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In his new book " Breaking Free , " former Dallas Cowboys star Herschel Walker claims that for much of his liveliness , " he " was really " we . " That ’s because he has Multiple Personality Disorder ( MPD , or Dissociative Identity Disorder , as it was renamed in 1994 by the American Psychiatric Association ) .
The diagnosis is controversial , and some psychologists doubt it even exists . Many therapists do n’t see a exclusive MPD case during their entire vocation , while others find piles of cases in their patient pool .
Benjamin Radford is a writer, investigator, and managing editor for Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. [Bad Science Column Archive]
Those with the disease are said to have at least one ( in some cases rafts or hundreds ) of different other personalities , called " alters , " that can hold the individual ’s behavior and thoughts . Often the individual will make different , specialised alters to address with difficult site .
The hatchet man
Walker , for exercise , says he give his alters names such as General , Daredevil , Enforcer , and Warrior , and that they " functioned as a form of community underpin me . ”
For such arare disease , MPD is wide know . Its popularity is largely due to a best - betray 1973 book by Flora Schreiber which tell apart the account of a young charwoman advert Sybil who claimed to have sixteen unlike personality inside her . That book was subsequently release into a film , and gave the theme of multiples and alters a gamey profile . Diagnoses shortly skyrocketed , and for decade Sybil stay the symbol and definitive example of Multiple Personality Disorder .
In 1999 , long - lost audio tape provide a bewitching crook to Sybil ’s case , suggesting that in fact Sybil may not have had multiple personality after all .
Oops !
According to psychologist Dr. Robert Reiber of John Jay College in New York , the tape indicate that the various personality Sybil consider she had were unintentionally created during therapy by her head-shrinker , Dr. Cornelia Wilbur . The tape recording , which had been put in Reiber ’s desk in 1972 and forget , also show " Sybil " author Schreiber improperly cut a letter from Sybil to Wilbur in which she deny having multiple personalities . ( Perhaps Schreiber realized that having Sybil say that the al-Qur’an was n’t true would hurt cut-rate sale . )
Dr. Reiber is supported by Dr. Herbert Spiegel , a New York psychiatrist who treated Sybil when Wilbur was unavailable . Spiegel also believes that Sybil ’s personality were iatrogenic , that is they arise from Wilbur ’s method of therapy .
Wilbur ’s handling included giving names to each of Sybil ’s emotional states , much as Herschel Walker did . ( This would be like saying that when you are feeling broken , you become " Mr. Cranky , " and when you are feel seductive you become " Brad Pitt . " )
The original MPD diagnosis come up when Wilbur began to think that the different names for Sybil ’s worked up state represent actual , distinct personalities within Sybil .
If the most far-famed dupe of MPD credibly did not have the disease she was internationally experience for , where does that leave Walker and the tens of thousands of others who believe they have the disease ? Whether MPD sufferer really have multiple personality inside them — or their personality are a mathematical product of therapy — the underlie mental malady is real , and sufferers merit esteem and treatment .
Benjamin Radford is care editor of the Skeptical Inquirer skill mag . His book and films can be find on hiswebsite .
