“Multiple Motives” (post 1) by Kassandra Lamb: Italics in Prologue

“The vehicle cruised sedately down the street.

Don’t want to be getting a speeding ticket and draw attention to ourselves, now do we?

The driver of the vehicle pulled into a parking place near the intersection. The target had crossed here the day before, striding briskly along the crosswalk like she owned the world.

Rage surged, threatening to explode.

It starts today. With her!

The rage subsided, temporarily appeased.

The numbers on the sign above the bank building rolled over from 11:56 to 11:57. She didn’t always go out to lunch, but that was okay.

If not now, then later. Either way, it starts today” (1, pp. 1-2).

Comment: Using the categories of italics I proposed in my May 22, 2025 post, the above prologue appears to use italics to suggest the voice of an alternate personality. I can’t say more until I read this novel.

1. Kassandra Lamb. Multiple Motives. misterio press, 2011. 

“But Not Forgotten” by B. J. Bourg: Two Different Uses for Italics

Italics for Voice of Alternate Personality

“What are you doing, Clint? You’ll make a fool out of yourself for sure. Why are you even here, anyway? What do you expect will happen?

I shook the voices out of my head. “To hell with it!" (1, p, 91).

Italics for emphasis

“Fine, y’all win. I’ll come in tomorrow and settle this shit” (1, p. 203).

1. B.J. Bourg. But Not Forgotten, A Clint Wolf Novel (Book 1),  WWW.BJBOURG.COM., 2015. 

“The New Couple in 5B” by Lisa Unger: Back Cover sets scene for this novel, plus a sample of Author’s dissociative, multiple-personality trait

"A couple inherits an apartment with a spine-tingling past in this haunting and propulsive thriller” (1, Back Cover).

“The room is dim, though it’s past noon..And I can’t move…my head is heavy on the pillow…There’s a part of me that wants to get up. She’s in there, the real me, the strong one, screaming, pull yourself together!” (1, p. 223).

Comment: The protagonist has “parts” (alternate personalities) and speaks with an italicized voice in her head. Search “parts” and “italicized” in this blog for their discussion in other novels.

1. Lisa Unger. The New Couple in 5B. Park Row Books, 2024.

“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. 

“Look Closer” by David Ellis: Characters Narrate the Chapters, and one Character has an “Alter Ego,” suggestive of Multiple Personality

Narration

Chapters in this murder mystery are narrated in the first-person by the characters, which is an engaging format, but it suggests the characters have minds of their own, which is the essence of alternate personalities in multiple personality (2).

Alter Ego

One of the characters, Vicky, says, “I didn’t grow up in West Virginia. Vicky Lanier, my alter ego did. But my father was an avid hunter and took me with him sometimes. He’d take me to the shooting range, too, and let me fire his guns, at least his handguns” (1, p. 269). Search “alter ego” in this blog.

Comment: Later in this novel, does Vicky’s alter ego participate in a murder? I cite the above in support of this blog's thesis that many novelists have what I call “multiple personality trait,” a normal, creative version of multiple personality.

1. David Ellis. Look Closer. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2022.

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

“Allegedly” by Tiffany D. Jackson: Protagonist’s reputation as a LIAR can be a diagnostic feature of Multiple Personality Disorder

“…Apparent pathological lying…is one of the best diagnostic predictors…for multiple personality disorder…Adult MPD patients will often recount that they acquired a reputation as liars in childhood…This may happen to all of us at some time or other, but MPD patients will have this experience frequently in childhood and fairly often as adults. Consequently, some MPD patients will become obsessed with “truth” as adults…

“Multiples are perceived by other people as lying when they deny doing things that they were seen to do. In most instances, this is because the personality that is denying the behavior is amnesic for the actions of another personality who actually performed the actions” (2, pp. 78-79).

Comment: I don’t know how the author came to choose the theme of lying for this novel (1), which never mentions multiple personality.

