Abnormal Psychology Plus NEW MyPsychLab

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CHAPTER 8: Somatoform and Dissociative Disorders

Teaching Objectives

1. Explain the historical usage of the term neurosis and why this term is no longer used by the DSM system.
2. Describe how somatoform disorders differ from physical conditions.
3. List the primary presenting symptoms of somatization disorder and hypochondriasis, and note the
similarities of and differences between these closely related disorders.
4. Explain what is meant by a pain disorder. What is meant by describing pain as a “subjective experience?”
5. Characterize the symptoms of conversion disorder, trace the history of the concept of “conversion,” and
describe the likely cause and chain of events in the development of a conversion disorder.
6. Differentiate somatoform disorders from malingering and factitious disorders.
7. Discuss the etiological contributions of biological, psychosocial, and sociocultural factors to the
somatoform disorders.
8. Explain what is meant by the diagnosis body dysmorphic disorder.
9. Compare and contrast the treatments for somatoform disorders. What is known regarding their
effectiveness as compared to no treatment at all?
10. Compare the major features of dissociative amnesia and fugue, dissociative identity disorder, and
depersonalization disorder.
11. Discuss the causal factors that contribute to the dissociative disorders, and note the critical difficulty caused
by the fallibility of memory in determining the contribution of childhood abuse to these disorders.
12. Describe the most appropriate treatments for the dissociative disorders, as well as the limitations of
biological and psychological treatments.
13. Describe the issues related to DID and recovered memories.

Chapter Overview/Summary

Somatoform disorders are comprised of hypochondriasis, somatization disorder, pain disorder, conversion
disorder, and body dysmorphic disorder. In somatoform disorders, psychological problems are manifested in

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physical disorders (or complaints of physical disorders) that often mimic medical physical conditions, but for which
there can be found no evidence of corresponding organic pathology. In hypochondriasis, one of the most commonly
seen somatoform disorders, there is an anxious preoccupation with having a disease based on a misinterpretation of
bodily signs or symptoms. Medical reassurance does not help. Somatization disorder is characterized by many
different complaints of physical ailments in four symptom categories spreading over several years. The symptoms
need not actually have existed as long as they were complained about. Pain disorder is characterized by pain severe
enough to cause life disruption. Although a medical condition can contribute to the pain, psychological factors must
be judged to play an important role in the onset, severity, exacerbation, or maintenance of the pain. Conversion
disorder involves patterns of symptoms or deficits affecting sensory or voluntary motor functions, leading one to
think there is a medical or neurological condition, even though a medical examination reveals no physical basis for
the symptoms. Body dysmorphic disorder involves obsessive preoccupation with some perceived flaw or flaws in
one’s appearance. Compulsive checking behaviors (such as mirror checking) and avoidance of social activities,
because of fear of being rejected, are also common.
Dissociative disorders occur when the normal processes regulating awareness and the multichannel
capacities of the mind apparently become disorganized, leading to various anomalies of consciousness and personal
identity. Depersonalization disorder occurs in people who experience persistent and recurrent episodes of
derealization (losing one’s sense of reality) and depersonalization (losing one’s own sense of self and one’s own
reality). Dissociative amnesia involves an inability to recall previously stored information that cannot be accounted
for by ordinary forgetting and seems to be a common initial reaction to stressful circumstances. The memory loss is
primarily for episodic or autobiographical memory. In dissociative fugue, a person not only goes into an amnesiac
state but also leaves his or her home surroundings and becomes confused about his or her identity, sometimes
assuming a new one. In dissociative identity disorder (DID), the person manifests at least two or more distinct
identities or personality states that alternate in some way in taking control of behavior. Alter identities may differ in
many ways from the host identity. There are many controversies about DID, including whether it is real or faked,
how it develops, whether memories of childhood abuse are real, and, if the memories are real, whether the abuse
played a causal role.

Detailed Lecture Outline

I. Somatoform Disorders
A. Somatoform disorders are a group of conditions that involve physical symptoms and complaints suggesting
a medical condition
1. Soma—means body.
2. Malingering—a person intentionally produces physical symptoms and is motivated by
external incentives.
3. Factitious disorder—a person intentionally produces symptoms and has no external
incentives.

B. Hypochondriasis
1. Major characteristics
a. Vague and ambiguous physical symptoms are common.
b. Sincere in their conviction that the symptoms represent illness.
c. Around 2%–7% of general medical practice patients are hypochondriacs.
d. Case study: An “abdominal mass.”
2. Major characteristics
a. Highly preoccupied with bodily functions, minor physical abnormalities, and
ambiguous physical sensations.
b. Have intrusive thoughts where they attribute physical symptoms to a suspected
disease.
c. They are not malingering or consciously faking symptoms to achieve specific
goals.

3. Causal factors in hypochondriasis

a. Minimal information available.
b. May be closely related to the anxiety disorders.

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 c. Called health anxiety.
d. Misinterpretations of bodily sensations are seen as a causal factor in cognitive
conceptualizations.
e. Past experiences lead to a set of dysfunctional assumptions.
f. Attentional bias for illness-related information.
g. Role of secondary reinforcements.
h. Hypochondriacal occurrences reduced by onset of serious medical conditions.

Handout 8.1: Body Log

4. Treatment of hypochondriasis
a. Cognitive-behavioral treatments have been found to be quite effective.
b. SSRIs may also be effective.
c. Behavioral techniques.
d. Group therapy.

Lecture Launcher 8.1: Is Hypochondriasis an Anxiety Disorder?

B. Somatization Disorder
1. Somatization disorder.
a. Seen most often in primary medical care.
b. Symptoms:
(1) Four pain symptoms.
(2) Two gastrointestinal symptoms.
(3) One sexual symptom.
(4) One pseudoneurological symptom.
c. Case study: Not-Yet-Discovered Illness.

Handout 8.2: Secondary Gain for Somatic Symptoms

2. Demographics, comorbidity, and course of illness

a. Begins in adolescence.
b. Seen in patients in primary medical care settings.
c. Complaints not faked.
d. 3–10 times more common among women.
e. Occurs more often in lower socioeconomic classes.
f. Co-occurs with major depression, panic disorder, phobic disorders, and
generalized anxiety disorders (GAD).
g. Complaints of physical ailments over several years before age 30.
h. Considered a chronic condition.
3. Causal factors in somatization disorder
a. Uncertain about developmental course and specific etiology.
b. Familial linkage between antisocial personality disorder in men and
somatization disorder in women.
c. Interaction of personality, cognitive, and learning variables.
d. Selectively attend to bodily sensations as somatic symptoms.
e. People high on neuroticism.
4. Treatment of somatization disorder
a. Identification of one physician who integrates patient care and reduces
medications and unnecessary testing.
b. Primary care physicians experience a great deal of uncertainty and frustration
when working with these individuals.
c. See patients on a regular basis.
d. Medical management is more effective if combined with cognitive-behavioral
therapy focused on promoting appropriate behavior such as better coping and

