I’m now in retirement, but during my professional career I usually (almost always) wore a suit and tie when I went to work. I enjoyed my work, and I was very comfortable in that role.
But I’m also a committed remodeler. Apart from the time when I was acutely ill, I’ve always had at least one remodeling project on the go – literally all my adult life.
So when I got home from work, I changed “uniforms.” Off with the suit and tie, on with the paint-splattered jeans, plaid shirt, scruffy sweater, and tool belt. And here again, I was very comfortable.
And the change-over wasn’t merely outward. In my professional life, problems had to be approached with tact and circumspection. A great deal of sensitivity to people’s feelings was necessary. Understanding and compassion were essential ingredients. The worksites, on the other hand, were all about decision-making and action – getting things done!
From time to time I would encounter people that I knew in the professional sphere while I was dressed in my remodeler attire, and they would almost always register some surprise. So I really was a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. You might even say I had two “personalities.” And I suspect that there are a great many people who are the same – people who find that doing something completely different in their spare time is the best rest and recuperation from their professional responsibilities.
So why am I (and others like me) not considered eligible for a diagnosis of multiple personality disorder?
Well – because I know that I am the same person playing the different roles. Criterion C. in the DSM is:
“Inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.” (p 529, DSM-IV-TR)
So the critical point is that according to the APA, a person is talking and functioning like a normal adult, but other times talks and functions like a ten-year-old child, but doesn’t realize that she’s shifting back and forth!
But the only evidence that the individual is unaware of the switching back and forth is the individual’s self report. And – believe it or not – people sometimes fib!
The APA and the thousands of psychiatrists who promote this gibberish have created a “crazy” role that subservient, suggestible people can easily play. And, of course, it’s a win/win game: the psychiatrists win because they get their money; the pharmaceutical companies win because they get another person hooked on their products, and the “patient” wins because he or she gets an easy role which seems to relieve one of many of life’s responsibilities. Of course, in the long run the “patient” is destroyed – but psychiatry seldom concerns itself with the long run.
Although I’ve had a very long career in the mental health field, and have worked with literally thousands of clients, I have never encountered anyone who presented the “symptoms” of multiple personality disorder.
If an adult client in my office had started talking in a child’s voice, I would simply have asked: “Why are you talking to me in that childlike way?” and encouraged cogency and realism. If this were not forthcoming, I would have terminated the session.
This approach is in marked contrast to that of the DSM believers, who would start “working with” the “child.” This is encouragement of crazy behavior, and in my view almost all cases of so-called multiple personality disorder are therapist-induced and therapist-maintained. When you’re working with vulnerable, suggestible people, if you encourage craziness, that’s what you get.
There are no mental illnesses!
Next Post: Multiple Personality Disorder, Continued