i was recently attending a lecture in college in psychology and came up with 1 argument which is totally against they theory of mutli personality disorder... so read and think about it...

i think all of u people know about dual or multiple personality... but the wierd part about the whole thing according to me is that they consider this as a disorder... some of u must have come accross the term which could have been taken by a doctor for a person or in a movie where the person is said to have this disorder...

but, if u logically think about it, we all have a multiple personality... u might not be able recognize it fast... think about it how many times has it happened that u be someone else with a person and ur completely different with others... but over here the person has full control over all the personalities he/she has... when ur with parents ur a completely different person, with friends ur different and even in work ur completly different...

some people are just the same when they are anywhere but a few people are there who just shift or adjust their personality according to the place that they r in and according to the situation... for example, i am completely different when im in college, with friends, and even with parents im completely different... but all of my behaviors or personalities can be switched according to my will which means i have full control over these personalities... what do u think about this??? i think u can incorporate multi personality just by working on them... u can be a totally bad guy with a few people and a soft, weak person amongst some other people... think about it, do u really think that multi personality is a disorder...

Actually Multiple Personality term refers to the psychology studies.It happens when the personality of a person changes by the sub concious mind and not the conciouds mind.So, that is the actual difference between the Changing personality knowingly or unknowingly.e.g If you are with with your friends and suddenly your father comes then you will definitly change your behavior or personality but in case you are suffering from a disorder then you will not recognize that who is in front of you.The control of changing personality is not in hand of a person who is suffering from the disorder.

.e.g If you are with with your friends and suddenly your father comes then you will definitly change your behavior or personality but in case you are suffering from a disorder then you will not recognize that who is in front of you.The control of changing personality is not in hand of a person who is suffering from the disorder.
if that happens dont u think its just a case of a person just being urself... when ur dad walks in and ur just normal like ur with ur friends... but my main point still is until it is a disorder but u have all other personalities in control...

Ya that's correct but the name Disorder terms that something unusual.So according to me disorder creates different mental state which are controlled by subconcious mind that's why one can not say actively that person can control him/herself in such conditions.

its considered a disorder as it severely can impair the persons function and wellbeing and is therefore undesired. Also in multiple personality disorder (or Dissociative Identity Disorder as it is now known in aus anyway) the personalities are not slight shifts such as from parents to friends but large shifts (eg. a female child personality (age 6) in a 40 year old male that never ages)

gt_thegame...do u really think that multi personality is a disorder...
Well, check this first: And check complete letter at link: [Only registered and activated users can see links]
As the name implies, Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is a mental condition in which two or more personalities appear to inhabit a single body. The American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition renamed MPD "Dissociative Identity Disorder" in 1994s.

There have been five main conflicting views about MPD. In this essay, we will describe MPD as viewed as: A serious psychological disorder.1 caused by extreme abuse during childhood.
~A psychological fad and hoax that does not appear naturally, but is artificially induced during therapy.


In a separate essay, we will describe three minority beliefs about MPD: A set of symptoms created by demon possession.

~A disorder that is intentionally induced during Satanic Ritual Abuse.
~A naturally occurring phenomenon caused by an unusual brain structure and not childhood abuse.

MPD/DID seen as a psychological disorder:

Those therapists who accept MPD as a valid, common diagnosis believe that it is induced by extreme, repeated, physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse during early childhood.

Many MPD specialists consider MPD is the same class as "schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety, as one of the four major mental health problems today." 1 Although it is diagnosed almost entirely among women, therapists speculate that it may be equally common among men. However, men are less likely to seek treatment. They often end up in jail because of the behavior induced by MPD. Research shows that the average person who is just diagnosed with MPD has spent seven years in the mental health system, and has usually been previously misdiagnosed with other many disorders.

Treatment for MPD takes many years of painful, intensive therapy as childhood memories of vicious abuse are slowly recovered. The condition of the patient invariable degenerates during therapy. But therapists believe that they can be restored to health after all of the abusive memories are uncovered and the many alters (alternative personalities) are reintegrated into a single personality.

Therapists developed the concept of a hierarchy of alters, in which each fragmented personality had a different degree of power and different function within the whole system.

Dr. Bennett Braun was one of the former leaders in the MPD/DID field. (He has since been expelled from the Illinois Psychiatric Society and the American Psychiatric Association, apparently for ethics violations.) He recommended that the therapist study each alter in depth in order to learn: Its name, so that it can be directly addressed in the future
When and where the patient was at the time that it was created
What events caused the creation of the alter
"The duration of time that it has executive control of the body"
How it fits into the hierarchy of alters
Its function; how it contributes to the system of alters


One alter that is frequently found has the specific responsibility of harming the patient by slashing, engaging in other forms of mutilation and committing suicide. Those proponents of MPD who believe in Satanic or government conspiracy theories generally feel that this alter is programmed to trigger in the event that the patient is about to reveal secrets about the cult or agency.

One source quotes an unspecified article in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, which found that "Persons with [the diagnosis of] MPD are highly suicidal with 72% attempting and 2.1% successful." 2

E.B. Carlson and F. W. Putnam, developed a simple screening test to detect dissociation levels in people. It is called the Dissociative Experiences Scale. 3 Two of the 28 questions are: "Some people have the experience of finding new things among their belongings that they do not remember buying. Mark the line to show what percentage of the time this happens to you."
"Some people find evidence that they have done things that they do not remember doing. Mark the line to show what percentage of the time this happens to you."


