The dissociation of a personality : a biographical study in abnormal psychology

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Preface

The 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 personality, as exemplified by the very remarkable case of Miss Beauchamp. In this study I have (a) traced the development of the different personalities which originated through the disintegration of the normal self, and (5) 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, so that when we come to consider in another volume the psychological problems involved, we shall have a knowledge 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 vi

PREFACE biography, I heave 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 I 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;

( b ) The Subconscious under normal and abnormal

conditions ;

(c) Hypnosis, Sleep, Dreams, and Somnambulism ;

(d) Hysteria;

( e ) Neurasthenic States;

(/) Alterations of Character;

(y) Hallucinations, Fixed Ideas, Aboulia, Amnesia, etc.

PREFACE

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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.

Preface To The Second Edition

IN this edition some additional data which throw further light on the phenomenon of sudden conversion have been incorporated in an appendix (R). These data, which were obtained after the first edition went to press, complete those given in Chapter XXI. They were included in a paper entitled “ The Psychology of Sudden Religious Conversion ” published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, April, 1906. Besides this additional observation on the case which is the basis of this volume, a brief account is appended of another case of conversion (of a nonreligious type) which I recently had an opportunity to submit to psycho-analysis almost immediately after the phenomenon occurred. A number of minor typographical and clerical errors in the text have been corrected since the first printing. The publication of Parts III and IV, which are now nearly completed, has been delayed, owing to the

Vlll

PREFACE large amount of new material which has been collected as the result of continued investigations. A new case of dissociated personality, fully as rich as the first in psychological phenomena, though not so dramatic in episodes, has been continuously studied for nearly two years and has furnished a considerable part of this material. The findings in this case confirm in every way those obtained in the Beauchamp case. The gain, through the use of this material, will prove, I believe, well worth the delay. I have also thought it wise to depart somewhat from the original plan of publication of succeeding parts. My present intention is to present in separate parts the study of each problem, one or more parts to a volume as may be most convenient. Part III will deal with the Co-conscious and Part IV with the Unconscious. These subjects should logically precede dissociated personality, hypnosis, and other allied states which cannot be comprehended without a knowledge of the co-conscious and the unconscious. I would add that the same is true of the principles of psycho-therapy, which is so much in vogue at the present day. A stream of literature on psycho-therapy, or the mental treatment of nervous disorders, has during the last year or two come from the press, and there is at the present time a widely awakened public interest in this subject; but no treatment, whether psychic or physical, can be rational unless based on a sound knowledge of psycho-pathology. Any other basis of treatment must be empirical and therefore too often ineffective. As experimental research has shown that co-conscious and unconscious processes play a very extensive part in many functional nervous disorders, it is evident that a knowledge of these processes is absolutely essential for intelligent therapeutics.

August, 1908.

Part I The Development Of The Personalities

THE

DISSOCIATION OF A PERSONALITY

PART I

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERSONALITIES

Chapter I Introductory

Miss Christine L. Beauchamp,1 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 memories 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 thought, by different views, beliefs, ideals, and temperament, and by different acquisitions, tastes, habits, experiences, and memories. Each varies in these respects from the other two, and from the original Miss Beauchamp. Two of these personalities have no knowledge of each other or of the third, excepting such information as may be obtained by inference or second

1 Pronounced Beecham. This name, which I have adopted for the purpose 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.

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 personalities come and go in kaleidoscopic succession, many changes often being made in the course of twrenty-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 social complications and embarrassments resulting from this inconvenient mode of living would furnish a multitude 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 happy 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 ethical lines of cleavage. For although the characters of the personalities widely differ, the variations are along the lines of moods, temperament, and tastes. Each personality is incapable of doing evil to others.

INTRODUCTORY

Cases of this kind are commonly known as u double or u multiple personality,” according to the number of persons represented, but a more correct term is disintegrated personality, for each secondary personality is a part only of a normal whole self. No one secondary personality preserves the whole psychical life of the individual. The synthesis of the original consciousness known as the personal ego is broken up, so to speak, and shorn of some of its memories, perceptions, acquisitions, or modes of reaction to the environment. The conscious states that still persist, synthesized among themselves, form a new personality capable 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 normal personalities. Disintegration as thus used must not be confused with the same term sometimes employed in the sense of degeneration, meaning a destroyed mind or organically diseased brain. Degeneration implies destruction of normal psychical processes, and may be equivalent to insanity ; whereas the disintegration resulting in multiple personality is only a functional dissociation of that complex organization which constitutes a normal self. The elementary psychical processes, in themselves normal, are capable of being reassociated into a normal whole.

