DID/MPD in fiction

The idea of multiple personalities (MPD) has been popularized in many works of fiction, especially (but not exclusively) in the United States. The topic has attracted the attention of professional scholars. This article provides a list of references to DID and MPD in fiction.

Books and short stories

In Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde the scientist Dr. Henry Jekyll artificially separates his good and evil natures, causing him to switch between two separate personalities.
Shirley Jackson's 1954 novel The Birds' Nest, which was made into a 1957 movie called Lizzie, heavily featured multiple personalities.
Mary Leader's 1973 thriller novel Triad features a woman who is not sure if she is multiple or being haunted by the ghost of her dead cousin.
The protagonist of Philip K. [...]'s 1977 novel A Scanner Darkly has DID; he is known both as [...] dealer Robert 'Bob' Arctor and narcotics agent Fred. The reason for his DID is due to subsequent use of a [...] known as Substance D or Death.
In the 1981 short story What T and I Did by Fred Saberhagen, the viewpoint character has a second self who was seemingly created by, or discovered subsequent to, radical brain surgery.
Regina's Song by David Eddings features a character with DID symptoms, described as a fugue state. However, there is question whether this is due to psychological or supernatural causes.
The short story "Multiples" by Robert Silverberg (1983) describes a future where multiples form a subculture similar to the gay community today. A singleton (a person with one personality) fakes multiplicity to attract a multiple partner, and ultimately attempts to fragment her personality to become multiple herself.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, begun in 1983, includes a number of multiples. Probably the most familiar to readers is the beggar Altogether Andrews who has multiple distinct personalities – none of which are named Andrews – each with its own memories and manner of speaking. Other multiples in Pratchett's work include Agnes and Perdita, and Miss Pickles and Miss Pointer in Thud.
Mary Higgins Clark's 1992 novel All Around the Town is the story of a young woman who is believed to have committed a [...]. Psychiatric sessions reveal that as a young girl she was kidnapped and molested, so that now she has stereotypical MPD.
The 1992 novel Fools by Pat Cadigan is set in a high-tech future when additional personalities of various kinds can be added and removed at will.
Pat Barker's 1993 novel The Eye in the Door deals with numerous "splits" in the human life and psyche during wartime. The main character, Billy Prior, deals with a number of "splits", but deals mostly with his obvious and sinister split personality. His other personality (referred to in the book as a "fugue state") appears to have been created to complete the tasks Billy can't bring himself to do, like fight in France or work as an intelligence agent.
The plot of Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 book Fight Club and its subsequent film adaptation revolves around the bizarre relationship between the mild-mannered protagonist and his radical, anti-consumerist, anarcho-primitivistic alternate personality.
Sidney Sheldon's book Tell Me Your Dreams (1998) is about a woman, Ashley, who has two other selves, Toni and Alette. Each of the women has dynamically different characteristics. A string of vicious murders seem to follow her, and the police must work hard to find out who is behind them.
The 2003 book Set This House In Order by Matt Ruff concerns two people with MPD on a journey of self-discovery.
In the 2003 novel Thr3e by Ted Dekker, the main character has three different personalities: himself, a childhood friend, and the villain.
Mosaic by John R. Maxim is about a government experiment using multiples in an attempt to create the perfect assassin.
The 2006 novel Blindsight by Peter Watts features, among other posthuman characters, a linguist with deliberately-induced DID brought about by brain surgery; collaboration by her alters allows her to decipher new languages at tremendous speed.
Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity centers around Jason Bourne, an amnesiac who is really a former U.S. Special Forces officer named David Webb. Webb adopted the false identity of Bourne in order to catch international assassin Carlos the Jackal. Due to a severe headwound and subsequent amnesia, Webb forgets his real name and the Bourne personality becomes a distinct person. In the second book, The Bourne Supremacy, the Bourne and Webb personalities fight during a mission over what to do.

