Final thoughts on The Dissociation Of A Personality (1905) (+ a bunch of other cases from the era)

[erinptah]

Finally finished reading this book! (Previously mentioned in the “talking to headmates in the mirror” post.)

I…can’t exactly recommend it?

I was really hoping to. As a detailed historical snapshot of “how the mental-health profession thought of dissociation in 1905”, it’s fascinating. I’m still not over the reveal of “one headmate claims they were plural as a toddler, and the doctor thinks that can’t be right, because that’s so implausibly young to start splitting.”

But as a record of the treatment of this particular patient — it’s really depressing. Gave me the same feeling I had reading The Third Person (Emma Grove’s 2022 graphic memoir, summary with content warnings on pluralstories), where you start out thinking “okay, this therapist doesn’t know what he’s dealing with and is clearly in over his head, but he seems thoughtful and open to learning, so maybe he’ll get better”…and by the end it’s just a constant escalation of “no, buddy, what are you doing, this is so obviously bad for your patient, oh noooo.”

Extra-frustrating because this book is written by the therapist, and…he notices! A few times he mentions having misgivings, or second-guessing whether he’s doing the right thing! And then he’ll talk himself right back into doing more of it.

There’s also a point where, in talking about teenage headmate Sally, he refers to “her true function — if she had one, which may be doubted” (405). My good sir, your own writing recounts multiple instances of Sally giving you key information that the other headmates were unaware of, and of her physically taking care of their body, including thwarting another headmate’s suicide attempt! You should be first in line to defend this girl as an essential protector, no matter how many obnoxious pranks or immature insults she pulls in between! Justice for Sally, dammit.

(Double-plus-frustrating because he’s the same doctor who treated the system in My Life As A Dissociated Personality, and it seemed like they had a really healthy, positive experience! Apparently that only happens if the patient’s therapeutic goals and attitudes line up with his own from the start. If not…disaster.)

—

I started writing this post back at the beginning of the book, because on the fourth page, the author just casually threw out the names of a half-dozen other previously-studied dissociative patients. More of them come up throughout the text, so I kept the draft open. Wanted to track down sources for as many as I could.

Not all of them are “patients who would probably be diagnosed with DID if they reported the same symptoms in 2025.” It’s a broader list of patients who, in Dr. Prince’s evaluation, have Some Kind Of Dissociative Experience. I’m not re-evaluating them, honestly I’m not even reading most of them, just rounding up the list for Historical Interest purposes.

There’s a lot of overlap with the study of mediums, possession, and psychic experiences. The fact that it’s being openly linked to Psychiatry Things makes me inclined to think of it as “legitimate science, described in supernatural terms because they haven’t nailed down more science-y words for it yet.” But maybe some of it is “the old-timey version of doctors who tell people the CIA implanted them with half-alien babies, even though the serious mainstream knows full well that’s ridiculous.” I don’t have the cultural context to tell!

Two of the subjects (“Mrs. Smead” and Hélène Smith) claim some variation on “channeling Martians and producing maps/drawings/writing from Mars.” The researchers studying them seem…not convinced they are Martians, so, put that as a point in the “not conspiracy theorists” column. But they’re puzzled by the similarity (which was spontaneous, neither person had ever been told about the other), and suspicious that it means something.

In retrospect — the theory of a canal-building civilization on Mars was a hot topic in the late 1890s. There were books about it. It’s essentially a fandom. This is the 19th-century manifestation of “two systems with fictives from the same source.”

A bunch of these original sources are in French. I’ve translated the titles, but I absolutely do not have the stamina to do that for full-length articles. As much as possible, I’ve added links to English-language translations, or at least reviews.

Sorted by date:

1876: “cases like that of Felida X., reported by M. Azam”

• Azam, Étienne, 1876. Periodical Amnesia; or, Double Consciousness. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 3(4):p 584-612, October 1876. (Translated into English from the Revue Scientifique by James I. Tucker)
• Azam, Étienne, 1887. Hypnotisme, double conscience et altérations de la personnalité : le cas Félida X,, preface by Jean-Martin Charcot, 1887 (“Hypnotism, double consciousness and changes of personality: the case of Félida X”)

1882: “Louis Vive, studied by several French observers”

• Camuset, Louis, 1882. Un cas de dédoublement de la personnalité. Période amnésique d’une année chez un jeune homme hystérique, Annales Médico-Psychologiques, 40, 75-86. (“A case of doubled personality, a one-year amnesiac period within a young male hysteric.”)
• English-language recap of the reports about him: Faure, Henri; Kersten, John (June 1997). “The 19th Century DID Case of Louis Vivet: New Findings and Re-evaluation” (PDF). Dissociation. X (2): 104.

1886: “Léontine and Leonore in the case of Madame B., described by Dr. Pierre Janet”

• Janet, Pierre. Les actes inconscients et le dédoublement de la personnalité pendant le somnambulisme provoqué. Revue Philosophique, vol. 22, 1886, III (P. 577-592). (“Unconscious acts and the doubling of the personality during induced sleepwalking.”)
• This profile of Janet thinks it’s…reviewed? redone?..as part of The Psychology of Human Conduct: A Review, American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 85, No. 2, Sept. 1928 (P. 209-234).
• English-language recap in Gauld, Alan. Notes on the Career of the Somnambule Léonie. Journal of Spiritualism and Psychic Research 61, 1996, pp. 141-151

1889: “M. Janet…One of his subjects, Lucie”