We must admit that we are at a total loss to know how to answer these questions. If they had asked how many times a year each experience happens, we could answer immediately: perhaps 2. But we don't have the foggiest idea how to convert that number into a percentage. Percentage of what, we would ask.

Various researchers who have used test have predicted that perhaps 1% of the general population and 5 to 20% of patients in psychiatric hospitals suffer from this disorder.
MPD/DID, seen as a psychological fad:

Many memory researchers and a growing majority of therapists in North America have reached a consensus that: The recent epidemic of MPD is a psychological fad.
MPD does not occur naturally.
MPD is an iatrogenic (therapist induced) disorder, unknowingly created by the interaction of a therapist and patient.
Belief in MPD is in decline.
Persons who have been diagnosed with MPD are victims of bad therapy, but not of MPD itself.
If true MPD exists, it is an extremely rare phenomenon, affecting perhaps fewer than a dozen people in North America.


They generally believe that a therapist who specializes in MPD/DID teaches their clients to identify different aspects of their life and perspectives where they felt different moods -- happy, sad; childlike, adult; etc. Then the therapist gives these feelings a name. Later, the therapist will have the client revisit those feelings by recalling them by name. "By naming them this way,...[the therapist was] reifying a memory of some kind and converting it into a 'personality'." 8 The client's moods or feelings then appear to both the client and therapist as distinct personalitys, without either of them being aware of the process.

MPD/DID is closely linked to two other fads, namely Recovered Memory Therapy (RMT) and beliefs about Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). Since 1980, all three panics have appeared suddenly on the scene, risen quickly to prominence, been popularized on TV talk shows, been supported by little or no valid research. Belief of their existence is now in rapid decline in North America.

Some of the reasons for skepticism include: A parallel hoax from the 1880's: Dr. P.R. McHugh of Johns Hopkins described an event which occurred in France during the 1880's. 1 He feels that it closely parallels today's MPD hoax.

Jean-Martin Charcot was the chief physician of Salpetriere Hospital in Paris. He announced the discovery of a new disease. He called it "hystero-epilepsy" because it appeared to combine symptoms of both hysteria and epilepsy. Symptoms included "convulsions, contortions, fainting, and transient impairment of consciousness." A student, Joseph Babinski, suspected that hystero-epilepsy did not occur naturally, but was unintentionally created by Charot and the hospital environment. He noted that the patients had presented vague concerns when they were admitted; Charcot believed that he detected symptoms of this new disease, and housed them in a single ward, together with patients suffering from epilepsy. The patients became convinced that they were all victims of this new disease and started to exhibit symptoms. The "cure" was simple: The hystero-epileptic patients were distributed throughout the hospital and isolated from one another. The physicians and staff intentionally ignored the patients' behavior and concentrated on helping them tackle the stressors and conflicts that had had originally brought them to the hospital. The symptoms gradually disappeared due to lack of staff reinforcement.

Dr. McHugh draws a close parallel between hystero-epilepsy and MPD. He considers both to be "an iatrogenic [physician created] behavioral syndrome, promoted by suggestion, social consequences, and group loyalties. It rests on ideas about the self that obscure reality, and it responds to standard treatments." He proposed a 4 part cure: Close the dissociation clinics throughout North America;
Spread the patients throughout the remaining psychiatric hospital wards;
Ignore the alters whenever they seem to appear;
Redirect therapy to focus on the patients' stressors that caused the original, pre-MPD, symptoms.


