alter ego
Alter ego is a Latin phrase that can be translated as "the other me". The concept is used to name a person in what is it absolute confidence, allowing you to do yourself without restrictions. It may, on the other hand, be the person (real or fictitious) in whom an imitation or reproduction of another is identified or recognized.
For example: "Mario is my alter ego: you can discuss the matter with him without worrying", "If you want to ask the boss for something and he is not in the office, you can talk to Susana, who is his alter ego", "The Bolivian writer expressed his opinion about the elections through Johnny, the fictional character who acts as his alter ego".
It is also important to recognize that many writers have created their works by making them star their alter egos. That would be the case, for example, of the lady of suspense, of Agatha Christie.
And it is that the experts in the bibliography of that English pen are clear that the alter ego of the same in his mystery novels is one of the characters that he created for several of them. It is, in particular, Ariadne Oliver, a writer of the suspense genre who is in charge of helping the relevant authorities to solve the most unique murder cases that take place around her.
"Parker Pyne investigates" or "Letters on the table" are two of the books starring Christie's alter ego.
The notion of alter ego, in the psychology, is used to name the second personality of a subject. The alter ego, in this case, supposes a dissociation produced by a identity disorder, in which the Self has more than one personality they act differently.
This idea is usually taken in fiction to symbolize the moral struggle between good and evil that can develop inside a person. The most famous case is that of Dr. Jekyll Y Mr hyde, created by Robert Louis Stevenson, where Jekyll is a renowned scientist and Hyde he is a dark personality and misanthropic of himself.
In the same way, we must highlight the fact that within the world of comics there is also a notable existence of characters who have their alter ego. This would be the case, for example, of Superman, Spiderman or Batman.
And it is that any of those are ordinary citizens, who have a life like that of another man in the city in which they live. However, at a certain moment they mask themselves in order to become unknown heroes and to be able to "exploit" other facets of their own personality.
Thus, for example, behind Superman is the journalist Clark Kent; Spiderman is actually the photographer Peter Parker and hidden under Batman's clothing is the millionaire Bruce Wayne.
Another example of an alter ego in fiction was created by JRR Tolkien in his saga of "The Lord of the rings", where Gollum appears as the alter ego of Sméagol.
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