Multiple personality disorder name change
Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder)
Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff
Dissociative identity disorder, formerly referred to as multiple personality disorder, is characterized by a person's identity fragmenting into two or more distinct personality states. People with this condition are often victims of severe abuse.
Contents
- Symptoms
- Causes
- Treatment
Definition
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a rare condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in—and alternately take control of—an individual. Some people describe this as an experience of possession. The person also experiences memory loss that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.
DID was called multiple personality disorder up until 1994 when the name was changed to reflect a better understanding of the condition—namely, that it is characterized by fragmentation or splintering of identity, rather than by proliferation or growth of separate personalities. The symptoms of DID cannot be explained away as the direct psychological effects of a substance or of a general medical condition.
DID reflects a failure to integrate various aspects of identity, memory, and consciousness into a single multidimensional self. Usually, a primary identity carries the individual's given name and is passive, dependent, guilty, and depressed. When in control, each personality state, or alter, may be experienced as if it has a distinct history, self-image, and identity. The alters' characteristics—including name, reported age and gender, vocabulary, general knowledge, and predominant mood—contrast with those of the primary identity.
Certain circumstances or stressors can cause a particular alter to emerge. The various identities may deny knowledge of one another, be critical of one another, or appear to be in open conflict.
Symptoms
According to the DSM-5, the following criteria must be met for an individual to be diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder:
- The individual experiences two or more distinct identities or personality states (each with its own enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self). Some cultures describe this as an experience of possession.
- The disruption in identity involves a change in sense of self, sense of agency, and changes in behavior, consciousness, memory, perception, cognition, and motor function.
- Frequent gaps are found in the individual’s memories of personal history, including people, places, and events, for both the distant and recent past. These recurrent gaps are not consistent with ordinary forgetting.
- The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
Particular identities may emerge in specific circumstances. Transitions from one identity to another are often triggered by emotional stress. In the possession-form of dissociative identity disorder, alternate identities are visibly obvious to people around the individual. In non-possession-form cases, most individuals do not overtly display their change in identity for long periods of time.
People with DID may describe feeling that they have suddenly become depersonalized observers of their own speech and actions. They might report hearing voices (a child's voice or the voice of a spiritual power), and in some cases, the voices accompany multiple streams of thought that the individual has no control over. The individual might also experience sudden impulses or strong emotions that they don't feel control or a sense of ownership over.
People may also report that their bodies suddenly feel different (like that of a small child or someone huge and muscular) or that they experience a sudden change in attitudes or personal preferences before shifting back.
Sometimes people with DID experience dissociative fugue in which they discover, for example, that they have traveled, but have no recollection of the experience. They vary in their awareness of their amnesia, and it is common for people with DID to minimize their amnestic symptoms, even when the lapses in memory are obvious and distressing to others.
Are dissociative states seen differently in other cultures?
In many parts of the world, possession states are a normal part of cultural or spiritual practice. Possession-like identities often manifest as behaviors under the control of a spirit or other supernatural being. Possession states become a disorder only when they are unwanted, cause distress or impairment, and are not accepted as part of cultural or religious practice.
Are suicidal thoughts common in dissociative identity disorder?
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, more than 70 percent of people with DID have attempted suicide at least once, and self-injurious behavior is common among this group. Treatment is crucial to improving quality of life and preventing suicide attempts for those with DID.
Causes
Why some people develop dissociative identity disorder is not entirely understood, but they frequently report having experienced severe physical and sexual abuse during childhood.
The disorder may first manifest at any age. Individuals with DID may have post-traumatic symptoms (nightmares, flashbacks, or startle responses) or post-traumatic stress disorder. Several studies suggest that DID is more common among close biological relatives of persons who also have the disorder than in the general population.
Once a rarely reported disorder, the diagnosis has grown more common—and controversial. Some experts contend that because DID patients are highly suggestible, their symptoms are at least partly iatrogenic—that is, prompted by their therapists' probing. Brain imaging studies, however, have corroborated identity transitions.
What other dissociative disorders are there?
There are other dissociative disorders, all of which concern an individual's disconnection with reality. The person who suffers dissociative amnesia, for example, has difficulty remembering who they are, where they live, and other important personal information. And the person who suffers depersonalized or derealization disorder is detached from their actions.
