This is topic Interesting Opinion Piece on New Scientist Dealing with Multiple Personalities in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/main/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=052244

---

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
Link

I'm not sure what I think of the author's position yet, but it was certainly interesting reading, and I'm finding myself coming up with quite a few story ideas in response to it.
 

---

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
An example of the functional level of dissociation, I would say, is how people often become very moody around anniversaries of something bad happening. I know it happens to me.

I've thought of writing a treatment of Joseph Smith riding back across the Mississippi toward his doom, reflecting on how often June was typically a bad month for him. But being Smith, he'd see it as a blessing June is the fingernails of his year, something to be cast off and grown back in season.
 

---

Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
I've always been prone to dissociation, detachment, and displacement. But I've also been aware of that for most of my life, so I think I'm okay.
 

---

Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
 
I often have to trick MorningBrian into getting out of bed, by setting the clock ahead so he thinks it's later than it really is, or by drinking water before going to sleep so he has to get up to go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, WorkBrian is responsible and dedicated, but disappears utterly as soon as a video game becomes available to play.

--Enigmatic
 

---

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
 
I'm of two minds about this, though the third mind strongly disagrees with them both, and the fourth just wants them all to SHUT UP and let the fifth mind sleep.
Fortunately I remain blissfully unaware of this dissension.
 

---

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
I've been thinking about this with respect to relational psychology (or associativness, if you will), like who we are when we are with someone. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not so good. Sometimes people are not who we think they are, sometimes I am not who I think I am.

That was what made Firefly such an interesting show, was how it revealed who the people were.
 

---

Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
 
One of the hallmarks of DID is that it's one of those conditions which exists mainly as false self-diagnosis.

But can exist for real. And is fascinating in its true form.
 

---

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 

quote:

---

For much of the 20th century MPD was eclipsed by Freud's notions of hysteria and repression, but in the 1980s, for no obvious reason, it returned explosively. Between 1985 and 1995, an estimated 40,000 cases were diagnosed - twice as many as in the entire preceding century. But this time, MPD was considered more than just a psychiatric oddity. Under the label dissociative identity disorder (DID), doctors believed it was closely linked with childhood trauma.

---