Agatha Christie, the Original “Gone Girl”: Her Famous Real-Life Fugue, a Common Symptom of Multiple Personality

On December 3, 1926, Agatha Christie—today the best-selling novelist of all time, with an estimated two-four billion, yes billion, books sold—disappeared. Earlier that year, she had published The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, one of her most successful books ever. But she had recently discovered that her husband was having an affair with a younger woman named Nancy Neele.

That morning, her husband had “confessed that he was in love with Miss Neele and wanted to marry her. He asked Agatha to divorce him…and left home to spend the weekend with Miss Neele” (1, p. 51).

That evening, Mrs. Christie left home in her car, leaving one letter for her secretary to cancel her appointments and another letter for the Deputy Chief Constable saying that she feared for her life. Her car was found abandoned at the side of a road. She was missing for over a week. And it was a major news event, with a massive search to find her.

Finally, a musician at a hotel informed the police of his suspicion that a guest at the hotel, registered under the name of “Mrs. Neele,” was in fact Mrs. Christie. When a newspaper reporter confronted “Mrs. Neele,” she admitted that she was Mrs. Christie, but said she could not remember how she got to the hotel. However, when her husband arrived, he said that she did not know him or where she was. Two doctors, a neurologist and a general practitioner, affirmed that Mrs. Christie really did have amnesia (1, p. 56).

“The week before her disappearance, Agatha Christie had lost a diamond ring at Harrods. She wrote to [the department store]…describing the ring and asking that, if it were found, it be sent to Mrs Teresa Neele” [at the hotel where she was found after her disappearance, and] Harrods did, in fact, return Mrs Christie’s ring to Mrs Neele” (1, p. 56).

One way to interpret this story would be that Agatha Christie planned this disappearance, and pretended this fugue, to embarrass her husband for his infidelity. Another interpretation would be that she was a person with multiple personality, who, as a way to cope with her husband’s infidelity, developed a new personality with the same last name as her husband’s mistress.

The second interpretation is based on two things. First, the disappearance was predictably more embarrassing to her than to her husband, since it made him look unfaithful (but only to the relatively few who knew of his affair), while it made her look crazy (to the general public). Second, fugues are one of the most common symptoms of multiple personality. A routine screening question for multiple personality is, “Have you ever found yourself some place, but couldn’t remember how you got there?” The person (regular personality; Mrs. Christie) doesn’t recall how she got to the hotel, because it was her alternate personality (Mrs. Neele) who travelled to the hotel and registered there. The situation with the ring would indicate that the disappearance was premeditated by the Mrs. Neele personality. Perhaps the latter wanted to embarrass Mr. Christie.

I may have more to say about Agatha Christie in the future. But I wrote this post now, because I think it is relevant to yesterday’s post about Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, which was also about the disappearance by a wife after her husband was unfaithful.

1. Charles Osborne. The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie: A Biographical Companion to the Works of Agatha Christie. New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1982/2001.