WHAT IS MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER:
Multiple Personality, or Dissociative Identity Disorder are psychodiagnostic terms referring to the same emotional disorder. (DSM IV, the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, and ICD-9 CM, the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, respectively).
We have always been fascinated by apparent inconsistencies in how people behave, as expressed, for example in the following nursery rhyme.
The number of personalities and the spectacular nature of the differences between personalities seemed to increase as time has passed. While multiple personality was a rare and unusual diagnosis prior to the 50s, in the 70s and 80s it became much more common. Some therapists thought it was necessarily associated with a history of child abuse.
Experienced psychologists know that when there is a dramatic change in the frequency of a psychodiagnosis it is important to determine whether we are observing a real change in the occurrence of the disorder, whether it is due to a change in the diagnostic categories used in the field, or a change in the "popularity" of the diagnosis. It is an unfortunate fact that fashions come and go in the use of certain diagnostic categories, forms of treatment and theories of psychopathology, especially among less experienced therapists, who tend to jump onto a "diagnostic bandwagon." Many psychologists believe that some inexperienced or poorly trained therapists began to "look for" multiple personalities in their patients and viewed the "discovery" of many different personalities in their patients as an indication of their therapeutic skill and astuteness.
If, in fact, a diagnosis of multiple personality is correct, treatment involves the integration of the fragmented parts of the personality. If that diagnosis is not correct, there is are serious consequences in an incorrect treatment plan, as described below.
Every person has different moods, and may function differently in different situations or at different times. Every person has conflicts and may be torn between alternatives about how to handle a situation or problem. It is not uncommon for people to make comments such as, "He's a different man since.....etc." The fact that you may sometimes be quiet, sometimes gregarious, sometimes "up" or sometimes "down", sometimes patient and other times irritable does not mean that you have multiple personalities.
In general it is the goal in psychotherapy to help a person integrate conflicting or contradictory feelings, impulses, thoughts, moods, conflicts and perceptions. The goal is to increase one's understanding of oneself, to heighten the awareness of our feelings, and to avoid repression or compartmentalization of thoughts, feelings and experiences. A therapist who is strongly motivated to "find multiple personalities" might inadvertently harm a patient by doing the opposite, namely by encouraging the patient to perceive conflicting feelings and thoughts as expressions of different personalities, thereby interfering with that integrative process.
Hypnotherapy has been one psychotherapeutic procedures utilized to examine and treat multiple personality. This is a procedure that should not be used by an inexperienced therapist. It should only be considered for use by a well trained and experienced psychologist who has good clinical judgment. The proper use of hypnotherapy in these cases is to help integrate personality, not to reinforce the psychological compartmentalization that generates multiple personalities. (See the page on Hypnosis for information about selecting a hypnotherapist.)
The conflict between powerful sexual impulses and moral, ethical or religious value systems may create disturbing personality problems that can be involved in the genesis of multiple personality. On the one hand, these value systems present a compelling template for acceptable behavior that is strongly reinforced by family, social, or religious institutions. Such value systems may successfully guide a person's behavior most of the time. On the other hand, there may be episodes when powerful sexual drives result in actions that are inconsistent with these value systems. Depending on variables in personality and life experience, such episodes may or may not create serious disturbing feelings of shame and guilt. If these feelings cannot be managed, the psychic pain may be resolved by a psychological compartmentalization of these conflicting modes of behavior. The result is an intermittent expression of a "sexual" personality that is in stark contrast to the "normal" personality.
Similar conflicts may occur in handling aggressive impulses in a manner that is inconsistent with a persons strongly held value systems. Sometimes feelings of unworthiness based on low self esteem can play a role in the development of multiple personality. Problems of low self esteem can have many causes. Such problems can be related to unresolved conflicts involving sexual or aggressive impulses. They can also be related to feelings of abandonment or by negative messages conveyed from parental figures. Secondary problems may include depression, neglect of personal appearance, eating disorders or excessive weight gain. (See the page on weight control.) Low self esteem and dissatisfaction with personal appearance can contribute to the episodic assumption of a "different" personality that blocks out the negative elements in self image, or that compensates for such feelings in a pathological way.
How can you decide who is the right professional person to help you with this kind of problem? You may get information about me at Marvin S. Beitner, Ph.D. You may get information about how to evaluate the credentials of any psychologist at Check Qualifications.
