Dissociative disorder, better known as multiple personality disorder, is a very rare mental illness in which several different personalities coexist in the body of one person.

According to scientists, dissociative disorder first appears in a person in early age in response to cruelty and violent acts. Unable to independently cope with a traumatic situation, the child’s consciousness creates new personalities who take on the entire burden of unbearable pain. Science knows of cases where several dozen personalities existed in one person. They can differ in gender, age and even nationality, have different handwriting, characters, habits and taste preferences. Interestingly, individuals may not even be aware of each other’s existence.

Juanita Maxwell

In 1979, an elderly guest was brutally murdered in a hotel in the small American town of Fort Myers. Maid Juanita Maxwell was detained on suspicion of murder. The woman did not plead guilty, but during medical examination It turned out that she suffers from dissociative disorder. Six personalities coexisted in her body, one of them, named Wanda Weston, committed the murder. At the court hearing, the lawyers ensured that the criminal personality emerged. Before the judge's eyes, the quiet and taciturn Juanita turned into a noisy and aggressive Wanda, who laughed and told how she killed her as a result of a quarrel. an elderly woman. The criminal was sent to psychiatric hospital.

Herschel Walker

An American football player suffered from excess weight and speech problems. It was then that two more personalities settled in the plump and clumsy Herschel - a “warrior” with outstanding abilities in football, and a “hero” who shines at social events. It was only years later that Herschel, tired of the chaos in his head, sought medical help.

In 1953, the film “The Three Faces of Eve” was released. The film is based on true story Chris Seizemore is a woman in whom 22 personalities coexisted for a long time. Chris noticed the first oddities in her behavior as a child, when she discovered that several little girls existed in her body. However, Chris turned to the doctor as an adult after one of the individuals tried to kill her little daughter. After many years of treatment, the woman was able to get rid of the restless inhabitants of her head.

“The most difficult thing in my recovery is the feeling of loneliness that does not leave me. My head suddenly became quiet. There was no one else there. I thought I killed myself. It took me about a year to understand that all these personalities were not me, they existed outside of me, and it was time to get to know the real me.”

The story of Shirley Mason was used as the basis for the film Sybil. Shirley was a university teacher. One day she turned to psychiatrist Cornelia Wilbur with complaints of emotional instability, memory loss and dystrophy. The doctor discovered that Shirley was suffering from dissociative disorder. Mason's first subpersonalities appeared at the age of three after severe bullying from her schizophrenic mother. After long-term therapy, the psychiatrist was able to integrate all 16 personalities into one. However, for the rest of her life, Shirley was dependent on barbiturates. She died in 1998 from breast cancer.

Many modern psychiatrists question the authenticity of this story. They suspect that Cornelia could simply instill in her impressionable patient the belief that she has multiple personalities.

Mary Reynolds

1811 England. 19-year-old Mary Reynolds went into a field to read a book alone. A few hours later she was found unconscious there. When she woke up, the girl did not remember anything and could not speak, and also became blind, deaf and forgot how to read. After some time, the lost skills and abilities returned to Mary, but her character completely changed. While she had been quiet and depressed before losing consciousness, she has now transformed into a witty and cheerful young woman. After 5 months, Mary again became quiet and thoughtful, but not for long: one morning she woke up energetic and cheerful again. Thus, she moved from one state to another for 15 years. Then "quiet" Mary disappeared forever.

Karen Overhill

29-year-old Karen Overhill turned to Chicago psychiatrist Richard Bayer with complaints of depression, memory loss and headache. After some time, the doctor managed to find out that 17 personalities coexist inside his patient. Among them are two-year-old Karen, black teenager Jensen and 34-year-old father Holden. Each of these characters had their own voice, personality traits, demeanor and skills. For example, only one of the personalities knew how to drive a car, and the rest had to wait patiently for her to become available and take them to right place. Some of the individuals were right-handed, others were left-handed.

