Personality Disorder in Terms of Psychology and Linguistics

The article analyzes cases of multiple personality disorder (dissociative identity disorder) and their reflection in fiction. The purpose of the article is to classify various situations and identify the causes and prerequisites for this phenomenon. The process of splitting consciousness is accompanied by certain changes in the individual’s speech. This concerns the choice of words and grammatical forms (especially forms of the person’s category). The collected material (texts of novellas, short stories, poems, and screenplays) gives grounds for some conclusions. The main prerequisites for dissociative identity disorder are the versatility of the personality, the ability to look at it “from the inside” and “from the outside,” as well as the individual’s tendency to constantly evaluate his thoughts and actions. Past violence, severe stress, internal discomfort, etc. can act as a cause (“triggering mechanism”) of the phenomenon under study. The author shows cases of endoscopic and exoscopic disintegration of identity using literary facts. In the latter case, there is a connection with the Freudian concept of the “Ideal I”, which includes an observer. The topic of doubles, which is immensely popular in art, and the relationship between the author of a literary work and his pseudonym are also touched upon.