March 8, 2009
Unraveling The Secret Of "Alters"
Doctors Are Of Two Minds About Multiple Personality Disorder
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Play CBS Video Video Multiple Personalities The mental health illness of Multiple Personality Disorder is a hardship for patients, a fascination to filmmakers, authors and the public and a controversy amongst therapists. Tracy Smith reports.
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In the United States, men with MPD may have eight distinct personalities; women may have about 16. (CBS)
You could call it the role - or roles - of a lifetime. In the TV show "United States of Tara," Toni Collette plays just one woman who has multiple personalities.
They all come from the mind of Diablo Cody, the Oscar-winning writer of the hit film "Juno." She created the series for the cable network Showtime.
"We've met Buck, who is this very, sort of, aggressive male personality that she has," Cody said. "We've met 'T,' who's a very, kind of, sexualized teenage personality; and Alice, who's the ultimate homemaker."
"Have viewers recognized themselves in Tara, said, 'Maybe I have this disorder'? Have you gotten that reaction?" asked Smith.
"Yeah, it surprises me," Cody said. "People actually have said that."
And though Tara doesn't exist in real life, many therapists say her illness sure does.
"Tara is extremely real," said Dr. Richard Kluft, "but extremely unrealistic. What I mean to say is, everything that Tara demonstrates is real. I've seen it, many, many times over. What is unrealistic is that you see so much of it so … it's much more …"
Smith: "It's concentrated?"
"Precisely."
Dr. Kluft is a psychiatrist who teaches at Temple University Medical School in Philadelphia and consults on "Tara."
Today, doctors prefer the less flashy name "dissociative identity disorder" (DID) to "multiple personality disorder" (MPD). They are the same.
How many personalities are typical in an MPD case?
(CBS)
He says most people with this disorder develop multiple personalities - or "alters" - as a way to cope with trauma or abuse:
"Whatever allows you to say, 'This did not happen to me. This is not going to happen to me again. I'm someone else.'"
And, believe it or not, according to Kluft, multiple personalities often go unnoticed.
"So do you think that there are, what, thousands of people walking around out there with MPD who don't even know it?" Smith asked.
"Oh, easily," Dr. Kluft said.
"Tens of thousands?"
"Easily."
"Hundreds of thousands?"
"Easily."
"Millions?"
"We might be at that level," said Dr. Kluft.
But there is a whole school of therapists that say the number is not in the millions, but zero … that not even a single case of multiple personalities is real … the whole concept not Sigmund Freud but junk science.
"I believe all MPD cases are artificial productions provoked by the attention doctors and others give them - all of them, said. Dr. Paul McHugh, a professor and former head of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore.
"People are persuaded that they have multiple personalities embedded within them," he told Smith, "and are encouraged to bring them out in the process of trying to get treatment for depression or anxiety or things of that sort."
(CBS)
Before "Sybil" there were fewer than 200 reported cases in the world. Not long afterwards, there were 8,000 in the United States alone.
"It's a story generated by 'Sybil' and generated by the people who followed on after it," said Dr. McHugh. "Multiple personality and trauma are two separate things. And these people have put them together as though they do match. But they only match in story form. We are in Oz here."
If MPD is make-believe, you wouldn't expect to find it in a manual - the DSM-IV, the Bible of mental health professionals - used to diagnose mental disorders.
Symptoms include "The presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states … at least two of these "recurrently take control" of the person's behavior," plus an "inability to recall important personal information."
The DSM authors claim that as many as one percent of Americans have the disorder.
(CBS)
"So, the DSM doesn't validate that a disease is actually out there?" Smith asked.
"Absolutely no," Dr. McHugh said. "All it says is, this is what several people say exists, and this is what it looks like to them."
And how does it look to Hershel Walker? Smith asked him, "How many personalities did you think you have? Gimme a number. Dozens?"
"Oh, yeah. I've had dozens."
MPD is no fantasy to this former football player, a Heisman Trophy winner, arguably one of the greatest running backs of all time. Herschel Walker, the University of Georgia All-American, recently revealed that he's been diagnosed with multiple personalities.
Walker, now a successful businessman, says he developed the disorder when he was a kid.
