Is split personality possible? All for one: how multiple personality arises

The one we are talking about was discovered quite a long time ago, but has not been studied enough due to the fact that it is rare. Symptoms of multiple personality disorder are often confused with symptoms of other illnesses. Several personalities in one... Intriguing? Yes, but the roots and origins of this disease are usually tragic. The disease is well described in the book of the American writer Sheldon. It's called "Shattered Dreams."

Created by pain

Of course, Sidney Sheldon made the plot more complicated than it usually is in real life, but the idea is correct. The American writer carefully studied all his books from the point of view of documentary accuracy, therefore in the book clinical picture described very accurately. An alternating personality (second, third or tenth) appears only when the first, main one, suffers severe psychological trauma. So painful that a person does not want to accept the fact that such a terrible past is his own. For example, rape by one's own father. So a person renounces himself inside, and a substitute personality arises to protect him from terrible pain.

Dissimilar "I"

This personality usually has opposite qualities. So, instead of a timid and intelligent girl, a brutal and tough, punchy lady appears, about whom the former sincerely has no idea.

Symptoms of duality include memory loss; the sick person, no matter how hard he tries, cannot remember what happened to him. Often such a person attributes his inability to remember to the effects of alcohol or carefully hides it even from himself (trying to forget). This mechanism is called repression and occurs even in healthy people. But in those suffering from alternating personality syndrome (which is what split personality disorder is called in psychiatry), this memory mechanism is enhanced. The fact is that the second personality protects a person from injury; she behaves more harshly, aggressively, as if she does not give offense to the first.

The second one remembers, but won’t say

The substitute personality knows that she is the second, but a person in this state does not seek help. The substitute personality remembers the pain that was inflicted first, and therefore tries to help her, to shelter her from problems. “Switching” from the first personality to the second or third occurs when the situation becomes threatening. Symptoms of split personality have so far been little studied, except for memory loss, classic cases The first person does not experience any symptoms. Sometimes this disease is combined with others, but not always with schizophrenia, although in the eyes of many, a schizophrenic is precisely a person demonstrating symptoms of a split personality.

False Januses

Such people usually live quietly and, if they do not have a family, their abnormality emerges quite rarely. They rarely get involved in crime. Most cases of split personality in forensic science are falsifications and forgeries. After all, few future criminals read psychiatric literature in order to know the roots of the problem and vividly simulate the symptoms of split personality. Therefore, bring to clean water Any experienced psychiatrist can pretend to be a pretender (and others will not be trusted with the examination).

What if there really is a split personality? Treatment includes the first person accepting the truth about himself, “introducing” him to “defenders” and focusing on overcoming problems on his own instead of turning to alternating personalities.

There are many different psychological disorders in the human world. Many of them are so similar to each other that they are often confused. So, it is often confused with schizophrenia split personality. Although there is a significant difference: a schizophrenic suffers from hallucinations, and a patient with dissociative disorder suffers from the plurality of his personalities. Let's consider symptoms of this disease.

Concept

Split personality is a mental illness in which a person has two or more separate personalities. It’s one thing when an individual simply changes his approach to some issue, consciously changes his attitude. It is a completely different matter when he automatically switches from one consciousness to another. This concepts there are many names:

1. Split personality.
2. Dissociative disorder.
3. Multiple personality syndrome.

What are the features of this disease? A person unconsciously switches from one personality to another. This is called an "alter ego". One person can have many different alter egos. Moreover, they are all individuals with their own memories, knowledge, skills, and past.

One person contains several personalities at once. When consciousness switches, some memories disappear and others are included. Thus, a person himself may not understand why he found himself in a certain place, although he himself got there, being in the memory of another person.

What triggers personalities?

What triggers the process when one personality replaces another? Certain situation, often . It was a stressful situation that could once provoke the emergence of multiple personality. When a person experiences this stress again, his consciousness switches, his alter ego turns on.

If a person experiences psychological trauma, then he develops a personality that protects his psyche from strong experiences. At the same time, personalities do not intersect, do not remember what the other is doing, and do not control. This is the first symptom split personality– dissociative amnesia – loss of knowledge, memories, skills of one person and the inclusion of the memory of another.

Dissociative fugue is the second symptom that is noted on the online journal site. This sign manifests itself in the fact that a person is completely confident that he is another person. When he switches, he completely forgets about who he was before. Thus, he may not understand how he got to this or that place, why he communicates with strangers, what he does.

Identity disorder is characterized by the fact that personalities can be very different. One person may be a 25-year-old man, and the other a 55-year-old woman. One person may be of a traditional orientation, and the second - non-traditional. One person may be a policeman, and the other a bandit.

Ganser syndrome is the next symptom of dissociative disorder, which is expressed in the production of mental illness. Often this disease is real.

The trance state can be called a concomitant symptom in which a person does not respond to some external stimuli. For example, he may not feel pain or not hear certain sounds. This only happens in an altered state. But when a person returns to consciousness, he experiences all the sensations that are inherent to him.

Other signs of dissociative disorder include:

• Imbalance.
• Memory loss.
• Losing touch with reality.

Only a specialist who can accurately diagnose the disorder can diagnose it. However, the above symptoms indicate that the person is not normal. When they appear, you can already seek psychological help.

Split personality is a mental phenomenon, which is expressed in the fact that a person can have two personalities at the same time, and in some cases more. Doctors diagnose such patients with dissociative identity disorder; a description of this phenomenon can also be found under the name “split personality.” It can be argued that a patient has a split personality if he has alternate control of mental and vital abilities and general behavior by two personalities at the same time. When a change in ego state occurs, memory loss also occurs at the same time; in this case, forgetfulness significantly exceeds the norm.

If we take into account the basics of psychology, then a person is both a biological and a social being. From the point of view of biology, this is an individual; the social position states that a person, first of all, is a person. It is known that personality formation occurs over the years, under the influence various factors. Empirical experience, acquired knowledge, a person’s social circle, stress experienced, etc. are taken into account. If we are talking about personality, then we mean something stable and stable that can undergo change only when a lot of time passes or the person is influenced by strong external factors.

Naturally, every healthy person periodically feels some internal contradiction, and this is completely normal. However, such contradictory sensations do not force him to change radically and become a completely different person, because in this case, these will already be symptoms of a split personality. Experts say that multiple personality disorder is not a disease that could be classified as rare. Its essence is that a person has several personalities that conflict with each other, because each of them has its own views and desires. Up to a certain point, a person can control the situation, but it is possible that one day there will be a breakdown in his psyche, which will lead to a situation where these individuals begin to lead an independent life.

The manifestations of this disease, first of all, are expressed in extreme imbalance; a person often experiences a loss of connection with real world, and he can't understand what's going on. Memory lapses, which are sometimes very significant, are also typical. Insomnia is observed, patients complain of headaches, and profuse sweating is often present. In addition, it has been established that the symptoms of a split personality are expressed in the absence of logic; in very rare cases a person realizes that, in fact, he is sick. A person suffering from a split personality can rejoice and have fun, but through very a short time, for no apparent reason falls into a state of sadness. The joy disappears and he gets into a tearful mood. The patient’s feelings are contradictory, both towards himself and towards those around him, as well as towards all the events taking place in the world.

Symptoms of multiple personality disorder manifest themselves regardless of age. Most often, the cause of the development of the disease is trauma of mental or physical origin, and quite serious one. It happens that a split personality is caused by certain shocks of significant force that happened to a person in childhood. It is not necessary that the patient remembers a long-past event, however, the psyche was influenced, and a trace remained that is difficult to eliminate.

When there are mental traumas, it should be noted that a person’s mind creates additional personalities precisely for the purpose of blocking him from the negative emotions that haunt him and are associated with a certain event. That is, if something bad happened to a person, it means that his personality was involved in it. Further, a person may try to convince himself that all this did not happen in reality, and the event is a fiction. Based on such beliefs, a person gradually emerges who has never experienced anything like this. In this case, most likely, the newly created personality will become dominant. But given that both personalities are very strong, serious problems arise.

