An online survey was conducted to examine psychological therapists' experiences of, and beliefs about, cases of recovered memory, satanic/ritualistic abuse, Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder, and false memory. Chartered Clinical Psychologists (n=183) and Hypnotherapists (n=119) responded. In terms of their experiences, Chartered Clinical Psychologists reported seeing more cases of satanic/ritualistic abuse compared to Hypnotherapists who, in turn, reported encountering more cases of childhood sexual abuse recovered for the first time in therapy, and more cases of suspected false memory. Chartered Clinical Psychologists were more likely to rate the essential accuracy of reports of satanic/ritualistic abuse as higher than Hypnotherapists. Belief in the accuracy of satanic/ritualistic abuse and Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder reports correlated negatively with the belief that false memories were possible.

Recovered memories, satanic abuse, Dissociative Identity Disorder and false memories in the UK: a survey of clinical psychologists and hypnotherapists

Objective:To compare the opinions of Canadian psychiatrists regarding dissociative disorder diagnoses with those of previously surveyed American psychiatrists.Method:We sent a 1-page questionnaire ...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674370104600504

Canadian and American psychiatrists' attitudes toward dissociative disorders diagnoses.

This chapter attempts to clarify the role of imagination in narrative construction and interpretation. No framework for analyzing narratives can be complete without including the psychological processes usually subsumed under the generic term “imagination.”

The Role of Imagination in Narrative Construction

Progress in the study and treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) has been hampered by ideological debate regarding its validity. This is particularly the case when patient’s suffering from DID also report ritualistic abuse. Part of the difficulty has been that past studies have not established independent checks to assess whether alters are artefacts introduced by therapeutic bias. This study addressed this issue by using independent judges to test the validity of a patient being treated for DID who claimed ritualistic abuse. The judges were 16 clinicians with an average of 21 years experience in their respective disciplines. The study also examined the development and treatment of alter personalities through a detailed examination of case material. The patient had been in continuous therapy with the author and treatment had been conducted using the self psychology model. The study involved three phases. In the first phase inter-rater reliability between the judges was assessed. Each judge received a written transcript and tape of a particular session, which they were asked to assess on two Likert-type questionnaires. One questionnaire assessed therapeutic bias and the other alter validation. The criterion for inter-rater reliability was met and the study proceeded to phase two. In phase two the hypothesis that the DID manifested in this patient was the result of iatrogenic biasing was empirically tested. Each judge rated two tapes, one tape in which an alter appeared for the first time and a second tape in which there was evidence of switching and dissociation. Each judge received different tapes. An appropriate design methodology was used and it was concluded that the DID evident in this patient was not the result of therapeutic bias and that the presentation of alter personalities could be validated by independent judges. In the third phase the traumatic events described by the patient and their relationship to the development of her alter system are detailed. The material is examined from the perspective of theories that consider DID to be a development response to trauma and those that consider it to be the result of iatrogenic bias. Questions regarding the development of the alter system over the patient’s life span are investigated as is the development of specific types of alters and their function within the patient’s life.

/pdf/a-case-study-investigation-of-the-development-and-treatment-3c364064fz.pdf

A case study investigation of the development and treatment of alter personalities in dissociative identity disorder

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a widely contested diagnosis. The dominant posttraumatic model (PTM) considers early life trauma to be the direct cause of the creation of alter identities and assumes that working directly with alter identities should be at the core of the therapeutic work. The socio-cognitive model, on the other hand, questions the validity of the DID diagnosis and proposes an iatrogenic origin of the disorder claiming that reigning therapeutic and socio-cultural discourses create and reify the problem. The author argues that looking at the underlying psychical dynamics can provide a way out of the debate on the veracity of the diagnosis. A structural conception of hysteria is presented to understand clinical and empirical observations on the prevalence, appearance and treatment of DID. On a more fundamental level, the concept of identification and the fundamental division of human psychic functioning are proposed as crucial for understanding the development and treatment of DID.

Theodore R. Sarbin

Papers

Multiple personality disorder: fact or artifact?