It turned out that Karen had to go through terrible things as a child: she was bullied and abused by her father and grandfather. Later, the girl’s relatives offered her to other men for money. To cope with this whole nightmare, Karen created virtual friends who supported her, protected her from pain and terrible memories.

Dr. Bayer worked with Karen for over 20 years and was eventually able to cure her by merging all of her personalities into one.

British artist Kim Noble is 57 years old and has suffered from dissociative disorder for almost her entire life. There are 20 personalities living in a woman’s head – little boy Diabalus, who knows Latin, young Judy, suffering from anorexia, 12-year-old Ria, who paints dark scenes of violence... Each of the characters can appear at any moment; usually, in a day, Kim manages to “manage” 3-4 subpersonalities in turn in her head.

“Sometimes I manage to change 4-5 outfits in a morning... Sometimes I open my closet and see clothes that I didn’t buy, or they deliver pizza that I didn’t order... I can sit on the couch and after a while find myself in a bar or driving a car without a single thought about where I'm going"

Doctors have been monitoring Kim for many years, but have so far been unable to help her. The woman has a daughter, Aimee, who is accustomed to her mother's unusual behavior. Kim does not know exactly who the father of her child is; she does not remember either her pregnancy or the moment of birth. However, all of her personalities treat Aimee well and have never hurt her.

Estelle La Gardie

This unique case was described by the French psychiatrist Antoine Despin in 1840. His eleven-year-old patient Estelle suffered from severe pain. She was paralyzed, lying motionless in bed and half asleep the entire time.

After the treatment, Estelle began to periodically fall into a hypnotic state, during which she got out of bed, ran, swam and took walks in the mountains. Then metamorphosis occurred again and the girl remained bedridden. The “second” Estelle asked those around her to feel sorry for the “first” and to comply with all her whims. After some time, the patient improved and was discharged. Despin assumed that the split personality was caused by magnetotherapy, which was used on the girl.

The unique case of Billy Milligan was described by writer Ken Keyes in the book The Many Minds of Billy Milligan. In 1977, Milligan was arrested on suspicion of several rapes of girls. During a medical examination, doctors concluded that the suspect suffers from a dissociative disorder. Psychiatrists identified 24 individuals of different genders, ages and nationalities. One of the inhabitants of this “hostel” was 19-year-old lesbian Adalana, who, so to speak, committed rape.

After lengthy legal proceedings, Milligan was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Here he spent 10 years and then was discharged. Milligan died in 2014 in a nursing home. He was 59 years old.

WITH early childhood Trudy Chase from New York was abused and abused by her mother and stepfather. To adapt to the nightmarish reality, Trudy created large number new personalities – unique “keepers of memories.” Thus, a person nicknamed Black Catherine kept in her memory episodes associated with anger and rage, and a person named Rabbit was full of pain... Trudy Chase became popular after she published her autobiographical book “When the Rabbit Howls” and became a guest on Oprah Winfrey’s show.

Today, many films, including comedies, deal with split personality disorder, so many people have come to find it funny. But this is a serious mental disorder, the symptoms and signs of which cause real suffering to a person. In fact, this is not a game, but a disease that often leads to suicide. How does such a violation manifest itself?

The Many Faces of Me: How Dangerous Is It?

The concept of “split personality” has long been used in psychology; in medical language it is also called « dissociative identity disorder." This is a condition in which a different person is suddenly discovered in the patient, and he behaves completely differently. In some cases, there are even several individuals within one owner. It's rare and dangerous violation, which if left untreated will progress and can lead to fatal consequences.

Is it correct to believe that split personality is schizophrenia? No, modern psychiatry has proven that these are different concepts. Schizophrenia is not a split, but disorganization, non-compliance with accepted social norms, illogicality from the point of view ordinary people. People suffering from this disease lose their sense of reality, are unable to distinguish the imaginary from reality, and see hallucinations. And everything that happens to them is perceived as the consequences of external influence.