Treatment
The primary treatment for dissociative identity disorder is long-term psychotherapy with the goal of deconstructing the different personalities and integrating them into one.
Other treatments include cognitive and creative therapies. Although there are no medications that specifically treat this disorder, antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs, or tranquilizers may be prescribed to help control the psychological symptoms associated with it. With proper treatment, many people who are impaired by DID experience improvement in their ability to function in their work and personal lives.
References
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition.
National Institute of Mental Health
Last updated: 09/21/2021
cognitive psychology - Why was MPD changed to DID?
DID is one of the most controversial psychiatric disorders, with no clear consensus on diagnostic criteria or treatment. To answer your question on why MPD was renamed DID, for completeness, there is a bit of history to bear in mind and we will look at the versions of the DSM over the years and how things changed.
The DSM-II used the term Hysterical Neurosis, Dissociative Type. It described the possible occurrence of alterations in the patient's state of consciousness or identity, and included the symptoms of "amnesia, somnambulism, fugue, and multiple personality."
The DSM-III grouped the diagnosis with the other four major dissociative disorders using the term "multiple personality disorder".
The DSM-IV made more changes to DID than any other dissociative disorder, and renamed it DID.
The name was changed for two reasons.
The change emphasises the main problem is not a multitude of personalities, but rather a lack of a single, unified identity and an emphasis on "the identities as centers of information processing".
The term "personality" is used to refer to "characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, moods and behaviors of the whole individual", while for a patient with DID, the switches between identities and behavior patterns is the personality.
It is for this reason the DSM-IV-TR referred to "distinct identities or personality states" instead of personalities. The diagnostic criteria also changed to indicate that while the patient may name and personalise alters, they lack an independent, objective existence.
The DSM-IV-TR criteria for DID have been criticised for failing to capture the clinical complexity of DID, lacking usefulness in diagnosing individuals with DID (for instance, by focusing on the two least frequent and most subtle symptoms of DID) producing a high rate of false negatives and an excessive number of Dissociative disorder not otherwise specified (DDNOS) diagnoses, for excluding possession (seen as a cross-cultural form of DID), and for including only two "core" symptoms of DID (amnesia and self-alteration) while failing to discuss hallucinations, trance-like states, somatoform, depersonalisation, and derealisation symptoms. Arguments have been made for allowing diagnosis through the presence of some, but not all of the characteristics of DID rather than the current exclusive focus on the two least common and noticeable features.
The DSM-5 updated the definition of DID in 2013, and the summary of changes listed the changes as:
Several changes to the criteria for dissociative identity disorder have been made in DSM-5. First, Criterion A has been expanded to include certain possession-form phenomena and functional neurological symptoms to account for more diverse presentations of the disorder. Second, Criterion A now specifically states that transitions in identity may be observable by others or self-reported. Third, according to Criterion B, individuals with dissociative identity disorder may have recurrent gaps in recall for everyday events, not just for traumatic experiences. Other text modifications clarify the nature and course of identity disruptions.
Dissociative Identity Disorder: how a girl survived her father's abuse, splitting herself into 2500 identities
- France Mao
- BBC Sydney
you to understand the events.
Photo copyright JENI HAYNES/ NINE NETWORK
Photo captionJenny Haynes' six personal identities were allowed to testify in court against her father
One female witness was heard in court that day. But six people spoke through her lips, ready to talk about the bullying she experienced.
"I went into the courtroom, took my seat, took the oath, and then a few hours later I returned to my body and left there," Janie Haynes recalled this day in an interview with the BBC.
When Janie was a child, she was constantly raped by her father, Richard Haynes. Australian police call what happened to her one of the worst cases of child abuse in the history of the country.
To cope with the psychological trauma, her mind resorted to an amazing tactic - it invented new personal identities for her to distance herself from the pain she was experiencing. The bullying was so brutal and continuous that Janie says she had to invent 2,500 different personalities to survive.
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Court hearings took place in March, in which Jeni testified against her father on behalf of several of these individuals. Among them was a four-year-old girl named Symphony.
This was the first time in Australia, and probably the world, that a victim diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder testified on behalf of their multiple identities and managed to secure a conviction.
