Analysis of The Cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder

For many years abnormal behaviors have been frowned upon. They’ve been overlooked and no one had ever stopped to investigate what caused these behaviors and if any of these unusual behaviors had a more profound meaning then just the categorization as unacceptable norms. The purpose of this paper is to unveil a disorder that is found in people all over the world. Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) known today as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). The disorder is described as the existence of multiple identities and personalities in a person that takes over an individual's conscious state of mind. Throughout the paper the cases of two girls Félida and Lucie who deal with split identities will be discussed, the history and the introduction of DID in cinema, as well as the causes, symptoms and who the psychological disorder affects will be analyzed.

In the late 1800s, a case sparked the controversy of whether there could be two sets of identities within a person. The case was known as the “Félida X case.” The case was based on a young adolescent girl named Félida who suffered from having a split identity. The study was documented by surgeon Etienne Eugéne Azam who stated that Félida suffered from constant headaches and convulsions. She tended to fall into a long, deep sleep. Yet, when she awoke from these sleep states, she would have a particular personality that was unique and entirely different from the one she had before falling asleep. The new personality was cheerful and frivolous and liked to make jokes, unlike the pre-sleep Félida who was more serious and reserved. It is a case like this that sparked a dispute between the “unconscious second self” (Brown, 2003). Pierre Janet one of the founding fathers of psychology intrigued by the second personality concepts did his study as well with a 19-year-old patient named Lucie. During the study, Janet was focused on resolving Lucie’s hysteria. He used hypnosis, which is when a person is in a state of consciousness but ultimately loses the power of voluntary actions and only responds to the orders given by the hypnotizer. Lucie would often perform various tasks after she had awakened from her hypnotic sleep which later, she did not remember doing. Janet predicted that Lucie had another identity within herself, so he opted to try something new. Janet stood behind her and asked her questions meanwhile Lucie had a conversation with someone else. She responded to his interrogations by writing sentences down on paper. After she was done writing down what she had responded to Janet, she denied the completion of the task due to being unaware that she had, in fact, replied to the questions he had asked her. The second persona who had done this 'automatic writing' was later named Adrienne, the second identity of Lucie. The two personalities were far-fetched from being similar. Adrienne was considered a “healthier” person when compared to Lucie, considering she did not experience the hysteria that Lucie underwent daily. Thus, ultimately it was Pierre Janet’s various studies to come, which later confirmed the discovery of “dissociation” disorders within the extensive research on other subjects (Brown, 2003). These cases were able to provide proof that abnormal behaviors weren’t just actions displayed of a person going mad rather they were symptoms that people experience when having a dissociative disorder.

Looking back to way before the cases of Félida and Lucie, abnormal behaviors were linked to supernatural deviances or were seen as a disease that was infecting the bloodstream of the human body. Many believed the people who suffered from psychological disorders were presumed to have had a demon possess their bodies or believed to be tormented by gods. It wasn’t until the twentieth century when research was conducted, and psychological disorders were categorized to be later pronounced as part of the “Multiple Personality Disorder” (MPD). The disorder, however, was later renamed as “Dissociative Identity Disorder” DID, by the American Psychiatric Association in 1994 (McDavid, 1994). Furthermore, to the attention that DID was able to attain, movies and theatrical performances also made a huge impact by providing a visual of the dissociative disorder. A movie like The Three Faces of Eve resurrected the interest of multiple personality disorders during the late 1950s. The film illustrated an actress playing the role of a woman named Eve White who suffered from having various multiple personalities and would often change her name to Jane and Eve Black. In the film, she too like many patients who experience DID had headaches as well as other symptoms which consisted of blackouts and memory loss. The misfortune of not being able to remember affected her daily life as she was unable to recall what she did throughout the day. Though it took decades before this disorder was acknowledged, in the end, it was, due to the studies done by psychologists as well as the films like this one which helped identify and change the minds of many.

So, what causes DID? Who does it affect? And what symptoms come with the illness? For starters, the development of this disorder is caused by traumatic situations such as physical or sexual abuse, neglect from a parent, and the involvement in an accident. It is said in the Journal of Mental Health Counseling, by Lamerial Jacobson et al., that about seventy-one percent of patients with DID have encountered physical abuse during their childhood, and about seventy-four percent have been sexually abused (Hallet, 2015). The complication is known to be developed before the age of seven, and is mostly diagnosed in women due to a higher rate of sexual abuse and incest happening more often to women as opposed to men. Some of the symptoms of DID are forgetting memorable experiences and losing recognition of traumatic incidents. Some might also develop depression and anxiety as well as eating disorders or addictions. Patients with the complication have been found to act hostile or behave erratically by altering their tone of voice, shifting their body movements, along with making unusual facial expressions. Still, to this day no permanent cure has been found for recurring split personalities. However, symptoms can be treated through intense therapies of psycho, behavioral, family, and hypnotherapy. Normally, during the process, clinicians let patients understand and get to know their multiple personalities so that they can further learn how to regulate their emotions and behaviors. In doing this the clinicians are improving the effects of amnesia, since people with DID are oblivious of their own identities. In the end the host's ultimate goal is to find a way to integrate all of the personalities that are inhabiting inside themselves to have a unified whole.

To finally conclude, symptoms of DID should never be ignored. Many people lack familiarity regarding dissociative identity disorder and fail to acknowledge the abnormal behaviors as being part of a chronic illness. People are often ignorant. Instead of trying to find out what causes a person to act a certain way, they would rather stereotype DID patients as demented lunatics. They don’t stop to think that an individual cannot stop these behaviors from occurring and acts on them because he or she has another identity. It is atrocious to see how those who suffer from this mental illness have been repeatedly misunderstood or mistreated. It is wrong and unjust. The abnormal actions that people express should not be understated, but rather they should be scrutinized entirely.

References

1. Brand, B. L., Loewenstein, R. J., & Spiegel, D. (2014). Dispelling Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder Treatment: An Empirically Based Approach. Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 77(2), 169-189. doi:10.1521/psyc.2014.77.2.169
2. Brown, E. M. (2003). Pierre Janet and Félida Artificielle: Multiple Personality in a Nineteenth-Century Guise. Journal Of The History Of The Behavioral Sciences, 39(3), 279-288. doi:10.1002/jhbs.10109
3. Hallett, K. (2015). Intersectionality and serious mental illness—A case study and recommendations for practice. Women & Therapy, 38(1-2), 156-174. doi:10.1080/02703149.2014.978232
4. Jacobson, L., Fox, J., Bell, H., Zeligman, M., & Graham, J. (2015). Survivors with Dissociative Identity Disorder: Perspectives on the Counseling Process. Journal Of Mental Health Counseling, 37(4), 308-322.
5. McDavid, J. D. (1994). The Diagnosis of Multiple Personality Disorder. Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry, 12(1), 7th ser., 29-43. Retrieved July, 2017, from http://jdc.jefferson.edu/jeffjpsychiatry/vol12/iss1/7
6. Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2014). Abnormal psychology (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. doi:9780078035388
7. Schafer, D. W. (1986). Recognizing Multiple Personality Patients. American Journal Of Psychotherapy, 40(4), 500-510.
8. Waiess, E. A. (2006). TREATMENT OF DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER: 'Tortured Child Syndrome'. Psychoanalytic Review, 93(3), 477-500.