer to have occurred during sleep. But, accord-
ing to this testimony, it is not solely at such moments that
these dreams occur : B I and B IV, according to Sally, had
two different kinds of dreams ; those that occurred during
sleep, and those that occurred only at the moment of wak-
ing up, and either might be very long or short in content.

332 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

First, of the dreams occurring during sleep, some, though

very long in content, might occupy a very brief moment of

time. She had, indeed, known very long dreams to occur

p even while the clock was striking.^ On the contrary, a

^ dream very short in content might occupy a long period of

time.
^^ Second, at the moment of waking up, a very long dream

might occur, which might give the impression to Miss
j Beauchamp that she had had a dream during sleep.

^ It sometimes happens that Miss Beauchamp wakes up

^ frequently during the night, and at each moment of wak-

rS ing has a long dream which is continuous in content
r ^ with the dream that she had at the moment of waking
y from the previous period of sleep. These are apt to be

>• ' nightmares. Miss Beauchamp erroneously classes these
continuous but successive dreams with those which occur
f? during the sleeping period.

^ As to the origin of dreams, one curious and interesting

p statement which Sally makes is that Miss Beauchamp

r" sometimes has dreams about what Sally is thinking of at

^ the moment — Miss Beauchamp being, of course, asleep

^- at the time — just as occasionally while awake Sally's

* ""■ thought comes into her mind. On such occasions Miss
Beauchamp is surprised at having some irrelevant or in-
congruous thought thrust without apparent reason into
her logical processes.

This interaction of the different consciousnesses is not
surprising, but is what one would expect. The surprising
thing is that this interaction occurs so rarely. The mem-
ory flashes coming from B I's mental life into that of B IV,
or vice versa have already been discussed; this thrusting

)

1 Note Sally's recognition of the clock's striking while Miss Beauchamp is
dreaming. As Sally had no knowledge of time, the only way of measuring
her time periods is by the time occupied by some event, such as the striking
of the clock, or the act of waking np.

DREAMS 333

of Sally's thoughts into B I's consciousness (without pre-
vious " mind-fixing ") is perhaps of the same order.

To return to the question whether Sally persists as
a waking consciousness during the periods of Miss
Beauchamp's sleep; it was difficult to prove or dis-
prove this. There is no inherent impossibility in the
claim. For after all, dreams are dissociated conscious
states ; they represent a persisting consciousness, persist-
ing during the sleep of the remainder of the pereonal
consciousness. Now dreams would differ from Sally's
consciousness only in the greater organization or system-
atization of the latter's conscious states. If one group can
persist in activity, there is no psychological impossibility
in the other's enjoying a similar activity. In Sally's case
perhaps the answer depends upon the extent of the field
of subconsciousness which persists during sleep, and
whether this field is sufficiently large to be entitled to
be regarded as Sally. All the motor centres surely sleep,
for Sally cannot move. Is what remains, if any, simply a
limited group of subconscious states, or a personal self?
This question must for the present remain unanswered.

However, wishing to have all the evidence that might
be obtained from her own testimony, I got her at a later
period to write out an account of her own thoughts and
perceptions, and Miss Beauchamp's dreams, during sevenil
nights while Miss Beauchamp slept. They are curiously
interesting, and warrant, I think, the recoids of two nights
being given here. They are interpolated with a running
fire of Sally's comments and philosophy and answers to
B IV's criticisms. Sally used to write a pai-agraph or
two at a time. Then B IV coming would read and com-
ment aloud on Sally's production. Sally then would reply
to the criticism, as appears in the text, interpolating her re-
ply in the midst of her account. Each account is given just

334 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

as she wrote it. Those comments which form " asides " are
printed between brackets in italics. C. (Christine) is used
by Sally generally to designate a self which was a compos-
ite of B I and B IV, and which at this later period had
been experimentally created. This C. had the memories of
both I and IV. Sometimes, however, Sally speaks of B I
as C. The distinction is not always clear, for when Sally
spoke of Miss Beauchamp in connection with events prior
to the hospital catastrophe of 1893 she always called her
C. but she rarely gave the initial or name to B IV. In
other words, C, in Sally's mind, was more intimately asso-
ciated with the original Miss Beauchamp.

None of the other personalities had any remembrance of
the events described by Sally as occurring while they slept.

April 10th, 1902. " Last night, B IV, after undressing and
bathing, sat gazing into space for a long time. Then she got
up and said, ' Good-night, Sally dear, you 're anotlier janitor,*
I'm afraid,' and went to bed. Before she slept [B] I came.
[B] I wondered what time it was — if she had seen you — if
Mrs. Y.'s book had been returned — if I had been rude — if
I had scrubbed her properly before getting into bed — why her
photograph of Mrs. X. had disappeared, etc., etc., etc. It
would take too long to write it all. She got up, saw that it
was after eleven, but began bathing, nevertheless, and in the
midst of it changed to [B] IV, who of course accused me at
once of teasing her and went back to bed again, awfully cross.
She fell asleep almost immediately this time and slept for
hours. Part of the time she was very restless, — does that
matter? — dreaming of London, running about there, you
know. What you call dreaming, or at least what C. calls
dreaming, is very curious. I don't see why you leave out so
much if it 's one thing, or why you put in so much if it 's
another. During this first sleep of C.'s there were students

1 Jeanneton, a character in an old French book. Thi.s name, understood
by Sally as janitor, hurt her feelings. " I am not a janitor," she protested.
" A janitor is a person who makes the furnace fire and does that kind of
thing."

DREAMS 335

going home, and trains and carriages passing, and once — this
is really true — a man, walking very unsteadily, stopped be-
neath the window, and called, ' Molly, Molly.' No one an-
swered for a minute, and he began to cry — really — and
mumble. Then he turned to go back, but Molly had heard
him and came running. She had clicky heels, and a horrid
voice — not like his — and there was another man with her,
following behind. Molly said, ' 0 George, was n't I good! I
knew you way off there ! ' Then George mumbled some more,
and she kissed him terribly, and they all three went off to-
gether. C. didn't wake up — wouldn't wake up — though I
wanted awfully to see them and tried to come."

April 10th, 1902. [Letter to M. P.] " You must answer
all my questions, please, no matter where you find them.
B IV did call me another janitor, although she says now she
did n't, and pretends to be terribly amused over it. I think
/ ought to be amused instead of IV, for it was an extremely
silly thing for her to say — utterly without meaning."

Another night: " Last night B IV was very much disturbed
over something, and kept walking up and down for a long time
after she was all ready for bed. I did not know at the time what
was troubling her, but I got it afterward, as you will see. The
first time she stayed in bed only a few minutes, getting up then
to take another sponge bath and tie her head up with haraamelis
cloths. I came while she was doing this, but I did n't finish it
for her because it would n't have been any use if I had ; she
always does things over after [B] I and me. I watcbed the
people on the street instead, and wished I was out with them.
It is so strange that other people are always much more inter-
esting than C. Perhaps they are n't if you come to really truly
know them, as I know her. Because they think she is — [IV
says I have omitted some things here, — that I hid the hamamelis
bottle and tore her goivn. I did n't. I put the bottle in the draioer
and covered it up so that it should n't get spilled, and the goivn tore
itself when I was trying to curl up by the rvindotv] — awfully in-
teresting. B I came while I was watching and meditating, and
felt her head to see if it ached, and it did n't / IV was only

836 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

pretending again.^ [IV says this is silly ; that one does n't have
to feel one's head to find whether it aches or not. I didn't mean
just that. You see when C^ came I was sitting on her gown by
the window, and the hamamelis cloths were tied on her arm so
that they should n't get lost, and she thought at once that she must
have had a headache, or some other sort of an ache, and she felt
herself to see. And there was nothing, so she unfastened the
bandages, ^mt on her gown, and went to bed — as I wrote before.]
[B] I was tired ttiough, and after praying, ' Keep him, dear God,
for Christ's sake — always — and forgive me ! ' a very queer
prayer, for it did n't begin or end as it should, and it is n't in
the prayer-l)ook, she kissed F. L.'s picture and went to bed.^
But not to sleep. IV came again, scolding, ' O my head, my
head ! Sally, you 're a little beast. Why can't you let things
alone ! O my head, my head ! What in the world did you put
that light out for? You knew I had n't finished. ^IV says you
don't want any prayers in an account like this, and that if I
think it absolutely necessary for C.'s reputation to /)?<i one in
I'd better substitute one from the prayer-hook. But C. did n't
say one from the prayer-book. She said exactly what I hare
written, and it was a prayer, for it was said on her knees
and in jtist the same way as at church. Of course if you
don't ivant it in I can drop it easily enough. Some nights she
says nicer ones, like other j^^ople.] 'Where's the bottle? Jf
I step on it I shall scream. You little, little beast ! ' Then she
scrambled out, nursing her head (which did n't ache, you know),
lighted the gas, sponged herself all over for the third time, tied
the hamamelis cloths on, and went to bed. This time she slept,
but very restlessly. I think she was not quiet more — [IV says
that I know nothing about whether her head ached or not, and
that I've carefully omitted all mention of her long search for the
bottle, and also of the difficulty her torn gown caused her. Well,
•perhaps I don't know, but at any rate when C* herself came and

1 That is, IV had tied np her head to fool Sally.

2 That is, B I.

8 IV never says any prayers, prayer-book ones or any others. (Footnote
by Sally.)

* Tlie composite self, B I + B IV, above referred to, who had the mem-
ories of both B I and B IV.

DREAMS 337

remembered all about IV she remembered it that way^ and I
know C.'s thoughts. And as for the bottle and her gown, I
did n't mention them because I did nH consider them important
enough. I can of course tell how IV turned everything upside
down in the room in her search, and how she left things upside
down for O. the next morning to put back. And I can tell too
about how cross she got because in putting on her gown after her
bath her arm got caught in the tear. She pulled it off furiously,
threw it on the floor, and got into bed luithout it. I hope IV will
find this quite clear noio] — than a minute, and that in the very
beginning, while she was asleep. There was a great deal of
noise in the street, people passing, and carriages, with occa-
sionally an automobile, but it was not that which made her rest-
less. It was the memory of her conversation with N. in the
afternoon. She dreamed that N. was a butterfly, she [IV] one
wing — \_IV says this is all nonsense — that there is n't a sirigle
thing to prove that the afternoon's conversation had disturbed her,
and that the dream is probably pure invention. It is n't non-
sense, and although it would take a lot of writing to prove what
I have said, yet it can be done, and later shall be. As for the
dream, what would be the use of my inventing things when her
thoughts do it for me? Besides, tvhether IV remembers this
dream or not, C. does, and would recognize it even in this
cut-short form. All the dreams I may as well say are very
briefly sketched in this account. It would take too long to write
them out fully — as they really were — and. I cannot see that it
would be of any use'] — a queer composite growth the other
wing. She [IV, as the wing] was diseased, ought to be cut off
— yet the cutting off would cripple N. So she struggled and
kicked — literally — while it tried to fly, and the other wing
kept changing in color and composition.

" She dreamed of being pursued by a huge cat, much larger
than herself, which finally sprang upon her and tore open her
breast. [/F says, ' Interesting, if true,' and it was interesting
because you remember she had left her gown in a little heap on the
floor, and the bandages had come off, and her hair, teas flying.
And it is true, because I was there and not sleeping and knew
all about it. I suppose she will be cross again now, but I can't
help it. When she says some things like, ' Really, Sally dear,

838 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

how very interesting / How delightful ! How sweet of you ! '
— things that sound nice if you repeat them, but which you know
are horrid — it makes me frantic. ]

" She dreamed of being lost in London — surrounded by a mob
of the dreadful women there, who held her and forced her to
listen to their vile talk.

" Then she dreamed of being dead, and in a coffin lined with
hands which tried to clutch at her. Suddenly they all doubled
up aud seemed to be watching. C. wondered, but was so tired
struggling to get away from them — \_IV says my notions of
anatomy are mixed, or else my English is, and that what J have
written gives the impression that the hands ivere watching. That
is exactly the impression I want to give. They were watching,
in C.'s dream. And IV knows that in dreams there are often
much more curious things than that. I 'm not making this up or
writing for fun'\ — that she leaned back, in her dream, on her
brain, which was her pillow, to rest a minute. But the pillow
moved — long freably worms wriggled out of it, covering her
from head to foot, and she screamed with terror. When she
tried to escape the worms, the hands clutched her. When she
would avoid the hands, the worms went through and through
her. Finally she awoke as C, whole, shuddering and cold,
though — [^freably ' is n't a word, IV says. That does n't mat-
ter, if I choose to use it. When I say that she screamed with
terror 1 mean that she dreamed she did. She really only made
funny little gasping noises that one could hardly hear. Some-
times she does scream, and that makes her wake up, terribly
frightened] — simply dripping with perspiration. For a long
time she could not pull herself together, but when she did she
remembered everything, just as if she had been properly hyp-
notized in the afternoon. That is, she remembered all she had
done and said and thought as [B] I and IV ; she did not re-
member anything about me because that is not possible. I am
different, and all that I do concerns just me. [^IV says it is ab-
surd for me to make such a statement as this — that the facts do
not bear me out, and consequently it would be better to omit this
part altogether ; that I am only a face [phase], and a passing
one. She added something more to this criticism yesterday, but
as I don't understand what she means I 'm going to ignore it.

DREAMS 339

" Dr. Prince says she means '•phase ' of her disease. It is
true that two or three times she has in some siieaky way gotten
hold of things that I've done and said, but never very correctly,
and [B\ I never has done it at all. Sometime I 'm going to write
out all that I think about this. Because, even if she were able to
get a great deal, and get it exactly true, it woxdd n't follow that I
am a part of her. Why, I get things belonging to [^] / and IV
when both are dead, that is, things they knoiv, like algebra ; of
course I know everything they do. It is hard, and I don't like
to do it much, for it makes me all squeezed. Dr. Hodgson said
I could n't do it, so I did it. As I am always alive, it ought to
he loads easier for IV to get things from me. But she must get
them in the same way that she would from J. or S. or X, Y, Z,
and I think I know how to do that, although it will be very hard to
tell how.'] It was through her [C] remembering when she awoke
that I learned what had been troubling B IV in the evening,
and why she was restless and pretended things. It was be-
cause she does n't want to be a woman, because women are self-
ish and lay too much emphasis upon small things, and keep
men from accomplishing their work in life — \^This is weak all
through, IV says. She thinks that as I did not know at the time
what ivas troubling her and as I have said that I did not, all this
rigmarole (I don't know how to spell it, but that is ivhat she said)
should be excluded. She says her [C.'s] memory has been shown
to be inaccurate repeatedly. Of course if she insists upon it, this
can be cut out. I did not know at the time what was troubling her,
and C.'s put-together-memory has been rather jumbly sometimes,
hut not lately ; that is, she [C] could not reconcile the memories
and feelings of[B] land IV. They were contradictory. Lately
it has been all right for [B] I, and I think if IV were to stick to
the truth, as she tells me to do, she ivould confess that it was her
conscience and not her head that gave her so much pain that
night. IV really misses the record I used to keep of Iter sins.]
And because she had helped X, for whom she did not care, and
could not help Y, whom she loved very much. And because Z
was selfish, and inconsiderate, and exacting, making life very
hard for Y. And because she could never be cured, . . . [IV
says that X, Y, Z are delightfully mysterious, and that she
wonders how I came to know them. They are n't mysterious

840 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

the least hit. Of course, you Jcnow, those are n't their real
names. I just put them that way to make it more interest-
ing, and because you must n't ever give names when you say
things about j^^ople — it is n't a yiice thing to do — but if IV
really truly wants to know who they are, I'll tell her.] It was
twenty minutes after two when C. looked at her watch, but
for all this part of the night I have chosen to record as dreams
only those thoughts which hung together. The others, as far
as I can make out, are not considered dreams. I do not
know what you do call them. When I write my willing book I
will try to find some name for them. [IV says to please be exact
here, and state just how many trains of thought, sets of dreams,
etc., were going on at once. That is n't necessary ; it is all going
into my willing book. Besides, there are n't ' sets ' of dreams,
and ' trains ' of thought, at night, for ' sets ' means two or three,
and ' train ' means together, and the night is n't like that if C.
is sleeping — of course if she is aivake it is different.]

" As for myself, during this time I thought of heaps of things,
but none of them were dream thoughts, for I never had a dream.
Sometimes, when Dr. Prince makes me keep my eyes shut, and
says that I can't open them, it makes me feel very queer, for I
know I can, only that he is willing harder. [IV says this is very
i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g about Dr. Prince, but 7've crossed it all out for
the present. I don't wish to talk about it, becaxise when you tell
things some people always remember them — and then they make
you do things so that you wish you had n't told, but yoxi never can
go back again to the time when they did n't knoio. I learned this
myself since I got my eyes opened. Of course there are some
who forget, and telling them about things does n't matter, but Dr.
Prince is n't like that.] As when people tell you to do things you
do not wish to do you look . . . (Unfinished.)

" I thought mostly of the things I would like to do if I could.
When some men who were quarrelling passed, I thought of them
for a long while, and envied them, for it was very late — [This
would be much more interesting, IV says, if I would write out my
thoughts, as I have attempted to icrite hers, and state whether it
was the idea of a scrimmage which filled me with envy. No, it
was n't. I do not like scrimmages. But I envied the men their
freedom, and their clothes, and their ability to do as they wished.

DREAMS 341

That was all. As for my thoughts . . . (Unfinished)] — and they
had the street to themselves. And when C. was dreaming about
the coffin I wondered if there could be, as Dr. H. said, some
part, some corner of her mind which I did not know about, for
the dream had in it something of what I had thought and re-
membered while X was explaining about the Egyptian mummy
images in the afternoon. It is very curious, and two or three
times before I have been troubled by it. C. got up then and
read until about four o'clock, because she was almost afraid to
go to sleep again, but she did go, and slept until after six. She
dreamed a great deal, but her dreaming was of a different kind
— not distressing. She dreamed of being at Sorrento with J.,
and of living there day after day, waiting for some one,

and the some one proved to be , who had been exiled for

some reason, and had come there to live because he loved J.
and her. And she dreamed of living at home, and of watching
for the sunrise on her knees in the empty room there — as she
used to do — but not wearily, exultantly." . . . [For Sally's
accounts of other nights, see Appendix K.]

[Received April 24 from Sally.] " I must talk to you.
Don't you want six nights written out now? Nice ones, with
dreams and all ? If C. is n't ill she can't stay in bed and
neglect everything — can she ? / must talk to you, but Friday
will do. I 'm out of bed now, and it 's not so bad. C.'s really
herself now — her old self — although she has things rather
amazingly twisted. Perhaps they '11 come straight later. Don't
make me help her, please. I 'm not sure she 's any better
than [B] I."

The main point of interest at present about these dreams
is whether they throw any light on the problem of multiple
pei-sonality, and, more particularly, on the question of the
relations of B I and B IV to the real self.

Now B I and B IV, of course, used to sleep, and to
sleep meant, as Hamlet said, to dream. Did each have
her own individual dream, of which the other had no
memory, or were all dreams common to both ? In the

842 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

former case it meant that the division of consciousness
and corresponding cerebral disintegration persisted during
sleep ; in the latter case, that during sleep the two person-
alities reverted to a common consciousness. These latter
findings, too, would be in harmony with the hypothesis
that neither B I nor B IV was the real self.

On the other hand, if there was only one set of dreams
and that was remembered by only one personality, say B
IV, the implication would be that this personality was
approximately the real self, and that the other was only a
somnambulistic condition.

Now, as a matter of fact, as a result of the inquiry into
dreams, it transpired that however distinct and separate
was the ideation of B I and B IV during the waking
state, during sleep these personalities reverted to a common
consciousness and became one and the same. That is to
say, the dreams were common to both : each, B I and B IV,
had the same dreams, and each remembered them afterward
as her own. The logical consequence of this was that the
dreams might have their origin in the waking experiences
of either B I or B IV. If in those of B I, then B IV
on waking, though remembering the dream, would have no
idea of its source ; and vice versa. For instance, the dream
might be of a person seen in the street by B I, B IV
would then fail to recognize the origin of the dream person,
though B I would do so.

The fact that Sally knows B IV's dreams also indicates
that B I and B IV revert to a common consciousness,
which is probably the real self asleep. Of course, all Sally
knows is that B IV, of whose thoughts she is ignorant,
falls asleep and then begins to dream ; when she begins to
dream, she (Sally) knows her thoughts.

The dreams of B I and B IV are also those of B II.
Ask B II what her dream of last night was, and you will
find that it is the same in every particular as that of B I

I DREAMS 343

and B IV. So that all these personalities become one, so
far as their thoughts are concerned, when they are asleep.
It IS when they wake that they become differentiated.
This all harmonizes with the hypothesis that B II may be
the real self hypnotized. And yet the experiment of wak-
ing B II had been a failure.

CHAPTER XXI

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUDDEN CONVERSION: MISS BEATJ-

CHAMP FALLS INTO A STATE OF ECSTASY AND

BELIEVES HERSELF CURED

ON February 16, 1900, the following ecstatic letter was
received from poor Miss Beauchamp, telling of the
great joy that had come into her life because, as she
believed, she was cured at last:

"I want you," the letter ran, "to be the very first to hear
my glad tidings of peace and joy. They have come to me at
last, after all these years of unrest and suffering, come despite
my impatience and unbelief, despite my little faith, my much
sinning. Aren't you glad for me? — very, very glad? But I
know that you are. You have been so good, so patient always.
I cannot thank you. Words are all too poor for that, even
though they would come at my bidding, but I shall never, never
forget you nor what you have done for me. And if I have
made things very hard for you, especially during this last year,
I beg that you will forgive me now."

I had been prepared for this announcement by an inter-
view the previous afternoon with Sally, who, in a state of
discontent, had come to air her woes. The family, Sally
said, was kicking up didoes, and she wasn't going to
stand it, and that was all there was to it. B I thought
herself cured and was trying to get into a convent; B IV
had taken half the contents of a two-ounces bottle of lau-
danum, but it had made her sick and she had vomited,
which was perhaps what saved her life. Sally did not
understand the meaning of it because not only did she not
know B IV's thoughts, but "IV was not that kind of a

j THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUDDEN CONVERSION 345

person." As to B I's going into a convent, Sally was dis-
gusted at the idea; it was perfectly absurd, she insisted,
for Miss Beauchamp was not fitted for it; nevertheless
Miss Beauchamp was making her preparations, and was
trying to bring the matter about. Evidently, underlying
Sally's views of fitness was the fear that possibly she her-
self might be shut up in a convent, a life not to her liking.

Here was a new tangle into which the family was getting
and which required to be straightened out. So I de-
spatched a letter to each of the senior members separately, j
asking for an interview.^

B I arrived in a state of mind different from any in
which she had ever appeared. She was in a high state of
mental exhilaration, because, as she averred, she was cured
at last. All her symptoms had vanished, and she experi-
enced a feeling of well-being and physical health. She
believed herself well. No letters had been received of
late from Sally, and from this she inferred that that lady
had disappeared for good. (She did not know that, for a
wonder, Sally had kept her promise not to write such let-
ters.) To be sure, she had slight i-elapses when she "lost
time," as she admitted. But these periods were of short
duration, and she did not consider them of importance.
She plainly interpreted every event through her dominant
idea of physical, if not spiritual, "conversion." She
thought she was more like her old self, as she had been
before this trouble came upon her, and was supremely
happy. She was also highly excited over the scheme of
joining the Catholic Church, and going into a convent.
The recovery of her health would allow her to follow a
religious life in accordance with her ideals. Besides the
religious satisfaction which a convent promised, it would
solve the problem of the practical difficulties of her present
life. She argued, very logically, that she was not fit to

^ Sally arranged that each should get her own letter.

346 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

take care of herself. She might, under the strains of life,
have new attacks of her trouble, and here, at last, was a
haven of rest, a life serene and congenial to her ideals and
tastes. She was plainly in a state of exaltation. Al-
though she had not slept for more than an hour a night
for several nights, nevertheless she was not a bit tired,
although under ordinary circumstances she would have
been a physical wreck.

Her happiness would have been delightful to look upon,
had it not been that it was an abnormal condition, and one
that could not last. Psychologically, this new mental
condition was interesting, as it afforded an opportunity to
observe an example of that state of exaltation into which
notoriously so many religious enthusiasts have fallen when
the feeling of a new spiritual life has been awakened in
them. At such moments, under the influence of a domi-
nating idea which has surged up perhaps from somewhere
within them, or has been suggested by their own conscious
thoughts, they have been filled with a strong emotion of
joyousness, and have interpreted their relations to their
environment, to the world, and to God, in accordance with
this imperative idea, often to the extent of creating hallu-
cinations and illusions which to them appear as super-
natural communications.

Inquiry into the origin of Miss Beauchamp's belief
proved an interesting study, throwing light as it did upon
the psychological mechanism of those sudden miraculous
conversions which have played so important a part in
religious history. An account of how Miss Beauclmmp's
ecstatic belief was brought about was obtained from B I a
and B II.

B I a, who, it will be remembered, is simply Miss Beau-
champ hypnotized, stated that B I in a condition of hope-
less despair had betaken herself to church, thinking that
through self-communing and prayer she might find some

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUDDEN CONVERSION 347

way out of her difficulties. What particularly distressed
B I was her transformation into Sally, who seemed to be
absorbing more and more of her life, and the feeling that
sooner or later she herself would become too great a tax
upon the patience and care of her friends. What, she
asked herself, would become of her when thrown upon her
own resources. The church was empty, and, as she com-
muned with herself, her feeling of self-despair and hope-
lessness deepened. Then^ of a sudden^ all was changed^
without her kno^ving how or why. She became filled with a
great emotion of joyousness and of well-being; a "great
load seemed to be lifted from her;" she felt "as light as
air." A great feeling of peace, of restfulness, and happi-
ness came over her. She felt well and believed herself
well. With these emotions came religious memories,
memories of her own experiences and of religious visions
which she had had a long time ago. She remembered, for
instance, visions of the Madonna and of Christ and scenes
of a religious character (Appendix L). Her cure seemed
miraculous, and she felt and believed that she had had a
Visitation. Under the influence of these exalted religious
feelings the idea naturally came to her of entering a con-
vent. The life appealed to her and she thought that the
freedom from care and anxiety which it offered would solve
the problem of her own life, and that she would remain
well. This was all the light that B I a could throw upon
the change in Miss Beauchamp's condition. She was able
to state the facts, but was unable to explain by what psy-
chological process the transformation had been suddenly
made from the state of hopeless depression to that of
religious exaltation and happiness. The complete expla-
nation was obtained from B II.

There was a gap in B la^s knowledge^ that is, between
the ending of the depressed state and the inrusliing of the
exalted state. This gap B II was able to fill. (This

348 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

hypnotic personality clearly recognized Miss Beauchamp's
condition as purely one of ecstasy, indeed so clearly that
she analyzed her mental condition for me. The point is
worth noting that Miss Beauchamp hypnotized into B 11
became a perfectly rational person who recognized the
previous quasi-delirium of herself.) B IFs account of
the origin of Miss Beauchamp's ecstasy was very precise
and as follows:

While Miss Beauchamp was communing with herself,
her eyes became fixed upon one of the shining brass lamps
in the church. She went into an hypnotic, or trance-like
state, of which neither Miss Beauchamp nor B I a has any
memory. In this hypnotic state her consciousness was
made up of a great many disconnected memories, each
memory being accompanied by emotion. There were
memories of religious experiences connected with her own
life and other memories of a religious character; and these
memories were accompanied by the emotions which they
had originally evoked. There were also memories of her
early life, memories of happy times when she had been
well ; these memories also were associated with the emo-
tions which she had at the time experienced. For instance,
to take a few specific illustrations and tabulate them with
the accompanying emotion :

MEMORY EMOTION

of a scene at , a view of of well being ; peacef illness,

the sea with the light of the and happiness.

setting sun playing upon the

water.

of walking with a friend near of peacefulness and rest,
the same place and conversing.

of driving in the country with of peacefulness and rest,
same friend.

[The above were all real incidents of her girlhood.]

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUDDEN CONVERSION 349

of different visions of Christ of exaltation, of lightness of

and the saints. [All or most body, of mental relief, peace-

of these she had had at differ- fulness, and joyousness.
ent times in the past.]

of a vision of herself shut up of restfulness, happiness, light-
in a dungeon. ness of body.

of music which she had heard [Not the usual emotional thrills
in a church. of music, but] of lightness of

body and great joy.

There was no logical connection between these memories
— all were jumbled and without order, but the accompany-
ing emotions were very strong.

After a short time Miss Beauchamp awoke, and on
waking all the memories which made up the consciousness
of the hypnotic state were forgotten. At first her mind
was a blank so far as logical ideas were concerned. She
thought of nothing definite, though soon ideas rapidly
flitted through her mind, and yet she was filled with
emotions. They were the same emotions which belonged to
the different memories of the hypnotic state. These emotions
persisted.^ They were of lightness of body,^ of physical
restfulness, and well-being, besides those of exaltation,
joyousness, and peace, largely of a religious nature. It
is probable, reasoning from analogous phenomena that I

1 We have already seen examples of this persistence of the emotion be-
longing to a dissociated state after the subject has changed to another state.
That is, the emotions of B IV were often felt by B I, and vice versa. When
we come to study the subconscious state, or the secondary consciousness, we
shall find that it is made up of disconnected memories and emotions, and that
tlie latter may be common to both the primary and the secondary conscious-
ness. I frequently made use of this principle for tlierapeutic purpo-tses, that
is, creating in B II emotions of well-being. When she awoke the same
feelings persisted in the waking state though everything said and done dur-
ing hypnosis was forgotten.

^ Lightness of body may possibly be, strictly speaking, a sensation rather
than an emotion, and yet it is probably a complex feeling, and so interwoven
with emotion that it may for practical purposes be regarded as an emotion.

350 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

have witnessed, there were subconsciously present a number
of disconnected images, or memories, — remnants of those
which had been experienced in the trance state, and asso-
ciated with the emotions (p. 298). Presently ideas began
to come into her mind. The emotions were now accom-
panied by a lot of ideas and memories of religious expe-
riences, those which B I a had described. It is significant
that these ideas were not those originally associated with
the emotions in hypnosis, but newly suggested ideas. At
least they appear to have been suggested by the emotions.
She felt well and believed herself cured at last.

Naturally, as Miss Beauchamp did not know what
occurred during the time-gap when she was in the trance-
like state, she thought that the sudden change in her
mental condition and physical health was miraculous and
was due to a "Visitation." The idea of a convent life
logically followed her religious exaltation.

Before discussing further the psychological mechanism
of Miss Beauchamp's "ecstasy" I should like to point out
the striking psychological similarity between her experi-
ence and that of M. Alphonse Ratisbonne, whose case
William James quotes in a chapter on Conversion in his
very interesting lectures on "The Varieties of Religious
Experience." For several days Ratisbonne had been
unable to banish from his mind the words of a prayer
given him by a proselytizing friend, and the night before
the crisis had had a sort of religious nightmare. Then
after entering a church some kind of a psychical accident
happened; all the surroundings vanished and the crisis
came.^

It would seem clear from Ratisbonne's own account

that he must have gone into a trance in the church at

the moment when "the dog had disappeared, the whole

church had vanished," and he "no longer saw anything"

1 See Appendix M.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUDDEN CONVERSION 351

about him, and that he had a religious vision accompanied
by ecstatic emotions. At any rate, he went into a state
which was abnormal, and presumably identical with the
state into which Miss Beauchamp fell, except that it was
followed by partial memory, that is, of the vision of the
Virgin. I would say here, parenthetically, that any one
who has had experience in catechising persons who are the
subjects of psychoses must feel great scepticism about ac-
cepting their statements of their psychological experiences
without subjecting them to a very critical examination.
Such subjects generally describe their exj)eriences under
the dominating belief of their own interpretation. A
searching cross-examination will generally bring out la-
cunae in either their memories or statements, and numerous
additional facts which put an entirely different interpre-
tation upon the phenomena.

Thus Miss Beauchamp exhibited a hiatus in her memory
and was unable to give a complete account of what hap-
pened in the church. To obtain such a complete history it
was necessary to resort to hypnosis, and even the hypnotic
state, B I a, knew only a part of the mental facts. It was
necessary to obtain a larger hypnotic state, B II, to obtain
a complete memory of what had taken place in the sub-
ject's consciousness. Similarly the mere statements of
people who have experienced " convei*sion " can scarcely
be regarded as sufficient to determine tlie psychological
processes involved. An examination under hypnosis in
most cases probably would bring out all the details of
the process. The mental condition of the subject in such
supreme moments is summed up by James as follows:

" It is natural that those who personally have traversed such
an experience should carry away a feeling of its being a miracle
rather than a natural process. Voices are often heard, lights
seen, or visions witnessed; automatic motor phenomena occur;
and it always seems, after the surrender of the personal will, as

352 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

if an extraneous higher power had flooded in and taken posses-
sion. Moreover the sense of renovation, safety, cleanness,
lightness, can be so marvellous and jubilant as well to warrant
one's belief in a radically new substantial nature." ^

James's theory explains " the phenomena as partly due
to explicitly conscious processes of thought and will, but
as due largely also to the subconscious incubation and
maturing of motives deposited by the experiences of life.
When ripe, the results hatch out, or burst into flower. "^

According to this theory there is a gradual growth of
ideas which have been dissociated at some previous time
from the primary consciousness, and when these subcon-
scious thoughts reach a certain development they burst
into the field of the waking self. It is possible that this
may be the mechanism of the processes in certain minds,
particularly those of the hysterical type, in which a sub-
consciousness is readily formed, but the weak point in
the theory is that no positive evidence has thus far been
brought forward that there is such a large doubling of
normal minds; and even in hysterical minds, though the
theory may well be true, it still lacks, as does that of
Sidis, experimental verification. I am inclined to think
that when sufficient data have been collected to explain
completely the psychological process, it will be found that,
though the subconscious plays a part, James's theory needs
considerable modification. It will be noticed in B I that
the process resulting in the state of ecstasy was quite dif-
ferent. In her case there was no incubation or floAvering
of subconscious ideas ; it was simply that the emotions of
the trance state persisted after waking as a state of exalta-
tion, and of themselves, through their naturally associated
ideas, suggested the beliefs which took possession of her

1 The Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 238.

2 Ibid., p. 230. Sidis (" Psychology of Suggestion ") earlier expressed the
view that the phenoinensi manifested in religious revivals are due to dissocia-
tion of consciousness and sugorestions to the subconscious.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUDDEN CONVERSION 353

mind. So I think it will probably be found that the part
played in other cases by the subconscious mind consists in
furnishing emotions (which primarily belong to its discon-
nected memories), rather than logical ideas.

The fact that in times of sudden conversion voices are
often heard, lights seen, visions witnessed, etc., together
with an overpowering emotion, is evidence that these
people at such moments are not in a stable state of mind,
but rather, it would seem, in a trance-like or hypnoid con-
dition, or whatever name we may choose to call it by. In
this state a complete recognition of the surroundings may
be lost, and the subject is dominated by hallucinatory
ideas and emotions.

There is no difference fundamentally between such a
state and certain so-called hysterical states which quite
commonly are observed following emotional shocks. The
emotional factor in producing the hysterical state is gen-
erally of a startling or terrorizing character, and hence
this state is frequently observed as the onset of traumatic
neuroses, which are most commonly caused by terrifying
accidents like railway collisions. Or, the emotion may be
simply part of an intense apprehension or idea of danger,
or it may be simply the sequence of a startling piece of
news, such as would shock the natural feelings of affection,
or awaken intense jealousy, etc. Thus, Fanny S. was
thrown into such a condition on hearing the news of an
accident to a relative who had been hit by a passing
railroad train, though the injury was not serious; and
Mary H. went into a similar condition when it was an-
nounced to her that her husband had eloped with another
woman. After waking there may be complete, partial, or
no amnesia, but in any event the ideas belonging to the
crisis with their emotions, like fear of fire, or of disease,
or of danger of one form or another, ma}^ persist or recur
subconsciously, and there from time to time enter tlie per-

354 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

sonal consciousness; or the personal consciousness may
be continuously conscious of the emotions without being
aware of their exact source or meaning. In the latter
case, the sufferer may be the constant prey of depressing
fears — true obsessions. In all such psychoses the emo-
tional element causing the split in the normal integration
of the mind is of a distressing character.

But it may be that effects psychologically similar may be
produced by powerful ecstatic emotions which the religious
imagination calls forth. The development of such exalt-
ing emotions becomes easier when preceded by the mental
strain ordinarily induced by the doubts, fears, and anxie-
ties, which go with the intense introspection which relig-
ious scruples call forth. Torn and distracted by doubt,
the personality is easily disintegrated, and then the ecstatic
emotions associated with religious hopes and longings take
root. At this crucial moment the subject, like St. Paul
when he heard the voice of Christ, perhaps half oblivious
of his surroundings, sees visions which are apt to be the
expression of his new belief, and hears a voice which
speaks his own previous thoughts. On coming out of this
hysteroid, or hypnoid, state the exalting emotions persist,
along with an incomplete, or possibly complete, memory of
all that took place in the hysteroid state. These emotions
then give an entirely new shape and trend to the individual
ideas, just as the distressing emotions following hysteri-
cal accidents determine the form of the mental content.
Psychologically, the ecstatic state following is as much
an obsession as is one in which fixed depressive feare are
dominant. I think that it will be found that in sudden
conversions of the type we are considering, this is sub-
stantially the psychology of the matter, and that the
succeeding mental state of ecstasy is conditional on the
development of a hysterical state at the onset, as it plainly
was in the case of Ratisbonne.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUDDEN CONVERSION 355

The analysis of a large number of cases made at the time
of the crisis is essential for a proper study and understand-
ing of the phenomenon. The memory of a person who
narrates his experience afterwards is unreliable, as he noto-
riously may be the victim of amnesia, and it is unsafe to
trust statements purporting to give the psychical state of
the subject at a moment when he was under intense emo-
tional excitement. If it was the fact that he went into a
trance state, he probably, like B I, would be unaware of it.
Such personal accounts, too, are always written from a
religious and not from a psychological point of view. It
is to be hoped that at some time in the future a psychol-
ogist may have the opportunity to examine critically a
number of such cases at first hand, and particularly by the
hypnotic method. It is probable that this method will
bring out facts now scarcely suspected.

CHAPTER XXII

SALLY PLAYS MEDIUM (SUBCONSCIOUS WRITING)

AFTER solving the problem of B I's ecstasy, I brought
Sally, who was in high spirits, notwithstanding the
fact, which she admitted, that she was herself disappear-
ing, going back to whence she came. She was being
locked up again in the subterranean vaults of the con-
sciousness of Miss Beauchamp, and was " deader now than
any one of the family." She did n't like it, and she did n't
W'ant to go into a convent, and she "wasn't going to,
either." Then Sally became very naughty, and said a lot
of impertinent things, largely as an outlet of jealousy,
putting a childlike construction on various things she had
heard. But the fit did not last long, for that evening she
wrote a repentant letter, of which the following is an
abstract. I wish I could give the letter in its entirety, as
it shows the sweet side of her character, but it would not
be fair to her.

"I am so sorry," she wrote. " I was perfectly horrid this
afternoon, but now I am all repentant and I want to listen."
Then she goes on to describe her own point of view. " I can-
not bear," the letter continued, " to think of going off under
Papa Leo's wing, never seeing anybody again. ... I can't do
it. Dr. Prince, I can't and I won't, ... I don't want any
nasty old priestly man. I hate them all ! Are n't you the
least bit sorry for me ? . . . Because I have behaved badly to
you I am going to take B I to the cathedral thing to divert her
mind. You like that, don't you? . . . Do poodles have morals
too? Isn't there any place free from them? I don't want

SALLY PLAYS MEDIUM 357

tbem, nor anything but . . . and I can't see why it should be
wrong . . . but, right or wrong, I don't care. Please forgive
me again . . . and let me stay. Please, please, please."

The following letters from IV and Sally illustrate the
way in which one got into hot water in consequence of an
inconvenient change at the wrong moment. Sally, owing
to her childish ignorance of worldly wisdom, had misinter-
preted the meaning of something said by "Jones," and
had quoted him accordingly. When afterward Sally told
" Jones " how she had quoted him he naturally was
annoyed, and charged her with a message correcting his
reported statement; but just as he was delivering himself
Sally changed to IV and got the message, which was
entirely unintelligible to her and not flattering to her
vanity, as it referred to her worldly ignorance as Sally.
(It is, naturally, impossible for either B I or IV completely
to realize her character as it is portrayed by her subcon-
sciousness.) IV's letter runs as follows:

"Thanks for your note, which I hoped to acknowledge per-
sonally on Friday, but could not because of an urgent sum-
mons elsewhere — to Mars or Saturn, I think, from which I
have but just returned. You do uot consider laudanum experi-
ments interesting? Neither do I now. But they might have
been, you know, and at any rate I am loads wiser than before.
Which reminds me that one thing I am particularly charged to
say to you had better be said now. It is in connection with
my wisdom — or rather lack of it — through which it seems I'
have been misrepresenting J. He regrets exceedingly that it
is not possible for him to appear personally in the matter, but
wants you to know that he never made, nor dreamed of mak-
ing, any such statements as I credited him with. He also says
further that he is sure you will agree with him in absolving me
from all evil intent, as it arose from my ' almost incredible
ignorance concerning certain things, an ignorance which by this
time you must be quite as conscious of as he is.' Delightfully

358 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

flattering, isn't it? But I promised you should have the mes-
sage as he gave it.

" I have not accomplished anything this morning, nor have I
finished the accounts you asked me to write out. I know what
you will say — that I have not really tried — but it is not true,
and you, wonder-worker, should know that it is n't. I have
tried and I shall keep on trying to the end ; if not with you,
then with some one else. Yet I hope with you.

" I shall come Wednesday, unless you write me to the con-
trary. If you do, please drop the IV. It is so absurd.

" Monday.

" Don't you think the odds are tremendously against me in
this attempt to conquer Sally ? "

Here is Sally's letter of February 20, 1900, on the same
subject. These letters bring out the contrast between the
two personalities:

" I must write this in the greatest haste, but I want you to
know that I did n't tell her anything — really. She got the
message because J. was so anxious to be quoted correctly that
he repeated it again after she came. I 'm so sorry ! 1 can't
seem to keep out of hot water with any one except Dicky, . . .
He wants me to write him now, and IV is simply raging about
it. She will probably tell you when you see her, unless she is
in one of her proud fits, I cannot understand her. She is the
most puzzling, contradictory creature I ever saw. I want to
tell you about J. tomorrow, and about Dicky's letters and ex-
periments. You are dear to pardon all my offences, but I
knew you would. B I is still in the clouds, and still fancies
herself cured. She 's doing all sorts of things so that IV and
myself are awfully squeezed. We don't have any time, nor
amusement, nor anything that we want, but IV keeps on fight-
ing just the same. She simply won't give in. It is amusing,
and sometimes I rather like her. She snubs D most un-
mercifully when he tries to assume a protecting air. He is n't
so scientific now."

SALLY PLAYS MEDIUM 359

Only a few days passed before there was more trouble.
Sally had not only appropriated again most of IV's
money, but had spent it and put the latter on a short
allowance of a few cents a day; in addition to this IV
had discovered that Sally had accepted a present of
money from some acquaintance, presumably Anna. IV
was much annoyed in consequence of the false position in
which she was placed. Unwilling that Sally, much more
herself, should accept a gift from this source, IV insisted
that the money should be paid back. I pass by all this
and the troubles it led to, as well as what appeared to be a
surreptitious attempt on the part of Anna to induce Sally
to secure possession of the "Autobiography."

I was, of course, called in to bring Sally to account and
to rectify affairs. In desperation, IV had prepared an
ultimatum,^ which, if Sally and Sally's friends did not
accept, she proposed to put into effect. It provided that
all communication between Sally and her friends, Anna
and Jones, was to cease, there were to be " no more non-
sense letters, no more appeals to me, no interference with
her mail, with money, with papers, with clothes." Sally
was to have a fixed allowance of money each week, a cer-
tain stated time to herself for certain purposes, and she was
to finish the autobiography immediately. Full authority
was given to myself and one other person to take action in
IV's affairs if Anna and Jones did not give up all com-
munication with Sally ; and if Sally on her part persisted
in going on in the way she was doing, she, Sally (which,
of course, included the family) was to be locked up in
an asylum. It mattered not that IV would necessarily be
locked up too. She was in earnest now, her blood was
up. Whatever the consequences to herself, Sally must be
controlled.

1 I have a rough draft of this ultimatum in my possession.

860 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

The following was received from Sally the day after IV
disclosed her woes and wrote her ultimatum:

"Are you going to send me away too and never, never let

me see you again ? I have n't been bad enough for that, have I ?
really and truly bad? wicked? I did not mean to be. I can't
bear to have you cross with me ! I can't ! It 's worse than
everything else. Oh, so much worse. B I is good, isn't she?

" Will you talk to her? . . .I'm sending you what IV has
been scribbling, because it 's psychological and I thought you 'd
like it. Please say you are glad. I want you to be always
glad. Some day you will be old, won't you? very, very old I
mean, and not be able to do things — the things that you wish
for now. And tell me, will it be soon or on some far, far day .-'
I want to know.

" Sincerely and entirely,

" Your repentant,

" S. B.

" Friday."

A day or two later IV had what must be accounted a
very remarkable experience in what the ancients would
have called demoniac possession, and which to-day we
are familiar with in minor forms as subconscious mental
action. I am certain that in Biblical, and perhaps in early
Salem days, when they hung witches, if a person exhibited
the peculiar manifestations which I am going to relate she
would have been considered to be literally possessed by
the devil (I hope Sally will not take offence if her eyes
ever rest on this), and perhaps would have been burned at
the stake if the devil (or Sally) could not be otherwise cast
out.

