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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    In an instant the dog had disappeared, the whole church had vanished, I no longer saw anything, ... or more truly 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. “ ‘ 1 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 tlie interchanging of the personalities, and their methods of mutual co-operation as well as antagonism. 1 Italics are mine.