A Better Way To Think About It

So this is pretty obvious for the psychological myth that people with schizophrenia have multiple personalities. When people misconstrue the definitions of schizophrenia or MPD, they often combine the two into one; this then creates a false definition of what schizophrenia is. Instead of thinking of the two disorders comparative properties such as paranoia, depression, and self-mutilation, it is easier to remember the symptoms that vary with the two diagnoses. One of the biggest symptoms that people with schizophrenia suffer from is auditory and visual hallucination. The “split-mind” term coined for schizophrenia stems from the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler who defined the disorder in 1911 (Lilienfeld, 191). However, this terminology would be much more appropriate for MPD. Schizophrenia is rather a severance of auditory and often visual perceptions of reality. But schizophrenics only have one personality that is severed, not multiple ones.

References:

Lilienfeld, Scott O. 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Print.

Key Misunderstandings

In this myth, the one key misunderstanding is that schizophrenics do not have split personalities. Instead, “they possess a single personality that’s been splintered or shattered (Lilienfeld, 191).” Most often, people don’t fully know the definition for what schizophrenia is or isn’t since the symptoms for the disorder are somewhat crossed with those of MPD. “When a person has schizophrenia, he experiences hallucinations and delusions, seeing things that aren’t there and believing things that are clearly not true (Madison, 1).” Schizophrenics tend to be extremely socially withdrawn as well; usually hearing voices they become very fearful. In multiple personality disorder, a person has on average ten different personalities. Depression and self-mutilation in this disorder is also very common. Perhaps one of the most misleading subjects in this myth is how the DSM-III prior to the DSM-IV had similar diagnoses of the two conditions. In fact, until 1980 Multiple Personality Disorder was considered rare because so many patients were misdiagnosed with schizophrenia (Ross, 39). In a recent finding, clinicians have documented that just fewer than 50% of MPD patient had a prior diagnosis of schizophrenia. This misunderstanding of psychological terminology is obviously not uncommon. It’s therefore important to understand the differences between a split personality and multiple personalities.

References:

Lilienfeld, Scott O. 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Print.

Madison, N. "What Is the Difference Between Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. 24 Apr. 2010. Web. 11 May 2010.

Ross, Colin A. "Multiple Personality Disorder Patients with a Prior Diagnosis of Schizophrenia." Dissociation 1.2 (1988): 39-42. UO Libraries. University of Oregon. Web. 16 May 2010.

Mind Traps

Like in all myths found in the psychological and scientific fields in general, there are usually multiple reasoning errors for why people believe a myth in the first place. In the case of people misinterpreting schizophrenics as having multiple personalities, the most notable error would have to be the misleading film and media portrayal followed by the terminological confusion of the two disorders (Lilienfield, 18). The first reasoning error pointed out in Thomas Gilovich’s section on “Motivational and Social Determinants of Questionable Belief” are distortions created in the service of “informativeness” and entertainment. Like in the previous post about movies that confuse or exaggerate the two disorders, schizophrenia has been misconstrued in the media since 1916 (Lilienfeld, 191). Another reasoning error is that is common with this myth is distortions due to probability. Like stated earlier, people have the simple tendency to not understand the medical terms talked about with schizophrenia and MPD. Distortion due to plausibility is the acceptance and spreading of a myth because it seems like it should be true. Schizophrenia has had a long history of being misconstrued for literally a “split-mind”. It is therefore easy to see why the public could mistake this coined term for multiple personality disorder. The last reasoning error prevalent in this myth is the “The Imagined Agreement of Others”. This fallacy mentions the false consensus effect in which someone believes a myth because they also think it is held as true by the majority of the population (113). In all three of these reasoning errors, there is a main theme of assumption through the mass media or other people. Knowing the variances between medical terminologies helps to prevent these false beliefs.

References:

Gilovich, Thomas. How We Know What Isn't So: the Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life. New York, N.Y.: Free, 1991. Print.

Lilienfeld, Scott O. 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Print.

Media Fascination With Mental Illness

So let's talk about something more interesting than the sources I used to gather my information. Through the cinema and various perceptions of schizophrenia and MPD, the truth about these disorders can be confusing and not entirely correct in evaluation.

