BASIC CONCEPTS

— When novelists claim they do not invent it, but hear voices and find stories in their head, they are neither joking nor crazy.

— When characters, narrators, or muses have minds of their own and occasionally take over, they are alternate personalities.

— Alternate personalities and memory gaps, but no significant distress or dysfunction, is a normal version of multiple personality.

— normal Multiple Personality Trait (MPT) (core of Multiple Identity Literary Theory), not clinical Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)

— The normal version of multiple personality is an asset in fiction writing when some alternate personalities are storytellers.

— Multiple personality originates when imaginative children with normal brains have unassuaged trauma as victim or witness.

— Psychiatrists, whose standard mental status exam fails to ask about memory gaps, think they never see multiple personality.

— They need the clue of memory gaps, because alternate personalities don’t acknowledge their presence until their cover is blown.

— In novels, most multiple personality, per se, is unnoticed, unintentional, and reflects the author’s view of ordinary psychology.

— Multiple personality means one person who has more than one identity and memory bank, not psychosis or possession.

— Euphemisms for alternate personalities include parts, pseudonyms, alter egos, doubles, double consciousness, voice or voices.

— Multiple personality trait: 90% of fiction writers; possibly 30% of public.

— Each time you visit, search "name index" or "subject index," choose another name or subject, and search it.

— If you read only recent posts, you miss most of what this site has to offer.

— Share site with friends.

Friday, February 23, 2024

Transgender Health: The need to evaluate for Multiple Personality before treating Gender Dysphoria: A Case Report and Review of Literature (1)


"A 27-year-old person questioned his gender and wondered whether he should begin a transition including a femininization of the body. However, in a psychiatric evaluation, he described 8 distinct personalities with different gender identities (2 female and 6 male). The patient also described numerous memory lapses sometimes linked to traumatic events, and was experiencing difficulty to fit in socially and professionally…” (1).


“Gender Dysphoria is usually a self-diagnosis…In contrast, people with dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder) frequently hide their symptoms and therefore these symptoms must be actively looked for. Sometimes alternate personalities who wish for surgery may actively try to keep other personalities out of sight…” (1).


“The prevalence of Dissociative Identity Disorder is not higher in Gender Dysphoria than in the general population (1%—3%)” (1), but it is not negligible.


1. Soldati L, Hasler R. Recordon N, et al. “Gender Dysphoria and Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Case Report and Review of Literature. Sex Med 2022; 10:100553.

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

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