Since he made these suggestions, the approximately two dozen MPD clinics in North America have been closed.
The misdiagnosis problem: MPD practitioners often note that the average person who has just been diagnosed with MPD has had a long history of involvement with the psychiatric system and had received many incorrect diagnoses in the past: e.g. schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, panic disorders, borderline personality disorder. Skeptics speculate that perhaps the MPD diagnosis is incorrect and that one of the earlier evaluations was correct. Some persons diagnosed with MPD may in fact be victims of schizophrenia who have been taught during therapy that their auditory hallucinations are different alters. Patients with borderline personality disorder might have been taught to look upon their mood swings as switches between alters.
The lack of early symptoms: Skeptics point out that symptoms had never been observed by the friends, spouse or family of a person who has just been diagnosed with MPD. They only are detected only after therapy has begun. Clients who are diagnosed with MPD never seem to claim that they are suffering from MPD symptoms at their initial visit. Alters appear later in therapy, as the therapist trains the client to identify normal mood swings as individual personalities. Dr. P.R. McHugh has concluded that "MPD is an iatrogenic behavior syndrome, promoted by suggestion and maintained by clinical attention, social consequences and group loyalties." 2 The implication is that if there were no therapists looking for MPD then the disorder would almost completely vanish, and we would quickly return to the pre-1980 environment in which MPD was seen as an extremely rare phenomenon. This appears to be happening.
Observations by Hot Line volunteers: Many listeners at crisis centers/ suicide prevention lines in North America are well aware that MPD is an artificial phenomenon. All hot lines have repeat, regular callers, and the volunteer listeners frequently build up a close emotional bond with many of them. If a caller starts to go to a MPD clinic, they will typically start to present themselves as different alters, with different names. When they break contact with the clinic, often because their insurance runs out, the alters gradually disappear, and they become a single personality again -- calling the hot line once more under a single name. The disappearance of the alters may take only a few days, or may take years.
Results of literature search: Dr. H. Merskey scanned 110 years of medical literature which predated the recent sudden rise in MPD diagnoses. None of the cases "excluded possibility of artificial production " of MPD symptoms. "No case has been found here in which MPD, as now conceived, is proven to have emerged through unconscious processes without any shaping or preparation by external factors...it is likely that MPD never occurs as a spontaneous persistent natural event in adults." 3
Deterioration during therapy: Persons diagnosed with MPD/DID tend to start to deteriorate as soon as they are diagnosed. One leading MPD therapist commented that therapy "causes significant disruption in a patient's life outside the treatment setting". 4 He also notes that suicide attempts are common after diagnosis. It is an unusual mental health therapy that actually makes its clients worse. "As MPD psychotherapy progresses, patients may become more dissociative, more anxious, or more depressed...; the longer they remain in treatment, the more florid, elaborate, and unlikely their stories about their alleged childhood maltreatment tend to become....This worsening contributes to the lengthy hospitalizations - some costing millions of dollars... - that often occur when MPD patients who are well-insured are treated by the disorder's enthusiasts. Hospitalizations occur more frequently after the MPD diagnosis is made.... 7
Lack of MPD among children: If MPD is created by intolerable levels of child abuse during childhood, then one would expect to find MPD symptoms among many children. But MPD seems to be found almost exclusively among adults. In the years prior to 1979, only one case of MPD in a child was reported. By 1988, only 8 new cases had been found. By 1990, 9 additional cases were reported. This represents a minuscule percentage of the total MPD diagnoses. 5
Lack of MPD among adults known to have been seriously abused in childhood: One would expect that adults who are known to have experienced truly horrific treatment during childhood would be found to be suffering from MPD. These would include people who survived terrible treatment in concentration camps, extermination camps, and Jewish ghettoes during World War II; those who have seen their parents murdered; those who have been kidnapped during childhood; children known to have been abused; etc. A variety of studies has revealed that "victims neither repressed the traumatic events, forgot about them, nor developed MPD." 5
Lack of support for MPD Diagnoses: If 1% of the population suffers from MPD, as many proponents claim, then MPD is about as common as schizophrenia. One would expect that the number of MPD specialists would gradually increase to handle the approximately 3 million individuals in North America who are suffering from the disorder. But in fact, the number of therapists specializing in MPD is in decline. The International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD) is currently losing membership.

Psychological fads tend to have a lifetime of about 15 to 20 years. MPD diagnoses were essentially unknown prior to 1980, numbers of new cases per year rose quickly and reached a peak, probably in the early 1990's. They have been in decline since.
Evidence of the creation of alters during therapy: Many skeptics believe that patients are actually coached in how to exhibit multiple personalities. For example, S.E. Buie, director of the Dissociative Disorders Treatment Program at a hospital in North Carolina offers the following advice for therapists who are digging for evidence of alters:

"It may happen that an alter personality will reveal itself to you during this [assessment] process, but more likely it will not. So you may have to elicit an alter... You can begin by indirect questioning such as, 'Have you ever felt like another part of you does things that you can't control?' If she gives positive or ambiguous responses ask for specific examples. You are trying to develop a picture of what the alter personality is like...At this point you may ask the host personality, "Does this set of feelings have a name?"... Often the host personality will not know. You can then focus upon a particular event or set of behaviors. 'Can I talk to the part of you that is taking those long drives in the country?'" 6
Lack of agreement over the nature of alters: "MPD experts contradict each other on the fundamental attributes of these entities. As an example, Ross...says patients' minds are no more host to many distinct personalities than their bodies are to different people; another theorist believes that alter personalities are imaginary constructs... But in contradiction, DSM-IV and the writings of several MPD theorists repeatedly stress that alters are well-developed, distinct from one another, complex, and well-integrated.... Also, MPD-focused practitioners routinely report patients who have dozens or hundreds of personalities-yet Spiegel...has...claimed [in 1995] that because MPD patients cannot integrate various emotions and memories, such patients actually have less than one personality, not more than one." 7


August Piper and Harold Merskey reviewed the literature on DID and concluded that:
1.There is no proof for the claim that DID results from childhood trauma.
2.The condition cannot be reliably diagnosed.
3.Contrary to theory, DID cases in children are almost never reported.
4.Consistent evidence of blatant iatrogenesis appears in the practices of some of the disorder’s proponents.

They concluded that "DID is best understood as a culture-bound and often iatrogenic condition." Their paper was published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 2004-SEP.

And check this:
"THE UNSPEAKABLE"

Judy Castelli
Copyright 1998, Judy Castelli

I watch the Evening News. A mother is put into the squad car. A little girl-child walks from the house, in silence, hand-in-hand with the kind police officer. This child will not suffer a lifetime of borderline madness as I had. This child was seen. Someone made it stop. This child was saved. I had survived the abuse, but it had taken my childhood, and it had nearly destroyed my life.

