Question:
I was wondering if there are biological or
physiological origins to multiple personalities if so what
are they?
Replies:
Well, commissurotomy (surgical splitting of the brain by severing the
corpus callosum) appears to result in a person with two distinct
behaviors, although neither of these is a complete personality in the
usual sense of the word. I don't know offhand of any natural processes
that mimic a commissurotomy, but perhaps certain strokes or head injuries
do. Oliver Sacks has written a lot of interesting stuff on this subject.
But you may be referring to "multiple-personality schizophrenia," a form
of mental illness of enduring popularity in both fiction (from Dr. Jekyll/
Mr. Hyde to James T. Kirk's wolf/lamb) and nonfiction ("Sybil"). The
existence of this illness is not universally accepted in the professional
mental health community: some workers consider it in the same category as
possession by evil spirits. In any event, the origins of schizophrenia are
very unclear. A strong basic biochemical influence is suggested by the
fact that it tends to run in families and that the most effective means of
treatment is not psychotherapy (talking) but certain antipsychotic drugs.
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