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 personal adjustment, and discouraging inappropriate behavior and preoccupation
with physical symptoms.
e. CBT.
f. Reducing secondary gain is critical.
g. 8.1 The World Around Us: DSM-5 Proposed Revisions: renamed to somatic
symptom disorders, medically explained symptoms, combination into a single
disorder, conversion disorder, and body dysmorphic disorder.
C. Pain Disorder
1. Pain disorder
a. The subjectivity of pain
b. Persistent and severe pain in one or more areas.
c. Diagnosed more frequently in women.
d. Comorbid with anxiety and mood disorders.
e. An invalid lifestyle can result.
f. Social isolation.
g. Often unable to work, fatigue, and loss of strength.
h. Pain could be viewed as acute (less than six months) or chronic (more than six
months).
2. Treatment of pain disorder
a. Cognitive–behavioral treatment is successful.
b. Treatment programs include: relaxation training, support and validation that the
pain is real, scheduling of daily activities, cognitive restructuring, and
reinforcement of “no-pain” behaviors.
c. Tricyclic antidepressants also reduce pain intensity.
d. SSRIs.
D. Conversion Disorder
1. Conversion disorder
a. Physical malfunction or loss of control is the central feature.
b. Hysteria was an early term for the disorder.
c. Freud used the term conversion hysteria to represent his belief that the
symptoms were an expression of repressed sexual energy.
d. La belle indifference— French for the beautiful indifference—occurs in only
about 20% of cases.
2. Precipitating circumstances, escape, and secondary gain
a. Physical symptoms as a socially acceptable means of escaping form negative
responsibilities.
b. Primary and secondary gain.
3. Decreasing prevalence and demographic characteristics
a. Common during World Wars.
b. 1%–3% of all disorders referred for treatment.
c. Prevalence in general population may be only about 0.005%.
d. Decreasing prevalence may be closely related to increasing sophistication about
medical and psychological disorders.
e. More common among rural populations from lower socioeconomic circles
f. “Outbreak” of cases among five Amish girls.
g. 2–10 times more common among women.
h. Generally rapid onset after a significant stressor; often resolves within 2 weeks
if stressor is removed.
4. Range of conversion disorder symptoms
a. Sensory symptoms or deficits
(1) Today symptoms are most often in the visual system, in the auditory
system, or in the sensitivity to feeling (anaesthesias).
(2) Glove anesthesia is one of the most common.
(3) Sensory input appears to be received but screened from conscious
recognition—implicit perception.

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 b. Motor symptoms or deficits
(1) Usually confined to a single limb; loss of function is usually selective.
(2) Aphonia (talking only in a whisper) is the most common speech-related
conversion disturbance.
c. Seizures
(1) Typically do not show any EEG abnormalities.
(2) Do not show confusion and loss of memory following the seizure.
(3) Often show excessive thrashing about and writhing; rarely injure
themselves in falls or lose control over their bowels or bladder.
5. Important issues in diagnosing conversion disorder
a. Symptoms do not conform clearly to the particular disease or disorder simulated.
b. Selective nature of the dysfunction.
c. Accurate diagnosis can be extremely difficult.
d. Medical tests.
e. Hypnosis or narcosis (sleeplike state induced by drugs) can remove dysfunction.
6. Treatment of conversion disorder
a. No well-controlled studies have been conducted.
b. Motor conversion symptoms have been successfully treated with behavioral
therapy and reinforcements.
E. Distinguishing Conversion from Malingering and from Factitious Disorder
a. Malingering diagnosed when symptom production is intentional to gain an
external goal.
b. Factitious disorder diagnosed when symptom production is intentional to
maintain a sick role (see 8.2 The World Around Us).
c. Severe and chronic forms of factitious disorder have been called Munchausen’s
syndrome.
d. Difficult diagnostic challenges.
F. Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
1. Body dysmorphic disorder
a. Most common locations for perceived deficits are:
(1) Skin—73%.
(2) Hair—56%.
(3) Nose—37%.
(4) Stomach—22%.
(5) Breasts/chest/nipples—21%.
(6) Eyes—20%.
(7) Face size/shape—12%.
(8) Case Study: The Elephant Man.
(9) See Table 8.1 Interference in Functioning.
2. Prevalence, gender, and age of onset
a. No official estimates of prevalence, perhaps 1%–2% of the general population,
8% of people with depression.
b. No gender differences.
c. Men more likely to obsess about genitals, body build, and balding.
d. Women tend to obsess more about skin, stomach, breasts, buttocks, hips, and
legs.
e. Age of onset is usually adolescence.
f. Estimate 50% comorbid with depression.
g. Often leads to suicide or attempted suicide.
h. More than 75% seek nonpsychiatric treatment such as from a dermatologist and
cosmetic medical treatments.
3. Relationship to OCD and eating disorders
a. May be viewed as an obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder: prominent
obsessions, variety of ritualistic-like behaviors such as reassurance seeking,
mirror checking, comparing themselves to others, and camouflage.

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 b. Same brain structures have been implicated in both OCD and BDD.
c. Same treatments are effective with OCD and BDD.
d. Some overlapping features with anorexia nervosa: distorted body image,
excessive concerns and preoccupation with physical appearance, and
dissatisfaction with one’s body.
4. Why now?
a. BDD has existed for centuries.
b. Western culture emphasizes “looks as everything.”
c. Imaginary defect disorder.
d. Suffer in silence to seek treatment from dermatologist or plastic surgeon.
e. Prevalence may have increased.
f. Sufferers rarely seek psychological treatment.
g. Increased media attention to BDD.
5. Causal factors: A Biopsychosocial Approach to BDD
a. Suggestion that there is a partially genetically based personality predisposition.
b. Sociocultural context—focus on attractiveness; self-schemas.
c. Reinforced as children for appearance; teased or criticized for appearance.
d. Biased attention and interpretation of information relating to attractiveness.
6. Treatment of body dysmorphic disorder
a. SSRIs produce moderate improvement.
b. Cognitive-behavioral treatment emphasizing exposure and response prevention
leads to marked improvement in 50%–80% of patients.

Teaching Tip 8.1: The Relationship between BDD and Plastic Surgery

II. Dissociative Disorders

III. Dissociation Refers to the Human Mind’s Capacity To Engage in Complex Mental Activity

IV. Group of Conditions Involving Disruptions in a Person’s Consciousness, Memory, Identity, or Perception

Activity 8.1: Cultivating Dissociation

A. Depersonalization Disorder
1. Depersonalization Disorder
a. Depersonalization (loss of self or one’s own reality) and derealization (one’s
sense of the reality of the outside world).
b. Reality testing remains intact.
c. Implicit memory.
d. Implicit perception.
e. Out-of-body experiences can occur.
f. Acute stress triggers the reactions.
g. Personal reactions to the symptoms.
h. The experience is usually frightening.
i. Comorbid anxiety and mood disorders.
j. Average age of onset is 23.
k. Chronic course in 80% of cases.
l. Differential diagnosis is important.
m. Depersonalization symptoms can signal decompensation.
n. Psychotic states often show early depersonalization symptoms.
o. Case Study: A Foggy Student.
B. Dissociative Amnesia and Dissociative Fugue
1. Retrograde amnesia involves the partial or total inability to recall or identify previously
acquired information or past experiences; anterograde amnesia is the partial or total

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 inability to retain new information.
2. Dissociative amnesia is also known as psychogenic amnesia.

