The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-03-21
DUAL PERSONALITY.
RESIDUAL PHENOMENA or THE MIND
IN SANE PEOPLE.

of the Sleeping Mind.
Evidence is not wanting to show that
what we call personality is an extremely
complex thing, the sum Of subsidiary per-
sonalities which now shift and change
llk the figures in a Kaleidoscope, and
again becoming sharply defined under
some Abnormal condition crystalline into
two or more distinct groups of elements,
which alternately sleep and wake or
even coexist. These complex elements
may be so unstable. the groups compos-
ing them constantly breaking up and
forming new combinations, that the idea
of multiple personality does not natural
ly attach itself to them: it is only when
they become stable, and especially when
each exhibits IL well defined conscious
ness that we begin to think of such a
thing But besides the abnormal and
diseased conditions which cause such a
SEPARATION or Capitalization there are
other conditions in which in appears
somewhat les distinctly To one class
OF these | cesire to call attention very
briefiy--to tat embracing what may be
called cases of residual personality.
Residual phenomena of all kinds are
particular Y interesting and instructive.
especially those where the few things re-
manning IN a group after many have been
removed differ widely in their collective
properties from those that have been
taken away, while these latter are not
in any way distinguishable from those
OF the sum of both before the division
This is the case often with residual per-
sonallty. Nothing is more common than
for a group of elements in what we call
a person to be differentiated in one of
various ways, leaving behind a residual
group differing altogether in its charac-
teristlcs, though the differentiated group
represents to US and is considered to
be Identical with the original person.
The ~coninonest method of such differ
entiation is sleep The elements of
sleep are, as il We're. sUbstracted from
the normal personality, hut there is
usually left behind a very curious some
thing illogical, credulous, fantastic
whose nightly experiences the whole re-
united person recollects in the morning
as dreams. The e commonest case Is
that OF the absentminded person. The
major part OF the person being absorbed
IN mental processes of some sort. the re-
sldual person lives its own separate men
tai life, thinks. feels and wills by itself
and perhaps carries on a train of proc
esses which is continuous with a proceed
ing train carried Oh under similar cir
cumstances the day before.
This residual person may act very
mechanically The reunited person may
fail to recollect what its acts or thoughts
We're and be surprised to find how it has
been making use of his limbs while he
what he yain!y regards as the one un
alterable ego-has been absorbed in
thought. But. on the other hand. it may
be perfectly conscious and may carry
on an entirely different train of thought
OF its own. Almost always. however. i
il eccentric and betrays a weakness at
one point or another
For instance, IA suburban resident,
whom we will call A. is accustomed on
landing at the New York side of the
ferry to abandon the mechanical task of
walking to his Office entirely to his resid-
personality and to give up the major
part OF himself to thought. The two per.
act often with perfect-always
with neutrality-suspicious.. heresidual
person being quite equal to the low task
evading vehicles. steering clear of pass
ersby and turning the proper
When the Office is reached and the two |
persons again become one. it is often a
difficult task to remember n circum-
of the walk.
On one occasion, however, A left the
Aston library on Lafayette place. as he
supposed. intending to walk down Gin
place. To do this he must turn first
to the left, then to the right and then
left. and after some time became dimly
conscious that he had walked for a long
time. and that the place for the second
turn had not been reached.
Coming t o himself, he found himself
far down Broadway. Tracing back his
course mentally, he discovered that he
had been in the Mercantile library in
stead of the Astor. His first turn there
fore had taken him down Broadway. and
of course did not reach the place for
the second. Mark now the peculiarities
Of his residual person. It knew just
where it was to turn and in what direc-
ton. and had sense enough to be uneasy
when it did not come to the proper place
70 turn. but it had not intelligence
enough to know that it was On the wrong
street Its mind was too weak to be
further than it was accustomed
to 60. This residual person, in short.
was about on a mar with a harmless idiot.
Again. B. = New Yorker, is walking
along absorbed in a process Of thought.
when his residual personality sees his
friend e approaching. It is not aston
ishsd, for he is near s lodgings, but as
ths person supposed to be c comes near
q, it sees that he only slightly resembles
G. he has on shabby clothes. and his
facs 10 entirely different. The natural
would be that the person ap
was not G. The residual per
son, however. does not srgue thus. Il