Dissociative identity disorder: symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment

Dissociative Identity Disorder

The most severe and chronic manifestation of dissociative disorders is dissociative identity disorder (DID) and is believed to be extremely rare (Weber 1003-1004). Clinical dissociation occurs when disconnections between consciousness, memory, perceptions, and identity form, and with DID, distinct and largely mutually-exclusive personalities develop that alternately cope with different aspects of the host's life. The most prominent diagnostic feature is an inability to recall events an alternate personality experienced. DID personalities therefore tend to live completely different lives, including cognitively.

The book "Sybil" was published in 1973 by the professional author Flora Schreiber, in collaboration with the psychiatrist Cornelia Wilbur, which described a patient who was alleged to have DID (Lynn and Deming 289). A movie was subsequently made and the combination popularized DID, and this phenomenon is blamed for the dramatic increase in the number of cases from less than 100 to over 40,000 in just three decades. Controversy emerged in 1998 when psychologist Robert Rieber released tapes of actual sessions between Wilbur and Sybil that revealed Sybil was inventing multiple personalities to please her therapist (Reiber, Takooshian, and Iglesias 356). The case of Sybil therefore turned out to be more about the power of suggestion therapists have over their clients (Lynn and Deming 290).