Movies and television

Mort Rainey in the 2004 film Secret Window (adapted from Stephen King's novel) has two personalities: his own, and that of "John Shooter"
Norman Bates in the 1960 film Psycho (adapted from Robert Bloch's 1959 novel) has two personalities: his own, and that of his dead mother
Sybil, Shirley Ardell Mason's story as fictionalized by Flora Rheta Schreiber, was turned into a 1976 TV movie.
The Five of Me(1981), possibly based on a true story. An American man fights in North Korea, ends up in legal trouble back home and is later diagnosed with MPD. 1.
Latka, one of Andy Kaufman's characters from the sitcom Taxi has multiple personality disorder: In certain episodes, the normally shy Latka became the womanizing Vic Ferrari. In one particular episode he has a condition which makes him act like the main character of Taxi, Alex Reiger.
Over the years on the soap opera One Life to Live, lead character Victoria Lord (Erika Slezak) has had multiple personalities since her adolescence. Originally she had only one alternate, Nikki, who challenged her in a constant struggle for dominance, but in the mid 1990s Victoria's multiplicity is brought into line with then-current beliefs about MPD and she was given a vast array of alternates and a back story involving childhood trauma. Victoria's daughter Jessica Buchanan (Bree Williamson) has recently also had to deal with a troublesome alternate personality, Tess.
The popular sitcom Barney Miller guest-starred Stefan Gierasch as a multiple in the episode "Power Failure", which initially aired December 9, 1976.
The 1994 film Color of Night, starring Bruce Willis, the 1996 movies Primal Fear and Shattered Mind, and the 2003 thriller Identity also feature multiple personalities and explore the idea of responsibility for another personality's actions. The multiples in these films are characterized as meek, peaceful people housing violent, psychopathic alternate personalities.
The film Raising Cain has the main character suffering from multiple personalities.
In the 1996 comedy film The Nutty Professor, overweight professor Sherman Klump (played by Eddie Murphy) creates a potion to lose weight. He succeeds, but finds that the potion only works for short periods. Due to his drastically different appearance when in his thin body, he is forced to create an alias, "Buddy Love". Buddy Love (also played by Eddie Murphy) becomes an independent personality. Fearing that Klump will stop taking the potion, Buddy attempts to force Klump to take an unhealthy amount of potion, so that he will be permanently both thin and Buddy. In the sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Klump attempts to remove Buddy from his subconscious once and for all, inadvertently giving him a body of his own.
Me, Myself and Irene (2000) starring Jim Carrey as Charlie Baileygates and Hank Evans, is a slapstick farce about a man who becomes a "split personality" after suppressing angers and frustrations for years. After his wife leaves him and more of these frustrations build, Charlie hits his breaking point and becomes Hank, an alter that shows his anger to the fullest degree.
The 2005 film Hide and Seek features two characters with MPD.
In the Drawn Together episode "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree", Captain Hero is revealed to suffer from a self-induced form of multiple personality disorder, creating new personalities as an outlet for the parts of himself he does not want to acknowledge. In the episode, he creates a personality named Tim Tommerson as a means of exploring his repressed homosexuality and his possible romantic feelings for his roommate Xandir, while in his regular persona keeps insisting he is heterosexual.
Screenwriters Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson portrayed Gollum in The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003) as having split personalities. In certain scenes, Sméagol, his "good" personality, argues with Gollum, his "bad" personality. Critics at the time pointed out that this characterization is not faithful to the original work by J.R.R. Tolkien, which merely ascribes conflicting motives to Gollum.
French Stewart played a multiple in an episode of Becker entitled Papa Does Preach.
