Gary,
I spent a half hour writing what I'm rewriting below. I typed on the news
group program and when I went to post it it said it couldn't be posted--how
can I avoid that happening again?!
Why might Bill not be able to send messages to my personal mailbox? Does
m-olson@uiuc.edu only work for U of I?
To the clinicians and anyone else,
This is the second time today I've typed this so it has to be brief:
I have a friend(s) with Multiple Personality Disorder. There is a dominant
personality (A) and a few other major ones (one of which is a friend of
mine--B) and a whole bunch of minor ones. They have distinct
personalities, not just different traits of the same person. Different
voices, ages, mannerisms, interests, abilities, knowledge, attitudes,
goals, etc. The artistic abilites of A are not present in B, and the
athletic abilities of one do not transfer to another. One of the
personalities is 5 years old--talks, thinks, and feels like a 5 year old.
A blow to one of the temporal lobes may be a partial cause. Dramatic
(occultic) abuse in early childhood is certainly involved. Epilepsy and
narcolepsy may be involved also. Person B is co-conscious with A, meaning
that while A is "out"(interacting with the world), B can observe and think
and feel also if she so desires. A is not co-conscious with B--A simply
"disappears." I think A is the only one of the major personalities who are
not co-conscious. This means that B can do things without A ever knowing.
I have many questions concerning MPD and PCT. First, if person B wants A
not to see something (say, three words in a message) she can make A not
"see" those words. How might this fit into PCT?
Second, A can make decisions, but since B has her own desires, she can
influence the outcome of the decisions without A's awareness of it. (I
asked B why A called me the other day and she said that A _thinks_ that she
made the decision when in actuality B influenced her to make the decision
to call me). How might one model that?
Third, is MPD "simply" a multiplicity of self-concepts residing at the
system level? Just as I satisfy my desire to feel achievement by, say,
being a good basketball player or writing good papers or cleaning the
apartment, is there one thing being fulfilled by these multiple
self-concepts or not? Is it OK to equate self-concept with personality?
What keeps this from being more prevailant? Is it only random variation
and selection probabilities which make most of us have One personality
(i.e. it's not necessary, only common that there is one to one
correspondance between personality and body). There are advantages to
having multiple personalities--escape is certainly one: if you don't like
what's happening then disappear and let someone else come in. If someone
is mad at A, she can leave and B could appear--that someone cannot be mad
at B. But there are certainly disadvantages--holding a job is tough (but I
don't think that is a necessary problem). How one wants to decorate the
apartment seems to be a real problem.
Well, I could say a lot more, but I want to hear some clinical opinions
first, so my opinions can be more informed.
Fortunately, person A loves psychology and finds herself to be a very
interesting subject.
Please send a copy of the reply to my personal mailbox
(m-olson@uiuc.edu)--I don't always get to check the net.
Mark Olson