Psychologist studies relatively common “strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion,” but makes no reference to its being a known phenomenon of multiple personality.

In this interesting little study, fifty people were asked to gaze at a mirror for ten minutes. Twenty-eight percent saw an unknown person:

“I describe a visual illusion which occurs when an observer sees his/her image reflected in a mirror in a dimly lit room. This illusion can be easily experienced and replicated as the details of the setting (in particular the room illumination) are not critical…

“Phenomenological descriptions were made by fifty naive individuals (age range 21— 29 years; mean 23 years; SD 2.1 years). At the end of a 10 min session of mirror gazing, the participant was asked to write what he or she saw in the mirror. The descriptions differed greatly across individuals and included: (a) huge deformations of one's own face (reported by 66% of the fifty participants); (b) a parent's face with traits changed (18%), of whom 8% were still alive and 10% were deceased; (c) an unknown person (28%); (d) an archetypal face, such as that of an old woman, a child, or a portrait of an ancestor (28%); (e) an animal face such as that of a cat, pig, or lion (18%); (f) fantastical and monstrous beings (48%)…

“The participants reported that apparition of new faces in the mirror caused sensations of otherness when the new face appeared to be that of another, unknown person or strange ‘other’ looking at him/her from within or beyond the mirror. All fifty participants experienced some form of this dissociative identity effect…” (1).

Even though the above ends by calling it a “dissociative identity effect,” the author makes no reference to dissociative identity (multiple personality) per se, and apparently did not know that this is a known phenomenon of multiple personality:

“MPD [multiple personality disorder] patients often report seeing themselves as different people when they look into a mirror. They may see themselves as having hair, eyes, or skin of a different color, or as being of the opposite sex. In some instances, these alterations of perception of self are so disturbing that the individuals may phobically avoid mirrors. They may describe seeing themselves sequentially change into several different people while looking into a mirror…” (2, p. 62).

Search “mirror” or “mirrors” in this blog for previous discussions of mirrors in novels and multiple personality.

1. Giovanni B. Caputo. Strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion. Perception, 2010, volume 39, pages 1007-1008. http://www.noeton.org/Caputo-research.pdf

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