The dissociation of a personality : a biographical study in abnormal psychology / by Morton Prince.
- Morton Prince
- Date:
- 1908
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The dissociation of a personality : a biographical study in abnormal psychology / by Morton Prince. Source: Wellcome Collection.
531/594 page 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 IY had no personal recollection.] In addition to this she described various inter- views between B IV and myself and numerous events of B IY’s life of which I had knowledge. She distinguished clearly the various periods when she was B I and B IY, 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.” 1 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 she naturally resented. “ During the first summer she was in a buoyant state of mind, without any sense of responsibility and indifferent to consequences. 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 Beauchamp aided in an elaborate analysis of her different characteristics in these states. (Chapter XVII.)](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28047849_0531.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
