Dissociative Identity Disorder

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes and reviews three articles about dissociative personality disorder in order to consider how the conceptual framework for this disorder has changed over the last 50 years. The three articles were read carefully and summarized for basic themes, definitions, and differences. The first article entitled "Multiple Personality Disorder" by W.S. Taylor and M.F. Martin, written in 1944, was one of the first works on this disorder. The next article, "The Osiris Complex," by Colin A. Ross, describes the condition as growing out of childhood abuse and psychological trauma. The third article, titled "Multiple Personality Disorder: Witchcraft Survives in the Twentieth Century," by August Piper, Jr points out some troublesome aspects of the illness, which include more alternate personalities than earlier researchers believed could exist. The reviewer concludes by stating that todays view of dissociative identity disorder is one personality divided into abnormally personified components.

From the Paper:

" An article titled "Multiple Personality Disorder" written in 1944 by Taylor & Martin was located for comparison to two articles written more recently, "The Osiris Complex: Case Studies in Multiple Personality Disorder" (Ross, 2000) and "Multiple Personality Disorder: Witchcraft Survives in the Twentieth Century" (Piper, 1998). The 1944 article is frequently cited in articles written since 1980 and is considered a seminal work. Because two strands of thought regarding the disorder exist today, it was necessary to compare the old article to two contrasting concepts as articulated in the two more recent articles. The three articles were read carefully and summarized for basic themes, definitions, and differences."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Piper, A. (1998). Multiple personality disorder: Witchcraft survives in the twentieth century. Skeptical Inquirer, 22 (3), 44-65.
• Ross, C. A. (2003). The Osiris complex: Case studies in multiple personality disorder. Retrieved 12 Apr 07 from http://www.rossinst.com/osiris.htm.
• Taylor, W. S. and Martin, M. F. (1944). Multiple personality. Psychology Abnormal and Social, 39, 281-300.

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