“Jekyll on Trial” by Elyn Saks: Author’s introductory remarks on feelings of “dividedness” and “out-of-character” behavior

“…each one of us is aware of dividedness within ourselves…At times discrepant parts of our personality take hold: we act wholly out of character and, later, not understanding why, explain our behavior with a naively simple ‘I just wasn’t myself’ or ‘That wasn’t me’ ” (1, p. 1).

Comment: Most people do not have feelings of dividedness and out-of-character behavior. And only people who do have them would think everybody does.

Feelings of dividedness and out-of-character behavior raise the possibility that the person has multiple personality disorder, or, in a generally high-functioning person, what I call “multiple personality trait.”

Search “Elyn Saks” for past posts. She is very high-functioning (2).

1. Elyn Saks with Stephen H. Behnke. Jekyll on Trial: Multiple Personality Disorder and Criminal Law. New York, New York University Press, 1997.

2. Wikipedia. “Elyn Saks.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elyn_Saks

Example of "out-of-character" behavior: An alcoholic patient of mine, who considered herself to have always been heterosexual, was puzzled that she had joined a chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous that catered to the gay community. Also, in her apartment, where she lived alone, she had found literature for a lesbian dating service. She was upset, because she couldn't account for these things. I subsequently met her gay alternate personality.