Woman with 7 personalities.

I was going to post this clip in a thread that asks which 7 people would I invite to dinner. After viewing the clip I didn't find it funny or appropriate for that thread. Meet Helen. She has Multiple Personality Disorder.

Now, some might say that Helen is faking it, but even if she is, imagine how horrible life must be for someone to put up such a front for so many years. Either way, this poor woman breaks my heart.

reply to post by jiggerj


If you remember Sybil, this author (Debbie Nathan) claims she was a fake. All views are welcome on this.

Ive always found the subject of multiple personalities fascinating, usually some where in the subject criminal behavior comes up.

not the case here s&f

I think she is mentally ill but not with multiple personalities. It looks like she is consciously shifting between her different characters.

How very frustrating that may be!
I wonder, are "they" different souls in the same body?

Originally posted by WaterBottle
I think she is mentally ill but not with multiple personalities. It looks like she is consciously shifting between her different characters.

I feel the same way. Surely, there must be tests to determine if her mind is shifting from one personality to the next. What part of the mind could hold separate personalities that aren't aware of the other ones? I'm really not in any learned position to claim that this is impossible, but I just can't fathom how a mind could hold onto 7 different personalities with 7 totally different lives and never once have one personality call up a memory from one of the others.

Originally posted by tinker9917
How very frustrating that may be!
I wonder, are "they" different souls in the same body?

Wouldn't each soul grow up (at least a little bit) within that one body?

reply to post by jiggerj


They did an EEG on this other lady, her brainwaves stayed the same.

I know of someone who was officially diagnosed with MPD (DID). I may be able to provide some insight here. After spending some time with her, I noticed that you can't simply say that those who are genuinely ill with this condition are faking it, or are entirely as the diagnosis states.

It seems that dissociative identity disorder is the result of extreme trauma, usually while the ego is still forming in early age. It manifests as a switching of personalities, which vary in extremity from case to case. It is known from twin studies that this isn't merely about a stressor of significant intensity, rather an interaction between genetics and environment. As in, some individuals can handle events that others would need a splitting off to continue on.

Those with DID are highly imaginative, and often have superior IQ. They are capable of partitioning off regions of their brain to develop personality specific neural circuitry. They do this initially out of necessity, in order to protect their original sense of self from the trauma, they create alters which are capable of either handling the awareness of the initial experience, else help the original personality to hopefully process the event in time. Additional personalities may pop up, mostly due to the stockholm syndrome which tends to develop for trauma survivors. They end up positioning their selves in places where they experience more trauma over time.

These alters may actually form a council which may operate independently of the original personality, in order slowly process the events which caused their splitting. At other times, the alters may battle each other for control of the being, and not operate in the best interest of the original personality.

It seems to be individuated, whether the alters will succeed in processing the emotional trauma, and reintegrating on their own. As they develop their own stable egos, they may choose to remain a being as they are.

All of this being said, it's not entirely as it seems. I mean this, in that, these alters do provide "cover" and "protection" outside of socially acceptable means, and perhaps even legal repercussions. The illness seems to start of genuine, and then ... becomes complex, as the alters may realize how powerful they are operating as many in one skull.

In my experience, alters will "pop out" when they are deemed "best" for the individual, in the context of what the alters want, and don't want. As previously stated, this can be quite anti-social, and non-democratic... as in, fast-switching crazes for control of the individual, jumping from various intentions and actions... a jumbled mess between saint, schizo, psycho, high-talent, and idiocy. I've witnessed this. I've seen the eyes change colors, the hand preference change on the fly, and the hormones (voice) change rapidly. All very real phenomena. Sometimes the original personality was aware of some of the switches, and at other times there was a complete blank.

reply to post by QuantriQueptidez

I've seen the eyes change colors

Seriously? Is there any documentation to this effect? I would LOVE to see that!

Also, do you know if there is an average time for each personality to have control over a body in a case of MPD? I'm curious as to how and why a child-like personality (say five years old) doesn't mature in any way after spending years in an adult body.

My ex-wife had/has polyfragmented MPD, an extremely high IQ, and insists that her alters learn and grow, although to me, they seemed to be cardboard cut-outs.

reply to post by QuantriQueptidez


I believe yours is the best answer for insight into the multiple personality disorder. These people have been traumatized as children and the split personalities are a coping mechanism. I have always been fascinated by multiple personalities and very saddened. Some of the things done to these poor children are horrendous.

I just finished watching movie on Medusa she has head with seven snakes on it. Ancient symbology for woman with multiple personalities?

Hmmm.....marry her and you get seven wives. Isn't it illegal to be married to seven women at the same time. What happens if your wives find out that you are a bigamist? All seven of them coming at you at the same time, it might sound like one of those Demons

I have seven different personalities, but they are so similar they are like clones. Maybe I should say clowns.

Originally posted by jiggerj

Originally posted by WaterBottle
I think she is mentally ill but not with multiple personalities. It looks like she is consciously shifting between her different characters.

