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.

— Each time you visit, search "name index" or "subject index," choose another name or subject, and search it.

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MPD Textbooks: — Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) (a.k.a. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), New York, The Guilford Press, 1989. —James G. Friesen, PhD. Uncovering the Mystery of MPD, (includes discussion of demonic possession) Eugene, Oregon, Wipf and Stock Publishers,1997.

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

“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. 

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