My career of mental patient began at age 18. I was diagnosed early in life with schizophrenia and major depression. I was a gifted singer/songwriter and artist, and it was all going to waste. I was locked up, drugged up, shut up, and I survived. I was finally winning. I had successfully completed 15 years of good therapy that had saved my life and given me a chance at a "real life". I was happy, productive and strong. I was doing work I loved, and I was in a good, loving relationship. But now I was having some disturbing flashes of memory accompanied by unsettling feelings. I called my former therapist and asked if she could see me. That day, in her office, Gravely Voice said "Torture", and 6 other voices I did not recognize, came from my lips. Apparently, those many hospitalizations and years of hard work in therapy had brought me to a place where I was just strong enough to begin to know what had been buried since childhood.

I had come a long way, and with the speaking of a single word, I felt it all slipping through my fingers. "Torture." Eight days later, at age 44, I was admitted to yet another mental hospital, with yet another diagnosis. Multiple personality disorder. I was a child tortured by a monster.

If the previous years had been a battle, this was war. Memories and flashbacks of horrific childhood abuse flooded me. In order for me to survive repeated physical and sexual attacks, my child-mind had split itself off again and again, into separate personalities. Each had existed without knowledge of the others. Once Gravely Voice told "The Secret", the others were free to make themselves known. Each part had come into existence to help this child survive. Each had their own history, their own story to tell. It was a time of discovery, and pain. There are, at last count, 44 personalities.

If I did not look for answers inside, I would not survive this. In the present, the real danger came not from the Monster, but from within.

One alter personality (a 10 year old boy) had no words, only fire. Through the years, he had repeatedly attempted to set himself (and therefore all of us) on fire. He was encouraged to draw. Again and again, he drew the small, child-body standing engulfed in flame, smoke rising bigger than the world. Surely someone would see this fire, and understand the bigness of the hurt, the bigness of the pain. He prayed, "The Angels will see, and the angels will say, "You are not alone." He had to understand that in 1994, he was no longer a child alone and unseen.

For the Little Ones, the Monster was there, in the present, waiting. The Monster would be back, they would be hurt, and there was nothing that could convince them they were safe. One of the memories was of being hung. Gabriel was present. He went to Heaven but would not leave the others behind, so he returned with God's wisdom and peace. He alone could comfort the Children who lived in horrible sadness, terror and pain.

The Little Blind Girl had witnessed the abuse. I had not met her until she stumbled around our living room, days before I was hospitalized. As other parts lived through the memories, and shared the sight of them, she regained her vision.

Another alter was known as The One Who Would Cut Us Open. A competent adult (an aspiring surgeon), he was intent on cutting us open in an operation of sorts. This was designed to let in the light and air, to heal that stuff inside that was killing us. It took one more hospitalization to find other, safer ways to deal with the past. Looking at, and speaking the truth would heal us of our childhood.

The One Who Walks in Silence explained that, "If you can't say the important things, there is no reason to say anything at all". She later became the voice for those of us who had doubts that this was real. She spoke with authority on the power of "saying truth out loud". It was becoming clear that working together, we could learn to live with the reality of our childhood, and the reality of MPD.

Today, my life is again my own, but different. The Big Ones the adult alters), are mostly "out", dealing with the world. The Little Ones come out to say "hello", to play, to laugh, to sing, to draw, to express their sadness, and their joy. We continue to work well together, and the days of self-abuse and suicide are over. The memories are now, just that. I remember the past, but from a distance.

I have moved beyond the memories, the rage, and the outrage. I have mourned the loss of my childhood. I have wept for the failure my family who refused to see, and, therefore, protect. They are, typically, in complete denial of any abuse in my childhood. They continue to insist that I was "a loved, and happy child".

My "memories" are proof to them of how "sick" I really am. We talk on the phone, without talking about anything of import in my life. They are pleased that I am "doing so well". It seems to be enough for them. I do not expect more.

There is no one who can substantiate the truth of my history. There is no videotape of the crimes. No Department of Social Services report was ever filed. The kind police officer was never summoned to remove me from harms way. No one can speak out to corroborate, without exposing his or her own wrongdoing. No adult can come forward to say they knew something was wrong without admitting their own failure to act. No one in my family can afford to see the truth. They would have to face their own demons to acknowledge the reality of my childhood. It would appear that there was no one present during the outrageous events of my childhood except my abuser, and myself. My abuser denies she abused me, and I am convinced she is being truthful. Her memories are buried as deeply as mine were. She may well be plagued by occasional flashes, and glimpses of unknown terror, just as I was.

So it is left to me as witness to my own abuse to speak to a world that does not protect children. Instead, it is a world that protects the idea of parenthood, motherhood, fatherhood, adults, and family at the expense of the undeniable evidence that often exists. It has become fashionable to idealize Family. The memories and pain of adult survivors of abuse are often dismissed as hysteria and craziness. Child abuse is real. The destruction that follows is real. My life story is somewhat typical, and I was one of the lucky ones. I am still alive to tell.