• Janet, Pierre. L’automatisme psychologique : essai de psychologie expérimentale sur les formes inférieures de l’activité humaine. Paris : Félix Alcan, 1889. (“Psychological automatism: an essay of experimental psychology on the lower forms of human activity”)
• English-language recap in Myers, F. W. H. Human personality and its survival of bodily death. London: Longmans, 1903. pp. 326-331

1889: “In the case of Anna Winsor, reported by Dr. Ira Barrows, it was observed that she was asleep while the secondary consciousness, nicknamed “Old Stump,” was awake”

• James, William. Essays in psychical research, Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1986 – Collection that includes “Notes on Automatic Writing”, originally published in 1889

1889: “Mary Reynolds, republished by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell”

• Mitchell, Silas Weir. Mary Reynolds : a case of double consciousness. Philadelphia : Wm. J. Dornan, 1889.
• Worth noting that Mitchell did historically-bad therapy. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of his patients, and The Yellow Wallpaper is literally based on his treatment methods. So there’s that

1889: “[the case of] Marcelline R., reported by Dr. Jules Janet”

• Myers, F. W. H. (Frederic William Henry). Dr. Jules Janet on hysteria and double personality. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. 6, p. 216-221.

1890: “The state called “Mamie,” in the case of Mrs. R., reported by the writer”

• Prince, Morton. Some of the Revelations of Hypnotism: Post-Hypnotic Suggestion, Automatic Writing and Double Personality. Boston Med. and Surgical Journal, vol 122 no 20 (1890)

1891: “and of Ansel Bourne, studied by Dr. Richard Hodgson and Professor William James”

• Hodgson, Richard. “Notes on Ansel Bourne.” In Essays in Psychology, 269. Originally published in “A Case of Double Consciousness,” by Richard Hodgson, 254-54. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 7 (July, 1891): 221-257.

1892: “The classical case of Mme. D. […] studied by Charcot, and later by Souques, and Janet”

• Charcot, J.M., Sur un cas d’amnésie rétro-antérograde: probablement d’roigine hystérique. Revue de Médecine, February, 1892, pp. 81-96. (“On a case of retro-anterograde amnesia, probably of hysterical origin.”)
• Souques, A., L’amnésie rétro-antérograde: dans l’hystérie, les traumatismes cérébraux et l’alcoolisme chronique. Revue de Médecine, May, 1892, pp. 367-401. (“Retro-anterograde manesia: in hysteria, cerebral trauma, and chronic alcoholism.”)
• Janet, Pierre and Corson, Caroline Rollin, 1901. The mental state of hystericals; a study of mental stigmata and mental accidents. New York, London, G. P. Putnam’s sons, 1901. pp. 90-91

1898: “The case of Mr. Hanna, studied by Sidis and Goodhart”

• Sidis, Boris. The psychology of suggestion; a research into the subconscious nature of man and society. New York, D. Appleton & company, 1898. – “The case of the Rev. Thomas Carson Hanna” is pp. 216-227
• Sidis, Boris and Goodhart, Simon. Multiple Personality. D. Appleton & Co., 1905, pp. 81-226 – “About six months after Mr. Hanna ‘s complete recovery, at our request he furnished us with the following personal account of his experience” is pp. 201-226

1900: “that of Miss “Smith,” studied by M. Flournoy”

• Flournoy, Théodore. (1900). Des Indes à la Planète Mars: étude sur un cas de somnambulisme avec glossolalie. Paris: Félix Alcan. (“From the Indies to Planet Mars: studies in a case of sleepwalking with glossolalia.”)
• English-language profile of Hélène Smith and her relationship with Flournoy: de Oliveira Maraldi, E. (2017). ‘Hélène Smith’. Psi Encyclopedia. London: The Society for Psychical Research.

1901: “Charles W., Reported by Dr. Edward E. Mayer”

• Mayer, Edward E., A case of localized amnesia. Journal of the American Medical Association, vol 37 issue 24, December 14, 1901, pp. 1601-1605

1904: “observations made by Dr. Boris Sidis and myself on the subject M–l”

• Sidis, Boris and Prince, Morton. A contribution to the pathology of hysteria based upon an experimental study of a case of hemianesthesia with clonic convulsive attacks simulating Jacksonian epilepsy. Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, June 23, 1904, pp. 674-678

1904: “Dr. Albert Wilson has reported a case exhibiting ten personalities besides the normal self”

• Wilson, Albert. A case of multiple personality. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, October 1904, pp. 352-415
• This includes scans of the handwriting and artwork by different personalities! Descriptions on pages 402-403, actual printed plates between pages 414-415

1909: “Mrs. “Smead,” studied by Professor Hyslop” (there must be earlier records Dr. Prince was referencing, I just haven’t turned them up)

• Hyslop, James. A case of veridical hallucinations. Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, Volume III Parts I-II, (PDF), 1909.
• “Pseudonym of Mrs. Willis M. Cleveland, wife of an American preacher to whom James H. Hyslop‘s attention was invited in December 1901.”

Couldn’t find these:

• “another case of double personality, Mrs. J—n, came under my observation”
• “The case of Marie M., reported by J. M. Boeteau, presented similar phenomena. (Annales Médico-Psychologique, January, 1892.)” [I found this journal, but text search didn’t turn up any case with those two names]
• “Gurney (already alluded to), who was the first to show that there is no definite particular hypnotic self for each individual, but that a sensitive subject may be successively thrown into a series of “states,” each with its own separate groups of memories. He thus obtained three distinct states in the same subject. Mrs. Sedgwick and Miss Thompson afterwards obtained eight”