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Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is the current name of a condition formerly listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as multiple personality disorder (MPD). The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems continues to list it as Multiple Personality Disorder. MPD and DID should not be confused with schizophrenia, even though the media often use the terms interchangeably.

Contents 1 Recent history 2 Contemporary views 2.1 Supporters of the therapy view 2.2 Critics 2.3 Healthy multiplicity 2.4 Cross-cultural views 3 Chronology of multiple personality and MPD/DID in the Western world 4 See also 5 References and external links 5.1 Clinical view 5.2 Skeptical viewpoints 5.3 Repressed/Recovered memories 5.4 Cross-cultural views 5.5 Professional associations 5.6 Voices of multiples

[edit] Recent history

Much of the controversy around the MPD and DID diagnoses came to revolve around the issue of whether memories can be repressed, rather than on the question of whether it is possible to have more than one personality or self. Many of the criticisms of the diagnosis arose in the wake of the controversy over Satanic Ritual Abuse. The idea of an international network of Satanic cults operating secretly, kidnapping children and using them in human sacrifices, was first advanced in the early 1980s by evangelical Christian writers. Some therapists believed that abuse by such cults was widespread, and that some deliberately used mind control to induce multiple personalities in subjects.

Other therapists who did not necessarily agree with the idea that SRA was widespread did believe that psychological distress in adulthood was often due to repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse, and/or to other personalities formed by trauma. As the memories described by some MPD/DID patients in recovered memory therapy were bizarre and seemed to strain credibility, or described incidents that could not have happened, the debate over MPD and DID became indelibly linked to the debate over repression for many skeptics and critics.

Self-identified multiples who state they do not experience multiplicity as being connected to repression, abuse, or dissociation did not achieve any significant voice until after the controversy had died down and many psychologists had dismissed MPD/DID as a fad diagnosis and an artifact of therapy.

[edit] Contemporary views

[edit] Supporters of the therapy view

Those who believe MPD/DID is a real disorder generally contend that children who are stressed or abused (especially sexually abused) may split into several independent personalities or ego states as a defense mechanism. [1] According to this view, the primary function of these separate ego states is to hold traumatic memories and keep them out of the consciousness of the original self or "host," allowing the host to continue functioning in daily life as though nothing had happened. The alternate selves, or "alters," take turns controlling the body. Sometimes each alter reports remembering only the times when they controlled the body, and claims amnesia for all other periods. This model also holds that since alters represent dissociated parts of the original self, they are very limited in role, only capable of handling specific emotions or tasks.

Most doctors who believe in the diagnosis contend that the goal of treatment for a DID patient is to recover all the memories of trauma held by various selves, through hypnosis, guided visualization, dream analysis or other techniques, and then integrate the alters into the host's personality. Some believe that all reported details of recovered memories, even strange or unusual ones, should be taken seriously at least as narrative truth even if they are unlikely or impossible as historical truth.

[edit] Critics

Some psychologists and psychiatrists regard DID as being iatrogenic or factitious, or contend that true cases are extremely rare and that the majority of reported cases are iatrogenic.

Skeptics contend that those who exhibit the symptoms of MPD/DID have learned to behave as though they had different selves in return for social reinforcement and reward, either from therapists, from other DID patients, or from society at large. The modern DID model relies on the premises that multiplicity is a disorder of memory, that repression of memories is a common defense against childhood sexual abuse and linked to multiplicity, and that repressed memories can be accurately recovered through techniques such as hypnosis. As such, most critics' arguments have focused on studies citing the fallibility and flawed nature of human memory, the weaknesses of hypnosis as a tool for recall, and on disproving claims of the accuracy of recovered memories.

Critics of the DID model point to the fact that the diagnosis of MPD and DID is a phenomenon largely unique to English-speaking countries. Prior to the 1950s, cases of dual personality and multiple personality were occasionally reported and treated as curiosities in the Western world. [2] The 1957 publication of the book The Three Faces of Eve, and the popular movie which followed it, revived the American public's interest in multiple personality. The diagnosis of Multiple Personality Disorder, however, was not included in the DSM until 1980, following the publication of the highly influential book Sybil. As media coverage spiked, diagnoses climbed. There were 200 reported cases of MPD from 1880 to 1979, and 20,000 from 1980 to 1990 [3]. According to Joan Acocella, 40,000 cases were diagnosed from 1985 to 1995. The DID diagnosis is largely centered in the United States, and in English-speaking countries more generally. Some critics contend that a majority of diagnoses are made by only a few practitioners.

