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Eliza Deguzman

Instructor: Malcolm Campbell

English 1104

April 2nd, 2017

Multiple Personality Disorder: Is It Fact or Fiction?

What makes the human brain so interesting? Perhaps it is the fact that brain information

can travel as slow as 1 mile per hour to as fast as 268 miles per hour or that it has the ability to

generate up to 12 to 25 watts of electricity. Thats enough energy to light up a low LED light.

The human brain approximately weighs 3 pounds. Its astonishing to think that an organ that

small has so much control over the human body and has the capability to do so much. A primary

function that the brain conducts is how we, the humans, think. According to Psychological

Science, scientists have found that the size of different parts of peoples brains correspond to

their personality. What about if a person had multiple personalities? Does the anatomy of the

brain have any effect on multiple personalities? If not, then how do we determine if there are

truly multiple personalities within one human?

This phenomenon is known as dissociative identity disorder or more commonly known

as, Multiple Personality Disorder. Both terms are sometimes abbreviated as DID for dissociative

identity disorder or MPD, for multiple personality disorder. Now, what exactly is dissociative

identity disorder? According to Webmd.com, dissociative identity disorder is a severe form of

dissociation, a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts,

memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. For patients, its a coping mechanism.

Dissociation diverts a persons conscious self away from experiences that are too violent or
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painful for them to bear. This disorder is a difficult psychological condition to detect, especially

for people who are unaware of what DID is and/or are too scared to reach out for help. Some

symptoms are mood swings, depression, panic attacks, suicidal tendencies, alcohol and drug

abuse. Now those are some common symptoms that can be seen with patients who are diagnosed

with a mental illness, but one particular sign that points to DID is if a person is unable to recall

key personal information. The complexity of dissociative identity disorder makes it difficult to

diagnose properly.

What is Dissociation?

John M. Grohol, a doctor in clinical psychology and founder of PyschCentral.com

describes it as, a mental process, which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts,

memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. During the period of time when a person is

dissociating, certain information is not associated with other information as it normally would

be. In other words, within the time that a person is dissociating, their ability to interpret

information may not be adept as usual. What necessarily triggers a patient to dissociate? Past

traumatic events can impact a persons mental health dramatically. Unfortunately for many

patients, sexual and emotional abuse are commonly found in their childhood ( as many as 98 to

99%). It is reported that forty-four percent of sexual assault victims are under the age of

eighteen, and one in ten children are abused before the age of 18. Majority of the time, the

children know who their abusers are. Then approximately 73% of child victims do not disclose

their abuse for a year or more. You can only imagine the mental turmoil that these victims are

going through. How does this relate to dissociative identity disorder? Children of abuse, when

under overwhelmingly high traumatic situations from where there is no possible escape, a child

may retort to going away in their mind. This functions as a defensive mechanism and if that
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child repeatedly suffers through traumatic events then going away can be reinforced and

conditioned. Dissociating allows that child to suppress any feelings, memories, and thoughts that

they are experiencing, allowing that child to act as if nothing is happening. Even after the child

has grown and moved on from their childhood, events that deem stressful to that individual could

trigger a dissociation.

History of DID.

Before we delve further into the main course of the research, here is a brief background

of the disease. Before it was known as dissociative identity disorder, it was first known as

multiple personality disorder. The first known study was undertaken by a Frenchman named

Pierre Janet. In 1883, he was introduced to 45-year-old Leonie who claimed they were harboring

three different personalities. This psychological phenomenon then started to become more

popular with at least 20,00 cases recorded between 1980 and 1990. It wasnt until 1980 did the

American Psychiatric Association officially recognize multiple personality disorder as a genuine

mental illness. With the rising amount of cases being diagnosed as MPD in the United States,

professionals are beginning to think that it is culture-specific and influenced by characteristics of

American society. Professionals also believe that therapists unknowingly suggest patients to

display symptoms under hypnosis. As you can see, there is an amazing history behind

DID/MPD. But today there still remains the big question:

Is It Real or Fake?

The ongoing controversy that seems to be plaguing the field is whether or not the patients

diagnosed with the disease are actually harboring alternative personalities or are just making it

up. Since dissociative identity disorder is such a complex diagnosis, there are still many doubts
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on the credibility of it. Perhaps the lack of awareness or how it is depicted by mainstream media

aid to the ongoing controversy.

