“The Kiss” (post 1), a Memoir by Kathryn Harrison (1, 2)

I sent for this 1997 memoir after it was recently mentioned, favorably, in The New York Times Book Review. So far, I have read only up to the point where “the kiss” between the author and her father takes place (2), after which, she describes her attempt at denial, including her tendency toward having a memory gap, and hearing a voice in her head, two common symptoms of multiple personality (a.k.a. dissociative identity):

“Bit by bit, layer by temporizing layer, I work to obliterate the truth…My boyfriend, threatened himself by what I revealed, colludes with me in the process. Together we forget what I said, even as privately I forget what my father did. It is as simple as only denial can be. Don’t think about it, I tell myself, but it seems to require an enormous effort of will…I realize I’m in a kind of shock…my voice won’t speak the words I hear in my head…I become one of the people to whom I wouldn’t mention such a thing as my father sticking his tongue in my mouth (1, pp. 74-75).

Comment: The above is not enough for a formal diagnosis of multiple personality disorder (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder), but most novelists—as I argue in this blog—have only a milder, higher-functioning version, which I call “multiple personality trait” (as opposed to disorder).

I will add to the above after I finish reading this memoir and, in the future, a sample of Kathryn Harrison’s novels.

1. Kathryn Harrison. The Kiss, a Memoir. New York, Bard/Avon, 1997.

2. Wikipedia. “The Kiss (memoir) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kiss_(memoir). 

Multiple Personalities, Subpersonalities, and “Parts” 

Books on treating “Multiple Personality” (1989) and “Subpersonalities” (1990) were published about the same time, but neither book referenced the other. Was that a psychiatry/psychology issue?

1. John Rowan. Subpersonalities: The People Inside Us. New York, Routledge, 1990.

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

Comment: I’ve always disliked the expression that “whereas I think like this, another part of me thinks or likes that,” since I don’t think of myself as having “parts.” I think of myself as having aspects and moods. Therapy using the concept of subpersonalities may be very helpful in selected cases, but are subpersonalities really a form of multiple personality disorder (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder) with a less-daunting name? 

PARTS: Not everyone has had imaginary playmates, becomes a novelist, may be highly hypnotizable, is religious, or has “parts.”

Comment: What would you add to, or subtract from, that list?

“Parts Psychology” by Jay Noricks, PhD: “The idea that we all have multiple personalities, but not necessarily a disorder…may at first be shocking…”

Preface (1, pp. xi-xiii)

“The idea that we all have multiple personalities—but not [necessarily] a disorder of personalities—may at first be shocking. But the evidence for this normal multiplicity among relatively ordinary people is so powerful that even the most skeptical of readers may change their minds before finishing the book…

“Of course, some problems take many years to resolve, such as dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously labeled multiple personality disorder (MPD)…My purpose in excluding dissociative disorders is simply to avoid confusion. Otherwise it might be less clear that it is normal for people to have hidden parts of themselves…Over the last 10 years I have worked with more than 30 cases of DID and my caseload has included, at any given time, three to six clients with this diagnosis…” (1).

1. Jay Noricks, PhD. Parts Psychology (A Trauma-Based Self-State Therapy for Emotional Healing in Counseling and Psychotherapy: Case Studies in Normal Dissociation). Los Angeles, New University Press, 2011.

Comment: Multiple Personality is much more common than most people—including psychologists and psychiatrists—appreciate. Among psychiatrists who have most knowledge about multiple personality (a.k.a. dissociative identity), it is known as a disorder of “hiddenness,” except during a crisis or when the personalities are addressed by name. The regular or “host” personality often has a memory gap for the period of time that an alternate had taken over.

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

“Parts Psychology: A Trauma-Based, Self-State Therapy with Case Studies in Normal Dissociation” by Jay Noricks PhD

In recent posts of my blog about the normal "multiple-personality trait” of many novelists—https://multiplewriters.blogspot.com/—I highlighted a recurrent issue: “parts." I then decided to search for books that addressed “parts” and “psychology,” and found Parts Psychology (1) whose subtitle describes it as “A Trauma-Based Self-State Therapy with “Case Studies in Normal Dissociation” (1). I also found No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz, PhD, subtitled “Healing Trauma & Restoring Wholeness with The Internal Family Systems Model" (2).

Psychologists have found their own approach to issues raised in the chapter on Dissociative Disorders in the psychiatric diagnostic manual [DSM-5] (3). But there may be similarities in the psychiatric treatment (4).

1. Jay Noricks PhD. Parts Psychology. Los Angeles. New University Press, 2011.

2. Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, No Bad Parts. Boulder Colorado, Sounds True, 2021.

3. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition [DSM-5]. Arlington VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013, pp. 291-307. 

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

“The Sum of my PARTS” (alternate personalities): my Memoir of Multiple Personality” (dissociative identity disorder) by Olga R. Trujillo

Comment: People who casually refer to themselves as having “parts” may have a version of multiple personality.

1. Olga R. Trujillo. The Sum of My Parts: a survivor’s story of Dissociative Identity Disorder. New Harbinger Publications, 2011.

“The Third Girl” (Molly Sutton Mysteries 1) by Nell Goddin: Molly's Parts and Voices

“Molly flopped her head back and laughed, even though some part of her noted that nothing was especially funny” (1, p. 38).

“Part of her brain knew that she was rationalizing…And there is always hope there has been no murder, the rationalizing part whispered” (1, p. 169).

(An italicized voice in her head, addresses Molly: “Right, you’re going to skip the first party in your new village…Could you be any lamer?" (1, p. 185). 

Comment: "Parts" and "Voices" in the head suggest that the author has "multiple personality trait," as discussed in many past posts of this blog.

 

1. Nell Goddin. The Third Girl (Molly Sutton Mysteries 1). Beignet Books, 2015.