" Some people with Dissociative Disorders have a tendency toward self-persecution, self-sabotage, and even violence (both self-inflicted and outwardly directed).
Dissociative Disorders are highly responsive to individual psychotherapy, or "talk therapy," as well as to a range of other treatment modalities, including medications, hypnotherapy, and adjunctive therapies such as art or movement therapy. In fact, among comparably severe psychiatric disorders, Dissociative Disorders may be the condition that carries the best prognosis if proper treatment is undertaken and completed. The course of treatment is long-term, intensive, and invariably painful, as it generally involves remembering and reclaiming the dissociated traumatic experiences. Nevertheless, individuals with Dissociative Disorders have been successfully treated by therapists of all professional backgrounds working in a variety of settings.
MPD develops in a person in their childhood and carries on into adulthood until the person is untreated. According to an information page on MPD, it "is a defensive mechanism that protects the child from the physical and emotional pain associated with abuse by separating a part of the child's mind or consciousness to deal with the trauma of the abuse" (Camron). A person with MPD has "two or more distinct personalities that have the capacity to take control of the body and the inability to recall personal information too great to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness," writes Dr. Camron, PhD. Meaning different personalities can take over the original personality and can not recall personal information about the original personality, like for example what their age is or what they did for Christmas last year. .
One might be skeptical on how a person can develop "altars". First, an alter is "a mental entity created by the process of dissociation, for the purpose of operating the body so that the person will survive life-threatening trauma" (Allison and McKenzie).
