Scientific publication list

There are thousands of publications on DID, OSDD or non-disordered plurality. Here we list only the most known and according to our subjective judgement the most important or interesting ones. If you want to read something you don't have access to, there are illegal ways to do it, like using sci-hub and Anna's Archive, which we can't officially recommend.

Warning: most of the papers conteptualise plurality as a division of personality in a singular person.

Filters

public access peer-reviewed* the most important the most known the newest plurality DID/OSDD non-disordered plurality tulpomancy mediumship illusion of independent agency disproving myths neurobiology and physiology treatment comorbidities models functional multiplicity headmates as people switches stigmatisation law and ethics

*some of the articles not belonging to this category migth have been peer-reviewed

Trauma-related Structural Dissociation of the Personality, Ellert Nijenhuis, Onno van der Hart, Kathy Steele, 2004. Warning: regards final fusion as the only treatment option.
Fact or Factitious? A Psychobiological Study of Authentic and Simulated Dissociative Identity States, A. A. T. Simone Reinders, Antoon T. M. Willemsen, Herry P. J. Vos, Johan A. den Boer, Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis, 2012. Warning: contains a detailed description of views of people that don't think DID is a real disorder.
Separating Fact from Fiction: An Empirical Examination of Six Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder, Bethany L. Brand, PhD, Vedat Sar, MD, Pam Stavropoulos, PhD, Christa Krüger, MD, Marilyn Korzekwa, MD, Alfonso Martínez-Taboas, PhD, Warwick Middleton, MD, 2016. Warning: contains detailed descriptions of harmful myths upheld by some proffesionals.
A systematic review of the neuroanatomy of dissociative identity disorder, David Blihar, Elliott Delgado, Marina Buryak, Michael Gonzalez, Randall Waechter, 2020. Warning: contains a description of views of people that don't think DID is a real disorder.
Dissociative part-dependent biopsychosocial reactions to backward masked angry and neutral faces: An fMRI study of dissociative identity disorder, Yolanda R. Schlumpf, Ellert R.S. Nijenhuis, Sima Chalavi, Ekaterina V. Weder, Eva Zimmermann, Roger Luechinger, Roberto La Marca, A.A.T. Simone Reinders, Lutz Jäncke, 2013.
The elusive search for a biomarker of dissociative amnesia: an overstated response to understated findings?, Antje A.T.S. Reinders, Lora I. Dimitrova, Yolanda R. Schlumpf, Eline M. Vissia, Sophie L. Dean, Lutz Jäncke, Sima Chalavi, Dick J. Veltman, Ellert R.S. Nijenhuis, 2022.
Dissociation in Trauma: A New Definition and Comparison with Previous Formulations, Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis, PhD, Onno van der Hart, PhD, 2011 – for us really valuable due to the fact that two authors of the theory of structural dissociation (often used as an argument against the existence of endogenic systems) acknowledge there the possibility of existence of non-pathological plurality (check the last section).
Critiquing the Requirement of Oneness over Multiplicity: An Examination of Dissociative Identity (Disorder) in Five Clinical Texts, Kymbra Clayton, 2005. Warning: discusses forcing fusion and abusive therapy.
The Role of Dynamic Core and Mirror Neuron System in Dissociative Disorder, Kenichiro Okano, 2022. Warning: discusses physical abuse, cites sources that are against treating a system as separate people.
Dissociative Identity Disorder Adult Treatment Guidelines Third Revision, International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, 2011. Warning: calls investment in the internal functioning of one's system "narcissistic", advises for treating a system as one person, regards final fusion as the better treatment outcome.
Therapeutic Alliance with Abuser Alters in Dissociative Identity Disorder: The Paradox of Attachment to the Abuser, Ruth A. Blizard, Ph.D. 1995. Warning: discusses abuse, including sexual abuse, and self-harm, regards final fusion as the only treatment option, suggests that it's impossible to help certain people, mentions murder.
Clinical Presentations of Multiple Personality Disorder, Richard P. Kluft, M.D., 1991. Available only as photos of original document, with text unavailable to screen readers. Warning: discusses sexual abuse, in-system violence, alcohol addiction and being left by a loved one, regards final fusion as the only treatment option, cites text calling investment in the internal functioning of one's system "narcissistic", emphasises that "personalities are not people".
The Switch Process in Multiple Personality Disorder and Other State-Change Disorders , Frank W. Putnam, M.D., 1988.
Psychophysiologic Aspects of Multiple Personality Disorder, Philip M. Coons, 1988. Warning: discusses physical abuse and self-harm.
The ambiguous loss of post-integration : a theoretical analysis of the effects of integration on clients with dissociative identity disorder, Elise A. Manning, 2013. Warning: discusses marginalisation, mentions people disbelieving in realness of DID.
Determining medical decision-making capacity for patients with dissociative identity disorder: a patient-centered approach, Timothy Brennan, 2020.
Stigma Regarding Dissociative Disorders, David H. Gleaves, Bennett A. A. Reisinger, 2023.
Dissociative Identity Disorder: Etiology, Media, and Stigma, Leah N. Millard, 2020. Warning: unchecked.
Analysis of Dissociative Identity Disorder Presented in Popular Movies and the Possible Impacts on Public Stereotypes, Suqi Chen, 2021. Warning: dedicated to the topic of stigma, mentions kidnaping and murders.
Measuring fragmentation in dissociative identity disorder: the integration measure and relationship to switching and time in therapy, M. Rose Barlow, James A. Chu, 2014. Warning: regards final fusion as the only treatment option.
The dream character as prototype for the multiple personality alter, Deirdre Barrett, 1995. Warning: discusses nigthmares and suicide attempts.
Dreams in Multiple Personality, Deirdre Barrett, 1996. Available only as photos of original document, with text unavailable to screen readers. Warning: discusses abuse, including sexual abuse and animal abuse, suicidal thougths and various kinds of nightmares.
The Phenomenology and Treatment of Extremely Complex Multiple Personality Disorder, Richard P. Kluft, M.D., 1988. Warning: mentions abuse, including sexual and ritual abuse (without major details), regards final fusion as the only treatment option, describes a case of treating a system that seems to not want the fusion.
Maladaptive Daydreaming among patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder:A prevalence study, Nirit Soffer-Dudek, Rémy Aquarone, Eli Somer, 2025.
Introducing Plurals, Elizabeth Schechter, 2024. Warning: considers arguments both for and against the possibility of existence of many people in one body and other experiences, including the possibility for anybody to have any self at all.
Conceptualizing multiplicity spectrum experiences: A systematic review and thematic synthesis, Zarah Eve, Kim Heyes, Sarah Parry, 2023. Warning: discusses stigmatisation and medicalisation of plural experiences and dismissing plural perspectives.
Exploring the Utility and Personal Relevance of Co-Produced Multiplicity Resources with Young People, Sarah Parry, Zarah Eve, Gemma Myers, 2021. Warning: endophobia in some of the participants responses.
Multiplicity: An Explorative Interview Study on Personal Experiences of People with Multiple Selves, Gergő Ribáry, László Lajtai, Zsolt Demetrovics, Aniko Maraz, 2017. Warning: transphobia.
