Mirror Image or Literary Doubles: Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Multiple Personality’s Switching

When I see a title like The Metamorphosis (aka The Transformation), I think of the discussion of metamorphosis and transformation in textbooks of multiple personality. Only there it is called “switching,” meaning the metamorphosis or transformation of one personality to another.

“Switching is the process of changing from one alter personality to another and is a core behavioral phenomenon in MPD [multiple personality disorder]…Many therapists report that initially they were only vaguely aware that a patient was changing in some fashion…Eventually, many therapists report that they can tell which personality is ‘out’ from 50 paces…

“In many cases, the patient has learned to disguise or cover up switching behavior. Women will frequently turn their faces away, momentarily shield their faces with their hands, or let their hair fall over their faces during the moment of switching. An alternate personality may time its emergence so that the therapist is looking away or is otherwise distracted…

“In general, the alter personality present before the switch is replaced by another personality. In some cases, however, both personalities will be present simultaneously…The actual moment of switching can last from fractions of a second to several minutes or even longer in a few cases” (1).

The textbook discusses how the therapist must learn to note changes in facial expression, posture and body language, voice and speech, dress and grooming, emotion, thought processes, psychophysiological sensitivities to medications or alcohol, etc.

Would novelists who have normal multiple personality, and who experience switching, find Kafka threatening or inspirational?

Frank W. Putnam. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989, pp. 117-123.