Could Multiple Personality Disorder Explain Life, the Universe and Everything?

A new paper argues the condition now known as “dissociative identity disorder” might help us understand the fundamental nature of reality.

 Dissociative disorders are nearly as common as depression. So why haven’t we heard about them?

Dissociative disorders are often said to be rare. But our soon-to-be published analysis of international studies suggest they affect 10-11% of the population at some point in their lives. This makes them nearly as common as mood disorders (such as clinical depression).

 Inside The Fragmented Minds of People With Dissociative Identity Disorder

The condition was formerly known as “multiple personality disorder,” and the medical field is still in disagreement on whether it is real. But does ‘real’ matter when a diagnosis can help?

 What Pop Culture Gets Wrong About Dissociative Identity Disorder

Experts often disagree about DID's diagnostic criteria, what causes it, and in some cases, whether it exists at all. Many, however, agree that people with DID don't have multiple figures living inside their heads, all clamoring to take over their body at a moment's notice. Those with DID do have fragmented personalities, which can cause lapses of memory, psychological distress, and impaired daily function, among other side effects.

10 Tips For Spouses and Partners of Survivors with Dissociative Identity Disorder

Have you wondered how do you live with someone with a Dissociative Disorder? I have some ideas. Start with these things...

20 Types of Dissociative Splits

It always amazes me when dissociative trauma survivors tell me that after they’ve met three or four of their inside alters (or maybe even a few more than that, but not many), that they think they’ve met everyone in their system. They think they are “done” meeting their insiders. That never makes sense to me.

A Strange Case of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Are There Any Triggers?

We discuss a strange case of dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder. This article describes the case of a 55-year-old Caucasian woman with a history of substance use disorder with seven personalities. The patient describes a couple of triggers for her condition. More research is needed to understand these triggers.

Debate Persists Over Diagnosing Mental Health Disorders, Long After ‘Sybil’

The notion that a person might embody several personalities, each of them distinct, is hardly new. The ancient Romans had a sense of this and came up with Janus, a two-faced god. In the 1880s, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” a novella that provided us with an enduring metaphor for good and evil corporeally bound. Modern comic books are awash in divided personalities like the Hulk and Two-Face in the Batman series. Even heroic Superman has his alternating personas.

Dispelling Myths about Dissociative Identity Disorder

DID is arguably one of the most misunderstood and controversial diagnoses in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). But it is a real and debilitating disorder that makes it difficult for people to function.

Dissociative identity disorder exists and is the result of childhood trauma

Once known as multiple personality disorder, dissociative identity disorder remains one of the most intriguing but poorly understood mental illnesses. Research and clinical experience indicate people diagnosed with the condition have been victims of sexual abuse or other forms of criminal mistreatment.

Dissociative identity disorder is nothing like how it's portrayed in 'Split,' according to people who have it

Have you ever been reading a page of a book, but you zone out and don't recall anything you've just read? Are you ever driving a familiar route, only to realize you haven't really been focusing on the road the entire time? This is sort of what it's like to have dissociative identity disorder

How Dissociative Are You?

Do you know what it is? Does dissociation feel familiar to you? Have you ever floated above yourself? Have you ever felt like more than one person? Have you ever separated from your body?

I Share My Body With 20 Personalities

Fourteen of whom are highly successful artists with distinct styles. It was -- difficult -- to accept.

Is Dissociation a Dysfunction or a Positive Coping Skill?

Dissociative disorders are described as having dissociation as a dysfunction that impairs living life in some way. But is that always the case?

Multiple Personality — Is It Mental Disorder, Myth, or Metaphor?

Multiple Personality Disorder has always been controversial and contagious. We are lucky that MPD is now in one of its quiescent phases, but it will almost certainly make a comeback before very long. Recurrent false epidemics have occurred several different times during the last century. The trigger is usually either the widespread copy-catting of a popular movie or book, or the fevered preachings of a charismatic MPD guru, or both.

The psychiatrist who wrote the guide to personality disorders says diagnosing Trump is “bullshit”

Allen Frances is a psychiatrist who wrote the rules for diagnosing personality disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The DSM is the No. 1 tool mental health professionals have for making diagnoses. Frances, a professor emeritus at Duke, doesn’t mince words about what he thinks of mental health professionals who are now using the DSM to diagnose President Donald Trump with a mental disorder. “What’s going on is bullshit,” he says.

When Dissociative Identity Disorder System Parts Are Unknown

There can be a lot of unknowns in dissociative identity disorder (DID), including what parts make up your DID system. While some people with DID seem to know everything about their alters, there are others with who don’t even know how many parts they have.