According to DigoPaul, alter ego is a Latin phrase that can be translated as “the other me”. The concept is used to name a person in whom you have absolute confidence, allowing you to make yourself without restrictions. On the other hand, it may be the person (real or fictitious) in whom an imitation or a reproduction of another is identified or recognized.
For example: “Mario is my alter ego: you can talk about it 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 He expressed his opinion on the election through Johnny, the fictional character acting as his alter ego. ”
It is also important to recognize that many writers have created their works by having them star in their alter ego. That would be the case, for example, of the lady in suspense, by Agatha Christie.
And it is that the experts in the bibliography of that English pen are clear that the alter ego of it in his mystery novels is one of the characters he created for several of them. Specifically, it is 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 psychology, is used to name the second personality of a subject. The alter ego, in this case, supposes a dissociation produced by an identity disorder, in which the Ego has more than one personality that act differently.
This idea is usually taken in fiction to symbolize the moral struggle between good and evil that can develop within a person. The most famous case is that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, created by Robert Louis Stevenson, where Jekyll is a renowned scientist and Hyde is a dark and misanthropic personality of his own.
In the same way, it is necessary to highlight the fact that within the world of comics there is also a notable existence of characters that 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 “exploit” other facets of their own personality.
Thus, for example, behind Superman is the journalist Clark Kent; Spiderman is actually photographer Peter Parker and hidden under Batman is millionaire Bruce Wayne.
Another example of a fictional alter ego was created by JRR Tolkien in his “The Lord of the Rings” saga, where Gollum appears as Sméagol’s alter ego.