Multiple Personality Causes and Symptoms
How Childhood Trauma Affects Dissociative Identity Disorder
Sep 24, 2009
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) — formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) — is a psychiatric condition in which an individual develops separate personalities, or "alters," that take turns controlling the person's body and consciousness.
Of course, all the personalities are simply aspects of the same individual, but the personalities may be completely unaware of each other and have very different characteristics, as well as different memories. The experience of childhood trauma has a great effect on the development of alters and their characteristics.
Multiple Personality Symptoms
According to Colin A. Ross, founder of the Colin A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma, DID symptoms often can be found in a person's early childhood and forward in time, depending upon when alters began to develop.
The following are symptoms of multiple personality disorder (based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders):
- Finding oneself in a strange place with no memory of how you arrived at the location;
- Diaries, letters, or notes written in a strange handwriting;
- Items in the home that the person does not recall purchasing;
- Amnesia for significant portions of the person's life (months or even years);
- Being called a different name by friendly strangers, and;
- Hearing voices inside one's head.
Individuals with DID or MPD may also experience flashbacks — intense memories of abuse experiences — and disorientation, or confusion about time and place.
Multiple Personality Causes
The primary cause of DID is thought to be severe and persistent trauma, beginning early in childhood and continuing for many years, possibly into adulthood (Ross, 2000). Trauma is usually in the form of verbal, physical, and/or sexual abuse, possibly including ritual abuse as well (although the existence of Satanic ritual abuse is highly controversial).
It is interesting to note that one may compare two children, both of which experience approximately the same amount and form of childhood abuse, and find that one develops dissociative identity disorder while the other does not. The difference is considered to be a function of genetic predisposition to dissociation or separation of the mind from the body.
There's some evidence that the ability to dissociate is linked with other behaviors such as a rich fantasy life, imaginary playmates, etc. This is not to say that any child who fantasizes or has imaginary playmates will develop DID in later life! It simply indicates that those children may dissociate if their experiences of trauma require alters to deal with the trauma.
How Childhood Trauma Relates to Multiple Personalities
Research conducted by Dr. Ross et al. with hundreds of DID patients suggests that multiple personalities develop in the following fashion.
- An initial severe trauma occurs, during the personality formation years, approximately between the ages of three and six, or younger in some cases.
- The trauma is so severe that the developing personality is buried in the mind and a new one is formed to cope with the trauma. Thus, the first split occurs.
- Few individuals with DID have only two personalities. The reason for this is the continuation of traumatic abuse.
- More personalities may split off as needed when the abuse becomes too much for the child to bear.
Genetics, Childhood Trauma, and DID
It is likely that a combination of childhood trauma and genetic predisposition is responsible for the development of a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder or multiple personalities in adult life. Although treatment for this disorder is difficult, treatment with psychotherapy (individual and group) can be successful over time.
According to Bernard J. Gotway, Ph.D., an expert in psychotherapy for patients with dissociative disorders, the goal of treatment is not necessarily "integration," or "getting rid" of the other personalities. If integration occurs, it can make the person's life easier, but it is not absolutely required. The most important goal for the individual with DID is to listen to the other personalities, to take them seriously, and to give them what they need so that internal harmony can be achieved.
Sources:
- Ross, C.S. (2000). The Trauma Model: A Solution to the Problem of Comorbidity in Psychiatry. Richardson: Manitou Communications.
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