bumping this thread. I saw some videos in a class today, from the HBO Undercover America series with the DID patients. I was curious about the thinking on the etiology.
Is serious childhood trauma supposed to be only real cause? Are there other ideas out there?
Well, other possibilities include it being a
vanity diagnosis, as there are not really any case studies of such symptoms prior to last century. To go along with this observation, the vast majority of diagnoses came from a small number of actual practioners, of course after a couple of films (e.g., The Three Faces of Eve, Sybil) made it popular. Then all of a sudden diagnosis rates skyrocketed.
All of that aside, the two main theories seem to be that it is a
response to trauma, or that it is has to do with playing a
social role in the context of therapy, kind of like with some theories of hypnosis.
I think it exists, but is very rare, and probably can be the result of both prevailing theories. I lean towards the former, but the latter is probably most applicable these days.
Dissociative symptoms are one of those areas that can be difficult to comprehend. There always will be some skepticism, and rightfully so. I recall plenty of "my psychopathology is bigger than yours" observations from an adolescent inpatient unit I worked on years ago. These days, many people diagnose themselves first and then show up presenting with symptoms straight from Web MD (or Wikipedia). But, I think there truly are some cases out there that have less to do with being impressionable or Axis II.
