Many contemporary commentators on therapy have discussed the increased
incidence of multiple personality disorder and dissociative identity
disorder over the past 2 decades. Others have speculated on the relati
onship between this observed phenomenon in psychotherapy and changes t
aking place in contemporary society. This article develops the assumpt
ion that these changes are real and reflect important shifts in the ex
perience of self in contemporary society. Ambiguity and the absence of
a moral center seems more and more a normal expression of conditions
that are increasingly a part of contemporary life. The article conside
rs the requirements of constructing a new therapeutic language capable
of dealing with them. The article presents a ''taxonomy of multiplici
ty'' as a way of conceptualizing various experiential dimensions of di
ssociation and multiplicity.