This is what happened, substantially in B IV's own
words as I took them down :

B IV, in a depressed, despondent, rather angry frame
of mind, was looking at herself in the mirror. She was
combing her hair, and at the time thinking deeply over

SALLY PLAYS MEDIUM 361

the interview she had just had with me in regard to \
her ultimatum to Sally. Suddenly she saw, notwithstand- '
ing the seriousness of her thoughts, a curious, laughing
expression — a regular diabolical smile — come over her
face. It was not her own expression, but one that she had
never seen before. It seemed to her devilish, diabolical,
and uncanny, entirely out of keeping with her thoughts.
(This expression I recognized from the description to be
the peculiar smile of Sally, which I had often seen upon
the face of B I or B IV.) IV had a feeling of horror
come over her at what she saw. She seemed to recognize
it as the expression of the thing that possessed her. She
saw herself as another person in the mirror and was fright-
ened by the extraordinary character of the expression.
(Here she broke off her story to ask if it was possible to
see oneself as another person in this way. ) It suddenly
occurred to her to talk to this "thing," to this "other
pei"son," in the mirror; to put questions to "it." So she
began, but she got no answer. Then she realized that the
method was absurd, and that it was impossible for her to
speak and answer at the same time. Thereupon she sug-
gested to the "thing" that it should write answers to her
questions. Accordingly, placing some paper before her on
the bureau and taking a pencil in her hand, she addressed
herself to the face in the glass. Presently her hand began
to write, answering the questions that were asked, while
B IV, excited, curious, wild for information of the past,
kept up a running fire of comment on the answers of
Sally, for, of course, the "thing" was Sally.

The following is a partial record of the questions and
answers written out, with comments by B IV from the
original, which I have:

First, questions, to which no answer is given; then
speech setting forth Sally Beauchamp's responsibility for
the face [in the mirror] and threatening laudanum, etc.,

362 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

unless questions are answered immediately. Still no re-
sponse— then pencil and paper.

(Who are you ?) ^

A spirit.

(Stuff! Tell the truth. Why did I forget?)

Forget what ?

(From Providence. What happened then ? What does
it all mean ?)

Jones spoke to you and you died.

(Answer me.)

I have answered you. Ash Dr. Prince.

(Why do you dislike Dr. Prince ?)

1 douH. I like him. Amen.

(Indeed! How very interesting! Shall I tell him?

What about A M , then, and why have you been

gossiping ?)

IwonH tell you.

(You will tell me.)

IwonH.

(You will.) The pencil is pressed down so hard that it
breaks; then it is flung violently across the room. I feel
as if I were losing consciousness, but by a great effort I
hold myself, take another pencil, and repeat :

(You will.)

I get nothing, however, for several minutes ; then a lot
of curving lines, then,

What do you want to know '?

(What I said, what Dr. Prince said, what you said.)

/ woTfCt tell you.

( ) .

Only a threat concerning J., which I had not the slight-
est intention of putting into force. It acted like magic on
the "spirit," however, and I got the following, written
very rapidly:

1 The questions asked by B IV are enclosed in parentheses ; the replies
written by the hand are printed in italics.

SALLY PLAYS MEDIUM 363

[Here the "spirit" told the substance of the conversa-
tion between Sally and Jones, which afterwards was the
occasion of the latter's reproving Sally and sending the
message which IV got by mistake through an untimely
change of personality.]

. . . When I told Dr. Prince he said, ''''Nonsense, it
isnH true, and you must have misunderstood Jones.''"' And
I asked Jones again and you got the message yourself.

(When did you repeat this stuff ?)

Ten years ago last Monday.

(Answer me.)

/ have ansivered you. Ask Dr. Prince.

(Why have you dropped Jones and Anna ?)

You dropped them yourself.

(Why do you hate me ?)

The answer to this question was a rude sketch of a girl
seated by an open lire. It was wholly without suggestion
as far as I could see. I have received similar ones in the
past.

(Have you been telling Dicky what I said about him ?
Don't you know any better?)

No.

(You have, too. Can you make me hear things ?)

Yes.

(You can't. You shall help me to remember them.
Don't write. Go back, back, way back to Providence
and Jones, and make me remember everything, everything.
Do you understand ?)

I won't do it. You shall not remember. Amen. Amen.

Again I feel as if losing consciousness, and again I
exert my will to the very utmost to prevent this. A great
many things come into my mind as memories, not very
clearly, however, and not in a sequence. I ask about
A M as a sort of test and then is written —

IwonH, IwonH. IwonH.

364 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

Another struggle (mental), then certain things come to
me ; whether they are true or not, I do not know. I get
intensely excited, then I remember about the experiment

connected with A M , which you had wished to

try in the morning. If . I can get that it will be more
satisfactory, more convincing, for it can be verified. I
repeat again certain phrases, mentally, to Sally, with this
in view, but I get nothing. Then I repeat them, the
phrases, aloud, and there come to me slowly, not very
clearly, certain things — those which I wrote you — which
you said were approximately correct. Then in writing I
get;

Devil, devil, devil. Amen. You HI he sorry when Pm
gone. Amen. You don't care. Then a lot of wild scrawl-
ing lines.

B IV, further commenting on this experience, writes :

"I was intensely excited, talked much more than was nec-
essary, and could not help commenting on everything that was
written. The writing was very poor, difficult to decipher, and
spread all over the paper. The whole thing occupied about two
hours, as nearly as I can judge."

The fact that the writing was spontaneous, like that
which I had an opportunitj'^ to personally observe and
which will be given in the next chapter, deserves to be
emphasized, because this spontaneity removes it from the
class of artifacts unwittingly manufactured by the observer.
B IV, as she testifies, was not in an abstracted state while
the writing was done, but was alert, conscious of her sur-
roundings, excited and extremely curious to know what
the hand was writing. It is to be regretted that she was
not under observation at the time, — though this would have
given rise to the suspicion that the doubling of consciousness
was an artifact, — but I have seen the same feat performed
under substantially similar conditions.

SALLY PLAYS MEDIUM 365

Under these conditions of alertness the content of the writ-
ing indicates that the authorship was that of some sort of a
self which at the moment was co-conscious and possessed of
wide memories and of a peculiar individuality. Beginning
with the smile in the glass, followed by the desire to tease,
the evidences of dislike, and the knowledge exhibited on
the part of Sally, we find, running throughout the episode,
evidences of a very different kind of mentation in the sub-
conscious self from that peculiar to the primary conscious-
ness. But besides this difference in quality, the wide
extent of the field of the subconsciousness, as revealed by
her replies, is worth noting. A study of Sally's replies
shows a knowledge of facts, which, from my personal famil-
iarity with them, there is reason to believe were not known
by IV. They belonged to Sally's fife or to that of B I,
The field of subconscious ideas would seem to rival in ex-
tent what she possesses when present as the dominant con-
sciousness. There are also evidences of humor, logical
reasoning, and volition.

Let us not forget, however, that when automatic phe-
nomena are obtained while the subject is in a state of deep
abstraction, as is probably most often the case, they will
not, from my point of view, bear the interpretation that
they are wholly the manifestation of a subconscious mind.
Under such conditions much of this sort of automatism,
whether in normal or abnormal persons, is only in appear-
ance a subconscious manifestation. In reality it is in large
part, if not wholly, due to alternation of conscious states.
The state of abstraction into which the subject goes is so
deep that there is little left of the principal consciousness.
A new personality is formed and this personality is more of
an alternating than a subconscious one. It does the writ-
ing while the original personality is reduced to a few auto-
matic thoughts and actions, like reading aloud. The real
automatism is that of the distracted, and often blind, deaf,

366 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

dumb, and anesthetic extract of the former self, while the
second self is a quite awake person. From this point of
view the following observation of Dr. Janet's belongs to
this type:

" She [Mme. B.] was seated at a table and held in her left hand
the piece of knitting at which she had been working, Her face
was calm, her eyes looked into space with a certain fixity^ but she
was not cataleptic, for she was humming a rustic air ; her right
hand wrote quickly, and, as it were, surreptitiously. I removed
the paper without her noticing me, and then spoke to her ; she
turned round wide-awake, but surprised to see me, for in her
state of distraction she had not noticed my approach. Of the
letter which she was writing, she knew nothing whatever." ^
[Italics are mine.]

In the case of B IV both sorts of writing have been
observed, — the purely co-conscious, and the alternating
variety.

1 " Les Actes Inconscients dans le Somnambulisme Psychologique ; " Rev.
Philosophique, March, 1888. (Translation by Myers.)

CHAPTER XXIII

THE AUTOBIOGEAPHr OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF

SOMETHING has already been told of Sally's autobiog-
raphy and of the catastrophe to which it was subjected.
Some further explanation of the conditions under which it
was written will make its import clearer.

In view of Sally's often repeated assertions that she had
always existed as a separate and independent mind from
early childhood, it was plainly of psychological interest
that she should write an autobiography of her own mental
life. She could therein describe her own relations to her
environment, and contiust them with those of the primary
consciousness. An account of this kind, in which the
two streams of thought, feeling, and emotion, that of the
primary and that of the " Hidden Self," should be de-
scribed, so that the two selves could be contrasted, would
be of value. In it Sally could tell of her own feelings,
hoj)es, and desires, which she asserted were independent
and distinct from those of Miss Beauchamp.

It would necessarily involve an account of the daily and
petty doings of her Hfe, and even the little secret thoughts
that fill the recesses of a girl's mind. As Marie Bashkirt-
seff told every little secret emotion of her soul, so Sally
would have to tell her own and Miss Beauchamp's, This
Sally agreed to do and after many difficulties succeeded in
doing, although she was careful not to disclose the secrets
of others. Many things she told of which even Miss Beau-
champ was ignorant, many things she saw which Miss
Beauchamp did not notice, and many things she heard

3G8 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

which Miss Beauchamp never heard, for as a dissociated
consciousness she claimed to see and hear much that did
not enter the consciousness of the primary self. A good
deal of this, of course, is too private to put into print.

The autobiography, then, is a descriptive history of a
dissociated mind ; but it also gives an introspective record
of a well-organized secondary mind, of thoughts, feelings,
emotions, and even of a " will," of which the personality
whom we call the primary consciousness has no knowledge
whatsoever, excepting of course so far as she has learned of
it by the revelations of this study. Putting aside for the
moment the question of the interpretation of the evidence,
this record is a descriptive account of the alleged persist-
ent flow of the two streams of conscious life from child-
hood to the present time. The subconscious stream has
often been tapped by other observers, but I believe that
this is the first occasion where a secondary self has spon-
taneously attempted to narrate its own subconscious biog-
raphy. It is highly desirable that such a history should
be confirmed by the accounts of other cases recorded by
independent observers, in order that the degree to which
the doubling of consciousness may take place may be de-
teimined. This duality, to whatever degree developed,
whether rudimentary, or well organized as in Miss Beau-
champ, is one of the most significant facts which modern
psychology has revealed.

Miss Beauchamp, the saint that she was, was quite
willing to put aside all her own feelings and allow Sally to
write the story of her life, as has already been related. B II,
also with the same sense of loyalty and a desire to aid those
who were aiding her, gratefully made the sacrifice of her
feelings.

With B IV, however, it was another story. She had no
sense of duty or self-sacrifice. She felt that every hand
was against her and she was against every one in turn.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 369

Sally had dubbed her the " Idiot," and tliis sobriquet she
thought reflected my early sentiments as well, especially
as she knew that I disapproved of her ways and had
sought to change her into another personality. This was
enough to make her disbelieve all professions of interest
in her welfare. It was not possible, therefore, to take IV
into our confidence, since she would certainly do every-
tliing in her power to thwart us. " IV won't like it," Sally
would say in warning, but we thought nevertheless that
her wishes were not of much consequence, for, as Sally said,
it was probable that she wasn't "real anyway," even if she
was more than a picture card, as Alice discovered her
people in Wonderland to be, and if we succeeded in the end
in changing her to the real one, the views of this somnam-
bulistic lady would then be past history and belong to the
land of unreality. It seemed unwise too, as a matter of dis-
cipline, to consult IV, although she was sure to discover
what was being done. B IV, then, was not taken into our
confidence at first. Sally endeavored to write the story
without IV's knowledge, hiding the manuscript each day
that IV might not see it. But this could not be very suc-
cessfully done, for sooner or later Sally would of course
be sure to change to IV in the midst of her work and then
the jig would be up. This was in fact what happened.

IV of course flew into a rage at finding that her private
life was being WTitten out in cold ink, if not print. She
bore it for awhile, but finally in fury and rebellion, as al-
ready narrated, she tore into bits the manuscript when this
was nearly finished.

I had been so anxious to obtain this account of INIiss
Beauchamp's life, that when I saw this evidence of psy-
chological vandalism I made no effort to restrain my
indignation, unphilosophical as this may have been. My
disappointment was too great for me not to be human as
well as a physician, so B IV, I am afraid, was indignantly

370 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

reproached for her conduct. My discourse, if not just,
was at any rate effective, for she agreed to allow the work
to be rewritten, and never again to interfere; and this
promise she kept, though at first it was in no gracious
mood that she set about the task, but in an outraged
spirit of indignation, as of one sentenced to penal punish-
ment. Later she became largely reconciled, and I think
was more bored than anything else by the work. At any
rate, she did it pleasantly enough. It was agreed that an
attempt should be made to reproduce the manuscript by
"automatic writing," as Sally claimed to have a much
better memory while she was a subconsciousness than
when she was present or awake as the dominant personal-
ity. So Sally again began the tiisk, making use of the
hand of IV (or I) just as she carried on the colloquy with
IV narrated in the last chapter. Several pages were re-
produced in this way, but it was slow work ; so IV agreed
to allow Sally to devote a part of each day to the task, —
Sally to write as the waking personality. Nevertheless
from time to time some pages were written " auto-
matically." It is necessary to bear this in mind in order
to understand the comments of IV and the irrelevant inter-
jections of Sally which are intei-spersed throughout the
account and by which it is interrupted from time to time.

IV used to come to my study for the purpose of allow-
ing Sally to complete the task. Sitting at the desk, pencil
in hand, she would wait either for Sally to use her hand to
write automatically or to be herself transformed into that
young lady. Often becoming impatient for herother " sub-
liminal " consciousness to begin, she herself would write
some remark, generally personal, to Sally, who in reply
would subconsciously write a pertinent retort, or IV would
rub out a running fire of sarcastic comments on Sally's
statements, muttering her criticisms under her breath for
Sally to hear, — a most effective method for her purpose.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 371

Or, again, IV would interrupt the account by writing com-
ments on Sally's work or criticisms on her literary style, a
matter on which Sally was particularly sensitive ; indeed
the latter was always quick to resent IV's assumption of
superior wisdom and learning. IV at times became furious
at some of the statements, declaring they were not true.
These for the most part concerned events which occurred
when IV was not in existence and of which she had no
knowledge. Some of these interruptions have been pre-
served and inserted in the text. With this explanation
they will be understood. Another matter it will be well
for the reader to keep strongly in mind : it is the dis-
sociated consciousness which is writing, and therefore it
is the world as seen by this Self, and the feelings and
thoughts as experienced by this Self which are described,
and not the mental experiences of Miss Beauchamp, though
the external facts were common to both.

After the autobiography was written I went over it with
Sally, criticising and questioning some of her statements.
Her replies, giving further information on certain points,
are printed as footnotes.

SALLY'S STORY

[The autobiography begins in a somewhat flowery, child-
ish style with a few brief memories of infancy, wliile she
was in her cradle. When I refused to accept the accuracy
of her memory she went on as follows :]

(Revised for Dr. Prince, who questions the statements
I have made and thinks I have not been sticking to the
actual facts. I insist that I liave, that everything I have
written is fact, and that I do remember the night described
when I cried for such a long time and some one tried to
comfort me.)

I have not succeeded in drawing the bars of the cradle, I
know, but that is immaterial. I remember the thing itself.

372 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

And the other days and nights too I ^ remember, when real
and unreal things began to be strangely confused, and
about learning to walk and talk. It was so hard at first.
Afterwards I liked it better, for it was " willing," you know,
— the first that I was conscious of. It was at this time
too that I was conscious, not exactly of being a different
person, but of being stronger in purpose, more direct and
unswerving than I appeared, and of being in a certain
sense opposed ^ to myself. This feeling was much stronger
at some times than at others. Why, I do not know.
Then first began my impatience with C, who instead of
attending to whatever she might be doing would suffer her-
self to be distracted by a thousand and one things. For
instance in walking, just as I would get most interested
and eager to go on, down she would flop in a heap to study
her shoes, to gaze at the people in the room, or to play
with some treasure she had discovered on the floor. Then
I was conscious both of the child on the surface, so easily
affected and diverted, and of the other ^ child who was
yeai-s and years older (I insist I was older) and stronger.

[Sally, when cross-examined about these statements regard-
ing the date of the beginning of double consciousness, and
asked for specific instances, made the following additional
statement :]

" She was just a very little girl just learning to walk, and
kept taking hold of chairs and wanting to go ahead. She
didn't go ahead, but was all shaking in her feet. I remember
her thoughts distinctly as separate from mine. Now they are
long thoughts that go round and round, but tlien they were
little dashes. Our thoughts then went along the same lines
because we had the same experiences. Now they are different;
our interests are different. Then she was interested in walk-

1 There was uo separation as yet.

2 Beginning of separation of two consciousnesses. This separation was
not continuous, but stronger at time.s

* Myself as a personality distinct from C.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 373

ing, and I was too, only I was very much more interested, more
excited, wildly enthusiastic. I remember thinking distinctly
differently from her; that is, when she tried to walk she would
be distracted by a chair or a person or a picture or anything,
but I wanted only to walk. This happened lots of times.

" Learning to walk was the first experience of separate
thoughts. I remember before this there was n't anything but
myself, only one person. I don't know which came first. I
remember when I was there farther back than she can, and
therefore why wasn't I the person?

"I remember lots of little things. When she was a little bit
of a thing (so small that she could n't walk very well) she had
visions very often. I did n't, but I was conscious of her hav-
ing them. Her visions did n't represent real things as they do
now. I thought they were interesting and enjoyed her having
them. During all her childhood I remember enjoying many
of the things she did. She was awfully fond of out-of-door
things, — climbing, running, etc. I enjoyed them and wanted
to go farther than she did. Some people she liked I did n't.
Some people she went to see and talked with I did n't want to
see, but could n't help it.

" I suggested things to her sometimes by thinking hard. /
didn't really do them; she did them, but I enjoyed it. I don't
know that I made her; I thought about them very hard. I
did n't deliberately try to make her, but I wanted to do the
things and occasionally she carried out my thought. Most
times she did n't when my thoughts were entirely different
from her own. Sometimes she was punished for doing what I
wanted ; for example, I did n't like going to school ; I wanted
to play ' hookey.' I thought it would be awfully exciting be-
cause the boys did it and were always telling about it. She
liked going to school. One day she stayed away all day after
I had been thinking about it for a long time. She did n't want
to do it, but she did. She was punished and put to bed in a
dark room, and scolded in school and made to sit on one end
of the platform ; she was shy and felt conspicuous.

"I always knew her thoughts; I knew what she was think-
ing about on the platform. She was thinking partly of being
penitent and partly of fairy tales, so as not to be conscious of

374 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

the scholars and teacher, and she was hungry. I was chuck-
ling and thought it amusing. I did not think of anything else
except that her fairy tales were silly. She believed in fairies,
that they were real. I did n't and don't. At this time she

was a little girl. I was, there during all the life with J

and at College. I never forced her to do things till lately.

Lots of times when she was a little bit of a thing I was angry
when she was n't."

Finally this " double consciousness," ^ or whatever you
choose to call it, became fixed, and continuous, although
never reaching C I, or perhaps I should say, never felt as
C U

It was only as C II that I felt it, but as C II it did not
help me very much, for at that time I could not get my
eyes open.^ I have not expressed this well, I know, for
in attempting to express it I get hopelessly " squeezed,"
the Idiot appears, and everything vanishes before her
wrath,3 since she does not approve of me or of Dr.
Prince, or indeed of any one save Mr. "Teddy Jones,"
an old friend of the family, of whom I shall write more
fully later.

In all this time until our first going to school there
was little of importance that happened. C. was even then
shy, nervous, and imaginative * — terrified by the appear-
ance of her father, but woi-shipping, literally worshipping,
her mother, who did not however care for her and paid her
slight attention.

1 That is, C I was not conscious of me, as she is not now.

2 By this I mean figuratively, not literally ; that is, I cannot be always
present as the dominant personality. [By C II Sally here means herself,
B III, not the C II she later mentions, p. 382. — M. P.]

' That is, she tears up my manuscript. [This refers to the interesting
psychological fact, that when Sally thought deeply on intellectual subjects
such as belonged to the primary consciousness .she tended to change to I
or IV. — M. P.]

* During all this time my thoughts were different from hers. We thought
about the same things at the same time, but differently about them. Now we
think about different things at the same time because my life is different
from hers and I know things she does n't know.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 375

(Not to be quoted to C, who will deny it, but it is a fact
nevertheless, and one which I consider of great importance,
inasmuch as it has deeply affected her whole life.)

The first day we were sent to school we ran away, and
also the second day, so that it was long before we went
again, but when we did go we stayed. C. liked it im-
mensely and used to get awfully enthusiastic over her
lessons and over her teachers, but I never cared for either.
They were so tiresome and uninteresting. The school life
and being brought into contact with different people
changed C. very much. She was happier and not so shy
and frightened, although at home things were just as bad as
ever, and we were at home a great deal, for she was often
ill. Then in the long vacations before J. came we used to
be awfully lonely, for there was no one to play with, little
to do, and we did not seem to be especially wanted at
home. C. used to spend much of her time curled up in the
garret away from every one, and then she was quite happy
with her books and day-dreaming and visions,^ but I did
not care for them, for I knew they were n't true, — they
never are. T liked much better being out of dooi-s, climbing
trees, etc., for it was more as if I and C I were " willing " ^
and doing it.

1 Whenever C. had a vision she lost all consciousness of herself and her
surroundings— not living, as it were, until the vision had j)iussed. This was
true, I think, in all instances except when she herself seemed to be a part of
what she saw, and tiien, tiiough equally lost to her real self and her real
surroundings, she lived, but only in tiie vision. But I was aways conscious,
both then and now, of the vision projected against tlie reality, and was never
confused, even for a second.

2 In saying that I enjoyed such things as climbing trees, etc., I mean that
doing them seemed to call for stronger " willing," which gave me a certain
sense of power over C. and at the same time a certain feeling of being one
with her. Our thoughts were the same except that she was not con.scious of
my existence. We were both " willing " together tlie same thing. But this
feeling of unity lasted .'»o short a time — only while we were actually making
the mental effort required to overcome a physical obstacle. Other things she
conquered alone, for tliey did not concern me — mental and moral things, I
mean — I was not interested in them [e. g., lessons, trials, and tribulations].

876 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

The nights were horrible always, for C. either did not
sleep at all or if she did she would have the most distress-
ing dreams,^ usually about her mother —

(Here the autobiography was interrupted for the day. When
about to be continued B IV seated herself at the desk, with
pencil in hand ready to have Sally make use of it to write
automatically ; she began as usual with a comment, and Sally
of course retorted.)

[B TV. " Amanuensis, Sally dear, quite at your service."
Sally (to B IV). "Pig!"]

— and these dreams would send her flying from bed
in perfect terror to listen for her mother's voice. If she
heai-d it she would be quiet for a time — comforted — but
if she did not hear it, then would begin one of those dread-
ful excursions through the house, through the streets, such
as C. saw in the crystal a few days ago —

[B IV (to Sally). ''Months, Sally."]

— and did not recognize. At least I am not sure whether
she did or did not recognize it, for it was B IV who saw it,
and B IV never, never tells the truth.^

1 I knew they were dreams for the same reason that I have mentioned be-
fore in speaking of visions, — namely, that I am always conscious of things as
they are and at the same time am conscious of things as they seem to be
to C. and although of course the dreams are very different from the visions,
yet they are equally absurd, and I do not know why C.'s fancying herself in
dreams running about London should confuse me any more than her fancying
that she sees London before her in a vision. In both instances I know that
she is she, that I am I, and that this present is Boston.

There is a difference between her visions and dreams. In a vision she sees
tlie S(!cue, even though it includes herself, without any self-consciousness, i. c,
of her own actual body, though she may have the same feelings that she sees
expressed by the vision body. It is the same when she sees things in the streets ;
t. e., she has feelings suggested by the scene. In dreams she takes part in the
scene and thinks and feels and does ever3-thing just as if she were awake in
her actual body. I (Sally) never dream now, but when I was a wee little bit
of a thing and learning to walk, before the double consciousness became fixed
and when we were one part of the time, then I dreamed or she dreamed, for
we were one at that particular time. This was in the little black cradle.

2 [B IV insists that she did recognize the vision-child, but she has seen pic-
tures of herself at 4-5 years of age. The rest of the scene she probably did
recognize as the original scene. — M. P.]

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 377

The vision was of a long narrow street, snow on the
ground, starlight, lots of trees, in the distance two men,
very fat, half reeling along, and nearer, close to the first
tree, a little shivering, frightened-looking child ^ with a
small bundle in her arms —

[B IV (to Sally). " Provisions, Sally dear ? Do tell me.
And do, for goodness' sake, ' hump ' yourself. We can't
spend the summer here."

(Here entered Dr. Prince : After reading the manuscript, I
asked the subconscious Sally whether Miss Beauchamp ran
about awake or as a somnambulist, and also whether the vision
was true.)

The hand wrote, " Not somnambulistic," " Open your
eyes, stupid, I can't see." [B IV had closed her eyes.]

" Open your eyes, eyes, eyes,
Open your eyes, I can't see to write."

Then, " God will punish your levity — I am a spirit.
You know it is true."

B IV. " Stuff ! Write sensibly and answer Dr. Prince's
question."

Dr. p. " Was the vision true ? "

Sally. " The vision is true, and you know it, and I won't
write another word."

(After this inten'uption B IV changed to Sally, who, no
longer a subconsciousness, went on with the manuscript,)]

C. was not in a somnambulistic condition at the time of
the incident seen as a vision. She had wakened in the
night, and not finding her mother in the house went out in
search of her, taking with her, not " provisions " as B IV
suggests, but the old black cat which she had wrapped up
to keep it warm. I remember it distinctly. The som-

i C.

378 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

nambulistic things were quite different. She was asleep
then as a somnambulist — and B 2 went about and B 2 did
all sorts of curious things different from dreams — differ-
ent from visions. She usually had her eyes open too.^

Although there were many other nights when the same
thing happened, she never took the cat but twice, and then
only because she fancied that it was ill, and she did not
want to leave it alone.

All this running about at night was the most absurd
thing, and I mention it simply as showing how differently
we felt. I was not nervous. I knew that the dream which
had frightened her so was not true ; that it meant nothing ;
that wherever mamma might be she would come home
safely, as she always did ; and that, if we were caught out
of bed, we should be severely punished. But knowing all
this did not help me in the least, I had to go in spite of
it and in spite of my " willing."

(At this point the " auto " was interrupted for the day.
And when it was taken up again the next day I came upon
B IV seated at the desk, pencil in hand, waiting for Sally's
humor either to go on with the writing automatically, or else
to come herself and do it ; but the hand had refused to write.
It had pleased Sally for the moment to do nothing. B IV had
become impatient, and as usual had occupied the time in writing
messages to Sally :)

[B IV to Sally. " It will be for all the week, and Sun-
day, and start again on Monday, Sally dear, if you fail to
do what M'sieu requires.

" This is serious, deadly earnest, too." — " All the king's
horses and all the king's men cannot help you then." —
"Come yourself and do it, if you prefer. Come, come,
come I " — " Do you understand me ? " — " Write yes or

1 This is all right. " It was B 2 as far as I know. Only there was no
B IV then, just " she " and I. B 2 I considered " she " asleep. — S. B.
[This B 2 is not the same as the B II of this study. — M. P.]

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 379

no." — " Write pig, write anything." — "Are you dead?"
— " Were the scalpels and cupids too much for you, Sally
carissima? Write, write, write."

(Here I also became impatient, and wrote the following
message.)

Dr. p. " Now do, Sally, hurry up. I am awfully busy
and must get this done, so that I can do my work."

Sally. " Copy it first ; open your eyes."

B IV. "Copy what?"

Sally. " You know."

B IV. "I don't. Everything?"

Sally. " Yes, everything. Dr. P. said to."

B IV. " Punctuation, too ? "

Sally. " Everything, stupid ! "

B I V. "I am charmed. Don't get stuffy. I wish you 'd
come yourself. Your constructions are simply barbarous.
May I correct them?"

Sally. " No, no, no, no. You let them alone."

B IV. " This, too ? Next sentence ? "

Sally. "Yes, this too, next sentence. I wish you'd
write decently."

B IV. " If you won't come I am ready to go on again.
And if you will think ' decently,' I will endeavor to write
'decently.' Consider the beautiful tombstone you are
going to have. Bee-yu-ti-ful ! Does n't it inspire you ? "

Saxly. " You are the most hateful person I ever saw."

B IV. " Thanks. I don't mind in the least, if you '11
only write. Let 's begin.

" You 're a purple cow, Sally dear. Won't you begin ? "

(No answer and a long silence.

Here, being appealed to by B IV, I again took a hand and
interviewed Sally, who wrote in answer to my appeals, " I
won't, I won't," again and again.

380 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

I directed B IV to close her eyes, whereupon the hand wrote,
" Open your eyes," objecting every time she closed them.

Finally, Dr. P. (to Sally). " What do you want? Do you
want to come ? "

Sally. "Yes, yes, yes."

So I brought Sally, who immediately broke out into com-
plaints against B IV, charging that she bothered her by mak-
ing all sorts of comments on her writing, and saying under her
breath all sorts of disagreeable things ; that she criticised
her construction, her language, and so on. All this rattled her
badly. Sally was much put out about it all, and very angry
with rV, whom she abused roundly. Afterwards, when I
accused IV of this, she excused herself, like a naughty child,
on the ground that Sally did the same. So it was pretty much
of a muchness. Each taunted the other unmercifully. The
seriousness with which each took it was quite comical.)]

. . . We felt differently about everything, I think, until
J. came. C.'s whole life, all her thought and action and
feeling, centred about her mother. She believed that
God wanted her to save mamma from some dreadful fate,
and that in order to do this she must, before the day should
come, have attained a certain ideal state mentally, morally,
and, I think, spiritually. Everything that came up was
tested in its relation to this ; she was always fretting about
it, always dissatisfied with herself, and fancying that she
fell short (as she did).

This impossible ideal haunted us day and night — there
was no escaping it, although I must state, in fairness to C,
that at that time it was not perfection as an end that
she strove for, but perfection as a means of attaining some-
thing else. Now it is different ; she has grown morbid, un-
reasonable, and most exacting, not only with herself but
with others, and this, although she no longer believes
that she is fitting herself for something. I think that
after so many years she has acquired a habit of thinking
along certain lines and cannot drop it. People who knqw

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 381

her (B I) would probably say that I am entu-ely wrong
in stating that she is unreasonable and exacting, but she
is, nevertheless. Not in the ordinary way, perhaps, — that
is, not outwardly. But if one believes one's friends to
have certain qualities —

(This train of thought was not finished.)

. . . We grew farther and farther apart in our thought
and feeling, and finally it was almost as if we had changed
places again. I hardly know how to explain it better.
For you know in the beginning I used to be conscious of
the child on the surface, easily affected and diverted by her
own thoughts and by all the little happenings about her,
and of the other child (that's me) years and years older,
who held steadily to her purpose and was unwilling to be
diverted by anything. Noiv it had all changed ; although
I was still conscious of them both, it was the one on the
surface that was steadfast and unswerving and the other
(myself) that was interested and attracted by the thousand
and one things of no particular importance that were pass-
ing about us. So that as a rule in any given scene or
incident C. would take in only what might be expressed
as or the thing itself. C II ^ would be conscious of more
details, while I would be conscious not only of the thing
itself with all its details, but also of much beside. So that
in trying to recall anything, if it comes as a memory C I
sometimes gets details that were noticed only by C II.
She never gets any that were noticed only by myself. But
if the scene or incident is recalled by a vision then she
does sometimes (not often, I think — I am not sure) get it
as I saw it, and then slie (I, not IV) says and believes either
that the vision is not true or true only in part.

^ I say C II because T do not know how else to express what was in C.'s
mind as apart from mine and which she was not conscious of at the time, but
which she remembers when hypnotized. [This C II corresponds to the normal
subconsciousness. — M. P.]

382 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

[Sally (to B IV, referring to some copying of manu-
script that Sally was to do). "Didn't do it, did you?
Amen. Amen."]

C. was always in hot water then, because she used to go
mooning about, not knowing half the time what she was
doing; and, although I knew perfectly well, it was not often
that I could help her. Now since I got my eyes open I can
and do help her a great deal by finishing what she is doing
and writing letters for her and to her for her information.
Sometimes she is so absentminded she forgets ; then I help
her out sometimes. Sometimes the only way I can do
anything is by coming myself, and this kind of help she
(C.) doesn't appreciate, but she ought to. It is infinitely
better than the way things used to be when we were grow-
ing up, and it relieves her of lots of responsibility. I tease
her too, of course, but not so much now, — not since B IV
quarrelled with J. and refused to see him again ; because
it was always things about J. that teased her most. She
never wanted me to go anywhere with him or even speak
to him, although she herself has done exactly the same
things that she complained to Dr. Prince of my doing.
She used to dress for J. all the time, and once she cut all
her hair off short for him so that she looked like a curly-
headed poodle, and afterwards she was going to do it again,
and would have done it too if Dr. Prince had not shut her
up in the hospital. The only difference there has ever
been in our relations with J. except at first (after mamma
died and he came, I mean), when I did not like him par-
ticularly, because he was so tiresome and because he did
such queer things which C. was not conscious of but I
was, things which people do only when they are cross,
yet he was never cross with her apparently —

[B IV. " Such constructions, Sally dear 1 Won't you,
won't you make them the excuse for sacrificing this 1 Let
Jones alone. Take me."]
— The only difference there has been —

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 383

[S. B. " My constructions are perfect, and I don't think
you agree with me to-day. I prefer Jones."

B I V. " ' Is that the wind dying,' Sally dear ? "

Sally. " Bah ! you only threaten."]
— They used to read together and then —

[B IV. " I never read with him in my life."

" You did, B IV, you ^ read to him by the hour when
you were n't chattering like a magpie. You could n't see
him then — but I could, and sometimes C II saw him do
things too, like cross and angry people. That is ,2 you
half consciously saw him while you were reading and
talking, without your knowing it, but I did. So that
one part of your mind read and the other saw J. unknown
to the first part (I was separate). You were so absorbed
in the reading, you did not notice what you saw at the
same time. I call this part that saw, C II. I saw and
recognized things at such times independently."

B IV. "Your English pains me, really. Destroy this
and make some excuse to M'sieu. You know I cannot."

Sally. " It' s Jones that 's painful, not my Finglish,
and I 'm afraid he '11 be even more painful before I 've fin-
ished. I 'm going to tell everything, all about and all

because it 's interesting psychologically. Amen —

Amen — "

BIV. "Stop — stop!"

Sally. " He did things as if he were cross, lots and
lots of times. You would n't have known if he 'd been
standing on his head — you never knew any of the things

1 ( That is, Miss B. as C.)

2 The next five sentences in the text are an after elaboration made at
my suggestion. In illustration of tliis fact that a part of B I's mind saw
while the other part did not see, Sally mentioned the following incident :

" Last night B I saw Dr. P ra in the car. She looked at him straight.

He was sitting opposite, and there was no one else in the car. Slie was think-
ing of something and was not conscious that she saw Dr. P m, but there

was something in her that did see and recognize him apart from me. This
part is what I call C IL"

384 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

that I knew, and you don't now. You are n't real anyway.
'Teddy' was ju8t the same then that he is now, only
you were too stupid to see it. And it proves what I said
before, that you are unreasonable and exacting with people
because you believe them to be other than what they are
and then are disappointed and broken-hearted and every-
thing else because they don't, because they can't, live up to
your absurd expectations — and I don't believe a woi"d of
what you say. You haven't got B I's memories. You
don't know anything about her, you don't. . . ."]

... I cannot analyze C's absorption, preoccupation,
whatever it was during all those years that prevented her
from seeing things as they really were — as I saw them —
and which got her into such an endless amount of trouble.
I think there were several reasons for it —

[To B IV. "If you talk to me any more^ — if you say
another word I shall tell Dr. Prince."

(Here B IV twitted Sally with being afraid of Dr. P.)

" I 'm not. / am not, but I won't have you spoiling
everything I do."

B IV (aloud). " What does ' Amen ' mean ? "
Sally. " It does n't concern you the least little bit in
the world. — No, I won't ! "J

— some of which still exist. The chief one of course
being her fancy about mamma. But there were others too.
She was dreamy and visionary, as I have said, seeing things
always rather through her own thought than clearly and
truly; and at the same time, despite her dreaminess, she
threw herself with great intensity into whatever she might
be doing, so tliat in all her relations with J. before I got
my eyes open she saw him and thought of him in an entirely
different way from what I did. So with Mrs. X., with

1 B IV" kept coming and going and talking aloud for Sally to hear as
yesterday. This refers to B I V's slanging her.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 385

Dr. P., with nearly every one we knew. There were a few
people whom we both liked, but even then we liked them
for different reasons — C. caring for them for what she
fancied they were, I for what I knew them to be. . . .

As I said, she used to read to him by the hour think-
ing that he was entirely absorbed in it, but he was no
more absorbed then than he is now when B IV rows him
for thinking of her instead of what she is saying. —
[To B IV. " I won't come unless I choose. Ask Dr.
Prince if he's cross with me — ask him, stupid — ask
him, ask him, ask him."] . . .

I haven't yet told about J.'s first coming, nor about
mamma's death, nor any of those things, although I sup-
pose they ought to have gone in long ago. I think before
I began writing about J., I was trying to show how by C.'s
allowing herself to be ruled by one idea we grew farther
and farther apart until by the time I got my eyes open, and
even before that, we had scarcely anything in common.
Sometimes I used to feel sorry for her, but more often
impatient. There were so many things that she was un-
reasonable about, so many things that she could not or
would not see — would not, I think, for it is the same still.
She holds to certain beliefs and ideas with unwearying
patience. It makes no difference that the facts are all
against her. It makes no difference that people never or
very rarely live up to her expectations. She still ignores
the facts, still idealizes the people.

By " she " I mean always B I. I know nothing what-
ever of IV's thought and feeling — if she has any — she
does n't belong here anyway. . . .

Perhaps there were other reasons besides the one about
mamma for our growing apart. C. always does things
very differently from me. She is so tremendousl}' in
earnest, and I don't think I am — not often — for it makes
me feel squeezed. \^Please — jjlease — i^lexise — find me

386 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

another word, Dr. Prince. I don't want B IV to see this.]

— And her being so in earnest helped to separate us too,
and accounts, I suppose, for her knowing so much more
in certain directions than I do, about books and pictures
and those things, I mean. . . . But when I came J. was
glad enough to drop all that and be simply himself.
He was perfectly bewildered, though, at first; he could
not understand how I had changed so suddenly and so
completely. It was amusing too, his saying often that he
did n't know whether — [unfinished] . . .

[Sally (to B IV in answer to some remark, probably
protesting). " I won't, I won't, I won't. I don't care that
for you."]

. . . Mamma was very ill for a long time before she died,
and during this time C. did all sorts of absurd things so
that I did not know for a long time what she was thinking
about. No, she was not at all lilce B IV, but she had lial-
lucinations of hearing and sight very much like the pneu-
monia delirium, and the doctor said she was threatened
with brain fever. She was not " real," you know, not her-
self. I hardly know how to describe it — it was so dreadful

— worse than anything that had ever happened. I used to
want to come — to be outside again ^ — but I never could,
and I did not know then how much it is possible for me to
influence C, even when she is in this queer state, without
coming, without being outside. When I am outside now
they seem to be dead. At least if they are n't I don't see
what has become of them. They are n't in me because
I am always just one. If they were, I should have all their
knowledge as well as their memory and feeling, and I
have n't. But B IV must be C. rattled, even if I don't
know her thoughts, for we are still connected in some way,
else I could not make her see and hear things and not see
and hear them. Perhaps it 's through B II, yet it can't be

^ Referriug to the period of infancy.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 387

the real B II, for I always know what she thinks — always
— although Dicky says he thinks I don't when it 's B IV
that is hypnotized. He says there is a part I cannot
get. . . .

■However, to return to the time of mamma's illness.
/T*, fnn^if^d tbnt it hw] n11 nomp bfflniL^i>f hex ;. ihat^hejiad
fgllpp ahn^f-, ^)f God's requirements. She_tormentedMh^rse]i
and me too, night and day with going over, and over, and
over, everything that had happened since she was born,
thinking this, that, and the other, — that she had not been
earnest enough, that she hadnotjoved mamma as deeply
'g;S_ahg__§hould, that she had been dreamiiig away hpr 1ifg_
Jpateadjof acting. It was all rubbish. She had never done
anything then. A^d as for mamma, she^never wanted C.
near her^after^ we grew older. She did n't even want to
see_heiviuiiLwas_,alw^s _saying, "Keep out of my sight."
And I know why, because of something that happened once
when C. had been taking medicine and was sound asleep —
If I had been asleep too I should n't have known it. . . .

. . . Just before mamma died C. had a severe nervous
shock which affected her in some way, so that I did not
know, except occasionally, what she was thinking. We were
separated just as B IV and I are now. C. had been very rest-
less and nervous during the day, had been scolded and sent
to bed several times that evening, but had finally managed
to steal unnoticed into the room where the baby was kept
to prevent its disturbing mamma, for it cried incessantly.
She took it in her arms — nasty squally little thing ^ — to
soothe it, and after a time it grew quieter ; then still more
quiet, until finally it gave a cuiious little gasp and stopped
breathing altogether. But C. had not noticed it, for she
had entirely forgotten the child in going over and over for
tlie ten tliousandth time her sins. She sat there gazing into

^ B IV and I do not like babies ; C. does. B I and I do like animals ; B IV
does u't. I like toads, spiders, etc. ; B I and B IV do not.

388 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

space until morning, until the nurse came, and for a wonder
the nurse was n't cross. She simply kissed C.'s forehead
and took the child out of her arms. Then she started a
little, asked C. how long she had been there, and how long
since the baby had stopped crying. But she did n't say it
was dead. She said it was better, but that C. herself would
be ill unless she slept, and she begged her to go and lie
down. C. did not know until late that afternoon, when she
heard the nurse telling some one, that the baby had died
in her arms, although I knew immediately that it must be
dead.i . . .

Soon afterward mamma died too, and then I lost C. for
a time — for weeks, I think — during which she went about
and did things much as usual, apparently. But it was only
apparently, for at night when we were alone again —

(The "auto "being interrupted, the account of C.'s mental
condition following her mother's death is unfinished. She was
in a disintegrated condition.)

. . . Have I said enough about mamma's illness, death,
etc., and C.'s curious mental condition at that time ? , . .
The next thing of any great importance that occurred
was_tii£_beginning_ol^/s^Jn(^^ with J., which was
really the beginning of a new life, so much fuller was it
in thought and action than the old had been. We saw him
first shortly after mamma's death, and C. both at that time^
.and^ often afterward fancied him unreal, sent as a sort oi
-heavenly messenger to reassure her about mamma. And
not only was she puzzled and confused with regard to him,
but with regard to everything else that happened during
that year. Her account of that time as given to J., to
Mrs. X., and to Dr. P. is false in nearly every particular,

^ I always see and know most things more quickly than C. does, but I
do not seem to know them more quickly than B IV guesses them.
2 My own did not begin until years and years afterwards.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 389

although she herself and, I think, the Idiot still believe it
true. J. beUeves it also and fancies that he remembers
certain things as having actually occurred. But he does n't,
nevertheless. He was for the greater part entirely de-
pendent upon C, and what he now thinks he remembers as
liaving occurred then he really remembers only because it
was told to him then. He used to believe everything C.
said before I came. He does n't now.

I do not mean that C. deliberately planned to mislead
him, but that she hersm £ould,„not_^istinguish between
her, visions, haUucinations^ impressions, whatever ynn call
thej»jjyid^jlie_rgalit^. She honestly believed herself the
victim of fierce persecution, and her intensity, together
with his absolute faith in her, forced this belief on J. also.
It was very funny. He used to sympathize so heartily
and give such amusing advice, never questioning anything.
I find it most difficult to try to make you understand clearly
her mental condition at that time. Things did not happen
at all as she says, yet in her account of them the halluci-
nations are so cleverly interwoven with real happenings
that it is hard to distinguish between them. J. could not,
and I think you have n't ^ ... I could not tell J. all this,
for I never talked to him then, but I knew it just as
perfectly as I do now.

