Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” (post 9): Monte Cristo switches personality when addressed as “Edmond” (Dantès)

For seven hundred pages, until page 980 (in this 1243-page novel), Monte Cristo’s real name, “Edmond Dantès,” is not mentioned by anyone, including the character, himself, in his own thoughts, and the narrator.

But now, Mercédès, the woman he had loved when he was known as Edmond Dantès, recognizes him. And she repeatedly addresses him as “Edmond,” which causes a major change in his attitude: from Monte Cristo’s single-minded revenge to Edmond Dantès’ sentimentality.

Monte Cristo had previously recognized Mercédès, but his personality did not change until she called him “Edmond.”

“What!” he thought…“What! The structure that was so long in building, which demanded so much anxious toil, has been demolished at a single blow, a single word…this ‘I’ that I thought was something; this ‘I,’ of which I was so proud; this ‘I’ that I…managed to make so great, will be…a speck of dust!” (1, p. 987).

He tends to attribute the sudden change in his attitude to the reawakening of his heart by his former beloved, which, of course, is part of the truth. But the novel’s sudden, striking change in naming him—from not mentioning his true name for seven hundred pages to suddenly bombarding him with it—seems to be the main cause of his switch in personality.

After Mercédès goes away, he reverts to his Monte Cristo personality. And the narrator, as usual, portrays him as thinking of himself as Monte Cristo, not as Edmond Dantes pretending to be Monte Cristo, which suggests multiple personality.

1. Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo [1845]. Translated by Robin Buss. London, Penguin Books, 1996. 

Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” (post 8): Monte Cristo and the narrator are afraid to speak his original name, because he has multiple personality

On page 931 of this 1243-page novel, Monte Cristo, disguised as Abbé Busoni, speaking to a man who is bleeding to death, says, “ ‘I am not Abbé Busoni, or Lord Wilmore. Look more carefully; go back further; look into your earliest memories…I am…’ And his lips, barely parting, let fall a name spoken so low that the count himself seemed to fear the sound of it.”

Since the dying man was one of those who had known Edmond Dantès, and had known of his malicious, wrongful imprisonment, the reader must infer that the name whispered by Monte Cristo was “Edmond Dantès.”

Nevertheless, as I’ve discussed previously, the narrator continues to phrase the narrative as though the ongoing character is Monte Cristo. The narrator does not say that Edmond Dantès whispers his real name or fears the sound of it, but that “the count” whispers "a name" and “seemed to fear the sound of it.”

Since Monte Cristo is speaking to an obviously dying man (who does, in fact, die moments later), why does he fear the sound of the original name? Because Monte Cristo and Edmond Dantès are alternate personalities. And in multiple personality, saying a personality’s name is the surest way to bring that personality out and put him in control.

And Monte Cristo, like most alternate personalities, likes to remain in control. Moreover, his mission in life is to take revenge, which he is much more capable of doing than the original personality, Edmond Dantès. Therefore, until revenge is assured, “Edmond Dantès” must not be uttered, at least not in a way that would bring him back out, prematurely.

Or, in terms of the writing process, if the characters are the author's alternate personalities, Dumas does not want the narrator personality to write the name "Edmond Dantes" and bring that personality back to the forefront of Dumas' mind until his Monte Cristo personality has finished carrying out the plot's revenge scenario.

1. Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo [1845]. Translated by Robin Buss. London, Penguin Books, 1996. 

Video: On Multiple Personality by Stephen E. Braude

Braude has met people with multiple personality (only Part One is recommended).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S98Gi45Vmvw

Wikipedia. Stephen E. Braude, PhD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_E._Braude

Six Names of Central Character in Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” (post 7): Is this kind of naming like real-life multiple personality?

Up to page 760 in this 1243-page novel, the central character has had the following six names: Edmond Dantès (his original personality, used at the beginning); Monte Cristo (the name usually used for the last four hundred pages by the narrator, in the character’s private thoughts, and in most social situations; Monte Cristo is the host personality); and four other names used occasionally (Sinbad the Sailor, Abbé Busoni, Lord Wilmore, Zaccone) (1).

