Essay/Term paper: Behind closed doors: the correlation between multiple personality disorder and child abuse

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Philosophy Essays

Behind Closed Doors: The Correlation Between Multiple Personality Disorder and
Child Abuse


"Each day that we pretended,
we replaced reality
with lies, or dreams,
or angry schemes,
in search of dignity…
until our lies
got bigger than the truth,
and we had no one real to be"

From "For Children Who Were Broken"

by Elia Wise

Have you ever wanted to be someone else? Throughout history the idea of not
being just us has intrigued everyone from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. But imagine
having no control over who you are. Imagine having 30 people inside of you, and
every one of them wanting to be in control. This is the case with Multiple
Personality Disorder, and it effects thousands of people in the United States
alone. But why does MPD fascinate us? It has often been found quite
interesting. Movies, books, and even talk shows have been made trying to show
the harsh reality of the disorder, but how seriously are we expected to take
Truddi Chase and the "Troops" when they are on The Oprah Show? How worried are
we for Sybil when we remember Sally Field as Gidget? As grim as this disorder
is we often don't realize the severity unless we hear it from "the voices."

Using the psychoanalytical approach, I will show how past abusive experiences
have driven some to MPD. Citing case studies from such books as When Rabbit
Howls, The Truddi Chase Story, Sybil, and Jennifer and Herselves the correlation
between MPD and abuse will be made. There are more similarities to these
examples than just MPD, all were driven to MPD due to excessive physical, ual,
or emotional abuse from a parental figure. Also, each of these studies show the
cause and effects this disorder has on .

Most MPD sufferers are , in fact female MPD sufferers outnumber men by a
ratio of nine to one (Hales, 1993). This may be true because will keep
their feelings of hostility toward others to themselves, whereas men would be
more likely to lash out in random acts of . For instance, Anna doesn't
want to believe that she is getting beaten, so she believes if she becomes
someone else, it is not really her that is taking the abuse. However, it is
only a matter of time before the abuse increases or takes another form. The
effect compounds, one more personality develops, and so on until "the voices"
have consumed Anna and left her broken, with every facet of her personality now
being an independent mind.

With statistics showing that some form of abuse happens to as many as one out of
every four s (Hales , 1993) it is almost impossible not to understand why so
many are affected by MPD. Not every form of abuse causes as dramatic of results
as MPD. Children who survive less personal traumas, such as concentration camps,
are far less likely to develop the disorder than someone who is suffering at the
hands of a loved one. Since 1970, the reported rate of growth in multiples and
incest cases has been parallel. Almost as if when the bond breaks, the
personality shatters. The alter personalities create a safe haven where the
pain cannot reach. Each personality is specially equipped to deal with a
specific type of crisis, depending on whatever was happening when they came into
existence. The make-up of most multiples is usually the same. Each body
generally consists of the same people. There is a small child, who was born
when the abuse started. A flirtatious side who exhibits the repressed ual
feelings. A male, who is either protector or abuser. A strong female, who
doesn't need anyone, and assorted other personalities.

But are the personalities just personalities? Not in their mind. Multiples
believe that they are all different people, they just happen to be sharing the
same body, they can be brothers, sisters, or just close friends. As strange as
it sounds, this statement may have some bearing. Psychologists have long been
able to tell their patients apart from "the others," just by their faces, body
language and posture change, they actually look like someone else. Tests have
also shown that each personality has its own blood pressure, heart rate, and so
on. It appears that multiples go through some sort of self-hypnotism when they
can no longer handle reality. They go into hiding and someone else, who is more
capable to handle the situation takes over. When later questioned about what
happened while they were not in control, most multiples are clueless. They
report long blackout periods, if they admit to "losing time" at all. Losing time
is one of the most obvious signs of MPD. When multiples "wake up" wearing
different clothing or eating food they know they did not buy, admission of the
disorder is easier. It is when multiples begin to want their lives back that
they start to wonder what caused them to end up the way they did.