Multiple personality disorder is now more usually termed dissociated identity disorder. It is one of the more misunderstood types of mental illness, frequently capturing the interest of writers and filmmakers, who tend to portray it in its most exaggerated form. What is most important to understand is the multiple personality disorder is not schizophrenia. The two are often confused. However, in very rare cases, a personality, or alter, as it is sometimes termed, suffers from schizophrenia.
Multiple personality disorder is almost always caused by persistent trauma, or past trauma such as early childhood sexual or physical abuse. When trauma occurs over a long period of time, the affected person may begin to cope by completely disassociating from the events that cause the trauma. This can lead to “alters,” separate personalities within the same person who either are aware of, or are unaware of the abuse. Alters can be childlike, strong, male, or female, and often emerge as a coping device.
Psychiatrists make the distinction between a person having several personalities, and believing they have several personalities. In general, multiple personality disorder is the belief on the part of the patient that several personalities seem to exist within the self.
One of the main characteristics of multiple personality disorder is that people seem to “lose” time. They seem unaware that time has passed; yet someone observing them may see them acting in many different ways. The afflicted however, tends to have no idea what has occurred. This generally central personality seems most likely to dissociate if the person is exposed to situations which can evoke earlier traumas, or if the person is still enmeshed in a traumatic situation.
Other symptoms of multiple personality disorder include depression, confusion, suicidal thoughts, phobias, differing levels of ability to function “normally,” anxiety, and self-medication, such as alcoholism or drug abuse. Additionally, those with multiple personality disorder may hurt themselves such as in cutting the skin, may have a high degree of panic or panic attacks, may have eating disorders or be prone to headaches.
As portrayed in films, multiple personality disorder seems to consist of a number of very distinct personalities, which is usually not the case in reality. Rather, those with multiple personality disorder may pass from greater awareness to less, without putting on a different accent or assuming a completely separate identity. Multiple personality disorder that results in crimes, as presented in several television series and with great effect in the Richard Gere film Primal Fear rarely exists.
The primary treatment for multiple personality disorder is therapy, which may include play therapy, hypnosis, art therapy, and/or talk therapy. Medication is usually not preferred because of the likelihood of overdose, and because the dissociative state is not chemically induced. The goal is to get alters in communication with each other, so that the person does not continue to dissociate from reality. A secondary goal is to be sure the person is removed from any ongoing traumatic situations, such as removing a child from an abusive home.
When the person has reintegrated different personalities, there may still be need for treatment, possibly drug therapy to treat underlying psychological conditions like chronic depression or schizophrenia. However, while the person is still “losing time,” drug treatment may be completely ineffective because the person may not remember to take the medication or may accidentally overdose.
DISCUSS THIS ARTICLE:
my sister in law is a sufferer of multiple personality syndrome. her personalities have mood swings all the time and take out their aggression on me i have tried to understand what she is going through but it is hard sometimes. are there any books that i could read that would help me understand more. or are any sufferers willing to help me understand more?
Multiple Personality, or Dissociative Identity Disorder are psychodiagnostic terms referring to the same emotional disorder. (DSM IV, the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, and ICD-9 CM, the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, respectively).
We have always been fascinated by apparent inconsistencies in how people behave, as expressed, for example in the following nursery rhyme.
There was a little girl, who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead,
When she was good, she was very, very good
And when she was bad, she was horrid
The good news is that Multiple Personality is is a rare condition. It is unlikely that you know anyone with this disorder. In order to understand multiple personality it is first important to eliminate a popular misconception. Many people confuse multiple personality with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, these are disorders that have anything to do with multiple personality. One characteristic of schizophrenia is a "split" between thinking and affect (feelings) which results in an inappropriate expression of affect. Some people incorrectly believe that schizophrenia is a "split personality" manifested by different, or multiple personalities. Bipolar disorder involves extreme and crippling swings in mood that go far beyond the "ups and downs" that many people experience.
The basic theoretical dynamic in multiple personality is that the person deals with conflicting feelings and thoughts by repressing them and compartmentalizing them so that certain kinds of feelings and thoughts are expressed in one personality or state of consciousness, and other conflicting feelings and thoughts are expressed in another personality, making it unnecessary to reconcile the different thoughts and feelings. Right in the middle of her forehead,
When she was good, she was very, very good
And when she was bad, she was horrid
The good news is that Multiple Personality is is a rare condition. It is unlikely that you know anyone with this disorder. In order to understand multiple personality it is first important to eliminate a popular misconception. Many people confuse multiple personality with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, these are disorders that have anything to do with multiple personality. One characteristic of schizophrenia is a "split" between thinking and affect (feelings) which results in an inappropriate expression of affect. Some people incorrectly believe that schizophrenia is a "split personality" manifested by different, or multiple personalities. Bipolar disorder involves extreme and crippling swings in mood that go far beyond the "ups and downs" that many people experience.