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Split personality is a condition in which an individual carries within himself from two to hundreds of alternative personalities (roughly speaking, a good Self and a bad Self). They seem to coexist in one body and manifest themselves in different times, and one of them is dominant.

Why is this happening?

Where does split personality come from? The reasons, as suggested by experts in the field of psychiatry, are as follows:

• “exorbitant” stress. Experiences that the psyche cannot withstand;
• activation of protective mechanisms. In an effort to escape from the terrible reality or dissatisfaction with his position, place in society, external data, a person begins to try on other people's images;
• lack of care, love and attention in childhood;
• psychological trauma received in childhood;
• violence - physical, mental or sexual;
• post-traumatic disorder;
• tendency to dissociative disorders.

On the other side of yourself: how does multiple personality syndrome manifest itself?

A person is not always able to notice a split personality in himself, but those around him who know him well can pay attention to the following symptoms and signs characteristic of this mental problem:

• change from one personality to another. That is, a person’s behavior suddenly changes dramatically, he ceases to be like himself - as if some kind of switch is triggered inside him. Demonstrates a style of behavior that is not typical for him;
• the inability to understand oneself as a specific person. Gradually, the patient cannot determine where his real self is and where his fictitious self is. The person loses his sense of personal identity. He cannot answer who he really is. His new “alter egos” may even be of a different gender and age. At the moment of predominance of any of the personalities, the patient does not realize that other individuals “live” in him. He speaks out and acts on behalf of his second self;
• loss of self-awareness. It comes suddenly. The individual suddenly feels that his thoughts and body began to belong to another, he loses tactile sensitivity and the ability to perform ordinary daily skills;
• depersonalization. At times a person feels like an outside observer: he does not associate himself with his own body, although the perception of the world around him does not change;
• headaches;
• disorientation. Distortion of spatial and temporal barriers. It seems to a person that he has disproportionate limbs, or even has the feeling that he is a robot;
• escape, sudden departure from work or home. When asked where he was and what he was doing, the person cannot give an intelligible answer;
• lostness. Being in the “alter” state, the patient is not able to understand where he is, which provokes panic. In some cases, he becomes dangerous to others;
• a feeling of unreality of what is happening and the surrounding world as a whole;
• constant anxiety;
• trance. Temporary lack of reactions to external stimuli. From the outside it seems that a person is looking “into nowhere”;
• passing (Ganzer syndrome). If you ask a person about simple things which are familiar to everyone, he gives incorrect answers. This symptom is more often found in men;
• sudden mood changes;
• prolonged depression;
• attacks of increased aggressiveness, activity and hyperexcitability;
• memory lapses. Moreover, consciousness in most cases remains intact;
• phobias;
• loss of skills he possessed;
• auditory hallucinations. There are voices in your head that tell you what to do. Sometimes two personalities talk or argue with each other;

• eating disorder;
• desire to commit suicide;
• gradual increase in symptoms of a mental disorder. This leads to the fact that one’s own personality (basic) is completely erased from consciousness.

When identification is impaired, a person's mind becomes filled with other people's thoughts and ideas. His consciousness splits into several personalities, and each lives its own life.

How to get yourself back: principles of treatment

The disease requires complex and long-term treatment. Often people with this diagnosis are under the supervision of a doctor all their lives. Antipsychotics (Haloperidol, Azaleptin), antidepressants (Prozac), tranquilizers (Clonazepam) are prescribed as medications. Except medicines Hypnosis is used (to block alter personalities), psychotherapeutic techniques, and electroconvulsive therapy.

The term “split personality” is familiar to every person. This topic has been widely covered thanks to the efforts of Hollywood film directors and modern writers. However, in most cases, feature films and literature incorrectly reveal the essence of this phenomenon. Many people mistakenly believe that multiple personality disorder is a manifestation of schizophrenia or complications due to drug use. In this article, we propose to consider how split personality manifests itself, the symptoms and signs of the development of this pathology.

