Abstract

This work addresses issues of self integrity and self identity arising from cases of split brain and multiple personality disorder. It takes on the task of accounting for a unified conscious experience of oneself and, more importantly, a unified and continuous self within a multiple systems, information processing approach to consciousness and the self. Cases of split-brain syndrome are examined in detail, and the view that commissurotomy produces dual selves in one body, advanced by leading researchers in neuropsychology and philosophy, is criticized. Several cases of multiple personality disorder are examined in detail, and the view that multiple personalities are multiple selves is criticized. Although both split brain and multiple personality disorder seem to pose a threat to our ordinary conception of a person, the author maintains that the integrity and unity of the self, even in these extreme conditions, can be explained by means of the multiple systems model of consciousness and the self