Dissociation : Vol. 5, No. 3, p. 141-149 : Ann Sexton: iatrogenesis of an alter personality in an undiagnosed case of MPD

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Date

1992-09

Authors

Ross, Colin A.

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Publisher

Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation

Abstract

Controversy about whether multiple personality disorder (MPD) is an iatrogenic artifact continues, but those proposing that the disorder is not valid have not described a single specific case of iatrogenic MPD. Anne Sexton, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who committed suicide, had MPD which was not diagnosed by her psychiatrist. Anne Sexton the poet appears to have been an alter personality created within the therapy and reinforced by the psychiatrist. The only clear example of the iatrogenic creation of an alter personality appears to have occurred in an undiagnosed case of MPD treated by a psychiatrist who suppressed the previously existing alter personalities in favor of his own iatrogenic artifact.

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p. 141-149

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