Themes in famous novels also express the interest and curiosity we always have in unusual or extreme shifts in mood or behavior. For example, the story of "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde" is a classical description of two mutually contradictory personalities, one sensitive, compassionate and "good," the other violent, uncivilized and murderous.
In the 1950s, the phenomenon of multiple personalities came to the attention of the general public in the form of a motion picture called "The Three Faces of Eve." It was based upon the treatment of a woman who appeared to manifest three separate personalities. It was followed later by "Sybil" and many other accounts of multiple personalities, some based on true cases, some entirely fictional. The number of personalities and the spectacular nature of the differences between personalities seemed to increase as time has passed. While multiple personality was a rare and unusual diagnosis prior to the 50s, in the 70s and 80s it became much more common. Some therapists thought it was necessarily associated with a history of child abuse.
Experienced psychologists know that when there is a dramatic change in the frequency of a psychodiagnosis it is important to determine whether we are observing a real change in the occurrence of the disorder, whether it is due to a change in the diagnostic categories used in the field, or a change in the "popularity" of the diagnosis. It is an unfortunate fact that fashions come and go in the use of certain diagnostic categories, forms of treatment and theories of psychopathology, especially among less experienced therapists, who tend to jump onto a "diagnostic bandwagon." Many psychologists believe that some inexperienced or poorly trained therapists began to "look for" multiple personalities in their patients and viewed the "discovery" of many different personalities in their patients as an indication of their therapeutic skill and astuteness.
If, in fact, a diagnosis of multiple personality is correct, treatment involves the integration of the fragmented parts of the personality. If that diagnosis is not correct, there is are serious consequences in an incorrect treatment plan, as described below.
Every person has different moods, and may function differently in different situations or at different times. Every person has conflicts and may be torn between alternatives about how to handle a situation or problem. It is not uncommon for people to make comments such as, "He's a different man since.....etc." The fact that you may sometimes be quiet, sometimes gregarious, sometimes "up" or sometimes "down", sometimes patient and other times irritable does not mean that you have multiple personalities.
In general it is the goal in psychotherapy to help a person integrate conflicting or contradictory feelings, impulses, thoughts, moods, conflicts and perceptions. The goal is to increase one's understanding of oneself, to heighten the awareness of our feelings, and to avoid repression or compartmentalization of thoughts, feelings and experiences. A therapist who is strongly motivated to "find multiple personalities" might inadvertently harm a patient by doing the opposite, namely by encouraging the patient to perceive conflicting feelings and thoughts as expressions of different personalities, thereby interfering with that integrative process.
Hypnotherapy has been one psychotherapeutic procedures utilized to examine and treat multiple personality. This is a procedure that should not be used by an inexperienced therapist. It should only be considered for use by a well trained and experienced psychologist who has good clinical judgment. The proper use of hypnotherapy in these cases is to help integrate personality, not to reinforce the psychological compartmentalization that generates multiple personalities. (See the page on Hypnosis for information about selecting a hypnotherapist.)
The conflict between powerful sexual impulses and moral, ethical or religious value systems may create disturbing personality problems that can be involved in the genesis of multiple personality. On the one hand, these value systems present a compelling template for acceptable behavior that is strongly reinforced by family, social, or religious institutions. Such value systems may successfully guide a person's behavior most of the time. On the other hand, there may be episodes when powerful sexual drives result in actions that are inconsistent with these value systems. Depending on variables in personality and life experience, such episodes may or may not create serious disturbing feelings of shame and guilt. If these feelings cannot be managed, the psychic pain may be resolved by a psychological compartmentalization of these conflicting modes of behavior. The result is an intermittent expression of a "sexual" personality that is in stark contrast to the "normal" personality.
Similar conflicts may occur in handling aggressive impulses in a manner that is inconsistent with a persons strongly held value systems. Sometimes feelings of unworthiness based on low self esteem can play a role in the development of multiple personality. Problems of low self esteem can have many causes. Such problems can be related to unresolved conflicts involving sexual or aggressive impulses. They can also be related to feelings of abandonment or by negative messages conveyed from parental figures. Secondary problems may include depression, neglect of personal appearance, eating disorders or excessive weight gain. (See the page on weight control.) Low self esteem and dissatisfaction with personal appearance can contribute to the episodic assumption of a "different" personality that blocks out the negative elements in self image, or that compensates for such feelings in a pathological way.
