Dissociative Identity Disorder Melanie Pena Period 1 What

Dissociative Identity Disorder Melanie Pena Period 1

What is Dissociative Identity Disorder? • Previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder. • A severe form of dissociation. • Lack of connection with thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, and one’s sense of identity. • A psychological response to stressful events and when the person wants an escape from reality. • An effect of severe trauma during childhood.

What Causes the Disorder? • Neglect during childhood. • Physical, mental, and/or sexual abuse during childhood. • Interpersonal and environmental stress during developmental stages interfere with personality development. • Dissociation happens when the child’s parents are unpredictable and frightening to the child. • Developmental factors include: • • • Recurrent episodes of childhood abuse. The absence of safety in overwhelming trauma. The ability to easily dissociate from life. A developing coping style that helps escape distress. Frequent abuse from anyone.

Background of the Disorder • Historic cases were thought to be dealing with demonic possessions when one showed signs of different personalities. • Experts now believe they were cases of multiple personalities instead of possession. • More understanding of multiple personalities being a mental condition showed up in the 18 th Century. • First reported case of “exchanged personality” was credited to Eberhardt Gmelin in 1791. • A 20 year old German women who began speaking and behaving like a French aristocrat during the French Revolution. When she was the “French Woman” she knew what was going on, but when she was the “German Woman” she knew nothing of the “French Woman”. • In the 19 th and 20 th centuries, Hypnosis was used when dealing with DID.

Who Came Up With It? • DID is said to date back to Paleolithic times in cave paintings where shamans would change into animals or take in other spirits. • Paracelsus: A German –Swiss physician who was credited with the first writings of a women who clamed she had “amnesia” in 1646. • Case: A woman who had amnesia about an altered personality who stole money from her. • Eberhardt Gmelin: A German Botanist who was officially credited for discovering MPD in Germany in 1971. • Case: “French Woman”.

Doctors Who Treated This Disorder • Benjamin Rush: A chief surgeon who theorized that the doubled conscious was related to a disconnection of the two brain hemispheres. • Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchel: Chief Editor of the Medical Repository where he published the case of Mary Reynolds. • Eugene Azam: A professor of surgery in the 19 th century who documented the case of Felida X who showed 3 separate personalities. • Pierre Janet: French psychologist who documented cases on 5 people, Leonie, Lucie, Rose, Marie, and Marceline, who each had their own split personalities and somatoform disorders. • Mortin Prince: Published the case of Christine Beauchamp who had 3 personality states. • Corbett Thigpen and Hervey Cleckley: Psychiatrists who published Christine Costner Sizemore’s case in the book and movie “The Three Faces of Eve”. • Dr. Cornelia Wilbur: Psychiatrist of the 20 th century who treated Sybil Dorsett who had 16 separate personalities.

Famous Cases • Jeanne Fery: With no knowledge of DID in the 16 th century, Jeanne’s case was though to be related with possessions and exorcisms due to her altered states being violent. In her documented case, her exorcist gave a past history of childhood abuse which made them believe her parents were also possessed. No specific number of personalities given. Jeanne’s case was the first documented case of DID (The Journal of Psychohistory ). • Mary Reynolds: In 1811 at the age of 18, Mary awoke in a new personality and kept on switching between two different personalities. Historical documents suggest that Mary was a part of a religious persecution which caused her separate personalities(NCBI). • Kim Noble: Born in 1960 into a unhappy family where she suffered extreme and repeated abuse at an early age. Her traumatized mind formed separate personalities to break away from the memories of her abuse which resulted in more than 100 separate personalities being created (The Guardian). • Christine “Caroline” Sizemore: A woman with 22 Personalities who’s case was portrayed in “The Three Faces of Eve” then later wrote a book, “I’m Eve”, about her life with multiple personalities (Psychology Encyclopedia). • Shirley Mason “Sybil Dorsett”: Shirley had 16 separate personalities developed as a result of her childhood abuse caused by her psychotic mother. With 16 years of therapy, Shirley accepted her separate personalities (Fortea).

