Secondary Personality
So much attention has recently been directed to the subject of
secondary personality by the startling phenomena described in numerous
books and articles on the subject, that a certain class of "nervous"
patients have permitted themselves to be influenced by the
auto-suggestion, flattering the vanity, that they, too, have a
secondary personality. They even do not hesitate to hint that this
condition is responsible for m
to do what they ought to do, or at least what they think they would
like to do; but self-control and self-discipline require such constant
attention and effort that they fail. Even when these patients have not
quite reached the persuasion of a complete secondary personality, they
at least think that the subconscious (or their subliminal self) plays
a large role in their conduct. As a consequence, they assert, it is
more or less beyond their power to control themselves, and their
responsibility for certain acts is surely somewhat impaired. This is a
rather satisfying doctrine for those who do not feel quite equal to
the effort of conquering vicious or unfortunate tendencies. Those who
like to have some excuse for self-indulgence take refuge in this
supposedly scientific explanation to absolve them from blame, and from
the necessity of self-control. The drug habitue, the inebriate, the
victim of other habits, sometimes hug this flattering invention to
their souls, especially when they are of the class who delight in the
study of the abnormal. Reform becomes well-nigh impossible as long as
such an auto-suggestion of inherent weakness and lack of will-power is
at work.
The Other Self.--From the beginning of written history, man has always
been inclined to find some scapegoat for his failings. The story of
Adam blaming the first fault on the woman and the woman blaming it on
the serpent, is a lively symbol of what their descendants have been
doing ever since. The less personal the blame is, the better, and the
more it can be foisted over on some inevitable condition of human
nature, the more generally satisfying it is. A secondary personality
can scarcely resent being blamed for its acts by the primary
personality to which it is attached, and so the field of
auto-suggestion as to the blameless inevitability of certain acts is
likely to widen if it is given a quasi-scientific basis. Long ago St.
Paul spoke of the law in his members opposed to the higher authority,
and declared that the things he would do he did not, while what he
would not do he sometimes did. There is no doubt that there are two
natures in the curious personality of man. Everyone at times has the
uncanny feeling that there is something within almost apart from
himself, leading him in ways that he does not quite understand.
Usually the leading is away from what is considered best in us. But
those who have dwelt much on the better side of man and have tried to
climb above mere selfish aims, have realized that there is also a
power within them leading to higher paths. Indeed, some of the
greatest thoughts that men think, and the resolves that lift them up
to heroic heights, are apparently so far beyond ordinary human powers,
that the hero and the poet and even the more ordinary literary man, is
quite ready to proclaim inspiration as the source of his best
ideas--as if they were breathed into him from without and above.
Personal Responsibility.--For ordinary normal individuals, this
question of secondary personality has scant interest. Normal persons
go about their work realizing that what they want to do, they may do,
and what they do not want to do they can keep from doing, unless some
contrary physical force intervenes. There are many metaphysical
arguments for free will, but none of them is so convincing as the
observation that every sane man, with regard to his own actions, has
the power to choose between two things that attract him. He may be
much drawn to one thing, yet choose another. He may allow himself to
be ruled by baser motives; he may sternly follow the dictates of
reason, or he may do neither and hold himself inactive. In any case,
he realizes his power to choose. While this power may be impaired by
many external conditions, his consciousness of its actuality makes him
appreciate his responsibility. He realizes that punishment for wrong
done is not only a part of the law, but it is also a proper
vindication of that consciousness of free will which all men have, and
which does not deceive them. The question has been obscured by much
talk, but the reality is there, and the common-sense of mankind has
proclaimed its truth. All our laws are founded on it. Without it
punishment as meted out is an awful injustice and crime is a misnomer.
Hysterical Phenomena.--Most of the cases of secondary personality that
have been discussed at greatest length have been in persons who were
as desirous of attracting attention, and as pleased over being the
subject of special study as were the hysterical patients who used to
delight in investigation two generations ago. That most of the
phenomena of so-called dual personalities are mainly hysterical seems
now to be clear. In a few cases, where the patient has found that the
existence of a double personality was of special interest, a definite
tendency to the formation of further personalities has been noted.
Some triple personalities have been discussed and, in a few cases, a
group of personalities, even up to five or more, began to assert
themselves. This reductio ad absurdum, of the hypothesis of
supernumerary personality has revealed the real hysteric character of
the phenomena.
