Final Monthly Blog

In the novel Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll has two personalities, his good side and evil side. His evil side is called Mr. Hyde. In this time frame multiple personality disorder wasn't well known, however Dr, Jekyll would have been diagnosed with it. Multiple Personality Disorder or Dissociate Identity Disorder is a mental disorder on the dissociative spectrum characterized by the appearance of at least two distinct and relatively enduring identities or dissociated personality states that alternately show in a person's behavior, accompanied by memory impairment for important information not explained by ordinary forgetfulness. These symptoms are not accounted for by substance abuse, seizures, other medical conditions, nor by imaginative play in children. This happened with Jekyll and Hyde, Hyde would take over Jekyll's body and do evil things to people without Jekyll knowing.  The first case of Dissociate Identity Disorder was in the late 1970s and the man's name was Billy Milligan. He was the first person diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder to raise such a defense, and the first acquitted of a major crime by this reason. He was first arrested in 1975 for rape and armed robbery but then released on parole in early 1977. In October 1977, he was arrested for 3 rapes. He was examined by a psychologists and was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia and then with Dissociate Identity Disorder. Milligan was committed to a mental hospital and was found to have had 10 different personalities and then later on 14 additional personalities. His one personality committed the bank robbery and then another personality committed the rapes. In Jekyll and Hyde, Hyde assaulted a young girl and he also murdered a man by beating him to death and Jekyll had no knowledge of this until he became the main personality. If Jekyll went to court in the time period of the story he would not be able to plead insanity and go to jail but if he went to court in the present day he would be able to get off on insanity and go to a mental hospital instead of prison.