Split Personality: Difference between revisions

** It gets better: {{spoiler|Paprika}} has characteristics of both {{spoiler|Chiba and Tokita}}, hinting at the former's affections for the latter.

* The [[Big Bad]] in Part 5 of ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' has two personalities. There's Doppio, a borderline autistic, [[Psychopathic Manchild|childlike]] man, and Diavolo, a cunning, violent and paranoid mafia boss. His [[Kaleidoscope Hair|hair color]], [[Kaleidoscope Eyes|eyes]], and size change drastically and his Stand power changes form as well. Doppio communicates with Diavolo by holding random objects to his face like a phone (after hearing schizophrenic ringing).

{{quote|'''Usopp:''' * Running away from Perona and Bearsy* "Somebody, save me! Save me!"

'''Sogeking:''' * Tackling and purifying a ''goddamn zombie bear''* "Save me, Sogeking!" }}

* Averted in ''[[Kara no Kyoukai:]]'': Tohko correctly identifies that what Shiki {{spoiler|used to have before her coma}} can't be dissociative identity disorder, given it's complexity.

{{quote|'''Shiki:''' "There's nothing funny about having a dual personality."

'''Tohko:''' "No, no. You know, you two don't have anything as pleasing to look at as dissociative identity disorder. Existing simultaneously, each having their own unique will, and on top of that your actions are coordinated. That sort of complex personality shouldn't be called a "dissociated identity," but rather a "united independent personality." }}

* Nobara Ibaragi in ''[[Gakuen Alice]]'' has some sort of split personality - one personality adores and wants to protect Mikan, and the other does whatever her evil 'teacher' tells her to do.

* In ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'', [[Complete Monster|Johan]] is indeed a real person, but [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|Inspector Lunge]] (or [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Runge]]) is convinced that he is an alternate personality of Dr. Tenma.

** Wolfgang Grimmer, meanwhile, occasionally blacks out when physically threatened. When he recovers, everyone who threatened him is dead. He refers to the personality that takes over as "the Magnificent Steiner", after a show he watched as a child (where the title character is the superhero persona of an unknowing boy).

* Gemini Saga, from ''[[Saint Seiya]]''. The specifics are never made terribly clear (i.e we don't know exactly how it developed and came to exist), but basically it takes hold of him and causes him to {{spoiler|murder and impersonate the Pope (not, not [[The Pope|that Pope]]) for a number of years and generally act like a self-entitled asshole.}}

* Irabu-sensei from ''Kuuchu Buranko'' has a total of three personalities: Stuffed Animal one, who acts silly and childish, Child one, who acts more serious and snarky, and Adult one, who is something inbetween but leans closer to Animal one.

* What about mild-mannered Negishi from ''[[Detroit Metal City]]'', whose alternate personality Johannes Krauser II is the badass and feared leater of a Death Metal band?

 

== Comic Books ==

** Despite being the most well known example, he is also an abnormal one, because as Two-Face, both of his personas, good and evil, are "on" at the same time (Usually. Two-Face is a huge case of [[Depending on the Writer]]). Coincidentally, his symptoms sometimes imply actual Schizophrenia, which doesn't exactly help clear the confusion people have about the two conditions.

** A few comics have suggested that [[The Joker]] has multiple personality disorder, switching from harmless prankster to [[Complete Monster]] and everything inbetween.

**** Some people prefer to call in-between-guy 'Bruce,' labeling the [[Upper Class Twit]] 'Brucie' or 'Bruce Wayne,' and seeing 'Batman' as being also largely made up of masks, since 'Batman' can never show weakness of any kind, ever. And the people who know him best usually do call him Bruce in private or emotional moments.

** [[Grant Morrison]]'s run on ''[[Batman]]'' revealed that Batman, who [[Crazy Prepared|prepares for]] ''[[Crazy Prepared|everything]]'', deliberately cultivated a back-up personality should the Bruce Wayne/Batman persona be incapacitated.

* ''[[Spider-Man]]'' examples:

** The Green Goblin, who sometimes suffers from this, though in an inversion the real persona Norman Osborn can be just as evil as his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]. And of course The Lizard, who is basically Bruce Banner-lite.

* Grant Morrison's run on ''[[Doom Patrol]]'' featured, among other characters, Kay Challis, also known as Crazy Jane, who had no less than sixty-four separate personalities, each with its own name and function, and after a "gene-bomb" was detonated during an alien invasion of Earth, [[Disability Superpower|each with its own superhuman ability]].

* Triplicate Girl/Triad from the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' tends to show signs of this trope when she [[Doppelganger Spin|splits apart]]. The version of her in the Post-''[[Zero Hour]] [[Crisis Crossover|Hour]]'' reboot was explicitly written as having [[The Three Faces of Eve|three distinct personalities]] when split—which was considered a mental illness on her [[Planet of Hats|homeworld]], although her grandmother insisted it was natural, and suppressing the different aspects was what was unhealthy.