Split personality is a disease that is expressed by the appearance of a second personality in an individual

The name of the disease is split personality in medical terminology - dissociative identity disorder. This disease is considered quite rare and belongs to the group of mental conversion disorders. Many scientists have devoted their lives to studying this phenomenon. Over many decades, the disease in question has changed many names. Terms such as “multiple personality disorder,” “disorder multiple personality" and "identity conversion disorder" are synonyms for the pathology in question.

Just a few decades ago, people with this condition could have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Currently, most specialists in the field of psychiatry are inclined to believe that the correct term for this disease is “dissociative identity disorder.”

The fact is that during the process of splitting consciousness, such patients experience a fusion of several personalities in one body. These individuals are not considered independent or full-fledged. Essentially, split consciousness is broken into small fragments, each of which has its own uniqueness. That is why the term used today most correctly characterizes the entire essence of the disease. Mental disorders lead to human body controlled by several individuals. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that when the body is controlled by one of the personalities, the second is in a kind of suspended animation and does not record what is happening.

Patients with this diagnosis often suffer from memory loss, since the main personality does not remember what happened at the moment of “switching”.

It should be noted that several personalities may be present in the body of a sick person. They can be of different gender, religion, character and even age. Depending on the personality type, the patient’s behavior and worldview change.

How to understand the term “dissociative disorder”

Having understood what split personality is called scientifically, let’s move on to the term “conversion disorder”. Diseases included in this group, have one distinctive feature– changes in mental performance, which are accompanied by disruptions in consciousness, memory and identity.

A disease such as “split personality” can manifest itself at any age.

Various disruptions in continuous streams of consciousness lead to certain branches of the psyche gaining independence. Exactly this process characterized using the term “dissociation”. The result of such disruptions in the streams of consciousness is psychogenic amnesia, conversion fugue and split personality. The term in question has been used in psychology for more than a hundred years, but the phenomenon of dissociative disorders has been known for more than several hundred years.

Many experts in the field of psychiatry believe that medieval rites of expelling spirits from the human body are one of the manifestations of the fight against split personality syndrome. In their opinion, the abilities of mediums and clairvoyants also relate to dissociative disorders, which manifest themselves in the form of the ability to plunge into a trance. Modern medicine suggests that such disorders manifest themselves under the influence of severe emotional shocks.

Mechanism of disease development

Split personality has such a varied degree of severity that it is quite problematic to notice signs of the development of the disease on your own. Some people do not attach due importance to the first symptoms of the development of pathology, which can significantly complicate further therapy. Dissociation manifests itself in modern life in the form of daydreaming and absent-mindedness, while performing actions that have been memorized to the point of automaticity.

In some cultures, the trance state when shamans (mediums or clairvoyants) perform their mysterious rituals is not perceived as a manifestation of illness. Split personality, in which a person’s consciousness is divided into several independent individuals, is one of the most striking manifestations of dissociative disorders.

To date, experts have not yet determined the degree of danger of this pathology. Multiple personality disorder, according to some psychotherapists, is much less common than this diagnosis is recorded. According to statistics, in the nineteenth century only a few dozen cases of patients with a similar disease were recorded. The same statistics show that in modern world more than forty thousand people have this diagnosis. Researchers on this issue say that from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, such patients were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Modern medicine has the ability to make a clear distinction between these diseases, which reduces the risk of misdiagnosis.

Despite this, true split personality is quite rare. It is simply impossible to cope with this disease on your own, so it is very important that the patient seek qualified medical help.