A recent movie and my inspiration for picking this topic is, Split. Split is an American

psychological horror thriller starring James McAvoy as its main star. McAvoy is plays Kevin

suffers from dissociative identity disorder and harbors 23 different personalities. Kevin kidnaps

three girls and uses them in his scheme of awakening the Beast, a personality that ibus highly

dangerous and believes the world is untouched. After the release, there was a stir and

Australian mental health charity, SANE stated that, Films like this are going to reinforce a false

stereotypical notion that people living with complex mental illnesses are inherently dangerous

and violent.

The point that I am trying to come across with media and in its role, is that movies or

fictional books can sometimes exaggerate DIDs and cause people to connect what they see on

the big screen to what it actually is. Though movies like Split raises awareness to the disease, it

can be very misleading if it is not handled well.

Aside from media portrayals, there are even difficulties and doubts within the field. As

mentioned before, because there were so many reported cases of MPD/DID, a lot of

professionals began to think that some werent completely genuine. Even experts such as

psychologist Bethany Brand believe that identifying the fake stories from the true stories can be

difficult. There are small gray areas that are unquestionably hard to prove within the topic and

that is why some believe that the disorder is just a myth.

Personally, I believe that dissociative identity disorder is real and a genuine mental

illness, and should not be taken lightly. The diagnosis is equally complex as the human brain.

Much like other mental illnesses such as depression or schizophrenia, DID is an illness that
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shouldnt be frowned upon and treated properly. Patients should not have to be afraid to voice

their problems or confusion to what their dilemma is. Rather than looking through the

perspectives of fictional characters, perhaps it is better delving into the mind of a real diagnosed

patient.

Kallena, a Melbourne-based social worker, takes us through her experiences with

dissociative identity disorder and what was it like for her growing up, unaware of what she had.

This is taken from an online article and here she describes the origin of her trauma as,

The trauma was centered on what happened in my nuclear family. It was

extremely dysfunctional. Starting from when I was an infant, I was treated in

ways that were hurtful and painful and terrifying. It was physical, sexual and

emotional abuse for over 20 years. A lot of times I believed I was going to die. I

think that is at the core of why a lot of these separations happen, that you believe

you're going to die. For much of my life there were parts who had no idea that

much of this happened, and when people asked, answered that: "I had a fine

childhood, I grew up in a good family, and everything was fine.

Here we see that she does come from an abusive and difficult childhood. As stated before,

a lot of diagnosed patients with dissociative identity disorder do come from a traumatic past and

that is primarily where the origin of the disorder comes from. Further into the article she

describes that she was initially diagnosed as bipolar and deep down she knew that she wasnt.

She was scared and had difficulty identifying what exactly she needed help for. For her

treatment, it came down to long-term psychotherapy. For patients with the disease, there

normally isnt a standard time to how long their treatment could be, it all depended on the

patient.
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Since people with dissociative identity disorder tend to not seek out help immediately,

they tend to probably be in denial about being normal as everyone else. It could skew their

thoughts on what normal actually is. This could be bad and lead up to more negative emotions

to arise in that person. Below is another account from a person with DID.

I started having nightmares most nights. I would wake up and the sheets would be

wet and I'd be really hot, even though it was a cold night. In the day, I kept seeing

things that I knew weren't really there ... The shoes belonged to someone who was

constantly causing me problems, even treating me as if I wasn't even human at

times. I couldn't even acknowledge that it was abusive behavior. I was so sure that

I was going "crazy" and that nothing could be done about it, so I might as well

pretend to be normal.

In the end, I just couldn't carry on anymore and spent almost a year either in bed

or on the sofa. I was suicidal for a time. My heart was racing and I kept having

panic attacks. Even simple things like food shopping were awful and I kept

avoiding people I knew and places linked with the trauma. Anytime someone got

close to me in a shop, I'd be terrified. Nothing made sense.

Its agonizing to read these different accounts, to read the pain and anguish they went

through to understand what was going on in their mind. Although I may not fully comprehend

what is happening inside of their brains, their emotions, and their fear is something that is real.

Perhaps that is why many believe that the disorder does not exist, because its so complex that

its difficult to understand. If looking through the perspectives of patients with the disorder

doesnt suffice, then lets look at it through a more concrete way.

