3 ms·

FYI, the condition you are referring to is called multiple personality disorder and is distinct from schizophrenia.

by drdec 4y ago

lisper 4y ago
No, multiple personality is different. Schizophrenia is distinct from MPD, but both are characterized by having multiple persons resident in one brain, it just manifest differently. In MPD the multiple persons swap in and out, whereas in schizophrenia there is one person who is definitely the real resident while the others are intruders. Schizophrenics really do hear voices, and those voices are "someone else". With MPD you have multiple coherent personalities manifesting themselves at different times. With schizophrenia you have one personality slowly being driven crazy by not being able to make the voices shut up. (Source: I am not a mental health professional, but I did spend some time interviewing and hanging out with schizophrenics, both under treatment and not, as part of a documentary film I made about homeless people about 15 years ago. https://graceofgodmovie.com/ https://graceofgodmovie.com/ )
- drdec 4y ago
  Thanks for sharing your experience. My understanding is that the hallucinations experienced by schizophrenics do not rise to the level of being a "personality". Yes, for the person experiencing the hallucination, the source appears to be an "other". But the other in this case is usually single-minded and not a fully-formed personality. OTOH, I certainly do not discount the possibility that for some schizophrenics this is not the case. Rereading your comment again just now I think we agree more than we disagree and this probably comes down to semantics. : - ) https://www.livescience.com/55379-schizophrenia-multiple-personalities.html https://www.livescience.com/55379-schizophrenia-multiple-per...
  - lisper 4y ago
    > the other in this case is usually single-minded and not a fully-formed personality That's a fair point. I think some of my subjects reported being able to have conversations with the other, but this was a long time ago so I could be mis-remembering. But I still have the interview recordings if anyone really wants to dig into this.

FYI, the condition you are referring to is called multiple personality disorder and is distinct from schizophrenia.

by drdec 4y ago

FYI, the condition you are referring to is called multiple personality disorder and is distinct from schizophrenia.

No, multiple personality is different. Schizophrenia is distinct from MPD, but both are characterized by having multiple persons resident in one brain, it just manifest differently. In MPD the multiple persons swap in and out, whereas in schizophrenia there is one person who is definitely the real resident while the others are intruders. Schizophrenics really do hear voices, and those voices are "someone else". With MPD you have multiple coherent personalities manifesting themselves at different times. With schizophrenia you have one personality slowly being driven crazy by not being able to make the voices shut up. (Source: I am not a mental health professional, but I did spend some time interviewing and hanging out with schizophrenics, both under treatment and not, as part of a documentary film I made about homeless people about 15 years ago. https://graceofgodmovie.com/ https://graceofgodmovie.com/ )

drdec 4y ago
Thanks for sharing your experience. My understanding is that the hallucinations experienced by schizophrenics do not rise to the level of being a "personality". Yes, for the person experiencing the hallucination, the source appears to be an "other". But the other in this case is usually single-minded and not a fully-formed personality. OTOH, I certainly do not discount the possibility that for some schizophrenics this is not the case. Rereading your comment again just now I think we agree more than we disagree and this probably comes down to semantics. : - ) https://www.livescience.com/55379-schizophrenia-multiple-personalities.html https://www.livescience.com/55379-schizophrenia-multiple-per...
- lisper 4y ago
  > the other in this case is usually single-minded and not a fully-formed personality That's a fair point. I think some of my subjects reported being able to have conversations with the other, but this was a long time ago so I could be mis-remembering. But I still have the interview recordings if anyone really wants to dig into this.