[Anjae]

Song or another mod, could you be so kind to change the thread icons to discussion one? Thank you.


Allow me to be clear, not one decides to have a MLC. Or suffer from depression. However, MLCer who have affairs are either looking for one or open to one.

Mr J calling OW1 and start things from there is intent. He intented to have a relationship with her. He didn't call her just to say hi. They weren't saying hi when they were meeting in hotel bedrooms. To get to those hotel bedrooms both of them took a train that left them a couple hundred KM from home.

It was not a thing of the moment. They didn't bump into each other drunk in a club or bar, felt overwhelming attraction and went for it right there and that was it. He was looking for someone before he left and he found that someone.

He wrote to her he knew what he was doing was wrong, that he had to broke all his values to keep doing what they were doing, and that he knew it would hurt me.

How not of an intent is it? Reading RCR's article I post may share some light on the affair and the excuses MLCers use.

OW1 was the only woman of the several Mr J start to chat with before he left that allowed things to go far. With the others the talks never passed from his djing, music, art and depression. He went so far as to keep chatting for a little while with a young woman who was on 12th grade. Fortunately all they talked about was music and art.

How come they do not intent to divorce the LBS if that is exactly what many of them no only intent, but do? How come they do not intent to try to kill the LBS if that is what some of them try and even scream "I want you dead?"

How come they do not intent to leave the LBS with financial hardships if some of them make sure they do it on purpose?

I think some LBS may have a peculiar view of MLC. Or may be dealing with a mild type of MLCer and be less aware of how things are with the more extreme MLCers.

[Mitzpah]

I will readily admit that my h. is a mild MLCer compared to some we hear of here. I am also very much in love with the man who was formerly my husband.

He has shown absolutely no sign that he wishes to come home and reconcile with me as his wife. We are not very disconnected because he has always been around in some way or other - through the kids or because he "needs" something from me.

As it is not a situation I have to think about, I don't really have a list of what I might expect from him in order to reconcile. I think more of extending forgiveness and asking for forgiveness in case there is some way I have offended him without knowing it. I would be interested in talking about how to build from now on. I don't think I would have to rehash the past... I learnt early on to keep out of harm's way and I have never been a person to beat a dead dog.

I see Barbiedoll's struggle and I am happy to see that finally she is seeing some making of amends... I realize that we are all different and what she needs, what Song and Dance needs, what those who have no wish to reconcile need ARE all different.

I know that my h. is responsible for his actions, however, he needs to recognize that and decide what to do about it, it is not for me to "expect" a specific script from him.

It seems so far away any way

And I also had a MLT when I was 39-41 - I questioned everything (job choice, spirituality, relationship with my children, parents and siblings, the quality of my marriage), turned everything over in my mind - I still have the journals and diagrams I scribbled out at the time, I even asked my h. what he thought about the issues I was thinking about - he said it tired him just to think about that kind of thing and that he was quite content the way he was I never really questioned my marriage, I thought about ways we could have more romantic moments, how we could get away from the kids for a weekend

Do I need to see remorse? I don't necessarily need to see it - I know it is a very, very uncomfortable feeling from personal experience so I would feel uncomfortable witnessing it. I think all I want to see is a commitment to me and our marriage, what is past, is past. It will be a new marriage anyway.

[OffRoad]

They know EXACTLY what they are doing.

I'm sorry about stirring things up but I think this is the attitude the bothers me. It's not about blame or responsibility. It's about intent. I haven't heard of anyone who has gone through this crisis who has tried to deny responsibility for their actions. Maybe during the crisis, but not after. But I also haven't heard from anyone who has gone through this crisis who later claimed that they wanted to or that they were able to control what happened or that they were happy that they did the things they did.

This statement about knowing EXACTLY what they did bothers me for two reasons.

1. Sometimes it simply isn't true. Sometimes a part of a fractured personality will do something that the other parts don't know about.