The whole story of secondary personality in recent years vividly
recalls commonplaces in the older medical literature that gathered
around the study of hysteria, and that afford a striking confirmation
of the conclusion as to the relation of the conditions ascribed to
hysteria. Physicians of a generation or two ago who found their
hysterical patients interesting, because of certain marvelous symptoms
which they presented, were usually astonished to learn that their
patients could, under suggestion, develop still further and more
surprising symptoms. Each new visit, especially when other physicians
were brought to see the patient, showed the existence of still further
symptoms and revealed new depths of interesting disease. Indeed, the
soil was found to be inexhaustible in its power to produce ever new
and interesting crops of symptoms.
When the real significance of hysteria as a mental condition in which
patients devoted themselves to the task of furnishing new symptoms for
the physician began to be realized, one of the most potent objections
against this explanation was that it would have been impossible for
the patients to have studied out their symptoms enough to furnish the
new material for study which physicians found so interesting. The
patients were supposed to be mentally incapable of fooling the
physicians. When, however, a person devotes entire attention to the
one subject of making phenomena in themselves appear interesting to
others, some very startling results are usually produced.
After having attracted the sensational attention so common with any
novel observation and having been exaggerated out of all proportion to
its due significance, the phenomenon is now settling down to its
proper place--a rather obscure neurotic phenomenon of memory in
hysteric individuals.
Other Neurotic Symptoms.--Janet's studies at the Salpetriere seem to
show that the alterations of memory which bring about what we call
secondary personality (the forgetting of certain phases of
existence and the maintenance for a time of a small portion of
consciousness and memory quite apart from the rest) correspond with
alterations in the physical basis of memory, that is, in the
circulation to certain portions of the brain, and probably also in the
modes of association of brain cells. They occur, particularly, in
connection with certain phenomena of hystero-epilepsy so-called, or
with the deeper forms of epilepsy in which there are various
paresthesias, hyperesthesias and anesthesias as a consequence of a
disturbance of the circulation in the central nervous system; and
probably also of the connections made by neurons and the movements of
neuroglia cells in making and breaking these connections. These
alterations of memory are represented physically by such cases as
those in which patients so lose their consciousness of sensation that
they are unable to tell even where their feet are. As they themselves
say, "they have lost their legs." In these cases, patients are often
very deaf or have a limited auditory power, and their fields of vision
are extremely narrowed. In most of these cases, recovery of the
original personality takes place after hypnosis. This probably
represents a relaxation of that short-circuiting, within the nervous
system, which brought about the curious phenomenon studied as
secondary personality.
Dual Dispositions.--The studies of secondary personality that we have
had seem to show us persons under the influence of some strong
suggestion, in what is practically a hypnotic condition. There are
many similarities between the actions and the mentality of hypnotics
and of those in secondary-personality conditions. The individuals are,
for the moment, unable to recall what happened in other states. They
may be very different in disposition, gentle and tractable in one
state, but morose and difficult to get along with in another. Such
differences are, however, only exaggerations of the variations of
normal personality. There are times when, under the stress of
circumstances, even the mildest of men and women become querulous and
difficult. It is often noted that people are much more gentle and
careful in their relations with some people than with others. Men who
are known in their business relations to be quiet, easy to get along
with, are at times bears in their homes. This is a matter of the
exercise of inhibition for certain mental qualities, and this
inhibition is neglected for some places and persons. An American
humorist said not long since that a young girl passing a weekend at
the house of a friend, should remember that she is expected to be
unselfish, thoughtful for others, and ready to help her hostess to
make it pleasant for others, so that the party may be successful. He
adds that, of course, as soon as she returns home she should be
perfectly natural again.
At least in a limited sense, all of us have buried in us secondary
personalities that are due to a lack of control of ourselves, or
occasionally to a lack of such initiative as makes possible the best
that is in us. The secondary personality of some people, that side of
their characters that their friends see only rarely, is the best side
of them. Many people, under the demand of some great purpose, rise up
to be really heroic in quality, yet in the commonplace relations of
life they are quite ordinary. The secondary personality in either of
these cases is not something abnormal. It is due to a tapping of
deeper levels in personality than most people realize that they
possess. When taken in connection with hypnotism and the power of
suggestion over susceptible individuals, these adumbrations of
the deeper problem of secondary personality as the psychologists have
discussed it, furnish the best data for its fuller explanation.
