Multiple personality disorder

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.

Most people diagnosed with MPD were either physically or sexually abused as children. Many
times when a young child is severely abused, he or she becomes so detached from reality that
what is happening may seem more like a movie or television show than real life. This self-
hypnotic state, called disassociation, is a defense mechanism that protects the child from feeling
overwhelmingly intense emotions. Disassociation blocks off these thoughts and emotions so
that the child is unaware of them. In effect, they become secrets, even from the child.

A person diagnosed with MPD can have as many as a hundred or as few as two separate
personalities. (About half of the recently reported cases have ten or fewer.) These different
identities can resemble the normal personality of the person or they may take on that of a
different age, sex, or race. Each alter can have its own posture, set of gestures, and hair-style, as
well as a distinct way of dressing and talking. Some may speak in foreign languages or with an
accent. Sometimes alters are not human, but are animals or imaginary creatures.

The process by which one of these personalities reveals itself and controls behavior is called
switching. Most of the time the change is sudden and takes only seconds. Sometimes it can take
hours or days. Switching is often triggered by something that happens in the patient's
surroundings.

MPD does not disappear without treatment, although the rate of switching seems to slow down
in middle age. The most common treatment for MPD is long-term psychotherapy twice a week.
During these sessions, the therapist must develop a trusting relationship with the main
personality and each of the alters. Once that is established, the emotional issues of each
personality regarding the original trauma are addressed. The main and alters are encouraged to
communicate with each other in order to integrate or come together. At the same time, the
therapist helps the patient to acknowledge and accept the physical or sexual abuse he or she
endured as a child and to learn new coping skills so that disassociation is no longer necessary.