I have no doubt that the flashbacks I experience are memories of real events. I have no doubt that the pain in my body is remembered pain. The terror is terror relived. I have no doubt that the face I see before me, the eyes that peer with hate into my soul and glare at me in madness, are the eyes of my abuser, a trusted adult. These things, I know. I was there. I remember. The awful truth is that there was a part of this person who could hurt a child. Me.

We who suffered as children, alone, and in darkness will come forward. Each of us will, one day, step out into the light of day to speak the truth so that the world will know. The unspeakable must continue to be spoken, and written. We will speak it. If the world does not believe, we will believe each other.

If, in reading this, one person comes forward to report the abuse, or suspected abuse of one child, then a life is saved. If this survivor's voice reaches one person, lost in the abyss of memory and madness, and they recognize themselves, then a new life can begin. If my voice offers hope, a reason to hang on, to walk the hardest walk, to ask inside, to search for the truth, then it does not matter that others believe or not. It matters only that you know that I survived the unspeakable, the unbelievable. It matters only that victims of childhood abuse and incest know it is possible to survive, and to remember. And, it is possible to survive the remembering. It is possible to speak the truth and to survive the speaking of the truth. It is possible to live with the truth. And, we must live. We will live.

Copyright 1998 Judy Castelli
All Rights Reserved, Whats your opinion then for those scarry...Hhhhh ?:heart: ......

And this: (link: [Only registered and activated users can see links])


multiple personality disorder [dissociative identity disorder]

....students often ask me whether multiple personality disorder (MPD) really exists. I usually reply that the symptoms attributed to it are as genuine as hysterical paralysis and seizures....
--Dr. Paul McHugh

Multiple personality disorder (MPD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by having at least one "alter" personality that controls behavior. The "alters" are said to occur spontaneously and involuntarily, and function more or less independently of each other. The unity of consciousness, by which we identify our selves, is said to be absent in MPD. Another symptom of MPD is significant amnesia which can't be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. In 1994, the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-IV replaced the designation of MPD with DID: dissociative identity disorder. The label may have changed, but the list of symptoms remained essentially the same.

Memory and other aspects of consciousness are said to be divided up among "alters" in the MPD. The number of "alters" identified by various therapists ranges from several to tens to hundreds. There are even some reports of several thousand identities dwelling in one person. There does not seem to be any consensus among therapists as to what an "alter" is. Yet, there is general agreement that the cause of MPD is repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse. The evidence for this claim has been challenged, however, and there are very few reported cases of MPD afflicting children.

Psychologist Nicholas P. Spanos argues that repressed memories of childhood abuse and multiple personality disorder are "rule-governed social constructions established, legitimated, and maintained through social interaction." In short, Spanos argues that most cases of MPD have been created by therapists with the cooperation of their patients and the rest of society. The experts have created both the disease and the cure. This does not mean that MPD does not exist, but that its origin and development are often, if not most often, explicable without the model of separate but permeable ego-states or "alters" arising out of the ashes of a destroyed "original self."

A rather common view of MPD is given by philosopher Daniel Dennett.

...the evidence is now voluminous that there are not a handful or a hundred but thousands of cases of MPD diagnosed today, and it almost invariably owes its existence to prolonged early childhood abuse, usually sexual, and of sickening severity. Nicholas Humphrey and I investigated MPD several years ago ["Speaking for Our Selves: An Assessment of Multiple Personality Disorder," Raritan, 9, pp. 68-98] and found it to be a complex phenomenon that extends far beyond individual brains and the sufferers.

These children have often been kept in such extraordinary terrifying and confusing circumstances that I am more amazed that they survive psychologically at all than I am that they manage to preserve themselves by a desperate redrawing of their boundaries. What they do, when confronted with overwhelming conflict and pain, is this: They "leave." They create a boundary so that the horror doesn't happen to them; it either happens to no one, or to some other self, better able to sustain its organization under such an onslaught--at least that's what they say they did, as best they recall.

Dennett exhibits minimal skepticism about the truth of the MPD accounts, and focuses on how they can be explained metaphysically and biologically. For all his brilliant exploration of the concept of the self, the one perspective he doesn't seem to give much weight to is the one Spanos takes: that the self and the multiple selves of the MPD patient are social constructs, not needing a metaphysical or biological explanation so much as a social-psychological one. That is not to say that our biology is not a significant determining factor in the development of our ideas about selves, including our own self. It is to say, however, that before we go off worrying about how to metaphysically explain one or a hundred selves in one body, or one self in a hundred bodies, we might want to consider that a phenomenological analysis of behavior which takes that behavior at face value, or which attributes it to nothing but brain structure and biochemistry, may be missing the most significant element in the creation of the self: the sociocognitive context in which our ideas of self, disease, personality, memory, etc., emerge. Being a social construct does not make the self any less real, by the way. And Spanos should not be taken to deny either that the self exists or that MPD exists.