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To test whether or not people who claim to have the disorder, a study was conducted to

compare which would reign above, the fantasy model or the trauma model. The fantasy model is

more related to enactment, sleep disturbances, suggestive psychotherapy, and/or sociocultural

influences and are mediated by high suggestibility and fantasy proneness. The trauma model

connects more to DID, suggesting to childhood traumatization. To generalize, inside of the study,

they took people who do or claim that they have dissociative identity disorder. The patients they

took to volunteer were women between the ages of 18 and 65. The participants then went

through a variety of questionnaires where they were recorded and later compared to each other.

Though they lacked the diversity within their participants, the outcomes were significant.

Patients with diagnosed genuine DID were not more fantasy-prone or suggestible and did not

generate more false memories compared with other groups. The outcome of the study also shows

that there is a correlation between severity, intensity, and the age at onset of traumatization to

dissociation. This evidence supports that dissociative identity disorder is a real disorder and is

tied with past traumatic events.

Now it may be difficult to wrap your head around the idea of different personalities

residing inside one persons brain, but is it also difficult to believe that we can travel to another

country within hours compared to traveling on sea which would take days, if not, weeks? Just as

the latter is physically and scientifically proven, dissociative identity disorder is just as real and it

can be proven. Mental illness is a complex phenomenon of the brain and should not be

questioned nor ridiculed. Its real and sometimes it takes lives. There should be a rise to

awareness for mental illnesses, especially for a disorder like DID. Rather than people being

afraid and clueless to whats going on with them, we shouldnt have to question whether or not

they are faking it; it is only going to slash their being more and making them more scared. We
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should be voicing that there is a way to get better and what they are experiencing inside of their

minds is normal, and that they should not be seen as a person who harbors violence based on

media portrayal in books and movies.

Those diagnosed have already had a traumatic past, we should not add more onto that.

Even if they have moved on just like Kallena who is a normal woman, working a regular job

doesnt mean that they are okay. It is time to stop being afraid of the unknown and start being

curious because perhaps thatll lead us closer to a clearer conclusion. Dissociative identity

disorder should not be questioned as either fake or fact, because truly its the latter and if we

dont start seeing it that way, then those with it whom are afraid to reach out may never or they

may reach out too late.

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Work Cited

Claire Slattery. "Split labelled 'gross parody' of mental illness." ABC News. ABC News, 20 Jan.

2017. Web. 05 Apr. 2017. <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-20/split-labelled-gross-

parody-of-mental-illness/8197078>.

"Brain Structure Corresponds to Personality." Association for Psychological Science. Association

for Psychological Science, n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

<https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/brain-structure-corresponds-to-

personality.html#.WOWD92U8v8t>.

"Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder)." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 2

Apr. 2017. <http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-

multiple-personality-disorder#1>.

Grohol, John M. What Is Dissociation? PsychCentral.com. 24 Feb. 2016,

psychcentral.com/library/dissociation_intro.htm. Accessed 15. Mar. 2017.

"Multiple Personality Disorder - History And Incidence." Mpd, Believe, American, and

Diagnosed - JRank Articles. Net Industries, n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2017.

<http://science.jrank.org/pages/4495/Multiple-Personality-Disorder-History-

incidence.html>.

RN by Kallena for All In The Mind What Its like to Live with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

ABC News, 28 Feb. 2017, www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-01/what-its-like-to-live-with-

dissociative-identity-disorder/8312076. Accessed 9 Mar. 2017.

"Sexual Assault / Abuse." Good Therapy. N.p., 3 Oct. 2016. Web. 2 Apr. 2017.

<http://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/sexual-abuse>.
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Slanzi, Crystal. Dissociative Identity Disorder: Drawing the Line between Fact and Fiction.

The Trauma and Mental Health Report, trauma.blog.yorku.ca. 13 Feb. 2013. Accessed 10

Mar. 2017.

Tracy, Natasha. "What's It Like to Live with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) - Dissociative

Identity Disorder - Abuse." Healthyplace. Healthy place, 08 Sept. 2016. Web. 05 Apr.

2017. <http://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/dissociative-identity-disorder/what-s-it-like-

to-live-with-dissociative-identity-disorder-did/>.

Vissia, E.M., M. E. Giesan, S. Chalavi, E. R. S. Nijenhuis, N. Draijer, B. L. Brand, and A. A. T.

S. Reinders. Is it Trauma- or Fantasy-based? Comparing Dissociative Identity

Disorder,

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Simulators, and Controls. Acta Pyschiatrica

Scandinavica, 25 May 2016. Onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acps.12590/full.

Accesed 10 Mar. 2017.