Let's start out with some movies that portray these two disorders in different and a more accurate light. The plot for the movie Identity is a murder mystery about a man with multiple personalities. In the link of the clip, John Cusack's character Ed has just realized that his perception of who he thought he was is based on one of the personalities created in the serial killer Malcom River's mind. In Identity, the multiple personalities created by Malcom collide into each other's world when one identity begins to kill all of the others off. By the end of the movie viewers are left with another slasher film after discovering that the little boy Timmy is the identity committing the heinous murders. Although it may not be the best horror flick, the portrayal of Malcom River and his severe cas of MPD is fairly authentic.

Perhaps one of the most haunting movies about a true case of severe MPD is found through the story of Sybil Mason who was severely abused as a child. The movie Sybil starring Sally Field portrays the adolescence and adulthood of the psychologically troubled women with sixteen different personalities. Sybil is well directed and acted movie showcasing the affects and prominent tendencies with the disorder and although it is slightly exaggerated, it stays fairly true to the real story of the woman with MPD.

Of course there are many representation of MPD and schizophrenia in movies that aren't as well portrayed. In most cases, illnesses like schizophrenia and MPD are exaggerated or combined into an almost entirely new disease for a more interesting plot.

That's true in the case of Donnie Darko, a movie about a troubled teenager in high school who experiences both sign of schizophrenia, multiple personalities, and the ability to time travel with some clairvoyance about future events. Donnie also periodically stops taking his medication in the movie which allows him to see his friend Frank, a large grey rabbit who guides him into another dimension. Obviously, Donnie's psychosis is obviously extremely exaggerated, but it doesn't stop from making it a great story.

The movie Pi and A Beautiful Mind are both psychological thrillers sharing two themes: the presence of schizophrenia in the main characters and their fascination for numbers and math. A Beautiful Mind is based off of the real life of John Forbes Nash Jr., a math prodigy who also suffered with years of schizophrenia. While this movie gives a realistic portrayal of the disorder, Pi, a movie also about an incredibly talented numerical genius who suffers from schizophrenia, exaggerates the main character's illness to coincide with the psychological twists in the movie plot.

The media's fascination of portraying schizophrenia and MPD in popular culture is perhaps due to the still little known information there really is on multiple personalities since patient cases are can vary so much. A new popular Showtime series called United States of Tara even adds humor to the subject of MPD.

What's It All About?

The belief that schizophrenics have multiple personalities is really a confusion of combining two very distinct and differentiating disorders. Before the now universally used DSM-IV, and the DSM-III, schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder were not strongly differentiated in their diagnoses. When the DSM-III came out, the criteria for MPD and schizophrenia became very strict and more specific (Fink, 127). Due to the history of these disorders, the definition and mass assumption of what schizophrenia is has become increasingly blurred with a separate mental health problem. As quoted in the McNally article, “schizophrenia is probably the most misused psychological term in existence (69).” The misunderstanding of schizophrenics having MPD has aso provoked the idea that they have a split personality. This split personality myth is almost Jekyll and Hyde in theory; a fantastical view of what the mass population has created from the distorted perception from the media.

Good Sources, Bad Sources

When talking about a topic that has so much information through the years questioning the validity and difference between two mental illnesses, the sources that ones gets information from are vital. Let’s start off by giving examples of some good sources to use:

Fink, David L. "MPD, Borderline Personality Disorder and Schizophrenia: a Comparative Study of Clinical Features." Dissociation 3 (1990): 127-34. UO Libraries. Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation, 2005. Web. 16 May 2010. .

The Fink article has a great introduction and explanation for MPD and schizophrenia. It discusses the history of Schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder but then starts to slide into the main differences between MPD and borderline personality disorder. Overall, I wouldn’t suggest using this source since it mainly discusses MPD and BPD.

Goff, Donald C. "Has Multiple Personality Disorder Remained Consistent over Time? Comparison of past and Recent Cases." The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease181 (1993): 595-600. Web. .

