A Way to Cope:
Multiple Personality Disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder
Carrie Casey
Lincoln University
Abstract
Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is when a person, who has endured severe child abuse, has a split in their personality or identity to help cope with the abuse. A person can have anywhere between 2 to 100 different personalities, with an average of 10. In this paper, there will be some specific examples of people with multiple personalities. You will be able to see how a person with DID completely dissociates with the other parts of herself. When one personality comes out and takes control of the body, the other personalities do not remember what happens during that period of time. When the abuse is too much, the brain comes in to defend the person and in most cases, it is a functional way for the person to survive.
A Way To Cope:
Multiple Personality Disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder
Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), is not a common, but not a very rare disorder formed by severe trauma during childhood. The trauma is usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual and/ or emotional abuse (as cited in Chakraburtty, 2009). Most of us have experienced a mild dissociation, like in daydreaming or getting lost in the moment, but MPD or DID is a much more severe form of that dissociation. It is a mental process in which produces a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity.
Multiple Personality Disorder is a disorder involving the splitting of a person’s personality creating two or more separate and distinct personalities or identities that control the person’s behavior at different times. There can be up to 100 different personalities, with an average of 10 (National Alliance on Mental Illness [NAMI], 2000). Usually when under control of one of the identities, the person cannot remember some of the events that occur (as cited in Swartz, 2001). The dissociative aspect of this disorder is thought to be a coping or defense mechanism. When the person with the disorder cannot deal with a situation or experience that is too violent, traumatic or painful, the conscious self disappears allowing another identity to deal with the situation. These other personalities are referred to as “alters.”
Alters can have their own age, sex, race, personal history, self image, and name. They have their own gestures, postures, mannerisms, attitudes, thoughts, and speech. The alters may even differ in “physical” properties like allergies, right-or-left handedness, or the need for eyeglasses (National Alliance on Mental Illness [NAMI], 2000). They each also have a separate way of perceiving their environment, themselves and others. Each alter has a specific way they see where the other alters live when they are not in control of the body. Alters may live in such places as tunnels, houses, or levels. They go to where they live whenever they are not out or they are in hiding. The typical types of alters are a depressed, exhausted host, a strong, angry protector, a scared, hurt child, a helper, and an internal persecutor who blames one or more alter for the abuse they have endured (as cited in Swartz, 2001).
A person who has Dissociative Identity Disorder experiences life differently than those without the disorder. They experience depersonalization, a sense of being detached from their body or having an “out-of-body” experience; derealization, a feeling the world is not real or things look far away; amnesia, which is failure to recall information; and identity confusion or identity alteration, which is confusion about who a person is. The person may experience distortions in time, place, and situation (as cited in Chakraburtty, 2009).
There are a few well known cases of multiple personalities or dissociative identity disorder. One of those cases is famous retired NFL star Herschel Walker who has struggled with dissociative identity disorder for years, but has only been receiving treatment for the past 8 or 9 years (as cited in Chakraburtty, 2009). In an ABC Nightline interview (2008), Herschel old ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff, ‘You don’t want the Herschel that plays football… babysitting your child… When I am competing, I am a totally different person.’ He means that literally. Herschel Walker says that, when playing 15 seasons of professional football in the NFL and USFL, when he pushed a bobsled for the 1992 Olympic team, when he was a family man who married his college sweetheart, when he danced with the Fort Worth Ballet and when he was a business man, none of those guys were him. They were his alters. He doesn’t even remember winning the Heisman Trophy (Woodruff, Hennessey, Hill, 2008)!
There is also well known cases which have had movies made after them, like Sybil and The Three Faces of Eve. Sybil was a movie based on the personality disorder of Sybil Dorsett. Sybil Dorsett had 16 separate personalities, two of who were male. She endured horrific child abuse at the hands of her mother and her father was unable to rescue her from it. Each of her personalities embodies feelings and emotions that the ‘real’ Sybil was unable to cope with. The Three Faces of Eve was a movie based on the real life of Chris Costner Sizemore. Later, Chris Costner Sizemore ended up writing her own book telling her own story. She ended up with 22 different personalities; the first to split was after witnessing traumatic events. She never did complain of childhood abuse (Ramsland, Kuter).
On the Oprah Show, Oprah Winfrey has interviewed two women that have multiple personality disorder. The first woman was interviewed before Oprah even had her nationally televised talk show, her name was Truddi Chase. Truddi Chase was a woman who, after suffering sexual abuse by her stepfather at the age of 2 years old, split into 92 different personalities. Her stepfather would not only sexually abuse her and her step-brother, but also the farm animals. He would then kill the animals so they did not show signs to the neighbors. Truddi remembers hearing the screams of her step-brother and praying they would not stop because she knew as soon as they stopped, she would have to endure the same abuse.
