DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS

or dual personality, a psychological condition in which two or more personalities manifest themselves in one person. In this condition may be found the origin of the ancient belief in demoniacal ‘po e ion.’ After a brief period of depre ion, there is a sudden change of behavior on the part of the patient, and what is to all purposes a different personality manifests itself, this secondary porcnaby having no memory of the real self. Dr. Morton Prince reports cases of where not only two personalities have thus manifested themselves in one person, but in the case of Mi Beauchamp, his famous patient, there were four, each quite distinct from the other. It is typical that the real, or primary personality, has all the characteristics of melancholia, while the alternate personality is gay and vivacious, of cheerful temperament. In Mi Beauchamp’s case, one of the personalities would correspond with the other, writing letters which would be read by the primary personality as though it had been actually received from another person, and answering them in the same spirit. Frederic Myers mentions an instance in which a French woman was afflicted with this disorder for a period of over twenty years, at the end of which period the secondary personality had become predominant, the primary personality finally ceasing to manifest itself. The cause of this peculiar disorder is ascribed to the abnormal activity of the subconscious mind, or subliminal mind (see AUTOSUGGESTION), Which a erts itself and for periods displaces the conscious mind, or, rather, enters the field of consciousne and usurps the place of the conscious personality. <A similar condition is manifested in the trance of a medium, who seems for the time being to be po e ed of a discarnate being, and which may be accounted for by the same theory; the temporary manifestation of the subconscious mind. an American soldier, 6. in Ballston Spa, N.Y. In 1842 he graduated from the United States Military Academy. He took a distinguished part in the Civil War, and was second in command at Fort Sumter, in 1861, where he fired the first gun in its defense. He also greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Gettysburg, and took a prominent part in other important engagements. He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel in 1865 and in 1870 was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Regular Army.