WHAT IS PERSONALITY ?

 personality

is hypothetical

construct.
 We

can never observe one

 We

can only infer personality from behaviour

Baran & Byrne (1991)

 Personality

is the combination of those relatively enduring TRAITS which influence behaviour in a predictable way in a variety of situations

WHAT IS MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER ? (MPD)

MPD or schizophrenia


Schizophrenia commanly have problems with reality test (where you check that ones perceptions of reality match up with reality) The multiple personality of an individual will not have problems with reality tests (all the personalities perceptions of reality match up with reality)

Schizophrenia does literally mean split mind , however this is referring to the loss of unity between psychological functions.  Multiple personality disorder (MPD) is a chronic (recurring frequently) emotional illness.  A person with MPD plays host to two or more personalities (called alters).


Each alter has its own unique style of viewing and understanding the world and may have its own name.  These distinct personalities periodically control that person's behavior as if several people were alternately sharing the same body.


MPD occurs about eight times more frequently in women than in men. Some researchers believe that because men with MPD tend to act more violently than women, they are jailed rather than hospitalized and, thus, never diagnosed.

Female MPD patients often have more identities than men, averaging fifteen as opposed to eight for males. MPD is dissociative disorder in which two or more distinct personalities co-exist cowithin the same individual
MPD is also known as dissociative identity disorder (DID).

Dissociation
Is a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions or sense of identity,. This is on a spectrum, we have all be affected mildly e.g.daydreaming, getting last in a book or film or driving on autoauto-pillot

Signs and symptoms

             

Multiple mannerisms, attitudes and beliefs that are not similar to each other Unexplainable headaches and other body pains Distortion or loss of subjective time Comorbidity Depersonalization Derealization Severe memory loss Depression Flashbacks of abuse or trauma Unexplainable phobias Sudden anger without a justified cause Lack of intimacy and personal connections Frequent panic/anxiety attacks Auditory hallucinations of alternate personalities (though these hallucinations typically possess a quality that makes them distinct from psychotic disorders or schizophrenia) Patients may experience an extremely broad array of other symptoms that resemble epilepsy, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, post traumatic stress disorder, personality disorders, and eating disorders.

Different alter states have shown distinct physiological markers and some EEG studies have shown distinct differences between alters in some subjects,while other subjects' patterns were consistent across alters. Another study concluded that the differences involved intensity of concentration, mood changes, degree of muscle tension, and duration of recording, rather than some inherent difference between the brains of people diagnosed with DID. Brain imaging studies have corroborated the transitions of identity in some DID sufferers. A different imaging study showed that findings of smaller hippocampal volumes in patients with a history of exposure to traumatic stress and an accompanying stressstress-related psychiatric disorder were also demonstrated in DID.

Physiological findings

Causes


This disorder is theoretically linked with the interaction of overwhelming stress, traumatic antecedents, insufficient childhood nurturing, and an innate ability to dissociate memories or experiences from consciousness. People diagnosed with DID often report that they have experienced severe physical and sexual abuse, especially during their childhood.Several psychiatric rating scales of DID sufferers suggested that DID is strongly related to childhood trauma rather than to an underlying electrophysiological dysfunction. Others believe that the symptoms of DID are created iatrogenically by therapists using certain treatment techniques with suggestible patients,but this idea is not universally accepted.

Development theory


It has been theorized that severe sexual, physical, or psychological trauma in childhood predisposes an individual to the development of DID. The steps in the development of a dissociative identity are theorized to be as follows: The child is harmed by a trusted caregiver (often a parent or guardian) and splits off the awareness and memory of the traumatic event to survive in the relationship. The memories and feelings go into the subconscious and are experienced later in the form of a separate personality. The process happens repeatedly at different times so that different personalities develop, containing different memories and performing different functions that are helpful or destructive. Dissociation becomes a coping mechanism for the individual when faced with further stressful situations

Diagnosis


The diagnosis of Dissociative identity disorder is defined by criteria Association's in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM-II used the term DSMmultiple personality disorder, the DSM-III grouped the diagnosis disorder, DSMwith the other four major dissociative disorders, and the DSM-IVdisorders, DSM-IVTR categorizes it as dissociative identity disorder. The ICD-10 ICDcontinues to list the condition as multiple personality disorder. The diagnostic criteria in section 300.14 (dissociative disorders) of the DSM-IV require that an adult, for non-physiological reasons, DSMnonbe recurrently controlled by multiple discrete identity or personality states while also suffering extensive memory lapses. lapses.[39] While otherwise similar, the diagnostic criteria for children requires also ruling out fantasy. Diagnosis should be performed by a psychiatrist or psychologist who may use specially designed interviews (such as the SCID-D) SCIDand personality assessment tools to evaluate a person for a dissociative disorder.[1] disorder. The psychiatric history of individuals diagnosed with DID frequently contain multiple previous diagnoses of various mental disorders and treatment failures.

Treatment
 

Treatment of DID may attempt to reconnect the identities of disparate alters into a single functioning identity. In addition or instead, treatment may focus on symptoms, to relieve the distressing aspects of the condition and ensure the safety of the individual. Treatment methods may include psychotherapy and medications for comorbid disorders. Some behavior therapists initially use behavioral treatments such as only responding to a single identity, and using more traditional therapy once a consistent response is established. It has been stated that treatment recommendations that follow from models that do not believe in the traumatic origins of DID might be harmful due to the fact that they ignore the posttraumatic symptomatology of people with DID.

conclusion


We have seen, then, that multiple personality is a psychiatric condition under diagnosed. The personalities do not have an extraterrestrial origin, but can be traced back to the characteristics of real-life persons who have realformed a strong impression upon the sufferer, who has then personalized them and unconsciously developed them into a character of his own. In short, each personality is nothing more than a satellite, a superficial fragment split off from the parent individual as a result of extreme stress-yet stressfrom our point of view the equally important aspect is that each is extraordinary convincing. (Wilson, Ian. All in the Mind. P.136) MPD has always fascinated me, from the phenomenon of being different personalities to the amazing survival that these people have, because that s how they learn how to survive by slipping into a state of mind to the point that they think that all this abuse is not happening to them but to someone else. But it is sad though that many doctors do not detect the problem until after is too late in some cases and misdiagnose to be something else. I did notice that as it was said by Ian Wilson in his book, every personality has his own job as we can say the reason why they are there. The child who was innocent when all this abuse started happening for example, we have the aggressive protector, we have the helper, etc. I have always admired these people their defense mechanism against all this abuse is extraordinary and for those of us who do not understand about this illness it would be great to read about it and even watch videos about it. For me it has made me understand more about it and comprehend the pain they go thru especially since children are the ones who are able to split into these states.