Exactly one year ago, I still thought Psychology is some smug, wanna-be-doctor sitting on a chair, with a patient whining on another. That it was merely advice-seeking for advice my grandma could give me without the absurdly high hourly rate.

I know the first thing that came to your mind was that I’m seeing a shrink. I’m not, don’t worry. I just found a mini-passion of mine in the behavioral branch of science.

I heard Ms Margaret, my friend Elias’ sister, was teaching the PSYC 202 course. I needed a social science elective and i hated sociology and anthropology way more than i hated psyc (back then). To my pleasant surprise, I found out psyc was far more than the ramblings of a perverted psychologist called Freud. What sealed the deal was my discovery of the link between psyc and my main passion in life, Biology.

Ms. Maggie did a wonderful job of making us all love psychology. It wasn’t toiling away into the night memorizing dull information we will barely remember even for the test (because your short term memory isn’t all that good), it was discussing cases, relating them to real life, relating them to our life, and to her work in the field. It all sounds very cheesy, but it is the truth.

The only course i remember vividly out of my 16 courses in AUB so far is that social science elective. Sure there are the boring parts, like how psyc itself evolved as a branch of science and who were the people who helped shape it, but the interesting parts compensated for the snore-fests about which psychologist said what and when.

That is why I thought I’d share some behavioral bits of information and news every now and then. Unfortunately for you, I’m going to categorize it under Biology Related =D

I thought I’d start with the most common misperception in abnormal psychology among the masses (smug alert); The difference between Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly multiple identity disorder). I won’t copy paste the stuff which you can google, I’ll just tell you the important stuff so you can correct someone next time you bring up psychological disorders in a conversation

Schizophrenia. The word means split-mind. This often is misinterpreted as having split personalities. But in fact, split-mind is one which has a problem differentiating between what is real and what isn’t. So, if i were schizophrenic and we were sitting together on a bench, I might see a third person there sitting with us, even interact with him. I wouldn’t know that person isn’t really there, I’d perceive him just like I’d perceive you. However, the hallucinations would often be in the form of a voice inside your head (a male voice according to most patient reports). Schizophrenia has many forms. It could be the catatonic kind (like the old lady in the Grudge) or the paranoid type (which is more common, though inaccurate, in horror movies)

DID. This is the somewhat cooler disorder, like the one Jim Carey plays in Me, Myself and Irene. It is a case where a person has at least 2 different personalities which take control of the person and the associated memory loss that ensues when the shift between personalities is made. Patients are usually unaware of their condition (unlike Schizophrenics). This disease though is a highly controversial one. Some people don’t even consider it a disease. This argument is further upheld by the fact that most cases are in North America, and that cases surged from 20 to 20,000 in the period when Sybil came out (the bible of DID). Despite the likelihood the disorder is just a cry for attention, several medical and biological indicators are hinting at the possibility of this disorder being very much real, and very powerful. Hormonal shifts, alternation between near- and far-sightedness, as well as documented cases of spontaneous allergies all point to the fact that shifts in personalities entails a modification of physical and biological aspects to suit the active personality’s specifications (male or female, young or old, etc.)