Do schizofrenics have different IQs in each personality? I thought about this after reading Douglas Hoftstadter’s Goedl, Escher & Bach.
Schizophrenia is something completely different from “split personality” (more properly known as Dissociative Identity Disorder or Multiple Personality Disorder).
What Colibri said. Although if you start confusing the hell out of people by manifesting different personalities with separate memory tracks etc. at different times, you may end up incarcerated and labeled “schizophrenic” simply because it’s the most likely outcome of being the kind of crazy that pertains more to being incomprehensible to other people than (or merely) to manifesting disturbing emotions.
Some tests indicate that we’re slightly more intelligent on average than the baseline population of nonschizzies.
I’ve read Gödel, Escher, Bach and don’t recall any portion of it that would provoke curiosity about the intelligence of different personalities of a dissociative-personality disordered person. Care to elaborate?
So I’ve heard. My father was schizophrenic, and reputedly was an honor student in high school. He was also obviously quite intelligent during his lucid moments as an adult. I often wonder what he might have achieved if his brain circuitry hadn’t betrayed him. Despite its many inaccuracies, A Beautiful Mind hit very close to home.
On the other hand, my other schizophrenic relatives and friends have not appeared to be above average, and some seemed to be below.
Assuming that Michu actually means Dissociative Identity Disorder, I suspect that researchers have had other priorities than giving IQ tests to the various personalities that may manifest themselves. However, since some of the personalities shown by adults can be those of children, it’s possible that they might appear to have a lower intelligence. On the other hand, despite juvenile personality traits, it’s possible that they might still show an adult IQ when tested.
Again assuming we’re talking DID, then yes, the different “personalities” can have different IQ scores:
Source: this site
The Eve Black/Eve White case (Eve White obtained an IQ of 110 and Eve Black 104.)
There are other huge **physical **differences between personalities, as well, as nicely outlined in these class notes from the University of Oregon :
- differ in age & sex
- some are right handed, some left handed
- some might be color blind, some not
- different prescriptions for glasses
- IQ different - general knowledge, vocabulary
- different allergies, respond differently to medications
- different in tolerance to pain
- EEG differences, blood pressure differences
-musical abilities, handwriting , foreign languages
1990 study – blood pressure differences and allergies across alters
To date, no actors have been able to replicate these results by pretending to have DID.