Dissociative Identity Disorder Imagine waking up in a new house, town, city, even state and not knowing how you got there. Now add onto that thought of forgetting almost a year of your life because someone else, or something, has taken over your body. That is just a look into dissociative disorders in general. Dissociative Disorders are ‘extreme distortions in perception and memory” (Terwilliger 2013). Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), or previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, is often the most misunderstood dissociative disorder of them all. It has always been somewhat of a mystery. Seeing videos of the disorder can really give you an insight on what happens with the person who suffer from it. Almost everyone in the world has a different view on what they think the disorder means. Here I will explain what the disorder is and what happens when you have the disorder. Also debunking a few myths along the way. History Long ago before it had a name, dissociative identity disorder could have been seen as demonic possession. It’s reasonable for you to understand why people thought that those who suffered from dissociative personality disorder were thought to be possessed. When people were admitted to the asylum for just any old disorder, they were treated in the cruelest way. For example, they would be put into cold ice bath, shock therapy, and the infamous lobotomy (Terwilliger 2013). This disorder was first reported by Eberhardt Gmelin ("A history of"). The original name Gmelin was ‘Exchanged personality” (“A history of”). It was later on that it took on the name Multiple Personality disorder. In his first case the woman was 20 years-old and lived in Stuttgart (“A history of”). The woman’s’ alters were a French and... ... middle of paper ... ... DID much better. Hopefully more people do their research and realize that people with Dissociative Identity Disorder are not crazy, they’re just a product of severe child abuse and are just normal people. References Neary, L. (2010, October 10). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/10/20/141514464/real-sybil-admits-multiple-personalities-were-fake Tartakovsky, M. (2011). Dispelling Myths about Dissociative Identity Disorder. Psych Central. Retrieved on November 29, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/dispelling-myths-about-dissociative-identity-disorder/0009785 [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.fortea.us/english/psiquiatria/history.htm Sargent, J. (Director) (2008). Sybil [Television series episode]. Pais, S. [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.aamft.org/imis15/content/Consumer_Updates/Dissociative_Identity_Disorder.aspx
Mental health, what was once considered being possessed was considered the explanation of mental health problems and the solution was to put you in a prison for the rest of your life or to have an exorcism done on you.
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 momentarily distracted while completing everyday tasks. Dissociative identity disorder is a severe form of dissociation. Severe 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.
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 Treatment & Management. (n.d.). Dissociative Identity Disorder Treatment & Management. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/916186-treatment
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,
Out of all the classes that I have taken here at Westfield State College, I can honestly say that Abnormal Psychology has been by far the most interesting. Since this course has had such a major influence on me this semester, I am strongly considering continuing my education in this field of psychology. Throughout the semester, we studied a number of intriguing disorders. The disorder that really seemed to catch my attention was the Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). I took it upon myself to use this opportunity to learn more about the disorder that seemed to be the most fascinating. This is the main reason why I chose to read The Minds of Billy Milligan, by Daniel Keyes. This true story shows us how a young man (Billy Milligan), who suffers from DID, is charged with crimes that one of his alternate personalities is responsible for. Daniel Keyes is the writer who offered to reveal Billy's story to the world. After Billy was fused, he was able to explore the depths of his mind and the minds of his other 24 personalities for Keyes. Keyes published The Minds of Billy Milligan in 1981, but most of the story takes place before then. The book starts out in 1977, where Billy is being sought out for rape crimes.
...inations or delusions, not multiple personalities (7). Without proper diagnosis the individual could experience additional problems.
Do you ever feel like you just can’t take reality anymore? You just want to escape it and in order to do so, your conscious awareness becomes separated from all the painful things you can’t stand, including your painful memories. Then suddenly you’re a totally different person. Another identity takes your place in suffering all the painful things you want to escape. Today, I’m going to talk to you about dissociative identity disorder (DID). I will be talking about what DID is, what causes DID and how it affects the individual (host/core). I will also mention a famous case in psychology.
In the book Sybil, written by Flora Rheta Schreiber discuss the life story of Sybil Isabel Dorsett, who has developed 16 distinct personalities because of her childhood abuse. Sybil story became one of the most severe cases ever recorded with multiple personalities. Which is currently called Dissociative Identity Disorder in the current DSM-V. “Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a severe condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in—and alternately take control of—an individual. The person also experiences memory loss that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness” (Psychology Today, 2008, para 1). Sybil’s distinct sense of selves helped protect her from the trauma she experienced as a child.
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.
Tracy, N. (2010, September 30). Everything You Know About Dissociative Identity Disorder Is Wrong. Retrieved from http://natashatracy.com/: http://natashatracy.com/mental-illness/did/everything-about-dissociative-identity-disorder-wrong
could be as if a person with this personality disorder had a spouse or sexual
...the abuse experienced by an individual take the form of physical problems that cannot be explained by the usual means and Dissociative Identity Disorder is a dissociative disorder in which two or more separate and distinct personalities control an individual's behavior at different times.
Traub, C. M. (2009). Defending a diagnostic pariah: validating the categorisation of Dissociative Identity Disorder. South African Journal of Psychology, 39(3), 347-356. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.