I've also been thinking more of the dual personas...
(In Poet's case, triple personas? -- and apparently at least triple for others on SI as well).
Of course, movies come to mind. "The Three faces of Eve" is obvious. Joanne Woodward playing the role (true story) of a woman with multiple personality disorder. MPD, though, is not realized by the "victim." The various personalities within the same person are not aware of each other's existence. In the case of SI aliases, posters (not all, necessarily) have felt the need to create other personas that they can slip in and out of.
Wouldn't you think a psychiatrist would have a field day probing into all of that? What, if any, is the connection between the involuntary "illness," on the one hand, and the voluntary action (stemming from a felt need) on the other?
Another movie is "A Double Life" with Ronald Colman. In this case, we have a distinguished actor (i.e., Colman playing an actor) who specializes in the role of Othello. Gradually, the role begins to take over his personality, and he has increasing difficulty separating his real self from the role. I haven't seen that movie in many years, but I know the film comes to a violent climax.
I think this is more than just idle speculation. We are talking about phenomenas of the human mind here. We saw the discussion on this thread become ever more histrionic (Kholt's word). There was a lot of rage that fed upon itself and grew. There still is a lot of simmering rage.
The more I think about it, the more I believe the waters here are deeper than very many people realize. |
