The most chronic and complex of the dissociative disorders, multiple personality disorder, was renamed multiple personality disorder, was renamed 'dissociative identity disorder' in 1994 in DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association). The rationale for the name change, was among other things, to clarify that there are not literally separate personalities in a person with dissociative identity disorder; 'personalities' was a historical term for the fragmented identity states that characterize the condition.
Colin A. Ross, Evolving Psychosis: Different Stages, Different Treatments
dissociation, dissociative-disorders, dissociative-identity-disorder, multiple-personality-disorder, psychiatry, psychology