# Morton Prince

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American physician

Morton Prince American Pioneer in Dissociative Disorders Born (1854-12-21)December 21, 1854 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. Died August 31, 1929(1929-08-31) (aged 74) Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.

**Morton Henry Prince** (December 22, 1854 – August 31, 1929) was an American [physician](/source/Physician) who specialized in [neurology](/source/Neurology) and [abnormal psychology](/source/Abnormal_psychology), and was a leading force in establishing [psychology](/source/Psychology) as a clinical and academic discipline.[1][2]

He was part of a handful of men who disseminated European ideas about [psychopathology](/source/Psychopathology), especially in understanding [dissociative](/source/Dissociation_(psychology)) phenomena; and helped found the [Journal of Abnormal Psychology](/source/Journal_of_Abnormal_Psychology) in 1906, which he edited until his death.

## Early life and marriage

Morton Prince came from a wealthy [Boston](/source/Boston) family and was involved in the social and intellectual life of that city. He was born to [Frederick O. Prince](/source/Frederick_O._Prince), a state senator and future Boston mayor and Helen Susan Prince (née Henry).[3] Prince later in life learned that part of his family were descended from early American Sephardic Jews, and became interested in philanthropy and concerns of his ancestral community. He went to private schools[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] and the [Boston Latin School](/source/Boston_Latin_School) and then to [Harvard College](/source/Harvard). He obtained his medical degree from [Harvard Medical School](/source/Harvard_Medical_School) in 1879.[3] After Harvard, he took a [Grand Tour](/source/Grand_Tour) of Europe, a near requirement for upper-class Americans at that time. Prince hoped to gain more clinical instruction at Vienna and Strasbourg.[3] It was in Paris that he visited [Jean Martin Charcot](/source/Jean_Martin_Charcot) at the [Salpêtrière](/source/Salp%C3%AAtri%C3%A8re). He was quite impressed with Charcot's theories but returned to Boston to set up an [otolaryngology](/source/Otolaryngology) practice. However, the spell of the charismatic Charcot was strong and he quickly switched his practice to [neurology](/source/Neurology), and even adopted Charcot's showmanship for teaching his classes.

Prince c1875

Hypnosis Applications Age regression in therapy Animal magnetism Hypnotherapy Stage hypnosis Self-hypnosis Hypnoanalysis Hypnosurgery Origins/History History of hypnosis Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism Key figures Theodore Xenophon Barber Deirdre Barrett Henri-Étienne Beaunis Hippolyte Bernheim Alexandre Bertrand Gil Boyne James Braid John Milne Bramwell William Joseph Bryan Jean-Martin Charcot Robert Hanham Collyer Émile Coué John Bovee Dods Baron du Potet Dave Elman William Collins Engledue Milton H. Erickson James Esdaile John Elliotson Sigmund Freud Erika Fromm Johann Joseph Gassner Ernest Hilgard Josephine R. Hilgard Clark L. Hull Pierre Janet Irving Kirsch Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault Jules Liégeois Franz Mesmer Martin Theodore Orne Charles Poyen Morton Prince Marquis of Puységur Andrew Salter Theodore R. Sarbin Nicholas Spanos Charles Lloyd Tuckey André Muller Weitzenhoffer Michael D. Yapko Related topics Absorption Automaticity Autosuggestion Coding Covert conditioning Covert hypnosis Guided imagery Hypnotherapy in the United Kingdom Hypnotic induction Hypnotic susceptibility Ideomotor phenomenon Neuro-linguistic programming Posthypnotic amnesia Suggestion Suggestion theory Trance v t e

He married Fannie Lithgow Payson,[3] daughter of Arthur Lithgow Payson and Claire Endicott Peabody. They had at least two children,[3] Claire Morton Prince, born about 1885, and Morton Peabody Prince, born August 6, 1888.

During the First World War at Hotel Lotti, Paris, France, Dr Prince was the director of an information bureau and home[4] intended for soldiers and sailors from Massachusetts.