"I had a stuttering problem, I have a speech problem. I couldn’t put a sentence together," Walker said.
"And the kids teased you?"
"Teasin' me all the time."
"Do you think that abuse was severe enough that you turned [to] multiple personalities?" Smith asked.
"It was severe, yeah."
He describes his alters in an autobiography, "Breaking Free: My Life With Dissociative Identity Disorder" (Simon & Schuster). They don't have names, just titles, like the General - who tried to keep his alters in line - and the Warrior, a competitive personality who was uncontrollable … the one who made him play Russian Roulette.
"And I remember pullin' a gun and spinning the cylinders, my puttin' it to my head and pullin' [the trigger]."
"What do you think would've happened to you if you didn't get therapy?" Smith asked.
"Oh, I could have ended up in jail, dead, could have hurt someone and stuff."
"You know, there's a lot of debate about this. There are respected therapists out there who say - "
"Why, why are they respected?" Walker said.
"By their peers," Smith said. "There are people who say -"
"That's what I'm saying, these are doctors. But I'm the one that have been through it. They're very good at sayin' that. But I'm here to, just to say, you know, they didn't have to go through it."
But there are scores of patients who did go through it … treatment, that is … who say their lives were ruined by therapists who convinced them they had a disorder that didn't exist.
Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes spoke to one of them in 1997, Nadean Cool:
Wallace: "126 different personalities. What does that mean, Nadean?"She sued her psychiatrist, who settled the case for 2 point three million dollars. Dr. Kluft closely watched that case and others where doctors paid big money:
Nadean Cool: "It means that I have a 126 different people."
Wallace: "In you."
Cool: "Inside me."
Wallace: "And you believed in multiple personality disorder?"
Cool: "He taught me to believe it."
Wallace: "So you believed."
"Settling is not an admission of guilt," he said. "Settling is a way of ending a process in a way that's agreeable to the various parties."
"In point of fact, we know that people who go through trauma do not develop multiple personalities," said Dr. McHugh, "or that's what we know when we follow people after they've had traumas. The important thing to know is the trauma does not produce multiple personality."
But Hollywood is of one mind about MPD - spellbound. After all, "Tara"'s creators are not doctors but dramatists … the series not science, but show biz.
"Are you adding to the discussion about whether this is a real disorder?" Smith asked.
"I think so, for better or for worse," said Cody. "But to generate discussion at all, I see that as a positive thing."
Renewed for another season, "Tara" will continue to raise questions about mental illness … multiple questions.
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Add a Comment See all 20 Comments
- My question to all those who dispute the validity of Dissociative Identity Disorder is:
How do you then explain the vast amount of evidence in regards to "fugue" states, "switching" etc of multiples as children, growing up, in early adult life and before therapy?
I am a multiple with various alters. I have only seen one therapist in my life, AFTER, I was diagnosed with DID. I was first diagnosed with DID during my first hospitalization for suicidal ideation and self injury. I had never even thought about multiple personalities before this, but it made a lot of sense.
Going back over my past are countless episodes of switching and appearance of alters. I grew up labeling my mother as a liar because I was always being accused of things "I" didn't do.
In school, I was unable to hold my focus in class and was always being reprimanded for "blanking out" "day dreaming" or "staring out the window." Report cards from grades 1-8 repeatedly stated the same thing. Very sweet, bright girl, if only she would pay attention in class.
There are times I remember acting out but feeling like I was not in control of myself.
If all DID is iatrogenic, who brainwashed me? - Reply to this comment
- But my friend is NOT well, Patphil. And neither are her children. What good is the psychiatric profession if they don't believe what is, and instead rely on "the popular diagnosis of the hour" (which in her case was bipolar disorder and landed her on psychotropic drugs that did more harm than good)?
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- There is a wonderfull website about Shirley Mason/aka Sybil
it is
www. sybilsfriend.com - Reply to this comment
- "But there is a whole school of therapists that say the number is not in the millions, but zero ? that not even a single case of multiple personalities is real ? the whole concept not Sigmund Freud but junk science."
