ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I report on my research on how variations in people’s temporary mood states influence their memory, thoughts, judgments, and self-image. All of my studies use normal adults, usually college students; however, I try to relate my findings to clinical phenomena of dissociation and multiple personality. I have no personal knowledge of multiple personality patients. What I know of the disorder I have learned from watching Joanne Woodward’s acting in “The Three Faces of Eve” and from reading about it. For example, I’ve learned that 92% of multiples are women, that 97% report having suffered through a history of childhood incest, torture, trauma, or other abuse in a disturbed family, and that patients are typically very hypnotizable, suggesting a genetic predisposition towards dissociation (Kluft, 1984).