The scholarly article by Goff gives a great detailed history of Multiple Personality Disorder and how it was decreasingly diagnosed during the 20^th century. It also discusses the differences between MPD diagnoses and different cultures (such as the almost non-existent cases found in India). The two disorders are then compared and contrasted through case studies in the 1800’s of MPD. The few negative factors in the article are present in the confusing passages during the discussion.

Madison, N. "What Is the Difference Between Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. 24 Apr. 2010. Web. 11 May 2010. .

The web site article I found on the differences between Schizophrenia and MPD is a great source to use when starting out on compiling research since the article is abrupt, yet it also succeeds at giving a succinct summary of the differences between the two disorders. I think it’s probably one of the best sites to begin researching the subject on since it summarizes the main components of each disorder. The one distinguishing drawback of using this source is that it’s not a scholarly article and therefore could have false information in it.

Ross, Colin A. "Multiple Personality Disorder Patients with a Prior Diagnosis of Schizophrenia." Dissociation 1.2 (1988): 39-42. UO Libraries. University of Oregon. Web. 16 May 2010. .

The article “Multiple Personality Disorder Patients with a Prior Diagnosis Schizophrenia” is a great source to use when wanting to research the small and peculiar differences between MPD and schizophrenia. The scholarly article reports a survey to 227 members of the Canadian Psychiatric Association questioning previous diagnosis and treatment of MPD patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. The results are very interesting and the discussion and conclusion of the article is thorough though also easy to understand.

Schomerus, G., Kenzin, D., Borsche, J., Matschinger, H., & Angermeyer, M. (2007). The association of schizophrenia with split personality is not an ubiquitous phenomenon. Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 42(10), 780-786. doi:10.1007/s00127-007-0235-7.

The scholarly article by Schomerus is mainly about the popular misconception that the term schizophrenia refers to split personality. Out of all the articles I have so far read for my research, this is the one that I have found the most helpful. It gives a very clear background of the current misconception while also showing a study about the difference of diagnosing schizophrenia in different countries.

And now for a few examples of some bad sources:

Jambunathan, S., Gill, J., & Kanagsundram, S. (2008). Dissociation or Culture Bound? A Malaysian Perspective. (Cover story). Archives: The International Journal of Medicine,1(2), 100-104. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

The scholarly article I found titled, “Dissociation or Culture Bound? A Malaysian Perspective” was what I initially thought to be a natural study of the change in the diagnosis in the DSM III on what schizophrenia was previously defined as. After fully reading the article, I found it to be more of a cultural anthropological study where different case studies were explained on the cultural differences between diagnosing schizophrenia.

McNally, K. (2007). Schizophrenia as split personality/Jekyll and Hyde: The origins of the informal usage in the English language. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 43(1), 69-79. doi:10.1002 /jhbs.20209.

The article “Schizophrenia as Split Personality/Jekyll and Hyde: The Origins of the Informal Usage in the English Language” is a fascinating look at the combining of schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder in English literature. Although it is somewhat a useful source when looking at the fallacies presented in a certain type of media, it is overall a fairly weak source to use from a psychological standpoint of the myth.

Randle, Kristina. "Do I Have Schizophrenia or Multiple Personality Disorder? | Ask the Therapist." Psych Central - Trusted Mental Health, Depression, Bipolar, ADHD and Psychology Information. Web. 23 May 2010.

This online article by Kristina Randle is interesting because someone who has had experience with both what she believes to be MPD and schizophrenia. Obviously this easy answer advice to the confusing diagnosing of schizophrenia and MPD is not an adequate source to use for research.

Welcome to my Blog

Hello everyone,
This is Kaitlin and for my blog I will be writing about the psychological myth that people with schizophrenia have multiple personalities. Assuming that schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder are two different names for the same illness is a common misunderstanding in the field of psychology. I will be discussing the differences between these two psychological disorders and dispelling most correlations between them. As a psychology major, I believe it is important to know the distinction between the two, but also see the common misclassification that occurs in public media when talking about the subject. Throughout my blog I will further distinguish the two disorders and comment on their differences and a few similarities that they share.