The treatment process for such patients is especially complex, therefore, to achieve the desired result, complex treatment is required, which includes a number of medications. Treatment for multiple personality disorder often takes quite a lot of time. long time, sometimes the patient is under the supervision of a doctor throughout his life. They are used as medicinal drugs, but which ones are suitable in each specific case can only be determined by the attending physician. In addition, before the psychiatrist begins treatment, the patient undergoes a thorough and complete examination.

Treatment of split personality is necessary, since the patient constantly accumulates internal psychological tension, as a result of which he abandons his “I”, while constantly experiencing emotional stress. In turn, nervous disorders over time become the cause of diseases such as stomach ulcers, asthma, and many others. Another danger of this disorder is the use of drugs or addiction to alcohol. Split personality causes life crises, creates serious obstacles to a career, and completely destroys all plans for the future.

The content of the article:

Split personality is a mental illness that requires specific treatment from a specialist. Such dissociative pathology is quite rare, allowing two individuals to coexist in the human mind. A multiplied ego state prevents both the patient himself and his immediate environment from living a full life.

What is split personality

The described pathology has a second name, which can be described as a splitting of internal consciousness and a syndrome of multiple perceptions of one’s own “I”. With this diagnosis, one personality is replaced by another, which is accompanied by serious mental disorders. This phenomenon changes the parameters of one’s own identity, which can lead to amnesia of a psychogenic nature.

Split personality occurs in stages, creating the opportunity to identify the disease at the initial phase of its development. The loss of personal perception of oneself as an individual is accompanied by a double reaction to society. With this pathology, a person at the active stage of inclusion of the first internal “I” is not able to remember his behavior at a different phase of functioning nervous system.

There is an opinion that split personality is schizophrenia. However, not a single psychiatrist will confirm this statement, because we are talking about completely different pathologies. In schizophrenia, the patient hears voices and sees unreal objects that form in his imagination in the form of hallucinations.

Causes of split personality

Such a disease begins to progress with the following factors provoking its formation:

• Severe stress. Negative emotions in some cases they force the human psyche to create additional protection from their influence. At the same time, a second personality may arise in people’s minds, which is able to illusorily resist the circumstances that have arisen. This factor especially often happens to people who have experienced psychological or physical violence.
. Psychiatrists note a growing trend in this disease for the stated reason. There is an opinion among the people that nerve cells are not restored. Symptoms of multiple personality disorder can usually be seen in people who are prone to emotional breakdowns or workaholics with busy work schedules.
• Weak character. Reluctance to take responsibility for one’s actions and inability to plan further life activities leads to the formation of a second “I” in the minds of such people. As a rule, the resulting substitute image seems to the patient to be a more powerful person, capable of solving emerging problems.
• gambling addiction. Computer entertainment in some cases can play a cruel joke on a person. Quite often, people who are overly passionate about “virt” begin to identify themselves with selected online characters who seem like superheroes to them.
• Influence of the sect. People who find themselves in such informal organizations cease to recognize themselves as an independent person. Their own “I” begins to function in parallel with the special one that the leaders of “spiritual” communities artificially create in the minds of the next victim.

The formation of a split personality sometimes occurs due to the fault of the person himself, who refuses responsibility for his own destiny. The risk group for the development of dissociative disorder is increasingly filled with weak-willed and weak-willed individuals who protect their own peace at the expense of themselves.

