Mind-Body Connection
One Body With Many Minds – [many personalities]
[Each Personality suffers from a different disease!?]
Patients with multiple personalities offer dramatic evidence of the mind-body
link. Amazingly, their diseases may actually change when their personalities do.
In the late 1970s, a young woman, who will be known here as Harriet to protect
her privacy, checked into the psychiatric unit of a Chicago hospital. Overweight
and diabetic, Harriet was also suffering from headaches, followed by blackouts
lasting several hours. Once at the hospital, she was diagnosed as having a
multiple personality disorder, an emotional condition in which the patient has
two or more distinct personalities that alternately emerge and take control of
the person’s behavior.
Harriet was treated by Dr. Bennett Braun, one of the foremost experts on the
disorder. Using hypnosis, Dr. Braun found four separate personalities living
within his patient’s body. Harriet, the host personality, was a subdued but
pleasant young woman.
But with each change in identity came a distinct change in facial expressions,
mannerisms, speech patterns, and other traits. The alter personalities were
Judy, a withdrawn and clumsy five-year-old, Sally, an aggressive and sullen
16-year-old, and Kitty, an agreeable and well-mannered teenager.
Until recently, some members of the medical profession suspected that patients
with multiple personalities were faking. Physiological evidence has now offered
convincing proof that the condition is genuine: brain waves vary distinctly from
one personality to another. During one of Harriet’s therapy sessions Kitty
suddenly emerged. She, like Harriet, was seriously diabetic. But later, when
Sally appeared, something unexpected happened – after one hour, all signs of
diabetes had disappeared. The level of Sally’s blood sugar was completely normal
and as long as Sally was present, Harriet’s body remained free of the symptoms
of diabetes.
Harriet’s case is not the only one to demonstrate the strange power that the
mind seems to wield over the body. In another case, a young man suffered from an
allergy to citrus fruit which came and went as his secondary personalities
emerged. And in still another, an adult patient with apparently normal eyesight
developed a “walleye” whenever a young alter personality appeared.
What causes multiple personality disorder? As the patient undergoes treatment, a
chilling portrait of extreme and horrifying child abuse usually emerges.
Apparently, the alternate personalities are created as a defense from emotional
and physical pain that is so intense it overwhelms the person’s ability to cope.
These unfortunate people give us an intriguing glimpse into the incredible
interplay of mind and body.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 9:16 am and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
