How Multiple Are You?

People vary enormously in the number and type of personalities they have, and also in the degree to which their personalities are separated. At one end of the spectrum there are a few people who are "one and the same" in all situations while at the other there are those whose personalties are so separate that they do not even share common memories. The vast majority of people are somewhere in between. To find out where you lie, answer the following questions (ideally with help from one or more people who know you well) then score:
“0” for each “never”’
1 for “sometimes ” and
2 for “absolutely, all the time.” .

1) Do you find your mental skills, including memory for facts, vary from time to time for no obvious reason (eg not connected with tiredness or drinking). For example, are you aware that sometimes you can romp through a crossword puzzle while at other times, given a similar puzzle, you cannot get a single clue?

2) Does your handwriting change noticeably at different times?

3) Do you ever refer to yourself as “we”?

4) Do your personal memories sometimes feel like a film you have seen, rather than something that actually happened to you?

5) Are you called by a number of different names or nicknames and/or do you think of yourself by different names?

6) Are you ever gripped with enthusiasm for a while by a hobby or pastime (DIY, gymnastics, gardening) that you find utterly boring at other times?

7) Do you ever find yourself uttering the phrase “what on earth made me do that?” (or words to that effect)?

8) Do you talk to yourself?

9) Do you have “binges” - of food, cigarettes, or alcohol?

10) Is your behaviour chameleon-like, e.g. do you find yourself adopting the accent or intonation of the person you are talking to, or putting on a “telephone voice”?

11) Do you swing suddenly from one mood to another for no apparent reason?

12) Do certain circumstances trigger skills or knowledge that is not usually available to you. Eg. In a foreign country do you find yourself speaking the language better than you thought possible?

13) Do your tastes – in food, music, films, literature – differ widely from time to time?

14) When you look in your wardrobe do you see clothes that you cannot imagine wearing and wonder why you bought them?

15) Do vague acquaintances treat you as though they know you far better than you would expect?

16) Do friends and acquaintances refer to events they claim to have shared with you which you cannot recall?

17) Do people you would regard as trustworthy claim you have told them things which you cannot believe you would have said?

18) If you come across something you wrote a while ago - an unposted letter from you to a friend, perhaps, or an old diary or notebook, do you sometimes fail to realise at first that the author is you?

19) Do you find yourself laughing or crying, to your own surprise, for no reason you can think of?

20) Does your level of self-esteem/self-love go up and down regardless of others` expressed opinion of you?

 Scoring: Basically, the lower your score the nearer you are towards the singlet end of the spectrum. Most people score between 10- 30. A very low score (less than about 8) can mean one of two things: either you are exceptionally unified , or it means that the personality who completed this questionnaire is unable to see the Others and is answering just for itself. To distinguish between these two, come back to these questions at another time – ideally when you are in a different place, doing a different thing, with different people and at a different time of day. If your score is similar and your answers to each question are more or less the same it is likely that you really are fairly unitary. If the score is different, it suggests that you have at least one more personality than you might at first think.

To find out how your personalities were formed, who they are and how to make sure they work together instead of against one another,  buy Multiplicity- the new science of personality by Rita Carter