Christine "Sally" Beauchamp was the pseudonym of a woman, actually named Clara Norton Fowler, studied by American
neurologist
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...
Morton Prince
Morton Henry Prince (December 22, 1854 – August 31, 1929) was an American physician who specialized in neurology and abnormal psychology, and was a leading force in establishing psychology as a clinical and academic discipline.
He was part o ...
between 1898 and 1904. She was one of the first persons diagnosed as having multiple personalities (a disorder now termed
dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states.
The di ...
). Prince reported her case in his 1906 book-length description of her disorder.
History
Beauchamp was a 23-year-old student who came to Prince, a Boston neurologist, because she was suffering from a "nervous disorder". Her alternate personalities first appeared under
hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a type of mind–body intervention in which hypnosis is used to create a state of focused attention and increased suggestibility in the treatment of a medical or psychological disorder or concern. Popularized by 17th and 18th cen ...
but later appeared spontaneously. Prince was active in naming the personalities and in expressing a preference for one of them. Prince "cured" her by reconciling her other personalities with the original one. Beauchamp later married one of Prince's assistants.
Prince described Beauchamp as having three main distinct personalities, each of which had differing degrees of knowledge of the others.
He wrote: "although making use of the same body, each ... has a distinctly different character ... manifested by different trains of thought, ... views, beliefs, ideals, and temperament, and by different acquisitions, tastes, habits, experiences, and memories..."
[
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Importance
This case was widely cited as the "prototypical case" of dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states.
The di ...
, even into the 1970s.
References
External links
The dissociation of a personality; a biographical study in abnormal psychology (1906)
on the Internet Archive.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beauchamp, Christine
Year of birth missing
Place of birth missing
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People with dissociative identity disorder