Split Personality Disorder and Repentance

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Buck1900

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Hypothetical scenario that I recently thought off, would like the hear your opinions

Say a person has split personality disorder and has 2 “personalities” one is kind and loving the other is evil and manipulative. The person flips back and forth between these 2 personalities frequently. While the evil personality is in control the person does something terrible (i.e murder) The evil personality is unrepentant and even proud of the crime however when under the control of the benevolent personality the person is horrified by his actions and begs for forgiveness.

According to Catholic teaching would the person in question he forgiven? Considering only 1 of their personalities is truly sorry but the other isn’t?
 
It is my impression, but I could very easily be wrong, it’s a very complicated disorder
 
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Could be an interesting conundrum for the priest.

Do note, that if Evil You is sporting a goatee, you might be dealing with a mirror universe instead of psychology.
 
Buck1900 said:
Hypothetical scenario that I recently thought off, would like the hear your opinions

Say a person has split personality disorder and has 2 “personalities” one is kind and loving the other is evil and manipulative. The person flips back and forth between these 2 personalities frequently. While the evil personality is in control the person does something terrible (i.e murder) The evil personality is unrepentant and even proud of the crime however when under the control of the benevolent personality the person is horrified by his actions and begs for forgiveness.

According to Catholic teaching would the person in question he forgiven? Considering only 1 of their personalities is truly sorry but the other isn’t?
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A person must be able to make a personal choice, knowingly, with grave matter, to commit mortal sin. With
Dissociative Identity Disorder there could be such a degree of it, that freedom is lost, but not necessarily.
 
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I once knew a woman who had MPD, back when it was called MPD.

Each personality was developed as a response to a particular traumatic experience. They were different “ages”-- one was a child; the others were adults-- and had different attitudes-- a slutty one, an aggressive one, and another one I don’t remember-- because they existed to deal with specific situations so my friend didn’t have to. Some of the personalities knew the other personalities; not all of them did. When one of the personalities was front-and-center, my friend didn’t have any memory of what was going on, but when my friend was front-and-center, the personalities were able to follow what was happening— and consciously choose to intervene, by taking control.

My friend “came out” with her MPD to her group of friends (she was being studied by the university I was attending at the time), and I happened to be hanging out with them at the time, so I went along. There was a plan to trigger one of the personalities to come out, by talking about it, and then we could meet it.

My question to the personality was along the lines of-- “How long will you stay as a part of her?” And the answer was, “When she comes to grips with the traumas that triggered each of them, then we’ll cease to exist.”

Which was kind of interesting, because it was similar to a snippet I heard from a priest who had been involved in an exorcism that was having trouble sticking-- the demon was asked why he wouldn’t go away, or somesuch, and the answer came back, “Until he forgives his father for having sexually abused him as a child, I’m going to stay here”, or something along those lines.

So it’s not that there’s such a thing as an “evil” personality who does “evil” stuff unbeknownst to the primary person— wasn’t that, like, an episode of Matlock back in the 80’s? 😛 And it’s also not that the personalities flip just for the fun of flipping— there’s usually a reason that triggers them into action.

A more realistic scenario would be, “What happens if someone was viciously and sexually abused as a child, and the trauma causes them to develop multiple personality disorder. So the person develops a slutty personality to deal with sexual situations that the primary person wants to avoid, but feels she is unable to escape from or say no to. That personality is in control, and enjoys herself very much, and disappears into the background when it’s all over, leaving the primary person with no memory of what happened. Would the person be forgiven?” and the answer comes back as, “The person has a mental illness, and is not as morally responsible as someone who is in full possession of their faculties.”
 
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