Multiple Personality Disorder

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Multiple Personality Disorder

Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) or Dissociative Identity

Disorder (DID) was first acknowledged in the 1700's but was

not understood so therefore it was forgotten. Many cases

show up in medical records through the years, but in 1905,

Dr. Morton Prince wrote a book about MPD that is a

foundation for the disease. A few years after it was

published Sigmund Freud dismissed the affliction and this

dropped it from being discussed at any credible mental

health meetings. Since then the disorder has been overlooked

and misdiagnosed as either schizophrenia or psychosis. Many

in the medical profession did not believe that a person

could unknowingly have more than one personality or person

inside one body, even after the in the 1950's Three Faces of

Eve was published by two psychiatrist. In 1993, records

showed that three to five thousand patients were being

treated for MPD compared to the hundred cases reported ten

years earlier. There is still as increase in the number of

cases being reported as the scientific community learns more

and more about the disease and the public is becoming more

and more aware of this mental disorder. There are still many

questions left unanswered about the disease, like "Is it

genetic?" or "Is a certain type of personality more

vulnerable to the disorder?" but many aspects of how people

come by the disorder are already answered (Clark, 1993,

p.17-19) MPD is commonly found in adults who were

recurrently abused mentally, physically, emotionally, and/or

sexually as young children, between birth to 8 years of age.

The child uses a process called dissociation to remove

him/herself from the abusive situation. Dissociation is when

a child makes up an imaginary personality to take control of

the mind and body while the child is being abused. The child

can imagine many personalities but usually there is a

personality for every feeling and or emotion that was

involved during the abuse (BoyyM, 1998, p.1). As an adult,

the abused child finds it hard to keep track of time and may

have episodes of amnesia. Other symptoms that will appear in

adults with MPD are depression, auditory and visual

hallucinations (hearing voices) and suicidal thoughts.

Another major symptom is when the adult has no recollection

of their childhood. The adult with MPD has no idea they were

abused as children and also unaware of the other

personalities living inside of their head.

Multiple Personality Disorder is when there is "the

presence of two or more distinct identities or

personalities, each with its own relatively enduring pattern

of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the

environment and self"(BoyyM, 1998, p.1). There can be

anywhere from two to over a hundred different personalities.

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