Dual Identity Trigger

I'm working on a character who has psionic powers, as well as suffering from Disassociative Identity Disorder. Simply put, their personas are Simon Tam and Jayne Cobb. For some unexplained reason, his psi-powers are different depending on the ID ("Chris", the Simon persona, is stronger with telepathy and clairvoyance; "Ricky" is a stronger telekinetic).

Also, the personas are unaware of their situation, and believe the other persona to be their twin brother. Even though both identities have military training, Ricky is more of a Blood Knight.

The thing is, I can't think of what would trigger the identity change. Any suggestions?

Moments of emotional fatigue or vulnerability could work. So could high levels of stress (it would be interesting if the mild-mannered personality triggered in violent situations) or substance abuse. Something that precipitates a change in thinking patterns would make for the most believable switch; something like "whenever he sees purple" would seem horribly contrived.

For realism's sake the trigger conditions should be subtle enough that triggrs can occur at what from an outward perspetive seems mostly random (but can follow a deeper logic of the psyche which should, unless your universe has such advantaged tech/magic, stay known only to you). I knew a person who could trigger when having a nap with her lover just to mention one thing.

Edit/ ugh, have to stop writing anything in the middle of the night

edited 21st Jul '12 11:55:03 PM by peccantis

Well, one thing I want to avoid is having Chris and Ricky act SO diametrically opposite from one another. That's kind of (OK, VERY) annoying. In other words, they're not gonna be written as Michael Caine and R. Lee Ermey.

It's just that, even though "they" were both Child Soldiers (briefly), as I mentioned earlier, Ricky's more of a combat junkie. I thought of having a hint of the transformation via an article of clothing (simply, Chris is often seen wearing a black bandana or whatever, whereas Ricky doesn't wear one).

Now I'm reminded of that Whose Line Is It Anyway thing where the guys switch characters based on who is holding what item.

The Bandanna could work in that sense; "Ricky" is done with fighting and time for espionage, so he puts on a face mask for camouflage, bringing "Chris" out. Then things go bad and "Chris" takes off the mask so he can see better in the fight.

One important thing, also: The split-personality disorder isn't revealed until around the second act (basically, a powerful psi-soldier "forces" Ricky out of seclusion, so to speak). Until then, everybody's convinced that Chris and Ricky are twin brothers.

BTW, the idea of the trigger occuring during moments of extreme emotional vulnerability/stress sounds fairly logical.

Not to be cliched but I think it would then be worth making it so that there really was a twin brother who is now dead. This way, there would be a genuine record of the other brother as well as photographs of the two together (providing evidence that they are two distinct individuals) - that helps convince others (and the reader) that they are two separate individuals.

Also, it raises the question of which identity being the real one and which twin died.

edited 21st Jul '12 8:54:21 PM by peasant

Eh, my point had nothing to do with how different the personalities/modes should be... I meant to warn against having the trigger be "extreme" emotional stress. But I guess wha's more important is that the change should not be predictable and the trigger conditions should not be regular i.e. every instance of the trigger conditions should not result in a change and what makes the change occur should be a set of triggers rather than one easily definable trigger.

OTOH "extreme emotional stress" as the trigger could work nicey... but define "extreme" as rather mild compared to psychologically stable people, and remember that not only shock, confusion and grief but also joy, love and surprise can put a strain on the brain.

Tl;dr: You'll be fine as long as you use it as a confusing disability and not a funky superpower.