Astraea's Bookstore
Bestsellers
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Note: Just because a book appears in this list does not mean we recommend it. Most of them present multiplicity strictly in terms of multiple personality disorder, dissociative identity disorder, or MPD/DID -- which is not our view.
The problem with most if not all books on MPD/DID is that if you've read one, you've read them all. In each case you've got a bewildered frontrunner, a "fascinating cast of characters", a well-meaning though often just as bewildered therapist, hundreds of pages of grueling depictions of child sex and violence (often bordering on "pornography of the victim"), and a bittersweet, Hallmark Classics ending of integration -- with few exceptions. Lemarath^Shandra has something to say about this as well.
If you would like to tell us something about any of these books, click here to use our mailform. You can be anonymous, and you don't have to use HTML. Just write and tell us what you think.
The books are listed alphabetically by author. To find a title you're interested in, do a Control-F and type in your title.
How To Get These Books
(Please be sure to set your adblocker so that you can SEE the links to CDUniverse and Powells.)
A surprising number of the books in this list, especially more recent ones, can be found there: check it out! Accompanying each book is a link which will take you (if in print) to the reference page for that particular book. You can buy it right then and there. (Powell's sells used copies of out-of-print books.) If all else fails, try ABE Books - Advanced Book Exchange.
We have completed changing all the links on this page over to Powell's, but it'll take us some time to finish changing book links on the rest of the site. We have dozens of books for sale and we ask your patience. If you're looking for a book during the transition and our only link is to the amazon.com page for that book, please use the powells.com search box at the top of our books page instead. This search box will also appear on all our pages eventually.
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Title: Creating Hysteria: Women and Multiple Personality Disorder
Author: Joan Acocella Publisher: Jossey-Bass 1999 ISBN:: 0787947946 Joan Acocella has expanded the controversial article she originally wrote for The New Yorker in 1997. It's an excellent book, makes excellent sense, is a powerful expose of unethical practices in the mental health industry, and draws entirely the wrong conclusions. Even so, we recommend that everyone who is in therapy (multiple or not) read this book. Read it if you have ever had questions about the way your doctor tries to dredge up questionable traumatic memories -- or if you feel like you're being pressed to accept a certain view of yourself, the people in your multiple system (if any) and your childhood that doesn't fit your truth. Many therapists did, and some apparently still do, use the tactics described in this book. Acocella's theory of multiplicity as nonexistent save as a "cultural idiom of distress" may be completely wrong, but she is dead-on accurate about what goes on in the mental health industry.
Click here to read the first chapter
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Title: Diagnosis & Treatment of Dissociative Disorders
Author: Allen, Jon G. and William H. Smith
Publisher: Northvale, NJ; Aronson, 1995
"This work covers the diagnosis and treatment of patients who have experienced traumas and subsequent dissociative disorders. An epidemic of these patients has caused controversy about their treatment. Clinicians from various disciplines offer specialised knowledge for effective treatments."
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Title: Minds In Many Pieces: Revealing the Spiritual Side of Multiple Personality Disorder Author: Ralph Allison Publisher: CIE, new edition, 1999 ISBN: 0966894901 Singlet psychiatrist and former minister Ralph Allison narrates his first discovery of and work with multiple clients, his observations and clients' description of their experiences. When this book first came out in 1980 it was called Minds in Many Pieces: The Making of a Very Special Doctor. (He's got a very interesting brief summary here.) The 1999 expanded edition which is what we're selling here calls it Minds in Many Pieces: The Spiritual Side of Multiple Personality Disorder. Allison believes that multiples are fragmented -- bits of an original whole person who needs to be integrated "back together" through intensive hypnotherapy. He thinks that supernatural folks in your group are thought-forms, but also believes in malignant "entities" who can slip in through the cracks. He has done a lot of work in forensic psychiatry with clients, usually violent criminals, some of whom he believes are multiple. He was also an expert witness in the trial of the Hillside Strangler in an interminable show trial that was probably the basis for the one in Sidney Sheldon's Tell Me Your Dreams. He applied the term inner self-helper -- originally a devotional term used by people who felt Christ's personal guidance -- to certain persons in multiple systems who fit the profile of an objective, portentous 'guide' who was not a split-off part, but came (or was 'sent') from outside. His final chapter includes a number of unlikely assertions for which he provides no references; we assume these were provided to him by one of his clients, who appears to have been a New Age channel revealing the true nature of the cosmos to him, Unobstructed Universe-style. Today, he is a member of the Association for Humanistic Psychology; as Ian Hocking says in Rewriting the Soul, the last thing that an emergent science wants is intimations of Helena Blavatsky, so Allison has been somewhat marginalized (to put it mildly). Our difficulty with Allison isn't his habit of taking clients' word for their experiences -- like if a client said they were possessed he would do an exorcism -- it's the way he imposes his current spiritual beliefs on clients for whom that model may not fit. He did not do that in his early days of researching and working with multiples. One thing we really admire him for is the fact that he (not Wilbur) was the first to get multiplicity accepted and taken seriously by members of his profession, and especially his his stand on use of the term 'multiple personality' as opposed to 'dissociative identity disorder'. Also he appears really to have helped a few of his clients. You can find out All About Multiple Personality and what Allison currently believes about it at his page, dissociation.com. |
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Title: Angel Child: The Story of Zoe Parry
Author: Jacqueline Austin with Zoe Parry
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1996
ISBN: 0671709178
Zoe Parry appeared on Geraldo back in '88, after her arrest for kidnapping a child she was supposed to be babysitting. We list it because you don't often hear about Zoe Parry.
"Fractured by a lifetime of monstrous acts of abuse and incest, Zoe Parry's mind has become a battleground, and only now can she tell her story. For years, more than 150 personalities have been at war within her, each struggling for control. Readers journey into Zoe's world, where child voices beg, seductive voices beguile, angry voices hiss threats, and the horror never ends."
Click here to buy Angel Child through powells.com
Search for used
copies on Advanced Book Exchange
Title: Oneselves
Author: Louis Baldwin
Publisher: Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1984
ISBN: 0899501249
You might have a little trouble finding this. Book antiquarians sometimes carry it, and you might try Advanced Book Exchange.
The Exceptional Human Experience Network has this summary: "There are 28 chapters, averaging 6 pages each, each consisting of a sketch of a case, often well known, of multiple personality. Some, such as Ansel Bourne, Helene Smith, Doris Fischer, and Patience Worth appear in the parapsychological literature. The cases date from 1811-1981 and are listed in alphabetical order. In the Foreword, the author points out that only in 1980 did the American Psychiatric Association define multiple personality as a distinct disorder, but diagnosed cases of multiple personality were already on the rise in the 1970s (50-plus cases* in that decade as opposed to 90 in the preceding century and a half). Baldwin observes that persistent time loss, chronic sleepwalking, automatic writing, and hallucinations are usually closely associated with multiple personality, and sometimes possession and mediumship abilities as well."
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*That's reported, diagnosed cases. By now it should be pretty clear to anyone paying attention that the so-called "rise in multiples" is a coming out of the closet phenomenon, not a diagnostic or hysterical fad.
If you're interested in the history, and exploring these aspects of multiplicity, you might also like William James on Exceptional Mental States, and the Survival After Death Research website which has a lot of stuff from the olden days when psychiatry and psychic research were pretty much the same thing.
Click here to buy Oneselves through powells.com
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Title: Four and Twenty Blackbirds: Personae Theory and the Understanding of our Multiple Selves Author: Peter A. Baldwin, Ph.D. Publisher: Norton ISBN:1883647061 Ericksonian hypnotherapist Baldwin believes everyone has different conscious and nonconscious selves. Don't know how useful this is.
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Title: Unity and multiplicity:
multilevel consciousness of self in
hypnosis,
psychiatric disorder, and mental health
Author: Beahrs, John O.
Publisher:New York : Brunner/Mazel, c1982.
ISBN: 0876302835
Click here to buy Unity and Multiplicity through powells.com
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Title: Katherine, It's Time Author: Stephen Bechtel with Kit Castle Publisher: Harper & Row, 1989 ISBN:006015926X Like Three Faces of Eve and Sybil, this so-called "true life story" is actually a novel purporting to document the life history, psychiatric treatment, and ultimate integration of one of those fascinating multiples, complete with detailed and sometimes unlikely accounts of parental abuse. Bechtel invents characters and Shirley MacLaine-like incidents, inserts a lot of "great, doomed drama", and provides a sugary, depressing integration=death ending. See what you think of it.
