Let us consider if A or B suffers any type of disturbed sense of
self. Can A or B only be a part of a whole self, as van der Hart etc.
indicated? Let us remind ourselves of his statement.
… dissociative parts of the personality together constitute one
whole, yet are self-conscious, have at least a rudimentary sense of self. …
Apparently, this condition might apply to A or B. Some might
argue that A might be missing a child-like, emotional, and tomboyish part of
herself that B might aptly represent, while B might be missing social capacity
with stronger mechanism of defense that A might possess. However, it is a very
hard question to ask if A, B and possibly other parts would constitute one
whole if put together ? The concept of a whole personality itself should be
under scrutiny before arguing this issue. How could allegedly 30 year-old female
personality and a 6 year-old child personality can be integrated to become a
“whole”? How old would they become, then, etc.
If a therapist takes an attitude of regarding each personality
as incomplete and not an integrated one, this might quickly alienate at least
some of these personalities and impair therapeutic relationship with them. How
would some personalities react to the therapist’s statement, such as “you are
merely a part of your host personality that you should eventually get
integrated into, as you broke off with him (her) sometime in the past.
Isn’t it possible that that therapist is practically denigrating
the sense of self of that personality?
It is very important to
treat respectfully the personality whether she is child, adult, male or female,
instead of treating them as someone like sub-human and not taking them seriously.
It is all the more as many personalities are functioning as an ordinary person in
the society. Remember that DID patients are quite often suspected as feigning, pretending
to be having that condition, and this speaks to the fact that they quite often appear
ordinary and inconspicuous in the society. How can a “partial human” do that? To
the point, many personalities of the DID look quite ordinary, each having its
own identity.
One condition which might remind of ourselves of that partial or
insufficient and rudimentary personality is the condition that we consider as
insufficiently crystalized or sublimated personality state. It can often be encountered
in a dissociative trans state, characterized as “an acute narrowing or complete
loss of awareness of immediate surroundings that manifests as profound
unresponsiveness or insensitivity to environmental stimuli” (ICD-11 draft).