Truddi Chase told Oprah in that interview, ‘We all remember different sections… Multiplicity keeps you sane under the worst conditions. I am sane; we are sane. Believe it or not, it’s easier to deal with than the abuse was’ (The Woman with 92 Personalities, pg. 3, para. 1). Truddi’s therapist, Dr. Robert Phillips believes that the brain has a creative process that comes in and helps to defend a person. This person is usually abused at a very, very young age and becomes extremely overwhelmed. He does not like calling this “dysfunctional,” but in fact it is the most functional way to help a child like this survive and go on.
Truddi Chase’s daughter Kari went on the Oprah show in 1990. She said that growing up with a mom with 92 personalities was by no means typical. She says she would come home from school not knowing who she was coming home to (Follow Up with Truddi Chase, pg.1, para. 1). Because of her mother’s MPD, her childhood friendships became complicated. People did not understand and the parents were scared so they wanted to keep their kids away.
Earlier this year, Oprah interviewed the second woman with DID. Her name is Kim Noble and she has 20 different personalities. Among her personalities are “Patricia,” the primary personality; “Salome,” a devout Catholic; “Judy,” the personality who comes out at mealtimes and, “Ken,” a depressed gay man whom Kim thinks weighs more than 200 pounds (Life as a Mother with 20 Personalities, pg. 1, para. 3). Kim’s psychologists believe she suffered severe trauma from sexual abuse as a young child.
Kim’s 20 personalities each have their own email address, in which she does not have any of the passwords for, along with their own wardrobes, closets and toothbrushes. “Patricia” is the main personality that keeps up with the house and the bills and takes care of Aimee, her daughter. “Patricia” believes that Kim is gone forever. That the abuse was too much for her so all the others have to take over running the body.
On her daughter Aimee’s birthday, many of the personalities give Aimee their own gifts. Aimee knows each personality and has had to build a relationship with each one (Life as a Mother with 20 Personalities, pg. 4, para. 4). Aimee is fine with her mom the way she is. The only time she seems upset is when the personality “Dawn” come out. “Dawn” believes the year is still 1997, the year Aimee was born and she does not realize that Aimee is her daughter. Because of this, Aimee feels rejected.
Kim is a person with DID that does not remember any of her abuse. She believes that her personality “Ria Pratt,” a 12 year old girl, holds the key to that. “Ria Pratt” does paintings that show abuse, but she doesn’t directly come out and say what happened (Art Therapy and Dissociative Identity Disorder, Video). When “Patricia” watches the video of “Ria Pratt” showing and talking about her artwork, she feels sad for “Ria Pratt,” but is glad she herself was never abused. So you can see how the dissociation happens in Kim’s particular case. Even though “Ria Pratt” is a part of her, Kim considers her to be a completely different person.
I, just like Aimee and Kari, have also had a close relationship with someone who has been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. This person has a total of four personalities along with her adult self. These four personalities do not have different names, but different ages and different mannerisms. There is a 3-year old girl who is scared and will not look you in the eye, a 5-year old girl who is screaming and crying while clutching her fists tightly, a teenager girl who doesn’t have a care in the world, a schizoid personality and her adult self. I have witnessed all of these personalities come out. I have had the experience of trying to get the personality to go back into hiding and bring the adult self back out.
MPD has always fascinated me for many reasons and continues to prove interesting with all the research I have done. It is amazing how a person’s mind can split, creating different personalities or identities in order to cope with abuse they have endured, and how it is a defense mechanism to protect themselves against situations they cannot handle. The brain is an incredible thing and it is truly amazing how it finds a way to let the person survive.
References
Art Therapy and Dissociative Identity Disorder, The Oprah Winfrey Show. (2001, Oct. 1) Video.
Retrieved on Nov 6, 2010, from http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Art-Therapy-and-Dissociative-Identity-Disorder-Video
Chakraburtty, A. (2009, Sept. 16). Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality
Disorder). Retrieved Nov. 6, 2010, from http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder
Follow Up with Truddi Chase, The Oprah Winfrey Show. (2010, Oct. 6). Retrieved on Nov
6, 2010, from http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Truddi-Chase-Follow-Up/2
Life as a Mother with 20 Personalities, The Oprah Winfrey Show. (2010, Oct. 6). Retrieved on
Nov 6, 2010, from http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Kim-Noble-Multiple-Personality-Artist/1
National Alliance on Mental Illness [NAMI]., March, 2000 Dissociative Identity Disorder
(formally Multiple Personality Disorder) Retrieved Nov. 6, 2010, from http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Helpline&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=20562
Ramsland, K., Kuter, R. (n.d) Multiple Personalities: Crime and Defense. Tru TV Crime Library.
Retrieved Nov 6, 2010, from
Sybil Isabel Dorsett: The most famous case of multiple personality. Retrieved Nov. 6, 2010,
The Woman with 92 Personalities, The Oprah Winfrey Show. (2010, June 11). Retrieved on Nov
Woodruff, B., Hennessey, J., Hill, J. (2008, April 14). Herschel Walker: ‘Tell the World My
Truth’: Former NFL Start Opens Up About Battle With Dissociative Identity Disorder. ABC News/ Nightline. Retrieved Nov. 6, 2010, from http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=4643971&page=1
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