What is Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome?

What is the Jekyll and Hyde Personality?

A Jekyll and Hyde personality is someone with a split personality that may have two distinct and diametrically opposed personalities. A split personality can have one side that is friendly and easygoing, while the other can be disconnected or even abusive. 

These people reveal different facets of themselves based on the circumstances but they are also capable of possessing double lives or completely different personalities—personalities that would be barely recognizable to people who meet them in other settings.

The characters Jekyll and Hyde are the brainchild of Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson’s famed Victorian era fiction novel was inspired by him being plagued by intense and disturbing nightmares of living dual lives himself and so Jekyll and Hyde were created. Let’s look deeper into the Jekyll And Hyde Personality.

The Jekyll And Hyde Personality

Normal people experience mood swings from time to time and have diverse personalities but people with Jekyll and Hyde personalities are on a whole other level. They might experience radical mood swings and outbursts of rage. 

There’s no knowing what might get them all fired up and spiraling into the dark evil side of their personality which may be depressed, cold and sulky or even worse abusive, cruel and violent. Such people are said to have Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome, and they might live double lives which cause much inner turmoil for them and for their loved ones.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is about a man named Dr. Henry Jekyll, who is well-liked, popular, and has a magnificent intellect, but is well aware of the duplicity of his life and the evil that hides inside him.

Dr. Jekyll subtly expresses the evil in his soul by numerous horrific actions, but he is unable to do so publicly for fear of social scrutiny. During his experiments, he creates a concoction that allows him to liberate this evil inside him from the influence of his good self, resulting in the creation of Edward Hyde.

Edward Hyde is amoral and corrupt. His psyche is not only opposite of Dr. Jekyll’s, but his body is also hideous and disfigured. As a result, Dr. Jekyll believes he can enjoy the pleasures that both sides of his personality without being hampered by the constraints of the other.

Edward Hyde steadily gains more influence over the ‘good’ counterpart, eventually driving Dr. Jekyll to his death by suicide.

Mood Shifts and Dualism in Jekyll And Hyde Personalities

People with the Jekyll and Hyde syndrome don’t just go through regular mood swings and reveal different aspects of themselves like the rest of us. The following characteristics distinguish individuals with a Jekyll and Hyde personality:

• Mood shifts accompanied with an entire personality switch
• Deeply conflicted inner selves bring about mood shifts
• Mood shifts that are often accompanied with abuse
• Mood shifts that are much higher in intensity and frequency as compared to an average individual
• Most of them are not even aware of their mood shifts or split personalities and may be in outright denial
• Some of them actually live dual lives. They might be well regarded members of the society that conceal a dark side of their personality that causes them to behave in ways that would be surprising and painful to those who hold them in high esteem 
• They could build multiple personalities to engage in actions that are not acceptable in mainstream society.

The 7 Types of Jekyll and Hyde Personalities

According to psychotherapist Beverly Engel there are seven types of Jekyll and Hyde personalities:

The Super Nice/ Abusive Person

This person can be sweet and charming one moment and aggressive the next. Disparagement, ridicule, and criticism are the most common forms of violence, but physical abuse can also eventuate. Once some time has elapsed, the individual is usually repentant and returns to his normal loving self only to spiral back into the darkness.

If you’re facing this, it may be a good idea to seek the help of a therapist or other mental health professional. You can find a therapist at BetterHelp who can help you learn how to cope and address it.

The Unpredictable Person

You never know when this person will get irritated, explode, go on a rampage, retreat and sulk, or totally change their mind about anything. They are overly sensitive, and you never know whether anything you say or do would hurt them.

The classic Jekyll and Hyde who truly lives a double life

When he’s with his family, he might be one person, but when he’s not, he’s a totally different guy. Some people with this form of Jekyll and Hyde personality have developed distinct personalities, along with going by multiple names or marrying more than one person.

Someone whose personality radically changes when he or she drinks alcohol, takes drugs, or engages in other addictive activities

This sort of radical change normally occurs only when the individual is altered due to alcohol, drugs, gambling, and other factors, as it did with Dr. Jekyll after he drank a concoction he crafted in his laboratory.

The Imposter

This person attempts to deceive others into believing that he is something they are not. This can mean claiming to care more about other people’s well-being or to be more popular than they are. They lie, deceive, and mislead people on a daily basis.