Excuses for actions founded on secondary personality must either rest
ultimately on insanity, or else on that lack of inhibition which
constitutes the source of so many of our actions that we regret.
People who are susceptible to hypnotism may remember absolutely
nothing of what occurs to them in the hypnotic condition, though they
will recall it without any difficulty if during hypnosis it is
suggested to them that they should remember it. This represents the
most prominent feature of secondary personality; the individuals who
are affected by it do not recall in one state of personality what
happens to them in the other. In the two states they are very
different in character. These differences have been much emphasized
with regard to a few cases that are especially abnormal and have not
attracted much attention in cases where the differences are slight.
Indeed, in a number of the cases where secondary personality asserted
itself, the differences in the character of the individual in the two
states were practically nil. The only difference was a lapse of memory
for certain important events. Considerations such as these help in the
understanding and psychotherapy of what are sometimes puzzling cases
of apparent dualism of disposition.
What we have to do with here are the suggestions of secondary
personality which neurotic patients have been inclined to make to
themselves as a consequence of the interest in the subject in recent
years. The investigations of Head and of Gordon Holmes have
undoubtedly shown, however, that there are true pathological
conditions associated with certain definite and very marked
manifestations of dualism of disposition consequent upon lesions in
the optic thalamus. These cases so far as can be judged at the present
time, at least, are quite rare and at most would account for duality
and not for the plurality of personality that has come to be discussed
by certain enthusiastic neurologists in recent years. The magnificent
work done on this shows how much may yet be accomplished in the
elucidation of nervous diseases by faithful study and investigation of
selected cases.
More
-
Occupation Of Mind
Two classes of patients frequently apply to physicians for relief from various discomforts. They are, first, people who have no regular occupation and who often are in what is supposed to be the happy position of being able to do just what they pl... Old Injuries And So-called Rheumatism
As people advance in years, it is a common experience that tissues injured years before are the source of no little discomfort and are particularly prone to be bothersome during changeable seasons and in rainy weather. A bone broken when the patie... Pain
Pain, while always a dreaded symptom of disease, seems, with the increase of comfort and the gradual abolition that has come in our time of many of the trials of existence, to have had its terrors increased. Even a slight pain or ache is dreaded, an... Painful Arm And Trunk Conditions
Cervical Ribs.--Some interesting cases with painful conditions of the arms develop as a consequence of the presence of cervical ribs. It would be more or less naturally expected that trouble of this kind would occur early in life, but, as a matter... Painful Joint Conditions Pseudo-rheumatism
[Footnote 33: The position here taken, that acute articular rheumatism never leaves a mark after it, is entirely due to the observation that whenever cases were seen in which sequelae were noted, there always seems to the writer to be questi... Painful Knee Conditions
Most of the painful knee conditions of which patients complain are not directly due to true pathological conditions either of the knee joint itself or of its neighboring structures, but rather to affections of other portions of the leg that set a ... Paralysis Agitans
This is a chronic affection of the nervous system having for its most characteristic symptom a tremor, but with marked muscular rigidity and weakness. It is much more common in men than in women, in almost the reverse proportion of Graves' disease... Paresis
Paresis would seem to be one of the affections so inevitable in its course, so positively helpless as regards any medication, and so hopeless in its absolutely sure termination in idiocy and death, that nothing can possibly be done for it through ... Pathological Significance
Unconscious cerebration is not, then, a trivial matter, and not an unusual experience. It probably occurs in every individual to a much greater extent than he thinks, unless he is engaged in analyzing his mental processes and their ways rather caref... Periodical Depression
Fits of periodical depression, familiarly known as "the blues," occur in the experience of practically everyone. In some people they are only slight and passing. In others they last for hours and make the individual quite miserable. In still other... Physical Habits
Habit and Food.--Most of our likes and dislikes for food are neither physical nor physiological, but simply habitual. We have become accustomed to certain things, and so we like them. We are unaccustomed to them, and do not care for them. It is am... Position
There are many changes of position that relieve pain, lessen discomfort, aid in excretion, and in the evacuation of material from the body, yet it is often found that very little advantage is taken of this natural method of therapeutic aid. Traditio... Practice Of Hypnotism
