Literature of the Americas Literature of the Americas 2541-7894 2542-243X IWL RAS https://www.doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2018-4-219-239 Articles Why are Entities Multiplied? Multiple Personality Disorder in American Popular Fiction 2018 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 Since the mid-20th century, dissociative identity disorder (DID) has been one of the most exciting subject-matters in American popular fiction. Sh. Jackson’ The Bird’s Nest (1954) and C. Thigpen & H. Cleckley’s The Three Faces of Eve (1957) marked the first peak of popularity of ‘multiple personality’ texts. However, it was only after R. Bloch’s Psycho (1959), that split personality became firmly connected to child sexual abuse. Split Consciousness Novel became formulaic after F. Schreiber’s Sybil (1973), where the protagonist’s ego-states further multiplied. Its publication in 1973 marked the second peak of the popularity of the genre. Moreover, it triggered the public imagination bringing about the DID epidemics, possibly hysterical, and heated discussions concerning the validity of this diagnosis. Split Consciousness Novel highlights the paradoxes of psychotherapy and communication at large. The authors of the essay deconstruct The Minds of Billy Milligan in detail since it problematizes psychic disease as ethical paradox. 1. Acocella, J. Creating Hysteria: Women and Multiple Personality Disorder. New York: Jossey-Bass, 1999. 2. Borch-Jacobsen, M. Making Minds and Madness: From Hysteria to Depression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 3. Brand, B., Sar, V., Stavropulos, P., et. al. “Separating Fact from Fiction: An Empirical Examination of Six Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder.” Harvard Review of Psychiatry 24:4 (July 2016): 257–270. 4. 5. “Escaped Fugitive Caught.” Online at http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-11-22/news/8603270881_1_ohio-psychiatric-hospital-billy-milligan-fbi-agents 6. Golovacheva, I.V. “Bitva alter ego: ot Po do Genri Dzheimsa.” [“The Battle of alter ego from Edgar Poe to Henry James.”] In Po, Bodler, Dostoevskii: Blesk i nishcheta natsional'nogo genija, [Poe, 7. Baudelaire,Dostoevsky: Splendeurs et Misères of a National Genius] ed. by S. Fokin, A. Urakova. Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie Publ., 2017: 176–188. (In Russ.) 8. Gregory, J. Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood. New York: Bantam Dell, 2003. 9. Hawkins, A. Reconstructing Illness: Studies in Pathography. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1996. 10. Jacobson, B., Spiegel, H. “Sybil – the Making of a Disease: An Interview with Dr Herbert Spiegel.” New York Review 44:7 (April 1997). 11. 12. Jamison, K.R. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness. New York: Vintage, 1993. 13. MсHugh, P. “Hysteria in Four Acts.” Commentary (1 Dec. 2008). Online at https://www.com-mentarymagazine.com/articles/hysteria-in-four-acts/. 14. Keyes, D. “Frequently Asked Questions and Updates.” Online at: http://www.danielkeyesau-thor.com/faq.html 15. Keyes, D. Tainstvennaia istorija Billi Milligana. [The Minds of Billy Milligan] Moscow: “E” Publ., 2015. (In Russ.) 16. Milligan, W. “A Statement from Billy Milligan.” Online at http://www.astraeasweb.net/plural/milligan.html 17. Nathan, D. Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012. 18. Oxnam, R.B. A Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder. New York: Hyperion, 2005. 19. Prince, M. The Dissociation of a Personality: a Biographical Study in Abnormal Psychology. New York, etc.: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1905. 20. Prince, W.F. “The Doris Case of Quintuple Personality.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 11 (1916): 73–122. 21. Schreiber, F. Sybil: The True Story of a Woman Possessed By 16 Separate Personalities. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1973. 22. Shwarz, H. Beware of the Other Side(s): Multiple Personality Disorder and Dissociative Identity Disorder in American Fiction. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2013. 23. Thigpen, C., Cleckley, H. The Three Faces of Eve. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957. 24. West, C. First Person Plural: My Life As a Multiple. New York: Hyperion, 1999.