Evidence from Multiple Personality Disorders?

There is considerable controversy over whether Multiple Personality Syndrome ( currently referred to as Disassociative Disorder ) even exists.

Part of the diagnosis involves fantasy prone personalities and those who are susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. In fact, many skeptics argue well that the condition is an artifact of hypnotherapy, as are most "recovered memories;" whether of alien abductions, Satanic preschooler cults or more plausible forms of abuse.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that one of the most famous cases to bring the term to our attention was a fraud created by a "well meaning" therapist who lavished attention on "Sibyl" only to the degree that she manifested symptoms consistent with her therapist's pet disease.

And all of this descends from the Freudian notion of memory repression. And yet, to those not initiated in the cult of Freud, actual trauma seems to create reoccurring memory flashbacks, of the kind that make it hard to move-on ( as do other disturbing experiences which don't fit the trauma model. ) Suppression and supposed repression don't seem to exist.

However, people have been taught falsely that life is supposed to involve always being happy. And they search for causes for their feelings of unease or disquiet. its very tempting to comfort them with the idea that there is a causal event for every negative feeling. "I would have been happy but for X."

Unfortunately if they are fantasy-prone or go to a hypnotherapist the potential for implanting false memories is well established. And I'd much rather live with ennui and feeling cr*ppy from time to time for no reason than have to live with the memory of Satanic preschool bunny murders ( and yet no such rabbit corpse has turned up yet to validate the memory-recovery-racket. )

Dante