“Some Other, Better Otto” by Deborah Eisenberg (post 2): Another of this author’s short stories with unacknowledged issues of multiple personality

As the title suggests, the protagonist, Otto, is dissatisfied with his personality. And he wonders—prompted by the science-fiction idea of multiple, parallel universes, discussed by other characters—if “there could be an infinitude of selves” in those infinite alternate realities. In other words, might he have many alternate personalities, one of which might be better than the one he has now?

In the very last paragraph of the story, Otto is sitting at home, when, suddenly, he feels the hand of his partner, William, resting on his shoulder. Taken by surprise, Otto thinks, “Had he [Otto] been asleep?” But Otto had not been asleep. The implication is that Otto has had a memory gap for a period of time that another personality had been in control. However, it doesn’t appear that the author was aware of, and had intended, this implication.

Another character who raises the issue of multiple personality is Otto’s sister, Sharon. She had once been a brilliant scientist, but became mentally ill, and has had recurrent, seemingly psychotic, episodes. Although Sharon’s diagnosis is not stated, it is implied that she has schizophrenia.

However, at one point, Otto ponders, “if time was the multiplicity Sharon and William seemed to believe it was, maybe it contained multiple Sharons, perhaps some existing in happier conditions…”

And in Sharon’s latest disturbed episode, the police have been called, and she is taken to the hospital. By the time Otto hears of it and gets to the hospital, the psychiatrist is ready to send Sharon home, cautioning Sharon not to bite any policemen again.

When the psychiatrist tells Otto, with Sharon standing there, about Sharon’s having bitten one of the policemen, Sharon says, “I did?” That is, she does not remember it. She has a memory gap. What does that mean?

Schizophrenia does not have memory gaps. Multiple personality does.

In short, this story gives two characters concerns and symptoms of multiple personality, but does not acknowledge the issue.

1. Deborah Eisenberg. The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg. New York, Picador/Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010.