What is Multiple Personality Disorder?

Multiple personality has a scientific name that may be very unfamiliar to everyone: Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), which can be understood literally without even knowing yourself.

Multiple personality disorder

Multiple personality disorder is a type of mental illness, a type of dissociation disorder classified as the first axis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DCM). A multiple personality has more than one personality (if there are two, it is called a double personality), which is like "several souls in one body." In fact, it has many names. It is called "hysteric identification disorder" in CCMD-3.

It has been thought that the ratio of multiple personalities in a population is very low. But recent discoveries show that multiple personality is actually not that rare. The disease is more common in women, and its incidence is usually three to nine times that of men.

Multiple personality disorder was once considered a personality disorder, but it was renamed as dissociative identity disorder as early as 1994. It belongs to the extreme type of dissociation disorder and is relatively rare. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness, dissociation will occur when one is separated from multiple psychological processes and other parts of consciousness. Symptoms of this disease are sudden changes in people's consciousness, identity or physical behavior, and there may be significant memory loss. After the onset of the disease, the patient cannot recall some important personal information (Who am I? What am I doing? Where am I?) Some people will fictionalize a new identity for themselves, he regards this identity as his true self Therefore, it can be regarded as an independent "personality", but in fact this personality is incomplete because it has not gone through the normal personality shaping process. They can only become "identities." If a person in a new personality has another episode of dissociation, then he may make up another personality, which is a multiple personality disorder.

Dissociative identity disorder is the result of the interaction of multiple factors: intense stress, separation of abilities (including the unification of personal memory, consciousness, and identity in consciousness), the acquisition of defensive abilities during growth, and childhood injury Lack of sympathy and comfort and lack of ability to protect themselves from harmful stimuli in the future. The unity of identity is not inherent, it depends on the acquired resources and experience to develop. In children who are traumatized, this kind of Development is blocked, and many traits that should have been combined in the same identity are still isolated.

Each personality of a multi-person patient is stable, well-developed, and has a separate thinking model and memory. The split personality is all-encompassing, and patients with multiple personality can have different genders, ages, races, and even species. They take turns controlling the patient's behavior. At this time, the original personality has no consciousness or memory for this period of time. The split personality knows the existence of each other, but the original personality (that is, the personality before the multiple personality, or the master personality) does not know the existence of "they", so even if the patient finds that their memory is truncated , Also can not know that he has multiple personalities. But there is often one of the split personalities who knows everything. If this personality is willing to cooperate, the therapist can learn a lot of useful information from it.

The relatively common form is dual personality, usually one of which is dominant, but neither personality enters the memory of the other, and the existence of the other is almost unconscious. The transition from one personality to another is usually abrupt at the beginning and is closely related to traumatic events; thereafter, generally only when encountering large or stressful events, or receiving treatment such as relaxation, hypnosis or venting Before conversion occurs.

(1) Meet the diagnostic criteria for hysteria; it is dominated by self-identification disorders, loses a sense of self-unity, and has dual personality or multiple personality;

(2) Lack of awareness of the surrounding environment, narrow ambient consciousness or unusual attention to external stimuli, narrow and selective attention, and connection with the changed identity of the patient;

(3) The above symptoms must be undesired, occur outside or in a similar state in the context of religious or cultural background recognition;

(4) No psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions;

(5) Eliminate schizophrenia and related disorders, and affective mental disorders.

Patients usually have a series of symptoms similar to other neuroses and mental illnesses, such as anxiety disorder, personality disorder, schizophrenia, affective disorder and epilepsy. Most patients have depression, anxiety (sweating, rapid pulse, palpitations), fear , Panic attacks, physical discomfort, sexual dysfunction, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress. Common suicidal ideas, attempts, and self-harm. Many patients have abuse of psychoactive substances at some point.

Personality transitions and intermittent amnesia often make a patient's personal life messy. Due to the interaction between different personalities, patients with dissociative disorders often report hearing inner conversations and other personality comments and patient-specific voices. These voices are considered It is hallucination.

Dissociative identity disorder has some characteristic symptoms, including fluctuations in symptom performance; fluctuations in social functions, from very capable to incompetent; severe headaches and other physical pains; time orientation disorder; retrograde time; forgetting; disintegration and loss of personality Reality. Personality disintegration refers to the lack of realism, detachment from the self, and freedom from personal physical and mental activities. The patient feels like a bystander to his life, and observes himself because he is watching a movie. Personality disintegration Refers to being unfamiliar or unreal to a familiar person or environment.

Patients with dissociative identity disorder are often told of some of the things and actions they have done, but this patient cannot recall. They can find things that cannot be explained and agreed with, consequences, handwriting; they will call themselves "us" or Call yourself in the third person (he, she, they); they don't remember what happened between the ages of 6 and 11. Patients forget about early childhood experiences are common and widespread.