2. Sometimes, even though it may be true, that doesn't mean that it was possible for the person to do anything other than what they did. Like Gman wrote, it's like watching yourself do things but not being able to change what is happening.

This is why it's called the fog. Things sometimes happen that you're not even aware of and things sometimes happen that you're aware of but unable to do differently. Stating that they know EXACTLY what they're doing implies, to me anyway, that they could do something else. If that were true then they wouldn't be going through a crisis and this wouldn't be the correct site for discussing their behavior. You would be better off some place like the Chump Lady's site.

I'd still like to hear about some of the positive things that came from Sis's crisis.

I believe I see what you are saying now. I would like to point out if the MLCER has a fractured personality, it isn't just mlc. It's DID  or something of the like. And that is considered to be rare in the population. Could it be that mlcers just don't get diagnosed with DID and magically come out of it without therapy? I would guess also rare, so while not beyond the realm, also not likely for every single mlcer. So for those who come out of MLC who do not have DID, logic says they know exactly what they did and decided to justify it in some way (this could be faulty logic, I'm open to that).

Which leads to point 2, maybe they are aware and cannot stop themselves (I have no frame of reference for that. Even things I did that I would do differently, I knew what I was doing. I may not have realized the consequences of those actions, though), but assuming they are aware and cannot stop themselves, responsibility is still there.

Now, I can be responsible for something and decide not to do anything about it. That's a valid choice, though it would not be a popular one. This does not remove responsibility.

If the sticking point is that "they" (meaning all mlcers) knew exactly what they were doing, I would venture most do/did. A select few might not.  Perhaps we should only speak for our own mlcer and not in generalities. But even then, I would think if you are now divorced or separated or can see that your spouse is in pain, the normal action of a person who loves another is to say "I understand that I have hurt you in some way. I am so sorry. Tell me what I can do to make it up to you." Not "I don't remember. " with no apology or trying to figure out how it could have happened.

My point being,  some have mlcers that might be easy to forgive. Some have mlcers who completey detroyed the lbs life and the lbs has to build back up from scratch.  When someone else speaks in generalities and it isn't my reality, I try to explain that it might be that way for the other poster, but not for everyone. 

[MyBrainIsBroken]

I would like to point out if the MLCER has a fractured personality, it isn't just mlc.

This is an assumption. Nobody agrees on what mlc is and it's often mentioned that mlc is not recognized by the medical community so how it is possible to unequivocally state that if a person has a fractured personality it isn't just mlc? Many LBSes comment on how the person in crisis seems to turn into a different person. That is exactly what happens when somebody has a fractured personality, whether it be due to DID or OSDD or even PTSD. And DID and OSDD and PTSD are recognized by the medical community which may be why my therapists roll their eyes a bit whenever I mention MLC.

OffRoad mentions that DID is considered rare in the general population. This is only true if you believe what you read online at websites like webmd. If you talk to practitioners, people who are experts in working with people with dissociative disorders, you'll find out it is far more prevalent than the websites would lead you to believe.

One thing that is true is that the common perception of DID as popularized by movies like Sybil is wrong. Sybil is an extreme and unusual example of DID. Perhaps this is what the websites are referring to when they state that DID is rare.

Anyway, I've said my piece. I'm going to try to stop annoying people now. But I can't promise that all of my parts will go along with that. 

Sorry. Mr. Smartypants wants to add something.

Dr. Spiegel is a well known researcher in the trauma field. Here's what he has to say.

Coming Apart: Trauma and the Fragmentation of the Self
https://www.dana.org/Cerebrum/2008/Coming_Apart__Trauma_and_the_Fragmentation_of_the_Self/

And here's a guide for therapists working with patients with DID that includes this quote.

According to Richard Kluft, a leading expert in the field, only 6 per cent of people with DID present their ‘multiple’ or ‘dissociated’ identities publicly and obviously. Elizabeth Howell describes DID as ‘a disorder of hiddenness’, as the vast majority of people with DID, often motivated by shame, will attempt to conceal their symptoms and way of being. This in part explains why, despite dissociative identity disorder being so prevalent, few people are properly aware of it. In fact, many people with DID are high-functioning members of society with good careers before some crisis or build-up of stressors leads to a sudden and catastrophic ‘breakdown’.

A BRIEF GUIDE TO WORKING WITH DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER
https://information.pods-online.org.uk/a-brief-guide-to-working-with-dissociative-identity-disorder/

[Anjae]

Thank you for sharing your MLT, Mitz. I have long throw away all my journals from before and after BD including my MLC ones.

As I have said in a post somewhere, I liked the boldness my MLC gave me. I was always a bit bold, but it was a new bold. And it had great professional and personal results.

It is gone. It seems it was something that only MLC high is able to provide. Would love to have some of that super boldness back.

So for those who come out of MLC who do not have DID, logic says they know exactly what they did and decided to justify it in some way (this could be faulty logic, I'm open to that).

I would say that an out of MLC, or even Replay MLCer has become enough aware  for no longer try to justify what they did during MLC. While deep in the tunnel/fog MLCers tend to use all sorts of justifications.

When deep in the tunnel all logic is faulty. Logic does not tend to exist in MLC. MLCers tend to run on emotions. Out of whack emotions, but still emotions.

Which leads to point 2, maybe they are aware and cannot stop themselves (I have no frame of reference for that. Even things I did that I would do differently, I knew what I was doing. I may not have realized the consequences of those actions, though), but assuming they are aware and cannot stop themselves, responsibility is still there.

They are aware of the big things. They may not be aware of the tiny things, but the big ones, affair, divorce, etc. they know. And still go for it. Can they stop themselves? Early on, yes. Later on, when very deep in the tunnel? Maybe not. But that is the thing, before they get deep into the tunnel there is a point where things are possible to revert. So, why do they go deep into the tunnel? Maybe different things, I think. It becomes an addiction, or sort of addiction.

Those new activities bring some relief to the depression, a high that masks the darkness. If they start to stop it all become too much. Fog is lift, even if just a bit, there may even be physical pain - I had it and bad when I stop my going out and about, the adrenaline was lowering and until my chemical levels returned to normal it was hell. Not, not a nice part of MLC. Liminality is not nice in any way.

And Liminality tends to be what MLCers try to avoid like the plague. They don't know it is called Liminality, I didn't had a name for it. They just know it is not a nice place. And it really isn't. I stopped the going out and about because I had decided I would stop it. It didn't made Liminality any easy. When one lives in a high coming down is scary.


Liminality is something we don't much about. Be it former MLCer or LBS that are reconnection or reconciling. It is less crazy than Replay, but a very important part of MLC. Without Liminality there is no Re-Birth.


MLC has a basic script, that is how we manage to recognise it and how RCR, HB and others were able to write about it. Within the basic script there are levels and variations, but the main script and process is the same. Of course a High Energy MLCer and a Wallower are different.

We can say MLCers when refering to the MLC basic script/process, but saying things like MLCers were abused is, in my opinion, not right. Not all MLCers were abused. MLC also isn't about FOO issues for every MLCer.

Then there are those like Mr J that may have something else along with MLC. For me J it may be thyroid issues. No one knows if it is so since he refused to be seen by doctors. If he happens to have hyperthyroidism on top of MLC it may help explain his hyperactivity and how a man that needed 8 hours of sleep a night plus frequent naps manages to sleep so little and have so much energy. He may just have MLC and be feeding on his many different MLC activities to keep in going.


Over the years he expressed being tired, exhausted even. He tried to cut down the djing a few times but the black dog on his shoulder would come over and, as he have told me more than once, if he stops he starts to think about all he had done and he cannot bare it/deal with it.

It would be logical to postulate that if Mr J knows that stoping makes him think about all he has done and he knows he cannot deal with it, he knows what he has done. And that dealing with it will be tremendous.

