Dissociation : Volume 10, No. 2 (June 1997)

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Dissociation : Volume 10, No. 2, p. 104-113 : The 19th century DID case of Louis Vivet: new findings and re-evaluation
(Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Dissociation, 1997-06) Faure, Henri; Kersten, John; Koopman, Dinet; Hart, Onno van der, 1941-
Although not the first patient to be described as a multiple, the French patient Louis Vivet was the first to be explicitly named a multiple personality at the end of the 19th century. Recent critics have disputed the validity of the diagnosis or the number of alter personalities in this widely publicized case, by stating that his alter personalities were iatrogenically created, or by giving credit only to the first publication on Vivet, pertaining to his stay at the asylum of Bonneval during 1880-1881 (Camuset, 1882). The senior author of the present paper recently discovered Vivet's original medical file bearing on the same period. Comparing both sources, we conclude that Vivet manifested at least three personality states during this period and that there is no firm evidence that his situation was iatrogenic.