THE RATIONAL TREATMENT OF MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER

The complex symptomatology of patients who have survived profound childhood abuse, particularly the severe dissociative and post-traumatic symptoms of patients with multiple personality disorder (MPD), may predispose therapists to engage in poorly considered psychotherapeutic practices. Therapists should be careful to keep a rational clinical perspective, and not to be distracted by patients' unusual and dramatic clinical presentation. This article discusses the particular problematic areas often encountered in the treatment of MPD patients, including the necessity for pacing the therapy, keeping the focus on the patient as a whole, and avoiding preoccupation with individual personalities or with MPD phenomenology. Good clinical judgment and sound therapeutic principles should be the core of the psychotherapy of MPD .