Both Helen Oyeyemi (yesterday’s post) and Joyce Carol Oates (1) have complex multiplicity   

                                                             

“Your struggle with your buried self, or selves, yields your art”…Without these ill-understood drives you might be a superficially happier person…but it isn’t likely that you will create anything of substance (1, p. 24). 

“I acknowledge that I share a name and a face with ‘JCO,’ this expression suggests, but this is a mere convenience. Please don’t be deceived! 'JCO’ is not a person, nor even a personality [in the usual sense] but a process that has resulted in a sequence of texts” (1, p. 153).

Comment: Joyce Carol Oates says her mind is too unusual to call ‘JCO’ a “personality” in the usual sense, but it is not her regular self. Also see old past posts on Joyce Carol Oates.

1. Joyce Carol Oates. The Faith of a Writer (Life Craft Art). NewYork, ECCOHarperCollins, 2004. 

 “A New New Me” by Helen Oyeyemi: “She Has 7 Selves, and They All Have a Story” (1)

Comment: Now, even The New York Times has noticed that some novelists endow their characters with multiple personalities, which, in my opinion, reflects novelists’ relatively common, mentally normal, creative asset, which I call “multiple personality trait.”

1. Jennifer Croft. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/books/review/helen-oyeyemi-new-new-me.html 

2. Helen Oyeyemi. A New New Me. New York, Riverhead Books, 2025.

“Altered” Book 1 of 6 in the Justin Wright Suspense Series by Rob Kaufman

Frank is a new patient of psychiatrist Justin Wright, who asks Frank what makes him nervous:

"It’s worse after I lose time.”

“Lose time?”

“That’s really why I’m here.”
“I definitely have anxiety. Always have. But lately I’ve been losing time. You know, like I start off one place and end up in another without knowing how I got there.” He looked down to the rug and closed his eyes. “I know. It sounds like I’m a fucking lunatic. But I don’t know what to do and you’re my last hope” (1, p. 18).

“He could barely see his reflection, but what he did see made him panic…

“It was almost like the kid staring back at him was someone else. What the hell was going on? He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the chaos barreling around in his skull like a rollercoaster that had gone off the tracks” (1, p. 45).

Comment: This is a six book series by Rob Kaufman, a writer with a degree in psychology. I am positively impressed by his evaluation and diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality) at the beginning of the first volume, from which the above is quoted. I recommend it’s realism regarding the memory gap and mirror symptoms of multiple personality.

1. Rob Kaufman. Altered. (Book 1 of 6), 2022. 

“The Little Paris Bookshop” (post 2) by Nina George (1)

Letters are miniature books. A letter to a man from his lover would surely be read if he loved both her and books. His refusal to read the letter is an inadvertent insult to reading, love, and women…

…Unless the man had multiple personalty, and the particular personality receiving the letter specialized in screening out bad news. Then he might not read the letter, but I doubt that multiple personality is what the author had in mind.

Comment: I’ll look for another novel for my blog’s next post.

1. Nina George. The Little Paris Bookshop. Trans. Simon Pare. New York, Ballantine Books, 2015.

“The Little Paris Bookshop” a novel by Nina George (post 1): Who said or thought the novel’s first line, wrote it in italics, and what did they mean by it?

“How on earth could I have let them talk me into it?” (1, p. 1, line 1).

1. Nina George. The Little Paris Bookshop, Trans. Simon Pare, New York, Ballantine Books, 2015. 

Hello blog visitor: Thousands of people from many countries have visited this blog since 2013, because they, too, wondered if novelists “contain multitudes” and have a creative version of multiple personality.

As a psychiatrist qualified to recognize mental illness, I say that most novelists are not mentally ill, because their “multiple personality trait” helps them to lead productive, meaningful lives. I don’t have multiple personality, but my past clinical experience enabled me to appreciate the real thing.

So I’ll continue this blog whenever I find a novel I’d like to read: Many happy returns. 

"Missing Pieces” by Joy Fielding: Mirror Symptom of Multiple Personality

“Actually I surprise myself sometimes. I’ll be all dressed up, feeling good, thinking I look great, and then I catch my reflection unexpectedly in a store window or a pane of glass, and I think: Who is that? Who is that middle-aged woman? It can’t be me…It’s genuinely frightening when your self-image no longer corresponds to the image you see in the mirror” (1, p. 8). 