1. Tiffany D. Jackson. Allegedly. New York, HarperCollins, 2017.

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

“Losing the Atmosphere” a memoir by Vivian Conan: Memoir’s Statement on its Back Cover Includes a Multiple Personality Disorder Textbook Symptom

Back Cover:

“Vivian Conan grew up in two different worlds: Outside and Inside. Outside, she had friends, excelled in school, and was close to her cousins and brother. Inside, she saw faces that weren’t hers in her bedroom mirror…To others, her life seemed rich with work, friends music and boyfriends…But her mind and soul were filled with chaos and pain. Neither she nor her therapists could figure out why…” (1, Back Cover).)

1. Vivian Conan. Losing the Atmosphere: A Baffling Disorder, a Search for Help, and the Therapist Who Understood. New York, NY, GreenPoint Press, 2020.

Textbook Symptom:

“MPD patients often report seeing themselves as different people when they look into a mirror (2, p. 62).

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

Note: Please search author's name in this blog for additional information in my past posts.

“Authoritarian Nightmare” by John W. Dean and Bob Altemeyer: President Trump may have “Multiple Personality Trait,” which is Not a Mental Illness

In the past, I have read of Mr. Trump’s use of pseudonyms (1), possibly used merely as a joke, which were not sufficient to diagnose multiple personality disorder, especially since he was too high-functioning to be considered mentally ill. However, that left open the possibility that he had what I call “multiple personality trait,” which is not a psychiatric diagnosis, but merely an imaginative, creative asset which I suspect is present in many novelists.

Recently, in Authoritarian Nightmare by John W. Dean and Bob Altemeyer, I was interested to learn that President Trump has a history of referring to “Trump” in the third person, as though he sometimes thought of “Trump” as a separate person or alternate personality:

“It could not be clearer. Every day, in every way, on every issue, Trump now wanted all GOP senators to support what “Trump” (notice the third person) wanted” (2, p. 93).

1. Wikipedia. “Pseudonyms used by Donald Trump.”

2. John W. Dean and Bob Altemeyer. Authoritarian Nightmare: The Ongoing Threat of Trump’s Followers. Brooklyn, Melville House, 2020. 

“ALL OF ME” (a memoir of Multiple Personality Disorder) by Kim Noble

Comment: At that time, mental health professionals had recognized her “dissociation” (memory gaps), which made her disorganized, but they had not distinguished between her kind of disorganization and the kind seen in a real psychosis like schizophrenia. So neither she nor most of her therapists had discovered her many nonpsychotic, undiagnosed, alternate personalities. But eventually they did make the correct diagnosis (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder).

1. Kim Noble with Jeff Hudson. All of me: How I learned to live with the many personalities sharing my body. Chicago Review Press, 2011.

When Being Transgender and Having Dissociative Identity (Multiple Personality) Occur in the same person, is it by Chance or Causation?

They DO sometimes occur in the same person:

1. Emma Grove. The Third Person. Drawn & Quarterly, 2022.

2. https://academic.oup.com/smoa/article/10/5/100553/7040918

Comment: I don't know the answer. Who does?

“Sad Tiger” memoir of childhood rape by Neige Sinno concludes with euphemism for multiple personality: her “parts”

"The part of me that couldn’t hold it together has gone where she had to go, the other part, the part that wanted to stay, is me. But the split isn’t so simple, we are constantly thinking about each other. She hasn’t gone far…I hear her often, her ragged breath, the catch in her voice, I see her reflection in the mirror…She is always there, waiting, for I do not know what” (1, p. 131).

1. Neige Sinno. Sad Tiger. Trans. Natasha Lehrer. New York, Seven Stories Press, 2023.

Why Multiple Personality is Hidden and Overlooked

Patients tend to fear, avoid, and hide symptoms of multiple personality, because it is the oddest thing they can think of, and would seem to mean that they are crazy. But the fact is that the chapter on psychotic (“crazy”) disorders in the diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association does not even mention multiple personality disorder. It does mention Delusional Disorder (1, p. 90), Brief Psychotic Disorder,” Schizophreniform Disorder (1, p. 96), Schizophrenia (1, p 99), Schizoaffective Disorder (1, p. 105), Psychotic Disorder Due to Another Medical Condition (1, p.115), and Catatonia (1, p. 119). The manual does not mention multiple personality disorder (renamed Dissociative Identity Disorder) until its chapter on Dissociative Disorders (1, pp. 291-307).