Learning to Discern the Voices of Gods, Spirits, Tulpas, and the Dead, T. M. Luhrmann, Ben Alderson-Day, Ann Chen, Philip Corlett, Quinton Deeley, David Dupuis, Michael Lifshitz, Peter Moseley, Emmanuelle Peters, Adam Powell, Albert Powers, 2023.
The Inner Vehicle: Prayer, Tulpamancy, and the Magic of the Mind, Elizabeth Hale, 2024.
Varieties of Tulpa Experiences: The Hypnotic Nature of Human Sociality, Personhood, and Interphenomenality, Samuel Veissiere, 2016.
Tulpas and Mental Health: A Study of Non-Traumagenic Plural Experiences, Jacob J. Isler, 2017.
Personality Characteristics of Tulpamancers and Their Tulpas, Anna N. Martin, Bailey A. Thompson, Steven L. Lancaster, PhD, 2020.
Imaginary Friends: Helpful or Harmful?, Laura D Klivans, 2016. Warning: involves a story ending with a loved one leaving.
‘I’ve learned I need to treat my characters like people’: Varieties of agency and interaction in Writers’ experiences of their Characters’ Voices, John Foxwell, Ben Alderson-Day, Charles Fernyhough, Angela Woods, 2020.
Multiple Personality and Channeling, Rayna L. Rogers, D.O., 1991. Warning: describes views of people who tought MPD is just pretending.
Altered Speech: A case-study of identity-driven speech in a Dissociative Identity Disorder system, Sarah Domin, 2020.
The Molecular Genetics of Dissociative Symptomatology: A Transdiagnostic Literature Review, Ravi Philip Rajkumar, 2022.
High psychiatric comorbidity in adolescents with dissociative disorders, Hasan Bozkurt, MD, Tuba Duzman Mutluer, MD, Cigdem Kose, PhD, Salih Zoroglu, MD, 2014. Warning: unchecked.
Dissociation in Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Under-Recognized Symptom, Katherine E. Reuben, MPH, Ayden Parish, 2022. Warning: discusses stigmatisation and various kinds of abuse that autistic people are more likely to endure due to the ableism and their disability.
Maladaptive Daydreaming, Dissociation, and the Dissociative Disorders, Colin A. Ross, M.D., Jane Ridgway, M.A., and Nevita George, B.S., 2020. Warning: unchecked.
False Memories And The Science Of Credibility: Who Gets To Be Heard?, Michael Salter, Ruth Blizard, 2022 – introduction to the history of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (an organisation founded by parents accused of sexually abusing their children) and its impacts on survivors of abuse. Difficult, but very important topic. Warning: describes cases of undermining victims' testimonies, mentions sexual abuse and genocide.
Voluntary out-of-body experience: an fMRI study, Andra M. Smith, Claude Messier, 2014.
Problem of “otherness” in dissociative disorder, Kenichiro Okano, 2021. Warning: discusses the topic of dehumanisation of alters. (No public access)
Multiplying models: Personal identity, dissociation and the possibility of healthy multiplicity, Rhett Lindsey Gayle, Ph.D., 2003. Warning: discusses in-system violence, doubting someone's trauma and dehumanisation of alters, describes views of people seeing DID as false disorder and mentions betrayal, exorcisms and sexual abuse. (No public access)
Normal Dimensions of Multiple Personality without Amnesia, Robert G. Kunzendorf, Melissa Crosson, Antoinette Zalaket, Jerold White, Robert Enik, 1999. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
It's not just a movie: Perceived impact of misportrayals of dissociative identity disorder in the media on self and treatment, Briana L. Snyder, Stacey Marie Boyer, Jennifer E. Caplan, M. Shae Nester, Bethany Brand, 2024. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Sight and blindness in the same person: Gating in the visual system, Hans Strasburger, Bruno Waldvogel, 2015. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
The experience of co-consciousness and switching in dissociative identity disorder: A multiple case study, Cameron West, 1997. (No public access)

