The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-07-22
A DUAL MENTALITY.
SURPRISING EXPERIMENTS WITH A
GIRL HAVING HYSTERlA.

Demonstrations Showing How Her Con-
scious and Subsconscious Mental States
Acted Upon Each Other-Phases of Mind
Very Interesting to Psychologists.
Among the patients of the Bingham
ton State hospital is a pretty young
girl, 10 years old, who, when brought
there several months ago, was suffer
ing from acute hysteria. DIR. William
A. White of the hospital staff has been
performing some remarkable expert
ments with the girl, demonstrating the
dual condition Of the mind and the ex-
istence Of a subccnscious mental state
When the child first arrived at the
hospital, she could not see out of the
left eye. DIR. White has proved that this
eye does see, although the child is un-
conscious of the fact. The patient while
in one mental state knows absolutely
nothing of what happened while in the
other. / was present when the doctor
experimental with the girl the other
day before a meeting OF the Broome
County Medical society.
The first experiment was TO prove
that the conscious mental state acts
upon the subconsciOus state. A second
experiment. proved the reverse. A third
experiment showed the two divisions of
the brain acting simultaneously, yet
independently OF each other: DR.. White
had the child close her right eye. He
held two fingers at an angle from her
left eye. "Do you see my hand?" he
asked ''No, " was the reply "How
many fingers am [ holding up?'
''Two, but [ can't see Them, was
the correct reply,
Under the doctors treatment the left
retina, which has been closed, is rapid
| ly eniarging, and the child will soon be
able to use the defective eye.
The second experiment proves that
the conscious mental state acts upon the
subconscious mental state. The child
was blindfolded and asked TO think in
tently Of some name Dr. White slip
ped a pencil and paper into her hand,
which was resting on the table. After
a moment the pencil hand began to
write. The pencil and paper were re-
moved and the child's bandages taken
from her eyes. The girl was asked what
she had written, but she said she had
written nothing. She did not know that
a pencil had been in her hand nor that
her hand had moved She admitted the
name on the paper was the one she had
been thinking Of. No hypnotism was
used in this experiment.
At DR.. Whites suggestion one of the
gentlemen present chose a sentence
which Dir. " hite repeated to her sever
al times until her subconscious mental
nature had it memorized. She was then
told that she had lost the feeling of her
right hand and arm and awakened. She
appeared wholly conscious of every
thing, but had no feeling in the right
arm.
The other physicians engaged the girl
| in conversation, and she readily an
swered their questions. While she was
thus talking with the others, Dr. White,
questioning the subconscious side of her
nature, asked her to write something,
and instantly the sentence learned few
minutes before was written with the
senseless hand, but all the while she
was talking with the others.
She was asked where her right hand
was. She did not know What was it
doing? She did not know. The paper
and pencil were removed and she was
unblindfolded The sentence was read
to her from the paper as she had just
written it, but she did not remem Der of
ever hearing it before. nor was she
aware that she had written anything,
although she admitted the writing
looked something like hers.
Dora" said the operator, 81 want
you to see that man over there Seei He
is tanning himself Now am. going to
wake you again, and then you rap on
the table, want you to go and take
that fan away from him. :" She was
again awakened and soon entered into
conversation with all of the doctors,
unhesitatingly answering any of their
questions. She was asked to point ont
DR.. Farnham, but she had never heard
of him. In the midst of the converse
tion DR.. White raped on the table, and
instantly she arose and went and took
the fan from DR.. Farnham's hand. An
instant later she was completely sur
prised at her action. Asked why she
had done it, she replied that she could
not tell, except that an impulse just
seized her to do it.
DR.. White used this last experiment
to point out the importance of the ex-
perimental study Of impulses originat-
ing in this way and the possible rela-
tion between such impulses and those
which result in criminal actions or sui
cidal or homioidal impulses. DR.. White
explained that this girl is rapidly i'm
proving from her mental disorder, for
which she is confined in the hospital. -
Cor New York Herald.