BASIC CONCEPTS

— When novelists claim they do not invent it, but hear voices and find stories in their head, they are neither joking nor crazy.

— When characters, narrators, or muses have minds of their own and occasionally take over, they are alternate personalities.

— Alternate personalities and memory gaps, but no significant distress or dysfunction, is a normal version of multiple personality.

— normal Multiple Personality Trait (MPT) (core of Multiple Identity Literary Theory), not clinical Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)

— The normal version of multiple personality is an asset in fiction writing when some alternate personalities are storytellers.

— Multiple personality originates when imaginative children with normal brains have unassuaged trauma as victim or witness.

— Psychiatrists, whose standard mental status exam fails to ask about memory gaps, think they never see multiple personality.

— They need the clue of memory gaps, because alternate personalities don’t acknowledge their presence until their cover is blown.

— In novels, most multiple personality, per se, is unnoticed, unintentional, and reflects the author’s view of ordinary psychology.

— Multiple personality means one person who has more than one identity and memory bank, not psychosis or possession.

— Euphemisms for alternate personalities include parts, pseudonyms, alter egos, doubles, double consciousness, voice or voices.

— Multiple personality trait: 90% of fiction writers; possibly 30% of public.

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Tuesday, April 16, 2019


“Labrador” by Kathryn Davis (post 3): The rest of novel continues story in which clearest point is protagonist’s multiple personality

Labrador is a good demonstration of the fact that a whole novel can be pervaded by the protagonist’s multiple personality—epitomized by Kitty and Rogni, her alternate personality—but no book review will tell you.

If the author doesn’t label the multiple personality, most readers, including most reviewers, don’t think of it.

And unlabeled multiple personality is so common in literature that its recognition should be taught in school.

Should fiction writers label the multiple personality in their novels? Not necessarily. Writing and reading are different.
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