Is Dissociative Identity Disorder a Form of Mass Hysteria?

A few days ago, I read a sensationalist news article that said multiple personalities are not caused by trauma. The research suggesting this was published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a not-too-well-known psychological journal, and was written by Lynn et al. (2012). The authors first explain two models of dissociation: the post-traumatic model, which [...]

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Against a Hierarchy of Trauma-Based Disorders

There was a discussion on a DID forum I participate on, in which someone asserted that there is a hierarchy of trauma-based disorders from PTSD via chronic PTSD and other dissociative disorders to dissociative identity disorder. I have read similar things before, such as in the dissociative spectrum, where depersonalization is on one end and [...]

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Exploring Dissociation: When a New Alter Emerges

Generally, when a new alter emerges, I tend to first feel identity confusion. I may be confused as to whether I’m Astrid or I’m a part, and if I am a part, who it is. Sometimes, I lose time, but not always. I may also have emotions or thoughts that are clearly not typical for [...]

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Coming Out Multiple

The theme for the upcoming Carnival Against Child Abuse, which welcomes submissions about multiplicity generally, will be Spring. That theme immediately made me think about the spring of 2010. In late March last year, I started coming out about my dissociative symptoms. At first, I shared with my psychologist that I was having depersonalization episodes. [...]

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Depersonalization Disorder in DSM-V

According to the current proposal for DSM-V, derealization – the feeling tht one’s surroundings are unreal -, will be classified as a specific dissociative disorder. That is, depersonalization disorder will be expanded to include derealization only as a possibility, and will be renamed depersonalization/drealization disorder. In DSM-IV, if someone has derealization only, they must be [...]

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My Truth on Dissociation and Childhood Trauma

In my previous post, I discussed whether I’m exaggerating the effects of my traumatic experiences. This is a common theme for survivors of trauma. Often, we’re either told or think ourselves that we exaggerate or make stuff up. When dissociative identity disorder complicates the matter, this is even worse. Some people deny that DID even [...]

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Exploring Dissociation: Time Loss

For most of my life, even when I knew that I was multiple, I didn’t know that I lost time. In fact, I’m still not certain whether I lose enough time to qualify me for a diagnosis of DID. I lose a few minutes to an hour every now and then – it’s never days [...]

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Dissociative Fugue and Amnesia in DSM-V

In the proposed DSM-V, dissociative fugue will be removed and replaced by a subtype of dissociative amnesia. The rationale for removing dissociative fugue as a separate disorder, is that amnesia, usually for identity, is a more common feature than traveling away. Besides, the disorder is very rare and therefore does not warrant a category of [...]

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Dissociative Identity Disorder and Implicity Memory

This post could alternatively be titled “Why DID is not real, and neither is brain injury”. W.A. Wagenaar, a well-known Dutch psychologist, has a series of lectures on the topic of legal psychology. In one of them, he discusses repressed memories and multiple personality disorder. He references a study, in which people with DID, non-multiple [...]

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Exploring Dissociation: Switching

Switchin is when a person who is multiple changes personality. There may be warning signs to the switch, such as shivering, changes in breathing, or nonepileptic seizures. In our case, sometimes my breathing goes faster, but there is usually no warning sign. Sometimes I don’t notice that I’ve switched until I hear myself saying that [...]

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