Despite all this mental confusion and inability to recog-
nize her hallucinations as such, C. was on the whole very
much more reasonable, more like other people, I mean, from
the time of first meeting J. until the time he frightened
her. She gradually ceased to think of mamma as suffer-
ing, of herself as being responsible, although there were
times when the old feelings seemed to return with great
force and I was afraid she would give in to them. But
having so many other things to think of and J. to talk

1 All these details of her early life have been omitted in the biographical
account given in the first two chapters.

390 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

with helped her. She dreamed of devoting her life to hira,
of being always with him. To exprf^ssj it. rlifFprAnfly, ]]^.
was the second divinity to whom she did reverence,
mamma having been the firsts Mrs. X. was not the third,
but a continuation of mamma, and so first, I think. The
others, greater and lesser, may be arranged some other
time. They are n't very interesting except perhaps as show-
ing how differently they were ranked in our respective
minds. We always saw them differently and hence cared
for them in different degrees. I 'm not sure, though, that
I do not like myself best of all the people I have known.
By myself I do not mean I or IV, I mean just Sally Beau-
champ. At any rate I do not get tired of myself as I seem
to sooner or later of every one else. ... To return to C.'s
fright, however. Dr. P. seems to think it changed her to
B IV.^ But it didn't. IV came years and years and
years afterward in Boston. She never saw " Providence."
As for C.'s being profoundly affected by that night's ex-
perience, it is absurd. ... If she hadn't been so stupid
she would have listened to his explanation instead of re-
peating over and over again like a parrot, " Oh, go away,
go away, do go away ! " She did n't hear anything he said,
but I did and know all about it now. No one else does,
except possibly C II, who often sees and hears things which
B I and IV know nothing about. But seeing and hearing
do not make her real. The only " real " ones are C. and
myself, II being C. asleep, and IV, C. rattled. Sometimes
she is more rattled, sometimes less, but that does n't alter
the fact that she is stiU C. It is confusing to have so
many names for her and I do not like it. . . . J. did " go
away" finally and didn't come back. He sent a great,
great many letters to tell C. how sorry he was, but she
would n't open any of them, even when they were directed
in different handwriting. She sent them all back at first,
1 This, of coarse, is an error on Sally's part. It changed her to B L>

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 391

afterward she dropped them into the fire, and I was simply
aching to read them. Not because I cared particularly
about J; I didn't, but neither did I care about C, and of
the two he was certainly much the more interesting, for C.
was " off " again, just as after mamma's illness and death.
C. became much as she had been then, only she did not
have hallucinations, visions, etc. She became B I. No
one seemed to recognize this change, however, as she kept
on with her work just as usual. They would have been
much more likely to notice her eccentricities had she been
brought into closer contact with them, but coming on duty,
as she did, when every one else was going off, and being
alone all night save for an occasional visitation from Miss
Y., she escaped criticism. They commented on lier pallor
and on her extreme nervousness, but these things were
nothing new, and were ascribed to her inability to sleep.
Miss Y. indeed used to hint that she feared for C.'s reason,
but she never said anything very definite. I think she was
puzzled and interested, and wished C. to believe that she
knew a great deal more than she really did. . . . Miss Y.
appealed to her sympathy, besides having a peculiar sort of
fascination for her in being different from any one else she
had ever known. She interested herself in all the things
C. cared for, devoting herself to the cliildren, telling of her
experiences among the poor and discussing books, music,
etc., by the hour. She had to do niost of this at night
after every one else had gone to bed, as Miss E. watched
her constantly during the day. She would appear about
one or two o'clock with a book and urge C. to lie down
and rest while she kept watch over the patients, but as C.
never would do this she finally contented herself with sit-
ting and talking, sometimes until daylight. (This was
really very curious, for now she has to have ten hours'
sleep every night.) All this to account for Miss Y.'s pres-
ence in the room when J. came [at the window]. Earlier

392 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

in the night there had been a heavy shower which had
made the children, and some of the otlier patients as well,
quite restless. . . . C. herself was nervous and excited,
questioning almost for the first time the [course which
she ought to pursue.] . . . She had been wanting for weeks
to write Miss D.^ about it and J.'s refusal to allow this
troubled her greatly. I should have said before, I suppose,
that knowing Miss D. entirely changed C.'s conception of
many things. ... As a child and as a girl she had been
so much alone, so dependent upon heraelf for the solution
of all problems that troubled her, that she had gmdually
come to be guided by law^-of her own making, ignorant
of those already existing for mankind. This despite her
early belief in God and her desire to live and die for
mamma. However pious and devout all that nonsense
may seem at first, when analyzed it resolves itself simply
into an expression of the same feeling which later led to
her devoting herself to J. . . .

Of so-called " religious instruction " and " ethical train-
ing" we never had any. Until after mamma's death we
had never been to Sunday-school but once, as a visitor,
and never to church but twice. I think that 's why I hate
it all so much now. Mamma had told C. that she must
never, never tell a lie, never be in any one's debt, and never
do a mean or cowardly thing^ This was aTT that C. had
with which to build until J. came and afterward Miss D.
I am not forgetting her school life. That brought greater
problems rather than added knowledge in this respect.

When J. came, although he was familiar with such things,
he seemed infinitely to prefer listening to C.'s fancies to
expressing any opinions of his own. He thought her
awfully good, but " the most unconventional child " he had
ever seen. Occasionally he would correct and suggest, but
not often. With Miss D. it was very different. She cor-

1 Later Mrs. X.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 393

rected, suggested, marched C. off to church, laid out a
course of reading for her, and in various other ways helped
to develop her infant mind, greatly to J.'s amusement.

(The remainder of the autobiography was carried off by Sally
and secretly buried in her box of treasures in the woods.)

Aside from the interest pertaining to the biographical
account of the early influences which tended towards the
disintegration of the primary personality, the value of this
autobiography, if substantiated, lies in the description of
a dissociated mind, and of the alleged cleavage of con-
sciousness dating back to early childhood, and of a fairly
continuous and organized subconscious life from that date.
According jto_Sally's caempryuthe separation began some-
where^aboiit the period when the child was learning to
walk, Nvhatever age that might have been. Sally, having
no notion of time, does not realize the significance of age,
or have any idea of her own age at different periods. To
say she was two years old, or ten, would have the same
significance to her. We cannot be too cautious in accept-
ing introspective statements of alleged phenomena, and
however difficult it may be to explain the statements of
the " autobiography," judgment should be suspended until
we have a wider knowledge of the possibilities of abnormal
psychology than we have to-day. It should be pointed out,
though, that in kind the phenomena do not differ from
those recorded throughout this study.

In interpreting this account we must entertain a critical
scepticism on several points : fii-st, the truthfulness of the
writer; second, the reliability of her memory; third, the
nature of the cleavage of consciousness.

As to the intentional truthfulness of the writer. On
this score there are two kinds of evidence : first, that which
pertains to a belief in the honesty of the witness, as in
court a jury is called upon to decide the truthfulness

894 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

of a witness from the impression of lionesty made by his
character, personality, and manner of testifying. Unfortu-
nately it is not open to the reader to form a judgment from
this kind of evidence. Speaking for myself, I can only
unqualifiedly state that it is my belief that Sally firml}'
believes in the truthfulness and accuracy of her own state-
ments. The second kind of evidence of the honesty of
the writer is to be found in the contents of the writing.
This kind of internal evidence must be judged by each
one for himself.

As to the second point — the reliability of Sally's mem-
ory — although I have often experimentally proved Sally's
memory to be in many respects far superior to that of an
ordinary primary consciousness, — a pecuUarity, I believe,
of subconscious phenomena, — nevertheless it must be open*
to tricks and hallucinations, like the memory of ordinary
people. Every one is liable to hallucinations, commonly
called illusions of memory, by which events which have
simply been learned by hearsay seem to be remembered
as events which have been actually experienced. Sally
indeed thinks she can remember events in her life dating
back to a time before there was a separation of conscious-
ness and which she places in infancy. But the date is an
inference, and the facts of perception, like that of her cradle,
she could well have acquired and probably did acquire at a
later date. She might well have been placed in her cradle
on some occasion when comparatively quite an old child.
It is not uncommon, I believe, to find people who remem-
ber events which happened at three years of age. But a
memory going back to infancy is without doubt an hallu-
cination similar to what many people have.

More important, however, for critical examination is
her memory of the beginnings of division of consciousness.
This separation was gradual, and at first, even by her ac-
count, seems to have been ill defined, embryonic. She

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 395

dates the earliest beginning at the period when she was
learning to walk. It was apparently towards the end of
this period that, accoixling to her memory, which may here
err, the development of a secondary consciousness took place.
This would appear to be somewhat young for the develop-
ment of pathological secondary states and the division of
consciousness. Yet automatic phenomena indicative of
doubling have occurred at a very early age ; hysteria some-
times occurs in childhood. Catherine of Siena had visions
at six years of age, according to her own letters.

As to the nature of the cleavage of consciousness, we may
ask, Does Sally's statement, assuming that it is not an error
of memory, necessarily mean that a subconscious personality
had developed at the early period given ? To my mind a
rational interpretation would be that the present subcon-
sciousness (Sally) remembers a number of isolated sub-
conscious perceptions and feelings which as subconscious
phenomena were more or less normal. Remembering them
now, they seem to be her own personal experiences, just as
I have explained the hypnotic consciousness remembers iso-
lated absentminded perceptions, or the lost isolated tactile
sensations of anajsthesia, as its own. Indeed this is just
what occurs with those perceptions which make up the
fringe about the focus of our ordinary conscious attention.
This fringe we are only half aware of or not at all, but in
hypnosis the hypnotic self remembers it as its own con-
scious experience. I have made numerous experiments
proving this, and have shown that when all the personali-
ties are synthesized into one, there is a wide fringe of this
kind in Miss Beauchamp's case. So I conceive it is pos-
sible that Sally, as at present organized, may now synthe-
size the memories of normal subconscious states belonging
to childhood, and remembering them as the experience of
her own personality seem to herself to have lived as a whole
in the past. This is suggested, for instance, by the follow-

896 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

ing sentence: "I was conscious both of the child on the
surface, so easily affected and diverted, and of the otlier
child (Sally) who was years and years older (I insist I was
older and stronger)." This looks as if she were retro-jectiyig
her present self into the past. On the other hand it must
be confessed it is difficult to reconcile this explanation with
the fact that Sally clearly recognizes the normal subcon-
scious states of her childhood and designates them as C II,
distinct from her own thoughts. It is interesting to notice
how distinctly some of Sally's statements of subconscious
life embody the teachings of modern psychology.

It is difficult to accept without f urtlier and positive proof
that such a large systematized self could have been organ-
ized subconsciously in early childhood; and yet if this
interpretation be rejected what view shall we take of the
similarly systematized self apparently manifested at the
time of this study : like that of sane Sally while B I
was delirious (Chapters VII and XI) or that described
in Chapters XXII and XXVI.

A second alternative hypothesis is that Sally's whole
memory of her subconscious experiences during childhood
is a hallucination. If this were true it would be almost
equally interesting. But to my mind this theory involves
too much. It is incredible that such an enormous syste-
matized hallucinatory memory into which are woven a
mass of true memories, as corroborated by Miss Beauchamp,
could possibly arise particularly in a mind possessing a
memory as accurate, precise, and large as Sally's. It
should be said that the main social facts of Sally's autobi-
ography are corroborated by the Real Miss Beauchamp as
well as B I and B IV, though the point of view taken by
the different personalities of many of these facts is charac-
teristically different. This of itself is of psychological
significance.

Finally, it may be pointed out that the automatic subcon-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 397

scious phenomena exhibited in ray presence during the
writing of the manuscript and recorded in it are of a very
unusual character and worth preservation.

Sally's autobiography must stand as it is, open to vari-
ous possible interpretations ; yet it deserves to be put on
record to await the observation of future cases.

CHAPTER XXIV

HOW B I AND B IV WERE MADE ONE PERSON, AND THE
UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES

n|"^0WARDS the end of April, 1900, there was a lull in the
.1 storm. The barometer had risen and it seemed a good
opportunity to make another attempt to fuse Miss Beau-
champ and B IV into one personality, and thus, on the
hypothesis tentatively adopted,^ regain a complete and pre-
sumably the original self. The early attempt to do this,
begun some months back, had been interrupted by various
vicissitudes of family strife. But at last B IV had become
convinced, for the moment at least, of the impracticability
of the present family arrangement, so she agreed that a
systematic effort should be made to amalgamate B Fs
memories with her own.

My idea was that if B I and B IV could be fused into
one character, a fusion which would be the resurrection of
the original Miss Beauchamp and the restoration of the
original mental relations, Sally would sink out of sight and
disappear into her original subconscious abode, if she had
one.^

To dispose of Sally in this way after our long friendship
seemed cold-blooded, and I confess to certain qualms. But
what was to be done? All three could not live. The

» See Chapter XVIII.

* Because, among other reasons, with the synthesizing of the dissociated
personalities into one personality, a considerable part of Sally's field of con-
Bciousness, e. g., the motor part, would also be amalgamated with the main
personality, and Sally's field would be so far despoiled that there would not
be enough left to constitute a personality capable of independent spontaneous
activity.

HOW B I AND% IV WERE MADE ONE

399

choice had to be made, and the law of psychology con-
demned Sally. Sufficient only of this plan was told B IV
to obtain her co-operation. More than this I did not dare
disclose, for if Sally got wind of the whole scheme, as she
certainly would if I revealed it all (for she heard whatever
was siiid ^), she would do everything in her power to thwart
my endeavor to get rid of her. This, in fact, was always
an obstacle in the reconstruction of the original self,
for whenever Sally found herself sinking out of sight,
" squeezed." she bent all her energies to frustrate my work.
The ingenuity which she displayed in devising schemes to
circumvent every attempt to bring order out of chaos would
have done credit to Machiavelli. Miss Beauchamp she
easily checkmated by suppressing her letters and by innu-
endoes, hints, and even by forging letters,^ which gave her
to understand that I had had enough of her and was un-
willing to bother myself further with her case. IV she
teiTified by perverting the statements of B II, making
it appear that II revealed in hypnosis private mattei-s
which as IV she would almost sacrifice her life to keep
secret ; she also told IV that as B II she yielded that obe-
dience against which IV had constantly struggled ; while
both B I and B IV she tormented until they were physi-
cally worn out. In this way they were kept in a nervously
unstable condition in which they could be easily controlled
by the suteonscious self.

On this occasion, when the plan for amalgamation was
explained to IV, this personality insisted upon asking awk-
ward questions about what was to be done with Sally;
whether she would be suppressed for good, and whether
IV would know all her thoughts, etc. These were very
awkward questions, considering that Sally was ready to

1 This would be practically true whatever theory of Sally be adopted, —
whether that of a continuous subconsciousness or of an alternating self.

2 E. g., see letters of October 5, p. 434, and October 8, Appendix N.

400 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

take the bit in her teeth at the firet sign of danger to her
freedom. Fortunately, I succeeded in parrying the ques-
tions sufficiently well not to excite Sally's suspicions.

Accordingly, B IV or B I, as the case might be, was
'\ hypnotized daily and the proper suggestions given to B
II. The results in many respects came up to my anticipa-
tions. Space will allow only a brief r(jsum^ of these
experiments, enough to make the consequences intelligible.
A character was obtained which had all the memories of
the daily life of B I and also of B IV. But more than
this, this character seemed to be, as far as one could prove,
neither B I nor B IV, but a composite of the two, al-
though more like B I than B IV, just as the Miss Beau-
champ of early days in character more neai"ly resembled
BI.

Differences of character are much more easily recognized
than described. It is still more difficult to substantiate
the evidences on which the determining of character
depends, for psychological characteristics are not subject
to mathematical measurement. Still the difference between
good temper and bad temper, between frankness and reti-
cence, between good-will and bad-will, between the desire
to help and that to hinder, between a tendency to idealism
and one towards cynicism, between emotionability and
calmness, — differences like these are easily recognized
and even proved by simple test reactions.

By such differences, which obtrusively forced themselves
upon one and which had to be tactfully accepted in hand-
ling the case, it was easy to see that the new charac-
ter was neither B I nor B IV. She had lost the reserve,
the depression, the emotionability, and the idealism of B I ;
but she had also lost the quick temper, the lack of faith,
the resentment, and the cynicism of B IV. She was a
person of even temperament, frank and open in address
— one who seemed to be natural and simple in her modes

HOW B I AND B IV WERE MADE ONE 401

of thought and manner. Yet she more closely resembled
B I, and might fairly be regarded as B I restored to a
condition of healthy-mindedness.

But it did not often happen that the new personality
was as complete a fusion as this. Sometimes " It," as Sally \
humorously called her, was distinctly B I or distinctly 'IV ; I
more or less modified, but with the memories of both. At
such times the fusion of memories was not always complete ;
that is, it did not include the whole life of B I and B IV,
but only specific events or periods of time. Between these
two extremes many variations were observed, the mixture
at one time partaking more of the characteristics of B I,
and at another time of the characteristics of IV, and some-
times being a mixture difficult to identify as either. The
exact kind of person one would get as a final product
was always uncertain. It depended largely upon the
status of the family concord and upon the acquiescence of
Sally and B IV ; but also upon the formula used to wake
the new person. If B II was told to wake as B I with
all the memories of IV, the new person was more like
B I ; and vice versa. But when the most finished product
was obtained the fusion was a character which was neither
B I nor B IV. She remembered herself as B I ; she re-
membered herself as B IV. When asked, " Which are
you?" she would say, "I don't know which I am" — a
leply dictated by the fact that she knew both her other
existences, and recognized the likenesses and differences
between them and herself.

It would be confusing to designate with a single name a
person who varied in character within such wide limits, —
from a completely fused personality to a modified B I, at
one end of the scale, and to a modified IV at the other. If
we name the complete or a relatively complete fusion
" The new pei-son " as I did, then the less complete forms
may be termed the New B I and the New B IV, these

402 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

being more or less modified B I and B IV, with more or
less synthesized memories. Such terms are necessary for a
clear explanation of the experiments.

Although the most finished product — The new person
— was only occasionally obtained, nevertheless getting such
a person at all was a demonstration of the fact that a syn-
thesis of B I and B IV could he obtained, and that to all
appearances this synthesis was a normal individual. It was
plainly more stable and less suggestible than either B I or
B IV, and better adapted to resist the disintegrating effects
of the environment. It was much less subject to the little
" traumatic neuroses," the nervous shocks to which Miss
Beauchamp was subject. The ordinary frictions of life, a
hasty word, or annoying action, which would have caused
in either B I or B IV an emotional disturbance with all its
dire results, tended to pass off leaving .the surface of the
new person's mental life scarcely ruffled. In this she
approximated normality. This degree of stability dimin-
ished according as the fusion was less complete and the
new personality approached B I or B IV in character. Still
even " New B I " and " New B IV " were more stable than
the unmodified B I and B IV.

The new personality tended to remain fused for varying
periods, lasting from a day to a week. Here again, the more
complete the fusion the greater the stability. The modified
B I and B IV generally persisted but a few hours, relaps-
ing soon to their original states.

A matter of importance, as we shall see, was the memory
on the part of B I and B IV for the new person. When
the fusion was complete both B I and B IV had complete
amnesia for this new self. Neither of these disintegrated
pei-sonalities had any recollection whatever of the periods
of time when they were transformed into the completely
fused and most stable personality. Tlie same was found
later to be true in respect to the Real Miss Beauchamp

HOW B I AND B IV WERE MADE ONE 403

when finally obtained by another method. But when, as
was most often the case, the fusion was incomplete, and
we had only a New B I or New B IV, then, after revert-
ing again to old B I and B IV, each of these latter person-
alities retained a memory for the thoughts and actions of
the new personality. This proved to be a matter of con-
siderable importance, as it had dire consequences which
will be presently related.

The characters of the various new personalities were
clearly recognizable in their letters, in which one missed
the morbid saintliness of B I and the vigorous perti-
nacity of lY. They exhibited rather a healthy-mindedness,
though this varied with the stability. The modifications
of personality may be thus summarized :

(a) New B I, modified by the ideas, memories, and traits
of IV.

(b) New B IV, modified by similar acquisitions from
BI.

B IV and B I each, after returning to herself, remem-
bered all these new states.

(d) The new person, an apparently complete fusion.
Neither B I nor IV afterwards remembered this state.

That the new person was the original Miss Beauchamp
did not necessarily follow. That was a matter for object-
ive identification. Theoretically, she might be only an
artificial creation. Yet the possibility of artificially fusing
the elements of the two groups of conscious states into one
personality, much as one might by a chemical synthesis
make a new chemical compound, is not without interest.

This synthesis is an interesting study in itself, aside
from the stor}' of Miss Beauchamp's fortunes. The modes
in which the peculiarities of each character were modified
by the acquisition of tlie ideas, memory, and one or more
character traits of the other personality, is in itself well

404 THE DISSOCIATION OF A IPERSONALITY

worthy of inquiry. Such a study is bound to throw light
upon the meaning of character, but it is not easy, — perhaps
as yet not possible, to interpret the results correctly, or to
trace the resulting alterations of character to their true psy-
chological basis. Limitations of space prevent my entering
upon a detailed description of the modifications observed,
but a few general conclusions may be stated. As far as
memory went the synthesis was simply a combination of
the memories of both personalities. The same was true of
the faculties and educational acquisitions which one or the
other character had lost. For example, it will be remem-
bered that sometimes B I and sometimes B IV lost her
knowledge of languages while the other regained it. In
the fused personality this knowledge was retained.

Some other characteristics of the new personalities, par-
ticularly of the completely fused new person, were plainly
to be regarded as the resultant of the fusion rather than as
simple additions. The characteristics referred to are per-
haps to be summed up by what we include in the term
mood ; the absence, for example, of morbid depression, of
emotional impressionability, of exaggerated points of view,
idealism, etc. Other characteristics again appeared to be
feelings and emotions which were introduced into the re-
sultant consciousness apparently by the force of the law of
associated ideas. As when, for example, the mere awaken-
ing in New IV of the memories which belonged to Miss
Beauchamp brought at the same time all the associated
feelings and emotions of the latter, though toned down and
modified. Other characteristics again seemed to be the
resultant of a return to normality ; as, for example, the dis-
appearance of the neurasthenic symptoms and the return
of physical and mental states of well-being and healthy-
mindedness. The new person was comparatively well and
healthy-minded.

It was also noticeable tliat the New B IV, even when

HOW B I AND B IV WERE MADE ONE 405

largely IV, resembled in moral character Miss Beauchamp
more than B IV; that is to say, it seemed as if it was
strong, vigorous-minded IV — a character that could be as
a whole still recognized as IV — that took on the moral
characteristics of Miss Beauchamp, rather than the reverse.
It was IV who became amiable and gentle-mannered, and
not Miss Beauchamp who became quick-tempered and rude.
It was IV who became amenable to control, open-minded,
and practical, and not Miss Beauchamp who became hostile
and i-ebeUious. It was IV who acquired the points of view
of Miss Beauchamp, and not vice versa. (A further dis-
cussion of the experimental syntheses will be reserved for
a future study.)

But what happened to Sally, it will be asked, as a result
of all this ? From a psychological point of view the effect
upon this dissociated pei'sonalit}'- was not the least interest-
ing result. In the fusion of B I and B IV, Sally, as had
been anticipated, tended to become " squeezed," to disap-
pear, to go back to whence she came. The more complete
the fusion and the greater the stability, the more was this
the case. At times, when the fusion was most complete,
she even lost the power of influencing the " new person,"
as she used to call her ; and although she still " came " she
could not do so voluntarily, but only by accident. She
could not by " willing," or b}^ any of the secret devices
which she had invented, change the new person into herself
as she could change B I and B IV. In other words, she
returned once more to lier true function — if she had one,
which may be doubted — that of a subconsciousness, her
wings clipped, and her powera stripped from her. She was,
to all appearances, fused in the new personality.

We had pieced together the ddbris of personality into a
whole ; we had sent Sally back to where she belonged.
Was this new personality the Real Miss Beauchamp? If
so, we had obtained a verification of the hypothesis that

406 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

B I and B IV were only quasi-somnambulistic person-
ages, disintegrated portions of the real self. If we ac-
cept as criteria of normality, freedom from amnesia, even
temperament, stability, health, and absence of suggestibility
and of abnormal phenomena, then we may conclude that on
a certain number of occasions glimpses of the Real Miss
Beauchamp were obtained. Nothing permanent, how-
ever, had been accomphshed, though if these experiments
had been allowed to proceed unhampered, wdthout inter-
ference from any of the personalities, and above all, if the
personalities could have been induced to co-operate, the
problem of disintegrated personality, as far as exemplified
by this case, might at this time have been solved, much
tribulation and sorrow spared to Miss Beauchamp, and
much trouble to myself. But this was not to be. It
seemed as if each step forward brought new difficulties.

For the acceptance by the psychologist of much of that
which has just been said, the details of the experiments
should be studied with all the recorded evidence bearing
upon the conclusions arrived at. But inasmuch as at a
later period I succeeded in obtaining the Real Miss Beau-
champ by another and much more reliable method, which
was more certain in its results and produced a much
more stable personality, and which besides solved the
problem of B II, further evidence will be deferred until
the time comes to describe these later experiments. It
remains only for the present to narrate the consequences
of the experiments which, whatever their success from a
psychological point of view, were destined to be ill-fated.

When the new peraonalities awakened with all the mem-
ories of the other selves, everything would have gone well
perhaps if each had learned in this way about only her ex-
ternal acts as Miss Beauchamp and as B IV. But each
learned more than this. It will be easier to explain what
happened if I simplify the complex psychological condi-

HOW B I AND B IV WERE MADE ONE 407

tions which resulted from this " putting together " process
describing those occasions when the new personality was
only B I more or less modified, and those when she was
IV similarly changed (that is, not complete).

When Miss Beauchamp became possessed of the memories
of IV, they awakened within her a consciousness not only
of IV's doings, but of the thoughts, the feelings, and the
emotions by which IV had been dominated. (IV from her
point of view was, after all, herself.) There surged up within
her a consciousness of how she herself, as it seemed to her,
had acted and thought ; she saw her attitude of mind, her
rebelliousness, her anger, her subterfuges, her prevarica-
tions, her fibs, her plots to thwart every effort to aid her
that was not according to her wishes, her attempts to avoid
control, her unyielding determination to carry out her own
will, — all this she remembered. It came as a revelation
to herself of a part of her life which had so far been hidden
from her. It was a blow to her pride and to her self-respect.
She remembered her thoughts as IV just as any one of us
might remember moments in our lives when we had lost
control of ourselves, being for the time perhaps the sport
of our emotions, or when, under the influence of circum-
stances, we had been dominated by thoughts and feelings
which ordinarily were foreign to our natures. So the life
of IV at such times seemed to the new Miss Beauchamp to
be her own past life, but one of change of mood.

More than this, when Miss Beauchamp returned to her-
self again, reverted completely to B I, she remembered
herself as the New B I, and therefore still retained the mem-
ory of this revelation. For the first time she, the saint,
saw herself in her other character, IV, a character almost
the antithesis of herself. She was inexpressibly shocked,
humiliated. Unable to look upon it as a mere psychologi-
cal phenomenon, a freak of consciousness, she insisted
upon regarding that other character as herself. " It is my-

408 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

self after all," she would say, and yet that other character
was so foreign to her own that she felt humiliated and
ashamed. On such occasions when, as the result of my
suggestions, the memories of herself as IV poured in upon
her, a great wave of remorse would overwhelm her. *' I am
sorry," she would meekly say. " I do not know why I
behaved so ! Will you forgive me ? " She looked upon
herself as one who had sinned, and so the revelation brought
distress as well as possibilities of health. Even when the
personalities were most completely amalgamated, the new
person took the same view, although in a more reasonable,
self-contained, and less emotional way, for she was in her
ideals much like disintegrated Miss Beauchamp.

Something of this is expressed in the following note,
written at my request by lY, who remembered the thoughts
of the incompletely fused personality. It is an analysis of
Miss Beauchamp's thoughts on one occasion when I had
made her remember herself as IV. The fusion being in-
complete, she was for the most part B I. As one of the
results of the experiment, when IV returned to herself
she also retained a recollection of her experiences as the
New B I, and was therefore able to describe them. The
occasion selected is one of the earlier experiments when
the first realization of herself as B IV was awakened in
Miss Beauchamp.

(The words in parentheses are interpolations to which
IV assented to make the matter clearer.)

" I remember everything that happened yesterday afternoon
until you tried to hypnotize me. Tlien, although I did not lose
consciousness, I felt as if I were changed — as if I were becoming
my old self again. ... I fought against the feeling and against
you. ..." 1

1 In the first attempt B IV was only partly hypnotized, but her eyes closed
and she was strongly influenced.

HOW B I AND B IV WERE MADE ONE 409

[The letter here gives a brief account of certain specific mental
states characteristic of B I, which surged up within IV as she
felt herself slipping back, and which caused her to resist. Then
repenting, as she saw that I was about to give up the attempt :]
" I begged that you would try once more, you remember, and
this time I gave myself up entirely. I remember only your say-
ing ' Sleep, sleep,' and then, 'Who are you?' I could hardly
answer, 'Miss Beauchamp,'^ (New B I) I felt so confused. I
wondered how I came to be standing there. I had not the slight-
est recollection of what had gone before. Then, as you ques-
tioned me, and I remembered what I had been doing the last
day or two (as B IV), I felt ashamed, humiliated, and fright-
ened. I longed to beg your forgiveness, to throw myself at
your feet, to do something that would blot out the memory
of my sins. . . .

"After leaving your office I felt troubled and distressed. I
kept going over and over certain things, trying to find out why
I had acted in one way (that is as B I) rather than in another.
I kept thinking of you, too, recalling many things in connection
with you (for example when I was B I) which I have never
(consciously) known (as B IV). They may or may not be true.
I cannot (as B IV) say. Yesterday it seemed as if they were.
But to-day everything is changed, and, as I told you, I cannot
understand now why I should have felt and acted as I did
twenty-four hours ago. Yet at the time I was perfectly sincere.
I did not realize how very absurd it all was until I had slept and
rested and become my normal self again (that is, B IV). You
see 1 could not have been B I.

" April 28, 1900."

When she wrote this note B IV had become herself
again and " everything is changed," but she remembered
herself as the New B I and it seemed absurd that she ever
could have thought and felt like that.

The effect, then, upon Miss Beauchamp of the reaHzation
of herself in her other character was humiliation ; how was

1 She had now become the New B I whom I had awakened with remem-
brance of herself as IV". In the interval between the words "Sleep, sleep"
and " Who are you 1 " she had been B II.

410 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

it with B IV, the one whom Miss Beauchamp looked upon
as her Mr. Hyde ?

As long as IV was fused into the new personality, and
even when she was not completely fused but had acquired
through my suggestions the memories belonging to B I,
she became modified so as to take on more or less of the
latter's characteristics ; and her sympathies, thoughts, and
feehngs became practically those of Miss Beauchamp.
Along with the awakening of the memory of specific acts
in the life of Miss Beauchamp, there was also an awaken-
ing of the associated feehngs and emotions that had ac-
companied those acts; and just as the acts — mental and
physical — seemed now to have been her own, so did the
associated feelings and emotions. All were synthesized
with and became a part of her own personal consciousness.
Those feelings and those points of view to which she had
been a complete stranger a few moments before, now seemed
to be remembered as her own, and they continued to be her
own points of view and her own characteristics. The two
personaUties were substantially one, and all was well.

But later, when she became her old self again^ this self,
like Miss Beauchamp, remembered, as I have said, the sort
of person she had just been and what she had thought, said,
and done; more than this, as the New ^ /F" remembered
herself as Miss Beauchamp, and as IV retained a memory
of the thoughts of the New BIV,so IV became possessed
in a double fashion of a knowledge of Miss Beauchamp.
That is, IV remembered both the character of the New
B IV and the New B IV's memories of B I. It was like
a mirror reflecting itself in another mirror over and over
again. In this way she, our old IV, remembered every-
thing that had happened internally and externally while
she was possessed of Miss Beauchamp's memories, but she
remembered it without any revivification of the associated
feelings and emotions, just as one would remember a deli-

HOW B I AND B IV WERE MADE ONE 411

Hum of the past?- She went back to herself as IV, retaining
only memories of herself during the fused state (limited
to a definite period of time), and the amnesia for all else
became absolute again.

Now when IV woke to this knowledge of herself in her
other character, herself as Miss Beauchamp, her feeUngs
were far from those of humiliation. No repentance or
remorse for her ! She was made of sterner stuff. She felt
only disgust and anger. When she remembered the emo-
tions by which she had been thrilled a moment before,
remembered her attitude of mind towards others, and the
thoughts by which she had been dominated, she felt only
contempt for herself — wliether as the new character or as
B I, although, as a matter of fact, this new character was
identified in her mind both with B I and with herself as
she had been in days gone by. They were aD, in her
eyes, substantially the same. She called the new person-
ality B I. The consciousness that she was the kind of
person she saw herself to be aroused within her anger and
rebellion. (Indeed it was for this reason that she resisted
the first attempt to hypnotize her, referred to above in her
letter.) What particularly annoyed her was her passive
obedience. To this she constantly referred.

One day after the usual experiment, when B IV had
been changed to Miss Beauchamp with newly added mem-
ories, I found the following note on my table :

1 This difference in the synthesis of memories is important for the under-
standing, psychologically, of character. The various alterations of character
which were experimentally induced in B I and B IV showed that a remem-
brance of the facts of a past event, even when the memory included the
associated mental mood, feelings, ideas (points of view), did not result in an
alteration of personality. IV might be made to remember such events in
B I's life without being modified in character. Besides the memory as such,
another kind of synthesis, diflBcult perhaps to explain, was necessary : An
alteration of " mood," etc, had to be made. In other words, memory (retro-
spection) alone is not sufficient to determine personality, which is a mode of
reaction of the organism.

412 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

" DonH make me B /, Dr. Prince. It is giving me all
that I most dread."

An explanation of this note came from B IV the next
day. In giving it she remonstrated emphatically against
being made into Miss Beauchamp. B I, she said, was sen-
sitive, morbidly impressionable, and yielded a passive obe-
dience which she as IV keenly resented. It maddened
her to think she was that sort of person. " I feel very
strongly about this," she insisted. " It is a very serious
matter with me, for I don't want to be that kind of per-
son. Please don't make me B I."

She remembered, too, B I's mortification, including the
expressions of contrition with which she had apologized
for her conduct as IV. IV saw herself a character whom
she despised ; and she saw herself repentant for herself as
IV — IV who yielded to no one, who demanded to be
mistress of herself. Was it any wonder that she resented
being changed into such a person ? Even before this reve-
lation she had considerable knowledge of herself as Miss
Beauchamp (B I), a knowledge gathered from her journal,
from the discovery of letters written by Miss Beauchamp
(all of which were promptly destroyed before they could
be mailed), and from the information furnished by Sally.
She also, of course, remembered herself as a girl, as she
had been before the accident which disintegrated the orig-
inal self in 1893, IV even objected to the kind of person
she used to be. She had escaped from the chrysalis, and
she was n't going back if she could help it. As Cinderella,
when the princess' robes were stripped from her, found
herself suddenly in rags, so did IV, when her own emo-
tions and thoughts — her own individuality — was stripped
from her, find herself in the rags (as she thought) of her
other self.

So this revelation which came from the fusion of the
two characters only intensified her dislike to becoming

HOW B I AND B IV WERE MADE ONE 413

her other self, and her meaning was plain when she wrote,
" Don't make me B I ! It is giving»me all I most dreadl "
The following extract from a letter, written by IV, gives
a glimpse into the points of view of the different personali-
ties and the way in which the memories were amalgamated :
(Enclosed in brackets are explanatory interpolations.)

' * All the early part of the morning I remember perfectly up
to the time of your hypnotizing me. [From hypnosis as II she
was changed to the "new person" (with completely fused
character and memories), who later changed to IV, who found
me going over some records. As already explained, IV did
not remember this preceding period when she was the " new
person."] I [B IV] waked [from the " new person"] to find
you going over some records. You accused me almost imme-
diately of having changed [that is, from the new person],
which, of course, I denied, although I knew I had lost myself.
But seeing in your face how useless any such denial was, I
acknowledged it (I really had no memory of the time when the
new personality was here) and then went on to dispute the
account with you, you remember? And then, upon your find-
ing that I could not recall what had happened a few moments
before [while she was the "new person"], you again hypno-
tized me. It must have been very long this second time before
I came to myself.^ When I did I found that I was seated at
your desk, reading one of Sally's notes, which I hastily de-
stroyed, thinking that you had only left the room for a minute,
and that on your return you would not fail to demand it.
But you did not come. After waiting a little, I remembered
what you had been going to do [that is, make me remember
B I], and thought — ■ rather impatiently, I am afraid — that
you had not succeeded very well. But almost with the thought
came the memory^ of myself [as New B I and B I] . . . and,
with memory, emotion — that same strange, overpowering emo-
tion of which I told you, which seems to take one's very life,

^ In the meantime she had been succeasively B II, the New B I (whose
feelings, etc., she afterwards remembered), and finally Sally.

* With these specific memories a lot of confused memories of things I don 't
know about even now.

414 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

to sway one irresistibly, — and jumbled memories, confused,
of which I knew nothing. It frightened me. I felt again as if 1
were changing, slipping back, becoming my old self, in spite of
my struggling, perhaps because of it. I wrote you that hurried
note and left the house. , . . To-day [May 5, 1900] I know
that I must have lost myself in that world I told you of [that is,
become New B I], so wonderful^ where . . . [all is idealism].
Perhaps it 's true and perhaps . . .

[P. S.] "I cannot find the ' Story of Teddy Jones '^ any-
where. You must ask Sally if she has eaten it. . . . Possibly
she has repented her indiscretion."

[P. S. by Sally.] " Am I a brick still, Dr. Prince? I don't
see why you want all this, for she is n't real, you know. But
you may have it. Don't be cross with me. I haven't written
to you for ever so long, and I don't talk to you very much.

" S. B."

The discovery by IV of the sort of person she was des-
tined to be, or that she believed she was destined to be,
and the realization by Sally that the resurrection of the
original Miss Beauchamp meant her own doom, that she
would have to " go back to where she came from " and
never again have an opportunity to play her pranks, to en-
joy her life in her own way, and to do the things she liked,
but instead would have to sit inside, " below the threshold
of consciousness," dissociated and helpless, forgotten by
every one, while Miss Beauchamp read "nasty old books," '-^
did " stupid old things," like going to church and serious
work, — these discoveries by IV and Sally, respectively,
eventually put an end to all hope of reconstructing the
original Miss Beauchamp by the method of suggestion to
B II. Both determined that the reconstruction should not
be brought about, and both resisted with every means in
their power. They threw every obstacle in the way, and

1 Sally's Autobiography.

* Sally's opinion of the serious books of the day.

HOW B I AND B IV WERE MADE ONE 415

during the time that the attempt was continued it was one
constant struggle against the diplomacy, the secret plotting,
and open opposition of the Two. By contrast Miss Beau-
champ, the saint, was content to place herself absolutely
in my hands; hers was an attitude of perfect faith and
confidence, whatever the consequences, whatever the cost.
Even though it meant annihilation, she would accept it all.
This attitude of self-subordination particularly angered IV,
and she would have none of it. The one thing B I could
not accept was to be like Sally or IV. This she dreaded,
and required constantly to be assured that in becoming her
real self it should not be.

To reconstruct the original Miss Beauchamp it was
necessaiy to obtain B II, to whom the suggestions must
be given. B IV could make it difficult for me to do this
through herself, but could not prevent my getting B II
through B I, who offered herself freely for the purpose.
To meet this weak point of attack, Sally brought all
her influence to bear to prevent my gaining access to B I.
The many ways in which the Two could frustrate my
efforts and which led to numerous contests with myself
will later appear. To take a mild illustration:

One -day, not long after these experiments were begun,
I unearthed a plot on the part of IV to get away from con-
trol, and thus avoid being reconstructed. IV arrived in a
belUgerent state of mind. She was not going to stand this
sort of thing any longer, she asserted ; slie was not going to
be hypnotized, and she would not be made into B II, and.
so on. Nevertheless, it was evident that she was in a peck 1
of trouble and that she had gotten herself into a mess, \
from which, as usual, I should have to extricate her. It
was always so.

B II was finally obtained, and thereupon gave the whole
thing away. B II was very much disturbed by all that
had happened and repeatedly begged me not to leave her,

416 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

not to let her go her own way, but to protect and control
her. Voluntarily she told the story, although frequently
interrupting herself and showing qualms of conscience at
betraying IV's secrets, which she was loath to reveal.
She was torn by two conflicting desires, one coming from
IV and the other from B I.

The substance of her story was that IV, desiring to
escape reconstruction, had concocted a plot with her friend
Anna, by which they were secretly to go off into the
country to a house belonging to Anna and there live
together, after Mrs. X. (who acted as a sort of guardian
friend to Miss Beauchamp) and myself had left town
for the summer. Anna had proposed the plan. It was
thought that we should thus lose sight of IV and then she
would be free of us all. Of course, as was learned, poor
B I had come to herself at different times in the midst of
the plot just long enough to learn a part of it and to fear
the rest. She was trembling for what she supposed she had
done, and what she would do, not knowing either clearly.
What little she knew corroborated IPs statements. Sally
confirmed these and later IV herself made a confession.^

Sally, in her customary way, was having one of the times
of her life, enjoying both the plot and its marring and the
discomfiture of the family. Now the simplest way to put
a stop to everything of this kind was, first, to reveal the
whole to B I and give counter-suggestions to B II. But
this was more easily said than done. When I attempted to
give the suggestions to II, Sally took a hand in the affair.

"You shall remain B I all the time," was commanded;
"you shall never change to B IV." For the purpose of
enforcing this suggestion she was directed to repeat it.

" I shall remain B IV all the time," was the way she
did it.

^ Two years later the Heal Miss Beaachamp gave me a similar accoant of
the plan.

HOW B I AND B IV WERE MADE ONE 417

"No; B I."

" Yes, I said B IV."

« No, you shall stay 5 Z "

« That is what I said — B IV."

She could hear me say only B IV. Over and over again
I tried to make her hear and say " B I," but in vain. In say-
ing " IV " she ran the two numbers together, thus, " four-
one," making them sound like one word, but also as if it was
intended that I should hear the word " o?ie," and B II the
word "/owr." Of course this was Sally's doing. B II
was all unconscious that she did not hear and repeat my
suggestion exactly as I had given it. Thus Sally, as she
later confessed, circumvented me for the moment. Sally's
confession was accompanied by the usual insistence that
Miss Beauchamp should not stay, that she did not like
her, but preferred IV ; and so on.

Thus through plots, counterplots, and interferences these
experiments were destined to come to naught, as far as
they were aimed at bringing about any permanent restora-
tion of the family to its primitive head ; yet they served a
valuable end. They showed that a single personaUty could
be created by the fusion of the two personalities, and that as
a result of the fusion the subconscious self tended to dis-
appear from sight, that is to say, to become fused with the
others, so that all three selves were largely amalgamated
into one. This synthesis also demonstrated that the
hypothesis which had been tentatively accepted was cor-
rect ; namely, that Miss Beauchamp and IV were only dis-
integrated groups of conscious states, and that both would
eventually have to bid adieu to their friends. Finally, it
seemed to have been shown, although not so conclusively,
that the new person thus created was the original self,
the true Miss Beauchamp, for whom we had been hunting
so long.

CHAPTER XXV

SOCIAL LIFE IN 1900

IT was now April, 1900, Two years had elapsed since
Sally's first appearance, and nearly a year since the
birth of B IV in June, 1899. The autumn and winter just
past had been occupied chiefly in studying the different
personalities, with the results which have been stated,
r The case was a perfect gold mine of abnormal psychology,
1 and offered a rare opportunity for experimental study.
Many studies of this kind were made, and the results I
hope to make still further use of at some future time. As
one result of these studies we had a fairl}-- accurate concep-
tion of the pathology of the case, though the riddle of IHI
was still unsolved, — who she was and the relation she
bore to the other selves, — and we had accomplished little
in the permanent synthesis of the disintegrated selves.
Progress was slow, but the obstacles were many.

During the last ten months the Beauchamp family had
worried through life after a fashion. It had attended lec-
tures in a local college, had performed a certain amount of
outside duties, not perhaps very systematically, and had
attended to the daily routine of its own life ; for, like other
families, the Beaucharaps required three meals a day, a
proper amount of dressmaking, a reasonable amount of
household duties, and the maintenance of a certain degree
of social intercourse with its friends. Most of Sally's auto-
biography was written during the winter and spring. This
was slow work, subject to many interruptions, and, as we
know, it had to be almost entirely rewritten once and

SOCIAL LIFE IN 1900 419

partly rewritten twice. All these duties had to be done,
and were done, even if in an eccentric way ; the surprising
thing is that they were all done without exciting the sus-
picions of those not in the secret of the case. Miss Beau-
champ was known to be a semi-invalid, hable to periodical
break-downs, — and that is all that was and is known
excepting to a few.^ Yet the family managed to get on
somehow.

The home life was probably the most trying to B I and
B IV. To beginjgith» dressing was a labor. It was apt
to mean two or more baths, for IV would never believe she
had had one unless she took it herself_. This may seem a
trivial matter, but what answer was slie to make to the other
inmates of the house when she was reminded that she had
just taken one bath ? Then the afternoon bath was likely
to be similarly duplicated and similarly commented upon.
She did manage to give apparently satisfactoiy answers and
avert suspicion, but it was trying. B I, too, was often in
the same predicament. Then, after the bath, came dressing.
Suppose it was B I who began, and suppose Sally had not
hidden some of the most important articles. When nearly
dressed, B IV as likely as not would come and then off
would come everything, to be replaced by clothes of B IV's
liking, and the hair would be done all over again another
way. Lucky it was if B I did not come again before
finishing, and all did not have to be done over again for
a third time. Then came the family breakfast involving
new difficulties ; and then the family papers, exercises, and
letters had to be found. Where were they? Had Sally
destroyed them, or IV, or B I? (for somebody always ob-
jected to something) and so on. Before the day began it
was tliree hours' hard work, requiring unending patience
and much strength. And so it went on during the day.

1 The case has, however, been exhibited to several psychologists and
physicians.

420 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

It is not without interest that about this time B I and
B IV both learned to write shorthand and to use the type-
writer. Sally can do neither. During the instruction B I
and B IV would often change with each other, and of
course, each would be oblivious of what had gone before.
Yet they managed to become proficient. Sally, when she
happened to be present, took no interest in this instruction,
and claimed not to pay attention, though she generally sat |
decorously enough during the lectures. Sometimes she '
played truant. This_knowledge of shorthand _.becamfi_a.

^reat help afterwards, enabling B I and B IV to keep

notes of eng;:_^ements and duties, so that when a change qf^
personalities took place either on " coming " could go on
with wliat was in hand. A memorandum was made of
every message or task; this enabled either with the help
of a few inferences, and, when necessary, a little " fishing,"
to go on with what she found herself doing. If a letter,
it was not difficult, from what had already been written
and the memorandum, to finish it. If the clue was in-
sufficient, a note in shorthand to herself would await the
change of personality. At times, however, in the absence
of a memorandum, no amount of inference or guessing
would suffice.

