Two Personalities, One Brain?

Once, there was ‘Sybil,’ and ‘The Three Faces of Eve.’ Now, there’s the Showtime series ‘The United States of Tara.’ In this segment, we’ll talk about the condition “dissociative identity disorder,” also known as “multiple personality disorder.” Can one brain truly house multiple, unconnected personalities?

Guests:

Kathy Steele
Psychotherapist, Clinical Nurse Specialist
President, International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation
Clinical Director, Metropolitan Counseling Services
Atlanta, Georgia

Numan Gharaibeh
Staff Psychiatrist, Department of Psychiatry
Danbury Hospital
Danbury, Connecticut

“I mean, there isn’t [a] way to for a fad to show up, I think, on a functional MRI or on a PET scan.” -Kathy Steele.

Transcript

Heard on Talk of the Nation

November 13, 2009 – IRA FLATOW, host:

Up next, dissociative identity disorder. Back in the old days, they used to be called multiple personality disorder. And if you know that name, you probably remember seeing Sally Field play Sybil in the movie. Sybil was reportedly based on a true story about a woman that had suffered horrible abuse. And to cope with that she formed different personalities – and as many as 16 different personalities the story goes.