Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple-personality disorder, is one of the more controversial diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fourth edition; DSM-IV), with there being considerable disagreement over the validity and etiology of the disorder. Amnesia between identities is central to a diagnosis of DID. While explicit memory tests often result in amnesic responding in DID patients, more objective memory tests often fail to corroborate selfreports of amnesia between identities. Two perspectives dominate the debate on the cause of DID, with the traditional view proposing that DID manifests as a mechanism for coping with childhood trauma and an alternative sociocognitive perspective suggesting that DID is a response to social demands, with an iatrogenic etiology. The rise in prevalence rates ...