Multiple Personality Disorder.
As inspired by another thread, here's one where we can discuss the psychological phenomena known as Multiple Personality Disorder, or more accurately, Dissociative Identity Disorder.
The way the movies and television portrays this condition is not really very accurate as to what is really gone on in the mind of a dissociative. So, the perception people have about the disorder would lead to them believing it doesn't exist. And, they are right, in that sense. A dissociative doesn't have dozens of different people living inside of them with different memories and feelings. At least, I have never met anyone who genuinely suffers from that condition.
In fact, the majority of cases in which a person was displaying such tendencies, the psychologist was to blame. I recall several cases where a person would claim MPD as a defense, only to have the psychologist expose them as frauds.
Here is how it was done:
Person makes the claim.
Person undergoes counseling to verify.
Person is pounded under scrutiny to see if they personalities are consistent.
Psychologist drops hints, very subtle, pointing to the way a "real" dissociative acts.
Person begins taking on these traits.
Voila, person exposed.
However, there is a real condition (in my opinion, being that I don't suffer from it, I can never be 100% certain what goes on in the brains of my fellow primates) in which dissociation takes place. This condition is strongly linked to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is thought that often an extremely traumatic event can spawn "new" personality. A memory, or entire set of memories, is absolutely repressed within the mind, and the conscious mind has no ability to remember that the events ever took place. This can sometimes bleed over, for lack of a better term, into other aspects of their waking minds.
It can also happen on a more immediate basis. For instance, during a rape, a person can escape from the situation and completely dissociate. The result would be a big blank surrounding the period. Nearly any trauma of severe enough significance can cause this, I have heard statistics citing things like 5% of all the population has suffered this at one point, though I have absolutely no idea if this is true or not, so take that with a grain of salt.
Research suggests that people who do wind up dissociating suffered significant trauma at many different points throughout their childhood. Because of this trauma, the child creates what is called an alternate ego-state. That is, a place where that trauma doesn't exist, and the child is normal and happy. This new ego-state can, and sometimes does, rise when the child grows into an adult. The escape, in some people, can be so severe that they cease to be able to function.
I am sure there is a lot of ground that I didn't cover, but this is because I only have a passing fancy with MPD and DID at all. My specialities (which were schizophrenia, as well as general sociology) had only passing acquaintance with the concept of new personalities (as opposed to hallucination).
For more information, I suggest google.
Or, read things like
http://www.sidran.org/didbr.html
http://www.psycom.net/mchugh.html
http://www.healthubs.com/dissociative/
And of course, our friends at ReligiousTolerance.org has links to arguments for and against
http://www.religioustolerance.org/mpd_did.htm
As inspired by another thread, here's one where we can discuss the psychological phenomena known as Multiple Personality Disorder, or more accurately, Dissociative Identity Disorder.
The way the movies and television portrays this condition is not really very accurate as to what is really gone on in the mind of a dissociative. So, the perception people have about the disorder would lead to them believing it doesn't exist. And, they are right, in that sense. A dissociative doesn't have dozens of different people living inside of them with different memories and feelings. At least, I have never met anyone who genuinely suffers from that condition.
In fact, the majority of cases in which a person was displaying such tendencies, the psychologist was to blame. I recall several cases where a person would claim MPD as a defense, only to have the psychologist expose them as frauds.
Here is how it was done:
Person makes the claim.
Person undergoes counseling to verify.
Person is pounded under scrutiny to see if they personalities are consistent.
Psychologist drops hints, very subtle, pointing to the way a "real" dissociative acts.
Person begins taking on these traits.
Voila, person exposed.
However, there is a real condition (in my opinion, being that I don't suffer from it, I can never be 100% certain what goes on in the brains of my fellow primates) in which dissociation takes place. This condition is strongly linked to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is thought that often an extremely traumatic event can spawn "new" personality. A memory, or entire set of memories, is absolutely repressed within the mind, and the conscious mind has no ability to remember that the events ever took place. This can sometimes bleed over, for lack of a better term, into other aspects of their waking minds.
It can also happen on a more immediate basis. For instance, during a rape, a person can escape from the situation and completely dissociate. The result would be a big blank surrounding the period. Nearly any trauma of severe enough significance can cause this, I have heard statistics citing things like 5% of all the population has suffered this at one point, though I have absolutely no idea if this is true or not, so take that with a grain of salt.
Research suggests that people who do wind up dissociating suffered significant trauma at many different points throughout their childhood. Because of this trauma, the child creates what is called an alternate ego-state. That is, a place where that trauma doesn't exist, and the child is normal and happy. This new ego-state can, and sometimes does, rise when the child grows into an adult. The escape, in some people, can be so severe that they cease to be able to function.
I am sure there is a lot of ground that I didn't cover, but this is because I only have a passing fancy with MPD and DID at all. My specialities (which were schizophrenia, as well as general sociology) had only passing acquaintance with the concept of new personalities (as opposed to hallucination).
For more information, I suggest google.
Or, read things like
http://www.sidran.org/didbr.html
http://www.psycom.net/mchugh.html
http://www.healthubs.com/dissociative/
And of course, our friends at ReligiousTolerance.org has links to arguments for and against
http://www.religioustolerance.org/mpd_did.htm
