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Multiple personalities- the existence of two or more distinct
personalities or personality states within one person. In actuality, up to
ten or even more personalities can coexist within one person, some
documented cases have revealed over one hundred. But, the question remains,
what exactly is the multiple personality disorder (MPD)? First I will look
at what exactly the disorder is. It is, in simple terms, many complex
personalities all inhabiting the same body. At any given time, one of
those personalities is in control of the body. Each one has different
tastes, style, thought process, and many other things that define a person.
However, research has proven even more than that. In clinical studies it
has been found that of the different personalities of one person, the eye
prescription, allergies, athletic ability, and even diabetes can exist in
one of the personalities and not the others. The person can switch at any
given time from one personality to another, often not realizing it. This
can account for memory loss and time loss in the primary personality, who
often does not have access to the memories of the other personalities. A
common misconception among the general public is the confusion of MPD with
the disease of schizophrenia. Schizophrenics do NOT have distinct
personalities, rather, they have hallucinations of voices outside their
heads. Schizophrenia is caused by brain malfunctions and can be treated
with drugs, whereas suffers of MPD cannot because MPD is an almost purely
psychological disorder. MPD seems to be caused mainly by incredibly violent
and terrible childhood abuse. In fact, about 98% of MPD sufferers were
abused as children. The disorder also occurs between three to nine times
more in women than men, the person being abused creates other personalities
to handle the pain. In the case of a man named Milligan, his father beat
him and sexually abused him. Then he forced the boy to dig his own grave,
burying him alive with only a stove pipe to breath through. Then the father
urinated into the pipe onto the boy's face. With that kind of abuse, you
either go crazy, die, or develop other personalities. That is why, in many
people with MPD, there are agitated and distracted child personalities.
These personalities were created in order to suffer the pain of abuse.
When the abuse was over, their call was no longer needed and the primary
personality could resume control, dropping with that second personality all
memory of the event and continuing as if nothing happened. This type of
personality exists in almost all MPD sufferers. Another common personality
is the Persecutor personality. This personality is created to absorb the
rage the person feels towards his abusers. It often lashes out, either at
other people or at the other personalities, because it believes some of the
punishment was their fault. To punish that personality it will often harm
the body of the person, not realizing it is hurting itself in the process.
A final common personality is the Protector personality. It is created to
give a feeling of protection to the child personalities and to try to
prevent the Persecutor from lashing out at others or itself. These are
obviously not all the personalities, found, but they are the most common.
Due to all these conflicting interests the personalities often argue with
each other. This is why the person often hears voices "inside his head"
whereas the schizophrenic hears them from outside in the world. Many people
dispute the existence of multiple personalities. They argue that such an
idea is impossible and that the people are simply making it up. However, I
believe the opposite, and many people share my opinion due to one study.
Around 10 years ago a Dr. Putnam conducted an experiment, whereby he hooked
several MPD sufferers up to a machine that measures brain waves. He then
subjected each personality of each person to a set of stimuli. Each
personality reacted differently, the difference was around the same as
between two separate people. The control group of volunteers faking the
disorder could produce ...