a. Intro
Some years ago I had a particular client who ‘had’ Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD – now the clinical term for this state is Dissociative Identity Disorder but I prefer the old term as it is closer to the experience and also more accurate as there are many forms of dissociation at the identity level of personality which don’t involve multiples) and we spent some years as she ‘got it together’.
Though I have had other MPD clients, Zelda (not her real name of course) was the one whom I took all the way from that state to being one person. At no time did I try to remove any of her personalities even though she would say, more than once, ‘Can’t we just get rid of her?’ in reference to some of them.
The other personalities no longer appear (I don’t know what happened to them but I suspect they combined to empower her as a very special individual) and she herself is a fuller, psychologically richer person, working productively and with a growing sense of satisfaction and fulfilment.
The articles here are oriented to other psychotherapists with a ‘How to do it’ approach but those with MPD may find them useful too. I make no claims as to what MPD ‘really is’ or anything else as grandiose but I have found the ideas and experiences here useful for helping clients deal with their situations.
