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Personal Identity

Multiple Personality Disorder

(Text as at 18/12/2010 19:58:05)

*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***


(For the live version and other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)

MPD - otherwise known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). This condition is normally viewed as psychopathological1, to be treated by therapy. It occurs where a human being is, or appears to be, “home” to more than one person2, or at least more than one personality3. These persons/personalities may be radically dissimilar, and are (as the alternative designation implies) dissociated from one another. They can be like Locke’s night and day man “incommunicable consciousnesses”, unaware of one another’s existence – hence being in Lockean terms different persons; or, they can be aware of one another, but as of distinct persons.

No doubt one could complain that the clinically-recorded cases are exaggerated, fabrications or otherwise unreliable. But there seems nothing wrong with them as TEs4, and ones least open to cavil given their approximation to reality.

Effectively, we have a brain running more than one mind-program (on the “mind-as-software” approach); or a brain segregated into more than virtual machine (on the “mind as hardware”) approach to the mind-brain relationship.

MPDs pose no problems to those espousing the Psychological View (PV5) – other than ethical issues concerning “therapeutic” suppression or unification of the alleged multiple persons (see "Shoemaker (David) - Moral Issues at the End of Life"), but what is the response of or the Constitution View (CV6)? Can we have more than one person – with more than one First Person Perspective (FPP7) – constituted by the same human body? Animalism8 ignores psychological factors altogether as far as identity is concerned, so won’t be troubled.

This is mostly a place-holder9. Currently, just see the categorised reading-list (if any).


Live Version of this Archived Note

Date Length Title
06/07/2023 00:43:12 4315 Multiple Personality Disorder

Table of the 5 Earlier Versions of this Note

Date Length Title
19/05/2010 21:37:26 1732 Multiple Personality Disorder
19/05/2010 21:23:02 1237 Multiple Personality Disorder
19/05/2010 15:04:19 495 Multiple Personality Disorder
26/11/2007 23:25:26 84 Multiple Personality Disorder
12/08/2007 10:17:46 80 Multiple Personality Disorder

Table of the 6 Later Versions of this Note

Date Length Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00 4143 Multiple Personality Disorder
15/05/2022 13:19:12 3713 Multiple Personality Disorder
15/02/2021 13:40:48 3362 Multiple Personality Disorder
29/09/2020 00:54:43 2667 Multiple Personality Disorder
03/09/2018 19:49:26 4797 Multiple Personality Disorder
11/03/2018 20:19:41 3298 Multiple Personality Disorder


This version updated Reading List for this Topic Parent Topic
18/12/2010 19:58:05 Multiple Personality Disorder Clinical Observations


Summary of Notes Links from this Page

Animalism Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity) Constitution View First-Person Perspective Person
Personality Psychological View Psychopathology Thought Experiments  

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).



Summary of Note Links to this Page

Clinical Observations, 2 Counting Persons Fine - A Counter-Example to Locke's Thesis, 2 Fission Fusion, 2
Snowdon - The Self and Personal Identity Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Thesis - Outline, 2, 3, 4 Unity of the Person  

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).



Text Colour Conventions

  1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026



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