Comment: “MPD patients often report seeing themselves as different people when they look into a mirror (3, p. 62). Of course, a high-functioning person (2) for whom multiple personality is a creative asset would not be diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, but might be said to have its creative version, which I call “multiple personality trait.”

1. Joy Fielding. Missing Pieces. New York, Dell Publishing, 1997.

2. Wikipedia. “Joy Fielding.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Fielding

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

Wisdom for Writers by Isabel Allende

“When you feel the story is beginning to pick up rhythm—the characters are shaping up, you can see them, you can hear their voices, and they do things that you haven’t planned, things you couldn’t have imagined—then you know the book is somewhere, and you just have to find it, and bring it, word by word, into the world” (1, pp. 11-12).

Comment: Characters with minds of their own are similar to alternate personalities in multiple personality (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder). Search “Isabel Allende” in this blog for past posts.

1. Meredith Maran (Editor). Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do. New York, PLUME, 2013. 

 AI Overview of the use of the term “Twisty”

“The term "twisty" has become a popular marketing buzzword, particularly in the thriller genre. While seemingly neutral, it's often used in a way that aligns with and reinforces certain gendered expectations within the book market, particularly in psychological suspense novels marketed primarily towards women.” 

“Society of Lies” by Lauren Ling Brown: Maya, the protagonist, hears a reassuring voice in her head

“Relax. Everything’s fine. Dani is safe. You’re safe. Everyone is safe. Naomi will be here soon” (1, p. 5).

Comment: Above use of italics suggests an optimistic voice in Maya's head. But Maya soon learns that her sister Naomi is dead. And the rest of the novel may uncover the secrets and lies that led to her death.

Added 8/16/25: This novel has unreliable narration, which, as an honest reader, I don’t like, and I will not finish reading it. Moreover, I consider unreliable narration, in and of itself, to be suggestive of multiple personality trait in the author, because it reflects a psychology in which the author may be kept in the dark by her alternate writing personalities. In short, the psychology of this novel, as suggested by its title, is a psychology of lying, which is a common feature of multiple personality (2, pp. 78-79).

1. Lauren Ling Brown. Society of Lies. New York, Bantam, 2025. 

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

“Not Quite Dead Yet” by Holly Jackson: The protagonist makes a life or death decision by heeding an italicized voice in her head, the voice of an alternate personality

“She was listening to her head and her heart, and they both said the same thing…Not now, not now, not now. “I choose the seven days. I want that time. I need it….I’m going to solve my own murder” (1, p. 37).

Comment: The protagonist has to decide whether to put off brain surgery. And she decides by heeding an italicized voice in her head, like a novelist with multiple personality trait, who heeds the voice in her head of an alternate personality. Search "italicized voice” in this blog for past discussions.

Added 8/15/25: Not having heard the voice that the protagonist did, I never became interested in who tried to kill her. But I suppose that many other readers do care.

1. Holly Jackson. Not Quite Dead Yet, New York, Bantam, 2025.

“The Life and Creative Works of Paulo Coelho” by Claude-Hélène Mayer: Is Paulo Coelho a Great, But Typical Novelist?

This scholarly book pays passing attention to Coelho’s Adultery (1, pp. 86-87), the focus of my recent post. That novel suggests that Coelho thinks like a typical novelist, with a creative version of multiple personality, the subject of my blog (2). The novel’s protagonist speaks of hearing an endless dialogue of voices in her head, and compares herself to “Jekyll and Hyde” (a person with multiple personality). Does Paulo Coelho hear conversations of creative alternate personalities?

1. Claude-Hélène Mayer. The Life and Creative Works of Paulo Coelho: A Psychobiography from a Positive Psychology Perspective. Springer International Publishing, 2017.

2. Kenneth A. Nakdimen, MD. https://multiplewriters.blogspot.com/ 

"Adultery” by Paulo Coelho: Protagonist’s and Author's Multiple Personality?

