“The White Plague” (post 1) by Frank Herbert (author of “Dune”): Memory Gap for Terrorist Car-Bombing in Ireland

His wife had been decapitated and the twins killed. “Somewhere within him there existed an understanding of that scene…He knew he had seen what he had seen: the explosion, the death. Intellectual awareness argued the facts. I was standing at that window, I must have seen the blast. But the particulars lay behind a screen he could not penetrate. It lay frozen within him, demanding action lest the frozen thing thaw and obliterate him” (1, pp. 15-16).

Comment: Memory gaps are a cardinal symptom of dissociative identity disorder (a.k.a. multiple personality disorder). It happens when the regular or “host” personality is not co-conscious with the alternate personality who has a particular memory. In the above, “Intellectual awareness” may be a logical alternate personality who tells the host personality what must have happened. Another alternate personality may be demanding action.

I don’t know whether the author will label this as an intentional case of multiple personality, or it is merely a reflection of the author’s multiple personality trait.

Added same day: A person with more than one personality can both know and not know something or both remember and not remember something.

1. Frank Herbert. The White Plague. New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982.

2. Wikipedia. “Frank Herbert.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert