Growing Not Dwindling: Worldwide Phenomenon of Dissociative Disorders, Disinformation About Dissociation Dr Joel Paris’s Notions About Dissociative Identity Disorder

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR  The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease & Volume 201, Number 4, April 2013 http://www.jonmd.com p. 353 – 358

Growing Not Dwindling: Worldwide Phenomenon of Dissociative Disorders

To the Editor:

In the December 2012 issue of the Journal, Joel Paris, MD, wrote an article about the current status of dissociative identity disorder (DID) and the dissociative disorder field in general. He suggests that DID is merely a ‘‘fad’’ and that there is no credible evidence to connect traumatic experiences with the development of DID. We refute several of the claims made by Dr Paris.

Our biggest concern as non-North American researchers is that Dr Paris does not reference a single international study related to dissociative disorders and DID, despite the considerable and increasing empirical literature from around the world. His speculation that DID is not diagnosed outside clinics that specialize in treating dissociation is not consistent with current data. DID and dissociative disorders have been reliably found in general psychiatric hospitals; psychiatric emergency departments; and private practices in countries including England, the Netherlands, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Northern Ireland, Germany, Finland, China, and Australia, among many others….

Much of the international research, using sophisticated epidemiological and clinical research methods, has replicated dozens of times the finding that dissociative processes and disorders (including DID) can be reliably detected in a wide spectrum of different societies. Epidemiological general population studies indicate that 1.1% to 1.5% meet diagnostic criteria for DID; and 8.6% to 18.3%, for any DSM-IV dissociative disorder  (Johnson et al., 2006; Sar et al., 2007a). The international literature on DID and dissociative disorders has been widely published in mainstream journals of psychiatry and psychopathology and is inconsistent with Dr Paris’s conclusions….

Dr Paris also opines that there is only a ‘‘weak link’’ between child abuse and psychopathology, quoting an article published 17 years ago. Current research illustrates a very different picture. Persons with early abusive experiences demonstrate increased illnesses (Green and Kimerling, 2004), impaired work functioning (Lee and Tolman, 2006), serious interpersonal difficulties (Van der Kolk and d’Andrea, 2010), and a high risk for traumatic revictimization (Rich et al., 2004). The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, an American epidemiological study, has provided retrospective and prospective data from more than 17,000 individuals on the effects of traumatic experiences during the first 18 years of life.

In conclusion, Dr Paris’s assessment of the supposedly dwindling fad of DID and dissociative disorders is not in keeping with current peer-reviewed international research. The dissociative disorder field has been producing solid and consistent evidence that provides guidance to clinicians and researchers about the epidemiology, phenomenology, diagnosis, and treatment of DID (and closely related conditions).

Alfonso Marti´nez-Taboas, PhD  Department of Psychology
Carlos Albizu University San Juan, Puerto Rico

Martin Dorahy, PhD Department of Psychology University of Canterbury
Christchurch, New Zealand

Vedat Sar, MD Department of Psychiatry Istanbul University Istanbul, Turkey
Warwick Middleton, MD Department of Psychiatry University of Queensland
St Lucia, Australia

Christa Kru¨ger, MD Department of Psychiatry University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South Africa

Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease: April 2013 – Volume 201 – Issue 4 – p 353–354  doi: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e318288d27f
Letters to the Editor
http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Citation/2013/04000/Growing_Not_Dwindling__International_Research_on.15.aspx

Disinformation About Dissociation Dr Joel Paris’s Notions About Dissociative Identity Disorder

To the Editor:
We write to record our objections to both the form and the content of Dr Joel Paris’s recent article entitled The Rise and Fall of Dissociative Identity Disorder (Paris, 2012). His claim that dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a ‘‘medical fad’’ is simply wrong, and he provides no substantive evidence to support his claim. From the mistaken identification of Pierre Janet as a psychiatrist in the first line (Janet was the most famous psychologist of his day), it is replete with errors, false claims, and lack of scholarship and just plainly ignores the published literature. Dr Paris provided a highly biased article that is based on opinion rather than on science. His review of the literature is extremely selective. Of 48 references, Dr Paris cites exactly 7 peer-reviewed articles published from 2000 onward (7/48 references equals 14%) and only 8 peer-reviewed, data-driven articles from before 2000 (8/48 equals 16%). Rather than relying on the recent peer-reviewed, scientific literature, Paris relied almost entirely on the non-peer-reviewed books, including a popular press book written by a journalist whose methods and conclusions have been strongly challenged.

He claims that interest and research in DID have waned, yet he fails to cite the multitude of studies that have been conducted about it. In fact, Dalenberg et al. (2007) documented evidence of the exact opposite pattern described by Paris: ‘‘A search of the PILOTS database offered by the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder for articles on dissociation reveals 64 studies in 1985-1989, 236 published in 1990-1994, 426 published in 1995-1999 and 477 in the last 5-year block (2000-2004)’’ (p. 401)….

In addition, he fails to cite a variety of neurobiological and psychophysiological studies of DID documenting similar brain morphology abnormalities in patients with DID to those of other traumatized patients (Reinders et al., 2006; Vermetten et al., 2006). Despite failing to review this and other relevant research, Dr Paris made the claim that ‘‘Neither the theory behind the diagnosis nor the methods of treatment are consistent with the current preference for biological theories’’ (p. 1078). Furthermore, he fails to cite any research that has been done by researchers outside North America. For example, Vedat Sar, MD, in Turkey has published more than 70 articles and chapters on dissociative disorders and trauma (http://vedatsar.com/ index_2.htm), but Dr Paris failed to mention a single one….

A recent review in Psychological Bulletin by 2012) found strong support for the etiological relationship of trauma and dissociation. These included several large meta-analyses, some of which focused on patients with DID. Dalenberg et al. (2012) found an effect size of r = 0.52 and 0.54 for the relationship between childhood physical abuse and sexual abuse, respectively, in studies that compared individuals with dissociative disorders with those without dissociative disorders. In addition, Dalenberg et al. (2012) tested eight different predictions of the trauma versus the fantasy (sociocognitive/iatrogenic) model of dissociation. On each, careful of reviews of the literature, including meta-analyses, on memory, suggestibility, and neurobiology, among others, Dalenberg et al. (2012) found minimal scientific evidence to support the fantasy model. Further, reviews have shown that there are no research studies in the literature in any population studied to support the iatrogenic/sociocognitive etiology of DID promulgated by Dr Paris (Brown et al., 1999; Loewenstein, 2007)….

Dr Paris’s article does not provide scholarly criticism based upon peer reviewed research, scientific data, or accurate discussion of the history of psychiatry. His point of view is incorrect and outmoded. It is the so-called false-memory, iatrogenesis model of the dissociative disorders that is the fallen fad, buried under the weight of rigorous data that contradict it. Dissociative disorders have not risen and fallen. These existed before the fields of psychiatry and psychology did….

Bethany Brand, PhD Department of Psychology Towson University, MD

Richard J. Loewenstein, MD The Trauma Disorders Program Sheppard Pratt Health System Baltimore, MD Department of Psychiatry University of Maryland School of Medicine Baltimore

David Spiegel, MD Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford University School of Medicine CA

Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease: April 2013 – Volume 201 – Issue 4 – p 354–356 doi: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e318288d2ee Letters to the Editor
http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Citation/2013/04000/Disinformation_About_Dissociation__Dr_Joel_Paris_s.16.aspx

California statute of limitations bill, All of Me – Kim Noble and MPD

Beall Introduces Bill to Bring Justice for Victims of Child Sex Abuse January 25, 2013 SACRAMENTO

A proposal to eliminate the statute of limitations for victims of child molestation to file lawsuits against their abusers has been introduced by Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose.

Senate Bill 131 addresses the inability of victims to seek damages because of repressed memories that do not surface until after the deadline to file a lawsuit has passed. Currently, the law states that an action must be filed by the plaintiff’s 26th birthday or within three years of the date that the adult plaintiff reasonably discovers that the psychological trauma he or she is suffering from is linked to sexual abuse. Beall said the law needs to be updated to reflect recent medical findings.

“Well documented medical literature has been developed since the last time the statute of limitations for civil claims was last extended,” he said. “The medical evidence shows psychological injuries stemming from sexual abuse emerge later in life and well past the age of 26…. http://sd15.senate.ca.gov/news/2013-01-25-beall-introduces-bill-bring-justice-victims-child-sex-abuse

HATTIE the novel begins with the end—the end of a woman’s life. In a spare and powerful narrative—delivered in three parts “In The Meadow,” “By the Stream,” and “Through the Woods” —this soulful novel takes us on an intimate journey through the meaning of Hattie’s life and life in general. It delves fearlessly into the complexity of our human relationships, our yearning for the divine, and the ways in which these paths cross throughout our lives. http://annabozenabowen.com http://annabozenabowen.com/hattie-the-novel/

All Of Me: My incredible true story of how I learned to live with the many personalities sharing my body  Kim Noble and Jeff Hudson  Piatkus Publishing 2011 ISBN-10: 0749955902

ALL OF ME
Kim Noble is an accomplished artist and a mother of a 14-year-old girl. She is bubbly and vivacious. To meet her you wouldn’t think anything was wrong. There’s just one problem. To all extents and purposes, Kim Noble does not exist. . .
At some point before her third birthday, as a result of repeated and horrific abuse, Kim Noble’s mind shattered. Her body now plays host to many different personalities. Suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) her body is occupied by a little boy who only speaks Latin, a gay man and an anorexic teenager. Some age with her body; others are stuck in time. http://www.piatkusbooks.net/all-of-me/

Kim Noble  is a  woman who, from the age of 14 years, spent 20 years in and out of hospital until she made contact with Dr Valerie Sinason and Dr Rob Hale at the Tavistock and Portman Clinics.  In 1995 she began therapy and was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (originally named multiple personality disorder). D.I.D is a creative way to cope with unbearable pain. The main personality splits into several parts with dissociative or amnesic barriers between them. It used to be a controversial disorder but Kim has had extensive tests over 2 years by leading psychology professor at UCL, John Morton, who has established there is no memory between the personalities and that she has the misfortune of representing the British gold standard over genuine dissociation.

Kim has 20  main personalities, many fragments and 14 of the main personalities are artists. Having no formal art training, 14 of the main alters became interested in painting in 2004 after spending a short time with an art therapist. These 14 artists each have their own distinctive style, colours and themes, ranging from solitary deserts, sea scenes and abstracts to collages and paintings with traumatic content. Many alters are unaware that they share a body with other artists. http://kimnoble.com/

Pope ‘complicit in child sex abuse scandals’ , UK top cardinal accused, “The story of Sybil is true, not fictional or fraudulent.” they refute the sociocognitive model of DID

- Pope Benedict ‘complicit in child sex abuse scandals’, say victims’ groups
- UK’s top cardinal accused of ‘inappropriate acts’ by priests
- Lessons not learned on abuse therapy
- Republic accused of sex abuse ‘cover-up’
- Sybil in her own words: The untold story of Shirley Mason, her multiple personalities and paintings “The story of Sybil is true, not fictional or fraudulent.”
- A New Model of Dissociative Identity Disorder “They also refute the sociocognitive model of DID.”
- Delhi High Court commutes death penalty of man who killed father

Pope Benedict ‘complicit in child sex abuse scandals’, say victims’ groups
Pope Benedict XVI ‘knew more about clergy sex crimes than anyone else in church yet did little to protect children’, say critics
Ian Traynor in Brussels, Karen McVeigh in New York and Henry McDonald in Dublin
guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 February 2013

For the legions of people whose childhoods and adult lives were wrecked by sexual and physical abuse at the hands of the Roman Catholic clergy, Pope Benedict XVI is an unloved pontiff who will not be missed.

Victims of the epidemic of sex- and child-abuse scandals that erupted under Benedict’s papacy reacted bitterly to his resignation, either charging the outgoing pontiff with being directly complicit in a criminal conspiracy to cover up the thousands of paedophilia cases that have come to light over the past three years, or with failing to stand up to reactionary elements in the church resolved to keep the scandals under wraps.

From Benedict’s native Germany to the USA, abuse victims and campaigners criticised an eight-year papacy that struggled to cope with the flood of disclosures of crimes and abuse rampant for decades within the church….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/11/pope-complicit-child-abuse-say-victims

UK’s top cardinal accused of ‘inappropriate acts’ by priests
Three priests and former priest report Cardinal Keith O’Brien to Vatican over claims stretching back 33 years
Catherine Deveney
The Observer, Saturday 23 February 2013
Three priests and a former priest in Scotland have reported the most senior Catholic clergyman in Britain, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, to the Vatican over allegations of inappropriate behaviour stretching back 30 years.

The four, from the diocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, have complained to nuncio Antonio Mennini, the Vatican’s ambassador to Britain, and demanded O’Brien’s immediate resignation. A spokesman for the cardinal said that the claims were contested.

O’Brien, who is due to retire next month, has been an outspoken opponent of gay rights, condemning homosexuality as immoral, opposing gay adoption, and most recently arguing that same-sex marriages would be “harmful to the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of those involved”….
One of the complainants, it is understood, alleges that the cardinal developed an inappropriate relationship with him, resulting in a need for long-term psychological counselling….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/23/cardinal-keith-o-brien-accused-inappropriate

Letters
Lessons not learned on abuse therapy
The Guardian, Monday 11 February 2013

In 1995 a 13-year-old boy committed suicide having been told he could not have counselling in the long run-up to his abuser’s trial. His mother said: “He was desperate to talk to someone. But social workers said there was no possibility of discussing the abuse before the trial. They did not want to contaminate the evidence.” His abuser was later jailed for four years for offences against other boys….

Malign attacks in the 1990s on psychotherapists by those accused of abuse in an effort to discredit their adult children’s stories have left a false impression. The purpose of therapy is to provide a container for patients’ often unbearable feelings and help them to move on. It leads to a more not less coherent witnessing of the past. Perhaps that is why it arouses such hostility in those who are desperate to bury what happened – accused abusers and their defence teams….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/11/lesssons-not-learned-abuse-therapy

Republic accused of sex abuse ‘cover-up’
11/09/2001
The Irish Government and judicial system conducted a ‘‘hideous cover-up’’ after a young girl was subjected to years of sexual abuse, it was claimed today.

Ian Paisley Jr (DUP, North Antrim) told the Stormont Assembly that 24-year-old Sarah Bland and her mother have spent the last two decades battling in vain to secure justice.

They had come to him in a desperate bid to right a terrible wrong, he said.

He declared: ‘‘For as long as this gross injustice, known as the Bland case, remains unresolved, anything the Irish authorities may say about rights, about equality, about honour, about truth, should be treated with contempt.’’

Mr Paisley’s motion expressing concern at the failure of the Irish judiciary to resolve the case of Sarah Bland, the daughter of a British citizen, was passed unanimously. He said the student and her mother, Trish, had given him a huge dossier on the abuse which began in 1980 when she was aged four and living in a stately home in the Irish midlands….
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/republic-accused-of-sex-abuse-cover-up-23261.html

Journal of Trauma & Dissociation
Sybil in her own words: The untold story of Shirley Mason, her multiple personalities and paintings
DOI:10.1080/15299732.2013.724611 Philip M. Coons MD
10 Oct 2012

Abstract
Suraci’s Sybil in Her Own Words is almost as fascinating as the original book Sybil(Schreiber, 19732. Schreiber, F.R. 1973. Sybil, Chicago: Henry Regnery Company). The story of Sybil is true, not fictional or fraudulent. One early commentator actually suggested that Sybil and Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, her treating psychiatrist, were a case of folie à deux, or shared psychosis (Victor, 19753. Victor, G. 1975. Sybil: Grand hysteria or folie a deux? [Letter]. American Journal of Psychiatry, 132: 202). Having met Dr. Wilbur, listened to her presentations on multiple personality (now known as dissociative identity disorder or DID), and read the many critiques and reviews of Sybil, I have concluded that Sybil was not iatrogenically created by Dr. Wilbur. Documenting this, however, is beyond the purview of this book review.