Quite a number of -cases of disintegrated or multiple personality have been observed, sufficient to establish beyond all doubt the bona fide character of the phenomena, as well as the general principles underlying their development. The cases thus far studied and reported have represented varying degrees of complexity of organization of mental states and independence of the personalities. In the simpler forms the secondary personalities are manifested through highly synthesized “ automatic ” or hypnotic phenomena, and are recognized only as subconscious states through so-called automatic writing, and kindred manifestations, or else as states of hypnosis. The state called “ Mamie,” in the case of Mrs. R., reported by the writer,1 and those of L^ontine and Ldonore in the case of Madame B., described by Dr. Pierre Janet, are examples of this simpler class.

In more fully developed forms the second personalities are identical with the trance states of mediums, like that of Miss “ Smith,” studied by M. Flournoy, and that of Mrs. “ Smead,” studied by Professor Hyslop. In such cases the second personality does 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 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 possession 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, that is, artificially induced types of disintegration, are

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

INTRODUCTORY rarely, if ever, sufficiently complete, and possessed of adequate spontaneous adaptability to the environment to constitute veritable personalities.

In the most fully developed forms, in cases like that of Felida X., reported by M. Azam ; of Louis Vive, studied 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 which permits complete, free, and spontaneous activity , approximating, 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 limitation set by poor general health ; and, as a matter of fact, each 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 disintegrated 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 behaviour 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.

Miss Beauchamp has been under observation of one kind or another for many years, 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 phenomena which are the object of this study, as well as of the causes, physical and psychical, which led to their development, 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 limit 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 Beauchamp,” or when I say “ she ” or “ her,” it may pertinently be asked, “ Which Miss Beauchamp ? ” or “ Which she?” It will facilitate a comprehension of the important features of the case, and a better appreciation of the various situations, as they unfolded themselves in this psychological drama, if for the present the name Miss Beauchamp is limited to the person with whom I first became acquainted and who was known to her intimate friends, schoolmates, and teachers. 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 ac-

INTRODUCTORY 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 purpose 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 Beauchamp was well known, even if her circle was a small one, and that when she came under observation she had established during the course of a number of years strong bonds of association with her friends. If it turned out that our prot£g6 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 1 (1898-1904) the three personalities have been playing a comedy of errors, which has been sometimes farcical and sometimes tragic. They run

1 Written in 1904.

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, and with the exception of Sally, having no knowledge 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 alleged occurrence or mental phenomenon has been made use of. At all times, including intervals of enforced absence, as in the summer vacations, a considerable correspondence with each personality has been kept up. Much of this has been made use of in the following account.

Chapter II

Miss Beauchamp — I mean the one who first presented 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 which she may be suffering. She dislikes 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 astonishing. 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 r61e 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 talking 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 details of her past and present life.

Besides the reticence in matters pertaining to herself, already mentioned, she is possessed of a conscientiousness which at times has proved embarrassing to her friends. It, too, is carried sometimes to a degree that may be characterized as morbid. For instance, while in college she was the recipient of a scholarship ; consequently she considered 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 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 sensitive in this respect, and bitterly has Miss Beauchamp sometimes 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 makeup, 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 herself, 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 intellectual 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 conditions,— 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 the possible origin of much of the supposed supernormal knowledge of mediums. In the case of Miss Beauchamp this is, of course, compulsory from the necessity of adapting her divided personality to the demands of social life.

If Miss Beauchamp’s eye should peruse this paper, perhaps 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 ever}Tthing that is fine in thought and perceptions. 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 attracting 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 character, I would add, she is well educated and has marked literary tastes and faculties. She is essentially a bibliophile, 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 neuropathic point of view is suggestive of nervous instability. Her grandfather on her father’s side is said to have been a 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 this study was a nervous, impressionable child, given to day-dreaming and living in her imagination. 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 herself worthy, her mother’s affection would be given her. The effect of all this upon the child was to suppress all disclosures of her own mental life, and to make her morbidly reticent. She never gave expression to the ordinary feelings of everyday child life ; never spoke to say that she was tired, hungry, or sleepy. She lived within herself and dreamed.

When she was thirteen her mother died. This was a great shock to her mental system, and for a number of weeks she was probably half delirious, or, as we would now interpret it, disintegrated. The three years following 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, although 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 identification of the subject. It is unlikely that even a strong constitution would withstand the continuous nervous 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 years 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 instance, one day, an attack came on while she was crossing the Public Garden. 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 Garden.

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 intensely, 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 daydreams and imaginings with reality that she did not have a true conception of her environment.

Such a person, under the unhappy circumstances of her girlhood, surely never had half a chance. Her very differences from the conventional person stamped her an “ original,” 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, unfortunately, only came to my knowledge long after I became acquainted with the fact of there being a division of personalities; 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 years of age and a “ neurasthenic ” of an extreme type. The most salient features of her physical condition were headaches, 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: