The Redbreast(153)

He was awoken by his own panting and had to

turn over in bed to make sure he was still alone.

Afterwards, everything merged in a maelstrom of

thunder, sleep and dreams. He awoke in the middle

of the night to the sound of beating rain; he went

over to the window and stared down at the street

where water was streaming over the edges of the

pavement and an ownerless hat drifted along with

it.

When Harry was awoken by his early-morning

alarm call it was light outside and the streets were

dry.

He looked at his watch on the bedside table. His

flight to Oslo left in two hours.

88

Thereses Gate. 15 May 2000.

STÅLE AUNE’S OFFICE WAS YELLOW AND THE WALLS

WERE covered with shelves crammed with

specialist books and drawings of Kjell Aukrust’s

cartoon characters.

‘Take a seat, Harry,’ Doctor Aune said. ‘Chair or

divan?’

That was his standard opener, and Harry

responded by raising the left-hand corner of his

mouth in his standard that’s-funny-but-we’ve-

heard-it-before smile. When Harry had rung from

Gardemoen Airport, Aune had said Harry could

come, but that he didn’t have a lot of time as he had

to go to a seminar in Hamar at which he was to

give the opening speech.

‘It’s entitled “Problems Related to the Diagnosis

of Alcoholism”,’ Aune said. ‘You won’t be

mentioned by name.’

‘Is that why you’re all dressed up?’ Harry asked.

‘Clothes are one of the strongest signals we

transmit,’ Aune said, running a hand along a lapel.

‘Tweed signals masculinity and confidence.’

‘And the bow-tie?’ Harry asked, taking out his

notebook and pen.

‘Intellectual frivolity and arrogance. Gravity with

a touch of self-irony, if you like. More than enough

to impress second-rate colleagues, it seems.’

Aune leaned back, pleased with himself, his

hands folded over his bulging stomach.

‘Tell me about split personalities,’ Harry said.

‘Or schizophrenia.’

‘In five minutes?’ Aune groaned.

‘Give me a summary then.’

‘First of all, you mention split personalities and

schizophrenia in the same breath, and that is one of

these misunderstandings that for some reason has

caught the public’s imagination. Schizophrenia is a

term for a whole group of widely differing mental

disorders and has nothing at all to do with split

personalities. It’s true schizo is Greek for split, but what Doctor Eugen Bleuler meant was that

psychological functions in a schizophrenic’s brain

are split. And if . . .’

Harry pointed to his watch.

‘Right,’ Aune said. ‘The personality split you

talked about is called an MPD, a multiple

personality disorder, defined as the existence of

two or more personalities in an individual which

take turns in being the dominant partner. As with

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.’

‘So, it exists?’

‘Oh, yes. But it’s rare, a lot rarer than some

Hollywood films would have us believe. In my

twenty-five years as a psychologist I’ve never

been lucky enough to observe a single instance of

an MPD. But I do know something about it all the

same.’

‘For example?’

‘For example, it is almost always connected with

a loss of memory. In other words, an MPD sufferer

could wake up with a hangover without realising

that it is because their other personality is a

drinker. Well, in fact, one personality can be an

alcoholic and the other a teetotaller.’

‘Not literally, I take it?’

‘Certainly.’

‘But alcoholism is a physical ailment too.’

‘Yes, and that’s what makes MPDs so fascinating.

I have a report of an MPD case where one of the

personalities was a big smoker while the other

never touched cigarettes. And when you measured

the blood pressure of the smoker it was 20 per cent

higher. Women with an MPD have reported that

they menstruate several times a month because

every personality has its own cycle.’

‘So these people can change their own physical

nature?’

‘To a certain degree, yes. The story about Dr

Jekyll and Mr Hyde is in fact not so far from the

truth as one might think. In one well-known case

described by Dr Osherson, one of the personalities

was heterosexual while the other was

homosexual.’

‘Can the personalities have different voices?’

‘Yes. Actually the voice is one of the easiest

ways to observe the shift between personalities.’

‘So different that even someone who knows this

person extremely well would not recognise one of

these other voices. On the phone, for example?’