Page:A case of double consciousness Albert Wilson 1904 MPD in a child.djvu/12

12 pose such is my proper name;" "I know I have been ill and done funny things, I have been told about it." Her general health had all through been attended to, and when crippled she rode in a bath-chair. She was by no means helpless or stupid. Often in these abnormal states she did errands and made calls, or went to church alone. Menstruation, which was irregular at first, never made the slightest difference so far as we could detail.

When about seventeen she developed another modification, perhaps a personality, B 12; in it she was very self-willed, and would not listen to her parents. She had a great affinity for the opposite sex. She announced that she wanted a young man and would have one. She carried her point, leading the attack. However, by careful supervision and tact all went well. Perhaps this may not be considered an abnormal stage, but the uncloaking of the normal. This difficult stage of affection for the opposite sex seemed to be paroxysmal, and fused into B 6 or "Good creature." It did not persist. As B 6 or "Good creature" she gradually took her place as an ordinary individual. No one would suspect any alteration, yet one who knew her can see that the original Ego, the sum of personalities, is gone.

This case would suggest that whereas heredity and ancestry form the basis of mind and modify the type, experience and education form the superstructure. Education and experience must equip various groups or districts of cells and association centres. The more groups so developed, the higher the state of memory and intellect. Thus each life, or the true Ego, is made up of so many active mental centres or personalities, some good and some bad according to circumstances, inherited or acquired. Where the binding cement is weak, we get the mentally unstable as here, and this opens the very serious question which constantly affronts us—that of Responsibility.

B 1. Mania, fear, thirst. Rare visitor.

B 2. "A thing." Writes backwards, amnesia, childish, catalepsy.

B 3. Often paralysis of legs, ignorant. Very constant visitor for the first year.

B 3. "Old Nick." Bad temper, can read and write. The best