It would seem at first sight to have been impossible for
Miss Beauchamp to successfully disguise her infinnity from
her friends, and maintain her social relations ; but a little
consideration will show that although difficult it was not
impossible. Both B I and B IV were unusually reticent
about themselves, having the faculty of keeping people at
a distance and repelling every inquiry into their private
life. The former always tried to conceal her anxieties, her
depression, and, we may say, her morbid sorrows. The
latter did the same for her peculiar troubles, and neither
gave away the thoughts which were a part of the moods.
Sally was only too anxious to \ie thought Miss Beauchamp

SOCIAL LIFE IN 1900 421

to disclose the secret of her own existence. While the
varying moods, therefore, of the three personalities made
Miss Beauchamp appear a "strange, incomprehensible"
character, no one suspected that they represented altera-
tion of personality.

As to the amnesia, even this was not as difficult a matter
to conceal as would seem at first. The content of our
minds is constantly changing from moment to moment;
and the number of memories of specific events required
at any particular instant to avoid social embarrassment is
not large. At any given time of the day we do not keep
in mind many of the preceding events of the day ; we recall
them only when required. When B I or B IV could not
do this, an evasive reply, an inference, or a guess would
answer the purpose. When the questioner believes that
as a matter of course a person is familiar with a specific
event, his suspicions are not easily aroused, especially as
few people have any knowledge of alterations of person-
ality. I have known a patient with continuous amnesia,
forgetting after an interval of a few minutes everything as
fast as it occurred, to attend the hospital clinic for three
months without the loss of memory being suspected by
the attending physician. __^^.^

The chief difficulties lay, not in carrying on her outside 1
life, but in the hostilities of the personalities to one another. [
IV's determination to manage her life in her own way,
even to the arrangement of the furniture in the room and |
her mode of dress, was one of the great difficulties, and /
came next to Sally's interference. -^ —

It is difficult to describe a typical day, as scarcely two
were alike ; nor is it easy to state the frequency with which
changes of personalities were made, so much depended
upon the state of health of B I and B IV, and upon treat-
ment. When the health was bad, when insomnia and
anxiety had done their work, the successive transforma-

422 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

tions might be a dozen a day; while after treatment, a
good night's sleep, and relief from anxiety, Sally might be
suppressed for several days, and the changes limited to
infrequent alternations of B I and B IV. When treatment
was systematically given every day or two, the peaceful
periods might be prolonged to one or two weeks. Then,
with the relaxation of treatment and the consequent onset
of disintegration, would come the outbreak of Sally with
all its consequences.

The greatest tranquillity and stability followed the com-
plete fusion of I and IV, and then the resulting *' New Miss
Beauchamp " would enjoy several days or a week of peace-
ful life and strength.

The letters of the fused personality showed a mental
balance which contrasted strongly with the extravagant
points of view of I and IV. Lacking the individuality
exhibited by the letters of the other personalities, they
are not as interesting in themselves, but are important as
evidence.

It wiU thus be seen that Miss Beauchamp's life was
not all trial and tribulation. Through treatment she was
given many peaceful days, and often rather long periods of
comparative mental and physical health. It was quite
interesting to see the transformation that would, almost
in a moment, come over her as the result of suggestion.
The replacement of neurasthenic symptoms and mental
depression by feelings of well-being and mental peace,
was instructive. The difficulty was that these results did
not last, roughly speaking, over two or three days, and
were always liable to be undone by the disintegrating
effects of the strain to which her life was continuously
subject. It was one of those cases which require freedom
from every sort of responsibility and care, material and
mental ; and yet Miss Beauchamp's circumstances were such
that a life of that kind was impossible. Easily fatigued,

SOCIAL LIFE IN 1900 423

she was obliged to continuously exert herself beyond her
strength ; in need of the assistance of a nurse, or companion,
she was required to depend upon herself; mentally fitted
only for peace, she was constantly subject to anxiety and
fears. Her psychical make-up required that she should be
under constant advisory guidance in meeting the every-day
demands of her life ; but that same make-up prevented her
disclosing those demands, and threw her upon her own
resources. B I could not by nature voluntarily discuss
her private life, and IV would not do so. Thus it was
that the effects of treatment were constantly being undone,
even long after the Real Miss Beauchamp was obtained by
a method which always awakened a definite and the same
personality. To keep Miss Beauchamp in comparative sta-
bility required constant supervision, exacting more time
than it was possible to give. To obtain the relief which
always immediately followed treatment meant at this time,
and for a long time afterward, a preliminary contest with
Sally and IV, generally lasting an hour and sometimes two
or three hours. There was a limit, therefore, to the super-
vision that could be given, and it was practically necessary
to leave Miss Beauchamp to a large extent to her own
resources until extreme disintegration made interference
acceptable as well as obligatory.

What would have happened if the case had not been sub-
jected to this long-continued study and supervision, can only
be surmised from the disastrous effects which attended the
summer vacations, or Miss Beauchamp's visit to Europe in
1901 under apparently favorable conditions. The strain in-
cident to such experiences when she was thrown on her own
mental resources well-nigh undid all good previously accom-
plished. It is probable that, deprived of continuous su-
pervision. Miss Beauchamp would have ended in some
" Salpetri^re ; " where, after being reported in the conven-
tional fashion as an instance of " multiple personality," her

424 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

case would have been soon forgotten in the list of incura-
bles, as has been the case with so many of her prototypes.

It has already been pointed out that the psychological
situation changed soon after IV's advent, in that previously
the famil)'- difficulties grew out of Sally's efforts to live
her own life and to torment B I, while now the wrangling
lay almost entirely between IV and Sally. Poor Miss
Beauchamp was no longer a factor in the controversy.
Sally simply disregarded her as too insignificant to waste
time upon. Besides, Miss Beauchamp was "no fun," as
Sally often remarked. She would not battle, as would IV,
but patiently, religiously, sought to do penance for her
sins, the sins of her other selves. In a previous chapter
(XIX) all this has been mentioned in a general way, and
the social relations of IV and Sally are recognizable in the
autobiography. A few specific details and some of the
letters will give a better idea of what was going on. IV
and Sally had been squabbling all winter, but in the early
spring formal war was declared. The ostensible cause was
the autobiography; but underlying this was the deter-
mination of IV to down Sally, — to " conquer this thing,"
as she expressed it, and to continue the sole personality
and obtain her freedom. " You cannot hold me," she
wrote ; " nothing can or shall. I want my freedom."

An amusing side of the contest was the strategy with
which B IV deceived Sally, not only as to her own char-
acter, but as to her tactical intentions and moves. Sally,
always gullible, would be taken in time and again, though
she affected to despise her adversary. I used to hear the
complaints of both sides : Sally, in narrating her troubles,
would call IV all manner of names, saying that she had no
sense of honor, no moral sense, or anything else. IV was
equally intolerant of Sally, who, she declared, was untrust-
worthy, a child without sense ; in fact, nothing but a de-
lirium. Of course they showered each other with letters

SOCIAL LIFE IN 1900 425

and criticisms, written, on Sally's part, sometimes auto-
matically and sometimes in the ordinary way. IV really,
in her heart, I think, enjoyed the contest and egged Sally
on. She had the advantage, in that she could mutter aU
sorts of nasty comments about her opponent, who of course
heard them but could reply only in writing. If all this
had affected only Sally and B IV, it would have been
comical enough, for neither of the two possessed feel-
ings to be hurt ; but the worst of it was that poor Miss
Beauchamp often caught a blow intended for one of the
others. For when she awoke she would find letters ad-
dressed apparently to herself; at any rate, she accepted
them as applicable to herself, holding that after all was
said all the personalities were herself. She would wince
under the stings and jibes meant for IV, but which she
thought were her own self-dissection, and became the unin-
tended football of the other two. Sally resorted to many
of the old methods by which she had formerly tormented
B I. It was a cat-and-dog life.

One night Sally, to make IV miserable, piled all the
furniture, everything movable in the room, upon the bed
and tlien changed herself to IV. But IV foiled her.
Instead of putting the room to rights, as Sally imagined
she would be obliged to do in order to go to bed, she rolled
herself up in a steamer rug and slept on the floor. A huge
joke on Sally, IV thought, but it was really on Miss Beau-
champ ; for, instead of waking up in the morning as IV,
she woke as Miss Beauchamp, to whose lot it fell to be the
drudge and put all the furniture back in place. The fol-
lowing letters, too, give an insight into the condition of
the family relations.

Some one had sent B IV some theatre tickets for one of
Ibsen's plays. Sally at the theatre changed IV to B I, who
thus saw the play while IV lost it. The following, from
Sally to IV, is a propos of this victory :

426 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

" How awfully clever of you to roast D , was n't it? But

it cost you Ibsen all the same! I don't believe you know what
decency is, you bad lot! You're hipped."

[From Sally to M. P.] "I have decided to send you the
other note to-night, for B IV may destroy it if I don't. She
has such an ' onsartain ' temper, and ever since you left this
afternoon she 's been exercising it on me and on poor B I.
She rows us for thinking certain things which are exactly iden-
tical with her own unexpressed thoughts. So! Am I to let
her do everything just as she chooses? B I won't like it if I
do. And am I to send all the letters they feel inclined to
write ? They are n't worth reading, really. Please tell me this,
and tell me when you are coming back. I miss you awfully
now. And whether I may write J. another letter. Don't forget
about it.

" B I is buried in the blues. I do hate her just as much as
ever."

[" Thursday, April, IQOO.'T

[From Sally to same.] " I know you want me to work more
rapidly, and so does B IV, but I really can't do it. Don't be
cross with me, will you ? I am awfully squeezed, and it makes
it hard. The enclosed note is hers. "Will you read all she
sends me if I turn them over to you? She can't be real. C.
never was horrid like that, — either before Providence or since.

"S. B."

[From IV to Sally.] "What a very charming mouse,^ Sally,
dear j but don't you know he 'd be loads more interesting if
you 'd give him a tail and whiskers. All well-regulated mice
have them. It saves time, you know.
" Amen. Amen. Amen.
"Sally Beacchamp,
" Aged 49,

" Amen Corner."

[A postscript to one of IV's letters.] " Sally, dear thing, took
four pills last night. '^ You can imagine how affectionately I
think of her to-day."

^ Referring to the autobiography. " You see what a tiny mouse it is,"
Sally had written, in reference to her MS.
a Calomel!

SOCIAL LIFE IN 1900 427

[P. S. by Sally.] "Will you forgive me, too, Dr. Prince?
Please do, for letting you have this."

[From B IV.] "I cannot come to-morrow. Sally must
work here or not at all. But I will give you Friday and Sat-
urday for finishing up the thing. I am so angry with you. I
think seriously of getting a waxen image, with pins, etc., and
retiring with it into the country. Shall I, or will that, too, be
useless? You cannot hold me. Dr. Prince. Nothing can or
shall. I want my freedom.

" Sincerely,"

[P. S. by Sally.] " This is her own letter. Dr. Prince, really.
She did all the revising and abridging herself and tore up the
other. I have n't touched it, except to add this. But I 'm glad
she 's unhappy. And she 's still fibbing, for I know she is n't
cross with you. I think she 's the very queerest person I ever
saw. She can't he real. She could not do and say such ex-
traordinary things if she were. I am so sorry for you.

"S. B."

[From Sally.] " You need n't pay the slightest attention to
anything B IV says, or does, or writes. I shall finish the Auto-
biography if I choose, and I shall say just as much about
Mamma and about Jones as I think necessary. You could n't
understand it, could you, if I did n't put all that in ? And I
want you to understand. But I forget that you don't know
about B IV's destroying all the last part of what I wrote.
She did it because it was about Mamma, and she does n't
want me to speak of her at all. She flew into a perfect rage
about it, called me ' Shylock * and ' devil," and everything. But
it is true, nevertheless, what I said. I should think she 'd be
glad to remember that time when she used to be so different,
should n't you? But she 's not at all.

" About the rest of the Autobiography, Dr. Prince, why must
I hurry so with it? You said at first that I could take loads of
time if I wanted to, and write it just any way I chose. Now
you keep saying, ' Make haste,' and B IV keeps saying, ' Hump
yourself, Sally, dear ; ' and between you I get so squeezed that
I cannot write at all. Won't you let me alone, and let me do

428 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

it my own way ? I 'm coming up to-morrow to go on with it,
if nothing happens.

" 1 am simply aching to write B IV. Won't you please,
please let me ? or at least tell me why she does such odd things
if she 's real ? For instance, you know about her eating —
how she 's always hungry — yet she has n't been to a single
meal since she got out of bed. Not one. I have to go, or else
C. And she 's like that about everything. I don't understand
her.

" You are n't cross with me for writing you all this, are you?
I don't mean to vex you, you know, although it is this being
good all the time that squeezes me so terribly.

" Hoping you are much better and rested, I am,

" Sally Beauchamp."

[From B IV, April 23, 1900. I had written on the
outside of the envelope of a letter addressed to her, " For
IV."]

"Dr. Prince, — Will you be good enough to address my
letters properly."

In April a lull in hostilities allowed the experiments de-
scribed in the foregoing chapter to be carried on, but the
war soon broke out again. Harmony was about as stable
as that of the South American Republics, of which one is
constantly reminded by the repeated revolutionary outbreaks
against the psychic autonomy of Miss Beauchamp.

One day in June, 1900, IV appeared, looking as if she
had been dragged through a knot-hole, tired, jaded, and
crestfallen. Of course she had been fighting with Sally,
and equally of course she had got the worst of it. The
consequent insomnia had done its usual part, and her
strength had gone. Miss Beauchamp, of course, was in
the same condition.^ Interviews with the various members
of the family, including B II, brought out the facts. The

1 The mental disintegration to which Miss Beanchamp was reduced by
troubles of this kind niaj be seen by her letters which often at such times
were incoherent and unfinished (see Appendix N).

SOCIAL LIFE IN 1900 429

statements of each corroborated those of the others. When
Sally's turn arrived, she came bouncing into existence, and,
evidently expecting a scolding, began to beg off to avoid
confession. But a severe scolding and threats of punish-
ment brought her to terms and to a full confession of her
sins.

In the first place she had drunk some wine, to which
Miss Beauchamp was unaccustomed, and then changing to
B I instead of B IV, probably by accident, Miss Beauchamp
found herself disagreeably dizzy ; or, to call a spade a spade,
a wee bit tipsy. Then again, Sally had obtained some mor-
phine and, undertaking to play the part of the friendly
physician, had given it to IV for insomnia. As I had pre-
viously suggested that morphine should produce nausea,
Miss Beauchamp and B IV were going about as if they
were passengere on a trans-Atlantic liner. But though
Sally's prescription was based on sound medical practice for
the purpose for which it was intended, Sally had no such
purpose in view. To her mind a peaceful night was not
essential ; particularly as, if the remainder of the family slept,
her own wings would be clipped and her power over the
other members of the family would be curtailed. So, partly
to counteract the effect of her prescription, and partly to
insure proper moral discipline, Sally made a night of it for
B IV, and incidentally for B I, who changed with each otlier.
She made them see visions of centipedes and horrible
animals running about the bed, and she set up little hob-
goblins, grotesque figures who sat upon the bedstead and
grinned at them. Miss Beauchamp was so rattled that, as
in a delirium, she thought tliem real ; but IV recognized
them as hallucinations. Nevertheless IV was frightened,
as one is by a nightmare.

Sally did not rest content with this material world, but
let her imagination run riot in the realms of the super-
natural. She made them see faces and hands at the win-

430 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

dow, — not real faces and hands, but ghostly ones. Both
B I and B IV were afraid to go to sleep, and lay awake,
reading, the whole night, — or such part of it as was left
to them in peace. These pranks were carried on not one
night, but several ; so that little sleep could be obtained.

Automatic writmg, too, Sally found effective in hazing
In this she was an adept, as we know. But now she
thought it in keeping with her part to imitate the style
and manner of the mediums. She found it much more
effective, she said, to fail to cross her t's and to dot her
i's, and to write in rather a scraggly way as the mediums
do. Then there were letters innumerable telling them of
things that she thought it would be particularly disagree-
able for them to hear.

After a few days of such contests, a night's rest obtained
through suggestive treatment would restore IV's shattered
nerves ; and she would reappear with new courage, reinvig-
orated, ready for the fray. And so the war went merrily
on. All this was nuts to Sally, who enjoyed life hugely.
It was the greatest amusement she could have, so long as
she could n't lead her own life.

Being out of town during the summer, I saw little of the
family, but was kept fairly well informed of events through
correspondence, besides being occasionally called to town
to set matters right. Miss Beauchamp was at the mercy
of the Two. They destroyed her letters and confiscated
my letters to her, while Sally continued to write the usual
messages to make her believe that I did not want to be
bothered with her case any longer. Receiving no answers
to her appeals, she believed Sally's tales, and felt herself
isolated, helpless, without a soul to whom she could turn.
Then Sally, knowing that insomnia and a sparse diet tended
to keep the family in a disintegrated condition, systemati-
cally prevented their sleeping at night, and kept them from
their meals. Miss Beauchamp had a miserable time of it

SOCIAL LIFE IN 1900 431

Some of the letters received during the summer and
autumn (1900) [see Appendix N] give an idea of the
situation.

When the experiments were resumed in the autumn, I
was again confronted with the opposition of the Two. The
members of the opposition were not united among them-
selves, and their mutual bickerings were still going on.
Yet IV, though unAvilhng to be reconstructed, was dissatis-
fied with the conditions of her triple existence. She
declared her unwillingness to continue this state of things,
yet at the same time she was unwilling to be "put to-
gether." She was told that if she would co-operate she could
be made whole ; but co-operation meant the acceptance of
all that she bitterly disliked, and to this she declared she
would never consent, A true feminine that she was, she \
wanted to have her cake and to eat it too, — " to be herself," \
and to be " whole " at the same time.

The result of it all was that for two years it was not
possible to continue reconstruction.

[From notebook, October S, 1900. "This was an eventful
afternoon, and for the moment threatened disaster to the family.
I was giving B II suggestions in the usual way. Finally, when
I said, ' You will awake as B I and remember everything that
you have done as IV, ' I suddenly heard the voice of Sally say-
ing, almost fiercely, ' She sha'n't come, she sha'n't come.' B II
was all unconscious of her lips having spoken, nor did she
hear the words. A sharp rebuke to Sally at once brought that
young incorrigible. In an injured tone she objected to Miss
Beauchamp's being allowed to come ; she liked IV much better;
she did n't want B I ; she would n't have her, and so on. Re-
monstrances, scolding, persuasion had no effect upon this
infant subconsciousness; she was angry and rebellious.

"Finally, to end the scene, I authoritatively informed her
that B I was to come to me three times a week to be put to-
gether. Sally's cup of bitterness ran over. Her answer was
a positive refusal to allow it.

432 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

" As I was called away at this point, Sally asked permission
to remain in my absence, though refusing to give a reason for
her request. Something plainly was up. I left her in deep
dejected thought. It was transparently clear that she was
plotting a new scheme to encompass my defeat, and it remained
only to watch developments.

" On my return an hour later, I surprised not Sally but IV,
holding two letters in her hand. She was disturbed, angry,
resentful. She burst out with reproaches, saying that if I had
anything to tell her, any objection to her visits, or any criti-
cism of her conduct, I might at least say it to her face, not write
it, and above all say it to her direct and not to Sally. Sally
plainly had been at work. Developments were coming. IV
handed me one of the letters. It was her answer to a supposed
letter of mine and ran as follows " :

' ' Dr. Prince :

" I have your not« and ' prescription ' and prefer to acknowl-
edge their receipt. It may simplify matters for you to have
this in black and white.

"Christine L. Beadchamp."

The other letter, to which this was her heroic answer,
read as follows :

"Will you be kind enough to remain at home unless your
presence at my office is especially requested? I have other
patients, also other duties, which, unfortunately, require time.

"I would suggest your taking a little sense to quiet your
senses, hourly, until you are relieved. Nothing more will be
needed in your case. Do not answer this."

On the back was written :

"For Miss Beauchamp when she wakes."

B IV was palpably under the delusion that this letter
had been written by me.

"'Is that my handwriting?' I asked. She insisted that it
was. It was a good half-hour before she could be convinced

SOCIAL LIFE IN 1900 433

that the letter was a forgery, a trick of Sally's, and that it was
by a hallucination that she had perceived and even still saw
the handwriting as mine. ' I think I know your handwriting/
she haughtily insisted."

The finale of this affair came October 8, three days
later ; but in the meantime Sally took her revenge for the
disclosure of her plot. She wrote IV innumerable letters,
each of which was a stab in a sensitive spot ; and IV wilted
under the attack and showed she felt the sting. When,
three days later, suggestions were again given to B II,
Sally again objected, speaking at first, as before, as a sub-
consciousness ; and then, coming in person, " I have two

bottles of poison," she threatened, " and if you go to X

Y [my usual threat in extremities] , I shall give it to IV

and make her all dead."

Who could tell what a disintegrated personality might
not do ? And yet I knew Sally's weak spots, and knew
she could not be unkind for long, if only those spots were
touched. So it came about that under alternate threats
and cajoling Sally was soon repentant and submissive,
sorry for all ; and I soon had before me Miss Beauchamp
(B I), whom I had not succeeded in seeing for many
weeks. To my surprise, instead of showing pleasure at
finding herself present, she became at once painfully apolo-
getic. She expressed regret for having intruded, dis-
claimed any intention of taking my time, was sorry for
having come, and so on. She sought to escape from the
room. Her attitude, while dignified, was, to an onlooker,
pathetic. She seemed like one who had appealed for life,
and to whom help had been refused, one who, against her
will, had been made to appear to be forcing her unwelcome
presence. As she was leaving the room, I was obliged to
take her by the hand and lead her back, a sad, pathetic,
but dignified figure. Soon the whole story came out, told by
both herself and shortly after by B II, Mho filled the gaps :

434 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

During the previous months she had received letters
from Sally saying that I objected to her taking my time,
and now she had received a similar letter ; for, it appeared
that on October 6th when Sally, left alone in the room,
wrote the letter that had made IV so wrathy, she first
changed herself to B 1, whom she allowed to remain long
enough to read it, and then promptly changed B I to IV,
whom I found with the letter in her hand. So both had
read it. The letter was so addressed that it would do for
both.

The difference in the behavior of the three personalities
I, II, and IV on receiving the letter was characteristic.

B I did not answer, because she was instructed not to do
so; she was obedient, apologetic, regretful, hurt, cast
down.

B IV at once replied defiantly. She was angry and
resentful.

B II begged pathetically not to be sent away, that I
would help her, protect her from herself, from every one,
from Anna, from what I prefer to call " outside influences "
which were largely responsible for Sally's conduct.

CHAPTER XXVI

SALLY SUCCEEDS IN BECOMING CONSCIOUS OF B IV'S
THOUGHTS, AND IS ASTOUNDED AT WHAT SHE
LEABNS

ONE day, June 12, 1900, Sally arrived with angels'
wings, as it were, fluttering in the breeze. She had
turned over a new leaf and was in a saintly mood. She
was going, she said, to be always good hereafter, and to do
anything and everything that I wished. To prove that she
had creased down the leaf, she proceeded to disclose a great
and secret discovery she had made, one that she was anxious
should not be imparted to B IV. At last she had got hold
of IV's thoughts, and her astonishment at the discovery
of the latter's real character knew no bounds. To under-
stand the reason for her astonishment it is only necessary
to recall that in teasing IV, who always retaliated in
kind, Sally could play quite a game. They were like two
children tormenting one another from morning till night.
But in this game IV had an advantage over her child-
like and gullible opponent. As her thoughts were not
known to Sally, who, as she believed, was watching ^
her every movement and listening to every word that
might give an inkling as to what was going on in her
mind, it was easy by a little strategy to hoodwink her
"subliminal," and throw her off her track. For this
purpose IV used to resort to every kind of artifice that
would disguise her real thoughts and keep Sally in the

1 This phraseology which connotes continuous co-conscious activity, ex-
pressed TV's attitude and tlie theory to which she was practically obliged
to conform her conduct.

436 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

dark. She would throw out a remark for Sally to hear
that would be the direct opposite of what she was really
thinking. She would show signs of disliking that to which
she was strongly attached, and pretend that her feelings
were unaffected when she really had to use all her will-
power to maintain self-control. She would feign being
unmoved by emotion when she was boiling over. She
would even feign illness. At fu"st Sally used to swallow it
all, bait, hook, and line, so that IV did not find it difficult
to make Sally believe that she was a different person in her
feelings and tastes from M^iat she really was. She suc-
ceeded in making Sally believe that she disliked people
whom in reality she liked ; that she was devoid of senti-
ment and emotion which were strong elements in her nature;
and in short that her character was very different from what
it was. By degrees Sally "got on " to IV's methods and
became suspicious, though it took a long time for her to
acquire this wisdom.

Sally had often attempted to get hold of IV's thoughts,
but without success. At last her efforts were rewarded.
By an ingenious artifice, after first " rattling " IV, she
penetrated within the secret chamber of her mind, and
on several occasions became conscious of what IV was
thinking. But — horrihile dictu — like Bluebeard's wife,
after that lady had unlocked the forbidden door, she was
astounded by what she learned.

" Why, she is not at all what I thought she was," Sally
often said. " She is a terrible person. I never dreamed
she was like that." On one occasion, after discovering in
IV's thoughts a drastic ultimatum which she threatened to
carry out, Sally remarked : " Why, she is a terrible person ;
she is not at all like B I. She actually does these things.
B I would only say that she was ' very sorry ' ! "

The fact is that Sally was not only frightened but
astounded when she found that IV was not in play but in

SALLY KNOWS B IV'S THOUGHTS 437

dead earnest when she fought. It was a game only, just
fun for Sally, that meant nothing more than is meant by
children's " scrapping " with one another. But now Sally
discovered that with IV it was a different sort of thing.
She discovered that her other hot-tempered self really was
angry and meant to destroy her if she could; that she
planned direful things and meant to carry them out, and
that she would let nothing, not even her own comfort,
stand in the way of accomplishing her ends. To Sally it
was a surprise to learn from those thoughts, so long con-
cealed, that when IV threatened to shut herself up in an
insane asylum to punish her demon she meant it. Then
too the child Sally could not understand why IV pre-
tended not to like persons and things when the reverse
was the case, or why she disguised sentiments which were
implanted deeply in her nature.

The truth is that Sally was too undeveloped and too
unsophisticated to understand that trait in IV which was
almost the strongest element in her character, namely, to
suppress, to trample on at all costs every emotion and
feeling that tended to arouse that idealism and impression-
ability which belonged to I, and which threatened to place
her under the influence of others. Though she had no
idealism, yet she had emotions as well as B I, and she felt
herself swayed by them at times. If she gave way to them
they would rise and overwhelm her as they did B I. "I
will be myself," she would exclaim, and so she denied,
fought against, and suppressed her own nature. No won-
der she was a puzzle and a surprise to a child like Sally.

When at last Sally learned what kind of person she was
dealing with, found out that IV meant what she said, and
that she would carry out her threats regardless of conse-
quences, whether to herself or any one else, she became
actually afraid of her, and did not even dare to let her
know that she could discover her thousrhts. But it must

438 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

not be imagined that Sally after her first success continued
to be conscious of IV's thoughts, as she was of Miss
Beauchamp's. She could become conscious of them only
as a result of an effort of will and of a certain process she
had to go through, and then only at certain times when
TV was in a perturbed condition of mind, which, however,
Sally could encourage by inducing hallucinations. All this
must be gone through with every time. So altogether
Sally did not often resort to the trick.

The procedure she explained as follows :

If IV is in a sufficiently perturbed condition of mind,
Sally proceeds to give her suggestions internally, copying
the mode in which I am in the habit of doing it, and using
the following three formulae :

(a) You shall stay IV. (Unless this suggestion is given,
Sally's knowing IV's thoughts changes IV to I.)

(b) You shall not become hypnotized. (If this is not
said IV changes into the half-hypnotic confused condition
of BlVa.)

Sally wrote out an account of the first experiment she
made to learn B IV's thoughts. Like most of Sally's
accounts it is unfinished (Sally always tired of such
tasks before they were completed), but it is sufficiently
instructive to be worth giving. It very neatly although
apparently unconsciously describes two contemporary
streams of consciousness similar to what was described
in the autobiography. I also give Sally's letters which
preceded and followed her description of the experiment.

" I do hope," she wrote, "this will help you to understand
B IV, and please don't fancy that I was unwilling to write it.
I want to keep my promise, really, yet when you ask me to do
certain things, I feel so perfectly sure I cannot do them that
there does n't seem to be any use in trying. So in regard to

SALLY KNOWS B IV'S THOUGHTS 439

this, I am not unwilling but unable to make her thought clear
to you. And then, too, she is so entirely different from what
I fancied her that it is like being brought into contact with
another person, almost an entire stranger, as you will see from
what I have written. It was her attitude towards J. that you
most wanted to know, was n't it ? It puzzles me awfully. I
can see no reason whatever in the whole thing.

"Yours,

" S. B.
"P. S. Please put it all away " [so that IV will not see it].

[Sally's account of her experiment.] "When C. [B I]^ left
here yesterday she changed to IV at the foot of the stairs and
remained IV all the way to the Fens. She seemed much more
subdued in her manner than usual, and I kept wondering what
she was going to do, for it was late and she ought to have gone
directly home. I thought possibly she was going to walk to
Brookline to keep the appointment with Anna which she had
made. Yet that seemed most unlikely after all that had
passed.

' ' Then I wondered why it was that knowing C.'s thoughts as
fully as I do it should be so impossible for me to get at anything
in IV's mind, or to understand her motives in doing the very
simplest things. We must be connected in some way, I know,
else it would be impossible for me to make her see and hear
things or to do things against her will. Then I tried, as I have /
so many times, to get hold of her, repeating, ' You shall tell
me everything, everything — ' but it only changed her to C. ;
and although I knew everything in her mind then, I knew too
that her mind was not IV's mind, so that I really was no wiser
than before. Then I made her IV again, and after a minute
repeated, ' You, B IV, shall tell me everything, everything.
You cannot help it.' But, as at first, it only changed her to
C, with all C.'s thoughts and feelings. It seemed as if there
were really no way for me to reach IV save through R II, and
I have always believed that I did not get the true IV then
because having all C.'s memories, feelings, etc., shem?f.s« neces-
sarily be modified. I wanted to get her just while she was

1 As in the autobiography Sally means B I by C. (Christine).

440 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

doing and saying some of the erratic things in which she seems
to take such delight. I thought if I could do this I could
understand her so much better than anything I could get
through B II. So I tried again, but started this time in a dif-
fei'ent way with experiments which I knew from experience
would prove successful.

' ' First, 1 changed C. to B IV ; then I made B IV walk in a
different direction, away from Brookline, instead of toward it,
as she had been going. Then — she had been walking very
rapidly — I made her go more slowly, finally stopping her
altogether. She looked around for a minute or two in a puzzled
sort of way, then shrugged her shoulders and began to study
the shrubbery. When she got tired of this she scolded me —
at least I know she meant it for scolding and that she was very
angry although she only muttered under her breath phrases
like these : ' So it is you again, Sally dear ! I have missed you
so ! How thoughtful of you to call my attention to the view.
The beauty of those clouds, such a misty gray! Who said
promises were "sacred," Sally dear! Bah, we know better I'
etc., etc.

" It does n't sound exasperating to you, perhaps, but it was
awfully exasperating at the time and made me more determined
than ever to get hold of her and keep hold of her. After a
time we walked on, leaving the Feus by way of Gainsboro

Street, and took a car for the Restaurant, where as you know

she has absolutely refused to go for months past. On the way
there I made her have two visions, not as I often do by simply
willing, but by saying, * You, B IV, see a huge toad on the path
directly in front of you. You touch him with " Billy " ' — and
she did see it and did apparently push it aside. Again I said,
' You, B IV, see J. coming. You see him signalling this car.
It is not a lady. It is J. He sits there in front of you, but
you dare not make the slightest sign. Now, he is going —
you may . . . '

" She saw him and sat perfectly quiet, doing exactly what I
had suggested. After this she left the car, entered the dining-
room, and ordered and ate her dinner, although one could see
from her impatient manner that she was acting strongly against
her will. After dinner she went directly home and took up a

SALLY KNOWS B IV'S THOUGHTS 441

book (' Sartor Resartus ') to read. But it did not seem to
interest her particularly, for she held it a long time, looking at
it without attempting to turn the pages. Finally she threw it
from her, exclaiming, ' Not for our sins, but hy them, Sally dear ;
thus saith the Fra who knoweth.' Then she began walking up
and down, up and down, as C.^ used to do and as B I does now
when she is very much distressed about anything. Not quite
like that either, for B IV seemed much more scornful and im-
patient than distressed, and she stopped occasionally to say
things out loud to me about ' The Walrus and the carpenter '
and such stuff. I could not see that it had any special signifi-
cance, and think she did it simply that 1 might not guess at any-
thing going on in her mind. At length when I got tired of this I
tried again to reach her, saying, ' You, B IV, will stay IV.
You won't change. You won't become hypnotized, but I shall
know everything you are thinking, everything, do you hear?'

"Then it seemed to me (but wrongl}') that she became C.
immediately, for she was repeating certain verses which I did
not suppose B IV ever knew. This was awfully stupid of me,
of course, but I did not stop to think at the moment that if it
were really B I (C.) her first thought on coming to herself ^vould
have been of the difference in her surroundings (that is, between
the Fens and her room, and she would not be repeating a
poem). ^ I did not think of anything save my own disappointment
in losing B IV so quickly. I was discouraged. But suddenly
I realized that ' she ' had dropped the poem and was talking
of me. Not as B I has always thought of me, but in a disdain-
ful sort of way that yet had something of fear in it, which I can
only try to express by quoting exactly what seemed to pass
through her mind. Her thought when formulated took very
different shape from C.'s but was perhaps easier to follow —

" She broke off the verses and began to think of me and the
past, and the following about me :

[Referring to Sally.] "' Not know what I think ? Notknow?
How can that be? [Thoughts change to another.] Oh, God
have mercy upon me ! [Thinking of Sally.] I must throw her

1 In this sentence C. is used for Miss Beauchamp before the hospital episode.
^ B I, like B IV, is always a little confused and puzzled on coming to
herself.

442 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

something, I am forgetting — [Again thinking of anotlier, but
quoting] " Never again, never again shall I trust you ! " O my
love. I see you still, with — [Aloud.] Sally! "If all
God's creatures could be fed," ^ Sally dear, you know.
" ' Devil-ridden that I am — '"

[Note from Sally.] " I haven't finished it, as you see, and
I 'm afraid it 's not very interesting from your point of view,
but 1 want you to keep it away from B IV until to-morrow if
you will. She does n't know that I can tell her thoughts, and
I 'm afraid she 'd better not know it ever, although I should love
to tell her. But I won't ; really I won't.

" S. B."

Tlie S3aithesizing of B IV's consciousness with that of
the subconsciousness (Sally) has more of a biographical than
scientific interest, as it vras not open to experimental cor-
roboration. Sally's testimony must be judged in connection
with the remainder of the phenomena exhibited by this
dissociated personality. It has, however, been partially
corroborated by the primary consciousness, B IV, who tes-
tified that her own vision and thoughts occurred just as
described by Sally ; so that to this extent Sally's state-
ment has been verified. The difference in the relations of
Sally's consciousness to B I and B IV opens up some
very puzzling problems. Why should the subconscious-
ness be able to synthesize the thoughts of B I but not
those of B IV ? To do the latter it became necessary to
produce further disintegration. Why ? These and similar
questions must remain unanswered until we know more
about the mechanism of thought. The wide field of logi-
cally systematized co-conscious thought, if the introspective
account given of it is to be accepted, is perhaps the most
important of the phenomena described by the secondary

1 Quotation from some college nonsense-rhjrmes.

" If all Grod's creatures could be fed,
The first I 'd feed would be Co-ed." •

SALLY KNOWS B IV'S THOUGHTS 443

personality. It is difficult to decide whether this testimony-
should be accepted as it stands, or whether it requires in-
terpretation. If Sally described the facts as she saw them,
was it all a hallucination of memory on her part? But
B IV testified to the accuracy of the statements regard-
ing her own thoughts. The co-conscious train of thought
involved logical reasoning, perception, and volition of a high
order. It was of the same order as much of that recorded
in the Autobiography. We know too little of abnormal
psychology to reject this evidence off-hand, but before
such phenomena can be accepted they should be corrobo-
rated by independent observations in other cases. In the
records of abnormal psychology there is much that tends
to substantiate the claims of Sally; but this is hardly
the place to review the evidence, and I shall let the case
stand for the present as it is.

CHAPTER XXVII

B IVa AND TYPES OF DISINTEGRATION

IT is now time to describe a new state which developed
about this period, and which was at first quite puzzling.
This " state," which hardly rose to the level of a person-
ality, is of considerable interest from a psychological point
of view on account of the light it helps to throw on the
principle of dissociation. In this particular case it became
a factor of great importance in practical management, for
it acquired an influence which could not be disregarded,
but which had to be cajoled, reasoned with, or bullied,
according to the exigencies of the moment.

Psychologically, the interest in this state lay in the fact
that it demonstrated that B IV could be disintegrated
without wholly losing those distinctive qualities which char-
acterized her, just as B I could be disintegrated to become
B I a. B IV, we had reason to beUeve, was but a disin-
tegrated portion of the real self. The integrated elements
of this portion now proved to be capable of being still
further dissociated, so that there resulted a hypnotic state
having its own distinct chains of memories of which B IV
had no knowledge. As would be expected, a state of this
kind was necessarily unstable, and, as will appear, could
be still further disintegrated under the stress of certain
psychical excitants.

All this has a distinct bearing on the theory of disin-
tegrated personality, for it is a portion of the evidence
which goes to show that there is no limit to the modes and
degrees in which personality may be disintegrated, or to

B IVa AND TYPES OF DISINTEGRATION 445

the combinations in which psychical (or cortical) elements
may be arranged and rearranged.

One day (December 28, 1900) I was talking with B II
when she seemed to slide into a state with which I was
familiar, a half-hypnotic state between IV and II, and
tlirough which IV very frequently passed before becoming
B II. But on this occasion she spontaneously opened her
eyes and revealed herself a character different in many
ways from anything thus far seen. When questioned she
said she was B II, she was B I, she was IV, she was Sally ;
she was all in one.^ But on putting her to the test it was
found that in reahty she had no memory of Sally's life,
or of B I's, or of B II's.

At first this state was quite a puzzle to make out, for
there was an attitude of aggressive hostility in her make-up
which led her to claim to be the other personalities with
the evident purpose of defeating the ends which I had in
view. It was not clear whether she was B II modified in
character, and for some reason much changed in feeling,
thought, and even memory, or whether it was one of the
other personalities still further disintegrated. As a result
of repeated observations, which I may here simply sum-
marize, it was finally determined that she, or " It," was
B IV disintegrated, or in a new hypnotic state, and she
was accordingly dubbed B IV a. This state differed in
every way from B II, both in character and in memories.

As has just been stated, it had been previously observed
that when B IV was hypnotized for the purpose of obtain-
ing B II, she used to pass at times into a transitional, or
what I called (in comparison with B II) a half-hypnotic
condition. I had paid very little attention to it, being
chiefly concerned with more deeply hypnotizing her into
B II. This state now manifested certain important charac-

1 These names she had learned partly from having IV's memory and
partly from me.

446 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

teristics. I shall speak of her memory first. As I said,
she used to claim that she was each and all of the others,
that she knew all about them; but whenever put to the
test it was proved that she knew only B IV, of whom,
however, she had a clear knowledge. She never showed
any power of recalling any part of the life of the others.
Nor did B I or B IV have any knowledge of this state.
When too she was wakened she always became at once
B IV (never B I) whose memory would be blank for the
preceding hour or half-hour. On the other hand, B II
knows B IV a, and because of her has often reproached
herself deeply. (B II, it will be remembered, also knows
Bla.)

In temperament B IV a was individual and characteristic.
On a number of occasions she spontaneously opened her
eyes, and then her personality seemed to become broadened.
She was and is very much like IV from whom all restraint
has been removed, and not at all like II. " She is deter-
mined," my notes read, "assertive, and difficult to control."
It has seemed at times as if this personality represented
the deeper, stronger feelings of B IV, those feehngs which
ordinarily the latter controls, either as a matter of judg-
ment, manners, or expediency, but which in hypnosis
become dominant. For instance, B IV has a persistent
and deep dislike to being hypnotized, for fear that she may
become infected with B I's saintliness, or that she or Sally
may reveal some of her own doings, which doings she knows
will be disapproved. Frequently, however, she voluntarily
requested to be hypnotized for therapeutic purposes, — for
the relief of disturbing insomnia or other symptoms.
Yet, despite her own request, the moment she entered
into hypnosis this B IV a has come to the front and has
most rebelHously refused to be " hypnotized " any farther ;
and it has always been difficult and often impossible to
do it. For an hour or more I often labored in vain to

B IVa AND TYPES OF DISINTEGRATION 447

change B IV a into B II, but there were psychical influ-
ences at work (not Sally) which were stronger than my
suggestions and which I could not fathom. Later the
secret leaked out. It was all the consequence of sugges-
tions which B IV systematically gave herself. Over and
over during the day she would repeat to herself phrases
calculated to act as counter-suggestions when hypnotized
and prevent herself being changed to B I, or being changed
in character at all. " I shall stay myself ; nothing can
change me ; I shall reveal nothing ; I shall be as I am "
were some of the suggestions which she would drill into
her mind, and even as she was being hypnotized she would
mutter these phrases under her breath. As she was told
again and again, she wanted to keep her cake and to eat
it too. She wanted to regain the memories of all the per-
sonalities, to be all-in-one in memory, and at the same time
to remain herself in character ; to be " put together " and
at the same time to remain IV. It was an impossibility,
but she contended for it, notwithstanding. Not even to
get all her memories could she reconcile herself to the
emotional idealism of B I.

Accordingly, when she became IVa her desire to be
relieved from some bodily ill sank into the background,
and these intense feelings of her nature, rubbed in by self-
suggestion, came to the surface and dominated her hypnotic
self.

When B II was asked who this new one was she an-
swered, with a comprehensive grasp of the situation, "It
is myself," an answer that was puzzling only for the
moment.

" Why, then, did you not remember about B I, as you do
now?"

" I don't know. I was confused and ' rattled.' "
"Why was your attitude so changed and antagonistic?"
She does not know, but she exclaims, " Why, we are aU

448 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSON ALITr

the same person — [B] I, IV, and II — all but Sally." In
saying " Sally " she shuddered and recoiled, as if from
some dreadful thing.

But IV a is not II either in character or in memory.
Besides her own memories she has only those of IV. She
is simply IV disintegrated (hypnotized).

As to Sally's relation to this hypnotic state, Sally did
not know her thoughts any more than she knew IV's, a
fact which tended to identify her with a part at least of
IV's consciousness. Sally, indeed, like B II, regaixied
her as IV, but " rattled," as she expressed it.

Continued observations demonstrated beyond question
that this state is a hypnotic state of IV. Finally, when
put upon her honor, she confessed herself to be IV, and
later always spoke of herself as IV, never as B I or B II.
Whenever IV was hypnotized she passed through this state
before becoming B II ; and whenever IV a was awakened
she became always IV.

This B IV a we have already introduced into our disso-
ciation ring (Chapter XVIII, p. 308). If the real self
X = B I + B IV, as the result of our experiments (Chap-
ter XXIV) rendered highly probable (if it did not prove
it), then our ring might be thus constructed :

(Real Self)

B I B IV

Bla BlVa

B II

B IVa AND TYPES OF DISINTEGRATION 449

On the other hand, it is by a synthesis that B II is
obtained, a synthesis of the hypnotic states B I a and
B IV a, or, if we are not entitled to speak so precisely,
a synthesis of certain parts of I and IV. As B II was
only a hypnotic state the synthesis could not include the
whole of I and IV ; for if it did we should have, not a
hypnotic state, but the real self, supposing that the real
self (X) = BI + BIV. But B II was plainly a hypnotic
state, and, strangely enough, on being awakened did not
become B I + B IV, but something else.

As just explained, the ideas of IV were strongly retained
in this new hypnotic state, and could be unpressed therein
by auto-suggestion on IV's part. Any attempt on my part
to suggest an opposite idea, so far from being accepted, Avas
resisted with all the vehemence possible. This phenom-
enon is entirely contrary to the popular belief that a hyp-
notized person will necessarily accept any suggestion given.^
Suggestions which were objectionable to IV were always
refused and fought against with vigor, much to my discom-
fiture. This resistance to suggestions increased the difficul-
ties of management.

From the psychological point of view and also from that
of practical management, it will be readily understood that
B II was the key to the situation. Suggestions to B II,
putting Sally out of the question, alone would fuse I and
IV into one personality, and lacking this, relieve the ail-
ments of both B I and B IV at the same time. It was
essential, therefore, to obtain B II. Realizing this, Sally
brought all her ingenuity to bear to prevent my obtiiining
B II. IV did the same, dreading that she would become
like B I. As B I was out of the case at this time (for the
other two managed to prevent my seeing her, excepting
accidentally), there was no way of getting B II excepting

1 Greenwood (S. P. R. Proceedings) has pointed out the refusal of a hyp-
notized person to accept objectionable suggestions.

450 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

through IV. But IV always changed to B IV a before
becoming II. Here lay the difficulty. IV's intense deter-
mination and auto-suggestions so affected B IV a that
every suggestion to the latter met with counter-suggestions,
and, as I have said, even when IV voluntarily asked to be
hypnotized, IV a would oppose every suggestion that would
change her to II. Feeling her individuality slipping away
from her under the influence of the sound of my voice, she
would exclaim again and again, "Don't speak to me I
Don't speak to me I " as if to escape from the suggestion ;
or she would directly mutter to herself the opposite of my
suggestion, as " I shall go away, I shall stay myself, I shall
not change," etc.

When IV a was conquered Sally took a hand. It will be
remembered that the more the personalities were disinte-
grated the more unstable they became and the easier it was
for Sally to make use of them for her own ends. So IV a
was easy game for Sally, who would produce hallucinations,
or aboulia, or deafness, or by one trick or another prevent
her changing to B II, And even when B II was obtained
the battle was not won. When a suggestion was made to
B II objectionable to Sally, the latter at once transformed
her to B IV a, or else she produced the same hallucinations,
etc., in her that she did in IV a. Sally therefore had to be
controlled while subconscious.

