A Short Self-Memoir: Reflections On Multiple Personality Disorder

Part 1: Construct a Short Self-Memoir 

Reflect upon the various styles, topics, and themes that we have studied throughout the course and think about how you want your memoir to come across to your audience (me).  

Will it be funny? Serious? Do you want to inspire change or do you want to make people laugh?  Will you write it formally, like Romeo Dallaire, or will you make different style choices like James Frey?

These are all ideas that you will need to consider when you set out to write your short memoir and select the moment in your life that you want to capture.  

Part 2: Self-Memoir Analysis, 

In paragraph responses, answer the following questions about your memoir.  Use quotations from your memoir and course materials as evidence to support your analysis.  

1. Why did you choose to write about your particular topic? 

2. Which narrative voice and Point of View(First person, Second Person, Third Person, Omniscient/Limited, etc) did you choose to use in the memoir?  Please provide an example from your writing that demonstrates this choice of narrative voice

3. If you were to add your memoir to our class reading list, which weekly themewould you fit your memoir under (Migration and Diaspora, Gender & Sexuality, Memoirs of Childhood, etc.)?  Include an example from the course content and explain why you think your memoir belongs in this category? 

4. What author(s) from our course readings inspiredyou when you were writing your memoir?  Why?  What specific ideas, styles, or thoughts of these authors influenced you? 

5. Explain the role of “truth”in your memoir – are your accounts and your narrative entirely factual?  Have you embellished or “rewritten” some of your history or memories?  Why did you make these choices, and how do they influence your reader? (

6. What insightsinto your own life have you gained from this experience/assignment?  How was the memoir writing process reflective (or not!) for you? 

Part 1: Constructing the Memoir

This was the year 2009 and I remember being a school student. I was at the ninth standard.  Stella and I were the best of friends and everything around us was very happy and peaceful only until the arrival of the dark days. However, the scenario was not the same month back. None of us knew that this December, will be like a dark doom and not a glistening merry Christmas like every other year.

It seemed as if our little village Greenville was being engulfed by some unholy demonic spell. This spell was becoming heavier on me and even more on my best friend Stella's life. As these reports of murder started coming up, both of us was very worried. However, I found that Stella was becoming very indifferent. I always knew her to be a very bright, charming and full of life girl but with the passing of days, she was becoming gloomier. I was unable to find out what the cause was.

Many of the local people said that they had seen Stella going around in the woods quite often and wandering there lonely for hours. On the other hand, the murders that were taking place were also going on within the forests. Most of the bodies were being found there. The local people were suspecting that Stella is the cause behind these murders.

I remember that dark day of December when the cops said that they have found a purse near a dead body at the forest and they wanted me to identify it. I had no option but to say that it was Stella’s.  I knew that purse too well as I gifted it to her on her birthday. This was on the Christmas Eve. The next day that is on Christmas I was determined to find out what the problem was. I knew Stella was in a problem but she was unable to share. I followed her to the forest at night and I was almost dead at what I saw. I saw Stella trying to stab a passerby. Though I knew she was Stella the way she behaved was actually very different. I felt that I never knew this girl standing before me. I saw her shouting and howling like anything and she was filled with extreme anger.  I immediately tried to save that passerby by shouting at the top of my voice. I went towards Stella and grabbed her with all my might. I wanted to move her away so that she does not harm the person anymore.

Stella felt unconscious and the local people gathered there for help. Luckily the person was not dead and he survived. Though he was injured he was taken to the hospital. After waking up, Stella seemed to have forgotten everything. She asked me how I found her in the forest. She did not seem to have any memory of what she did just a couple of hours back. I felt that there was a very rapid shift in her personality. My father was a psychiatrist and he took over the case. He found that Stella was a patient with Multiple personality disorder. She transforms into a totally different personality while she tries to kill the passer buys. However, she again transforms herself into her normal personality after some time. I also realized that her victims were only the male and not the females. She herself was a victim of sexual violence during her childhood. She was often molested by one of her neighbor who threatened her and she could not ever share this with any of her family members. She had once shared this with me and asked me to keep it a secret. She thought that this problem was over when her family shifted from Ouray to Greenville. After I shared this detail with my father he found out the cause of Stella's condition. She had this anger and revengefulness hidden within her and it started coming back after she shifted to Greenville. She herself did not know what she did after her revengeful personality take over her.

Part 2: Memoir Analysis

Stella was then taken to a rehab center for treatment. As she committed the crime under this sickness and she had a horrific past, the judge pardoned her and ordered for her treatment. It has been 8 long years now and Stella is living in her apartment in Greenville. Though I shifted my house I happen to visit her at times.  We meet at Christmas every year at my Greenville house. The past memories still haunt us like nightmares. However, there was also a ray of hope that we got that day.

1. I chose to write about this topic as this had a huge effect on me and was a life-changing event for me and my friend Stella. I also want to share this story so that the patients with multiple personality disorder gain proper support

2. I chose the first person narrative point of view. This is because the entire experience was related to my life and I wanted to share it by using the personal experiences that I have gone through. This is because it is very much a part of my existence. Stella was my best friend and this event that happened to her had equally affected my life as well. An example from the memoir can be -I always knew her to be a very bright, charming and full of life girl but with the passing of days, she was becoming gloomier. I was unable to find out what the cause was.

This shows that I want to put the narrative in the first person so that I can add a huge personal touch in the same.

3. I would add it in the childhood section of the class reading list. This was the year 2009 and I remember being a school student. I was at the ninth standard.  Stella and I were the best of friends and everything around us was very happy and peaceful only until the arrival of the dark days. However, the scenario was not the same month back. None of us knew that this December, will be like a dark doom and not a glistening merry Christmas like every other year.

The above example from the text shows that I am talking about an incident that took place in the childhood phase of my life. I am mainly talking about my childhood experiences with my school life best friend.

4. I have been inspired by the writing of Sydney Sheldon and his book Tell Me Your Dream. I have been influenced by the style of his writing and particularly the way he reveals the secrets as the story proceeds

5. It is a mixture of truth and factual elements. I have rewritten the incidents that happened to me and I have tried to stay as real as possible. The factual elements have been added here and there where I could not recollect the actual aspects. Like I said a purse was found by the cops. I do not remember what was actually found in the forest. Apart from this, I have talked about all the true incidents that happened to me and Stella.

6. I have gained this experiences that we must not become very hateful towards any criminals around us. We must investigate the matter to its root and find the cause. We have to keep in mind that the criminals are human beings as well and they too can have a tragic past. In such cases, we must support them. This process was reflective as I write in first person narrative and talked about my own life experiences.