It's well understood now, that Sigmund Freud was Junk Science. - Reply to this comment
- As someone who has DID I find the comments here very interesting. There is so much emotion and drama wrapped up in whether or not one "believes" in this disorder and I understand where those feelings are coming from. But isn't it curious that it is so difficult to have a sane, civil discussion of it?
I have had all sorts of experiences with the psychiatric and medical community around being diagnosed with DID. The majority of my life I pretty much suffered in silence. DID maybe portrayed as over-the-top behavior as seen on Tara, but in a lot of cases the person is not trying to attract attention. If anything they are trying to be invisible and not attract attention.
When I was originally diagnosed I read everything I could get my hands on to try to understand what was happening to me and at that time all the books (Sybil, When Rabbit Howls, etc.) made the diagnosis sound like a condemnation to the seventh ring of hell. If you were DID you could expect to commit suicide, end up in jail or spend your days talking to the wallpaper in a mental hospital, maybe all three. The possibility of any kind of normal, productive life was denied you. If that is not enough to make you consider self medicating I don't know what would.
Over the years I worked with a variety of mental health professionals, some really good and some really bad. It wasn't until I started advocating for myself and taking responsibility for where I wanted my life to go that I found people to help me who were a good fit for me.
The book that made that even possible for me was The Stranger In The Mirror. It was the very first book on DID that offered any kind of hope that it was possible to get to the other side and lead, dare I say, a productive, happy life. I consider myself lucky to have gotten a chance to work with Dr Marlene Steinberg. Her techniques are 180 degrees away from "brainwashing" and continually put the locus of control firmly back into my hands while showing me all the options available to me.
In closing, I guess I would say to all of the people out there who are trying to deal with DID don't settle for treatment that is not working for you, but also realize you have a lot more control over the outcome than you may think. Advocate for yourself and those close to you
and don't assume that because someone is a mental health professional they have all the answers. There are good and bad people in all professions, even medicine. - Reply to this comment
- For those individuals convinced MPD/DID exists fine For those on the fence and have doubt look into the credentials of these therapist, psychiatrists,,psychologists a family member might be seeing. don't be naive and to trusting
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- Comments like the one by actpulsa are what we need to avoid when attempting intelligent discussion regarding the horrendous abuse history for this disorder. To say such things as "faking voluntarily" and "appealing to a hypochondriac" seems to show who really has his head in his rump. If there was any science fiction going on, it was the abusive and humiliating treatment that women like myself were subjected to under doctors like Kluft. I thank God that doctors like McHugh and Piper helped put a stop to it by closing down the MPD units so that I could get my life back. Actpulsa, I'm glad you know someone with MPD, and I'm glad that she's well. But try to intelligently follow these comments if you can - we are discussing the horrific treatment and abuse, disguised as "therapy," that many women, like myself, suffered, women who iinnocently sought therapy for things like problems at home/anxiety/depression. It happened to me - and NOT TO YOU. Unfortunately, I suffered in one of these places - and - Actpulsa, you did not - and so you are clueless as to what went on. So please don't make snide comments - it only adds to the abuse and shows such ignorance. If you believe MPD exists, that's your right, as is the right of others who believe it may not exist. The point - and I will try to make this clear one more time - is that no one, no doctor has the right to traumatize, abuse, drug, frighten, and bully a patient into believing she has a disorder THAT SHE DOES NOT REALLY HAVE.
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- PSYCHIATRIC MALPRACTICE CLAIM AGAINST RICHARD KLUFT, M.D. Marietti
v. Kluft, Dissociative Disorders Program and Institute of
Pennsylvania Hospital, Ct. of Common Pleas, Phila. Co., Pennsylvania,
No. 9509-02260.[16] A psychiatric malpractice suit against Richard
Kluft, M.D. and the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital was settled
after two days of trial testimony. The amount of the settlement is
confidential. The suit, brought by one of Richard Kluft's former
patients, alleged that Kluft used suggestive and coercive techniques
which caused Marietti to falsely believe that she was the victim of
childhood sexual abuse by her father. Plaintiffs also allege that the
Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital where Marietti was hospitalized
failed to establish procedures to insure that patients were cared for
in a skilled, competent fashion and to insure proper supervision. - Reply to this comment
- Paul McHugh has his head in his rump.
