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The Connection between Child Abuse and Dissociative Identity Disorder I my essay I will discuss the controversial issue of Dissociative Identity Disorder and how it relates to child abuse. I will provide with the definitions of the psychological terms needed for my argumentation. They will be the following: Dissociative Identity Disorder, schizophrenia, amnesia, and fugue. Also I will argue if Dissociative Identity Disorder is a kind of disorder of a state of being and for this reason I will explain the mental processes, symptoms, causes of DID.
I think that the connection between child abuse and Dissociative Identity Disorder bears a causative nature. It means the following: child abuse may cause Dissociative Identity Disorder, though there may be exceptions and some corrections to this assumption. And finally I will draw a conclusion of the degree of the connection between the appearance of disorders and child abuse. First of all, the precise meaning of the term Dissociative Identity Disorder is being debated in modern science. Encyclopaedia Britannica defines Dissociation in the following way: Dissociation is a syndrome in which one or a group of mental processes are split off, or dissociated, from the rest of the psychic apparatus so that their function is lost, altered, or impaired.
Britannica points out, that since Dissociation is an unconscious attempt to protect oneself from threatening or negative emotions, the conversion into physical symptoms and the dissociation of mental processes can be seen as related defence mechanisms arising in response to emotional conflict. So, Dissociative Disorder arises as defensive mechanism and the things that may cause it relate to emotional conflicts or stress. However, another encyclopaedia, the Wikipedia, argues that Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is the current name of the condition formerly listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) and Multiple Personality Syndrome. The Wikipedia points out, that Dissociative Identity Disorder is listed in International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems as Multiple Personality Disorder. But it is important to bear in mind that Multiple Personality Disorder is not similar to schizophrenia. [ 1 ]. There are symptoms that help to differentiate multiple personality and schizophrenia.
Among them there are such as: 1) Patients with schizophrenia hear voices from the external world, while the voices heard by people with MPD/DID originate from the individuals inner world; 2) patients with schizophrenia often experience visual hallucinations, which are less formed than those observed by patients with certain brain disorders, people with MPD as a rule have hypnagogic phenomena; schizophrenia causes poor reality testing while patients with MPD have intact reality testing According to Wikipedia, the diagnosis of MPD/DID is controversial. Neither manuals nor professional that deal with this issue can not come to similar conclusions because many points of disagreement still exist. The disagreement above the issue of DID comprises the following questions: 1) Whether MPD/DID is a real disorder, or just a fad; 2) In case it is real, is the appearance of multiple personalities real or delusional? 3) Can MPD/DID be cured? 4) Should MPD/DID be cured? 5) Who should primarily define MPD/DID experience a therapist or a patient? 6) Whether it is a disorder or just a way of being. Thus, in modern science that debates over MPD/DID show the medical uncertainty whether this disorder is real, and if it should be cured. To work out my own point of view on this issue, I will describe the major symptoms and processes of MPD/DID. Encyclopaedia Britannica states, that when Dissociative disorders occur they are characterized with a temporary alteration in the ones consciousness, motor behaviour or sense of identity.
There may be a condition when a person apparently losses his memory of important event or previous activities, and have amnesia [ 2 ] for the event itself after recovery. If amnesia is psychogenic or hysterical, it may be associated only with the traumatic itself, or may be selective, affecting the person's recall of some, but not all, of the events during a particular time. In the case of psychogenic fugue [ 3 ], the person may wander away from his place of work or home and assume a new identity. The previous identity is not remembered by the person with fugue, and when he recovers, he can not recall the event what happened with him while he was in a fugue state. Next dissociative disorder is multiple personality. In this sate a person develops two or more independent personalities in his single one.
