Dangers in Interviewing and Not Interviewing Family and Friends of Patients with “Schizophrenia” or Multiple Personality

The well-known danger in multiple personality is that the family member or friend may be an abuser, and so speaking to them may be seen by your patient as a blatant betrayal.

But some patients with multiple personality, because they had reported hearing voices (of alternate personalities) have been misdiagnosed with schizophrenia for years, while the family knew they had multiple personality, but mistakenly assumed the doctors knew that, too, because it was so obvious at home, and because they mistakenly thought the doctor’s diagnosis of schizophrenia included multiple personality.