Is multiple personlaity disorder for real?

Question

Is it possible that this disorder is created by the "professionals" unconsciously when working with persons who are easily hypnotized or manipulated?

Answer 1

I haven't researched it enough to find out, although I've always been rather curious about it.

It's pretty clear that many of the experiences retrieved during age-regression and "forgotten memories" recollection under hypnosis during the 80's and 90's were implanted by accident (or not) by the therapists. Many children had been supposedly recalling abuse by caretakers and parents. Some people even went to jail for crimes they did not commit.

Eventually some cases occurred where the evidence clearly showed the people had not done what they were being accused of, and the entire "repressed memory" scenario came into question. It was clear the therapists were leading on the kids just by their process of quizzing them, and some of these "memories" then became so real even later the kids still persisted in them. The human mind is VERY complex and can be fooled.

I only bring that up since MPD (or DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder, I think it's called now) often is explored under hypnosis as well.

From my limited reading, I would say that DID is very very rare, but I wouldn't count it out yet. And I know a few people in life who do NOT have it, but are capable of denying certain experiences so much that they literally "forget" they happened and have to be reminded by others. If someone is capable of that, DID might not be far behind if there are other psychological problems/traumas that occurred.

Still, the human mind is VERY malleable as the "recovered memory" cases proved. Witnesses of the same car accident can't even seem to agree and can be persuaded to believe details that did not occur.

As described in Lauren Slater's book "Opening Skinner's Box," Loftus did an experiment in the 90's, where she got family members of the test subjects to supply written accounts of childhood incidents for the subjects, and she inserted a "lost in the mall" memory that NEVER occurred according to the families into that collection. What was unsettling was that a high percentage (25%?) of the subjects actually believed the event occured just because it was included in the list (the mind filled in the event), and some even provided extensive details of this false memory.

So memory is a tentative thing at best, and playing around with hypnosis in therapy is not just an "observation" tool but actually could implant memories just by tinkering around and suggesting things. This is not the same as DID exactly -- there have to be at least two distinct personalities in one body, usually with the main personality not knowing the existence of the others -- but it's tied together.

I know Borders carries a few books on people who supposed have had MPD. The most interesting (sorry, can't remember the name) was written by a shrink who claims to have had MPD himself, and the book was being written by one of the OTHER personalties that he now considers his true self, rather than the one he had been living as for years. (The old one's name was Robert; now he goes by Bob. Well, okay.)

Answer 2

Multiple Personality Disorder is real. There was an episode of Oprah several years ago about a woman who was so severely sexually abused at such a young age, that she developed MPD to deal with all the horrible trauma and memories of the events. Psychiatrists who evaluated her had found 92 distinct personalities. This means, that it seemed as though 92 people were living inside of her!

Other people develop the disorder without having trauma in their life. The number of personalities one develops is different for each person. Probably the most famous written account of MPD was called Cybil.

I hope his was of some help in understanding the disease.

Answer 3

No, it's a real disorder, also known as having a "split personality". Sometimes people are given an incorrect diagnosis (but it's rare). I think that if a mental health professional has told someone they have this then it's more likely that person is in denial.

Answer 4

Yep. Not as commonplace as some might have you believe, though. It's not really multiple personalities, in the sense of the scientific intent of the word personality. It's fragmented personality. The fragments are results of fissures and ruptures of the psyche from outside pressure.

Answer 5

Absolutely...I know a girl who has multiple personality disorder...the best thing about it though was...when we were together sexually, it was like having multiple partners at the same time.

Answer 6

yes, its a very serious disorder

Answer 7

yes

Answer 8

yes its for real

Answer 9

I think it's completely bogus.