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Title: Hidden Selves Author: Edited by Moira Walker and Jenifer Black Publisher: Open University Press 1999 ISBN: 0335202004 Another novel "based upon the story of a survivor of abuse who tells of her experiences with multiple personality and its impact on her life." Note "based on"... so again, you can't trust that it isn't taking off at right angles from what really happened. Everybody's trying to be William Peter Blatty. |
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Title: Multiple Personality, Allied Disorders, and Hypnosis Author: Eugene L. Bliss (singlet) Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1986 ISBN: 0195036581 Alibris.com says:"Since the time of Mesmer, in the late eighteenth century, spectacular feats of hypnosis have been documented by respected scientific researchers, yet hypnosis has remained divorced from the main body of science. In this groundbreaking work, Dr. Eugene Bliss shows that the hypnotic capability of the mind is important to the theory and practice of psychiatry, and suggests that it deserves much more attention and research. "In Multiple Personality, Allied Disorders and Hypnosis, Bliss explores both the nature of multiple personality and hypnosis, and discusses how an understanding of the latter can provide insight into the nature of certain psychiatric disorders. For instance, he views multiple personality as a form of self-hypnosis, an instance of learned schizophrenia rather than an organic disorder, as is generally thought. He outlines the trace elements involved in multiple personality and other psychiatric disorders, provides a fascinating history of the origins and current ideas about hypnosis, and gives a detailed account of the use of hypnosis in the treatment of multiple personality. "Based on thirty years of clinical experience, and filled with insightful personal observations, Multiple Personality, Allied Disorders and Hypnosis is an informative, fascinating book for psychiatrists, psychologists, and anyone intrigued by hypnosis and its possible beneficial use." Singlet Dr. Eugene Bliss is the co-author of Prism: Andrea's World, see below. |
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Title: Prism: Andrea's World
Author: J. and E. Bliss
Publisher: New York: Stein & Day, 1985
Another novel in the tradition of Sybil. singlet Dr. Eugene Bliss' treatment of a multiple client with a lengthy, graphically depicted abuse history. Talk about "the horror never ends," this is one of the worst.
Came in for a scalding review by one of our readers, who pointed out the racism inherent in blaming the violent abuse in Andrea Biaggi's family on "normal" behavior for Sicilian and Corsican families. The novel really took off at right angles with the discourse on omertà, and one had a feeling at that point that it really was a novel. Our impression was that Bliss, or whoever he was working with, had been watching too many reruns of The Godfather.
Click here to buy Prism: Andrea's World through powells.com
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Title: Assessment and Treatment of Multiple Personality and Dissociative Disorders. Author: J.P. Bloch Publisher: Sarasota: Professional Resource Press, 1991 Professional Resource Press says this book "Focuses on dissociative disorders (post-traumatic stress disorder, psychogenic amnesia, depersonalization disorder, etc.) and the dissociative nature of behaviors such as child abuse. Defines the characteristics, etiology, and differential diagnosis of dissociative, multiple personality, and ego state disorders. Advises on interview techniques and strategies, testing adaptations, special treatment problems, and child treatment issues." For what it's worth, singlet Dr. Richard Kluft says: "Dr. Bloch has succeeded in crafting an excellent introduction to multiple personality disorder and allied conditions. The strengths of his contribution are the breadth of the issues that he addresses and his ability to achieve a synthesis of newly-emerging findings in the dissociative disorders with traditional psychotherapeutic observations. This book is an excellent bridge by which the traditionally-trained psychotherapist can come to an understanding of the major concerns of the dissociative disorders literature." Jay says: I know this stuff gets redundant after a while. |
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Title: Multiple Personality Disorders in the Netherlands:
A Study on Reliability and Vaildity of the Diagnosis
Author: Suzette Boon and Nel Draijer
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
ISBN: 9026513615
Order Multiple Personality in the Netherlands now through powells.com
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Title: First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind Author: Stephen E. Braude Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 0415935910 Braude is a plain-language philosopher; you will be able to understand what he says. Wastes no time debating whether or not multiplicity is real. He knows it is; all he wants is to talk about what it implies as far as why we think there should only be one person or "self", etc. This is a revised edition where he talks about the overdiagnosis scandals and lawsuits of the 1980s and 90s. If you want a scholarly, intelligent refutation of the "false memory syndrome" crap, read this book. Highly recommended. |
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Click here to buy First Person Plural now through powells.com
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Title: The Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder (Clinical Insights Monograph) Author: Edited by Bennett G. Braun M.D. (disbarred, singlet) Publisher: Rittenhouse Book Dist (American Psychiatric Press Inc) 1986 ISBN:0880480963 Singlet and former head of Rush Presbyterian Hospital's Dissociative Disorders Unit, Bennett Braun was the defendant in a number of civil actions in the late 1990s concerning his treatment of clients whom he had diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and identified as victims of Satanic ritual abuse. The facts are revealed in some detail in Acocella's Creating Hysteria. Here's a summary of his story. You might also want to read this. |
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Title: The Family Inside: Working With The Multiple Author: Doris Bryant, Judy Kessler and Linda Shirar Publisher: Norton 1992 ISBN: 0393701425 Claims to demystify multiple personality by "redefining" it as "a creative and sensible way of surviving a childhood of extreme trauma and absolute powerlessness." It does have the advantage of Judy Kessler onboard. If you really think you are suffering with a disorder and are looking for integration as healing, it's a safe bet you will get something helpful from Kessler. |
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Title: Beyond Integration, One Multiple's Story Author: Doris Bryant and Judy Kessler Publisher: Norton ISBN: 0393702065 Every once in a while someone asks us what we know about integration. Answer: not much! However, one thing we do know is that there are not enough books on what happens after integration.. Most of the books, including the ones on this list, don't talk much about that, but seem to regard integration as the happy end of the story, the ultimate healing. In practical life, according to the bits we've heard from therapists willing to talk about it, integration is actually the middle step in a complex process of re-education and re-training designed to change the multiple's thinking processes and conditioned reflexes. The objective, of course, is to learn how to respond to daily life with a single, consistent perspective, instead of each person having his or her own unique response. This book talks about that process and how it works from both the clinician's and the client's point of view. While we haven't read it, we used to know Judy Kessler on line and were impressed with her calm, well-balanced writing. So this is probably a good book if you are thinking about integration, for learning more about not just the integration process, but what it is like to live everyday as one person. Another book on what happens after integration is Mending Ourselves, which we have read and recommend if you are thinking about integration.
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Title: Multiple Personality and Dissociation:
Understanding Incest,
Abuse, and MPD
Author: David L. Calof and Mary Leloo
Publisher: Hazelden Foundation
ISBN: 0942421515
The late Cat W. of Geode@chatlink.com gives us this review: "[Hazelden is] not a christian publicist, a 12 step publicist, big, big difference. He defines a few things simply not covered in your other texts and very well worth reading. No caveat necessary. Read it."
David Calof is also a singlet, a hypnotherapist and a believer in satanic ritual abuse, for what that's worth, and seems to have used (at least in the past) the same dubious methods described in Creating Hysteria for diagnosing and treating MPD. Like most MPD therapists he is a singlet who has no personal experience of multiplicity.
Click here to buy Multiple Personality and Dissociationthrough powells.com
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Title: They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal Author: Paula J. Caplan Publisher: Perseus, 1995 ISBN: 0201407582 Amazon.Com Review: In a disturbing insider's look at how the mental health establishment decides who is normal and who is "sick," [Caplan] charges that the DSM board's decision-making process, dominated by a handful of conservative white male psychiatrists, is arbitrary, condescending, profit-driven and riddled with personal biases and political consideration. Facile labeling of personality problems, she shows, can cause personal suffering as well as material harm because DSM categories figure prominently in who wins child custody, who gets hospitalized against their will and whose psychotherapy is covered by insurance. Even more controversial: The DSM-5 is now being prepared, and the doctors who are working on it -- the same ones who are paid by drug companies to diagnose mental diseases -- have been required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. That's right, the preparation of this document which affects millions of people's emotional and legal lives is being done by shadows hiding behind closed doors. Click here to read a New York Times article about the DSM-5 coverup. |
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Title: Multiplicity: The New Science of Personality, Identity, and the Self Author: Rita Carter Publisher: Little, Brown and Co. 2008 ISBN: 031611538X We were sent a review copy of this. It's another "everyone is multiple" book, but with a twist. The best description of our impression of this book would be well-intentioned, but annoying. In addition to an assortment of almost What the Bleep-like assertions about what "the mind" can do, and what "science now knows" is possible -- most of which are wildly inaccurate -- the author provides us with the same old rationales of hypnosis and dissociation. Is everybody drinking the ISSD kool-aid around here? Even psychiatrists using those concepts in a well-meaning way are basically asserting that multiples are sleepwalking through life and living in a fantasy world they think is real, in order to escape an unpleasant reality. Carter actually believes that true multiplicity, at root, consists of naming parts of your own individual consciousness and pretending they are separate persons (the link will show you a quote from the singlet mental health professional who came up with this absurd notion). This is what forms the basis of the second half of the book, which is a how-to section. That's right -- something for the people who write to us asking how they can become multiple. It's the kind of thing that might work, temporarily. Write to us if you've successfully created whole, independent people and a functional government/ operating system this way. Mood shifts and variations in thought and attitude are not separate persons. Ask anyone who's been unfortunate enough to be in therapy with one of those overenthusiastic types who thinks it's a "new personality" every time the client wears a different cologne or has a new sweater. We know this book has been well received by some groups, and maybe we're just ornery old coots who lack a sense of humor. There are some interesting ideas in this book, and she does provide a referral to our website (for which we thank her), but in our opinion she should go back and do her homework and put out a second edition. Returned for regrooving. |