"We weren't afraid. We waited so long to tell everyone exactly what he did to us, and now he couldn't silence us," she said.
On September 6, a court in Sydney sentenced 74-year-old Richard Haynes to 45 years in prison.
Attention: the text contains a description of child abuse and abuse
"Even in my head I did not feel safe"
The Haynes family moved to Australia from London at 1974 year. Janie was four years old, but her father had already begun to mock her. In Sydney, his actions became completely sadistic and were repeated almost daily.
Photo copyright, JENI HAYNES
Photo caption,Jeni's multiple selves became her way of hiding from violence
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"My father's bullying was calculated and planned. It was deliberate and he enjoyed it every minute," Janie told the court.
As a minor victim, she had the right to remain anonymous, but chose to waive it in order to be able to reveal her father's name.
"He heard me begging him to stop, he heard me crying, he saw the pain and horror he caused in me, he saw the blood and the physical damage he inflicted. And the next day he consciously did it again" , - she said.
Haynes taught his daughter that he could read her mind, she said. He threatened to kill her mother, brother, and sister even if she even considered torturing her, let alone tell them about it.
"My inner world was taken over by my father. I didn't feel safe even in my head. I lost the ability to comprehend what was happening to me and draw my own conclusions," Janie said.
To hide her feelings, she expressed her thoughts through song lyrics:
"He ain't heavy/he's my brother" (He's not a burden, he's my brother) - when she was worried about her brother and sister.
"Do you really want to hurt me/ Do you really want to make me cry" when thinking about her experience.
Her father limited her contact at school to minimize her contact with adults. Janie learned to be quiet and inconspicuous because if she was "noticed", such as when the swimming coach told her father that the girl needed to develop her talent, her father punished her.
Photo copyright, Jeni Haynes
Photo caption,Richard Haynes and his three children, Jeni is on the right
Jeni did not receive medical treatment for injuries from beatings and rape. As a result, she developed serious chronic diseases.
Janie is now 49 years old. Her eyesight is irreparably damaged, her jaw, intestines, anus and coccyx are damaged. She had to undergo several major surgeries, including a colostomy in 2011.
The violence in Janie's life continued until the age of 11, when her family returned to Britain.
Shortly thereafter, at 1984, her parents divorced. She thinks that no one, not even her mother, knew what she had been through.
"Actually he bullied Symphony"
Modern Australian experts call Janie's condition Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). They say it has a lot to do with the horrendous abuse she experienced as a child—experienced at home, in a place that was supposed to be safe.
"DID is really a survival strategy," child psychologist Pam Stavropoulos, an expert on childhood trauma, told the BBC.
Image copyright JENI HAYNES
Image captionFor most of her childhood Jeni told herself she was Symphony
experiences of abuse and psychological trauma," she said.
The younger the traumatized child and the worse the treatment, the more likely it is that he will resort to dissociation to cope, resulting in a split personality.
Janie said that the first personal identity that appeared in her was Symphony, a four-year-old girl who exists in her own temporary reality.
"She suffered every minute when my dad abused me. When he abused me - his daughter Janie - he was actually bullying Symphony," Janie said.
As the years passed, Symphony herself began to invent new identities to cope with the violence she experienced. Each of the hundreds and hundreds of personalities had a role to play in coping with the elements of violence, whether it was a particularly terrifying episode or images or smells that evoked traumatic memories.
"The alter personality came out from behind the Symphony and became a distraction. My alter personalities served as protection for me from my father," Janie said.
While we were talking about this, about half an hour after the interview began, Symphony appeared. Janie warned that this could happen. The fact that she is about to switch can be guessed by the fact that it becomes more difficult for her to formulate an answer.
"Hi, my name is Symphony.
Janie is having a problem. Let me tell you everything if you don't mind," she says quickly.
Symphony has a higher voice, more lively intonation. She speaks like a little girl, barely catching her breath between words. We talked for 15 minutes. She remembers in great detail the events associated with the "evil dad" that took place decades ago. It's impressive.
"That's what I did. I took everything that I consider valuable in myself, everything that is important and pleasant for me, and hid it from my dad. Therefore, when he mocked me, he mocked not a thinking human being", Symphony said.
