The Minds of Billy Milligan
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.
Billy Milligan, a 22 year-old white man, was not a very educated individual. He had numerous odd jobs such as a florist in a local shop and a bodyguard to drug lords during shipments, but he struggled to hold down a constant job. Because of the 10 different personalities that were ruling his life, it was hard for Billy to maintain a stable job. One personality specialized in arranging flowers, but another would rather paint. One personality was stronger than the average man, but another was a scared 8 year-old boy. These personalities are a result of horrific sexual and physical abuse administered by his stepfather, Chalmer Milligan. Billy's biological father committed suicide when Billy was about 4 years old, and ever since then Billy's mother Dorothy was in and out of relationships. When Billy was 8 years old, Dorothy married Chalmer. The abuse began soon after the wedding. Chalmer physically abused Dorothy constantly, while Billy suffered both sexual and physical abuse. Jim (Billy's older brother) was fortunate enough to escape the abuse along with Kathy (Billy's sister) and Challa (Chalmer's daughter).
This dissociative identity disorder therapy encourages communication of conflicts and insight into any problems. Problems helped by psychotherapy include difficulties in coping with daily life- Barry was the only personality able to cope with daily functions due to his sessions with Dr. Fletcher. The impact of trauma, and abuse was the reason Dennis's personality was created. Kevin’s (host body) created this personality to defend and protect him by assuring everything was tidy, and done properly. Psychotherapy can aid by controlling or eliminateting any troubling symptoms so the individual can improve and increase there health and properly heal. This was the form of therapy that Barry and Dr. Fletcher had. Another common form of therapy is called cognitive
The patient Norman Bates, eighteen year old male, shows signs of 300.15-Dissociative DO, Dissociative identity disorder (DID). He exhibits two know separate personalities, Normal Bates his normal functions as a teenager and he portrays the personality of his beloved deceased mother, Norma Bates. When transferring to his alternate personality of Norma Bates, Norman will suffer memory loss of any actions performed while in this state.
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
Diagnosing an individual with DID can take several years. “Due to the variety of [Sophia’s] symptoms, accurate diagnosis puzzled not only her but also the practitioners from whom she sought help.” (Fox, et. al., 2013) It is estimated that people with dissociative disorders have spent more than seven years in the mental health system prior to receiving an accurate diagnosis. With this complex psychological disorder, misdiagnosis is common because the series of symptoms that cause an individual with a dissociative disorder to search for treatment is very comparable to those of multiple other psychiatric diagnoses. As a matter of fact, many people who are diagnosed with dissociative disorders also struggle with secondary diagnoses of depression, anxiety, or panic disorders. (Goldberg, 2014) For example, “dissociative symptoms commonly co-occur with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and the prevalence of DID among outpatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) was 24% in two separate studies.” (Chelbowski & Gregory, 2012) Again referring to the case study Recovering Identity, Sophia describes her diagnosis, “I was diagnosed with everything. I was schizophrenic, schizoaffective, borderline, bi-polar, ADHD.” (Fox, et. al., 2013) Clinicians perceived her unwillingness to accept
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
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,
Multiple Personality Disorder is a mental illness which most commonly has been referred to as Dissociative disorder or DID in recent years[1]. The illness commonly disassociated with schizophrenia finds a person experiencing two or more clearly differing personalities which will in habit assume control at some stage. Changing from one personality to another in a matter of seconds, the person will actually believe that they have more than one personality. DID can co-occur with other illnesses which include a range of anxiety disorders. The causes of DID are still not proven but it is thought to have occurred in response to a traumatic childhood experience[1]. The diagnosis is not constructed as a set test and so the mental health professional is required to test a patient using a mental status exam. The various symptoms of the illness can be treated through a range of treatments ranging from talk therapy to medications, but this does not always smooth out the outcomes resulting in a chaotic, imbalanced life. A great amount of controversy surrounds DID and is disputed by mental health professionals, some even believing that it does not exist[1]. Whatever the case, DID is displayed powerfully throughout the miniseries ‘Sybil’ in which a young emergency teacher finds herself with DID in response to horrific childhood memories[4].
Dissociation is a word that describes what happens when normal perceptions, sensations, memories, or identity become disintegrated. It is a separation between two things and becomes a disorder when the behavior is extreme and uncontrolled. Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly known as multiple personalities, can be defined by as a mental disorder in which individuals experience a shattering of a unified identity into at least two separate but coexisting personalities with different memories, behavior patterns, and emotions(1). Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) shows an onset of multiple “alters” in a patient. Alters are personalities that appear to have the control over a person’s functioning in certain situations. These alters can dress,
Mental disorders have baffled physicians, psychiatrists and the general public since the beginning of time. One particular disorder called Dissociative Identity Disorder, also known as Multiple Personality Disorder, has caused controversy between those who believe it is real and those who think it is purely part of an individual’s imagination. For those who believe strongly in its existence, it poses very real consequences and hardships. Dissociative Identity Disorder has many causes, symptoms, and treatments; unfortunately, those who don’t take it seriously use it as a scapegoat for others undiagnosed problems.
Living a normal life seems to be everyone’s ultimate lifestyle, but there are some people that cannot control what happens in their lives because it can be a social, behavioral, or environmental effect that can troublesome their daily tasks of life. There are so many disorders that can cause issues for an individual’s well-being, and one disorder is the dissociative identity disorder (DID). According to Zimbarodo (2009), “Dissociative identity disorder is a complicated, long-lasting posttraumatic disorder, which was previously called multiple personality disorder” (p. 550). In some cultures, DID is explain by the presence of demon or spirit possessions, but in the Western society, this disorder has been vindicated to seek serious attention and is now included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (Kluft, 2005, p. 635).
There are many types of amnesia, but the specific found in dissociative identity disorder is unique. The individual usually is in control, until a change take its place (Wood et al 411). This was shown when Norman Bates was unable to recall what occurred during these dissociative blackouts. Amnesia in individuals with dissociative identity disorder is not limited to stressful or traumatic events; these individuals often cannot recall everyday events as well. In one of the episodes, Norman is in his kitchen cooking breakfast in his mother’s aprons. His brother, Dylan, then walks in to ask Norman what he doing. Norman continues to persist that he was Norma and not Norman. The next day, Norman had no memory of this occurring. Many people with DID have early histories of severe physical and/or sexual abuse. As a result, researchers and clinicians have long assumed that early trauma plays a critical role in the development of DID, an approach that is consistent with the psychoanalytic perspective (Wood et al 412). Individuals who have dissociative identity disorder, usually present a combined diagnosis, such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, self-injury, non-epileptic seizures, or other common symptoms. Norman Bates suffered from depression, anxiety, and non-epileptic seizures. These symptoms were an effect from the underlying cause of dissociative identity disorder. Norman
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.
According to Barlow, Durand & Stewart (2012), Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is one of several dissociative disorders in which a person experiences involve detachment or depersonalization. They go on to explain that people with DID ha...
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.