Multiple
Personality Disorder is a dialogic poem told entirely
in free verse. It consists of the interactions of six entities.
Five of them are portions of the principal personality which
have fragmented as a result of duress, a similar causation to
that theorists suggest brings about multiple personality disorder.
These
six distinct characters are the original self, Bear, who is pulled
from one crisis to another by the other personalities and is unsure
of his own volition in this estranging world where he meets his
fractured selves. The Caveman patiently waits on the hill at the
entrance of a cave for a summoning to deal with violent situations.
Sun, a dog, represents emotive and visceral living, and therefore
has a role in bringing the self back to normalcy. Biss is the
friend who has his own fears and stresses about daily life, and
Bjorn exists only to cope with the savage loneliness of the self’s
life, and as such, wanders throughout time and space, a character
of forlorn and savage anger.
Lastly,
the Figure is an enigmatic force, as much ghost as the structural
underpinnings of the mind itself. Early in the poem it can be
seen only on the periphery of vision. Only later do we realize
the Figure has its own scarcely imaginable agenda, and that the
other characters are subject to its cryptic whims. The Figure
is the most frightening of the group and its surreptitious manipulation
of the others is what drives this narrative of self-exploration
and admission of psychological distress.