One hundred years ago
DUAL CONSCIOUSNESS A GOOD DEAL of bewilderment and almost of consternation has been aroused in those who have studied some of the recent cases of French hysteria by the apparent change of character which takes place between different nervous conditions of the same individual, cases, for example, in which a change of the paralysis from one side of the brain to the other, appears to effect a change from a sober, patient, and industrious woman to a violent, disreputable, and lazy person imprisoned in the same body. We very much doubt whether this is the true reading of any of these cases. For there can be no doubt that the change from the activity of certain pow- ers and certain desires to that of a quite new set of powers and desires might effect a very great apparent change in the character without effecting a real change in it: and there is every reason to believe that this is what the change from the activity of one side of the brain to the other, when they are not used in co-ordination, really effects. It is more or less like the change which the loss of interests and active occupations in old age often effects, or like the change which growth from infancy to maturity in children whose hearts have never been really touched by their parents and teachers, often effects, though the true character may have undergone very lit- tle real change at all.
The Spectator 16 March 1895
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