The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-08-04
DUAL PERSONALITY.
RESIDUAL PHENOMENA OF THE MIND
IN SANE PEOPLE.

Of the Sleeping Mind.
Evidence is 10 wanting to show that
what we Gull personality is an extremely
complex thing. the uln Of subsidiary per-
sonalities which now shift and change
like the figures in Il 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 80 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 a well defined conscious
ness that we begin to think of such q
thing. But besides the abnormal and
diseased conditions which cause such a
separation or capitalization there are
other conditions in which in appears
somewhat less distinctly. To one class
of these | desire to call attention very
briefy--to that embracing what may be
called cases of residual personality.
Residual phenomena of all kinds are
particularly interesting and instructive,
especially those where the few things re-
naming in n 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.
Tonality, Nothing is more common than
Cor a group of elements in what we cali
a person to be differentiated in one of
various ways, leaving behind q residual
group differing altogether in its charac.
teristics, though the differentiated group
represents to us and is considered tc
be Identical with the original person.
The commoucst method of such differ
entiation Is sleep The elements Of
sleep are, az 1t We're, substracted from
the normal personality, but there is
usually left behind Il very curious some.
thing-iilogical credulous, fantastic-
whose nightly experiences the whole 10
united person recollects in the morning
as dreams. The next commoncst case Il
that Of the absemtmindcd person. The
major part Of the person being absorbed
in mental processes of some sort, the re-
sidual person lives It's own separate men
tai lite, thinks. feels and wills by itself.
and perhaps carries ON Il train of proc
essea which Is continuous with Il proceed
ing train carried on under similar cir
cumstan es the day before.
This residual person may act very
mechanically The reunited person may
fail to recOllect what it's acts or thoughts
were and be surprised to find how it has
been making use of his limbs while he
what he vainly regards as the one I'm
alterablc ego-has been absorbed in
thought. But, Oh the other hand, it may
be perfectly conscious and may carry
on an entirely different train of thought
of its OWL Almost always. however. il
Is eccentric and betrays a weakness az
one point or another
For instance, II suburban resident,
whom W. will call a, is accustomed OF
landing at the New York side of the
ferry to abandon the mechanical task Of
walking to bis office entirely to his resid.
u;G personality and to give up the majo,
part of himself to thought. The two pei.
sonalitles act often with perfect-alwa,
with Observation-Disclosures. the residual
person being quite equal to the low task
OF evading vehicles. steering clear of pass
ersby and turning the proper corners.
When the office is reached and the two
persons again become one, it is often Il
difficult task to remember any Gil cum-
stances of the walk.
On one occasion, however, a left the
Aston library on Lafayette place, ;s he
supposed, intending to walk down Gin
tor place. To do this he must turn first
to the left, then to the right and then
again to the lett. He turned once to the
left, and after some time became dilnly
conscious that he had walked for a long
time, and that the place for the second
turn had not been reached.
Coming to himself, he found himself
far down Broadway Tracing back his
course mentally, he discovered that he
mad been III the Mercantile library in
stead OF the Aston liz first turn there.
fore had taken him down broadway, and
he Of course did not reach tHc place for
the second Marx no" tn" prculiarities
of ms resi- !niI person Ii hucW Just
where 1t WIS 10 turn "il III what direc-
ton, and has! -. Use enough 10 he uneasy
when II did hot colne to the proper place
TO turn, but II mad not intelligence
enough to know that it wa on the wrong
street. Its mind was too weak to be
trusted further than it was accustomed
to go. This residual person, in short,
was about on a par with a harmless idiot.
Again, b, Il New Yorker, is walking
along absorbed in q process Of thought,
when his residual personality sees his
friend q approaching. 1t is not aston
ished, for he is near s lodgings, but as
the person supposed to be G comes near
er, it sees that he only slightly resembles
G. He has on shabby clothes, and his
face is entirely different. The natural
conclusion would DO that the person ap-
preaching was not G. The residual per-
son, however, does not argue thus. 1t
concludes that G has greatly changed,
that he has become poor and that his