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Legion Theory

A Meta-psychology

UNIVERSITY OF THE SUNSHINE COAST, mmanning{at}usc.edu.au

Rana L. Manning

UNIVERSITY OF THE SUNSHINE COAST, rmanning{at}usc.edu.au

William James and many other early pioneers of psychology and psychiatry endorsed the notion of parallel rational conscious streams in the human mind and suggested that an understanding of multiple personalities, in what is now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), was the key to developing an appropriate model of the mind. A new meta-theory of psychology, Legion Theory, developed from an inductive study of the specific characteristics of DID, is presented. Legion Theory proposes the mind to encompass two major sets of mechanisms. The first is a set of parallel conscious streams which form the self. The second is a set of internal mental models representing the physical and other worlds. The interaction of these two sets of processes is shown to provide a model for many psychological phenomena, including abstract logical thinking and intelligence, dreams, implicit and explicit memory, state-dependent memory, psychogenic fugues, and body dysmorphia.

Key Words: body dysmorphia • Dissociative Identity Disorder • dreams • intelligence • memory • meta-theory • psychogenic fugue

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Theory & Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 6, 839-862 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0959354307083497


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Manning, M. L. Articles by Manning, R. L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?