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.