what differs between a split mind vs a split personailty?

Question

HOW IS HAVING A SPLIT MIND DIFFERENT FROM HAVING SPLIT PERSONAILTY?

Answer 1

A lot of people get confused about this.

Schizophrenia means literally "split mind" but it's completely different from having "split personalities" or "multiple personalities" (the official name for that is Dissociative Identity Disorder.)

People with Schizophrenia have unusual ideas of things that aren't reallly happening (delusions), see or hear things that other people can't see or hear (hallucinations). They also tend to have a restricted range of emotion, might be unable to smile or might laugh when nothing is funny. There might be odd body movements or grimacing. Logical thinking is usually disorganized, they generally prefer to isolate themselves socially. Nobody knows for sure what causes Schizophrenia, but there is evidence that physical brain function might be impaired and the disorder tends to run in families, Schizophrenia is a relatively common mental disorder.

Dissociative Identity Disorder is rare. The individual generally has a history of being sexually abused as a child, and they start a pattern of dissociating, that is, believing "this isn't happening to me, it's happening to someone else" and gradually develop "alternate personalities" kind of like acting, but they supposedly do this unconsiously and may not be aware of what their "alternates" are doing. The problem with this disorder is there is a lot of pop culture fascination with it because of books and movies over the years ("Sybil", "Three Faces Of Eve"). Some psychiatrists don't think it's a real disorder and believe people who have it are faking, but other psychiatrists treat for it.

People with Schizophrenia don't come up with "alternate personalities" although they might believe they are God, Jesus, or somebody with special powers or imporance. People with DID often have names of each of their "personalities."

I have worked in mental health medical records for about 20 years, there have been thousands of patients with schizophrenia and maybe 10 who had Dissociative Identity DIsorder (used to called Multiple Personality Disorder). All 10 were female and had been sexually abused as children. People with Schizophrenia were male or female, some of them had terrible abusive childhoods and some of them had very normal upbringing.

Answer 2

SPLIT MIND: [Example]
"Do I want this or that? I want this! No, I want that! No - I cant decide.., I want both? No, I cant have both. I want THAT ONE! But then I need This one ......"

SPLIT PERSONALITY [Example]
"I wish You would go away Joe. No I wont! You go away. I cant. Why not? Because I am you, ain't that right Joey. Sure is. Ask sue. Sue is that right? I don't think so. Maybe you both should go. Sue, shut up. Why should I? Who said that? Wasn't me. Me either. It sure was not me! Oh Its Carl! Bingo!"
(same person same conversation by multiple personalities inside one's own head)