#Allen Frances

[pluraldeepdive]

Let's Fact Check: Was MPD renamed to DID for Harmful Reasons?

(Disclaimer: This post contains descriptions of ableism and disbelief in plurality. I do not condone any hatred towards any person mentioned on this post. If you see anyone attacking them, please report them for harassment! This post was made to spread awareness, not negativity.)

In this post, we will be investigating the claim that multiple personality disorder (MPD) was renamed to dissociative identity disorder (DID) for harmful reasons.

Origins of the claim

This claim most likely originated from a (now privatized) wordpress blog post made in 2019.

Click here for an archive of the blog post.

In this post, the author is discussing a blog post they found that's written by Allen J. Frances, the chairman of an outdated edition of the DSM. After reading his blog post, they came to the conclusion that Frances renamed MPD to DID out of malicious intent towards people with MPD because his blog post states that he does not believe in MPD.

This wordpress post was later linked on Twitter, where many users began repeating the claim. As it spread across Twitter and other social media platforms, the claim has adopted several variations. Some people claim that Frances attempted to get rid of MPD entirely, some claim that he renamed it as a scheme to erase all plurality, and some claim that “DID” is an ableist or offensive diagnosis because of all of this. It seems like most of the people spreading these claims do not have DID themselves, however.

Click here for a link to an imgur folder showing examples of this claim in online plural spaces.

The post by Frances

Now, let's look at the blog post that was cited as proof that MPD was renamed to DID for harmful reasons.

Click here to read his post (TW for fakeclaiming and ableism).

This post was written in 2014. In it, Frances is expressing how he doesn’t believe in what he calls MPD. He personally adheres to the debunked skeptical models which suggest DID is created through therapeutic suggestion or is a “fad”. He talks about how he wished he could remove MPD from the DSM-IV, but couldn’t do so. The next best thing, to him, was to allow controversial statements to be injected into the manual. These statements were removed in the current edition of the DSM.

Frances does not mention anything about the diagnosis's name change.

Addressing bias & concerning behavior

First of all, it’s important to look into the author of the wordpress blog to understand how reliable their word is. The author is a median system who I found out, from the blog, is @/multi_sapphire on Twitter. She also runs the blog @/acting-nt on Tumblr, which is a fact known by many in the online community.

At the time of making her blog post, she did not identify as having DID. She is openly anti-psychiatry, as well. While I don't want to make this a big focus, this system also has a history in the plural community of being very hateful towards the DID label. I have had to make a PSA about them before for posting hatred in the DID tags (source). They are the coiner of the term "traumascum" among other things (source). Many, many PSAs have been made about her by other systems about various concerning behavior (source).

Frances’ post can be easily triggering to anyone with DID, OSDD, or plurality. It’s understandable how a system, who was already unfavorable towards psychiatry, came to think that all of the changes made to DID in the DSM-IV were done out of malicious intent. Let's investigate that next.

Addressing how the DSM is made & who coins names

For anyone who doesn't know, "DSM" stands for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is a handbook used by clinicians to diagnose mental disorders.

The DSM-IV is an outdated edition that is no longer in use. It was published in 1994 and was replaced by the DSM-5 in 2013. While Frances was the chairman of the DSM-IV, he was kicked off the taskforce and has nothing to do with the current DSM. Most of the changes he made were completely reversed in the current manual.

The DSM taskforce is run by many people. Diagnoses are divided across different work groups who receive input and data from researchers that specifically research and work with people with those disorders. Suggestions are proposed from the researchers to the work groups, who then analyze this, conduct field trials, and propose changes that should be made to the DSM (source).

While Frances oversaw the taskforce, he is not listed as a member of any work group or researcher in the DSM-IV. This means he did not come up with any of the proposed changes to the DSM-IV.

Why MPD was renamed to DID

All of the dissociative disorders were renamed at the same time! All of them, except for DPDR, were changed to have the word “dissociation” in them. Researchers explain that they proposed this change in order to make the dissociative nature of these disorders more understandable.

Psychogenic amnesia was renamed to dissociative amnesia.

Psychogenic fugue was renamed to dissociative fugue.

Multiple personality disorder was renamed to dissociative identity disorder.

