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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

#51

Post by twic »

Foxmilk wrote: post #7
voldacar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you do this? Why did you do this?

For the same reason I do psychedelics and vipassana meditation. I am interested in the process underlying consciousness and I like to distort and break down my perception to see what happens. For a long time I was (and I guess I still am) obsessed with the concept of "ego death" which I encountered on LSD frequently ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_death ). I was fascinated by the way altered states of self seem…

> For example, I used to intuitively think if my thoughts as 'me'. But now it seems obvious that thoughts just arise and pass away on their own and are only tagged 'after the fact' as me.

I first came across this in Greg Egan's short story 'Mister Volition'. It's scary but compelling. Egan cites two books - 'The Society of Mind', by Marvin Minsky, and 'Consciousness Explained' by Daniel Dennett - as the source of the ideas in the story. I highly recommend the story, but have not read the other books.

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

#53

Post by cptcobalt »

sshine wrote: post #41
Trasmatta wrote: post #24

See also: Internal Family Systems. It's a form of therapy that considers all of us has having many different discrete "parts". I recently started IFS therapy and have been having success with it. I'm not sure how literally I take the "parts" (I think they may be much less "solid" and more transient than IFS claims), but it seems to be a really interesting and helpful way to approach your own mind. https://en.wikipedi…

I'll second this recommendation. I personally interpret the "parts" quite literally, but what's most interesting is: You can make most people say that "a part of them wants X, while another part of them wants Y" without having swollowed any metaphysics. It's like the ability to address the ambiguity of one's mind, without needing to admit that it is fundamentally fractured, is a language that many will eagerly adapt…

> Here's a website that tries to explain what it's like to embrace the plurality of one's being

I'm not sure if the content matches your description of the site, or your description is ambiguous, or...there's work to be done in the reader's mind to understand your point than you articulated.

Specifically, I don't think that conflicting desires or emotions in people inherently equates to plurality in "one's being", but this site immediately jumps off from the perspective that you are communicating with a collective person. So, my take away is that your point is that everyone is plural?

> It's like the ability to address the ambiguity of one's mind, without needing to admit that it is fundamentally fractured

I still also don't think that ambiguity or admitting that your mind is "fundamentally fractured" immediately equates to plurality?

Maybe I'm missing some nuance here?

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

#54

Post by Elof »

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

Closing with people on the other side aren't going to agree with me makes me think this person likes stirring the pot and getting attention, which is one of the things called out as dangerous in their argument. FWIW, I think lots of people self diagnose for attention and I absolutely agree that mental health shouldn't be something we laud (we should normalize it though) even though the author would almost definitely group me with the leftists.

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

#55

Post by a_shovel »

That paragraph starting "People pretend that this never happened" is a jewel of dishonest writing. The author never specifies any particular piece of "woke insanity" that it applies to, so the author isn't responsible for anything any particular reader takes away from it. Furthermore, leftists can't refute it because it doesn't, technically, make any specific claims about any specific thing that happened in real life. It's just vibes, and you can't argue against vibes.

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

#56

Post by ZeroGravitas »

md2020 wrote: post #34
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.

Here's someone making fun of people who get upset about this kind of language evolution, written in 1985 and clearly exasperated from reading the kind of nonsense for years before that:

https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/purity.htm...

So it seems unlikely that 'leftists' in 2010 were saying "gender neutral language" was just students being idiots.

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

#57

Post by reilly3000 »

The phenomenon of mental illness & trauma-based clout is intriguing and I don’t really understand it. Certainly a conservative trope for the balance of my life has been one of victimhood, from the notion of a persecuted majority to the plight of small business ownership. If it’s a liberal trope to be victim of one’s genetic makeup and life experiences the logical conclusion is that one shouldn’t feel remorse for not meeting societal expectations. I resonate with that, but am also concerned that the victim’s mindset ends up being self-limiting.

We really celebrate the stories of those who have overcome adversity, and oftentimes invest a lot of energy and resources into removing sources of adversity, clearing the way for others. If adversity engenders strength, why try to remove it? Alternatively if it simply expends strength and reduces human potential, why celebrate it?

I have no opinion on the matter, but I’d love more information. I’d also love philosophical perspectives around these topics. Please share if you have them.

On the point of TikTok self-diagnosis being popular, I’ve certainly observed that. However it’s not limited to one political group as the author suggests. The platform and its algorithm have been really affecting at exposing affine groups, without explicitly labeling them. For everyone who walks away with a dubious self-diagnoses, I believe there are ten who have found support, validation, and resources for their very real conditions. That doesn’t get media attention. It’s just like the fact that billions of dollars worth of person-to-person transactions happen through Craigslist every year, yet only the times where violence take place dominate it’s narrative.

Teens behave in unpredictable ways and this is a novel time when the aggregate of their activities are on full view to the world. They will inevitably grow and evolve. I’m not going along with any doomsayers about what is happening with teens on TikTok; it’s all temporal and portends nothing in particular.

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

#58

Post by betwixthewires »

Good luck making any headway trying to talk about things like this by using reason. These people and their enablers don't care about reason, they'll just accuse you of "denying their lived experience" or some other such meaningless string of words. Any attempt to actually help them, as opposed to nodding in firm agreement, is going to be met as if it is an act of aggression. They don't want help because they know they don't need help, not the kind they say they need anyway. They want affirmation. The best thing you can do is just live your life as if they don't matter, mock them whenever you feel like it, and let them destroy their lives, which they inevitably will. That may be cold, but you can take a horse to water...

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

#59

Post by babyshake »

bnralt wrote: post #39

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 memorie…

I'd suggest people mostly believe in DID and often confuse it with schizophrenia because multiple personalities is an often used trope in fiction. The Marvel show Moon Knight being one current example that comes to mind.

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

#60

Post by voldacar »

tragictrash wrote: post #9
voldacar wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, thank you for the explanation. I am also fascinated by these processes. When you say that you "see" it, do you mean you see it in your mind's eye (i.e like if I asked you to visualize a spinning cube in your head) or you actually literally see it as a seamless part of your visual field when you're looking around the world, like the text on your screen right now? (if that makes any sense)

Whatever you do, don't get caught up in this. It's a slippery slope. We aren't in control of our thoughts. Lucidity and ability to reason are fleeting. Most people take it for granted and don't realize as its slipping away. I've seen it in the elderly, and my friends who took too many drugs and never came back. Keep in mind the commenter is literally describing a mental illness in a way that makes it sound positive.…

Relax, it's not like I'm going to try it :]

Besides, most people would not want something like this to happen to them anyway, you already have to be a weird person to attempt something like this

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