“Personality and the Discontinuity of the Mind” by Aldous Huxley (post 5): Author of “Brave New World” isn’t complacent about his multiple personality

“Personality and the Discontinuity of the Mind” is one of the essays by Huxley in his 1928 book Proper Studies (“The proper study of mankind is man”). He doesn’t use the term “multiple personality,” but, as I’ll explain, that’s what it’s about. The word “discontinuity” is actually used in the official definition of multiple personality by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5, 2013).

Multiple personality is a discontinuity of the mind. This may be evident in discontinuity of memory; that is, memory gaps for times that other personalities have been in control, with different memories available to different personalities. It may also be evident in discontinuity of behavior—e.g., out-of-character behavior—caused by switching from one personality to another. It is evident in discontinuity of subjective sense of identity: there is more than one “I.”

The way I know that this kind of discontinuity is what Huxley means is that his example of a man with “discontinuity of the mind” is Proust, whose multiple personality I have previously discussed (search “Proust”).

Huxley says: “The most curious feature of Proust’s mentality is his complacent acceptance of the ‘intermittences of the heart’ and all the other psychological discontinuities which he so subtly and exhaustively describes…No author has studied the intermittences of the spirit with so much insight and patience, and none has shown himself so placidly content to live the life of an intermittent being…the idea of using his knowledge in order to make himself better never seems to have occurred to him…The man who would face the world with a complete and consistently effective personality cannot resign himself to his discontinuity” (1, pp. 291-292).

The way I know that Huxley himself experienced “discontinuity of the mind” is that he is discussing it, not as a curiosity, but as an aspect of ordinary psychology, which, of course, would include himself.

Persons who do not have multiple personality may have different moods and roles in everyday life, but they do not have memory gaps or changes in sense of identity or other identities with minds of their own. Their one and only “I” has continuity throughout their various moods and roles, and in every corner of their mind.

Huxley criticizes Proust, because he feels Proust let his “discontinuity” pervade everyday life; whereas, Huxley probably felt that it should be confined as much as possible to fiction writing.

1. Aldous Huxley. “Personality and the Discontinuity of the Mind,” in Proper Studies. New York, Doubleday Doran, 1928.