How can you decide who is the right professional person to help you with this kind of problem? You may get information about me at Marvin S. Beitner, Ph.D. You may get information about how to evaluate the credentials of any psychologist at Check Qualifications.
Multiple personality disorder is now more usually termed dissociated identity disorder. It is one of the more misunderstood types of mental illness, frequently capturing the interest of writers and filmmakers, who tend to portray it in its most exaggerated form. What is most important to understand is the multiple personality disorder is not schizophrenia. The two are often confused. However, in very rare cases, a personality, or alter, as it is sometimes termed, suffers from schizophrenia.
Multiple personality disorder is almost always caused by persistent trauma, or past trauma such as early childhood sexual or physical abuse. When trauma occurs over a long period of time, the affected person may begin to cope by completely disassociating from the events that cause the trauma. This can lead to “alters,” separate personalities within the same person who either are aware of, or are unaware of the abuse. Alters can be childlike, strong, male, or female, and often emerge as a coping device.
Psychiatrists make the distinction between a person having several personalities, and believing they have several personalities. In general, multiple personality disorder is the belief on the part of the patient that several personalities seem to exist within the self.
One of the main characteristics of multiple personality disorder is that people seem to “lose” time. They seem unaware that time has passed; yet someone observing them may see them acting in many different ways. The afflicted however, tends to have no idea what has occurred. This generally central personality seems most likely to dissociate if the person is exposed to situations which can evoke earlier traumas, or if the person is still enmeshed in a traumatic situation.
Other symptoms of multiple personality disorder include depression, confusion, suicidal thoughts, phobias, differing levels of ability to function “normally,” anxiety, and self-medication, such as alcoholism or drug abuse. Additionally, those with multiple personality disorder may hurt themselves such as in cutting the skin, may have a high degree of panic or panic attacks, may have eating disorders or be prone to headaches.
As portrayed in films, multiple personality disorder seems to consist of a number of very distinct personalities, which is usually not the case in reality. Rather, those with multiple personality disorder may pass from greater awareness to less, without putting on a different accent or assuming a completely separate identity. Multiple personality disorder that results in crimes, as presented in several television series and with great effect in the Richard Gere film Primal Fear rarely exists.
The primary treatment for multiple personality disorder is therapy, which may include play therapy, hypnosis, art therapy, and/or talk therapy. Medication is usually not preferred because of the likelihood of overdose, and because the dissociative state is not chemically induced. The goal is to get alters in communication with each other, so that the person does not continue to dissociate from reality. A secondary goal is to be sure the person is removed from any ongoing traumatic situations, such as removing a child from an abusive home.
When the person has reintegrated different personalities, there may still be need for treatment, possibly drug therapy to treat underlying psychological conditions like chronic depression or schizophrenia. However, while the person is still “losing time,” drug treatment may be completely ineffective because the person may not remember to take the medication or may accidentally overdose.
DISCUSS THIS ARTICLE:
my sister in law is a sufferer of multiple personality syndrome. her personalities have mood swings all the time and take out their aggression on me i have tried to understand what she is going through but it is hard sometimes. are there any books that i could read that would help me understand more. or are any sufferers willing to help me understand more?
- anon164784
71
The difference between multiple personalities and what everybody deals with is the presence of persistent and consistent personalities. Everybody may have a brain fart or not want to deal with some bad things, but not everybody has blank spaces lasting for days or months where another personality runs the show. - blrod11
70
i think everybody have this more or less, but for some people it becomes effective for their day today lives. multiple personality disorder is something we get in order to protect ourselves from bad situations. When communication difficulties and phobias are with this disorder it becomes a bad experience. communication difficulties happen as the brain doesn't function well. sometimes you even feel that your brain doesn't work. - anon160746
feel like i seriously have this. I have so many personalities. I face different situations and different people with different personalities. Sometimes i'm more like a child. I have vocal communication difficulties which began a year ago, but this multiple personality disorder sometimes protects me and makes me comfortable, but also it make me uncomfortable when i have communication difficulties.
Although I'm a gal i can act as a boy too, and even like a child. I always try to keep away from the society because I'm afraid they'll reject me. Well, there was a time where i was rejected by society, but after my multiple personality disorder came into action i could work well and as I'm like a child everybody began to love me.
i want to know whether will this become a huge problem, a huge illness? i sometimes really get comfort from this, but would still like to get rid of it as i also understand I'm getting social phobia and all. That makes me really uncomfortable.
- anon160740
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