Philip Roth (post 8): Obituaries and appreciations show no awareness that Roth virtually ridiculed readers who did not recognize his multiple personality

As my previous seven posts on Philip Roth indicate, his multiple personality was fairly obvious, but literary critics, who have always spoken of Roth’s “alter egos,” have never seemed to know, beyond its euphemistic usage as a literary term, what that meant.

“An alter ego (Latin, "the other I") is a second self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. A person who has an alter ego is said to lead a double life. The term appeared in common usage in the early 19th century when dissociative identity disorder [multiple personality disorder] was first described by psychologists. Cicero coined the term as part of his philosophical construct in 1st century Rome, but he described it as "a second self, a trusted friend”…

“The existence of "another self" was first recognized in the 1730s. Anton Mesmer used hypnosis to separate the alter ego. These experiments showed a behavior pattern that was distinct from the personality of the individual when he was in the waking state compared with when he was under hypnosis. Another character had developed in the altered state of consciousness but in the same body…

“Related concepts include avatar, doppelgänger, impersonator, and dissociative identity disorder (DID)” (1).

The multiple personality in some of Roth’s books is so blatant that he seemed to be ridiculing readers who did not recognize it.

Of course, I cannot be sure that Roth ever thought of himself as having multiple personality in precisely those terms. He spoke of his switches to alternate personalities as “impersonations.” But it amounted to the same thing.

And, no doubt, I am not the only one who realizes this about Roth and many other novelists. But since there is as yet no general recognition of what I call Multiple Personality Trait—as opposed to Multiple Personality Disorder (a mental illness)—most people feel that to mention a novelist’s multiple personality is to say they are mentally ill.

But novelists like Philip Roth are not mentally ill. They have a normal version of a mental illness, just as many people may experience anxiety or depressed mood, but do not have an anxiety or mood disorder. And just as it may be an advantage to have some anxiety and depressed mood, it may be an advantage to have multiple personality trait; for example, in writing novels.

Search “Roth” in this blog for my previous seven posts.

1. Wikipedia. “Alter ego.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alter_ego