Shortly after the death of Sybil in 1998, her identity as Shirley Ardell Mason was revealed. She had been living in Lexington, Kentucky close to the residence of her former therapist and had been running her art business out of her home. Patrick Suraci, Ph.D., had discovered Sybil’s identity from a painting that he had inherited from a colleague at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. This colleague, Flora Rheta Schreiber, the author of Sybil, had died in 1988. Waiting until after the death of Dr. Wilbur in 1993, Suraci finally telephoned Shirley Mason and began a five-year telephone relationship with her until she died in 1998. This book grew from those telephone conversations and other research that Dr. Suraci conducted….
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15299732.2013.724611

A New Model of Dissociative Identity Disorder Paul F. Dell, PhD Psychiatr Clin N Am 29 (2006) 1–26

Summary
Data from 220 persons who had DID were used to compare three models of DID: the DSM-IV’s classic model of DID (ie, multiple personalities, switching, amnesia), the subjective/phenomenological model of DID (Box 1), and the sociocognitive model of DID. The DSM-IV narrowly portrays DID as an alter disorder; the subjective/phenomenological model portrays DID as a far more complex dissociative disorder. The data indicate that the subjective/phenomenological model of DID is a superior predictor of the dissociative phenomena of DID. The three studies [14,70] that corroborate the subjective/phenomenological model of DID are important. They show that the subjective/phenomenological model of DID is more comprehensive and more accurate than the DSM-IV’s classic model of DID. They also refute the sociocognitive model of DID. The subjective/phenomenological model of DID was deduced from a novel, empirically supported model of pathological dissociation [4] ; that model fully explains the empirical literature on DID, whereas the DSM-IV model of DID can account for little of that literature.
http://www.copingwithdissociation.com/Dell_2006_ANewModelofDID1.pdf

describes crimes
Delhi High Court commutes death penalty of man who killed father
Press Trust of India  February 24, 2013
New Delhi: The death sentence of a man, who had killed his father as sacrifice to a deity in 2008, has been reduced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court….

According to prosecution, Jitender believed that if he offered a human sacrifice for the deity, his problem with his wife would be resolved.

The convict, however, had argued before the trial court that once in his dream, deity asked Jitender for a human sacrifice to ward off his problems with his wife….
http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/delhi-high-court-commutes-death-penalty-of-man-who-killed-father-334832

Jimmy Savile scandal: judge’s review contacted by more than 425 people, multiple personality disorder (MPD) valid and caused by extreme child abuse

- Jimmy Savile scandal: judge’s review contacted by more than 425 people
- Professional skepticism of multiple personality disorder.
- Mental health professionals’ skepticism about multiple personality disorder.
- Psychiatrists’ Attitudes Toward Dissociative Disorders Diagnoses

“Data from 425 respondents indicated that the majority of psychologists believed multiple personality disorder (MPD) to be a valid but rare clinical diagnosis. Respondents cited extreme child abuse as the foremost cause of MPD.”

Jimmy Savile scandal: judge’s review contacted by more than 425 people
Dame Janet Smith’s investigation into sexual abuse at the BBC over five decades highlights scale of allegations it covers      Josh Halliday      guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 February 2013

The judge-led investigation into sexual abuse at the BBC in the Jimmy Savile era has been contacted by more than 425 people and carried out 60 in-person interviews with witnesses.

The Dame Janet Smith review on Monday said it had conducted approximately 250 conversations with witnesses since its inquiry began in December.
About 60 interviews face-to-face interviews have taken place with witnesses in London and further meetings are planned over the coming weeks, the inquiry said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/feb/18/jimmy-savile-scandal-judge-review

Professional skepticism of multiple personality disorder.
By Cormier, Jane F.; Thelen, Mark H.
Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol 29(2), Apr 1998, 163-167.
Abstract
If you saw a patient who appeared to have more than one personality, what diagnosis would you make? And how would you vary your clinical approach? Data from 425 respondents indicated that the majority of psychologists believed multiple personality disorder (MPD) to be a valid but rare clinical diagnosis. Respondents cited extreme child abuse as the foremost cause of MPD. Approximately one-half of all respondents believed that they had encountered a client with MPD, whereas less than one-third believed that they had encountered a client who feigned MPD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&uid=1998-00832-013

Mental health professionals’ skepticism about multiple personality disorder.
By Hayes, Jeffrey A.; Mitchell, Jeffrey C.
Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol 25(4), Nov 1994, 410-415.
Abstract
Three studies were conducted to investigate the nature of mental health professionals’ skepticism regarding multiple personality disorder (MPD). An initial pilot study was conducted to develop a psychometrically sound survey instrument. In Study 2, the results of a national survey of 207 mental health professionals supported the hypothesis that skepticism and knowledge about MPD are inversely related, r=–.33, p<.01, although the strength of this relationship varied among professions. Moderate to extreme skepticism was expressed by 24% of the sample. Results from Study 3 supported the hypotheses that MPD is diagnosed with less accuracy than is schizophrenia and that misdiagnosis of MPD is predicted by skepticism about MPD. Findings are related to literature pertaining to mental health professionals’ skepticism about MPD and consequential effects on treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&uid=1995-11275-001

