Mark Twain’s Conscience: A Child-Aged Alternate Personality

In an interview published in the August 17, 1890 edition of the New York Herald, Mark Twain said, “A conscience is like a child…be severe with it, argue with it, prevent it from coming to play with you at all hours and you will secure a good conscience. That is to say, a properly trained one…I think I have reduced mine to order. At least I haven’t heard from it for some time. Perhaps I’ve killed it through over severity. It’s wrong to kill a child, but in spite of all I have said a conscience differs from a child in many ways. Perhaps it is best when it’s dead.”

Of course, this is meant to be taken as a joke about how Twain is able to enjoy life by overcoming the inhibitions of conscience. But what struck me as very odd about this joke is his metaphor of conscience as a child. He could have made the same joke with conscience personified as an adult. Why did he personify conscience as a child?

When people discuss the origin of conscience, it is usually said that it comes from parents, society, and/or God. Have you ever heard any psychologist, sociologist, theologian, or anyone else say that conscience is an inner child?

Recall that in the December 14, 2013  post about Twain’s family calling him “Youth,” I inferred that they were talking about the youthful behavior of a child-aged alternate personality. So I am not surprised to find other evidence of a child-aged personality. Moreover, I have been arguing that Twain had multiple personality since the December 1, 2013 post. And in multiple personality, one of the most common types of alternate personality is the child-aged one, because multiple personality starts in childhood. Indeed, it is common for a person with multiple personality to have several child-aged alternate personalities.

Evidently, Twain found one of his child-aged alternate personalities to be annoyingly moralistic.