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Title: The Flock: the Autobiography of a Multiple Personality Author: Joan Frances Casey Publisher: Fawcett, 1992 ISBN: 0449907325 Another novel from the heyday of MPD popularity. Blackout multiple wakes up on high ledge because another is about to jump, grueling therapy follows, memories of nightmarish abuse (fortunately not covered in detail), journey to wholeness, etc., etc. What might prove interesting is the willingness of the group's therapist to listen to them about themselves and how their operating system worked. It's also a look at typical practices of the time -- the (singlet) doctor jumps from realizing the client has "dissociative periods" to instantly diagnosing her with MPD, when even at that time there were a variety of dissociative conditions other than MPD recognized. You can also get some idea of the kind of therapist-client enmeshment routine in MPD treatment -- the decision to "reparent" various group members, for instance. |
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Title: When Rabbit Howls Author: The Troops for Truddi Chase Publisher: Dutton, 1987. Still in print from Berkeley, Jove Books (paperback), 1990. ISBN: 0515103292 This also is a novel, but has the distinction of having been written by the client&, rather than the (singlet) therapist, although he seems to have had considerable input. It was not, as is popularly believed, the first ever: that honor goes to Nellie Parsons Bean's My Life as a Dissociated Personality (full text online), written in 1908. Chris Costner-Sizemore (Eve) wrote two books also. Parallel storylines might be confusing at first, but are an excellent example of the way a multiple's minds can run on several tracks at once. Upside: The narrative provides extremely vivid, clear descriptions of the group's childhood and what it was really like not only to be sexually abused, but to be psychologically abused and manipulated by both parents. The Troops were the first to describe co-running and co-presence, [although those words are not used]. The group strongly rejects integration. They demonstrate that multiples, and survivors of even the most violent abuse, can be self-employed and successful in the business world. The writing conveys a deep natural sensuality, a determination to live life to the fullest, and clear pictures of the Troops as individuals, not just "lesser personalities" or "fragments". One very interesting remark is made about midway through the book by the fictitious "Dr. Marshall Fielding", the Troops' personification of their own research: "there is a very small percentage of multiples who never were abused as children." There's no followup on this in the book, but it appears to have been based in a study by Frank Putnam. Downside: The reader might come away with the impression that only the most extreme abuse can lead to multiplicity. Due to the group's personal experience, the narrative repeatedly implies that all multiples have extreme psychic ability and that there are amazing secrets known to therapists who have worked with multiples, but which they are afraid to reveal publicly. This may not have been their original intention. Looking at what ophelia@asarian.org (below) says, it may be that Truddi&'s actual story is more complex and realistic than what we read in When Rabbit Howls, but that it's been sensationalised. A different view from ophelia@asarian.org [circa 1996]: "truly a hideous book. fractured tales and nonsensical editing done to a woman who is being exploited by a therp. her therp, btw, has become rich off truddi, and is now her 'manager', promoting tv and personal appearances for $. truddi, on the other hand, continues to live in pain." If someone could provide us with more details regarding what Ophelia said, we would very much appreciate it! "When Rabbit Howls", with its descriptions of co-running and co-presence and a subjective world, told our frontrunners we were really multiple and not crazy or making up our own experiences, so if there's a scandal here, we want solid evidence of it. Plus we would have liked to have seen the Troops get real help if they had not been. All we knew was that by the time the book came out they were living in Dallas with a man friend and were planning to get back into art and write another book, about Ireland. Truddi Chase died March 10, 2010. It's possible (but unlikely) that their daughter Kari will want to say anything about the Troops. You can contribute to Fidos for Freedom in their memory.
Click here for our review of When Rabbit Howls
Visit the home page of Dr. Robert A. Phillips, Truddi's Therapist And leave him some email or sign his guestbook while you're at it.
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Look through the used books being sold -- you may be able to find the nice hardcover edition. |
Title: Cross a Dark Bridge
Author: Deborah Churchman
Publisher: Ariadne
ISBN: 091805608X
A "weird" family moves to a small town and impinges on the life of the local grocer. Everyone in the family has some kind of cute eccentricity, and the female romantic lead -- one of a pair of twins -- is multiple and of course the carrier of the "dark family secret". The town grocer, who lost a twin brother himself years ago, immediately falls in love with her.
Click here to buy Cross a Dark Bridge through powells.com
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Title: All Around the Town Author: Mary Higgins Clark Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1992
Tamsin of Amorpha says: |
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Title: Shatter
Author: Nancy Hughes Clark
Publisher: Bantam, 1986
ISBN: 0553255436
Another Sybil-takeoff novel. Stereotypical depiction of dysfunctional MPD, fragmented, dissociation, blah blah blah, ending in the usual integration/happy ending/courageous healing. What disturbed us about this story was that the very fact of Kathy Roth's multiplicity was considered to be what was wrong with her; it wasn't a question of violent abuse, she hadn't had any! But we can't have people running around with 16th century witches in their heads, can we?
This is the book where the kindly (singlet) therapist to the rescue, tells her that "multiple" and "manipulate" are related, and that the answer to all her problems is "don't dissociate."
Click here to buy Shatter through powells.com
Title: More Than One: An Inside Look at Multiple Personality Disorder
Author: Terri Clark
Publisher: Nashville: Thomas Nelson 1993
ISBN: 0-8407-9140-2
Thomas Nelson is a Christian Right Publisher. It's likely that any book on MP which is published by Thomas Nelson will have a Christian Right perspective.
Click here to buy More Than One
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Title: Three Faces of Eve Author: Cleckley, Hervey M. and Corbett Thigpen Publisher: Fawcett ISBN: 0911238514 Library of Congress #: 56-012526 In 2007, this piece of felonious nonsense is still being referred to as the latest thinking on multiplicity. Two supposedly outstanding psychologists (both singlets) called it "The most delightful treatise of psychopathological literature of the mid-twentieth century." It's the book that set the standard for multiple-personality narratives. Thigpen embellished and fictionized and outright lied throughout this book, hoping to land a lucrative movie deal (he got it) and never guessing that the woman he took advantage of would someday haul Twentieth-Century Fox into court over the rights to her life story which he had signed away (she got'em back). This is the 1992 revised edition. And we're also selling the Three Faces of Eve film with Joanne Woodward through CDUniverse.
Click here to learn more about the real Three Faces of Eve |  |
 Deluxe edition of the DVD. Commentary track by director Nunally Johnson. |
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Title: Silencing the Voices Author: Jean Darby Cline Publisher: Berkley ISBN: 0425156931 "A deeply personal account of one woman's battle with multiple-personality disorder describes the childhood horrors and abuse at the hands of her father that led to a fragmentation into three separate entities and discusses her long battle to overcome de6cx 591\mg 2[; p ;p ;p NO CARRIER" And the horror never ends. |
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Title: Multiple Personality Disorder from the Inside Out Author: Edited by Barry M. Cohen (singlet), with Esther Giller and Lynn Wasnak& Publisher: Sidran, 1991 ISBN: 0962916404 Under the auspices of "Many Voices" and the ISSMPD, essays and notes by abuse survivors and trauma-split multiples, and we are reassured that these unfortunates are "guided by therapists". In the 1980s and 90s, this was as close as multiples could get to speaking for themselves. The cultural identity called "multiple personality" was completely bound to the world of psychiatry. People who felt they were sharing their bodies with others could not talk about it without attempting to fit themselves into the established profile. And if they didn't, the people they told about it certainly would! Multiplicity was always a mental disorder, a form of extreme dissociation, caused by a certain kind or severity of abuse or trauma in childhood. And adult multiples never knew that they were until given the diagnosis by that noble (singlet) therapist, who proceeded to light the path of their courageous healing, which always culminated in integration. In those days, few had ever heard of living multiple; outside of a relative handful of therapists who practiced family therapy with multiple clients to help them build a working operating system instead of integration. This of course skews the editors' choice of client descriptions of what it's like to be multiple, or more specifically, what it's like to have MPD. Text and art were all carefully selected to present a near-uniform picture of suffering, fear and pain. Hopefully this was done to show readers that if they were experiencing similar feelings, they were not alone. However, it excludes those who are multiple but do not fit this limited profile. One wonders about the material that didn't make the cut. The book does include a number of astute observations about psychotherapy. Many (probably "rebellious alters") express suspicion of the paradigm, and especially about the so-called healing process. Review of Multiple Personality from the Inside Out at everything2.com
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Title: Telling without talking: art as a window into the world of multiple personality Author: Barry M. Cohen (singlet) Publisher: W.W. Norton, 1995 ISBN: 0-393-70196-4
We have heard this highly recommended by several net friends. |
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Title:: Alter Egos: Multiple Personalities
Author:: David Cohen
Publisher: London: Constable, 1996
ISBN: 0094740704
Starts out skeptical about the existence of multiplicity, but through his research comes to believe in it. He thinks that many psychiatrists are overeager to condemn MP as something induced by therapists onto suggestible patients.
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Title: Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism Author: Paul Collins Publisher: Bloomsbury USA ISBN: 1582343675 This book by the father of a child who may or may not be on the "spectrum" is unique among parental accounts because of its lack of tragedy. Instead of seeing his son as a victim of a horrible devastating illness, Collins refused to buy into the pronouncements of alleged experts. He saw his son's unique reading and mathematical abilities and his love of computers over people as part of what was right about the kid. His own scholarly gifts and interests in historical trivia lead him to go back in time to find individuals who may or may not have been autistic, some of them now well known like Henry Darger, some all but forgotten. Even after Collins finally lets himself get talked into believing that his son needs some kind of help to improve the social side of things, he repeatedly gives us the message that it's a mistake to try to force we autistics into so called normality. Parents of other autistic kids tell Collins about how their kid went through the pink monkey routine when they were mainstreamed, but did fine in an autistic school where they're allowed to communicate in their own way. Simply letting autistic people be autistic is such a revolutionary idea! But it may well be the future. A review of Not Even Wrong, by Jay Young If you are interested in books by autistic authors, try Amanda Baggs' Autistic Authors Booklist.
