ly thirty years' standing, the
spontaneous readjustment of nervous activities--the second state, no
memory of which remains in the first state--has resulted in an
improvement profounder than could have been anticipated from any moral
or medical treatment that we know. The case shows us how often the word
"normal" means nothing more than "what happens to exist." For Felida's
normal state was in fact her morbid state; and the new condition which
seemed at first a mere hysterical abnormality, has brought her to a life
of bodily and mental sanity, which makes her fully the equal of average
women of her class. (Vol. IV. p. 503.)

Chapter III.

Madame B. and Her Three Souls.

Marvellous as the cases cited in the last chapter appear, they are
thrown entirely into the shade by the case of Madame B., in which the
two personalities not only exist side by side, but in the case of the
Sub-conscious self knowingly co-exist, while over or beneath both there
is a third personality which is aware of both the other two, and
apparently superior to both. The possibilities which this case opens up
are bewildering indeed. But it is better to state the case first and
discuss it afterwards. Madame B., who is still under Prof. Richet's
observations,[3] is one of the favourite subjects of the French
hypnotiser. She can be put to sleep at almost any distance, and when
hypnotised completely changes her character. There are two well-defined
personalities in her, and a third of a more mysterious nature than
either of the two first. The normal waking state of the woman is called
Leonie I., the hypnotic state Leonie II. The third occult Unconscious
Personality of the lowest depth is called Leonie III.

[3] 1891.

"This poor peasant," says Professor Janet, "is in her normal state a
serious and somewhat melancholy woman, calm and slow, very gentle and
extremely timid. No one would suspect the existence of the person whom
she includes within her. Hardly is she entranced when she is
metamorphosed; her face is no longer the same; her eyes, indeed, remain
closed, but the acuteness of the other senses compensates for the loss
of sight. She becomes gay, noisy, and restless to an insupportable
degree; she continues good-natured, but she has acquired a singular
tendency to irony and bitter jests.... In this state she does not
recognise her identity with her waking self. 'That good woman is not I,'
she says; 'she is too stupid!'"

Madame