Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-03-28
THOSE SECOND SELVES
Bv n. AddinqtOn Bruce

tn HAT spirits or tie dead are lurking
about to take possession Of the bodies
of living people, expel the spirits that
are the rightful possessors Of those bodies,
and thus enjoy return to corporal existence,
may seem a notion too fantastic to be credi-
BILE. But it is seriously advanced by mod
ern scientist, DR.. James H. Hyslop, formerly
professor of logic and ethics in Columbia
University.
DR.. Hyslop, indeed, in the course of his re-
Gently published book, Life After DEATH"
urges it as the one really satisfactory expla-
nation of the mystery of so-called secondary
personality, concerning which we have been
hearing much
Secondary personality, as it is now pretty
generally known, is essentially mental NAL
Eady of far-reaching and singular sort The
person afflicted with it may not seem to be
mentally i'll at all. Strangers would not sus-
pect that anything out of the ordinary has
happened to him.
But old acquaintance are we'll aware that
in most literal sense he is not the man he
once was.
All memory of life up to a certain time has
been blotted from his mind His character has
markedly changed. He has even forgotten
his identity, and may be living under name
not his own.
AS for instance, to mention a classic case a
Virginia business man lost all knowledge of
his identity during a trip to New York. In
this unhappy state, and taking another name
ed, not to his home but to city much
further SOUTH where he earned his living ped
ding fruit.
Six months later, knowledge of his real self
returned to him suddenly as it had depart
ed. Then he went home, dazed and ILL., The
report on his case says:
HE was hardly recognized by his friends,
He had reduced in weight from $50 to $50
pounds, and vas very feeble"
To make he mystery of secondary person
2lity more mysterious, it develops under the
most varied circumstances Sometime the
memory loss follows a blow on the head.
fometimes, as in this case, it is superinduced
by nothing more serious than fatigue.
Scientists in trying to account for it have
as rule been content to link it with hysteria
nd epilepsy, Not so DR.. Hyslop. who takes
~uite another view
The true explanation of such startling al
;oTations of the personality, he insists, is
| spirit or demOniac obsesson, as it was called
in the New Testament" Further than this,
Re also believes that many cases, not of sec
>1dary personality, but Of absolute insanity,
re likewise caused by the Intervention of evil
5Dirits.
The evidence on which he rests this belief
was obtained by him in the course of the
rsychica1 researches he has been making for
many years. I have not space even to indicate
it here, but must refer my readers to his
BOOK.
For myself | cannot say that I have foun3
it convincing But it has served to remind
me, as it should remind all concerned with
the explaining of mental phenomena, that
secondary personality still is very much of a
problem, whether Viewed as hysteria, epilepsy,
or possession.
And for this reason it is to be hoped that
Or Hyslop's sensational theory will have the
5alutary effect Of spdl1ing psychological in
vestigators to attack this peculiar perpleXing
riddle of the human mind more determinedly
and by more methods of approach than in the
past,
Copyright, 1919, by the Associated News
DaDerS)