The cause of the disease is most often a serious psychological shock

Clinical manifestations of dual personality

Multiple personality syndrome has this characteristic feature, as the presence of several “I” in the patient, which have clear differences in the perception of the surrounding world. It should be noted that this disease in most cases is accompanied by a complication such as psychogenic amnesia. Memory lapses are one of the manifestations of the protective mechanisms of consciousness, with the help of which the psyche smoothes out negative emotional shocks. In people with multiple personality syndrome, this mechanism is a kind of trigger for personality displacement. There are several main signs of the development of this disease:

1. Sudden change in mood long-term depression and suicidal tendencies.
2. Feelings of anxiety, sleep disturbances, causeless fear, nightmares, insomnia.
3. Loss of appetite, refusal to eat, absent-mindedness, confusion, depersonalization.
4. Frequent changes in tastes, frequent changes in intonation and timbre of voice, an attempt to talk to oneself.

One example clear symptoms presence of dissociative identity disorder – panic attacks and various phobias. The similarity between schizophrenia and dissociative disorder lies not only in the symptoms described above, but also in the fact that the patient may experience bouts of hallucinations. It is this manifestation of the disease that greatly complicates the correct diagnosis. It is important to note here that both diseases are of a different nature and are in no way related to each other.

The root cause of the development of pathology

When examining the topic of what a split personality is, the symptoms and causes of the disease, you should pay attention special attention psychogenic factors leading to the formation of a dissociative disorder. According to experts, a number of specific circumstances contribute to the splitting of consciousness. The catalyst for this process can be nervous disorders and shocks that a person is unable to survive without support. According to psychotherapists, multiple personality is a kind of attempt by the psyche to protect itself from experiences that bring pain.

A person who suffers from this disease quite often may become lost in space and not feel reality.

People with multiple personality disorder have the ability to block out unpleasant memories. Often, the presence of such abilities in combination with the ability to “fall into a trance” is a kind of impetus for the development of identity splitting. Most often reasons of this disease associated with traumatic memories from childhood. The inability to protect oneself from the negative impact of various circumstances in the future can serve as a kind of impetus for the development of the disease. According to experts involved in the study of this issue, the main reason for the development of this pathology is physical violence suffered in childhood.

American researchers have concluded that in more than ninety percent of cases, it was violence that caused the development of conversion disorder. In less than ten percent of cases, such mental disorders develop against the background of the presence serious illnesses or the fact of loss of loved ones. It can also serve as an impetus for split personality natural disaster, emergencies and even war.

How to make a diagnosis

Let's look at how to understand that in front of you is a person with a split identity. This disease is so rare that correct setting The diagnosis uses the differential diagnostic method. The main task of the specialist, during the examination, is to exclude diseases with similar clinical symptoms. These diseases include organic brain lesions, bipolar disorder, dementia and amnesia. In addition, the possible influence of toxic and hallucinogenic substances should be excluded.

It should also be mentioned that a disease such as schizophrenia has certain similarities with dissociative identity disorder. Based on all of the above, if there is a lack of certain knowledge, it is very easy to confuse the disease in question with other types of mental illnesses. During diagnosis, the doctor must take into account the fact that split personality has many various manifestations. The difference between schizophrenia and split personality is that the latter is accompanied by the emergence of practically independent personalities. And schizophrenia itself is characterized by the splitting off of only certain mental functions.

Split personality occurs in stages, creating the opportunity to identify the disease at initial phase its development

Knowing how you can get split personality, the doctor will be able to diagnose correct diagnosis based on the following symptoms:

1. No influence on consciousness of narcotic or alcohol addiction, toxic substances and complex pathologies.
2. The presence of memory problems that do not have common features with simple absent-mindedness.
3. The presence of two or more individuals who have clear boundaries in the perception of the surrounding reality and differences in worldview.
4. The presence of at least one additional personality capable of controlling the patient’s behavior.

Treatment method

Is there a cure for split personality? It is quite difficult to answer this question, but, without a doubt, this mental disorder should be treated. If you discover signs of split consciousness, you need to visit a specialist as soon as possible. After conducting a differential examination, the main task of the doctor is to combine individual identities into one personality with increased stability and adaptability.

