The dissociation of a personality : a biographical study in abnormal psychology / by Morton Prince.

  • Morton Prince
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The dissociation of a personality : a biographical study in abnormal psychology / by Morton Prince. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    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 (Hj), intermediate (S), and later experiences (O4), instead of uniting to form one (H2S 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 CharcoPs 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.