Ordinal Linguistic Personification - Experiences and Reports

Experiences and Reports

Mme L. reports that “1, 2, 3 are children without fixed personalities; they play together. 4 is a good peaceful woman, absorbed by down-to-earth occupations and who takes pleasure in them. 5 is a young man, ordinary and common in his tastes and appearance, but extravagant and self-centered. 6 is a young man of 16 or 17, very well brought up, polite, gentle, agreeable in appearance, and with upstanding tastes; average intelligence; orphan. 7 is a bad sort, although brought up well; spiritual, extravagant, gay, likeable; capable of very good actions on occasion; very generous. 8 is a very dignified lady, who acts appropriately, and who is linked with 7 and has much influence on him. She is the wife of 9. 9 is the husband of 8. He is self-centred, maniacal, selfish, thinks only about himself, is grumpy, endlessly reproaching his wife for one thing or another; telling her, for example, that he would have been better to have married a 9, since between them they would have made 18 – as opposed to only 17 with her… 10, and the other remaining numerals, have no personifications”. (Flournoy 1893, pp. 219–220)

Cakins (1893) describes a case for whom “T’s are generally crabbed, ungenerous creatures. U is a soulless sort of thing. 4 is honest, but… 3 I cannot trust… 9 is dark, a gentleman, tall and graceful, but politic under his suavity” (Calkins 1893, p. 454).

For synesthete MT “I a bit of a worrier at times, although easy-going; J male; appearing jocular, but with strength of character; K female; quiet, responsible…” (Cytowic 2002, p. 298).

More recently AP has reported that February is “an introverted female”, while F is a “ dodgy geezer”. Similarly, May is reported to be “soft-spoken” and “girly” while M is an “old lady natter a lot”, and while August is “a boy among girls”, A is a female “mother type” (Simner & Holenstein 2007; Simner & Hubbard 2006).