The treatment of DID often takes a lifetime and there can be two goals based on the individual’s needs and requests. The first, more encouraged treatment goal is integration in which the psychologist will work through the trauma of the client to fuse all of the alters into one whole personality. This is achieved by resolving the issues or trauma experienced by each alter one at a time.
The second treatment option is maintenance in which the client chooses for the entire system to learn how to communicate more effectively and live together in harmony. This is done if a client does not feel ready or able to face the world “alone” or if the system values each identity equally. A hot topic of debate within the treatment of DID is on how “real” each identity is. Some researchers feel that each identity should be treated as a whole valued person worthy of equal respect while other professionals assert that identities beyond the host, or original personality, need to be integrated and should not count as an equal.
The classic approach has been integration but the equal value of each identity has become more popular in recent years as more people are choosing not to integrate and instead work with counselors who are recognizing the value of each identity as well as the value of a coherent cooperative system.
Definitive DID 