/sci/ - Science & Math

>ITT: armchair psychologists
Actual LPC here. DID is a legitimate diagnosis but it is not nearly as sensational (99% of the time) as Hollywood makes it out to be. It's not separate personalities so much as "parts". It's essentially the most extreme end of the "freeze" (see: fight, flight, or freeze) trauma response.

For more on trauma in general, I recommend Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman and The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. Those books are really more about PTSD but trauma is an integral part of any discussion about DID.