Without pursuing further this exposition of the empirical personality or going into details, it would seem that some such conception of the structure of personality as that of which I have given a mere outline will alone satisfy the phenomena actually observed under normal and abnormal conditions. Indeed the theory would seem to be a compelling induction from the phenomena derived from clinical observation and experiment.
Against this preliminary sketch of the structure and dynamic mechanisms of the normal personality as a background I will in the next lecture present a study of a case of dissociated and multiple personality, as the alterations of structure and the dynamic manifestations observed in cases of this kind, on the one hand, concretely illustrate the principles involved, and, on the other, present some of the most important data on which the theory is founded.
[261]. “Intelligence tests” therefore do not afford tests of character which is the most important element of personality from a sociological point of view. (See “Character vs. Intelligence in Personality Studies” by Dr. Guy Fernald, Jour. Abnormal Psychology, Vol. XV, No. 1.)
[262]. Indeed I cannot see that mental “disposition” has any reality excepting so far as it is derived from its correlated physiological disposition. (See p. 266.)
[263]. Miss Beauchamp: “The Theory of the Psychogenesis of Multiple Personality”; Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. XV, Nos. 2-3; pp. 108, 120-121.
LECTURE XVIII
THE PSYCHOGENESIS OF MULTIPLE PERSONALITY[[264]]
The Case of B. C. A.
I
As an introduction let me say that in a previous lecture (The Unconscious, Lecture VIII) I pointed out that in a general way alteration of personality is effected through the primary organization by experience and later coming into dominating activity of particular unitary systems of ideas with their affects, on the one hand, and the displacement by dissociation or inhibition of other conflicting systems on the other. In slighter degrees and when transient this alteration may be regarded as a mood. When the alteration is more enduring, and so marked by contrast with the preceding and normal condition as to obtrusively alter the character and behavior of the individual and his capacity for adjustment to his environment, we have a pathological condition. When the alteration is slight and affects few systems it may be easily overlooked; or when it is accompanied, as it often is, by physiological disturbances, it may be so masked by them as to be mistaken for so-called neurasthenia. It is when the dissociation is so comprehensive as to deprive the individual of memory of his previous phase of personality, or of certain acquired knowledge or other particular experiences that the personality is easily recognized as a dissociated one. When the inhibiting or repressing force that induces dissociation ceases to be effective, that is when the dissociated systems come again into activity and repress the temporarily dominant systems, then the individual returns to his normal condition (in which he may or may not remember the dissociated state), just as a person returns to his habitual character after the passing of a mood. We may speak of the two phases—the normal and the altered one—as constituting together multiple personality. As these two phases may continue to alternate with one another they are also alternating personalities. The second or altered state is also sometimes called a secondary personality. There may be several such secondary personalities which may alternate with each other or the normal personality.
It should be noted that the formation of a secondary personality is primarily the result of two processes, dissociation and synthesis though it is subject to secondary growth through various processes. As a result of the first process, dissociation, systems of thought, ideas, memories, emotions and dispositions previously habitual in the individual may cease to take part in the affected person’s mental processes. The influence of these systems with their conative tendencies is therefore no longer for the time being in play.