Multiple Personality Disorder
In early times evil spirits were thought to possess people and make them act in strange and frightening ways. By the 1800's the study of this hysteria lead some doctors to believe that one person could have seperately functioning personalities.
In a rare research film from the 1920's a woman has different personalities who believe they are seperate people. One is a male who is not comfortable in womens clothes, another is a small child. There's a college girl with multiple personalities and one of them wants to kill her. And another example is a 40 year old police officer who has a tortured child living within him.
The affliction has been known by different names but recognized for centuries. Today it is called dissociative identity disorder or multiple personality disorder. Despite its age, this documentary does a good job at taking us deeper into this interesting psychological subject.
More videos
Most Of Our Universe Is Missing
Fractals: The Colors Of Infinity
The Life Of Mammals
Extreme Energy
Watch this documentary online
If you can't play the documentary, please read the FAQ.
Link to this documentary:
Embed this documentary:

comment #3878 victim
thanks... our mind is fragile that when it is hurt, that mind interacts in accordance of that hurt impact resulting in our present attitudes.
reply | permalinklove and healing is in demand. lets heal and love.
thanks for the owner of this site. God gives you overflowing blessings...
comment #3459 ChieftestofSinners
Her aggressive personality is named Enigma? Interesting how she claims to have formed a personality as a child with a name she could not possibly have known the meaning of. Most children haven't even heard the word enigma.
reply | permalinkNo doubt, this woman is mentally ill, but she is clearly faking.
comment #3448 arwritergal
This is a reply to comment #2331
Hilarious Imperion! Not the film or those poor people's agony. But, the reply was perfect!
reply | permalinkcomment #2934 Cee
So very sad.
reply | permalinkcomment #2533 APL
This is a reply to comment #2339
I'm with you, it didn't seem genuine.
reply | permalinkcomment #2357 Haricots
Kate, good points.
reply | permalinkI guess I didn't make myself clear, I was referring to recovered memory by techniques such as hypnosis.
Spontaneously recovered memories are many times more reliable than the therapy recovered memories. They may even be about as accurate as normal continuous memories.
comment #2356 Kate
With regard to Haricots' comment - yes, it is important to be aware of the fact that memory can be created, but it is also important to acknowledge that memories of real abuse can be repressed and then recovered. I work as a counselor with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and I know cases where recovered memories have been confirmed by objective evidence and other people's testimonies. I also know a few survivors who were not believed because they only regained their memories of abuse when they were adults. The "false memory syndrome" can also be a very handy tool in the hands of the abuser(s), who want to discredit the survivor's disclosure. Let's keep in mind that all depends on the individual case and the fact that the memories are recovered, does not automatically mean they are false.
reply | permalinkcomment #2352 spacebunny
Barb's story was the most poignant because her behavior affected her husband and children. The other sufferers had already divorced and live by themselves. I wonder how her children turned out.
reply | permalinkcomment #2346 Haricots
If you want a documentary to balance this one you should check out BBC Horizon's "Mistaken Identity" from 1999.
reply | permalinkThe premise of that show is that MPD is largely if not completely a disorder created by leading questions etc from the therapists.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6233210106882824579#
I'm leaning in the direction of the skeptics in this case, it has been shown time and time again what you can convince your patients of if you're not careful. Just look at the recovered memory scandal.
comment #2340 SSS
This was are really fascinating doco. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My heart goes out to the people suffering from this horrible disorder.
reply | permalinkcomment #2339 Dan
Ridiculous! I'm sure it's possible this disorder exists but the overly dramatic narration and the host's eagerness to believe this woman was laughable. I only watched 15 minutes and that was enough. It was rather apparent this woman was acting, I'd love to see an update on her.
reply | permalinkcomment #2331 Imperien
I didn't like this documentary...
reply | permalink... But I thought it was great!
comment #2326 Flowing Flesh
wow, i was glued to the screen through the whole documentary. This was extremly interesting, and incredibly sad for the people involved
reply | permalinkcomment #2319 Lola
Fascinating docmunetary. It just goes to show the human instinct for survival is powerful, and the human mind will do what it needs to do to cope.
reply | permalink