Janie's personalities that helped her survive
Photo caption,Janie and some of her essences
- Muscles is a Billy Idol-style teenager. He is tall and wears clothes that flaunt his strong arms. He is calm and caring.
- Volcano - very tall and strong, dressed in black leather from head to toe.
Hair is dyed straw. - Ricky is only eight years old, but he wears an old gray suit. He has short hair and bright red hair.
- Judas is short with red hair. He wears gray trousers from his school uniform and a bright green sweater. Always looks like he's about to say something.
- Linda/Maggot is tall and slender, wearing a 1950s skirt with pink poodle appliqués. Her hair is collected in an elegant bun, and her eyebrows are in a house.
- Rick wears huge glasses - the same as Richard Haynes wore. They cover his face.
In March, Janie was allowed to testify in court on behalf of Symphony and five other personalities, each of whom could talk about different aspects of the abuse experienced. Only the judge was present at the hearing, because the lawyers felt that the testimony would be too traumatic for the jury.
Haynes was initially charged with 367 charges, including multiple counts of rape, sodomy, lewd acts and carnal depravity of a child under 10 years of age.
Janie, in her various personalities, was able to testify at length in court on each episode. Her multiple selves helped her retain memories that would otherwise have been lost due to trauma.
Prosecutors also called in DID psychologists to explain Janie's condition and assess the credibility of her testimony.
"My memories as someone with MRI are as intact today as they were the day they were formed," Janie told the BBC. After that, she briefly spoke about herself in the plural: "Our memories are just frozen in time. If I need them, I'll just go and get them."
Symphony's intention was to reconstruct "in great detail" the details of the crimes committed during her seven years in Australia. Muscled, burly 18-year-old boy, could testify to the physical abuse, and the elegant young woman Linda had to tell how the abuse affected Janie's performance in school and her ability to connect with people.
Image copyright JENI HAYNES
Image captionThe Haynes family home in Greenacre, Sydney west
Symphony hoped to "use her testimonies to grow up," Janie explains.
got scared and gave up, couldn't handle it."
After more than two hours of Symphony's testimony on the second day of the hearing, Janie's father changed his testimony and pleaded guilty on 25 counts - the worst, according to Janie.
Dozens more were counted towards his sentencing.
"DID saved my life"
"This case is a milestone, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that multiple identities of a person with DID have been accepted by the court system and ultimately led to the conviction of the perpetrator," explains Dr. Kathy Keselman is president of the Blue Knot Foundation, an Australian organization that helps survivors of childhood trauma.
Image copyright JENI HAYNES
Image caption,Richard Haynes pleaded guilty to more than two dozen acts of child sexual abuse
Janie first reported the abuse in 2009. The police investigation leading to the sentencing and imprisonment of Richard Haynes lasted 10 years.
In 2017, he was extradited to Australia from Darlington in the North East of England, where he was serving a seven-year sentence for another crime. Before that, he lived with various relatives of Janie, whom he told that his daughter was lying and manipulating people.
Upon learning of Janie's abuse, her mother, who divorced Haynes in 1984, became active in helping her get justice.
But for decades, Janie's attempts to get help with her injuries have met with reluctance from specialists. She says counselors and therapists turned her down because her story made them distrustful or felt so traumatic that they couldn't deal with it themselves.
Dissociative Identity Disorder
- Refusal to communicate - detachment from oneself or the world - is considered a normal reaction to trauma.
- DID can be triggered by experience if a person (especially in childhood) has experienced trauma for a long time.
- Lack of adult support, or the presence of an adult who says the injury was not real, may contribute to the development of DID.
- A person with DID may feel that there are multiple selves within them that think, act, or speak differently and may even have conflicting memories and experiences.
- There is no specific medical treatment for DID - specialists mostly use talking therapy to help patients.
Despite the fact that today this diagnosis is recognized and its existence is evidence-based, DID usually raises doubts among the layman and even some doctors.
"The nature of this condition is such that it causes distrust and discomfort due to its causes. Partly because people find it difficult to believe that children can be subjected to such abuse," says Dr. Stavropoulos. "That's why Janie's case is so important - because this case provides a wider awareness of this very complex, but not uncommon condition, which has not yet been fully accepted.