I notice that a letter at the end of the novel, on page 1243, from one character to another, is signed “Your friend, Edmond Dantès, Count of Monte Cristo.” But I don’t know how the naming evolves from from what it is up to page 760 to what it is by page 1243. Perhaps Dumas will simply ignore his previous use of multiple-personality-like naming (see post 6).

In real-life multiple personality, is it common for the original personality to be left behind, and for an alternate personality to become the central player? Yes, it is a textbook scenario:

“Many multiples have a personality who is identified by the other personalities of the system as the original personality from whom all others are derived…Typically the original is not active and is often described as having been ‘put to sleep’ or otherwise incapacitated…The original usually does not surface until late in the course of therapy…The host personality is not the original personality in most patients (2, p. 114).

1. Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo [1845]. Translated by Robin Buss. London, Penguin Books, 1996.

2. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989. 

Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” (post 6): Is Monte Cristo an alternate personality of protagonist Edmond Dantès? Did Dumas know it?

The protagonist’s multiple pseudonyms have led some readers to think of multiple personality, momentarily. But they quickly reject the idea for four reasons: 1.The protagonist needs aliases to avoid going back to prison, 2. He wants revenge, and does not want to put his enemies on guard, 3. Neither the narrator nor any character ever says or implies that he has multiple personality (I haven’t finished the novel, so I don’t know that the third reason is true, but I’m guessing that it is), and 4. Monte Cristo is much higher functioning than Edmond Dantès ever had been, so how can he be only an alternate personality?

But if Edmond Dantès did not have multiple personality, then why has the narrator, for hundreds of pages, not referred to Monte Cristo as Edmond Dantès in Monte Cristo’s private thoughts (see post 5)?

Without referring to Monte Cristo as Edmond Dantès in Monte Cristo’s private thoughts, it is as if Monte Cristo did not think of himself as Edmond Dantès, which is exactly how it would be if Monte Cristo were Dantès’ alternate personality, since alternate personalities think of themselves as literally being other people. 

(Alternate personalities are often aware of the regular personality, especially if they came into being with a mission to protect the regular personality, which appears to be the case with Monte Cristo; but, as I said, they think of themselves as other people.)

Can an alternate personality like Monte Cristo be higher functioning than the original personality like Edmond Dantès? Yes. That is often the case.

Most readers miss the presence of multiple personality in novels, because they expect that the issue would be more or less explicit, and they don’t make that interpretation unless it is. But as I’ve shown in the works of literally hundreds of writers, most multiple personality in novels is not explicitly acknowledged, because multiple personality, per se, is usually not in the novel intentionally. It is in the novel only as a reflection of the author’s sense of ordinary psychology, based on the author’s own psychology. 

Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” (post 5): Narrator stops calling protagonist Dantès, because Dantès has switched to an alternate personality

It is understandable that the protagonist, Edmond Dantès, an escaped convict, would use pseudonyms to avoid recapture. But I am up to page 558 in this 1243-page novel, and the narrator has not referred to the protagonist as Edmond Dantès for nearly three hundred pages!

For literally hundreds of pages, the narrator has been telling the reader about the thoughts and attitudes of Monte Cristo, which means that Monte Cristo is not simply a pseudonym, but an alternate personality, especially since the thoughts and attitudes attributed to Monte Cristo are often not the kind that Edmond Dantès would have had.

1. Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo [1845]. Translated by Robin Buss. London, Penguin Books, 1996. 

Alexandre Dumas' “The Count of Monte Cristo” (post 4): Monte Cristo (Edmond Dantès incognito) calls himself “us” (multiple-personality plural)

“Then, when the king’s prosecutor had gone, Monte Cristo [now alone] forced himself to smile despite the weight on his soul and said: ‘Come, come. Enough of poison. Now that my heart is full of it, let us go and find the antidote’ ” (1, p. 558).

As mentioned in many past posts, when people with multiple personality have not been diagnosed—when the cover of their alternate personalities has not been blown—it is typical for alternate personalities to go about their business incognito. Thus, when the plot of a novel features characters who are incognito, it is a multiple-personality scenario.