I know a woman with MPD. Let's call her Star. She was raised on an Indian reservation and abused within an inch of her life practically from birth. She doesn't advertise her condition. She covers it up. Under the circumstances, she covers it up magnificently and brilliantly. But then, consider the amount of circuitry one must have upstairs to even have two personalities (in my opinion, a far more realistic number than eight plus--what would be the point of so many?). She is simply a brilliant woman.
So, some patients fake it voluntarily because what could be more appealing to a hypochondriac, and others are bullied into faking it. So, that makes it nonexistent? There's a huge hole in your failed attempt at logic, McHugh. I don't know what science-fiction writer you think had enough imagination to dream up the scenario in the first place, but I do know what I have seen with my own eyes.
Psychiatry seems like such a good idea in theory. Yet in practice, it would appear the human mind is too much for us. Otherwise, we could concentrate on helping people rather than using the mentally ill as political footballs within the psychiatric community...
Pity only psychiatrists, and not psychologists, are required to take the Hippocratic Oath. Pity more psychiatrists aren't adult enough to follow it even when their feelings get in the way. The woman I know can't get help, McHugh, at least not from your 'professional' community. And you share the burden of blame... - Reply to this comment
- Keep in mind that all service industries make money by serving more customers. The more demand you can generate, the more money you make. Service providers may sincerely believe in their service, but that does not mean that the need for service is not fabricated.
This can be the case for mental health care or lawn care. Everyone needs more help when their is money to be made. - Reply to this comment
- The same argument could be made for many of the "disorders" described in the DSM IV, including Asperger's Syndrome. That's not to say that some of these disorders don't represent significant medical problems. However, they should be considered in just that manner, medical problems, and evaluated from a scientific perspective. That does not happen in psychology today.
It would be highly unethical to perform the kinds of experiments that would be necessary for psychologists to follow scientific process. As a result, the disorders listed in the DSM are compiled based on untested hypothesis, opinion, and conjecture, leaving the door wide open for, and even rewarding, the sorts of abuses described in your piece. The idea that school funding can be determined based on evaluations that rely heavily on pseudo-science is just mind blowing to me.
The scientific validity of the DSM IV and the field of psychology as a whole is the wider issue that needs investigation, rather than focusing on any one of these bogus disorders. - Reply to this comment
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- You are very right forumpostar. Most Mental Health Disorders have at one time been dismissed by different schools of thought.
For example, until more recently, OCD was considered and labeled a hoax. It was thought to stem from too much reinforcement of anxiety. Ignore the anxiety and "poof" it would magically disappear.
It is human nature to dismiss what we do not understand. As with most other disorders, it will be accepted in time.
What I do not understand is that DID is one of the few mental disorders that can offer actual physical proof (although not in all cases). It has been shown that different alters are able to produce different brain patterns when elicited.
- You are very right forumpostar. Most Mental Health Disorders have at one time been dismissed by different schools of thought.
- My fraud complaint to the US Dept of Health and Human Services received quick attention Assigned FBI agent referred to my case as a carbon copy to a 60 count indictment case that was in litigation. That case was against Five psychological workers from Spring Shadows Glen mental facility in Houston. For deliberately brainwashing their patients to believe they had Multiple personalities in order to defraud insurance companies
In my case we have an absurd number of individuals from same locality, several of them were even friends with one another all treated by the same practitioners and facilities for MPD/ DID for years, that deliberately brainwashed these vulnerable individuals to believe and act if they suffered with this so-called rare disorder. These practitioners and facilities have destroyed lives and families for financial gain. defrauding millions from Medicare, SSDI, etc There are countless other victims from this region
How many MPD/DID patients in one area, treated by same Physicians is to many
1. Patient 1 Nancy (Divorced), years of Therapy for (MPD), suicide attempts, In 1990 Nancy sought out counseling for postpartum depression, prior, never a history of any sort of mental illness,
Made to believe she was being used in a child Pornography Ring, that individuals along with her father were supposedly accessing her child personality Princess. Led to a lengthy Police investigation against her father and others, unnecessary rape exams, her belief she was a victim of Satanic Ritual abuse, and that her father killed babies and that her father sexually abused her as a child. A long list of separate identities she was made to believe she had. Years and years of turmoil, many hideous occurrences
