A case of double consciousness / by Albert Wilson.

  • Wilson, Albert, 1854-1928.
Date:
[1903]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A case of double consciousness / by Albert Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    thotonos with lividity followed by coma. These fits would occur ten to twenty times a day. In the fifth week recovery set in and intelligence returned. In the sixth week catalepsy developed with paralysis of the legs, and quite suddenly she developed this double consciousness. It occurred in this way. Whilst in bed reading or playing with her dolls she would com- mence shaking, and clear a space around. Then she would say, “ It is coming,’’ turn a somersault, and sit up on the bed in this new personality. Often she would call out “ Holloa ” as if unexpectedly greeting those around her. Her facial expres- sion was altered; it became childish. She also clipped her words like baby talk. She did not know the names of things. If asked about her legs she would say, “What dat?’’ “What legs mean? ’’ and if touched would say, “What? dese sings legs ? ” and so on. On the other hand, if one touched her nose she might call it her ear ; so that she had a store of words, only not the proper associations. She also reversed qualities, calling white, black; black, white; red, green ; and so on. When asked to read, she would misname letters, or call them alternately N and O ; but she learns quickly. As to writing, she can copy, but cannot write to dictation, as if some word- deafness. She always writes backwards ; not mirror writing, but commencing at the tail of the last letter of a word. She applies nicknames to her family and friends, but this had happened for two or three days before the first somersault, when she showed a gradual change in her whole manner. Thus she called her father “ The Tom ” or Tom, her mother “ The Mary Ann,” the nurse “The Susan Jane,” her sister F. “The gigger,” her sister A. “ Sally,” her brother F. “ George,” Dr. H— “ The Jim,” Dr. T— “ The Sam,” and others. During the attack she says she is “ a thing ” and not a girl, and she refuses her proper name. Using her correct name, she says she is very cross with that person for going and leaving her. She also says she hates that person, for every one likes that person but does not like her, meaning in her present abnormal state. So the abnormal B has some conception of the normal A ; but when the normal A returns she knows nothing of B the abnormal, yet knows that there is some sort of attack which she describes as “ going to sleep,” and says she feels as if she were dying. There is inability to stand, but she can move her feet and crawl. Cataleptic attacks occur. Sometimes she is