It is a poorly understood mental illness. We speak of “multiple personality syndrome” (or TID) when several personalities – 11 on average! – cohabit in the same body. According to experts, 1% of the American population (a little over 2 million people and especially women) would be affected by this mental disorderfirst listed in the DSM-III in 1980.
However, medical controversy remains as to the causes of this disease. Indeed, some mental health professionals believe that multiple personality syndrome occurs mostly in impressionable individuals with an “imaginative personality.” Other specialists rather suggest a traumatic origin: sexual abusenegligence or abuse during childhood.
Sexual abuse, neglect, mistreatment
A new study conducted by the University of London will perhaps settle the question. Indeed, the researchers behind this work believe that it is the traumatic hypothesis that is the most credible. To reach this conclusion, the scientists observed the behavior of 65 British women: some of them were diagnosed with TID, others were not sick.
Result ? They found that women with multiple personality syndrome were no more suggestible than others. Nor did they tend to invent false memories. On the other hand, all of them had experienced traumatic events during their childhood.
“We discovered a link between the severity of the trauma, the age of onset and the severity of the mental disorder,” explains Dr. Simone Reinders, main author of this work, published in the medical journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. “This study should make it possible to adapt the treatments offered to people suffering from multiple personality syndrome. »
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