Someone whose opinion of others fluctuates drastically

This individual has a tendency to categorise others as either “all good” or “all bad.” Whenever they see others as “all evil,” they can’t see any praiseworthy virtues about them and feel rightful in treating them badly or absolutely ignoring them even if it is their very own child.

Someone who changes dramatically when you challenge him or her in any way

As long as things are going their way or they are in charge, these people can be compassionate and accommodating. You will see a totally different person if you do not do what they wishe, if you criticise them in some way, or if you dare to refute them. They will get angry, dismissive, and harsh.

Causes of Jekyll And Hyde Syndrome

People suffering from this syndrome are quite often extremely conflicted individuals. It’s possible that this inner conflict stems from being raised by conservative religious or authoritarian parents who disciplined them harshly for misbehaving.

A Jekyll and Hyde personality develops a deep dark side or Shadow that contains all of the repressed and internalised feelings and desires. This dark side has the ability to physically take over a human, forcing them to form a separate entity that is free to carry out secret desires. Scary isn’t it?

It seems as if people with the Jekyll and Hyde personality have an “episode” that causes them to alter their personality for a short period of time. Many who were verbally, emotionally, or sexually abused as children often experience drastic mood swings as a result of someone or something triggering memories of the trauma.

Signs of Jekyll And Hyde Personality

Here are some signs of the Jekyll and Hyde Personality:

• They might be giving signs of having double lives
• They change dramatically based on who they are in the presence of.
• They might confuse others by keeping them confused about who they actually are
• Certain events trigger this person ‘s personality to shift or their mood to change abruptly.
• They tend to have a public persona that is somewhat inconsistent with how they act in the privacy of their own home.
• They often contradict themselves by expressing one viewpoint or opinion one moment and the opposite viewpoint the next.
• They tend to be hypocritical in that they strongly condemn some behaviours in others while often engaging in the same actions themselves.
• They see themselves in a very different light than the rest of the world does.
• Once they’ve had a few drinks or used recreational drugs, they change their personality or become an entirely different person.
• They want to be seen as a pillar of the society or as someone who is deeply religious, but they often engage in conduct that is deemed inappropriate, immoral, or even illegal.

The Takeaway

Ours is a universe of darkness and light, of goodness and evil and we as humans possess dualism of nature. Each of us has a side which we prefer to show the world i.e. persona (Dr. Jekyll), and a dark side which we try so hard to hide from others i.e. the shadow self (Mr. Hyde).

Guess what? The parts of us which were rejected or denied expression when we were children have not died out, in fact they live on within us to this very moment (aka the beast inside). Wisdom lies in acknowledging that each of us has a dark side and doing shadow work in order to understand ourselves better and help ourselves. 

Conclusion

In this article, we will look at the Jekyll and Hyde personality in depth and explore the types of Jekyll and Hyde personalities along with signs and causes of Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome.

If you’ve enjoyed the ”Jekyll And Hyde Personality” you should take a look at ”Fight Club: Multiple Personality Disorder” too.

Frequently Asked Questions: Jekyll And Hyde Personality

What mental disorder does Dr Jekyll have?

The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a notable example of split personality disorder.

Is Jekyll and Hyde about schizophrenia?

However, while the term schizophrenia had not yet been invented, there is no suggestion that the public at the time thought of the Jekyll and Hyde personality as schizophrenia. In reality, the Jekyll and Hyde personality was linked to the concept of multiple personalities, which is now known as dissociative identity disorder.

Why did Jekyll kill himself?

Hyde’s evil grows more pronounced as the story advances. Finally, when Jekyll commits suicide in order to rid himself of Hyde (suicide is considered an unethical act by the church), Hyde takes over as the dominant evil entity, and the dying Jekyll transforms into Hyde in his final moments.

Is Jekyll and Hyde one person?

Mr. Hyde and Jekyll are the same human. Dr. Jekyll is a scientist who, in order to distinguish his good self from his evil instincts, concocts a potion that turns him into a man without a conscience.

What is the message of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson’s spiritual lesson is that man’s soul is combined with both good and bad components. Since man is characterised by the strife within his own self and how he interacts with it, these essential elements cannot be segregated.