Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a mental disorder. It was once named as multiple personality disorder (MPD), a term that is still sometimes used to refer to it.

Definition and Symptoms
In order to suffer from DID, patients must have developed at least one other identity or dissociative state, which must be distinct and enduring. Once the patient returns to the normal (or perhaps another) identity, his or her memory is impaired in a way that cannot be explained by ordinary "forgetfulness", and they cannot recall personal information. In other words, the patient does not remember assuming the alternate identity or identities. The degree of memory impairment varies from individual to individual; in a number of cases, the sufferer is not even aware of the existence of the other identities or dissociative states, unless informed otherwise. These symptoms are not influence by current substance abuse, seizures, or other medical conditions; and they can definitely not be attributed to "faking".

The number of alternate identities also varies with each sufferer. Most have identified fewer than ten identities, but in at least one case, as many as 4,500 were identified.

Causes
The general cause of DID has been widely debated in the psychiatric community. There have been a number of different hypotheses explaining the cause, but only three are highly prevalent in the debate:


 * 1) DID is a reaction to trauma, as patients reported experiencing severe physical and sexual abuse, especially during childhood; or an early loss, serious medical illness, or other traumatic event.
 * 2) DID can be created through the use of recovered-memory therapy, a form of therapy in which one or more controversial and/or unproven interviewing techniques (e.g. hypnosis and guided-imagery) and sedative-hypnotic drugs are used to literally recover memories allegedly buried in the subconscious.
 * 3) DID can be influenced by non-traumatic events, as children with DID had parents with DID, were exposed to DID depicted in popular culture, or were diagnosed with psychosis due to hearing voices.

On Criminal Minds

 * Tobias Hankel ("The Big Game" and "Revelations") had two alternate identities: his father Charles, who was his first victim, and the Archangel Raphael.
 * Adam Jackson ("Conflicted") had a female alternate personality named Amanda, who he developed as a way to cope with the physical abuse inflicted by his stepfather.
 * Bruce Morrison ("All That Remains"), a well-known writer, secretly had an alternate personality named Johnny, who had a sadistic personality.
 * DID became a prominent plot point in a Season Twelve story arc. Following his escape from prison, serial killer by proxy Peter Lewis targeted DID patients and created new alternate personalities for them through the use of torture, sevoflurane, and scopolamine. This method was successful, and he used Brian Phillips to commit a crime spree, and Desmond Holt to taunt the BAU.