BASIC CONCEPTS

— When novelists claim they do not invent it, but hear voices and find stories in their head, they are neither joking nor crazy.

— When characters, narrators, or muses have minds of their own and occasionally take over, they are alternate personalities.

— Alternate personalities and memory gaps, but no significant distress or dysfunction, is a normal version of multiple personality.

— normal Multiple Personality Trait (MPT) (core of Multiple Identity Literary Theory), not clinical Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)

— The normal version of multiple personality is an asset in fiction writing when some alternate personalities are storytellers.

— Multiple personality originates when imaginative children with normal brains have unassuaged trauma as victim or witness.

— Psychiatrists, whose standard mental status exam fails to ask about memory gaps, think they never see multiple personality.

— They need the clue of memory gaps, because alternate personalities don’t acknowledge their presence until their cover is blown.

— In novels, most multiple personality, per se, is unnoticed, unintentional, and reflects the author’s view of ordinary psychology.

— Multiple personality means one person who has more than one identity and memory bank, not psychosis or possession.

— Euphemisms for alternate personalities include parts, pseudonyms, alter egos, doubles, double consciousness, voice or voices.

— Multiple personality trait: 90% of fiction writers; possibly 30% of public.

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Sunday, July 13, 2014

Suspecting Multiple Personality From Photographs

People with multiple personality look like anybody else. You can’t tell anyone has multiple personality just by looking at them (or a picture of them).

And even if a person you know does have multiple personality, you may always be meeting the same personality each time you see them. Because which personality is “out” at any given time depends on the particular kind of situation it is, and you may always be seeing the person in the same situation (golf, fishing, a faculty meeting, etc.). Indeed, you, yourself, are a particular type of situation, and so the same personality may always come out with you.

Nevertheless, since different personalities do differ from each other in their facial expressions, body language, and clothing choices, you can see such differences if you have a lot of photographs of a person.

Of course, if they are a king or queen, and all the pictures you have show them in their king or queen persona, that won’t tell you anything. Or if they have one particular personality who always comes out when anyone is taking pictures, this approach may not work.

You want candid photos in diverse situations.

Examine the photos in detail regarding their facial expressions, body language, and dress. Or simply look at the pictures intuitively. You may suspect multiple personality if the pictures look like they could be of a good actor, who was playing distinctly different characters. The pictures of most people are more consistent.

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