Recently I watched the Hindi movie 1920. The storyline of the movie is about possession and exorcism. I have seen a number of movies on exorcism. Possessed person is somebody in whose body an evil spirit or spirits reside. Exorcism is the method in which evil spirits are forced out from a possessed person.
I do not believe in God. I do not believe in spirits or ghosts. When I was younger I often wondered how people got possessed if there were no ghosts and spirits. Now I know that the "possessed person" suffers from a psychological condition called Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) describes Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) as "a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a condition in which a single person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities, each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment. The diagnosis requires that at least two personalities routinely take control of the individual behavior with an associated memory loss that goes beyond normal forgetfulness; in addition, symptoms cannot be due to substance abuse or medical condition". Earlier versions of the DSM named the condition multiple personality disorder (MPD).
The symptoms, causes and treatment mentioned below are what I got from the Internet when I searched for DID.
Symptoms
- Multiple mannerisms, attitudes and beliefs that are dissimilar to each other
- Headaches and other body pains
- Distortion or loss of subjective time
- Depersonalization
- Amnesia
- Depression
Patients may experience an extremely broad array of other symptoms that resemble epilepsy, schizophrenia, anxiety, Mood disorders, post traumatic stress, personality, and eating disorders.
Causes
The causes of dissociative identity disorder have not been rightly identified.
The causes are linked with the following:
- Overwhelming stress,
- Traumatic antecedents,
- Insufficient childhood nurturing,
- An innate ability to dissociate memories or experiences from consciousness.
- Prolonged childhood abuse
Treatment
Treatment of DID may attempt to "reconnect" the identities of the disparate alters into a single functioning identity. Treatment methods may include psychotherapy and medications.
But there is an important question that is bothering me. If there is nothing called possession then how come people with DID has been cured by exorcism? I am waiting to get hold of a psychiatrist or psychologist to get the answer.
1 comment:
I have DID....we struggle against people who use what they see in movies to explain DID...it simply is not like that. We are not as "obvious" as that. DID and demonic possession are two different things, although I suppose it is possible to have both. Those who speak of alters inside to seem to be demonic generally are not - they are very angry parts related to trauma. Rather than "killing" them or casting them out, we have to get to know them, understand why they are there - the often protect us in some strange way. Then we bring them into us.
Why do some people appear to be "cured"? Well, the Catholic church must approve all exorcisms, so make sure you are talking about an approved one - none other count. They will only approve if no other accepted diagnosis (like DID) is found.
"The fact that exorcism works on people experiencing symptoms of possession is by some attributed to placebo effect and the power of suggestion." - Wiki
Not sure that answers your question, but the two are basically unrelated.
If you want to read more about DID, visit my blog:
http://emilyfirstgirl.wordpress.com/
Emily
Also,
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