But if thinkers of Dennett's stature accept MPD as something which needs explaining in terms of psychological dynamics limited to the psyche of the abused rather than in terms of social constructs, the task of convincing therapists who treat MPD to accept Spanos' way of thinking is Herculean. How could it be possible that most MPD patients have been created in the therapist's laboratory, so to speak? How could it be possible that so many people, particularly female people [85% of MPD patients are female], could have so many false memories of childhood sexual abuse? How could so many people behave as if their bodies have been invaded by numerous entities or personalities, if they hadn't really been so invaded? How could so many people actually experience past lives under hypnosis, a standard procedure of some therapists who treat MPD? How could the defense mechanism explanation for MPD, in terms of repression of childhood sexual trauma and dissociation, not be correct? How could so many people be so wrong about so much? Spanos' answer makes it sound almost too easy for such a massive amount of self-deception and delusion to develop: it's happened before and we all know about it. Remember demonic possession?

Most educated people today do not try to explain epilepsy, brain damage, genetic disorders, neurochemical imbalances, feverish hallucinations, or troublesome behavior by appealing to the idea of demonic possession. Yet, at one time, all of Europe and America would have accepted such an explanation. Furthermore, we had our experts--the priests and theologians--to tell us how to identify the possessed and how to exorcise the demons. An elaborate theological framework bolstered this worldview, and an elaborate set of social rituals and behaviors validated it on a continuous basis. In fact, every culture, no matter how primitive and pre-scientific, had a belief in some form of demonic possession. It had its shamans and witch doctors who performed rituals to rid the possessed of their demons. In their own sociocognitive contexts, such beliefs and behaviors were seen as obviously correct, and were constantly reinforced by traditional and customary social behaviors and expectations.

Most educated people today believe that the behaviors of witches and other possessed persons--as well as the behaviors of their tormentors, exorcists, and executioners--were enactments of social roles. With the exception of religious fundamentalists (who still live in the world of demons, witches, and supernatural magic), educated people do not believe that in those days there really were witches, or that demons really did invade bodies, or that priests really did exorcise those demons by their ritualistic magic. Yet, for those who lived in the time of witches and demons, these beings were as real as anything else they experienced. In Spanos' view, what is true of the world of demons and exorcists is true of the psychological world filled with phenomena such as repression of childhood sexual trauma and its manifestation in such disorders as MPD.

Spanos makes a very strong case for the claim that "patients learn to construe themselves as possessing multiple selves, learn to present themselves in terms of this construal, and learn to reorganize and elaborate on their personal biography so as to make it congruent with their understanding of what it means to be a multiple." Psychotherapists, according to Spanos, "play a particularly important part in the generation and maintenance of MPD." According to Spanos, most therapists never see a single case of MPD and some therapists report seeing hundreds of cases each year. It should be distressing to those trying to defend the integrity of psychotherapy that a patient's diagnosis depends upon the preconceptions of the therapist. However, an MPD patient typically has no memory of sexual abuse upon entering therapy. Only after the therapist encourages the patient do memories of sexual abuses emerge. Furthermore, the typical MPD patient does not begin manifesting "alters" until after treatment begins (Piper 1998). MPD therapists counter these charges by claiming that their methods are tried and true, which they know from experience, and those therapists who never treat MPD don't know what to look for.*

Multiple selves exist, and have existed in other cultures, without being related to the notion of a mental disorder, as is the case today in North America. According to Spanos, "Multiple identities can develop in a wide variety of cultural contexts and serve numerous different social functions." Neither childhood sexual abuse nor mental disorder is a necessary condition for multiple personality to manifest itself. Multiple personalities are best understood as "rule-governed social constructions." They "are established, legitimated, maintained, and altered through social interaction." In a number of different historical and social contexts, people have learned to think of themselves as "possessing more than one identity or self, and can learn to behave as if they are first one identity and then a different identity." However, "people are unlikely to think of themselves in this way or to behave in this way unless their culture has provided models from whom the rules and characteristics of multiple identity enactments can be learned. Along with providing rules and models, the culture, through its socializing agents, must also provide legitimation for multiple self enactments." Again, Spanos is not saying that MPD does not exist, but that the standard model of (a) abuse, (b) withdrawal of original self, and then (c) emergence of alters, is not needed to explain MPD. Nor is the psychological baggage that goes with that model: repression, recovered memory of childhood sexual abuse, integration of alters in therapy. Nor are the standard diagnostic techniques: hypnosis, including past life regression, and Rorschach tests.

It should be noted that books and films have had a strong influence on the belief in the nature of MPD, e.g., Sybil, The Three Faces of Eve, The Five of Me, or The Minds of Billy Milligan. These mass media presentations influence not only the general public's beliefs about MPD, but they affect MPD patients as well. For example, Flora Rheta Schreiber's Sybil is the story of a woman with sixteen personalities allegedly created in response to having been abused as a child. Before the publication of Sybil in 1973 and the 1976 television movie starring Sally Fields as Sybil, there had been only about 75 reported cases of MPD. Since Sybil there have some 40,000 diagnoses of MPD, mostly in North America.

Sybil has been identified as Shirley Ardell Mason, who died of breast cancer in 1998 at the age of 75. Her therapist has been identified as Cornelia Wilbur, who died in 1992, leaving Mason $25,000 and all future royalties from Sybil. Schreiber also died in 1988. It is now known that Mason had no MPD symptoms before therapy with Wilbur, who used hypnosis and other suggestive techniques to tease out the so-called "personalities." Newsweek (January 25, 1999) reports that, according to historian Peter M. Swales (who first identified Mason as Sybil), "there is strong evidence that [the worst abuse in the book] could not have happened."