In X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), mutant Jean Grey is described as having developed a split personality as a result of mental barriers placed in her mind by her mentor, Professor Xavier. This "creature" represented all her primal urges, and called itself "Phoenix".
The television series Heroes features a character called Niki Sanders with a second self, referred to as 'Jessica' by Niki herself, and as Ikin by some fans. Jessica is aggressive and violent, while the passive Niki experiences no memory of Jessica's actions, although she sometimes suspects, and has glimpsed Jessica in the mirror (few actual multiples report this experience). The scripts suggest that Niki's multiplicity is caused by her mind struggling to deal with her extraordinary abilities; further episodes have revealed Niki once had a sister named Jessica, and that the trauma of her death also contributed. In Season 2, it is revealed that Niki has another personality known as 'Gina', who came into existence when Niki ran away to Los Angeles some time in the past and asked everyone to call her by that name.
On Smallville Lana Lang was once possessed by a direct descendent of her family named Margaret Isobel Thoreaux, a 16th-century witch who uses Lana's body to try and obtain 3 stones that have infinite power. When exposed to red kryptonite, Clark Kent would also manifest a secondary personality known as Kal, who lacked Clark's usual inhibitions and restraints when using his powers and in daily life; on another occasion, he was mentally programmed to become a Kryptonian personality known as Kal-El, but this personality was defeated when Martha Kent used black kryptonite to separate Clark and Kal-El into two separate bodies, Clark subsequently defeating Kal-El in a fight.
In an episode of the USA Network series Psych, (2006) the main character confronts a [...] with MPD.
Various movies, including Never Talk to Strangers and Session 9, and episodes of popular TV shows such as X-Files, Psi Factor and Judging Amy, have used the idea of multiples with a hidden "killer personality". The film Saimin plays on this idea with one personality being a demonic possession by a malevolent incarnation of the Monkey King; Touched by an Angel also implies that multiples are actually possessed by demons.
Several Tamil language works deal with multiple personality disorder: the television serial Marmadesam, and the films Anniyan and Chandramukhi.
The Malayalam film Manichithrathazhu also deals with the same subject in detail, with the character Ganga (played by Shobana) having MPD. The movie was adapted by Indian film director Priyadarshan into the Hindi film Bhool Bhulayya.
In E.R , episode "Jigsaw" Dr. Morris diagnoses Willis Peyton with having DID.
In the Nip/Tuck episode "Montana / Sassy / Justice", the title character suffers from DID.
Jacqueline Hyde, a villain in the game show Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?, is a teenager with both a sweet, innocent personality and an insane, evil personality. Her voice alternates along with her personality between soft-spoken and loud and "modulated."
Professional wrestler Mick Foley has a gimmick where he has multiple personalities.
"Alternate", the season nine premiere of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit deals with a woman who has DID.
The character of Todd in Code Monkeys has two other personalities: Pardue, a Dungeons & Dragons fan who thinks the environment around is a role-playing game world and is unaware of the Todd personality's exsistance, and Tiffany, Todd and Pardue's nymphomaniac "girlfriend".
In the television show CSI:, Catherine Willows comes into contact with a killer named Tammy Felton who was kidnapped as a child, with her original name being Melissa Marlowe. In order to escape punishment, Melissa/Tammy pretends to have DID.
In the television show "Criminal Minds", Special Agent Spencer Reid is kidnapped by a serial killer named Tobias Hankles. Tobias' [...] addiction, along with mounting pressure from his abusive father causes him to "snap" and take on two other personalities, that of his now deceased father and the Archangel Rafael. (season two, episode fifteen)
In "Haute Tension", it is revealed that Marie was the killer, and the trucker was used as her split [...] personality.

