Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-28

strate that my original opinion re-
gard1ng her was in error"
us she crazy, DR.. Burt?"
mot in the sense that we custom
arily employ the term, your honor.
/ should say, rather, that her pSychol-
ogy is abnormal, that she is neither
moral nor immoral, but Immoral.
For instance, when asked her why
she stole silk stockings, she told me
quite frankly that she did it because
there were runs in all her old stockings.
That reply was very illuminating. AS
talked further with her I noted her
variant moods and quickly came to
the conclusion that she is suffering
from dissertation by reason Of shock.
In other words, this girl. who doubtless
in happier days possessed single
personality, and that a normal one,
has now acquired a secondary person.
atty. In plain English, two entirely
different people inhabit the one body.
1.-THE first personality, which shall
call A, is the result of acquired in
stincts, habit, education, and repres-
sions imposed on society by conven-
ton and the code of procedure which
we call morals. This has been sub
merged wholly or in part by second
personality, which I shall call B, and
when B personality rules her she has
l.
acquired or normal instincts. Out of
her unconscious mind then emerge,
as definite Impulses to action, the old
antipathies to such action, which we
medical men term conflicts.
Let me illustrate. We will assume
that at this moment she is possessed of
her personality A, and in this state she
realizes she has runs in all her stock
ings, that she must have new Stockings
ak1A oil kt1nA ~G IN1r
with which to purchase new stockings,
but she sees some stockings which she
can readily steal. Normal people often
have impulses to steal, your honor, and
Nance Belden has an impulse to steal
the stockings she needs.
But here a factor intervenes. She
has been taught from the day she mani
tested thought that it is wrong to steal,
and this moral lesson has impressed
itself upon her conscious mind. With
repetition, the thought, becoming a
habit, dropped out of her conscious mind
to become conserved in her unconscious
mind. Conserved there, it became a
definite part of her personality-her
necessary to remind herself that it was
wrong to steal. She knew it was, with
out having to think about 1t at all, and
this unconscious knowledge was her pro-
lection in the feeting moment of temp
tation, aroused by her definite need and
the knowledge that lacking money to
buy the stockings, and faced with the
absolute necessity for acquiring stock
ingS, the sole alternative was to steal
them. She got no further than that
vague, conscious thought. Immediately
the knowledge that it was immoral to
steal, that nothing could possibly ex-
cuse theft, rose out of her unconscious
mind and became q dominating con-
SciouS thought. Now, right there ap-
peared the mental phenomenon known
among pSychiatriSts as q complex, or
conflict. In all conflicts the stronger
wins and in this particular mental con-
f1ict the will not to steal won instantly.
1t was an older habit of thought. It
was an acquired instinct whereas the
impulse to steal was not a habit of
thought. because she had never INDUCED
in theft! We say we do a thing on
instinct, but really we act after due
II intellectually brief-cogitation based
on reason, which is the result of habit
uation to doing certain things.
This defendant, your honor, is
healthy girl, as far as can Judge from
outward appearances. But she is what
you often hear referred to as high
strung. And she is so unusually intelli-
have been very potent reason for the
commission of such an unintelligent act
as theft So Immediately I commenced
to question her as to her family, her
past.
"She could tell me nothing. She is
not at all sure that her name is Nance
Belden, and I am satisfied that her in
ability to throw any light on her gene
sis was not born OF a desire to with
hold that information. I believe she
has amneSia for q certain period of her
life, and we know that such a condition
Is usually the result of q severe mental
shock. In such cases the patient usu-
ally has an intense desire to forget abb
Solutely the unhappy, unpleasant or
terrifying episode or person that pro-
duced the shock, and so intense is the
power of will IN certain highly Sensi-
tive people, women particularly, that
not infrequently they succeed Thus
amneSia is produced. It is in a sense
autohypnoSis, and your honor undoubt-
edly is aware that people who have
been hypnotiZed remember nothing of
what occurs during the hypnotic state"
II believe follow you," the judge
murmured.
II have shown you why the normal
Nance Belden would not steal But
now comes that mental shock / spoke
of, with consequent amnesia for all of her
life that has preceded it; or it may be
q part Of that life. With the amnesia
comes what we term dissertation or
mental disintegration. The uncon-
Scious overwhelms the conscious; the
acquired instincts of morality-social
usage-drop out of the conscious into
the unconscious, and the thoughts and
impulses that have lain dormant and
defeated In the unconscious are now in
the saddle. Unfortunates who have &C
quired dual personalities or a disso-
ciated personality go from one person.
atty into the other and back again,
with or without annesia for the pre-
ceding state.
"At a time when Nance Belden's
second personality tB) ruled her and
she decided to steal those stockings she