Stephen Braude, PhD, is an emeritus professor and former chairman of the philosophy department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He has also served as president of the Parapsychological Association. He is author of First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind, Crimes of Reason, The Gold Leaf Lady, Immortal Remains, The Limits of Influence, and ESP and Psychokinesis. He is the recent recipient of the prestigious Myers Memorial Medal awarded by the Society for Psychical Research for outstanding contributions. He also serves as editor of the Journal of Scientific Exploration.
Here he argues that, even when sub-personalities are in serious conflict with each other, they form a holistic system that is both adaptive and utilitarian. Braude invokes the eighteenth century philosophical argument between David Hume and Immanuel Kant to highlight the concept of the transcendental ego. He maintains that we are justified in inferring the existence of this mental function underlying all of the diverse expressions of multiple personalities. Generally speaking, however, his approach to defining multiple personalities is situation dependent.
(Recorded on February 13, 2016)
Published on February 15, 2016