Dr. Herbert Spiegel, who also treated "Sybil", believes Wilbur suggested the personalities as part of her therapy and that the patient adopted them with the help of hypnosis and sodium pentothal. He describes his patient as highly hypnotizable and extremely suggestible. Mason was so helpful that she read the literature on MPD, including The Three Faces of Eve. The Sybil episode seems clearly to be symptomatic of an iatrogenic disorder. Yet, the Sybil case is the paradigm for the standard model of MPD. A defender of this model, Dr. Philip M. Coons, claims that "the relationship of multiple personality to child abuse was not generally recognized until the publication of Sybil."

The MPD community suffered another serious attack on its credibility when Dr. Bennett Braun, the founder of the International Society for the Study of Disassociation, had his license suspended over allegations he used drugs and hypnosis to convince a patient she killed scores of people in SATANIC RITUALS. The patient claims that Braun convinced her that she had 300 personalities, among them a child molester, a high priestess of a satanic cult, and a cannibal. The patient told the Chicago Tribune: "I began to add a few things up and realized there was no way I could come from a little town in Iowa, be eating 2,000 people a year, and nobody said anything about it." The patient won $10.6 million in a lawsuit against Braun, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital, and another therapist.

defenders of MPD

The defenders of the MPD/DID standard model of genesis, diagnosis, and treatment argue that the disease is underdiagnosed because its complexity makes it very difficult to identify. Dr. Philip M. Coons, who is in the Department of Psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine, claims that "there is a professional reluctance to diagnose multiple personality disorder." He thinks this "stems from a number of factors including the generally subtle presentation of the symptoms, the fearful reluctance of the patient to divulge important clinical information, professional ignorance concerning dissociative disorders, and the reluctance of the clinician to believe that incest actually occurs and is not the product of fantasy." Dr. Coons also claims that demonic possession was "a forerunner of multiple personality."

Another defender of the standard model of MPD, Dr. Ralph Allison, has posted his diagnosis of Kenneth Bianchi, the so-called Hillside Strangler, in which the therapist admits he has changed his mind several times. Bianchi, now a convicted serial killer serving a life sentence, was diagnosed as having MPD by defense psychiatrist Jack G. Watkins. Dr. Watkins used hypnosis on Bianchi and "Steve" emerged to an explicit suggestion from the therapist. "Steve" was allegedly Bianchi's alter who did the murders. Prosecution psychiatrist Martin T. Orne, an expert on hypnosis, argued successfully before the court that the hypnosis and the MPD symptoms were a sham.

Allison claims, but offers no evidence, that the controversy over MPD is one between therapists, who defend the standard model, and teachers, who deny MPD exists.* The battle took place in committee when preparing the DSM-IV, he claims. The teachers won and MPD was removed and DID replaced it. The DSM-IV is the current version (1994) of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It lists 410 mental disorders, up from145 in DSM-II (1968). The first edition in 1952 listed 60 disorders. Some claim that this proliferation of disorders indicates an attempt of therapists to expand their market; others see the rise in disorders as evidence of better diagnostic tools. According to Allison, MPD was called "Hysterical Dissociative Disorder" in DSM-II and did not have its own code number. MPD was listed and coded in DSM-III, but removed in DSM-IV and replaced with DID.

It is possible, of course, that some cases of MPD emerge spontaneously without input from the MPD community, while other cases--perhaps most cases--of MPD have been created by therapists with the cooperation of their patients who have been influenced by authors and film makers. In either case, the suffering of the person with MPD is equally pitiable and deserving of our understanding, not derision.

See also exorcism, false memory, hypnosis, hystero-epilepsy, New Age psychotherapies, repressed memory, and repressed memory therapy.

further reading

reader comments
Multiple Personality Disorder (Dissociative Identity Disorder) by Paul R. McHugh MD, Henry Phipps Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore
The Devil & Dr. Braun by Matt Keenan (Bennett G. Braun, M.D., author of The Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder, was the founder and former Medical Director of the Dissociative Disorders Unit [now closed] at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Skokie, Illinois. He founded of the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality Disorder, now known as The International Society for the Study of Dissociation.)
STATE OF ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL REGULATION complaint against Dr. Braun
Texas Jury Awards Largest Amount Ever to Patient in Recovered-Memories Case
Ex-patient tells of bid to save son after cult diagnosis by therapists
Psychologist accused of planting false abuse memories in patient Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 5, 1997 By Glenn Howatt
The British False Memory Society - see Twelve Myths about False Memories
MPD - the religious tolerance page
A Patient with Dissociative Identity Disorder 'Switches' in the Emergency Room by René J. Muller, Ph.D.
National Public Radio exposes recovered memory therapy

Coons, P.M. (1986). "Child abuse and multiple personality: review of the literature and suggestions for treatment." International Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect, 10, 455-462.

Dennet, Daniel. Consciousness Explained (Little, Brown, and Co., 1991), ch. 13, "The Reality of Selves."

Diehl, William. Primal Fear (Del Rey, 1996). (Note: this is a novel, recommended by Grant Middleton of the band 'The Demon Haunted World'!)

