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“Multiple personality disorder” probably doesn't exist

freddiedeboer.substack.com

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Re: “Multiple personality disorder” probably doesn't exist

#31

Post by codr7 »

Foxmilk wrote: post #3

I wonder how many of these people are just creating and interacting with tulpas without realizing it. For anyone who isn't familiar, there is a subculture online of people who create what subjectively seem to be autonomous personalities that frequently manifest I'm the form of hallucinations. Think fight club sort of. My ex tried it out. Called me one day at work, terrified because this dragon was following him aroun…

I thought the idea was to integrate, not splinter your consciousness.

Why would you want to make yourself more confused?

There is only one you; pretending otherwise, while perfectly possible, can't possibly lead anywhere worth going.

I find these trends among people who are too young to know better deeply troubling.

Re: “Multiple personality disorder” probably doesn't exist

#32

Post by captainmuon »

3243thwall wrote: post #2

This is a complicated topic that resurfaces from time to time in the psychiatric literature. These types of arguments tend to take the presentation of people meeting criteria for DID at face value, and then argue that it doesn't exist, which is sort of beside the point. No one (or few in the field) really believe that people meeting criteria for DID have independent identities in the sense of having different psychol…

So it is like that there is an ICD code for lycantropy - that doesn't mean the patients actually turn into werewolves, but that they delusionally believe they do.

Re: “Multiple personality disorder” probably doesn't exist

#34

Post by md2020 »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #19

When it all goes political at the end, what exactly does the author think happened in colleges. He uses the word 'woke' as if a horrible plague struck. Maybe, I'm just sheltered, and civilization did collapse at some point in the last decade, so can someone point to a summary of what people in his bubble think happened? > The specific way that lefties will dismiss this problem will be to say, hey, who cares, it’s jus…

HN just had an article on the front page yesterday talking about how Google Docs will now suggest you not use words like “motherboard” and “landlord”, and instead use more “inclusive” language. This stuff has literally gone from “it’s just college kids” to “it’s just Google”. And please, no “you can just build your own Google Docs” responses.

Re: “Multiple personality disorder” probably doesn't exist

#35

Post by rob_c »

MaxLeiter wrote: post #18

I found the intro on multiple personality disorder and tiktok interesting, but the article is really about politics, which isn’t reflected in the title. I lost interest when he mentioned leftists

Trying to replay a-politically (with the knowledge that nothing happens in a political vacuum in reality).

It can be successfully argued that the political left have adopted the drama and status of victimhood in a way that hasn't been done before in mainstream politics and given the strong correlation between political affiliation and age I think it's a concerning edge to the topic of mental health, or perception there of. The right is also capitalising very late on this claiming that marxist censorship by private entities is akin to victimisation so the whole arena is now filled with it :(

Not saying you're wrong for tuning out the article certainly is a little rambly.

Re: “Multiple personality disorder” probably doesn't exist

#36

Post by jollybean »

His bits about 'the left' are poorly articulated, and mostly of wrong.

But he's correct to ruminate that we live in an age whereupon everything can be considered an issue of 'identity' to the extent that it's some kind of intrinsic, principal orientation of personae. Coupled with the fact that challenges to 'identity' can be considered 'hate crimes' (I'm not being hyperbole, this is the legal situation in many places) - and you have a problem.

We used to have 'Hippies', 'Punks', 'Goths', and even 'national' and 'religious' identities - but most of those were forms of expression, perhaps 'important' but never really intrinsic.

We've taken it to a new level entirely and it's a rapidly expanding social problem.

Re: “Multiple personality disorder” probably doesn't exist

#38

Post by rob_c »

rurban wrote: post #10

My wife treats some of them, and they definitely do exist. The human brain is a fantasticly complex organ, and these personalities help the brain to overcome severe trauma. but it is extremely rare of course. now my wife read it and commented: no, this article is very well written and very true.

From what I've read (which makes me worse informed than ill-informed) most experts are still stating that most split-personality symptoms develop once the diagnosis is made and there is a chicken and egg concern that people aren't diagnosed without being made aware of it which may be hiding broader/other mental problems in the process.

Out of curiosity does experience in treatment match these concerns?

Re: “Multiple personality disorder” probably doesn't exist

#39

Post by bnralt »

I think a lot of people mistakenly believe "multiple personality disorder" (DID) is real because there are people who believe they have it and act accordingly.

There's a lot of evidence that cases for it are iatrogenic - that is to say, caused by the psychologist (and I suppose now, by social media). This lead to multiple lawsuits by patients who had spent years being convinced that they had DID and repressed memories (DID is usually linked to the also controversial idea of repressed memories by psychologists). See this New York Times article[1] from a few decades ago that talks about it more. You can Google "multiple personality disorder lawsuit" to see many more such cases. You see a lot of cases where bad psychology destroyed lives.

And the history of DID has always been _very_ questionable. If DID was a naturally occurring disorder, and one that's particularly noticeable, it's striking that (as far as I can tell) no one saw cases of it until very recently. Two cases and their dramatizations - that of Chris Costener Sizemore ("Eve") and Shirley Ardell Mason ("Sybil") - in particular where responsible for cementing it in the public's imagination, and leading to an enormous uptick in the diagnosis. If you look into those cases, you see that it's highly likely that they were iatrogenic - the patients weren't showing signs of DID, but he attention seeking psychiatrists "discovered" alternate personalities during their sessions using questionable techniques like hypnosis, and then used this to get rich and famous.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/06/us/memory-therapy-leads-t...

Re: “Multiple personality disorder” probably doesn't exist

#40

Post by Barrin92 »

Yet another entry in the emerging genre of making an entirely uncontroversial point (criticizing people for glorifying and faking mental illness for attention), followed by the second half which is the author complaining about how everyone silences him for saying brave truths.

Much better than false victimhood due do fake mental illness to get clicks on tiktok is of course false victimhood due to fake controversial journalism on substack.

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