“Martyr!” By Kaveh Akbar: Protagonist’s Unlabeled Multiple-Personality Issues in both Creative Writing and Intimacy

—“Cyrus was a good poet when he wrote, but he rarely actually wrote. Before getting sober, Cyrus didn’t write so much as he drank about writing, describing booze as essential to his process, ‘nearly sacramental’–he really said it like that—in the way it ‘opened his mind to the hidden voice’ beneath the mundane ‘argle-bargle of the every-day.’ Of course, when he drank, he rarely did anything else but drink. ‘First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you!’ Cyrus would announce proudly to a room, to a bar, forgetting from whom he’d lifted the line.”

“In sobriety, he endured long periods of writer’s block, or more accurately, writer’s ambivalence. Writer’s antipathy” (1, p. 10).

“Getting sober means having to figure out how to spend twenty-four hours a day. It means building an entirely new personality" (1, p. 271).

Comment: The “hidden voice” sounds like the voice of a creative-writing alternate personality who can take over whenever the regular personality is subdued by alcohol. Of course, writing will be impaired if the person gets too drunk.

—“Cyrus just ended up with people, their gender rarely figuring significantly into his interest” (1, p. 151).

Comment: “At least half of all MPD patents [also have] cross-gender alternate personalities” (2, p. 110).

1. Kaveh Akbar. Martyr!  New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2024.

2. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989.

“Shred Sisters” by Betsy Lerner: NO Multiple Personality

Comment: The older sister probably has a Mood Disorder, not multiple personality (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder), which is a dissociative disorder, not an affective or mood disorder.

1. Betsy Lerner. Shred Sisters. New York, Grove Press, 2024. 

“Ghosts” by Dolly Alderton: Max disappears after declaring his love for Nina—he “ghosts” her—Later, both may have features of multiple-personality, but the author does not label it

“There was daftness that I shared with Joe, and a seriousness that I shared with Max. Both were parts of me and both were true, but both seemed so in conflict with each opposing representative present. I hadn’t anticipated that this merging of people meant this merging of selves—it made me think anxiously about myself in a way that was unfamiliar (1, p. 102).

“Only one part of me remained in my skin while other Ninas detached and circulated in the room. There was one who was a spectator of the clawing and clinging; who couldn’t believe Max was inside my house and inside me…One Nina rejoiced, another one was scared. Another Nina examined him…(1, p. 244).

Comment: "Parts” of Nina and multiple Ninas are treated as a kind of psychology familiar to the author, suggesting the author may have multiple personality trait, but not think of it in such terms.

1. Dolly Alderton. Ghosts. New York, Vintage Books, 2022.

“The Real Wizard of Oz: The Life and Times of L. Frank Baum by Rebecca Loncraine: Biography Suggests Baum had Multiple-Personality Trait

“Sky Island was a follow-up to The Sea Fairies that came out in 1912. Trot and Cap’n Bill fly by magic umbrella to an island in the clouds. The island is more vaporous and less concrete than Baum’s other worlds, and the characters that inhabit it…aren’t particularly compelling. But the island enforces a dreadful form of punishment that is the most vivid thing about the story. Those who break the laws of Sky Island are butchered in half: “they stand you under a big knife, which drops and slices you in two…then they match half of you to another person who has likewise been sliced.” You have been “patched.” “It’s a terrible punishment"; the patched body doesn’t know which half is their original self and which isn’t. They are left divided, incoherent, working one half against the other. Baum’s storytelling mind had been splintered into numerous voices, which often wrote tales against one another—the gung-ho, chauvinistic fortune-hunting stories for boys were morally at odds with the Oz books, for instance. Perhaps Baum was aware of his divided, inconsistent nature” (1, p. 247). 

1. Rebecca Loncraine. The Real Wizard of Oz. New York, Gotham Books, 2009. 

“The Secrets of Midwives” by Sally Hepworth: Features of Multiple Personality (a.k.a. “dissociative identity")

— Memory Gaps related to alcohol (1, p. 274) or getting pregnant

— Metaphors of psychological self-dividedness; a character’s “parts”

— Compartmentalized Chapters and no omniscient point-of-view

Comment: Most people do not have prominent memory gaps, even with alcohol. They have facets, not “parts” (a euphemism for alternate personalities); and their regular personality has an omniscient point-of-view for its own stories.

1. Sally Hepworth. The Secrets of Midwives. New York, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2015. 

“Deliverance” by James Dickey: Author has dialogues between different components of himself in a multiple-personality creative process

“I may not have had everything to do with this—with creating this—I said to myself in a silent voice that was different from my usual silent voice, but I have had something to do with it. Never before had I had such a powerful sense of being in a place I had created” (1, p. 14)…

“I think,” I said, “that we’ll never get out of this gorge alive.”