Letter to the Editor   |   July 01, 2000
Psychiatrists’ Attitudes Toward Dissociative Disorders Diagnoses
A. STEVEN FRANKEL , PH.D., J.D.; SHERRY A. SPAN , M.A.
Am J Psychiatry 2000;157:1179-1179. 10.1176/appi.ajp.157.7.1179
In our opinion, the article by Harrison G. Pope, Jr., M.D., et al. (1) failed to comport with the level of scholarship usually required for publication in scientific journals. The authors failed to mention two methodologically sound studies (2, 3) showing that favorable attitudes toward dissociative identity disorder are positively correlated with knowledge about the disorder (from reading texts, attending conferences about dissociative identity disorder, etc.). Furthermore, that they did not assess attitudes toward other DSM-IV disorders may have itself introduced bias. This omission also failed to provide a baseline of skepticism from which attitudes toward all disorders might be assessed.

In addition, the authors’ methodological and statistical procedures were flawed. Random sampling cannot be achieved by a “prescribed formula.” The variables assessed did not appear driven by theory. Thus, while their logistic regression appeared sophisticated, the variables it analyzed were not. The most striking problem concerned their interpretation of the data. They reported that “[the disorders] should be included [in DSM-IV] only with reservations” as the modal response. Nevertheless, a sign test shows no significant differences between this group and the group that opted for inclusion without reservations. Thus, the more reasonable interpretation is that the overwhelming majority of responders indicated acceptance—with or without reservations.
http://journals.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=174234

Dr. Phil: 22 Faces – Ritual Abuse and MPD, Penn State: Lessons Not Learned

Dr. Phil January 11,2013 NBC will feature Twenty Two Faces – A Story of Ritual Abuse and Multiple Personalities

The Dr. Phil Show featuring Jenny Hill, her son Robert, Judy Byington and Jenny’s biography “Twenty-Two Faces: Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities ” will air this Friday, January 11, 2013 on NBC

Twenty-Two Faces Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities
Twenty-Two Faces documents how the only known survivor-intended-victim of a modern-day human sacrifice ceremony six year-old Jenny Hill, overcomes multiplicity resulting from brainwashing, her perpetrators having subjected the child to insidious mind-control techniques….
http://22faces.com

ABC Channel 4 Kimberly Nelson 10-26-12 with Author Judy Byington,MSW, LCSW, ret; Jenny Hill and her therapist Weston Whatcott, Phd, LCSW, MSW “The Woman With 22 Personalities”
http://youtu.be/8SECeoTGRgE

Jenny Hill testimony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F626Lsrdwg4

Dr. Phil.com – Shows This Week    Friday – January 11, 2013
….Then, Jenny is a 56-year-old mother of three who says she suffers from dissociative identity disorder, formally known as multiple personality disorder. She says she has 22 “alters,” who she calls “parts of me.” Jenny reveals the traumatic childhood experiences that she believes caused her to take on multiple personalities. And, Jenny’s son, Robert, 30, shares what life was like growing up with Jenny. Then, Jenny’s therapist, Judy, who wrote the book, 22 Faces, based on Jenny’s journals and their sessions together, joins the show to defend herself against accusations that she may be exploiting her patient. Go inside the world of real-life families rocked by mental illness in this all-new Dr. Phil!  http://www.drphil.com/shows/

Penn State: Lessons Not Learned
January 3, 2013

If it were possible to compound the reasons for outrage over the serial child rape committed at Penn State, Gov. Tom Corbett took a brazenly misguided step in that direction Wednesday. The governor filed a federal lawsuit to force the N.C.A.A. to revoke the highly deserved sanctions imposed on the school and its powerful football program for a scandal that reached the highest levels of the university.

Governor Corbett barely mentioned the young victims in complaining that the state’s economy, its citizens, students and, of course, the all-important Pennsylvania State University football fans were being unfairly penalized for the abuse and rape of children by Jerry Sandusky, the imprisoned former assistant coach who for years used the football program as a lure for his young victims….

In his foolhardy lawsuit, the governor bypassed incoming state attorney general Kathleen Kane to hire an outside law firm to pursue his case in the name of the state. Ms. Kane declined to comment, but in her election campaign last year she promised to look into why it took so long for the pedophilia scandal to be investigated when Mr. Corbett previously served as attorney general.

In his complaints, the governor only confirmed the inquiry finding that the university’s obsession with football predominance helped drive the cover-up of Mr. Sandusky’s crimes. Mr. Corbett extolled football’s “economic engine” and bemoaned the “diminution in value of the Penn State educational and community experience” because it relied, he emphasized, “in part on the prominence of the Penn State football program.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/opinion/penn-state-lessons-not-learned.html

Kim Noble – Mom with Over 20 Different Personalities on Anderson Cooper – Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Kim Noble – Mom with Over 20 Different Personalities on Anderson Cooper – Wednesday, January 2, 2013

DAYTIME EXCLUSIVE: Mom with Over 20 Different Personalities: A mom living with over 20 personalities, including a man, a teenage boy, and a bulimic, breaks her silence about her struggle. http://www.andersoncooper.com/episodes/carmen-electra-jorge-cruise-2013-resolution-solutions-best-3-moves-to-lose-your-belly-fat-for-good-exclusive-a-mom-with-over-20-personalities/

