Jack Reacher (protagonist) and Lee Child (pseudonym) are protective alternate personalities, born in a difficult childhood, and all they want is love.

The novelist’s literary friend, Andy Martin, was given access to Lee Child while he wrote Make Me, his twentieth Jack Reacher novel. Martin wrote a book with observations and quotations (1).

Martin noted that when Lee Child writes, he enters an altered state of consciousness or trance in which he interacts with his alternate personality, Jack Reacher, who originated in the author’s childhood:

“When [Lee Child] writes, he goes into a ‘zone’ in which he really believes that the nonexistent Jack Reacher is temporarily existent. [As Lee Child, himself, says,] ‘I know I’m making it up, but it doesn’t feel that way’ “ (1, p. 18).

Lee Child says, “This isn’t the first draft, you know…It’s the only draft!…And remember, I’m not making this up. Reacher is real. He exists. This is what he is up to, right now. That’s why I can’t change anything—this is just the way it is” (1, pp. 32-33).

“Basically,” Lee said, “Reacher is me, aged nine. I used to fight all the time” (1, p. 95).

Pseudonym

Lee Child says that his pseudonym’s first name, Lee, comes from a family joke in which the French word for the, “le,” was pronounced lee (1, p. 102). Thus, his pseudonym, Lee Child means The Child. Additionally, according to the dictionary, the word “lee” means a protective shelter, and so Lee Child is, and writes about, a protector. Since multiple personality is a way to cope with childhood trauma, protector personalities are common.

These originally child-aged personalities may have grown up, but they are children at heart.

Childhood

Lee Child says, “I reckon all writers are trying to compensate for their unhappy childhoods. Or being sick all the time. Lack of affection. They’re all basket cases of emotional insecurity” (1, p. 149).

Can he recall any good times with his father? “Not an hour. Nothing. Blank. He was like a Martian” (1, p. 149).

“And my mother was a monster of martyrdom too, so no help on that side either. I was totally…disliked. My mother said I was dog shit brought in the house on someone’s shoe. Obviously, I’m writing with an idea of getting people to love me” (1, pp. 149-150).

1. Andy Martin. Reacher Said Nothing: Lee Child and the Making of Make Me. New York, Bantam Books, 2015.