Did I say that? I thought. Yes, dream man said, you did. You said it and you believe it” (1, p. 138).

 “What can we do?”

 “We can do three things,” I said, and some other person began to tell me what they were…

  “I liked hearing the sound of my voice in the mountain speech, especially in the dark; it sounded like somebody who knew where he was and knew what he was doing…” (1, p. 140).

Comment: Creative process has involved internal dialogues among alternate personalities.

1. James Dickey. Deliverance. New York, Mariner Classics, 1970/2023.

“Melania” (post 2) a memoir by Melania Trump: Why no further mention of her striving “inner voice”?

Melania’s “inner voice” had urged her to “strive for more" (1, p. 34), but the memoir ends when her husband, Donald J. Trump, loses reelection and is almost assassinated, which temporarily stifles her verbal, striving, alternate personality.

Melania reminds me of the classic multiple-personality novel, Trilby, by George Du Maurier (2) in which the title character, like Melania, had worked as a model before she met charismatic Svengali.

1. Melania Trump. Melania. Skyhorse Publishing, 2024.

2. George Du Maurier. Trilby. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998.

“Melania” (post 1) a memoir by Melania Trump: Her “inner voice”

“I was living confidently in a foreign land, completely independent and self -reliant. It was a bold move to venture to New York, but it was a risk worth taking. While I could have settled for a comfortable career in Slovenia, Milan, or Paris, my inner voice urged me to strive for more. My journey to New York was a testament to my firm determination, courage, and resilience" (1, p. 34).

Comment: “Inner voice” could merely mean her private thoughts, but could also refer to a recurrent rational voice that she hears in her head. For further discussion of the possibilities, search “voice” and “voices" in this blog.

1. Melania Trump. Melania. Skyhorse Publishing, 2024.

“The Real Psychology of the Trump Presidency” by Stanley Renshon: Because Trump “contains multitudes," he knows how voters feel

Stanley Renshon is a professor of Political Science and a certified psychoanalyst. His Epigraph at the front of this 555-page nonfiction book (1) quotes the poet Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself: “I am large; I contain multitudes,” a metaphor for empathy and multiple personality, although the book’s index does not reference “multiple personality.”

Comment: The above makes me suspect that Trump has multiple personality trait, a mentally-well version of multiple personality, and that his electability is based on the feeling of many voters that he knows how they feel, because the multitude he contains includes people like them.

1. Stanley Renshon. The Real Psychology of the Trump Presidency. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

“What Have We Done” by Alex Finlay: This novel is Compartmentalized like the mind of a person with “Multiple Personality Trait”

If an author who was aware of having “multiple personality trait” were to submit his new novel for publication, he might ask his agent and editor to see “what WE" — his multiple personalities — have done.

In a chapter titled “JENNA" (1, p. 113), the name of one of the main characters, it says that she had coped in her life by using “compartmentalization, denial, the stuff that got her through" (1, p. 114).

Indeed, most every chapter in this novel is compartmentalized according to the name of its main character and point in history, just as each alternate personality of a person with multiple personality has its own name and the times it has been most active in the person’s life.

Comment: Since I suspect that most novelists have “multiple personality trait” (see past posts), I speculate that more novels in the past would have had this format if publishers had permitted it, and if readers had not objected to it. And I wonder whether readers who most enjoy this format have multiple personality trait, too.

1. Alex Finlay. What Have We Done. New York, Minotaur Books, 2023. 

Believed Lies in Politics, Fiction, & Multiple Personality 

1. Bill Adair. Beyond the Big Lie: The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do it More, and How it could Burn Down our Democracy. New York, Atria, 2024.

2. Marjorie Taylor, Sara D. Hodges, Adèle Kohányi. “The Illusion of Independent Agency: Do Adult Fiction Writers Experience Their Characters as Having Minds of Their Own?” Imagination, Cognition and Personality, Vol. 22(4) 361-380, 2002-2003.

https://pages.uoregon.edu/hodgeslab/files/Download/Taylor%20Hodges%20Kohanyi_2003.pdf

3. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989, pp. 78-81.

Donald Trump’s “alternative facts,” pseudonyms, and false or misleading statements

His use of pseudonyms may have been nothing more than a deceptive tactic, but could suggest a tendency toward multiple personality, since the names of alternate personalities are pseudonyms.

1.Wikipedia. “Alternative facts.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts

2. Wikipedia. “Pseudonyms used by Donald Trump.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudonyms_used_by_Donald_Trump

3. Wikipedia. “False or misleading statements by Donald Trump.”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_or_misleading_statements_by_Donald_Trump

"Final Girls” by Riley Sager: The last survivor of a murder spree has “Dissociative amnesia,” (1, p. 9) dissociative identity, (1, p. 213) and barely recognizes herself in the mirror (1, p. 252)

“Detective Carmen Hernandez is smartly dressed in a gray blazer and red blouse.The bracelet wrapped around her right wrist clicks as she takes a seat. A dozen charms dangle from the sterling silver…A bolder version of me would try to steal it. I imagine looking into the charms and seeing a dozen different versions of myself” (1, p. 213).

