Multiple Personality Disorder

Multiple Personality Disorders (MPD), or what has been re-classified, Dissociative Idenitfy Disorder (DID), is a deliberating and frightening illness for the DID individual; as well as their friends and family. The meaning of DID (Dissoiative Idenity Disorder) usually means that a person has more than two self-states or identities, which often times appear like entirely different personalities. When one is under the control of one identity, the person usually is unable to remember some of the events, but is able to keep other personalities in control.

We’ve all experienced the feeling that we’ve moved into a different life, dissociation from reality, just mild like when we daydream, delve into a good book or become engrossed with a project. But then after that, we do still come back to reality. However, some people are diagnosed with a dissociative identity disorder or the popular multiple personality disorder (MPD). This differ from mild dissociation that all of us commonly experience. People who have this live a fairly complicated life. Sadly, people who have this experience traumatic physical, sexual or emotional abuse during their childhood.

Many psychologists don't even attempt to define personality. For example, Carroll (2003) gives the following explanation for an alter personality: "The "alters" are said to occur spontaneously and involuntarily, and function more or less independently of each other." This really gives no insight as to what an alter personality truly is; it only describes what an alter does. Piper attempts to explain alter personalities in stating "each personality has its own set of personality traits, such as language abilities, style of speech, value systems, and cognitive styles." This gives a little clearer picture of what a personality consists of, but it's not quite complete. One reason many are skeptical about MPD could be that no one really understands what an alter personality is, so it is therefore hard to believe they exist.

     Sometimes people undergo traumatic experiences in their lives that are either physical or mental and maybe even a combination of both. If the experience was so intense, and so horrible, that the mind didn’t want to remember it, or possibly didn’t know how to deal or cope with it, then that one experience has the power to split a person’s mind into “another personality”. If this happens, the other personality or personalities come out when a person who has MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) is put in a situation that he/she doesn’t know how to handle or feels that the other personality can handle it better. People suffering from MPD also have the risk of developing some

Multiple personality Disorder, (MPD) was first recognized in the 1700’s but was not understood so therefore was soon forgotten. Many cases showed up during the years, but was overlooked, or misdiagnosed as either schizophrenia or psychosis. Many in the medical profession did not believe that a person could have more than one personality in a body, unknowingly, even after the 1950’s. In 1993, records show that three to five thousand people were being treated for MPD, compared to the hundred cases reported ten years earlier. The disease is commonly found in adults who were abused mentally, physically, emotionally, and or sexually as children, between birth to eight years of age. The child uses a process called disassociation to separate himself/herself from the abusive situation. This is when the child makes up a personality to take control of the mind and body. During abuse, usually there is a personality for every emotion and feeling when the abuse is taking place. Symptoms of the disease include: amnesia, hallucinations, depression, and suicidal thoughts, and tendencies, and there can be anywhere from two to over a hundred different personalities. Usually each personality will fall into one of the following categories: host, core, child, teenager, artistic, adult, animals, intimate members, self-helpers, persecutor, rescuer and helper. The child is usually under the age of twelve, with according behaviors,

Dissociative Identity Disorder, commonly referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder, has been one of the more controversial diagnoses in psychology and psychiatry. On one side of the debate, many psychologists and psychiatrists believe the disorder to be an actual phenomenon that occurs in individuals that have suffered through some traumatic experience. On the other side of the debate, however, are the many psychologists and psychiatrists that believe the disorder is simply the result of a therapist’s suggestion and guidance. The present paper, therefore, aims to look into this debate. In particular, the paper discusses the criteria in which one is diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, explores the history of the disorder, and presents both sides of the controversy of the disorder.

Dissociative identity disorder was formerly known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). DID was and is a very controversial disorder. Researchers argue whether or not the disorder is really validated because there are not fact stating tests revolving around the disorder. There are several similarities between dissociative identity disorder and borderline personality disorder, which is why some researchers had denied the existence of DID. (Gillig, 2009). Researches now realize that DID is on the same spectrum as borderline line personality disorder, but the symptoms are more severe. Symptoms of DID that coincide with borderline personality disorder include insomnia, sexual dysfunction, anger, thoughts of suicide, self-harm, drug and alcohol abuse, anxiety, paranoia, somatization, dissociation, mood altercations and changes in relationships and the loss of ties. (Gillig, 2009).