“The way I behave with him is always a surprise. Oral sex, sensible advice, that kiss in the park. I seem like another person. Who is this woman I become whenever I’m with Jacob? (1, p. 55).

“When I finally finish my housework each evening, an endless dialogue starts in my head (1, p. 67).

“I need to know who I’ve become, because I am that person. It’s not something external (1, p. 70).

“On the one side I’m a villain, who goes to a campus to incriminate an innocent person without understanding the motive behind my hatred. On the other, I’m a mother who takes loving care of her family…

“Do you remember Jekyll and Hyde?” (1, p. 136).

Comment: Since multiple personality, per se, is not explicitly invoked for any character, it may reflect a trait of the author. I don’t know if this is present in any of the author’s other novels.

1. Paulo Coelho. Adultery. Trans. By Margaret Jull Costa and Zoë Perry. New York, Vintage International, 2015. 

“Getting Into Character” by Brandilyn Collins

“Let’s face it—we writers of fiction are a mighty strange breed. We view the world differently. We walk around with voices and shadowy figures in our heads. We tend to stare out windows, mumble to ourselves. The normals (all those who don’t write fiction) can’t begin to understand us. Only our first cousins, the actors, can come close to matching our eccentricities. For we share the same goal: bringing characters to life” 1, p. 3).

Comment: “We walk around with voices and shadowy figures in our heads” is suggestive of a normal, creative form of multiple personality.

1. Brandilyn Collins. Getting Into Character Edition 2: Seven Secrets A Novelist Can Learn From Actors. Coeur d’Alene, ID, Challow Press, 2015.

“The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho: How did he write it in Two Weeks?

"Is it true you wrote it (1) in four weeks?"

“Two weeks. The book was already written in my soul" (2).

Comment: I infer from my study of other writers in this blog that the book was probably already written by his storytelling alternate personalities.

1. Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist. Trans. by Alan R. Clarke. 25th Anniversary Edition. New York HarperOne, 1993.

2. Hannah Pool.The Guardian Interview of Paulo Coelho, https://web.archive.org/web/20161128235051/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/19/paulo-coelho-interview 

“In Search of Hidden Treasures: Our Journey of Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder” by Ria Van Zanten: Written after she had found that “Jennifer” was troubled, not by Demons, but by “Parts”

“As the minister walked down the aisle, Jennifer sat in her seat with her fist tightly clenched, just like she did at home, while we prayed for her. When he walked down the aisle, many demons would manifest, and many people were delivered. However, nothing changed in Jennifer…The minister started to talk about the difference between demons and dissociations, how some people had dissociated parts, and that the parts were not demons. He told us a story about how, while trying to cast out a demon one day, he came across a part he had assumed was a demon. The part said, “I am not leaving, as I am a part of this person.” This statement gave him pause, and he then researched what this could mean…

He spoke about a book that had helped him understand what a ‘part’ of a person meant. We bought the book called ¨Uncovering the Mystery of MPD” by Dr. James G. Friesen (2). We were excited to have an answer for Jennifer (1, pp. 12-13).

1. Ria Van Zanten. In Search of Hidden Treasures. Canada, Five Arrows Media, 2024.

2. Dr. James G. Frieson. Uncovering the Mystery of MPD. Eugene, Oregon, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1997. 

“The Promise” by Damon Galgut: Discrepancies Between Different Editions and Between Reality and What a Character Sees in The Mirror (a symptom of MPD)

Small girl looking at her mother’s things. She knows all of it by heart, how many steps from the door to the bed, where the light switch is for the lamp, the swirly orange pattern in the carpet like the onset of a headache, etc., etc. Out the corner of her eye she thinks she sees Ma’s face appear in the mirror, but when she looks directly it’s gone. Instead she can smell her mother, or a mix of smells she thinks of as her mother, but are actually the traces of recent events, involving puke, incense, blood medicine, perfume and an underlying dark note, perhaps the smell of the sickness itself. Exhaled by the walls, hovering in the air.

She’s not here.

Her sister Astrid speaking, who has somehow spotted her and followed.

They took her away.

I know that. I saw.

Comment: In the above passage, quotation marks and complete speaker identification are missing in this edition (1 p. 34).

