William Bergen Greene is afflicted with multiple personality disorder, and it’s extremely unlikely he could be faking it, an expert testified Tuesday.
Dr. Marlene Steinberg, who established the "gold-standard" test for diagnosing the mental illness, told a Snohomish County Superior Court jury that Greene and the symptoms he describes fit the profile.
The Yale University-trained psychiatrist from New Hampton, Mass., showed a chart that depicted Greene’s score on the high end of the scale after an interview with a colleague.
"His responses throughout the interview were consistent" and match what a therapist discovered 10 years ago when Greene underwent treatment at the prison complex in Monroe for sexual offenses, Steinberg testified.
Studies show it would be hard to fake multiple-personality disorder for a few hours, much less years, she said in answers to questions posed by defense lawyer Marybeth Dingledy.
Her opinion is important to Greene, 49, a former Everett man on trial for alleged kidnapping and indecent liberties in an April 1994 attack on the same female therapist who treated him in prison.
The defense is claiming that Greene is mentally ill and therefore not responsible for what one of the 24 personalities within him did to the therapist.
Among other things, the jury Tuesday saw three illustrations done by Greene, all of which tend to support her findings, Steinberg said.
"This was a wonderful piece of information that could be corroborative," she told the jurors. The drawings are "a way people can communicate what they’re feeling like inside without being verbal."
One she called the "eye of the mind," depicting a large eye with a multitude of faces behind it within the brain. A second depicted an infant submerged in a large jar. Again, the brain is open with many faces peering out.
The third was of a large ear in the foreground with many figures in the background depicting different emotions and voices Greene may be hearing.
His various alter-personalities were created over time to combat overwhelming stress and trauma, including sexual and emotional abuse as a child that Greene reported to therapists, Steinberg said.
She was able to get her diagnosis and discuss the disease at length under Dingledy’s questioning, but deputy prosecutor Paul Stern challenged Steinberg, her diagnoses and even the existence of the disease.
Steinberg agreed that multiple-personality disorder can be incorrectly diagnosed, and conceded there have been several jury awards or civil court settlements against psychiatrists who have been accused of false diagnosis.
"Many of these cases were settled," she said.
Stern also suggested that an interviewer can implant false memories and suggested that therapists who believe in multiple personality are out of the mainstream of psychiatry.
Kenneth Bianchi, known as the Hillside Strangler for his seven murders in Washington and California in the 1970s, once was diagnosed with multiple- personality disorder, Stern noted.
He asked Steinberg if she knew that the expert who originally diagnosed the disease later said he had been fooled by Bianchi.
"Some felt that way, and some psychiatrists are convinced he had multiple-personality disorder," Steinberg responded.
Stern also suggested there’s evidence that Greene is "an accomplished con artist" and manipulator. He also suggested that many psychiatrists don’t believe the disease exists.
"There is a limited controversy about that," Steinberg said.
Steinberg is expected to return to the witness stand today. Both the prosecution and defense have scheduled more expert testimony.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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