SIMILARITIES IN RESPONSES TO EXTREME AND UNREMITTING STRESS - CULTURES OF COMMUNITIES UNDER SIEGE

During World War II, eastern European ghettos sewed to contain and opp ress ghetto residents. The organizational structures and processes tha t emerged within the ghetto are directly analogous to those in patient s with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, formerly MPD). This articl e explores the analogues between ghetto organization and the internal worlds of DID patients. Complex DID patients, like ghetto residents su bjected to extreme and unremitting stress, develop homeostatic systems characterized by competing forces that serve agendas of help-seeking, communication to outsiders about atrocities and utilitarian efforts t o prevent destabilization. The ghetto analogue to DID is offered as a descriptive teaching device for both clinicians and patients.