Herschel Walker Has Multiple Personality Disorder?

By Spencer Hall
There may be an explanation for why Herschel Walker suddenly showed an interest in bobsledding in the eighties: it may have just been one of his multiple personalities coming out.

Herschel Walker will detail his struggles with multiple personality disorder in his upcoming book Breaking Free. The 1982 Heisman Award winner and NFL veteran’s disclosure of the situation came as a shock to his teammates and former coaches, including Vince Dooley, who took the announcement in stride.
[quote="Atlanta Journal-Constitution"]Said his former coach, Vince Dooley: “That’s all news to me. All I know is whatever personality he had when he had the football was the one I liked”[/quote]
Before quoting Sybil and assuming Herschel has five cellphones in his pocket ... multiple personality disorder is a name for a particular syndrome called disassociative personality disorder (DPD). According to the DSM-IV, the definition is:
[quote="From the DSM-IV"]Dissociative Identity Disorder reflects a failure to integrate various aspects of identity, memory, and consciousness. Each personality state may be experienced as if it has a distinct personal history, self-image, and identity, including a separate name.[/quote]
Like most things in psychiatry and psychology, there is considerable debate as to what DPD is, or whether it actually exists. What is established is that there’s something--whatever its name may be--going on with patients who have the disorder. And to play that long with something very serious and silent going on in your brain may be Herschel Walker’s most considerable acheivement.
(Simultaneously: wait for the debate to begin about the role of Dr. Jerry Mungadze, the author of the foreword to the book, and the source of the diagnosis in the first place. Something tells me the book will have more details, but we’ll have to buy it to find out ... which was the plan all along, no?)
> Walker to Detail Personality Disorder | Atlanta Journal-Constitution↵