Do you think that dual personalities exist? Like a dormant side of you that switches on when you are at work, or under stress or when meeting certain people? Think of it this way. Some people are unable to deal with stress in a constructive way and therefore need a new temporary personality so show the world that they are normal, while hiding the fact that they are dealing with deep emotional/personal problems. If they can’t solve this problem soon and another one comes up, logically they will have to use the ‘temporary’ personality longer. In time, as the problem builds up, like water filling up a dam with no holes, you would reach a state where your problems would never be completely gone away. The ‘temporary’ personality is used so often till it becomes permanently engraved in your mind… a new personality or alter ego is born.

Lets call the new personality John Doe and the old one John Smith (all characters are fictional). John Smith is a quiet, shy, submissive and sensitive person who thinks that if he doesn’t change his personality, he will not be socially affective in the outside world. He wants to be accepted by other people, he wants to be included. Being shy and quiet does not get you far, quite frankly because no one will know you exist he thought. Its like being an invisible person, who is aware about everything that goes on around him, but sadly no one is aware of him. This is his dilemma. To fix it he thought, he will need to build up a new ‘façade’, an alter ego that takes over his social life. He needs to construct a new person that will be accepted by the general population that gives him the satisfaction of knowing that he will have people that care about him. He thought, ‘It doesn’t matter who they care about, me or the new guy, we share the same body so we are the same people’. By setting his mind to it, knowing that there is no turning back, he creates John Doe.
Now, John Doe is a total opposite of John Smith. He is a daredevil, laughs loudly, is arrogant at times, the ‘tough’ guy but most importantly he is outgoing. This outgoingness enables him to make new friends quickly, satisfying the social needs of every human being. It was a success. John Smith has doubled the number of new friends in a quarter of the time that he would make if he were his old self. ‘If it works, why change’. Soon enough John Smith will realize that he would not get far on his own and without John Doe. In time, the boundary separating John Smith and John Doe will fade. The artificial personality takes over the innate one. John Smith will be consumed.
All is not lost. At times, when John Smith meets someone he adores, likes…love or forged long-term friendships, he reveals himself. The principle of building relationships based on trust is his guiding principle. He would not lie to a loved one. ‘Will they like John Smith or John Doe?’ he asks himself. ‘It’s a risk that I will have to take.’

Do our alter egos take over us, or are they just imaginary? Or was it just the outgoingness that John Smith showed that gave him new confidence as he managed to find new friends with it? So at the end, John Doe + John Smith = an upgraded John Smith with confidence or a hybrid of personalities? Or did John Doe, like in the story consume John Smith? How i wished i knew the answer.