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Title: The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders Author: Peter Conrad Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press ISBN: 080188585X A scholarly examination of how the psychiatric industry, in cooperation with the mass media, furthered the notion of ordinary life problems as mental diseases that require lifelong medication. |
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Title: Multiple Man Author: Adam Crabtree Publisher: Praeger, 1985 ISBN: 0275900797 The Author makes a compelling case for multiplicity being a natural state of humanity. At times scholarly, at times chatty; goes to a bit of extremes on the supposed paranormal connection. See also The Inner Mind: Multiple Personality Before Eve by this author.
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Title: Trance Zero Author: Adam Crabtree Publisher: Somerville, 1997 The book is worth reading by all who are concerned about social perception and the media, whether related to multiplicity, or to anything else, owing to the discussion of on cultural trance and group minds. Less impressive is his presentation of trance states as something everyone experiences constantly, and which detracts from a so-called maximum state. The idea that people go around in a trance, dissociated from reality, is based in the philosophy of occultist G.I. Gurdjieff, and is reflected today in the idea of a dissociation epidemic. There may be such a thing as a maximum state, similar to satori, which is impermanent by definition: beware of anyone who tries to persuade you that such a state can be made permanent with enough mental discipline. There is a book out called Snapping which explains how many religious and spiritual groups have used this tactic to attract and keep followers.
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Title: Ending the Battle Within: How to Create a Harmonious Life by Working with Your Sub-Personalities Author: Verlaine Crawford Publisher: High Castle 1994 ISBN: 0964185407 And now for something completely different. This little book is by a positive-thinking, motivational speaker. She teaches that one of the things impeding our path to permanent health, wealth and success is the chaos and chatter created by our "subpersonalities". You can read a bit more about this at her website. Be sure to have some Alka-Seltzer handy. |
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Title: Can I Look Now? Author: Rachel Downing Publisher: Educational Recovery Communications ISBN: 0963391305 Sidran sez: "This wonderful little book is unlike any other available on this subject. It is a very simple, direct, and extremely powerful look into the basic therapy process for treatment of MPD. The stick-figure drawings and economic text combine to provide very focused "food for thought," accessible to recovering individuals who may be easily distracted and to the youngest child alters. "The author/illustrator describes herself as an integrated recovering multiple, social worker, mother, sister, and friend. One of her purposes for this book is to provide hope that abuse, need not overpower the natural drive for healing and wholeness. "Themes include diagnosis, trust, respect for the mind, acceptance, pacing, fears, becoming whole, recovery, and more." |  |
Title: The Fractured Mirror: Healing Multiple Personality Disorder
Author: C.W. Duncan
Publisher: Health Communications
ISBN: 1558742751
Michelle Wilson recommended this book because it addresses many questions which multiple households often have, but which are usually not covered in texts on multiplicity.
Click here to buy The Fractured Mirror now through powells.com
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Title: From India to Mars Author: Theodore Flournoy Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691034079 |
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Title: Spiritual and Clinical Dimensions of Multiple Personality
Disorder
Author: Loreda Fox
Publisher: Sangre de Cristo 1992
Buy this book through:
Books of Sangre de Cristo
PO Box 963
Salida, CO 81201
Write to us if you have any more
information about this book. We'd like a brief review.
Write to Jim Leftwich, who
first informed us of the existence of this book when he posted a message to Usenet. He's looking for a copy.
Or look for it on Advanced Book Exchange
Title: : Persons one and three; a study in multiple personalities
Author: : Shepherd I. Franz
Publisher: : New York and London: Whittlesey house, McGraw-Hill 1933.
ISBN: 1430499303
"Stories of dual or of multiple personalities, which technically are called continued amnesias, have been interesting both to the novelist and to the psychologist. They have attracted the attention of the former because of their spectacular character, and of the latter because of their speculative possibilities. To some of the latter it may be unimportant to read an account of an individual with loss of memory without a new, or without a confirmation of an old, explanation. The tale to be spun here is, however, unaccompanied by hypothesis. To the writer it seems more valuable at this time to recount the facts, whether they be behavioristic or introspectional, than to attempt to conceal them with gauzy guesses about neurograms* or synaptic retractions, or to clothe them with the fashionable garments of unconscious mechanisms and levels of consciousness.
From the Intl. Journal of Psychoanalysis: "This is a narrative report of an excellent example of secondary personality (Person Three) in a British ex-soldier of the World War. The change is attributed to a severe physical trauma sustained prior to 1915 from which date onward a fairly constant retrograde amnesia existed until he was found in a confused state in California in December, 1929. Certain intermediary states between Persons One and Three are recorded, and during the entire period of Personality Three the patient had a vague consciousness of the existence of his lost identity. This feeling may account for his constant wanderings and possibly fugues as Person Three. The only psycho-analytic point of interest in the account is the fact that when the patient was found he was definitely adopted by a woman and her daughter as their long-lost son and brother who had disappeared about 1915 -- evidently an identification based upon wish fulfilment."
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*neurogram: a modification in nerve structure associated with memory.
Click here to look for this book on powells.com
Click here to look for this book on Advanced Book Exchange
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Title: Betrayal Trauma: The Logic of Forgetting Child Abuse Author: Jennifer Freyd Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674068068 Jennifer Freyd, the woman whose genuine recovered memories of childhood sexual harrassment inspired her parents to create the False Memory Syndrome Foundation to cover up their guilt, presents a very professional discussion of why some people suppress memories of trauma. |
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Title: This Alien Shore Author: C.S. Friedman Publisher: DAW ISBN: 0886777992
"Where you see only illness, a curse to be corrected, we see the untapped potential of humanity... God save us from an earth in which all men are the same!" The first work of fiction we have seen to present multiplicity and other neurological idiosyncracies as vital, positive qualities. Friedman tells of societies of mutants, descendants of abandoned Earth colonies, who have developed unique mental and physical characteristics, revel in their outrageous differences, and build viable societies around them. We were particularly impressed with her description of iru, who are clearly meant to be autistic. The young heroine must come to terms with the fact that she's been the victim of a cruel commercial experiment designed to give her multiple personalities. Far from crippling her, her selves are important to her survival, and there is no stupid integration happy solution at the end.
A biotech Internet and its attendant hackers and viruses are here, in a
subplot of mystery and intrigue. Echoes of James H. Schmitz, Frank Herbert and
good ol'Cordwainer Smith (whom she has the courtesy to credit!). Highly
recommended. |
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Title: Uncovering the Mystery of MPD: Its Shocking Origins, Its Surprising Cure Author: Rev. James Friesen Publisher: Wipf & Stock 1997 ISBN: 1579100627 Friesen, a singlet, Fundamentalist preacher, appears to take up where Ralph Allison and D. Scott Rogo left off. That is, he believes that childhood misfortunes not only make people multiple, but open them to demonic possession. (We're not exactly wild about his notion that nearly all psychiatric clients have "alters", and he is a proponent of "it has to get worse before it gets better.") He does recognize that selves often portray themselves as demons without actually being them, and he does not believe in exorcising everyone who comes out. However, at least in Uncovering the Mystery of MPD, he has no awareness of the ancient experience of being otherkin. He does not apparently recognize that members of a multiple system can be animals, or creatures usually considered mythological, or shapeshifters -- he says these are invariably demons. He's written some more books since then -- maybe he revises that. Friesen's methods have been adopted by other preachers who have used them (I think I should say misused) against countless women and children, some multiple, some not. A typical modern exorcism ceremony involving a multiple. I think this so-called deliverance activity owes as much to M. Scott Peck (author of People of the Lie) as it does to Friesen. Someone in a self-aware system we correspond with told us they liked Friesen's book. They read it independently -- it was not pushed at them by a therapist or minister. They found it helpful because according to his list of standards, they came to understand they were genuinely multiple and not possessed or insane. |
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Title: United We Stand: A Book for People with Multiple Personalities. Author: Eliana Gil Publisher: Launch ISBN: 0961320591 Again, even though this book takes the angle that multiplicity is caused by child abuse, it is pretty good when it comes to reassuring people in households that they don't have to live as basket cases. This might be a good book for people who were newly diagnosed in therapy. Eliana Gil is involved with ChildHelp, which many survivors have found useful. |
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"Guard? I want to see my ambassador." "Easily done-- he's in the next cell." Title: Shattered Selves: Multiple Personality in a Postmodern World Author: James M. Glass Publisher: Cornell University Press ISBN: 0801428092 Began as a series of interviews exploring multiple personality in an attempt to relate it to postmodern views of what personality and identity really are, Glass found himself entrapped in the midst of the SRA / mind control witchhunt that swept through the Dissociative Disorders Unit of Shepard-Pratt Hospital in the late 1980s. Extreme, suffocating isolation and an overworked sense of suspension of disbelief created a genuine nightmare. An excerpt from the book is found at Soul's Self-Help Central. Shepard-Pratt was not the only place this happened. No wonder so many DDUs were closed. |
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Title: Two Souls in One Body?
