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Double Consciousness

a mental condition in which two personalities entirely separate from one another are developed in one person. This morbid condition is shown to extreme in Stevenson's classic, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." While such antithesis of character is seldom met with in one person, yet psychologists have noted that when two personalities are in one body the two are in frequent contradiction to each other. The memory of what one personality has done is non-existent in the other. Dr. Prince possessed of Boston found a woman who possess three developed personalities, besides four which were but partially developed His explanation is that the subconscious life holds several potential personalities which are destroyed or developed in our conscious existence. Other psychologists are disposed to explain it as a physical condition existing in the nervous system or exaggerated motor automatism.