Chapter 11. Basic Attitude for the Treatment of Dissociative Disorder (9)

If E or F continues to show up, similar type of identity might have needed to be embodied, and even if the patient had not been given any suggestion by the clinician, identities equivalent to E or F would have emerged anyways.
“Microbus model” for the purpose of explanation
I would like to show what I call the “microbus model” that I often use in my clinical settings. This model is useful in giving some tangible ideas to patients and their family members about what is going on in the mind of individuals with DID.



Figure ### Microbus model

 Being in a state of DID is like several passengers riding a small bus together. Here, I am using vehicle as a metaphor for a body of an individual with DID (see figure ###). The bus’s driver’s seat should be the locus of consciousness. The passenger which happens to be on this seat can see what is outside through the windshield and express itself by steering the vehicle. The bus usually carries several other passengers who are the metaphor of different identities sharing the same body. As the illustration indicates, several passengers are seated in the back seats; some of them are observing the current driver, some of them are talking to the driver while others are looking aside, busy preoccupied with themselves, or are taking a nap. Therefore, the level of recognition about how much each passenger is participating in the act of driving differs. This illustration also describes that further back of the bus is the dark area, and exactly how many of, and what kind of identities are there is not quite obvious. Therefore, “microbus” can be too small in size as some individuals with DID who are reported to have hundreds of different identities (Kluft, 1987, etc.)
It is to be noted that obviously the driver can “switch” from time to time. If the driver is insecure and not driving safely, he/she might ask someone in the back seat to take over the driving. Some other driver might not recognize the danger, and other passenger in the back seat might suddenly push the driver out and take control while the current driver might be quite oblivious of what has happened. Still other driver might jump off the driver’s seat as soon as he/she recognizes the danger, leaving totally up to those who are in the back seats to take care of the situation.