Have you ever wondered how your life would be if there were two of you or maybe even three of you, but all within the same body? It would probably get really hectic really fast within your mind. Most people including myself would assume that a person could not possibly live a life in that manner or at least not a very functioning one for that matter. Fortunately for a woman named Frankie, that could not be farther from the truth. Frankie and Alice is a movie based off of a true life story of a woman who suffered from a dissociative identity disorder (DID) in the 1970s. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), DID, formerly known as multiple personality disorder involves a disturbance of identity in which two or more separate …show more content…
Oswald noticed that each time she was checked in she had different results (i.e. left-handed/right-handed, 20/20 vision/nearsighted, genius IQ/barely average IQ). After she left the office, he noticed a change in her voice and manner. She spoke with a southern accent, when approached by a black attendant she told her not to touch or talk to her, and the significant change was her alter ego claimed to never have smoked but Frankie had just smoked in his office. He puts her under hypnosis to trigger her alter egos, one being a child that he names Genius and one a racist white woman named Alice. Over the next few weeks, Dr. Oswald works day in and day out to learn more about her disorder while attempting to convince others that her diagnosis is real. After becoming well-informed about Frankie’s mental illness he made the decision to go even further and find out the “why”. Why is she experiencing such a significant disorder? Through continuous hypnosis and interactions with each identity, he was able to find the root cause. Two significant events led to her developing the first being the car accident that killed the love of her life Pete and the latter one being her giving birth to a child that was immediately taken from her and presumed to be killed by her own mother, both happening in her teenage years. After being able to finally face her past and with the help of Dr. Oswald, Frankie was able to maintain and control her two alter …show more content…
Oswald. I learned that in a field where you are dealing with people who have a mental disorder and are responsible for their growth that you have to sometimes dig deeper than what lie on the surface. You have to care to know more than the diagnosis but the actual causes and how that individual can overcome them so that they can live a much more functional and gratifying life. This brings me into my field of occupational therapy where we deal with a variety of clients with different types of disabilities such as mental illness patients. Occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) learn early on in education that we do not treat just physical capabilities or functions of a person but the inner person as well- the mind. This form of philosophy is called metaphysics which is defined as being a holistic approach; treating the mind and the body as one entity (Ryan, S. and Sladyk, K., 2014, pg.
For instance, his family mentioned how Henry was always working as much as he could. Work causes stress and thus shifts his perception of himself and the world. A change in perception can be seen when Henry brings up the fact that in his case, him and lawyers were not being completely honest when he brought up his case that he won before the accident. His co-workers then bring up the notion that Henry was completely fine with lying about the case beforehand just so that he could win. Stress and outside influences create an entirely new reality to a person. A psychologist has several options to take in explaining the behavior of a person, such as a biological, psychoanalytic, behavioristic, humanistic, sociocultural, or cognitive approach. These approaches can also differ due to the time period in which an event occurred, for example: a sociocultural approach to describe Henry’s actions in the beginning of the movie, a behavioral approach to describe Henry after the injury, and a cognitive approach to explain Henry’s change after the incident. In the beginning of the movie, Henry could be described as a man who was unappreciative and a workaholic. A psychiatrist might use the sociocultural perspective in attempt to analyze how Henry’s environment is influencing his behavior. After the injury, Henry’s behavior was altered due to his amnesia and caused him to not realize the things that he’s doing wrong. A psychiatrist might then take a behavioral approach and focus on what Henry says and does and compare them to his prior experiences. This comparison could then help in trying to understand why Henry feels and acts the way he does. And finally, a change in Henry’s perception towards life was changed after the injury due to him not being aware of his own thoughts and beliefs. A psychiatrist would then most likely want
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.
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,
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.
In the book Sybil, written by Flora Rheta Schreiber discuss the life story of Sybil Isabel Dorsett, who has developed 16 distinct personalities because of her childhood abuse. Sybil story became one of the most severe cases ever recorded with multiple personalities. Which is currently called Dissociative Identity Disorder in the current DSM-V. “Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a severe condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in—and alternately take control of—an individual. The person also experiences memory loss that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness” (Psychology Today, 2008, para 1). Sybil’s distinct sense of selves helped protect her from the trauma she experienced as a child.