Atypical dissociative disorder was renamed to dissociative disorder not otherwise specified.

When it comes to DID in particular, there are two main reasons for the shift from multiple personalities to dissociative identities. Hersen et al. states the one of these reasons is that the term 'personality' defines "the characteristic pattern of thoughts, feelings, moods, and behaviors" of the whole brain (source). This is what makes alters identities rather than personalities. According to this definition of personality, having multiple personalities would mean having multiple brains! The second reason is that the older term emphasized the alters over the dissociation (same source).

In my opinion, refocusing on the dissociation rather than the alters allows people with DID to have the full spectrum of their symptoms recognized, and helps distance plurality from disorders. Many plural systems don't view their systems as the problem. Many systems don't have DID, either. The shift in this diagnostic language has made it much easier for that distinction to be made! It's very unfortunate that false claims have been made about this, casting more stigma onto both DID and non-DID systems.

Summary

To summarize everything:

The claim that MPD was renamed to DID for harmful reasons most likely originated from a 2019 blog post.

The author of the blog post was reasonably concerned about a figure of authority being ableist. However, their own biases against the DID label likely influenced their claim that the DID label was created by said figure of authority.

In actuality, that guy did not come up with the name "DID." Researchers are the ones who did.

MPD was renamed to DID in order to make it more understandable and put an emphasis on dissociation.

All dissociative disorders were renamed along with DID to include the word "dissociation" in them.

[autisticwriter]

Part 24: Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Hello, and welcome back to The Autistic Writer. As I write this, I’ve had a difficult day. A long-running niggling health problem has reared its head again, as a result of which I’m on a course of antibiotics, and I’ve been referred back to a consultant at the hospital. I’m not too pleased about this continuing issue, and I just want it sorted. So, with medical stuff annoying me, it’s with no…

[ivanscarf]

2p FACE family halloween

[sysmedsaresexist]

When anti endos and pro endos have a mutual enemy

🫶

Good thing you'll never get the chance, Frances, go away already, how are you still alive at your age with such a bad attitude

[drunkevillious]

Riliane Lucifen d'Autriche as Marie Antoinette :3

[worldreaderperson]

Why have I never seen ANYONE talking about the "Time Vortex" chapter of Radio Silence. They were possibly talking about Charlie when they said, "Everyone thought the boys' school rep was going to get into Cambridge." No. And everyone was like, "Wow, of course he's going in" for a long time". THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT CHARLIE! And the best thing is that a few minutes later Frances talks to Becky. That's right, Rebecca Allen. Tori Spring's best friend. And she even mentions Tori without saying her name, but you realize she was talking about Victoria Spring because Tori actually said that in Solitaire to Becky. Why doesn't anyone talk about this incredible chapter?!?

[sunflowerim]

I don’t like other people inside my room because I’m terrified they’re going to uncover one of my secrets, like my fan art habits or my Internet history or the fact that I one hundred per cent still sleep with a teddy bear. - Frances Janvier

Radio Silence, Alice Oseman.

[maxrowave]

So Conrad amiright?? Hahahhaa... I just needed a moment to indulge in some muscle stuff, he's very fun to draw and deserves attention xx

Also cesdoc doodle because who am i without it?

[aliceosemansolos]

alice oseman's silly characters make my life feel worth living

[drakenaa]

I… I finished it… all of it… today

Group photo of the Bigtop burger and Zomburger crews!

[michaelholdenenjoyer]

OH MY GOD I FORGOT ANGEL, JULIET AND BLISS 😭😭😭

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[what-is-going-on-im-confused]

wanted to reread radio silence but didn't have a bookmark so I spent three hours making one :3

[xblackreader]

CARMY & SYDNEY IN PARIS

CARMY & SYDNEY IN PARIS

CARMY & SYDNEY IN PARIS

CARMY & SYDNEY IN PARIS

CARMY & SYDNEY IN PARIS

shared bed troupe & romantic trip troupe + violin 🎻 and late night lights

[localgardenweed]

2P Hetalia didn't just stop at people, it's spreading onto ponies now

[coffeeandcinemaandmusic]

Midnight in Paris (2011). dir. Woody Allen