Adam Blatner

Not dis-order; order. Or at least not chaos. I’m a Board-Certified Psychiatrist and there is a “condition” called Multiple Personality Disorder. I want to suggest there being a healthy form called multiple personality order, also known as healthy involvement in many things. People can indeed be very varied!

The Utility of Consulting With Our Other Selves

The role theory of J. L. Moreno, M.D. (1889-1974) as modified by me opens the door to a revolutionary approach. We aren’t just one person, but a nexus, an illusion of a self that coordinates many roles. Moreno suggested this—the Self emerges from the roles!  Of late a goodly number of other people have come to this conclusion, too, and there is a great utility arising from such a notion.

There are of course the major and minor roles—and what in some senses is a major role becomes a minor one—perhaps even irrelevant—in certain circum-stances. Roles are funny that way—some are intimately involved in other roles and some rather isolated. Also roles that were major in some life phases become outmoded or irrelevant, and on occasion certain of those become rejuvenated (literally!) on vacation or when one grows older.

It is not necessary to create rigid classifications for these: Just say they shift. Enough for now.