I feel the same way. Surely, there must be tests to determine if her mind is shifting from one personality to the next. What part of the mind could hold separate personalities that aren't aware of the other ones? I'm really not in any learned position to claim that this is impossible, but I just can't fathom how a mind could hold onto 7 different personalities with 7 totally different lives and never once have one personality call up a memory from one of the others.

It's funny you should mention this. Video below that dives into this and looks at the electrical signals of the brain of a woman with 15 personalities.

For the record, multiple personality disorder is classified as dissociative identity disorder. The theory behind how it forms is due to abuse in a person's childhood, they react to the abuse by disassociating their personality and coming up with a fragmented personality to handle the abuse. As this keeps happening, the original personality becomes fragmented into "multiple" personalities.



As a side note, i'm acquainted with the doctor who's running the qEEG. He's one of the leading figures in the neurofeedback world. His wife also ran the UNT neurofeedback research center for 20 years.

reply to post by jiggerj


Have you never seen someone's eyes change when they experience rage? It's the same thing.

The alters don't have a fixed time. There are various stressors which may cause any one to pop out at any time. This can be a perfume, or image, or simply a word you utter in their presence. Like how you can smell something and recall something way back when. Same thing, except they pop out of awareness and someone else recalls it. I have seen rapid switching in and out of about a dozen personalities within perhaps one hundred seconds before. This was a very stressful time for her.

I think the reason some don't seem to age has to do with how they experience reality. An alter is a fragmented personality that has no consistency of time. They may gain memories, but won't seem to age. No sleep. No integration of experience.

My stepmother has a patient with multiple personalities. She was raised by a powerful mafioso, and saw her mother killed in front of her by him, when she was very young, from what I understand. She had a lot of uncommon experiences to deal with, and my stepmother is not even sure how many personalities she has- new ones show up every once in a while.

Some are based upon people she actually knew when young, as if the personalities just made a big impact on her and she absorbed a copy.

I don't find the concept of this very hard to comprehend, actually. For those who have been involved in acting, they know the line can get blurred- you form complex and full personalities around the characters you play, and that creates a specific "point of view", from which specific types of behaviors and attitudes will flow without any effort then.

This is why character development is worked on- once you have developed it, it takes on a "life of it's own" through your body- at least that is what it seems like. This seems to me to be a very effective way of stepping out of your "normal" personality and all it's worries, or pains.

I sometimes describe having something like two different personalities- one that is french and one that is american, because I can step into two different point of view- with vastly different values, which change my perspective, my emotional reactions, the pathways of thought, and behavior.

Unlike this disorder though, I identify with them as parts of my self, purposefully developed, and willingly stepped into according to environmental context.

With a lot of psychiatric disorders, the line between what is a "real" disorder and what isn't, isn't real clear.
Both of my shrink parents used to say "Crazy is a choice." -Which sounds unlikely when you first hear it, and definately is contrary to the current trends in psychiatry emphasized by pharmaceutical companies, but I think it might have been partly right. Mostly because it takes into consideration subconscious choices.

It's not truly different personalities but rather a fracturing of one; the inability at some point to integrate all aspects of one personality. For example we all have a male and female side; the childlike and serious/analytical, etc. We can be childlike (playful and carefree) but use our adult voice and still snap out of it if the occation calls for it without any notice of such a shift because development was gradual and uninterupted by severe trauma.

Some can experience trauma but resilience was high or the trauma was short lived as two examples of variables that would affect development not completely halting for a period of time. I think of it as shaken baby syndrome of identity formation. Instead of cognitive damage long term effects are seen in idenity formation. Because its a personaity disorder it isnt considered cognitive in terms of being able to be treated with meds (although related cognitve symptomology can accompany DID).

The reason these "alters" don't mature is because development was stopped at certain stages - shocked; traumatized. The spontaneous return to the 5 year old alter as an example is triggered by something or someone (a type of interaction such as nurturing that 5 year old needed and never got).

People do it all the time - not in ways that make them dysfunctional but if you really watch you will see shifts in personality all the time. I have seen adults act like a 7 year olds when they are sick - being quite needy as an example. The voice doesn't change and there is no abnormal regression but there is a shift that is slight. That's normal stuff. What you see with DID is on the severe end.

Originally posted by QuantriQueptidez
reply to post by jiggerj

 

Have you never seen someone's eyes change when they experience rage? It's the same thing.

No. I have never seen anything like it.

reply to post by jiggerj


You don't know my family, then

Basically when your system is a bit more dynamic than average. Your hormones and neurotransmitters, namely the catecholamines will fluctuate rapidly. You can see their pupils restrict, which would make the overall color composition change. In some individuals you can actually see the color change a bit. This happens to my hazel eyes. I have ultra rapid cycling bipolar, which some might go as far as to say constitutes borderline personality disorder in my specific case. Meh, just boxes to try and put a quick label on complex, and unique individuals.