Classics in Psychology

Robert H. Wozniak - Bryn Mawr College

Morton Prince: The Dissociation of a Personality (1906)

Throughout the 19th century, the idea that the human mind is influenced by factors operating below the levelof consciousness existed as a central feature of dynamic psychology.467 Even within the mentalphilosophy/experimental psychology tradition, in concepts such as Herbart's 'apperception,' Fechner's'negative sensations,' or Carpenter's 'unconscious cerebration,' a clear distinction was drawn betweenmentality which was conscious and that which was not.468

One of the most striking phenomena to exemplify the power of the unconscious during this period was that ofdivided personality. In 1830, Robert Macnish469 publicized the case of Mary Reynolds, a young American girlwho experienced periodic alternations between two distinct personalities, one quiet, sober, and unimaginative,the other gay, exuberant, and poetic. A decade later, Antoine Despine470 published what is often consideredto be the first objective study of dual personality, one in which cure was achieved through the eventual fusionof the pathological personality of the waking state with a healthy personality elicited during magnetictreatment.

In 1889, Pierre Janet took work in this area a step further when he demonstrated the experimental elicitationof multiple personalities.471 When a personality emerging under hypnosis, different from that of the wakingstate, was itself subjected to hypnotic induction, a third personality different from either of the first twosometimes appeared. In the writings of Janet himself, and of William James, F.W.H. Myers, and others,472 thisphenomenon gave rise to a conception of the human mind as a plurality of partial selves, multiple streams ofconsciousness each consisting of constellations of ideas leading semi-autonomous existences outside ofawareness. In the extreme, these constellations could even cohere into separate, independent personalitiesalternating with one another in the waking state.

Probably the best known instance of multiple personality of this sort is one described by Morton Prince473 inhis classic account, the Dissociation of a Personality.474 In this monograph Prince presented the case of ayoung woman, Christine Beauchamp, with whom he had worked extensively in his capacity as a neurologist.

Miss Beauchamp first came to Prince's attention when she sought treatment for standard neurastheniccomplaints: headache, chronic fatigue, and aboulia. Her personality at this time (which Prince named B1) wascharacterized by gravity of demeanor, extreme reticence with regard to her own affairs, a high level of generalsensitivity, excessive conscientiousness, and a kind of morbid pride that made her shy away from the receiptof favors or attention from others.

To relieve the patient of her symptoms, Prince began a course of therapy involving hypnotic suggestion.Within a few weeks, however, he noticed that under hypnosis the patient manifested two distinct personalities.One, which Prince named BII, was a somewhat exaggerated form of BI. Prince considered this to be astandard 'hypnotic personality,' arising as an artificial and temporary product of suggestion and lasting only aslong as the patient remained under hypnosis.475

The other, which Prince called BIII, had a much more unusual nature. As a personality, her characteristicswere almost directly opposite to those of BI. Where B1 was serious, sensitive, scrupulous, and personallyreticent, BII was gay, relatively insensitive, carefree, and attention loving. She was also generally energeticand physically healthy. As treatment proceeded, BIII adopted the name Sally and coalesced as an overtpersonality spontaneously alternating with BI. Sally knew all about BI and BII (though not the reverse) anddespised BI, taking every opportunity to cause her embarrassment and difficulty.

Over time, Prince became convinced that Sally was not, in fact, a hypnotic personality but a persistentsubconsciousness, coexisting with and, in effect, doubling the waking consciousness. As he put it, 'asubconsciousness is a particular group of mental states, dissociated from but concomitant with the personalself.'476 As a subconscious personality, Sally had her own thoughts, perceptions, and volitions separate fromand parallel to those of BI.

Finally, after a little more than a year in treatment, a fourth personality (BIV) emerged. Nicknamed 'the Idiot'by Sally, this personality, characterized by greater composure and social skill than BI, but little real moral,intellectual, or aesthetic strength, had no knowledge of what had gone on during the previous six years orwhat went on when either Sally or BI was in possession of the waking state. Gradually Prince came to theconclusion that BIV had formed as a dissociation from the 'real' Miss Beauchamp in response to a severepsychological trauma suffered six years previously and that this dissociation had left BI, also in effect adissociated part of the original personality, in sole possession of the field until BIII had appeared during thecourse of treatment.

After careful interrogation of all three major personalities, Prince came to the conclusion that the course oftherapy should proceed by suppressing BIII and resynthesizing BI and BIV, holding onto the good qualitiesand jettisoning the weaknesses of both. This, in effect, would recreate the personality that had existed prior tothe trauma. This he proceeded to do and with considerable success.

The importance of this achievement and the popularity of the monograph in which Prince reported his workwas considerable. As a contribution to psychotherapy, it was the first successful treatment of a full-blown caseof spontaneous multiple personality. As a contribution to abnormal psychology, it provided a clear andvaluable conceptualization of the relationship between the hypnotic personality, the subconscious, and thewaking state under pathological conditions. And as a contribution to the popularization of psychology, itserved greatly to heighten the public's awareness of the mind's complexity and of the need for research intonormal and abnormal mental states.477

467 From Mesmer to Bernheim; for an extraordinarily valuable treatment of this history, see Ellenberger, H.F.(1970). Discovery of the Unconscious. The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. New York: BasicBooks.

468 Herbart, J.F. (1816). Lehrbuch der Psychologie. Knigsberg: Unzer; Fechner, G.T. (1860). Elemente derPsychophysik. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hrtel; Carpenter, W.B. (1874). Principles of Mental Physiology, withTheir Applications to the Training and Discipline of the Mind, and the Study of its Morbid Conditions. London:Henry S. King. For a discussion of the works of Fechner and Carpenter, see essays on the Psychophysik andthe Mental Physiology in this volume.

469 Macnish, R. (1830). Philosophy of Sleep. Glasgow: MPhun.

470 Despine, A. (1840). De lemploi du magntisme animal et des eaux minrales dans le traitement desmaladies nerveuses, suivi dune observation trs curieuse de gurison de nvropathie. Paris et Lyon: GermerBaillire.

471 Janet, P. (1889). LAutomatisme psychologique. Paris: Flix Alcan.

472 For a lovely discussion of the views of William James and F.W.H. Myers in this regard, see Taylor, E.(1996). William James on Consciousness beyond the Margin. Princeton: Princeton University Press; and forJanet, see Ellenberger, H.F. (1970), op. cit.

473 18541929. For biographical information on Prince, see Hale, N.G., Jr. (1975). Introduction. In M. Prince.Psychotherapy and Multiple Personality: Selected Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp.118; for Princes views on the nature and function of the mind, see Taylor, W.S. (1928). Morton Prince andAbnormal Psychology. New York: D. Appleton.

474 Prince, M. (1906). The Dissociation of a Personality. A Biographical Study in Abnormal Psychology. NewYork: Longmans, Green.

475 Prince was emphatic in arguing that, although some elements of the hypnotic consciousness may becometemporarily dissociated during hypnosis and persist during the subsequent waking state as subconscioussuggestions, the hypnotic personality as a whole does not persist beyond the recurrence of the waking state.

476 Prince (1906), op. cit., p. 46.

477 Marx, O.M. (1970). Morton Prince and the dissociation of a personality. Journal of the History of theBehavioral Sciences, 6, 12030.

Extracted from Classics in Psychology, 18551914: Historical Essays ISBN 1 85506 703 X Robert H. Wozniak, 1999

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