Author: H.H. Goddard
Publisher: London: Rider, 1927
Out of Print: Try Advanced Book Exchange
Or,
search powells.com to see if anyone's selling Two Souls in One Body?
Title: Multiple Personality & Dissociation, 1791-1992:
A Complete Bibliography
Author: Goettman, Carole, Greaves, George B., & Coons, Philip M.,
eds.
Publisher: Sidran, Lutherville MD
ISBN: 0962916455
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Title: I Never Promised You A Rose Garden Author: Joanne Greenberg (as Hannah Green) Publisher: New American Library ISBN: 0451160312 For many years, young Deborah has withstood the cruelty of the earth world through her gift of access to the Kingdom of Yr, a mysterious dimension whose deities have made her queen among them. Now, at sixteen, the very people upon whom she's relied for help have turned against her. But she fears there is no place for her on Earth. The story tells of her battles in both the ancient kingdom where she is captive and victim, and on Earth, where her body is living in a mental hospital. To this day, the author herself -- who was Deborah -- believes she was insane. Read it for yourself: does it reflect your truth? Budding from a Garden of Reality A young woman's brief analysis of Yr and Yri suggests that they are real even though non-material. In 2001, Eyada.com had an interview with Joanne Greenberg and Gail Hornstein, who had just written a biography of Freida Fromm-Reichmann, "Dr. Clara Fried" from Rose Garden. Unfortunately, as of 17:00 hours on July 10th, www.eyada.com went the way of many dot.coms; i.e, bankrupt and closed their doors. We are trying to get a downloaded copy of the interview for you but it doesn't look good. Another, more recent interview covers a lot of the same issues: click here for an audio stream of Joanne's interview from prx.org. (This site requires that you register but it is free.) Listen carefully -- what Greenberg says may surprise you.
Biography of Hornstein from Mt. Holyoke University |
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Title: Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Science of Memory Author: Ian Hacking Publisher: Princeton University Press 1995 (reprint) ISBN: 069105908X This controversial book explores multiplicity as an aspect of changing scientific and religious views about memory. These views were almost immediately politicised when rationalist science tried to replace belief in an immortal soul with belief in memory. Many who feel that multiplicity is a dissociative disorder arising from buried trauma think of Hacking as someone who denies their truth. This may have been, at least in part, a case of timing (note publication date) and the fact that he has a couple of good things to say about the despicable False Memory Syndrome Foundation -- one hopes that he's since become better informed about them. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons we like this book is the way he illustrates the child abuse awareness political agenda behind the upswing in MPD/DID diagnoses in the 1970s and 1980s, but does NOT conclude that multiplicity is simply a therapist-created fantasy. However, since the book was not a support guide to hope and healing for courageous survivors, it was guaranteed to draw flak. It seems that it was the very fact that Hacking strives for neutrality, refusing to get into the debate over the literal truth of recovered memories and daring to explore the history of what people believed about what we now think of as multiplicity, which led to this misunderstanding. The book is very subtly written, and he is careful to state many times that he wishes not to draw any conclusion. |
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Title: Out of the darkness into the light: a journey with two
multiples
Author: Edie Hand
Publisher: Birmingham, Ala.: Front Row Productions ; 1990 (Recording)
Format 1 sound recording (45 min.) : analog, mono.
With Patricia Eggleston and Chris Costner Sizemore. Edie Hand is best known for her books of recipes, inspirational material, and Elvis Presley.
Out of Print: Search for this recording through Advanced Book Exchange
Title: The five of me
Author: Henry Hawksworth
Publisher: Chicago: Regency, 1977
ISBN: 0809278693
Truddi Chase& mention this book and the 1981 film version with David Birney in When Rabbit Howls. It's a bit hard to find the book these days and the film is never shown any more. Hawksworth was a client of Ralph Allison, who believed him to have psychic powers including the ability to read auras. Perhaps by taking Hawksworth seriously about this, Allison seems to have actually helped him.
Click here to buy The Five of Me.
Also, check
CDUniverse for The Five of Me on VHS starring David Birney.
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Title: Living With Your Selves Author: Sandra J. Hocking Publisher: Launch Press ISBN: 1877872067 A brief, classic manual for people who feel they are suffering with a disorder, this book features an introduction by Colin Ross, a singlet and self-styled "expert" on multiplicity. The text covers things like how to look for a competent therapist, and a "contract for survival" in which people in the group agree to refrain from harming the body and to contact a support person (as if self-harm were a requirement of being multiple). However, some reviewers complain that it has no trigger warnings and doesn't talk about medication and hospitalization, so it may be worth checking out. |
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Title: Someone I Know Has Multiple Personalities: A Book for Significant Others -- Friends, Family, and Caring Professionals Author: Sandra J. Hocking Publisher: Launch, 1994 ISBN: 1877872083 Even though this book approaches multiplicity strictly from the angle of dissociative disorder caused by child abuse, it's said to be excellent for giving the singlets around you a clue, that being multiple doesn't make you a basket case. |
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Title:: Body Scripture: A Therapist's Journal of Recovery from Multiple Personality Author: Barbara Hope Publisher: Wyndham Hall ISBN: 1556052979 "This book is a personal account of recovery from multiple personality disorder. I describe a ten year therapy process during which dozens of alternate selves emerged and slowly disclosed their trauma" etc. Her story is no different from anything you've read in countless other books. Barbara came from a working-class Catholic background and beginning at a very early age was raped by numerous men including her father, a family friend, and a priest. She later entered an abusive marriage and had four children. When she initially tried to go in for psychotherapy, the (female) therapist tried to seduce her. She's had a variety of relationships with other therapists, who don't always seem to maintain ethical professional boundaries. Obviously multiple, with a team of about forty, she was diagnosed as schizophrenic (in 1998?!). She tries to rationalize this by thinking of schizophrenia and multiplicity as overlapping and that she developed a "thought disorder" when her "dissociative defenses" (persons in her team) were hurt. Barbara Hope is a therapist herself today.
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Title: To Redeem One Person Is To Redeem The World: A Biography of Freida Fromm-Reichmann Author: Dr. Gail Hornstein Publisher: Free Press ISBN:0684827921 A biography of Dr. Freida Fromm-Reichmann, "Dr. Clara Fried" in I Never Promised You A Rose Garden. Seems a bit thrown together, but provides an indepth look at how Chestnut Lodge was founded. Therapists at the Lodge believed that some schizophrenics and psychotics could be helped with ordinary psychotherapy. Joanne Greenberg was only one (and the most famous) example, and not the sole success story. We learn a bit more about Miss Greenberg's situation, about Yr (its actual name was Iria), and some accidental insights into her family, and her decision to write Rose Garden. There is an entire chapter on public response. New York Times review, very good
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Title: The Archives, Volume 1: 1963-1972 Author: Neil Young Publisher: WeaselDisc, June 2009 Catalog Number: 511912 Just about here you should sit back, relax, have a nice cup of tea or coffee or something, and look at (and hear) something intriguing that doesn't have the least thing to do with multiplicity. If you've read this far you've earned it, so go ahead, have one, indulge yourself and blame it on us. |
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Title: The Birds' Nest Author: Shirley Jackson Publisher: Arbor House, 1986 ISBN: 0317277278 Originally written in 1954. Shirley Jackson researched this one as carefully as she could at the time. She was certainly capable of thinking of herself as multiple, with some justification. Read Bird's Nest with this in mind: it was published three years before Three Faces of Eve. It is amazing to us that feisty Shirley did not hit Corbett Thigpen with a lawsuit. Both Three Faces of Eve and Sybil contain many elements from this novel. In 1957, Bird's Nest was made into Lizzie, a fair-to-middling movie (Johnny Mathis' songs are worth it though). Shirley didn't like Lizzie -- she said it was too camped up. Almost no one remembers Lizzie today. It is not available on DVD or videocassette. If you stay up late you might catch it on Turner channels. Shirley said: Practically the only lines of mine they left in are the ones for Joan Blondell, who is the old aunt; she sits there with a fifth of bourbon and babbles. They must have used up twenty cases of bourbon in the movie; there are shots of people carrying out bushel baskets of empty bottles. [Shirley's husband] Stanley says it is because in Hollywood they don't know anything about drinking because they all take dope. They don't know much about psychology either.
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Title: The Passion of Ansel Bourne:
Multiple Personality in American Culture
Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry Vol. 5
Author: Michael Kenny
Publisher: Smithsonian Institute Press
ISBN: 0874745721
Show this to the next person who tells you that multiple personality was invented in the 1970s and that "there were no cases before Sybil". Kenny goes into depth about 19th century studies of multiples -- not just Ansel, but Mary Reynolds, Sally Beauchamp, Nellie Parsons Bean and many others. Recommended because Kenny is not sympathetic to the traditional psychiatric model for multiplicity. He also describes the multiplicity/Spiritualist connection, and is a good deal more pragmatic about it than Crabtree, Rogo et al.
Exceptional Human Experience Network says: "A social anthropologist familiar with the phenomenon of possession in primitive cultures writes about multiple personality, which he views as a cultural variant of possession.
