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, May 3, 2022

What does it mean when normal characters in novels hear voices?


Judging by common expressions—e.g., “the voice of reason” and “the voice of conscience”—many normal people hear voices.


However, most people do not hear such voices. I, myself, am a reasonable person with a conscience, but I have never heard voices of reason or conscience. So I know that when normal characters in novels hear voices in their head, those characters and I, and probably their authors and I, are psychologically different.


As a psychiatrist who has seen persons with multiple personality, I know that when nonpsychotic people hear a voice in their head, I may be able to interview the voice by asking the voice a question and having the person tell me what the voice answers. And if I have established trust, the “voice” may eventually come out, briefly assume control of the person’s behavior, and speak for itself as an alternate personality.


So I know what it means when normal characters in novels routinely hear a voice in their head.


Warning: I advise you not to try the above at home, because the person’s regular personality may mistakenly think it means they’re crazy, while the alternate personality may feel its privacy has been invaded.

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