Teaching Tip 8.2: Clive Waring

3. Types of retrograde amnesia found in dissociative amnesia

a. Localized—specific period.
b. Selective—forgets some but not all of what occurred during a specific period.
c. Generalized—loss of all life history, including identity.
d. Continuous—remembers nothing beyond a certain point until the present.
4. Typical symptoms associated with amnestic episodes
a. Amnestic episodes typically last between a few days and a few years.
b. Basic habit patterns—such as reading, talking, performing skilled work—are
maintained.
c. Most commonly impacts episodic (experienced events) or autobiographical
memory, leaving intact semantic (language and concepts), procedural (how to do
things), and short-term storage.
5. Dissociative fugue
a. New identities may be assumed.
b. Fugue may last for days, weeks, or years.
c. French for flight.
6. Patterns of defense for amnesia and fugue are similar to conversion disorder
a. Threatening information becomes inaccessible.
b. Suppression is involved in memory loss.
7. Memory and intellectual deficits in dissociative amnesia and fugue
a. Little systematic research.
b. Semantic knowledge appears to be intact.
c. Primary deficit is compromised episodic or autobiographical memory.
d. When presented with autobiographical information, show reduced activation in
their right frontal and temporal brain areas.
e. Implicit memory generally intact (e.g., when asked to dial numbers randomly,
one man dialed his mother’s number).
f. Compared with related deficits in explicit perception that occurs in conversion
disorder.

Lecture Launcher 8.2: Does Dissociative Amnesia Exist?

Activity 8.2: Dissociative Amnesia

C. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

MyPsychLab Resource 8.1: Video “Dissociative Identity Disorder: The Three Faces of Eve”

MyPsychLab Resource 8.2: Video “Dissociative Identity Disorder: Doctor Holliday Milby”

1. Dissociative identity disorder

a. Two or more personality systems are created from stressful precipitating events.
b. Personalities are dramatically different.
c. Formerly known as multiple personality disorder (MPD).
d. Influence of Chris Seizmore and Three Faces of Eve in 1975.
e. Needs inhibited in one personality are displayed in another.
f. Personality most frequently encountered and who carries the person’s real name
is known as the host identity.
g. Alter identities represent fragments of a single person; some alters may have
more knowledge than others.

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 h. Switches between alters and host may occur very quickly or may be more
gradual.
i. People with DID may also show depression, self-mutilation, and frequent
suicidal ideation and attempts.
j. Usually starts in childhood; diagnosis is typically not until teens, 20s, or 30s.
k. See 8.3 Developments in Thinking: Should Conversion Disorder Be Classified
as a Dissociative Disorder?

Lecture Launcher 8.3: Developmental Variability in Dissociative Disorders

l. 3 to 9 times more common in women.

m. Females tend to have more alters than males.
n. Believed this gender difference is due to the greater proportion of childhood
sexual abuse among females.
o. Case Study: Mary and Marian.
p. Number of alters has increased over time; 50% now show more than 10
identities; increasing multiplicity suggests the importance of social factors.
q. Another recent trend is bizarre and unusual identities.
r. Host unaware of alters but alters know one another.
s. See 8.4 DID, Schizophrenia, and Split Personality: Clearing Up the Confusion.
2. Prevalence—Why has DID been increasing?
a. Prior to 1979 only about 200 cases reported.
b. Prevalence increasing dramatically in recent years; by 1999, more than 30,000
cases reported in North America alone
(1) Increased public awareness through books and movies.
(2) Increased professional acceptance of disorder.
(3) Decreased misdiagnosis of cases as schizophrenia.
(4) Increases are artifactual—occurred because therapist suggested the
existence of alter identities to patients or therapists have reinforced
patients for producing alter identities.

Activity 8.3: Film Screening and Discussion: Sybil

3. Experimental studies of DID

a. Only a small number of experimental studies have been conducted.
b. Traditionally, assumed that what one alter learns is not necessarily transmitted to
other alters—interpersonality amnesia; at least one study has challenged this
finding, documenting at least partial transfer of explicit and implicit memory
across alters .
c. Emotional reactions learned by one identity are also transferred across identities.
d. Putnam found differences in brain waves between identities, and that these
differences were larger than found between actors simulating different identities.
e. Tsai and colleagues, using fMRI brain-imaging techniques, found changes in
hippocampal and medial temporal lobe activity during the switch from one
identity to another.
4. Causal factors and controversies about DID
a. Is DID real or is it faked?
(1) Use of DID as a criminal defense; deliberate faking in Bianchi trial.
(2) Factitious and malingering cases of DID are rare.

Handout 8.3: Is DID Real?

Activity 8.4: Is DID Real?

Activity 8.5: Do You Have Multiple Personalities?

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Activity 8.6: Self-Monitoring

b. If DID is not faked, how does it develop: posttraumatic theory or

sociocognitive theory?
(1) Posttraumatic theory
(a) More than 95% of DID patients report memories of severe
abuse.
(b) DID is an attempt to cope with an overwhelming sense of
hopelessness and powerlessness.
(c) Escape—dissociation—occurs through a process like self-
hypnosis.
(d) Since only some abused children develop DID it leads to a
diathesis-stress model
i) Children prone to fantasy.
ii) Easily hypnotizable.
(e) DID as a variant of PTSD.
(2) Sociocognitive theory
(a) DID develops when a highly suggestible person learns to
adopt and enact the roles of multiple identities due to therapist
suggestions and reinforcement, and because the different
identities allow the individual to achieve their personal goals.
(b) Unintentional process.
(c) Spanos and colleagues demonstrated that normal college
students can be induced by suggestion under hypnosis to show
DID symptoms.

Handout 8.4: Absorption Scale

(d) This theory is consistent with evidence of no clear DID

symptoms prior to entering therapy and the fact that the
number of alters increases as therapy progresses.
(e) Theory is also consistent with increased DID when therapists
became more aware of condition.
c. Are recovered memories of abuse in DID real or false?
(1) Repressed memories may be false, a product of highly leading
questions and suggestive techniques.
(2) Difficulty in determining which memories of abuse are real and which
are false.
(3) Independent verification of abuse has been attempted but in many cases
the verification has been very loose and suspect.
d. If abuse has occurred, does it play a causal role in DID?
(1) Childhood abuse tends to occur in families with many other sources of
adversity and trauma.
(2) It may be that people with DID who have experienced childhood abuse
are more likely than those who did not experience childhood abuse to
seek treatment.
(3) Childhood abuse is associated with many forms of psychopathology;
may play a nonspecific causal role.
e. Comments on a few of these controversies about DID
(1) Seems likely that some cases of DID are not due to social enactment
roles.
(2) Multiple different causal pathways are probably involved.

Lecture Launcher 8.4: Was Freud Right the First Time?

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D. Sociocultural Factors in Dissociative Disorders
1. Prevalence is influenced by the degree to which they are accepted or tolerated by the
surrounding cultural context.
2. Identified in all racial groups, socioeconomic classes, and cultures where it has been
studied.
3. Dissociative trance disorder.
4. Possession trance.
5. Cross-cultural variations such as Amok.
E. Treatment and Outcomes in Dissociative Disorders
1. Little is known about dissociative amnesia, fugues, and depersonalization.
2. No systematic controlled research has been conducted.
3. Dissociative identity disorder treatment is focused on integration; treatment is typically
psychodynamic and insight-based.
4. Outcome studies are few.
5. Studies biased for good outcomes.
6. 8.5 The World Around Us: Dissociative Disorders: Proposed Revisions for DSM-5— the
criterion for DID will be broadened and the criterion for depersonalization will be altered.

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Lecture Launcher 8.5: Dissociative Identity Disorder or Schizophrenia?

