Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) was known as multiple personality disorder (MPD) in earlier times. It is a rather intriguing and bizarre disorder accompanied by a rather dramatic dissociation from the self in response to a traumatic experience. In this disorder the individual develops various other identities known as alter personalities, each having a unique name, fragmentation and distinctive though, emotional and behavior processes. Each of these alters have separate entities with stable characteristics and the individual may or may not be aware of them. These individuals tend to change fro one identity to another at varying intervals that can range from a few minutes, days or months to years.

The original personality is known as the host personality and the alters are usually quite different from one another. One may appear to be extremely outgoing and carefree, while the other might be reserved and submissive, a third personality can be rather dominating and may try to be authoritative over the others and so on. An individual with dissociative personality disorder can have numerous such alter personalities and the needs and behaviors of the host personality are usually displayed by them generously. The characteristics of these personalities are often quite different and some of them might never even come ‘out’ and are only referred to by other alters. Some of the alters may even include aliens, superheroes, angels etc.

The Nature of Alters:

Alters are not ‘personalities’ in the literal meaning of the term but are imitations of the disentangled personality traits of an individual. Their aim function is to serve as defense mechanisms to enable the individual to cope up with unmanageable emotional distress caused by a traumatic life experience. Alters are in other words the enactments of embedded conflicts, memories and feelings that are present in the sub-conscious of the individual.

Causes of Dissociative Identity Disorder:

Childhood abuse: This remains the most widely held cause of DID. Many researchers and psychoanalysts believe that the development of this disorder is the outcome of a child’s efforts to deal with the trauma of a devastating sense of hopelessness and helplessness when undergoing repeated and distressing abuse. This disorder develops as a defense mechanism when the child is unable to escape from such traumatic incidents and in the process creates certain stable internal personalities that are always available for security, attachment and protection.

Childhood neglect: This is a variant form of childhood trauma in which the child is not physically or sexually abused so much as left to his/her own devices, perhaps being locked in closets or basements