I had constantly to invent new devices to control Sally.
The effect of pretending to etherize her while subconscious
through B II has already been described. The same
scheme was now worked through B IV a, but Sally soon
discovered the pretence, and then I was obliged to use the
real article. A light etherization of B I V a combined with
suggestion worked in two ways. It reduced B IV a's will-
power and resistance so that she accepted suggestions. At
the same time it controlled Sally as a subconscious self, and
weakened her will-power so that she could neither counter-

B IVa AND TYPES OF DISINTEGRATION 451

act ray suggestions by her own, nor influence IV a in one or
other of the ways already mentioned. In fact, Sally, as in
the experiments of putting B I and B IV together, became
" squeezed " and for a time paralyzed. Then B IV a, as she
came out of the ether, was easily changed by suggestion to
B II. Thus time and again Sally and I had a battle royal
in which the stake was the control of B IV a. Though sug-
gestions were resisted with all their will-power and by every
sort of ingenious device by IV a and Sally, in the end, by
means of a little ether, Sally's will would gradually weaken,
her muscles become limp, her opposition cease, the sugges-
tion would be accepted, and victory would perch upon my
banner.i But the victory did not mean peace. When Sally
found that her own existence was at stake, that it was a
matter of life or death to herself, she redoubled her energy
and soon invented a device to circumvent this form of at-
tack. Unable to fight herself against the inhalation of the
ether, she now conceived the idea of making both B IV
and B IV a do this and refuse to take it. For this purpose
it was necessary to give them a motive. Could she make
the process of etherization so painful that IV would resist
it with might and main ? She recalled how I had produced
in herself (Sally) an awful, cold sensation to paralyze her
will and control her. If she could make IV suffer as she
had suffered, IV would surely fight. She tried the experi-
ment with effect. At the first whiff of ether IV experi-
enced a sensory hallucination in the form of a feeling so
horrible that it is difficult to describe. This was accom-

1 The modus operandi was not wholly the anesthetic effect of the ether on
Sally, for later experiments proved that Sally was still conscious and able to
signal her presence when the primary personality was well under ether. It
was largely through suggestions that Sally was affected by the other, or, in
other words, hypnotized while subconscious. Nevertheless a resort to pro-
founder etherization was effective, when Sally, becoming suspicions, began to
test her strength against these ether-suggestions. Later, when I learned to
resurrect the Real Miss Beauchamp, to conibiue all the personalities into one,
ether proved a power in my hands.

452 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

panied by a sensation of icy coldness and nausea. The
nausea alone was bad enough, but the sensory hallucina-
tion and the coldness were so awful that IV was unable to
endure them. The attempt to etherize her threw her into
a hysterical paroxysm in which she screamed aloud and
struggled violently. Her teeth chattered with the cold.
Etherizing her became a difficult task.

My ingenuity was taxed, but after a time I invented a
device by which it was possible to counteract this, so that
B IV would consent to take the ether. But now the
moment she changed to B IV a she became Sally's tool.
With the change the hallucination became doubly intense,
and again the struggle would break out. Even when I
succeeded in suppressing the sensory hallucination in this
hypnotic state, B IV a would still struggle against the
ether, throwing the sponge violently from her and refus-
ing to inhale. Even at times when B IV was in a concih-
atory mood she was powerless to help, for the effect of her
previous auto-suggestions persisted, preventing every at-
tempt to relieve the situation.

Before giving a detailed account of the phenomena ex-
hibited in one of these contests, I will mention an obser-
vation of January 16th, 1901, as it gives a fairly good idea
of the character of B IV a as contrasted with that of B II.
To understand the situation it must be explained that I
had known for some time that IV had been scheming once
more to get away from my control, though the reason was
concealed. She had made overtures to a mutual friend
who would, she hoped, take her in charge. Sally was
secretly aiding and abetting her in this, for that young
scapegrace thought that thereby she would secure her own
liberty. So as her share in the plot Sally undertook the
part of hoodooing Miss Beauchamp (B I) by making her
believe that she had committed some unpardonable fault
and was to be sent away. Prevented from seeing me B I

B IVa AND TYPES OF DISINTEGRATION 453

sent the following note, which plainly disclosed the
situation :

" If you would but forgive me or let me know in what I have
offended ! Forgive me, forgive me, dear Dr. Prince, whatever
this awful thing that I have done. You must not leave me.
To whom could I go ! I have only you and I know you will
understand ! So long you have kept me, — Won't you to the
end ? " [Here follow four lines erased.]

[P. S. by Sally.] "I only scratched out this little, little bit.

" S. B."

A few days later B I presented herself for observation,
for the first time in many weeks. This was not because
she had not tried to come, for she had made many fruitless
attempts. Last week indeed she had almost succeeded.
She was actually in the waiting-room, but had " come "
and " gone " several times, and finally had disappeared
before her turn to see me came. Now believing that she
was to be sent away she was dejected in mind. Of course
she was reassured, but when an attempt was made to
change her through B I a to B II, the former hypnotic
state suddenly changed to IV a who claimed as usual to
be II, but a few simple tests disproved this claim. She
was rebellious and aggressive, refusing to accept the sug-
gestion of becoming more deeply hypnotized. Asked why
she wished to go away, it came out that IV had been
warned by " some one " that I was writing a book about
her, and that I had even delivered a paper about her case
before the Paris Psychological Congress.^ Whatever the
motive the warning had the effect of playing upon her
fears and inducing her to obstruct the work.* Domi-
nated by the fear of publicity regarding her life, she wished
to seek refuge in flight.

i This paper was read before the Congress in the summer of 1 900.

* An attempt was made also to prejudice Sally against allowing these
studies to be made. After a frank explanation on my part, IV exi>rcssed
herself perfectly willing that any data should be made use of, provided certain
private matters were not mentioned.

454 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

After learning these facts, I was called out of the room.
On my return, I found that IV a had waked up to become
IV, who soon spontaneously changed to B I, giving me a
chance again to get B II.

[Notebook.] " The contrast between the two hypnotic selves,
between II as she sits before me, and IVa as she had been a
moment before, is striking. Contrary to IV a, B II begs that
she may not be allowed to go, that I will stand by her and
protect her. Of her own accord and desire, she enlightens
me on matters about which IV and IVa keep me in the dark.
Sally, she says, will not allow her to continue as B I. The
latter Sally continues to call " a chump," and has caused her to
believe herself a nuisance, and that I propose to get rid of her
for good and all. B II wants to be B I not IV. As to the
publication of her case, I may use any material that I may
have in any way that I please. She does not care at all.
The difference between the attitude of II and that of IVa
toward this and other matters was very marked. It was the
spirit of friendly co-operation contrasted with that of re-
bellious independence."

While II was attempting to explain for my edification
some of Sally's reprehensible conduct, she suddenly became
dumb. In vain she struggled to speak. Equal to the occa-
sion, I diverted the conversation, and diplomatically spoke
in a complimentary way of Sally. Now II could go on
again 1

One could not help sympathizing with IV in spite of the
trouble she had caused. She had been having a hard time
of it. She had accepted an invitation to travel in Europe,
and B I objected to going. She had planned to get away

from ray control, and I objected. A objected to the

autobiography and to my book. She had planned some
literary work to be done in the Library, and Sally objected.
"Everything," she complained, " is objected to by somebody,
and my life is one constant struggle against diflSculties."

B IVa AND TYPES OF DISINTEGRATION 455

" I do not quite understand your letter," she wrote. " "What
I am planning to do is to give three hours every afternoon and
two every evening to certain work at the Library, that is, for
the next few months, until May. Then Miss K. has asked me
to go abroad, to remain until September or October. You will
think perhaps that I am risking a great deal, and it may be
that I am. Sally objects to the Library work, and B I to the
trip abroad. It would be amusing were it not so exasperating,
to think of oneself being — "

Here the letter ended. At the bottom Sally had written,
" Finished. No more. The end. Your most obedient
servant, C. L. B."

Thus for two years, even long after the real self was
obtained, it was a constant succession of contests of one
kind or another, directed towards relieving the distressing
results of disintegration and maintaining a personality with
sufficient equilibrium to be fitted to withstand the stress of
life. Every opportunity was taken advantage of to fuse
the personalities, but each wished to be the one that should
live,i and each was unwilling to be snuffed out for some
one else. B I dreaded to be like IV, IV equally dreaded
to be like B I, while Sally loved " herself best of all, " and
wanted to have at least her share of the time. It was
impossible for any one to stay permanently, for each was
only a disintegrated self, a part of the whole, and as such
necessarily unstable and the sport of the emotions and
strains of life. Each, therefore, necessarily changed back
and forth with the others.

At times I was on the point of giving up the attempt to
cure the case, but so long as the possibility of success
remained it seemed that every consideration, psychological
and professional, required that we should go on. With
what success will be seen.

1 It was only at a later date that B I was recouciled to her own annihilation.

CHAPTER XXVIII

EMOTION AND DISINTEGRATION

WHAT has been said in the last chapter will make
comprehensible the motive underlying the follow-
ing phenomena observed at this time, January 24, 1901.
They are in part illustrative of the contests with Sally,
but they are described here because they are instructive
in that they present an experimental demonstration of
the dissociation of the personal consciousness through an
emotion, the emotion itself having the effect of producing
amnesia, that is, dissociating the memories of past experi-
ences from the personal perception. Secondly, they show
the action of a second or extra-consciousness upon the
personal consciousness, this action taking the form of a
volitional suggestion, similar in every way to one received
externally.

The deafness — whether for language only or for all
sounds was not definitely determined — is also instructive.
That its true interpretation is dissociation and not the
total suppression of auditory images is clearly indicated by
the fact that the words were remembered by ^ Sally, who,
as has been so often pointed out, is at times, at least,.jL_
dissociated group of co-conscious states. The auditory
"Impressions were registered, but synthesized alone with this
subconsciousness, Sally.

IV was tired and worn out from insomnia. It was not
difficult to guess that Sally had been at her old tricks, and
had done the family up. For a long time I had been un-
able to get hold of the little wretch, for her conscience

EMOTION AND DISINTEGRATION 457

pricked her, and she was afraid to meet me. I had done
my best to wheedle her into coming, but without success.
Worn out, IV begged to be made to sleep, but as she could
not be carried beyond the stage of B IV a, the experiment
of giving suggestions to this character was tried. But
again I was foiled. B IV a did not understand a word that
was said. She was like a person with word-deafness.

" To-night your eyes will close. You will sleep soundly,"
were the suggestions given. But it was as if one talked to
a person stone deaf.

"Do make me sleep, Dr. Prince. Do make me sleep,"
she kept pleading, i-egardless of the suggestion I almost
shouted in her ear. I varied the suggestion, emphasizing it
in many different forms in the hope that in some shape it
would penetrate her understanding. But she was uncon-
scious of my having spoken, or, if she heard my voice, the
words carried no meaning to her. It was easy to guess that
Sally was at work as usual, but, be as insistent as I would,
no impression could be made.

Suddenly her face changed : a wild, frightened expres-
sion came over it, and she looked at me with perfect horror.
" I hate you, Di-. Prince, I hate you," she said,

" Who are you ? " I asked, but she did not know ; nor
did she know her name or where she Avas, nor me, though
she spoke my name. She shrank from me as if in terror
of my touch, and tried to steal past and out of the room.
Her mind was plainly in a state of disintegration, retaining
only an indistinct consciousness of her surroundings. To
every question she vacantly answered, " Yes, yes." After
fifteen minutes or so of this she quietly became B IV a,
from which she was awakened as B IV.

The psychological interest in these phenomena lies in
the relation between Sally's consciousness and tlie other
self, through which relation Sally was able to disintcgi-ate
the latter, if we may accept Sally's very precise explana-

458 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

tion of how she did it. Of course Sally remembered in a
perfectly sane way all the details of the conditions which
existed while B IV a was deaf to my words, and later wliile
she was deliriously demented. Sally's memory at least was
perfectly sane and without confusion. She remembered
both the delirious acts and the true perceptions of the en-
vironment, — a fact difficult to explain unless some sort of
intelligence coexisted with the delirious one.

As to the origin of the emotion and the delirium, she
had not, she affirmed, "willed" specifically that B IVa
should be frightened, that she should lose her knowledge
of my identity and of her surroundings, and should answer
" Yes " to every question, etc., etc., but all these things
" went together." They were evidently the disintegrated
effects of a great emotion which Sally aroused in a curi-
ous way.

It turned out that the day before Sally had seen a bird
in a cage. The bird was frightened, crouching low, with
its wings out-stretched. To Sally's imagination it had a
frightened expression and looked like a snake. It occurred
to her to make IVa take on this expression, though she
"couldn't do it exactly," as she explained, "because the
bird had wings, you know." She had not directly willed
that IV a should be frightened, but she had made her face
take an expression of fright like that of the bird, and then
all the rest " went together." The muscular expression of
fear awoke the emotion, and the emotion induced the " rat^
tling " of IV a's mind, in consequence of which she lost
the consciousness of her own personality and of her surround-
ings. All this was a by-product, so to speak, of the emo-
tion. B IV, to begin with, is a disintegrated personality ;
B IV a is further disintegrated, but now she became still
again disintegrated and changed into a state which may be
called B IV b. We had therefore three degrees of disinte-
gration : B IV, B IV a, B IV b. It was an experiment in

EMOTION AND DISINTEGRATION 459

disintegration and suggestion, though the experimenter by
her own testimony was a "subconscious self." Only the
words, " I hate you," were directly uttered by the subcon-
scious personality. These words were put into IVb's
mouth by Sally.

This disintegrating of the mind by an emotion is of con- I
siderable pathological importance, for it throws light upon
the genesis of certain pathological states — fear psychoses,
hysterical attacks, and certain traumatic neuroses — which
occui' as the result of railway and other accidents.

Considering the introspective character of the evidence,
I would not cite this particular observation in support of
the etiology, were it not that the case was full of such
incidents, and that grave disintegration in Miss Beauchamp I
had been frequently observed from time to time as the |
result of accidental emotional excitement. In fact, it will
be remembered that B I and B IV had both developed as
personalities out of emotional conditions. On a number of
occasion?,, B I had been seen in a delirious state from this
cause, though Sally was perfectly sane ; ^ and the sudden
development of a neurasthenic condition out of a clear
sky under similar circumstances has occurred again and
again. I shall have occasion later to speak more fully of
the genesis of certain types of neurasthenia upon which
these studies seem to me to throw some light. Here I
would simply point out the quasi-experimental induction
of disintegration bj' emotion, and the consequences of the
same.^ It is now generally recognized that the patiiolog-
ical condition known as traumatic neurosis^ which so com-
monly follows railway accidents and in which every sort
of nervous phenomenon may be observed, including disin-

1 The occasion will be remembered when B I was found in a delirious
state and Sally played nurse and cared for her until she was taken to a private
hospital. (Chapter VII.)

2 The case of Marie M., reported by J. M. Boeteau, presented similar phe-
nomena. (Anuales Medico-Psychologique, January, 1892.)

460 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

tegrated personality, is a purely functional condition and
is brought about by the psychical and not the physical
shock[ That it is the emotion of fright which is the
genetic factor is not, I think, so clearly recognized. These
observations on Miss Beauchamp throw light on the pos-
sibilities of emotion in the induction of such disintegrated
conditions.

Another point which is of interest is the similarity of
Sally's experiment to that of M. Janet.

One of his subjects, Lucie, was thrown into catalepsy;
then M. Janet clenched her left hand (she began at once to
strike out), and put a pencil in her right hand, and said,
"Adrienne (Lucie 3) what are you doing?" The left
hand continued to strike, and the face to bear the look of
rage, while the right hand wrote, " I am furious." " With
whom?" "With F." "Why?" "I don't know, but I
am very angry." M. Janet then unclenched the subject's
left hand and put it gently to her lips. It began to blow
kisses, and the face smiled. "Adrienne, are you still
angry?" "No, that's over." "And now?" "Oh! I
am happy ! " " And Lucie ? " " She knows nothing, she
is asleep."^

M. Janet, like Sally, made use of the muscular sense to^
induce the corresponding emotion in a disintegrated per-
sonality, for Adrienne (or Lucie 3) was not the real self
any more than B IV or B IVa was. Just as in the
case of Lucie the muscular attitude of the hand aroused
the emotions of anger and pleasure, so we must conclude
the muscular expression of B IVa's face, induced by Sally,
aroused the emotion of fear. In each case the accompany-
ing actions were logical consequences.

Such experiments show the suggestibility of the mind
when disintegrated. They also bring out the great number
of dissociated states into which an unstable mind may be

1 From a Bummary by F. W. H. Myers (" Human Personality " ).

EMOTION AND DISINTEGRATION 461

broken up. These states may be called hypnotic states, if
preferred, but it must be plain that hypnosis is nothing
more than the dissociation of the personal consciousness,
and differs in no way from any state resulting from the
disaggregating process. It would be a great advantage if 1
the term ht/pnosis could be dropped, on account of its,
connotation, and dissociation, or some similar expression!
substituted.

It will be evident that we may now add another radical
to our ring, namely, B IV b, as a sort of side chain j B IV b
being merely a dissociated state of B IVa, that into which
she was thrown by Sally's trick.

(real self)

BI BIV

Bia BIV a BlVb

BII

^¥

CHAPTER XXIX

TYPES OP DISINTEGRATION : MENTAL STRAIN AS A CAUSE

THE relations of the personalities and the hypnotic
states to each other must be now sufficiently clear to
allow me to point out some additional facts which thus
far have been passed over in order not to confuse the
problem, though they had to be dealt with in this study.
The dissociated states thus far described were not the only
states met with. At various times, as a result of emotion-
ally disintegrating circumstances, a number of other states
were observed. The state in which B II awoke at the
time of the experiment to resurrect the original self was
a dissociated state, and might properly be attached in the
ring to B II, as B II a (p. 465). Likewise, B I was disso-
ciated into a state with very limited memory groups, hardly
knowing where she was or what she was. This might be
attached as Bib. Then, again, a state was observed
similar to or possibly identical with that described on
p. 506 when we had a state in which Miss Beauchamp
went back to a period antedating the hospital catastrophe
of 1893. The state of which I am speaking developed
spontaneously in the following way out of B IV a, and in
it the personality imagined that it was the year 1893, and
that she was still living in the hospital at Providence :

I had been engaged in an effort (through etherization and
suggestion) to convert B IV a, despite her resistance, into
B II. Becoming tired of the contest, I left her to herself
and went on with my work which had been interrupted.
Presently she arose, apparently wide-awake, as if she had
changed to one of her regular personalities. But the

MENTAL STRAIN AS A CAUSE 463

difference between her as she then appeared and one of
those personalities was puzzling. Her mood was strik-
ingly different from any of the others. She seemed light-
hearted and rather girlish, playing with the things in the
room and exhibiting a freedom as if she were quite at
home. When I remonstrated she answered that she should
do as she pleased, and should turn everything topsy-turvy
if she wanted to, straightway proceeding to do it with
some of the articles on the table, although rather in jest.
Her answers to my questions were so irrelevant that the
first thought was that one of the personalities, probably
Sally, was playing a part. It was some time before the
real fact was realized, namely, that this personality thought
the time was that when she was in the hospital at Provi-
dence, ten years before; she thought she was in that town;
mistook me for J. and conversed familiarly, asking all sorts
of questions about what I was doing, etc. She did not know
me or my name, for of course she had not heard it until
many years later; nor did she know Mrs. X., or many other
persons whose acquaintance she had made since. She spoke
by name of the doctors connected with the hospital, and of
herself as belonging to it; presently remarking that she
must go home (to the hospital), as she must be in by nine
o'clock, etc., etc. All her memories, however, were not
well associated or clearly defined, for she could not state
the name of the hospital or the name of the town. But in
some other respects her memories were quite clear.

Examination showed that she was in what seemed like
a somnambulistic condition, and that she was very suscept-
ible to suggestion, for it was easy to make her believe
that a medical percussion hammer was a rabbit or a dog;
that her hat, which she was putting on, was a pillow ; that
the door was locked, etc. Still she exhibited marked
spontaneity, and seemed a well-rounded pei-sonality.

One interesting phenomenon was her failure to recognize

464 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

an automobile. Her attention was attracted by the noise
of several automobiles in the street, and she exhibited a
lively interest in them. But she did not know what they
were, as of course in her Providence days there were none
in use in the neighborhood

She was easily hypnotized, in the sense that her eyelids
closed at a suggestion; then she suddenly changed to
B IV, who of course, had no memory of what had just
taken place. B IV shortly changed again, suddenly and
spontaneously, to this somnambulistic state. (The change
was plainly occasioned by the anxious thoughts which filled
her mind.) Later, I changed once more this somnambulist
to IV, who left the house. As I bade her good-by on
the front steps she turned and made a remark which was
characteristic of and belonged to the memories of the
somnambulistic person. It was evident, therefore, that
she had changed again. It was late at night, and, if she
was in the somnambulistic condition and imagined herself
in Providence, she would probably go wandering about in
search of the hospital. In imagination, I saw her, at the
end of her wanderings, the subject of the headlines of the
newspapers the next morning. Here, too, was a chance
not to be lost to test the bona fide character of the phe-
nomenon. I let her go, but after she had disappeared
in the darkness I followed on a bicycle, overtaking her
several blocks away. I kept well behind until it was
plainly evident that she was unaware of her whereabouts.
I then surprised her, and found that she was still in this
somnambulistic state. It took but a moment to hypnotize
her on the street and change her back to B II, who was
found to have a complete knowledge of herself as the
somnambulistic person. As II she gave a full account
of the matter, explaining that her memories were all
jumbled up (confirming what had been observed), and
attributing the whole to the great fatigue and strain under
which she was laboring.

MENTAL STRAIN AS A CAUSE 465

It is interesting to note that B II, a synthesis which
included B I a and B IV a, combined in herself the mem-
ories of this somnambulistic state, and recognized them
as a delirium. She did not regard this state as a differ-
ent person, as Sally would, but felt only that she herself
at that time was in a peculiar condition, just as one might
remember a dream or delirium.

This new state, which may be termed B IV c, if one
likes, developed as the consequence of great fatigue and
mental strain. It was temporary only, and ceased with
the cessation of the cause. This somnambulistic state is

analogous to one in the patient M 1, a Russian (already

several times referred to), who, in hypnosis, went back
five years in his life to a period when he was living in
Russia. He could then speak only the dialect of his
native town, having lost all knowledge of English, which
he spoke well when awake. ^

The states thus far enumerated are not all the different
states that were observed, one differing from another in
the groups of memories remaining synthesized in the per-
sonal consciousness. These states were ephemeral and
easily transformed into the major personalities.

We might here with propriety attach various side chains
to our ring. Thus :

Bb Real B B a

BIc ..BlVd

::B I Bill BIVCBIVc
Bib

Bla bV BlVa BlVb

I !

BII Blla

1 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, June 23, 1904.
SO

466 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

This attachment of these secondary states as side chains
to other disintegrated states is schematic and somewhat
arbitrary, as the relationship cannot always be demon-
strated. It would perhaps be more logical to attach them
to Real B as disintegrated descendants in a sort of genea-
logical tree. Thus:

RealB

BI Bill BIV Ba Bb Be Bd &c
Bia BV BlVa

The fact that B IV a could be still further disintegrated
into other states with altered memories became a matter
of more than psychological interest. It assumed practi-
cal importance, for under the mental strain that the family
w^as about this time undergoing, B IV a developed a ten-
dency to change into such a state and thus evolve another
personality with a new set of memories. It came about
under the following circumstances, which are not with-
out interest if we would understand the genesis of disin-
tegration. They show the influence of mental strain in
/ loosening the bonds of normal associations and thereby per-
mitting abnormal phenomena, including new syntheses.
We have already seen an example of the effect of this
influence in B IV c; about this time, January, 1901, I
had an opportunity to observe the creation of another type,
B IV d, as well as to witness a fine example of aboulia.
The mental strain grew partly out of the fact that not one
of the personalities was satisfied to do what the others
wanted, each being thrown into a state of mind which
became, if either of the other two was allowed to have

MENTAL STRAIN AS A CAUSE 467

her own way, resentment on the part of B IV, depression
and unhappiness on the part of B I, and boredom on the
part of Sally. Consequently, Sally and B IV were quar-
relling, while, as usual under such circumstances, B I
was made to believe that she was to be cast overboard
and left to drift by herself. She had written me letter
after letter without receiving an answer, and had tried
in vain to see me personally. Of course no letter had
reached my hands.

The following from IV, written at the beginning of the
trouble, ^ gives only a faint insight into the nervous strain
she was soon to labor under:

*'. . . I really meant all that I said on Wednesday — meant
it for a day and a night. Then Thursday I lost myself, recover-
ing to find that it was twelve-thirty, that I had not been to the
office, that I had neglected several other important things, and
that I had written out a minute analysis of an experience
which I would not have had any one know about for worlds.
Again I lost myself ; again recovered ; I was walking rapidly
through Marlborough Street (Where?); talking with some one
at the P. O. (Whom ?) ; fencing with one and another here at
home —

" Can you not understand how great the nervous strain
involved in keeping up with all these changes might be ? Can
you not understand how much I would have given then for
help? Thursday night I slept badly, lost all the first part of
Friday morning, and finally came to myself to find regard-
ing me most intently. He was talking. I knew that in a
minute — a second — he would require an answer. Who was
I? Sally or B I? And what on earth was he discussing?

" So it has been all through all the hours since Wednesday,
each change rendering me more nervous, more irritable, less
able to meet the demands made upon me. Forgive me for
writing you all this. I do it not to excuse my childishness, but

1 Wlien she was in a tractable mood, and agreed to co-operate, to submit
herself to experimentation, etc.

468 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

that you may perhaps better understand my attitude toward
you to-day. Do not consider that hour as isolated. Think of
it as having been affected by all that has happened since
Wednesday. If you knew all, I do think you would forgive
me. It is really the multitude of little happenings too trivial
for you to record, which very largely make me what I am, ' an
idiot.' "

Then again not only B IV had been harrowed by outside
influences about the publication of these studies, but even
the imperturbable Sally had been worked upon, and became
so disturbed at the consequences which were suggested
to her that even she showed a tendency to disintegration.
" Somebody " had again become a disturbing factor in the
case. B IV again rebelled against control and tried to
escape, while at the same time B II begged for help. My
patience was indeed tried by what seemed unnecessary
and uncalled-for interference by "Somebody." Danger
threatened, too, in another direction, for Sally had shown
an unaccountable anxiety to recover possession of the man-
uscript of her autobiography. "I want you to leave the
manuscript out for me," she wrote, "Please, every bit of
it. I'm terribly in earnest"

And again :

*'. . . All I care for is my precious manuscript, which I
beg you will return to me, only for twenty-four hours, then j'ou
may have it all again. I will be reasonable. I will indeed,
but it is hard to refrain from ' My daughter ! Oh my daughter ! '
And it's so much easier making promises and getting into
scrapes than fulfilling them and getting out again."

This incident might be passed by were it not that it not
only was mixed up with further outside interferences which
were the cause of mental strain to B IV, but it furnished
the motive, as may be seen from the above letters, for the
following manifestations of aboulia. It was an exhibition

MENTAL STRAIN AS A CAUSE 469

of as beautiful examples of this phenomenon as one could
wish to see. By this means Sally prevented B I and B IV
from handing over the pages of the manuscript which
were in their possession.

Sally, after finishing the pages of the manuscript that
were the task of the day, had hidden them in her dress,
with the intention of carrying them off surreptitiously.
While I was remonstrating with her she suddenly changed
to B I, who, hearing the last few words of the scolding
Sally was receiving, and thinking it was meant for herself,
earnestly expressed herself as perfectly willing to help in
every way in her power. As a test I asked her to give
me the autobiography which Sally had just hidden. At
once her whole manner changed ; her face took on a gloomy
and vacant expression, and she kept repeating, in a stereo-
typed way the words, "I don't want to give it to you, I
don't want you to have it." She was then hypnotized and
changed to B II, who began to assure me that she wished
to do anything I wished her to do; but there was some-
thing in her, she did not know what it was, that made her
use those expressions, "I don't want you to have it," etc.
It was the same thing that constantly made her say and do
things that she did not want to say or do. Later, after
several changes of personality, B IV appeared. The same
test was made with her as with B I to see if she could give
me the hidden autobiography. She expressed a strong de-
sire that I should have it; said that she was afraid to trust
herself with it at home, and wanted to give it to me, but
when I made the demand that she should hand it to me
she would not make more than a superficial effort to find
it. She tried in a half-hearted, hesitating, feeble way to
find it by feeling through her dress, but without success.
I assured her that the autobiography was hidden on her
person, and explained the situation, stimulating her ambi-
tion not to be beaten by Sally. She remonstrated warmly

470 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

against the interference of that personality, but when urged
to hand over the manuscript she was unable to make the
effort, and only gave excuses for not making a thorough
search. It was evident that something was preventing
her from exerting her will-power, as it had B I, but in a
somewhat different way, to obtain possession of the manu-
script. She was left alone in the room to make a thorough
search, but it was without avail. There was no doubt
that both B I and B IV desired to obtain the manuscript,
and to hand it over, but they could not will to hunt for it.
Later, Sally, in a penitent mood, explained how she pro-
duced this aboulia. She had not directly willed that IV
and B I should not search for the manuscript, but she had
" wanted " them not to do so. Her subconscious thoughts
and feelings had involuntarily affected the primaiy con-
sciousness. The words that B I spoke were, of course,
"automatic speech," and were uttered by Sally.

Under the wear and tear of all this mental strain both
B IV and B I got into a highly unstable condition, and
an opportunity was soon offered of observing further
disintegration.

Before describing what occurred it may not be with-
out interest to recall the case of Marie M., reported by
Dr. J. M. Boeteau, and mentioned in the footnote to page
459. The similarity of the phenomena manifested by
Marie M. with those which now developed in B IV is
instructive.

This young woman, Marie M., was greatly shocked by
being told that she must undergo a surgical operation.
Still under the influence of this nervous shock she left the
hospital of Andral in Paris at 10 o'clock in the morning,
but remembered nothing more until she awoke three days
later to find herself in another hospital in the same city.
She had been found, on the evening of the day on which
she left the hospital, wandering around the streets of

MENTAL STRAIN AS A CAUSE 471

Paris in a condition of maniacal excitement, with hag-
gard aspect, worn-out boots, and lacerated feet. It tran-
spired that under the influence of a delusion in regard to
her baby, which she imagined was being kept from her,
she had walked to Chaville, then on to Versailles, and
back to Paris. On coming to herself she had absolutely
no recollection of these three days. On being hyjmotized
by M. Boeteau, she passed into a state in which she
remembered the events of this period, including both her
wanderings and her delusions, which were at first con-
nected with her baby, but later included spectral surgeons
who endeavored to perform operations upon her.

The noteworthy points in this case are the condition of
mental disintegration into which this young woman was
thrown by a powerful emotion and the recollection of the
disordered mentation by the hypnotic self.

So, in the case of the state into which B IV changed,
both Sally and B II could recall afterwards the wanderings
and the delirium of the disintegrated personality, but there
was this difference : II recalled the delirium as her oivn^
while Sally recalled it as that of another person, for she
remembered also the true perceptions and cognition of
the environment which she believed to be her own. The
thing happened in this wise :

One day after vainly attempting to change B IV a into
BUI left the former half asleep, so to speak, think-
ing she would wake up spontaneously as B I or IV. But
two hours later I found awaiting my return neither of
those personalities, but another, who, though she knew
me, did not seem to know herself. She could not tell
who she was or where she lived. Her eyes were open,
and she was docile and willing to follow directions. VVliile
I was engaged in telephoning she left the house before it
was possible to stop her. In the evening the following
note from Sally arrived :

472 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

"Won't you please come or send Dicky to-night? I can't
do anything myself and am so afraid she 'II go wandering off
again. She 's been out all the afternoon. I think you did n't
quite wake her up, or something. Please help.

" Sally.

*' I don't know what to do alone. Anna is n't any good when
things are serious, for they dislike her too much."

Sally I found in bed, at last anxious and disturbed over
the condition into which she had helped to bring the
family. It appeared that after leaving my ofRce this
" New " person had taken a street-car to Cambridge. It
was midwinter and a blizzard had been raging all the
afternoon, and in this blizzard " she " had walked about
in a semi-delirious way for several miles. " She " had be-
come wet and cold and had had several chills alternating
with hot flushes. Sally was plainly alarmed for fear " she,"
the "new one," was going to be ill, though Sally herself
felt perfectly well. Sally was afraid " she " would go out
of the house again in the blizzard, as " she " had already
made several attempts to do. So finding herself unable to
influence her, or even to come herself of her own accord,
Sally had circumvented her by taking off her own clothes,
hiding them, and popping into bed. When the "new
one," with whom Sally had been spontaneously alternat-
ing, found herself without clothes she plainly had to
remain.

This state might be called B IV d, or, if it is preferred,
Ba (a disintegrated part of the real self). Sally, peni-
tent, helped to bring IV, who, after a good night's sleep
awoke, feeling banged and battered and bruised, but no
longer desirous of getting away from control.

[Letter from Sally, penitent :] — "I'm coming up to-morrow
morning instead of in the afternoon. I 'd rather, and I know
you won't care. It was n't wholly because of that

MENTAL STRAIN AS A CAUSE 473

rV went wandering, and she did n't confine her wandering to
Cambridge. Did you write it down so? I was afraid to tell
you all about it — afraid you'd scold me, but I'd rather be
scolded, I think, than have you look as sorry and troubled as
you did to-day. . . . And I think understanding things per-
fectly, even though they may be very bad, is better than being
puzzled and in the dark. Only it 's hard telling you, for if
other people are concerned they are n't willing to have me.
And I myself am not very willing, for I know I do a great many
things that you would not approve and I do not like to tell
about them afterward. B I has been writing you this evening
about a dozen letters, but as none of them are finished I know
you won't want them. She 's awfully distressed and fancies
that you are trying to get rid of her and wants to go and dares
not. From her thoughts she is mixed up with IV in a curious
way. . . .

' ' Tuesday. Please save this for me."

But the effects of the mental strain were not over yet.
A day or two later another opportunity was afforded to
study this new person into whom B IV a had changed on
opening her eyes. She proved to be quite a distinct per-
sonality, so much so that I was disposed to name her
B VII. Her mental life was extremely contracted, being
limited practically to the experiences which she had
already had during the few times that she had been in
existence.

She had no memory of the lives of B I, B II, B IV or
Sally. She could not tell me a single thing that any one
of them had done or said, but she recalled her own doings;
for instance, those on the day she went to Cambridge in
the blizzard. She knew me, in a limited way. Her mode
of speech, attitude, and manner were individual and
characteristic. She was plainly a disintegrated field of
consciousness. But it is highly probable that if her
experiences had been frequently multiplied we could have
obtained a personality quite as individual as IV. But

474 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

this, of course, was discouraged and every effort made to
prevent her development. In this, fortunately, I was suc-
cessful, and her experiences after this were very few and
short-lived.

Psychologically, all these states are interesting, for as
spontaneous phenomena they bear out the experiments of
Gurney (already alluded to), who was the first to show
■ thaJLthere is no definite particular hypnotic self for each
_JiQdiyi^ual, but that a sensitive subject may be successively
thrown into a series of " states, " each with its own sepa-
i-ate groups of memories. He thus obtained three dis-
tinct states in the same subject. Mrs. Sedgwick and
Miss Thompson afterwards obtained eight. ^

Such states represent minor or undeveloped forms of
personalities. They depend on the one hand upon the
dissociation of the normal personal consciousness by which
certain memories and perceptions are lost, and on the
other, on a rearrangement or new synthesis of the psychi-
cal factors (memories, moods, etc.) which make up per-
sonality. The new synthesis may have a very limited field
of consciousness, differing from the original personality
rather by what it has lost than by what it has gained. It
may have very little spontaneity and power to originate
action, and so far as its memories and mental reactions
persist they may show little variation from the pereonality
out of which it has been formed. Such a synthesis is con-
veniently spoken of as a "s^a^e," whether so-called "hyp-
notic" or not.

When the new synthesis is complex and embraces a

^ Since this study was written Dr. Albert Wilson has reported a case ex-
hibiting ten personalities besides the normal self. Each abnormal personal-
ity exhibited a very much di.siiitegrated mind,'with limited faculties. (S. P. R.
Proceedings, Oct., 1904). The various .sub-states obtained in Miss Bean-
champ's case correspond very well with tliose of Dr. Wilson's case, and if
I had allowed them to remain and develop we might have had as many
personalities, but with similarly restricted fields of conscionsness.

MENTAL STRAIN AS A CAUSE 475

wide field of consciousness, we have what to all intents
and purposes is a complete personality. It may have its
own groups of memories, with amnesia for the original
personal synthesis, and its own peculiar reactions to the
environment (moods), thus differing in memory and moods
from the original self. It is conveniently termed a second
or third personality.

Theoretically, a normal personal consciousness may be
disintegrated in all sorts of ways, so that any group of
memories, and even functions and faculties, may be lost;
and all sorts of combinations of memories, functions, and
faculties may be formed. Practically, we find that what
is theoretically possible actually takes place, and thus it
happened that in the case of ]\Iiss Beauchamp, new per-
sonalities or new hypnotic states could be formed out of
each of the others.

The difference between the psychological relations of
Sally and those of B I and B IV to these disintegrated
states should not be overlooked. The two latter had no
knowledge of B IV d, for instance, while Sally not only
knew all about her but, as a sane personalit}'^ alternated
with this delirious one. Everything indicated too that
true perceptions and recognition of the environment did
occur, as dissociated states, coincidently with and sub-
consciously to the delirium, for Sally remembered them
and believed at least that they were her own.

CHAPTER XXX

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES

THE spring of 1901 will live in the annals of the Beau-
champ family as a critical period for its peace and
happiness. It saw a feud which was intended to be a life
or death struggle, a fight to a finish, between IV and Sally.
One or the other, so the manifesto issued by the former
read, must be mistress; or rather, "Carthage must be
destroyed." Sally must go. The clouds had been gather-
ing for some time, as far back as February. IV had
issued another ultimatum and a threatening letter which
IV planned to send to Anna, to get rid of that person's
interference. Sally happened to have a fit of penitence,
as far as I was concerned, and so I was treated to the
following epistle:

" Shall I write about Miss K. and Anna and all the things that
occurred when C. first came to Boston ? ^ B IV does n't know
about them yet and I 'm sure will deny the truth of whatever I
may say, for she likes Miss K., and is entirely mistaken about
the way in which Anna came into her life. She has false im-
pressions about so many things ! and is so conceited and so
stuffy that she will accept neither correction nor suggestion
from me. She is willing enough to snatch at the faintest hint
from other people, and to infer from every such hint that she,
as B I, has said and done certain things. She is an idiot, and
this I know positively since I have known her thoughts.

" Shall I ignore all this and go on as if she were in posses-
sion of the real facts? I don't wish to if it is going to make
her angry and lead her to form more schemes for squeezing me.
I'm sufficiently squeezed now, thanks to her abominable temper.

* For the Autobiography.

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 477

"Don't let her send any such letters as the enclosed to Anna.
She is going to submit whatever she writes to your inspection,
and you can cinticise it then. [B] I wouldn't like it, really^ for
she 's never rude to people and she does n't dislike Anna half

as intensely as IV does, and she does n't wish to hurt .

"Very, very sincerely,

"S. B.

" Why may I not write you now? You said long ago I
might write every day if I chose, and even that you wished me
to do so. Is it different now? Are you too tired to read
letters? You aren't old yet. Perhaps I will go to Dicky if
it 's better. I would rather go than have you always tired and
troubled.

"S. B."

The protocol of B IV*s ultimatum to Sally [Feb., 1901]
ran as follows :

" No communication whatever with J. or Anna.

" No interference with mail.

" No letters to Dr. Prince or to myself ; except, in the case
of myself, when they may be absolutely necessary to give
information.

" No more snakes, toads, spiders, and such absurdities.

" No more hallucinations, whether of sight, touch, or hear-
ing.

" No more nonsense concerning Dr. Prince.

" Also she must not receive or spend any money beyond a
fixed weekly allowance which I shall give her — she to keep
it separately and spend it as she may choose.

" She must not destroy any of my notes or interfere in any
way with the work I may choose to do.

"She must finish the autobiography immediately, confining
herself as far as possible to personal experience, and leaving
out all that concerns other people.

" She must allow me to choose my own friends, and to
determine for myself wliat I shall eat, drink, and wear, as well
as where I shall stay."

478 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

If Sally did not accept and abide by the terms of thia
protocol then B IV was to resort to extreme measures, —
an asylum if need be. One great grievance of which IV
complained was Sally's choice of friends. These people
were very objectionable to her. "I must be allowed to
choose my own friends," she insisted. How could she if
Sally was free to hob-nob with anybody ? On waking up
(that is, coming to herself) she found herself constantly
and unexpectedly in friendly relations with people whose
personality was distasteful, and in situations where she was
obliged to play parts foreign to her own character. For
instance, there was some friend of somebody's — to be sure
she did not know positively whether of Sally or B I (but
presumably of Sally) — named Miss Lamartine, a French
woman, whom she seemed to see very frequently. This
woman's personality and foreign point of view were dis-
tasteful to IV. Then there were two art students, girls,
whom she knew very slightly, but with whom Sally was on
intimate terms. She disliked their attitude towards her.
They expected her to be always amusing, in high spirits,
gay, and frivolous, — ways which were not natural to her
own disposition. She could not play that part, and when
she came to herself and found herself talking with them,
they, seeing the sudden transformation in her manner, of
course thought her moody, strange, and changeable. They
treated her as one much younger than themselves, whereaa
she is really older.

Then, equally uncomfortable were the occasions when
others, like the Rev. Mr. C, who knew her only as Miss
Beauchamp, spoke to her and treated her as morbidly
conscientious and unhappy; whereas, she, B IV, is not
so at all, and finds it difficult to live up to any such
lofty part. In fact, she can not attain to the high ideals
of Miss Beauchamp. She finds it as difficult to live up to
the standard of this other self as to come down to the

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 479

standard of Sally. Then Miss Beauchamp's friends bored
her as much as Sally's offended her. B I had a lot of old
lady friends whom she liked to visit and to whom she was
very kind. They were " awfully stupid, and bored " B IV.
To wake up and find youi'self obliged to be pleasant and
friendly to such people is a terrible trial, she complained.
And so it went on.

I listened to B IV's tale of woe as she unburdened her-
self and earnestly insisted on something being done, but it
was easier to threaten and insist than to do. Sally in turn
told her side of the story — all penitence now gone in a
I twinkling — and defiantly proclaimed what she was going
to do. As to her friends, they were great fun. She was
going, too, to have an allowance to spend as she pleased ;
whether or not IV paid her bills was no concern of hers.
They were not her bills, but IV's, and she had no respon-
sibility for them. One thing she was going to do and that
was to spend all the money she pleased.

The war clouds were gathering thick and fast. Letters
of complaint poured in upon me. It was difficult to under-
stand the meaning of many of them, for they referred to
fictitious stories which Sally invented, often at my expense,
to annoy both IV and B I.

"If you really," IV wrote, " have such power over Sally as
you claim, I think it positively wicked of you not to make a
different and better use of it. You know so well the utter
worthlessness of all her promises, yet in exacting fresh ones
you seem to think you have done all that is necessary in order
that I may ' go in peace.' It is not so. Weeks and weeks ago
I begged that you would help me about certain things. Yes, yon
would ; you would see Sally at once. You saw her, explained,
received her promise, and — things went exactly as the}' had
gone before. I waited — a long time it seemed. Then I
appealed to you again. Again your promise ; again Sally's ;
and again — nothing. This is the last time. I shall not ask
you again, but for this once let there be perfect frankness

480 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

between us. If it is my attitude towards you that renders you
unwilling to help me, tell me so. If it is something else, lack
of comprehension, or real inability, or weariness, I would know,
I must know."

B I also became troubled by Sally's inventions, as indi-
cated by the following letter. The contrast between the
two letters is psychologically interesting.

" I saw you for so brief a moment at the last that I cannot
be sure ' all is well.' This latest phase of Sally's development
troubles me exceedingly. It must come from something J. or
Anna has said to her, for she has been loyal enough hitherto.
And if it is from them and is accepted so credulously, is there
not danger of her repeating it? Who can say ! It would kill
me, or worse. The very thought makes me suffer. Do what
you can to curb her unruly tongue. It is all so mysterious, so
puzzling, that I dare not make any suggestion. I leave it all
to you, asking only your forgiveness for the past, your faith
for the days to come. I shall need it !

" Pardon! I cannot rewrite, although Sally has spoiled this.
It is very late."

As would be expected, all this harrowing brought on
the old nervous symptoms, and then Sally, at last helpless
and brought to her knees, wrote for assistance.

" Will you come some time to-day if you can? Give IV the
enclosed note without any explanation if she 's inclined to be
nasty about answering questions. If she is n't and does what
you tell her, please destroy it here and put it in my basket, —
because I want you to. She will do anything you say without
reservation then. Please come.

" I can't dress or I would come to you. I will be good.

" They are sick, that is why I want you."

B IV's dread of being in the streets at night still further
worked upon her nerves. To be out at such times scared
her blue, while, curiously enough, neither B I nor Sally

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONAILTIES 481

had the slightest fear. This gave Sally a chance which
she could not resist taking advantage of. So it happened
that night after night IV would suddenly awaken to find
herself alone in the streets of the city. Terrified, she
would hurry home as fast as her feet could carry her.

" I am too nervous and excited," she wrote, after returning
from a nightly peregrination, " to attempt to write you at any
length to-night ([interlineation by Sally] ' Nobody asked you,
Sir, she said.') This going out in the evening, however coolly
B I and Sally may take it, does not agree with me in the least.
I have never been accustomed to it and never shall be.

" I want to tell you that there is no reason why I should not
be perfectly frank with you now. That I still evade and shrink
from answering your questions must be due in some way to
Sally's influence. I want to tell you."

