MPD/DID - Education: How MPD Works: An Inside View

How MPD Works: An Inside View

Explaining Multiple Personality Disorder to someone can be a very difficult challenge. Why are there many alters in one body? How do those insiders communicate? What is integration and co-consciousness? We hope to keep this as simple as possible to help you understand these difficult concepts.

What is Multiple Personality Disorder and what purpose does it serve?

Multiple Personality Disorder, which is the same as Dissociative Identity Disorder, is a coping mechanism that very young children use to deal with the extreme stress that trauma causes. For most people, the trauma they are trying to cope with is severe and repeated sexual abuse that is usually being committed by a critical caregiver (such as someone in a parental role). Some people will create MPD in order to cope with other trauma such as physical abuse, verbal/emotional abuse, severe neglect, recurrent invasive medical treatment, and other stressful situations.

A child will use dissociation when they are being emotionally or physically harmed, may fear death will result if the situation continues, and are unable to physically escape the situation. Dissociation is a process in which the person mentally leaves the situation (such as imagining they are elsewhere), loses awareness of the environment or their body (such as no longer being aware of the sensations of pain), or believes that the abuse is happening to someone else (such as seeing the event happening to them as if they were a bystander).

When the stressful situation is severe, repeated, or perpetrated by someone the child must maintain contact with, the dissociation becomes stronger. The child may try to forget the event and contain the memories in a mental lock-box, in order to keep relating to the perpetrator as needed (such as to act normal around the parent in order to continue getting love, food, shelter, and other basic needs).

For some children the abuse is very intense, often repeated, may involve more than one perpetrator, and may result in the creation of Multiple Personality Disorder. Some researchers believe that a high level of intelligence and creativity increase the chances that MPD will form. The brain of a very young child is also forming neural pathways, setting up long-standing habits and personality traits, and mapping a great deal of information for life-long use. These combined factors (stress, abilities, age) allow some people to create alternate personalities: other people who share the same body but can have different emotions, thoughts, skills, interests, etc. For these children it becomes life-saving to have another part of their brain become a different person, who can experience the abuse, contain the memories, have strained or severed relationships with the perpetrator, and hold the distress while the other child continues the needed relationship with the perpetrator. As the child grows they may continue to make alters to deal with abuse, stressful situations, life challenges, isolation/lonliness, fear, and other obstacles in their life.

Based on the different life stressors, the child may form alternate personalities (usually called alters) who are needed frequently. These alters start to have their own identity, history, skills, interests, and other identifying features. Sometimes a fragment personality is created to deal with one specific event and will not develop many identifying features seen with alters because they have very little interaction with the external and internal world.

Metaphor: Assume our brain has one box that can deal with holding all the stress in our life. Once that box gets filled, some things can slip out of the box (dissociation). If we realize we don't have enough room in the box, and can't afford to have a lot fall out of the box and clutter up our floor, we can try to create or find more containers. These containers can be big (personalities; alters; insiders, parts) or they may be little and hold only one or two items (fragments, pieces).

Internal Workings & Communication: The MPD Office!

Ok, so you understand that alters are created to help deal with stressful situation in childhood. Great! But you're probably wondering how all those people crammed in one body manage to get anything done later in life... how do they communicate to each other, how do the interact with the world, what is integration and co-consciousness?

I'm going to try to explain these issues using the idea of a modern day office setting, complete with cubicles! I can't think of a better environment in the real world that mimics the internal workings of a Multiple. I'll even use pictures to help us along the way.

Ok, here's our imaginary office. The external world is the waiting room. The internal world starts behind the window at the receptionist's area. You could walk up to the window and you would have to interact with whoever is in that area at the time. The alter who is present in the receptionist's area would be in control of the body, aware of the external environment, and would be referred to as the alter who is "out" or "up front."

Internal communication systems can also be developed so that the alter who is out could still be able to access information from alters who are not out. For example, a receptionist can gain information from looking at paperwork, using a computer, or using the telephone to call someone else in the office.

In real life there can be more than one person in the receptionist's area, and the same is true in our metaphor. If more than one alter is in the receptionist's area you would be interacting with alters who are experiencing co-presence or co-consciousness. It is possible for an alter to have awareness and very limited interaction with the external environment, but they aren't working with the alter who is actively out. This would be called co-awareness. The two alters are still completely separate, but one really isn't in control of the body. You could think of it as one alter standing at the doorway eavsdropping rather than actually entering the receptionist's area. Depending on what you need, the receptionist may decided to go get someone else to come out and deal with you. That would be called "switching" because one alter leaves and a different alter comes forward to take their place.

I've drawn more rooms behind the receptionist's area. Many Multiples have complex internal environments, but this is an example to demonstrate a few key points common for most Multiples.

Common Areas: Places that alters can gather, pass through, visit, etc. Usually not "owned" by any one alter or group of alters.
Rooms: Many Multiples have places that specific types of alters gather. These may be alters who perform similar functions, have similar goals, or dealt with similar negative events. These areas tend to vary in how much division exists between the alters who reside there.
- Room One: Alters are very separated from each other, probably don't interact with each other much, and have more severe boundaries around them. These increased boundaries may mean that when they are out other people in the office have more amnesia (lack of awareness or memory). When these alters are out, the Multiple may experience "lost time" (time they can't remember what they did) or depersonalization (being able to see what the body is doing but feeling as if they have no control or say-so in what the body does).
- Room Two: Alters have fewer and less severe boundaries between them, have better communication with each other, and have less more freedom to interact with each other.
Doorways: Some types of alters (angry, depressed, suicidal, those who hold the most unpleasant memories and emotions) seem dangerous, scary, or undesireable to other alters. They may feel as those they are separated from other groups of alters as if they were in a room with the door locked. Sometimes there will even be alters who act as security guards, blocking them from leaving that specific area. As recovery progresses, doorways become unblocked, openable, and sometimes it's decided to take the door off the hinges!
Walls: Walls around the room represent that internal communication can be limited or blocked. For example, someone could enter room one and loudly make an announcement that wouldn't be heard in room two. Walls also represent how many alters are segregated into groups who are often seen as being opposites or rivals (light vs dark; good vs evil/bad; those who have good memories vs those who hold the memories of abuse; sales department vs service department *grin*).

Did I forget the boss? Well, there are bosses in the Multiple world too!

Multiples often create "super alters" who aren't necessarily trapped by the same walls, barriers, or communication blocks that others face. Sometimes these alters are called admins/administrators, internal self helpers ("ISH"), protectors, ancient ones, wise ones, historians, etc. These alters are usually created to help manage the system/internal world as a whole. They may have been created to help manage the dissociation. For example, to help call alters out when needed, help alters deal with physical pain, help create new alters/fragments, help keep communication flow open or closed, help the body have energy or sleep. These alters are usually very vital in keeping the Multiple functioning, especially when the alters are still very unaware of and unable to communicate internally with each other.