Dissociative self-strangulation didn’t register in her consciousness until someone asked her why she did it

“It was a gesture that, as Christina Sharpe puts it, amounted to ‘self-strangulation.’ She was a graduate student in English when it emerged. She would start to talk and then press the thumbs of both hands to her larynx as the rest of her fingers circled the back of her neck — a movement so involuntary that it didn’t even register in her consciousness until someone asked her why she was doing it. ‘I was strangling words before they even left my throat,’ she writes in [her new book] Ordinary Notes” (2).

Comment: Apparently, a dissociated part of her mind had been doing it.

1. Wikipedia. “Christina Sharpe.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Sharpe

2. Book Review. Ordinary Notes. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/19/books/review/ordinary-notes-christina-sharpe.html

Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney has “dissociative feeling”: Has “dissociative” become a popular word?

“It’s a very dissociative feeling and it was so loud that I didn’t feel part of the conversation,” she added, “so I decided to take a back seat and let them tucker themselves out” (1).

Comment: I'm surprised to see the word “dissociative” used so casually. Has “dissociative”—which I associate with dissociative disorders like multiple personality, also called "dissociative identity disorder"—become a popular word?

1. https://www.wsj.com/articles/transgender-influencer-dylan-mulvaney-speaks-out-after-bud-light-controversy-ec03af8 

“Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret” (post 2) by Judy Blume: New movie of the book acknowledges that Margaret was agnostic

“Puberty provides most of the movie’s outright and tender comedy. But its depths are captured in Margaret’s seeking, in the notion that her No. 1 interlocutor might be a God she’s not even sure exists” (1).

Comment: Since Margaret was agnostic, her conversations with God raised the question of what, psychologically, she was doing. In post 1, I mentioned possibilities, but the book doesn’t address the issue.

1. Movie Review. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/movies/are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-review.html

“One for the Money” by Janet Evanovich: Why does protagonist, Stephanie Plum, have gratuitous, unintentional symptoms of multiple personality?

Memory Gap

“I heard the sirens wailing from far away, getting closer and closer, and the the police were pounding on my door. I don’t remember letting them in, but obviously I did. A uniformed cop took me aside, into the kitchen, and sat me down on a chair. A medic followed…” (1, p. 203).

Comment: Memory gaps are a cardinal symptom of multiple personality, because the regular personality may not remember what an alternate personality did.

Voices

“A little voice in my head whispered to get out of the apartment. Use the fire escape, it said. Move fast” (1, p. 294).

“…and the message came back to me…Do something! (1, p. 300).

Comment: Persons with multiple personality may hear voices of their alternate personalities in their head, sometimes italicized.

Concluding Comment: Since the author did not intend to make multiple personality an issue in plot or character development, the presence of its symptoms in her protagonist is what I call “gratuitous multiple personality,” which is probably in the novel only as a reflection of the author’s multiple personality trait.

1. Janet Evanovich. One for the Money. New York, Pocket Books, 1994/2018.

2. Wikipedia. “Janet Evanovich.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Evanovich

3. Wikipedia. “Stephanie Plum.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Plum

“Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret” (post 1) by Judy Blume: Conversations with God or a psychological defense?

                          “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret.

                           We’re moving today. I’m so scared

                           God. I’ve never lived anywhere but

                           here. Suppose I hate my new school?

                           Suppose everybody there hates me?

                           Please help me God. Don’t let New

                           Jersey be too horrible. Thank you” (1, p. 1).

Since Margaret, almost twelve, has a Christian mother and a Jewish father, but has not practiced either religion, her so-called conversations with God may be a metaphor for a psychological defense against adolescent angst.

Only halfway through the book, I don’t yet know whether Margaret is having conversations with an imaginary friend (2) or a “helper” alternate personality (3, p. 109), or whether the novel will provide psychological evidence one way or the other. But I am skeptical that a non-religious person would have conversations with God.

1. Judy Blume. Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret. Richard Jackson/ Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1970/2014.

2. Wikipedia. “Imaginary Friend.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_friend

3. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989. 

April 25: I finished the novel, but have nothing to add.