The first chapter tells the story of a pioneer case of multiple personality, Mary Babcock. The case of Ansel Bourne is described in the second chapter. In the next chapter Kenny examines spiritism (mediumship), which he views as an important aspect of multiple personality as it was expressed in the 1890s. He discusses the impact Spiritualism had on nineteenth-century psychology, and deals with a specific case; that of Mrs. Piper and her communicating spirit, G.P. In Chapter 4 he deals with the work of Morton Prince with 'Miss Beauchamp' and B.C.A. [Nellie Parsons Bean]."
In a concluding chapter he writes about the current wave of interest in multiple personality, in which many multiple selves are manifested. Throughout the book Kenny attempts to show how the expression of the multiple personality syndrome was influenced by and served as an expression of cultural factors. Just as in non-Western societies, spirit possession occurs in individuals in difficult, contradictory, or traditional situations, so he observed that in Western society multiple personality appears to be "a complex metaphorical response" to cultural and personal situations of stress and transition.
Click here to buy a hardcover edition of Passion of Ansel Bourne now through powells.com
Click here to buy a paperback edition of Passion of Ansel Bourne now through powells.com
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Title: The Minds of Billy Milligan Author: Daniel Keyes Publisher: Random House, 1981 ISBN: 0553263811 The life story of a multiple who was convicted of armed robbery and rape. (There were NO serial killers in this group, as many have reported). Not as bleak as you might think. Keyes, author of Flowers for Algernon (Charly), conveys their experience well. Yay! Back in print!
What Is Billy Milligan Doing Now? By Daniel Keyes. |
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Title: The Fifth Sally Author: Daniel Keyes Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1980 ISBN: 0395294495 One would have hoped that his years of interviews with Billy Milligan would have given him a better idea of multiple-household experience, rather than just trotting out the same old stereotypical jazz. Maybe he explains this in his autobiography. |
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Title: Expressive and Functional Therapies in the Treatment of
Multiple Personality Disorder
Author: Kluft, Estelle, ed.
Publisher: Charles C. Thomas
ISBN: 0398058261
"It is difficult to overstate how useful art, movement, music, poetry, and occupational therapy can be with DID patients. Often stymied in their verbal expression, these modalities may provide a forum for the expression of what cannot be said and acknowledged in words. Since many DID patients are very creative, they often are able to use these modalities with great ease. A discussion of the roles of these modalities is available in Estelle Kluft's text."
More here Click here to buy Expressive and Functional Therapies
Title: Clinical Perspectives on Multiple Personality Disorder
Author: Kluft, Richard P. & Fine, Catherine G., eds.
Publisher: American Psychiatric Press
ISBN: 0-88048-365-2
Click here to buy Clinical Perspectives on Multiple Personality
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Title: Making Us Crazy: DSM The Psychiatric Bible and the Creation of Mental Disorders Author: Herb Kutchins Publisher: Free Press, 1997 ISBN: 0684822806 Much like L.J. Davis' wonderful Encyclopedia of Insanity, this book contains cogent information on the creation of the DSM as a political tool, mostly for the benefit of insurance companies. Again, you can click here to read about the controversies in the creation of DSM-5. |
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Title: Evaluation of criminal responsibility in multiple personality
and the related dissociative disorders : a psychoanalytic consideration
Author: Richard Lasky
Publisher: Springfield, Ill., U.S.A. : Thomas, 1982.
ISBN: 0398046735
Title: Psychology of Multiple Personality Disorders
Author: Richard Lasky
Publisher: Jason Aronson
ISBN: 1568210612
Click here to buy Psychology of Multiple Personality now through powells.com
Title: Voices
Author: Trula M. LaCalle, Ph.D.
Publisher: Dodd Mead, 1988
ISBN: 0396089747
A doctor's experience of working with a multiple household whose chief presenting self was a young gay man, in the days when being gay was listed as a mental disorder, multiplicity was not listed at all, and the doctor herself was considered borderline psychotic for believing there was such a thing as multiplicity. Ends with a look at the early phase of the AIDS epidemic and how it affected the gay community.
Trula LaCalle's Website
Click here to buy Voices now through powells.com
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Title: Shyness -- How Normal Behavior Became A Sickness Author: Christopher Lane Publisher: Yale 2007 ISBN: 0300124465 Remember the outcry when the cute little cartoons advertising Zoloft, an antidepressant, were retooled to promote Zoloft's use as a medicine for social anxiety disorder? Or the Prozac commercial that magically changed the nametags at a cocktail party? First you invent the pill, right, then you invent the illness for which the pill is the cure -- you know that one. Using as his sources letters and memos written by mental health professionals, Lane builds a very convincing case for another instance of mental health industry fraud in which shy persons are told they have a mental disease. He also demonstrates how the public was fooled into thinking that these pills had been sufficiently tested and were relatively harmless. At this point, I just have to include this.
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Title: City of Illusions Author: Ursula K. Le Guin Publisher: Ace, 1967 ISBN: 0-8240-1422-7 Gabriel writes: I always forget about this one. Auntie Ursula, may Her name be praised, started out to write a story about a man with two minds. There really is a man with two minds in this story, although you have to read to the end to find out about it. It's the third volume of a long series so it ends in a kind of to-be-continued way. Ursula talks about this book in The Language of the Night, which is one of the best collections of essays on fantasy writing I have ever read.
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Title: Triad
Author: Mary Leader
Publisher: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan (1973)
ISBN: 069810496X
This book received a great deal of publicity among fans of singer Stevie Nicks when she revealed that it was her source for the name "Rhiannon". Nicks simply used the name, leaving the book behind, and it's well that she did so. Triad was an apparent attempt to cash in on the Exorcist fad and includes all The Usual -- an ordinary housewife whose life starts going to pieces, missing time, losing things, stuff moving around, and all the boring rest of it, soon after losing her child to crib death and subsequently moving to a mysterious old house. (If that sounds like the beginning of Lawrence Block's terrific 1981 Ariel, it's probably because it is. The elements are virtually the same -- it's what Block decided to do with them that makes his book a classic.) Believing she is possessed by the spirit of her long-dead cousin Rhiannon, whose spun-sugar exterior had masked a sociopathic evil, she turns for help not to the church but to a doctor. Sure enough she has "another personality", but then there's a surprise twist, of course. And on, and on, and on. And the horror never ends. Sigh.
Title: The Psychiatric Clinics of North America:
Multiple Personality Disorder
Guest Editor: Richard J. Loewenstein, The Psychiatric Clinics of North America
Vol 14, No 3, Sept 1991
Publisher: W.B. Saunders Co
Wildfire says: "Very technical but extremely informative book. Excellent section on diagnosis and treatment of children, which, as a DID Mom, I found helpful in forcing psychiatrist to address possibility of DID in my child."
Title: The Surprising Case of Rachel Baker,
Who Prays and Preaches in Her Sleep:
With Specimens of her Extraordinary Performances
Taken Down Accurately in Short Hand at the Time.
Author: C. Mais
Publisher: New York: Whiting and Watson, 1814
This is about a trance speaker. Trance speakers were very common in the nineteenth century and were a little like New Age channels of today, but not as silly: they spoke about spiritual and practical matters and political issues. Many of the early spokespersons for women's rights were trance speakers. Many women activists and speechmakers were assumed to be trance speakers because it was widely believed that women, on their own, without supernatural aid, were incapable of public speaking or of even having many of the thoughts and ideas presented in their addresses.
There is no clear way to tell if these ladies (and some gentlemen) were spirit mediums or if they were multiple or both. Dual personality (it was often called that even when there were more than two selves) was a known and accepted thing in those times. They key was thought to be, not child abuse, but a sensitive nature, open to feelings and emotions.
Entire text of Rachel Baker now online!
To learn more about trance speakers, you might want to read Anne Braude's wonderful book Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in 19th Century America, and Barbara Goldsmith's Other Powers: The Life of Victoria Woodhull.
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Title: The Watcher's Mask Author: Laurie J. Marks Publisher: DAW, 1992 ISBN: 0886775108 Echoes of Ursula K. LeGuin and Elizabeth Hand resonate through this compelling tale of a society in which some children are born multiple, and their places in both traditional and urban societies. |
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Title: People in Pieces: Multiple Personality in Milder Forms and Greater Numbers Author: Alan Marshall Publisher: Rainbow Books ISBN: 0-935834-94-x Approaching multiplicity as the usual dissociative disorder, really nothing new here except that he covers the idea of a "dissociative continuum" meaning that it might be useful to people who feel they are "not quite multiple" or somewhere in between, as a midcontinuum or median experience. |
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Title: Amongst Ourselves Author: Karen Marshall with Tracy Alderman Publisher: New Harbinger ISBN: 1572241225 Moral of this story: There's plenty of help out there if you're an abuse survivor, but the therapist who can help you with household management issues is rare and precious. Most therapists only understand multiple personalities from an abuse-survivorship perspective. This book gives the lie to the old assumption that as persons in the household evidence to the front and relate memories of abuse, they will then disappear and be integrated into a whole person. Although this book is really for abuse survivors who happen to be multiple, it does have some good qualities, notably its plain language. The Rhymers have this review: "Amongst Ourselves is drivel. First of all, the authors assume that 'alters' don't know how to control themselves; for instance, that all 'the littles' are interested in is finding candy. Nonhuman system members are supposed to occur when the host, while being abused, wishes they could fly away from abuse or burrow into a hole. The book also features a bullshit opinion that multiple systems are not anchored in the body and have to be taught how to live in the body. Because obviously when we sit on a chair for five minutes we cease to feel the chair under our rears and feel like we're instead floating on a cloud. Stinks very much of 'be here now' thinking. "The main body of the reading is a bit dry, but there are activities that'll help you get to know each other. And the authors don't insist that you have to integrate. But they do assume that the host is in charge and must give love and care to her various alters and treat them like her little family. Imagine if you will, Jaclyn Pia's Multiple Personality Gift, only minus the integration assumptions and activities and you've got it. It has that same sort of condescending tone, despite having been written by a multiple." |
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Title: Multiple Personality Disorder:
An Hispanic Psychological Perspective
Author: Alfonso Martinez-Taboas. Translated by Carlos S. Alvarado and
Nancy L. Zingrone. Contributions by Richard Kluft.
