• Question: How is multiple personality disorder formed, and why do some people have it? Can it travel from the parents through genes?

    Asked by DJNezz to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 18 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      Complicated question. Many people now think that Multiple Personality Disorder is mostly caused by therapists suggesting to people that they might have it: http://bfms.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/1/files/2013/8116/1696/F_MultiplePersonalitiesfinal2.pdf

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      This disease is now called ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’

      This disease is basically a label for people who seem to have more than a single identity or personality controlling their behaviour at different times. There is also often memory loss for some information that could not be explained by normal forgetfulness.

      This disease often appears alongside many other psychological problems (called comorbidity). This makes it hard to examine, study and even diagnose as a single illness. Doctors are also warned that, in cases of possible financial or personal gain, many if not most cases are caused by malingering (faking it for gain). Furthermore, if the patient is prone to being reliant on others and regularly needing or wanting help, doctors are warned against this kind of disease as a common factitious disorder (also known as Munchausen syndrome – faking it to gain sympathy sometimes without the patient even consciously realising that they are faking it).

      Basically very few doctors seem to currently support it as a stand alone psychological problem, some view it as a symptom of other psychological problems or occasionally as a response to trauma (often falling under PTSD), and some people seem to think its a problem with how psychologists treat patients. So most doctors want to look for a different underlying psychological problem to treat.

      In terms of genetics, all psychological diseases are somewhat complicated. Susceptibility to diseases does seem to be genetic. However, just because an individual is susceptible to a disease, it does not mean they will ever come across a set of circumstances that will activate it. Aso, soome psychological problems are more caused by the environment and personal responses to it, than they are by genetics. For example, PTSD is more common in veterans because they have been in stressful situations, not because they have similar genes.

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