Comment: Most persons with Dissociative Identity Disorder are not psychotic, and it is as common as schizophrenia (1, p. 294), but most psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists have not had much training in how to diagnose and treat it. Putnam’s textbook is a good introduction (2).

1. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.

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

"And Only to Deceive" by Tasha Alexander: Author says the story invented itself

“I knew I wanted to write about an English woman in the late Victorian period and had a strong image of her standing on the top of the cliff path on the Greek island of Santorini, one of my very favorite places. Once I started asking questions about how she came to be there, the story started to invent itself” (1, p. 312).

Comment: The author says that she did not experience herself as figuring out the story, but that the story invented itself, as if the story had a mind of its own, which is a split-personality creative process.

1. Tasha Alexander. And Only to Deceive. New York, Harper, 2005.

“A Beautiful Blue Death” by Charles Finch: Quoting Dividedness

“I only mean that she had two sides to her. As we all do, I expect” (1, p. 34).

“Lenox made…a silent pact with himself…” (1, p. 172).

1. Charles Finch.  A Beautiful Blue Death. New York. Minotaur Books, 2007. 

“The Strange Case of Jane O.” By Karen Thompson Walker

The author says Jane has a strange case of “dissociative fugue” (front flap) (1). And since Dissociative Fugue is one of psychiatry’s Dissociative Disorders, and the chief Dissociative Disorder is Multiple Personality (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder), any novel with a dissociative patient under psychiatric care should evaluate the patient for multiple personality, which real-life patients often try to hide. But this novel never mentions multiple personality.

And since the author is a professor of creative writing (back flap) (1), she may have heard of Agatha Christie’s famous real-life case of dissociative fugue: When Christie was already famous, she disappeared from her home, and the search for her was headline news for weeks. She had disappeared after her husband was unfaithful, and she was eventually discovered checked-in at a hotel under another name (her dissociative identity).

In short, “time loss” is the single most common symptom of MPD, and fugue episodes are found in 55% of MPD patients (2, p. 59). Once a novel raises the issue of dissociation, a conscientious author must consider multiple personality.

1. Karen Thompson Walker. The Strange Case of Jane O. NewYork Random House, 2025.

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

“Dangerous Minds” by Priscilla Masters: Gratuitous Symptoms of Multiple Personality

“From deep inside, her naughty voice spoke up in her own defense.

“But she still got herself murdered, didn't she?” (1, p. 20).

Comment: An italicized voice inside the protagonist’s head, suggestive of an opinionated alternate personality.

“For someone like Barclay, a voice growled inside her, there is no ‘enough.’ "(1, p. 98).

Comment: As above.

“Then she gathered herself up and continued in a voice she hardly recognized as her own: prim, tight-mouthed, business-like…Heart tumbling over head, head tumbling over heart. She was dizzy, then that voice came out again” (1, p. 129).

Comment: The alternate personality takes over and she speaks in its voice.

“She [her alternate personality] spoke only to her reflection in the bathroom mirror [her regular personality] What are you waiting for, Claire…” (1, p. 133).

Comment: Since no character in this novel is labelled as having multiple personality, the above quotations are probably inadvertent reflections of the author’s normal, creative version of multiple personality disorder, which I call “multiple personality trait.”

1. Priscilla Masters. Dangerous Minds. Surrey England, Severn House, 2016. 

“Becoming Myself: A Psychiatrist’s Memoir” by Irvin D. Yalom: Author eavesdrops on his characters

Like a novelist with “multiple personality trait,”—my name for the mentally well, creative version of multiple personality disorder (a.k.a. “dissociative identity disorder,” common among fiction writers, as discussed in this blog—Dr. Yalom experiences person-like entities inside him that seem to have minds of their own (the definition of alternate personalities):

“I have often heard writers say a story writes itself, but I hadn’t understood it until then. After two months, I had an entirely new and deeper appreciation of an old anecdote that Marilyn [his wife] had told me years before about the English novelist William Thackeray. One evening, as Thackeray came out of his study, his wife asked how the writing had gone. He responded, ‘Oh, a terrible day! Pendennis [one of his characters] made a fool of himself and I simply could not stop him.’

