Case Study Analysis 5 Essay

Submitted By Thailehr
Words: 692
Pages: 3

1. Provide specific examples from the casebook that support the diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Explain in detail.
The following are a few examples from the case study that I noticed support the diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder (or DID):
The author, known as Quiet Storm, notes that there are multiple people— each with their own name, personal attributes, skills and goals— who live inside what she calls “an internal house” that they go to when not “occupying the body.” (The textbook describes this symptom as: “disruption of identity by the existence of two or more distinct personality states or by the experience of possession.”)
Towards the middle of the article, Quiet Storm reports that two of her alters, Connie and Elaina, were both attending higher education institutions simultaneously, however they didn’t know this about one another. (The textbook describes this symptom as: “discontinuities in sense of self, memories, emotions, cognitions, and perceptions.”)
While explaining how the system of multiple personalities continued to affect her in adulthood, Quiet Storm says, “we lost time, as alters unknown to us took control of the body.” (The textbook describes this symptom as: “Frequent gaps in memory of everyday events.”)

2. From the descriptions of subpersonalities, what relationship type did the subpersonalities have in the case study?
I would have to say that the subpersonalities explained in the case study had a one-way amnesic relationship. This relationship type is described as the most common pattern, where some of the Alters are aware of one another and some are not. I think this relationship best describes the subpersonalities in the case study because the author mentions that all of her Alters help each other and “come out” for different reasons, indicating that the Alters are communicating and are aware of one another. However, as mentioned above, the author makes statements such as the story of Connie and Elaina (both attending schools, but neither had any knowledge of the other one doing so.) She also says that there are other Alters she isn’t aware of who are still “imprisoned by their abusive pasts.”

3. Provide examples from the case study of "co-conscious subpersonalities.”
From my understanding, the passage simply defines co-conscious subpersonalities as alters who observe the actions of other alters, but don’t interact with them. The only example of this that I can understand from the case study is where the author writes about all of her alters driving around in a thunderstorm. She says an Alter (Heather) drove while another (Molly) essentially led them to the tragedies of her past where they all empathized with her.

4. Reflect on the Case Study. What were your overall