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June 3, 2004
A: FROM MENTOR DENISE HARBERT
IN IL
Hi Yeseul!
Multiple personality disorder is one of the most controversial
disorders in
clinical psychology today. Many clinical psychologists firmly
argue that it
does not exist, while others firmly argue that it does! The
topic is
controversial because there is very little research available
on it. Common
mental disorders such as depression, social anxiety disorder,
bipolar
disorder, etc. have overwhelming and abundant research proving
their existence
and documenting the success and failure rates of various types
of treatment.
Multiple personality disorder, if it exists, is rarely diagnosed
correctly and
has very little supporting documentation or treatment research.
With so
little scientific information, it is difficult to prove conclusively
that it
even exists, let alone explain how it works or how it can
be treated
effectively.
Among psychologists who believe the disorder does exist, it
is thought to be
caused during childhood by extreme and ongoing child abuse,
usually by an
immediate family member (typically a parent). Most children
do not have the
knowledge, alternative options, or strength to escape from
a close family
abuser, so these children must develop their personalities
in whatever way
that allows their brains to survive the abuse they cannot
escape. It is
thought that this is when personality can dissociate or fragment
into separate
pieces. Each piece can remember and tolerate different parts
of the abuse so
that other pieces can survive without any memory of it. It
is thought that
this is the way the brain protects itself because it is easier
to segment the
abuse into smaller pieces (i.e., spread it out among different
people) than it
is for one person to survive all of it alone.
Because there is not much research on the topic, it is unknown
what
physiological (biological) changes occur in someone with multiple
personality
disorder. Research in learning and memory theory suggests
that memory
retrieval is linked to the number, location, and strength
of neural pathways
in the brain. A particularly important memory stored in the
brain may have
multiple pathways linked to it, making it easier to access
the memory in many
different situations. If the theory of personality fragmentation
is true,
then people with multiple personality disorder may have brains
whose neural
pathways have been formed in a distinct pattern so that there
is only one way
to access the part of the brain that handles a certain type
of abuse. Thus,
curing a person with multiple personalities (i.e., eliminating
personalities)
may require building new neural pathways to the memories that
hold the abuse.
Certain chemicals have been shown to affect neural pathways
in the brain, so
there may be a medication that could assist in the creation
of the new
pathways needed to reunite dissociated brain fragments.
Overwhelmingly, however, multiple personality disorder is
linked to severe
child abuse, which is a social trauma with life-long effects
on personality.
The best medication in the world is not going to "cure"
someone from the kind
of childhood trauma that is thought to cause multiple personalities.
Victims of such severe trauma will need to re-create their
personalities as adults
because the "personalities" they developed through
childhood were deformed
from their extremely abnormal environments. Most psychologists
who believe
the disorder exists recommend that people who have it undergo
long-term,
intensive psychotherapy (counseling). They will not only need
to remember and
cope with what happened to them as children, but they will
also need to learn
what "normal" is and what "normal coping mechanisms"
are. It may take decades
or even a lifetime for someone to work through that amount
of recovery.
The number of personalities in people diagnosed with multiple
personality
disorder varies. Generally, the number is high (over 10).
It may take that
many before the psychologist is able to recognize the disorder.
Or, it may be
that people with the disorder usually do not see a psychologist
until
adulthood, decades after the abuse and the first personality
split. The time
difference between the first split and the first treatment
may simply increase
the chances of having a lot more than one split occur before
the disorder is
diagnosed.
As far as I am aware, the first and most famous documented
cases of the
disorder were described in these books:
1) "Sybil" by Flora Rhea Schreiber, which was made
into a TV movie in 1976
that won Sally Field an Emmy award for her portrayal of Sybil,
a woman with 16
personalities.
2) "The Minds of Billy Milligan" by Daniel Keyes.
Billy Milligan was the
first person in history to be acquitted for a crime by reason
of insanity
caused by multiple personality disorder. He was alleged to
have 24
personalities.
These books would be rated "R" if they were a movie
because they have a lot of
graphic violence and adult themes. If you are under age 17,
ask for your
parents' permission before you try to read them. If your parents
do not
think you are old enough to read the books, then try renting
some "PG"
versions of multiple personality stories at your video store.
"Sybil" was a
movie made for TV in 1976, so it should be a "PG"
or "PG-13" version of the
book. There was also an old black and white movie called "The
Three Faces of
Eve", which shows the symptoms of multiple personalities,
but isn't very
realistic in explaining the cause. (It was made in an era
when people did not
acknowledge child abuse like they do today, so the filmmaker
created an
unrealistic cause in order to avoid mentioning child abuse.)
I hope you continue to pursue your interest in psychology
and multiple
personality disorder! We could use more scientific research
so we can
determine for sure whether it exists and, if so, what the
best treatments
are.
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