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The diagnosis of multiple personality disorder (MPD - although psychiatrists prefer the designation dissociative identity disorder) is closely associated with the repressed memory movement because of the assertion that young adults "split" into new personalities due to childhood trauma of sexual abuse. The new personalities, or so therapists tell us, are created to experience the abuse and thus allow the "host" personality to remain free of the memories and experiences.
Some people reportedly show hundreds of "alters" which only emerge under the influence of hypnosis or drugs. And, of course, the care of a therapist who looks for MPD. Unfortunately, these same therapists can find no real consensus on what an "alter" is supposed to be, although it should not be surprising at this point to find them all attributing it to horrible experience of childhood sexual abuse.
Reports coming from MPD patients are no less fantastic and incredible than those coming from individuals who report having been part of satanic cults or abducted by aliens, perhaps because MPD is only supposed to occur under the worst circumstances. Women have told stories of being forced by their parents to have sex with animals, of being forced to participate in the sacrifice of their own aborted fetuses, and even of consuming their own babies.
Ofshe and Watters devote an entire chapter to one woman who was convinced that she had been a high priestess in a satanic cult of which her family had been members since the early 1600s, and that she personally had consumed the body parts of two thousand people each year. I personally find it incredible that anyone would uncritically believe such stories without corroborating evidence.
What isn't often revealed is that supernaturalism has always played a role in the premises of MPD. One of the leading theorists of MPD, Ralph Allison, was also an exorcist. Ideas about MPD date back to the 1800s when spiritism and reincarnation were very popular. It is strange that MPD advocates are among the first to point out the similarities which MPD has with spiritualism, exorcism and other supernaturalist beliefs. Colin Ross, in his book Dissassociative Identity Disorder: Diagnosis, Clinical Features, and Treatment, goes into detail describing the similarities between MPD diagnosis and satanic possession diagnosis.
MPD and Culture
Ross also does skeptics the favor of identifying demonic possession as a largely "culture-bound" process in which the patient must first learn what behavior is appropriate for demonic possession before symptoms can materialize. Well, MPD has exactly the same elements and is similarly culture-bound, but for some reason Ross never makes the connection, although he does admit that, without priests and culture-bound religious expectations, then the behavior specific to demonic possession vanishes and something secular can appear. I suppose that Ross' ability to ignore the obvious should not be surprising, since he believes that those who question the veracity of MPD are really dupes of the CIA.
Psychologist Nicholas P. Spanos argues very effectively in his book Multiple Identities and False Memories: A Sociocognitive Perspective, that MPD is every bit as culturally constructed as the behaviors associated with traditional stories of witchcraft and possession. Multiple personalities have existed at other times and in other societies, but always in varying formats depending upon the cultural circumstances. These circumstances provide the models, rules and characteristics for the proper social interactions.
It was not until the publication of the famous book Sybil in 1973 and its subsequent movie that therapists began finding MPD in every patient they checked. Before publication and the 1976 movie, there had only been about 75 reported cases of MPD in the United States. Since then, the number has shot up to over 40,000. Curiously, neither the therapist nor the patient is aware of MPD-specific symptoms at the beginning of treatment. People are in therapy an average of at least seven years before the relevant symptoms begin to manifest.
Once they have manifested, it seems that patients are only interested in therapists who validate the memories and who validate the idea of multiple personalities. According to John Kelly who has done a lot of work with MPD patients, there is a "sharp distinction between good therapists or doctors and dirty ones." Who are the dirty doctors? The ones who are skeptical of MPD or various repressed memory claims.
The only conclusions which can be drawn is that the patient does indeed show the symptoms, but only outside of therapy, or else that the symptoms didn't exist at the beginning of therapy and are in fact created by therapy. The first doesn't work under the claims made about the nature of MPD - thus leaving the second as the strongest explanation.
The claim that MPD is iatrogenic (induced by the physician) cannot be made lightly because this means that therapists are responsible for the creation of horrendous memories of false events, not to mention dangerous and debilitating behaviors in patients.
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