Pen Names, Pseudonyms, and Multiple Personality (Dissociative Identity; Multiple Identity)

Ordinary nicknames are used to indicate the nature and closeness of a relationship; they are not about the person’s having distinctly different identities (with different self-image, behavior, mood, styles, values, and/or interests). In contrast, the names of alternate personalities indicate which identity (with its own self-image, behavior, mood, styles, values, and/or interests) you are talking about or talking to.

Pen names and pseudonyms are often claimed to serve no other purposes than to protect privacy, to have a different brand name for different genres, or to fool reviewers. But the real reason for their use may be that the writer has a non-writing identity and a writing identity, has more than one writing identity who wants to publish, and/or has different groups of character identities who are suitable for different genres.