Beside oneself

Today when we say, 'I was beside myself' it can signify a feeling of extreme intensity that can be positive or negative. One can be beside oneself with joy, fear or anxiety. To be beside oneself originally meant 'out of one's wits' indicating madness, and indeed this was the first sense in which it was used, and dates, according to the OED, from the late 1500s. It appears later in the King James Version of the Bible in 1611, in the New Testament, Acts of the Apostles, 26:24, when Festus accuses Paul. “Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.”