Multiple Personality Disorder

Multiple personality disorder is the existence of more than one dominate personality within an individual. Each personality having its own behavior and social relationships. The disorder is most commonly associated with physical and/or sexual abuse of the sufferer at a young age. The abuse they go through is often prolonged and done by a family member.

Diagnosing someone with multiple personality disorder is often hard for many reasons. Patients often withhold important information that would be used to diagnose the disorder because they do not want to be labeled crazy. Doctors¹ ignorance about the disorder is another reason it is often misdiagnosed. Multiple personality disorder was originally thought of as being extremely rare, so must professionals thought they would never see a case. It was not even in he DSM until 1980.

In treating someone with multiple personality disorder their trust must first be gained so they then are willing to participate in the treatment. The patient must then be told what their problem is, which needs to be done very gentle in adults so that they do not get offended. The third stage in treatment is to learn all the personalities, their names, origins, problems, and relationships to the other personalities. The original personality must then be taught to deal with all the impulses that the other personalities would deal with such as anger, sexuality, and depression. The final stage is fusing all the personalities back into one. The patient must then practice dealing with all kinds of emotions to prevent a renewed dissociation.