[P. S. by Sally] " I waited and she did not come, called and
she did not answer. Amen. S. B."

[From IV, in reference to Sally's taking a forbidden
book :]

*' I have every reason to believe that you are mistaken in
trusting Sally. You cannot touch her by appealing to her
honor. Do remember this. She is worse than a child, since
she is able to masquerade as B I and so obtain credence for
anything she may choose to say. In haste, but

" Very sincerely,"

Affairs finally reached a climax and IV's resolution was
taken. She would kill Sally. Her other self was no
longer to be treated as a rational person. It was nothing
but a "delirium," and as such must be suppressed. I
was entirely wrong, she was convinced, in my dealings with
Sally, whose claims for recognition should receive no con-
sideration whatsoever. IV was now to show us how to
manage her case. She laid her plans with great care.
First, she wrote letters to Dr. Hodgson and myself announc-

482 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

ing her plan and notifying us of her wish that we should
not interfere. She herself under no circumstances would
come to us for help. Here is the letter I received :

"I shall never recognize 'Sally' as anything but mental
delirium, nor treat it with any more consideration in the future
than I have in the past — with less, for I propose killing it, and
I do not wish either you or Dr. Hodgson to interfere. You
must let me quite alone, and send me away if, as ' Sally,* I
appeal to you. As B I there will be no trouble. I am sure
you will help me to help myself.

" Do not answer this, please. I begin treatment at once."

The next thing was to head off Miss Beauchamp and
prevent her upsetting the scheme by appealing for aid, as
she was sure to do when the fight began. To this end she
wrote B I a letter, using such arguments as she thought
would appeal to her. She argued that I was entirely
wrong in my views and treatment, that Sally was a deli-
rium and could be cured by a different method. She then
explained her plan, asked B I 's aid, and gave her direc-
tions for the part she was to play. After this she felt
satisfied there was nothing to fear from B I. A letter was
then despatched to Sally. Its temper was very different
from that to B I. Appeals to Sally's reason, she later
explained to me, would have no effect. So she sent a
message that was to make her arch enemy tremble. Freely
translated, it meant that if Sally did not at once surrender
and give up all her habits, ways, tricks, and annoyances,
and pack herself oil for good, bag and baggage, she, B IV,
would consign her to everlasting oblivion.

For myself, 1 thought it would be interesting to let IV
have her way and to watch the fight. Hostilities opened
at once. Sally took the announcement contained in the
letters as a declaration of war, and evidently believed in
the military maxim of striking the enemy quickly before

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 483

he has time to arm. B IV had left the note, intended for
me, in person at ray door.

On her return, immediately upon entering her own room
; she found it draped in black. The only white object to be
seen was a small plaster cast of a devil known as " Teddy."
Teddy now grinned at her from his perch above the window,
white and conspicuous against the black funereal back-
ground. Artistically suspended to Teddy's ear was a
three-cornered paper pouch cunningly made. The pouch
excited IV's curiosity; she must see what it contained.
The moment she touched it a deluge of tiny pieces of paper
fell to the ground. A note addressed to her from Sally
now became visible. She opened it eagerly. Had Sally
dared to defy her ? If IV had had any doubts the note
dispelled them, for it informed her that what she so boldly
had insisted was only a "delirium" had already^ seized
and confiscated all the papers it could lay hands on, which
meant all that she possessed, including many valuable
pages of notes of lectures difficult, if not impossible, to
replace. These were torn into httle bits and now littered
the floor. Next she found that the family purse had
vanished.

The black drapery of the room, she was able to convince
herself, was a hallucination, Sally's handiwork, and, with
everything else, was to be ignored if Sally was to be crushed.
So, resolutely disregarding everything that had happened,
she began to change her clothes to go out again. What
now happened I shall let her tell substantially in her own
words:

" While I was brushing my hair a sensation of great fatigue
came over me, the effect of the exciting day I liad just passed
through. I finished, however, and then as I sat in my chair,

^ There was a brief interval after writing the letters aud before leaving
the house to deliver mine, daring which Sally bad come and seized the papers.

484 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

I stooped to change my slippers when, with a sudden shock of
horror, I saw directly facing me at the opposite side of my
room my own feet. They were white and shining against the
black background. I fell back in my chair overcome.

" At once I was conscious of pain in my legs below the knees
and of a feeling that my feet were gone. I felt for the moment
certain that this was the fact, for I had no sensation below the
seat of the pain. My legs seemed to end in stumps and I in-
stinctively leaned forward to protect them with my hands,
keeping my eyes fixed upon the feet opposite to me. But the
next moment I realized that this too was but another device
of Sally's, intended to prevent my going out. I told myself
this over and over again. ' It is only Sally,' I said. ' It is
only Sally ' ; yet I could not move or take my eyes from those
feet. I had an agonizing desire to touch them and convince
myself they were not real. But this seemed impossible. They
were at the farther end of the room and I was alone. Then a
great fear surged up within me. Sally had always treated my
body as if it were not even remotely connected with herself,
cutting, scratching, and bruising it in a way so shocking that
it is hard to believe. Could she now have gone farther and
really have done this? It did not seem impossible.

"I was in the greatest pain and could feel nothing below
my knees. Finally, making a great effort, I threw myself on
the floor and dragged my body across the room. I brought
myself near enough to touch the feet ; — they were bloody. I
had only to stretch out my hand, but my courage failed, they
were so ghastly. I waited ; it seemed hours ; I could only look
at them. Then, making a supreme effort to touch, ever so
lightly, the nearer one, I found my fingers stained with blood,
and — fainted, or changed, I do not know which."

The nights were made hideous for IV. To allow her
to sleep was to give her a chance to renew her strength
and courage. So Sally kept her awake the greater part of
the night. Sometimes IV no sooner would get to bed than
Sally, " coming," would rise, throw the bedding on the
floor, pile heaps of furniture on the bed, and turn ^ the

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 485

room generally upside down. When satisfied that every-
thing was sufficiently uncomfortable she would change
herself back to IV again. This would be repeated as often
as IV got into bed. Every day she would spring some new
impish invention upon her opponent. It would carry us
too far to narrate them all here. Dressing was a burden,
for every article of dress was hidden or damaged ; meals
repulsive, for she saw all sorts of unpleasant things in her
food, and every movement painful, for she was bruised
from head to foot. But IV was game. I saw her from
time to time, but though exhausted from want of sleep she
was still defiant and wanted no help. She was determined
to conquer Sally. So I looked on without interfering, and
watched the battle from afar. I knew that Sally would
eventually down her.

The nightly visitations of Sally now took a different|
form. One night IV awoke to find herself perched upon\
a shaky structure composed of a couch, two chairs, and a \
dress-suit case. She was stark naked, and in an attitude
as if posing for a statue. Her limbs fixed, as if by some
occult power, unable to move hand or foot, she was entirely
helpless save for the power of speech which would ill have
served her under the circumstances. She could not call
for help, for what a spectacle she presented ! Another
night, if it was very cold, an exposed position in the deep
window-seat was selected as her niche ; while the next
night, if the pose was a reclining one, the hard surface of the
top of the commode, measuring three feet by two, offered
a sufficiently comfortable and commodious couch. In this
position she was kept posing an hour at a time, " until,"
she wrote, "I would lose myself from anger, cold, and
fatigue."

At firat IV thought that Sally's intention in all this pos-
ing was simply to tire her out, but presently the real
meaning flashed upon her. It was a punishment for her

486 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSON ALITr

sins She had been reading a certain book on art which
had interested her deeply. There was no harm in that, —
how could there be, for a clergyman had loaned it to her ?
But the book was highly objectionable both to B I and
Sally. They had even appealed to me to forbid it. Now
it was as plain as day that the attitudes she was made to
assume were reproductions of the illustrations in the book.
She recalled each one to her mind and, sure enough, her
poses were those of the illustrations. She was doing the
" living statue " act. " Sally doubtless thought," she said,
" my conscience would enlighten me — and it has."

Again the attack changed. Hallucinations beset her on
every hand. She saw herself surrounded with black, mov-
ing draperies. As she walked the streets, an endless pro-
cession of black-robed figures accompanied her, some with
familiar faces, but most with countenances that changed
horribly from moment to moment. Then, again, tlie hallu-
cination involved her own body. She felt that her right
hand had been lost, and consequently she was forced to use
her left hand for everything. With this hand alone slie
was obliged to sew, to write, to lift, to bathe, to dress.
The tiresomeness of it all oppressed her. Still there was no
thought of giving in.

The climax was reached when Sally took to actual phys-
ical torture. One day IV showed me her arms. There
were numerous and ugly scratches extending the whole
length, evidently made with some sharp-pointed instru-
ment. After scratching the flesh, Sally had bathed the
scratches in alcohol and made them sting, saying it was
good treatment ; then she rubbed lemon juice in and said
that was good treatment too. Poor IV was so sore she
could not bear to have heT arms or body touched. She
was nervously worn and haggard from want of sleep, as
well as from the mental strain to which she had been continu-
ously subjected. The war had been going on now, for

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 487

about two weeks, and she was so exhausted that Sally
found it easy to play upon her mind as she would.

The worst of it was that B I suffered equally, though
she was ignorant of the cause ; the physical exhaustion of
the one was shared by the other. It was surely time to
interfere if I was not to have an invalid on ray hands. I
pointed out to IV the uselessness of it all, the wrongness
of her own ideas, and the futility of her attempt to cure her
"delirium," if such she chose to call it, by the methods she
had adopted. She finally assented and yielded submis-
sion. There remained Sally to be dealt with. Piesently
the opportunity arrived. Sally was captured by surprise,
though she tried to escape by pretending she was IV.
I upbraided her for her behavior, telling her that all this
ill-treatment of IV must stop, and that if she did not mend
her conduct, I would close her eyes and ears for good, and
put her to sleep forever with ether, and she never could
come again. I talked long and earnestly on the condition
of affairs. She was much impressed by the threat and her
face fell, taking on an expression of depression jind sad-
ness. I told her she had better consider it well and make
her choice, — either behave or go for good, and then left
her alone in the room to think it over. On my return she
had gone, but this note was awaiting me :

" I h.ive thought it all over and decided that you may ether-
ize me and close my eyes again. I will come and let you do it
to-morrow — but please do not talk.

''C. L. B."

She was ready to commit suicide, to give up all the fun,
the frolics, the sunshine of life, but her sorrow should be
her own. It must not be talked about ; that she could not
bear.

But Sally was not ready the next day to depart this life.
There was more for her to do before taking the final step.

488 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

People, before they died, wrote their " last will and testa-
ment," she explained, so she must write hers. It must
have been a curious document. I never saw it, but I
heard about it from IV, who was puzzled by what she read,
not knowing what it all meant. Probably some freak of
Sally's she thought ; but Sally was in earnest. Then Sally
wrote a number of letters stating her opinion about people.
These and various other papers, the last pages of the
" auto," letters from her friends which she treasured, little
keepsakes and presents given her from time to time for her
own, not to B I or IV, — all these she gathered together and
put into a box. Then going far out into the country, in a
secret place in a wood, she buried her box of treasures,
that no eye might look upon them when she was gone.^

All this had to be done before Sally could " return to
where she came from," and so it was that the next day she
was not ready. I saw her by accident. Sad and serious, all
her playfulness gone, she was like a person about to de-
part this life, who was saying good-by to her friends.
At last she realized that the world was not what she
thought it; her doll was full of sawdust. She could
not do as she pleased and what fun was there for her?
Everybody seemed to be against her. B IV was a horrid
person. She did not like her; she did not like anybody
but herself. As for me, I did not think or talk the same
as she did. Things did not mean the same to each of us.
People said she was a child and treated her like a child,
and not as they did B I and B IV. She received nothing
but scoldings. She used to like me, but I, too, said she
was only an infant. She did not understand what other
people meant and they did not understand her. Then
Sally expressed some curious ideas about the relation of

1 In later days this bnried box of letters was a source of great anxiety to
IV, wlio feared that some one might accidentally come across it — and what
might it not reveal !

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 489

herself to her body. She insisted that her body did not
belong to her, nor was it a part of her ^ any more than her
clothes were. She simply used it but did not feel as if it
belonged to her. Following up this idea, I plied her with
questions, in answer to which she went into a long expla-
nation, the substance of which was that she felt that she
was just thought, without a body, and she seemed to have
the idea that she could be independent of her body, if she
wished to be, although she was not an " astral " body.
She did not believe in " that kind of stuff."

There was a pathos in her child troubles that compelled
one's sympathy in spite of everything. But much as
Sally with her gayety and merriness would be missed, she
could not be considered. " Carthage must be destroyed."
Sally must die that Miss Beauchamp might live. At last
dawn seemed to be breaking. Would Sally keep her reso-
lution to go back to where she came from, or would she for-
get everything at the first temptation thrown in her path ?
A child's tears are quickly turned to laughter, and I knew
it was unsafe to build too high hopes on Sally's new reso-
lution ; it could hardly be called reform. Still it was an
opportunity not to be lost, if the family was to be restored
to its original unity. Etherized Sally should be. Yet, if
she disappeared for good, there would still remain two per-
sonalities. To combine them into one person required the
consent of IV. Would she give it, now that she had seen
the uselessness of struggling against fate, — I would rather
say against psychical laws. Any hopes I had formed on
this score were soon dispelled. Relieved from the attacks
of Sally, IV was free to turn her guns upon her other enemy,
or, if enemy is too strong a word, upon the one person,
myself, who crossed her path and thwarted her desires.

The feud had left her exhausted, neurasthenic, psychi-

1 It will be remembered that Sally had a peculiar form of anesthesia, which
probably explains this idea.

490 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

cally disintegrated. It had always happened that when
exhausted her ideas tended to become " insistent " or
" fixed," and she herself became their victim. Governed
by them she became rebellious, and when rebellious she
would yield to no dictation, advice, or control. It cannot
be disguised either that when disintegrated by exhaustion
her temper, never at any time the best, became uncon-
trollable. The slightest provocation lashed it into fury.
Sometimes, as a mere matter of experiment in the study of
character and to demonstrate to others the differences be-
tween B I and IV, I would purposely arouse this temper.
I had simply to assert an authority, when, in a flash, she
would be boiling internally with rage, though externally
she might endeavor to hide it. So, now that Sally had re-
treated, the objective of the war was simply transferred to
me as the point of attack ; hostilities did not cease. To
repair the havoc which Sally had made, I sought once
more to combine the personalities into one, to give to each
the memories of the other. But again the old fixed ideas
began to surge within IV and to control her. Ignorant of
the seven years from 1893 to 1899, when B I alone ^ was in
existence, she sought to break from us, her new friends,
and to return to the old associations which Miss Beauchamp
had severed forever.

Then again she saw herself, as in the earlier experiments,
dominated by my influence. She felt herself when re-
associated rejoicing in her mental attitude towards her
new friends. The thought maddened her. " Not like B I,
not like B 1 1 Never ! " she declared. She would leave us all,
rather, and return to her old life.

The thought became an obsession. So it was that, with
Sally's surrender, hostilities did not cease, but were simply
transferred to another objective, to any of her latter-day
friends who opposed her, and particularly to myself. Of

1 Excepting, of course, that Sally was present during 1898-1899.

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 491

course all this, looked at from a psychological point of
view, was nothing but the expression of the disintegration,
the psychical havoc raised by Sally — a phenomenon of
dissociation. From the standpoint of the physician, the
only thing to do was to integrate again the dissociated
psychical elements. The logical way to do this was to
integrate B I and B IV into a single personality and make
them whole. I succeeded again in doing this so far as to
restore to B I, as the fundamental personality, the mem-
ories of B IV, as I had often previously done. The result
was in one way fortunate and in another unfortunate.
The unfortunate part was that it " squeezed " Sally, and
she was unable, as she intended, to transform IV or I into
herself and thus keep her engagement to be etherized her-
self. She remained helpless, out of sight, though IV was
under observation. More fortunate was the other effect,
that the modified B I, now conscious of IV's attitude of
mind, was able to lay bare the kitter's thoughts.

On April 16, 1901, after a contest with IV in which I
came out best, I received a letter from the New /, who was
anxious to apologize for her attitude as IV and to explain
for my benefit the motives which were actuating the
latter. I cannot print the letter in full because it refers to
others and to private matters. It was an appeal for help
against herself. After explaining and apologizing for IV's
attitude, she points out that IV's desire to return to her
old life "comes largely from ignorance ; that, and a curi-
ous fancy that anything beyond the most formal expression
of gratitude is disloyal to others."

"... I cannot bear to have my ignorance even hinted at.
Forgive me! I tell you this only that you may understand
better, not that you may refrain from probing me. I want
you to do that, to help me, to keep me from going back.
I have the strongest desire as IV to do so. . . . Sooner or
later I shall give in to this, and then, — oh, Dr. Prince, what

492 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

then? I dare not think what fresh complications maj' arise,
complications in which even you cannot help me, inasmuch as
it is impossible to tell you of them. IV does not understand or
realize the significance of these last letters. She is troubled
by them only vaguely, as I would have been years ago. Do
help her, or help me. Forget my weakness. If I could only
see you, perhaps you might understand better.^ If I do not,
won't you show me this letter as IV and force me to be frank
with you? You are the only one who can help now. . . .
Stay with me."

Enclosed with this letter was the following from Sally :

" Please close my eyes again, Dr. Prince, with the ether. I
thought you would do it to-day, but I could n't come. I 'm not
jealous now. This is all that [B] I wrote. IV wrote you too,
but afterwards she tore the letter up. I have n't touched any-
thing, and I just want my eyes closed. I 'm all squeezed."

If I was to help Miss Beauchamp, IV must be controlled
against her will by suggestion. To do this it was essential
to change her into B II. But she could not be carried in
hypnosis beyond B IV a against her will. For this her will-
power must be broken. She had resolutely prepared herself
for the struggle by giving herself auto-suggestions against
mine. Over and over again in the intervals of my seeing
her she repeated to herself the old formulas, such as, " I shall
not change," " Nothing can influence me," " I shall stay my-
self," " I shall tell nothing," " My will is the stronger," etc.
As has been explained such suggestions affected B IV a so
that she could not be changed to B II. I thought of B I's
pathetic appeal, and disagreeable as was the task, deter-
mined to do the job thoroughly.

The day following the receipt of the above lettera I sent
for her. As she entered the room a single glance was

1 B I had written me numerous letters, hut all had been destroyed by IV
or Sally. This was from the New B I with IV's memories.

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 493

sufficient to detect hostility and rebellion in every feature
and gesture. Her greeting was characteristic. She was
there. What did I want ? I replied, to help her and make
her well. She wanted no help, she could take care of her-
self. If that was all she would go. Hereupon I tried the
effect of (New) B I's letter and read it to her as requested.
If the new B I thought this would have a mollifying influ-
ence she did not know her other self ! Instead of becoming
pacified, she grew furious. As words were futile, I pro-
ceeded at once to hypnotize her. A struggle ensued which
was the most disagreeable I had yet encountered. I was
tempted to let her go her own way, but thought of Miss
Beauchamp's prayer for help. It was a battle of wills.
She fought mentally and physically. She shrank from me
and ran to the farther end of the room, endeavoring with
averted face to avoid my eye. She tried to escape the
grasp of my hand on her wrist, feeling, as she did, the in-
tensification of the hypnotic influence by the physical touch.
" You cannot hypnotize me. No one can. My will is the
stronger. I shall stay myself." These and similar sugges-
tions to herself she angrily exclaimed aloud. She tried not
to hear, to make herself deaf to my voice.

I finally succeeded in changing her to B IV a, but in
that hypnotic self there seemed to be injected all the con-
centrated essence of stubbornness, self-will, and resistance,
of the superior self. It seemed impossible to hypnotize lier
" more deeply " into B II.

There was over her spine a " hypno-genetic point," pres-
sure upon which always caused a thrill to run through her
that weakened her will and induced hypnotic sleep. I pressed
upon this point As she felt the h3'pnotic influence com-
ing over her, her will-power weakened. With a strength
that I did not think she possessed she fought, wrestled,
struggled to throw off my grasp, and to resist tlie subtle
power. The rush of physical sensations through her body,

494 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

and the mental feeling that her consciousness was being
engulfed in oblivion were more than she could bear. In
mental anguish she shouted aloud. Thus for two hours
we struggled. Each suggestion of hers I met with a
counter-suggestion, but do what I would I could not
get her beyond the stage of B IV a. At times, often, just
as she seemed about to succumb, gathering her strength
she would hurl, as it were, her will against mine, open her
eyes, and wake herself up as IV.

I recognized that one or the other must be master. If
I gave in, if she realized that her own suggestions were
more powerful than mine, then it was good-by to all future
influence. I called upon Sally for aid. " Sally will help,"
I said ; " Sally will bring B I." But whether Sally would
not, or could not help, B IV a for two hours remained
unchanged.

Then, little by little, her will began to weaken, the hyp-
notic sleep, broken by momentaiy struggling only, began to
creep over her; she became quiet, her resistance ceased.
I called upon B II, and she was there.

What a change the picture before me presented 1

" Oh, why do I behave so ! " she exclaimed. " Save me,
help me ! Do not leave me, do not let me go," she pleaded.
She was penitent, remorseful, as if she were the sinner, and
asked only to be saved from herself.

A few suggestions were now sufficient to ensure a good
night's sleep, to mitigate the fatigue, to dispel, if only for
the time being, the " fixed " ideas, and to wake her up re-
integrated, softened, calmed, with peace in her mind.^ As
she went out of the room one would not recognize in the
grateful penitent the stubborn fury who had entered more
than two hours before.

1 The neurasthenic condition brought about by the war was too profound
for such changes to last long. She was certain to disintegrate again so
long as her physical condition was nnimproTed.

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 495
The next day I received the following from Sally :

" I can't help you, really. I want to be etherized and have
ray eyes closed again. Please do it. 1 shall have to get the
stuff myself if you don't,

" The auto is buried in a tin box, so that IV may as well stop
hunting for it. You can tell her. There are some other papers
in the box too, but they all belong to me."

It was destined that Sally should never voluntarily enter
her living tomb. There were several factors at work to
prevent this. In the first place, as already explained, the
temporary " putting together " of IV and I " squeezed " her
for the time being so tightly that she could not " come " at
any appointed time for the purpose, and when at last she
got her freedom again, daughter of Eve that she was, s!ie
could not resist a new temptation that was dangled before
her eyes. Child-tears then had turned to child-laughter.

With IV 's comparative restoration to health her fierce
stubbornness was dissipated, though she did not lose her de-
sire for freedom. The war was a failure, but she would,
like the wily Greeks of old, gain by artifice what she had
failed to do by force. The uselessness of attempting to
" kill " Sally was at last realized. Perhaps she could bribe
her! If by proper inducements Sally could be prevailed
upon to make a friendly alliance, offensive and defensive,
B I might be gotten rid of, the whole time and the family
funds be divided between herself and Sally, and thus, on the
principle that half a loaf is better than no bread, life might
become tolerable.

Poor Miss Beauchamp was worn out by the everlasting
fighting.

*'Is there nothing," she wrote, *' that I can do? Noway
by which I can attain peace. I am worn out by this constant
warfare. If it would simplify matters, — you remember tell-
ing me once, how long ago it seems, that by blotting out the

496 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

memory of the years between 1893 and 1899 I might be cured —
if this is still possible I beg you will do it. I felt then that
I could not, even for my own salvation, give up the remembrance
of so much that is dear to me. Now I realize that it is not a
question of my salvation, or indeed of myself at all. I will
give up everything, even coming to you, if you wish it so. I
will do anything. Do I make this clear? I am afraid not,
although it is so clear to me and has been ever since your letter
reached me this morning. I had not realized before how much
I was exacting from you in begging you not to leave me to
myself. At first it was different, I think. You understood
Sally and knew that I could not control her. It seems as if I
could control myself as IV if I chose to make the exertion. I
know it, and yet, Dr. Prince, all my efforts are worse than use-
less. They simply intensify that attitude of stubborn rebellion
which seems my chief characteristic as IV. I have tried so hard
to conquer this, and, failing, have set myself the task of gather-
ing such data as I could from memories, in order that I might
perhaps help you to understand it better and even perhaps to cure
it. But it is too late, I am afraid. I am becoming more and
more the slave of my other self. I feel the uselessness of
struggling, the hopelessness of it all, and it is better that I
should save you what I can. Forgive me ! forgive me that I
have kept you so long and have been so selfish !

" If you feel that by obliterating these years I can be cured,
will you give me one more chance by stating it to me either as I
or IV? If I refuse to take advantage of it or in any way make
difficulties for you, send me away. I have deserved it, heaven
knows.

"If I am mistaken, and there is no longer this hope of cure,
you must still send me away and so save yourself. I wish it
so. Believe nie.

" I cannot write any more, but I trust you will be able to
understand this. My head aches too badly from sleeplessness
for me to be quite sure that I have expressed it as I should, but
you will understand as you always have.

" Again forgive me.

" P. S. I leave the paper with this, hoping it may not be
too late to use it." •

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 497

The following shows us the way B Fs grieving affected
IV:

[From IV.] "I am going away to-morrow to stay with
some friends. It is very lonely here, and B I's constant griev-
ing wears on my nerves. It is harder to endure than one would
believe possible. I would rather give and take with Sally — a
thousand times rather.

"Hoping you have forgiven me for accusing you falsely,^
I am,

" Most sincerely yours,"

B I was in distress. Something was going on, some-
thing was being carefully concealed. B I was held a
prisoner, unable to communicate with me in person or by
letter, excepting occasionally, and then, as it afterwards
transpired, only after the letter had been visaed and ap-
proved. Some days went by during which I heaixl nothing
more from Sally about her self-proposed suicide. Had she
changed her mind, and, if so, what was the inducement ?

In the course of a few days, an apparently trivial inci-
dent gave the first clue, and then there fell accidentally
into my hands part of a secret correspondence which was
plainly so incriminating that there was no use in further
concealment. The plot was revealed and a full confession
followed. The firet disclosure came when hypnotizing I V.
Being unable to obtain II but only B IV a, I told the latter
to awake as B I. She woke instead as B IV, saying in
response to questions, "You told me to wake as IV."
She had heard a voice saying, " Wake as IV." It was not
mine, it could be only that of Sally, who had perverted my
woixls and given her a hallucination.^ Sally, then, was in
collusion with IV and had prevented my getting II. What

1 Probably referring to letter about promises (p-ige 479).

2 It is worth noting that this auditory hallucination was heard by IV,
probably because the Internal voice contiuued for a uioujent after the change
had been made to IV.

498 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

motive could Sally have for abandoning her intended sui-
cide and forming an alliance with her former enemy against
my efforts to help ?

The next day, after a long and serious talk with Sally,
I left her alone in the room. Returning unexpectedly,
after an absence of a few minutes, I surprised B IV reading
some scraps of paper which she hastily tore up on seeing
me. I confiscated them at once and, pasting the pieces
together, read the following communications from Sally
to IV:

" To IV. Nobody has been here but me. [B] I wants to stay
dead all the time, so you can make an}' arrangements you choose
with people. I told Dr. Prince you were very horrid, and that
you broke all your promises to me, and that you fussed con-
tinually because I kept mine — I did yfceepthem, you know, every
one. But I have n't told him a single thing else."

" To IV. [B] I is n't going to write him or appeal to him
or interfere in any way whatever with what you do. She wants
to go abroad now and she hopes you '11 stay there and never,
never come to Boston again. She resigns things entirely to

you."

" To rV. Don't show these notes to Dr. Prince. He will sit
on you because he wants B I. Amen."

Sally and IV were plainly in collusion. The first of
these communications should be read in connection with
the following letter received that same morning :

[From Sail}', May 7th.] " B IV said it would be only a
little while, Dr. Prince, and it 's been a long, long while now, and
she has n't kept a single promise yet, and she fusses all the time
because I keep my promises so strictly. I 'm tired of her, and
I 'm coming up to see you instead. You are n't cross still, are
you ? You said in the note you would n't be. [B] I 's going to
be dead all the time ' to save complications and because she
wants to save you trouble.' Isn't she a goose? She hasn't
made any last will and testament like mine. Mine 's buried in
the woods now, where it won't be found for years and years.

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 499

She ought to make one too, ought n't she ? Some of the spirits
who neglected to do so are awfully troubled now, and they try
in every sort of way to atone for their carelessness. Do you
think B I will be a spirit? This is written so queerly for I
wanted to use the paper IV used,^ but I 've numbered every-
thing so you can follow. I think IV 's very nervous, she 's been
walking a lot and in that awfully excited sort of way. [B] I 's
nervous too, and thinks she has beads, as they have in the book,
— to pray with, you know. She 's praying to be dead, and for
me, and IV, and that you will keep her, and all that.

" I think I won't write any more now. I 'm coming to your
house to-morrow morning if they are n't ill, and I want you to
please give me my autobiography again. I 've been good so
long.

" S. B."

From this letter, which said nothing about suicide, it
was clear that the feud as well as tears was over, and that
Sally and IV had made promises to each other and probably
had struck a bargain. IV had said " it would be only a
little while " to wait, but impatient Sally had already begun
to be " tired " of her bargain, while, as one of the messages
to IV showed, in her interpretation of the agreement
she had stuck so literally to her promises that IV was much
handicapped in carrying her plans through. The letter to
me was evidently meant to be a peace-offering in the shape
of secret information, but Sally spoke the truth when she
wrote, " I have n't told him a single thing," — that is,
about the plot.

The disclosures of the confiscated messages culminated
in a full confession from IV. She had bribed Sally. In-
stead of a living tomb she offered her half her kingtlom, and
the earthly temptation had been too much for Sally to
resist.

1 This was written on the blank portions of four sheets of paper which B
IV had used in attempting to write me. As often as she began, something
changed her to Sally and interrupted her letter. Finally Sally wrote her
own letter on the unused portions of IV's paper.

500 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

B IV had been invited to visit Europe. She determined
to go. She also determined never to come back. In Eu-
rope, untrammelled by me and those who controlled her
here, she would obtain freedom at last. But in order to live
her own life, to manage her own affairs alone among stran-
gers, the co-operation of Sally was necessary. Not to know
one moment what she had done or said the moment before,
or where she had been, might be well enough at home
but would be intolerable in a foreign land. SaUy could
help her, could keep her informed of what had gone before,
could aid instead of opposing, and together they could
quash B I. If B I could be obliterated and Sally's co-
operation obtained, the scheme was feasible. IV made
overtures.

One of SaUy's grievances against IV was that the latter
refused to recognize her as a " real person," and regarded
her only as a " delirium," Then, IV's air of superiority
was more than Sally could bear and stung her to the quick.
With great astuteness, IV now proposed to Sally to recog-
nize her as a real person and to make various other conces-
sions provided SaUy in return would do certain things.

On IV's part, besides the recognition of Sally as an equal,
with aU the rights and privileges pertaining to a sane mem-
ber of the family, she would concede to Sally :

1. Half the family funds to spend as she pleased.

2. Half the time.

3. The right to employ her time in her own way and
after her own tastes, particularly after arriving in Europe.

In return for this Sally, on her part, was to :

1. Keep IV fully informed of everything that took
place while Sally and [B] I were on the scene.

2. Help IV in awkwai-d situations, when she was pressed
about matters of which she was ignorant.^

1 IV saddenly coming to herself would be ignorant of what had occurred
a moment before wheu she was Sally. If pressed by questions, there would

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 501

3. Prevent B II from giving me any information which
IV did not wish me to have, particularly about this Euro-
pean scheme.

4. Combine with IV to get rid of Miss Beauchamp by
suppressing her letters, preventing personal interviews be-
tween her and me, and generally terrorizing her by mis-
information, threatening letters, and a dozen other ways.

5. Conceal all from me.

All this fell in with Sally's wishes. To have money of
her own, to do just as she pleased, to have the time of her
life in Europe, as she pictured it to herself, was a tempta-
tion not to be resisted. So all thought of ether and suicide
was abandoned. The bargain was struck and a coalition

be no time for Sally to warn her. Under this agreement Sally devised a
scheme to get over these awkward situations. On one occasion I witnessed
an interesting exhibition of this phenomenon, illustrative of Sally's method of
helping IV out in accordance with this bargain. In reply to an objection
which I made to IV in regard to going to Europe, on the ground tliat her
ignorance of herself in her other characters unfitted her for travel, she
claimed to know everything that she did as B I. I at once challenged her to
tell me what she as B I had written in her last letter. Upon this she at once
fixed her eyes on vacancy, went into a condition of abstraction or half-way
dreamy state, and repeated almost word for word the language of the letter. In
this state she remained conscious of her surroundings. When she had finished
she went on talking, continuing the conversation as if nothing out of the
ordinary had happened. I challenged her to repeat the act. She proceeded
to do the same thing over again. But after she had repeated a few sentences
I gently slapped her face and aroused her, thus preventing her from relapsing
into the dreamy state. She was then unable to repeat the letter. By going
into the dreamy state she was able to converse for the time being with the
complete knowledge which Sally possessed. When she came again to her.><elf
she had no knowledge of what she had said. It was to be inferred that while in
the dreamy state Sally spoke through her tongue. The phenomenon was
automatic speaking, and, in principle, identical with the automatic writing
which Sally so often performed. It was therefore a phenomenon of dissocia-
tion and differed from the " mind-fixing " memory which was a phenomenon
of synthesis of the dissociated experiences of B I.

Another scheme for helping IV out of difficulties was a code of signals
arranged between her and Sally. When IV was asked some question about
matters of which she was ignorant, Sally would give her the cue by " auto-
matically " stroking the palm of one hand with the forefinger of the other.
A stroke to the right meant Yes, and a stroke to the left meant No. IV
would thus know whether to answer in the affirmative or the negative.

602 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

formed against B I and myself. Poor Miss Beaiichamp was
in despair. She knew but a small part of it all, but what
she knew was enough to terrify anybody. The trip to
Europe, which was not a secret, she felt she could ill
afford. The financial consideration alone was an anxious
one.

The following letter from B I gives an insight into the
condition of her mind at this time :

"I do not mean to be unreasonable or to make things hard
for you, but it seems as if it were absolutely necessary for me to
have some clear understanding about the summer. If I could
only keep myself without changing for one half-hour, I would
put you in possession of all the facts and fancies that are dis-
tracting me. My extreme need of you renders this very diffi-
cult. As soon as I have an opportunity of speaking, so much^
crowds into my mind at once that I am, literally, lost With
writing, it is practically the same. I do not know what to say.
I need your questioning to enable me to discriminate between
the important and the trivial. This European trip is becoming
a perfect nightmare. You know, as IV, I have promised to
leave two weeks from Saturday, and Miss K. has made all her
arrangements accordingly. I shall go, of course, but how, I
leave you to imagine. I have also promised to stay abroad,
not returning when Miss K. does. This, too, I shall probably
be mad enough to hold to, although just the thought of it is
enough to terrify me now. There are other things weighing
upon me, — they give me no peace and will not until I have seen
you. If it is impossible, if I am not to see you again, won't
you for very pity's sake force my confidence as IV? I know
that I am asking a great deal of you, but I have no one else and
you will not fail me after all these years. Even as IV, I am
still [B] I.^ Do you realize that ? I wish I could reply to
your defence of the paper, but it will have to wait until I am in
possession of all my faculties. You must have received it by
this time, and will see from my corrections what I meant by the

^ That is, herself. Miss B. always considered that, after all was said, all
the personalities were herself.

A CONTEST BETWEEN PERSONALITIES 503

mixed figures ..." (unfinished. Without apparent connec-
tion the letter continues:) "It is hard for me to do so and
harder yet to acknowledge it — but it is true."

Further, IV was in communication with Anna. That she
also discovered from lettei-s. What might this not portend !

IV's administration of the family finances was most inju-
dicious, and, from Miss Beauchamp's point of view, extrav-
agant. How was she to manage if this went on? Now,
to add to all this, Sally began once more to pour upon her
a broadside of letters, telling her in substance that she was
of no account to anybody, that I was tired to death of her,
and so was everybody else, that she was not wanted, and
that we should all be much obliged if she would keep her-
self out of the way. All this inside information Sally of
course was supposed to pick up for Miss Beauchamp's
benefit during the time when she, B I, was " asleep," for
Sally might well hear much that B I did not hear, and what
else could Miss Beauchamp do but believe ?

Miss Beauchamp gave up in despair. No wonder that
she had hallucinations and told her beads. She resigned
herself to her fate, and acquiesced in the demand that every-
thing should be left to IV and Sally. As Sally said, " B I
wishes to be dead." Sally kept her part of the bargain.
It was now clear why I could not get B II, or, if I did, why
whenever I asked a question embarrassing to the Two she
immediately changed to B IV a.

IV after all had conquered her deliiium, for if she had
not killed it she had bribed it.^

1 Of course I disclosed the whole plot to Miss Beauchamp and proceeded
to set things right once more. In due time it was arranged that Miss Heau-
champ should sail for Europe under proper nuspices. The trip did not turn
out as happily as had been anticipated, although she went under circumstances
that promised well. It was a demonstration of tlie necessity of constant
supervision. Miss K., a friend of long standing, to whom her infirmity had
been explained, had invited her to go. I happened to be in Kurope that
summer, and though I did not .see her, was the constant recipient of letters
from both IV and I, that revealed a most unhappy con<litioM of affairs. The
mental distress of each, as well as the strain of maintaining self control, was

504 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

so severe that even Sally tried to help. I never knew exactly what had hap-
pened until my return to America, when an investigation disclosed the fact
that in Paris B IV had had a vision, which, in her rattled condition, she mis-
took for reality, and consequently labored under the delusion that she had
been the victim of an episode which made the continuance of the pleasure
trip a mental torture. This vision, which I do not feel at liberty to disclose,
had appeared to B IV, but was the revivification of an emotional experience
which had really occurred long ago to Miss Beauchamp as B I before B IV
came upon the scene, and which the latter therefore knew nothing about.
( B IV aud B I when in a badly disintegrated condition frequently had visions
which they could not distinguish from reality. Indeed many of Sally's pro-
ductions they believed real.) This Paris vision was the chief cause of the
family troubles during the remainder of the journey in Europe.

CHAPTER XXXI

A HALLUCINATION FROM THE SUBCONSCIOUS

ONE day, January 8, 1902, I had an opportunity to
witness some important phenomena bearing on the
genesis of visions and internal voices. The biographies
of saints, like Catherine of Siena, and Francis, the founder
of the Franciscan Order, and of leaders of religious thought
like George Fox the Quaker, John Bunyan, and Savon-
arola, to say nothing of minor lights like Savonarola's
follower Fra Silvestro, are replete with accounts of visions
and internal voices which once upon a time were intei*preted
as visitations or supernatural messages of one kind or
another. The researches of recent years in abnormal
psychology enable us to understand the genesis of these
sensory automatisms, even if we cannot yet explain their
exact psychological mechanism. In the light of this
knowledge it becomes clear that they are due to the auto-
genetic influence of the subject's own thoughts, conscious
or subconscious.

The fact that B I and B IV were disintegrated selves,
with an abnormal subconsciousness (Sally), rendered them
particularly suitable subjects for spontaneous liallucinations
of this kind. It only needed the psychological excitation
to induce the phenomena. As a fact they have often been
the victims of such visual hallucinations. The interest in
the present instance lies in the fact that the subject was
under observation while the phenomena manifested them-
selves, and the subconscious antecedents could be verified.

506 thp: dissociation of a personality

On the occasion when the phenomena which I shall
now describe occurred, there awoke out of hypnosis a state
which clearly differed from both B I and B IV. I had
seen this state momentarily on several occasions. With
the exception of a hallucination under which she labored,
she was so natural and appeared so normal, that I ques-
tioned for a moment whether this might not be the Real
Miss Beauchamp. In manner she was frank, simple, and
communicative, but she talked of matters with which I was
not familiar and asked personal questions which seemed to
be entirely irrelevant to myself. I was puzzled at first, for
there seemed to be no connection between the matter of
her remarks and my own life. She referred to events not
connected with myself and to a profession not my own.
It soon became clear that she did not know me, in fact had
never heard of me. She thought the year was 1893
(that is, about the time of the hospital episode), to which
period she had gone back. Everything that had occurred
since that date was a blank to her and therefore of course
I would be a stranger to her mental associations. Under
the dominating influence of her belief it was plain that I
was taken for some one else, who ever that some one
might be. Her manner was veiy much the same as that
of B IV on the night when she first appeared, June 7,
1899. She talked of old times, of the past that B I had
buried and had promised that she would speak of to no
one. She spoke of persons and places and events of which
I knew nothing, and asked questions impossible for me to
answer. It was as if she were still living in the past, at a
time preceding the events of the last nine years.

The true significance of this conversation, in relation to
the phenomena which were to follow, was only understood
when interpreted later by the Real Miss Beauchamp. So
far as I could see there was no reason why she should not
speak about these things and this part of her life openly,

HALLUCINATION FROM THE SUBCONSCIOUS 507

but Miss Beauchamp explained that what she had revealed
she had years before solemnly promised should never pass
her lips. It was a girlish promise, and for that reason
perhaps had made a profound impression on her emotional
mind, and had acted like a dominating suggestion given in
hypnosis. Sally, too, as it turned out, was keenly sensi-
tive about the promise. I was innocent enough, not seeing
any reason why she should not talk of her past. The
point of importance, from its bearing on what was to
follow, is that she had broken her promise. She was not,
however, conscious of the fact, for she thought she was
talking to the person to whom she had made it.^ I made
every effort to dispel her delusions, particularly that re-
garding my identity, and tried to make her realize the cir-
cumstances of her present surroundings. It was in vain
that I denied what seemed palpable, sane facts to her.
She was only pained that I, in insisting that I was not the
unknown, hallucinatory person of her dream, could be so
flippant. " Very well," 1 said, while arguing against her
hallucination, " if I am not Dr. Prince, who am I, then ? "
When attempting to reply she was struck with either
aboulia or dumbness, and could not speak. Thereupon,
I said, " If you cannot speak, write my name on this piece
of paper." She took up the pencil, but at once stopped
and listened. A warning voice which seemed to her to
come from the next room sounded in her ear, "Don't,
don't." Each time that she would try to write or to speak
the words she would hear again the voice saying, " Don't,
don't," and, for a long time, her attention distracted, she
would be unable to proceed and would remain motionless,
listening to the voice. Finally, her hand, instead of writ^
ing an answer to my question, ^vrote, " Don't, don't." Tlie

1 It would seem almost unnecessary to point out that she hroke the
promise, not because of being iu hypnosis, but because of being misled by
the illusion.

508 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

moment the words were written she herself regtirded them
as nonsense, not seeing any significance in the word
"don't." She did not realize, as B I and IV would have
done, that these were automatic messages of warning from
Sally ; for, having gone back eight or nine years in her life
to a period antedating Sally's appearance, she did not know
that there was a Sally, and had no remembrance of her
previous experiences with automatic writing by that
personality.

At the moment, in my ignorance, I did not treat the
matter very seriously, but, taking advantage of her igno-
rance of the different personalities, I wrote tliis message
to Sally : " Is n't this a joke, Sally?" But when she tried
to read this simple question the words had no meaning for
her. I do not mean simply that she did not understand
the question, but the woi-ds themselves appeared to her as
those of an unknown language ; they were mere jargon, as
they would be to a person with word-deafness. Yet when
handed a copy of the Congressional Record she read it
with ease. She was so troubled by this alexia that, to ease
her mind, I called the writing Hebrew.

After a while I succeeded in rehypnotizing her to B II,
whom I awakened as IV. B IV was entirely ignorant of
the past hour, and was under the impression that she had
only that minute been awakened from hypnosis. She was
standing before me, quietly conversing, when, of a sudden,
she stopped short in the midst of a sentence and listened.
She appeared to hear something that was unheard by me.
As she listened, a look of fear and anguish came over her
face. " I must go, I must go," she said. *' What is it ?
What do you hear ? " I asked, at the same time detaining
her, but she paid no attention to my question. She heard
a voice that she knew was his voice. It seemed to her
to come from behind ; she turned, and saw her former pre-
ceptor. His face was sad, as of one who had been injured.

HALLUCINATION FROM THE SUBCONSCIOUS 509

*' How could you ? How could you have betrayed me ? "
she heard him say ; and, as she heaixi these words and looked y
upon his face which reproached her in its sadness, her own
features were convulsed with grief and pain. " I must go,
I must go," she pleaded, and sought to escape from the
room.i

After witnessing a scene like this, dramatic from the in-
tensity and reality of human feeling, as well as from the
character of the phenomena, it is easy to understand the
genesis of the visions which have influenced many histori-
cal characters and which have often made history.

The mechanism by which the hallucination was brought
about is intelligible up to a certain point. In the first
place, the predisposing conditions of disintegration and the
doubling of consciousness were already present, B IV being
a disintegrated self and Sally a subconsciousness. Now,
when IV awoke, the memory of the past hour remained
in Sally's consciousness. For reasons it is not necessary
to go into, it was a matter of intense feeling with Sally.
She, too, was under the influence of the promise and had
guarded it with zealous care. Subconsciously, her thoughts
were keenly regretful. We had here, then, all the mechan-
ism necessary to excite the hallucination which arose be-
fore the primary consciousness. This hallucination almost
literally expressed the thoughts which possessed and stirred
the subconscious self. Our conception of a conscience has
of course only a moral and not a psychological significa-
tion. But if it is true, as there can be little doubt, that
those thoughts which are ascribed to one's conscience have
often a subconscious abode, then we may well say that
B IV's hallucination was the expression of the prickings
of her conscience.

The evidence showing that subconscious ideas can give

1 On another occasion B I hud a religious hallucination wliicb likewise
cxpretised the qualma of her cunscionee.

510 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

rise to hallucinations in the primary consciousness can be
obtained experimentally. For instance, in the subject

M 1, to which frequent reference has been made, we

were able by a well-known method experimentally to in-
duce hallucination, through subconscious ideas. It will
be remembered that after an attack his hand was com-
pletely anesthetic, but it was proved by producing hallu-
cinations that the tactile sensations were subconsciously
felt. Told to look into a glass of water and describe what
he saw, he had a vision of a hand, and on the back of the
hand he saw a number which corresponded with the number
of times his hand had been pricked. If pricked five times
he saw the number five, and so on. In other words, under
the influence of the suggestion that he would see something,
the five subconscious tactile sensations transformed them-
selves into or excited — express it as you will — a visual
hallucination.

