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

  • Morton Prince
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    52/592 page 36
    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 state at the moment of carrying out the command.1 1 The following is an amusing example of this well known phenomenon. I told a subject, Mrs. R., in hypnosis, to put on her bonnet and wear it during
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