Can a persom who has multiple personality dissorder talk to his/her other personality?

Question

Can someone who has multiple personality disorder talk to his/ her 'other self'...it's similar to talking to someone who's in your head.......i'm asking this for a friend.....

Answer 1

Yes, absolutely-it's called co-consciousness and something we strive for therapeutically in working with clients as a step towards integration. Here is some info from a previous post of mine regarding treatment stages:

I do believe that integration is the eventual goal in therapy with folks for DID as I see anything less than that as settling for less than a person deserves, though I respect the choices people make as to how far they wish to go in therapy. But integration most certainly is possible.

Initially I focus on contracting to decrease overtly self-destructive behavior in order to allow therapy to proceed. This contracting can take weeks or months before all parts are willing to get on board and suspend overtly self-destructive behavior as there is usually a lack of understanding by each part that what they do effects all parts. Safety of the body has to come first before other work takes place in order to avoid hospitalization or injury which will only delay and interfere with therapy.

The first step in therapy then is always establishing communication between alter parts. Sometimes this happens initially through a journal where each part can write or post comments to a question. Once there has been some initial communication and awareness of other parts, communication is fostered through developing co-consciousness which is the ability for one part to stay "present" while another part or parts are dominant. Mainly, this involves a willingness to stay and resist the desire to dissociate. The greater the degree of co-consciousness, the less amnesia there is and the less confusion the person experiences.

The next step is to facilitate cooperation between parts and decrease the internal struggles and battles for control which lead to disorganized behavior and inconsistency in relationships. This often is somewhat like family therapy and the basic tenet is to encourage openness to understanding the perspectives and needs of other parts within the system. The most important thing here is to encourage respect for other parts-it is also one of the most difficult aspects of the therapy as negative attitudes by the host personality toward other parts is generally the source of most conflict. The other parts' behaviors are interpreted out of context and are often perceived by the host as destructive or persecutory. Other parts often are angry with the host and see the host as weak and dependent. It's my experience that persecutor alters are every bit as valuable and important and necessary to the system and are really protector parts in disguise, no matter how horrendous or destructive their behavior may appear at first on the surface. This step is crucial, as communication will shut down and no further work will take place without establishing respect between alters and a willingness and desire to learn from one another. Each alter offers unique coping strategies and needs to be honored for the role they played in the system's survival. Initial cooperation and collaboration among alters may begin with simply negotiating things like who has time out in the body and when. Clearly, a degree of respect needs to precede this in order to facilitate the trust necessary to allow alters to voluntarily take control. This also diminishes the severe headaches which usually result from switching struggles.

Once there has been a level of communication and cooperation established, the next step is to facilitate sharing of memories across alters which further reduces the amnesia barrier. It also results in the transfer of skills between parts and a dramatic increase in empathy for what each part experienced and the contribution they made to survival. The greatest roadblock to accomplishing this step is usually host resistance, as the host is reluctant to accept the dissociated memories and the attendant emotional pain and they must become committed to the goal of accepting the other parts of themselves and owning the experiences and the pain. This leads to integration.

When alters integrate by sharing the emotions and the memory, they never actually leave or disappear-they simply cease to exist as separate. This is key as no part is ever eliminated (which sometimes is what the host personality strives to do-trying to destroy or suppress a part is a negative barrier and not possible either) as each is equally crucial to the person's evolving sense of self. Other alters fear loss of independence and uniqueness and their role and often resist too at this stage until the concept is fully understood. Acceptance of all parts directly results in integration. All of these fears of loss of separateness, loss of coping by dissociation need to be processed to facilitate this stage.

The last stage is usually grieving with all the anger, sadness and feelings that come with owning the experiences of horrific abuse, and sometimes worse, the emotional neglect. Grieving the loss of the parents you never had is the most apt phrase I've ever heard and is credited to Colin Ross, the guru in treatment of DID.

Finally there is a resolution phase, where as clients call it, they adjust to being a "monomind" and coping with new experiences without the use of dissociation or other ways of avoiding affect (like alcohol, drugs, self-mutilation, rage episodes or other forms of acting out) and they practice and solidify the coping mechanisms they have been learning throughout therapy.

Hope this helps explain the process. Again, just a reminder-DID and PTSD are among the only psychiatric disorders which can be truly "cured" and also do not depend on meds for management of symptoms.

Answer 2

It is highly unlikely. However, often there is a dominant personality who knows what the other personality is doing and even have a poor opinion of the other personality.
Every therapist has their own biases concerning the existence of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), as opposed to having oter personality problems. Some believe that MPD is only a likely explanation if a person has been abused in some way or has had a very traumatic event. Then a person develops another personality to cope with the event(s), and the other personality may have blacked out during the event and has little or no memory of it.
Best thing is for a therapist to work with the person who can manage the symptoms of people who have or allege to have MPD. This is a very difficult situation and harm could be done or people may be unprepared to manage the consequences.

Answer 3

This friend of yours needs to stop talking to himself within his mind. The harm is mannifold. Every thought is like a prayer, and depending on the nature of the thought dictates who hears and responds to the thought. Emotional reality is spiritual reality is the reality of awareness. We humans are not the only beings aware in this universe. One must not invite other "characters" into the sanctuary of the mind. It can mean emotional ruin.

I am familiar with this condition, it is normal and it is everywhere. It takes a while to break the habbit. Tell your friend to stop attributing things about himself to some other character. If you or anyone else needs more details please e-mail me.

Answer 4

Did you ever see Lord of the Rings? Gollum talked to himself all the time. So does Nikki/Jessica on Heroes.

Answer 5

Rarely -but in cases where personalities "overlap" themselves rather that break clean ,yes.