One study was done by the psychiatrists Thigpen & Cleckley in 1954. A 25 year old woman named Eve White had been experiencing severe headaches, blackouts and amnesia. Through hypnotism Eve White was able to recall what happened during her blackouts and it seemed she might be getting well again. During the next visit to the psychiatrists Eve White held her head as if she suddenly got a severe headache. But to the surprise of the psychiatrists it was in fact a different personality who appeared. Eve Black was her name and was the complete opposite of Eve White. At the time Eve Black knew about Eve White all along but Eve White had no clue the she had another personality in the same body. if Eve white was “conscious” Eve Black was still able to make her presence known by letting Eve White hear voices and giving her headaches. Using tests to measure the dimensions of the psychological behavior the two doctors discovered different facts about each of the personalities. After almost a year headaches and amnesia cases reappeared and during a hypnosis session a new personality appeared. She called herself Jane and was clearly the most mature out of the three. It seemed as if Jane was a balance of Eve White and Black. Eve white had several symptoms that were derived from MPD. She had severe headaches, blackouts over a period of time where she couldn’t remember a thing, voices and dizziness. Eve White’s greatest worry was her amnesia. But we cannot fully rely on the data because it was gathered over 50 years ago when studies were primitive. We cannot be sure if hypnotism really worked, all the information could have been biast which would make nothing reliable and therefore not a good example. What we can do is say that in theory if all the given information is correct that MPD exists and can be treated.
A person with MPD that was caused by a psychological trauma, automatically creates a type of self-hypnosis, this self hypnosis helps the person dodge any pain or trauma. It is said that if a victim is set out to recurrent abuse and trauma, the body can go into a stage where it automatically switches to “self hypnosis” when there is a danger of pain or trauma. A case study of Mendelsohn et al presents the possibility that there is a brain “amnesia” center. In the experiment, the researchers divided the participants into 2 groups- people susceptible to hypnotic orders and those who were not. Both groups were shown a film about a life of a young woman. In a week, the participants were placed in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner and they were induced into hypnotic state. During that state, they were suggested to forget the movie. And as the studies have shown, people susceptible to hypnosis, could not recall the movie fully after going out of hypnotic state, while the opposite group could recall what they have seen better. Analysis of the brain scans taken during posthypnotic amnesia and memory recovery showed that activity in some brain regions of those susceptible to hypnosis were suppressed during memory suppression, while activity in other regions increased. The weakness is that the scientists tested only using a movie to see whether the brain will suppress the memory about it when it is ordered to so. They could have watched the movie without interest and that is the reason why they did not recall all the parts of it. They should have tested their hypothesis using other methods to make sure the date is reliable.
The effects of cognition on our physiology are quite significant. The memories of bad experiences can haunt us and damage the quality of our life. Our subconscious can put us in a hypnotic state in which we cannot feel any pain or trauma. By doing so we have no memory of whatever just has happened to us. Therefore we recall that we blacked out and suffer under amnesia when in fact our brain moved or deleted the memory so that it cannot hurt us or traumatize us.
"Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) Causes, Symptoms, Signs, Diagnosis and Treatment by MedicineNet.com." Web. 04 Nov. 2009. <http://www.medicinenet.com/dissociative_identity_disorder/article.htm>.
"AS Psychology." AS Psychology holah.co.uk. Web. 03 Nov. 2009. <http://www.holah.karoo.net/thigpenstudy.htm>.