Originally posted by Mad Man Lotar
Just collecting data and consensus, thanks.

The primary criterion for the diagnosis of DID is the presence of two or more separate selves within the same body, which may have very different ways of acting, thinking and speaking, and may be of different gender identities, ethnicities or sexual orientations. Depending on the severity of the condition, one personality may not recall incidents that happened when another personality was predominant. Generally, one or two personalities assume the role of frontrunner, performing most tasks in the everyday world, although this does not appear to indicate that they are especially more developed or more "real".

MPD or DID is most commonly diagnosed in people who are, typically in recovered memory therapy, found to be the victims of severe repeated trauma (usually child abuse) very early in life. Whether this abuse (often claimed to be religious in character, sometimes satanic ritual abuse) actually happened in the majority of cases or whether false memories were induced by the therapist is subject of much debate. In the recovered-memory movement of the 1980s and 90s, therapists often refused to believe clients who reported childhood abuse incidents which did not include more extreme features. Clients were pushed and prodded to "remember" more brutal and graphic abuse; they were told they'd "never get well" until they did. The movement culminated in a tidal wave of scandal and lawsuits which discredited both recovered memory and multiple personality among clinicians, academics, and the general public.

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