The Most Famous Cases Of Dissociative Identity Disorder In History

Cases of Multiple Personality Disorder are quite commonplace. Patients suffering from this condition have two or more distinct identities or detached personality states controlling their behaviors. This is precisely why experts gave the term Dissociative Identity Disorder. Dissociative Identity Disorder, one of the rarest psychological disorders, is when a person has two or more personalities in them. What amazes most mental health professionals even to this day is if the disorder exists or it’s just an extension of something else. Here are some of the most famous cases of dissociative identity disorder in history.

Louis Vivet

Having been neglected during his childhood, Frenchman Louis Vivet entered the world of crime at eight years of age. During his teens, a strange incident of a viper wrapping around his arms and not biting made him suffer from convulsions. He was psychosomatic paralysis. So grave was the case that he couldn’t identify anyone after that.

Not only did he have mood changes while staying at the asylum, but his appetite too. His diagnosis with over 10 personalities was a shocker. Hypnosis and metallotherapy administrations led to curing him partially. Eventually, with only three personalities remaining in Louis Vivet.

Judi Castelli

Depression took a toll on this woman’s life. She was a victim of terrible physical and emotional abuse while staying in New York State. Her problems began during her college days. She had delusions where she heard voices in her head, destroying her facial features, and even losing usage of an arm in the subsequent years. She had chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia at that time.

Though she was working even after the diagnosis, eventually excelling in sculpting and constructing stained glass, things weren’t going quite right for her. Her diagnosis with 7 personalities initially went on to increase to 44 personalities during her therapy sessions. But Castelli went on to become an advocate for the disorder and a board member of the New York Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation. She was working on creating awareness, teaching people to combat the illness, and helping people with multiple personalities deal with the issues.

Robert Oxnam

The world now knows him as an American scholar and former college professor, president, and private consultant in China. However, there was a time when Oxnam was battling mental illness. A diagnosis with alcoholism, made Oxnam want to leave the therapy. This urge was at an all-time high when one of his personalities, Tommy, was rude to the therapist.

The therapy continued to reveal 11 different personalities in him. However, regular therapy brought it down to 3, namely Bobby, Rob, and a ‘Buddhist-like’ Wanda. The man wrote a memoir about his life, “A Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder.” The book was out in 2005 and is widely read across the world.

Kim Noble

A victim of her parents’ unhappy marriage and physical abuse during childhood, Kim, a resident of South London, had to get into a mental institution. From her 20s, she had multiple personalities. She had close to 20 personalities that were constantly challenging her. One of her personalities, Hayley even went on to commit crimes. The most dominant of the personalities was Patricia.

Strange incidents followed and surprisingly, Kim never had a memory of any of them. When diagnosed with this disorder, she battled with no less than 4 to 5 personalities a day. This was despite getting psychiatric help. She was on the popular Oprah Winfrey Show in 2010. Kim also wrote a book in 2012 detailing her struggles with the personalities and how she deals with them.

Truddi Chase

The stress from the continuous torture of her mother and stepfather Truddie went into depression. Talks with the psychiatrist made her discover she has no less than 92 different personalities. She went on to collectively call them ‘The Troops’, residing inside her. The youngest was a little girl with the name Lamb Chop.

There was another Irish poet and philosopher Ean and many more. None of them had conflicts with each other as their sufferings were immense. Chase and her therapist wrote a book When Rabbit Howls in 1987. She also went on to appear in The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1990. Truddi left the world on March 10, 2010.

While there’s are a lot of sympathizers for the sufferings of these people, there are also those who call them blatant liars. Most people were under the belief that the mask of multiple personalities was a way to shield them from the crime. However, psychologists say that Disassociative personality disorder is for real and the patients need help to get rid of their “other” personalities. So, if you think you or anyone you know might be experiencing symptoms of multiple personality disorder, you should consult a mental health expert right away. You can also seek immediate help from the government.