Dissociative identity disorder: a literature review

Abstract

This paper presents a review of the literature into dissociative identity disorder. This disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder, is increasingly diagnosed, in part because of more focused diagnostic tools, but also because people are accessing services to assist with the longterm problems of early child abuse and neglect. Dissociative identity disorder is examined in the literature according to a variety of discourses, each of which suggest different ways of conceptualizing problems and therapeutic approaches. These discourses reviewed include: psychiatry, psychology, corporeality, feminism, social constructivism, anthropology, and postmodernism. The paper concludes with an examination of the nursing literature and suggests opportunities for nursing research into this complex mental health problem.