Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder

Personality Disorder is a baffling, confusing and rather bizarre condition. Although Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a formal DSM-IV diagnosis, it is still very controversial, and many professionals claim that it is extremely rare, does not exist or is fictitious. There are many reasons why professionals may be reluctant to acknowledge DID: it is, indeed, baffling, confusing and bizarre. However, there are, perhaps, other reasons for the “low popularity” of this condition.

DID, like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), appears to be caused by trauma. But unlike PTSD, it appears to be caused by prolonged trauma, trauma which started in early childhood or infancy. Listening to accounts of people with DID is confusing due to the multiplicity of speaker(s)—it is also upsetting. The traumatic content of the stories is upsetting. The un-proved claims about terrible crimes are unsettling. We are faced with very difficult legal, ethical, moral and clinical questions, not knowing how to respond, what to believe, how to think.

This book focuses on the most unsavory aspects of DID, namely, the forensic. It explores the role of crime in the lives of people with DID: crimes committed against them, by them and crimes that they have witnessed. The various papers reflect the experiences and thoughts of a range of professionals who have worked with this group: a GP, a psychiatrist, a police officer, a lawyer, psychotherapists and counselors and, most generously, a person who has DID.