DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder): Retracing History

Deciding the topic of my first official post was quite confusing, because when commenting about all things mental health, there's a million paths you can take. Thankfully, this dilemma was solved quickly, because I had been researching about Dissociative Identity Disorder, and figured why not start with an area that has much history and debate. The research on DID started because I was watching a Kdrama (South Korean TV Series) recently called Kill Me, Heal Me in which the lead character has DID, or Dissociative Identity Disorder. While not entirely correct in depiction of the disorder and the psychological methods due to their need to make it more dramatic, it still manages to depict the basic symptoms.

Now a quick search on google would allow you to find out what DID is, which is "a severe condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in—and alternately take control of—an individual." To make this more simpler, it is basically a mental disorder in which the mind is fractured into pieces causing "different people" to live in one body. People with this rare condition are often victims of severe abuse, as it takes a lot of stress to break a person and leave so much damage. They also experiences memory loss that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

The term DID is quite recent, as psychology itself is a rather newly established area of study, but the symptoms of DID can be traced through history, or so many people say, back to Paleolithic cave paintings in the images of shamans. Others suggest that it dates back to reports of demonic possession that are now thought to be incidences of dissociative identity disorder. Either way, it's clear that dissociative identity disorder has a long history and is not a new concept.

The first detailed account of "exchanged personality" (as it was denoted in this case) in 1791, where a German doctor called Eberhardt Gmelin reported a bizarre case. One of his patients, a 20-year-old German middle-class woman regularly transformed into a French aristocrat. She spoke perfect French and even spoke German with a French accent in those moments. When she was the "French Woman" she remembered everything she did but as the "German Woman" she denied any knowledge of the "French Woman."

Then came up on of the most famous cases of DID in history, one on which the famous book and TV miniseries 'Sybil' was based upon. Shirley Mason had a very traumatic childhood in which her mother committed barbaric acts on her, but it was not until much later in life that she started seeking for help with her mental problems. The case, while well-known is also scrutinised for its authenticity as many people believe that Mason was a mentally ill woman who adored her psychiatrist, and that the idea of multiple personalities was planted in her head.

The video below discusses not just the story of Sybil, but the evolution of the concept of Dissociative Identity Disorder and the obstacles faced to establish the correct diagnosis and methods of treatment for this disorder.