If I suffer from MPD and have accepted Jesus as my lord and savior, but the other personalities didn’t, would I do to heaven and they burn in hell?
I’m not a Christian, so am no expert but I would hypothesize:
a) Each personality gets a soul and so only one would get lucky.
or
b) Many churches would view your affliction as one of demonic possession (or similar) and so would probably view the “good” personality as your “correct” one - which in turn should get to heaven. The others would be cast out, and go inhabit hell (or another person)
or, possibly, in the view of the Catholics,
c) As you are afflicted with a crippling mental disease, all “personalities” are innocents, and so would get to heaven. I’m not sure how widely subscribed the idea of the mentally ill as innocent - outside the Catholics. So you may do well to accept Jesus within that church, to hedge your bets.
So this is ok but I can’t ask about ghosts?
First thing to realise is that it almost certainly doesn’t exist. The fact that the US produces more cases than the rest of the world combined is the first clue. The fact that many people have admitted that they were under full control of all personalities at the same time is the next clue. The fact that a majority of psychiatrists and psychologists don’t believe it exists is the final clue.
If it does exist, which is unlikely, then the personalities aren’t entirely distinct. For example one personality doesn’t just forget how to read and write or its entire life history. The two personalities always interact. As far as anyone can tell the personalities are more like the personality changes brought on by excess drink or lack of sleep than to different people. Someone drunk or suffering from jet lag may act weird and forget what they did later, but their personality isn’t a distinct entity despite that. MPD works the same way.
To me a more interesting question is what happens in cases of brain damage where people do develop genuinely different personalities. In these cases either the before or after personality can be a complete prick, and the other may be a saint. There seems to be an inherent problem here, insofar as it is unfair to punish a saint because she becomes an arsehole after an accident, yet it is also unfair to punish someone who is a saint because they were an arsehole for 20 years of their 80 year life.
[moderating]
I don’t know if this belongs in Great Debates or In My Humble Opinion, but it sure doesn’t belong in General Questions.
Off to GD…
[/moderating]
Can you provide a citation for any of this? I don’t necessarily disagree, but I’d like to read more.
Wasn’t paying that nuch attention when I wrote it, sorry.
No problem.
Blake may have more citations, but, while you are waiting, you can read about it it in the Wikipedia article under the Controversy section.
As for the OP: I believe MPD (aka Dissociative Identity Disorder) would traditionally be thought of as demon possession, as at least one if not more demon possessions in the Bible have the same symptoms. The personality or personalities that do not accept Jesus would be assumed to be the demon, and therefore would not go to heaven, while the good personality would.
The only other interpretation I can come up with is that the disorder would be seen as physical, and, seeing as the “cure” involves reintegrating personalities, then one would be assumed to be healed upon death, and then it would depend on whether the reintegrated personality included the salvation or not. Or perhaps, if you go with the purgatory style system, the soul would arrive in purgatory split, and the bad personality would either convert or be burnt off by the purging fire.
As for the validity of “split personality” see the DSM IV. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (for mental/neuro diseases and disorders). This is the most current information from the great “they”–you know, the “they say…” people
Dissociative amnesia, referred to as psychogenic amnesia in DSM-III-R , is one of the dissociative disorders described in DSM-IV . Its diagnostic criteria are:
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One or more episodes of inability to recall important personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature, that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness;
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The disturbance does not occur exclusively during the course of another mental disorder, and is not due to the effects of a substance or a neurological and/or other general medical condition.
The symptoms of DID cause clinically significant distress or impairment in functioning. Memory disturbances, collectively known as amnesias, may be localized, selective, generalized, continuous, and/or systematized. For individuals with DID, the existence of amnesia is not necessarily the same in every personality state or personality fragment. For example, when one personality is aware of another but the other has no similar awareness, the condition is described as one-way amnesia. When neither personality is aware of the other, the condition is described as two-way amnesia.
Dissociative fugue (in DSM-III-R, psychogenic fugue) is given these diagnostic criteria in DSM-IV andis usually triggered by traumatic, stressful, or overwhelming life events:
Sudden, unexpected travel from home or work, with the inability to recall some or all of one’s past;
Confusion about personal identity or assumption of a new identity;
The disturbance does not occur exclusively during the course of DID and is not due to the effects of a substance or general medical condition;
The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in functioning.
****** [FONT=“Arial Black”]As far as God…whatever is “wrong” with our bodies and brains is also gone when our human bodies die. Whatever you have left (your soul) is what goes on. [/FONT]
I’m gonna guess…if you’re on this board asking, pray a little harder just to be safe…
Neither heaven nor multiple personalities exist in the real world, so the question is pointless twice over.
wow…
"Blake;13293428]The fact that a majority of psychiatrists and psychologists don’t believe it exists is the final clue."
Read your DSM IV or criteria from World Health Organization…many doctors have never even experienced the disorder, only read about it in texts. If that is the case, then they are formulating an unethical, biased opinion which goes firmly AGAINST their hypocratic oath.(doctors break their oath often in this country USA)
The majority of the people do not say they “knew” what they were doing the whole time. One of the requirements for the disorder is to NOT remember. If you can remember, it is not dissassociative personality disorder. Of course, like any other dx du jeur, all the Dr.'s are using it. Remember when everyone had bi-polar disorder, then everyone had ADHD. Everyone named their kids Sara, Brittney, Nicole and Jason Maybe it’s an 80’s thing??
Can’t comment on the JudeoChristian view, but the New Age term is Soul Fragmentation.