The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1897-03-20


sudden shock, syncope or loss of con-
seriousness occurs, and on recovery an en-
tirely new and different personality IS
found to have taken the place of the orig
inal one. 1t processes to be man and to
the horror and CONSERVATION of the good
people surrounding her the patient COM
mences to CURSE to vilify everything
good, and to uphold sentiments and prac-
tees of the most offensive and criminal
character This newly arrived personal
ity has chain of memories and individ-
ual history quite foreign and unknown to
the primary self, but consistent with
those of the remote ancestor whom we
have considered. In a hour or a day the
primary consciousness has returned but
there is not the slightest recollection of
the character which she has represented
in her second personality, and very likely
the case is diagnosed as temporary in
sanity; in a more primitive age 1t would
have been called possession by an evil
spirit. 1t was in reality the strongly i'm
pressed characteristics of a distinct per-
sonality, which had lain dormant in the
sub-conscious self for three generations
now coming to the surface temporarily
under favoring circumstances in the
fourth. In another generation 1t actually
appeared, an atavism, as the primary and
usual personality. In like manner a per-
sonality of conspicuous goodness or talent
might pass over many generations of me-
diocrity or of evil-doers, and appear, a
pleasant atavism, after one or many gem
erations had interviewed. Less extreme
personalities might be formed in like
manner, and more than one might be i'm
pressed upon individuals in successive
and much debated condition of multipIex
personalities. Kraft-Ebing, as we have
seen, found in his patient three psychic /
existences,' or personalities. Professor
Janet's patient, Nine. B., possessed three
widely different ones, while one of my
own cases presented three and another
two, alternating spontaneously at longer
or shorter intervals not including the
cases in whieh changes of personality
were brought about by hypnotism.
Doctrine of Responsibility.
with this view of the origin and ma
ture of ordinary, as well as alternating
personalities, it is not difficult to deter
mine the medico-legal aspect from which
these cases should be viewed. 1t is evil
dent, first, that the primary self must not
be held responsible for action, either good
succeeding personality, since it is abso-
lutely ignorant of the doings or even of
the existence of these personalities. 1t
would undoubtedly be just to restrain the
individual from violence or wrong doing
during the presence of the personality
committing the wrong, but no longer,
and 1t would be abhorrent to all our ideas
of justice to take the life of or even to
F1I N1,EIfr
Identity we have been accustomed to as
sociate with the ordinary self, on ac-
count of wrong doing committed by any
succeeding personality while the ordinary
self was wholly unconscious"
In a certain degree Mr.. Mason's asser-
lions coincide with the claims of the the
osophists regarding reincarnation. While
the individual in real life is not the exact
prototype, it is held, of a remote ances-
tor, the characteristics of that ancestor
exist in the form of this, second half of
the dual personality. The theosophist
claims that the strange impulses foreign
to the nature of a person are merely re-
awakened memories. This is also held to
be true of the occasional realization, when
visiting a strange place, that some time,
and under other conditions, it has been
| seen DeLOre. InlS Is pracIlcally what LII
| Mason's Investigations and deductions
signify only he shows that it is not a
reincarnation, but the transmission Of GER
tain qualities and ideas that have lair
| dormant for a century or more to a per-
son whose predominating self is far apart
from them. It will readily be seen thai
there is sufficient room for argument II
the interesting and startling statements
of DR.. Mason to occupy a regiment Of
debaters. Tt is one of those medical rev
Citations which not only interest the sci
enlist and the student of human nature
but the entire world.