Such experiments can be varied in many ways. During
the couree of this study it will be remembered that Sally
subconsciously induced in B IV and B I time and again
hallucinations which were visual representations of her
own subconscious thoughts. Sally thought of a snake, and
" willed," and straightway B I or B I V saw a snake. B I V
had, indeed, another hallucination, similar to the one I have
just described as the prickings of her conscience. The
vision was of myself, and upbraided her in language I had
previously used for disobeying my expressed wishes. (See
Appendix O.) The words and vision were the expression
of Sally's thoughts. The evidence is conclusive that sub-
conscious ideas can excite hallucinations in the primary
consciousness. It follows that we may not be able to de-
termine the genesis or origin of any given hallucination
without knowing the content of the subconsciousness. If
some one versed in abnormal psychology had hypnotized the
numerous saints and sinners who have experienced visions

HALLUCINATION FROM THE SUBCONSCIOUS 511

and voices and examined their individual consciousnesses,
we should know much more about the origin of their
hallucinations.

But it is not at all proved that the ideas that give rise to
hallucinations of the kind we are describing are always sub-
conscious. It seems to be equally certain that an intense
dominant belief or other idea in the personal consciousness
may as well give rise, under favorable conditions, to these
phenomena. Given a certain degree of instability, it would
seem, so far as we know, of little consequence whether the
genetic idea is conscious or subconscious. A strong, domi-
nant idea, like a belief, under these conditions could readily
give rise to hallucinations which would be the visual or
auditory representations of that belief ; just as we have
seen that a systematized anesthesia may be produced by a
dominant belief. It will be remembered, for instance, how
B I, dominated by the belief that her rings were lost, was
unable to see them on the string tied about her neck, and
yet, subconsciously, the rings were perceived. Indeed, one
subconsciousness (Sally) tried to make B I see the rings.
The anesthesia svas therefore produced by the pei*sonal,
and not by the subconsciousness. We have also seen the
phenomenon of an illusion brought about by the same kind
of idea, — B IV, on the night when she first made her ap-
pearance, mistaking her surroundings under the belief that
she was in the Providence Hospital. Here again subcon-
sciously she recognized the true situation, just as Sally, in
the scene preceding the hallucination which is the subject
of this chapter, recognized her surroundings, the person to
whom she was talking, and the delusion under which the
primary consciousness was laboring. These delusions are
best explained as the expression of a dominant belief of
the personal self. Similarly B I and B IV frequently had,
when in a badly disintegrated state, hallucinations which
were the visual representations of their ideas. It is difli-

512 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

cult, however, in all such cases to exclude the co-operative
influence of certain other dissociated (subconscious) ideas.
It is only through a psychological analysis in hypnosis that
we can determine what is in the subconsciousness and
what elements take part in the mechanism of hallucina-
tions. Nevertheless, the chief factor in a large class of cases
must be the dominating ideas, whether hopes, aspirations,
or beliefs, of the primary consciousness.

Applying what we learn from abnormal psychology to
the visions and voices of historical personages, as we are
entitled to do, we may safely conclude that these halluci-
nations were sensory automatisms generated by their own
thoughts, conscious or subconscious. When we look deeper
into the mechanism of these hallucinations and seek for an
explanation of the mode in which ideas transform them-
selves into visions or voices, we find that as yet we liave
very little definite knowledge.

For a proper consideration of this problem we must have
all the data before us. For the present, I will content
myself with pointing out that disintegration of mental
associations facilitates the genesis of hallucinations, and
that a certain amount of dissociation is probably always
necessary. The greater the instability and suggestibility
of the mind, the greater the ease with which visions and
voices are induced. Thus Sally found it easy to produce
hallucinations in the different personalities in proportion
to the degree of mental ill-health existing, and the degree
to which they were, so to speak, " rattled." The better
the health and the more complete the fusion, the less con-
trol Sally had. When the personalities were completely
fused into one, Sally could not influence this stable per-
sonality, and we shall see that, when the Real Miss Beau-
champ was finally obtained, Sally " went back to where she
came from," without power to produce sensory or motor
automatisms or other dissociation phenomena.

HALLUCINATION FROM THE SUBCONSCIOUS 513

The same thing is true of- the conditions which are favor-
able for the induction of crystal visions in ostensibly
healthy people, and of hallucinations in hypnosis by sug-
gestion. For crystal visions a certain degree of abstraction,
which is equivalent to a doubling of consciousness, is
necessary, and hypnotic hallucinations necessarily, as the
condition of the experiment, mean dissociation.

CHAPTER XXXII

THE BEAL MISS BEAUCHAMP AT LAST, AND HOW
SHE WAS FOUND

THE fall of 1901 was occupied mainly in experiments in
the amalgamation of the disintegrated personalities
and the resurrection of the real self. These, it will be
reniembered, had been interrupted by IV's opposition, and
with the exception of desultory efforts, had been suspended
until a favorable opportunity should arise. After her late
bitter experiences B IV seemed to have been impressed
with her inability to manage her own affairs, and to have
acquired sufficient humility to make it worth my while to
resume in a systematic manner the attempt to resurrect the
lost self. The same method as before was employed. As
a result, during the greater part of the time, a personality
was obtained and kept in existence which seemed to be a
combination of I and IV. She had the memories of both,
but, as in the earlier experiments, she was almost always
in character either more IV than I, or vice versa. In other
words, notwithstanding the synthesis of memories she was
either I or IV, although distinctly modified.

On several occasions, however, a personality was obtained
who exhibited all the evidences of a perfect fusion of the
two personalities. She remembered her life as I and as IV.
She had lost the bad temper and wilful self-determination
of IV, and the emotional idealism of I. She was just a
normal, healthy-minded person, and when she was in exist-
ence Sally sank out of sight, " squeezed " and imprisoned,

HOW REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP WAS FOUND 515

helpless within the Bastille of the healthy mind and unable
to get out.

Although such a person was obtained, her appearance
was infrequent, capricious, and uncertain. Suggestions to
B 11^ usually resulted in the less perfect amalgamation, in
the " New IV," as she was termed in my notes, and there
seemed to be no way of determining with any exactitude
what kind of (that is, how complete) a personality would
be obtained. Suggestion modified the disintegrated person-
alities, made them more complete, and synthesized larger
groups of psychical elements, but it could not be foreseen
exactly what kind of person would be produced ; and, as
has been said, a complete fusion was obtained only in rare
instances.

The method of procedure was therefore faulty. Although
it had produced results which scientifically were of value
in demonstrating that the real self was a fusion of I and
IV (as will be more explicitly pointed out), yet practically
it was faulty on account of its unreliability. It was
plainly necessary to find a method which should give con-
stant results. This was shortly to follow, as the outcome
of the circumstances which led to the hallucination de-
scribed in the preceding chapter, and to solve the important
questions, " Who and where is the Real Miss Beauchamp ? "
and, " Who is B II ? " It will be remembered that it was
B IV who had that hallucination. She was standing before
me, distressed in mind by the vision she saw, and the
words she heard. It was plainly impracticable that slie
should be allowed to go away under the influence of this
phenomenon, perhaps to have it repeated at home while

1 B IV could not wholly resign herself to her fate, and continued to make
auto-suggestions which more or less antagonized my own and modified the
resulting personality. But aside from this, the fault in tlie method is now
clear, and though its recognition throws light on the problem of multiple i>er-
sonality, a consideration of the matter would involve too wide a digression at
this time.

516 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

she was alone by herself. So, with the aid of a little ether
and suggestion, she was again put into hypnosis, and
changed to II, who was told to awaken with all her memories.
The person who appeared before me this time was
neither B I nor B IV, but seemed a harmonious combinar
tion of the two. She had all the appearance, at least, of
being the person for whom we had so long been hunting.
Immediately after this experiment the following letter,
written on her return home, was received from Sally :

[From Sally, Jan. 8, 1902.] " How could you ! She is put
together, and now I know all her thoughts ^ as I used to. Are
you glad, really ? . . . She has written you too — another letter
— but I wish to keep it until to-morrow. Please be nice to me.

"C. L. B.

*' Wednesday — I did not want you to talk."

It remained to put the alleged Real Miss Beauchamp to
the test.

Responding to a summons (Jan. 10) the new personality
was put through an exhaustive examination to test her
character and memory :

"Miss Beauchamp," my notes read, " seems completely put
together. She is neither B I nor B IV. She herself is unable
to say which she is, but remarks simply that she does n't know.
In manner and attitude of mind she is natural, simple, amiable,
ready to give all the information desired, and to aid in every
way in her power, excepting, for obvious reasons, she does not
wish to give up B IV's autobiography. [B IV had been writ-
ing an autobiography to contradict some of Sally's statements.]
She recognizes, she explains, the absurdity of the point of
view from which as IV she wrote it, and seems to be somewhat
ashamed of it, for now everything appears in a different light.

" Testing her memory for the past and present I find that, with
the exception of the periods when Sally has been in existence,

1 Referring to the fact that when the fusion was not complete (Chapter
XXIV) and the resulting personality a modified IV (the " New IV ) as
had of late been generally the case, Sally did not know her thoughts.

HOW REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP WAS FOUND 517

she has a complete recollection of her whole past life, not only
of the years preceding 1893, previous to the hospital catas-
trophe, but of the interval between 1893 and 1899, when B I
alone was in existence. She recalls the successive events of
those six years as B I, including her life in college and the first
year under my care. [Of this period B IV had no personal
recollection.] In addition to this she described various inter-
views between B IV and myself and numerous events of B IV's
life of which I had knowledge. She distinguished clearly the
various periods when she was B I and B IV, and recognized
her different characteristics in each. It seems to her now, for
instance, that when she was B I she was simply distressed and
tired, while when she was IV she was comparatively well and
buoyant. It was a difference in moods and health." ^

She explained her attitude of mind as B IV at the time
of her first appearance in 1899 as follows : "

" Although then she was conscious of the gaps in her memory
corresponding to the periods when the others were present, they
did not, as a rule, strike her as anything very extraordinary.
Her refusal as IV to admit those gaps and her general attitude
of rebellion were due to the fact that she found an apparent
stranger arranging her life and ordering her about, something
to which she had not been accustomed and which slie naturally
resented.

" During the first summer she was in a buoyant state of
mind, without any sense of responsibility and indifferent to
conseqiiences. Physically, at that time, she (IV) felt quite well
and enjoyed life."

Besides the matter of memory and moods for the deter-
mination of the real self, there were the questions of health,
stability, and suggestibility. Suffice it to say that this new
self (when tested by after experiences) answered the re-
quirements. Physically she was well. The neurasthenia
had vanished in the twinkling of an eye. In pLace of pains,

1 Later the Real Miss Beauchanip aided in an olaborate analysis of her
different characteristics in these states. (Chapter XVII.)

518 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

fatigue, and insomnia, she boasted of a joyous feeling of
well-being, of freedom from every discomfort, of peaceful
nights, and sleep free from disturbing dreams. She neither
saw nor heard hallucinations; she was free from impul-
sions, obsessions, and aboulia; she exhibited no abnormal
suggestibility.

Without going further into a description of this per-
sonality it was apparent that Sally was right. Miss Beau-
champ was all " put together " and we had the real self.
There she was, but how was she to be kept, or to be got
again? She certainly was most fickle in putting in an
appearance. The theory that B II was the original self,
asleep, and that it was only necessary to wake her up to
bring her back to life had been tried and failed. When
awakened she had become a disintegrated personality, little
better than a dement.

We had found the original Miss Beauchamp, but, owing
to the failure of all methods to bring her at will and keep
her, she seemed as far away as ever. The problem of how
to bring her was soon to be solved.

The new Miss Beauchamp readily consented to be hyp-
notized, becoming first B IV a, and then B II. SaUy was
now summoned. There was no bouncing in of that young
lady as there had been. It was only after some fifteen
minutes had passed and considerable obvious struggling
that she appeared. She excused the delay by averring
that she now found much difficulty in " coming " ; she was
" all squeezed " ; and what a transformation from her former
self ! There was no sauciness and do-as-I-please air now,
but meek and lowly, her feathers drooping, she was ready
to eat humble pie and do my bidding. Much of her meek-
ness was due to the revelations of the disintegrated per-
sonality described in the preceding chapter, and the rest
to the feeling that her power was waning and her days
numbered. She acceded to every demand, and promised

HOW REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP WAS FOUND 519

no longer to tease, annoy, write to, or interfere with Miss
Beauchamp. " But if ' It ' is all well," she protested, " I
can't get out or be able to ' come.' I shall go back to
where I came from. I can never get out when she is
well."

And now came confession, dragged from her perhaps
under coercion, but still a confession. This she said was
the Real Miss Beauchamp who had been present. Sally
knew her thoughts. Further, B II was the Real Miss Beau-
champ with her eyes closed^ or, so to speak, asleep.^ If she
opened her eyes she would be the Real Miss Beauchamp.

I reminded Sally that that had been my theory some
time before, but that it had to be discarded after the ex-
periments when I told II to open her eyes and awake.^
Instead of becoming normal she went into a condition of
mental disintcgi'ation. She became " rattled " and the
victim of hallucinations. At this Sally laughed and a
mischievous look came over her face. Finally, after some
hesitation, she confessed, " I did that. I did it to make
you think it was n't she, and to prevent your getting her."
I doubted her story. " Well, just try it," she replied,
laughing. " I won't interfere."

Taking Sally at her word, I put her statement to the
test at the next interview. I changed Miss Beauchamp to
B II. " You shaU open your eyes, awake, and stiiy your-
self, your real self," I commanded. B II opened her eyes
and before me I saw again the Real Miss Beauchamp.
She was a pereon so different from B I and B IV, so natunil
and self-contained, and so free from every sign of abnor-
mality that there could be no doubt that I had again the
Real Miss Beauchamp. There was none of tlie suffering,
depression, and submissive idealism of B I ; none of the ill-
temper, stubbornness, and reticent antagonism of B VI.
Nor was there any " rattling " of the mind, hallucination,
1 That is, hypnotized. » Chapter XVIII.

520 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

amnesia, bewilderment, or ignorance of events, as had been
the case in the earlier experiments. She knew me and her
surroundings and everything belonging to the lives of B I
and B IV. She had the memories of both. Synthesis
persisted.

" Who are you ? " I asked.

" I am myself."

"Where is B I?"

"lamBI."

"Where is BIV?"

" I am B IV. We are all the same person, only now I
am myself.''^

After this the Real Miss Beauchamp could always be
obtained by simply commanding B II to awake — provided
the family was at peace. The transformation was as grati-
fying as it was striking. To bring, at a word of command,
a natural person with whom one could talk frankly and
freely, without arousing angry opposition on the one hand>
and without inducing depression on the other, who was
ready to co-operate intelligently and efficiently for her own
good, — to find such a person at last was a relief which
only one who has had the management of a case of this
kind can appreciate.

Our ring can now be completed, by substituting Real B
for X and the ? .

RealB

BII

BtV

B iVa ^"^ ,

1 conversely

Bla

1
BI

BlVa

B IV

RealB

Real B

HOW REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP WAS FOUND 521

The Real Miss Beauchamp is disintegrated into person-
alities B I and B IV who, conversely, may be synthesized
into Real B. Again Real B may be immediately hyp-
notized into B II who either wakes to become Real B
again, or conversely becomes dissociated into B I a and
BlVa.

Also B I a and B IV a may be synthesized into B II, and
conversely B II may be disintegrated into B I a and B IV a.

The Real Miss Beauchamp, however, is not permanent.
She has the same emotional psychical make-up which is so
prominent a trait in I and IV, and though it is not so
intense as in the disintegrated selves, still it is sufficient
to be a disturbing factor. Daily experiences which in
ordinary people would be emotionally colorless are accom-
panied by feelings of undue intensity. Even memories of
the past tend to revive all the original feelings which
accompanied them. The mental cohesion of a person with
such a tempemment necessarily yields to the disintegrating
effects of the strains of life. The circumstances of her life
are such that it is impossible for her to have that freedom
from care, anxiety, and responsibility, in short, from men-
tal and physical strain, that such a nature should have.
After continuous exposure to such disintegrating agencies
during varying periods, or after exposure to a sudden
emotional shock her personality tends to disintegrate once
more into its three selves. Then we have played over
again the drama of a multiple mental life, and our old
friends reappear. Whether or not Miss Beauchamp could
be maintained as her real self, stable and permanent, if the
circumstances of her life could be adapted to her, instead
of the patient's being adapted to circumstances, is a prob-
lem which I have never had an opportunity to determine.

The above paragraph was written in December, 1904.^
In the spring of that year I succeeded in solidifying the
1 I expected to publish at that time.

522 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

real self to such a degree of mental cohesiveness that she
persisted unchanged for about two months. Deceived by
her buoyant, physical health and apparent permanence,
she was tempted, against advice, to undertake new respon-
sibilities that would have taxed the strength of even a
strong person. She again broke down and we had once
more the old state of affairs with the different selves under-
going the old trials and tribulations in new forms, excepting
that the Real Miss Beauchamp was the most frequent person-
ality. My 1904 manuscript continued as follows :

' ' Poor B I, however, has been seen only on few and very
brief occasions during the past two years. I understand that
she appears at home, more or less frequently, when disintegra-
tion is brought about. On the few occasions when I have seen
her she has been the same sad, resigned, pathetic figure that
she was during the j^ears that she struggled against her fate.
Uncomplaining, she simply, patiently, acquiesced in her doom ;
for in her mind the long periods of amnesia, which cover most
of her present life, mean that she is masquerading as Sally or
as B IV. When told that she has become her real self, she
says that she is satisfied ; but it means little to her for she has
no memory of and knows nothing of her real self. Practi-
cally, the Miss Beauchamp whom I used to know, and whose
saintly character was described in the early part of this study,
has passed from my view, even if she has not totally ceased to
exist.

" Nor has B IV any knowledge of her real self. The periods
belonging to the Real Miss Beauchamp are blanks to these other
two selves.

" This absence of knowledge of B I and B IV for this real
self is worth noting in contrast with the knowledge which each
possessed for the various incomplete new selves with amalga-
mated memories, which were created in the experiments of
putting I and IV together. (Chapter XXIV.) The resulting
personality in most of these experiments, it will be remembered,
was not a complete fusion, but was usually recognized as fun-
damentally either I or IV. On the other hand, when the fusion
was complete, B I and B IV had amnesia for that state as they

HOW REAL MISS BEAUCHAMP WAS FOUND 523

do now for the Real Miss Beauchamp ; and the complete per-
sonality obtained at that time was therefore undoubtedly the
same as the present Real Miss Beauchamp. The conditions
upon which the retention or loss of memory depend are ex-
tremely subtle, and we have no data upon which we can base
any theory of their nature.

" B IV, I frequently see. She tends to divide the disinte-
grated periods with Sally. She has grown wiser, less aggressive,
more ready to accept the inevitable and to settle the problem
on a practical basis.

" Sally, too, has matured. She says that ' People don't al-
ways stay the same age,' and she would have it understood
that she has developed since this study was completed. She
claims to have seen the error of her ways, and the wrongness
of her points of view, and to have a realization of her responsi-
bilities. She tries to say 'my' instead of 'her,' to speak of
'my' house and 'my' book, but has frequent lapses in her phra-
seology. She also has acquired some knowledge of tlie French
language, and she has partially regained her tactile sensibility.

" As a subconsciousness, she knows too when the real self
has sensory impressions, but she acquires this information not
through the possession of true tactile feelings, but rather in-
directly through the primary personality's mind. You must
not take Sally too seriously. Though she has matured, she
is still ' Sally.'

" Not the least remarkable of the phenomena following the
transformation of B I or B IV into the Real Miss Beauchamp
is the sudden disappearance of the neurasthenic state. It will
be readily understood that when disintegration occurs, neuras-
thenic symptoms — fatigue, insomnia, and general instability —
return. A suggestion of health is given to B II, and. with a
snap of the finger, so to speak, she wakes and becomes Miss
Beauchamp, buoyant with health. Such experimental phenomena
have great significance in connection with the problem of neu-
rasthenia. Neurasthenic symptoms are an expression of dis-
integration."

After the break-up in the spring of 1904, it was not pos-
sible to make a serious effort at permanent integration

524 THE DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

of the personalities until the embarrassing responsibilities
unadvisedly assumed had been got rid of and various alter-
ations made in the circumstances of "their" life. This
was done in January, 1905. Then once again the screws ^
were turned on Sally, and B II awakened after appropriate
suggestions. F'rom that time to the present date (July,
1905), the Real Miss Beauchamp has been in continuous
existence, with the exception of a slight lapse on one occa-
sion following a physical illness and other strains. When
not subjected to "stress and storm," she describes her
health as better than it ever was in her life. At her best
she is physically and mentally strong, but she requires a
therapeutic suggestion at regular intervals to offset the
wear and tear of her life. There is an entire absence of
hallucinations ,2 aboulia, amnesia, and other phenomena of
dissociation and automatism, but it would not be safe to
submit her to strain. The problem still remains, How far
and for how long can she be protected ?

And Sally, what became of her ? With the resurrection
of the real self, she " goes back to where she came from,"
imprisoned, " squeezed," unable either to " come " at will
or be brought by command. Automatic writing, speech,
and such phenomena cease, and it has not been possible as
yet to communicate with her, and determine what part if
any she plays in Miss Beauchamp's subconsciousness, or
whether as a subpersonality she exists at all. When, how-
over, as a result of some mental catastrophe, she appeared
again as an alternating personality, her language implied a
persistent existence as a subconsciousness like that of her
early youth and as described in the autobiograpliy. Never-
theless the resurrection of the Real Miss Beauchamp is
through the death of Sally.

1 Appendix P.

' Excepting on tlie one occasion of the Christ vision (Appendix L), fol-
lowing five days of anxiety and fatigue.

HOW REAL MISS BEAUCHAJVIP WAS FOUND 525

Since her coming the Real Miss Beauchamp has talked
with me during many an hour over her case and about her
life. She has not the slightest hesitation in talking about
matters which B IV would go to the stake rather than tell.
She has told me frankly about herself, her points of view,
her attitude of mind, her feelings and emotions when she
was B I. She speaks equally freely about herself as B IV.
These different states seem to her very largely differences
of moods. She regrets them, but does not attempt to ex-
cuse them, because, as she says, "After all, it is always
myself."

Of Sally, her life, and her doings, she knows nothing,
excepting indirectly. Of this part of her mental life she
has no more memory than has B I or B IV.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

To avoid misunderstanding regarding the meaning of the
term " subconscious," attention ought to be called to the
limited and precise sense in which this term has been used
in this work. The word is used by writers in general with
a great deal of looseness, and too frequently its use indi-
cates a lack of precision of thought and often a vague-
ness of knowledge. But aside from such loose use, though
all writers include under the term " subconscious " a coex-
isting stream of thought, — that is, the notion of coexistence
of dissociated thought, — others extend the term so as to em-
brace any dissociated state of consciousness, whether in
coexistent activity or not. Thus one competent writer,
Boris Sidis, designates as subconscious any dissociated state
so long as it is dissociated and whether coexisting or not.
" Subconscious " becomes synonymous with " dissociated "
and embraces all amnesic states, including the normally
forgotten, anything that has dropped out of the memory
of the personal consciousness. All past mental experi-
ences, the memory of which is not at the moment in
the mind, are regarded as subconscious. An experience
that can be recalled if desired, as well as one tliat cannot
be, is defined as being in the region of the subconscious, so
loner as it is not recalled. Whether or not it is at the
moment in actual activity as a co-conscious idea is immate-
rial. The underlying notion seems to be that all forgotten
or other dissociated states not in the focus of attention
are potentially capable of being revived, and, therefore,
must have at least a potential existence somewhere. It
may be desiiuble to have a term to define all such poten-
tially conscious states, but it does not seem to me expedi-

530 APPENDICES

ent to employ the term " subconscious " for that purpose.
I would suggest '■'•latent consciousness" as a terra which
seems to express such states. I have limited the use of
the term " subconsciousness " to states which actually co-
exist with the primary consciousness, and, therefore, to an
extra, co-acting mind of which the primary self is not aware.
For an idea to be subconscious, it must be actually in activ-
ity, and this means parallelism of thought and doubling of
the mind. Unless "subconscious" is used to designate
such ideas, it has, to my way of thinking, no special sig-
nificance. This, it seems to me, is the sense in which the
term is used by the majority of workers in abnormal psy-
chology. Another use of the term is to define those per-
ceptions and mental states of which we are only partially
aware at any given moment, and which may figuratively
be said to lie in the fringe of the focus of consciousness.
This, of course, is equivalent to coexistence. After all, it
is only a matter of definition, but we must have some term
to designate coexistent dissociated thought, and this seems
to be the natural meaning of " subconscious ; " that is,
something that at the moment actually streams under
the primary consciousness. A much better term for such
thought is, a " co-consciousness " or " concomitant con-
sciousness," but the conventional term has become so widely
accepted that the best we can do is to limit its meaning.

APPENDIX B

N another occasion, taken at random, my notes re-
cord the following order of appearances during an

interview :

B IV (hypnotized to)
BII,

Sally,

APPENDICES Ml

B IV (spontaneous ; hypnotized to)

BII,
Sally,
B I (hypnotized to)

BII,
BI,
B IV (spontaneous).

B I and B IV spontaneously would interchange with one
another and with Sally, but to make the change by com-
mand it was necessary first to obtain a hypnotic state or
Sally. Sally too, though spontaneously changing to B I
or B IV, could volitionally change herself to either of them
only through a hypnotic state, of which there are several
The frequency and variety of the spontaneous changes of
personality may be gathered from Sally's accounts (Chap-
ter XX and Appendix K), which tallied with the testi-
mony of B I and B IV and my own observations.

APPENDIX C

SOME months after this B IV had a spontaneous vision
of this same scene. As she described it, I wrote it
down as follows:

" On Monday, June 25, while writing a note to Jones, the
room suddenly became dark, I became confused, and for two
or three minutes, I think, I did n't know anything. Then it
seemed to be night ; I could see the stars, but tlie first thing
that aroused me was the sound of thunder ; I could hear before
I could see. The thunder was loud at first, and gradually grew
fainter (the storm was passing over) ; then I saw lightning in
the distance, and I saw the stars and the trees. I don't know
where I was ; it might have been anywhere. If I had n't after-
wards found myself in my room I would have believed I had
been wherever it was. It was more vivid than many actual
experiences ; Jones was there. [B IV then went on to describe

532 APPENDICES

the details of the vision, which corresponded in every way to
the description given by Sally and B I, but of which IV knew
nothing. The language used by the vision actor, and which she
distinctly heard, was also the same. IV was still unaware that
she was describing a real scene, as she did not believe the
crystal vision was a true experience of her own.] My own
emotions of fright overwhelmed me and brought me to myself.
On coming to myself I was frightened, angry, and impatient.
I knew I could n't have had the experience at that time or at
any time. There was nothing in my note which could have
excited the scene. [About three hours later the vision came
again.] "

APPENDIX D

IN this connection the following statement by B IV (writ-
ten January,1900) of certain automatic motor phenomena,
which she claimed to have experienced, is not without in-
terest, though from their nature not subject to corrobora-
tion. In what consciousness they originated is not clear,
though I am inclined to class them with the dissociated
states which gave rise to the first group of scrappy mem-
ories of the life of B I.

" During the last few months I have had the most curious
sort of feeling in talking with or meeting people whom I had
previously known. My intercourse with them has been auto-
matic, if I may use the word in that way, as far as speech and
action were concerned. I have not known usually from one
moment to the next either what I was going to say or do.
Very often I have not understood even, but I think people
were not conscious of it, at least I could not discover that they
were from their expression, although I watched them most care-
fully to see. (You will understand that I do not include you
among these * people ' — you were too clever for me, and I
am afraid always knew whether I spoke automatically with
full understanding, or simply in a sort of guessing way. It
wasn't quite fair of you, I still think.) But though word and

APPENDICES 683

deed have seemed automatic and as a rule quite beyond my
control, feeling and emotion have not been so at all. And
this is very curious to me, for you can see how contradic-
tory it is. Naturally one would expect that one's words and
deeds would be simply the expression of one's thought and feel-
ing, and that if one were conscious of thinking and feeling, one
must understand one's own speech and action. Yet I have not,
except very rarely. I am constantly referring to incidents
which I do not remember ; that is, which I am not conscious of
remembering, and writing to people whom I do not know, often
in a most familiar and intimate strain.

" Perhaps my choice of the word ' thought' in trying to ex-
plain this is not a good one. In fact I know it is n't, but I do
not know what word to use. In one sense I do think, but not
very clearly or coherently. It is perhaps as if my earlier (Mj)*
intermediate (S), and later experiences (O4), instead of uniting
to form one (HgS O4), were still" [interrupted by Sally, who
confiscated every scrap of paper].

" Amen. Amen.

" She is n't a person, Dr. Prince, and I won't have it I hate
them all and I hate everybody, but you may have this stuff.
It 's more stupid than the auto papers I 've written. Turn
about, you know, and I might throw this on the fire [referring to
IV's destruction of the * auto ']. I don't believe a word of it."

APPENDIX E

THE following interrogatory, taken from Charcot's ac-
count, gives an idea of this amnesia:

" Q. Do you know R , Madame?

A. No, sir, I have never been there.
Q. Has your daughter taken any prizes this year?
A. I do not know.

Q. Do you remember whether, in the month of August, a
person falsely announced to you the death of your husband ?
A. I have never heard anything of the kind.
Q. What is that wound which you have on your right hand ?
A. It is a burn.

584 APPENDICES

Q. When and how did you burn yourself?

A. I know nothing about it.

Q. Might it not be the bite of a dog !

A. I have never been bitten by a dog.

Q. Have you never seen Paris ?

A. No, sir.

Q. You have never seen the Eiflfel tower, the Louvre ?

A. Never.

Q. Do you know the Pasteur Institute?

A. Yes, by name ; I have never been there. It is in Paris.

Q. Where are you now?

A. I do not know ; I do not know this room.

Q. Do you know the Saltpetriere?

A. I have never seen it, but T have heard it spoken of.

Q. Do you know these two ladies (the two women occupying
the adjoining beds) ?

A. No, sir, I have never seen them.

Q. And this gentleman (M. S , house-officer) ?

A. Not at all.

Q. And I, do you know me?

A. (After a moment's thought) — Yes, you are M. Charcot;
I am, then, in Paris.

Q. Have you breakfasted this morning?

A. I do not know ; I must have breakfasted, for I am not
hungry.

Q. Who brought you here just now ? Where did you come
from?

A. I do not know.

Q. What day is it?

A. Oh, sir, I know neither the days nor the months ; I

know not how I live ; I am most unhappy.

Q. What did I just ask you?

A. I have forgotten already ; I do not know. ... I have
tried hard to think, I can't recall it."

Contrast the following interrogatory, made during hyp-
nosis, with the preceding:

*' Q. Madame, do you know R ?

A. Yes, sir. I was there on the seventeenth of August last

APPENDICES 535

with M. and Mme. V. "We visited the Park, and the Casino ; I
saw in the Park a woman who was playing " au sabot," and
who had lost 500 francs. In the evening we were at the thea-
tre, and we did not return to C until the noon train on the

following day.

Q. Has your daughter taken any prizes this year?

A. Yes. She has had three: one for reading, one for writ-
ing, one for spelling, the first I believe.

Q. What occurred at your house on the 28th of August?

A. I had just left Mme. V. ; I was about to stitch au apron
on the machine, when a man whom I do not know entered and
said to me abruptly : ' Your husband is dead, they are going to
bring him to you ; get the bed ready, Madame D.' He must
have known my name. I was so affected that I suddenly
dropped ; my head struck against the needle-carrier of the
machine, making a small wound which troubled me for many
days. Then I felt this man tap me upon the shoulder, saying,
' Instead of lamenting, go up stairs and get the bed ready.'
Then he went away, I do not quite know how, I was so
overcome.

Q. And the story of the dog?

A. It was the 30th of October, Friday, at 9 o'clock in the
morning. I was on the S road. I was looking for a lodg-
ing; a little yellow dog bit my hand and tore my dress. A
lady came to my rescue and said that I ought to be cauterized,
as there were mad dogs in the town. I wrote that in my note-
book. I was burned with alkali, then with the thermo-cautery.

Q. When did you come to Paris ?

A. I came to Paris on the 5th of November with my hus-
band ; we stopped at the house of I\I. L , rue de TOdcon.

Every day for fifteen days we have been at the inoculations at
the Pasteur Institute, etc.

Q. Who are these ladies ?

A. They are my two neighbors in the ward ; they came just
now to the parlor with me. They are at 16 and 18 in the Cru-
veilher room. They are Mme. C. and Mme. X.

Q. What day is it?

A. It is Tuesday, the 22d of December." *

1 ReTue de M^decine, Paris, XII, pages 91 and 95.

536 APPENDICES

APPENDIX F

Sally's account of the method by which, as she main-
tained, she subconsciously interfered with IV's vision,
is as follows. The credibility of such accounts, of course,
must be weighed in connection with all the other subcon-
scious phenomena observed. The facts were that IV had
taken a tumbler and using it as a " crystal " to obtain a
vision of her stay in the private hospital, had seen the
wrong room and Dr. S., who once had attended Sally and
B I in another hospital ; but he was unknown to IV, as this
was before her advent.

*' Sally was curious, as she always is, to know what B IV
was going to do next. It took but a moment to jump to the
conclusion that what B IV wanted to find out was what hap-
pened in the private hospital where she had been as B I. This
intention was easily guessed from the fact that B IV had just
been writing something about her stay there, and incautiously
gave herself away by interrupting her writing to look into the
glass. So Sally proceeded to muddle her up. ' She had been
trying to get you [in a vision],' said Sally, ' so as to learn
about you ; she got the hospital, but I made her see the wrong
room. She ' fixed ' her mind and I ' fixed ' mine. I thought
very hard about the front square room [Miss B.'s was a small
back one] and I thought Dr. S. would look well in it instead of
you. So I thought of him as I saw him in the . . . Hospital.
No, I did n't think about his position in the room, or place him
in any particular relation ; I thought of the room as it looked
on a particular morning, in a general way, but not that the bed
was here and the chairs there, but I thought of Dr. S. and the
room together. B IV saw Dr. S. in the wrong room. She
did n't see it as in a vision, but she saw the picture of the room
projected against the wall of her own room, and saw both at
the same time, so that the picture was n't vivid as in a vision,
but shadowy ; but she saw the features of Dr. S. She does n't

APPENDICES 537

know what to make of it, because she does n't know Dr. S. and
does n't know what he was doing in the hospital."

B IV confirmed the correctness of the facts of her hallu-
cination.

APPENDIX G

THIS incident was of the nature of a personal observa-
tion, the phenomenon having been actually witnessed.

Hypnotized B IV had been brought by metamorphosis
from hypnotized Sally ; that is, the change was from one
hypnotized state to another. The apparent effect of this
method was that the resulting hypnotic state was not fully
developed but was " rattled," as Sally used to call it.
Perhaps it was rather that B IV went back in her mind to
an earlier period of her life. At any rate, she did not
realize where she was (her eyes were shut), and mistook
me for some one else. She addressed me by the firet name
of this person. When told to give the last name she
showed signs of responding, but immediately became
dumb. She could not articulate a single word. The ex-
pression of her features indicated fright. It was plain that,
realizing that she had been stricken dumb, she was seized
with fear. She put her finger to her lips and made signs
to indicate that she was dumb. Her alai-in increased. She
kept touching her lips and tongue with her finger to show
me her anxiety over what had happened. While I was
assurmg her that there was no ground for alarm, Sally sud-
denly emerged from her Bastille, laughing heartily.

" I stopped her," said Sally, and then {klded, with some
feeling, " She sha'n't tell, and I shall stop her if she tries.
I held her tongue. She was frightened because she
couldn't move it. I shall do it again."

Even if one feels obliged to doubt Sally's boasted jx)wer,
the fact that B IV was stricken dumb by some internal
force is beyond question.

538 APPENDICES

APPENDIX H

THE following was personally observed. It had been
arranged with Sally that as soon as she should change
to B 1 or B IV, pencil and paper should be given to
whichever it was, and while this one was engaged in
conversation, she (Sally) " inside," as a subconscious self,
without the waking person's knowledge, should write a
message and should answer such questions as were put to
her. The experiment was to be conducted in the usual
way in which such experiments are done. If all had gone
as arranged, the observed phenomena would not have been
the spontaneous action of the subconscious on the personal
consciousness, but only an artificially induced dissociation
of consciousness, together with phenomena akin to post-
hypnotic suggestion. But that is not what happened.

After making the arrangements B IV was obtained.
She agreed in her turn to the trial. Seated before me, in
her hand a pencil which rested on a sheet of paper, she
went into a state of abstraction, but the hand refused to
write. I was beginning to think that Sally was really
unable to fulfil her end of the bargain, and took the pencil
to write a question, when, abruptly and violently, the hand
seized the pencil out of mine and threw it across the room.
B IV, in her state of abstraction, was unconscious of the
action. Recovering the pencil, I wrote the question ; but
now B IV was unable to see the pencil or the writing.
She was taken, for the moment, with negative hallucina-
tions. I insisted on the visibiUty of the writing.

" I see you making motions on a blank sheet of paper,
as if writing," she explained, " but you don't leave any
marks."

That was all that could be accomplished.

APPENDICES 539

" I can make her not see things, or see things," Sally
boasted a few minutes later ; " I made her see snakes once."

Here was not only " automatic " motor action, spontan-
eously produced by volitional subconscious states, but
systematized anesthesia also.

APPENDIX I

SALLY conceived the idea that if she could only read
French and know as much as the other personalities,
she would not be looked do^vn upon as "notliing but a
subliminal," but would be held in equal esteem and be
allowed to stay. She had " just as much right to stay as
they had," she often repeated. At any rate, if she could n't
read French they should n't. So much by way of ex-
planation.

I was desirous of testing the Idiot's field of consciousness,
and, in particular, of determining whether a knowledge of
French was still within it, or whether it was only within
that of B I, B IV had said that she could read French,
but when offered a French novel she declared it was noth-
ing but a blank notebook. Her manner at once changed
to offended dignity. It was a practical joke that was
being played upon her, she insisted, and her manner
plainly showed that she considered it a discourtesy. It was
in vain that I disclaimed the discourtesy and insisted tliat
the pages were not blank, but French text. Finally, after
much insistence, I said, " If you won't believe me, go pick
out a French book from the bookcase." She then saw no
bookcase at all and no books, but declared, in spite of every
assertion on my part to the contrary, tliat it was a blank
wall sheathed with wood panels, as was the other side of
the room. Thinking the tactile sense might correct the
visual hallucination, I bade her feel the books \vith her
hand and convince herself. The bookcase was in a recess

640 APPENDICES ,

between the chimney breast and the end wall of the room.
She placed Jier hand in mid-air on an imaginary line run-
ning across the recess from the chimney-piece to the end
wall, about twelve inches in front of the books. She in-
sisted that the wood panels ran across the recess at the site
of her imaginary line. I rapped on the books, thinking
that the sound would enable her to distinguish the books
from her hallucinatory panelling, but she explained the
sound in an ingenious way. I then made an effort to force
her hand against the books and past the imaginary line,
but she resisted the force by muscular counter-effort.
There was both a positive hallucination and a negative
one, the former being the wood panel which was not there.
All this, of course, increased her sense of discourtesy,
and I could only insist she was mistaken. There was a
twinkle in Sally's eye when she was asked later if she
could explain these hallucinations. " No, it is a mystery,"
she replied. A few days later she confessed her part in
the trick, adding, " The Idiot sha'n't do anything that I
can't do. She sha'n't read French. She may at home,
but she sha'n't here." Sally further claimed — a point of
importance — that she caused only the negative halluci-
nation and had nothing to do with the positive hallucination,
— that of the wood panel. This latter, then, was the
logical expression of B IV's belief that no bookcase was
there.

APPENDIX J

PHENOMENA similar to the following have been observed
on numerous occasions. B IV, who had been " scrap-
ping " with Sally, suddenly, while describing the events of
a morning, stopped abruptly, unable to go on.

[Notebook.] " She exhibits evidence of inward struggling.
She has a distinct attack of aboulia, but manages in a disjointed

APPENDICES 541

way to explain : says she can't go on ; her mind won't work ;
she can't explain now ; will write it later at home. In answer
to questions, shakes her head, and puts her finger to her lips ;
does n't feel as if any one were stopping her, but can't explain ;
begins to stutter, and exhibits great difliculty in talking ; be-
comes angry, saying ' I will talk, and I won't stutter.' ' I never
st-st-stuttered b-b-before in my life t-t-till lately, and only
occasionally now. I th-th-think it is p-p-perfectly horrid.'
[Here she becomes absolutely dumb.] I urge her to write.
She takes the pen, but cannot. Then she bursts out angrily,
' I won't be controlled ! ' Then presently, ' I can't go on now.
It makes me nervous, — this sort of thing. It makes me so
angry. It is the same way when I want to do things — not to
be able to do or think [makes me feel this way].' Finally,
after a moment's silence, she begins to speak, with a sort of
explosion of will force, stuttering, and speaking all in a breath,
as if bound to speak in spite of some kind of control. After
a successful effort she exclaims, 'There, I will tell you if I
want to ! ' (This with vehemence, as if she had conquered
some one.) "

APPENDIX K

Ql ally's account of events of Thursday, March 6, 1902,
^ at the time of Prince Henry's visit to Boston :

" If you won't let me do anything and B IV or V sticks to her
good resolutions there won't be any sort of a record for you —
not any sort of an interesting one. It will be like this —

" One o'clock, B I eats; two o'clock, II sleeps ; three o'clock,
III opens her eyes (me, you know) ; IV comes at four o'clock,
and V, at five. You see how stupid that all is. J. is n't iu it,
or Anna; nobody nice but you.

" Yesterday's record : II would n't wake up when the soldiers
came, so I had to rub my eyes a long while to conic myself. I
wanted to see them and it was almost seven o'clock, quite time
to get up, was n't it? You are n't cross about tliat — Then after
ray bath and breakfast I started for your house, but IV came

542 APPENDICES

on the way there — or V ^ ; perhaps it was V, for she said good-
morning to you in the hall where she was petting the dog, and
then afterward, when you came into the office, she said good-
morning again, don't you remember? quite as if she were seeing
you for the first time. B I came while she was at lunch — you
don't care anything about her thoughts, do you? She finished
her lunch and then, after looking at the clock to find if the
prince had gone, she started over to call on Mrs. O. , an old lady
who is paralysed and all that, but awfully devoted to C. Then
she came home and hunted everywhere for her sewing — what
IV calls the heathen sewing and stuffs into corners. She found
it finally and set off for Mrs. X. with it, intending to bring back
some more. You don't care about her thoughts. Dr. Prince, do
you? They are always the same, and always tiresome. Mrs.
X. was delighted, apparently, to have her oflfer to take more
things, but I could n't help being awfully amused when I thought
of what IV would say to me when she saw them. Mrs. X. made
B I promise to go to bed very early, for she thought her looking
tired, and she gave her tickets for some concerts and for the
portrait thing and smiled on her, so that B I came away happy.
She told Mrs. X. a lie once — a deliberate lie — and she thinks
it was right for her to do it, but I notice her conscience pricks
her occasionally. It did yesterday. After leaving Mrs. X. she
trotted back to the old lady again with her sewing, and made
little shirts until dark. Then I came, then IV, then I, then
BI, and then IV again, just while she was eating dinner, then
BI, then B I went to see Miss F., who is ill. IV came while
she was talking, and almost immediately got up to go ; then IV
stayed all the rest of the evening, but she did n't sew and she
did n't go to bed early, as B I had promised to do. She got
Mr. B., who came in, to talk to her instead, and after he had
gone she shampooed her hair, bathed, scolded me because she
had missed the prince — she certainly saw him, or V did ; she
told Mr. B. she saw him twice. She was terribly restless after
going to bed — tossing and twisting and turning all night long.
She told you that she did n't sleep, but she did a little after it
grew light this morning.

1 Intended for one of the new personalities described in Chap. XXIV.

APPENDICES 543

" I shall have to finish this to-morrow. Do I write too much?
none of it is interesting now, I know, but you must tell me what
to leave out. IV has come several times since I began this,
but she has n't said anything except that I *d better not use both
sides of the paper, and that my real age was probably, yes un-
doubtedly, ninety-nine. I think that is a very silly statement to
make, and it has n't any point.

" S. B."

[March 9, 1902.] " I 'm so glad you liked the letter. I think
it was very stupid. Friday is an awfully hard day to tell you
about, for I don't more than half understand it myself. In the
first place, you know IV was horribly fidgety and nervous in the
morning through not having slept. Then she got cross because
just after she had taken her bath B I came and took another.
Then B I put on the wrong clothes, and that made her crosser.
She thought I was doing it, I suppose, although for a wonder
she did n't scold me. They had lots of trouble dressing and
getting started for your house, and after IV got there she
hunted all through the papers, the drawer, her pockets and
clothes for something. I'm sure I don't know what — she
did n't find it, at any rate. Then she got the papers to work
with, but instead of working she sat on the radiator and gazed
into space. . . . B I was horrified of course, and got down, but
she was frightened too for fear you would come, so that she was
all dead in a minute or two and IV came again. Then IV put
the boxes away and started for Cambridge. I can't tell 3'ou

much about it She did n't see she did n't see him about

any letters. She did n't have a vision of you in his presence.
What she did do was to ride as far as Harvard Square and then
get off to go toward the check man, or whatever you call him,
to get a ticket for another car. It was then that I made her
see you, or tried to. She stepped back in a bewildered sort of
way, hesitated a moment, and didn't take any check. Instead
B I came and being fearfully distressed to find herself there —
she didn't like Cambridge — got on the first car that came
along and returned to Boston. She forgot to get off at Exeter
Street and was carried way down town. I 'm afraid you won't
like this account of what happened at Cambridge because you

544 APPENDICES

believed B IV, but this is the true one. I can't explain what
she says in any way but this — that she had anticipated in her

mind what would occur when she met (B I often does) ,

and that you appeared in her dream surroundings instead of in
the actual ones. Perhaps she was lying — I don't know ; you
must determine that for yourself. It is so hard not knowing
her thoughts and she will never admit anything.