## Professional accomplishments

Prince became interested in abnormal psychology and neurology because both his wife and mother had psychogenic symptoms including depression and anxiety. He became a devotee and proponent of the use of [suggestion](/source/Suggestion) in treating mental illnesses in the United States and drew around him important practitioners in the burgeoning field of abnormal psychology of that time: [Boris Sidis](/source/Boris_Sidis), [James Jackson Putnam](/source/James_Jackson_Putnam), [William James](/source/William_James), [G. Stanley Hall](/source/G._Stanley_Hall), to name but a few. He became the American expert in [dissociative disorders](/source/Dissociation_(psychology)), which he also called [multiple personality disorder](/source/Multiple_personality_disorder).[5]

Prince created the *Journal of Abnormal (and Social) Psychology* with the help from psychologist Boris Sidis. Prince published a few of his articles in this journal including *The Dissociation of a Personality* in 1906, *The Unconscious* in 1914, and *Clinical and Experimental Studies in Personality* in 1929. This journal served as an outlet especially for those who were interested in neurotic disorders. Prince edited the *Journal of Abnormal (and Social) Psychology* up until his death in 1929. This journal was eventually turned over to the American Psychological Association. Overall, Prince had six of his books published and had written over 100 scientific papers that included information on general medicine, philosophy, neurology, and psychopathology.

He published numerous accounts of cases, both in the academic press and the popular press. His most famous case was that of [Christine Beauchamp](/source/Christine_Beauchamp_(pseudonym)), detailed in *The Dissociation of a Personality* (1906), which caused some consternation, due both to the sensational nature of the cases presented and to the convoluted prose style: "There was over her spine a 'hypnogenetic point', pressure upon which always caused a thrill to run through her that weakened her will and induced hypnotic sleep".[6]

Not only was Morton Prince the founder of the *Journal of Abnormal (and Social) Psychology*, but he was also the founder of the American Psychopathological Association, and of the Harvard Psychological Clinic.

Prince maintained an active academic and professional life, not only with his psychopathologic studies but as practicing physician as well. He served from 1902 to 1912 as the second chairman of both the departments of psychiatry and neurology at [Tufts University School of Medicine](/source/Tufts_University_School_of_Medicine).[7] He was a prolific writer, publishing some 14 books and numerous essays. He wrote mostly on [dissociation](/source/Dissociation_(psychology)) and abnormal psychology but also applied his understanding of the [unconscious](/source/Unconscious_mind) to the politics of his day. Though his psychological ideas never took hold, he remained an eminent figure, [Carl Jung](/source/Carl_Jung) for example contributing to his *festschrift* of 1925, *Problems of Personality: Studies Presented to Dr. Morton Prince*.[8] Prince founded the [Harvard Psychological Clinic](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harvard_Psychological_Clinic&action=edit&redlink=1) in 1927, only two years before his death. That clinic established a major American stronghold for wide-ranging psychological researches into personality that included a number of the luminaries of that field ([Henry Murray](/source/Henry_Murray), [Gordon Allport](/source/Gordon_Allport), and [Robert W. White](/source/Robert_W._White_(psychologist))), who all became famous extending the ideas that Prince first taught them.

Prince was like many prominent men of psychological science at the turn of the 20th century who have become obscure. They were captivated by the new science of mental life that attempted to wrestle psychopathology from the clutches of moralism that deemed it a degeneracy or from medicine that saw a heredity degeneracy, but had not yet developed an overarching theory. Prince stressed the importance of the subconscious to hysterical symptoms at the same time as [Freud](/source/Freud), but he was critical of [psychoanalysis](/source/Psychoanalysis) – arguing to Putnam for example that "You are raising a cult not a science"[9] – and preferred to outline his idiosyncratic position that never became popular. His groundbreaking work on personality became famous via Henry Murray, who took over as director of the Clinic and worked on elaborating it into a more systematic and approachable manner.

## Skepticism

Prince was skeptical of [paranormal](/source/Paranormal) claims and believed such experiences could be explained psychologically (see [anomalistic psychology](/source/Anomalistic_psychology)). He was an early member of the [American Society for Psychical Research](/source/American_Society_for_Psychical_Research) and a long-standing member of the [Society for Psychical Research](/source/Society_for_Psychical_Research).[10][11][12] He was one of the first researchers to make a scientific study of [crystal gazing](/source/Crystal_gazing).[13]

## Selected publications

- Prince, M. (1885). [*The Nature of Mind and Human Automatism*](https://archive.org/details/natureofmindhuma1885prin). Philadelphia, Lippincott.

- Prince, M. (1906). [*The Dissociation of a Personality*](https://openlibrary.org/details/dissociationofpe00prin). New York: Longmans, Green, & Co. Second edition (1908)

- Prince, M. (1909). [*Psychotherapeutics: A Symposium*](https://archive.org/details/cu31924012471094). Boston: R. G. Badge.

- Prince, M. (1909). [*My Life as a Dissociated Personality*](https://archive.org/details/mylifeasadissoc00agoog) Prince, M (Ed.). Boston: R. G. Badger.

- Prince, M. (1915). [*The Psychology of the Kaiser: A Study of his Sentiments and his Obsessions*](https://archive.org/details/psychologyofkais1915prin) London: Unwin Ltd.

