Abstract
The figure of the “double” or the other self is an important topic in the history of literature. Many centuries before Jean Paul Richter coined the term, “doppelgänger,” at the beginning of the Romantic Movement in the year 1796, it is possible to find the figure of the double in myths and legends. The issue of the double emphaszses the contradictory character of the human being and invokes a sinister dimension of the psychological world, what has been called in German as “umheimlich.” However, does multiciplicity always involve pathology? Related to this figure in literary history, a new perspective from clinical psychology called “dialogical self” defines the self as a multi-voice reality. Along the same line, postmodernist psychology considers the self a discursive construction. From these perspectives, the “self” is situated a long way away from the classical essential conception of the self. In this paper, we review briefly some important landmarks of the figure of the double in the literature, and we compare the coincidences of the “double” experiencies described in literature with the experiences of our patients. Finally, we discuss how this literary tradition can help us to understand new psychological perspectives.
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Notes
The authors declare that the extracts from interviews with people with severe mental disorders that are discussed in this article were obtained after reporting on the method and objectives of the research to the institution where patients live and obtaining their consent (FAISEM. Andalusian Public Foundation for the Social Integration of Persons with Severe Mental Disorder). The institution was continuously informed about the development of the ongoing investigation. The interviewees agreed to participate freely. None of the patients who showed doubts about their participation was interviewed. Those who agreed to participate were given a document signed by the main researcher to ensure that data could only be used for scientific reasons and that the identity of interviewees would be confidential. To avoid any possibility of recognition, all personal information—age, sex, diagnosis or date of the interview—has been removed. Similarly, any information within the extracts that could identify patients, such as proper names, has been deleted or modified.
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Macías, J.S., Núñez, R.V. The Other Self: Psychopathology and Literature. J Med Humanit 32, 257–267 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-011-9148-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-011-9148-2