Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1996, page 46
With one exception, the cases cited by Ellenberger (1970) resembled those of Prince. In the
late 1930s and early 1940s, Milton Erickson reported two cases with beneficent alters whose
help and strengths he engaged to aid in the patient‟s recovery (Richeport, 1994). In none of
these cases was there any implication that the development of multiple personality disorder
routinely involved incestuous child abuse, nor did anyone find the extremely hostile self-
mutilating, suicidal, and downright nasty alters of today‟s dissociative identity disorder
patients.
The milder version of MPD was still seen as recently as the 1950s. The Three Faces of Eve
(Thigpen &Cleckley, 1957) portrayed a patient whose disorder was traceable to her
parents‟ well-meaning demand that she kiss her dead grandmother goodbye, hardly a case
of incestuous abuse. Similarly, Eve‟s alter, Eve Black, was flamboyant and sexually
provocative, but overall was no more evil than Miss Beauchamp‟s alter, Sally. It was not
until Sybil (Schrieber, 1973), the story of Cornelia Wilbur‟s patient, was published that we
began to see the multilayered, numerous alters that are common today. For the first time
we also had a media-disseminated view of MPD that included a truly dangerous and
destructive alter whose “birth” was occasioned by incestuous and sadistic anal and vaginal
rape. Unfortunately, since the book‟s publication and the subsequent television
presentation, Sybil seems to have become the prototype for MPD (Ganaway, 1995).
At present, multiple personality disorder is a severe and malignant syndrome. Orne and
Bates (1992) note that since Bliss (1984) reported that 21% of MPD patients had self-
mutilating alters, the proportion of such patients has been increasing. Coons, Bowman, and
Milstein re-ported a 34% rate in 1988, while Coons and Milstein (1990) reported that 48%
of the patients in their sample had self-mutilating alters. It has also become increasingly
rare to find patients with just two or three personalities. More than 10 alters has become
modal, and more than 100 have been discovered in several patients.
The changing and malleable nature of this disorder suggests that we are seeing underlying
pathology expressed in a manner shaped by the expectations and demand characteristics of
the clinical setting. The geographic distribution of this disorder, which is observed largely
among North American women, also suggests that this latest form of possession (Spanos,
Burgess, &Burgess, 1994) is not inherent in the patient, but is shaped by cultural
expectations and the availability of a role model. Finally, the infrequency of childhood cases
of MPD (Kluft, 1984b) suggests that the disorder is an adult expression of psychopathology,
not a defense employed by overwhelmed children.
Multiple personality disorder has been conceptualized as a lesion in memory (Orne &Bates,
1992 Orne &Dinges, 1989). Patients cannot or will not remember and “own” ego-dystonic
behavior. They suggest appropriate therapy involves gentle exploration in order to allow
patients to accept and control behavior and impulses that otherwise might be dissociated.
McHugh (1993, 1995) proposes a more dismissive approach in which manifestations of
dissociative behavior are simply ignored and thus extinguished. Both approaches assume a
major feature of appropriate therapy is the therapist‟s assignment of and patient‟s
acceptance of responsibility for all their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
Orne and Bauer-Manley (1991) suggest that the normal self is a complex mixture of
information, impulses, and feelings, and that the unidimensional alters of multiple
personality disorder reflect the concept of a unitary self, not the reality of a multifaceted
one. In another similar view, Ganaway (1995) sees multiple personality disorder as an
expression of underlying dissociative pathology that is iatrogenically shaped into its
malignant form by well-meaning therapists. Like Orne and Bates (1992), Ganaway sees the
shaping as a product of therapist expectancy and demand. Spanos et al. (1994) take a
similar position, seeing multiple personality as one of a series of role enactments, such as
being possessed or remembering an abduction by space aliens, in response to the
With one exception, the cases cited by Ellenberger (1970) resembled those of Prince. In the
late 1930s and early 1940s, Milton Erickson reported two cases with beneficent alters whose
help and strengths he engaged to aid in the patient‟s recovery (Richeport, 1994). In none of
these cases was there any implication that the development of multiple personality disorder
routinely involved incestuous child abuse, nor did anyone find the extremely hostile self-
mutilating, suicidal, and downright nasty alters of today‟s dissociative identity disorder
patients.
The milder version of MPD was still seen as recently as the 1950s. The Three Faces of Eve
(Thigpen &Cleckley, 1957) portrayed a patient whose disorder was traceable to her
parents‟ well-meaning demand that she kiss her dead grandmother goodbye, hardly a case
of incestuous abuse. Similarly, Eve‟s alter, Eve Black, was flamboyant and sexually
provocative, but overall was no more evil than Miss Beauchamp‟s alter, Sally. It was not
until Sybil (Schrieber, 1973), the story of Cornelia Wilbur‟s patient, was published that we
began to see the multilayered, numerous alters that are common today. For the first time
we also had a media-disseminated view of MPD that included a truly dangerous and
destructive alter whose “birth” was occasioned by incestuous and sadistic anal and vaginal
rape. Unfortunately, since the book‟s publication and the subsequent television
presentation, Sybil seems to have become the prototype for MPD (Ganaway, 1995).
At present, multiple personality disorder is a severe and malignant syndrome. Orne and
Bates (1992) note that since Bliss (1984) reported that 21% of MPD patients had self-
mutilating alters, the proportion of such patients has been increasing. Coons, Bowman, and
Milstein re-ported a 34% rate in 1988, while Coons and Milstein (1990) reported that 48%
of the patients in their sample had self-mutilating alters. It has also become increasingly
rare to find patients with just two or three personalities. More than 10 alters has become
modal, and more than 100 have been discovered in several patients.
The changing and malleable nature of this disorder suggests that we are seeing underlying
pathology expressed in a manner shaped by the expectations and demand characteristics of
the clinical setting. The geographic distribution of this disorder, which is observed largely
among North American women, also suggests that this latest form of possession (Spanos,
Burgess, &Burgess, 1994) is not inherent in the patient, but is shaped by cultural
expectations and the availability of a role model. Finally, the infrequency of childhood cases
of MPD (Kluft, 1984b) suggests that the disorder is an adult expression of psychopathology,
not a defense employed by overwhelmed children.
Multiple personality disorder has been conceptualized as a lesion in memory (Orne &Bates,
1992 Orne &Dinges, 1989). Patients cannot or will not remember and “own” ego-dystonic
behavior. They suggest appropriate therapy involves gentle exploration in order to allow
patients to accept and control behavior and impulses that otherwise might be dissociated.
McHugh (1993, 1995) proposes a more dismissive approach in which manifestations of
dissociative behavior are simply ignored and thus extinguished. Both approaches assume a
major feature of appropriate therapy is the therapist‟s assignment of and patient‟s
acceptance of responsibility for all their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
Orne and Bauer-Manley (1991) suggest that the normal self is a complex mixture of
information, impulses, and feelings, and that the unidimensional alters of multiple
personality disorder reflect the concept of a unitary self, not the reality of a multifaceted
one. In another similar view, Ganaway (1995) sees multiple personality disorder as an
expression of underlying dissociative pathology that is iatrogenically shaped into its
malignant form by well-meaning therapists. Like Orne and Bates (1992), Ganaway sees the
shaping as a product of therapist expectancy and demand. Spanos et al. (1994) take a
similar position, seeing multiple personality as one of a series of role enactments, such as
being possessed or remembering an abduction by space aliens, in response to the
