“What the Shadow Knows: Picture Books on Runaway Reflections” by Frank Viva in New York Times: Stories about therapy for multiple personality?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/books/review/smoot-smith-cuevas-shadows-kids.html

It is not that the reviewer of these three children’s books on runaway shadows has no interest in psychological theory. He says, “Shadows are proxies for the unconscious, repressed or unrealized side of the self.”

But these children and their independent-minded shadows may become quite conscious of each other: “…she is saved from a band of marauding nighttime bandits by none other than her decidedly braver shadow. Full of remorse, she exclaims, ‘Oh, shadow, I saw things all wrong…You’re part of me, shadow. Please come back!’ ”

The shadow, who is braver than the girl, and saves her from bandits, is an example of one of the most common types of alternate personality, a protector personality. Search “kinds of alternate personalities.”

Protector personalities are quite conscious of the regular personality they protect. And although the regular personality may initially be unaware of the alternate personality (and so has memory gaps for the times that the protector has been protecting), the regular personality may eventually become aware of the alternate personality through personal insight or therapy.

When the girl says, “You’re part of me, shadow,” it sounds like an insight in therapy for multiple personality.