I am not saying he is always aware that if he slows down things will come back to bite him, he is often on auto-pilot, but more than once he mentioned it, so he knew.

He knows enough to have told me a couple of times the affair was wrong and that it was all on him. Then he went back into his MLC fantasy land. It is all so fantastic in his MCL land.

The hip DJ, the new record label (one more distraction, and, so far, the only one I find merit in, the records they released are good and it could something to keep after MLC), the adoring fans, the free meals in plush restaurants, the public recognition, women and men thinking he is the man, and so, so handsome (never mind he looks like death), such and amazing person (never mind they have no clue about what he had done, do not know the real him and never see him when he is truly down). Who would want to leave such a bubble?


Do I need to see remorse? I need amends. In my case that is money and all my things that still are with Mr J back. I need respect. I need consistent action. I don't mind a I'm sorry, but it has to be heartfelt and followed with action. Only I'm sorry is of no use to me. I need Mr J to fully understand the damages caused by his actions.

I need this things because they are the minimum in restorative justice, a concept that is important to me. I am not talking about reconciliation.


If most MLCers had a fractured personality, they would not be able to come back to normal on their own. Many things can make someone turn into a different person. Depression, thyroid problems, other hormonal problems, neurological problems, etc.


DID is recognised by a few therapist/doctors. There is big controversy about it with many doctors and therapist thinking it is not an illness, but, often, something a therapist plants into the patient mind. That is applies to the US as well. Here it is something psychiatrists tend to stay away from. Therapists here aren't qualified to make medical diagnoses, unless they also happen to be a doctor.

OffRoad mentions that DID is considered rare in the general population. This is only true if you believe what you read online at websites like webmd.

DID is not only rare, but like I said above, controversial. My friend who is a psychiatrist, his parents and sister that are psychiatrists and their collegues, who are psychiatrists do not believe in it. Doctors don't tend to believe in it here nor do therapist.

And, in the odd case they believe someone has it, they see it has a very serious, never going away thing. MLC that goes away. The courses I did about Mental Illness from American and Canadian serious universities on Coursera also weren't keen on DID, saying it is controversial.

As a general rule, MLCer do not have different talking parts, parts they don't control, etc. They do not have that level of mental illness. And most come out of MLC on their own, eliminating DID as a possibility regardless of what we think of it.

For everyone's sake it may be better if you can be kind enough and refrain from posting when you cannot control your different parts, Brain. It causes too much confusion, hurt and distress to fellow LBS. Thank you.

[nah]

Nah, did you read what I wrote? I wrote that it was about intent, not responsibility, yet you're back to the whole responsibility issue.

I remember you writing about your behavior after BD. Your actions were deliberate. You knew what you were doing, you knew your actions would hurt other people, and you deliberately chose to do them anyway. In fact, I recall you writing that you were hoping that hurting your husband would cause him to wake up. Did you even once do something that you didn't want to do but couldn't stop yourself from doing? I wouldn't say what you went through was an MLC. I would say that you were in pain and made some F'ed up choices.

Well, if I say I couldn’t help myself, does that mean I was an official MLCer and I’m not responsible?

[OffRoad]

I stand by my statement that if a person has DID along with mlc, it isn't just mlc, unless there is some evidence that DID IS mlc. If mlc is not DID, then it is comorbidity, which is different.(and I don't do Webmd or wiki anything, thank you we can all find somehing that justifies our position somewhere on the web.

From my research, people with DID don't just come out of it without therapy. This wouldn't explain MLCers who wake up out of the fog and no longer forget any part of their lives from then on without any therapy. Unless, as I said before, DID just magically disappears at some point. (I've looked for anything on this possibility and haven't found it yet)

The only thing I find bothersome about any posts is when people cannot see that their own personal story is their own personal story. My friend knows exactly what she did. She doesn't understand why she dd it. But there was no DID involved as she knew what she was doing, just did not understand why she would do things that were detrimental to her wellbeing. In her case, she believes that her normal "personality" was not altogether hers, but a creation from what she was told she "should" do. She thinks she entered into the dark period because she needed to learn some things as her original personality had some flaws. She thinks she swung (is that a word?) Way over to the opposite side of who she is/was so she could find the correct balance. But she knows she did it, knew she was doing it at the time. She just didn't have any spouse  or family to destroy.

