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.

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Saturday, August 31, 2024

“My Brilliant Friend” (post 4) by Elena Ferrante: Of the two main characters—Elena (first-person narrator) and Lila—which one is the title’s “brilliant friend”?


—Wikipedia describes the novel’s beginning—

“To everyone's surprise, the very rebellious Lila turns out to be a prodigy who has taught herself to read and write. She quickly earns the highest grades in the class, seemingly without effort. Elena is both fascinated and intimidated by Lila, especially after Lila writes a story which Elena feels shows real genius. She begins to push herself to keep up with Lila” (1).


—But toward the end of the novel itself—

“I [Elena] gave a nervous laugh, then said [to Lila] ‘Thanks, but at a certain point school is over.’

‘Not for you: you’re [Elena] my brilliant friend, you have to be the best of all, boys and girls” (2, p. 312).


Comment: Is “Elena” the author’s regular personality, while “Lila” is one of Elana’s genius, story-teller, alternate personalities? But the author’s system of alternate personalities is probably more complex, including both males and females.


1. Wikipedia. “My Brilliant Friend.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Brilliant_Friend

2. Elena Ferrante. My Brilliant Friend. Trans. Ann Goldstein. New York, Europa Editions, 2011/2024. 

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