Dissociative Identity Disorder Analysis

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Dissociative Identity Disorder
Dissociative Identity Disorder is a diagnosis first featured in the DSM IV in 1994. Prior to this, the disorder was referred to as multiple personality disorder. According to Michelson & Ray, dissociation is a human experience that dates back to prehistoric times with the shaman peoples and appears to be a “fundamental and universal component of human psychology” (History, para. 1). It is important to recognize that dissociation is normal to an extent. “The first case of multiple personality disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder (DID), was described by Paracelsus in 1646” (Farrell, 2011). Although the disorder appears to be prevelent throughout human history, academic interest in dissociative …show more content…

Beidel, Bulik, and Stanley define an iatrogenic disease as “one that is inadvertently caused by a physician, by a medical or surgical treatment, or by a diagnostic procedure” (2014). The classification of dissociative identity disorder as iatrogenic would indicate that without the suggestion of a therapist, patients would not present the disorder. According to Dell and Eisenhower, “Among DID patients, 80-100% have no knowledge of their alters before they began therapy” (as cited in Beidel, 2014, p.186). Proponents of the disorder suggest that patients hide their symptoms before therapy. The DSM V explains this further. “Individuals with dissociative identity disorder vary in their awareness and attitude for toward their amnesia” (American Psychological Association, 2013, p.293). The texts also accounts for this stating that it is common for people with dissociative identity disorder to minimize their symptoms …show more content…

1). Treatment included exorcisms and other religious practices. Michelson and Ray briefly explain some of the differing viewpoints in early treatment of dissociative identity disorder. While some early treatments focused on the supernatural, others focused on the trauma that was known to be linked to dissociative identity disorder. Leading figures such as Breuer and Freud based their treatment on a trauma-dissociation model of psychopathology (The Psychopathology of Dissociation in the Nineteenth Century, para. 1). In their Studies on Hysteria, Breuer and Freud focused on resolving emotions around the previous