Twenty Textbooks on Literary Theory Fail to Discuss The Theme of the Double as the Literary Metaphor for Multiple Personality

In an online survey of twenty textbooks on literary theory, I searched their texts for any mention of “theme of the double.”

Only one book out of twenty even mentioned the theme of the double. And that book did not connect the theme with multiple personality.

In its section on psychoanalytic literary theory, it discussed Freud’s essay, “The Uncanny,” which certainly does mention the theme of the double. But, in Freudian theory and Freud’s essay, the obvious connection between the theme of the double and multiple personality is completely overlooked. As I have repeatedly pointed out in this blog, Freud’s model of the mind, which posits a single consciousness, cannot account for the existence of even one case of multiple personality, which involves multiple consciousness. And Freud, himself, acknowledged the existence of such cases.

Thus, nineteen out of twenty textbooks on literary theory made no mention whatsoever of the theme of the double. The twentieth textbook did mention it, but not its connection to multiple personality.

Evidently, none of the standard literary theories understands the theme of the double, Dostoevsky’s The Double, and other works with these issues.