Returning in a cab she felt the period coming on which she calls her crisis (normal state). She dozed several seconds, without attracting the attention of the ladies who were in the cab, and awoke in the other state, absolutely at a loss to know why she was in a mourning carriage with people who, according to custom, were praising the qualities of a deceased person whose name she did not even know. Accustomed to such positions, she waited; by adroit questions she managed to understand the situation, and no one suspected what had happened. Once when in her abnormal condition she discovered that her husband had a mistress, and was so overcome that she sought to commit suicide. Yet in her normal mind she meets the woman with perfect equilibrium and forgetfulness of any cause for quarrel. It is only in her abnormal state that the jealousy recurs. As the years went on the second state became her usual condition. That which was at first accidental and abnormal now constitutes the regular center of her psychic life. It is rather satisfactory to chronicle that as between the two egos which alternately possess her, the more cheerful has finally reached the ascendant."Jackson reports the history of the case of a young dry-goods clerk who was seized with convulsions of a violent nature during which he became unconscious. In the course of twenty-four hours his convulsions abated, and about the third day he imagined himself in New York paying court to a lady, and having a rival for her favors; an imaginary quarrel and duel ensued. For a half-hour on each of three days he would start exactly where he had left off on the previous day. His eyes were open and to all appearances he was awake during this peculiar delirium. When asked what he had been doing he would assert that he had been asleep. His language assumed a refinement above his ordinary discourse. In proportion as his nervous system became composed, and his strength improved, this unnatural manifestation of consciousness disappeared, and he ultimately regained his health.
A further example of this psychologic phenomenon was furnished quite meetly at a meeting of the Clinical Society of London, where a well known physician exhibited a girl of twelve, belonging to a family of good standing, who displayed in the most complete and indubitable form this condition of dual existence. Adescription of the case is as follows:--
"Last year, after a severe illness which was diagnosed to be meningitis, she became subject to temporary attacks of unconsciousness, on awakening from which she appeared in an entirely different character. In her normal condition she could read and write and speak fluently, and with comparative correctness. In the altered mental condition following the attack she loses all memory for ordinary events, though she can recall things that have taken place during previous attacks. So complete is this alteration of memory, that at first she was unable to remember her own name or to identify herself or her parents. By patient training in the abnormal condition she has been enabled to give things their names, though she still preserves a baby-fashion of pronouncing. She sometimes remains in the abnormal condition for days together and the change to her real self takes place suddenly, without exciting surprise or dismay, and she forthwith resumes possession of her memory for events of her ordinary life. During the last month or two she appears to have entered on a new phase, for after a mental blank of a fortnight's duration she awakened completely oblivious of all that had happened since June, 1895, and she alludes to events that took place just anterior to that date as though they were of recent occurrence; in fact she is living mentally in July, 1895.
These cases, though rare, are of course not infrequently met with, and they have been carefully studied, especially in France, where women appear more prone to neurotic manifestations. The hypothesis that finds most favor is that the two halves of the brain do not work in unison; in other words, that there has been some interference with the connections which in the ordinary normal being make of a wonderful composite organ like the brain one organic whole."Proust tells a story of a Parisian barrister of thirty-three. His father was a heavy drinker, his mother subject to nervous attacks, his younger brother mentally deficient, and the patient himself was very impressionable. It was said that a judge in a court, by fixing his gaze on him, could send him into an abnormal state. On one occasion, while looking into a mirror in a cafe, he suddenly fell into a sleep, and was taken to the Charite where he was awakened. He suffered occasional loss of memory for considerable lengths of time, and underwent a change of personality during these times. Though wide awake in such conditions he could remember nothing of his past life, and when returned to his original state he could remember nothing that occurred during his secondary state, having virtually two distinct memories. On September 23, 1888, he quarreled with his stepfather in Paris and became his second self for three weeks.
He found himself in a village 100 miles from Paris, remembering nothing about his journey thereto; but on inquiry he found that he had paid a visit to the priest of the village who thought his conduct odd, and he had previously stayed with an uncle, a bishop, in whose house he had broken furniture, torn up letters, and had even had sentence passed upon him by a police court for misdemeanor. During these three weeks he had spent the equivalent of $100, but he could not recall a single item of expenditure.