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Developmental, Violence and trauma

Multiple personality and child abuse

Katharine Mair casts doubt on the link between dissociative identity disorder and severe childhood trauma.

18 February 1999

The phenomenon of multiple personality — in which one person can assume several different identities, switching between them in an apparently involuntary way — used to be considered both rare and puzzling. However, it is now suggested that up to 1 per cent of the population may have multiple personalities and that they require treatment for this dissociative disorder (Ross, 1991).

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