Q: Do People Actually Have Multiple Personalities?
A: Yes, and no. One of the reasons for the decision by the psychiatric community to change the disorder's name from Multiple Personality Disorder to Dissociative Identity Disorder is that "multiple personalities" is somewhat of a misleading term. A person diagnosed with DID(MPD) has within her two or more entities, or personality states, each with its own independent way of relating, perceiving, thinking and remembering about herself and her life. If two or more of these entities take control of the person's behavior at a given time a diagnosis of MPD can be made. These entities previously were often called "personalities," even though the term did not accurately reflect the common definition of the word as the total aspect of our psychological makeup. Other terms often used by therapists and survivors to describe these entities are: "alternate personalities", "alters," "parts," "states of consciousness," "ego states," and "identities." It is important to keep in mind that although these alternate personality states may appear to be very different, they are all manifestations of a single person.
Q: Isn't MPD really just a way for people to get attention?
A: It is often thought that MPD/DID is a sham, a bizarre form of "play-acting" that is perpetrated by manipulative, attention-seeking individuals. It is not. MPD is a "disorder of hiddeness" wherein 80-90% of MPD patients do not have a clue that they are "multiple." Most know that there is something wrong with them; many fear that they are crazy-- but few know that they are multiple.
Q: "Isn't MPD/DID just an exaggeration of the different parts of our personality; aren't we all really "multiple"...?
A: "Yes," we all have different aspects to our personalities. "No," MPD/DID is not "just an exaggeration" of these parts. Aspects of one personality don't run up the credit card and not remember it.
Q: Why?
A: At least 6 reasons:
1. Because we all don't have a Dissociative disorder;
2. Because we all don't suffer from severe and chronic child abuse or trauma;
3. Because we all do not have amnesia for what we are doing when a different part of our personality comes to the fore;
4. Because the "raison de etre" of the different sides to our personality is not to hide from ourselves information or feelings about trauma;
5. Because we all do not have "high" hypnotizability; and,
6. Because we all do not develop POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER.
