[UA] Feedback on UA-ish convention scenario concept

[Timothy Ferguson]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu [mailto:ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu]On

> My experience with MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) was
> tangential.  Specifically, I worked as a secretary for a group of
> social workers, one of whom had several patients with those
> symptoms.  The book she recommended (but which I never read) was
> "When Rabbit Howls."

Note that this book is quite old by now.  It describes the experience from
inside, but theory and treatment have moved on.  The disability has even
been reclassified since.

> A few random impressions I got were...
>
> * There is usually one dominant personality -- I believe
> therapists call it "the Captain" -- who is in charge a good
> majority of the time.  The Captain is ALMOST NEVER the original
> personality.

By definition it can't be.  The original personality fragments to create the
alters.  You may get an alter who -thinks- it is the original, but that's
not possible, other than in the sense that all of the alters are from the
original.

> * MPD is the result of terrible trauma at a very young age --
> stresses so bad that the only two options a mind has are "go
> multiple" or "go catatonic."  Usually it's a repetitive trauma.

Often abuse - but not always.

> * Personalities may be more formed or less.  Captains are usually
> pretty well rounded, but other personae are task-oriented.  There
> might be one personality whose sole function is to feel pain --
> so any time the body gets hurt, that personality gets switched in.

"Captians" (or socials...different countries, different ways of saying
things) aren't well rounded.  Their function is to shield the rest of the
alters from the world, and they do that really well.  Emotionally they
aren't as well-rounded as they appear to be.


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