The Fraught History of Dissociative Identity Disorder

The condition formerly known as “multiple personality disorder” is now called Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID. It affects an estimated .01 to 1 percent of the general population, but it’s a condition that many researchers still disagree on. As TONIC's Shayla Love explains in her recent article, the condition's history is fraught with tales of false memories and Satanic cults. Only three paragraphs into WebMD’s page on DID, a subheading asks: “Is Dissociative Identity Disorder Real?” To this day, only some believe it is, while others believe it’s a disorder brought on by the power of suggestion and scary stories. Clinicians don’t doubt the suffering of people who get a DID diagnosis, but they can’t agree on where the suffering originates, and that conflict has had major implications for how people with DID are treated. On this episode of The VICE Guide To Right Now Podcast, we sit down with Love for the full story.

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