Introduction 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 …show more content…
It generally takes around 7 years for these disorders to be diagnosed and because the time span is so long, it’s harder to find. Multiple personality disorder, and in this case for the sack of my paper, Dissociative Identity Disorder, should not be confused with Bipolar Disorder. Although they may fall underneath the same umbrella of study, they are wildly different in …show more content…
Approval was necessary before the study began by an institutional review board, this was obtained before hand and made sure that everything was run ethically. Personal interviews were held anywhere from 30 minutes to a full hour and was recorded to later be transcribed verbatim by one of the research team members. Unfortunately, because the disorder is so difficult to diagnose amongst the general public, but makes up about 29% of the clinical population, the interviews had to be conducted over the phone because everyone lived far away from one another. In order to give voice to the lived experiences of the men living with D.I.D, they utilized a qualitative methodology from a phenomenological paradigm. Because DID is still a highly debated disorder amongst psychologists everywhere, about its existence, a phenomenological approach allows for the assumption that there is no fixed reality but rather reality is viewed through a social constructivist lens in which individuals make meaning of their own lives. With that being said, each participant was a asked a series of open ended questions meant to evoke themes about their individual experiences. Along with these open ended questions, they were given a demographic questionnaire and the Dissociative Experiences Scale–II sent via e-mail. The DES-II consists of 28 items that require participants to self-report experiences on how
The first category is Bipolar I, which is diagnosed when a person has at least one manic episode or one mixed episode (where mania and depression occur at the same time). On average, four or more episodes are experienced in one year. (Staff, 2012) If left untreated, mania typically lasts seven days to a few months. Untreated depression can last six months to one year. Next is Bipolar II, which is diagnosed when a person has at least one major depressive episode and one hypomanic episode. They will not have had a full blown manic episode, or a mixed one. Then there is cyclothymia or cyclothymic disorder where there is a mood disturbance and shift, but far less severe than that observed in Bipolar Disorder. In order to be diagnosed, a person will have had this dysfunction for at least two years.
Mazmanian, Dwight. “Bipolar Disorders: A Shift To Overdiagnosis Or To Accurate Diagnosis?” Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry 58.6 (2013): 371-372. Academic Search Complete.
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
Cognitive therapy, which involves changing dysfunctional thought patterns. Family therapy, which helps to educate the family about the disorder, recognize its presence as well as work through issues that have developed in the family because of dissociative identity disorder. And also Hypnotherapy which can be used in conjunction with psychotherapy and can help clients access repressed memories, control problematic behaviors, such as self-mutilation and eating disorders, and help fuse thier other personalities during the process. Some indications that therapy might be needed include sysmptoms like: memory loss, a sense of being detached from themselves and their emotions, distorted Perception, a blurred sense of identity, significant stress or problems in life, inability to cope well with emotional or professional stress, and mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. DID requires a medical diagnosis, and treatment should always be conducted by professionals that specialize in dissociative identity disorder as it is a rare and challenging condition to treat. There are also contraindications onvolving the treatment of DID. Caution needs to be taken while treating people with DID with medications because any effects they may experience, good or bad, may
Have you ever been sitting day dreaming, or got lost in a book or work? After you finish the book or your work, you come back to earth and remember what occurred while you were day dreaming or lost in that book or work. With a person that has MPD, it is not that easily done with most. Most individuals that have MPD do not remember anything that had occurred within hours or minutes of the event. Some think MPD is a hoax created by movies such as “Three faces of Eve” or “Sybil”, but is that a fact.
Sméagol, from the movie Lord of the Rings, is a 589 year old hobbit/creature who lives in the dark caves of the Misty Mountain where his diet mostly consists of raw fish, He is lanky, pale, malnourished, and overall very sickly looking. We know that when Sméagol first started showing symptoms of dissociative identity disorder, was when Sméagol was introduced to the “One Ring”. One day when Sméagol and his relative, Deagol, were fishing, they found the “One Ring” in the river. When Sméagol saw it for the first time, he automatically knew that he had to have it. This is also the first time that we meet Gollum. When Deagol refused to give it to him, Sméagol (acting as Gollum) strangled Deagol to death. The ring seems to have brought out the second personality. After he was shunned by his family, he went off to live in the caves by himself and his “precious” ring, until it was later stolen from him many years later.
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.
Swartz, A. (n.d.). Dissociative Identity Disorder in AllPsych Journal. Psychology Classroom at AllPsych Online. Retrieved December 1, 2011, from http://allpsych.com/journal/did.html
The alternate identities present in an individual who suffers from DID are forms of coping mechanisms for the individual.
"Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder): Signs, Symptoms, Treatment." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. .
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.
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.
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...
S.B. was brutally beaten up by the Wardens of the jail. The case history reveals that S.B. was jailed twice before for cheating and for assaulting one of his friends. This time, S.B. was jailed for fighting with a police constable. During interrogation, S.B admitted that he had beaten the other inmate who refused to pay money. S.B wanted to show his power and there was no regret for his actions.