MULTIPLE PERSONALITY
[or Dissociative Identity Disorder]
By Caer Weber
[Note: While I use the feminine pronoun here there are many male multiples as well.]
A definition
Multiple personality, or “multiplexity” as I prefer to call it, is a highly creative survival mechanism used to cope with trauma beginning in childhood. A person with this condition, which is me and a lot of other people, (more than you think), feels that she is more than one person or has more than one identity. Often we call these identities “alters”, “personalities” or “selves”. Together, these alters usually form some kind of structure which is usually called a “system”. As well, many multiples like myself create an inner reality where all of the personalities reside. These inner worlds can be very complex and are usually created for a sense of safety as well as a place for alters to communicate with each other.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is the newer term created by the American Psychiatric Association and commonly used in Canada and the U.S. However, some countries in Europe still use the term Multiple Personality. I, myself, prefer the latter because the general population recognizes the term more easily.
A word about alters, or personalities. Most people tend to think that the alters are very distinct and separate from each other. They also think that each alter has her own name, talent, vocabulary and general knowledge but in a lot of cases this is not so. In fact, it may be the very opposite. Alters might be very similar to each other and may even work together to hide the multiplexity. They may pretend to be only one person even though they are not. They may hide the switching from one to another so an outside observer cannot tell that there has been any change. However, there still may be some distinct differences between some of the alters.
An important note. Multiple personality is not merely a person’s mood swings nor is it someone role-playing. Many people may feel they are different people at different times, but this is not the same as multiplexity. Multiple personality is the result of trauma beginning in childhood and probably going on for many years. And it is not fun.
About trauma
Trauma is a situation a person finds herself in and perceives it as life threatening in some way. The child (or adult) feels she cannot escape and has absolutely no control over the event. As well, the child (or adult) may feel very overwhelmed and completely helpless. While the child may feel helpless there is something she can do. Dissociate. This means she can tune out the event, push it out of her conscious awareness. It’s like spacing out and not thinking about what is really happening to her. But ... she is not completely unaware of what is happening to her and she may not ever forget the event. It will most likely be still buried somewhere deep in her memory but at a distance that allows her to continue to survive physically as well as psychologically. If the child is able (and not all children can), she may create other selves who can bear the terrifying trauma and who can help her carry on through life. The real gift of multiplexity is that the child can say “It didn’t happen to me”, because in her mind it happened to another self, to someone else.
Multiple personality can be caused by all kinds of trauma however it is most often caused by abuse of some kind. The abuse may be in the form of sexual, physical, verbal, emotional or psychological, or ritual. However the trauma the child has suffered may also be in the form of neglect and/or abandonment. Sometimes it may be that the child has been a witness to something terrible such as an accident or war.
Myths about multiple personality
The media is probably the biggest source of myths and stereotypes of multiple personality. “The Three Faces of Eve” (produced in the 1950s) and “Sybil” (produced in the 1970s) are probably the biggest influences from movies in the latter half of the 20th century. Of course, there have been many tv shows depicting multiplexity throughout the years as well. And, most often, they show alters as being very distinct and observable by anyone. The switching from one personality to another is easily seen. But an American psychiatrist named Dr Richard Kluft wrote a wonderful article about multiple personality and he said that only about 6% of multiples make the switching that obvious. He also went on to say that really “most of what is so arresting to the beholder about MPD is secondary, and what is hidden is quintessential.” [“Clinical Presentations of Multiple Personality Disorder” in The Psychiatric Clinics of North America: Multiple Personality Disorder: Volume 14, Number 3, September 1991, Richard J. Loewenstein, Guest Editor]. Kluft also said that about 40% of multiples are so good at hiding their condition that even an expert might not see it.
It is also important to understand that the arrangement of alters can be quite varied from person to person. Kluft has worked with multiples for more than 20 years and he found that the system of personalities have many different ways of arranging themselves and functioning. For example, only one or just a few alters may be dominant for years while the other personalities stay in the background. Or, certain alters may only be active when the person is experiencing a certain type of stress. Early on when I was first discovering I was multiple we had quite a few of us switching often and I felt quite confused and my identity felt like it was constantly fluctuating. Another example, and something I mentioned earlier, is when a group of alters try to pass as only one person in order to hide the multiplexity. While these are only a few examples, Kluft, in his article, describes 25 different “presentations” or configurations of alters, and often they hide the multiplexity quite well.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is confusing schizophrenia with multiple personality. Many people say “I’m feeling so schizophrenic today” meaning they feel like one person one minute, another the next minute and so on. However, the two are very different disorders. Schizophrenia is an illness of the brain with hallucinations and delusions being the main symptoms while multiple personality is really a defense mechanism used to cope with severe trauma as a child. Schizophrenia is not caused by “bad parenting” or any kind of abuse.
Finally, multiple personality used to be thought of as rare but since the 1970s when the book and the movie “Sybil” came out, there was a sharp increase in the number of reported cases. Because of the variations in the condition, some research shows as much as 1% of the general population in North America, and 2 to 5% of the psychiatric population has some form of multiplexity. Those that fit the American Psychiatric Association’s strict definition of the disorder may be more like 1 in 1000. [“Multiple Personality Disorder: Diagnosis, Clinical Features, and Treatment” by Colin A. Ross, M.D.]
Recovery
So what does recovery for someone who is multiple look like? Well, in my view, recovery is about healing from the past trauma, and not about “curing” the multiplexity. However, many “experts” in the field believe that the multiple should work towards “integration” of the personalities, becoming one personality only. In the end, I think that it should be up to the person with the condition. Even Richard Kluft said that integration is not always the best option though he strongly encourages it. I believe, and it is my experience, that it is possible to use the same tool that was created for survival to use it for healing.
I believe that in the beginning, the person with the condition must first have all the alters meet and find out about each other and how they have been working together. As well, and I think that it is one of the most precious gifts, is that those alters who can be the most disruptive and even harmful to the person, can eventually be convinced to be very instrumental in the healing process. There are numerous ways that the personalities can work together and help heal the wounds of trauma and, in my own experience, the results may be nothing short of profound.
While multiple personality may seem a fascinating condition to many, it is not at all fun to live with. However, it is a gift to the person who has it, though she may not always see it that way. It is an extremely creative and imaginative way to survive terrible situations and it is amazing that a child can come up with such a mechanism.
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