Manga and anime

In the popular Japanese manga MPD Psycho, made into a TV miniseries directed by Takashi Miike, a police detective is tracking down a serial killer who has MPD, and fears that the clues point to one of the people in his own system as the [...].
In the anime Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, one of the main characters, Lady Une, has two separate personalities, one a ruthless and cruel military officer ("Col. Une"), the other is a caring advocate of peace ("Saint Une"). They're easy to distinguish for their clothing and manners. The two sides are reconciled into one after she is shot in the chest and nearly killed; when she wakes up from the coma that follows, Une has managed to merge her two sides. The now psychologically complete and emotionally stable "Lady Une" helps end the war, establishes the Preventors, and adopts Mariemaia Khushrenada (Treize Khushrenada's daughter) as her own.
In InuYasha, Suikotsu of the Shichinintai has two personalities: a good and peaceful doctor, and a ruthless mass [...]. At first the Good Doctor is the dominant one, with Evil Suikotsu rlegated to his subconscious; as the story advances, Evil Suikotsu takes over more frequently, and later becomes the dominant one.
In the anime Sukisho, the two main characters develop alternate personalities as a result of abuse in a scientific experiment.
In the anime and manga Cardcaptor Sakura, Yukito Tsukishiro famously exhibits signs of MPD after his true personality, Yue, emerges, including memory loss and radical differences between both personalities despite them sharing similarities.
In the anime and manga D.N.Angel, the main character, Daisuke Niwa, has genetically inherited a separate personality, Dark. While Daisuke is shy and unsure of himself, Dark is flirtatious and confident. Acting as an antithesis, Satoshi Hiwatari has inherited Krad. While Satoshi is relatively calm and quiet, Krad is a sadistic homicidal sociopath.
In the anime and manga Yu-Gi-Oh!, the main character, Yugi Mutou, has a second personality, Yami no Yūgi (meaning "Dark Yugi") later revealed to be the long dead pharaoh Atem. Yugi's friend Ryo Bakura has a similar alternate personality, Yami no Bakura ("Dark Bakura"), that is thought to be a long dead tomb robber and king of thieves from ancient Egypt. Atem seems to have Yugi's best interest at heart, and the two cooperate and share achievements and goals. Bakura's second self is manipulative, self serving, and at times even displays sadistic tendencies towards Bakura.
Another character in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Marik Ishtar, develops a more archetypical form of DID during his childhood, due to traumatic events (namely, his isolation from the real world and his father's mistreatment of him, his siste Isis, and his adoptive brother Rishid/Odion). The psychotic alter ego still goes by the name Marik, but it's made very clear that the two are separate personalities. After being defeated, Marik regains control of himself.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Sartorius (Takuma Saiou) and Pro League king, The D (DD), develop destructive split personalities after being exposed to an alien energy.
In YuYu Hakusho, the villain of the Chapter Black Saga, Shinobu Sensui, has developed seven personalities after witnesses the death of weak demon by humans. These seven personalities help him achieve Sacred Energy, because it shorten the training from 49 years to 7 years. They have their own names and personae: 'Minoru' is intellectual and charismatic, Kazuya is sadistic and bloodthirsty, Naru is emotional and pretty much an archetypical girl, etc.
The character Lucy from Elfen Lied has been multiple from childhood. Later in the series, her disorder is revealed to have been caused by head trauma from a sniper's bullet. The "Lucy" personality is a wicked, violent sadist, while the other, "Nyuu", is kind and innocent.
Kozue Aoba of Mahoraba has five personalities who differ drastically from one another.
The character Hatsuharu Sohma from Fruits Basket who is usually calm, well mannered, and soft spoken has another personality that his other family members call Black Haru, a violent [...] deviant. It originated because of being teased a lot when he was young. One of Haru's cousins, Kagura Sohma, is usually kind, shy and sweet, but also has another personality which has a violent temper that is second only to Hatsuharu's.
Momoka Nishizawa from Sgt. Frog has two different selves who work very well together without memory loss, although one is much more confident and manipulative than the other.
In both the manga and anime versions of 3x3 Eyes, all members of the Sanjiyan race have two selves.
Lunch in Dragon Ball has two different selves which alternate whenever she sneezes. The normal Lunch has blue hair and is kind and sweet, but her other self is a gun-toting blonde.
In Hellsing, one of the Vatican's assassins, Yumiko has another personality, Yumie Takagi. In stereotypical fashion, Yumiko is somewhat of a coward, while Yumie is a ruthless killer. Yumiko does not appear in Hellsing proper, but this does not negate her presence, since she only appears in battle.
The character Akito from the manga and anime Air Gear has a separate self called Agito. Akito is a kind, gentle boy, while Agito is his stronger, darker, bloodthirsty side. Akito and Agito are aware of each other's presences. They signal that they are trading places by shifting an eyepatch from one eye to the other. When the right eye is covered, Akito is running the body; if the left eye is covered, Agito is in charge. They can share memories and information, especially if it's of particular interest to the other, but also hide information from each other with a bit of effort.
Yaya, the main character in the manga Othello, has an alternate personality named Nana. Nana initially comes out if Yaya sees her reflection or suffers a head injury, but is able to take the body more easily as the story progresses. Eventually, Nana leaves Yaya.
In Paranoia Agent, the episode "Double Lips" features Harumi Chono, tutor of Lil' Slugger's victim Yuichi Taira. She has an alternate personality named Maria. In the time-honored fashion, Harumi is a modest, reserved, and shy tutor and assistant, while Maria is a wild prostitute who comes out at night. The two communicate through Harumi's answering machine. Maria "wants to be free" and this results in a battle for dominance that escalates when Harumi gets engaged.
In Mega Man Star Force and its anime and manga equivalents, the character Tsukasa Futaba (English Pat Sprigs) has an evil self named Hikaru (Rey). When he fuses with his FM partner Gemini, both personalities become two separate entities.
In BLEACH, Ichigo Kurosaki develops an Inner Hollow, forming into a separate personality.
In Phantasy Degree the main character Sang has four selves who are all aware of each other; a slightly kooky teenage girl escape artist, an unstable 'crazy man', a calm older woman, and a quiet, powerful man who may be the original or core self.
In Perfect Blue, main character Mima plays a character in the TV drama Double Bind who develops DID after being raped, her other personality identifying herself as a model, in order to repress the memories and thus "save her soul". The other personality then proceeds to commit a number of gruesome murders, which form the main storyline of the drama. Mima's manager Rumi also seems to have DID. She identifies herself as 'the real Mima' and denounces Mima as an impostor, then committing a series of murders echoing Double Bind.
In Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei, one of the female students, Kaere Kimura, develops a case of MPD after undergoing mental trauma from having to adapt to the customs of the separate countries she visited as an exchange student. Her main personality, Kaere, resembles that of a stereotypical foreigner who flashes her panties and constantly threatens to sue others, while her separate personality, Kaede, is gentle, easily embarrassed and generally takes on the traits of a yamato nadeshiko.
In Samurai Deeper Kyo The two of the main character's personalities inhabit the same body. Kyoshiro (the gentler of the two) switched personality with Demon Eyes Kyo when he draws his sword.

