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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Monday, April 29, 2019


Good Possession vs. Bad Possession: Since ancient times, in both religion and the arts, being “possessed” (having multiple personality) can be a good thing

In the New Testament, there are two kinds of possession. There is good possession by the Holy Spirit. And there is bad possession by unclean spirits or demons.

In the arts, since antiquity, there has been good possession by one of the inspirational goddesses, called Muses, or by the artist’s personal muse.

In psychological terms, what used to be thought of as possession is now understood as multiple personality. And what used to be thought of as spirits or muses are now understood to be alternate personalities.

Novelists are possessed by both good and bad spirits (alternate personalities), enabling novels to have both heroes and villains.

Search “possession” for previous discussions.
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