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.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2016

“The Host” (post 2) by Stephenie Meyer (post 3): Story starts with descriptions suggesting knowledge of, or experience with, multiple personality.

“Then Kevin started to complain that he was blacking out for periods of time. They…noted marked differences in his behavior and personality. When we questioned him about this, he claimed to have no memory of certain statements and actions. We…eventually discovered that the host was periodically taking control of Kevin’s body [away from the control of the alternate personality]” (1, p. 26).

“ ‘Did they find Sharon?’ A chill of horror raised goose bumps on my arms. The question was not mine. The question wasn’t mine, but it flowed naturally through my lips as if it were. The [person I was talking to] did not notice anything amiss” (1, p. 29).

The first quote describes the two cardinal features of multiple personality: personality changes and memory gaps.

The second quote describes an alternate personality’s effect on behavior, in this case speech, from behind the scenes. This illustrates that personalities, even when they are not “out,” may be conscious, monitoring the situation, and able to pull strings.

1. Stephenie Meyer. The Host. New York, Little Brown, 2008.
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