What is the history of this controversy and who are the major
professionals in psychiatry, psychology, law etc who have debated the
question.

I've just come across your question, and was surprised and
disappointed that you haven't had an answer or even an informed
comment. I also would be interested to know what the present thinking
is on this "syndrome", so beloved of American film-makers (Psycho,
Three Faces of Eve, Identity etc). My interest was renewed the other
week, when I saw again The Boston Strangler, in which Albert de Salvo
is portrayed as a classic "split personality", each of whose halves
has no idea of the other's existence or activities. Yet on looking at
the actual facts of the case, I see that, though De Salvo's sanity
certainly came into question, no-one ever seemed to suggest he
suffered from multiple personality disorder. My own view - based on no
evidence whatever - is that the disorder in this "pure" form simply
does not exist.

A complete (?) history of Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly
called multiple disorder, can be found at
http://earthops.net/klaatu/mindcontrol/mpd_history.html

This site details the history of the phenomeno, the principle
psychiatrists (psychologists) who formulated the description of the
disorder, and cases dating from 1791 (Eberhardt Gmelin is sometimes
credited as being the first ro report a case of multiple personality.)

Is the disorder real?  Probably not as depicted in film/TV.  Some
shrinks think it's real, many do not.  It's reality, therefore, has no
difinitive answer.  Hope this helps.

geof-ga

Thanks for your suggestion.
markfg-ga

Dear olliedint-ga

Thanks for the link. It provided very useful info.

markfg-ga