Each of these personalities inhabits the person's conscious awareness to the exclusion of the others at particular times. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, multiple personality commonly results from traumas suffered in ones childhood and it is treated by psychotherapy, what can reunite the various personalities into an integrated one. Thus, the questions raised by the Wikipedia are answered by Britannica: DID/MPD is a disorder, and it can be cured. The point of view that, MPD/DID is a disorder and results form child abuse is confirmed by the Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine in Clinical Pediatrics - Muhammad Waseem, who wrote following: MPD is a severe dissociative disorder characterized by disturbances in both identity and memory. Best understood as a posttraumatic condition, MPD is the adaptive dissociative response of a young child's mind to the fear and pain of overwhelming trauma, most commonly abuse. Also the connection between child abuse and ones ability to dissociate was proved by the investigation conducted by Putnam et al.
According to this source, in 1986 97 % of patients with MPD were reported by their clinicians to have a history of abuse in childhood. Sexual abuse, usually incest, was reported in 75 %. In addition, according to the Wikipedia, there is a certain difficulty to diagnose DID/MPD. If it is a kind of disorder, not a state of being, it should be diagnosed. In his article, Muhammad Waseem set the criteria for diagnosing MPD/DID. They consist of the following: 1) Two or more distinct personalities exist within the person, each of which is dominant at a particular time. 2) The personality that is dominant at any particular time determines the individual's behaviour. 3) Each personality is complex and integrated, with its own unique behaviour patterns and social relationships.
So, DID/MPD may be considered to be a disorder and thus there must be way to seek its causes. According to K luffs theory, mentioned in Muhammad Waseem's article, there can be four factors that explain the genesis of MPD/DID. First, individuals may have an innate potential to dissociate; second, traumatic experiences in ones early childhood disturb his personality development and lead to growing of his potential for psychodynamic divided ness; third, individuals may not recover spontaneously because of their continued deprivation; fourth, some psychodynamic and extrinsic factors may shape the final presentation. However, further in his article Muhammad Waseem argues, that there are no evidences of biological causes for multiple personality.
As it was already mentioned, multiple personality is likely to have its origins in childhood, to put it more precisely in ones age from 2. 5 - 8. But it remains unclear, how ones child traumatic experiences might lead to the presentation of MPD/DID in adult life. Muhammad Waseem suggested that the effects of exposure to situations of extreme ambivalence and abuse in early childhood may be coped with in a psychodynamic formulation by an elaborate form of denial so that the child believes the event to be happening to someone else. Thus, the development of MPD/DID of an adult may be facilitated by his rich fantasy and imaginary companions that he used to have while being a child. More than that, there are some cases when the connection between MPD/DID and child abuse is difficult to determine because the abuse becomes the hidden feature in a person. And people, who have been abused in their childhood, may be unaware of the possible relationship between their present symptoms and their child emotional trauma.
Even when the psychotherapist seeks the causes of the condition, the patient may disclose his abuse. Thus, the true incidence of MPD/DID caused by child abuse remains unknown today. Thus, I have proved that the connection between the appearance of DID/MPD and child abuse exists. It is causative as the experience of child abuse may cause the development of DID/MPD, but it is not permanent. In other words, not all stresses and traumas survived by a child result into appearance of MPD/DID, especially if the child has enough support and care in his environment to recover from the abuse.
End notes: [ 1 ] Schizophrenia according to the definition in the Wikipedia, is a psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness variously affecting behavior, thinking, and emotion. [ 2 ] Amnesia is loss of memory as a result of brain injury or deterioration, shock, fatigue, senility, drug use, alcoholism, anesthesia, illness, or psychoneurotic reaction. [ 3 ] Fugue is a kind of mixed amnesic states. Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004, Deluxe Edition Muhammad Waseem (2004). Child Abuse & Neglect: Dissociative Identity Disorder, eMedicine, Retrieved March 12, 2005, from web Narramore Christian. (1999). Dissociative Identity Disorder. Narramore Christian Foundation. Retrieved March 12, 2005, from web Paul McHugh (2003) Multiple personality disorder [dissociative identity disorder] Robert Todd Carroll, Skepdiccom.
Retrieved March 12, 2005, from web Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2005. Wikimedia. Retrieved March 12, 2005, from wikipedia. org / wiki /Multiplepersonalitydisorder
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