Manifestations of split personality in humans

A person with a similar problem can be identified by the following signs:

1. Absence logical thinking . People with this disease cannot adequately evaluate their actions. The duality of consciousness creates a certain blockage in the ability to analyze cause-and-effect relationships in such individuals.
2. Memory losses. A person with a split personality often does not remember obvious events that happened to him in the recent past. He begins to live a life that is not his own, which can result in hallucinations and substitution of values.
3. Frequent mood swings. People with this problem are in most cases emotionally unstable. They are capable of going from exuberant fun to a state of deep depression in a short period of time.
4. Unpredictable actions. A split personality is a time bomb that can explode at any moment. A person with an inadequate attitude towards his own “I” quite often commits actions that no one expects from him.
5. Depersonalization. Experts say that the perception of the outside world is not impaired in this condition. However, there is a loss of the sense of oneself as an individual in society with all the ensuing consequences.
6. Strange conversations. If a person experiences a loss of his own identity, then during a conversation he begins to use the pronoun “we” when describing his personal plans for life. At the same time, he can change the intonation of his voice, which gives the impression of a dialogue between two surreal persons.

Attention! At the initial stage of progression of split personality, the patient does not pose any threat to himself or his immediate environment. However, if left untreated, a person can turn into an antisocial person who will need to be isolated from people.

How to get rid of split personality

When deciding to get rid of an existing problem, you need to remember the consequences of an irresponsible attitude towards the state of your nervous system.

Drug treatment for multiple personality disorder

In some cases, medications may be used for a long time. When understanding one’s own identity is impaired, experts prescribe the following medications:

• Neuroleptics. They are usually prescribed as a preventive measure for a disease such as schizophrenia. However, with a split personality, Haloperidol, Sonapax and Azaleptin will also help, which reduce delusional disorders and eliminate the manic state.
• Antidepressants. The causes of split personality should often be sought in the depressed state of a person after suffering stress. In this case, the doctor may prescribe a course of Prozac, which, if quite affordable price able to eliminate manifestations of depression and reluctance to plan for one’s future. Analogs of this drug are “Fluoxetine” and “Portal”.
• Tranquilizers. Self-medication in in this case is strictly contraindicated. After a general examination of the patient’s condition, the doctor may recommend Clonazepam, which has an anxiolytic effect. However, it is not recommended for use in cases of prolonged depression with suicidal tendencies.
• Nootropic drugs. For retrograde amnesia, which leads to split personality, it is necessary to undergo a course of treatment with Piracetam, Aminalon or Nootropil. Such medications improve the patient’s memory and stimulate his brain activity.
• Accompanying complex. While taking medications prescribed by a specialist, the use of B vitamins and nicotinic acid preparations is often recommended. During this period, it is also useful to use drugs such as Trental and Pentoxifylline.

Before prescribing (individually) certain medications, it is necessary to undergo a full examination to identify certain diseases. The possibility of the patient having pathologies such as schizophrenia, brain tumors, mental retardation and epilepsy should be excluded.

Help from psychologists for dissociative disorder

In combination with the reception medicines It is recommended to undergo the following rehabilitation course:

1. Introspection. In very rare cases, the patient admits that there are any problems regarding his mental state. If you realize that you have a pathology, you can try to write down on a piece of paper all the symptoms that worry you. With the list compiled, you need to visit a specialist so that he can initially see the full picture of the ongoing disease.
2. Abstraction method. If people exhibit all the signs of depersonalization, then they should urgently stop the cyclical cloning of one’s own “I”. You need to clearly understand your preferences and capabilities, while simultaneously destroying pseudo-images in the subconscious.
3. Self-affirmation strategy. There are three types of such therapy, which consider constructive and compensatory approaches to resolving the problem of dual personality. At the same time, there is no need to radically change your idea of ​​human well-being. If people prefer to be janitors or builders, then this does not at all characterize them as inferior individuals without ambitions.
4. Family psychotherapy. Relatives can speed up the rehabilitation process of a person they care about. Collective training is effective only if the patient with split personality does not have a support group from his immediate environment. In a different situation, family classes under the guidance of an experienced consultant have proven themselves to be excellent.
5. Cognitive psychotherapy. Treatment of multiple personality disorder involves the transformation of signals that are formed in the human brain. With this technique, the origins of dissonance are determined when there is a logical discrepancy between the patient’s personal perception of the surrounding reality. Based on the information received, the psychologist decides on a treatment plan for his patient.
6. Hypnosis. Closing additional personalities is quite effectively done using the sounded method of getting rid of the splitting of internal consciousness. A specialist, putting his patient into a trance, programs him to give up unnecessary images that block the manifestation of a person’s own “I”.

