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PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY. 



First Meeting : 3rd May, 1911. 



Present : Mr. A. M. Wright, President, in the chair, and eighty others. 



New Members.— Messrs. L. S. Jennings. W. Brock. H. R. Hogg, and 

 -1. Caughley. 



A large number of donations were received and laid on the table. 



Anton Dohrn Fund. — A letter was received from Dr. Benham, enclosing 

 < irculars and asking for subscriptions to the Anton Dohrn Fund. Dr. 

 Chilton explained the reason for making the appeal, and hoped members 

 would subscribe to such a worthy object. 



Address. — Mr. R. M. Laing, the retiring President, then delivered his 

 ex-presidential address on " A Study in Multiple Personality." 



The lecturer pointed out that this address was really a continuation and develop- 

 ment along specialized lines of an address previously given by himself to the Institute 

 on the subject of hypnotism. 



The investigation into the phenomena of multiple personality has now reached a 

 highly technical stage. Three different types of theory have been put forward to explain 

 these aberrations of personality and allied phenomena. These three types may be 

 roughly classified as follows : (a.) The " unconscious cerebration " theory. This has 

 been put forward in different forms by W. B. Carpenter, A. H. Pierce, and Munsterberg. 

 According to it the automatic speech and writing of a secondary personality were no 

 more accompanied by intelligence than the song of a gramophone. The lecturer con- 

 sidered this theory was quite insufficient to account for the phenomena witnessed in 

 the more remarkable cases of alternation of personality, such as shown by Miss 

 Beauchamp, the Rev. Thomas Hanna, and Ansell Bourne. (6.) The second type of 

 hypothesis may be termed the " stratification " theory. According to it there underlies 

 the normal consciousness one or more deeper strata of consciousness often possessed of 

 supernormal powers. Forms of this theory may be found in the "transcendental" 

 consciousness of Du Prel, in the " subliminal " consciousness of Myers, and the 

 " subjective " consciousness of various popular American writers, such as Hudson. 

 This type of theory appeared to the lecturer to be largely unsubstantiated, (c.) The 

 " dissociation " theory. According to this theory certain complexes are dissociated by 

 amnesia from the normal consciousness and lead to " automatonisms," or, when very 

 fully developed, sometimes assume control of the bodily organism and more or less 

 permanently play the role of the normal consciousness. This theory appeared to the 

 lecturer to provide a firm foothold for the study of multiple personality and many related 

 phenomena. Dissociation, indeed, is exhibited in sleep, dreams, hypnosis, sensory 

 and motor automatonisms, such as crystal visions, auditory and visual hallucinations, 

 automatic speech and writing, the phenomena of revivals, conversion, demoniacal pos- 

 s ssion, spirit-control, and many cases of insanity. Thus a naturalistic explanation was 

 obtained of many phenomena usually termed occult. However, after full scope had been 

 given to explanation by dissociation, there still remained a residuum of unexplained 

 phenomena, which might for the present at least be regarded as " supernormal." 



The body of the address consisted of a detailed description of the above phenomena 

 as exhibited by Miss Christine Beauchamp and described by Dr. Morton Prince. With 

 infinite patience Dr. Morton Prince was able to synthesize the disintegrated memories 

 of Miss Beauchamp and restore her to normal health. Under ordinary circumstances 

 her neurasthenic and psychasthenic condition would inevitably lead to her confinement 

 in a mental hospital, but Dr. Prince by his close investigation of the case and his treat - 

 inent of it by therapeutic suggestion was able to control the various personalities 

 developed and bring out renewed mental equilibrium. 