In the ordinary practice of hypnotism now, the patient is placed sitting on a comfortable chair and the operator on one side facing prepares the mind of the subject by proper assurances. The patient must be brought into a thoroughly assured and comf... Pregnancy
Maintenance of Health.--Women must keep up their normal health and strength during pregnancy. By not taking sufficient exercise and by being too much indoors, many women develop a morbid mental state in which every discomfort is less bearable than... Preoccupation Of Mind
This is true, not only for ordinary sensations, but even for such as would ordinarily be presumed to be so insistent in their call that they could not be neglected. The concentration of mind necessary for this is not common to all mankind; it is pos... Present Day Methods Of Hypnotization
Though various methods of producing the hypnotic sleep are in use, the rule is now that, in the course of a hypnotizer's experience, less and less external auxiliaries of any kind are needed, and more and more dependence is placed on the bringing ab... Prevention And Correction
The important rule with regard to the mental attitude of the patient toward uncomfortable feelings due to digestion must be, first to correct all other possible sources of the trouble, and only after these have been proved not to be factors in the c... Prostatism
It may seem impossible to include prostatic hypertrophy, or the train of symptoms connected with it, among those affections likely to be benefited by mental treatment. The history of this affection, however, and especially of its treatment in rece... Pseudo-science And Mental Healing
An interesting phase of psychotherapy is found in the history of the applications of new scientific discoveries to medicine. The development of every physical science has been followed by an attempt to apply its new principles and discoveries to the... Psychic Contagion
The term psychic contagion is often thought of as merely figurative. It is, however, quite literal. Many minds are influenced by what they see happening round them and induced to imitate the activities of others. The term psychic contagion is so t... Psychic States In Menstruation
One does not need to be a physician to be familiar with the curious psychic states which develop or are accentuated during the menstrual period. Practically all the peculiarities of the individual are emphasized at this time and if there are any s... Psychic Treatment Of Digestive Conditions
If discouragement and solicitude make a healthy stomach digest imperfectly, the same mental factors will play an even more serious role with a diseased stomach. Certainly without the mind's aid, there can be little hope of such a reactive vital resi... Psycho-neuroses Hysteria
As the derivation of the name indicates, psycho-neuroses are functional nervous affections dependent on states of mind. They are not necessarily originated by the mind, though they may be. Their spontaneous occurrence as pure psychic phenomena, ho... Psychotherapy And Modern Medicine
Paracelsus.--Paracelsus, the great physician of the first half of the sixteenth century, who may well be considered the father of modern pharmaceutics, had no illusions with regard to the exclusive power of drugs over disease. He recognized that men... Psychotherapy And The Individual Patient
The most important element in Psychotherapy is the individual patient. Old Dr. Parry of Bath said a century ago, "It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease, than what sort of a disease a patient has." Mental influence ... Psychotherapy At Rome
Galen.--Galen, whom we are prone to think of as a Latin because so much of his work was done at Rome, but whose works have come to us in Greek, and who was a disciple of the Greek school of medicine, brought up under Greek influence in his native to... Psychotherapy In Egypt
Among the Egyptians the first great development of medicine came among the priests. The two professions, the medical and priesthood, were one, and the temples were the hospitals of the time. We have stories of people traveling long distances to cert... Psychotherapy In Old-time Surgery
Surgery, a name derived from chirurgy--handwork--might seem to be dependent almost entirely on mechanical and technical skill, yet there has always been the conviction that the patient's attitude of mind towards an operation is almost as important... Psychotherapy In Skin Diseases
The place of mental influence in the treatment of skin diseases will be best realized from the role that we know the mind plays in the production of various skin manifestations. There is a whole series of skin affections which depend to a consider... Psychotherapy Of Organic Nervous Diseases
Since we know that the basis of many nervous diseases is an obliteration of certain cells of the brain or of the spinal cord, or certain tracts of the central nervous system through which impulses must pass if they are to be effective as motion, s... Quackery And Mind Cures
Not less interesting than the therapeutic results obtained by men who in good faith were using inert remedies that they thought effective, are the cures obtained by men who had good reason to know that the therapeutic methods they were using were qu... Radium And Radio-activity
When radium was discovered, though it came so soon after the discovery of the X-ray and our disappointment with it, the old story of another pseudo-scientific medical application was told. For a time it looked as though radium might accomplish all t... Remedial Measures
