Calder Mahan
March 24 2016
PSY 2012-80911
Professor Drew.
Inside Your Head
Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) was first acknowledged in the 1700's but it was not understood at the time, so it was therefore dismissed as simply a smaller symptom of a larger issue. Many cases show up in medical records throughout the years, but in 1905, Dr. Morton Prince wrote a book about MPD that is now a well-known foundation for the disease. A few years after it was published Sigmund Freud dismissed the affliction and this dropped it from being discussed at any credible mental health establishments. Since then the disorder was overlooked and misdiagnosed as either schizophrenia or psychosis. Many in the medical profession did not believe that a person could unknowingly have more than one personality or person inside one body. In 1993, records showed that three to five thousand patients were being treated for MPD, compared to the hundreds of cases reported ten years earlier. There is still an increase in the number of cases being reported as the scientific community learns more about the disease and the public is becoming more aware of this mental disorder. However there are still many questions left unanswered about this disease, like "Is it genetic?" or "Is a certain type of personality more vulnerable to the disorder?" but many aspects of how people come by the disorder are already answered.
MPD is commonly found in adults who were frequently abused mentally, physically, emotionally, and/or sexually as young children, generally between the ages of 1 to 8 years of age. Children enact a method of self-preservation through a process called dissociation to remove his or herself from the abusive situation. Dissociation is when a child makes up an imaginary personality (or friend) to take control of their mind and body while they are being