Elizabeth's recent bout of headaches, insomnia, memory lapses, and nocturnal perambulations seemed to coincidentally coincide to foundational issues with the museum in where Elizabeth is employed as a secretary. Elizabeth currently lives with Aunt Morgan, her mother's older sister, who has her own troubles. When Elizabeth displays an emotional outburst at a dinner party, Aunt Morgan schedules an appointment with her primary physician; however, once he sees her, he refers her to Dr. Wright, a psychiatrist. After agreeing to hypnosis, Dr. Wright learns that Elizabeth suffers from dissociative identity disorder formally known as multiple personality disorder, a mental illness in which her personality splintered into four distinct personas.
The novel is divided into six large chapters each narrated by a different character including two of Elizabeth's personalities, Dr. Wright (known as Dr. Wrong by the most childish of the personalities) and Aunt Morgan. I was surprised at how on target the discription of this mental disorder was since it predated the publication of the book, The Three Faces of Eve, by four years. The same skill that Jackson demonstrated in writing a foreboding narration for her classic, The Haunting of Hill House, was evident in this book, too, especially the narration of the switches between one personality to another at the drop of a hat.
The novel is divided into six large chapters each narrated by a different character including two of Elizabeth's personalities, Dr. Wright (known as Dr. Wrong by the most childish of the personalities) and Aunt Morgan. I was surprised at how on target the discription of this mental disorder was since it predated the publication of the book, The Three Faces of Eve, by four years. The same skill that Jackson demonstrated in writing a foreboding narration for her classic, The Haunting of Hill House, was evident in this book, too, especially the narration of the switches between one personality to another at the drop of a hat.