Scientific American authors Scott O. Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz come to a controversial conclusion that dissociative identity disorder (DID) might be a doubtful diagnosis:
“A better approach would be to help patients understand that their painful psychological experiences are created not by different personalities but by different aspects of one troubled personality. That way those suffering could begin to come to grips with these experiences and recognize that their thoughts and feelings are genuinely their own.”
Via Can People Have Multiple Personalities?
The controversy isn’t new. It was going on 20 years ago when I trained.
I personally have some limited experience treating people with this diagnosis. Regardless of the label given to them, the emotional scars are real and long lasting.
