Dissociative Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder)

What is Dissociative Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder)? There are vast amounts of differing opinions on what exactly Dissociative Disorder is. Psychology Today views the disorder as the deficiency of connected “thoughts, memories, feelings, actions or identity.” One recurring theme in all the research is the prevalence of extreme, traumatic sexual and/or physical abuse experienced by the individual from an early age in life; the majority of cases share this unique quality. Individuals often are not even aware of the abuse that had been inflicted upon them, and many deny the incidents even when presented with mounting evidence such as police and child protective service reports. Many children are very good at daydreaming, and pretending they are someone different. It would make sense that if enough of these facades occurred prior to the child figuring out his or her own personality, internal confusion may take form in one way or another. This becomes a very useful coping method while in childhood (when one cannot get away from the abuse), but loses its effectiveness in the adult years, often leading to problematic and dysfunctional behaviors that lead to the loss of jobs and relationships. Studies say that eighty to ninety percent of those with Dissociative Disorder are not even aware that they suffer from the disorder. Does this mean that these individuals are not affected by their afflictions? Their actions, along with the observations of those they interact with, clue them in that something is not right about them; however, they unfortunately do not understand the reasons why their life is like a puzzle.