“The Immoralist” by Nobel Prize novelist André Gide: Protagonist had led “a secret, latent existence” and “a voice inside me cried out”

Less than half way through this short novel, I’m tending to ignore the novel’s titular issue, which is that Michel, a recently married young man, discovers his sexual attraction to boys. Instead, I am focussing on his possible symptoms of multiple personality.

“Yes, as my senses awoke, they rediscovered a whole history, reconstructed a whole past life. They were alive! Alive! They had never ceased to live but throughout my years of [scholarly] study had led a secret, latent existence” (1, p. 34).

Comment: Is Michel merely happy about his recovery from being acutely ill with tuberculosis? Or had his alternate personality led a secret existence?

“ ‘Will I have to take care of you one day, Marceline [his bride], worry about you?’ a voice inside me cried out.’ I shivered, and gripped by love, pity and tenderness I gently planted between her closed eyes the most tender, loving and pious of kisses” (1, p. 52).

Comment: In my clinical experience as a psychiatrist, I have found that quotable voices that are heard by persons who are not psychotic usually turn out to be voices of alternate personalities, who have had a secret, hidden existence. (Multiple personality, also known as “dissociative identity,” is categorized as a dissociative condition, not a psychosis.)

I will continue reading.

1. André Gide. The Immoralist [1902]. Trans. David Watson. New York, Penguin Books, 2000.

Added the same day: The novel concludes with the following explanation: “When you first knew me, I was very consistent in my thinking. I know that is what makes a real man. I am no longer like that” (1, p. 123). Puzzling inconsistency, due to unexplained switches from one personality to another, may be a symptom of multiple personality. Search "inconsistency" for past discussions.