Workings of the Mind: The Multiple Personality Disorder
Ever encountered a story where a criminal is unaware of the crime he committed, or a person not realizing that the person claiming to be his friend, but using a different name, is really an acquaintance?
When I was a kid, I read a novel about a woman accused of murder who claims that she never committed the crime. She was firm in her stand that she was never aware of committing the murder. But with all evidence pointing to her, her chance of getting acquitted was really slim. It was only later in her trial that she was discovered to have a Multiple Personality Disorder.
What is a Multiple Personality Disorder?
www.spiritwritings.com defines Personality as “the sum of the characteristics which make up both physical and mental including appearance, manners, habits, tastes and moral character”. It may be something which many people are fixated on especially in determining what a person is like (whether they are pleasing of unpleasing). However, according to Jacques Lacan, a French psychoanalyst who taught that all desire is the desire of the other, the concept of personality doesn’t mean much since each person is composed of many diverse fragmentary images of “self”. As such, it is difficult to deal with something in the chaos of having to recognize all these illusions.
MPD or Multiple Personality Disorder is an abnormal condition where each fragment of “self” can’t communicate with each other. This is a fascinating subject to tackle. Just imagine a person having 5 different personalities, all having their unique characteristic.
This is a strange phenomena yet something that authorities or any background check services should learn how to handle because of the huge possibility of criminal activities arising from this mental illness, like the heroin in the novel. She wasn’t aware that she committed the crime due to her illness. She had three alter egos which have different personalities: a strong career woman, a shy and sweet painter, and a troubled young girl. With the events that happened to her as a child, she had gotten into the state where each personality is used to deal with her troubles. When she became an adult, to protect her from the pain, one of the personalities takes over her and murders the men she and the other personality loves.
There are many mysterious workings inside the human mind, especially to those who are likely to develop criminal history instincts. Pain and suffering due to environment may lead them to this state. They may be determined and loving people, but once the violent personality is triggered, they become unaware of their actions.
There are several things that can help people understand this illness. It may be something difficult to work with, but should not be ignored. Just think of the possibility—maybe you might be suffering from it as well….
Multiple Personality Disorder is the abnormal fragmentary of one “self” as each alter is not communicating with each other. A novel has once represented this state as something dangerous with one personality committing the crime. This is something that authorities, especially background check services, should not take for granted.
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