** Then again, arguing with yourself is considered pretty nutty on this planet, too.

* The DC Comics character [[Etrigan]] the Demon was bonded to a man named Jason Blood as punishment for being tempted by Morgaine Le Fay into betraying Camelot. Jason switches places and lets Etrigan take over when there's superheroing to be done. (He's a prime example of [[Cursed with Awesome]].)

* The DCU also has had two different ''Rose and Thorn'' characters over the years, one whose Thorn persona was a villain, and a later one whose Thorn is a hero.

* Rose and Thorn was a villain fought by [[The Flash]] (as in, Alan Scott) in [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|The Golden Age]]. Originally an [[Imaginary Friend]] of a woman named Rose Canton (the type who a naughty child would blame her misbehavior on) Thorn somehow became a second personality with the ability to control plants. She seemed to be cured eventually - falling in love with Scott and marrying him - [[Dating Catwoman|but would relapse and oppose the Flash many times]], her career ending tragically when Rose killed herself to protect her children from Thorn.

** A later version of Rose and Thorn (debuting in [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|the Silver Age]] was like a heroic version of Typhoid Mary. Originally, Rhosyn "Rose" Forrest was a shy, timid, dependent girl until her father's murder at the hands of a criminal gang called The 100, her anguish and stress creating a second personality to emerge. As Thorn, Forrest is a violent and aggressive anti-hero who strives to both avenge her father and protect her vulnerable "sister" Rose.

 

== Fan Works ==

* The metahuman known as "Skitz" from Douglas Sangnoir's home timeline in ''[[Drunkard's Walk]]''. He's a serial reincarnator first born in the Stone Age, who gains both a new power and access to all his previous powers whenever his current incarnation reaches age 21. The drawback is that the minds/personalities of all his previous incarnations who got that far "wake up" when he does, leaving him a massive case of Split Personality. Fortunately(?), the child mortality rate for most of the last ten thousand years or so means he's reached 21 "only" about a dozen or so times, and most of them were in the last couple centuries.

* In Ozzallos' ''[[Heir to the Empire]]'', something like this starts affecting [[Ranma ½|Ranma]] after [[Sailor Moon|Serenity's]] memories start returning. Ranma isn't really two different people, but he seems to develop two different "overlays" to his personality -- the crude martial artist, and the galactic empress with a millennium's life experience -- that he swaps between seamlessly as needed.

 

== Film ==

* Lampshaded/played with in The Mask episode... ''Split Personality''. The character is already two personas in one, but subverts the trope as the second personality can only come out when Stanley puts on the mask and changes. However, in this episode, the mask itself is split down the middle, and Stanley puts on one half. The results were... interesting, with half of his body changed into The Mask and the other half left alone. Both characters were sharing one body at the same time. This leads to some very interesting circumstances as Stanley has to try to hide this while half his body is changed. The other half of the mask? It gets worn by Stanley's old high school bully, who ends up with a psychotic murderous half that even manages to freak out the normal side.

* Roger from ''[[American Dad]]'', maybe. He has hundreds of "personas" he uses to live among humans, almost to the point of one per episode (though some are recurring and he's killed off quite a few of them) and it's sometimes hard to tell whether they're just disguises or separate aspects of his personality. The wide variation (some are good, some are evil, some are male, some are female, along with every type of career imaginable) plus the fact that many of his personas show disdain or even rivalries with other personas brings the situation into question.

 

== Real Life ==

* There is a sizable online community of multiples, who say that they are "systems" consisting of multiple personalities, with some being non-human, fictional and/or historical characters. However, given the debated status of DID as a genuine condition, its particularly high frequency of self-diagnoses and that online multiples' stated conditions often differ from the documented symptoms, their legitimacy is questionable.

* Herschel Walker was a former football player with tons of personalities, for instance, The Hero and The Professional White Man.

* Kenneth Bianchi, one half of The Hillside Stranglers, [[Obfuscating Insanity|attempted to set up an insanity defence]]. He claimed to have another personality named Steve Walker and, according to Bianchi, Walker was the killer - Bianchi himself was innocent. He managed to fool a couple of psychiatrists before the whole charade collapsed.

** There is a related condition - a mental event known as "disassociative fugue" - where the sufferer loses a large chunk of their history and wanders off with no idea of who they are. Some documented cases have established themselves in a completely different life from the one that they left. And it can occur ideopathically and spontaneously - i.e. ''with no known cause and with no warning''. Fugue ''tends'' to be associated with some form of traumatic event, but doesn't have to be. [[Nightmare Fuel|Scared yet?]] Fortunately, it's very, very, ''very'' rare.

* The "Society of Mind" hypothesis states that all humans are [[Mind Hive]]s.

 

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