[Treasur]

I wonder if a discussion about blame, justification, intent etc is a place where some of our anger or frustration naturally comes out?  and it is a discussion that also prods some of our individual psychological and philosophical beliefs maybe.

I think it breaks down in stages...
Am i aware of my own actions?
Am I in control of them?
Do I believe what I am doing is wrong or hurting others?
Do I care?

Imho people in crisis are already experts in justification lol. They don't need our help...it seems that most justify their behaviour by either blaming others or some kind of 'this is what I need to feel happy so sucks to you'. What does seem clear from the outside is that their behaviour is driven by emotional reactions and is compulsive in some way. Rather like the behaviour of an addict. So there is awareness and intent but it is in the service of escaping pain or feeling 'happy' in the short-term. The MLC justifications and blame are necessary probably bc some bit of them does know it is 'wrong'. But for me the killer app is that they don't care. The compulsion matters most. Whatever that is.

My POV is different now bc of my own experience of depression and PTSD. I understand how it feels to do things, or not do things, even when intellectually I know it makes no sense or is self-destructive. To know that you should do x and to be completely unable to do it. To feel at war with your own head. To not feel like yourself somehow. To feel disassociated and disconnected without having DID.

I believe I was aware of my behaviour but i did not always have full control of it. I knew often that it wasn't good or wise but sometimes that wasn't enough to override the need to do or not do. And although I would often feel ashamed and worse afterwards, I would still repeat the pattern...bc the need to feed the compulsion was bigger, in my case mostly a kind of deep fear. 'I can't' became my justification probably...a kind of carved in the bone victimhood.

But I also believe I was and am completely responsible for that behaviour and the effects.
And that I did not break the pattern until I felt that and started to fight the compulsions and s/t coping behaviour of my own brain. With professional help. And a bit more information about how my brain might have been affected by my own traumas.

Now in my case I don't expect to close that loop with my Xh...so my perspective on forgiveness, blame and intent is a solo effort with very little information from/about him.
But I suspect he will have to close it for himself to become an emotionally healthy person.
And yes, I think he was/is responsible for his actions
I can only go from what it felt like from the outside. He did not feel like someone with a grand evil plan. He did not feel like someone who was in control of his own behaviour. He did not feel like a normal healthy person. He did not feel like someone who cared about the consequences for anyone else.

So, on balance, I think my then h was aware (in the sense of knowing he was doing x or y) but was driven by compulsion so not always completely in control. I think he turned black into white in justifying himself when it felt uncomfortable, irrational or wrong. I don't think there was a big plan and I don't think he necessarily ended up where he intended to be, just a chain of reactions to events. Mostly though I think he simply didn't care at the moment of action about anything other than how he felt. It makes sense to me that these things would need to change - compulsion, justification and caring about the impact - in order to break that pattern.

Right now I assume - bit like gman posted somewhere - that my xh is doing what he wants to do, sees it all as normal or justifiable, or does not care about any damage or pain he caused. I assume he is happy enough in his new life and new marriage that he feels no need to do anything differently or address any of the large pile of unfinished business from his old one or how he destroyed it. That he is focused on that and probably rarely thinks about me, his past or what he did bc it doesn't serve him to do so. After all, as a vanisher, he has invested in his new life exclusively for over 3 years so it is his reality now and he ran away so he didn't see the effects of the destruction of the old. And he may stay that way for the rest of his life. My h did have the right to change his own life imho...but he didn't have the right to destroy and distress others in order to get it nor was it rationally necessary for him to do so in order to get what he wanted. For some reason though, it seems as if doing so was part of the process for him and he is ok with that. I wouldn't be but his behaviour suggests he is.