Comment: “Dissociative Amnesia” (1, p. 9). and memory gaps are major symptoms of multiple personality (a.k.a. Dissociative Identity Disorder), along with different subjective versions of the person (alternate personalities).

“A flight attendant snaps me awake as we make our descent into New York…I look out the window, the night sky and the plane’s interior lights turning it into an oval mirror. I barely recognize the reflection staring back at me. I can’t remember the last time I did” (1. p. 252).

Comment: “MPD” patients often report seeing themselves as different people when they look into a mirror” (2, p. 62).

1. Riley Sager. Final Girls. New York, Dutton, 2017.

2. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis an Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989.

“The Night Guest” (1) by Icelandic novelist Hildur Knútsdóttir: Hint to nature of “night guest,” which is never explicitly stated in the novel

Hint

“Somnambulism [sleepwalking] is not uncommon in adult victims of MPD. Patients frequently have the experience of waking up in the morning and finding evidence that they were busy during the night, although they do not remember anything. They may find drawings, notes, poems, relocated furniture, discarded clothing, or other evidence that they have been up and busy. If this is a common life experience for a patient, there is an excellent chance that he or she has MPD” (2, p. 81).

Comment: Since “multiple personality” (a.k.a. dissociative identity) is never explicitly mentioned in this novel, the reader still has to understand what is going on.

1. Hildur Knútsdóttir. The Night Guest. Trans. from Icelandic by Mary Robinette Kowal. New York, Tor Nightfire, 2021

2. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989. 

“The Guest List” by Lucy Foley: Meaning of Voices and Parts

Jules, bride-to-be, thinks that the setting for her marriage is perfect: “Everything is going to be perfect” (1, p. 16).

However, using the literary convention of italics for a voice in the head, a voice in her head advises her: “Don’t think about the note, Jules.”

Jules agrees: "I will not think about the note (that she found in her letter box three weeks ago) that…“told me not to marry Will. To call it off,” (1, p. 16).

Comment: Conversations with rational (but not infallible) voices in the head—voices of alternate personalities—are often found in multiple personality. But since Jules is not labelled as having multiple personality, the above may reflect the novelist’s psychology, a creative literary asset I call “multiple personality trait.” Search it in this blog and see below:

Author’s afterword: The author’s reference to “a sneaky little part of me that’s always on the lookout for inspiration” (1, p. 3 “About the book”) may refer to a creative alternate personality in her “multiple personality trait.” 

1. Lucy Foley. The Guest List. New York, William Morrow, 2020. 

“Memoirs of a Geisha” a novel by Arthur Golden: Traumatized protagonist has both childhood and Geisha personalities—“fragments” or “parts"— causing puzzling contradictions in behavior and memory gaps

“…how could Nobu [her adult romantic interest] possibly understand anything about me, when he’d seen me solely as a geisha, keeping my true self carefully concealed? The Chairman [an eminent businessman] was the only man I’d ever entertained as Sayuri the geisha, who had also known me as Chiyo [from her childhood]—though it was strange to think of it this way, for I’d never realized it before…Why couldn’t I stop thinking about the Chairman [and stop saving the handkerchief he’d given her in a kindly gesture, many years ago]? (1, p. 394).

“My thoughts were in fragments I could hardly piece together. Certainly it was true that part of me hoped desperately to be adopted by Mr. Tanaka after my mother died, but another part of me was very much afraid…I don’t know how much time passed…(1, p. 21).

Comment: Persons with undiagnosed multiple personality often report having “parts” and memory gaps (if you ask them) due to alternate personalities, which also may cause puzzling contradictions in the person’s behavior. As in most novels with such symptoms, there is no explicit reference to multiple personality, because the author didn’t realize it was at issue. Search “parts,” “memory gaps,” and “puzzling contradictions” for relevant past posts. Many readers evidently find unlabelled multiple personality entertaining.

1. Arthur Golden. Memoirs of a Geisha. New York, Vintage, 1997. 

“Renegade Wife,” a Romance novel by Barbara Heinlein, writing as B. J. Daniels: Characters have changing Personalities

“She couldn’t imagine…why she was having trouble remembering all but random moments from the party” (1, p. 8). [memory gaps may be a symptom of dissociative identity, a.k.a. multiple personality]

“If anything, she was more curious about who her husband had been, the real Lucian Beck—if there had been one” (1, p. 88). [She wonders if he had more than one identity.]

“Guess you knew a different man than I did. You sure his name was Lucian Beck?” (1, p. 96).

