3. What is multiple personality anyway?

Emmy Bean (Katy Ann's doll) 

NOTE: Each alter’s name has a number

after it the first time

it is on the page to show

which group s/he belongs to.

See the right of this page for the group.

In the middle of the night, of course, when all those back burner thoughts get turned onto high, we realize we have not yet really defined multiple personality for you. Most people have some idea about it but just to make sure we are all on the same page – here goes.

We mentioned in “1. Yes We Are. A Beginning” the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) published by the American Psychiatric Association and probably widely used in Canada as well. Here’s how the latest edition, DSM-IV,  defines multiple personality... (quoted)

"A.  The presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states (each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self).

B.   At least two of these identities or personality states recurrently 
      take control of the person’s behaviour.

C.   Inability to recall important personal information that is too
      extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness."

Well, from our own perspective, it’s not a bad description and most assuredly describes a condition that some people have. We have read that maybe 1 in 1000 people fit these 3 criterion pretty well. However, we have read in several places that it is more likely that 1 in 100 (or about 1% of the population) could be said to have some form of the condition but don’t exactly fit the criterion. That’s a huge jump. So the DSM’s description may be too narrow a definition.

Dr Richard Kluft, an American psychiatrist, wrote an article called “Clinical Presentations of Multiple Personality Disorder”. (In case you want to read it, it can be found in The Psychiatric Clinics of North America: Multiple Personality Disorder: Volume 14, Number 3, September 1991, Richard J. Loewenstein – Guest Editor). We stumbled across this article and were blown away by it. As far as we know, no one has described multiplexity the way Dr Kluft has and we love it because we see so much of our own condition in those pages.

The DSM’s Criteria A says the alters or identities are distinct. Well Dr Kluft said that is not necessarily true and we agree. Kluft wrote that “In terms of the patient’s needs, the personalities need only be as distinct, public and elaborate as becomes necessary in the handling of stressful situations.” So the alters don’t need to be completely different from each other. We have a group of 13 alters called The Blue Ones (6st). Their job was to carry the emotions of another group of alters. Their name refers to tears. We cannot tell the difference between the first alter in the group – Blue One #1 – from the last alter in the group – Blue One #13. But the alter who created them felt that 13 alters, and no less, were needed in order to carry the tremendous and overwhelming feelings about the abuse that happened. Each Blue One carried a fragment of the emotions, making it manageable.

The second criteria, B, talks about alters recurrently taking control. But again dear Dr Kluft comes up with a great description of how alters may or may not take control of the person’s behaviour. He says “sometimes the alters do little more than persist, having minimal or no appreciable impact on the flow of experience. Other times some take over executive control in a very obvious way that is multiple personality disorder. Yet other times they may exert their influence by impacting on an alter that seems (to an observer) to be in executive control.” So there. That’s how it works for us. Many of us have never had, and never will, take over “executive” control. They do not need to. And some of us do greatly influence our behaviour but don’t take over completely. Very few of us have ever taken over completely. We are a system and although we have had many conflicts over the years, we still end up working together most of the time.

In terms of the third criteria, we have read that many multiples do not have any memory loss when it comes to important information. Our system has always had someone Inside hold onto vital information and supply it when needed in order to cover for any alters who may not know very much about us. Like we said, we work together most of the time.

So how do we define multiple personality. We think of it as a highly creative survival mechanism used to cope with trauma that has begun in childhood. A person with this condition feels that she or he is more than one person or has more than one identity. The identities are commonly called “alters”, “personalities”, or “selves”. Together they may form a structure usually called a “system”. They might also create an inner reality where the alters reside.

The alters often, but not always, have different and distinct self-images, names, talents, vocabularies, age, gender and general knowledge. In many cases, they do not know of each other’s existence. In other cases, the alters may be quite similar and even try to pass as each other in order to hide the multiplexity. Finally, multiple personality is not merely mood swings that many people experience, nor is it role-playing.

