Mrs. X married at a young age, she soon became unhappy with her husband. She begins to imagine her neighbor is in love with her. When her husband dies she appears to have a psychotic event, and is sent to a mental hospital. Here she is thought to suffer hallucinations of a sexual nature. Her rambling thoughts are interpreted as having either sexual or social motives. The patient has previously had a sexual relationship with her brother. She also variously saw her father, her pastor and the President as her lovers, none of which were likely true. Mrs. X was discharged after four months and focused her efforts on religion and raising her children. A male patient is also briefly discussed here, he is also said to suffer from a lack of an adequate outlet of the expression of sex motives.
Dr. Pierre Janet presented this case, 'The Feeling of Depersonalization', to the Psychology Society at l’Université de la Sorbonne on July 3, 1908. Among those present was Dr. Georges Dumas, a physician and psychologist with whom Janet worked closely. Janet noted that the 18 year old patient wanted to present his own case, having , Le docteur Pierre Janet présenta ce cas,