11 - Multiple Personalities

Multiple personality is now formally known as Dissociative Identity Disorders (DID). For this section we will still refer to it as multiple personality because that label gives a more accurate understanding of the behavioural problem. At one time it was surrounded by mystery and thought to be a very rare phenomenon. Research has shown that it is much more common than formerly believed. Up to 1% of the population may be affected in some way, which would mean it is as much of a problem as schizophrenia and depression.

Multiple personality (MPD) is a mental process that produces a lack of connection or continuity in a person’s thoughts, memories, feeling, actions, and most importantly in their sense of identity. During the period when a person is in that state, connections are not made between certain key information as it normally would be. What would cause such a dramatic upheaval to occur in a person’s thought patterns? When faced with overwhelming traumatic situations from which there is no physical escape, a child may resort to “going away” in his or her head. Most people do that to a lesser degree such as daydreaming or getting lost in a book or movie, all of which involve losing touch with conscious awareness of one’s immediate surroundings. This ability is typically used by children as an extremely effective defense against acute physical and emotional pain or anxious anticipation of that pain. This is a creative survival technique allowing the child to sever memories of the pain and pretend the trauma had not occurred. Because the dissociative escape is so effective, children become practised at doing it and may automatically use this whenever they feel threatened or anxious. It may occur in early childhood as a response to extreme, repeated physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse especially when children are at a sensitive developmental stage usually before age nine. Because this process can produce changes in memory, people who frequently dissociate often find their sense of personal history and identity are affected.

Billy Milligan was the first person in US history to be found not guilty of major crimes by reason of insanity because he possessed multiple personalities. The crime he was on trial for was the kidnap and rape of three women. After indepth interviews and psychological assessment, it was determined that he had twentyfour distinct personalities. The childhood history of Billy Milligan revealed that his mother and her children (including Billy) were subjected to physical abuse including sadistic sexual abuse. His stepfather had often threatened him with silence by stating he would murder Billy, bury him, and tell everyone that he had run away.

A person diagnosed with MPD has within them two or more entities, or personality states, each with its own independent way of relating, perceiving, thinking, and remembering about themselves and their lives. Although these alternate personality states may appear to be very different, they are all manifestations of a single person.

Let’s return to Billy’s story.

Each one of Billy’s personalities was quite unique and each one had a different name. Some were male; some were female. The ages of his many personalities varied from young children to people in their teens and early twenties. Some of the personalities had special talents that the others did not possess such as unique abilities in art work. Some of them had unique speech patterns; some of them spoke with accents. Some of the personalities were considered good or innocent; others were evil and undesirable. Some personalities had habits that the others did not (like smoking), and some had physical disabilities that belong to them alone (dyslexia). Many of the personalities were aware of some of the other existing personalities but not all of them. Some of Billy’s personalities had very high IQs (130) and some had unusually low IQs (75). Billy described the times when he was being replaced by another personality from within like being on a stage, and when it is not your turn to be the personality who has control, you relinquish the spotlight and move to the wings of the stage in the darkness.

Integration of all personalities into the “basic” personality is the ultimate goal of therapy for multiple personality. But some cases of multiple personality are too complex to be resolved.

People affected may experience the following general symptoms of multiple personality: depression, mood swings, suicidal tendencies, sleep disorders, panic attacks, phobias, alcohol and drug abuse, compulsions and rituals, psychotic-like symptoms, and eating disorders. They can also experience amnesias, time loss, trances, and out-of-body experiences. Some may have a tendency toward self-persecution, even violence.

Treatment of multiple personalities holds much hope although patients often spend years living with misdiagnoses. That occurs because the symptoms are very similar to those of many other psychiatric conditions. Dissociative disorders are highly responsive to individual psychotherapy. Treatment is long-term, intensive, and invariably painful because it involves remembering and reclaiming the dissociated traumatic experiences. The objective of therapy is to integrate the whole personality that has been fragmented into many separate compartments. Fusion involves bringing all aspects of the person’s self together by communicating and remembering what each part does to get rid of the amnesia. Then the therapist works toward getting all the pieces of the personality to work together so the person can return to good mental health.