Billy Milligan's Cases

There are many cases of DID famously recognised, they spark the debate of ‘are these alters individuals carrying out individual actions? Or is there a sense of intent within the persons system?’ Billy Milligan was one of the first cases to ignite the debate when he was acquitted from a series of violent crimes due to his mental state. He called the personalities who were seen as badly behaved the ‘undesirables’ and there were a unit of three. Billy was accused of multiple accounts of rape and robbery. Adalene, a host and persecutor personality, was the personality who committed the rapes. She held a desire to be loved and would sacrifice anything to gain that. She was a 19 year old lesbian. The robberies were committed by Ragen, a 23 year old Yugoslavian man who was the strongest personality physically. He was also a

The first incident could be linked to the development of his disorder, supporting the theory that alters exist due to a childhood trauma but it is questionable as this was a minor experience and it is more likely that (if proven true) the abuse he suffered during childhood was the main cause of his personality spilt. An interesting point about Billy’s personalities is that he felt comfortable co-existing with them and so, he was able to easily conceal that they existed until his trial. On the other hand, it was also stated that he felt somebody had always stolen his time and he thought suicide was the only solution. He was frequently blamed for misconduct that was not carried out by him. This contradicting predicament suggests that although he was able to co-exist, his system drained him emotionally and alienated him. It was not possible for his personalities to exist alone independently as his system was unstable and therefore unattainable