STOP THE CONFUSION!
MULTIPLICITY and "DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER" Are NOT the SAME THING!
First, Some Background Information
Only in America is the diagnosis "Dissociative Identity Disorder" given to people. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed "Multiple Personality" from it's diagnosis categories (as described in the DSM) with the idea that humans can never have more than one personality in one body.
The APA "rules" the American mental health profession, which means that as long as it says there is no such thing as having multiple personalities, so does the entire American mental health profession.
CHALLENGE QUESTION:
If you have a therapist in the USA, ask him or her if you REALLY have multiple personalities, or if that you only believe that you do as part of a mental illness... that having multiple personalities is a mis-perception, false belief, or delusion. Be prepared for an answer you don't like.
European countries rejected the APA's "Dissociative Identity Disorder" diagnosis. If you want the mental health profession to recognize you as having multiple personalities, you will have to move to out of the USA..
Now The Two Different Diagnoses
Diagnositic and Statistical Manual Version III-R Versus Version IV-TR
DSM III-R:the Diagnosis of "Mutliple Personality Disorder"
"The essential feature of this disorder is the existence within the personof two or more personalitites or personality states. " (DSM III-R, American Psychiatric Association)
The DSM III-R states definitions for each of the terms "personality" and "personality state", to differentiate them. In other words, the authors wanted people to fully understand the diagnosis.
The DSM III-R then goes on to say: "In classic cases,there are at least two fully developedpersonalities; in other cases, there may be only one distinct personality and one or more personality states."
DSM IV-TR: The Diagnosis "Dissociative Idenity Disorder"
"The essential feature of Dissociative Identity Disorder is the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states that recurrently take control of behavior." (DSM IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association).
The DSM IV-TR gives NO definitions for either "identity" OR "personality state". It does not use the word "personality" in absence of "state". This omission of information creates confusion in people who think that DID and MP are the same thing just because they are in the same section of each version of the DSM.
----------------------------------
Here is where people get really confused- they do not read the entire section. They look at the box for "diagnsotic criteria". The 1st 2 criteria are almost identical EXCEPT that in DSM III-R the terms used are "personality" and "personality states", while the DSMIV-TR only has "identities" and "personality states"... it does not mention "personalities".
---------------------------------
