Dissociative Identity Disorder, Ambivalence, and Responsibility

Abstract

If someone with dissociative identity disorder (DID) commits a wrongful act, is she responsible? If one adopts the Multiple Persons Thesis, it may seem that one alter cannot be responsible for the actions of another alter. Conversely, if one regards the subject as a single person, it may seem that she is responsible for any actions she performs. I will argue that this subject is a single person, but one who suffers from delusions of disownership and therefore does not fulfill ordinary requirements for responsible agency. This is because she suffers from extreme ambivalence: her deep‐seated needs and desires conflict, and she forms alter‐personalities as a way to cope with inner discord without abandoning any of these contradictory impulses. However, although the ability to exercise autonomous agency is eroded in such cases, the capacity for autonomous agency is preserved. The subject with DID is weakly responsible for her wrongful acts.

Divided Minds and Divine Judgement:

“…Rovane expresses sympathy for the Multiple Persons thesis, as doesBayne (2002).15 The role abuse plays in the causing of DID is disputed. SeeMaiese (2017), 767-768. See the case of Sarah outlined inRothschild (2009), for a case of DID in which abuse seems to play a key role in causing the condition.16 SeeSwinburne (2018), 425-426, and Hasker (2013), 19-25.…”