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I am thinking to start my Masters in psych., and was wondering if anyone else in here has any education in this field.

I am currently watching and reading about what is known as "Dissociative Personality Disorder" or "Multiple Personality Disorder." Personally, I think the entire disorder is bullshit. People are very suggestible and when these therapists decide to encourage their clients to name their personalities and such, it just perpetuates this nonsense.

Anyone familiar with this?

Those all have groundings with PTSD. And while I have never seen those extreme cases where a policeman goes home to other persona as an 8 year old girl playing with her dolls, PTSD and its brethren are very real and serious problems.

Psychological, if not physical trauma, especially at certain ages can greatly affect a person's psyche especially neurochemically which is why PTSD cases are often treated with SSRI's.

I think this is a great article.

http://www.skepdic.com/mpd.html

I was a psych minor in college and am pretty damn good at getting inside other people's head, if I do say so myself. I'm not exactly sure where I stand with MPD, but I tend to lean towards it actually existing in young patients and it being exaggerated to be used by older patients. It's very hard to say what happens to a child's mind when it goes through something traumatic, so I wouldn't rule it out as a possibility. However, I'd be a hell of a lot more sceptical with adults, as I could see someone studying up on it and then acting the part of a person with MPD so they could be exonerated of criminal charges or something.

It almost seems as if the clients don't really need to study up on it; the therapists make them relive false events and these "events" become factual. I think it's the therapists.

It could be the therapists, although, if it is, I'd say they'd be doing in unconsciously. So many therapists want so much to just help everyone that they almost will themselves to believe there's always a solution, always a cure, always a treatment, you know? I could see them latch onto an idea and go with it until both patient and doctor think it's always been like that. Theories become truth. It's a little scary, but I think for the most part that happens with the best intentions in mind.

Well, personally, I also don't believe in the notion of a "subconscious." I don't buy into Frued. His theories are anything but scientific (although I do think he hit the nail on the head a few times), and they are really based off of no observations. They are also non testable.

I don't believe in "altered states" either, because there is nothing that be done in the "altered" state that cannot be done in the "normal" state. I would chalk this stuff up to the realm of pseudo science.

Nothing that can BE done, I mean. Damn, when I watch TV I cannot type properly.

My knowledge of MPD is very cursory. I would however tend to think it is possible, but very rare. Genuine cases of it would be very difficult to prove.

Dude, you can believe in a subconscious and not buy Freud's shit. You don't think people have more than one level of thought?

Freud originated the idea of a subconscious; as a result most people that subscribe to this concept are "Neo Freudians." The entire notion of psychoanalytic theory is based off of the idea of the subconscious as well.

No, I don't believe that people have multiple levels if thought (if by "multiple" you mean that it has to do with a subconscious).

Again, you are describing Frued (even if you are not meaning to). The Id, Ego and Super Ego are all "multiple levels." I don't buy it.

When I say multiple, I mean multiple. Stop getting hung up on "I hate everything Freud says so if he said it it must be crap" thing.

I'm saying, you're driving in your car, and you're singing along to the radio but at the same time your thinking of something shitty that happened to you earlier in the day: that's multiple on a very basic level. Then add in how you start thinking about something you did that made your morning so shitty, and you try to figure out whether you were right or wrong kicking the dog that made those guys beat the crap out of you, which is why you had such a shitty day. So, not only are you driving and singing, but now you're going back and forth between a choice and trying to decide if you were right or wrong.

How can you do that without multiple levels of thought?

How intrested am I in the Subject? I hope to be "Doctor Bean" eight years from now

How much do I know?
Oh about half years worth

Ok, but how is that on a subconscious level? Maybe I am not understanding what you mean by "multiple" levels. If you read "Totem and Taboo," Freud describes his theories of psychoanalysis as being based on "multiple states of consciousness."

If you mean "multiple levels" as simple multi tasking, then of course I acknowledge that.

Zaia, I don't hate everything that Freud said. The man was rather brilliant, and although I reject about 75% of his theories, I find the other 25% to be right on. I especially like his views on religion being based of off illusions.

By the way, zaia, the phenomenon that you are describing in known as "highway hypnosis."