[theblackbox]

"dissociative identity disorder/multiple personality disorder" has been all but dropped by mainstream psychology. It's considered to be an artifact explained as being induced by a number of factors including attention seeking, desire to please therapist, extreme hypochondria and mimicry.

[wilzy]

Whether or not it has been dropped by mainstream (source?) - you paint dissociative identity disorder in such a poor light - choosing only to focus on characteristics that make it controversial. I think you'll find that in fact there is simply a lack of consensis amongst psychologists for its basis - which happens to be the case for many 'disorders' in this arena.

[Alex3917]

As with many mental illnesses, whether or not it's real depends on what your definition of 'real' is. It's clearly a common pattern of behavior that's secondary to other factors, but you could say the same thing about lots of mental illnesses.