How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Multiple personalities

Explanations > Personality > Multiple personalities

Complete separation | Memories | Splitting | Alternative theories | So what?

When you talk to yourself, who is talking? Who is listening? Are they different people?

Each of us, it often seems, is made up of many people inside our heads. One day I might be a bright and sunny friend. Then at the drop of the hat, I am a nasty and vicious antagonist. It is as if a switch is flicked and somebody else arrives. Where has that original person gone? When the previous personality returns, it may be very apologetic but also know that it was 'not me' that was angry.

We can also have concurrent people in our heads, who converse with one another, arguing what we might say or do or musing about the meaning of the world.

This multiplicity of self can be particularly troubling when we consider our identity, wondering who we really are.

Complete separation

In the worst case of multiple personalities, there is so complete a separation that each personality has no knowledge of the others. The separate people may vary in may dimensions, from nice to nasty, clever to stupid, and so on.

In this pattern, there may be one dominant personality and other subordinate personalities who appear less often.

This can be quite mystifying for all concerned, as the 'nice' person wonders why people are afraid of them. It is also troublesome for those of us who must cope with what seems like very separate people taking turns in the same body.

Memories

As we grow, we retain episodic and other memories of the past people we were. In our development, we go through stages whereby we change quite radically. The multiple personalities in our heads may thus be a collection of those different people.

Splitting

The classic psychoanalytic view is that in our mental development, we split our 'selves' into good and bad objects to prevent the bad infecting or destroying the good.

Good and bad objects may compete in a non-stop battle for control over bodily functions split, resulting in apparently different people 'running the show'.

In the worst schizophrenic case, when one 'personality' takes over, it may have no recall of what previous personalities did.

Alternative theories

There are some alternative theories about split personalities, many of which originate from outside of scientific norms.

In the notion of possession, we are taken over by alien, spiritual or demonic beings, who control our bodies and speak through us. This can be a friendly and helpful experience. It can also be terrifying for all concerned.

For those who consider reincarnation to be truth, then a split personality may result from the people who we were in past lives somehow reappearing.

So what?

Watch for different personalities in the other person -- typically appearing either in different contexts or upon certain triggers (such as attraction or irritation). Then appeal to the one which gets you the behavior that you want.

See also

The paranoid-schizoid position, Identity