“I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou: Protagonist’s post-rape selective mutism suggests multiple personality

After Marguerite was raped, the rapist was convicted in court, released, and murdered:

“The only thing I could do was to stop talking to people other than Bailey [her brother]. Instinctively, or somehow, I knew that because I loved him so much I’d never hurt him, but if I talked to anyone else that person might die too. Just my breath, carrying my words out, might poison people and they’d curl up and die..I had to stop talking…In the first weeks my family accepted my behavior as a post-rape, post-hospital affliction” (1, p. 87).

The significance of selective mutism is that it may be a manifestation of dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality):

“Selective mutism is a rare psychiatric disorder that usually has its onset in early childhood. This case study describes a patient in whom selective mutism developed in adolescence. It was later discovered that he had dissociative identity disorder. The study documents his history, which included violence, abuse, and threats to keep silent. The study suggests that in cases presenting with significant trauma or abuse, selective mutism may be a manifestation of dissociative identity disorder” (2).

1. Maya Angelou. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Foreword by Oprah Winfrey. New York, Ballantine Books, 1969/2015.

2. T. Jacobsen. Case study: Is selective mutism a manifestation of dissociative identity disorder? J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 1995 Jul;34(7):863-6 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7649956/  

Comment (same day): When I bought this book, I knew that the author had replaced her perfectly good first name, Marguerite, with a pseudonym, Maya. But I did not know about her selective mutism.

Pseudonyms do not prove, but should alert you to the possibility, that a person has multiple personality.