Mark Twain’s Memory Gap (Dissociative Amnesia), a Clue to His Multiple Personality (Dissociative Identity)

In yesterday’s post, I discussed that having a history of memory gaps is a key clue to having multiple personality. In my December 1, 2013 post, I argued that Mark Twain had multiple personality. So it would be nice if there were evidence that Mark Twain had memory gaps.

Coincidentally, I was just reading Twain’s nonfiction article, “Mental Telegraphy” (1878/1891), in which he talks about his belief in, and experience of, mental telepathy. I had looked up this article for two reasons. First, I knew that people who are prone to psychic experiences tend to score high on dissociative experience rating scales, and that people who score the highest on such scales are people with multiple personality. Which is not to say that all people with psychic experiences have multiple personality, but only that there is some overlap between these two groups. Second, I hoped that Twain’s article might include some mention of psychological experiences more directly related to multiple personality, such as memory gaps. I was not disappointed.

At the end of the “Postscript” section of his article on mental telegraphy, Twain describes a personal experience that he says brought him “to the conclusion that you can be asleep—at least wholly unconscious—for a time, and not suspect that it has happened…

“About a year ago I was standing on the porch one day, when I saw a man coming up the walk…I was looking straight at that man; he had got to within ten feet of the door…and suddenly he disappeared…I was unspeakably delighted. I had seen an apparition at last, with my own eyes, in broad daylight…”

Twain then went into his house and was shocked to find the man inside. Evidently, the man was not an apparition and had not disappeared, but had continued on his way to the front door, and had been let in.

“During at least sixty seconds that day I was asleep or at least totally unconscious, without suspecting it. In that interval the man came to my immediate vicinity, rang, stood there and waited, then entered and closed the door, and I did not see him and did not hear the door slam.”

This not only documents that Twain had memory gaps, but also illustrates why it may be difficult for a person who has had memory gaps to tell you about them. As Twain says, you can have a memory gap “and not suspect that it has happened.”

Twain had not known that he had had a memory gap until he saw the man inside his house and put two and two together. If the man had turned around and walked away, and had not been found inside the house, Twain would not have known that he had lost time.

Even when people lose hours of time, they may not realize it, if, for example, they were at home, could have been taking a nap, and there is nothing to indicate what they were actually doing.