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.

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Monday, April 17, 2017

New York Times Book Review Editor Pamela Paul and Literary Advice Columnist Nicole Lamy: Contrasting Cognitive Styles, Nonfiction vs. Fiction?

Nicole Lamy has a literary advice column in The New York Times Book Review. She matches people with books they would like.

Pamela Paul recently urged people to read books they hate (1).

It struck me that Lamy and Paul have different attitudes. I hypothesized that Lamy has a multifaceted cognitive style typical of fiction writers, and Paul has an analytical cognitive style typical of nonfiction writers. So I looked to see what else they have written.

I found that Paul has written a number of books, all nonfiction; while Lamy has a personal essay in The American Scholar (2000) about memory and identity issues, which, as discussed in this blog, are more typical of fiction writers.

from “Life in Motion” by Nicole Lamy
“Three years ago I took pictures of all the houses I’ve lived in…twelve houses before I turned thirteen. For me the moves had always resisted coherent explanation…I wanted to gather the photos as charms against fallible memory…

“…by…age thirteen I seemed to have passed directly to thirty-five…”

“Now when I leave my apartment for vacation…I experience numbing panic — will I ever see home again?…Each time I return home from vacation, rooms don’t appear the same as I left them…

“When the photo project was complete…I had gathered the proof of my life…” (2).

1. Pamela Paul. “Why You Should Read Books You Hate.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/15/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-hate-reading.html
2. Nicole Lamy. “Life in Motion.” http://www2.hawaii.edu/~facoba/readings/lamy.htm
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