XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies   
      
   In message    
     Sandman  wrote:   
   > In article ,   
   >  "No One in Particular"  wrote:   
      
   >> >But still, the term "split personality" is unfitting in any stage of   
   >> >Gollum. Dual nature (as in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide) is more fitting,   
   >> >especially in the context of a drug-induced disorder.   
   >>   
   >> Was DID in use back in the 1930's though?  Either way, I was thinking more   
   >> in generalities than specifics.   
      
   > In any way, the term "split personality" in real life and in a story   
   > doesn't necessarily equate. Meaning that Tolkien and his readers   
   > doesn't need to apply modern medical definitions to the personality   
   > state of a character.   
      
   DID and related multiple personality discorders where not well   
   understood at the time of The Hobbit or The Lord os the Rings writing,   
   at all. There is still some argument as to whether the disorders even   
   really exist.   
      
   --   
   You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were   
   dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless, and terrible.   
   But this much I can tell you, you ape - the great face pressed even   
   closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes -   
   we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it   
   morality. --Guards! Guards!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)