Herbert Spiegel's Dissociative Identity Disorder

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In the early 1960s, Herbert Spiegel recognized dissociation as a defensive process. He saw the defensive nature of dissociation as a “fragmentation process that serves to defend against anxiety and fear”. He also recognized the relationship between dissociation and repression. This was known as the dissociation-association continuum. The continuum was used to describe the degree of dissociation (History of Dissociative Identity Disorder). Throughout the 1970s, a number of clinicians worked to define and establish the legitimacy of Dissosiative Identity Disorder. Margareta Bowers, along with six others published “Therapy of Multiple Personality” in 1971. This publication outlines rules for treating multiple personalities which are still used …show more content…

Further research on Dissociative Identity Disorder led to a separate section for dissociative disorders in the DSM-III, which was published in 1980. In the DSM-III, Dissociative Idendity Disorder was renamed to Multiple Personality Disorder. This version of the DSM was the first version in which this disorder was recognized as a separate diagnosis instead of being recognized as one of a number of dissociative symptoms that were grouped together under one diagnosis (History of Dissociative Identity Disorder). The separation of diagnoses gave legitimacy to dissociation as a condition/disorder (A History). Bliss, Coons, Greaves, Rosenbaum, and many other researchers published landmark articles containing their research on dissociation. These publications initiated a huge increase in the diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder. The increase of diagnoses generated controversy and skepticism. Some professionals that were extremely skeptical of the diagnosis were found to be falsifying clinical data, and deliberately interfering with the clinical care of patients (History of Dissociative Identity Disorder). Skepticism resulted in the recognition that patients with this disorder are often misdiagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia. Today, patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder are still commonly misdiagnosed with Schizophrenia (History of Dissociative Identity Disorder).
Dissociative Identity Disorder was known as Multiple Personality Disorder until the publication of the DSM-IV. In this version of the DSM, Multiple Personality Disorder was renamed Dissociative Identity Disorder (A History). The name was changed to better reflect the condition, which is characterized by fragmentation or splintering of the identity. Previous names improperly characterized the condition as a proliferation, or growth of separate identities (Psychology

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