"Objective Documentation of Child Abuse and Dissociation in 12 Murderers With Dissociative Identity Disorder," THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY Volume 154, Number 12 December 1997 by Dorothy Otnow Lewis, M.D., Catherine A. Yeager, M.A., Yael Swica, B.A., Jonathan H. Pincus, M.D., and Melvin Lewis, M.B.B.S., F.R.C.Psych., D.C.H. (summary)

Lilienfeld, Scott O., et al. "Dissociative Identity Disorder and the Sociocognitive Model: Recalling the Lessons of the Past," Psychological Bulletin, 125(5) 507-523.

Morris, Ray Aldridge. Multiple Personality an Exercise in Deception (Psychology Press, 1990).

Pendergrast, Mark. Victims of Memory : Sex Abuse Accusations and Shattered Lives 2nd ed. (Upper Access Book Publishers, 1996).

Piper, August. Hoax and Reality : The Bizarre World of Multiple Personality Disorder (Jason Aronson, Inc.: 1997).

Piper, August. "Multiple Personality Disorder: Witchcraft Survives in the Twentieth Century," Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 1998.

Ross, Colin A. Dissociative Identity Disorder : Diagnosis, Clinical Features, and Treatment of Multiple Personality (John Wiley & Sons, 1996).

Spanos, Nicholas P. Multiple Identities and False Memories: A Sociocognitive Perspective (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1996).

Everybody have their description of DID however, it is still remains a debated phenomena. Many psychologist believe that DID is a result of PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder during childhood which is converted into DID later on in adulthood. DID is only pervasive in Europe and the US since DID is culturally induce disorder. Asian Country don't suffer DID yet in some special circumstances DID occurs especially those individual who suffer in tragic accident or catastrophe. According to social psychologist in term of the phenomena which was depicted in Cybil, the first documented case of MPD in the US which very intriguing, was a therapist induce disorder which was suggested in a subconscious state of the individual specifically during a hypnotic or grounded processing upon which the individual experience grief, anxiety and neurosis in general that sprout the existence of the alter personalities.

It best understood that a person who has DID does not know he/she has DID since they don't have any recollection of what happen or what the alter self experience. It also important to understand that DID is could a disorder since it impairs the individual in his daily functions. Thus DID per say is a psychopathology that manifest multiply and Dissociative consciousness, since multiple refers to a variety and dissociation refers to individuality of mental awareness.

A person suffering from DID do not manifest similar brain stimulations as well as health attributes in their alter self. Such as a (e.g.) person who is the primary self is a healthy person, therefore his alter self is either unhealthy or problematic and soon. It even notice that different personalties attributes different habitual interest and skills. As well as, alter self only manifest during a seemingly familiar traumatic experience (e.g.) a lady who was sexual abuse during her childhood by her father, thus dissociation occurs during she encounters a father like individual or situational events that refreshes her sexual abuse. As well it is either her alter personalty becomes sexual aggressive, anxious, depress, or angry since it driven by instinctual motivations and function into ideal set which is fight or flee..

I have seen many great posts before this but none has bring up the most common form of multiple personality disorder, which is Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by the impairments in the preception by a significant social and occupational dysfunction. What it truly means, is that when one is affected by Schizophrenia that person is demonstrating disorganised thinking, and of course, experiencing delusions and auditory hallucinations.

What's the cause of it? Major depression, most of what people think it as a disease. If you want to know more, please ask me. Schizophrenia is a part that I excel in, and of course, if you would like to share some thoughts with me, it would be greatly appreciated as I am actually writing a book on Schizophrenia.

Actually Schizophrenia are related psychosis however they are of different nature. Schizophrenia is basically cause by both physiological and psychological disorder. Major depression as mikhaelalv is one of the psychological induce phenomena that cause Schizophrenia on the other hand, substance abuse and genetics/ heredity may also cause such disorder.

However, it should be understood that Schizophrenia does not cause DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) (DSM-IV-TR) or MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) (DSM-III) and vice-versa. They are two different mental illness with separate patterns and symptoms.

-Kirketchelle
Counseling Psychologist

Actually Schizophrenia are related psychosis however they are of different nature. Schizophrenia is basically cause by both physiological and psychological disorder. Major depression as mikhaelalv is one of the psychological induce phenomena that cause Schizophrenia on the other hand, substance abuse and genetics/ heredity may also cause such disorder.

However, it should be understood that Schizophrenia does not cause DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) (DSM-IV-TR) or MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) (DSM-III) and vice-versa. They are two different mental illness with separate patterns and symptoms.

-Kirketchelle
Counseling Psychologist

It depends on the person if he/she can control his multiple personalities. It's very hard to change your personality if you are not used to it. Actors, actresses, comedian, entertainers and other kinds of performers can do it with a practice so its not a big deal for them. The worst scenario of having multiple personalities is having headaches, illnesses, being paranoid and cannot do the right thing to do like being in drugs.

It's a heated debate. In short, is multi personality a disorder, or free will? I've never experienced it, so i have no idea about it. Still doubt about it.

Mpd.. I was introduced to this concept through a novel and I found it scary. I mean, people suffering from this disorder don't even remember whatever their alter personality is doing. Don't you think this is the biggest difference between changing personalities at will and being forced into changing personality by virtue of a disorder?
Posted via Mobile Device