Some professionals are critical of a majority of DID diagnoses, and believe that many iatrogenic cases were induced during the height of its media popularity, but still argue that true cases of DID exist and must be treated. They contend that dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, and DID are all mental disorders characterized by dissociation.

[edit] Healthy multiplicity

Main article: Healthy multiplicity

Some self-identified multiples contend that multiple personality is not a disorder, but a natural variation of human consciousness which need have nothing to do with dissociation. They believe that so long as communication and cooperation between selves are present, multiples can lead happy and productive lives, and that it is not necessary for healthy persons to have only a single self.

Some people who hold this view believe that the unity of the self is an illusion and that everyone is fundamentally multiple, an opinion similar to the observations of William James and other modernist writers. Others take the position that multiplicity can arise in a variety of ways, from being born naturally multiple to splitting from abuse, but that regardless of origins, a group of selves can cooperate and function well in tasks of daily living. Some independent or self-recognized multiples have begun to form groups like those established by autistic people, to speak for themselves and educate the public.

Truddi Chase, author of the best-selling book When Rabbit Howls, is one believer in healthy multiplicity. Although she described the multiplicity as originating from abuse, she writes that her group of selves rejected integration and live as a collective.

[edit] Cross-cultural views

There is some cross-cultural evidence to suggest that the concept of a human body inhabited by more than one soul or consciousness recurs in many cultures. Many religions recognize shamans, people who claim to communicate with and be possessed by gods or spirits. Devotees visit the shaman, who may go into trance and speak with the god's voice, making predictions or giving advice. Some religions may also attribute some illnesses to spirit possession. Those who recover from possession may go on to become shamans.

In other religions, like voodoo and the orisha religions of Africa, many devotees aim to be possessed by the gods. Here, multiplicity is not a dysfunction, but a spiritual experience.

Anthropologists Luh Ketut Suryani and Gordon D. Jensen believe that the phenomenon of trance-possession in Balinese society is the same as multiple personality in the West. [4]

Such traditions and beliefs also suggest the influence of culture on the perception and subjective experience of multiple selves. People in shamanic cultures who experience multiple selves do not express these other selves as parts of themselves, but as independent souls or spirits. There is no evident link in these cultures between this multiplicity, dissociation or recovered memories, and sexual abuse.

