Dissociative

Dissociative villains are characters who have been diagnosed with or display signs of dissociative identity disorder (or multiple personality disorder) - these individuals have fractured psyches that make it appear as if they have more than one personality; one or more of these personalities are seen as obvious Sadists or otherwise dangerous (at least in fiction). In fiction, dissociative identities can occur from different circumstances: Mental Illnesses (e.g. Norman Bates), Mutations (e.g. Professor Venomous) and/or Tragedies (e.g. Fliqpy).

Do not add those controlled by Demons, Cosmic Entities, Deities, Aliens and/or other beings (for those, use Possessed/Brainwashed, Scapegoats and/or Pawns) unless their time spent being possessed ends up driving them mad - also, do not confuse them with Alter-Egos as they are simply alternate personas made to disguise the villains and perfectly sane individuals may have Alter-Egos for a variety of reasons such as keeping their identities secret much like how traditional heroes have disguises: Dissociatives literally see themselves as two or more individuals and are not in control of any changes. They can even be similar to but still not the same as Fragmental villains given that the evil part of the individual's mind as a whole is just a splintered fraction of who the character really is (e.g. Toxic Rick and Toxic Morty). However, if a dissociative is forcibly split from at least one of their other selves, they may overlap with fragmentals and can overlap with Alter-Egos if a personality is an entirely separate individual within the same person.

Be aware that dissociation has many different stages (just like psychoses), but dissociative identity disorder is simply the most extreme example; there are numerous other dissociative subtypes ranging from memory loss, post-traumatic stress disorder or detachment from reality: they all share a common theme in the mind creating alternate personas and/or realities to try and shield itself from trauma; in the case of PTSD, a sufferer will instead be haunted with varying degrees of flashbacks that can be enough to cause villainous breakdowns during which they act out these events as if they were still occurring.

Dissociative identity disorder is one of the most controversial psychological conditions due to numerous false claims of this by sufferers of similar conditions such as schizophrenia, misdiagnosis by professionals and even attempts by Psychopaths/Sociopaths to avoid punishment for severe crimes.

Other dissociative states (especially PTSD and the like) are much more known and accepted by both psychology and the public, mostly not inducing violent behavior towards others but like all psychoses, it can still lead to violence depending on the individuals, the environments in which they manifest their symptoms and if they are Addicts (since this can accelerate aggressive psychoses).

Prior to dissociation being recognized in psychology as an active condition spectrum symptoms associated with it, it was blamed on demonic possessions or supernatural evils such as Night Hags, Kitsune or similar wicked creatures - many of which are still very prominent in the cultures and mythologies of the world.

This kind of villain generally doesn't count as Pure Evil given they have no control over their actions due to their illnesses. However, some qualify if:

• A) The Alter-Egos of the characters meets all the criteria and every heinous crime(s) are traced back to said Alter-Egos (e.g. Yami Marik).
• B) The original and split-personalities are both entirely heinous and show no regret towards their crimes, even being capable of knowing what they each did (e.g. Norman Osborn as both himself and the Green Goblin).

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