“That woman he’d kissed and who kissed him back felt as if it had been someone else. She barely remembered that other Geneva Carrington Beck, the one who was still married to Lucian (1 p. 121).

“Shaking his head, he said, “Were you always like this?

“No. I’m terrified of this woman Lucian has made me into” (1, p. 128).

“Lucian.” Geneva stared at the man who walked out of the pines toward her. It was just shy of a week since he’d left her, and yet she barely recognized him…She didn’t know this man. No doubt ever had…” (1, p. 141).

“Who was that woman who’d fired those shots? Not the Geneva Carrington Beck she’d known. This had changed her…She could never go back to being the person she was. Unfortunately, she couldn’t imagine where that left her. Or what she would do” (1, pp. 161-162).

Comment: Is there a psychological connection between the protagonist’s personality change and the author’s writing under a pseudonym? Both may reflect the author’s multiple personality trait.                                                                                                                                 

1. B. J. Daniels. Renegade Wife. Harlequin Intrigue, 2024. 

“Rose Cottage” by Mary Stewart (3): The italicized Voice in a character’s head, and division of a character’s mind into Parts are Gratuitous symptoms of multiple personality

1. Italicized Voice in Character’s Head

    “Home? I remember, I remember” (1, p. 64).

    “Take life easy.” (1, p. 218).

    “Take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree" (1, p. 233).

     Note: The voice has a consistent personality. Alternate personalities are often heard as a voice in the person’s head (2, p. 94).

2. Parts

   “Part of me longed for her coming, with a kind of uncertain excitement, but another part was afraid” (1, p. 181).

   “I had been listening to his story with only half my mind; the other half was outside there, in the car at the cottage gate” (1, p. 203).

Comments: Prior to their diagnosis of multiple personality, patients often refer to their alternate personalities as “parts” (2, p. 92). Symptoms of multiple personality are gratuitous in this novel, because no character is labeled as having multiple personality, and the symptoms may only reflect the author’s multiple personality trait (not disorder), which is probably an asset in writing novels.

1. Mary Stewart. Rose Cottage. Chicago Review Press, HarperCollins, 1997/2011. 

2. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989.

3. Wikipedia. Mary Stewart (novelist). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Stewart_(novelist)

“Dark Prince” (1), a paranormal romance (2) by Christine Feehan: Mikhail, living in a world without women, is astonished to hear a woman’s voice in his head

“Mikhail Dubinsky…could no longer bear…the stark, raw loneliness of his existence…Mikhail, who had filled his life with art and philosophy, with work and science, knew the weapons of man and had learned to become a weapon himself…His people were a dying species…There were no women to continue their species…The males were essentially predators…For each it was necessary to find his missing half, the life-mate that would bring him forever into the light…"(1, pp. 1-2).

“The trouble is not really being alone, it’s being lonely…” [said a voice in his head].

“Curious, he replayed the words, listened to the voice. Female, young, matter-of-fact, highly intelligent.

“I have found it to be so,” he agreed.

“Who could speak telepathically other than one of his kind? Now hearing this voice, this voice of a human woman, he was astonished…

“How is it you can talk to me?” (1, p. 3).

Comment: Romance characters, reflective of Romance authors, as is true of literary characters and authors, may hear italicized voices in their head, possibly (probably) voices of undiagnosed alternate personalities, as discussed in many past posts.

1. Christine Feehan. Dark Prince (A Carpathian Novel), New York, Avon, 1999/2011.

2. Wikipedia. “Paranormal romance." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal_romance. 

“Fairy Tale” (post 2) a novel by Stephen King: Incidental remarks and details may reflect author’s multiple personality trait

“I think sometimes we know where we’re going even when we think we don’t” (1, p. 111). Comment: This may refer to the author’s intuition that an alternate personality may have known the rest of the story before his regular personality did.

“Doing that made the inside me feel absurd, like a little kid playing cowboy. The outside me was glad to have the weight of it, and knowing it was fully loaded" (1, p. 165). Comment: The “inside me” may mean a child-aged alternate personality and “outside me” may mean an adult alternate personality. Child-aged alternate personalities are common in multiple personality, because multiple personality usually begins in childhood.

“Part of me (one personality) wanted to eject the tape…But I (another personality) didn’t. Couldn’t. Trust me, Charlie. I’m depending on you” (1, p. 168). Comment: Italics often indicate a voice in the character’s head. Search “italics” in this blog for discussion of voices in past posts on other novels. Also search “parts,” a  common euphemism for alternate personalities.

Additional Comment: The protagonist has a stereotypical history of childhood trauma for a person who later develops multiple personality: His mother died when he was young and his father became an alcoholic. But a happy ending is quite possible.

1. Stephen King. Fairy Tale. New York, Scribner, 2022/2023.