Publisher: Puente
ISBN: 0-9634501-0-7
Click here to buy Multiple Personality: A Hispanic Perspective now through powells.com
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Title: Against Therapy Author: Jeffrey Masson Publisher: Common Courage 1993 ISBN: 1567510221 Please read this before opting for any kind of mainstream psychotherapy. You owe it to yourself and to your household, if any.
Also by Jeffrey Masson: |
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Title: The Assault on Truth : Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory Author: Jeffrey Masson Publisher: Pocket ISBN: 0671025716 This is the book on the subject. Some of it will look very familiar to you if you've been abused in any way and then attempted to tell someone about it, only to be accused of false memory syndrome. |
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Title: A Dark Science: Women, Sexuality, and Psychiatry in the Nineteenth Century Author: Jeffrey Masson Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux 1988 ISBN: 0374521239 Want to know the atmosphere and belief system in which modern psychiatry began? "Here translated for the first time are a series of shocking texts from the 19th century German psychiatric literature which, while almost completely unknown to modern readers, have had a devastating influence on attitudes toward women and children in the 20th century. The articles on the sexual "lies" and sexual "fantasies" of children were seminal, brutal and still resonate in today's literature, having taken a terrible toll on the intellectual ideas of modern psychiatry." |
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Title: Welcome Home Stranger: An Account of Multiple Personalities
Author: Daniel Matthews Publisher: Random House NZ A New Zealand correspondent says this was written by a frontrunner in a group, who is gay. Looks like the same old stuff to us. "Multiple personality disorder is rare and little understood. Matthew Daniels had no idea at first what was wrong with him when he started suffering from terrible headaches, exhaustion, and blackouts that could last for days. But what was he doing during the time he blacked out? What were all these voices in his head? The author recreates his experiences with multiple personality disorder in this book. His personalities include old and young, men and women. They were obnoxious, innocent, literary, ignorant, frightening, frightened. They were all him. "Matthew Daniels is now in control of his multiple personalties. In this compelling and beautifully written book, he recreates his experiences."
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Title: Through Divided Minds, Probing the Mysteries of Multiple Personalities: A Doctor's Story Author: Robert Mayer, Ph.D. Publisher: Doubleday, 1988 ISBN: 0380719207 Singlet Mayer meant well, but allowed his gender bias to undermine whatever good he might have done in helping multiples in crisis develop stable operating systems. Like many who approach multiplicity through the hypnosis angle, he seems to have held a certain amount of contempt for his clients. He played God with hundreds of lives, imposing integration as the only possible answer, while admitting he didn't know what he was doing.
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Title: Satan's Children | Author: Robert Mayer, Ph.D. Publisher: Putnam, 1991 ISBN: 0399136274 In this follow-up to Through Divided Minds, Mayer delves into the world of Satanic ritual abuse survivorship, outrageous claims and the usual fascinating cast of characters. Wisely, he tries to remain neutral on whether or not his clients really went through the schlock horror movie roles that they say they did.
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Title: : Mindsplit: The Psychology of Multiple Personality
and the Dissociated Self
Author: Peter McKellar
Publisher: London: Dent (arthur dent), 1979
ISBN: 046004348X
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Title: Skye Sparkler Author: Kim Metzger Publisher: Xlibris ISBN: 0738853275 This doesn't have anything to do with plurality either, but it's a fun read. A young woman accidentally turns herself into a super-powered heroine -- who, to all appearances, is just twelve years old -- and she can't change back! How does tiny blue-haired Skye convince people she's the same person as ordinary thirtyish Marcy? What happens as a consequence of her instinct to help people with her amazing powers? Identity and responsibility are the themes here, with liberty, large fries and a coffee to go. |
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Title: Women From Another Planet,
Our Lives in the Universe of Autism Author: Jean Kearns Miller Publisher: Authorhouse 2003 ISBN: 1410734315 Amazon's Roguealleycat sez: "Wow. A look at our real, whole lives for once... meant as a crossroads between feminism and the neurodiversity movement, and a discussion of life as autistic women." If you are interested in more books by autistic authors, try Amanda Baggs' Autistic Authors Booklist.
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Title: For Your Own Good:
Hidden Brutality in Child-Rearing, and the Roots of Violence Author: Dr. Alice Miller Publisher: Noonday ISBN: 0374522693 If you think you were never abused, read this book. Most people do suffer some form of physical, emotional or intellectual brutality in childhood. People who are acknowledged by society to have been abused tell horrific battle stories. Those of us who were "merely" slapped, spanked, and bullied as children are thus inclined to overlook our experiences as trivial. Most child abuse goes under the sobriquet of parental discipline. It affects our thoughts and feelings in later life, often in subtle ways we don't even notice. "It made me stronger" often simply means "it made me numb". This is not a whiny book, nor is it a Bradshaw feel-good hugfest. Child abuse exists and chances are you've been through it. Don't revisit it on your kids. And the next time someone says "You think you had it tough" and starts talking about some publicized extreme case, show them this book. |
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This book is now available in its entirety on line. Click here to read For Your Own Good in free e-text.
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Title: Multiple Selves, Multiple Voices: Working with Trauma, Violation and Dissociation Author: Phil Mollon (singlet) Publisher: Wiley, 1996 ISBN: 0471963305 Another in the long line of books presenting the trauma/dissociation model for multiplicity (note the publication date). Mollon believes multiplicity is a matter of "trauma and pretense". Might be worth a few laughs. |
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Title: Sorority of survival : memoirs of a multiple Author: Newman, Katherine A. Publisher: New York : Kroshka Books, 1996 ISBN: 1560723467 This is out of print but the authors are working on an updated version. |
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Title: Multiple Personalities, Multiple Disorders: Psychiatric Classification and Media Influence Author: Carol S. North Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0195080955 Yes, this is by the Carol S. North, the author of Welcome Silence who was allegedly cured of schizophrenia by dialysis. Dialysis. So instead of suggesting that multiple personality might have some kind of similar physical source to whatever she actually had, she decides that there are no real multiples at all, just people who saw something on TV and decided to do a little play-acting to get attention. What if people had thought that about her when she tried to get help? No sympathy or insight whatsoever into her own condition or anyone else's. |
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Title: Moira Author: Martin Obler Publisher: New Horizons ISBN: 0312968205 We've never actually read this one but have seen two reviews. One said that this is a badly written novel with an inexplicably horrible ending. Another said that it fairly well described classical MPD and might be a good introduction for clinical psychology interns. It's probably the same old stuff. Worth it? Read it and tell us what you think. |
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Title: Through the Eyes of Aliens Author: Jasmine Lee O'Neill Publisher: Jessica Kingsley ISBN: 1853027103 Like multiplicity, autism is not a disorder and need not be dysfunctional. The brains of autistic people are simply hardwired differently. This book explores autism's benefits and beauties for the first time, and explains what may look like bizarre, stereotyped behavior. Like multiples, autistics need to be accepted as they are, not forced to behave in an allegedly normal fashion. That is the basic theme of this book, the author providing examples from her own life. By and large, we agreed with and enjoyed her explanations. However, we had problems with a few of her assertions. Many autistics are not nearly as able to interact in mainstream society as Miss O'Neill. It's too overwhelming and requires the processing of a lot of sensory input that a lot of autistics simply can't handle no matter how intelligent they may be otherwise. This book runs the risk of romanticising autism even as it seeks to demystify it, especially the old myth of a connection between genius and autism. Having worked with severe classic-style autistics who are also (at least apparently) mentally retarded, I cannot agree with her claim that all autism is a beautiful form of genius. That is a really misleading statement. Autism is not about intelligence, it has to do with sensory perception and processing. It's more like being nearsighted than like being a genius. Autistics are just as likely as multiples to display a range of intelligences. Like multiples, autistics will not be served by being universally classed as geniuses. Intelligence is a slippery concept anyway. After my experience growing up with autism which I thought at first was "Asperger" simply because I had no speech delays -- I wasn't diagnosed until I was almost thirty --and working with profoundly affected "classic" or "Kanner" autistic teens, I think we need educational programs that will take the unique qualities and deficits of autistic people into account, and teach basic self-care in a way that can be understood and adapted to the individual's strengths and comprehensions, without brutalisation or an insistence on completely "normal" behavior. - Bluejay Another book explaining autism in more pragmatic terms is Demystifying the Autistic Experience. Roguealleycat@amazon sez: "The first book I read portraying autism as a good thing. I disagree with the author on a few points, but that perspective about autism is rare and vital in a hostile world." A Note on Autism by an anonymous, autistic reader
Review from the Ontario Adult Autism Network If you are interested in more books by autistic authors, try the Autistic Authors Booklist.
