There are a
number of things that influence how many personalities a person creates…
- the frequency and severity of the trauma. The
more times trauma happens to the person, then she might decide to split up the
trauma events into smaller pieces and give each piece to a personality. For
example, if the child is being abused by 3 different people at the same time,
she might create 3 different personalities, each remembering only one abuser.
This way when remembering the abuse it might not be so overwhelming. In therapy
she may only remember one abuser at a time;
- the length of time the trauma goes on. If it
goes on for years (abuse, war) then the child might tend to create more
personalities because it’s so overwhelming;
- different types of trauma might create a need
for different personalities. For example, if the child is being abused in
physical ways, and in sexual ways, he might create a personality to deal with
only the physical abuse and one to deal with the sexual abuse. If there is more
than one person sexually abusing him, he might create more than one personality
to deal with the sexual abuse;
- how many
personalities a person creates may be down to personal preference. Almost like
a filing system. If you were to give 3 people the same data and tell them to
create a filing system, each might do it differently and have a different
number of files for all the data.
In a survey of
100 multiples, Frank Putnam, an MPD specialist at the National Institute of
Mental Health, found that the average patient has 13 personalities, but the
number can range to more than 100 in cases of extreme abuse. (Multiple Realities see BOOKS, ARTICLES)