Prevention of dual personality disorder

To avoid a situation where trouble comes and open the gate, it is necessary to take the following measures to protect against this pathology:

• Examination by a specialist. Some people clearly remember that it is recommended to visit the dentist once every six months, forgetting about the need to regularly monitor the condition of their nervous system. At the same time, it is not necessary to become a regular visitor to the psychiatrist’s office, but at the slightest alarming signs of a split personality, you need to mandatory seek help from a professional.
• Avoiding stress. It is almost impossible to avoid conflicting and mentally dangerous situations as much as possible. However, anyone can mitigate the effects of stress. Having studied your reaction to certain things, you need to stop communicating with certain people and limit visiting places that are uncomfortable for the nervous system.
• Refusal from uncontrolled use of medications. Some people diagnose themselves and then begin treatment based on the advice of friends or Internet data. Such groundless therapy can not only negatively affect the human digestive organs, but also with the accumulation of certain chemical substances change his consciousness regarding society and his presence in it.
• Rejection of bad habits. Conversations with green devils are a well-known topic for many jokes. However, in practice, such a vision of leisure can lead to depersonalization due to drug addiction or alcoholism.

How to get rid of split personality - watch the video:

When solving the problem of how to treat split personality, you need to seek help from a psychiatrist. Independent actions in this case can lead to progression of the disease and placement of the patient in a closed institution.

Do you experience memory loss or frequent feelings of disorientation? You may be experiencing symptoms of a condition known as multiple personality disorder. However, do not panic, since only a doctor can make a final diagnosis after a thorough examination. And any disturbances in the functioning of memory and psyche should alert you and force you to seek medical help. After all, such signs indicate problems that must be solved. Self-medication will not help here and may even cause harm.

This disorder is quite rare. Its main feature is the division or splitting of a person’s personality into several components. There can be from two to hundreds of them. At certain intervals, a “switch” is triggered and one personality (identity) is replaced by another. Moreover, none of the existing personalities knows that there are others. Identities often differ not only by age, but also by gender, nationality, intellectual development, worldview. That is, the same adult or child reacts differently in similar situations.

The phenomenon called “split personality” is one of the extreme cases of the dissociation mechanism. Its task is to protect the psyche from strong shocks and emotions, but it works in such a way that a person feels as if everything is happening not to him, but to someone else.

IN normal conditions such protection is useful because it develops resilience to shocks. However, in a situation where the defense is activated too much, a dissociative disorder occurs. It should not be confused with disorders that occur in the psyche of a person with schizophrenia.

To this day, there is a debate around this phenomenon. Experts still cannot determine what is considered split personality and what exactly to call this disease. Today it is common to call it dissociative identity disorder, since that is how it is written in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Before that, one could come across another name - multiple personality disorder, which was consolidated International classification diseases (ICD-10).

Experts consider split personality as a specific reaction to some type of trauma or type of emotional stress. It is also associated with the phenomenon of borderline personality disorder. Researchers of this phenomenon argue that a factor in the development of dissociative disorder is abandonment and absence of a mother in children under the age of 2 years.

This condition can occur in people of any age and even in children. Diagnosing a child must be carried out very carefully and carefully so as not to confuse split personality and games with an imaginary friend, or the activation of other fantasies. Here Special attention should pay attention to the main symptoms.

Reasons for appearance

Split personality does not arise spontaneously; it has a rather complex and long development process. As a result of the defensive reaction of the psyche to any traumatic event or action on the part of another person, some functions and thoughts are separated, which normally occur in the consciousness of a single person. At the same time, these thoughts or actions are not completely erased from memory, and can surface at any time.

Their appearance is often spontaneous and occurs when a trigger mechanism is activated. It can be a thing, an event, any object that was near the person at the time of injury. That is, if one of the abusive family members liked certain films, then watching them may cause a person with dissociative disorder to experience images and thoughts about a difficult childhood.