[edit] Chronology of multiple personality and MPD/DID in the Western world

• (1646) Paracelsus reports the case of an anonymous woman who claimed that someone was stealing money from her; the thief was revealed to be a second self, whose actions the primary self was amnesiac of.
• (1791) Eberhard Gmelin describes a case of "exchanged personality" in a 21-year-old German woman who manifested a second self, speaking French and claiming to be a French aristocrat. Gmelin believed that cases such as hers could aid in understanding the formation of personality.
• (1816) The case of Mary Reynolds, a "dual personality," is published in the magazine "Medical Repository."
• (1838) Charles Despine describes a case of dual personality in "Estelle," an 11-year-old girl.
• (1876) Eugène Azam describes a case of dual personality in a young French woman, whom he calls Felida X.
• (1899) Théodore Flournoy's book "Des Indes à la Planète Mars: Etude sur un cas de somnambulisme avec glossolalie" ("From India to the Planet Mars: A case of multiple personality with imaginary languages") is published.
• (1906) Morton Prince's book The Dissociation of a Personality describes his work with multiple personality patient Clara Norton Fowler, alias Christine Beauchamp.
• (1915) Walter Franklin Prince publishes a lengthy case history of patient Doris Fischer, entitled "The Doris Case of Multiple Personality." This is followed two years later by a long account of psychical experiments performed with Fischer and her other selves.
• (1943) Stengel declares the condition of multiple personality to be "extinct."
• (1954) Shirley Jackson's book The Bird's Nest, a fictional story of multiple personality, is published.
• (1954) Thigpen & Cleckley's book The Three Faces of Eve, loosely based on the therapy of Chris Costner-Sizemore, is published, reviving the American public's interest in the subject of multiple personality.
• (1957) A movie version of The Three Faces of Eve, starring Joanne Woodward, is released.
• (1973) Flora R. Schreiber's bestselling book Sybil, a novelized treatment of the life and therapy of Shirley Ardell Mason, alias 'Sybil Dorsett' in the book.
• (1976) A made-for-TV film version of Sybil is produced, starring Sally Field in the title role.
• (1977) Chris Costner-Sizemore publishes an autobiography, I'm Eve, alleging that Thigpen and Cleckley's book was a misrepresentation of her life.
• (1980) Publication of Michelle Remembers.
• (1981) Daniel Keyes' book The Minds of Billy Milligan is published, based on extensive interviews with both Billy Milligan and his therapists.
• (1986) Publication of When Rabbit Howls.
• (1995) Astraea's Web, the first Internet website to describe non-disordered and self-recognized multiplicity, goes online in September.
• (1998) Joan Acocella's New Yorker article detailing the excesses of MPD therapy, Creating Hysteria, is published.
• (1999) Cameron West's book, First Person Plural: My Life as a Multiple is published.
• (2005) Robert Oxnam's autobiography, A Fractured Mind, is published.

[edit] See also

• Dissociative identity disorder
• Healthy multiplicity
• Possession
• DID/MPD in fiction
• Personality disorder
• Repressed memory
• Sexual abuse
• Satanic ritual abuse
• Recovered memory therapy

[edit] References and external links

[edit] Clinical view

• Mental Health Matters: Dissociative Identity Disorder
• Sidran Foundation A nonprofit organization disseminating information concerning the treatment of trauma.
• Many Voices Resource site for abuse survivors, many of whom are multiple, looking for support and psychotherapy.
• Psych Forums: DID Forum

[edit] Skeptical viewpoints

• Multiple Identities and False Memories by Nicholas Spanos, 1996, ISBN 1-55798-340-2
• Creating Hysteria by Joan Acocella, 1999, ISBN 0-78794-794-6
• False Memory Syndrome Foundation
• Multiple Personality Disorder in the Courts View of a senior British forensic psychiatrist. British psychiatrists, on the whole, do not believe in the existence of multiple personality disorder as a psychiatric diagnosis.
• Essay from the Skeptic's Dictionary

[edit] Repressed/Recovered memories

• What About Recovered Memory?
• Recovered Memories of Sexual Abuse: Scientific Research and Scholary Resources
• The Recovered Memory Project: 96 cases of corroborated recovered memories of sexual abuse
• Childhood Trauma Remembered: A report on the current scientific knowledge base and its applications Published by International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies

[edit] Cross-cultural views

• Trance and Possession in Bali: A Window on Western Multiple Personality, Possession Disorder, and Suicide by Luh K. Suryani and Gordon D. Jensen, 1994, ISBN 0-19588-610-0

[edit] Professional associations

• International Society for the Study of Dissociation

[edit] Voices of multiples

• Astraea's Web Resources and many links devoted to the idea of functional, healthy multiplicity.
• Collective Phenomenon More articles and FAQs dispelling myths and promoting healthy, responsible multiplicity.
• In Essence We Declare Example of a healthy self-identified multiple group's co-signed agreement to maintain responsibility and functionality.
• The Layman's Guide to Multiplicity (non-disordered multiplicity resource, written and edited by multiples)
• Livejournal: Multiplicity An online community in which many views of multiplicity are aired.
• Pavilion Awareness taskforce for healthy/ functional multiplicity. Educate the public, media campaigns correcting misportrayals of multiples as helpless victims, crazed killers, etc.
• Pilgrim's Journey A blog written by a young woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
• Split Angels Info by a woman who considers her multiplicity to be a mental disorder, including biographies of many personalities.
• Dark Personalities Mailing List An uncensored mailing list for multiples to discuss a variety of subjects.

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This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Multiple personality controversy. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.