I was dx'd with multiple personality in the early 1980s. The short of it is that it was an iatrogenic dx - but most of the diagnoses I received were wrong. The T who dx'd me w/multiple personality moved and I was transferred to another T for a year. From that point, my therapy pretty much ended, until now. The catch, here, is that the T who misdiagnosed me, the following T, and my current T worked at the same world-renowned psychiatric clinic, though they didn't necessarily know one another.

My current T probably realizes that I dissociate, though I've not formally made that statement - just tell him I shut down. There are no other personalities. I suffer from abandonment issues, repressed memories, dissociation and depression. Last week, however, my T asked me how to spell the therapist's name I saw in the 80s (the last T; current T doesn't know about the T who misdiagnosed me).

I'm six months in with my current T and won't tell him about the misdiagnosis now. I think the reason I didn't tell him before was that I didn't want to revisit all of the wasted therapy I went through as a result of the misdiagnosis; iatrogenic dx would be difficult to prove this late, anyway, I would think. So, now I'm stressed that current T will contact last T I saw in the 80s for records (can he do that without my permission?). That, or contact the clinic all of my Ts worked at for records, but all current T would ask for is Dr. N's records. (Do psychiatric clinics keep records this long....? If so, how much of the record? And don't they need my permission to let him see my records?)

I'm not trying to deceive my current T or lie to him. We're close and work well together. A misdiagnosis - iatrogenic or not - is a terrible burden for patients and difficult to get away from. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I should do if my current T gets info about my multiple personality dx? I don't want to lose this T, but I won't waste time trying to convince him of the misdiagnosis.