Subject: Re: More Circumstantial Evidence that Leland did it (10/6)
From: jen@athena.mit.edu (Jennifer Hawthorne)
Date: 1990-10-07, 18:32
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <1166@gargoyle.uchicago.edu> rissa@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (Patricia O Tuama) writes:
> >In article <1990Oct7.055750.13024@zip.eecs.umich.edu> chrisl@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Chris Lang) writes:
<<This certainly seems to be what comes to mind after the last episode.  The
<<only trouble is that even if Leland has a split personality, 
<
<Given that the concept of a "split personality" was invented by 
<Hollywood and does not exist in real life, it almost seems rather 
<pointless to speculate on who has one and why.....
<

A brief lecture on abnormal psychiatry:

"Split personalities", or, as the neurosis is more properly known,
Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), most definitely exists and is
extremely common in victims of childhood abuse, sexual and physical.
People with MPD can have up to dozens of alternate personas whose
purpose in existing is to protect the "core" personality from the
effects of severe childhood trauma. (For a very extreme case, try
reading about the Troops of Truddi Chase.)  These different personas
can have wildly differing temperments, speech patterns, skills,
habits, what have you.  It is entirely possible for one persona of an
MPD sufferer to be a successful lawyer and respected member of his
community, and for another personas to be a psychotic rapist and
killer.

Incidentally, the reason that people get MPD and schizophrenia mixed
up is that another word used to describe the personality of an MPD
sufferer is "schizoid", meaning "split".  This is not the same things
as schizophrenia, which is a serious psychosis.  Incidentally, MPD is
less serious (in terms of functoning in everyday life) than
schizophrenia;  people with MPD have reached a balance, however
tenuous, with a horrible reality, whereas people with schizophrenia
can't interatct with reality at all (for the most part, though
schizophrenia comes in varying degrees of seriousness.)  MPD can also
often be successfully treated with therapy; schizophrenia can only be
treated with drugs, which often cause long-term damage to the brain as
a side effect.  

End of lecture.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled newsgroup...

Jen
--
*******************************************************************************
Jennifer Hawthorne* "Blood sausage, sheep's stomach--
*    Dad, all of Scottish cuisine is based on 
(jen@athena.mit.edu)*  a dare!" -- paraphrased from SNL