II. Unresolved Issues: DID and the Reality of “Recovered Memories”

A. “Believers” Are Usually Practitioners
1. View sexual abuse as the cause of DID.
2. Recovered memories are accurate; before treatment, such memories were repressed.
B. “Disbelievers” Come from Academics and Science-oriented Professionals
1. Challenge that sexual abuse is the cause of DID.
2. DID is due to the social enactment of roles encouraged or induced by misguided therapy.
3. Recovered memories are inaccurate; human memory is malleable, constructive, and
subject to modification.
C. False Memory Syndrome Foundation

Lecture Launcher 8.6: Repressed or False Memories of Abuse?

Activity 8.7: Is repression real?

Key Terms

alter identities hypochondriasis

body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) hysteria
conversion disorder implicit memory
depersonalization implicit perception
depersonalization disorder malingering
derealization pain disorder
dissociation posttraumatic theory (of DID)
dissociative amnesia primary gain
dissociative disorders secondary gain
dissociative fugue sociocognitive theory (of DID)
dissociative identity disorder (DID) soma
factitious disorder somatization disorder
host identity somatoform disorders

Lecture Launchers

Lecture Launcher 8.1: Is Hypochondriasis an Anxiety Disorder?

The difficulties inherent in organizing something as complex as the DSM can be underscored via a discussion about
where hypochondriasis should be placed. Nominally, it is related to perceived aberrations of bodily function, making
it a somatoform disorder. It actually shares many features of anxiety disorders, however, and might better be placed
in that category. Hypochondriacs are fearful of disease and dysfunction to a degree that exceeds the magnitude of
the actual risk, just as phobic fear is unreasonable. In fact, hypochondriasis might be seen as a disease phobia.
Complicating things a little is the fact that hypochondriacs view their fears as reasonable, whereas many phobics do
not. Nevertheless, fear is the primary emotion. It is also worth offering to the class that panic disorder, which is
clearly an anxiety disorder, is rather like an acute fear response to interoceptive cues of pending physical calamity.
Hypochondriasis is a more chronic fear of the same thing.

Lecture Launcher 8.2: Does Dissociative Amnesia Exist?

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Ask students to read this section prior to coming to class. At the start of class, ask students if they think it is possible
to see this level of memory deficit in individuals who have not suffered some traumatic brain injury (like Clive
Waring). Under what circumstances would they expect someone to develop a case of dissociative amnesia?

Lecture Launcher 8.3: Developmental Variability in Dissociative Disorders

Although the etiology of the dissociative disorders is unclear, there are tantalizing clues that are interesting to
discuss. The relation of dissociative disorders to childhood sexual abuse is examined in detail in the text. Students
may have some of their own thoughts about this relation, particularly on the issue of why most abused children do
not become afflicted adults. It is also of interest to discuss why dissociative disorders are more common among
women. Finally, the relation to individual differences in suggestibility and hypnotic susceptibility are worth
discussing.

Lecture Launcher 8.4: Was Freud Right the First Time?

Freud’s initial investigations of hysteria suggested that childhood sexual abuse was common. Later, he dismissed
reports of such abuse as fantasies because they started to seem far too frequent to be plausible. Now, however, there
is increasing recognition of high rates of childhood sexual abuse in society, and its role in somatoform and
dissociative disorders has become the subject of etiological theorizing once again. By some estimates (Cutler &
Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), between 7%–19% of females and between 3%–7% of males were sexually assaulted in
childhood. Even though there is clearly a very high rate of childhood sexual abuse in the histories of adults with
somatoform and dissociative disorders, it is worth emphasizing that most people who are sexually abused as children
do not grow up to suffer from these disorders. Indeed, childhood sexual assault also increases the risk for depression
(Weiss et al., 1999). Therefore, other factors must be taken into consideration. It is interesting to speculate about
how Freud’s ideas would have developed had he not abandoned his initial ideas about actual sexual abuse.

Lecture Launcher 8.5: Dissociative Identity Disorder or Schizophrenia?

Dissociative identity disorder (a.k.a., multiple personality disorder) is often confused with schizophrenia, even
though there is no relationship at all between the two disorders. This is probably because the term “schizophrenia”
evokes an image of splitting of the mind/personality, coming as it does from Greek words for “split” and “mind.”
For instance, if a country’s foreign policy is called schizophrenic because it penalizes some human rights violators
but not others, then the policy is actually better compared to dissociative identity disorder than to schizophrenia.
Even dictionary definitions of schizophrenia support the conflation between these disorders, but this just won’t do
for purposes of this course. Once this is pointed out, it is not unusual for a student to ask “Well, then, what IS
schizophrenia?” revealing the depth of the confusion on this point. Schizophrenia will be described in detail later in
the course, but for now it is reasonable to offer that the “split” in schizophrenia is between reality, perceptions,
emotions, ideas, and behaviors—not between separate personalities. You might also tell students that if they would
like to show off their erudition, they should henceforth describe contradictory actions of single entities as
“dissociative identity disordered” not “schizophrenic”!

Lecture Launcher 8.6: Repressed or False Memories of Abuse?

During the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s the U.S. legal system struggled to deal with recovered memories of
childhood sexual abuse. Often elicited via hypnosis and other highly suggestive techniques by poorly trained
therapists, these memories of events occurring decades previously were the basis of a wave of lawsuits against
parents, friends, and relatives of people, mostly women, who were now adults and who believed various symptoms
and life difficulties they were currently experiencing were the result of these previously forgotten episodes. The
backlash against this trend, often termed the false memory syndrome, was quite vigorous (e.g., Gardner, 1993,
Skeptical Enquirer). In retrospect, it appears that earnest and well-meaning therapists who truly believed their
techniques were effective got caught up in the perceived pervasiveness of the phenomenon they were discovering,
failing to recognize the limitations of their techniques.

Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Assignments

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Activity 8.1: Cultivating Dissociation
Many people can report dissociative experiences, such as walking into another room but forgetting why, dialing the
phone number of one friend when intending to call another, “reading” a paragraph only to realize the words weren’t
processed, reaching for the stick shift in an automatic transmission car, being able to dial a phone number without
being able to state it, and so on. Ask students to describe their own dissociative experiences. Then talk about the
dissociative continuum and how dissociative disorders are at the extreme end of that continuum. Some artists are
described as being capable of cultivating dissociative experiences for artistic purposes. Students can try this through
automatic writing, in which they try to let the words come automatically rather than deliberately, or through
drawing, letting their hands move with minimal guidance from their conscious mind. Students who succeed in
cultivating dissociation will gain a greater appreciation for its potential use as a way to cope with severe trauma,
particularly for young children.

Activity 8.2: Dissociative Amnesia

Ask students to do a search for newspaper articles on cases of individuals with dissociative amnesia and bring them
to class. Although many will have duplicates, you should be able to get possibly 10 cases. Ask students what they
think about these cases. Do they think they are real?

