Psychosexual disturbances in multiple personality: characteristics, etiology, and treatment.

In a series of 20 patients with multiple personality, there was a 75% incidence of sexual abuse and a 55% incidence of physical abuse during childhood. Six of the 17 female patients (35%) had been raped in adolescence or adulthood. Patients were matched for age and sex with a nondissociative disorder control group. Although 55% of the multiple personality group had psychosexual disturbances, this was just barely significant when compared with the control group. Multiple personality appears to be an adaptive response to various traumata and enables the individual superficially to function sexually because sexual functioning is often dissociated and managed by an alternate personality.