2. Are persons with MPD/Dissociative Identity Disorder responsible for bad actions committed when in an alter state? Why or why not? Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) Diagnostic criteria dictates that the presence of two or more distinct identities (each with its’ own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self), as well as at least two of these identities recurrently taking control of the person’s behavior coupled with the inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. The disturbance must also be proved to not be due to direct physiological effects of a substance e.g alcohol or due to a general medical condition e.g complex partial seizures. I will take it upon myself to argue that persons with MPD/Dissociative Identity Disorder should be held responsible for bad actions committed when in an alter state because these alters are not independent selves, but rather parts of a single person. And a person should be held responsible for what a part of them did. If lack of control over past selves( or in this case ‘alters’) removed criminal responsibility, then all criminals would be free. Lack of control over a past self or alter should also not remove criminal responsibility. In simplistic terms, I cannot control what I did yesterday since it is past, and even if I may even be unaware of doing it because I have forgotten, I should still be held accountable. Being forgetful of my actions yesterday and/or unaware of what occurred yesterday does not mean I am not the same person that I was yesterday. Therefore persons with MPD/Dissociative Identity Disorder should be held responsible for bad actions committed... ... middle of paper ... ...t is put to trial but rather their sanity. They are still seen as only part of a person, but what if one part of this person is criminally insane? Thus punishment for bad actions one’s alter has committed may not always be appropriate, in the case of the criminally insane. Thus in conclusion I would like to reinstate my point that persons suffering from MPD/Dissociative Identity Disorder are not separate selves, and are in fact parts of the same person and should be held responsible for bad actions enacted by their alters. = Bibliography: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Stephen Behnke ‘Responsibility in Cases of Multiple Personality Disorder,: Nous, vol 34, supplement 14 (2000) , pp.301-23 Jeanette Kennett and Steve Matthews, ‘Identity, Control and Responsibility: The case of Dissociative Identity Disorder, ‘Philosophical Psychology, vol. 15, no.4 (2002), pp. 509-26
You can’t see what goes on in people’s minds, you have their word and sometimes that’s what you have to go off of. It’s a good idea to explore other diagnoses, but don’t automatically cross MPD off the list if the symptoms are there. There is a lack of education when it comes to MPD, it is hardly taught. Any psychologist should have a good understanding about MPD, but in this day and age it’s hard to get one. Doctors are scared to make the diagnosis because they could be wrong or don’t want to give the patient a cover to act however they want. Just because there aren’t brain scans or test to prove MPD, does not make it any less of a
During the course of the evolution of Psychology, there has been countless theories involving personality. The focus started off as how personality came to be and during what stages of the human life the self becomes fully self realized. As personality theories came to popularize, it became easier to understand certain phenomenon’s that were often seen as demonic possessions or gender biases. However, even with all the psychological advances we’ve made with personality disorders, there are still a few that have very little research behind them. These disorders are typically multiple personality disorder, especially Dissociative Identity Disorder. It’s become an interesting field to study and explore, but because it is so difficult
Kenneth Bianchi, a man who has murdered many women, now claims that he has Multiple Personality Disorder. Can we possibly decide that it is reasonable to convict an individual of a crime if that individual suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder? This psychological malady, known as Multiple Personality Disorder, or sometimes as Multiple Dissociative Identity, is a mental illness in which a person develops two or more distinct identities that control the patient’s behavior. If an aberrant personality takes over, the individual no longer has control over one’s actions. The cause of this disorder is unknown; however, 97% of the patients with this disorder have been abused during childhood. Throughout time, the issue of a person having conflicting personalities inside, like Jekyll and Hyde, has been very controversial. Some authorities believe that this disorder does not exist, and some believe that it does. In a number of cases, criminals have used Multiple Personality Disorder as a defense for their criminal deviance. Should an individual who has committed a crime be sentenced to prison when he/she has no control over oneself? In my opinion an individual who commits a crime and suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder should be held responsible for his/her actions. As punishment, this convicted person should be sent to an asylum.
"Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder): Signs, Symptoms, Treatment." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. .
Dissociative Identity Disorder, also known as Multiple Personality Disorder is a psychological disorder that can be caused by many things, but the most common cause is severe childhood trauma which is usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. A lot of people experience mild dissociation which includes daydreaming or getting momentarilly distracted while completing everyday tasks. Dissociative identity disorder is a severe form of dissociation. Seveer Dissociation causes a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. Dissociative identity disorder is thought to stem from a combination of factors that may include trauma experienced by the person with the disorder. When a
For my research paper, I chose to utilize a disorder known as “Dissociative Identity Disorder” (DID). This disorder is also coined as Multiple Personality Disorder. When defining the actual meaning of this disorder, it is defined as “a severe condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in—and alternately take control of—an individual” (1). Specifically, “DID is a disorder characterized by identity fragmentation rather than a proliferation of separate personalities. In addition, the disturbance is not due to the direct psychological effects of a substance or of a general medical condition” (1). Based off of this knowledge, I chose to look at two individuals who have obtained this disorder
MPD has been called many different things from split personality to what is it referred to in this century as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). When you research all of the categories associated with MDP, they still calculate to MPD. MPD is a mental illness or disorder caused from abuse. The abuse may be emotional, mental, or physical. The abuse may be from someone the individual knows or someone that has kidnapped them. To cope with the abuse a person will create an alter personality that will take all the pain and abuse the individual is feeling or seeing. Alters can have different ages, likes, and dislikes, names, races, and gender. Millions feel MPD does not exist. Including twenty-five-year old G.L. Seeking help with, some problems G.L. therapist proved her wrong about MPD by diagnosing her with MPD. Like most, that have MDP G.L. thought she was crazy and even had thoughts of committing suicide. She did not know what was happening so she finally decided to seek professional help. She found she had six other alter selves, five women and one man. As a child, G.L. was being sexual abused from the age of three to eleven ...