Activity 8.3: Film Screening and Discussion: Sybil

Most students in Abnormal Psychology are aware of Sybil, either the best-selling 1973 book or the movie that was
later based on the book. As the result of childhood abuse, Sybil purportedly developed 16 distinct personalities who
did things without her knowledge. The book and movie cover how therapy with psychiatrist Cornelia Wilbur helped
Sybil eventually overcome her disorder. Along with The Three Faces of Eve, Sybil is probably the most famous
depiction of dissociative identity disorder and is worth screening for students, perhaps in an optional evening class
meeting. Recently, psychologist Robert Rieber reported that taped conversations between Wilbur and the book
author, Flora Rheta Schreiber, both deceased, show the story is incorrect. In fact, the psychiatrist and author appear
themselves to have been “not totally unaware” that the story they told was wrong. Rieber’s report suggests that there
was as much self-deception as deception of others going on between Wilbur and Schreiber. Wilbur was a colleague
of Rieber’s at John Jay, and she gave him the tapes of her interactions with Schreiber. Rieber forgot about it for 25
years. Herbert Spiegel hypnotized Sybil and concluded that her so-called personalities actually arose from Wilbur’s
therapeutic technique of giving names to various emotional states Sybil experienced. Wilbur then mistakenly came
to believe that they really were distinct personalities. For example, when discussing something with Spiegel, Sybil
asked whether she should be “Helen,” as Dr. Wilbur preferred. When he said no, she said, “Fine, I’d prefer it that
way.”

Activity 8.4: Is DID Real?

A great source for some case studies on DID that had been misdiagnosed can be found in:
Freeland, A, Manchanda, R., Chiu, S., Sharma, V., & Merskey, H. (1993). Four Cases of Supposed Multiple
Personality Disorder: Evidence of Unjustified Diagnoses. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 38(4), 245–247. And
online at http://fmsfonline.org/four_cases_MPD.html. These could be incorporated into lecture or you could place
students into small groups and assign each group a case and have them determine how they were misdiagnosed.

Activity 8.5: Do You Have Multiple Personalities?

Most college students report that they revert in many ways when they return home for vacations. Surely, their table
manners vary depending on the circumstances. And who wouldn’t put their best foot forward for a job interview?
Nobody is perfectly consistent. With this minimal orientation to the idea of normal multiple personalities, a student
volunteer can then be solicited to participate in a brief exploration of the topic. In doing so, the instructor can
demonstrate how multiple personalities can be encouraged iatrogenically in therapy. First, the student volunteer is
asked about his or her different personalities. Then, the contradicting behaviors are grouped into categories, like
“neat” vs. “messy,” “responsible” vs. “irresponsible,” “serious” vs. “fun-loving.” If contradictions are not
immediately evident, they can be elicited by questions like “yes, but isn’t the opposite also sometimes true?” Then
ask the student to give a new name to each of these different personalities. The neat, responsible, and serious side
can be given one name and the messy, irresponsible, and fun-loving side can be given another name. Then, the
instructor can ask to talk to just one side. This “personality” can then be elaborated upon in detail, followed by a
similar elaboration upon the other personalities. Although the instructor has made clear that there is normal
contradiction within all normal personalities, ask what effect it might have on a person to be told that the degree of

Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

165
personality elaboration “discovered” through this interview is abnormal and that one actually “has” multiple
personality disorder?

Activity 8.6: Self Monitoring

Dissociative identity disorder appears very strange and exotic indeed, but an analogous phenomenon is probably
quite familiar to students in your class. Who doesn’t behave in different ways with different people or in different
situations? This is self-monitoring. The Snyder (1974) Self Monitoring Scale can be found at:
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~ckb/SELFMON2.html.

Activity 8.7: Is Repression Real?

Elizabeth Loftus is one of the key researchers in the area of false memory creation. Her now influential Lost at the
Mall studies has changed the way the field views memory systems and has shaped the way the legal world views
eyewitness testimony. Have students read the following article: Loftus, E. (1997). Creating False Memories.
Scientific American, vol. 277(3), 70–75. Or online at: http://faculty.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/sciam.htm. Have
students read the article and then find a criminal court case involving false memories (for example the McMartin
trial). Then have them write two paragraphs on the Loftus article, one paragraph describing the case they found and
another applying Loftus’s work to the criminal case. If your university has a law school and you get students who
are prelaw as well as psych majors, you may want to modify the assignment and have them read the following
article instead of the Loftus article. Piper, A., Lillevick, L., Kritzer, R (2008). What's wrong with believing in
repression?: A review for legal professionals. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, vol 14(3), 223–242.

MyPsychLab Resources

MyPsychLab Resource 8.1: Video “Dissociative Identity Disorder: The Three Faces of Eve”
You may want to show a brief video case study on classic footage of Eve White, Eve Black, and Jane, a young
woman with what was then known as multiple personality disorder and today is known as dissociative identity
disorder. This is the original case in which the Hollywood film starring Joanne Woodward was based. To access this
video, log in to MyPsychLab, select the front cover of this textbook, then click on the “Multimedia Library” button
on the next page in the left-hand column. A new page will appear with search criteria. In the pull-down menu next to
“Chapter,” select Chapter 8, Somatoform and Dissociative Disorders. In the Media Type field, select “Watch,” then
click the “Find Now” button at the bottom. “Dissociative Identity Disorder: The Three Faces of Eve” will appear as
one of your video offerings. You can either watch this video as an in-class demo—if your room has a computer set
up—or assign as a suggested exercise.

MyPsychLab Resource 8.2: Video “Dissociative Identity Disorder: Doctor Holliday Milby”
You may want to show a brief video case study on psychologist Holliday Milby, who describes the signs and
symptoms of dissociative identity disorder. She dispels the misconceptions between the diagnosis of schizophrenia
and multiple personality disorder. To access this video, log in to MyPsychLab, select the front cover of this
textbook, then click on the “Multimedia Library” button on the next page in the left-hand column. A new page will
appear with search criteria. In the pull-down menu next to “Chapter,” select Chapter 8, Somatoform and Dissociative
Disorders. In the Media Type field, select “Watch,” then click the “Find Now” button at the bottom. “Dissociative
Identity Disorder: Doctor Holliday Milby” will appear as one of your video offerings. You can either watch this
video as an in-class demo—if your room has a computer set up—or assign as a suggested exercise.

Teaching Tips

Teaching Tip 8.1: The Relationship between BDD and Plastic Surgery
Individuals with BDD often seek plastic surgery to “fix” the problem area(s). Some plastic surgeons have argued
that approximately 7% –10% of their patients most likely suffer from BDD. Unfortunately, even that does not quell
the BDD. Many suggest that the surgery may even result in new problems afterwards and greater dissatisfaction.
There is also a relationship between eating disorders and BDD that students often confuse. Whereas someone with
an eating disorder may be concerned with their entire body, individuals with BDD have issues with specific parts.

Teaching Tip 8.2: Clive Waring

Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

166
You may want to discuss the case of Clive Waring. If you Google the name, you can usually find the video clips on
YouTube. Clive lost his hippocampus and suffered other traumatic brain injury in the mid-1980s after a severe case
of encephalitis. Although he lost his episodic memories and suffers from both anterograde and retrograde amnesia,
he still retains much semantic knowledge about his life. His memory is about 2 minutes long and students often find
it fascinating that this exists not just in movies like “50 First Dates.” It is good to point out that there are well-
documented cases of these types of severe memory deficits.

Handout Descriptions

Handout 8.1: Body Log

Is it that hypochondriacs experience more bodily symptoms than other people, or is it that they attach excessive
importance to the same symptoms experienced by everyone? Perhaps we all experience enough bodily symptoms to
be hypochondriacs; we just ignore them. To test this hypothesis, it is of interest to survey the bodily symptoms that
normal people experience if they are instructed to attend more carefully to them. For this activity, students can be
asked to keep a “body log” that tracks the physical symptoms they experience at various times throughout one week.
Alternatively, one body log can be collected during class. Students might be surprised at the wide range of aches,
pains, itches, numbness, dryness, palpitations, dizziness, and other symptoms that are observed without alarm by
themselves and their classmates.