" After lunch C. carried her old lady down to Lloyd's, then
home, and promised to come back, if she could, for the after-
noon with her sewing, — the heathen sewing, you know. Then
on the way home IV came and seemed fearfully upset, so I
thought she 'd better see you. I did n't think the vision would
have frightened her so, but I 'd rather she would be frightened

ten times worse than to make trouble for . Please don't

be cross, though you know all about Friday afternoon.

" In the evening she wrote to you — then rolled herself up in
wet towels and laid down on the couch. Then I came and
wrote you, you know, and afterward went to bed — about ten
o'clock. I tried to get B I because I wanted her, but the first
thing that she did, as I might have known she would, was to
get out of bed and look for her sewing. She 's always think-
ing that some day IV and I are going to be nice. She was
much grieved to find that we had spent the afternoon and even-
ing differently from what she had planned. You know she was
preparing for Mrs. O.'s when she disappeared. Nothing par-
ticular happened Friday night. C. slept better than the night
before, although she was restless and kept talking and gritting
her teeth. I tried two or three times to get my eyes open to
see something outside, but I could n't. I could n't move any
part of her. In the morning IV, or V, was here again, and she
laid in bed for a long while thinking about something. I do
wish I knew what, for I 'm sure it was interesting. Miss K.
came while she was taking her bath to get her to go to some
meeting in the afternoon, and IV promised to go. Miss K.
is in love with somebody else now, and very rarely comes over.
Then Miss F. , the pretty girl, came, and she and IV talked, and
talked, and talked until lunch time ; and IV — it was too funny
for anything — fished out B I's little shirts from behind the
bookcase, where she had stuffed them in a rage, and showed

APPENDICES 545

them to Miss F. as her work. Why, Dr. Prince, there is n't a
bit of them hers — not a single stitch. After lunch B I did
one or two errands, called for Mrs. O., and took her home.
Then she kept changing every minute or two until she met
Miss K. The meeting was a mistake — the Grundmann meet-
ing, I should have said — so that B I rushed off home to sew
until four o'clock when she promised to go down town with
Miss K. to do some shopping. Mr. H. was here when she got
home, and B I was troubled by his manner which seemed rather
cold (IV doesn't like him and has been snubbing him. lie
thinks he has been deceived in B I, fancies her less unworldly
than she posed as being in the first of their acquaintance). B I
dismissed him at four o'clock, did the shopping with Miss K.,
had dinner, and came home to [I spread over so much paper
perhaps IV's record is better] sew, but then IV appeared again,
and skipped over to Miss F.'s house. She's (IV) awfully
afraid of the dark. Afterward Mr. B. came, and B I sewed,
with interruptions, until eleven o'clock. Mr. B. likes IV not
B I, but B I was very nice last night and they seemed to get
on well enough. IV makes him tell her everything, and he is
very bright and amusing then. B I would rather talk to deaf
old ladies and dirty little ragamuffins than to listen to really
interesting people. I like Mr. B. too. I 'm not going to write

any more now. I want back again. I want him awfully,

for he's always nice to me, and he knows so many things to
do. What is your kingdom ? ^ What is half of it? Please give
it to me now. Last night and to-day are going to be very hard
to write ; they are all mixed up. Can't I skip them and begin
with some time next week?

"S."

[March 10, 1902.] "You did n't say whether I could skip
Saturday night and Sunday and begin somewhere else. Please tell
me. I can't make very much out of the book incident myself —
or rather, what I do make out of it can't possibly be true. A long
time ago B I heard of the Baroness von Ilutten's book and,
seeing one of them in your Library, took it home to read — the

1 Referring to a jesting oflfer to reward her if she would write out those
accouuts.

546 APPENDICES

" Marr'd in Making" you know. I hope you may have read it
too, else you won't understand very well what I'm going to
say. B I found the book — found Beth at least an utterly in-
comprehensible creature, and had several discussions about it
with Miss L., that vivacious French woman, you remember?
C. was impressed by what Miss L. said, and rather shaken in
her convictions, so much so in fact that she re-read the book a
chapter at a time, making certain critical notes as she went
along. Then she had another talk with Miss L., which ended by
Mademoiselle telling her that she had no doubt whatever about
Beth being drawn from life — she had known dozens of girls
like her — but she realized the utter impossibility of a nature
like C.'s being able to see that. She said that very likely C.
would not recognize her even if she were living in the same
house with her; and so on. C. remained unconvinced, al-
though she said very little. I know that she was perfectly
sincere in this discussion — perfectly. Now IV.

" Interrupted by Mr. H. ; he has been here for two hours,
watching IV's poses. I '11 write it out for you later. I want to
finish this now.

" IV stumbled across the book by accident a few weeks ago
and read it through at one sitting. She seemed very much in-
terested in it, but I paid no particular attention until she asked
Miss T. about it and got her to read it. Then I was simply
astounded to hear them comparing notes of their own experi-
ences with those of Beth's. They thought Beth ' most won-
derfully interpreted,' they ' understood exactly how she felt in
the presence of any real emotion or feeling,' and they sympa-
thized deeply with her in her eflforts to avoid such scenes. At
the time I thought B IV was saying all these things for effect,
to draw out Miss T. I wondered why she should tell so many
lies.

" One would have been enough — just to say that she thought
the book good. Now, however, I am not so sure she was
lying. It may be that she really does understand Beth as one
akin to her, and that she would rather be like that than B I. Do
you think so? I could tell you heaps of tilings, if it didn't
take so long to write them, which, apparently very puzzling,

APPENDICES 547

could be explained very easily if this Beth thing were true.
And yet how can it be true? B I can't be something or
somebody whom she does n't in the least understand. Can
she, Dr. Prince? Do you know? And yet, one might say,
how can C. (IV) talk glibly of things which C. (I) has never
consciously heard or known, certainly never thought upon?

" I have n't got any where in this letter, I know. All the little
pieces need to be brought up, but I don't feel like writing any
more. It 's the very stupidest work. IV is terribly distressed

about something (I don't believe it's ), for she actually

cried this evening, pressing her side as if it hurt, and finally
taking a powder and some hot lemonade for it, or for me —
to fool me, you know. She was too funny with Mr. H., but
of that later."

A letter from Sally describing her lack of power over
a fused personality who had the combined memories of
B I and B IV, This fusion was brought about artificially
and will be described in Chapter XXIV. It will be noticed
that Sally writes as if she were still a persistent sub-
consciousness, as she was before she " got her eyes open " :

" Is C. going to be always herself now? Always strong men-
tally, I mean, so that no one can make her do things but you?
I tried yesterday, and to-day too; first for the sake of an
interesting experiment, you know — not to tease her — and I
could not make anything go. I thought it would be very easy,
and I began with a nice little gray mouse, which she saw just
for a second, but not half long enough to make it worth while.
Then I tried J , three times, in the most appealing atti-
tudes you can imagine ; and you, and a procession, and then
the mouse again, and nothing made any impression upon her.
She went back to you every time. Is she going to do that
now? It was just the same to-day when I tried to make her
walk, when I salted her lemonade, and when I tried to pre-
vent her reading B I's paper. T call it very tiresome if I'm
not going to be able to do anything more than I used to before
I got my eyes open. I should think you 'd nnnf nie to stay
and tell you things. When I 've written out the nights for you

548 APPENDICES

are you going to drop me and just have C. all the time? Isn't
there going to be anything else you want me to do ? I think
I 'd rather do psychological things than never, never talk to you.
Why, I thought it would be so terribly easy to make experi-
ments with C. now, because she is confused, although she has
both Fs and IV's memory, and being confused, it ought to be
easy enough to rattle her still more. And it would be — really
it would, were it not that I run up against you every time.

" When IV does come back I 've got loads to tell her. Is n't
she coming back? Please, Dr. Prince, tell me what you're
going to do. Are you going to try to mix me with IV and I ?
because you can't possibly. And are you going to tell them
I'm a subliminal? because I'm not; and are you going to
drop me when 1 finish the nights for you ?
" Yours."

APPENDIX L

MISS Beauchamp as a child frequently had visions
of the Madonna and Christ, and used to believe that
she had actually seen them. It was her custom when in
trouble, if it was only a matter of her school lessons, or
something that she had lost, to resort to prayer. Then she
would be apt to have a vision of Chiist. The vision never
spoke, but sometimes made signs to her, and the expression
of his face made her feel that all was well. After the
vision passed she felt that her difficulties were removed,
and if it was a bothersome lesson which she had been un-
able to understand, it all became intelligible at once. Or,
if it was something that she had lost, she at once went to
the spot where it was. On one occasion when she had
lost a key, her vision of Christ led her do^vn the street into
a field where under a tree she found the key. She con-
stantly used to have the sense of the presence of some one
(Christ, or the Madonna, or a Saint) near her, and on the
occasion of the visions it seemed simply that this person
had become visible.

APPENDICES 549

On the night of the very day when the account of her
early visions was given me by B II and confirmed by the
Real Miss Beauchamp, the latter had a vision of Christ
which I was able to investigate. Miss Beauchamp had
lost a bank check and was much troubled concerning it.
For five days she had made an unsuccessful hunt for it,
systematically going through everything in her room. She
remembered distinctly placing the check between the leaves
of a book, when some one knocked at her door, and this
was the last she saw of the check. She had become very
much troubled about the matter, and in consequence after
going to bed that night she was unable to sleep, and rose
several times to make a further hunt. Finally, at 3 o'clock
in the morning, she went to bed and fell asleep. At 4
o'clock she awoke with the consciousness of a presence in
the room. She arose and in a moment saw a vision of
Christ, who did not speak, but smiled. She at once felt as
she used to, that everything was well, and tliat the vision
foretold that she should find the check. All her anxiety
left her at once. The figure retreated toward the bureau,
but the thought flashed into her mind that the lost check
was in the drawer of her desk. A search, however, showed
that it was not there. She then walked automatically to
the bureau, opened the top drawer, took out some stuff
upon which she had been sewing, unfolded it, and there
was the check along with one or two other papers.

Neither Miss Beauchamp nor B II has any memory of
any specific thought wliich directed her to open the dmwer
and take out her sewing, nor of any conscious idea that the
check was there. Rather, she did it, so far as her con-
sciousness goes, automatically, as she used to do automatic
writing. B II, however, was able to give facts which make
the matter intelligible. Miss Beauchamp remembers dis-
tinctly putting the check in a book, but B II says that she
did not actually do this. She held the book in one hand

560 APPENDICES

and the check in the other with the full intention of plac-
ing the check in the book, but at this moment a knock
came at the door. Thereupon she laid the book and check
upon the table. After answering the summons at the
door she went to the table and picked up her sewing, and
unconsciously, at the same time, gathered up the check
and the other papers in the folds of the stuff, and folding
the whole together placed it in the bureau drawer. B II
remembers distinctly each detail of the act, but Miss Beau-
champ cannot recall it even now after being told of it.
(This memory involves the action of the secondary con-
sciousness, which we shall later study). Miss BeauchampV
real memory ceases with the intention, and the latter after-
ward became evolved into a delusional memory of having
carried out the intended action. A delusion of this kind
is quite common in normal people, and I suppose most
people have experienced it.

It is pretty clear, then, that the finding of the check in
this case was accomplished automatically by a subcon-
scious memory of Miss Beauchamp's act of putting it
away, and that the vision of Christ was the resuscitation
of an old automatism, under the influence partly of this
subconscious memory, and partly of the suggestion derived
from our conversation about some visions of her childhood
held a few hours previously.

Visions like those of Christ and the Madonna, which ex-
press the conscious or the subconscious thought of the
individual, are very common in religious history. From
the point of view of abnonnal psychology they are all to
be interpreted as sensory automatisms of which the genetic
factor is the person's own consciousness. (See Chapter
XXXI. ) The part played by the secondary consciousness
in solving the problems of her school lessons will be in
itself an interesting subject for later study. (Part III.)

APPENDICES 651

APPENDIX M

James' account (p. 223) of the Ratisbonne case, some-
what abbreviated, is as follows :

" The most curious record of sudden conversion with which
I am acquainted is that of M. Alphonse Ratisbonne, a free-
thinking French Jew, to Catholicism, at Rome in 1842. In a
letter to a clerical friend, written a few months later, the con-
vert gives a palpitating account of the circumstances.

" The predisposing conditions appear to have been slight.
He had an elder brother who had been converted and was a
Catholic priest. He was himself irreligious, and nourished an
antipathy to the apostate brother, and generally to his ' cloth.*
Finding himself at Rome in his twenty-ninth year, he fell in
with a French gentleman who tried to make a proselyte of him,
but who succeeded no farther, after two or three conversations,
than to get him to hang (half jocosely) a religious medal round
his neck, and to accept and read a copy of a short prayer to
the Virgin. M. Ratisbonne represents his own part in the
conversation as having been of a light and chaffing order ; but
he notes the fact that for some days he was unable to banish
the words of the prayer from his mind, and that the night
before the crisis he had a sort of nightmare, in the imagery of
which a black cross with no Christ upon it figured. Neverthe-
less, until noon of the next day he was free in mind and spent
the time in trivial conversations. I now give his own words.

"' . . . Coming out of the caf6 1 met the carriage of Monsieur
B. [the proselyting friend]. He stopped and invited me in for
a drive, but first asked me to wait for a few minutes whilst he
attended to some duty at the church of San Andrea delle Fratte.
Instead of waiting in the carriage, I entered the church myself
to look at it. The church of San Andrea was poor, small, and
empty ; I believe that I found myself there almost alone. No
work of art attracted my attention ; and I passed my eyes
mechanically over its interior without being arrested by any
particular thought. I can only remember an entirely black
dog which went trotting and turning before me as I mused.

552 APPENDICES

In an instant the dog had disappeared, the whole church had
vanished, I no longer saw anything, . . . or more trvly I saw,

0 my God, one thing alone.^

" ' Heavens, how can I speak of it? Oh, no! human words
cannot attain to expressing the inexpressible. Any description,
however sublime it might be, could be but a profanation of the
unspeakable truth.

" ' I was there prostrate on the ground, bathed in my tears
with my heart beside itself, when M. B. called me back to life.

1 could not reply to the questions which followed from him one
upon the other. But finally I took the medal which I had on
my breast, and with all the effusion of my soul, I kissed the
image of the Virgin, radiant with grace, which it bore. Oh,
indeed, it was She ! It was indeed She ! [What he had seen
was a vision of the Virgin.]

" ' I did not know where I was : I did not know whether I was
Alphonse or another. I only felt myself changed and believed
myself another me ; I looked for myself in myself and did not
find myself. In the bottom of my soul I felt an explosion of
the most ardent joy ; I could not speak ; I had no wish to re-
veal what had happened. But I felt something solemn and
sacred within me which made me ask for a priest. I was led
to one ; and there, alone, after he had given me the positive
order, I spoke as best I could, kneeling, and with my heart
still trembling. I could give no account to myself of the truth
of which I had acquired a knowledge and a faith. All that I
can say is that in an instant the bandage had fallen from my
eyes; and not one bandage only, but the whole manifold of
bandages in which I had been brought up. One after another
they rapidly disappeared, even as the mud and ice disappear
under the rays of the burning sun.' "

APPENDIX N

THE following is an extract from a letter which was
drawn forth in explanation of certain complications
that had arisen. It was written by the New B IV, with the
memories of B I and IV, and shows the interchanging of
the personalities, and their methods of mutual co-operation
as well as antagonism.

1 Xtalica are min^.

APPENDICES 553

"About three or four weeks ago Sally evolved a certain
scheme . . . and on the strength of it obtained my [IV] per-
mission to invite a friend to visit me for a couple of weeks,
beginning the first of June. This friend, I should say, is ex-
ceedingly distasteful to me [as B I], and in inviting her I [IV]
realized it and knew that I was risking a great deal. I knew
that it would mean constant evasion, shifting, and fencing,
with always the chance of an utter break-down as [B] I. But
the risk appealed to me [IV]. I craved the excitement of it,
and felt, too, that knowing me as slightly as this girl does, she
would not find anything very extraordinary in my behaviour,
provided Sally, by threats, etc., kept me [as B I] in order.

"Please do not misunderstand. Dr. Prince, and think I am
blind to all the horrid side of this. I am not indeed, but only
by giving it all to you can I hope to make things clear, or look
for you to help me. And I need help — awfully. I am fast get-
ting into the same nervous condition in which I was last year
at the end of my trip with Miss K. Only this time it is worse,
for it is present whether I am B I, IV, or wholly myself. Last
year it was not so, I think.

"The girl came, and things went smoothly enough for the
first two or three days, as Sally wrote up for me [IV] at night
everything that it was necessary for me to know. I [B I] did
not appear at all, although I had been warned by myself [IV]
in a letter of this girl's coming and knew what was expected of
me. That is, I [B I] knew that unless I did as I [IV] thought
best Sally would tell me [IV] of all my shortcomings, and I
[B I] would be made to repent them. But I think it was about
the third day of T.'s visit there began to be difficulties. Sally
refused to give up half the money as she had promised me [IV^]
she would do, and, not only that, she refused to answer any
questions concerning it. This made it inexpressibly difficult for
me. Everything T. projwsed had to be vetoed while the struggle
was going on. I could not walk or ride, see or be seen, meet
her friends or mine, or in fact do a single thing she wished.
Naturally, the girl did not understand ; she felt hurt and dis-
appointed, and seeing this made things ten times worse for me.
I [IV] sat up all night long trying to reason with Sally. I [B I]
hunted everywhere for the money. Then I [IV] fought Sally

654 APPENDICES

threatened to make me [IV] ' dead ' and bring I. She suc-
ceeded for a time. I became B I, but things were no better,
for, as I told you in the beginning, this girl is exceedingly dis-
tasteful to me as B I. Not only that, I cannot — strange as
it seems now — understand her in the least. I cannot talk with
her, and all that she says is strange and foreign to me, — our
points of view are so entirely different. Nevertheless, I [B I]
tried feverishly to keep up with her and to be nice to her, know-
ing very well what would happen if I did not. But, Dr. Prince,
that sort of thing is not easy for me as B I. I do not think I
deceived the girl for an instant. She knew that something
had changed me, and that I, as I sat there listening, did not like
her. And I knew that she knew.

This has been going on for about two weeks now, and will
last for about two more, — until the twenty-sixth. You have
no idea how great the nervous strain upon me is. And there
is no way of lightening it except by using force to make Sally
keep her word. I am unwilling for certain reasons to have
you do this. But if you will only help me to hold out until the
end of this month, if you will only help me to keep my mind
clear, to stay myself, to have courage, to believe in the future,
I shall be forever grateful to you."

The following letters let the difficulties of management
be seen :

[From B IV.] " I am expecting to be at the office from
eleven until one every morning this week except Saturday. If
it is convenient for you to come there, I need hardly say — after
my letter — that I shall be awfully glad to see you. I think
I have never in my life felt quite so helpless, and so at a loss
to know how to move."

[P. S.] ^''Please, please don't come, Dr. Prince. Tell her
it is n't convenient, or that you 're going to China, or something.
I don't want you to come. / don't want yoxi to. I will answer
your letter to-morrow, perhaps. I can't now, for I 'm going out.
Please stay in Newport. It is terribly hot here, and you know

APPENDICES 555

B IV is always horrid — always — there would n't be any use in
your coming. Yours sincerel}',

" S. B."
" I know lots of things about B IV that she does n't know.
Don't you tell her though."

[From B IV.] " Can you forgive me ? I have only just dis-
covered that the letter to which I supposed yours was an answer
never reached you ! What you did receive must have been some
invention of Sally (or the devil?) worded in such a way as to
mislead you. My own letter, with the details which it annoyed
me so to have you ignore, came to light this morning, together
with several letters written apparently by B I. I need not
trouble you with them now. I ouly want you to know that I
am sorry to have misjudged you."

[P. S.] "Why do you want to see her, Dr. Prince? She's

cross about . That's all. She doesn't want to see him,

or speak to him, or even write him. And she must, for he's
very lonely, very, very. Please stay in Newport a little while
longer. You will, won't you? Nobody is in town now, and
Mrs. P. wants you there with her. Are you cross with me
now? Please don't be."

[Aug. 27, 1900.] "Please come, dear Dr. Prince. I want
you .so much. I can't make B IV go, nor B I. . . . Everything
is wrong here. Come, please !

" Sally Beauchamp."

[Two days later. Aug. 29, 1900.] " I won't do anything for
you. So. S. B."

" And you can't see B IV nor B I. I shall write them."

[Two days later. Sept. 1, 1900.] "... Wlien arc you
coming back? I thought you said it would be yesterday. And
when do you want me to write the summer auto stuff for yu?
I want you to come back. Only please don't be cross with me
when you come. Everything is in a dreadful muddle lierc, but
I can't help it. . . . J. doesn't scold me, you know.

"S. B."

556 APPENDICES

[From rV, Sept. 1, 1900.] "... From your beginning to
hypnotize me last Friday until your coming to-day I remember
but two things : One, leaning forward in a carriage in order to
read a note (Sally's) by the light of the street lamp. The
other, tearing off a lot of coverings (flannel, etc.) which seemed
to be burning my chest. Neither of these things could have
occupied more than five minutes at the very most, and all
before and after, until your coming, is blank. Can you won-
der that I was surprised to see you ? puzzled to know what
had brought you? and bitterly, bitterly, disappointed that you
should have failed again in your attempt to help me ? I was
rude, perhaps. I seem to be always that with you. But you
do not know how very hard I find it to understand you. One
should have learned something in a year, yet I confess, freely,
that you puzzle me just as much as at first. I can see no
earthly reason for your saying that you can help me, can make
me whole, if it is beyond your power to do so. I do not
believe that it is. I think that you are sincere, perfectly sin-
cere, and that you can make me whole. Yet you do not.
Every time you hypnotize me, greater blanks^ are produced in
my memory. I am put to all sorts of shifts and pretences to
save myself from open sneers and ridicule. Can't you see how
very hard it makes things for one? And won't you, if you can,
tell me wherein I am lacking ? What must I do ? How co-oper-
ate with you to gain the good you prophesy ? I cannot, I will
not, endure this existence another year.

" Do not misinterpret what I have written, Dr. Prince, and
believe me,

" Sincerely and penitently,"

[Oct. 8, 1900. Forged letter (by Sally) from me to B I. ]

"My dear Miss Beauchamp: When you have learned
self-control and can behave like a rational being I shall be glad
to do what I can for you. At present all my effort is worse
than wasted because of your attitude of hostility. I do not
wish to spend valuable time in this manner."

1 The " blanks " referred to were either B I or the new (completely fused)

APPENDICES 657

[From IV.] " Sally has said so much of your disliking to
receive letters that I hardly dare venture to write you. Yet
there are certain things which must be explained, if possible.
I did not intend yesterday to express the slightest doubt re-
garding Dr. P t's ability. It was only that I felt, and

still feel, the utter hopelessness of attempting to treat the

trouble with pills and powders. I know that I have brought it
all on myself, and that you consider me greatly to blame for the
complications of the past year. But I did not understand until
a few weeks ago what these complications might lead to, and
how very serious the matter really was. . . . How can I explain

such things to Dr. P 1, to any one? Dr. H should

never have known had I not believed, in my pride, that I
could end it all immediately. I am wiser now. I bow to Sally
unless you help me, and, as B IV, I cannot hope for that. . . ."

[P. S. by Sally.]

" Dear Dr. Prince : Please let me know, or let B IV know,
what day you want to see her. And 2>lease, please^ don't scold
me because of what she says. I was so glad to see you last

week, and so was she. She cried when Dr. P 1 said, take

the chocolate tablets. Don't tell her anything I say, will you ?

"S. B."

[From Sally, October 9, 1900.] "You didn't give me the
bills as you said you would, so that unless I write you this
afternoon, or write the family, I shall certainly get into mis-
chief again. I can't help it. I have n't been here since 1
brought B I yesterday, and I'm simply aching to do something.
I 'd like to go way off ever so far in the country, or else be in
a spilly boat, — one of the sea-sick kind, you know — for hours
and hours. It would be so splendid !

"I don't know who is here now. These new people, or
new-old ones, whatever they are, are most puzzling. I thought
B II was always B II whether you hypnotized B I or IV, but
she isn't. If you start with B I, II is more like her, and if
you start with B IV she 's more like that. Don't you think
so?^ And then after she wakes up again it's the same way.

1 So far as II is concerned Sally is mistaken, but after waking, all sort* of
mixtares could be made.

558 APPENDICES

I don't think they 're properly mixed, for you don't get a new one,
as you thought you would. It 's only B I with I V's memories
or IV with B I's memories. It is, really. Can't you see it?
I should think you could, from their letters and manner.

"That old journal they 're so proud of is the funniest thing —

it does n't go so , as it should, but so J

And sometimes it's backwards, and sometimes it's wrong, —
upside down, you know. I could improve it immensely and
make it heaps more interesting if I were to revise it. Would
you? It would be great fun.

" I didn't want her (It, B I, or IV) to write you that letter
last night, but she was determined to do it.

" I think that when you try to put them together that after-
ward if it's B I in the beginning she's stronger, and if it's IV
in the beginning she's weaker. Ordinarily I could have made
B I dead and confiscated the old letter ; or I could have writ-
ten IV and she would have destroyed it herself. You spoiled
all that, you see, so, ' you must take the consequences ; ' as you
say to me always.

' ' We are friends again, are n't we. Dr. Prince, for I brought
B I back to you? I'm going to be perfectly angelic now, but
you must suggest things [to do].

"Sally."

November 30, 1900, one of the new selves had written
an analysis of her mental attitude as IV with fused memo-
ries. The latter part of this was made illegible by Sally,
who enclosed the following :

" I wonH have any more psychological papers in this family /
So!

"You could keep me if you wanted to! You want me all
squeezed again ! "

The following incoherent letter illustrates the rattling
of B I's mind as a result of her many trials. It is one of
many such :

" If you can come to me morning that you will, so to trouble

you.

*' Sincerely,"

APPENDICES 559

APPENDIX O

ON another occasion B IV had a vision which in its
genesis resembled the one just described, and is worth
mentioning as evidence of the origin of visions. B IV was
in one of her nervous, fatigued states, as a result of a
battle with Sally, and was much wrought up over the pos-
sible fate of some bogus letters which Sally had written to
me. The letters were not intended for my eyes, but for
TV's perusal. In each letter she described every little
private act of IV and thought of I, such as no one would
want any one else to know of one's self, and then left the
letter where IV might see it. IV's consternation and fury
at finding her life laid bare may be imagined. Of course
she destroyed every letter she could lay her hands on, but
some Sally managed to save, and made her believe that
they, along with others, were sent to me, though Sally
never had any intention that I should see them.

On learning that I had not received the letters, IV's
anxiety was increased by the fear that they had fallen into
less friendly hands. In this condition of mind she set out
lor Cambridge, thinking that she might have sent them by
mistake in a state of abstraction to a friend who lived
there.

Now I had very earnestly forbidden visits to Cambridge,
and her conscience told her that she should not go. How-
ever, she went, and when she reached llarvaitl Square, a
moment after stepping off the car, she saw me stinding
liefore her and heaixi me upbraid her, saying, " Don't you
think you owe me something in return for what has been
done for you ? " These were the same words 1 once used
in reprimanding her.

660 APPENDICES

APPENDIX P

THE first of the following wrathful letters from Sally
was owing to my having remarked to the Real Miss
Beauchamp that after all Sally was only a part of herself,
and was a child not to be taken too seriously. It was
written during one of the break-downs.

"I'm not a child. If you think I am, you're terribly mis-
taken. That comes of having a lot of theories that you fit
people to, regardless of what those people really are. It 's
always your theories you have in mind — not at all the people.
You could n't make me a part of C. if you tried for fifty years,
and she can't do it either. Just because she 's ashamed of cer-
tain tastes she has — tastes which are really her salvation — she
fancies that ' Sally is cropping out again.' Why don't you
read her journal? Why don't you see what's wrong with her,
instead of blaming me for everything ? Am I the only person
who likes to be amused? the only one who finds men interest-
ing ? How perfectly silly to blame me for what she does !
And what rot to argue that, because she is now doing some of
the things I always liked to do, that we are identical. I am
myself — just as different from C. as you are. And you 've been
wicked, hard, and unkind to me. You 've tried to make me
dead. You wanted me just as long as you thought there were
things to be discovered about C, and then, when you fancied
you knew it all, you squeezed me almost to death. My not
being wholly dead simply shows that you don't know quite
everything yet — even about C. How could you do it ? Do
you like to treat me so ? You ought to have let me alone —
left me with people who do understand. Weren't you truly
sorry for my being shut inside years and years and years? Do
you remember all you said to me about it, or have you forgot-
ten, as you forgot the hickory, dickory, dock and Mother
Hubbard things?^ I 'm going away soon. Shall you miss me?
But I could n't believe what you say. You 've treated me like

1 Referring to a test of Sally's persistence nnder ether.

APPENDICES 661

hell. If one of those hypnotism men put C. to sleep I could
stay as long as I wanted to. That's what I'm going to do."

[Another letter.] "If you think that person^ is C, then you
don't know very much about psychology. Don't you know C?
I am not jealous, but I 'm not squeezed either. That was
mock ether. I know C. and I know the difference between real
people and the kind you make up. C. is real. This one is
made up. You forget the willing part. You are n't fair to me,
and when you tell that person you are, it is only to hoodoo. I
would n't be jealous of her. Pooh !

" Sally Beauchamp."

The following is a hallucinatory forged letter from Sally
to one of the Miss Beauchamps and copied as a hallucina-
tion from a blank sheet of paper by " Miss Beauchamp."

"Because of your apparently broken condition last night I
did not wish to dwell upon the ' hallucinations.' But please
understand that they are likely to be repeated. Pull yoijrself
together and take them as they come. If you particularly
dislike them you can always ' move on.'
" Sincerely,

*' M. P.'

"I shall not be able to see you to-night."

APPENDIX Q

THE following illustrates Sally's inability to wTite when
badly " squeezed." She was then obliged to resort
to printing ; sometimes both printed and written character
were illegible. Ordinarily, her handwriting is like that of
the primary personalities, and very different from that
given below.

1 An incompletely fused person with combined memories, hut not C. in
character.

[1]

/p^-^::^ /L^^-<^ jL^„^^2^

-f

[2]

''^>t^^ ,;:i:^<l<: .=*^C-x_<.

[3 and 4]

INDEX

Aboidia, 118, 120.
definition of, 15.

due to subcon.scious ideas, 120. <■
examples of, 121, 123, 124, 469.
Absentmindedness, 192, 193.
a form of dissociation, 193.
not identi(;al witli hysterica] anes-
thesia, 193.
Abstraction, as a method of studying
systematized anesthesia, 69.
and automatic speech, 501.
and automatic writing, 61.
Akinesia Algera, 94.
Alexia, induced by subconscious

action, 508.
Alternation, of rational hypnotic self
with ecstatic waking self, 348 ; of
sane and delirious personalities,
114-16, 226, 475.
Amnesia, anterograde, 236.

hysterical, 74-5 ; due to dissocia-
tion, 255-61, 263-4.
not essential for alteration of per-
sonality, 23C).
of B IV and B I, of hysterical type,

2.55.
of B IV and B I for " new per-
son," 402; for the Keal Miss
Beauchamp, 522.
retrograde, 217, 236, 258.
sul)conscious induction of, 285.
Anesthesia, hysterical, 76-8 ; duo to
dissociation of consciruisne.ss, 76,
78; experiments in, 77.
peculiar form of, manifested by

Sally, 147.
system'atized, 67-76, 78, 189-94;
dissociated images remain iso-
lated, 192; dissociated images
part of a subconscious .self, 194 ;
due to belief, 191 ; due to disso-
ciation of cousciousnoss, 456 ; due
to subconscious willing, 194 ; ex-
periments in, 67 ; subconscious
inducti(m of, 284, 538, .539-40.
Angst-Neurose, 132.
Automatic, facial expression, 157-8.

inhibition of thought, 275.

speech, 58-60, 157, 275, 431, 469,
501, 507, 532.

writing. 61, 62, 361-6, 376-7,
379-80, 382-6; as mauife.sta-
tiou of alternation of conscious-
ness, 147, 365-6 ; as evidence of
a co-consciousness, 365.
Automatisms, 58, 177.

as evidence of co-consciousnesa,
145, 158.

emotional, 262.

motor; examj)les of, 37, 58-60, 93,
94, 156-7, 158, 162, 256, 257,
284, 538.

sensory (see Visions), visions re-
garded as, 85.
Auto-suggestion, influence of on hyp-
notic states, 447.
Azam, 5.

B I, amnesia for new person, 402 ;
for Real Miss Beauchamp, 522.
character-traits of, 288-94.
insi.stent ideas, 295-7.
somnambulistic theory of, 213, 234,

236.
stigmata of hysteria, 237.
B II, a synthesis of B I and B IV.
267-7'2, 282, 449 ; the He.il
Miss Beaucl)amp, 519.
B IV, amnesia for new person. 402;
for Real Mi.-^s Beancliamp, 522.
character-traits of, 288-94.
dissociation and automatism, 283-

5.
insistent ideas, 295-7.
sources of knowledge of amnesic

periods, 243, 2.53.
theorv of being Heal Mi.ss Bean-
clia"mp, 215-17. 23S.
B rV a, charncter of. 446-7. 452-4 ;

as a tyjio of disintegration, 445.
Bain, f/wiid, 326.
Barrow. Ira, 194. .331.
Bemheim, f>'^.
Binet, <{w>tal, 69, 70 ; 232

566

INDEX

Blindness, hysterical, 69, 191, 286;
monocular, 148.
subconscious induction of, 284, 538.
Boetean, M., 459 note, quoted 470.

Cases cited :

A.B., 133.

Anna Winsor, Miss (" Old
Stump"), 194, 331.

Ansel Bourne, 186, 213, 236.

B., Mme., 4, 46 note, 146 note, 366.

B— w, S., 75.

C. D., Mrs., 133.

Charles W., 234, 236.

D., Mme., 257.

E. B., Mrs., 77, 78.

Fanny S., 62, 74, 75, 353, 354.

Felida X., 5, 232, 233 note.

H., Mrs., 62.

J— D, Mrs., 235, 286.

Louis Vive, 5.

Lucie, 460.

M— 1, 152, 256, 465, 510.

Marcelline R., 233 note.

Marie M., 470.

Mary H., 353.

Mary Reynolds, 233 note.

R., Mrs. (" Mamie "), 4, 43 note, 78.

Ratisbonne, 350, 551.

" Smead," Mrs., 4.

" Smith," Miss, 4.

Thomas C. Hanna, Rev., 213, 260.

W., Mrs., 263.

Wilson's case of multiple person-
ality, 474 note.
Character, alterations of, not wholly
due to memory, 299, 300, 410-11.

artificial modifications of, 403-5.

differences of, in B I and B I V, 201.

traits of B I and B IV, 288-96.
Charcot, 148, 257 ; (juoted, 533.
Chris (see Sally).

Co-consciousness and Concomitant
consciousness (see Subconscious-
ness).
Consciousness, alternation of a sane
and delirious, 114-16, 226, 475.

coexistence of a sane and delirious,
83, 116, 226, 257, 458, 471, 475.

latent, 530.

normal secondary, 86.

persistence of secondary, during
sleep, 329-31,333-41.

content of, in trance state, 348-9.
Conversion, disintegration in sudden,
353-4 ; part played by the sul)-
couscious in sudden, 352-d.

Deafness, from snbconscions influ-
ence, 457.
Delirium, coexistence of a delirious
and a sane consciousness, 83, 116,
226, 257,458, 471, 475.

hysterical, 114, 194.
Disintegration (see Dissociation), 75.

of personality, examples of, B a,
472 ; B I a 307 ; B I b, 462 ;
B II a, 462; B IVa, 445 ; B IV b,
256, 457-9, 461 ; B IV c, 462-65 ;
B IV d, 466, 472; B V, 267,
466.

as factor in hallucinations, 354,
512-3.

other examples of, 256-7, 506, 537.

schemata of, 308, 309, 448, 465,
466, 520.

the expression of neurasthenia, 523.
Dissociated ideas (see Subconscious
ideas), 69.

memories recovered in abstraction,
254-5.

sensations (see Systematized Anes-
thesia).
Dissociation of consciousness (Per-
sonality) (see Disintegration and
Systematized Anesthesia), 3, 22,
75.

a normal process, 193.

as a factor in sudden conversion,
354.

as basis of hypnotic states, 461,
474.

in amnesia, 255-61, 263-4.

in hysterical anesthesia, 76, 78.

in sleep, hypnosis, and absent-
mindedness, 75, 193.

in systematized anesthesia, 69-70,
456.

in trance and epileptoid states,
193.
Donley, John E., 262 note.
Doubling of consciousness (sec Auto-
matism, Subconsciousness, Sys-
tematized Anesthesia, etc.).

as an artifact, 50.

difficulty of proving in normal per-
sons, 42, 50.

evidenced by coexistence of sane
and delirious consciousness, 83,
116,226, 257,471, 475.

in absentmindedness, 192.

in hysteria, 45.

in .systematized anestliesia, 69.

result of dissociation, 22.
Doubling of perceptions, 83.

INDEX

667

i Dreams, part played by secondary
consciousness in, 328-9 ; time of
occurrence and persistence of,
331-2.
Dumbness, as result of subconscious
influence, 275, 284, 285, 540.

Ecstasy, 345.

Emotion, as factor in sudden conver-
sion, 348-54.
difference in psycbology of, and

ideas, 325.
disintegrating effect of, 20, 22, G5,

215, 324,3.54, 4.58-61.
integrating effect of pleasurable,

324-5.
revivified by as.sociation, 87, 262.

Emotional automatism, 262-3.

Emotions, common to B I and B IV,
297-8, 324; induced by subcou-
scious ideas, 297-8, 324.

Epileptoid states, forms of dissocia-
tion, 193.

Fear (see Obsessions), indefinable,
from subconscious ideas, 132-5,
297-8, 324.
Fere, 68, 69.

Fixed ideas (see Imperative ideas),
examples of, 133.
in hysterics, 295-7.
subconscious fi.\od fear, 132.
subconscious, in hysteria, 45, 61,
132-5, 297-8.
Floumoy, 4.

Greenwood, 449 note.
Griessinger, 286.
Gumey, Edmund, 43, 474.

Hallucinations (see Visions), absent
in normal self, 524.
as expressions of belief, 176, 189,

216, 285, 286, 321-2, 3.54, 417,
440, 506, 509, 511-12, 540.

from snbcon.Hcious ideas, 509-10,
548-50, 559.

induced by subconscious volition
or action, 284, 416, 432, 48.3-4,
486, 497, 507-9, 536, .539-40,
561.

negative (see Systematized Anes-
thesia), 68, 189-94; due to belief,
191 ; due to subconscious willing,
194.

sensory, induced by subconscious
suggestion, 451-2.

subconscious induction of, 285, 286,
.539, 548-50.
Health of different personalities, 1 7,

287.
Hodgson, E., 5, 186, 197, 235, 239, 244.
Hypnosis, a form of dissociation, 193,

461. 474.
Hypnotic self, B II a synthesis of
two personalities (B land B I V),
267-72, 282.
may refu.se suggestions, 449-51.
memory of, 85.
memory for subconscious states, 44,

46, 48, 73-5.
not c<iuivalent to subconscious self,
42-5, 74.
Hypnotic states, number in same per-
son, 474.
Hyslop, J. H., 4.
Hysteria, dissociation of mind in, 22.

Illusions, as expression of a l)olief,

(ace Hallucinations) 216, 285.
Imperative (insistent) ideas (see
Fixed ideas), of subconscious
origin, 61, 121.
in hysterics, 295.
Impulsions (see Motor Automatism),
61, 104, 118, 120.
due to subconscious ideas, 120.
examples of, 121, 124.
Instability, hysterical, 65.

James, William, 5, 186, 350-2,551.

Janet, Jules, 233.

Janet, Pierre, 69, 70, 121, 146 note,

193, 257, (/noted, 295; 299 note,

366, 460.

Lasagne's Symptom, 149.
Linenthal, H., 152.

Mayer, Edward E , 234.

Memory, isolate<l flashes of, 253, 261.
recovered tlir()Ui!;h prtM-c.-w of ab-
straction, 254; throuijh visions,
255.

Memories, of B I and B IV fused by
stigfiestion, 400-4.

Mental Strain, 466.

Meyers, F. W. H., 4f.(> note.

Mitchell, 8. Weir, 23.3 tioie.

Keurasthenia, (lisnp]>earanco of, in
complete syntliosis t»f tlic " new

S'rson," 404, and of Real Miss
eauchamp, 523-4.

568

INDEX

Neurasthenia — continued.
hysterical, examples of, 65.
expression of disintegration, 523.
result of disintegration, 22, 287,

459.
result of emotion, 459.
Neurosis, association, 22, 262.

traumatic, 22, 23, 64, 459.
New B I and New B IV, incomplete

syntliesis of 1 and IV, 401-3.
New Person, The, a complete synthe-
sis of B I and B IV, 401-3;
absence of neurasthenia in, 404.

Obsessions (see Impulsions and
Fixed ideas), 132.
of subconscious origin, 61.
indefinable fears, 132-5, 297-8,324.

Farinaud, 148.

Perception, doubling of, 83.
personal in systematized anesthesia,
73, 192 ; failure of, in same, 69.

Personality, alternation of, 3; am-
nesia not essential for same, 23G ;
amnesia of disintegrated, due to
dissociation, 263.
disintegrated, 3, 474-5 ; etiology of

same, 22.
frequency of changes of, in case of
Miss Beauchamp, 205, 334-41,
530, 541-7, 552.
multiple, 3, 4, 5, 474-5.

Personalities, secondary, pathology
of, 475 ; often mistaken for
normal self, 233 ; not normal
and always inferior to original
self, 233.

Pitres, 148.

Real Miss Beauchamp, 402, 406, 516-
21.
freedom from abnormal phenom-
ena and ill health, 404, 524.

Sally (Chris), anesthesia, 147.

as a sane subconsciousness during
delirium, 83, 116, 145, 226,458,
471,475.

as a subconsciousness, 17, 45, 50,
53, 145.

as an alleged continuous co-con-
sciousness, 393, 439-43.

claims never to sleep, 153, 326, 330,
333-41.

disappears in complete synthesis
of B I and B IV, 405, 524.

extent of subconscious field, 154.

freedom from ill health, 149, 162,

287.

her explanation of dreams, 328-30.

hypnotizes B IV, 319.

ignorance of B IV's thoughts, 181.

ignorance of time, 153-4.

memory, 81, 151, 238, 501.

never dreams, 376 note.

question of subconscious existence,
145.

remembers forgotten dreams, 153.

without sen-se of fatigue, 150, 287.
Sedg^ck, Mrs., 474.
Self (see Personality), normal real,
232.

normal real, often mistaken for
secondary self, 233.

that best adapted to any environ-
ment, 233.
Sidis, Boris, 152, 213, 256, 260, 265

note, 352 7iote.
Sidis and Ooodhart, 260.
Sleep, a form of dissociation, 193;
persistence of secondary con-
sciousness during, 329-31, 333-
41.
Souques, 257.

Subconscious ideas, 44, 45. (See
Dissociated ideas.)

induction of alexia, 508 ; of amne-
sia, 285 ; of automatic speech,
256-7, 284, 41G-7, 431, 457,
469, 501, 507; of blindness, 284,
538 ; of deafness, 457 ; of hallu-
cinations, 284, 285, 286, 321-2,
417, 432, 451-2, 483-4, 486, 497,
507-9, 536, 539, 548-50, 561 ; of
hypnosis, 319; of muscular
movements, 1.56-7, 256-7, 284,
538 ; of systematized anesthesia,
284, 286, 538.

inhibition of hearing, 322; of
speech, 275, 284, 285, 537,540;
of thought, 275.

mind as factor in sudden conver-
sion, 352, 353.

perceptions, 54, 279, 328-9 ; in sys-
tematized anesthesia, 70.

reasoning, 37, 189, 365, 442.

spontaneous action on primary
mind (see Aboulia, Automa-
tism, Automatic speech, Writ-
ing, Deafness, Dumbness, Hal-
lucinations, Visions, etc.), 283-5,
438-42.

suggestion to primary self, 438,
456.

INDEX

569

Sabconscious self, definition of, 18, 46.

facial expression of, 157-8.

not ecjuivalent to hypnotic self, 45.

required to be hypnotized coinci-
dently with the primary self,
322-3, 450-1.

Sally (Chris) as a, 17, 45, 50, 53,
145, 438-43.
Subconsciousness, definition of, 46,

529.
. difficulty of proof of normal, 42.

Sally's account of her own
thoughts, 438-42 ; interpreta-
tion of same, 442-3.
Suggestibility, 66.

Suggestion, post-hypnotic, 36, 43,
60, 69, 109; (phenomena) as
artifacts, 43, 50, 57, 74 ; as man-
ifestations of doubling of con-
sciousness, 50, 57 ; as system-
atized anesthesia, 69.

subconscious, to primary self, 438,
456.

therapeutic effect of, 20, 21, 139,
143.

Thompson, Mrs., 474.
Trance, as factor in sudden conver-
sion, 348-50.

a form of dissociation, 193.

induced by associated ideas, 87.

states, 87-9, 348.

Vision, of B IV's advent, 211.

of Christ, 548.
of hospital episode, 220, 531.
Visions, crystal, 78, 159, 284, 536.
experimental study of, 55.
produced by fi.xation of attention,

210, 211, 255.
series of experiments in crystal,

55, 79.

Willing, subconscious, 58, 93, 94.
WUls, contest of, 120, 122, 125, 157,

285, 540.
Wilson, Albert, 474.

Zwangsvorstellungen, 121.

rj4

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