Reprinted from the 'Journal of Mental Science,' October, 1903.
A CASE OF DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS.
By ALBERT WILSON, M.D.
This remarkable case of double consciousness was under my constant observation for about four years.
It involved chiefly mental phenomena, and though I could find no evidence by any physical signs of alternating action of the two halves of the brain, yet the status should be kept in view by experts in determining a possible causation for these events.
For the purposes of classification I will call her normal self A and her abnormal condition B, subdividing it into B 1 to B 12, as she exhibited not merely one abnormal state but more than a dozen such sub-stages.
At the beginning of her illness the abnormal appeared for short periods, from a few minutes to an hour; but as time went on the normal decreased in time and frequency, occurring only for two or three minutes, and at intervals of days, until it has finally completely vanished, and she has now been living in the abnormal condition for years, making her own way in the world.
There are three conditions about these several abnormal sub-stages which are constant, and should be kept in view throughout the history:
1. Each sub stage appears and disappears at quite irregular intervals.
2. Each sub-stage has its own special characteristics.
3. Each sub-stage is continuous with itself,—that is, when any particular sub-stage appears it commences where the previous attack of the same sub-stage left off. Therefore any particular sub-stage has its memories limited to its own events,
