Dual and Multiple Personality – William J. Fielding
William J. Fielding’s Dual and Multiple Personality (Haldeman‑Julius Company, Little Blue Book No. 996) is a fascinating exploration of the hidden duality within the human mind. Though written in the early 20th century, it remains strikingly relevant for anyone interested in psychology, philosophy, or the cultural history of belief.
The Dual Nature of Mind
Fielding begins with the observation that human beings live in two states: the waking, conscious self bound by time and space, and the dreaming, subconscious self that transcends those limits. In dreams, we converse with the dead, fly, or relive the past—experiences that gave rise to humanity’s earliest notions of immortality and the supernatural. As he notes, “our subconscious mind, which is in the ascendancy during sleep, has invested itself with the attributes of the supernatural. Perhaps it has invented the supernatural.”
Witchcraft, Hallucinations, and Suggestibility
The book traces how this duality shaped folklore, religion, and even mass hysteria. Witchcraft persecutions, medieval visions of saints, and mob violence are all explained as manifestations of subconscious suggestibility. Fielding draws on thinkers like Boris Sidis and Thomson Jay Hudson to show how hallucinations and crowd psychology stem from the same hidden processes of the mind.
Physiology of the Subconscious
Fielding also ventures into physiology, describing how nerve‑cells form unstable constellations that can dissolve under stress, trauma, or suggestion. This instability, he argues, explains phenomena such as hysteria, hypnosis, and amnesia. Dissociation is not organic damage but functional disaggregation—cells retracting their connections until normal conditions are restored.
Normal Duality and Creative Insight
Importantly, Fielding emphasizes that duality is not only pathological but also constructive. The unconscious mind is a vast storehouse of memory and creativity. Oliver Wendell Holmes is quoted: “We all have a double, who is wiser and better than we are, and who puts thoughts into our heads and words into our mouths.” Fielding qualifies this—our inner double is not morally better, but it is stronger, more energetic, and often the source of sudden inspiration.
Why Read This Book
Dual and Multiple Personality is more than a psychological tract; it is a cultural history of how subconscious processes shaped religion, superstition, and social life. For readers of psychology, philosophy, or history, it offers a compact yet rich introduction to early 20th‑century thought on the unconscious.