Multiple personality is designed to keep itself hidden, but people with multiple personality occasionally slip and refer to themselves in the plural. It is more likely that an alternate personality, as opposed to the host personality, will make this slip, because it is more likely that an alternate personality will be aware that there are other personalities.

If persons with multiple personality are socializing with people who know them by their regular name, then the alternate personality will be incognito by answering to the regular name. But if the person is socializing with people who don’t know them by their regular name, then the alternate personality will be incognito by using its own name (different from the person’s regular name). Here, the alternate personality’s name is “Monte Cristo.”

Edmond Dantès and Monte Cristo do not behave like the same person. Most readers attribute this to Dantès’ tutoring by Abbé Faria, the fact that he is now twenty years older [and rich], and to his not wanting his enemies to know who he is. But whereas most people continue to have the same basic personality and are not superb actors, Dantès and his alternate personality Cristo are distinctly different.

1. Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo [1845]. Translated by Robin Buss. London, Penguin Books, 1996. 

Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” (post 3): Faria influences Dantès, whose face shows multiple frames of mind, simultaneously

There are no Svengali moments between Edmond Dantès and fellow prisoner, Abbé Faria, the character named after a real-life hypnotist. But Faria tells Dantès that he has had a profound influence on him: “I have insinuated a feeling into your heart that was not previously there: the desire for revenge” (1, p. 168).

Subsequently, when Dantès has escaped from prison, become rich, and is seeking revenge, he is depicted as having multiple frames of mind, simultaneously (common in multiple personality):

“Only the count appeared impassive. More than that: a faint blush of red seemed to be appearing beneath the livid pallor of his cheeks. His nose was dilating like that of a wild beast at the smell of blood, and his lips, slightly parted, showed his white teeth, as small and sharp as a jackal’s. Yet, despite that, his face had an expression of smiling tenderness…his black eyes, above all, were compellingly soft and lenient” (1, p. 392).

1. Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo [1845]. Translated by Robin Buss. London, Penguin Books, 1996. 

World Health Organization's ICD-11 may add “Partial Dissociative Identity Disorder” to help clinicians who don’t know multiple personality’s typical presentation

Many clinicians think they never see multiple personality. The reason is that they don’t know what it looks like. If they had read the modern psychiatric literature, they would know the clinical cliché that typical multiple personality is characterized by “hiddenness.”

For example, the very concept of the “host personality” (the regular, social personality) implies that alternate personalities usually hide, and that, when they do come out, usually do so incognito.

Alternate personalities typically become overt only in crises, or when the person is alone, or in special circumstances, such as in therapy for multiple personality, after diagnosis has blown their cover.

To help and appease uninitiated clinicians, it has been proposed that the next edition, ICD-11, add “Partial Dissociative Identity Disorder” (1). 

1. World Health Organization. “Partial Dissociative Identity Disorder.” http://pre.gcp.network/en/icd-11-guidelines/categories/disorder/partial-dissociative-identity-disorder 

UK Psychiatry Textbook Prejudiced Against Multiple Personality

Both of the official classifications of mental disorders—DSM-5 (by the American Psychiatric Association) and ICD-10 (by the World Heath Organization)—include dissociative disorders, such as dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder).

Eminent American psychiatrist, Nancy C. Andreasen, M.D., is an editor of both a UK psychiatry textbook (1) and an American psychiatry textbook (2).

Remarkably, her UK textbook does not even mention dissociative disorders, while her American textbook certainly does include them (as one would expect of any reputable psychiatry textbook, considering their inclusion in both the DSM and the ICD).

1. John R. Geddes, Nancy C. Andreasen, Guy M. Goodwin (Editors). New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry, 3rd Edition. UK, Oxford University Press, 2020.

2. Donald W. Black, Nancy C. Andreasen (Editors). Introductory Textbook of Psychiatry, Seventh Edition, Washington DC, American Psychiatric Association Publishing, 2020/2021. 

Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” (post 2): Word choice indicates that hypnosis (mesmerism) was on the author’s mind

“With these words, the girl turned her imperious face toward the Catalan and he, as if mesmerized by her look, slowly came across to Edmond and held out his hand” (1, p. 28).

Abbé Faria, the character named after the real-life hypnotist, has not yet been introduced.

1. Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo [1845]. Translated by Robin Buss. London, Penguin Books, 1996. 

Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo”: Is protagonist, Edmond Dantès, hypnotized by fellow prisoner, named after real-life hypnotist, Abbé Faria?

I have not yet begun this 1243-page novel (1), and besides the name “Abbé Faria” (2, 3), the only clue I have is that Dumas also wrote a novel called “The Mesmerist's Victim” (mesmerism is hypnosis).

1. Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo [1845]. Translated by Robin Buss. London, Penguin Books, 1996.

2. Margaret Roberts, M.D. “Abbé Faria.” https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.16010035

3. Wikipedia. “Abbé Faria.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abb%C3%A9_Faria 

Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” (post 3) 

“Like his author, Crusoe is saved by his ability to allow his inner voices to speak to each other. ‘Better than sociable’, he describes his time on the island. Voices allow externalisation of emotion; imaginary friends, they provide Crusoe with 'a great deal of comfort within’.” (1).

In contrast to Professor of English, Patricia Waugh, I see inner voices conversing, and imaginary friends in adults, as symptoms of multiple personality (the trait, not the disorder, since it does not cause him dysfunction or distress).

1. Patricia Waugh. “The novelist as voice hearer.” The Lancet, December 05, 2015. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)01118-6/fulltext#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20first%20fictional,his%20time%20on%20the%20island.

“The novelist as voice hearer” by Patricia Waugh, Professor of English Literature

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)01118-6/fulltext#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20first%20fictional,his%20time%20on%20the%20island.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Waugh

Added 11 a.m.

https://theconversation.com/many-writers-say-they-can-actually-hear-the-voices-of-their-characters-heres-why-139170#:~:text=To%20investigate%20this%20phenomenon%2C%20we,acted%20of%20their%20own%20accord.

https://www.sciencealert.com/most-authors-can-hear-their-characters-voices-in-their-head-and-some-can-talk-with-them-survey-reveals

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/22/charles-dickens-hearing-voices-created-his-novels

Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” (post 2): Crusoe’s “voice of conscience” is a quotable voice that has a mind of its own, a moral alternate personality

In post 1, I quoted a passage from the beginning of the novel in which Crusoe described his mind having multiple, independent points of view, which suggested to me that he may have heard voices. But at that point, he didn’t admit it, because he didn’t have a socially acceptable way of doing so.

One-third into the novel, Crusoe does have a socially acceptable way. As he becomes religious, he says that he hears the voice of conscience. And he actually quotes the voice at length (1, pp. 79-80).

Calling it his conscience allows him to say that he hears voices, but if anyone were to call him crazy, it would allow him to say he was speaking metaphorically.

Most people have a conscience, but only a minority of people hear it as a quotable voice in their head. And any rational, quotable voice that has a mind of its own is the voice of an alternate personality; which, in this case, is an alternate personality that upholds religion and morality.

1. Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe [1719]. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008. 

“Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe: Protagonist’s Mind a Multitude

I have just begun Robinson Crusoe, having previously read Defoe’s “Roxana” (search "Roxana").

At the opening, Robinson Crusoe is a young man, who, against parental advice, decides to go to sea. A ship he sails on sinks. This is how he thinks:

“…tho’ I had several times loud Calls from my Reason and my more composed Judgment to go home, yet I had not Power to do it. I know not what to call this…secret over-ruling Decree…Certainly nothing but some decreed unavoidable Misery attending, and which it is impossible for me to escape, could have push’d me forward against the calm Reasonings and Perswasions [sic] of my most retired Thoughts…” (1, p. 14).

His mind is a multitude of thoughts or voices: 1. his loud Reason, 2. his composed Judgment, 3. his powerless calm reasonings and persuasions, and 4. a maker of secret over-ruling Decrees, which it is impossible for Crusoe’s regular self to escape.

1. Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe [1719]. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008.

Sir Walter Scott: Ivanhoe, Incognito, Anonymity, Amnesia, typical features of multiple personality; and trivia re Rebecca and Jews in Ivanhoe

I have just read Ivanhoe (1). Several of the characters are incognito, which is the usual status of alternate personalities in multiple personality, prior to diagnosis.

Sir Walter Scott had a history of maintaining anonymity when his novels were published. He gave various reasons, but eventually confessed that he did not fully understand his motive (2).

One possible reason for authors to use a pseudonym or remain anonymous is their having partial or total amnesia for how their books are written. For example, after completing The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), Scott couldn’t even remember the plot, according to Lockhart’s Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott (1837). Amnesia, a memory gap, is a cardinal symptom of multiple personality.

Trivia re Rebecca and Jews in Ivanhoe:

https://ajhs.org/blog/american-jewish-history-and%E2%80%A6ivanhoe http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/scott/gossman.html

1. Sir Walter Scott. Ivanhoe [1820]. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996.

2. Cooney, Seamus (1972) “Scott’s Anonymity — Its Motives and Consequences,” Studies in Scottish Literature: Vol. 10: Iss. 4, 207-219. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1992&context=ssl

On Writing by Imaginary People

When people write books about issues discussed here, should they write them as fiction or nonfiction?

Yes. 

Freud and Proust on Creative Artist: Freud cannot explain creative artist. Proust says books are written by alternate personality 

Freud

“Everyone knows Freud’s famous comment that ‘before the problem of the creative artist analysis must, alas, lay down its arms’ ” (1, p. 26).

Proust

“Sainte-Beuve’s slavish overemphasis on ‘manifest biography’ irritated Marcel Proust, who composed an eloquent refutation. One of the points he made was that ‘a book is a product of another ego, different from the one we display in our customs, in society and in our vices’ ” (1, pp. 29-30).

1. Marcos Aguinis. “A Masterpiece of Illumination.” Translated by Philip Slotkin. In On Freud’s “Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming,” Edited by Ethel Spector Person and Sérvulo Augusto Figueira. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995. 

Literary Criticism’s Myth of Raskolnikov’s “Duality” in Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”

Conventional wisdom in literary criticism is that the protagonist of Crime and Punishment has “duality” (1). But it is obvious that Raskolnikov has more than two personality states, as do most people with multiple personality.

Discussions of duality in literary criticism usually fail to even mention multiple personality, because most literary critics don’t realize the connection.

1. Harold Bloom (Editor). Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov. Philadelphia, Chelsea House, 2004.

“Crime and Punishment” (Pt 6, Chap 3) by Dostoevsky: Raskolnikov has a memory gap and directed behavior, textbook symptoms of multiple personality

“ ‘I was on my way to your place, I was looking for you [Svidrigailov],’ Raskolnikov began, ‘but why did I suddenly turn down —sky Prospect just now from the Haymarket! I never turn or come this way. I turn right from the Haymarket. And this isn’t the way to your place. I just turned and here you are! It’s strange!’…

‘…let me say [Svidrigialov replied] that you seem to have slept through these past two or three days. I myself suggested this tavern to you, and there was no miracle in your coming straight here; I gave you all the directions myself, described the place where it stands, and told you the hours when I could be found here. Remember?’

‘I forgot,’ Raskolnikov answered in surprise.

‘…I told you twice,' " [Svidrigialov replied] (1, pp. 466-467).

The explanation is that when Svidrigialov had given the directions, he, unknowingly, had been talking to one of Raskolnikov’s alternate personalities. The latter had been out and in control at that time, but answering to Raskolnikov’s regular name (incognito), a typical situation in undiagnosed multiple personality.

Later, that alternate personality, fully conscious and with complete memory of Svidrigialov’s directions—but now behind the scenes and not outwardly in control—pulled Raskolnikov’s regular personality’s strings, directing him to where Svidrigialov said he would be.