Because patients with dissociative identity disorder show symptoms similar to other mental illnesses, patients are often diagnosed with a variety of other mental illnesses before a clear diagnosis, and previous treatments have failed. In groups, control It is a matter of concern, including control over yourself and control over others.

The development of multiple personalities is closely related to childhood trauma, especially sexual abuse. The male-to-female ratio of patients (1: 9) can be used as evidence, which may be why girls are more vulnerable to sexual abuse than boys. When it is difficult to cope with the shock, the patient "empties" to achieve the feeling that "this thing did not happen to me", which may be necessary.

Such people should be treated as soon as they are discovered. There are many cases of successful treatment so don't worry. Must cooperate actively. If you are worried that you have this kind of problem, you can ask the people around you if they are abnormal. General mental illness is first discovered by those around you. Those who come to us for treatment are also brought by others. There is actually no difficulty in getting along with them, unless the sub-personality of this split personality is extreme, then there may be some mental illness in this sub-personality. For others, you just need to treat him as multiple people. Just like we usually face different kinds of people. Don't discriminate or indifferent them, this may worsen their condition. Remember that they are just ordinary people, as long as they do not have offensive behaviors, they can interact with each other and even be friends.

Multiple personalities are often caused by emotional trauma especially childhood trauma is more common. The treatment methods include Gestalt therapy, psychoanalysis, and supportive therapy. But all therapies can not be separated from the long-term and patient cooperation of family, friends, colleagues and others. In particular, avoid irritating the source during treatment. As early as the 19th century, some doctors such as D. Pere (1840), Plumer (1859), Azam (1887), etc. have written that most patients with multiple personality will continue to improve for many years, and Very difficult to treat. However, in recent years, as a result of personality disorder research, several principles regarding the treatment of patients with multiple personality have come out:

1. Hypnosis analysis is more effective than classic psychoanalysis.

2. When the therapist forms a good empathetic relationship with multiple personality disorders, avoiding resentment or malice towards any one of them, treatment is most motivated.

3 Encourage internal communication between separate personalities, because this internal communication helps to "remove" the wall that is placed between the main personality and the successor personality.

4 Separation of personality is due to failure to meet normal needs, and the required functions should be considered in this regard, and should not be taken lightly.

5. The healer's responsibility is to help the patient return the successor's personality to their original goal, so as to transfer the opposite position between the successor's personality and the subject's personality.

6. Resolutely cannot manipulate or alienate the subject's personality and successor personality, because this strategy often leads to treatment failure.

7. Once the successor personality is formed, it will strongly resist all attempts to eliminate it. Therefore, the healer cannot eliminate it, but should pay attention to its identity with the subject's personality and try to integrate them so that they operate like normal emotional changes.

8. By venting, "inducing" the subject's personality, making him responsible for anger, dissatisfaction, and impulse that were previously unacceptable, and dealing with them in a more constructive way. Because the process of inducing the subject's personality is also a process of venting the subsequent personality, the partition wall placed between the two will automatically disintegrate and the communication between the two will be realized.

In particular, although there is increasing interest in the study of multiple personality, multiple personality is still one of the most difficult areas to understand and respond to in personality disorders.

1. Although the therapists have been exposed to many multiple personality disorder data in the course of their careers, most therapists rarely encounter real-life cases.

2. To some extent, the diagnosis and treatment of multiple personalities has cultural boundaries, and the vast majority of cases have been observed in the United States.

3. Multiple personality disorder is gender biased because the vast majority of patients with multiple personality are women, with a male to female ratio of 1: 9.

4. Hypnosis can be used to treat multiple personalities, but it can also trigger multiple personalities , because the visitor is easily susceptible to other hints during the treatment process, in order to avoid certain pain, he spawns multiple "I" s. and so

   Schizophrenia is a person with many personalities. Generally manifested as dual personality. Of course there are rare multiple personalities. There used to be a British woman who had a rare sevenfold personality! Each personality has a different taste, personality, habits, IQ, and so on. And one personality will not remember what another personality did. So she often finds herself in a strange environment and doesn't know what to do. She was born. Some personality splits are acquired. For example, it was stimulated. The magnitude of this stimulus is difficult to define, it depends on everyone's mental capacity. Then there will be a clear distinction between primary and secondary personality. Generally, the personality rarely remembers what he has done, but it will be a little strange when he first returns from the secondary personality. These people are usually found by people around them. General personality splits are irregular and irregular, and some are stimulated under special circumstances. When asked by a physician, patients have difficulty expressing clearly, and even feel that they are just some hallucinations and hallucinations. Another personality can remember everything that happened to him during the attack. The personality of a female patient likes to imagine a friend when she is alone, give her a setting, and talk to her. In the end, he gradually lost his self, and liberated the second personality. That's what is caused by excessive fantasies. The patient personality is a very lonely person. This is the cause. So over-craving for friends, evading reality through fantasy.