The most important general remedy for over-prolonged mental occupation with a single subject, is some outdoor sport or form of exercise that requires all the attention. Horseback exercise is particularly valuable; boating, especially where the man h... Remedies Plus Suggestion
Prof. Richet, the head of the department of physiology, University of Paris, quotes the expression of a French critic of medicine: "Hurry up and take the new remedy while it still cures. After a time it will lose its power." The power that is lost a... Responsibility And Will Power
The development of science (meaning by that term knowledge with regard to physical nature in contradistinction to philosophy or the relation of nature to man) in modern times has brought about in some minds a hesitant, if not frankly contradictor... Sciatica
Etiology.--What has been said of lumbago applies to a great extent also to sciatica. There are a number of different affections which have come to be grouped under the term sciatica. Here, much more frequently than in the lumbar region, the cause ... Secondary Personality
So much attention has recently been directed to the subject of secondary personality by the startling phenomena described in numerous books and articles on the subject, that a certain class of "nervous" patients have permitted themselves to be influ... Sexual Habits
As was emphasized in the preceding chapter, sexual symptoms are usually the subject of so much worry and disturbance of mind and become the center of so much unfavorable suggestion, that the only way to ameliorate the conditions which develop is b... Sexual Neuroses
Anything that disturbs the sexual sphere in either sex, no matter how trivial it may be, becomes a source of worry and depression quite beyond its real importance. It is not unusual for men and women to become so worried over some trifling affecti... Signatures And Psychotherapy
Similia similibus curantur, like is cured by like, is a very old idea. According to the doctrine of signatures nature had put an external natural marking or a symbolical appearance or characteristic upon a plant, mineral or other object, to indicate... Sleep Communications
Any one who has been thinking much for several days about a problem is likely to wake up with the thought that he has dreamed a solution of it, though unfortunately the solution has not remained in his memory. It seems as if a communication has been... Some Troubles Of Sleep
Certain annoying incidents in connection with sleep annoy those affected by them so much as to arouse them very completely from sleep and make them wakeful for a time. Nothing disturbs most people so much as the thought that some passing incident,... Stuttering Ataxia In Talking Walking Writing Etc
The difficulty of speech called stuttering has usually been considered rather as an unfortunate lack of control over the organs of articulation, somewhat corresponding to muscular awkwardness of any other kind, than as a pathological condition des... Success In Healing
We have any number of examples, then, of this power of the healer in history. Over and over again we find that it was the personality of the man and the suggestive value of the means that he employed that enabled patients to cure themselves, that is... Suggestion
Under the head of Adjuvants and Disturbing Factors in the psychic treatment of patients come the various phases of life which make for and against such a favorable state of mind as predisposes to the continuance of good health, minimizes inhibition,... Suggestion And Pseudo-science
These applications of science, or rather of supposed science, illustrate the influence of suggestion. The succession of events in each case is about as follows: The definite attitude of mental expectancy is created in the popular mind. As a conseque... Suggestion As To Symptoms
Besides the value of suggestion for the general condition in tuberculosis many of its symptoms can be treated best by changing the mental attitude of the patient towards them and giving him a proper appreciation of their significance. Most symptoms ... Suggestion In Obstetrics
In no department of medicine is favorable or unfavorable mental influence more important than in obstetrics. Unfortunately, unfavorable suggestion has here played a serious role and must be controlled, modified, neutralized. Suggestion is valuable... Suggestion In Treatment Of So-called Rheumatisms
How much the treatment of these so-called chronic rheumatisms depends on suggestion, in spite of the apparent improbability of anything so materially discomforting being under the influence of the mind, is best appreciated from a consideration of th... Suicide
In spite of the gradual increase of comfort in life and its wide diffusion--far beyond what people enjoyed in the past--there has been a steady progressive increase in the number of suicides in recent years. It is as if people found life less wort... Tachycardia
Etymologically tachycardia means rapid heart. There are two forms of rapid heart, that which is constant and that which occurs in periodical attacks. It is for this latter that the term tachycardia has been more particularly used, though occasionall... The Day's Work
Probably even more important than details with regard to the early hours of the day, is detailed information as to the day's work, the kind and character of the occupation and the length of time spent at it, the interruptions that may occur, the hab... The Heart And Mental Influence
