“Catch-22” by Joseph Heller (post 4): Soon after two other characters had displayed symptoms of multiple personality, the protagonist is given that diagnosis.

Yossarian, the protagonist, an American WWII bombardier, is wounded by antiaircraft fire and hospitalized. He had bled profusely from the flesh wound of his upper thigh, but he is stitched up and recovering nicely.

Yossarian and another patient switch beds, so that when the psychiatrist comes around, Yossarian is in a bed that has another soldier’s name. And when Yossarian claims to be “Yossarian,” a name that does not correspond to the name on his bed, the psychiatrist jumps to the conclusion that he has “a split personality” (1, p. 299).

I don’t know if this joke about Yossarian’s having multiple personality will be followed up in any way in the rest of the novel, but with its coming so soon after the two other characters had been given symptoms of multiple personality (see previous post), it would seem that the issue was on the author’s mind.

1. Joseph Heller. Catch-22 [1961]. New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011.