Janie says her DID saved her life and soul. At the same time, her condition and her trauma led to serious life difficulties.
Photo copyright, JENI HAYNES
Photo caption,Some of Jeni's personalities are very intelligent and experienced adults
Jeni has devoted her entire life to studying, earning her Master's and Doctorate degrees in Law and Philosophy. But she couldn't work full time. She now lives with her mother, and both of them depend on their social pensions.
In her statement of harm, Janie notes that she and her personalities "live in fear, constantly on guard. We must hide our multiplicity and strive for consistency in behavior, relationships, conversations and beliefs, which is often impossible. Very difficult to manage opinions and views, having 2,500 voices inside."
"I shouldn't have lived like this," she says. "Make no mistake, it was my father who caused me to have DID."
On September 6, when my father was sentenced to 45 years in prison, Janie was sitting a few meters away from him.
Haynes, a seriously ill man, will not be able to apply for parole until 33 years later.
At sentencing, Judge Sarah Haggett said it was likely that Haynes would die in prison. His crimes, she said, were "terrifyingly heinous and perverted."
According to the judge, the verdict cannot reflect the seriousness of the harm caused to the defendant.
"I'm passionate about my story," Janie told the BBC before her sentencing. Behind me".
"If you have DID as a result of violence, you can now get justice. You can go to the police and they will believe you. Your diagnosis is no longer an obstacle to justice," Janie says.
“How I learned to live with multiple personalities inside”
- Emma Young
- Mosaic
Image Credit, iStock
Severe emotional trauma, especially received in early childhood, can lead to a rare mental illness in which a person's personality seems to be divided, and two, three, four, or even more begin to live in one person at once.
How does such a person feel? How does he manage to get along with several of his alter egos?
Melanie Goodwin never knows for sure which of the many personalities living in her will come to the fore at one time or another - whether it will be 16-year-old Melanie, and then she will have to ride a bicycle to work (since "that " Melanie can't drive a car), or it will be 3-year-old Melanie, and then you will need to take a teddy bear with you for a walk.
Until she turned 40, nothing special happened to Melanie, she just did not remember herself at the age of 16, and nothing more.
However, a family tragedy triggered catastrophic changes in her head. Suddenly she realized how many different personalities lived inside her, and the barriers between these personalities began to crumble.
All these personalities were Melanie - only Melanie of different ages: at 3 years old, at 16 years old and so on.
And the age of these Melanies was not accidental. Gradually, breaking through the frightening dissonance in her head, memories came to Melanie: about violence from adults - first against a 3-year-old child, and then further - up to 16 years old ...
"I have no proof," she stresses, "I just have to live with what I think happened to me and my current reality."
Melanie has dissociative identity disorder. It used to be called multiple personality disorder. The name change reflects a more accurate understanding of the essence of the disease by specialists.
Identity is memories, behavior in different situations, attitude to different things, perception of one's age… And all this changes within one person at once and completely.
Melanie refers to herself as "we". "We are made up of nine different people, each of whom leads his life, trying to get rid of the memory of the abuse that happened to him as a child.
"
Image copyright, iStock
Image caption,Living with dissociative identity disorder can be scary at times. Nor is it easy for those who live close to such people.
Life with dissociative identity disorder can sometimes feel like hell, she testifies. This is a complete breakdown of the self-image that ordinary people take for granted: that we are one and only individual.
The sudden realization that several personalities live in it, and sometimes they even fight among themselves, was like a bolt from the blue for Melanie. And at some point it seemed to her that she was no longer able to cope with this.
How did she manage to find a way to live with several Melanies inside?
Disconnect
Melanie and I speak in the relaxed atmosphere of the Pottergate Dissociative Disorders Counseling Room in Norwich, UK.
The Center is headed by Rémy Aquaron, psychotherapist-analyst, former director of the International Society for the Study of Dissociative Disorders.
In a career spanning over 30 years, Aquaron has worked with hundreds of patients with these disorders. In most cases, he says, these people were abused as children by adults, usually before the age of 5.
According to the theory, in order to cope with memories of the stressful experience, the child ceases to associate himself with the one who suffered. That is, it divides itself into several parts.
