The condition once known as multiple personality disorder (MPD) is a very real psychological phenomenon that until recently was mis-understood and often mis-diagnosed. Dissociative identity disorder, DID, as we now call it, is a mental illness where a person’s thoughts, feelings, and memories are scattered throughout two or more separate personalities within the victims mind (Appelbaum 107). In 1973 perhaps the world’s most famous psychiatric patient ever, Sybil brought attention to what was until then …showed first 75 words of 1124 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1124 total…In the past sufferers of DID were forced to be ashamed and remain anonymous of there disease. Today those patients can now seek help and through treatment live relatively normal lives. Without the help of such famous cases as Sybil and Anna O. it may have taken several more years for researchers to realize the reality of this disorder. Sufferers of DID are now able to work, raise families, and function normally in everyday life.