Handout 8.2: Secondary Gain for Somatic Symptoms

Somatic symptoms are internal to the person experiencing them, but they can have external motives and even
etiologies. These external reinforcements are called secondary gain, and they complicate physiological treatments
because they tend to maintain symptomatology. It takes practice to recognize secondary gain from illness, but
students often have some intuitions about what this involves. Ask them to reflect on various symptoms, describe the
secondary gain associated with the symptoms, and think of ways to counteract secondary gain.

Handout 8.3: Is DID Real?

A lively debate on this issue can be found in the following point–counterpoint–point exchange between Putnam and
McHugh debating whether DID is a valid condition. If your library has it have students read: McHugh, P. (1995).
Resolved: multiple personality disorder is an individually and socially created artifact. Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 34(7), 957–962. Then the rebuttal: Putnam, F. (1995). Negative
rebuttal: Putnam. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 34(7), 957–962. And
finally the affirmative rebuttal: McHugh, P. (1995). Affirmative rebuttal: McHugh. Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 34(7), 957–962. All three can be found online at:
www.astraeasweb.net/plural/debate.html. Then have students read all three and answer the questions on Handout 8.3
as an assignment. This could also be used in a small class (around 16 students max) as a debate in class.

Handout 8.4: Absorption Scale

Hypnotic susceptibility and suggestibility can be rather abstract concepts. Therefore, it is helpful to show students
some concrete examples of the traits that make up these constructs. In fact, students may enjoy gauging their
standing on one such measure. Tellegen’s Absorption Scale (1982) is given in the last section of this Instructor’s
Manual. Note that all the items are keyed true and that the mean/standard deviation for men is 21.4/6.9 and for
women is 19.6/7.3.

Video/Media Sources

Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Anxiety-related Disorders: The Worried Well Series. Princeton, NJ: Films for the
Humanities and Social Sciences.
Broken Bond: Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Medical Detectives Series, Part 3. Princeton, NJ: Films for the
Humanities and Social Sciences.
The Case of the Hillside Strangler. Mind of a Murderer Series. Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities and Social
Sciences.
Challenge Cases for Differential Diagnosis. Differential Diagnosis in Psychiatry Series. Princeton, NJ: Films for the
Humanities and Social Sciences.
Deception: Munchausen’s Disorder. New York, NY: Filmmakers Library.

Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

167
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Married or
single?, Vol. 2 (of 3)
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Married or single?, Vol. 2 (of 3)

Author: B. M. Croker

Release date: November 12, 2023 [eBook #72107]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Chatto & Windus, 1895

Credits: MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet
Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARRIED

OR SINGLE?, VOL. 2 (OF 3) ***
MARRIED OR SINGLE?
NEW NOVELS AT ALL LIBRARIES.
HEART OF OAK: A Three-Stranded Yarn. By W. Clark
Russell. 3 vols.
THE PROFESSOR’S EXPERIMENT. By Mrs.
Hungerford. 3 vols.
THE WOMAN IN THE DARK. By F. W. Robinson. 2 vols.
THE VOICE OF THE CHARMER. By L. T. Meade. 3 vols.
SONS OF BELIAL. By William Westall. 2 vols.
LILITH. By George MacDonald. 1 vol.
LADY KILPATRICK. By Robert Buchanan. 1 vol.
CLARENCE. By Bret Harte. 1 vol.
THE IMPRESSIONS OF AUREOLE. A Diary of To-Day. 1
vol.
DAGONET ABROAD. By George R. Sims. 1 vol.
THE KING IN YELLOW. By Robert W. Chambers. 1 vol.
IN THE QUARTER. By Robert W. Chambers. 1 vol.

London: CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly.

 MARRIED OR SINGLE?
BY
B. M. CROKER
AUTHOR OF
“DIANA BARRINGTON,” “A FAMILY LIKENESS,” ETC.

IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. II.

LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1895
 CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
CHAPTER PAGE
XIV. A Social Godmother 1
XV. Mr. Jessop does his Duty 10
XVI. Two Visits and a Letter 40
XVII. Gone to Ireland 67
XVIII. Wanted—a Reason 82
XIX. A Disagreeable Interview 102
XX. Not “A Happy Couple” 115
XXI. An Interruption 132
XXII. Mr. Wynne’s Visitor 148
XXIII. A Bold Step 172
XXIV. An Unexpected Honour 185
XXV. Plain Speaking 196
XXVI. Mr. Wynne makes a Statement 219
XXVII. A Promise Postponed 227
XXVIII. A Portière which Intervened 241
MARRIED OR SINGLE?
 CHAPTER XIV.
A SOCIAL GODMOTHER.

The next day Lord Tony’s only sister, Lady Rachel Jenkins, arrived
to call—but not for the first time—upon Miss West. She was an
extremely vivacious and agreeable little woman, with dark eyes and
flashing teeth. She took Madeline out with her in her own brougham,
and—oh, great favour!—introduced her to her pet dressmaker. This
august person viewed Miss West’s stone-coloured costume with an
air of amused contempt; it was not good style; the cut of the skirt
was quite “out,” and she finally wound up by uttering the awful
words, “Ready made.” It was not what Madeline liked, or even
thought she would like, but what Lady Rachel suggested and
Madame Coralie approved, that was selected.
“Your father, my dear,” patting the girl’s hand confidentially, “met
me on the stairs, and we had a few words together. I’m going to
show you what we do in London, and what we wear, and whom we
know; and what we don’t wear, and whom we don’t know, my little
country mouse!”
So the country mouse was endowed with half a dozen fine
dresses chosen entirely by Lady Rachel—dresses for morning,
afternoon, and evening.
“I only order six, my dear,” said her chaperon cheerily, “as the
season is getting over, and these will carry you on till August, if you
have a good maid. Madame Coralie, we can only give you five days,”
rising as she spoke.
But Madame Coralie threw up eyes and hands and gesticulated,
and volubly declared that it was absolument impossible! She had so
many gowns for Ascot and the royal garden party. Nevertheless,
Lady Rachel was imperious, and carried her point.
 “The opera mantle is to be lined with pink brocade, and you will
line the cloth skirt with shot sulphur-coloured silk; and that body I
chose is to be almost drowned in chiffon and silver.”
She was to be female bear-leader to this young heiress, and was
resolved that her appearance should not disgrace her, and that “the
old squatter,” as she called him, should be taken at his word, and
made to pay and look pleasant.
The succeeding visit was to a milliner’s; the next to a shoe shop,
when the same scene was rehearsed. Madeline looked on and said
nothing, but made an angry mental note that she would never again
go out shopping with this imperious little lady. Why, even the poorest
had the privilege of choosing their own clothes! Why should this little
black-browed woman, barely up to her shoulder, tyrannize over her
thus? Simply because, my dear, unsophisticated Madeline, she has
promised to bring you out—to be your social godmother, to introduce
you to society, such as your father loveth, and to be friendly. Besides
all this, she has already decided in her own mind that “you will do
very well,” and are not nearly as rustic as she expected; and she has
made up her mind—precisely as she did about your satin dinner-
dress—that you are to marry her brother. Oh, happy prospect!
Lady Rachel was Lord Anthony’s only sister—a woman of five and
thirty, who, thirteen years previously, had married a rich parvenu—
plain, homely, much older than herself—for his money. She had no
fortune as Lady Rachel Foster, and she was not particularly pretty;
so she made the best available use of her title, and changed it for
twenty thousand a year and the name of Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins liked
being announced as “Lady Rachel, and Mr. Jenkins;” to be asked in
a loud voice, in public places, “How is your wife—Lady Rachel?” For
her part, she liked her fine house, servants, carriages, and jewels;
and both were, to a certain extent, satisfied with their bargain.
Perhaps of late years there had been a certain amount of
disappointment. Lady Rachel went more and more into society, and
drifted widely apart from Mr. Jenkins and his city friends. Mr. Jenkins
was not considered an acquisition in her circles, which were a little
rapid. He was given to understand—by deeds, not words—that he
was rather a bore, and that he must not always be expecting to be
tied to the tail of his brilliant, fashionable, frivolous little wife—and
then, Mr. Jenkins was jealous!
It was quite time that Anthony was married, thought his sister. He
was not prepossessing in appearance. He was well known in society,
and especially in her own set, as a fellow with an empty head, empty
pockets, and a roving nature. He was not popular. She was aware
that he had been rejected by heiress after heiress. He would not be
modest and content with a plain girl, or an elderly widow, or even a
faded spinster on the shady side of forty! No; Lord Anthony Foster
must have beauty and money to boot, and there was no bidding for
his coronet in the quarters these came from. Prudent mammas had
set a mark against his name, and where his attentions would have
been welcomed, he turned up his nose, and talked in a high moral
manner about the sin of marrying one’s grandmother. His
affectionate sister had vainly suggested one or two ladies that she
had thought suitable, but until now Lord Tony had been too difficile,
and her pains had gone for nothing!
But now, oh, joy at last, he had found a girl almost, as one might
say, to order—young, accomplished, ladylike, very pretty, and very
rich.
Lady Rachel already considered Madeline her sister-in-law, and
had already selected her own gown for the wedding, so far ahead do
some active, imaginative natures throw their mental life. There was
nothing to wait for. Tony was willing—the old squatter was willing—
and the girl—well, she was willing, of course.
Madame Coralie’s dresses came home punctually, and were all
that the most fastidious could desire, in fit, style, colour, and cut.
Madeline spent the whole afternoon, in the retirement of her own
room, slowly trying on all six, one after the other, with ever-
increasing approbation. The climax was an oyster-white satin, with a
turquoise velvet and silver bodice—a dream of a dress, to quote the
enraptured Josephine.
Madeline had an æsthetic appreciation of herself as she stood
before a glass and contemplated the slim figure, white rounded
arms, the rich glistening skirt, the exquisitely moulded bodice. Could
this apparition be the same young woman who had humbled herself
before Mrs. Kane, and carried up her own coals? What a difference
dress made—in self-respect and self-importance! Dress, as she now
realized it, was a powerful engine in cultivating one’s own self-
esteem. Yes, a silk-lined skirt could impart a surprising amount of
confidence! She glanced over one shoulder, then over the other,
then looked full at her reflection, and said to herself, with a smile, “I
do love pretty clothes!”
 CHAPTER XV.
MR. JESSOP DOES HIS DUTY.

Lady Rachel and Madame Coralie, between them, soon

metamorphosed the appearance of Miss West. She took to her
elegant dresses and mantles and tea-gowns with astonishing facility;
also to her landau and pair, victoria and cobs, diamonds, dignities,
and the last fashion in dogs—a Chinese spaniel. It was not a
specimen of animal she especially admired; but her father paid a
long price for Chow-chow, because he was the rage, and he looked
well on the back seat of the victoria. Yes, Madeline was remarkably
adaptable; she developed a predilection for all the sensual
accessories of colour and perfume. She also developed a fastidious
taste at table, and a rare talent for laying out money.
And what of Laurence Wynne during the time that his wife is
revelling in luxury?
He has been making rapid strides on the road to recovery; he is
almost well; and the end of his sojourn with the friendly farmer’s
family is now drawing perceptibly near. He has letters from Madeline,
as she finds means to post them with her own hands—letters full of
descriptions of her new life, her new friends, and all the wonderful
new world that has been opened to her view.
She, who was never at a dance, excepting at the two breaking-up
parties at Mrs. Harper’s, has been living in a round of gaiety, which
has whirled faster and faster as the season waned—thanks to Lady
Rachel’s introductions and chaperonage; thanks to her beauty, and
her father’s great wealth.
Miss West has already become known—already her brilliant
colouring and perfect profile have been noted by great and
competent connoisseurs. Her face was already familiar in the park.
 Luckily for her, dark beauties were coming into fashion; in every
way she was fortunate. Her carriage was pointed out in the Row; her
table was littered with big square monogramed envelopes and cards
of invitation, far too numerous for acceptance. And Miss West, the
Australian heiress as she was called, had opened many doors by
that potent pass-key, a pretty face, and admitted not only herself, but
also her proud and happy parent.
Madeline does not say all this in so many long sentences to
Laurence; not that he would be jealous, dear fellow! She knows him
better than that; but she is sensible that there is a certain incongruity
between their circumstances just at present, and she will not enlarge
on her successes more than is absolutely needful. Yet a word drops
out here and slips in there, which tells Laurence far more than she
supposes. Besides this, Laurence is no fool. He can draw
inferences; he can put two and two together—it is his profession.
Moreover, he sees the daily, society, and illustrated papers, thanks to
Mr. Jessop, who has given a liberal order to his news-agent,
believing that his gifted friend, who always lived at high brain-
pressure, must be developing into a state of coma in his rural
quarters, among cows and pigs and geese.
Laurence reads the letters between the lines. He reads society’s
doings, and in the warm June and July evenings, as he strolls about
the fields alone, has plenty of leisure for reflection. These are not
very happy times for Laurence Wynne. He has found some
consolation in work. One or two articles from his pen have made
their way into leading reviews, and been praised for their style,
substance, and wit. A short sketch of a country tragedy has added
another feather to his cap. In these long, lonely, empty days, he had
given ample time and brain-work (his best) to these vivid articles,
readily scanned in a quarter of an hour. They recalled his name; at
any rate, people began to remember Laurence Wynne—a clever
chap who made a foolish marriage, and subsequently lived in a
slum, and then nearly went and died. Apparently, he was not dead
yet! There was a good deal of vitality in him still, and that of a very
marketable description. Success, however small, breeds success,
and a little sun began to shine on Laurence Wynne at last. He was
asked to contribute articles to the Razor and the Present, two of the
most up-to-date periodicals. He was well paid—cash down. He was
independent once more, and he felt as if he would like to go out into
the fields and shout for joy.
Now and then he ventured to write to his wife—to Miss West, 365,
Belgrave Square; and Miss West eagerly snatches the letter from
under a pile of society notes, in thick fashionable envelopes, plunges
it into her pocket, and reads it greedily alone; for although she is a
little bit carried away by admiration, money, and power, yet a letter
from Laurence puts all these pleasures completely into the shade, as
yet.
This is his last that she holds in her hand, written after long
meditation, and with many a pause between the sentences. He had
turned out an article for the Razor in half the time.
“Holt Hill Farm.”
“My dearest Madeline,”
“Your welcome letter is at present lying before me; and now
that the household is asleep, and that there is not a stir on the
premises, nor a sound, except the loud ticking of the kitchen
clock, I sit down to write to you without fear of being
disturbed, for this, my dear Maddie, is going to be an
important epistle. I am sincerely glad to hear that you are so
happy; that your father shows that he has affection for you;
that you and he are no longer strangers, but getting on
together capitally. I hope his tenderness will be able to survive
the news you have to tell him, and must tell him soon—the
fact, in short, that you are married. I can quite understand
how you are dreading the evil moment, and can fully enter
into your feelings of shrinking reluctance to dispel this
beautiful new life, this kind of enchanted existence, by just
one magic word, and that word to be uttered by your own lips.
But if you are adverse to mentioning this one word—which
must be spoken, sooner or later—let me take the commission
on myself. I will speak to your father. I will bear the full blast
and fury of his indignation and disappointment. After all, we
have nothing to be ashamed of. If I had known that you were
the heiress of a millionaire, I would never have ventured to
marry you—of that you may be sure. But, under other
circumstances, it was different. In the days when you had
neither father nor home, I offered you my home, such as it
was. There was no disparity between our two walks in life,
nothing to indicate the barrier which has subsequently arisen
between us.
“Maddie, we have come to the cross-roads. You will have to
choose one way or the other. You will have to choose
between your father and me—between riches and poverty. If
your father will not listen to the idea of your having changed
your name, you must let me testify to the fact; and if he shuts
his doors on you afterwards, you are no worse off than a year
ago. If I thought you would ever again have such a terrible
struggle to live as you experienced last winter, I would not be
so barbarous, so cruel, as to ask you to leave your present
luxurious home. But things look brighter. I am, thank God,
restored to health. I have a prospect of earning a livelihood;
our dark days are, I trust, a thing of the past. I am resolved to
set to work next week. I cannot endure the idea of living in
idleness on your father’s money; for although the whole of our
stay here has cost less than you say he has recently given for
a dog, still it is his money all the same—money for your
education, money diverted from its original use, money
expended on a fraud. Of late I have not touched it, having
another resource. I only wish I could replace every halfpenny.
Let us have an end of this secrecy and double-dealing. And
now that we have once more got a foothold on life, and the
means of existence, I believe I shall be able to scramble up
the ladder! Who knows but you may be a judge’s wife yet! I
wish I could give you even a tithe of the luxuries with which
you are now surrounded. I would pawn years of my future to
do it. But if I cannot endow you with diamonds and carriages,
I can give you what money cannot buy, Maddie, an undivided
heart, that loves you with every pulse of its existence.
 “Now I have said my say. I only await a line from you to go
at once to town, and lay bare our secret to your father. It is the
right thing to do; it is, indeed. You cannot continue to live this
double life—and your real home is with your husband and
child. It is now three months and more since you drove away
down the lane with Farmer Holt—three long, long months to
me, Maddie. You have had ample time to make an inroad on
your father’s affections. You can do a great deal in that way in
less than three months. If he is what you say, he will not be
implacable. You are his only child. You tell me that he thinks
so much of good blood and birth—at least in this respect the
Wynnes should please him. He will find out all about us in
Burke. We were barons of the twelfth century; and there is a
dormant title in the family. The candle is just out, and I must
say good-bye. But I could go on writing to you for another
hour. The text of my discourse, if not sufficiently plain already,
is, let me tell your father of our marriage. One line will bring
me to town at once.
“I am, your loving husband,

