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Alatar seems onto something here. I do think that Gollum suffers from a prolonged case (hundreds of years) of severe disassociative disorder. From too many movies, we get the idea that split personality is where two distinct personalities - almost two different people - can inhabit the same person. In many films, each of these personalities functions independently and with ignorance of the other. It is my understanding that such cases are the extreme of an extreme. Most disassociative disorders manifest themselves in far more subtle ways. The person is aware that sometimes they act differently but feel powerless to answer the question as to why. They sometimes develop complicated intellectual rationalizations or explainations for their behavior. Even in therapy, when confronted with the reality of a disassociative personality, the person still can seem puzzled and confused until they accept it.
I see the Jackson Gollum as someone who has undergone a stonge disassociative break and it has lasted hundreds of years. Frodo extends kindness and an offer of partial redemption to him and that causes the twinklings of the Smeagol personality to surface again after a long hiatus.
The debates with himself illustrate the conflict within the creature. Davem said it reminded him of the old cartoons with the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other. That comparison suggests that there are three involved in that discussion - the good, the bad and the actual person in the middle who can then make a decision about which side to go with. In the Jackson films, there is no third in the middle. Its just a true disassociative disorder where one personality tries to control the person independent of the other.
One does not altogether cancel out the other. Even as Gollum extends a hand to Frodo on the stairway to Shelob - a positive gesture - , he looks at the Ring with wanton lust and desire. He could as just as quickly shoved Frodo off that winding stairway and climbed down to pick through his remains. But he did not.
Alatar mentions that the fall into lava brought healing to this poor creature. I would not agree with that characterization. That was not so much a healing as it was a simple finish to his life. A healing would have been the elimination of the Gollum side of his personality and a return to Smeagol. After hundreds of years and the effects of the Ring, that would have probably been impossible. Sam was probably right.
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