al despotism of her partner. Then for the first time she is allowed
to help herself to the faculties and senses usually monopolised by the
Conscious Self. But like the timid and submissive inmate of the zenana
suddenly delivered from the thraldom of her life-long partner, she
immediately falls under the control of another. The Conscious
Personality of another person exercises over her the same supreme
authority that her own Conscious Personality did formerly.
There is nothing of sex in the ordinary material sense about the two
personalities. But their union is so close as to suggest that the
intrusion of the hypnotist is equivalent to an intrigue with a married
woman. The Sub-conscious Personality is no longer faithful exclusively
to its natural partner; it is under the control of the Conscious
Personality of another; and in the latter case the dictator seems to be
irresistibly over-riding for a time all the efforts of the Conscious
Personality to recover its authority in its own domain.
What proof, it will be asked impatiently, is there for the splitting of
our personality? The question is a just one, and I proceed to answer it.
There are often to be found in the records of lunatic asylums strange
instances of a dual personality, in which there appear to be two minds
in one body, as there are sometimes two yolks in one egg.
In the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, M. Jules Janet records the
following experiment which, although simplicity itself, gives us a very
vivid glimpse of a most appalling complex problem:--
"An hysterical subject with an insensitive limb is put to sleep, and is
told, 'After you wake you will raise your finger when you mean Yes, and
you will put it down when you mean No, in answer to the questions which
I shall ask you.' The subject is then wakened, and M. Janet pricks the
insensitive limb in several places. He asks, 'Do you feel anything?' The
conscious-awakened person replies with the lips, 'No,' but at the same
time, in accordance with the signal that has been agreed upon during the
state of hypnotisation, the finger is raised to signify 'Yes.' It has
been found that the finger will even indicate exactly the number of
times that the apparently insensitive limb has been wounded."
_The Double-Souled Irishman._
Dr. Robinson, of Lewisham, who has bestowed much attention on this
subject, sends me the following delightful story about an Irishman who
seems to have incarnated the Irish nationalit
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