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.

— Each time you visit, search "name index" or "subject index," choose another name or subject, and search it.

— If you read only recent posts, you miss most of what this site has to offer.

— Share site with friends.

Friday, October 2, 2015

Creativity & Bipolar Disorder, Bipolar Disorder & Childhood Trauma, Childhood Trauma & Multiple Personality, Multiple Personality & Creativity

In the perennial discussion of creativity and mental illness, one of the most popular mental illnesses is bipolar disorder, and one common example is Ernest Hemingway. So where do I get the nerve to suggest, as I have in past posts, that Hemingway may have also had multiple personality, and that his creativity may have been more related to multiple personality than bipolar?

This post is not about Hemingway, but about, first, why a person might have both bipolar disorder and multiple personality, and, second, why the latter may be more relevant to their creativity.

The fact is, both bipolar disorder and multiple personality correlate with a history of childhood trauma. This is common knowledge in regard to multiple personality, but not as widely known about bipolar disorder, so let me provide links to two studies which report that correlation:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24229750
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25597794

I am not saying that childhood trauma is the one and only cause of either bipolar disorder or multiple personality. All I am saying is that childhood trauma makes both conditions more likely. And when people point to the bipolar disorder of Hemingway, they almost always neglect his multiple personality.

As to creativity, I refer you to my many past posts about the multiple personality of great novelists, and how it is an integral part of their creative process.
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