In dealing with any spiritual/psychological phenomenon it is important to have some background in the subject generally. And whilst I am familiar with the secular teachings of Freud, Jung and Janov, I have very little belief in any except some of the theories of Janov. As a Christian I do naturally take a very different approach to secular psychologists none of whom recognise spiritual phenomenon, whether the makeup of the human soul or the existence and presence of demonic entities. Unlike these men who reflect atheistic (Freud) or occultic (Jung) points-of-view, I work from the premis that compassion for the victim, a life in Christ, strong faith, the Bible's teachings, the gift of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), experience, logic and common sense are all that is needed to resolve the problem. I would perhaps be more cautious in making this claim had I not also had some background and experience in pastoral work and in deliverance (demon removal) ministry, both of which have equipped me with some useful tools in dealing with MPD.
With few exceptions (none that I have read about or come across) MPD is the fracturing of the unified personality of an individual caused by a violent disturbance to her ordinary way of life, usually some sort of repeated abuse, into several subpersonalities who come to believe that they are independent personalities sharing the same physical body. By far the most common cause of MPD is repetitive Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) in which the victim is subjected to repeated sexual and violent abuse leading to demonisation and mental disturbance. The abuse leading to the worst case scenarios usually takes place during childhood at a time when the persona or ego is undeveloped and highly vulnerable. The victims respond either by suppressing the memories of the abuse, resulting in large gaps in their memory, or fracture their persona into multiple subpersona, often hundreds, as a mechanism by which they can lesson the pain by distributing it amongst several individuals.
In the process of time these subpersonalities come to believe that they are independent persons sharing a common body though they mostly recognise that they are in some way a "family" or a "unity". Depending on their nature, which can develop radically disparate characteristics (for example, one may be an evil murderer and the other a benign philanthropist, as in the Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome), these subpersonalities usually recognise that they share a common existence in some way, and there is sometimes communication between them, though mostly they are simply "aware" of each other. No more than one subpersonality can manifest at a time, the remainder becoming unconscious. When another subpersonality manifests as, say, when having a conversation with me, she is aware only that she has "lost time".
One thing I have noted time and time again is that each subpersonality is utterly convinced thay she has a proper grip on reality and can function as a wholly independent persona. And yet there are enormous gaps in each persona's knowledge which they are not aware of, together with differing degrees of delusion as to the reality around them. Yesterday I was talking with one subpersonality (they do not like the use of that term, incidentally, because it challenges their artificial reality and sense of independence as persons) for about two hours when she suddenly disappeared and reappeared as another one. The second subperona was entirely ignorant of the first conversation. When I shared the contents of my conversation with the first subpersona with her, she was very shocked and continually tried to readjust the information in it to fit her own peculiar reality. The first subpersona had in actual fact been very disparaging of the second and considered herself the dominant persona in the cluster of fragmented subpersonalities. Dealing with the reality that these subpersona are both many and one is often very confusing for them which they deal with by coming to various "agreements" between themselves as to where the boundaries of their several activities and interests lie. Thus one may be the submissive type while the other may be a very masculine, outward-going Tom-boy type. And whilst it is tempting to think that all of these subpersona are the work of a very clever actor, the evidence overwhelmingly compells me to believe otherwise. By applying a number of tests it is possible to show that each subpersona is unaware of the conscious activities of the other who seem, for the most part, unable to communicate subconsciously what they have been experiening whilst awake.
Each subpersona has a different age which though I first thought was artificially contrived nevertheless seems to relate to an actual "birth" of sorts connected to that age - the birth (often violent) of the subpersona. Thus a 40 year-old woman may have a subpersonality who is only 7 and who behaves exactly like a 7 year-old (something very difficult to impersonate to perfection). Another subpersonality may be a very flirtatious, over-sexed and seductive 17 year-old who may, when conscious, behave in a very permissive manner at complete variance with the nature of another, 'older' subpersonality. One morally-minded subpersonality, once she beccomes conscious of it, may be highly embarrassed and ashamed by the behaviour of another promiscuous one.
It is, in my view, a serious mistake for a man to actually marry someone still suffering from MPD though I do know of one or two exceptions where actual marriage provided an important ingredient in the healing process. Exceptions should never, however, be mistaken for the rule. It must be clearly understood that marriage is not a clinic. I know of some men who believe that it is their call to marry fractured women, provide them with a spiritual covering and deep love, and so nurse them to full health. Noble though such a sentiment undoubtedly is, I would strongly advise against it for many reasons.
Firstly, the whole intent of marriage is the one-flesh union of a whole man with a whole woman, not a whole man to a fractured woman (or vice versa). Secondly, whilst a strong and stable marriage environment can, and does, provide a catalyst for healing, it's raison d'être is not clinical. A man should never marry a woman unless he loves here for what she is and for what she is going to become. One thing you must be aware of is that a healed former-multiple will be a very different person from the original MPD. I know of men who have fallen in love with one or more of the subpersonalities and then come to loathe the others, causing considerable inner division, loyalty and confusion. Nobody ought to be marrying a multiple who is not a very mature and experienced minister in these things. Thirdly, because almost all MPDs are victims of SRA they are all demonised to one degree of another. Getting rid of those demons can be a long drawn-out, exhausting and stressful experience not just for the husband but for the rest of the family too. The temptation on the part of a ministering husband to throw an MPD wife out of his family because she is sowing unbearable discord may be accute and has happened, leaving the multiple to regress, fracture, and sometimes return to a demon-controlled way-of-life. The point is that a multiple could destroy your family, creating unbearable tensions and dilemmas. And once a man is committed in marriage to an MPD victim, he cannot just divorce her because of the problems she brings. He is bound for life from his side of the covenant.
Another problem with MPD and marriage is this: which subpersonality is entering the covenants of marriage? And what if the others disagree? Is it then a bone fide marriage? What if a man sleeps and has sex with a multiple (or to be exact, one of the subpersonas) - are they, according to Torah, actually obliged to marry? What if the other fractured parts of the personality are against? I know of one case where one subpersona seduced a man and some of the others subsequently accused him of rape.
One thing that is certain is that female multiples need a male covering, particularly if their fathers are not providing that. It is my view that such a multiple should be placed under the covering of a spiritual father-figure, namely a pastor or deliverance minister, but not in a marriage relationship. I don't believe valid and binding covenants can be entered into by a multiple, and I think it is wrong for a man to try to be one flesh with her in full marriage when in truth he is only uniting with part of her particularly if some of the subpersonas are small children. It is just too messy. Not until she is properly integrated should marriage be considered. But more about this later.
Obviously, if a marriage arrangement exists, it must be abided by. What is important, I believe, is that the marriage covenant is made between the man and the core alter. But even this can be a problem - in some SRA victims even the core can be split. When this happens you are dealing with one of the most difficult and complicated deliverance processes imaginable. And as it happens, the first victim I ministered two had her core fractured three ways, something I did not learn until near the end.
