“Love, Mom” by Iliana Xander

Mom, a famous novelist, has died. Her daughter tries to understand her mother from pages in her mother’s diary, which include: 

“My mind has been hazy lately. I did bizarre things and didn’t even remember doing them (1, p. 123). [That is a “memory gap.”]

Psychiatric Note: Memory gaps are a cardinal symptom of multiple personality disorder (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder). (However, it is not a formal “disorder” (mental illness) unless it causes the novelist clinically significant distress and dysfunction).

Daughter's Comments: “There it is, the truth that friends and family never admit. And the truth is that Mom felt off quite often. Off in an unsettling way…Maybe she had a personality disorder. Or a multiple personalities disorder” (1, pp. 133-134).

1. Iliana Xander. Love, Mom. Vellum, 2024.