Fact or Fiction? Dissociative Identity Disorder, Narrative, and the Agency Afforded by Integration

Naomi Rokotnitz

Jump to Content

Chapter 8 Fact or Fiction? Dissociative Identity Disorder, Narrative, and the Agency Afforded by Integration

In: The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

Author:

Naomi Rokotnitz

Naomi Rokotnitz
Search for other papers by Naomi Rokotnitz in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 162–190

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004745247_010

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

Abstract

This chapter examines the charged debates around Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder) and their intersections with a ‘constructivist’ approach to human emotions and self-identity. By tracing how diagnostic narratives not only describe but also shape patients’ interpretations of their symptoms and even the production of these symptoms, as well as their reverberating cultural representations, I elucidate how the history of this controversial psychopathology sheds light on the very notion of selfhood. I thus contribute to current conceptions of ‘self’, of ‘self-illness ambiguity’ and its role in psychiatric treatment, and the crucial role played by narrative practices in the dynamic formation of any human identity.¹

My focus-text for this investigation is Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities (1973), which was presented to readers as the novelised case-study of a patient pseudonymised as Sybil, and tells of a child “violated, abused, deprived of a normal childhood, and thus driven into psychoneurosis for the most paradoxical reason – to survive” (Sybil 244). The book sold over six million copies in the Unites States and went on to become an international bestseller and a TV blockbuster, impacting in crucial ways both clinicians’ and patients’ (mis)understanding of DID and of the embodiment of psychological processes – before it was exposed as being largely fictitious. The repercussions of this elaborate deception continue to be profound. Through examining Sybil and its influence upon mental health care, alongside current medical literature, this chapter (1) explores the cultural and medical consequences of this case; (2) assesses scientific evidence for DID, Functional Motor Sensory Symptoms (FMSS), and predictive processing; and (3) suggests implications for current notions of personhood and of agency in phenomenology, in philosophy, and in psychiatry.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789004745247/BP000018.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

Middle Ages to the Present

Series: Narratives and Mental Health, Volume: 4

Cover The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004745247

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 13 Nov 2025

Subjects

Front Matter

Back Matter

ProCite

RefWorks

Reference Manager

BibTeX

Zotero

EndNote

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	209	209	28
Full Text Views	1	1	0
PDF Views & Downloads	3	3	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 8 Fact or Fiction? Dissociative Identity Disorder, Narrative, and the Agency Afforded by Integration

Abstract

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

Middle Ages to the Present

Table of Contents

References

Metrics

Metrics