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Eight years ago, when Jane first walked into his Orlando, Florida, psychiatry practice, Dr. Ronald Malave says he had no idea what he was in for. He ended up accused of having sex with her, a patient with multiple personality disorder.
Jane, who asked that her last name not be used, has been married for 13 years, and has raised a teenage daughter. That's remarkable, considering that she's been diagnosed as having as many as eight personalities.
Jane had been referred to Malave by a colleague who said he couldn't help her anymore. Before long, Malave understood why. Jane was hearing voices and having psychotic hallucinations. He diagnosed her with a type of schizophrenia, along with the sometimes-controversial condition commonly known as multiple personality disorder. "It's embarrassing, it's mortifying, because I don't have a switch that I can control. I just want the voices to be gone. That's all," she says.
"The core Jane would be a polite, apologetic patient," he says. But some of her other personalities were quite different. "Vanessa" was brash and aggressive. "Bridgette" was 16 and preoccupied with sex.
A year into therapy, Malave claims, "Bridgette" wanted to have sex with him. Dr. Malave says he told her no. Happily married for 23 years, he was devoted to his wife and two children.
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