Warnings

Discusses the topic of denying child sexual abuse (Review of the literature: A Brief History of the Study of DID in the United States), describes examples of sexual abuse(Review of the literature: Dissociation, Review of the literature: The Etiology of DID), physical abuse (Results: Robin - introduction), self-harm (Review of the literature: Qualitative Case Studies Involving DID Participants, Results: Robin - introduction, Results: Robin: The Experience of Degrees of Co-conscousness, Results: Elizabeth - introduction), in-system abuse (Research Precautions in Working with Persons with DID), mentions sexual and physical abuse (Results: Robin - introduction, Results: Jacki - introduction, Results: Elizabeth - introduction), ritual abuse (Results: Jacki - introduction, Results: Elizabeth - introduction, Cross-Case Comparison: Cross-Case Comparison of Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule and Dissociative Experiences Scale, Cross-Case Comparison: Cross-Case Profile Comparison), flashbacks (Results: Elizabeth: The Experience of Types of Co-Consciusness) and self-harm (Results: Elizabeth: The Experience of Types of Co-Consciusness, Results: Elizabeth: The Experience of Degrees of Co-Consciousness).
Voluntary switching between identities in dissociative identity disorder: A functional MRI case study, R. L. Savoy, B. B. Frederick, A. S. Keuroghlian, P. C. Wolk, 2012. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
The Neural Correlates of Vertical Splitting in a Single Case Study, Paula C. Wolk, Robert L. Savoy, Blaise B. Frederick, 2014. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Personality Switches in a Woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Guochuan E. Tsai, PhD, Donald Condie, MD, Ming-Ting Wu, MD, I-Wen Chang, BA, 1999. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Functional Dissociation of the Self: A Sociocognitive Approach to Trauma and Dissociation, Dr. Vedat Şar, MD, Erdinç Öztürk, PhD, 2008. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
‘And we are a human being’: Coproduced reflections on person-centred psychotherapy in plural and dissociative identity, Nicola Blunden, Billie, 2021. (No public access)
Contextual Treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder, Steven N. Gold, PhD, Jon D. Elhai, PhD, Bayard D. Rea, MS, Donna Weiss, PsyD, Theodore Masino, MS, Staci Leon Morris, PsyD, Jessica McIninch, MS, 2008. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
A Systemic Approach to the Treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder, Shobha Pais, 2009. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Dissociative children: bridging the inner and outer worlds, Lynda Shirar, 1996. Warning: unchecked. (A book)
Multiple Personality in Childhood, Richard P. Kluft M.D, 1984. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Axis II Pathology in Outpatients with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Paul F. Dell, Ph.D., 1998. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Assessment of dissociative identity disorder with the Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II, J. W. Ellason, C. A. Ross, D. L. Fuchs, 1995. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Co-Occurrence of Dissociative Identity Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder, Collin A. Ross, MD, Lynn Ferrell, PsyD, Elizabeth Schroeder, 2013. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Dissociation in borderline personality disorder: a detailed look, Marilyn I. Korzekwa, Paul F. Dell, Paul S. Links, Lehana Thabane, Philip Fougere, 2009. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
A Longitudinal Naturalistic Study of Patients With Dissociative Disorders Treated by Community Clinicians, Bethany L. Brand, Scot W. McNary, Amie C. Myrick, Catherine C. Classen, Ruth Lanius, Richard J. Loewenstein, Clare Pain, Frank W. Putnam, 2013. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Demystifying ritual abuse – insights by self-identified victims and health care professionals, Johanna Schröder, PhD, Susanne Nick, Psych, Hertha Richter-Appelt, PhD Prof, Peer Briken, MD Prof, 2020. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Psychobiological Characteristics of Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Symptom Provocation Study, A.A.T. Simone Reinders, Ellert R.S. Nijenhuis, Jacqueline Quak, Jakob Korf, Jaap Haaksma, Anne M.J. Paans, Antoon T.M. Willemsen, Johan A. den Boer, 2006. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Dissociation and Transformation, Douglas G. Richards, 1990. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Comparision of brazilian spiritist mediumship and dissociative identity disorder, Alexander Moreira-Almeida, Francisco Lotufo Neto, Etzel Cardeña, 2008. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Tracking the Tulpa: Exploring the “Tibetan” Origins of a Contemporary Paranormal Idea, Natasha L. Mikles, Joseph P. Laycock, 2015. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Plurality Through Imagination: The Emergence of Online Tulpa Communities in the Making of New Identities, Christopher Laursen, 2019. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
The Illusion of Independent Agency: Do Adult Fiction Writers Experience Their Characters as Having Minds of Their Own?, Marjorie Taylor, Sara D. Hodges, Adèle Kohányi, 2003. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
Explaining the illusion of independent agency in imagined persons with a theory of practice, Jim Davies, 2021. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
It's just a body: A community-based participatory exploration of the experiences and health care needs for transgender plural people, Susan C. Turell, Christopher Wolf-Gould, Sana Flynn, Silver Mckie, Matthew A. Adan, The Redwoods, 2023. Warning: discusses transphobia and pluralphobia. (No public access)
Dissociative Disorders and Suicidality in Psychiatric Outpatients, Brad Foote, MD, Yvette Smolin, MD, Deborah I. Neft, PhD, Deborah Lipschitz, MD, 2008. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)
The Relationship Between Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms and Dissociation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Lucia Sideli, PhD, Gianluca Santoro, MSc, Andrea Fontana, PhD, Fanny Guglielmucci, PsyD, PhD, Vincenzo Caretti, PsyD, Adriano Schimmenti, DClinPsych, PhD, 2022. Warning: unchecked. (No public access)

Promising articles awaiting the categorisation:

Created: 10.02.2025
Last update: 30.04.2025