Kim Noble is a woman who, from the age of 14 years, spent 20 years in and out of hospital until she made contact with Dr Valerie Sinason and Dr Rob Hale at the Tavistock and Portman Clinics.  In 1995 she began therapy and was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (originally named multiple personality disorder). D.I.D is a creative way to cope with unbearable pain. The main personality splits into several parts with dissociative or amnesic barriers between them. It used to be a controversial disorder but Kim has had extensive tests over 2 years by leading psychology professor at UCL, John Morton, who has established there is no memory between the personalities.  http://www.kimnoble.com/

Psychobiological DID/MPD evidence, Pediatric dentist facing child porn possession charges, Victims of child pornography seek restitution from men who downloaded and traded horrific images, Paedophiles behind a face of respectability

- Prosecutor: Pediatric dentist facing child porn possession charges
- Victims of child pornography seek restitution from men who downloaded and traded horrific images
- Dissociative Identity States “DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g., iatrogenic) origin”
-  Psychobiological characteristics of dissociative identity disorder: a symptom provocation study.
- One Brain, Two Selves.
- Paedophiles behind a face of respectability

Prosecutor: Pediatric dentist facing child porn possession charges
By Laura Ly and Rande Iaboni, CNN
Thu December 27, 2012

(CNN) — A pediatric dentist charged with possession and distribution of child pornography can still treat children at his Framingham, Massachusetts, dental office under a judge’s ruling, according to a news release from the Middlesex district attorney’s office.

Melvin A. Ehrlich, 52, was arraigned Thursday in Framingham District Court on three counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of distribution of child pornography, according to the release.

Ehrlich, who was arrested Wednesday, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, according to Stephanie Chelf Guyotte, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

“While the case remains under development and investigation, there is currently no evidence that presently leads law enforcement to believe that Ehrlich physically abused any children or manufactured any images of child pornography,” the news release said….

Authorities immediately launched an investigation that they say revealed Ehrlich had used the laptop “under various user names to download and distribute commercially traded child pornography images,” the release said….

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/27/us/massachusetts-pediatric-dentist-charged/index.html

Victims of child pornography seek restitution from men who downloaded and traded horrific images
By Jenifer B. McKim Globe Staff December 27, 2012
The woman, now in her twenties, lives in relative anonymity on the West Coast, but to child pornography collectors worldwide she will always be known as “Vicky,” a little girl raped by her father in a series of videos illegally disseminated online thousands of times during more than a decade.

Now the woman and a small but growing number of other child pornography victims are seeking restitution from those who collected or traded pictures and videos depicting their abuse, filing claims for damages against convicted child pornographers in Massachusetts and around the country. In court papers, victims describe living with the knowledge that their images can never be cleansed from the Internet.

“Many people somewhere are watching the most terrifying moments of my life and taking grotesque pleasure in them,” the woman said in court statement provided by her Seattle attorney, Carol Hepburn. “They are being entertained by my shame and pain.”

Since 2008, six federal child pornography cases in Massachusetts have resulted in defendants being ordered to pay restitution, according to the US attorney’s office in Boston.

The amounts range between $2,000 and $2.5 million, and more than a dozen local cases are pending as courts across the country grapple with questions about whether victims deserve restitution and, if so, how much.

The recent restitution efforts come as the scourge of child pornography has accelerated during the last decade, aided by improved technology and the Web’s promise of anonymity.

While most sexually exploited children go unidentified, nearly 5,000 nationwide have been located during the last 10 years by law enforcement officials and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

The Virginia nonprofit manages a database to aid prosecutors and help identify exploited children….
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2012/12/27/victims-child-pornography-seek-restitution-from-men-who-downloaded-and-traded-horrific-images/LPHPAEuOjJGACBwBTA485K/story.html

Dissociative Identity States. Reinders AATS, Willemsen ATM, Vos HPJ, den Boer JA, Nijenhuis ERS (2012) PLoS ONE 7(6): e39279. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.003927

Methodology/Principal Findings

DID patients, high fantasy prone and low fantasy prone controls were studied in two different types of identity states (neutral and trauma-related) in an autobiographical memory script-driven (neutral or trauma-related) imagery paradigm. The controls were instructed to enact the two DID identity states. Twenty-nine subjects participated in the study: 11 patients with DID, 10 high fantasy prone DID simulating controls, and 8 low fantasy prone DID simulating controls. Autonomic and subjective reactions were obtained. Differences in psychophysiological and neural activation patterns were found between the DID patients and both high and low fantasy prone controls. That is, the identity states in DID were not convincingly enacted by DID simulating controls. Thus, important differences regarding regional cerebral bloodflow and psychophysiological responses for different types of identity states in patients with DID were upheld after controlling for DID simulation.

Conclusions/Significance

The findings are at odds with the idea that differences among different types of dissociative identity states in DID can be explained by high fantasy proneness, motivated role-enactment, and suggestion. They indicate that DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g., iatrogenic) origin
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0039279

Psychobiological characteristics of dissociative identity disorder: a symptom provocation study. Reinders AA, Nijenhuis ER, Quak J, Korf J, Haaksma J, Paans AM, Willemsen AT, den Boer JA. Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Oct 1;60(7):730-40.

Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) patients function as two or more identities or dissociative identity states (DIS), categorized as ‘neutral identity states’ (NIS) and ‘traumatic identity states’ (TIS). NIS inhibit access to traumatic memories thereby enabling daily life functioning. TIS have access and responses to these memories. We tested whether these DIS show different psychobiological reactions to trauma-related memory.

