Morris tribune., 1893-04-05
DUAL PERSONALITY.
RESIDUAL PHENOMENA OF THE MIND
IN SANE PEOPLE.

Best Seen IN the Case of a So Called Alb
sentm,nded Business neutrality-suspicious.
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
like the figures in kaleidoscope, and
again becoming sharply defined under
some abnormal condition crystalline into
two or more distinct groups of elements,
which alternately sleep and wake OF
| even coexist. These complex elements
may be SO unstable, the groups compos-
ing them constantly breaking up and
forming new combinations, that theidea
of multiple personality does not natural
ly attach itself to them; it is only when
they become stable, and especially when
each exhibits we'll 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 s}jcse 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 a group of elements in what we call
a person to be differentiated in one of
various ways, leaving behind residual
group differing altogether in its charac-
teristics, though the differentiated group
represents to us and is considered to
be identical with the original person.
The commonest method of such differ
entiation is sleep The elements of
sleep are, as it were, substracted from
the normal personality, but there is
usually left behind very curious some
thing-illogical, credulous, fantastic
whose nightly experiences the whole re-
united person recollects in the morning
as dreams. The next commonest case is
that of the absentminded 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 a train of proc
III, Il
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 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
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 it's own. Almost always, however, it
is eccentric and betrays a weakness at
one point or another,
For instance, Il suburban resident,
whom we will call A, is accustomed on
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 practical-separatene 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 a
difficult task to remember any circum-
stances Of the walk
On one occasion, however, A left the
Astor library on Lafayette place, as he
supposed, intending to walk down Gin
ton place. To do this he must turn first
again to the left. He turned once to the
left, and after some time became dimly
conscious that he had walked for 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
had been in the Mercantile library in
stead of the Aston His first turn there
fore had taken him down Broadway, and
he 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
to turn, but it had not intelligence
enough to know that it was on the wrong
street It's mind was too weak to be
trusted further than it was accustomed
to 60 This residual person, in short,
was about on par with harmless idiot.
Again, B, New Yorker, is walking
along absorbed III a process of thought,
when his residual personality sees his
friend Z approaching. 1t is not aston
ished, for he is near C's lodgings. but as
the person supposed to be e comes near
or, it sees that he only slightly resembles
G. He has on shabby clothes. and his
face is entirely different The natural
conclusion would be that the person ap-
preaching was not G. The residual per-
son, however, does not argue thus. It
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 fash
into the normal person, the two separate
consciousness become one, and the
truth is recognized at once. No doubt
these cases can be paralleled by thou
sands of others. It seems to me that
they are as true instances Of double per-
sonality az any exhibited by epileptic or
hyponotic persons. "A. e. Bostwick in
Science.
An old man, arrested for begging in
st. Paul, was searched and 5000 in
money and certificates Of deposit found
on his person