In practice, it is accepted that the causes of split personality are factors such as:

• Very severe stress caused by moral and physical violence;
• existing abilities for dissociative disorders;
• excessive activation of defense mechanisms.

Of particular importance are defensive reactions body at a young age. A lack of involvement and care, as well as a failure to provide the child with protection when he needs it, can all cause a disorder whose symptoms will not appear until much later. Parents and educators should take into account that personality unification is not an innate ability, but an acquired one. And its formation depends on many factors that should not be overlooked during upbringing.

The formation of a disorder such as multiple personality disorder occurs over a long period of time, but dissociative disorder itself will not necessarily indicate the presence of a mental illness.

Dissociation is a mechanism that works in stressful situation Every person. Events such as a car or plane accident, prolonged sleep deprivation, prolonged exposure to laughing gas, and certain types of dental procedures can cause a person to become disorientated and dissociated. People who like to immerse themselves deeply in books and films can also experience a feeling of being lost. While reading or watching, the surrounding reality simply ceases to exist for a while.

Knowing the main symptoms helps distinguish mental illness.

Main symptoms

Split personality or multiple personality disorder is deservedly considered one of the most severe forms of dissociative disorder. It has specific symptoms that help diagnose it.

These include conditions:

Split/split personality can be found in people who have been subjected to forced indoctrination for a long time. In addition to those mentioned above, the patient may experience severe depression and a desire to realize his intention to commit suicide.

Diagnostic methods

According to the DSM-IV, dissociative disorder should be diagnosed based on the following:

1. When a patient has two or more distinguishable personality states. At the same time, the presence of a stable model of perception of the world, a peculiarity of worldview and attitude to reality that surrounds the individual is noted.
2. At least two of these states can absorb the human mind, which gives it control and the ability to direct behavior.
3. If the patient is unable to remember vital information about yourself, and this is not a form of simple forgetfulness.
4. When the cause of such a condition is not the influence of alcohol, drugs, other toxic substances or one of the diseases. If a child is diagnosed, an important part of it is to separate the disorder from games with an imaginary friend or other fantasy games.

But these criteria are not in themselves exhaustive and claim to be absolute truth. Increasingly, they are criticized by many experts because they do not take into account a large number of factors ignored important features. Because of this, they are considered not very reliable. Therefore, the doctor always treats the diagnosis very carefully and takes into account not only the signs described above, but also his experience and long-term observation of the patient.

One of the options for making a correct diagnosis is to exclude a disease such as organic brain damage. This can be done with the help of special studies - EEG, MRI, CT.

In a differential analysis, the specialist tries to exclude all diseases that have similar symptoms. These include disorders of the brain, epilepsy, and various post-traumatic disorders. Certain substances can also cause similar symptoms.

Treatment

To treat split personality, psychotherapy and special medications are used. Provide the right help can only be a doctor who has not only watched films or read books about this condition, but also has great experience in his treatment.

IN drug treatment They give preference to antidepressants or tranquilizers, which can reduce the patient’s excess activity and relieve him of depressive conditions. However, it is worth considering that many patients quickly get used to the composition of these drugs, which reduces the effectiveness of the medications.

Some specialists use hypnosis, believing that it will help cope with this condition due to the fact that it itself is a variant of dissociation. With its help, it is sometimes possible to get rid of some additional personalities.

The effectiveness of treatment depends on the form of the disease (mild, moderate, severe) and individual characteristics patient. In any case, if you notice symptoms of multiple personality disorder in someone, you should immediately contact a psychiatrist. Just choose a specialist who has experience in treating such conditions.

Fun fact: The most popular image of a person with multiple personality disorder is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Based on the story by R. Stevenson, films are made that depict Hyde as a giant who can jump on the roofs of houses. During the transformation, his clothes always get torn. But the way the films present this image differs from the description of Hyde in the original story. In Stevenson's case, he was a short and frail young (younger than Jekyll) man, whose arms had increased hairiness. The only truth that the films show is that this creature causes unpleasant feelings in everyone who sees it.

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