“Wifey” (post 4) by Judy Blume: From Author’s Introduction to this, her first novel for adults

“I grew up in the Fifties [1950’s], with a mother whose expectations for me didn’t go beyond wanting me to be a good girl. She urged me to get a college degree in education in case, God forbid, I ever had to go to work…

“But by the mid seventies all the rules had changed. I was thirty-seven at the time…And so, in 1975 I left my marriage and set off with my children to find out what I’d missed.

“No, I’m not Sandy, although many of the details of her life come from mine…And I was never married to Norman but I knew plenty of guys like him…

 

“When I look at the book today, I can’t believe how fearless I was in the writing…Maybe I didn’t know enough then to be worried. Maybe I really didn’t care what anyone thought. I just remember this burning inside; this need to get Sandy’s story on paper. I was, after all, raised to be Sandy. I still identify with her…”

1. Judy Blume. Wifey. New York, Berkley Books, 1978/2005.

“Wifey” (post 3) by Judy Blume: Two Conversations Involving Sandy’s Alternate Personality, whose words are Italicized only in the second one 

   “How easy it should be to hate this overconfident, independent woman! How easy to hate this Brenda, who wanted to renew her relationship with Norman on a ‘special occasions’ basis.

   Sandy, you sound jealous.

   I’m pissed, not jealous.

   You could have fooled me!” (1, p. 273).

   (The above is a dialogue in Sandy's mind).

“Was it good with him? [Norman asks]

“Different.” [Sandy replies]

“You always come twice with me.”

“Yes.”

“Did you with him?”

“No.” How about a five-course meal, kid? (1, p. 285)

 (The alternate personality comments at the end.)

Further Comment: In this novel, Judy Blume is quite inconsistent with her use and disuse of italics; and she never notes that some of what is said is probably said by her protagonist’s alternate personality. 

1. Judy Blume. Wifey. New York, Berkley Books, 1978/2005.

“Wifey” (post 2) by Judy Blume: Italics used for Ego-syntonic Fantasies and Thoughts vs. Ego-alien Voices

Sandy, the protagonist, for nearly two whole pages, which are rendered mostly in italics, appears to meet and have a sexual encounter with the plumbing contractor for her new house (1, pp. 172-173).

Then, suddenly, the italics disappear, and she has an ordinary discussion with the real plumbing contractor for about a half page (1, p. 174), proving the previous encounter to have been an ego-syntonic fantasy.

Comment: Most authors appear to conceive of italics—apart from their mundane use for emphasis—as a way to indicate that something is going on in the character’s mind, whether the thoughts are realistic or fantasy, ego-syntonic (which feel to characters like their own thoughts or fantasies) or ego-dystonic, ego-alien, voices of alternate personalities. The latter distinction re voices is a contribution of this blog.

1. Judy Blume. Wifey. New York, Berkley Books, 1978/2005. 

“Wifey” (post 1) by Judy Blume: Marital Sex with Commentary by Italicized Voice in Wife’s Head

“Norman kissed her. He tasted like Colgate toothpaste. She hated Colgate. Did she also hate Norman? Answer: Yes, sometimes.

“Norman’s cold tongue was darting in and out of her mouth. One kiss. That was enough for him. Sandy didn’t mind. Her lip hurt. Besides, his kisses no longer pleased her, no longer offered any excitement.

“Ready, San?”

“Yes.” Sandy raised her hips to catch him. In and Out. In and Out. She closed her eyes and imagined herself with the beachboy…Norman was beginning his descent. Three more strokes and it would be over. Hurry, Sandy…hurry, or you’ll be left out. She moved with Norman but it was too late. No main course tonight.

“Sorry,” he said…

“It doesn’t matter," Sandy said. Liar. Liar. Of course it mattered (1, pp. 56-57).

Comment: As previously noted in posts on other writers, italics are often used for voices in a character’s head.

Most people don’t hear voices, but the many novelists who have multiple personality trait would sometimes hear the voices of their alternate personalities.

And since such novelists may experience such voices routinely, they may attribute such voices to their characters casually, as a realistic touch. Novelists commonly italicize such voices to distinguish them from a character’s ordinary thoughts.