This edition has 269 pages, but today’s Wikipedia on this novel uses a different publisher with 242 pages, so everyone is not reading the same edition.

Comment on Mirror: The character sees a face in the mirror that is not there, which is a symptom of multiple personality disorder (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder) (2, p. 62). But since no character is given that diagnosis, the mirror symptom may reflect the author's creative asset, Multiple Personality Trait.

1. Damon Galgut. The Promise. New York, Europa Editions, This edition, 2022.

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

“Medea’s Curse” by Anne Buist: Murder Mystery Starts with Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality) and then gets complicated

"This case, it is Dissociative Identity Disorder.”

“On what evidence?”

“We are not lawyers, Dr.King. Not evidence—history and mental state examination.”
“All right then, on what history and mental state findings?”

“Her postings on Facebook. This is most certainly dissociation. The vagueness and memory lapses are classical…”

“I’m not saying Georgia doesn’t dissociate, but she’s putting on an act” (1, p. 22).

Kirkus Review: “Overplotted and overdramatic; Buist’s heroine never seems to have a normal half-hour. But readers who aren’t put off by the unsparing accounts of women placed in extremis by themselves or wicked men will cheer the arrival of an authentic dragon slayer” (2).

1. Anne Buist. Medea’s Curse. London, Legend Press, 2016. 

2. Wikipedia. “Anne Buist.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Buist

3. Kirkus Review. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anne-buist/medeas-curse/ 

“The Thursday Murder Club” by Richard Osman: Both “Deft and Daft”(2)

 Chapter 24  

“With the lights of the village turning out, Elizabeth opens up her appointment diary and attempts today’s question: What was the registration number of Gwen Talbot’s daughter-in-law’s new car?

   “She approves of this question. Not the make of the car; that was too easy. Not the color…But the registration number—that takes genuine recall. As she has done so often before, in a different life, usually in a different country and different century, Elizabeth shuts her eyes and zooms in. She sees it immediately, or does she hear it? It is both; her brain is telling her what she sees." 

“JL17 BCH” (1, p. 86).

Comment: If she is being advised by her brain, is the author implying that Elizabeth (and the author?) hear voices of helpful alternate personalities? What is the reader to make of the above? Even a British reviewer seems to have found Osman’s novel confusing: “Osman’s plotting is both deft and daft in equal measure” (2).

1. Richard Osman. The Thursday Murder Club. New York, Penguin Books, 2020

2. Alfred Hickling. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/03/the-thursday-club-by-richard-osman-review-cosy-caper 

“Panopticon” (post 1) by Jenni Fagan: Protagonist’s Probable Multiple Personality Symptoms of Memory Gap, Seeing Faces and Hearing Voices

“Anais Hendricks, fifteen, can’t remember what happened, but across town a policewoman lies in a coma and Anais is covered in blood” (1, Back Cover).

“I get voices in my head and see faces no one else sees (mostly, but not always, when I’m tripping)” (1, p. 24).

Comment: A traumatic childhood in both the author and protagonist raises the possibility of multiple personality. I don’t know of any review of this book that considers this psychological possibility. But I argue in this blog that many novelists have creative "multiple personality trait.” 

1. Jenni Fagan. The Panopticon. New York, Hogarth, 2012. 

“The Panopticon” (post 2) by Jenni Fagan: Homeless Childhoods of Both Author (1) and Protagonist (2, Back Cover)

1. Wikipedia. “Jenni Fagan”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenni_Fagan

2. Jenni Fagan. The Panopticon. New York, Hogarth, 2012. 

“The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” by Carson McCullers: Protagonist says she has a hundred hidden parts and pieces (dissociative identity)

“She [“Mick”] had always kept things to herself. That was one sure truth…

“She put her head on her knees and tied knots in the strings of her tennis shoes. What would Portia say if she knew that always there had been one person after another?  And every time it was like some part of her would bust in a hundred pieces.

“But she had always kept it to herself and no person had ever known” (1, p. 62).

Comment: Above implies hidden dissociative identity (a.k.a. multiple personality) of the protagonist and that the author may have had a creative version. Dissociative identity is usually hidden until diagnosed.

1. Carson McCullers. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. New York, The Modern Library, 1940/1993.