Let me emphasize that this particular alternate personality was completely conscious of the thoughts and behavior of the regular personality, but the reverse was not true, so that the regular personality had amnesia for Svidrigialov’s directions and also for the presence and influence of the alternate personality: a typical example of multiple personality’s memory gaps and directed or "made" behaviors.

I don’t know whether Dostoevsky had read about, witnessed, or experienced these things.

1. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment [1866]. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York, Vintage Classics/Random House, 1993. 

“Crime and Punishment” (Pt 5, Chap 4) by Dostoevsky: Raskolnikov begins confession in third person, which in 19th century literature meant multiple personality

In Charles Dickens’s plan for his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), the multiple personality of the murderer would be revealed by his confession, in which he (his regular personality) would refer to himself (his murderous alternate personality) in the third person.

Dostoevsky—author of The Double (1846), a fantasy version of multiple personality—has Raskolnikov begin his confession to Sonya in the third person, as he explains how he knows who committed the murder:

“I must be a great friend of his…since I know…He wanted to kill the old woman…” (1, p. 410).

Raskolnikov soon reverts to the first person, and today’s readers interpret his initial use of third person as merely a way to gently ease himself into the confession, so as not to upset Sonya any more than he has to. But this is a nineteenth century novel, and the correct interpretation is one that an alert nineteenth century reader might have made.

1. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment [1866]. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York, Vintage Classics/Random House, 1993.

“Crime and Punishment” (start Pt 4) by Dostoevsky: Raskolnikov is Self-Contradictory

The murders that Raskolnikov committed at the beginning of the novel portrayed him as stupid, evil, and crazy. But later, when an acquaintance is trampled by horses, and the man’s family is in dire straits, he is competent and benevolent.

Now, he has gotten a letter from his mother—he had not seen his mother and sister for quite some time—and he infers from a passing comment in the letter that his sister’s fiancé would be a tyrant in their marriage, which his mother and sister had not realized.

Raskolnikov’s vehement opposition to his sister’s marriage, based on such seemingly flimsy evidence, turns out to have been quite perceptive and responsible. His sister and mother come to see that he is right, the engagement is ended, and the fiancé’s private thoughts, provided for the reader at length, confirm exactly the kind of malevolence that Roskolnikov had suspected.

Thus, Dostoevsky’s portrayal of his protagonist is inconsistent and contradictory. He presents the reader with the psychological puzzle of how a person can be extremely stupid, evil, and crazy, but at other times be the opposite.

As I have discussed in many past posts (search “self-contradictory”), puzzling self-contradiction may be a clue to multiple personality.

1. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment [1866]. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York, Vintage Classics/Random House, 1993. 

“Crime and Punishment” (Part 3) by Dostoevsky: Raskolnikov said to have “two opposite characters in him, changing places with each other”

Raskolnikov’s friend says, “At times, however, he’s not hypochondriac at all, but just inhumanly cold and callous, as if there really were two opposite characters in him, changing places with each other” (1, p. 215).

The above may foreshadow something to come, but, so far, no character or narrator has been thinking in terms of multiple personality, per se. The most common psychiatric diagnosis applied to Raskolnikov has been “monomania,” which meant they thought he was only partially mad.

A biographer’s interpretation that Raskolnikov committed the murder, because, as a student, his mind had been poisoned by certain philosophical ideas, is suggested by the fact that, as a student, he had written an article “On Crime” (1, p. 258), which justified murder committed by extraordinary people.

But his mother says he had been unusual prior to university: “…I could never trust his character, even when he was only fifteen years old. I’m certain that even now he might suddenly do something with himself that no other man would ever think of doing…” (1, p. 216), although she wasn’t thinking of murder.

It is possible to combine the two interpretations: that what he learned as a student was taken to heart by an alternate personality.

Most multiples are not murderers, but a few have been (2).

1.Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment: A Novel in Six Parts [1866]. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York, Vintage Classics/Random House, 1993.

2. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, M.D. et al. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1997. “12 Murderers with Dissociative Identity Disorder” [multiple personality disorder] https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/ajp.154.12.1703