Multiple personality disorder and gender?

Question

I was just curious: in fiction, people with multiple personality disorder tend to have multiple personalities based on gender. Is it possible for a woman with MPD to take a male persona and vic versa?

This is research for a short story I'm writing.

Thanks

Helen

xxxxx

Answer 1

Yes it is very common to have male and female identities

"Using hypnosis, Dr Baer found the personalities were male and female, black and white, and different ages. Some were left-handed, others right-handed, and they even walked differently."

dailymail.co.uk

Answer 2

I have about 6 that I'm aware of and we're split pretty evenly between male and female. You should also know that in RL, most personalities are younger than the "host" (that's the body they all live in). Its possible to have older alters, but there are fewer older than younger as a rule. And, of course, DID is caused by childhood abuse, your character can't just wake up and have personailities without a precipitating trauma. -Neb

Answer 3

im not sure but i sometimes i think i have mpd, one side of me is female the other male

Answer 4

Since you're writing a story and want to be realistically accurate, you need to use the term Disassociated Identity Disorder (DID). Multiple Personality Disorder is an old medical term and not always entirely accurate for the diagnosis because many people with DID have fragments of personalities (personalities that exist simply to perform one task or feeling and nothing else, therefore, not a fully-formed personality)

But to answer your question, yes, it's very common for people with DID to have several personalities of both genders.

I have over 20 alternate personalities and 2 that I know of are male.  

Answer 5

Yes it is entirely possible for someone to have a multiple personality of the opposite s*x.