I wanted to add a few ideas in here because they seem relevant. Norman who writes on 'Out-of Character Behaviour' here, mentions a book by Adam Crabtree entitled 'Multiple Man' which I won't go into in detail but the full title is 'Multiple Man: Explorations in Possession and Multiple Personality'. It was published in paperback in 1988 by Grafton Books but you may be able to pick up a copy.
Whether one feels there is any validity to the concept of possession, or of multiple personality (which now gets called DID indicating dissociation) the author makes an interesting point about his experiences taking groups through a technique called Psychodrama where people act out different roles in a scene. He found that, not only did people with little acting ability or inclination often do well at it, but they managed with little information on the personality and role they were asked to play.
He says (p.337) 'There seems to be within people a natural ability to take on a personality other than their own and to act from within that assumed personality. They appear to actually become that personality and to some extent, leave their own personality behind. The English word which most closely expresses this phenomenon is 'personation'. My experience with psychodrama shows me that human beings may be said to have the innate capacity to 'personate', to take on full-blown personalities and act from within them.'
He goes on to describe personality as a tool (p.339) concluding 'I think there is reason to believe that the whole of man's emotional life is centred around the invention and utilization of those tools that we call 'personalities'.'
Psychosynthesis and various broadly similar approaches use working with parts of the personality, or subpersonalities, perhaps giving each one a name and looking at how useful or otherwise they are for our overall functioning.
Another theme which could have relevance is the concept of the 'shadow', or darker side of ourselves which we may be disinclined to acknowledge - but which others can sometimes see perhaps because of their own acknowledged or unacknowledged parts. It's a strange old world and that includes humans!
I think it's fair to say though that most of us, much of the time, have some idea what happened in our lives this week, last week, this year, last year, going further back with some chain of connection. For people who tend to dissociate to a significant degree as part of their psychological make-up, it doesn't happen that way, and they may literally be unaware of things which happened while they were in quite a different state of mind.
I've known people who are naturally like that anyway, but it can happen too if they have been through bad experiences that they need to keep mostly shut away, or if someone encouraged or forced them to be like that. It can make it hard to plan things properly if they don't remember a bad outcome to something and take steps to avoid it again. And it can be hard for those around them if they don't know enough of the circumstances to understand.
It would be inappropriate of me not to say that I have doubts about some of the therapeutic approaches used with people who have been severely traumatised. No-one can know all the answers for each situation, and care needs to be taken so that a process which is aimed at helping someone does not cause unnecessary problems - for them, for you, for others close to the situation. If we take on board Adam Crabtree's work mentioned above on Psychodrama, and work undertaken on 'confabulation' we need to be careful that expectations or some other factors don't come into play as being factual, which doesn't mean people are deliberate liars either!
Often we can only get nearer to the truth without having a bias, and it does damage to vulnerable people to impose a bias on them in any direction, and whether it is subconsciously passing from us to them, or is somehow more tangible.
On this Blog you can also read 'Supporting a survivor of cult ritual abuse' if you feel that is relevant. On a similar theme is 'A garden analogy of personality' which I feel has relevance for the way ordinary people we know can change, or appear to change. Certainly I have known people who became quite different over the years, as if some parts or modes fell away for a time and others came to the fore. Perhaps that is due to specific events or circumstances, perhaps due to chemical changes in the brain, or perhaps we do indeed use personality modes as vital 'tools' to get us through.
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Note: You may have arrived on this part of the Blog from another site so the following may help to find your way around. There are 10 pages here, each with 4 articles. The first 4 pages consist of an Introduction and lead-in to subjects relating to ritual abuse on the next 3 pages:
- INTRODUCTION
- Beliefs that come and go
- Symbols, realities, the unseen
- Shamanism
- Ritual abuse - see the trigger warning
- Urban legend and ritual abuse
- Booklist
- Other postings and links
- Groups, cults, indoctrination, exiting
- Supporting a survivor of cult ritual abuse
- Dissociation or DID
- A garden analogy of personality
- Social dynamics of cult or satanic ritual abuse
- More dynamics, by Magentine
- Other or better models for DID, MPD?
- Fantasy role-playing
. . . . .
1 comment:
I read in a book somewhere that DID or MPD does not occur in India for some cultural reason I think. I can't find which book! I looked online and there are apparently instances and statistics suggesting it does occur in India. Will keep looking.
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