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.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Donald Trump’s Use of Epithets (Alternate Names): Why would Trump use epithets as his favorite tactic to undermine, confuse, and disable opponents?

During the presidential primaries and general election, Trump was famous for attaching epithets to his opponents: “Low energy-,” “Lying-,” etc.

He would not have thought that epithets would be a successful tactic against others if he had not felt that epithets would have been a successful tactic against himself. So the question is: Why would Trump, himself, feel vulnerable to epithets?

I will answer this question in terms of my speculation in past posts that Trump might have a normal version of multiple personality (like the many successful writers I discuss in this blog).

Question: Why would people with multiple personality be particularly vulnerable to epithets?

Answer: You can cause people with multiple personality to switch to one of their alternate personalities by addressing them with an alternate name.

For example: If Adam has an alternate personality named Bob, and you address Adam as Bob, Adam will switch to Bob. If Adam has an alternate personality known as The Writer, and you address Adam as The Writer, Adam may switch to The Writer personality. If you don’t know the names of Adam’s alternate personalities, and you address Adam as Low Energy or Liar, you may cause a switch to whatever alternate personalities see themselves as having low energy or having been called a liar.

In short, calling people with multiple personality by alternate names, even if you don’t know the specific names of their alternate personalities, can prompt switches among personalities, which can undermine the person’s ability to function.

If you were to try this tactic on Trump, what epithet would you use? Kellyanne Conway, before she became a Trump advisor, referred to Trump’s comments as “unpresidential”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRlJ3UoDuzs

However, calling him “Unpresidential Trump” would be disrespectful, so I can’t recommend it.
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