Socrates (post 2), who heard voices and had puzzling contradictions (typical of multiple personality), had a “midwife” alternate personality

As previously discussed, Socrates, even though he was not psychotic, heard voices, and had heard them since childhood (multiple personality starts in childhood, is not a psychosis, and the person may hear the voices of his alternate personalities).

One of the main clues that a person might have multiple personality is puzzling contradictions, caused by the inconsistent and contradictory behavior of incognito, alternate personalities.

Puzzling Contradictions

“In Aristophanes’ Clouds we encounter a clear description of Socrates that unveils the complexity of his personality: ‘A bold rascal, a fine speaker, impudent, shameless, a braggart, and adept at stringing lies…a fox to slip through any hole…slippery as an eel, an artful fellow, a blusterer, a villain, a knave with one hundred faces’…”(1, p. 17). The playwright, a contemporary of Socrates, knew him.

“Any trait associated with [Socrates], any idea attributed to him, can be contradicted by adducing passages from various sources…The main primary sources, namely Aristophanes, Xenophon, and Plato, do not create one consistent portrayal…(1, pp. 18-19)…it may perhaps be more reasonable to assume that all the sources disclose genuine components of the complex and multifaceted presence of Socrates…(1, p. 91)…”He is literally a bundle of contradictions and byways” (1, p. 209).

“Midwife” Personality

In Plato’s Theaetetus, Socrates (whose mother was a midwife) says:

“ ‘My art of midwifery is in general like that of midwives. The only difference is that my patients are men, not women. My concern is not with the body but with the soul that is in labor. The highest point of my art is the power to prove by every test whether the offspring of a young man’s thought is a false phantom or is something alive and real. I am so much like the midwife that I cannot myself give birth to wisdom. The common reproach is true, that although I question others, I can myself bring nothing to light because there is no wisdom in me. This is because God constrains me to serve as a midwife, but has debarred me from giving birth.’ "(1, p. 222).

“ ‘The most exquisite thing about my art [Socrates says in Euthyphro] is that I am clever against my will.’ It is not Socrates who asks the questions. It is not he who refutes the definitions of his interlocutors…If not Socrates, however, who or what is at work [when he has a Socratic dialogue with someone]?

“All sorts of answers…have been proposed to this, one of the most perplexing aspects of the Socratic phenomenon. As much as with attempts to explain Socrates' divine voice or sign, here, too, all answers appear to fall short…Some of the early Fathers of the Church maintained that he was literally possessed by a demon because that is how possessed people speak and act. Others have suspected a psychopathological problem…

“Thus, with respect to Socrates’ claim that [his Socratic questioning] is not his doing but is something that somehow is done to him, there is…no…explanation…[Incidentally,] He even complains at times of his defective memory [multiple personality memory gaps?]: ‘I am a forgetful sort of man…and if someone speaks at length, I lose the thread of the argument’ ” (1, pp. 207-208).

The explanation is probably multiple personality. The one who engaged in Socratic dialogues was his “midwife” personality.

1. Luis E. Navia. Socrates: A Life Examined. Amherst, New York, Prometheus Books, 2007.