Multiple Personality Disorder

88 days to go..

What comes to your mind when you come across 'Multiple Personality Disorder'? As a boy who grew up consuming entertainment from the 'rise the price, lower the size' TVs of 2000's, it reminds me of Anniyan. Slightly literary folks might point to the Sidney Sheldon book 'Tell me your dreams' as one that comes to your mind.

Recently, over a conversation with my friend, I chanced upon this disorder again. Disorder, really? From the medical, psychological forefront, one would agree that it is indeed a disorder. But how does one view it personally? More specifically, what do I feel about it? 

Everyone has Multiple Personality Disorder, according to me. What differentiates one from another is just the way one carries himself with such traits. The way I speak with a bus conductor (old topics are contagious) is different from the way I speak to my friend. Is it me adapting to differences in circumstances, people and the like, or is it the multiple personalities in me responding when their turn comes? 

I feel, that it is the multiple personality disorder that differentiates us from the sheep (I don't disagree on the physical standpoint). The honourable Viva-Voce examiner asks a question and it elicits different responses from me and the guy sitting next to me. Sometimes, I have to stretch the neck and tell the patient examiner that I want to correct myself. Ain't there a small change of personality at that point of time? 

We are sheep ourselves, aren't we? When I want a bonafide certificate, I turn to the one who recently got it and ask him to get me a photo of the same. During UG, when  I wanted to complete the assignments, I asked the topper and carefully printed his words in my sheet, avoiding 'errors'. The high school teacher tells me, "If you don't have those three words in the paper, no marks for you!". So I carefully make sure I build a story around the three words as a response. Then, I become a sheep. When I became the class representative (reality check: Disasters happen), I became a donkey, carrying things around and alike. There are just too many cloaks that one dons over the course of an hour, a day, a week and so on. Does it deserve being called multiple personalities?

When an individual professes something and doesn't follow it- hypocrisy, to be exact, does he suffer from MPD? Did I suffer from it because I kept typing Multiple Personality Disorder and now, I wanted to type MPD? Can traitors, betrayers and turncoats be naturally diagnosed with MPD? Let me just extrapolate and ask if politicians come under the ambit of MPD? 

To me, Multiple Personality Disorder is a trait that everyone possesses and it is the game changer that defines an individual. Without it, we are just rudderless in the vast ocean (and for modern folks, in front of a TV without a TV remote).

"Remove everything from an imperfect life and it'd lose even its imperfection"- Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami.

I'd like to call it a case of Multiple Personality to keep everything in order.