What could we learn from these theories on the biological basis of personalities in DID?
Perhaps we should
assume that our neural system has a readiness, or a leeway for multiple existence
of conscious mind. Many phenomena, including imaginary companionship, possessing
phenomena, hidden observers described by Hilgard (1977) and rather sudden
formations of personalities in DID might corroborate that situation.
Hilgard, E. (1977). Divided
consciousness: Multiple Controls in Human Thought and Action. New York, John
Wiley and Sons.
One metaphor that I care for in describing
this situation is radio stations. Each station broadcasts programs based on a band
of radio frequency assigned by the authority. If station A is joined by station
B with different frequency band on its own, it can get its activity started without
hindering A’s program. They can coexist, besides multiple other stations with
different frequency on their own. If you allow me to expand my imagination and
share a fantasy that our brainwaves are Fourier series and can be divided into
different waves with different frequency, can’t they harbor multiple selves? In
‘dynamic core’ theory by Edelman, probably two dynamic cores, each functioning
at the frequency of 40, and 42 Hertz, for example, can coexist and form two
different minds.
Or, dynamic cores
can be superimposed and can exist in layers, as I designed in the previous
paper. If a situation like what Stephen Porges suggests, where two other autonomic
system fail and the remaining dorsal vagal system gets activated, there could be
extra dynamic core ready for these emergency situation (like “spare” network) and
get activated and function in the place of frozen subject. In DID that can occur
multiple times due to repeated crisis, each producing extra dynamic core. The theory
of mirror neuron gives us a tool to speculate how our mind can host other mind
virtually (Ramachandran) and allows us to imagine what can happen if MNS fails,
as I did in this paper.
The reason why I consider that
this model can be of help in better and more realistic understanding of DID is
that by imagining that each personality possesses an independent neural system,
a dynamic core which is basically isomorphic to our own, we can more readily
accept that each personality is a stand-alone mind, like ourselves.