METHODS:
A symptom provocation paradigm with 11 DID patients was used in a two-by-two factorial design setting. Both NIS and TIS were exposed to a neutral and a trauma-related memory script. Three psychobiological parameters were tested: subjective ratings (emotional and sensori-motor), cardiovascular responses (heart rate, blood pressure, heart rate variability) and regional cerebral blood flow as determined with H(2)(15)O positron emission tomography.

RESULTS:
Psychobiological differences were found for the different DIS. Subjective and cardiovascular reactions revealed significant main and interactions effects. Regional cerebral blood flow data revealed different neural networks to be associated with different processing of the neutral and trauma-related memory script by NIS and TIS.

CONCLUSIONS:
Patients with DID encompass at least two different DIS. These identities involve different subjective reactions, cardiovascular responses and cerebral activation patterns to a trauma-related memory script.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17008145

One Brain, Two Selves.  Reinders AA, Nijenhuis ER, Paans AM, Korf J, Willemsen AT, den Boer JA. Neuroimage. 2003 Dec;20(4):2119-25.

ABSTRACT:  Having a sense of self is an explicit and high-level functional specialization of the human brain. The anatomical localization of self-awareness and the brain mechanisms involved in consciousness were investigated by functional neuroimaging different emotional mental states of core consciousness in patients with Multiple Personality Disorder (i.e., Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)). We demonstrate specific changes in localized brain activity consistent with their ability to generate at least two distinct mental states of self-awareness, each with its own access to autobiographical trauma-related memory. Our findings reveal the existence of different regional cerebral blood flow patterns for different senses of self. We present evidence for the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the posterior associative cortices to have an integral role in conscious experience.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14683715

Paedophiles behind a face of respectability
By Tracey Spicer The Daily Telegraph September 21, 2009
A PAEDOPHILE lives in Sydney’s East Ryde. He doesn’t have a facial tic or a stutter. He doesn’t look like the sex offender from central casting. And his name is not Dennis Ferguson.

He is one of tens of thousands of paedophiles, living in the suburbs, who don’t walk around with big signs on their foreheads.

In about 90 per cent of child sex abuse cases, the perpetrator is a family member or friend, not some rock spider who abducts kids in the street.

“Offenders look like everybody else,” Carol Ronken from Bravehearts, a support group for child sex victims, said….
http://www.news.com.au/opinion/paedophiles-behind-face-of-respectability/story-e6frfs99-1225777275022

Survivorship Webinar: Trauma Treatment by Judy Byington author of 22 Faces

Saturday, November 17
12:00 noon Pacific Time
Presenter: Judy Byington, MSW, LCSW, ret.
Topic: Trauma Treatment

Judy Byington, MSW, LCSW, ret presents a historical perspective on the growth of the Dissociate Identity Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress diagnoses, showing underlying causes using her twenty year research with over fifty ritually abused victims while writing the biography “Twenty-Two Faces: Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities.”

Byington tracks the ever-present phenomenon of denial as to recognition of dissociation; explains birth of alter personalities within a traumatized child’s developing brain in order to cope with ongoing trauma; shows how alternative thinking patterns function to protect the core personality and encourages survivors and practitioners to re-evaluate their treatment modalities to better confront, cope and heal from trauma so as to lead more productive lives.

Judy Byington, MSW, LCSW, ret, has dedicated her life to humanizing and raising public awareness about the little-known effects of ritual abuse and mind-control programming that tragically cause formation of multiple personalities in children. The CEO of the Trauma Research Center; retired therapist; Supervisor, Alberta Canada Mental Health and Director, Provo Utah Family Counseling Center is Author of the newly-released biography, Twenty-Two Faces: Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities (Tate Publishing: Oklahoma).

REGISTRATION
Registration closes Thursday evening November 15th , 2012

To reserve a space in the webinar, e-mail shamai@survivorship.org  and give this information:

1. Your name
2. The webinar you wish to attend: “Trauma Treatment”
3. Amount and method of payment (check, PayPal, money order)
4. Your preferred e-mail address (so we can send you instructions)
5. The name you will be using for the webinar. (This does not have to be your real name or your message board screen name.)

You will receive a confirmation email immediately and an invitation link and instructions after the registration closes

COST
Webinars are on a sliding scale from $50.00 to full scholarship (while we offer full scholarships for webinars please consider paying whatever you are able to. Even $5 will help to cover the cost of the webinar provider). Please remember to factor in the cost of the telephone call if you don’t have a computer headset. The PayPal button is near the bottom of the page at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html

If you wish to pay by check please send it to: Survivorship, Family Justice Center, 470 27th Street, Oakland, CA 94612.

PAST WEBINARS
Survivorship members may listen to past webinars in the members’ section.
We strive to present all webinars in our archives, and sometimes, for technical reasons, we are unable to.

For information on joining Survivorship, go to http://www.survivorship.org/about/membership.html

Complete details on all our webinars are at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html

Scientists Are Beginning to Understand What Causes Multiple Personality Disorder

“Researchers believe that indicates that DID sufferers do not merely have overactive imaginations, and that the origins of their ailment stem more likely from trauma.”

“These results do not support the idea of a sociogenic origin for DID.”

