The book «Introduction to Psychology». Authors — R.L. Atkinson, R.S. Atkinson, E.E. Smith, D.J. Boehm, S. Nolen-Hoeksema. Under the general editorship of V.P. Zinchenko. 15th international edition, St. Petersburg, Prime Eurosign, 2007.
Article from chapter 15. Psychology of anomalies
The disease of split personality, manifested in him, is shown in Fig. 15.7.
They can be characterized as follows:
primary personality. Shy, quiet, polite and very conservative; it is marked as «correct». Jonah is sometimes frightened and embarrassed during interviews and is unaware of her other selves.
- Sammy. His memory remained the most intact. Sammy can coexist with Yona, or he can push him aside and take over. Claims to be willing to help when Jonah needs legal advice or is having difficulty; he is labeled as «Intermediary». Sammy’s memories begin at the age of 6 when Jonah’s mom hit his stepfather and Sammy urged his parents never to fight in front of their children again.
- King Young. He appeared when Jonah was 6 or 7 years old to reinforce his gender identity after his mother accidentally dressed him in girls’ clothes at home and Jonah began to mix up boys’ and girls’ names at school. Since then, King Yang has kept an eye on Jonah’s sexual interests; hence he is labeled as «The Lover». He has very vague ideas about other selves.
- Usoff Abdullah. Cold-blooded, belligerent and angry. Usoffa is able to ignore pain. His duty is to watch over Yona and protect him; therefore he is designated as «Warrior». He appeared at the age of 9 or 10, when a gang of boys beat Jonah for fun. Iona was helpless, but Usoffa appeared and fiercely rushed at the attackers. He is also only dimly aware of other selves.
When tested, these four selves appeared to be very different in all respects regarding emotionally charged topics, but showed significant similarity in tests free of emotions and personality conflicts, such as the intelligence test and the vocabulary test.
The splitting of the unity of the personality reflects the lack of integration of the various aspects of the Self, memory and consciousness. The splitting is so complete, as if several different people live in one body. Observers note that the transition from one self to another is often accompanied by subtle changes in body posture and tone of voice. The new personality speaks, walks and gestures differently. Even physiological parameters such as blood pressure and brain activity can change (Putnam, 1989). Individuals with split personality often report physical and sexual abuse in childhood. The validity of such reports is debatable because childhood memories can be subject to distortion and because individuals with such impairment are highly suggestible. However, the main hypothesis for the development of such disorders calls their cause protection from traumatic experiences in childhood. The initial dissociation is hypothesized to occur in response to a traumatic event in childhood (usually between 4 and 6 years of age). With a painful problem, the child copes by creating another personality that would bear the brunt of these problems (Frischholz, 1985). In Yona’s case, Sammy (The Broker) came about because of his mother’s attack on his stepfather. Apparently, the child learns to defend himself against pain or violence by dissociating memory from consciousness. If the child has been severely abused repeatedly, this method of defense leads over time to the emergence of dissociated selves, of which only one or two subpersonalities are conscious of the abuse, while the rest have no memory of the pain. It is convenient for the child to keep these personalities apart, so that knowledge of violence does not concern his other selves. Due to this, feelings of violence and memories of him do not fill the child’s mind continuously when he is not dealing with them, for example, at school or during games with friends ( Brown, 1986). The vast majority of individuals with multiple personalities are women because they appear to be more likely to be sexually abused in childhood (Boon & Draijer, 1993).
Another factor in the development of the disease of a split personality is an increased susceptibility to self-hypnosis — a process by which a person can arbitrarily put himself into the trance state characteristic of hypnosis. Split personality patients are often excellent subjects for hypnosis; they say that the experience of trance is identical to the experience they had long ago in their childhood. One of the selves of such a patient said: “She creates personalities by throwing everything out of her head, mentally relaxes, concentrates very strongly and desires” (Bliss, 1980, p. 1392).
Having felt once that the creation of another «Self» frees from emotional pain, a person can create other «Selves» in the future, when faced with emotional problems. So, when Jonah was beaten by a gang of boys at the age of 10, he created another Self, Usoff Abdullah, to deal with this problem. Some of the split personality patients become so accustomed to defending themselves against problems with alternative selves that they continue this process throughout childhood, responding to new problems by creating new selves; thus, the case may end up with a dozen or more different selves (Putnam, 1989).
Cases of split personality have always been quite impressive, but rare. Recently, however, there has been a dramatic increase in their number in the United States. Some believe that this increase reflects the spread of knowledge about the disease among mental health professionals and is therefore associated with the identification of previously undiagnosed cases. Others believe that there has been an overdiagnosis of the disease among the most suggestible individuals (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia refers to a group of disorders characterized by severe personality disorganization, distortions of reality, and an inability to lead daily lives. It is found in all cultures, even those that are far from the stresses of industrial society, and, apparently, has been troubling humanity for at least 200 years. See →