In <kiua2.36k.1...@news.alt.net>, Tim Walters
timwalt...@terraform.es said:
: If someone develops MPD, is one of the personalities like the one he had
: before its development? For example, if the person had a sense of humour
: beforehand, would one of the personalities have a sense of humour now?
:
: How often are cures effected?
:
: Tim
MPD doesn't exist as a diagnostic category anymore; it has been
replaced with the term Dissociative Identity Disorder. All we
ever get is one personality.
The term MPD comes from the observation of reified ego state
phenomena. Some clinicians and researchers also report having
observed genuine amnestic boundaries between the ego states, so
that while a person is in one state of mind, he or she cannot
recall events that occured while the person was in another state
of mind. So amnesia for events, reported by a 35 year-old client
who insists she's a 7 year-old with a different name than the
client, is often the basis for diagnosis.
According to those who uphold DID as a valid diagnostic
category, the condition develops as a result of trauma during
early development. On the other hand, skeptics hold that the
condition is the result of sociocultural factors on individuals
with personality disorders and their (nonskeptical) therapists.
So to answer your question: an individual has one personality, a
sense of humor is something better developed in some people than
others, and in some situations or moods it may seem like we
don't have much of a sense of humor.
As to the cure: proponents who justify DID as a diagnostic
category say that for healing to occur the amnestic barriers
need to be dismantled and the various mood states integrated
into a cooperative whole, which is how most people function.
Skeptics say that the dramatic presentation of the condition
should be viewed as personality disorder phenomena (borderline
in particular) in a certain sociocultural context (which
includes social contagion and therapists' expectations) and that
treatment for the BPD should be more effective. Clinicians who
claim to treat DID to successful conclusion often claim that DID
is treatable, while BPD is often not.
There is theory coming out of cognitive psychology research that
seeks to explain the phenomenon by focusing on what we know
about memory. It is experimental, and I find it fairly eloquent.
You might want to look up "motivated forgetting". That, combined
with the fact that trauma in childhood can (not must, but can)
profoundly affect personality and moral and social development,
might lead us to a more accurate, scientific explanation of some
of what DID supportive clinicians and researchers are observing.
Kali
--
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research, would it?"
- Albert Einstein