The heart is an organ so vitally important that we might expect it to be carefully protected by nature from any interference with its action through mental influence, emotional conditions, or voluntary or involuntary feelings. As a matter of fact,... The Influence Of Body On Mind
While trying to take advantage of the influence of the mind on the body for therapeutics, it is important to remember that the body has a great influence on the mind. There are many states of mind that are dependent on states of body, and that can b... The Leisure Hours
Then comes the return from business. Here once more the ordinary method of getting on a crowded train, standing up to be pushed and jammed, to have all sorts of unpleasant things happen, to have the pessimism of one's nature stirred to its depths by... The Mechanism Of The Influence Of Mind On Body
The question as to how mind influences body, and body mind, has always proved a riddle to all but those with a special theory in the matter. The facts of the mutual influence of mind on body are so obtruded on observation that they could never be mi... The Menopause
While the phase of feminine sexual life which involves the cessation of menstruation is physiological and not morbid, it is so commonly associated with physical and mental symptoms difficult to bear that, practically always, it sends the woman to ... The Middle Op The Day
Information regarding the mid-day meal will be of value to the physician in many cases. In cities, luncheon, likely to be rather an apology for a meal, is taken rapidly, and immediately there is a return to work. As a medical student in Vienna, I wa... The Morning Hours
In getting the history of patients for diagnostic purposes the safest way is to begin with the getting up in the morning and then to follow out the various actions of the day. The hour and mode of rising should be inquired into. Practically all ne... The X-ray
That happened two generations ago, and it might be supposed that in the meantime there had been so much advance in popular education, and particularly in the diffusion of scientific knowledge, that such a self-deception on the part of scientists, an... Therapeutic Importance Of Habit
The most important therapeutic element in the formation of good habits, mental and physical, is that habit does away with the necessity for conscious regulation of many details of life. Without habits of doing things, we have to make numerous decisi... Therapeutic Persuasion
It is not only in the distant past, however, but also in quite modern times that these therapeutic persuasions have existed among physicians, and as a result physicians have frequently recommended and employed remedies that we now know not only to h... Tics
Without any good reason in the etymology or the history of the word, the term "tics" has now been generally accepted to signify certain involuntary movements, frequently recurrent, of which, by habit, certain persons usually of diminished nervous ... Training
One of the most important factors for therapeusis in the sense of the amelioration of defective motor conditions, the relief of disturbing sensory affections and the restoration of or compensation for defective functions of various kinds is training... Tremors
Two types of tremors come to us for treatment: those that are quite involuntary and occur when muscles are at rest, and those that are associated with voluntary movements. The most common type of involuntary tremor is that seen in paralysis agitan... Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, in spite of all our efforts against it, remains in Defoe's striking phrase the "captain of the men of death." Pneumonia has preempted its place in the statistics of mortality, but this is to a considerable extent because tuberculosi... Unconscious Cerebration
Some people actually learn to depend on unconscious cerebration. A man, for instance, who has to make an address on a particular subject or to write an article, will record that fact on a tablet and after gathering a few basic thoughts in connection... Unconscious Cerebration
Many of the exhausting neurotic and psycho-neurotic affections so common in recent years are largely due to the failure of patients to secure such mental relaxation as will permit complete repair of nervous waste. We are proud of being a generation ... Unconscious Psychotherapeutics
The great authorities in medicine, the men whose thought counted for most in the development of not only the science but the art of medicine, the men to whom we look back as having been great practicing physicians, have always used this remedial mea... Unfavorable Mental Influence
Much as may be accomplished by psychotherapeutics through favorable mental influence--the modifying of the mental attitude towards disease, diversions of mind from aches and pains, concentration of attention on subjects apart from ailments--much mor... Vague Abdominal Discomforts Loose Kidney
After the vague pains around joints so commonly called rheumatic, and which occur so frequently that probably there is no one over forty who is quite ready to confess that he has not had rheumatism, the most important source of vague discomfort is... Vital Energy Behind Brain Cells
In all of these phenomena there is something more than brain cells at work. Brain cells are guided, co-ordinated, controlled, and even overseen, in their labors. The same conclusion becomes inevitable with regard to the action of the cells of the bo...