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Research paper on dissociative identity disorder
+ Mayo Clinic - Dissociate Identity Disorder
Research paper on dissociative identity disorder
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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder, is characterized by a single patient inhabiting two or more personalities, or alters. Normally one personality at a time can be present.The patient is not normally aware of when the transition to a personality takes place, which is considered an amnesia or fugue like state. “Some predisposing factors making patients more apt to developing this disorder are: Having experienced a traumatic life event, most often in childhood, possessing tendency for the disorder to develop (biological or psychological), and the absence of external support from loved ones. Before a patient is diagnosed with DID, many are misdiagnosed. Some patients are diagnosed with depression, …show more content…
The first article that I chose was titled, Lifetime Axis I and II comorbidity and childhood trauma history in dissociative identity disorder. This article mentions that with most patients whom are diagnosed with DID, have also experienced a prolonged physical or sexual abuse in their childhood. It also states, “There is evidence that dissociative identity disorder may be more prevalent than once believed in general population and among general adult psychiatric inpatients.” (Ellason 1996) This article goes on to show the results supporting this statement. The second article I chose, Objective documentation of child abuse and dissociation in 12 murderers with dissociative identity disorder, remarks on the skepticism regarding the existence of DID as well as the abuse that the murderers with DID endured in their childhood. 12 separate murderers with DID, some on death row, were interviewed for this article, and objective verification was presented for dissociative symptoms and severe abuse during childhood. “The data demonstrates that the disorder can be distinguished from malingering and from other disorders. The study shows that it is possible, with great effort, to obtain objective evidence of both the symptoms of dissociative identity disorder and the abuse that engenders it.”(Lewis 1997) The third article that I chose, Childhood trauma and perceived parental dysfunction in the etiology of dissociative symptoms in psychiatric inpatients. This article focuses on the link between childhood trauma and parental dysfunction (severe neglect or seperation by the parent or guardian or interparental violence) vs. dissociative symptoms. There is more research that strongly exhibits information about physical or sexual abuse in childhood being a precurser to DID. On the other hand, there is little evidence showing the relation to parental dysfunction. “The severity of
Dissociative fugue is considered to be more common than previously thought and some estimate it to affect 1% of the population. Dissociation is present in all races but is more common in American children. More males who have been abused may experience pathological dissociation, and George was one of them. Dissociative identity disorder is typically caused by trauma occurring at less than nine years of age. Sadly, George was abused at that young age and was by both parents. Early age of abuse onset predicts a greater degree of dissociation. Another statistic about DID is that dissociative disorders were seen in 17.2% of a large inpatient group seeking treatment for substance abuse. George has a substance abuse because of how much he drinks and how frequently he
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 momentarilly distracted while completing everyday tasks. Dissociative identity disorder is a severe form of dissociation. Seveer 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. When a
People often think that D.I.D. (Dissociative Identity Disorder) is something made up, something that a person is just inventing in order to get attention; that statement couldn’t be more Incorrect. Dissociative Identity Disorder, formally known at Multiple Personality Disorder, is a dissociative disorder, not a personality disorder or a psychosis. D.I.D. is a severe form of dissociation, a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, emotion, behavior, or sense of identity. D.I.D. is thought to stem from trauma experienced by the person with the disorder. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism; the person literally dissociates himself or herself from a situation or experience that is too violent, traumatic, or painful to assimilate with his or her conscious self.
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.
Dissociative disorders can affect someone’s memory and make someone forget some of the important things in his or her life suck as their own identity. “When a dissociative identity disorder comes in to a person life it normally can make that person seem very distant and never aware of the other people in their lives.” (Diseases; 1) Which means that this person has absolutely no socials life. This person, when having a traumatic childhood, he or she can establish two or more different sets of personality. As an adult, this person may see an object that triggers the other personalities to come out; meanwhile, attempt to take control over the body.1a. SV; conj. adv, SV.) This other personality can be a different gender and he or she will most likely go by a different name. When this personality is in play the person’s original personality will have no memory of what the other being inside of him or her may have done.
