August Strindberg’s Inferno: Paranoid Psychosis vs. Multiple Personality

Strindberg’s reputation as possibly being crazy is mainly based on his autobiographical novel, Inferno, which describes—page after page—his paranoid delusions in the mid-1890’s. (At the end of the novel, his own conclusion is that he had not been insane, but had experienced the hell-on-earth—the inferno—that people often have before they get religious understanding.)

Since many people with a true paranoid psychosis have a specific idea as to what or who is behind their suffering, the question I had while reading Inferno was, “What or who does Strindberg say is persecuting him?”

He repeatedly blames “the Powers.”

What or Who are “the Powers”?

“I…saw the Powers as one or a number of concrete, living, individualized personalities, who directed the course of events and the lives of human beings, consciously and hypostatically, as the theologians would put it” (1, p. 168)…the Powers…And what are their plans? The perfection of the human…(1, p. 259)…Powers…disciplinary spirits (demons) and spirits that instruct (spirits of inspiration)…”(1, p. 268).

In Inferno, most of the references to “the Powers” cite them as being behind Strindberg’s persecution. Yet, as the above quotations make clear, they are not simply persecutors. Indeed, he says at one point: “I had been reading the…pamphlet The Delight of Dying,” and he wanted to kill himself, but “The Powers refused me this one and only happiness, and I bowed to their will” (1, p. 172). This is not typical of paranoid psychosis.

In short, “the Powers” are “living, individualized personalities,” who may be either persecutors or protectors. And please note: In multiple personality, two of the most common types of alternate personality are persecutor personalities and protector personalities (2, pp. 108-110). All of which makes “the Powers” sound, not like a paranoid psychosis, but like multiple personality.

Exoteric vs. Esoteric

“During this period [covered by Inferno], Strindberg was fond of employing the occult [or theological] terms ‘exoteric’ and ‘esoteric’. The exoteric is someone who is uninitiated and displays himself to the populace at large. Strindberg’s exoteric first person is the author who visits friends every day, writes cheerful letters and pursues his literary career…The esoteric Strindberg, however, was a secret figure, an initiate…It is—and this is important—the exoteric ego who keeps the diary and is not always able to keep up with what happens to its initiated Doppelgänger…Strindberg was listening with his inner ear and admitting his fantasies and dreams, which he did not confuse with the reality of his exoteric life…” (3, pp. 274-276).

In the above quotation, I don’t know that the biographer, Olof Lagercrantz, was thinking of Strindberg as having multiple personality, per se, but what he says is consistent with the possibility that Strindberg did have multiple personality, as are Strindberg’s “Powers.”

1. August Strindberg. Inferno and From An Occult Diary. Translation and Introduction by Mary Sandbach. Penguin Books, 1962/1979.

2. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989.

3. Olof Lagercrantz. August Strindberg. Translated by Anselm Hollo. New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1979/1984.