My over-all reaction towards this article was a mixture of interest and skepticism . I could not believe that someones multiple personalities could incorporate their own genders , races and ages. It kind of got me thinking of all the people in history that had multiple personalities, and the destruction they could have caused because of it. It also spurred other curious questions such as, could these difference personalities do things like convince themselves they had different sicknesses such as cancer.Or if they were dying? And if one personality kills itself off, does another one develop? It makes you sad when you think about it because, these people are their own worst enemies. As stated in the article, people commit behaviors classified as "self sabotage" and "self-violence" . Plus most of Dissociative Identity Disorder patients would do things normally they wouldn't find themselves doing, such as, stealing or being reckless because they feel compelled to do it. Almost like being possessed . As quoted , "feeling as being a passenger in their body rather than the driver".
How i think this article plays in with the novel is, considering the setting takes place sometime in the 1800s it relates to the fact of how a new era of treating mental illnesses became in effect in that time frame. For many centuries before people associated mental disorders with witch craft or evil forces. So what you can assume about this novel is , it might have something to do with the treatment or realization of someone that might of had a mental disorder.
extra information link :
references : paragraph 2, 3 and the second to last paragraph
