Forger by Mark Spivak

Author:Mark Spivak [Spivak, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

“Thanks for calling back,” said Cheryl Weissberg. “I appreciate it.”

“No worries. I assume this has to do with the DID patient, Lester Gordon. What’s up?”

“Something really unusual came out in a session the other day. Lester said he was familiar with one of the alters—the forger, Louis Bétancourt.”

“Hmm. That’s very unusual.”

“I thought so. My understanding, at least as I’ve received it from you, is that the actual person is supposed to be unaware of the alters. The alters usually know each other, but the original personality is generally oblivious to them.”

“This is true.”

“But Lester started talking about the forger. He told me that he was renting the living room of his apartment to him as a studio. He more or less presented him as a friend, a person that he admired. He described him as a painter of great talent—talent that he, himself, didn’t have. He didn’t refer to him as a forger, and I’m not sure he perceives him that way. I asked him if Bétancourt’s presence in his living room made it difficult for Lester to get on with his own work, and he said he didn’t care. It was worth it to him to be nurturing Bétancourt.”

“Did he give you any detail of the forger’s life and activities?”

“Not really, but we got into a discussion about the blocks of time that he was losing. He said that he had gone into the closet and seen a black suit hanging in the closet, a priest’s outfit. This didn’t relate to Bétancourt, of course, but to Father Humphries. But he did make a point of saying that he assumed that priest’s outfit might be another one of Bétancourt’s costumes. Then he said he looked down at the floor and saw a bag filled with souvenirs of the priest’s trip to South Carolina. I didn’t press it, but I thought it was significant.”

“It certainly is. It reinforces what you’ve told me up to this point: that the patient is very close to these alters, and that their identities are just beneath the surface.”

“That was my impression,” said Weissberg.

“I think it’s all consistent with all the background you’ve given me. The fact that the onset of DID in this patient occurred in middle age indicates to me that this is a mild case: if not mild, at least easily curable. When I say easily, I mean it might take six or twelve months rather than six or twelve years. You’ve described the childhood trauma as significant to the patient but not necessarily severe. If we’re on the right track, the challenge of integrating the alters into one personality could be easily achieved.”

“Do you have any thoughts on integration?”

“Well, you tell me. He’s your patient.”

“I’m tempted to bring out all the alters at once. Based on what you’re saying, I think it might work. Somehow I induce Baby Les, in an environment where I have both the Cubist Mona Lisa and the fake Signac hanging on the wall. Then I could let them slug it out.

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