“The Fixer” by Bernard Malamud (post 2): Fellow prisoner describes apparent alcoholic blackout that is probably a multiple personality memory gap

“What are you [Yakov, the fixer, a handyman] accused of?” [asks his fellow prisoner].

“The fixer touched his lips with a dry tongue. “Whatever they’ve accused me of I didn’t do. I give you my word. It’s too complicated to go into without turning it into a wearying tale, something I don’t understand myself.”

“I’m a murderer,” said Fetyukov. “I stabbed a stranger at the inn in my village. He provoked me so I stabbed him twice, once in the chest, and when he was falling, once in the back. That was the end of him. I had had more than a drop or two, but when they told me what I had done I was greatly surprised. I’m a peaceful man, I never make trouble if you don’t provoke me. Who would’ve thought I could murder anybody? If you had told me any such thing I would have laughed at you to your face.”

“The fixer, staring at the murderer, edged sideways along the wall. At the same time he saw two other prisoners sneaking up on him, one from either side. As he cried out, Fetyukov reached behind him whipping a short heavy stick out of his trousers. He struck Yakov a hard blow on the head. The fixer went down on one knee, holding both hands over his pain-wracked, bloody head, then fell over” (1, pp. 149-150).

Comment

Yakov’s fellow prisoners assault him, because they mistakenly think he had been put among them as a snitch. But, incidentally, the story that the murderer tells about himself is typical of a person with multiple personality who switches to a violent alternate personality and then has a memory gap when he switches back to his regular personality. He accepts what he has done, because it is obvious from circumstantial evidence, but he doesn’t actually remember doing it.

It is rare for a person with multiple personality to be a murderer, but it does happen (2). If a murderer had been drinking, the murder could be mistakenly attributed to pathological intoxication, overlooking the person’s multiple personality.

Why does this novel unnecessarily include this multiple personality scenario in a minor character? It may reflect the author’s psychological interest (based on his own multiple personality trait).

1. Bernard Malamud. The Fixer [1966]. New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 2004.

2. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, MD., et al. Objective Documentation of Child Abuse and Dissociation in 12 Murderers With Dissociative Identity Disorder. American J Psychiatry, Dec 1, 1997. https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/ajp.154.12.1703

Aug. 31: I finished the novel and found nothing else of interest here.