2. Patient 2 Judy (Divorced) yrs of treatment for (MPD) Suicide attempts etc.
Was a friend to above (Patient 1) who saw same practitioners. several suicide attempts, on one occasion attempted suicide at Patient1 ?s home Police report had stated she was found in ditch, side of road
3. Patient 3 Mikalee friend of patient 1 ( Divorced) yrs of treatment for (MPD) Suicide attempts etc. Therapist for Snyder divulges in document her illness of MPD trying to have her deposition waived. During the period of treatment for MPD Ms. Synder and Ms. Derek attend an Assembly of GOD Church, along with other MPD patients,
4. Patient 4 Debbie friend of patent1 (Divorced) yrs of treatment for (MPD) Suicide attempts etc.
Wiit ( Women?s institute for incorporation Therapy) Program, Patient 4 was in facility with Patient 1 along with six additional MPD patients that were in their group. Medicare paid 206,000.00 for 6 weeks of therapy just for Patient 1 Columbia HCA hospitals were soon raided by FBI and found to be committing Insurance Fraud
5. Patient 5 Lindsay at age eleven treated for (MPD) Prior to litigation for custody for my son, Mediation hearing was ordered (Mediator Attorney Rick B-----n) Attorney B-----n questioned me if I believed in (MPD), After my response was I questioned the validly of MPD Diagnoses, that is when Attorney B----n divulged that his adopted eleven yr old daughter had (MPD), and the Physician was Dr. Malcolm Graham one of the many doctors in this scheme
6. 27 faces of Charles Time Magazine 1982,Story of Gentleman treated for (MPD)
Treating Physician Malcolm Graham, One of the several physicians linked to this scheme.
Beware unscrupulous psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, and clergy etc. they have victimized their patients intentionally and unintentionally. Very dangerous to be too trusting - Reply to this comment
- Back in the days before TV and computers, people got out and about more and had more contact with their neighbors and people on the street. Nowadays people spend more time alone and indoors and only interact with family and select friends. Now we have an explosion in mental disorders. Who ever heard of bi-polar before about 20 years ago? Sure, there were crackpots, screwballs, nuts. But the increased isolation of modern society has aggravated the problem and, if the government gives doctors the money, many more will appear.
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- "Doctors Are Of Two Minds About Multiple Personality Disorder"
That sounds like a disrespectful bit of humor. - Reply to this comment
- Patphil, I am sorry you had to go through such a horrible ordeal. My daughter did have to go to the hospital several times. The first time was a state-run facility before she was diagnosed and was a terrible experience. Fortunately for her the stay was short. Once she found her current therapist, she was able to work with her to coordinate a stay at a facility that was extremely helpful to her. I know you and many others have suffered much and many women in history have also suffered much in the mental health system, but to discount all therapists and doctors because of this isn't right either. We didn't find this therapist overnight. It took a lot of time and effort to find the right person to work with. My daughter was wrongly diagnosed at first also. They thought she was bipolar and was given medications for that purpose, one of which has caused her many physical health problems. I do understand that misdiagnosis happens more than anyone would like, but again there are good therapists who do terrific work. My reason for writing was because in the past DID is always portrayed as someone who is faking it or is violent. My daughter is neither of these. Although you said you can act like you have DID and that you did, I'm sure that is what happened. But if you truly knew someone who had this illness and lived with them you would understand what I meant. I'm sure you did feel that you needed to behave a certain way and were mistreated but those things did not happen to my daughter and she does have alters and we live with it. She is in a good place and doesn't act out anymore but there were very hard times for all of us. I just feel that we never hear from people like myself and my daughter but from people who have been abused and mistreated by the psychiatric society. This just makes it that much harder for people to believe it exits and to understand it. So my comment wasn't trying to say that you didn't suffer but that my daughter has too and that she has a real illness, caused by traumas and she has survived and is doing well. I don't know anything about the place you were at or the doctors who treated you, but I am very sorry that you had to go through such a horrific ordeal. It sounds to me like you are doing well and my wish is that you stay that way. Thanks for hearing me out.
