Dissociative identity disorder research

The MPD/DID epidemic in North America

Paris^[15] in a review offered four possible causes for the sudden increase in people diagnosed with MPD/DID:

1. The result of therapist suggestions to suggestible people, much as Charcot's hysterics acted in accordance with his expectations.


2. Psychiatrists' past failure to recognise dissociation being redressed by new training and knowledge.


3. Dissociative phenomena are actually increasing, but this increase only represents a new form of an old and protean entity: "hysteria."


4. Powerful psychosocial forces are changing the psychological balance of individuals so as to make dissociative experiences more common.

Paris opines that the first possible cause is the most likely.

The main points of disagreement are these:

1. Whether MPD/DID is a real disorder or just a fad.


2. If it is real, is the appearance of multiple personalities real or delusional.


3. If it is real, whether it should it be defined in psychoanalytic terms.


4. Whether it can, or should, be cured.


5. Who should primarily define the experience—therapists, or those who believe that they have multiple personalities.