Multiple Personality Disorder :: Medical Medicine disorders Essays

Multiple Personality Disorder Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) or Dissociative IdentityDisorder (DID) was first hold in the 1700s but wasnot understood so therefore it was forgotten. Many casesshow up in medical records through the years, but in 1905,Dr. Morton Prince wrote a book about MPD that is afoundation for the disease. A few years after it waspublished Sigmund Freud dismissed the affliction and thisdropped it from being discussed at any probable mentalhealth meetings. Since then the disorder has been everywherelookedand misdiagnosed as either schizophrenia or psychosis. Manyin the medical profession did not confide that a personcould unknowingly have more than one personality or personinside one body, even after the in the 1950s trinity Faces ofEve was published by two psychiatrist. In 1993, recordsshowed that three to five thousand patients were beingtreated for MPD compared to the hundred cases reported tenyears earlier. thither is still as increase in the number of cases being reported as the scientific community learns moreand more about the disease and the human race is becoming moreand more aware of this mental disorder. There are still manyquestions left unanswered about the disease, like Is itgenetic? or Is a certain type of personality morevulnerable to the disorder? but many aspects of how peoplecome by the disorder are already answered (Clark, 1993,p.17-19) MPD is commonly found in adults who wererecurrently abused mentally, physically, feelingally, and/orsexually as young children, between birth to 8 years of age.The child uses a process called dissociation to removehim/herself from the abusive situation. Dissociation is whena child makes up an imaginary personality to take control ofthe mind and body musical composition the child is being abused. The childcan imagine many personalities but usually there is apersonality for every feeling and or emotion that wasinvolved during the abuse (BoyyM, 1998, p.1). As an adult,the abused chi ld finds it hard to keep track of time and mayhave episodes of amnesia. Other symptoms that will appear inadults with MPD are depression, auditory and visualhallucinations (hearing voices) and suicidal thoughts.Another major symptom is when the adult has no recollectionof their childhood. The adult with MPD has no idea they wereabused as children and also unaware of the otherpersonalities living inside of their head. Multiple Personality Disorder is when there is thepresence of two or more distinct identities orpersonalities, each with its own relatively enduring patternof perceiving, relating to, and thinking about theenvironment and self(BoyyM, 1998, p.1). There can beanywhere from two to over a hundred different personalities.