One part of his personality still keeps memories of the horror of the experience, while the other part, as it were, was born after the event and has nothing to do with it.
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Or, for example, one part remembers the emotional trauma, another goes to bed, and the third goes down to breakfast to go to school later.
If violence against a child has continued for several years, if the child has suffered from different adults, then even more personalities may appear within one.
This "disconnection" from suffering helps the child to live on. In fact, this is such a radical way of adapting, Aquaron notes.
Melanie sees it this way: “If you find yourself in a situation that is completely impossible to survive, you disconnect it from yourself in order to survive. Emotional trauma can “freeze” you in time. scattered throughout your life."
Image copyrightDavid Brandon Geeting
Image caption,If a child has suffered from multiple adults, there may be many personalities within one
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It's been four years since Melanie discovered her multiple personalities, and one day in the library where she worked, she stumbled upon Joan Francis Casey's The Pack.
As she began to read, Melanie quickly realized that she, like the author, had dissociative identity disorder.
She told her husband about it, with whom she had lived for more than 20 years by that time. "He said, 'You know, that makes sense,'" recalls Melanie.
"Because one day he might ask me 'Do you want coffee?' and I would say 'Yes, I really do!' And on another day, to the same question, I could answer: "You know that I don't drink coffee. I'm allergic to it."
"16-year-old Melanie doesn't drink coffee, but I love coffee! My husband used to say that he never knew which Melanie he would come home to in the evening. I didn't understand what he meant then... How but I didn’t guess before, he says now ... "
Unlike some other people with dissociative identity disorder, Melanie feels that there is a dominant part in her whose age corresponds to the age of her body.
Is it then possible to say that the "real" Melanie is more than just a composite of a three-year-old child who is easily scared, a 16-year-old girl who is not averse to flirting, and a 64-year-old woman who is now sitting on couch in Remy Aquaron's office and eloquently describes his condition?
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Not everyone who has experienced severe emotional trauma as a child develops a dissociative identity disorder.
There is another important component that can trigger the onset of the disorder: the lack of a normal, healthy attachment to an adult.
Attachment in developmental psychology means the bond that arises between an infant and those who care for him, look after him, while simultaneously teaching the child to respond correctly to certain phenomena and cope with emotions.
Without such a connection, which can be destroyed by the death of a close relative, neglect of the child or abuse of him, the little person is left to himself, he is left alone with his emotional traumas.
The same children who develop such an attachment, in the future successfully cope with all the challenges of life, notes Wendy Johnson, professor of psychology at the University of Edinburgh.
"First of all, they have an easier relationship with others. As a rule, they earn more, are recognized in the team and face less aggression. And their lives are more prosperous.
"
Of course, all this does not mean that in the early years our personality is formed completely and for life. As the circumstances around us change, we begin to change too.
Image copyright, David Brandon Geeting
Image caption,Teenagers and young adults often question self-identity because that's the age at which things change in and around them
It's no surprise that adolescents and young adults often question self-identity, adds Johnson . After all, it is at this age that many things change in them and around them.
Attachment to an adult and stability in life give a feeling of being a whole person. Without this, the traits of the individual can swing as if on a swing over a wide range.
One of Melanie's personalities suffers from anorexia, another has attempted suicide twice because she could not bear the pain of realizing what was happening to Melanie's "others".
Three-year-old Melanie is easily stunned when confronted with things that remind her of past emotional traumas.
On the other hand, 16-year-old Melanie has an easy-going personality and is not averse to flirting.
So, really, "it all makes sense," as her husband said. It's not 64-year-old Melanie acting like a three-year-old, it's just that her other personality comes to the fore at a certain moment, and Melanie is not acting at that moment - she really becomes a child or a 16-year-old girl.
Reconnecting with the past
Due to the fact that the memories of one of the personalities may be inaccessible to others, those suffering from dissociative identity disorder “lose” entire periods of time. It sometimes seems to them that they just jumped over a few days, or even weeks.
"Some have affairs on the side. But you can't say that about them, because at these moments they simply don't remember that they are married or married," says Melanie.
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She herself suffers from the fact that she does not have a chronology of her own life, cannot imagine the order in which various events happened to her, starting from birth.
Her life is divided into fragments that do not fit well with each other.
