multiple selves
a psychoanalytic concept of the self as composed of many different self-states with different affective, perceptual, and cognitive features. In normal development, the self-states are thought to be sufficiently compatible to allow for internal conflicts of wishes and desires within the person. In pathological development, or as a result of trauma, the self-states are thought to become defensively dissociated from each other, sometimes resulting in dissociative identity disorder. Also called multiple self-states.