Multiple Personality Disorder

Dissociative Identity Disorder Signs, Causes and Treatment

Dec 5, 2008

This disorder is characterized by two or more distinct personalities or identities which each recurrently take control of the person's behaviour.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV), Multiple Personality Disorder is now generally known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), which gives a more accurate description of the condition.

A person with DID has only one personality, the common definition of which is the total aspect of a person’s psychological makeup. But the person feels as though she has many distinct identities, each with its own independent way of relating, perceiving, thinking, and remembering about herself and her life. Although these identities, alters, parts, or ego states may appear very different, including having different names, temperaments, gestures and vocabularies, they are all manifestations of one person.

What is Dissociation?

Dissociation is a lack of connection between a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions or sense of identity and other information, which normally would be connected. For example, a person may lose the connection between a traumatic experience, such as a car crash, and her memory of the experience.

There is a wide range of severity of dissociation. Mild cases are experienced by most people, such as losing track of time while daydreaming or reading a book. People with a dissociative disorder can appear to function normally to those around them, while they hold down jobs and participate in society.

Signs of Dissociative Identity Disorder

In addition to the person displaying two or more distinct identities and at least two identities taking control at some point, several other symptoms will lead to a diagnosis of DID, including:

Causes

A traumatic event, such as severe physical or sexual abuse suffered in childhood is often associated with this disorder. Essentially, the person disconnects themselves from the trauma and is therefore able to escape, in her mind, from the unbearable physical and emotional pain. The thoughts, feelings and memories of the event are dissociated from the mind of the person, as if they had never occurred. Later, a stressful event will often trigger the personality states to shift or “switch” from one to another.

Often, this pattern of defensive behaviour remains long after the traumatic experience is over. Repeated dissociation can result in the emergence of several identities which take control of the person’s behaviour. Unfortunately, chronic defensive dissociation can lead to serious dysfunction in work, social, and daily activities.

Treatment

An individual suffering from DID needs to seek treatment from a professional psychotherapist. The goal of therapy is to integrate the various identities into one personality. Because of the difficulty of maintaining effective use of prescriptions by the patient, medications are not usually advised unless they can be carefully monitored. Increasing numbers of people with this disorder are also turning to self-help groups to help them deal with the challenges of this condition.

References

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

The copyright of the article Multiple Personality Disorder in Multiple Personality is owned by Deborah Ward. Permission to republish Multiple Personality Disorder in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.