The first thing that I learned is what normally causes MPD. MPD is normally caused by extreme abuse and trauma. Some other causes could be extreme disasters or an extremely important person lost at a young age. The mind doesn’t know how to handle this extreme trauma, and it tries to take it out of the person’s life. Another thing this book taught me was that there are memory blocks between the personalities. With the little bit that I knew about MPD I never thought that there were memory blocks. I always thought that the person knew that they had it, and they would get into fights with those personalities. The person could live their whole life with MPD, and never even know that they have

To begin to understand what happens within a person with dissociative identity disorder, it is important to first explain what the disorder is exactly. As defined by a forensic psychiatry and forensic psychology book: “Dissociative identity disorder (DID or multiple personality disorder) represents a ‘disruption of identity’ in which ‘two or more distinct personality states’ (also referred to as ‘alters’) occur. Further characteristics include: ‘marked discontinuity in the sense of self and sense of agency, accompanied by related alterations in affect, behavior, consciousness, memory, perception, cognition, and/or sensory-motor functioning.’ There may be gaps in recall of every day events, important personal information, and/or traumatic events inconsistent with ‘normal forgetting’”

MPD like hystero-epilepsy, is created by therapists. This formerly rare and disputed diagnosis became popular after the appearance of several best-selling books and movies. It is often based on the crudest form of suggestion. (http://www.psycom.net/mchugh.html)

Dissociative Identity Disorder, popularly known as multiple personality disorder, is the most talked about disorder and also the most controversial diagnosis that evokes myriads of responses. It is a very severe mental health condition that originates in early childhood because of severe trauma that a child experiences. This eventually creates two or more distinct personas used as a defense mechanism against that trauma (Barreda-Hanson, n.d.). Some people characterize it as someone being possessed because it is unwanted and involuntary (APA, 2013). The involuntary personalities develop separately and later on in adulthood help deal with stress by calming the main personality (Cherry, 2005). People with

Sexual molestation, beating, neglect, burning, and verbal abuse. All of these horrible happenings are believed to be linked to a condition known as Multiple personality disorder (MPD). Multiple personality disorder, also known as dissociative identity disorder, is a mental illness in which a person has two or more identities or personalities. Single personalities randomly take control of the individual's behavior. Usually, the sufferer gives the personalities their own names. These multiple personalities almost always have characteristics that greatly differ from the person's primary identity. A person with this disorder always experiences some amount of amnesia. Most of the time the individual forgets

For example, Mae had multiple personalities, but in her day to day life she was a wife and mother of two little girls. How difficult was this situation was for her husband to handle? On occasion he would be with his wife the next moment and the next moment she would turn into another personality. One he stated, she turned into a little girl just learning to write her name he says, it’s hard sometimes. Mae also has a personality that is conniving; performing immoral acts; writing bad checks all over town totaling $1500 dollars which she didn’t remember and her husband had to settle by taking out a loan to satisfy the illegal act. All Mae’s personalities are triggered by a sound, action, or anything that will protect her from feeling pain from her memory of abuse. John was another patient who suffers from amnesia which prompt multiple personalities to surface.

It is hard to understand the development of multiple personalities. It is contraindicated among many researchers and it is thought to stem from trauma experienced by the person with the disorder. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism. Dissociation is a psychophysiologic process that alters a person's feelings, action, or thoughts for a time certain information is not associated or integrated with other information as it normally is. This process manifests along a time of severity producing alterations in memory and identity. In extreme cases, the process gives rise to a set of psychiatric syndromes known as dissociative disorders. It is said to be most common in abused people. Not all abused individuals will develop a dissociation disorder; however, studies have shown that abused people demonstrate more dissociation than non-abused people do (Psychology Today). The person with MPD literally dissociates himself from a situation or experience that's too traumatic, painful, or violent to deal with so the patient alters their personality to something other than their conscious

Dissociative Identity Disorder, commonly referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder, exists as a bizarre mental disorder in which a person acquires two