Preys and Predators Part 1 Chapter 28

 

28. Mr. Hyde and Doctor Jekyll.

 

“Why did you mention Mr. Hyde?”

Doctor Jekyll had sat down for dinner with the count. They had spent the whole day cleaning the mess by his monster self. Rosa was to assist, but in silence. She will utter a word during the cleanup, although she did prepare dinner, in which she excused herself to eat in her own room.

“Frightening is the woman’s mood. They said that Hell halts no fury than a woman’s scorn." The count smiled. “My love was the same, and for that I brought no other women to the castle without her approval. She may have bled me dry and served my carcass to the crows.”

"I... I am not an expert on that matter. Daisy, whom I befriended, was more to argue on intellectual matters. We …...”

“Hush, Doctor Jekyll. We best not discuss Daisy. Tell me of Mr. Hyde.” That led to the question here.

“Hyde? I am... I cannot recall. Was it what I said?”

“Or rather, your other self said it then.” The count looked at Doctor Jekyll. “Are you unwell, Doctor?”

“I am fine. I mean, I am now. The previous incident was a mistake of mine. I had the wrong vial injected.”

“Please, Doctor Jekyll. Please be honest. Do you have any... mixed personalities issues? A shadow of yourself perhaps?”

“I am not medically trained but had some associates who are in that line. What you are referring to there is called a multiple personality disorder. In general terms, it has been defined as longstanding and long-lasting maladaptive patterns of inner experiences and behaviours that seriously impair an individual’s ability to perform adequately in a variety of settings.” Doctor Jekyll smiled. “I cannot be having that, or I will have failed in my research work.”

“Have you read Doctor Benjamin Rush’s work? He is also a professor in chemistry." Count Vlad asked.

“Professor Rush? My peers in medicine adored him. His words, ‘Unless we put medical freedoms into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship, gave them the drive to find a new cure.”

“Aha! You knew of him. Do you know he advocated studies of blood chemistry? He designed a tranquilizing chair based on his medical theory that mental illness was a circulatory disease. He intended this chair to control blood flow to the brain and reduce motor activity to help stabilize the patient's pulse. The effects of the chair were not harmful, yet based on contemporary medicine, they were also not known to have any medical benefit.”

(Extract from https://study.com/academy/lesson/benjamin-rushes-role-in-the-American-Enlightenment.html).

“Yes, I read that. It was his pioneering work on mental disorders." Doctor Jekyll nodded.

“He was the pioneer in the case of Mary Reynolds.”

“Count, are you implying I am with that disorder?” Doctor Jekyll was agitated by the count’s action. “I can assure you...”

“I had my denial on myself. I thought that maybe I was with multiple personalities: my rightful self as Count Vlad and the other as Count Dracula. My other personality appeared in the darkness when I was supposedly at rest. My affinity to sleep in the coffin was mine then, when I was a hostage of the Turks. I was made to sleep in one for many nights as a form of punishment. It grew on me the comfort and security of the bedding.”

“You are not Count Dracula.” Doctor Jekyll said.

“Yes, I retire early to my room, which you may have noticed.” Count Vlad looked at the doctor. “I cannot stand the heat of the sun. My skin burned, but it healed fast. I ……”

“You do not drink blood.” Doctor Jekyll interjected. “Your blood does have some unique properties and needed more tests.”

“I do have the strength twice that of the normal person.” Count Vlad smiled. “Undeniably strong but a shadow to your other self, Mr. Hyde.”

“I cannot answer that. I have no recollection there.” Doctor Jekyll sighed. "Hyde... is my pseudo-identity with Daisy. We used to communicate secretly, and her... Family ties were strict on whom she befriended. So, we created names for us to send messages. I was Hyde, and she was... darling. Darling. But I can tell you our feelings were platonic at best.”

“Now the identity surfaced. Why Hyde?”

“We have a play done once. It was modelled along the plot of Romeo and Juliet. We had the names changed, and I was Hyde. She was to be Mary, but most of the lines required me to call her Darling. We rehearsed and made amendments to the script, but the play was never staged. We were too busy doing our exam papers and missed several fairs that had accepted our play. So, eventually, we used the names for our messages.”

“Most interesting. Tell me, how did her father know?" Count Vlad asked.

“Well, she got sick, and I had to see her. I went to her home; it was huge and there were servants. I was taken in by the servant’s entrance, and somehow, I managed to see her in her room. It was ecstatic, but we were discovered. I was to be shot, but Daisy pleaded with her father to spare me. I was then questioned about my association with Daisy. I must have been convincing that her father asked me to find a cure for Daisy. I was then taken into his home to do so, but it did not work, and Daisy died. Her father was distraught but accepted her loss as inevitable.”

“I left their home, but Lord Dennis decided that I would do the work I was on. He wanted me to work for the government on secret projects. I was funded and given all the freedom to do my work. It was the words of Professor Rush who spurred me then: the freedom: ‘Unless we put medical freedoms into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship’.”

“But my works were undercover.” Doctor Jekyll sighed. “Until you came.”

“You did love Daisy?” Count Vald pressed it on.

“Yes, I did, but it was over before we could tell each other. Only Mr. Hyde knew.”

“Do you at times wish you were Mr. Hyde?” The Count asked. Doctor Jekyll shook his head.

“I do not know. I am afraid of Hyde. I ……”

“I knew of one named Professor Freud.” The count told the doctor. “Once, he was to treat me as I said I could be of two personalities. He did not see me. He did not reply to my letters.”

“Sigmund Freud?”

“Yes, Sigmund Freud. I read of his view: a person who has a strong ego, which can balance the demands of the id and the superego, has a healthy personality. Freud maintained that imbalances in the system can lead to neurosis (a tendency to experience negative emotions), anxiety disorders, or unhealthy behaviors.”

(Extract from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-ss-151-1/chapter/freud-and-the-psychodynamic-perspective/#:~:text=According%20to% 20Freud%2C%20a% 20person,anxiety%20disorders%2C%20or%20unhealthy% 20behaviors.)

“Carl Jung held similar thoughts as Freud on it. Dissociation is recognized by Jung as a universal and necessary psychic activity for the development of personality through the differentiation of functions. However, when the cohesion of consciousness is shattered by extreme childhood trauma, as it is in the development of multiple personalities, this natural differentiation of function is intensified and the dissociative splits between autonomous forces in the psyche become more extreme. This increases the autonomy of these’ splinter psyches from ego-consciousness and reveals their archetypal core. They then develop into the phenomenon of 'alternate personalities' in multiple personalities." Doctor Jekyll mentioned another doctor who was held in high esteem in the subject matter.

(Extract from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2808130/)

“Assuming the worst, could you at least consult the experts on your personality... split here? I am more concerned about your wellbeing,” Count Vlad asked the doctor.

“I …...” There was hesitancy on the side of the doctor. He then saw Rosa standing at the doorway.

It was then the door to the unit was broken open. A group of men rushed on with weapons drawn.