But it is reasonable that I do not accept that as ok to me, that i feel angry or resentful about being abused and hurt as a price he felt was ok as long as he felt better. And I have to own the responsibility for my own LBS justifications and rationalisations and denial too...what Acorn calls her pink tutu overlay...bc they damaged my life and spirit as well. I can understand them now but I am still responsible for them...and owning that is necessary to step on from them.

My blame or forgiveness I suppose would rest on if I could accept the reality of how it was for him. Which is more difficult to do without his input and probably what brings so many of us to HS in the first place.
And if I saw that he had taken responsibility for breaking that pattern. And i see owning all of it, taking responsibility, as being key to that.
But again in my case, my seeing him as responsible in the way I do is irrelevant really until or unless he sees it, sees that it was wrong and wants to show me that he sees it. All seem very unlikely.

For me that means imho that forgiveness is more a kind of acceptance that something seriously broke in my h and he became a person driven by different emotions and perceptions that are difficult for me to understand. And that this changed him profoundly and he became someone who was toxic to be around. I hope for him that this will not always be so but right now that seems to be how it is. I have not been required I suppose to dig out a more personal kind of forgiveness bc my xh has not yet dug out his half of taking personal responsibility enough to acknowledge anything to forgive. Or not anything involving me or others in his old life anyway. Seeing him as responsible is about respect and almost an investment in a healthy version of someone I loved...whilst accepting that this is not who he seems to be currently.

And none of this has anything to do with reconnection or standing or our past marriage.
It may have a little bit of love in there, enough love that I honestly want him to be healthy again.
But if I am absolutely honest, I care about my health and recovery much more right now bc it is still a work in progress so that is my priority. And I am lucky perhaps that his absence means I am not distracted from that by his needs.  His feelings or actions do not dictate my past or current reality now...and that is probably a good thing too. If new information comes along, I suppose I need to be open-minded enough to adapt to it but there is no point speculating on it is there? Right now I mostly feel most of the time as if I know enough to know my reality...and that's good enough for now.

[Anjae]

I wonder if a discussion about blame, justification, intent etc is a place where some of our anger or frustration naturally comes out? 

I don't know. It may depend of where we are in our LBS journey and who we are as a person.

and it is a discussion that also prods some of our individual psychological and philosophical beliefs maybe.

What are psychological beliefs? Philosofical, I don't know. Maybe more moral beliefs? Or our sense of right, wrong and justice?

But for me the killer app is that they don't care. The compulsion matters most.

Of course, if it is a compulsion it is going to be the most important thing. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a compulsion, would it?

But, there is always a but, I think had MLCers stop to think before it got all too deep, I think we wouldn't all be here. OK, MLCers don't really stop to think, do they? Not until it is too late. 

[MyBrainIsBroken]

But there was no DID involved as she knew what she was doing, just did not understand why she would do things that were detrimental to her wellbeing.

In her case, she believes that her normal "personality" was not altogether hers, but a creation from what she was told she "should" do. She thinks she entered into the dark period because she needed to learn some things as her original personality had some flaws. She thinks she swung (is that a word?) The proper term would be switched, not swung. Way over to the opposite side of who she is/was so she could find the correct balance.

But she knows she did it, knew she was doing it at the time. She just didn't have any spouse  or family to destroy.

You're confusing me. First you say there was no DID involved. Then you describe somebody who reported a fractured personality, what used to be considered multiple personalities and is now called DID. In other words, she displayed signs of a dissociative disorder. The confusion about why she would do those things is another sign of a dissociative disorder. This confusion is what happens when your behavior is driven by an alter. Sometimes my therapist will ask one of my alters a question and I'm surprised by the answer because it isn't what I would have said. But it's what came out of my mouth. It's a strange experience when you're being influenced by an alter, especially if you don't know what an alter is or that you have them.

