Multiple Personality Disorder Paper

Multiple Personality Disorder is a growing illness that is effecting more and more people in today’s time. Multiple Personality Disorder, also known as MPD, is a psychiatric identity disorder in which a single person plays two or more different identities. Some psychologists say it’s like multiple people sharing one body and taking turns using it (“Multiple Personality Disorder“, 2008). The identity that has the dominant control over the body is recognized as the host personality (Wood, Wood, Boyd, 2011). The dominant personality is usually the one which decides on when the personalities switch over, but other times, all of the identities are fighting to be present. When one changes from one identity to the other, it is called “switching.” Switching can take anywhere from seconds to days, and
MPD will not go away without treatment, but switching occurs less often when the patient reaches middle age (“Multiple Personality Disorder“, 2008). All of the different alters can have many different features including race, sex, religion, age, posture, hairstyle, clothing, and even accents. They have also been known to have their own name, idea, and their very own way of viewing the world. In most cases, the person doesn’t remember what happens in each of their alters (“Multiple Personality Disorder“, 2008). They have no memory of where they are or what they are doing (“Multiple Personality Disorder, 2007“). Some of the alters cant remember important events such as weddings, graduations, and other things that should be remembered (Wood, Wood, Boyd, 2011). Around 50% of recent MPD patients have had ten or less different identities, however, it has been reported that a person can have anywhere from 1-100 personalities. In some cases, MPD patients haven been known to even act as animals or imaginary creatures in some of their alters (“Multiple Personality