A Split Personality: The Cause and Effects of Multiple Personality Disorder

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A Split Personality: The Cause and Effects of Multiple Personality Disorder

Multiple Personality Disorder, (also called Dissociative Identity Disorder) is an

abnormal psychological phenomenon which has baffled psychologists and psychiatrists for

years. It is a syndrome marked by the clear existence of two or more “personalities” (or

identities) in a single person, each personality having separate memories, behaviors,

physical attributes, and even different gender than the patient. Studies prove that Multiple

Personality Disorder is often combined with other psychiatric disorders, such as Avoidant

Personality Disorder, Self-defeating Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Passive-

Aggressive Personality Disorder as well as Schizotype Personality Disorder. The first

known case of Multiple Personality was discovered in the early 1700s, though research

reports an earlier account by Paracelsus, a Swiss alchemist, astrologer, and physician,

who wrote of a woman who had a case of amnesia, and who's “alternate personality”

stole her money in 1646; but because medical research was not as advanced as it is

now, the doctors of that time did not understand the what could cause someone to black

out for long or short periods of time and appear as “someone else.” Over the years,

many people have been diagnosis with Multiple Personality Disorder, whose cases have

become famous, including, Shirley Ardell Mason, (better known as Sybil,) Billy Milligan,

(“The Minds of Billy...

... middle of paper ...

...esses waiting to receive their Oscar or Emmy award,

no. They are poor individuals who have been put through so much physical and sexual

trauma that they did not know how to handle it, so their mind created alter personalities

to help deal with the pain and the horrors that where inflicted on them. This begs the

question: is Multiple Personality a real psychological disorder? Ultimately, there is no

way to know what causes this abnormal psychological disorder, but psychologists and

psychiatrists are constantly examining this area of psychology and are making new

discoveries every day to help those who are forced to live in the nightmarish world

known as Multiple Personality Disorder and to becoming whole once more.

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