Diagnosing Dissociative Identity Disorder

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes whether dissociative identity disorder (DID), also known by its older designation to lay people as multiple personality disorder (MPD) or split personality, really exists. It discusses the disease's diagnosis and pathogenesis and the problems with differential diagnoses. The paper suggests that the diagnosis of DID should be guarded, preferably made as a diagnosis of exclusion. The paper also contains an annotated bibliography.

From the Paper:

"However, Merckelbach, Devilly and Rassin's review of the alters in DID effectively challenge the prevailing support for DID in calling into question the very nature of the claimed multiple personality. The authors sought a better definition of the multiple identities associated with DID. They assert that, as opposed to unconvincing evidence of the existence of alters ranging from acceptance due to their mutually exclusive memories to distinct documented physiological profiles (fMRI, EEG), these personalities can alternately be seen as emotional metaphors and escapist thought (Merckelbach, Devilly and Rassin 486-490). Needless to say, there is very little consensus among the psychiatric community on what the alters actually are, in large part due to the lack of a control group and a further lack of knowledge regarding memory function (Merckelbach, Devilly and Rassin 492). Furthermore, their research supports the claim in showing that there can be no absolutely reliable diagnosis of DID because the "personalities" themselves cannot be proven to be real alter-identities."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Allen, John J.B and Hallam L. Movius II. "The Objective Assessment of Amnesia in Dissociative Identity Disorder Using Event-Related Potentials". International Journal of Psychophysiology 38(2000): 21-41. 16 Mar. 2007 <http://www.u.arizona.edu/%7Ejallen/pdf/Allen%20and%20Movius%20Int%20J%20Psychophys%202000.pdf>.
• Bunce, Scott, Kurtis Noblett, Michael McCloskey and Emil Coccaro. "High Prevalence of Personality Disorders Among Healthy Volunteers for Research: implications for Control Group Bias". Journal of Psychiatric Research 39 (2005): 421-430.
• Dorahy, Martin. "Dissociative Identity Disorder and Memory Dysfunction: The Current State of Experimental Research and Its Future Directions". Clinical Psychology Review 21.5 (2001): 771-795.
• Feigon, Elizabeth and Joseph de Rivera. "'Recovered-Memory' Therapy: Profession at a Turning Point". Comprehensive Psychiatry 39.6 (1998): 338-344.
• Huntjens, Rafaele, Madelon Peters, Liesbeth Woertman, Onno van der Hart and Albert Postma. "Memory Transfer for Emotionally Valenced Words Between Identities in Dissociative Identity Disorder". Behavior Research and Therapy 45 (2007): 775-789.

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