Multiple Personality: An Issue for Forensic Psychiatry

With the introduction of DSM-III, multiple personality became a new psychiatric entity. Since the diagnosis criteria are somewhat general and open to subjective interpretations, the documentation of alternating personalities requires a history of independent corroborative evidence not always easy to find. In this context, it raises serious issues for forensic psychiatry when it is invoked as a defense. A case diagnosed as multiple personality, but denied by the patient, will exemplify the objections legally raised about multiple personality as an acceptable defense.