Scientists have long wondered what causes MPD. The cause was first thought to
be the result of mental deficiencies or a defective gene in the make-up of
multiples. After extensive testing proved that multiples are extremely gifted,
few with an IQ of less than 120 (Schoenewolf, 1991), that possibility was thrown
out. It has now been shown that traumatic experiences in life cause Multiple
Personality Disorder. The pattern seems to be that for every severely troubling
episode in life, a new personality is born to help with that particular incident.
The subconscious will withdrawal the conscious and take over whenever the
threat of abuse surfaced. The anxiety of the subversion would frighten the
children to the point were they could not function without the help of others.
When beaten by her father Jennifer turned into Margaret, a very independent
woman, with a deeply rooted fear of men. While Jennifer was being ually
abused by her mother, Jenny appeared, because Jenny was strong and would just
goaway. To Jennifer, they weren't alter personalities, rather friends who
needed a place to stay. Many would dismiss it as an overactive imagination.
Sybil's parents would call her "moody" when she changed. Many others believed
it was all just make-believe, most were psychologists. With no clinical
definition of this mystery disorder, many patients were misdiagnosed.

Before MPD was identified as a disorder in 1980, the majority of patients were
diagnosed as Schizophrenics or Manic Depressives, therefore it was believed that
there was no cure. Today, through extensive therapy, there is hope for
multiples. Treatment is a three-step process, which is usually just as trying
on the therapist as the patient. The first stage is just being aware that you
have the disorder, about 80 percent of MPD sufferers do not realize they have
the disease, most don't want to. The hardest part of the healing process is
getting the patient to admit that there is something wrong with them. Multiples
have spent so much time denying the fact that they have problems, asking them to
admit to having the disorder is like asking them to admit that they are crazy.
However, this stage must be secured before any treatment is possible. The
second stage is co-consciousness. While there is no interaction between the
personalities and their "host," there are fewer blackout periods, and there is
anawareness of what the others are doing at times. The third step is
integration. The goal in this step is all of the personalities merging into one
root, or base personality, but first patients go through a draining process
called abreaction. In abreaction the acts of abuse are relived under the
watchful eye of a therapist. This process causes patients to relive the abuse
that they have been through, and deal with it head on. Ideally, this step
allows multiples to become a well-rounded individual who is capable of handling
problems on their own without help from the alters. However, it is not an ideal
world. Very few MPD sufferers ever achieve total integration. The
personalities that have integrated disappear, leaving behind their best traits.
Those personalities that have resisted tend to regress until their presence is
no longer felt. While it's not perfect, this is the most common cure.
Fortunately, once this step is reached, the chance of relapse is slim, if
therapy is continued.

The majority of multiples do require continued therapy after integration. In a
15 year study, it was shown that of multiples that continued seeing a therapist
on a regular basis 96% no longer had multiple personalities (Hales, 1993). Of
the remaining four percent, only one or two personalities resurfaced. They were
usually the more developed, or older personalities that the base had come to
depend on, and refused to live without. While therapy is the only cure, it is
not a cure-all. There are some who will never lose their alters, whether it be
safety reasons or an act of habit. Some multiples are unable to deal with the
emotional trauma of therapy, without losing whatever grasp they still have on
reality. Therapy is about the most painful thing that multiples can go through.
It is more painful than the abuse because they are forced to face it, they
cannot become someone else. For the first time in their lives, they are
actually feeling. One patient was quoted as saying, "Our entire self is
beginning to thaw after a long, long time of being completely frozen."

Multiple Personality Disorder is one of the most treatable defects of the human
brain. Through empathy MPD virtually disappears, multiples just need to realize
that they are not the only one. In a study conducted at the Indiana University
School of Medicine, Researchers were able to confirm allegations of parental
abuse in 17 out of 20 reported cases.

The earlier treatment begins the easier it is to recover, but it isn't commonly
until early hood that the world of multiples begins to collapse. While
many multiples continue to deny that there is anything wrong with them, those
who are brave enough to seek help are among the strongest individuals known.
They risk their entire world, but what they gain is immeasurable. They need to
recognize that they are worthy, and understand that they are heroes just to be
alive.

REFERENCES

1. Chase, Truddi. When Rabbit Howls. Jove Books. New York (1987)

2 Schoenewolf, Dr. Gerald. Jennifer and Herselves. Donald I. Fine, Inc. New
York (1991)

3. Schreiber, F.R. Sybil. Warner Books. New York (1973)

4. Sizemore, C.C. A Mind of My Own. Greene Com. New York (1989)

5 Hales, Dianne. "Silencing the Voices Within," Good Housekeeping. (August
1993)

6. Taylor, John. "The Lost Daughter," Esquire. (March, 1994)

7. Coons, Dr. Philip. Child Abuse and Multiple Personality Disorder. {Online}
Available http://wchat.on.ca/web/asarc/mpd.html 12/06/96