“Soon I became used to listening to my characters speaking to one another. I eavesdropped all the time—even after finishing the day’s writing, when I was strolling arm in arm with Marilyn on one of the endless buttery beaches. Before long I had another writerly experience, one of the peak experiences of my life. At some point while deep into a story, I observed my fickle mind flirting with another story, one taking shape beyond my immediate perception. I took this to be a signal—an uncanny one, to myself from myself—that the story I was writing was coming to an end and a new one was readying for birth…” (1, p. 227).

1. Irvin D. Yalom. Becoming Myself: A Psychiatrist’s Memoir. New York, Basic Books, 2017/19. 

President Donald Trump’s Signature (post 2): Graphological Analysis of his Angular Signature

Post 1 (Feb. 20, 2025) noted that President Trump’s current signature is markedly different from his signature in the 1990’s; however, since both signatures are from his adult years, their differences may mean that he currently contains both of the personalities that they represent, but that his angular one is more prominent in his role as president.

I have just consulted a textbook on the psychological interpretation of signatures (1). One type of signature it interprets—“Cursive with Angular Pattern”—is like President Trump’s current signature, which it interprets as follows:

“A signature characterized by angular formations, particularly sharp-angled strokes connecting letters, unveils significant traits about the writer’s personality and approach to life. Angularity in a signature reflects a writer who is principled, opinionated, and exhibits a militant stance toward their beliefs and decisions. This sharpness in form suggests a mental sharpness in thought and discrimination, showcasing an individual who is analytical, investigative, and strategic. Such a writer approaches life with a keen eye, evaluating situations and people with a critical mindset, rarely giving in to blind faith or unexamined beliefs.

“However, this pronounced angularity also hints at a lack of softness or flexibility, indicating that the writer may struggle with warmth in interpersonal relationships. They might come across as insensitive or rigid, finding it challenging to express gentleness or adaptability. Their actions are driven more by principle than by feeling, which, while showcasing integrity, can also lead to a perception of coldness or detachment.

“On an emotional level, the angular signature suggests a tendency to intellectualize or deny feelings rather than embracing them. This can manifest in interactions as criticalness or an unyielding nature, potentially leading to frustration or tension in relationships. The signature reveals an individual who, due to experiences of unmet emotional needs or long periods of neglect, may develop a hardened exterior, protecting a core that has been deprived of care and affection.

“In essence, an angular signature exposes a writer who is formidable in their intellectual and strategic capabilities, competitive and hardworking, yet possibly challenged in the realm of emotional expression and flexibility. It underscores a life approached with determination and a readiness to face challenges, but also a need for understanding and patience from those who wish to connect with the deeper, more vulnerable aspects of their personality” (1, pp. 286-287).

1. Varun L. Rupani. Graphology Signatures: A Comprehensive Book on Signature Analysis. India, Singapore, Malaysia, notion press.com, 2024. 

President Donald Trump’s Signature in the 1990’s

Comment: Do these two different signatures represent two different personalities?

“The Hospital” by Leslie Wolfe: Hero-Villain’s Split Personality

“I look at him with pity. Somewhere inside that man is a fractured soul, a tormented personality, perhaps from some past trauma I never knew about. I almost ask, when I realize I don’t really want to know” (1, p. 305).

Comment: Author has a need to include multiple personality, but is afraid to examine the issue.

1. Leslie Wolfe. The Hospital. London, Bookouture, 2024. 

“The Secrets of Us” by Lucinda Berry: Novel’s Doctors and Detectives Fail to Endorse Author’s conclusions

“I know Krystal thinks I went crazy, and maybe I did, but I’m pretty sure a part of me will always be haunted by Alice’s ghost (1, p. 246).                  

Comment: “Parts” may be undiagnosed alternate personalities: Search “parts” in this blog.

1. Lucinda Berry. Seattle, Thomas & Mercer, 2021.

“Donald Trump Contains Multitudes” by Barton Swaim in Today's Wall Street Journal: Truth in Jest?