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- I respect pfy22's post, but let me repeat that the question isn't about whether or not MPD exists - questions need to be asked why such abusive treatment was given to thousands of women, like myself, who were drugged and brainwashed in those units. There is good reason why they were closed down. You absolutely CAN act like you have alters. That is exactly what I was taught to do, along with the many women who now know they are not nor ever were MPD. I was told I was in denial and did not trust what I was being told. I was told a feeling was really an alter, and I was to let the alter out, give it a name, give it a different voice, give it different penmanship, anything that would help to make the alter feel real to me. When I would tell them I was only feeling sad, I was told it was an alter, and to name it "Sad." I was told to make sure I gave my alters (feelings) time out every day. Everyone around me in the DID unit was doing the same thing. We were like the blind leading the blind, all of us imitating each other because we didn't know what else to do. The incredible dosages of mind altering drugs helped to make this happen - and of course the fear - the fear of restraints, the fear of the quiet room - if we weren't "improving" from their therapy. I hope that your daughter did not have to spend time in one of these units. Many people trust the doctors who say they are experts - they are the authority figures. We trust and believe because they tell us we will feel better as long as we do what they tell us to do. This is how it all begins . . .
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- I have an adult child with DID. I am always disturbed whenever I see reporting on this disorder because doubt is always at the center of the reporting. This disorder exists, just ask anyone who has it or lives with it. There is no possible way for someone to "act" like they have alters--it would just be way too exhausting and no one could continue this 24/7. Thankfully my child is now functioning well thanks to years of work with a wonderful therapist who never once suggested or brainwashed my child. There were some very frightening times in the past but my child was not violent towards anyone but herself. Coming to terms with the abuse that caused the DID is essential. It will never go away (the abuse) but you can live with it. Creating alters to cope with the traumas is an extremely intelligent and creative process that happens in our minds and one that I don't think anyone completely understands today. When I did discover that my child had DID and met the alters, they were simply parts of her that I already knew. It has become a natural way of life for us and we love all her parts. People with DID need support from family and friends and the mental health community. They don't need to be made to feel that their disorder is somehow unreal and doesn't exist. I think reporters need to do a better job researching this kind of report before airing something that could hurt so many people (not just the patients but their friends and family). Find some doctors who treat these patients and are really helping them. Find some patients or family members who are willing to discuss what it is really like. And lastly, please do not include links to sites about "false memory syndrome"! Although I am sure there are cases where doctors have done more harm that good, I believe there are more doctors and therapists who really help their patients. No one wants to believe the horrible things that human beings do to one another but they do happen and the sooner we accept it is real, the sooner we can stop it from happening.
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- It was difficult seeing Richard Kluft's face again. Unfortunately, I was one of his former patients who spent time in his specialized MPD unit that (thank God) was closed down in 1996. In 1994 I sought therapy for some marriage problems, and I was diagnosed with MPD after telling the therapist I was abused as a child. Six months later, I was not convinced of my diagnosis, and that's when I wound up in Kluft's unit. After a three month stay that included heavy dosages of multiple drugs and weekly therapy sessions in restraints, I was brainwashed and taught how to be MPD. What a shame that Kluft didn't share his methods of so called "therapy" with the television viewers. The question is not a matter of whether MPD exists or not, but rather the horrendous treatment that was given to thousands of women like myself, most of us who are probably still too ashamed to admit that we went through this terribly abusive time in our lives. Thank God for doctors like McHugh and Piper who exposed what was going on back then and had the sense to close down all the specialized MPD facilities. I now see a therapist once a week to get over the trauma that was caused at the hands of Kluft and his associates. It's frightening to think that this series on Showtime, showing someone who supposedly has MPD, has Kluft as a consultant. I would hate to see a new generation of women thinking they may have this extremely rare disorder, and be put through the horrendous abuse that I received in the name of "therapy." Beware of these so called "experts" who are only out there to make a name for themselves.
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- If doctors are of two minds about multiple personality disorder isnt that like the blind leading the blind?
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