"I know that I am married," she gives an example. "But I understand this only as an observer, looking at myself from the outside. It has not become a part of me, it is not stored in my memory."
People with this disorder often complain about a very superficial perception of life, confirms Aquaron. "For most of us, memories, backed up by experienced emotions, provide a personal chain of events going back to our childhood, which gives us a sense of 'self-continuity'. A person with a dissociative disorder cannot track himself through time."
Image copyright, iStock
Image caption,Nostalgia can be good for people with dissociative identity disorder
In this sense, one of the psychological advantages of religiosity, faith in God can be considered that a person never feels lonely, abandoned, his relationship with God existed both when a person was a child, and when he grew up, and so until death.
Wherever you are, God is always with you, emphasizes Aquaron.
There are other ways to reconnect with your own past. Previously, psychologists believed that nostalgia could be harmful. Now their opinion has changed. Nostalgia just forms the very feeling of "continuity of oneself", it enhances the sense of belonging to the world around.
This sense of "one self" helps people navigate life, and especially society.
Internal conflict
Nina Strominger and her colleagues at Yale University explored the concept of the "real self" in their scientific review - not just for people with dissociative identity disorder, but for all of us.
Consider, for example, the situation, suggests Strominger, when a deeply religious person experiences homosexual impulses. "His religion forbids him to give in to these impulses, and now he fights them every day," she explains. "So who is the real one? The one who tries not to give in to his impulses, or the one who experiences them?"
The answer, Strominger found, depends on who you ask.
"Ask people with liberal views and they will say, 'Well, yes, this is a person with homosexual impulses.' But ask the same question to a person with conservative views, and he will tell you: 'The real one here is the one who resists such impulses.'
In other words, everything is relative.Strominger, however, found one aspect of human behavior that can be considered the most fundamental in determining "realness" - even more so than our memories.0011
Photo copyright, David Brandon Geeting
Photo caption,A person's ideas of what is moral and what is not can change over time
Strominger has worked with families of people with dementia, dementia and insanity. Patients gradually not only lost their memory - their personality underwent significant and often negative changes in moral terms.
For example, they began to lie recklessly. There were, however, positive changes - people became softer and kinder.
According to relatives, their loved one became different not when he lost his memory, but when his moral qualities changed.
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"In scientific works on the nature of self-identification, morality has traditionally not been paid much attention," says Strominger. It was believed that the main thing is the memory and traits of your character. The results of our study say something else. "
As Melanie admits, some parts of her self have different ideas about morality. She explains this by the different life experiences of these individuals and by the fact that some of them were formed at a time when views on morality were simply different.
In addition, a person's ideas of what is moral and what is not can change over time, notes Wendy Johnson.
Thus, our core - who we think we are - can change. In this regard, it is logical to assume that feeling like something frozen is in many ways an illusion that helps us avoid a mental disorder like dissociative identity disorder.
And as the experience of Melanie and other people with this disorder shows, this illusion is extremely important for a person.
Breaking down the barriers
The help of the specialists helped Melanie a lot. The first step was a correct diagnosis. After all, her illness is quite easy to confuse with something else.
Those who hear voices are often referred to as schizophrenics, those who experience frequent mood swings may be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Someone who, like a three-year-old child, hides under the bed out of fear, can be called a psychopath. And so on.
Even in the UK, the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder is very reluctant, despite the fact that it is in all the main psychiatric reference books.
It is believed that now in the country about 1% suffer from this disorder (about the same as schizophrenia), but there are still skeptics who believe that these people can just play a split personality, these are their personal fantasies .
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However, recent research confirms that these people do not play, and this is not fantasy.
Photo copyright, David Brandon Geeting
Photo caption,Feeling like something frozen is largely an illusion that helps us avoid mental breakdown
Melanie is now director of First Person Plural, an association for people with dissociative identity disorder, often talks to psychologists, psychiatrists, general practitioners and social workers, trying to convince them that this disorder is a real thing.
These patients can be helped, but they only begin to experience relief after many months of specialist therapy.
According to Melanie, deep and mutual trust is needed in a relationship with a doctor who helps her to establish relationships between different parts of herself, encourages them to talk to each other, to understand and respect each other.
Melanie's life is slowly getting better.