Signs and Symptoms • Characterized by the presence of two or more split personalities that take over a persons behavior. • Signs include: • The inability to remember personal information. • Each identity has their own age, gender, race, posture, gestures, and their own way of talking. • Suddenly speaking different languages. • Symptoms include: • Depression • Mood swings • Sleep disorders • Anxiety and panic attacks and phobias • Auditory and visual hallucinations • Amnesia and time loss • “Out of body” experiences • Self-sabotage

How It’s Diagnosed • DSM-5 criteria on how to diagnose (Web. MD): 1. Must have two or more distinct personalities present with their own way of perceiving, relation, and thoughts about their environment and self. 2. Amnesia in the recall of everyday events, personal information, and traumatic events must occur. 3. The person must be distressed by the disorder and have trouble functioning in life areas because of the disorder. 4. Their disturbance is not part of their normal culture or religious practice. 5. Symptoms cannot be caused by direct physiological effects of substance abuse or a general medical condition. • Similar secondary disorders(e. g. anxiety, depression) with other psychiatric disorders cause lengthy amounts of time for it to be correctly diagnosed.

Treatments • There is no official cure for DID. • Long term treatments include: • Talk therapy: patient and therapist speak in means of expressing and resolving issues. • Psychotherapy: the treatment of mental disorders by psychological rather than medical means. • Medication may be used to in addition to treat accompanied anxiety/panic disorders. • Hypnotherapy: the use of hypnosis as a therapeutic technique. • Used to bring forth hidden memories and/or personalities. • Adjunctive therapies: art and movement therapy. • Medication is used to treat the anxiety and depression that are present in DID along with Psychotherapy.

Is It Hereditary? • No genetic cause and link for DID has been found.

Statistics • The rate of DID is. 01% to 1% of the general population (Web. MD). • More than 1/3 of the population say that they feel like they’re watching themselves in a movie (Web. MD). • 7% of the population may have undiagnosed DID (Web. MD). • 99% of people with DID have personal histories of recurring life –threatening disturbances in their developmental stage during childhood (Web. MD). • Present in all races, but is more common in American children (Healthy Place). • More females suffer from DID than males at a ratio of 10: 1 (Healthy Place). • Average number of altered personalities found in one person with DID is between 8 through 13 (Healthy Place).

Work Cited • A History of Dissociative Identity Disorder. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http: //www. fortea. us/english/psiquiatria/history. htm • Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) Statistics and Facts - Healthy. Place. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http: //www. healthyplace. com/abuse/dissociative-identity-disorderdid-statistics-and-facts/ • Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder): Signs, Symptoms, Treatment. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http: //www. webmd. com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiplepersonality-disorder#1 • Dissociative Identity Disorder - TWO FAMOUS CASES. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http: //psychology. jrank. org/pages/189/Dissociative-Identity-Disorder. html • Dissociative Identity Disorder. (n. d. ). Retrieved from https: //www. aamft. org/imis 15/AAMFT/Content/Consumer_Updates/Dissociative_Identity_Disor der. aspx • Gillig, P. M. (n. d. ). Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Controversial Diagnosis. Retrieved from http: //www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC 2719457/ • History of D. I. D. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http: //splintersofthemind. weebly. com/history-of-did. html • Kim Noble: The woman with 100 personalities. (2011). Retrieved from http: //www. theguardian. com/lifeandstyle/2011/sep/30/kim-noble-woman-with-100 personalities • M. (n. d. ). Mary Reynolds: A post-traumatic reinterpretation of a classic case of multiple personality disorder. Retrieved from http: //www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pubmed/3308663 • Spawn, A. (n. d. ). Dissociative Identity Disorder. Retrieved from https: //prezi. com/gmjwi 9 qomqs/dissociative-identity-disorder/ • Van der Hart, O. , Lierens, R. , & Goodwin, J. (n. d. ). Jeanne Fery: A Sixteen Century Case of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Retrieved from http: //www. onnovdhart. nl/articles/jeanne_fery. pdf