Do Fiction Writers have alternate personalities?

Yes, 90% do, based on:

1. Marjorie Taylor’s study of 50 fiction writers:

https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/7/8783/files/2014/07/TaylorHodgesKohanyi-130mpe0.pdf and

2. my discussion, on this site, of works by 200 great writers.

Characters and Personalities: Minds of Their Own

Many writers say that they experience their important characters as having minds of their own. I used to think they were joking.

But after meeting people who have multiple personality—whose alternate personalities have minds of their own—I finally realized that authors aren’t joking.

Both characters and alternate personalities are imaginary people who seem to have minds of their own: they are the same psychological phenomenon.

Clinical Disorder vs. Normal Trait

Most fiction writers have a normal form of multiple personality. It does not cause them distress or dysfunction. They are not mentally ill. They do not have multiple personality disorder. They have multiple personality trait.

Only 1.5% of people have multiple personality disorder, but up to 30% of people may have multiple personality trait. Fiction writers come from that normal thirty percent.

What is dissociation?

Multiple personality disorder (aka dissociative identity disorder) is not a psychosis and has nothing to do with schizophrenia. It is a dissociative disorder. And its normal version, multiple personalty trait, is a dissociative trait. Dissociation means divided consciousness (divided into personalities or characters).

Freudian Blind Spot

Although Freud acknowledged the existence of genuine cases of multiple personality, his theories—based on repression, not dissociation—had a blind spot for multiple personality.

Reader’s Blind Spot

Most readers assume that multiple personality in a novel, play, or poem would be obvious. So if it’s not mentioned, and the plot doesn’t appear to have anything to do with multiple personality, readers don’t think of it.

Findings

Most symptoms of multiple personality in literature are not labeled as such, because the author did not intend to give the character multiple personality, per se. The symptoms are there, because they reflect the author’s sense of ordinary psychology, based on the author’s own psychology.

Unlabeled symptoms of multiple personality are found in great literature ranging from Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.

In Anna Karenina, the protagonist’s symptoms of multiple personality are unlabeled, but integral to the story. In Gone Girl, the protagonist’s symptoms of multiple personality are unlabeled and gratuitous (except that they reflect the author’s view of ordinary psychology).

Anna Karenina, as I explain in past posts, is thrown under the train by an alternate personality, which would be interesting for a reader to know. And you just won’t understand some of what goes on in Gone Girl unless you recognize it as symptoms of the protagonist’s multiple personality.

Where to Begin

You need Search. If you are using a smartphone and don’t see a Search Box at the top of your screen, please switch to a larger category of device.

I recommend that you begin by searching the following, in this order: 1. Dickens, 2. Oates, 3. Anna Karenina, and 4. Gone Girl.

Where Next

From the name and subject indices, choose whatever writers and subjects you wish. Or use the archive in the sidebar to click on past years.

Think of this site as a serial book. Many of the best chapters have come earlier. If you read only recent chapters (posts), you will miss most of what this site has to offer.

Whenever you have a chance, visit again, and read about 200 great writers.