Most Persons with Multiple Personality are, at times, Transgender

“At least half of all MPD patients have cross-gender alternate personalities. In female MPD patients, child, adolescent, or adult male personalities are found in about half of cases. In male MPD patients, female alternate personalities appear to be present in about two-thirds to three-quarters of all cases. These opposite gender personalities often cross-dress and may be responsible for the unisex look adopted by many MPD patients. Female MPD patients frequently have short hair and wear clothing…that allows their male alternate personalities to emerge comfortably…In both sexes, cross-gender alternate personalities may be sexually active with either heterosexual or homosexual orientations, leading to much confusion” (1, pp. 110-111).

Comment: Thus, it may be an ignorant question as to whether a person is “really” transgender, or do they “really” have multiple personality disorder (a.k.a “dissociative identity disorder”).

The idea that most persons are, indisputably, either transgender or multiple personality may be based on ignorance of the fact that most multiple personality is, at times, transgender.

One clear difference between the two conditions is that MPD is often denied by the person who has it, and it often takes special expertise to diagnose it, but persons who are transgender may insist on their self-diagnosis, just as alternate personalities usually insist on what sex they are, and would consider you a fool to contradict them.

In short, a person who insists they are transgender might be a person with multiple personality, one of whose cross-gender personalities has taken control all or most of the time. In some, or perhaps many, such cases, sex-change surgery could be appropriate, but I have never been involved in that kind of clinical situation and am not an expert on transgender, per se.

1. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989.