To achieve this goal, we use various techniques psychotherapy. Cognitive method, family therapy, introduction to a hypnotic state and conservative drug treatment, allow you to achieve a positive result. It is important to note that medications are used only to relieve symptoms that worry the patient. The main task of a specialist is to help in overcoming the various consequences of psychological trauma.

On initial stages therapy should identify the cause that became the trigger for the splitting of consciousness.

Unfortunately, not everyone succeeds in achieving lasting results and being able to combine different personalities into one. Because of this, one of the goals of therapy is to try to establish peaceful coexistence of different identities in one body. The patient’s desire to cope with his problem and improve his life is the key to achieving a positive result.

Split personality is a crude psychological construct, the presence of which is manifested by a special phenomenon of thinking when the owner has two or more personalities at the same time. There are severe isolated cases when the number of individuals exceeds a dozen.

First of all, there is a violation mental functions in a wide variety of areas. Consciousness and identity, continuity of memory - all these functions and their anomalousness form the basis of this phenomenon, which is subject to careful study.

For the average person, all these functions are unified and work smoothly, without causing any significant discomfort. The stream of consciousness is smooth, consistent, typical. In patients with the disease in question, on the contrary, a certain part of their own identification stands out from the stream of consciousness.

Perhaps such internal withdrawal allows them to gain a new identity, become independent from traumatic memories, or idealize their Self. Some of the fragments of memory are simply blocked by the patient’s brain, which is extremely reminiscent of such a well-known condition as psychogenic amnesia.

Reasons

First of all, it should be noted that this disease is a rather difficult to understand mechanism when the patient’s mind gains the opportunity for some kind of deep division into several parts of thoughts and fragments of memory.

Separated in this way, they cease to communicate with each other, due to which the illusion of having multiple personalities is created. These thoughts are not erased, which is clearly noticeable when the patient encounters so-called “triggers,” that is, people, environmental objects, smells, and even musical compositions from the “erased memory.”

It is believed that this condition occurs only as a result of a combination of a number of factors. First of all, this is an unbearable, prohibitive level of stress, which affects the patient’s brain’s ability to dissociate. In part, dissociation here acts as a protective mechanism, but it is also possible that other types of mechanisms are at work, so firmly hiding memories in the farthest chamber of memory. In addition, the patient’s endogenous predisposition to this kind of behavior is definitely manifested here. mental processes. Many of the roots of the disease come from childhood itself, since even at such a young age, patients were already experiencing a lack of identity as such, a retreat into the inner world due to various kinds of traumatic experiences. The lack of parental attention and care at the time of such a disastrous experience, in many ways, only served to develop the disease. In some cases, the process of dissociation is characteristic and completely healthy people. The reasons may be different: the use of nmda antagonists during anesthesia, sleep deprivation or strong traumatic injuries brain during an accident. But this dissociative experience is only momentary. While split personality is a persistent mental phenomenon. Extreme preoccupation with any monotonous activity is noted as a predisposition to this kind of condition. A person is so absorbed in reading a book, playing games or watching videos that the world around us as if it is losing reality for him. In part, this is similar to the conditions that arise under the influence of hypnosis. It is known that people experience dissociative experiences during religious rituals. A person puts himself into a state of trance, in no small part, with the help of specially used incense, music and rhythmic actions. Meditation and complete sensory deprivation also cause similar conditions. Dissociative identity disorder in moderate and complex forms is correlated with such predisposition factors as the presence of robbery, torture, rape and other examples of extremely ill-treatment. This also includes car accidents and natural disasters. In differential diagnosis, attention is often paid to the similarity of symptoms with patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. The condition in question is, in addition, associated with strong somatization, when a person subconsciously associates the level of his mental well-being with a disease or unpleasant sensations in one or another part of the body.

Research by American colleagues indicates that 98% of adults experiencing symptoms of dissociation showed signs of physical and mental abuse in childhood. Moreover, 85% have documented evidence.