1. Judy Blume. Wifey. New York, Berkley Books, 1978/2005.

2. Wikipedia “Judy Blume.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Blume 

“Dear Edward” (post 4) by Ann Napolitano: Mirror and Visual Hallucinations, Gratuitous Symptoms of Multiple Personality

“Edward thought he had seen Benjamin Stillman lifting weights in the mirror. The soldier was dressed in his uniform, the same one he’d been wearing on the plane. He was deadlifting an enormous amount of weight. He’d looked real, to the extent that Edward almost dropped the dumbbell he was holding. He spun around…But, of course, no one was there (1, p. 254).

“Edward watches [visually hallucinates] Jordan [his deceased brother]…He doesn’t know why Jordan remains perfectly distinct while his parents blur, but perhaps it’s because he’d always considered his brother to be a part of him…” (1, pp. 254-255).

Comment: As stated in a textbook on multiple personality disorder, “MPD patients often report seeing themselves as different people when they look into a mirror…MPD patents may also hallucinate their alternate personalities as separate people existing outside their bodies” (2, p. 62).

But since the author probably did not intend to portray her protagonist as having multiple personality, and would not have researched a textbook on multiple personality, why did she give him symptoms of multiple personality?

She apparently incorporated aspects of her own, novelist’s, multiple personality trait.

Apr. 20: At the end of this novel, "Edward hears his brother's voice inside him" (1, p. 336). And I suppose the author heard voices, too, by virtue of her creative multiple personality trait; as well as possibly did the many readers who loved this book.

1. Ann Napolitano. Dear Edward. New York, Dial Press, 2020/2021.

2. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989.

“Dear Edward” (post 3) by Ann Napolitano: Edward’s evolving symptoms

“When they return to New Jersey [from the NTSB plane crash hearing] everything feels different…When Edward notices that the clicking in his head is gone too, he spends hours testing the new silence…He wonders if the simultaneous departure of several symptoms—any trace of a fugue state, the flat sheet inside him, the clicking—could itself be considered a symptom” ( 1, pp. 143-144).

Comment: Perhaps “the flat sheet inside him” and “the clicking” sounds will be explained in the novel subsequently; whereas, “a fugue state” (2) is a dissociative, memory-gap symptom of trauma or multiple personality.

Please search “fugue” in this blog for past posts that discuss it.

1. Ann Napolitano. Dear Edward. New York, Dial Press, 2020/2021. 

2. Wikipedia. “Fugue State.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue_state 

“Dear Edward” (post 2) by Ann Napolitano: Voices vs. Thoughts

“He decided he wanted to go [to the hearing about the plane crash] months earlier, but he doesn’t want to think about it. Go, not think, some Neanderthal voice in his head repeats…” (1, p. 132.).

“…I was on the plane, he thinks. And this is the first moment that he allows himself to place himself there, in the seat, beside his brother. It’s only a flash of a thought, a fraction of a second, but it lays out the frame of the plane around him: the sky, the wing, the other passengers." (1, p. 132).

Comment

—The voice is a named (“Neanderthal”) alternate personality.  

—The thought is a traumatic memory or flashback.

—The alternate personality dissociates* the trauma from the person.

—Since the author uses italics for both the voice and the thought, the two may not be clearly distinguished in her mind.

*multiple personality, a.k.a. “dissociative identity,” is a dissociative disorder

1. Ann Napolitano. Dear Edward. New York, Dial Press, 2020/2021. 

“Dear Edward” (post 1) by Ann Napolitano: Italics and voices in the head

I am so impressed by the clarity of language at the beginning of this novel that I am stopped by a peculiar sentence:

“So much could be solved, she thinks, if we simply held hands with each other” (1, p. 5).

Why have both italics and “she thinks” in the same sentence?

In past posts on other writers’ work, I have made the point that when italics are used instead of saying someone thinks, it is often because it is a voice (from an alternate personality) in the person’s head and not just a thought. So what is going on here?

Perhaps the author is using italics to highlight tear-jerker sentiments in this possibly tear-jerker novel. Or, did the author hear the voice of an alternate personality whose contribution to this novel was to whisper such sentiments to the author while she was writing?

Added Apr. 17: "A new voice entered his head..." (1, p.19).

