“Growing Up Haunted” by Jennifer Finney Boylan (post 4): Some people have transsexualism, others have multiple personality, but some may have both

Three Possibilities

People seeking sex reassignment surgery are screened for multiple personality, because there have been cases in which multiple personality was the actual problem.

It is generally thought that a person has either one condition or the other. And I have no reason to doubt that some people have transsexualism with no multiple personality, and that other people have multiple personality with no transsexualism.

But if you are born with transsexualism, and have it during childhood, the social difficulties could be traumatic, and since some children cope with trauma by developing multiple personality, there would probably be some fraction of the transsexual population who have developed multiple personality, secondarily.

I’m Looking Through You

The memoir’s full title is I’m Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted. Perhaps the title alludes to the Lennon/McCartney lyric, which begins:

I'm looking through you, where did you go?

I thought I knew you, what did I know?

You don't look different, but you have changed

I'm looking through you, you're not the same

But since Boylan does look different, I don’t see how that song would apply. Except that the woman Boylan sees in the mirror is translucent, and the title could be the host personality’s view through the translucent alternate personality.

Another possibility is that “I’m looking through you” is the perspective of an alternate personality, who is inside, looking out through the eyes of the host personality.