DID is the new name for multiple personalities, right? Interesting notion. I don't think I would subscribe to it myself, but it's not like I can argue with it. Certainly the separation between Anthy and her Mamiya persona is rather ambiguous. It wouldn't be a great leap to see Mamiya as a distinct personality within Anthy rather than just a performance. A little strange though, since she obviously took up the role for a concrete reason, rather than a response to some kind of trauma. Of course, if you argue that she was suffering from the disorder all along, you could say that she loses track of the difference herself...

Worth exploring I suppose, but I have to say I prefer Anthy as puppet-mistress. Anthy as pure victim is somehow...too obvious for my taste.

Anybody else have an opinion on the matter?

When you guys say she was tired, do you mean when she was being Mamiya?

Anthy definitely behaves like a battered spouse. Also, I must restate that DID does not exist.

"People who present with the appearance of alleged multiple personality may have learned to exhibit the symptoms in return for social reinforcement. One case cited as an example for this viewpoint is the "Sybil" case, popularized by the news media. Psychiatrist Herbert Spiegel stated that "Sybil" had been provided with the idea of multiple personalities by her treating psychiatrist, Cornelia Wilbur, to describe states of feeling with which she was unfamiliar."

This is only one instance, but most psychiatric institutions in the country now employ the tactic of simply ignoring a person's "DID". Evenually, the subject returns to normal once they stop thinking they have multiple personalities. Another famous case involved a 45-year old woman (who loved growing roses) and a terrible psychoanalyst. She had come to him with depression. Soon, however, she regressed towards the mean (returned to her normal behavior pattern without any real outside cause) and was ready to quit her treatment. But then she had a dream where she was raped. The bad psychoanalyst, smelling blood, used hypnosis and what amounted to torture in order to make her recall an outlandish scenario where her grandparents raped her in a satanic ritual and sacrificed the child that resulted. The woman also began to display 144 different personalities, one for each of the outfits in her closet. The FBI investigated her claims but found no evidence. The woman distanced herself from her grandparents, a sweet couple who had raised her and who had shown her nothing but kindness and love. Eventually the woman ran out of money. "Treatment" ended, and she regressed towards the mena. Realizing that wearing different clothes didn't make her a different person, the personalities vanished. Now that woman is happily married, and leads a normal life.

Perhaps nobody has multiple personalities but almost everyone has multiple personas (masks) which they wear for the benefit of the world, certain someones, or even to fool themselves.
http://www.ohtori.nu/galerie/d/10775-2/ … 26_095.jpg
http://www.ohtori.nu/galerie/d/10783-2/ … 26_099.jpg

Stormy: Worth exploring I suppose, but I have to say I prefer Anthy as puppet-mistress. Anthy as pure victim is somehow...too obvious for my taste.

I'd have to agree. Sure Anthy is a victim in some senses, but she's also getting into pulling people's strings! As much as she gets into anything.

And I also doubt the writers wrote Anthy as having DID. Or that they even know what it is.
But I think it's a creative idea Alexandra - and I commend you for adding yet another theory to the myriads of theories us fans enjoy about the weird and wondrous Himemiya Anthy...

Actually, trauma experts discuss dissociation as being a spectrum, rather than a single disorder, ranging from dissociation as a very functional response to traumatic situations to dissociation that is incredibly disruptive and dysfunctional (the DID end of the spectrum).  DID is STILL in the DSM-IV-TR, and is therefore considered to be a psychiatric disorder.  However, the dissociation spectrum is a typical manifestation of symptoms for several trauma-related conditions, such as PTSD, complex PTSD, and borderline personality disorder (which may, in fact, be a garbage-can category for difficult-to-work-with cases of complex PTSD).

DID is extremely controversial in psychiatric and psychological circles, but it is overly zealous to contend that it does not exist.  There is still considerable scholarship regarding DID and studies of patients diagnosed with DID.

Not all dissociation comes with blackouts and amnesia.  Dissociative sensations vary widely between individuals, and actual loss of time is fairly uncommon.

I would certainly agree that Anthy shows signs of maintaining high levels of dissociation throughout the series.