Scientists Are Beginning to Understand What Causes Multiple Personality Disorder

Despite the fact that dissociative identity disorder has been listed in psychiatry bible Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (currently DSM-IV) for years, the origins of the condition are not well-understood.  By Makini Brice  July 02, 2012

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) – or multiple personality disorder, as it is commonly known – affects one percent of the population, roughly the same amount as schizophrenia. Often sufferers from the condition have been misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder before receiving their DID diagnosis. DID is usually characterized as a person who has with two or more personalities with completely different viewpoints on their environments and themselves.

Some believe that those afflicted use DID as a means of coping with extreme trauma, while others think that those affected simply have overactive imaginations. Of those who believe in the overactive imagination theory, scientists do not believe that DID is a genuine mental disorder.

Researchers at King’s College London sought to find a clearer picture of the answer to that question. They studied 29 people, 11 had dissociative identity disorder, 10 were people who were highly prone to fantasy and 8 people were not very prone to fantasy, as a control. Of those without DID, they were made to simulate the symptoms of dissociative identity disorder. The researchers measured subjects’ brain activity, cardiovascular system, and their reactions.

They found that there were strong differences, both in regional blood flow and in reactions, between the DID sufferers and the control subjects. Researchers believe that indicates that DID sufferers do not merely have overactive imaginations, and that the origins of their ailment stem more likely from trauma….http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20120702/10574/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-brain-mental-trauma.htm

Fact or Factitious? A Psychobiological Study of Authentic and Simulated Dissociative Identity States
A. A. T. Simone Reinders, Antoon T. M. Willemsen, Herry P. J. Vos, Johan A. den Boer, Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis PLoS ONE 7(6): e39279. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039279

Abstract

Background

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a disputed psychiatric disorder. Research findings and clinical observations suggest that DID involves an authentic mental disorder related to factors such as traumatization and disrupted attachment. A competing view indicates that DID is due to fantasy proneness, suggestibility, suggestion, and role-playing. Here we examine whether dissociative identity state-dependent psychobiological features in DID can be induced in high or low fantasy prone individuals by instructed and motivated role-playing, and suggestion.

Methodology/Principal Findings

DID patients, high fantasy prone and low fantasy prone controls were studied in two different types of identity states (neutral and trauma-related) in an autobiographical memory script-driven (neutral or trauma-related) imagery paradigm. The controls were instructed to enact the two DID identity states. Twenty-nine subjects participated in the study: 11 patients with DID, 10 high fantasy prone DID simulating controls, and 8 low fantasy prone DID simulating controls. Autonomic and subjective reactions were obtained. Differences in psychophysiological and neural activation patterns were found between the DID patients and both high and low fantasy prone controls. That is, the identity states in DID were not convincingly enacted by DID simulating controls. Thus, important differences regarding regional cerebral bloodflow and psychophysiological responses for different types of identity states in patients with DID were upheld after controlling for DID simulation.

Conclusions/Significance

The findings are at odds with the idea that differences among different types of dissociative identity states in DID can be explained by high fantasy proneness, motivated role-enactment, and suggestion. They indicate that DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g., iatrogenic) origin.

“For the first time, it is shown using brain imaging that neither high nor low fantasy prone healthy women, who enacted two different types of dissociative identity states, were able to substantially simulate these identity states in psychobiological terms. These results do not support the idea of a sociogenic origin for DID.” http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0039279

CARRIE FISHER HOSTS DISCOVERY FIT & HEALTH’S PSYCH WEEK – The Woman with 15 Personalities, Mom Gouged Son’s Eyes Out In Drug-Fueled Ritual, Mexico Authorities Say

CARRIE FISHER HOSTS DISCOVERY FIT & HEALTH’S PSYCH WEEK
Psych Week Begins Sunday, June 3 at 8 PM ET/PT
May 23, 2012

With mental health programming airing nightly, beginning Sunday, June 3 at 8 PM ET/PT, PSYCH WEEK will profile individuals dealing with a spectrum of afflictions and addictions, from agoraphobia, sexsomnia and bipolar disorder to schizophrenia, hoarding, OCD and multiple-personality disorder.

The Woman with 15 Personalities  – Friday, June 8 at 8 PM ET/PT

The Woman With 15 Personalities presents a unique look at a person living with Dissociative Identity Disorder, a condition in which a person displays several distinct identities, each with its own perception of the environment. http://press.discovery.com/us/dfh/press-releases/2012/psych-week-2012-1946-1946/

Mom Gouged Son’s Eyes Out In Drug-Fueled Ritual, Mexico Authorities Say
By MARK STEVENSON 05/24/12

MEXICO CITY — Police in a Mexico City suburb arrested a mother and several relatives Thursday for allegedly gouging out the eyes of her 5-year-old son in what authorities said appeared to have been a drug-fueled ritual….

Mexico state prosecutor Isaac Acevedo told local media that a total of eight people had been detained and that investigators believed the mother herself gouged the boy’s eyes out with her fingers. The boy’s father was apparently not in the home at the time.

The crime appeared to have been part of a ritual, but was not apparently related to the Santa Muerte or Saint Death cult, some of whose followers were recently charged with the sacrificial killings of two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman in northern Sonora state, he said….

While statues of Saint Death are common in many poor Mexican neighborhoods, Chavez said no altar or statue of the figure was found in the Nezahualcoyotl home.

Mexico’s worst case of ritual sacrifice came with the notorious “narco-satanicos” killings of the 1980s. Fifteen bodies, many of them with signs of ritual sacrifice, were unearthed at a ranch outside the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/mom-gouged-sons-eyes-out-santa-muerte-nezahualcoyotl-mexico_n_1544235.html