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.
Many people may wonder what specifically defines Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). This disorder is a mental illness that involves the sufferer experiencing two or more clear identities or personalities, also called alters, each of which has their own way of seeing and connecting themselves to the world (1). This disorder was formally known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), and is frequently called split personality disorder (1). The actions of victims with DID are determined by the personality that is dominant at a specific time (7). “In the category of Dissociative Disorder there are four main disorders: depersonalization, derelization, dissociative fugue and dissociative identity disorder (8). Furthermore, “DID is a severe form of dissociation, a mental process, which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity” (www.webmd.com). Having a thorough understanding of the meaning of DID is exceedingly significant for the doctors that diagnose and treat patients.
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.
...o be the cause of chronic posttraumatic psychopathology. There are several factories that contribute to this complex splitting of personalities. Over whelming stress coinciding with the ability to separate ones memories, identity, and perception from our conscious awareness, abnormal psychological development, and insufficient protection and love as a child ( Pais, 2009 p 1). It is still not clear how these lead to DID. Dissociative identity disorder tends to manifest in early childhood and arises during adolescences due to the protective reaction to server childhood trauma usually sexual abuse. There have been numerous studies on the early severe abuse and dissociative disorder. It is believed that these identities are invented due to a unified self-identity failed to form due to the trauma especially if the trauma occurred before the age of five ( Pais, 2009 p2).
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.
Learning about Louis’ life history could be beneficial when trying to diagnose her. Many research studies have shown that there are traumatic or terrible instances that a person experiences. This can be physical or sexual abuse, and often times is incest. These traumatic events can cause dissociative disorder. The reasoning behind this, is when a person is being abused or they may be locked up in the basement, or some other case, their mind tries to flee the person from that experience. Therefore, the person may transition into their ‘fantasy’ world, which causes the multiple personalities to occur. The social worker needs to make sure that there aren’t any medications that Lois is on that could be causing her to act this way. A neurological examination will also need to be completed. This will help to rule out others factors that may contribute to the person’s dissociative disorders. The social worker should also be aware of how Lois acted and what she said when she first entered the emergency room. When she first entered, she stated many of the symptoms of dissociative disorder. She was confused, she claimed to live in
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...
My article is titled: “Voluntary switching between identities in dissociative identity disorder: A functional MRI case study” and written by R.L. Savoy, B.B. Frederick, A.S. Keuroghilan and P.C. Wolk. The article is about Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and it used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). DID is when one person has multiple personalities, or alters, in one body. The alters are their own person, with their own characteristics, age and even gender. In this article, one participant had an adult, child and baby personality. This article presented research on what happens in the brain when a person switches to a different alter. Wolk, one of the authors, has been working with one patient, RV, for over 20 years (Savoy, R. L., et al, 2012, p. 1). RV, derived from the nickname research volunteer, has DID and she is actually able to voluntarily switch between alters. She had two other alters, a 4-6-year-old girl and a non-verbal baby (Savoy, R. L., et al, 2012, p. 2) To conduct this research and study her brain during switches, she was put into a fMRI. They did a few trail runs and preliminary testing to make sure she could switch in the environment such as the fMRI and to see if her head movements were only slight. During this, they found out that the baby alter would not be able to support her head, therefore, they decided to have RV only switch between her main personality and the child. They also found out that the average time it took for her to switch after they told her to switch, took four seconds (Savoy, R. L., et al, 2012, p. 2). After those, they conducted the real test.
Dissociative identity disorder, a disorder that needs more research and trials than it is getting. As you read and hopefully discovered there is still a lot of questions left unanswered. But in your reading you should have discovered more knowledge as to what dissociative identity disorder; how it comes about, what is the diagnosis, and the risk of DID. Also you should have a better understanding of the treatment that goes along with DID. From therapy to long drug trials just to find what will send them into remission. Lastly able to discover the research that is happening today and what the future holds for treating and understanding dissociative identity disorder even better. Through all this I hope you now have a better understanding of this disorder and be more aware of it.