The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-08-07
DUAL PERSONALITY.
REslCuAl PHcHO"Ei,A OF TIE MIND
IN cane PEOPLE.

This Feature of ConP:ax Personality Is
Best seen IA ;Ae Case "f "a 50 Called ID
sentuIfndcd Business sIan-Txperiencos
OF the Sleeping .-ind.
Evidence Is not wanting 20 show that
what we call personality Is al extremely
SaEpiez thing. the sum Of subsidiary per
soHaI:ties which now shift and change
Ike the figures IN Il kaleidoscope, and
again becoming sharply defined under
some abnormal condition crystalline into
two or more distinct groups Of clements,
which alternately sleep and wake or
even cOexi5t. These complex clements
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
~ attach itself TO them; il Is only when
they become stable, and especially when
each exhibits a we'll defined conscious
ness that we begin to think of such
thing. Bat besides the abnormal and
diseased conditions which cause such
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 DO
called cases of residual personality.
Residual phenomena of all kinds are
particularly interesting and instructive,
especially those where the few things re-
manning in 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-
sonality. Nothing is more common than
for group of elements in what we call
n person to be differentiated in one of
various ways, leaving behind Il residual
group differing altogether in its charac-
teristics, though the differentiated group
represents TO US and is considered TO
60 identical with the original person.
The commonest method of such differ
cntiation is sleep The elements of
sleep are, as it were. sGbstracted from
the normal personality, but there is
usually left behind Il very curious some
thing-illogical, credulOus, fantastic
whose nightly experiences the whole re-
united person recollects in the morning
as dreams The next co;nIi?ouest case Is
that Of the GbsentIninded person. The
major part of the person being absorbed
IN mental processes of some sort, the re-
sidual person lives its own separate men
tai life, thinks, feels and wills by itself,
and perhaps carries On n train of proc
esses which is continuous with Il preced-
ing train carried on 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
were and be surprised to find how it has
been making use of his limbs while he
what he vainly 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, it
is eccentric and betrays n weakness at
one point or another.
For instance, a 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-
ual personality and to give up the major
part of himself to thought. The two per
sonalities act often with perfect-always
with neutrality-suspicious. theresidual
person being quite equal 10 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
difficult task to remember any CircuIn-
stances of the walk.
On one occasion, however, y left the
Astor library on Lafayette place, SO he
supposed, intending to walk down Gin
ton place To 90 this he must turn first
70 the left, then to the right and then
again to the lett He turned once to the
left, and after some time became dimly
conscious that he had walked for n 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, lie discovered that he
had been in the Mercantile library in
stead of the Aston His first turn there
fore had taken linn down Broadway, and
he of course did rot reach the place for
the second. MARI; now the peculiarities
Of his residual person. 1t knew just
where it wGs to turn and IN what direc-
ton. and had sense enough to be uneasy
when it did not come to the proper place
to turn, but it had not intelligence
street. It's mind was too weak to be
trusted further than it was accustomed
to go. This residual person, in short,
was about on par with harmless idiot.
Again, B, New Yorker, is walking
along absorbed in = process of thought,
when his residual personality sees his
friend G approaching. 1t is not aston
ished, for lie IS near Cs lodgings, but as
the person supposed to be G comes near
er, it sees that he only slightly resembles
O. He has on shabby clothes. and his
face is entirely different. The natural
conclusion would be that the person APP
preaching was not c. The residual per-
son, however, does not argue thus. 1t
concludes that G has greatly changed,
that he has become poor and that his
appearance has altered for the worse.
Pity and surprise are plainly felt By
the residual person. During these men
tai processes, so similar to those of
dream residual, the major person has
kept on with his own train of thought.
Finally, however, on the close approach
of the supposed G, they unite in flash
into the normal person. the two separate