| Debating against the existence of the controversial | | | | and wastes the patient's time and money. |
| issue of multiple personalities in the Journal of the | | | | McHugh's second premise is that we shouldn't waste |
| American Academy of Child and Adolescent | | | | the lesson that was learned nearly a century ago |
| Psychology, 1995, author Paul McHugh concludes that | | | | when Jean-Martin Charcot's student, Joseph Babinski, |
| the DSM's (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental | | | | brought the null hypothesis regarding Charcot's |
| Disorders) current diagnosis of Multiple Personality | | | | misdiagnosis of Hysteria, asserting that the women in |
| Disorders (now referred to as Disassociative Identity | | | | question instead had behavioral disorders. McHugh's |
| Disorder) should not, and he predicts will not, survive | | | | subpremise is the example of how Babinski found that |
| long enough to make it into future editions. | | | | once the women were removed from the conditions |
| McHugh's major points of argument are that the DSM | | | | fostering the misdiagnosis, and treated with "isolation |
| is flawed because Multiple Personality Disorder isn't a | | | | and countersuggestion", their real problems could finally |
| legitimate disorder; rather it's an "individually and socially | | | | be addressed. |
| created artifact". He isn't denying the existence of the | | | | McHugh's third premise, based on his own replication of |
| patient's emotional troubles, but he believes that they | | | | Babinski's "isolation and countersuggestion" technique |
| have been misdiagnosed and led down the wrong | | | | at John Hopkins with Multiple Personality Disorder |
| therapeutic path. McHugh urges us to learn from a | | | | patients sent there as a last resort, is that we should |
| past analogous historical example-Hysteria, and even | | | | apply what we learned from history and give up the |
| goes as far as to challenge the contenders of Multiple | | | | psychological fad of multiple personalities. The first |
| Personality Disorder to test the null hypothesis, as did | | | | subpremise is to change the Multiple Personality |
| Babinski in the referenced historical example. | | | | Disorder label to "abnormal illness behavior", remove |
| McHugh's first major premise is the therapist's | | | | the patients from therapy with prior Multiple Personality |
| responsibility regarding the power of labeling vulnerable | | | | Disorder supportive therapists, and disregard attempts |
| and emotionally suggestible patients. The first | | | | of communication by "alter" personalities. Only in this |
| subpremise is that patients such as these tend to live | | | | case can the patients genuine issues be treated. |
| out the label; a phenomenon known as "The Pygmalion | | | | McHugh's second subpremise is his challenge to |
| Effect", in which people live out others expectations of | | | | Multiple Personality Disorder proponents to reject his |
| them, especially expectations of them that are held by | | | | null hypothesis. |
| others in positions of authority. The second subpremise | | | | McHugh makes valid and coherent observations in his |
| is that such an extreme diagnosis allows patients to | | | | argument that Multiple Personality Disorder, as a clinical |
| assume and exploit the sick role for its potential | | | | diagnosis, is an individually and socially constructed |
| benefits, such as special treatment, attention, and relief | | | | phenomenon that is not helping the afflicted. The main |
| from responsibility. The third subpremise is that the | | | | premises interdependently relate to one and other, and |
| mistaken diagnosis obscures the patient's real problem | | | | the premises relate to and support the conclusion. |