“Christine Falls” (post 3) by John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black: Protagonist’s multiple personality is [seemingly, inadvertently] uncovered in a crisis [revised Nov 30]

“Despite the chill of the ending day Quirke felt the sweat along his hairline under the band of his hat. He was afraid, but at one remove, as if his fear had conjured up another version of him to inhabit, and he, the original he, was obliged to attend to this other, fearing self and be concerned for it, as he would be, he imagined, for a twin, or a grown-up son” (1, p. 199).

Comment: The above is different from the well-known depersonalization that may happen when a traumatized person experiences himself as being separate from, or floating above, himself while he is undergoing trauma.

Here the protagonist is observing and concerned for a “twin” or a “son,” not himself, making it multiple personality that is temporarily uncovered in a crisis.

In real life, undiagnosed multiple personality is usually hidden and covert unless and until it is made overt either by 1. a diagnostic interview that makes the alternate personalities feel that hiding is futile or 2. a crisis that causes alternate personalities to temporarily come out and serve the protective function for which they were designed.

Added Nov. 30: Of course, THE AUTHOR DID NOT MEAN THE ABOVE to be a revelation that Quirke has multiple personality. Quirke does not. It is only an inadvertent reflection of the author's multiple personality trait.

1. Benjamin Black. Christine Falls. New York, Picador/Henry Holt, 2006.