Welcome to unexplained Extra, with me, Richard McLean Smith.

Where, for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories and ideas that for one reason or other,

didn't make it into the previous show.

In the last episode, endgame, we followed the bizarre and tragic tale of Sinti James

and her six-and-a-half-year-old deal at the hands of an apparent stalker.

Though Sinti maintained till the end that she was being harassed by a mysterious assailant,

many who worked on her various cases were convinced that she had in fact been orchestrating the incidences herself.

Psychiatric health professionals who assessed Sinti's mental health were also convinced that she was effectively acting as her own stalker.

However, few were able to provide a concrete diagnosis as to why this might be happening.

I have to admit, I was a little unsure about giving an account of this story due to its complicated ambiguity.

On the one hand, it's hard not to see similarities with the many other stories of botched police investigations

that were clouded by sexist attitudes or ignorant ideas about the ways in which a victim of crime is supposed to behave.

On the other hand, if Sinti had in fact orchestrated, if not all the events, then at least the majority of them,

including her death, as many came to believe, there is a risk that this story could be used to undermine similar stories

in which victims of crime have been let down by poor police practice.

With that in mind, I don't want this week's extra to be taken as a reflection of what I believe happened,

but rather as simply a closer look at one proposed explanation that I found quite startling,

namely the possibility that Sinti had suffered from a form of dissociative identity disorder.

The apparent condition, formally known as multiple personality disorder, remains as contentious today as it has ever been

since it was first tentatively diagnosed back in the 19th century.

Though many in the medical profession believe it may affect anywhere from 0.0 1% to 15% of all people,

there are others who don't believe the condition exists at all.

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