Psychological Maltreatment

he human personality, according to the American Psychological Association Web site,

defined as the “individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and

behaving” (Personality). Each and every single human being has a distinct personality that makes

up their identity. The different patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving help identify a middle

age man from a group of five year old girls. Each person has a different identity and personality;

however, it is possible for someone to have more than one identity without knowing its

occurrence. I am not talking about being possessed by the devil or another soul. On the other

hand, it involves only one soul and one brain in a body. The dilemma of
two or more individuals

co-existing in one body is labeled as a mental illness known as Dissociative Identity Disorder

(DID), formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder. The National Alliance of Mental Illness

describes DID as a “disturbance of identity in which two or more separate and distinct

personality states (or identities) control an individual's behavior at different times” (Mental

Illnesses). This description explains why it is possible for a man to transform (mentally) into a

little girl.
One out of the 30 million Americans suffer from this mental illness. Childhood trauma,

such as verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, contributes to the development of personality

disorders.

Reliving good memories is something one lives up to, but what happens to the bad

memories from past experiences? For example, being yelled by parents; no one wants to bring up

that incident, and especially not relive it. People who suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder

commonly experience major verbal abuse, otherwise referred as psychological maltreatment, by

parents and/or relatives. Psychological maltreatment can prevent a child from developing proper

emotional and social standards. Neglecting a child by ignoring, rejecting, terrorizing and

isolating him or her may cripple them mentally by making them develop insecurities, destructive

behavior, and anger problems. What a Dissociative Identity Disorder patient does with this kind

of verbal abuse is block the memory of it from their brain and create an individual (another

identity) who remembers and suffers, on periods of times, from the emotions created by their

tormenting experiences in the place of their main
identity.

An identical process of blocking memories is taken when it comes to physical abuse. The

human brain of the patient who is suffering from DID does not want to remember such

experiences of vulnerability and therefore blocks their true identity and creates one who is

physically strong, in order to protect themselves.
The American Humane Association gives a

statistic of 16.6% maltreated children are from physical abuse (Child Abuse and Neglect

Statistics). Physical discipline in some cases is taken to another level of getting physical and can

easily turn into physical abuse. This results in children with fear, anger, and aggression. The

effects of physical abuse explain why the patient creates the personality of a strong person.

Finally, the last and most important child trauma is sexual abuse. It is the most important

out of the three because it is the one that causes the most effects and affects the person the most.

Sexual abuse can lead to serious emotional problems. For some, sexual abuse may make them

become antisocial and depressed. As for others, this can cause them to take the other route and

become angry and later take the same choice and abusing of others. This is the case of many DID

patients who suffer the most from sexual abuse from relatives and who later created a

personality of someone who were obligated to abuse others.

In conclusion, people who experience some type of abuse during their
childhood

whether it is verbal, physical, and/or sexual have a risk of developing a multiple personality

disorder. The only reason several identities are created by one person is to protect him or herself

from the trauma and emotional pain they experienced in their past years.