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Multiple personality disorder thesis abstract
Multiple personality disorder thesis abstract
Multiple personality disorder paper
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Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is a condition in which an individual has the experience of being more than one distinct person. As with all the concepts and theories we use to explain reality, anomalies in the experience of what we define as a self challenge such definitions. Advances in understanding often arise from unexpected quarters, so to close off any such quarter would be to willfully limit our understanding
All the writers I look at accept the existence of MPD, but each has a different conception of its causes. Each draw different conclusions about the self based on their interpretation of MPD or, in Hacking’s case, rule out meaningfully connecting MPD with our beliefs about the self.
Dennett and Humphries see the formation of MPD as illustrative of his philosophy of mind. This explains the self as ‘fictitious’, (clarify Dickhead’s theory here) but real enough to be in charge of the various sub-systems that give us our experience of self.
As usual with Dennett, he has a bet each way. The experience of self is not demonstrable but seems nevertheless to be acceptably inferred by the overall expression of an organism. We each have a network of sub-systems which somehow add up to an experience of self. Although he doesn’t try to define this self as it actually exists in our heads, in our lives, we are told that it exists like the US President exists. However closely this might ‘fit’ with our lived experience, Dennett’s explanation does nothing to explain any scientific truth of MPD. As Hacking would assert, this disqualifies Dennett’s explanation of MPD as evidence for any particular notion of self. Again, we have simply a happy, reasonable coincidence between an experience – MPD, an explanation - the self spl...
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...e centre of narrative gravity”. For Flanagan’s self to operate successfully, he has two, “deeply entwined” self-representational processes interacting to create the unified self. One part organizes a coherent sense of self, the other guides its behavior and matches this behavior, however successfully, with the coherent self. Flanagan does not grapple with the ontological issue of which causes the other, or how this occurs. Still, it gets him around the problem in Dennett’s theory, which requires one to have caused the other.
Dennett’s response to Hacking’s criticism that subsystems all share common skill sets – most definitively motor skills – is that all shared functions/capacities are themselves different subsystems. To call selves subsystems and then equate them with each and every skill as a subsystem seems absurd. Much wiser surely to posit a foundation
Torgersen, S. (2009). The nature (and nurture) of personality disorders. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 50(6), 624-632. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00788.x
In the essay “Where am I?” by Daniel C. Dennett there are connections being made and questions that arise in nature of a ‘self’ and the relation to ‘mind’ and ‘body’. The essay starts out with information about how Daniel was approached by Pentagon officials in which they asked him if he would be inclined to volunteer to take on a very dangerous and secret mission. This mission involved Daniel to go underground in Oklahoma to retrieve a warhead that was placed down there that has become extremely radioactive in a new way. The nature of the device produced radiation that could cause severe abnormalities in certain tissues of the brain. There was no way to shield and protect the brain from these deadly radiation rays that the device put off in
If one adopts a dualism view and accepts the idea that the mind does not have to be connected to a physical object, then one can make sense of Hubert being able to act as the mind of Dennett. The story told to us by Dennett, is that when the switch is flipped on his little box attached to his body, the entity that controls Dennett, changes to the other entity. Since the switches are not labeled, it is never known which entity is currently controlling Dennett.
Daniel Dennett’s essay “Where Am I?” tries to argue against dualism. In this essay, Dennett tackles the difference between mind, body, and a person’s identity. Dennett’s views seem to be of empirical monism. In his story, Dennett has his brain removed and preserved in a vat. His body stays alive, and radio transmitters make it so he can still function. Dennett starts to question who “he” is and where he is.
Anil Ananthaswamy describes the self as the role the brain plays in our notions of self and existence. That our sense of self is layered, pulling information from
Personality disorders have always been viewed as a possible category for a psychological disorder. However, in the new edition of the DSM, it will be getting its own diagnostic category. In viewing personality disorder, one can only agree that it should have its own diagnostic category. The reason that these changes are being supported is because of the causation, diagnosis, and treatment of personality disorders.
... several various types of personality disorder, every aspect is complex and widely misunderstood by the general populous.
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,
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,
Freud, S., & Strachey, J. (19621960). The Ego and the Super-ego. The ego and the id (pp. 19-20). New York: Norton.
Self could be defined in different ways. In John Perry’s “dialogue on personal identity and immorality”, both characters Weirob and Cohen are correct on their argument of personal identity, there are just some imperfections on each of the views. My view of “persons are identical with brains” fills the gaps of ideas of them. Brain is the junction that could bring mind and
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.
Johnstone, M., Primmer, J. (2014). [Lecture]. The Mind-Body Problem. PHILOS 1E03, Problems of Philosophy. Hamilton, ON, Canada: McMaster University.
The concept of the term “self” is a topic that has been analyzed for many years by many people. The self is the whole part of the being that contains the person. This is a very broad topic and although the term is simple it holds a vast amount if information. One of these people is a man by the name of Sigmund Freud. In the paper “The Dissection of the Psychical Personality” written by Freud, uses the term “Psychical Personality,” to explain the human thought processes, thinking and feelings that make up concept of “the self ” part of the person’s personality (Freud, The Dissection of the Psychical Personality, 2004, p. 70). The concept of the structural model of the psyche contains the Id, Ego and Superego, as developed by Freud tries to
...have struggled with the nature of human beings, especially with the concept of “self”. What Plato called “soul, Descartes named the “mind”, while Hume used the term “self”. This self, often visible during hardships, is what one can be certain of, whose existence is undoubtable. Descartes’s “I think, therefore I am” concept of transcendental self with just the conscious mind is too simplistic to capture the whole of one’s self. Similarly, the empirical self’s idea of brain in charge of one’s self also shows a narrow perspective. Hume’s bundle theory seeks to provide the distinction by claiming that a self is merely a habitual way of discussing certain perceptions. Although the idea of self is well established, philosophical insight still sees that there is no clear presentation of essential self and thus fails to prove that the true, essential self really exists.