A 37-year-old German woman who suffered from dissociative identity disorder (DID) and had also been diagnosed with cortical blindness suddenly regained the ability to see after more than 15 years in the dark. But unfortunately only some of her personalities were able to make use of her eyes.
The woman, who is only named as “B.T.,” suffered a traumatic accident as a younger woman leading her to be diagnosed with cortical blindness. Cortical blindness is caused when the parts of the brain responsible for processing vision are damaged, this means that, while the eyes are technically still functioning, the individual can’t see due to issues with their brain.
This wasn’t the only issue B.T. had been diagnosed with as she also had dissociative identity disorder, a condition which still needs more research. She reportedly exhibited more than 10 personalities, all of different ages, genders, and habits, as per independent.co.uk.
B.T.’s vision came back, but not to all her personalities
It was during her treatment for her DID that her ability to see came back to her, although it didn’t come back for the 37-year-old German woman however, but for a 13-year-old boy who was one of her personalities. Her vision came back seemingly out of nowhere, she had already been receiving treatment for her DID for four years at this point, but the adolescent boy she sometimes became was able to read words on a magazine.
However, when she switched to other personalities she would be blind again. It was almost like flicking a light switch, sometimes she’d be able to see, other times she wouldn’t. Over time and multiple therapy sessions, B.T.’s doctors were able to restore vision to all but two of her personalities.
Naturally the curious case of B.T. drew the attention of doctors in the medical and psychological fields. German psychologists Hans Strasburger and Bruno Waldvogel looked closely at B.T.’s initial cortical blindness diagnosis.
What really caused the blindness?
Tests proved that B.T. wasn’t lying about her disability as an EEG test showed that, in her two blind states, the brain exhibited no electrical activity in response to visual stimuli. This led Waldvogel and Strasburger to conclude that her lack of vision wasn’t caused by cortical blindness, but rather it was psychogenic, meaning it was psychologically caused rather than physical.
It seems the accident hadn’t caused any physical damage to the brain but rather it had caused the body to develop a coping mechanism that cut off B.T.’s vision. With different personalities there came different coping mechanisms. The study showed how the brain is capable of compartmentalizing in all sorts of ways, even going as far as to cut off a person’s vision.
