“The Odyssey” by Homer (post 6): In Book Nine, Odysseus tricks Cyclops with “the ‘no man’ maneuver,” which is often used by people with multiple personality.

The narrator, “Wily Odysseus, the lord of lies” (first line), tells how he escaped being killed by the giant, one-eyed, cannibalistic Cyclops, first by blinding the Cyclops, then by preventing the Cyclops from getting reinforcements from fellow Cyclopses by using what Odysseus calls “the ‘no man’ maneuver” (1, p. 253), which worked as follows:

When the Cyclops had asked Odysseus his name, Odysseus had said his name was “Noman.” So later when the blinded Cyclops was trying to call for reinforcements, yelling that he had been attacked by “Noman,” the other Cyclopses did not come, because they thought there had been an attack by no one.

The “no man” maneuver is described in a textbook on multiple personality:

“Many personality systems [of people with multiple personality] will have one or more “unnamed” personalities. Sometimes these “unnamed” alters [alternate personalities] use the same trick Ulysses pulled on the Cyclops: they go by the name of ‘No one.’ When the therapist inquires as to who in the system is responsible for some behavior, he or she will be told, 'No one.’ So the therapist should be prepared to inquire whether there is a personality known as ‘No one,’ ‘No name,’ or ‘Nobody.’ Most of the ‘unnamed’ personalities will turn out to have names as the therapy progresses. Many alters are unwilling to reveal their names early in the course of therapy, because this knowledge allows the therapist to call them out” (2, p. 117).

1. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Emily Wilson. New York, WW Norton, 2018.
2. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989.