Ego States and the Problem of Responsibility: A Psychological Analysis of the Patty Hearst Case

Legal responsibility is assigned on the psychological assumption that a given body has within it a single “person.” Recent clinical and research studies throw considerable doubt on the validity of that position. An ego state is a body of behaviors and experiences bound together by a common identity and separated by a boundary from other such states. It is like a “part-person” or “covert multiple personality.” Such structuring of personality may be common to many people not considered mentally ill. This paper applies ego-state theory in a psychological analysis of the Patty Hearst case.