Gollum's Personality Disorder

Smeagol, A.K.A. Gollum.

You know, I think Gollum (a.k.a. Smeagol) is the most misunderstood LOTR character. Everyone seems to think he is just this crazy guy obsessed with a ring, but I happen to think that he suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder (or MPD) brought on by a traumatic experience (hundreds of years of isolation; I will explain this further later on).

It all started with Smeagol and his best friend fishing on Smeagol's birthday- roughly 500 years ago. His friend caught a great big huge fish, which pulled him into the water. Whilst being towed across the river floor, this dude saw something gold and resplendent- causing him to let go of the fishing pole. The object, as it turns out, was the Ring of Power.

By this point in time, Smeagol was getting a bit worried, and began walking the shores in search of his buddy. He came across his friend just as he was crawling out of the river, ring in tow. They both marvelled at the Ring, and Smeagol tried to take it from  his friend. It was his birthday after all. Anywho, they fought over it, and Smeagol ended up strangling the other guy.

The Ring drove Smeagol mad (and rather paranoid, might I add), and he went into isolation in the mountains. There, the ring kept him alive for 500 years.

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

The Ring changed this:

 Into this:

Pretty intense, eh?

You should know, Riverfolk (Hobbit-like creatures who lived on the river shores) are similar to humans in the sense that we are both social animals. We know from research that isolation for humans can cause everything from anxiety and hallucinations to death. So it is fair to assume that it would have pretty much the same effect on Riverfolk.

Smeagol's alter's (an alter is an alternate personality in persons with MPD- some people can have 15 or more!) name is Gollum- he got that name from the sound he makes sometimes. Alters have a completely seperate view of the world, different personalities from the actual person, and in men the alters are usually violent. That explains a lot.

So, moral of the story is: it wasn't Smeagol's fault he acted the way he did. Perhaps if there had been psychaitric help available (and the Ring was disposed of, of course), he could have been a model citizen of Middle Earth.

Here is a video displaying a conversation between Smeagol and his alter, Gollum: