"A person with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) can have up to sixty legitimate alter-personalities of all types [suggest Dr. Allison]" (Allison and McKenzie). "MPD is a mental disorder in which one human has two or more personalities, "defines Dissociation.Com-Allabout Multiple Personalities, a website by Dr. Allison and Marie McKenzie (who has MPD), giving information on Multiple Personality Disorder. Dr. Allison writes "there had always been doubters that such a disease really existed" ( Allison and McKenzie). In the psychological world, there is a major debate going on about whether MPD is in fact a true mental disorder, and there is also an argument on where MPD exists or not. Multiple Personality Disorder does in fact exist, and even though currently it is called Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), it should not be, because the two mental disorders are slightly different. .
Before the argument about the differences between MPD and DID is introduced, one needs to understand the MPD is in fact a mental disorder and understand the aspects of it. When Dr. Allison "diagnosed his first case of MPD in 1972" there was no information about MPD in Psychological journals (Allison and McKenzie). Then therapists began to compare notes and discovered that they all had patients with some kind of personality disorder writes Dr. Allison. .
Symptoms are variant and are hard to tell with MPD and DID. People with Dissociative Disorders may experience any of the following: depression, mood swings, suicidal tendencies, sleep disorders (insomnia, night terrors, and sleep walking), panic attacks and phobias (flashbacks, reactions to stimuli or "triggers"), alcohol and drug abuse, compulsions and rituals, psychotic-like symptoms (including auditory and visual hallucinations), and eating disorders. In addition, individuals with Dissociative Disorders can experience headaches, amnesias, time loss, trances, and "out of body experiences.
