Published Online:July 2025
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Law Review
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IUPLR010725
DOI:10.71329/IUPLR/2025.15.3.5-15
Author Name:Nahdiya Saman and Monalisa Nayak
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Law
Download Format:PDF
Pages:5-15
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) poses a particularly knotty problem in forensic psychology and the law. Courts and mental health professionals often find themselves at odds over whether DID is a legitimate reason for an insanity defense or just a clever legal tactic. This paper takes a close look at the intersection of DID, criminal responsibility, and the law in India, where the Mental Healthcare Act of 2017 and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) come into play. Through a series of landmark cases, this paper explores how forensic assessments—like the Structured Clinical Interview for Dissociative Disorders (SCID-D), the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES)—can help tell the difference between genuine cases of DID and malingering. The paper also examines how courts in US and UK interpret DID-based defenses, and highlights the variations in those interpretations. One of the biggest misconceptions about DID is that it involves high risk of fabrication and malingering, which affects fair trial outcomes. The Indian legal system does not have clear guidelines on DID-based insanity pleas. That inconsistency leads to varying judicial rulings. The paper suggests forensic assessment protocols and policy recommendations to refine mental health evaluations in criminal cases. By bridging the gap between clinical psychology and the law, the paper aims to help the justice system make more informed, and sound decisions as regards mental illness defenses.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), once known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) (DSM-IV, 1994) defies legal norms with its hallmark: two or more distinct identities ‘alter’, recurrently controlling behavior, often with amnesia so profound that it cannot be explained as mere forgetfulness (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, p. 487).