Most people do not hear voices in their head—which are probably alternate personalities—but the author's casual reference to it suggests that she does have that kind of experience, which is the significant point here, not her use of italics.

1. Ann Napolitano. Dear Edward. New York, Dial Press, 2020/2021.

“Bi: the hidden culture, history, and science of bisexuality” by Julia Shaw: Statement by woman in study of bisexuality looks like multiple personality 

The author says that all of the 22 women in the study identified as bisexual, but only the one she quotes “echoed my own experience,” as follows:

“I think that the most important thing anyone should understand about bisexual women is that it’s not just bisexual in terms of what you like, it’s also bisexual in terms of who you are. Sometimes I feel like a boy, sometimes I feel like a girl. And I can’t describe it any more than that. Sometimes I feel really macho and sometimes I feel as feminine as Scarlett O’Hara. You know, it just changes from day to day and maybe it’s partly a mood swing can affect it, but honestly, like, I mean sometimes I’ll be dressed in combat fatigues, the next day I’ll be wearing like a mini-dress and high heels” (1, pp. 100-101).

Comment: The above quote appears to describe switching between male and female alternate personalities in classic multiple personality.

Added Apr. 16: I infer that the author is not mentally ill with multiple personality disorder, and only has multiple personality trait, but that she ignores the issue, as most people do.

1. Julia Shaw. Bi: the hidden culture, history, and science of bisexuality. New York, Abrams Press, 2022. 

Biology and Multiple Personality: Two Interesting Approaches to Understanding Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

There is no known perfect explanation for the puzzling variety of sexual orientation and gender identity. But Biology and Multiple Personality have two interesting approaches.

Simon LeVay, a gay biologist, summarizes what is known from the biological point of view. I recommend his book (1).

But you may have encountered puzzling cases that biology can’t explain, some of which might be accounted for by behind-the-scenes, multiple personalities with alternate gender identities. Please click the link below to the article by Christopher Rosik (2), which introduces that point of view.

1. Simon LeVay. Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation, Second Edition. Oxford University Press, 2011/2017.

2. Christopher H. Rosik. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 31(3), Fall 2012. Opposite-gender identity states in Dissociative Identity Disorder: psychodynamic insights into a subset of same-sex behavior and attractions. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A342175861/AONE?u=nysl_oweb&sid=googleScholar&xid=6307cbea

Blanche DuBois, Tennessee Williams' Famous Character, had depended on the author’s multiple personality, not the kindness of strangers

Read the New York Times review of a new book on Blanche DuBois (1), then search “Tennessee Williams” in this blog.

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/02/books/blanche-dubois-nancy-schoenberger.html

“Deal Breaker” (post 2) by Harlan Coben: The character quoted in post 1, who was in dialogue with an italicized alternate personality, was a novelist

I had forgotten what the protagonist’s beautiful girlfriend did for a living until the end of the novel when she was going out of town on “a book tour”(1, p. 391). Her work had previously been made clear by a dialogue with an italicized voice in her head (an alternate personality) at the beginning of this novel:

“She [Jessica] should have told Myron the truth…

Oh shit, Jessie, you are one fucked-up chick…

She nodded to herself. Yup. Fucked up…And a few other hyphenated words… Her publisher and agent did not see it that way, of course. They loved her “foibles” (their term—Jessie preferred “fuck-ups”)…They were what made Jessie Culver such an exceptional writer…

Oh, pity the suffering artist! Thy heart bleeds for such torment! 

She dismissed the mocking tone with a shake of her head…” (1, pp. 35-36).

There is only one instance, near the end of this novel, when the protagonist, Myron Bolitar, hears a brief, italicized comment by the voice of an alternate personality in his head:

“Myron felt a lump rise in his throat.

Here we go” (1, p. 378).

Comment: When engrossed in a novel, it is easy to forget that most people do not hear voices in their head. But people with multiple personality occasionally do hear voices of their alternate personalities. Authors often distinguish such voices from ordinary thoughts by using italics.

I would guess that the characters Harlan Coben most identifies with in this novel are the protagonist and the writer. Is one of his own writer personalities female?

1. Harlan Coben. Deal Breaker. New York, Dell, 1995/2019.