Dissociative identity disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder, is a disorder in which an individual has the presence of one or more personality states. These personality states each have their own distinct names, attitudes, identities and self-images within an individual’s conscious awareness. At least two of the personalities take control of the affected person’s behavior. Dissociation is defined as the disruption of the normal integrative process of consciousness, perception, memory and identity, which define selfhood (Pias, 2009). Symptoms of dissociation includes amnesia, depersonalization, identity confusion, age regression, hearing internal voices, and identity alteration (). Dissociative identity disorder is believed to result from the splitting of conscious awareness and control of ones thoughts, feelings, memories and mental components as a response to traumatic experiences that was unacceptable to the individual. It indicates a broken personality with the absence of a clear and comprehensive identity (Pias, 2006).
Imagine waking up in a new house, town, city, even state and not knowing how you got there. Now add onto that thought of forgetting almost a year of your life because someone else, or something, has taken over your body. That is just a look into dissociative disorders in general. Dissociative Disorders are ‘extreme distortions in perception and memory” (Terwilliger 2013). Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), or previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, is often the most misunderstood dissociative disorder of them all. It has always been somewhat of a mystery. Seeing videos of the disorder can really give you an insight on what happens with the person who suffer from it. Almost everyone in the world has a different view on what they think the disorder means. Here I will explain what the disorder is and what happens when you have the disorder. Also debunking a few myths along the way.
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.
Freud, Jung, and Adler each contributed essential concepts in accordance to one’s personality and environment. Focusing on one’s personality, each theorist assisted in the understanding of personality and each theory is still being used today throughout many therapy sessions. Throughout one’s education, one will go through personal development, seeking to find who he/she is and along the way react to life’s events accordingly. Academic success and developmental are hand in hand, allowing persons to set goals and develop plans to reach each goal. Each theory provides a different aspect in one’s personality which leads to the behaviors of that individual. According to Richard E. Watts, “Adlerian counseling theory affirms that humans are characterized by unity across the broad spectrum of personality-cognitions, affect, and behavior. Style of life, the Adlerian term for personality, is a cognitive blueprint
As a future counselor, I have enjoyed learning about the different techniques and theories of counseling. Understanding each approach is important but I believe that the counselors self knowledge of her or his own values, worldviews and life philosophy is just as important for the counselor to do the job effectively. Each theory that we learned about, I could see being helpful to different people, their circumstance and individual problem. I can see myself using different parts of each in my future career. Currently, I more drawn to the Adlerian theory. I understand and agree when Adler believed that people do have the ability to monitor and control the direction of their lives.The unconscious shapes personality,
A review by Brand, Lowenstein, and Spiegal (2014) a debate about whether or not contemporary treatment methods for dissociative identity disorder are effective or harmful. In general, they found that treatment can be highly effective and beneficial, but it must be done carefully. This treatment should be trauma-informed and phasic. An example of phasic would be stabilization, working through the trauma and memories, and reintegration. With dissociative identity disorder part of the phasic treatment may involve becoming actively aware of other identities, providing specific roles to each which caters to their strengths, and consolidating as many as possible (but not getting rid of all of them).
For centuries there has been a debate surrounding the importance of Psychology and whether or not it should be considered a field of science. While doubts still remain it is obvious that psychology has become a widespread field across the world. At the College of Charleston, I am pursuing a major in the field of Psychology. A degree in Psychology will allow me to enter a graduate-level study to advance to my specialty in Occupational Therapy. The overall job of an Occupational Therapist as described in Amy Wagenfelds book is to “help people improve their ability to perform tasks in their daily living and working environments. They work with individuals who have conditions that are mentally, physically, developmentally, or emotionally disabling. They also help them to develop, recover, or maintain daily living and work skills. Occupational therapists help clients not only to improve their basic motor functions and reasoning abilities but also to compensate for permanent loss of function ()” Throughout the course of my life, I have met various influencers that have guided me towards the practice of occupational therapy. This is a job that will not only aid in my own happiness but
Mental disorders are dismissed by people today because they are internal. When a person has a cold they cough, when a person has sunburn they turn red or peel, but when a person has a mental disorder they… and that’s where the debate begins. Do mental disorders truly exist? What are the causes? As a result of mental disorders some people exhibit a change in behavior or do things outside of what is status quo. That leads me to my topic - the psychoanalytic approach vs. the humanistic approach. One supports and provides reasoning for mental disorders and specific behavior, while the other states that behavior is based off of personal decisions. Although both the psychoanalytic and the humanistic approaches are well developed theories it is conclusive that the psychoanalytic approach is more useful and instrumental in treating mental disorders.