Dissociative Identity Disorders In The Grimley Case

Before going into the legal aspects and how this disorder can affect criminal law or any legal proceeding it must be understood of what dissociative identity disorder is. Dissociative identity disorder formerly and commonly known as multiple personality disorder is characterized by “the presence of two or more distinct personality states or inexperience of possession and a recurrent episodes of amnesia which can vary within cultures (DSM-V 2013 p.291)”. This mental condition for most common people is hard to believe that this mental state actually occurs in our society and in other cultures seems like a form of possession. A person with dissociative identity disorder often have recurrent gaps of every day events, other important information and most likely any dramatic events that are ordinary from normal forgetting (DSM-V 2013). Mostly symptoms are clinically significant distress or impairment with work

For example in the Grimley case her defense was her alter ego Jennifer was in control and that she had a drinking problem, and when Jennifer was in control the primary personality Robin had no recollection of any incidents going on at the time. Prior to the incident she was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder are at the time multiple personality disorder. At the end of Grimsley’s case the court held are responsible for the actions. The reason simply summarized that she was the only person driving the car and the one accused of drunken driving. It was immaterial of the state of mind or consciousness that she was in. The fact is that she was conscious and result her actions were in violation of the law. This case showed that even though the alter ego Jennifer was driving she was still at a sane state of mine and that both as a whole should be held criminally responsible for the