“Laurence Wynne.
“Do not think that I am complaining that you have not been
down here. I fully understand that your father, having no
occupation, is much at home, perhaps too much at home, and
can’t bear you out of his sight—which is natural, and that to
come and go to the Holt Farm would take four hours—hours
for which you would be called on to account. And you dared
not venture—dared not deceive him. Deceive him no longer in
any way, Maddie. Send me a wire, and he shall know all
before to-morrow night.”
Madeline read this letter over slowly, with rapidly changing colour.
Some sentences she perused two or three times, and when she
came to the last word, she recommenced at the beginning—then she
folded it up, put it into its envelope, thrust it into her dressing-case,
and turned the key.
 She was a good deal disturbed; you could read that by her face,
as she went and stood in the window, playing with the charms on her
bangle. She had a colour in her cheeks and a frown upon her brow.
How impatient Laurence was! Why would he not give her time?
What was three months to prepare papa? And was it really three
months? It seemed more like three weeks. Yes, April; and this was
the beginning of July.
Her eyes slowly travelled round the luxurious apartment, with its
pale blue silk hangings, inlaid satin-wood furniture, and Persian
carpet, her toilet-table loaded with silver bottles and boxes, a large
silver-framed mirror, draped in real lace, the silver-backed brushes,
the cases of perfume; and she thought with a shudder of the poor
little room at No. 2, with its rickety table, shilling glass, and jug
without a handle. Deliberately, she stood before the dressing-table,
and deliberately studied her reflection in the costly mirror. How
different she looked to poor, haggard, shabby Mrs. Wynne, the slave
of a sick husband and a screaming baby, with all the cares of a
miserable home upon her young shoulders; with no money in her
purse, no hope in her heart, no future, and no friends!
Here she beheld Miss West, radiant with health and beauty, her
abundant hair charmingly arranged by the deft-fingered Josephine,
her pretty, slim figure shown off by a simply made but artistic twenty-
guinea gown; her little watch was set in brilliants, her fingers were
glittering with the same. She had just risen from a dainty lunch,
where she was served by two powdered footmen and the clerical
butler. Her carriage is even now waiting at the door, through the
open window she can hear the impatient stamping of her six-
hundred-guinea horses.
She was about to call for an earl’s daughter, who was to
chaperone her to a fête, where, from previous experience, she knew
that many and many a head would be turned to look after pretty Miss
West; and she liked to be admired! She had never gauged her own
capacity for pleasure until the last few months. And Laurence
required her to give up all this, to rend the veil from her secret, and
stand before the world once more, shabby, faded, insignificant Mrs.
Wynne, the wife of a briefless barrister!
Of course she was devoted to Laurence. “Oh,” angrily to her own
conscience, “do not think that I can ever change to him! But the
hideous contrast between that life and this! He must give me a little
more time—he must, he must! I must enjoy myself a little!” she
reiterated passionately to her beautiful reflection. “Once papa knows,
I shall be thrust out to beggary. I know I shall; and I shall never have
a carriage or a French gown again.”
And this was the girl who, four months previously, had pawned her
clothes for her husband’s necessaries, and walked miles to save
twopence!
Sudden riches are a terrible test—a severe trial of moral fibre,
especially when they raise a girl of nineteen, with inherited luxurious
tastes, from poverty, touching starvation, to be mistress of
unbounded wealth, the daughter, only child and heiress of an open-
handed Crœsus, with thousands as plentiful now as coppers once
had been.
“I will go down and see him. I must risk it; there is no other plan,”
she murmured, as she rang her bell preparatory to putting herself in
the hands of her maid. “Letters are so stupid. I will seize the first
chance I can find, and steal down to the Holts, if it is but for half an
hour, and tell Laurence that he must wait; he must be patient.”
And so he was—pathetically patient, as morning after morning he
waited in the road and waylaid the postman, who seldom had
occasion to come up to the farm; and still there was no letter.
Madeline was daily intending to rush down, and day followed day
without her finding the opportunity or the courage to carry out her
purpose. And still Laurence waited; and then he began to fear that
she must be ill. A whole week and no letter! He would go to town and
inquire. No sooner thought of than done. Fear and keen anxiety now
took the place of any other sensation, and hurriedly making a
change in his clothes, and leaving a message for Mrs. Holt, he set
off to the station—three miles—on foot, and took a third-class return