The only explanation I can come up with for this incongruity in your post is that perhaps you believe it couldn't be a dissociative disorder because she knew what she was doing since you made that point a couple of times, including in the part I emphasized at the beginning of the quoted section, but that simply isn't true. There are dissociative disorders that don't involve amnesia between alters, which is the situation you described with your friend. OSDD subtype 1b, which is my current diagnosis, is one of them.

Before I learned about and was diagnosed with a dissociative disorder I was like your friend. I also didn't understand why I was doing the things I did. Now I sometimes know what my alters are doing but I often still don't know why and it's difficult for me to control them. Hence, Mr. Smartypants's addition earlier.

Here's another note from Mr. Smartypants.

I found this information earlier about types of MPD (DID). I know it's just information on a website but the list of references, although older, are good ones from prominent researchers.

A couple of highlights.

Latent MPD – The alters are generally inactive but may be triggered by stressors which are somehow symbolic of the traumatic event.  Examples of this are when the patient’s children reach the age of the patient during the trauma, or the perpetrator becomes ill or dies.  During such time the alters may emerge for the first time publicly, which provides a window of diagnosability.

Many LBSes have reported that the MLC began soon after the death of a parent.

Epochal or Sequential MPD – When an alter emerges it takes over for a long period of time before the next alter takes over for another long period of time.  While one alter is out, the others go dormant.

An alter can take over for a long period of time. For years and even decades according to my therapist. During that time the new alter can still be influenced by other alters, such as the "prisoner".

COVERT MPD

            This is the form most characteristic of patients with MPD.  Alters contend for control and influence without assuming full executive control.  To patients is feels as though their lives are out of control and that their actions are imposed upon them by a power unseen rather than selected by them.

MLC, anyone?

Puppeteering or Passive-Influence Dominated MPD – The host is dominated by alters that rarely emerge.  If the host is unaware of these alters he/she feels like the victim of influences that force behavior in a direction not chosen.

Again, MLC, anyone?

Orphan Symptom MPD – Closely related to all of the covert categories.  This is the phenomenon of unexplained and spontaneous feelings, sensations, actions, or intrusive traumatic imagery which manifests in the host, is not understood by the host, and which has been triggered by a contemporary stimulus that relates to the childhood trauma.

Much like PTSD when triggered.

Understanding Multiple Personality Disorders
https://www.nurseslearning.com/courses/nrp/NRP-1618/Section%207/index.htm

The only thing I find bothersome about any posts is when people cannot see that their own personal story is their own personal story.

What I find bothersome is when somebody's post is dismissed because it is only their personal story. As far as I know, thousands of people have posted on this forum. Does that mean that there are thousands of variations of MLC? If so, it's no wonder that it's not recognized by the medical community. How could they possibly study something that is unique in every presentation? Perhaps the real reason MLC isn't recognized by the medical community is because it's already been identified under a different name.

I find it odd that dissociative disorder theory is discounted on this site since the site has such a strong Jungian emphasis. Dissociative disorder theory is consistent with and descended from Jung's complex theory which is described on The Hero's Spouse website and which many LBSes have stated is what brought them to the site.

In a comparison of the major tenets of the complex theory with recent empirical research on multiple personality, it is demonstrated that essential characteristics of Jung's 'autonomous complexes' are congruent with the phenomenology of the 'alternate personalities' or 'personality states' of this disorder. This underscores the relevance of Jung's complex theory to present understanding of multiple personality. In addition, the phenomenon of multiple personality is, in turn, important for realising the central significance of dissociation in the complex theory and provides an excellent contemporary clinical example of the archetypal ground of the psyche.

Multiple personality, dissociation, and C.G. Jung's complex theory.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2808130

I don't like the title of this thread. I don't like the word Justification. MLC doesn't need to be justified any more than diabetes or dementia do, but an Explanation might be helpful.