Some researchers suggest that Dissociative Identity Disorder

Some researchers suggest that Dissociative Identity Disorder (aka Multiple Personality Disorder) has as its basis dissociated memories of childhood sexual abuse. They claim that at the time of the abuse, dissociation is an adaptive response for the child. Because dissociation successfully reduces anxiety, the individual learns to dissociate whenever anxiety-provoking situations arise. Different personality alters are thus formed to deal with different types of dissociated anxiety-provoking situations. The cure involves bringing the dissociated (or repressed) memories to the surface to form a continuous autobiographical memory and thereby uniting alter personalities into one continuous history. Other researchers question the validity of DID as a diagnosis and believe that DID patients may in fact be suffering from other disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder or a psychotic disorder (delusion). They claim that in many cases alter personalities are formed with the help of clinicians when the patient is under hypnosis. They also claim that repressed memories may be the result of suggestion by the clinician. Do you believe that Dissociative Identity Disorder is a legitimate diagnosis? Why or why not?