“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. 

Novelists Hear Voices, A Textbook Symptom of Multiple Personality, plus an example from the Introduction to a Novel’s 20th Anniversary Edition by Wally Lamb

—Psychiatric Textbook on Communication With Alternate Personalities

“…Another form of contact is through inner vocalizations. The patient may ‘hear’ the alternate personality speak as an inner voice within, often as one of the ‘voices’ that the patient has been hearing for years” (1, p. 94).

—A Well-known Kind of Experience of Many Novelists

“Delores Price first came to me as a voice. I was in the shower after an early morning run, hustling to get ready for my teaching day at the high school where I’d worked for the past nine years. “Well, the dork just left me,” the voice said. “Good riddance.” She was unnamed, not yet visible. But in those eight words, she sounded wounded, irreverent, and funny. I liked her immediately” (2, p. XVI).

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

2. Wally Lamb. She’s Come Undone. New York, ATRIA/Washington Square Press, 1992.

Comment: It is fairly common for novelists to hear the voices of, and relate to, their characters, as though they were persons with minds of their own, the essence of alternate personalities. Neither patients nor novelists will insist that these are real people, because neither novel-writing nor multiple personality is a psychosis.

“One of Us Knows” (post 2) A Thriller by Alyssa Cole

“In movies about DID, switches between headmates are comically dramatic and outsiders can easily tell who’s who. In reality, we were created as a defense mechanism, and the best defense is keeping our multiplicity secret—even from one another. It’s not as hard as people think; singlets have changing moods and demeanors too. The average person’s changeability is our camouflage" (1, p. 124).

1. Alyssa Cole. One of Us Knows. New York, William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2024. 

Concluding Comment added 7/22/25: I finished the novel. It appears that this novelist’s creativity found a DID format congenial.

"One of Us Knows” (post 1) A Thriller by Alyssa Cole (1) whose protagonist is explicitly diagnosed as having Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) (a.k.a. Multiple PersonalityDisorder (MPD)

Back Cover: “Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her career as a historical preservationist, Kenetria Nash and her alters [alternate personalities] have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home on an isolated island in [New York’s] Hudson River (2, Back Cover).

In her Acknowledgments, the author thanks "Calion Winter, the DID accuracy consultant for this story. His early advice about potential plot missteps…were invaluable" (2, p. 336).

Comment: I hope to start reading this “Thriller” in the near future. I don’t know Calion Winter, the author’s multiple personality consultant.

1. Wikipedia. “Alyssa Cole.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyssa_Cole

2. Alyssa Cole. One of Us Knows. New York, William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2024.

“The Gathering” (post 2) by Anne Enright: Veronica says “there is a part of me that wants to be hated…There must be.”

“Of course, Tom would say he never hated me, that he loved me all along. But I know hating when I see it. I know it, because there is a part of me that wants to be hated, too. There must be” (1, p. 180).

Comment: A psychological “part” that has a mind of its own is an alternate personality. Search “parts” in this blog for discussion in past posts.

1. Anne Enright. The Gathering. New York, Grove Press, 2007. 

“The Gathering” (winner of 2007 Man Booker Prize) by Anne Enright (post 1): Veronica, whose large Irish family is gathering in Dublin after the death of her brother, Liam, is puzzled by her memory gap for their past conversation

“He was the one who talked most, but I didn’t mind. I wish I could remember what exactly he said, but conversation doesn’t stick to my memory of Liam…We talked as brother and sister might…It was summer, and sometimes we were still talking when the sun came up — but I have no idea what these conversations were. I put a phrase into the bedroom air, like ‘Joan Armatrading’, and I think, We would never talk about her. [note use of italics] I suppose we talked about family…What else — quantum mechanics? (1, p. 118).

Comment: Note that the author has italicized “We would never talk about her.”  As discussed in past posts, novelists may use italics to indicate voices heard in the head, as opposed to merely silent thought. And voices heard in the head may be voices of alternate personalities (2, p. 62, 94).

And if a novel has no characters who are labelled as having multiple personality, any symptoms of multiple personality may reflect what I call an author’s normal, creative, high-functioning “multiple personality trait.” 

Added same day: I will have further comment when I finish this novel. Maybe it will clarify itself.

1. Anne Enright. The Gathering. New York, Grove Press, 2007.

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

“Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen: Fanny Price’s Varieties

Comment: For my view of the author, Jane Austen, based on her more popular novels, search “Jane Austen” in this blog. In Mansfield Park, the following sentence is relevant:

“Poor Fanny’s mind was thrown into the most distressing of all its varieties” (2, p. 337).

1. Wikipedia. “Fanny Price.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Price

2. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park. London, Penguin Classics, 1996/1814