Dissociative identity disorder, a condition that has plagued and altered the minds of those who were diagnosed for many years, represents the condition in which an individual displays multiple personalities that overpower his or her behavior around others and even alone. Such personalities or identities can have staggering differences between them even being characterized by a disparate gender, race, or age. One of the sides of them can even be animal-like and display feral qualities. Also, the disorder severs the connection between the victim’s sense of identity, emotions, actions, and even memories from their own consciousness. The cause for this is known to be a very traumatic experience that the person had gone through previously and fails to cope with it, thus they dissociate themselves from the memory in order to keep their mental state in one piece. All these results from the disorder do not begin to tell of the rest of the horrors that gnaw away at the affected human.
More than two million cases can be found in psychological and psychiatric records of multiple personality disorders also called dissociative identity disorders. Dissociative Identity, formerly known as multiple personality disorder, is a condition in which, an individual has a host personality along with at least two or more personalities with each identity having his or her own ideas, memories, thoughts and way of doing things (Bennick). Personality disorders are a group of mental illnesses. They involve thoughts and behaviors that are unhealthy and inflexible. A person with a personality disorder has trouble perceiving and relating to situations and people. This causes significant problems and limitations in relationships, social activities,
More than two million cases can be found altogether in psychological and psychiatric records of multiple personality disorder also called dissociative identity disorder. It is often thought that multiple personality disorder is a trick, a bizarre form of "play-acting" that is committed by manipulative, attention-seeking individuals. It is not. Multiple personality disorder is a "disorder of hiding" wherein 80-90% of multiple personality disorder patients do not have a clue that they have the disorder. Most know that there is something wrong with them; many fear that they are crazy, but few know that they have a disorder.
To be diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, an individual will have an impulsive and transitory disturbance of identities, which involves two or more separate and discrete personality states or identities that controls their behavior at different times (Zimbardo, 2009, p. 550). The dissociation process will cause the person, or host, who may be unable to deal with overpowering stress, to be control by an alternative personality called alters. Each of these alters may have different speeches, mannerisms, attitudes, thoughts, or gender orientations (Kluft, 2005, p. 638). One individual may have up to one hundred different alters and when the alter is being governed, the individual usually does not remember some of the events that occurs because he or she mentally switches into a whole new human being (Stickley & Nickeas, 2006, p. 185). Gilling (2009) stated that...
In 1994, with the publication of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV, Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) was changed to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), reflecting changes in professional understanding of the disorder, which resulted largely from increased empirical research of trauma-based dissociative disorders.
My topic of choice for this research paper is Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID. This appellation is rather new; therefore, most are more familiar with the disorder's older, less technical name: Multiple Personality Disorder or MPD. When first presented with the task of selecting a topic on which to center this paper, I immediately dismissed Dissociative Identity Disorder (which for the sake of brevity will be referred to as DID for the remainder of this paper) as a viable topic due to the sheer scope of the disorder. However after an exhaustive examination of other prospective topics, I found myself back at my original choice. There are several reasons why I chose DID. The foremost of which is the widespread fascination of this disorder by many different types of people; most of whom otherwise have no interest in psychology or its associated fields. One would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t been captivated at one time or another by the extraordinary, all too well known symptoms of this disorder. This fascination… dare I say ‘allure’ to this disorder is exemplified by the myriad of motion pictures that have been produced based on cases, real or fictitious, of DID. Another reason for my choice is what I feel is the insufficiency of effective treatments for DID. Despite what is known about this disorder, (which is relatively a lot) there are only two chief treatments for DID; the first and most prevalent is psychotherapy; also known as ”talk therapy”, the second is medication. The third and final reason for my choice is my own enchantment with DID. I must admit that ever since I read about Sue Tinker, a woman who was diagnosed with over 200 different personalities. In writing this paper I hope to discover more about this disorder and perhaps be able to identify a few areas that I feel might require more research on the part of psychologists specializing in DID.
Traub, C. M. (2009). Defending a diagnostic pariah: validating the categorisation of Dissociative Identity Disorder. South African Journal of Psychology, 39(3), 347-356.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (commonly know as Multiple Personality Disorder) is one of the most unexplored disorders and most debated psychiatric disorder. Through this essay you will become more knowledgeable about what the disorder really is; what qualifies you as having this disorder, what are the prognosis to DID, and what are risks for having this disorder? You will also learn about the treatment for Dissociative Identity Disorder; what kind of therapy do they need or the medicine they should have to help control the disorder. At the end of this paper you will then learn about current research and what the future holds for Dissociative Identity Disorder.