Comics

In the 1980s, the backstory of the Incredible Hulk was reworked to fit then-current beliefs about DID, with the Hulk's multiple incarnations reflecting different aspects of Bruce Banner's personality, repressed by Bruce due to his childhood abuse at the hands of his father causing him to believe that showing emotion would only result in people getting hurt. For a time, the character's personalties were believed to have been merged, but he eventually redifferentiated back into his multiple state.
The Batman supervillain Two-Face has a Jekyll-Hyde split personality owing to injury which scarred one side of his face, the resulting damage to the left side of his brain turning him into a violent criminal. Another Batman foe, The Ventriloquist, also has DID, his violent personality manifesting itself through a dummy named Scarface.
As written by Doug Moench, Moon Knight had three separate civilian identities. Often he showed confusion as to which was his "real" personality. He eventually did develop something similar to DID, but was apparently cured.
Rose and Thorn are the personalities of two different multiples in DC Comics. In the 1940s, Rose Canton, who later married the original Green Lantern, had a self called Thorn, a plant-based supervillain. The 1970s version depicted gentle Rose and feisty crimefighting Thorn, who was out to avenge the [...] of Rose's father. Rose had no idea that Thorn shared her body. This latter series was remade in 2003 to incorporate a storyline which fit then-current beliefs about DID — the personality of Thorn was revealed to have been induced by an unscrupulous therapist.
Typhoid Mary, an enemy/lover of the Marvel Comics character, Daredevil, is one of three coexisting persons in one body. In accordance with the usual stereotypes, Typhoid Mary is a violent seductress, Bloody Mary is a psychopathic [...], and "Mary" is a timid pacifist.
Crazy Jane of the Doom Patrol has 16 distinct personalities as a result of being molested by her father as a child. She is based on real-life multiple Truddi Chase.
Aurora, a superheroine from Alpha Flight, was actually diagnosed with DID. As in Rose and the Thorn, a mild-mannered self dominates during Aurora's normal, day-to-day life, and a more adventurous self is responsible for her excursions as a costumed hero, although Aurora is aware (but disapproving) of her other's existence. Aurora's DID was apparently cured or suppressed for a time (i.e., the two selves were integrated).
The pseudonymous author Madison Clell wrote about her life with DID and her alters in the autobiographical comic book Cuckoo.
The main character of the web comic Kagerou has four vastly different personalities.

Computer and video games

The main character of Xenogears, Fei Fong Wong, has three personalities, who appear physically as well as psychologically different. He is mistakenly referred to as "schizophrenic" at several points in the game. Later events in the game reveal that he is multiple as a result of having been subjected to abusive medical experiments as a child. Fei's confrontation and integration of these personalities is a major plot feature of the game.
The videogame Killer7 features a main character, an old man bound to a wheel chair known as Harman Smith, whose different personalities take a physical shape, all of whom are murderers. Known as the Smiths because of their shared last name, (Garcian Smith, Dan Smith, Kaede Smith, Con Smith, etc.), they each have different abilities and weapons that the player must use to progress through the game. A major aspect of the game is finding out which personality is the dominant and the original one.
The 1999 PlayStation game Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within by Agetek features a situation similar to the Star Trek episode "The Enemy Within".; a meek main character with a homicidal alternate personality. The player must combine the former's insight with the latter's ruthlessness to solve puzzles and to survive.
The Prince in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones has an alter-ego called the Dark Prince, who constantly bickers with him about right and wrong. At times, the Prince physically transforms into the Dark Prince. The Dark Prince wields the "Daggertail", a bladed whip fused to his arm, while the Prince has a more standard sword. This split-personality theme was meant to combine the Prince's characters from the two previous incarnations of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time trilogy.
In the Twisted Metal series, Marcus Kane (the driver of Roadkill in Twisted Metal 2 and Twisted Metal: Head-On, and the driver of Minion in Twisted Metal: Black) has another self known as Needles Kane (the driver of Sweet Tooth in all of the games; sometimes Needles is referred to as Sweet Tooth).
One character in Mega Man Star Force, Pat, has 2 personalities, one evil, one good.
Sakubo from .hack//GU appears to be a pair of siblings, but the two coexisted in one body.
The Suffering and its sequel, The Suffering: Ties That Bind feature the condition through the main character Torque who has suffered since early adolescence and explored deeper in the sequel. One of his selves assists him in fights.
As evidenced in the game Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, the character Ripper Roo is a literate, civilized person co-existing with a deranged kangaroo, who is regarded as the original or core self.

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