MPD is usually developed as a defense mechanism in people who were abused as children. They develop different personalities to deal with different situations. This is an extremely rare disorder in that less than .1% of the population develop MPD in their lifetime. MPD is an amazing defense mechanism in some respects, and very maladaptive in others.
People with MPD can have an essentially limitless number of personalities as they say ‘walking around in their head’ in an attempt to deal with their life situation. Some people merely split themselves in two like Jack/Tyler in Fight Club, and others can develop twenty or more distinct personalities like the character Julie in the book 9 Highland Road.
Jack/Tyler was bored with his life and didn’t like being what he saw as a boring pacifist so he created Tyler to make himself more masculine/spice up his life. This is the stereotype that most people believe MPD conforms to. This Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde persona who takes drastic shifts form one personality extreme to the other when the situation calls for it is not the typical MPD case.
Julie in 9 Highland Road is much more standard. Julie has fifteen personalities ranging in age from three to about twenty five. She created them to deal with her very abusive childhood, and they range in personality from promiscuous seventeen year old Marlina to three year old happy-go-lucky Didi to twenty something Abigail who keeps everyone in line.
All of these personalities keep the person from having to deal with the terrible parts of their life. They are about as close to a repressed memory as a person can truly get, but there are some really bad consequences that go along with having MPD.
Continued…
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