DUAL PERSONALITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 738, 10 August 1929, Page 13

DUAL PERSONALITY

WOMAN’S EXCUSE FOR CRIMES SWINDLES IN TRANCE A -woman who was said to possess a j dual personality appeared before Mr. ; Boyd at Westminster Police Court, j in London, recently, charged with j obtaining cheques for £24 by false pretenfees from the Professional I Classes Aid Council. She was Miss Kathleen O’Brien, 35, alias Norah Harrison, of Westbournegrove, W. Expert evidence was given that | she committed the alleged offence while under the influence of her non-! real personality. It was stated that last year O'Brien, using an assumed name, wrote letters to the Council appealing for assist? ance on the grounds of ili-health and poverty. She said her landlord was distraining for rent and that she was threatened with eviction. She was asked to give the names of persons who could vouch for her character, and it was alleged that she wrote her own references, using accommodation addresses in different parts of London and fictitious names. Detective-Sergt. Widocks said, when he saw O’Brien with reference to obtaining £24 from the charity, she said she could not remember what had occurred. She said she had formerly been an inmate of a mental home, and that she had a dual personality. Dr. Robert M. Riggall, of Wimpole Street, describing himself as a specialist in “clinical psychology,” said that in 1927, O’Brien was one of his patients, the case being one of dissociation of personality, in other words, “dual personality.” The Magistrate: What exactly does that mean? Dr. Riggall: It means that she was -suffering from an extremely rare condition, in which there is a distinct second personality outside consciousness. The effect is that she would be quite -irresponsible for certain actions—the actions of her second personality would not be known by her true personality. Mr. Boyd asked if this was not indeed a rare form of mental disease.

Dr. Riggall: It is well-known among psychologists. Mr. Boyd: Is it now put forward In mitigation or as insanity? Mr. O’Connor (defending): Irresponsibility of action at times. O’Brien, who pleaded not guilty, was committed for trial, bail being allowed.