SC I EN C E. Supplement. 



FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1886. 



MULTIPLE PERSONALITY. 



Among the most interesting of the cases, says 

 the Spectator, on which the Society for psychical 

 research has recently centred the thoughts of 

 investigators, is one of a patient who is called 

 1 Louis V., ' and who was born in 1863. He is said, 

 in the summary of his case, as given by Dr. Myers, 

 and commented upon before the society by Mr. 

 F. W. H. Myers, to have six different states of 

 consciousness, all of them more or less accom- 

 panied by distinct physical conditions ; but only 

 in one of these six states is his memory something 

 like that of an ordinary man ; that is, able to 

 recall the larger number of the various phases 

 through which his life has passed. Even in this 

 sixth state there are a few blanks in his memory ; 

 but in all the others he appears to remember only 

 a few discontinuous portions of his history, and to 

 forget completely those years in which his physi- 

 cal state was quite different from that in which he 

 then finds himself. Thus, when he has paralysis 

 of the light side (which is connected with a mor- 

 bid condition of the left side of the brain), nearly 

 twenty-one years of his twenty-three years of life 

 are entirely wiped out for him. But even then a 

 certain application of soft iron to his right thigh 

 restores to him the memory of the greater part of 

 his life, dispels temporarily all paralysis, and 

 leaves only a few comparatively small gaps in his 

 memory of bis career. Again, under certain mag- 

 netic conditions, the hysterical paralysis — for 

 the origin of the whole complaint seems to be a 

 kind of hysteria — can be transferred from the 

 right side (which involves a morbid condition of 

 the left brain) to the left side, involving the same 

 inertia of the right side of the brain ; and this 

 change, which is quite sudden, is accompanied by 

 a very curious change in the apparent aspect of 

 his character. From being arrogant, violent, and 

 profane, with indistinct utterance and complete 

 inability to write (owing to the paralysis of the 

 right hand), 'Louis V.' becomes instantaneously 

 quiet, modest, and respectful, speaking easily and 

 clearly, and able 10 write a fair hand ; but the 

 greater part of his life is still a blank to him. 



In a word, the change from ' Louis V.' with 

 paralysis of the right side, to ' Louis V.' with 

 paralysis of the left side, is not very different from 



the change which Mr. Louis Stevenson has de- 

 scribed in the weird tale called ' The strange 

 story of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde,' when Mr. Hyde 

 is suddenly transformed into Dr. Jekyl — except, 

 of course, that there is no alteration in the gen- 

 eral bulk or stature of the body. The hysterical 

 paralysis of the right side (involving the opposite 

 side of the brain) leaves him a rude, presumptuous, 

 illiterate boor ; while the paralysis of the left side 

 (involving the right side of the brain) finds him a 

 docile, respectful, educated young man. The other 

 five states of consciousness — induced by different 

 physical means, though in some cases, indeed, not 

 by physical means at all, but merely by authori- 

 tatively telling the young man that he is in one of 

 his other states — are more or less intermediate be- 

 tween these two ; and in one of them (the sixth as 

 described) the man's character, though not appar- 

 ently so good as in his best state (when the left 

 side of the brain, the side supposed to be most 

 frequently exerted in thinking and speaking, is 

 active, and the right side is passive), is much better 

 than in his worst, while his memory commands the 

 greater part of his life, and the paralysis vanishes 

 altogether. But in this state, apparently, it is not 

 possible to keep him long, for his normal condi- 

 tion is at present that in which he forgets all the 

 best part of his life, and is violent, arrogant, and 

 profane. 



Now, Mr. Myers apparently desired to persuade 

 the Society for psychical research, of which he is 

 one of the pillars, that this case points to a double 

 personality in each of us, — one represented by 

 the predominant activity of the left side of the 

 brain, the ordinary personality ; while the other, 

 occasionally manifested in dreams or abnormal 

 conditions of any kind, represents, for any one 

 in whom it is manifested, what Mr. Eyde was to 

 Dr. Jekyl, the more savage and brutal side of the 

 man, the coarser, more vulgar, unreflective, over- 

 bearing side. And he even goes so far as to sug- 

 gest that the activity of each separate side of the 

 brain represents the command of a quite different 

 sphere of knowledge ; so that a man whose right 

 brain is suddenly called into activity, while his 

 left brain is lulled to sleep, may manifest not only 

 a quite different character from his ordinary 

 character, but also a quite different range of posi- 

 tive knowledge. In Mr. Myers's belief, the ruder 

 character, which is best manifested by the activity 

 of the right hemisphere of the brain, may yet 

 have an instinctive insight to which the more nor- 



