(Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality & Dissociation, 1988-03) Atlas, Gail; Fine, Catherine G., 1950-; Kluft, Richard P., 1943-
A woman was diagnosed as mentally retarded when she was five years of age and spent the next 35 years so classified. She also was considered schizophrenic. Incongruities in her clinical presentation ultimately led to the suspicion that she suffered multiple personality disorder. It was found that she had retreated into an adaptation consistent with the superficial manifest appearance of mental retardation, and that the intrusion of her dissociative psychopathology was mistaken for schizophrenia. Correctly diagnosed and treated, she has made noteworthy gains. Selected issues relevant to the misdiagnosis of MPD are discussed.