- Prince, M. (1915). [*The Unconscious: The Fundamentals of Human Personality, Normal and Abnormal*](https://archive.org/details/unconsciousfunda00prin). New York, Macmillan.

- Prince, M. (1929). [*Clinical and Experimental Studies in Personality*](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000657932). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sci-Art.

- Prince, M. (1975). *Psychotherapy and Multiple Personality: Selected Essays.* Hale, Jr., N. G. (Ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-674-72225-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-674-72225-6)

## See also

- [Alfred Binet](/source/Alfred_Binet)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Taylor, EW. (1929). *Morton Prince, M.D., LL.D. 1854-1929*. Arch NeurPsych. 22(5):NP

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Brown, Sanger. (1929). *Morton Prince*. Psych Quar 3: 639.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-NYT_Obit_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-NYT_Obit_3-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-NYT_Obit_3-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-NYT_Obit_3-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-NYT_Obit_3-4) ["Dr, Morton Prince, Neurologist, Dead"](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1929/09/01/121609675.html?pageNumber=44). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. August 31, 1929. p. N5. Retrieved November 13, 2023.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Base Mémoire : Archives photographiques"](https://web.archive.org/web/20160426031723/http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/memsap_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_98=MCPER&VALUE_98=%20Morton&DOM=All&REL_SPECIFIC=3). *www.culture.gouv.fr*. Archived from [the original](http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/memsap_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_98=MCPER&VALUE_98=%20Morton&DOM=All&REL_SPECIFIC=3) on April 26, 2016. Retrieved 2016-07-09.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Rieber, R. W. (1999). *Hypnosis, false memory, and multiple personality: A trinity of affinity*. History of Psychology 10: 3-11.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Prince, quoted in Richard Gregory ed., *The Oxford Companion to the Mind* (1987) p. 198

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Henry Banks, A Century of Excellence : The History of Tufts University School of Medicine 1893-1993 Tufts University, 1993

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Henri Ellenberger, *The Discovery of the Unconscious* (1970) p. 700 and p. 743

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Quoted in Brenda Maddox, *Freud's Wizard* (2006) p. 93

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Shea, Daniel. (2012). *The Patience of Pearl: Spiritualism and Authorship in the Writings of Pearl Curran*. University of Missouri. p. 10

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** Valsiner, Jaan; Veer, Rene van der. *The Social Mind: Construction of the Idea*. Cambridge University Press. p. 70. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-521-58036-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-521-58036-6)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** ["Morton Prince"](http://www.pflyceum.org/373.html). Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. Retrieved 28 July 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren H. (1989). *Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking*. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. p. 116. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-805-80507-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-805-80507-9) "Morton Prince (1898, 1922) was an early investigator of crystal gazing and one of the few to ever subject it to scientific scrutiny. He found that the images may be forgotten memory images, that with susceptible subjects the crystal ball could be dispensed with, and that scrying seemed to occur against a background of psychopathology."

## Further reading

- Hale, Jr., N. G. (1971). *Freud and the Americans: The Beginnings of Psychoanalysis in the United States, 1876-1917*. New York: Oxford University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-19-501427-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-19-501427-8)

- Mitchell, T. W. (1930). [*Dr Morton Prince*](https://archive.org/stream/journalofsociety2526soci#page/42/mode/2up). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 25: 42-43.

- Murray, H. A. (1956). *Morton Prince: Sketch of his Life and Work*. *Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 52*, 291-295.

- Oltmanns, T. F. and Mineka, S. (1992). *Morton Prince on Anxiety Disorders: Intellectual Antecedents of the Cognitive Approach to Panic?* *Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101*, 607-610.

- Rosenzweig, S. (1987). *Sally Beauchamp's Career: A Psychoarcheological Key to Morton Prince's Classic Case of Multiple Personality*. *Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs* 113: 5-60.

- White, R. W. (1992). *Who was Morton Prince?* *Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101*, 604–606.

## External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Morton Prince](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Morton_Prince).

- [The dissociation of a personality; a biographical study in abnormal psychology (1906)](https://archive.org/details/dissociationofpe00priniala) on the Internet Archive.

- [American Kaleidoscope](http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/05/american-kaleidoscope-morton-prince-and-the-boston-revolution-in-psychotherapy/) article by George Prochnik on Prince, including comprehensive links to all his public domain online works.

- Morton Prince by [John Singer Sargent](/source/John_Singer_Sargent) (in public domain) courtesy of [John Singer Sargent Virtual Gallery](http://www.jssgallery.org).

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