Our favourite author and “expert” Dr Kluft describes it as  “the presence of more than one structured entity with a sense of its own existence”. He goes onto say, and we truly love this “What is the core of Multiple Personality Disorder is a persistent form of intrapsychic structure rather than overt behavioural manifestations.” And that “most of what is so arresting to the beholder about MPD is secondary, and what is hidden is quintessential.”

As far as we are concerned, he hit the proverbial nail on the head.  Most of the time you do not see it. The media’s depiction of observable and distinct personalities, while not totally inaccurate, makes it seem like anyone can recognize a multiple. But not according to Kluft, and definitely not according to us or other multiples we have known.

So there.

----

Okay enough “tech” talk for now. We want you to meet some more of us. There is one of us who is not an alter. We refer to her as the Original Person or Birth Personality. We are assuming that all, or most, multiples have someone who was born, before any trauma began. They are the same as you (if you are not multiple). But the moment some trauma happened this original personality created another personality – which would be the first alter, as in alternative, personality. Our original person is now called Tir (1). We gave her that name back in 1990 when she “emerged” and made herself known to us. The rest of us were created to protect and preserve her. She is a gentle creature, rather shy, but very sweet and but also very melodramatic at times. Think Ophelia, a very tragic figure. One time we found a card in a store with a picture of this young woman with an incredibly sad face. She had long hair and wore a straw hat. When we saw this card we were just blown away. We immediately thought she looked just like Tir. Even more amazing was when we turned the card over to see who created it, the drawing was called “Ophelia”. We had already begun to see Tir as an “Ophelia” type. What a coincidence. That happened to us more than once too. The card part I mean.

Tir is our reason for being. She is the one we have done all of our healing work for. She withstood some of the abuse and that has had its consequences. When we first began therapy she was locked inside her own world. She created in her mind a forest to live in and dance in. Trees were her saviours. Sometimes she was totally unreachable to the rest of us or any Outside person. We could not communicate with her and often she seemed psychotic and very lost. Gradually she let us into her world and she began to communicate with us. Now she is ever present and no longer lost. Although she remains quiet and reserved she is not so unhappy anymore. We just love her.

Ethan (7) is another one who has been very lost in his own world in the past and quite psychotic at times. He was created when we were a teenager. We were abused by a man named Michael and Ethan became an “introject” of Michael. He was similar in image and demented thinking. At the same time, he was absolutely terrified of Michael. There is a group called The Resistance (7) and Ethan created most of the alters in this group. He is no longer psychotic or terrified. Yay!

Ariel (1) is a bookworm and does not “do depression”. At times when we feel depressed she says “that’s it. we’re off to the library” or “We’re going for a walk”. She does everything she can to get us out of depression which includes reading good books. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Ariel is also very silly and funny and makes the children Inside laugh quite often. She also reads stories to them, explains tv shows we are watching to them, and is just plain fun to have around. She also enjoys being with people. One of the most amazing things about her is that she has detailed memories of kids we went to high school with. She remembers their first and last names, the clothes they wore, the other kids they hung out with. In our high school years, that is what she focused on.

CF(1) was the first to share her memories when we started therapy. She was  a sweet and quiet child, but amazingly strong too. She “fell in love” with the temporary counsellor we had back in 1990 and 1991. She wanted him to be her dad, and sit on his lap. She longed for him to hold her and read her bedtime stories.

Annie Charlie (1) emerged a number of months after CF. At first she was just The Toddler. Our new psychiatrist, Lyn, sort of discovered her. Annie Charlie was very outgoing and cute as the dickens. She made friends easily with the adults in our life who we felt safe with. And with our son. Her and CF became the best of friends.

Then there’s Daffodil (4). Oh boy. She will be 18 on Wednesday (most of us have grown older but we don't think all multiples do that) but she still has her squeaky little kid’s voice. She is very resilient and able to handle a lot of emotions without crumbling to pieces. Again she has wonderful relationships with people in our life.

----

Well we are a wee bit tired this morning so we will stop here. We still have much to tell you such as how alters can be aware of each other, and how many there are of us. We also want to introduce you to Empath (1) who plays a very important role in our present life. We will also tell you a bit about how we each emerged, about names and naming and a pile of other things about multiplexity.

Talk to you later guys. Thanks for listening.