Kate and Gerry McCann will probably be coping reasonably well so far with the pressure of suspicion, for the same reason that they have been able to behave with such stoicism and strength in the months since Madeleine’s disappearance. When a parent loses a child, it is not uncommon for them to dissociate their previous selves and former lives from such a terrible trauma.

In some cases, they create a sub-personality, becoming actors who play out a role or a part. Mr and Mrs McCann may have followed this pattern, and established new characters for themselves who are completely divorced in their minds from the people they were before May 3.

If that were the case, then it follows that since Madeleine went missing they have been acting out roles — as a way of dealing with an otherwise intolerable event.

The roles are those of beleaguered, stoic and heroic parents, a united couple battling to find their abducted daughter.

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The constant, public repetition, by Mrs McCann in particular, that Madeleine is still alive would then be a means of protecting herself from addressing the very real possibility that she may not be.

Her incapacity to tolerate the pain of having to accept the reality that her daughter could be dead would mean that instead, she would sustain the mantra that this is not a bereavement.

The development of a sub-personality is an extension of normal, common behaviour. All of us change our personality depending on the situation we find ourselves in. The difference between this normal continuum of personality and the creation of a sub-personality is that in the latter case, the “normal” self is not aware of the change. The person you were before the trauma is so sealed off from the new sub-personality you take on in order to cope that there is no connection between the two.

Various means are used to reinforce these sub-personalities.

The massive media campaign that the McCanns have led actively could serve one.They are not the first parents to have stepped into the media spotlight having lost a child — it is a growing trend and one that the police exploit increasingly to publicise investigations — but the McCanns have taken it to an extreme.

The campaign has ensured that, like their two-year-old twins, they have been constantly distracted, constantly busy — and thus have always remained “in character”.

It is likely that they avoid being alone together with nothing to do, and quite possible that they have never discussed the prospect of their daughter being dead.

There have been almost certainly at least a few uneasy moments when on some level they know that there is a good chance their daughter is dead. Nevertheless, the immense media support for the McCanns’ campaign up to this point would have greatly bolstered any sub-personalities, which by now would be very strong.

That they are suddenly under suspicion would therefore, rather than bringing panic, probably enhance the feelings they already had — of being persecuted and victimised, two people united against a cruel world.

Lengthy formal questioning would reinforce their belief that the Portuguese detectives have never handled the investigation well, and that out there somewhere Madeleine is alive and waiting to be found.

It is difficult to predict what charges, if they are ever brought, could do — whether doubts would creep in as the situation develops, at last exposing the old Mr and Mrs McCann to the reality of the situation. The constant distractions could cease, and the sub-personalities come crashing down, damaging their relationship, or leading to a complete breakdown by one or both partners. Do not, however, underestimate the human capacity for self-deception.

— Oliver James is a clinical psychologist and author of Affluenza

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