With a high degree of certainty it can be argued that it is violence that is the cause of subsequent dissociation in its most bizarre forms. Even among those who did not have so much obvious reasons, there were always all sorts of stressors present, such as the loss of a loved one, a breadwinner, and so on. All this triggered a further cascade of dissociative reactions, causing a split personality.

Group of dissociative disorders

Multiple personality disorder (MPD), now defined as dissociative identity disorder, is considered the most severe form of the disease, having all the corresponding symptoms.
The following factors contribute to the emergence and exacerbation of forms of dissociation.

endogenous predisposition to dissociation; recurrence of violent episodes noted in childhood; complete absence psychological support in the presence of fairly severe bullying; negative impact from other family members with the same symptoms.

The group of dissociative disorders includes:

psychogenic dissociative amnesia; dissociative fugue (a person disappears from home and returns after a long time, not remembering anything); dissociative identity disorder; depersonalization disorder; Ganser syndrome; dissociation disorder in the form of trance.

Symptoms

The main symptoms to consider are listed below.

The presence of more than one personality in the patient’s mental sphere. They, as a rule, can have a variety of characteristics, including gender, name, age and even century of residence. They replace each other with a certain frequency. The patient himself does not realize the abnormality of what is happening. Signs similar to somnambulism - often the patient is not aware own body. Speech disorders, — the patient gives inadequate answers to trivial questions. Presence of mental imbalance, lability mental state. The patient loses touch with reality and cannot be understood. Migraines. Increased sweating. Insomnia Partial memory loss that occurs during a stressful event. Newly acquired information is assimilated in a normal manner. Sometimes the patient can even understand that this or that memory is “carefully blocked by his brain.” There, during “attacks,” orientation in space is lost, the so-called “fugue.” The difference is that this is not an isolated incident. Lack of a holistic worldview.

A patient in absolutely similar situations can behave in a radically opposite way, as if two or more personalities coexist within him, one of which is displacing the other at the current moment. It is this factor that is dominant when making a diagnosis.

Children experience dual identity in a unique way: they tend to readily respond to the names given to them at birth, but at the same time, show signs of an alternative personality that often takes over their consciousness.

The following symptoms are typical for children:

constantly changing food addictions; different manner of speaking; mood lability; aggressiveness with a “glassy gaze”; amnesia; voices in my head; talking to yourself; inability to explain one's own actions.

All these elements can only be a consequence of prolonged gameplay normal child, which should be taken into account when making a diagnosis. For many children, this kind of reasoning (one of the types of thinking disorders) is a variant of the norm. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder also experience erased dissociative symptoms due to stress.

Diagnostics

The diagnosis is based on whether the patient’s condition corresponds to the following symptoms:

The presence of two or more clearly distinguishable identities or personal states, each of which has its own worldview, attitudes towards reality, memory and model of the world. Each of the identities periodically replaces each other. The patient is unable to remember significant information about himself, and the nature of the forgetfulness does not allow it to be classified as ordinary. The condition did not occur under the influence of various types of narcotic and medicinal substances. It is also important not to confuse children’s games with an imaginary friend, when they are clearly aware of the absence of one in reality. In other words, it is worth taking into account that the child may simply be trying to attract attention.

Scientists say this is just a partial manifestation of the disorder more general. Research is subject to massive criticism: ignoring important features diseases, poor-quality statistical base, inconclusive conclusions.

That is why it is recommended to use polyetiological diagnostic criteria - more flexible and implying various reasons origin, based on an endogenous base. First of all, it is recommended to exclude the possibility organic damage brain using special highly functional scanning techniques ( various types MRI).

Under differential diagnosis implies the exclusion of similar conditions of other etiology:

infectious diseases, brain tumors affecting predominantly the temporal lobe; delirium; schizophrenia; amnestic syndrome; temporal lobe epilepsy; mental retardation; drug use disorders; post-traumatic amnesia; dementia; somatosensory disorders; border personality disorders; bipolar disorder, characterized by rapid alternation of episodes; PTSD; simulation.

