Multiple Personality in Everyday Life

The “Modern Love” essayist in today’s New York Times says “For years, I have trained myself to dissociate…to compartmentalize.” She has had episodes of “not remembering exactly how I had gotten there”…and says “Dissociation became essential protection from objectification” (1).

Yet “dissociative identity,” also known as “multiple personality,” is never mentioned, because the essayist and New York Times mistakenly believe it is a rare mental illness that would never occur in ordinary life.

But it’s not rare, and, when helpful, is not a mental illness.

1. Ariella Steinhorn. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/style/modern-love-sexual-assault-slap-that-changed-everything.html