Treatment

The illness in question is an extremely confusing mental phenomenon that is difficult to treat. The treatment process for patients suffering from such a severe disorder is extremely complex and takes a long time. long terms, sometimes it lasts throughout the patient’s life.

The standard treatment plan includes:

psychotherapeutic techniques; drug treatment; combination of approaches.

The third approach is most often used, although even in this case the vast majority of patients do not achieve at least short-term remission.

Drug treatment

Split identity, as a disease, reacts rather weakly to medications, erasing only part of the symptoms. Their set is determined by the attending physician based on his opinion about current state patient under observation.

The use of the following drugs is relevant.

antidepressants – Prozac, amitriptyline, paroxetine, sertraline; neuroleptics, including atypical ones: haloperidol, clopixol, Abilify, quetiapine, aminazine;
tranquilizers – clonazepam.

Electroconvulsive therapy is also used, but only those doctors who have completed a course of special postgraduate training and practice are allowed to carry it out.

In addition, psychotherapy also has some role in alleviating the symptoms of the disease. The support of the patient's relatives and friends is extremely important. The possibility of using hypnosis is also considered, often because it itself is directly related to the introduction to such a state.

Factors of drug dependence should also be taken into account. At some point, the manifestations of the patient’s well-being due to the use of heavy psychotropic drugs can no longer be distinguished from the course of the disease itself.

Forecast

The prospects for recovery are twofold. Partial cases of dissociation, for example, dissociative escape or dissociative amnesia, are treated more or less successfully, but sometimes, however, the latter turns into chronic form. In general, this is an extremely serious chronic condition, the treatment of which lasts from 5 years and up to the entire life of the patient.

In the late 70s of the last century, American society was rocked by the story of Billy Milligan, who was arrested on suspicion of robbery and rape. During the investigation, it turned out that the young man was suffering from personality disorder. In it, as in apartment building, live different 24 alter personalities - from a 3-year-old girl Christine from England to a 30-year-old Yugoslav communist Ragen.

The inability to remember any significant event from one’s life is a serious disruption in the functioning of a person’s consciousness. This phenomenon is called dissociative amnesia, and it is expressed to a higher degree than ordinary forgetfulness, which is characteristic of everyone. As a rule, such a failure occurs due to mental trauma; in addition, dissociative amnesia can occur.

Dissociative anesthesia (loss of sensory perception) is a conversion disorder in which the sensitivity of one or more sensory spheres is lost, but lesions from the central nervous system are not objectively recorded. The loss of sensory perception is accompanied by patient complaints of paresthesia, hyperesthesia, anesthesia, decreased visual acuity and clarity, blindness and deafness. paresthesia is a distortion of skin sensitivity in which.

The concept of dissociative stupor in psychiatry is considered as the immobilization of a person through refusal motor functions, which can last from two minutes to several hours. To diagnose this pathology, examinations and a range of studies are provided, which gives a complete clinical picture and the presence of symptoms. The prerequisites for dissociative disorder are mental trauma, stressful situations, etc.

Ganser syndrome is a disease that belongs to the category of artificial mental disorders. This kind of deviation is characterized by a special behavior of the patient, as in the presence of some physical/mental illness, which in reality is absent. In many cases, the symptoms of the pathology in question are similar to schizophrenia. In the medical community, this disease is also known as unofficial name“prison psychosis”, because

The concept of depersonalization is interpreted as a dysfunction of self-awareness, a disorder of perception. At the same time, a person does not perceive his actions from the outside and cannot control them. The primary disorder can be classified as dissociative; awareness of oneself as an individual is lost. Depersonalization disorder is a symptom of mental disorders such as bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia. Being a symptom.

There are many different disorders in the human world psychological nature. 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? A certain situation, often. Exactly stressful situation could once have provoked 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, or 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 next symptom dissociative disorder, which is expressed in the production mental illness. Often this disease is real.

The trance state can be called accompanying 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.