Balance this book by reading A Child Called Noah |
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Title: Becoming One Author: Sarah Olson Publisher:LPC ISBN: 0962387983 We have trouble not calling this book "How we all got squished together" or, "How I squished everybody together" or something. Another one of those rambling accounts of abuse and courageous healing that became popular after When Rabbit Howls became a bestseller. We got a review copy of this one in the mail. Totally unasked for. |
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Title: Criminal Responsibility and Multiple Personality Defendants
Edited by Sabra Owens
Publisher: ABA, July 1997
ISBN: 1570734607
Exploration and analysis of the use of multiple personality disorder defenses in the crinimal justice system; with table of cases.
Click here to buy Criminal Responsibility & Multiple Personality Defendants through powells.com
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Title: A Fractured Mind Author: Robert Oxnam Publisher:Hyperion ISBN: 1401302270 I notice that most of the amazon.com reviews do not believe Oxnam was multiple and that he& is faking it to get publicity or bolster a sagging career in middle age. I think this may be because he& was such a highly visible public figure, such a familiar face on Nightline and The MacNeill-Lehrer News Hour, and spoke so rationally and competently about China, that he& does not fit most people's preconceived notion of who a multiple is. That's of course providing they even believe that multiplicity exists. It seems that today if you say the words MPD or multiple personality, the majority of people in this culture automatically translate in their minds to "excuses made by a loser with weak character". In other words, we're exactly where we started fifty years ago. If classic MPD is supposed to be a coping strategy to allow normal or higher levels of daily functioning while putting aside abuse or other unpleasant experiences instead of taking time to process them, then the majority of MPD clients should be like Oxnam& -- or Chase&, with their real estate business. MPD should enable success, not failure. Difficulties with continuity, as well as the intrusion of unwanted images or ideas which may or may not be early memories, take place as an MPD operating system begins to change or fall apart. Such clients are still told, as Oxnam was, that the multiplicity is the problem, when what they may need is help putting together a different operating system that will allow them to return to their previous level of functioning. - A. Temple Review of A Fractured Mind at Pavilion, by an anonymous contributor |
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Title: From Multiplicity to Oneness
Author: Sasha Pedersen, Marilyn Picard
Publisher:
Here's the press release sent
to us regarding "From Multiplicity to Oneness".
Click here to buy From Multiplicity To Oneness
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Title: Nightmare: Uncovering the Strange 56 Personalities of Nancy Lynn Gooch Author: Emily Peterson ISBN:0931933544
Courageous healing potboiler capitalizing on success of Sybil. Nothing new.
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Title: The Magic Daughter Author: Jane Phillips Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0140244557 Don't get your hopes up. - Gabe This would make a good don't-let-this-happen-to-you book. It is about a very, very badly managed household with practically no communication. Unlike most books on so-called MPD/DID, Phillips concentrates not on childhood horror stories (though of course there are some) but on everyday life with a group whose operating system is so out of whack they often can't even get it together enough to accomplish routine tasks. You find out why as she researches her own memories (she didn't seem to have repressed anything, just put things she already knew into place). Because of her failure to measure up to bizarre familial expectations, she was being medicated at the age of three, for Christ's sake, and was on Librium by 15. These things can affect the way a person's mind develops -- it's no wonder she has huge memory gaps. She finds evidence that she was multiple long before any sexual abuse occurred (she was seven when that started), but her doctor doesn't listen; he is one of those who believed multiplicity originates only with sexual abuse. In fact, this lady looks to have been emotionally and physically abused by her parents because she was multiple, before the sexual attacks by her brother started. She may even have been born naturally multiple (she even brings this up), and had her operating system destroyed by the abuse and by the drugs. How often does this happen and professionals just assume it's the other way around? It was exhausting just to read this book and experience the grind of psychotherapy with a less than competent doctor. Jordan and Jay |
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Title: Healing the Divided Self: Clinical and Ericksonian Hypnotherapy for Post-Traumatic and Dissociative Conditions Author: Maggie Phillips and C. Frederick Publisher: New York: W.W. Norton, 1995 ISBN: 0393701840 Claire Frederick of the ISSD says this book is a good resource. There is a ton of info about it here. |
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Title: Household Management [alternate: Multiple Personality Gift]
Author: Jaclyn Pia
Publisher: R&E Publishers, PO Box 2008, Saratoga, CA 95070
Phone: (408) 866-6303 Fax: (408) 866-0825
ISBN: 0-88247-890-7
A system of organization for households in chaos. Simplistic at times, but probably good for situations of extreme stress.
Click here to buy Household Management
Check out
the complete text on line
Title: Managing Our Selves: Building a Community of Caring
Author: Elizabeth Power
Publisher: E. Power & Assoc.
ISBN: 1-883307-01-5
Friday, April 16, 2010: At present, the Managing Our Selves books are available only through Sidran. These include Building A Community of Caring and God in Our Midst which looks at abuse from a "when bad things happen to good people" perspective without all the crap about ritual abuse, demons, etc.
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Title: Victims of Memory Author: Mark Pendergrast Publisher: Upper Access Book Publishers ISBN: 0942679164 Pendergrast is out to set the record straight on the recovery movement, pro and con (mostly con). An exhaustively researched book, written by a scholar whose own daughters have accused him of molesting them. Like Joan Acocella (who drew heavily on Victims of Memory for her research) Pendergrast exposes the mental health racket that grew out of the recovery movement, labeling people as victims and multiples whether they were or not. You may not agree with Pendergrast at all, but he certainly has done his homework. Put your prejudices and fears aside, buy this book and read it carefully. Consider his findings in light of your own therapy. Make your own decisions. This book is going in our permanent collection as a reference guide. Here's a (somewhat graphic) excerpt so you can see what we're talking about. It is about the worst of the Satanic ritual abuse scare. Much more here.
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Title: The Dissociation of a Personality: In Search of the Real Miss Beauchamp Author: Morton Prince Publisher: Thoemmes Continuum 1998 (Written in 1902) ISBN:1855066904 This is the fellow whom we all have to thank for the modern concept of integration. Line forms behind me, peashooters at the ready. Andy
Entire text of 'Dissociation of a Personality' now online. (Try that 'flipbook', they're really neat.) |
Title: Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality | Author: Frank Putnam, M.D. Publisher: Foundations of Modern Psychiatry, 1989 Dr. Putnam (singlet) is at the forefront of study on the biochemical and neurological reality of child abuse, for which we salute him. We don't necessarily agree with all of his conclusions about multiples, and along with Richard Kluft (singlet) he advocates some atrocious methods of discovering whether a patient is multiple. Still, he is worth reading.
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Title: Divided Minds and Successive Selves: Ethical Issues in Disorders of Identity and Personality Author: Jennifer Radden Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 0262181754
Learn more
about Divided Minds & Successive Selves: statement by the Author |
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Title: Infinite Boundary: A Psychic Look at Spirit Possession, Madness, and Multiple Personality Author: D. Scott Rogo Publisher: New York: Dodd Mead, 1987 ISBN:0396089682
Published just three months after When Rabbit Howls, this book
purports to explore the comparative history of mediumship, possession
and multiplicity. After kind of a shaky beginning in which we learn that
gender dysphoria and transsexuality can be cured through exorcism, he
continues with a look at the famous case of Frederic Thompson, the
jeweler who was apparently possessed (quite beneficially) by the
departed spirit of painter R. Swain Gifford, takes a half-turn at
Spiritualism with complete credulity (they couldn't possibly have been
faking those effects |
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could they?) and psychic
surgery, and after a lengthy recap of the
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Osiris, my friend! What has happened to your nose? Title: The Osiris Complex: Case Studies in Multiple Personality Disorder Author: Colin A. Ross (singlet) Publisher: Univ. of Toronto Press ISBN: 0802028586 More than adequately exemplifies the current mode of thought in the mental health industry concerning multiplicity. Having declared multiplicity a disorder, they've spent the last twenty years playing the game for all it was worth... making money and prestige by exploitive therapy of abuse victims, multiples, and those who were simply looking for meaning in their lives. Now that the public has seen behind the curtain, it's not fun any more, so it's the DID dustbin for us; multiple personality officially no longer exists. "Contrary to prevalent opinion, MPD patients do not have more than one personality; the so-called different personalities are fragmented components of a single personality, abnormally personified and dissociated from each other." Yeah. |
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Title: Discovering Your Subpersonalities: Our Inner World and the
People In It Author: John Rowan Publisher: Routledge, New York ISBN: 0-415-07366-9
We didn't even know what a "subpersonality" was, so we had to look it up: What Are Subpersonalities |
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Title: Set this house in order: a romance of souls Author: Matt Ruff (singlet) Publisher: Harper Collins, 2003 ISBN: 0060195622 Two reviews of this controversial novel are found at the Pavilion Library: |
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Title: Jekyll on trial: multiple personality
disorder and criminal law Author: Saks, Elyn R., 1955- Publisher: New York University Press, 1997 ISBN: 0-814-78042-3
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Title: Jennifer and her Selves
Author: Gerald Schoenewolf
Publisher: Donald Fine, 1991
Pretty stereotypical account by the author of 101 Common Therapeutic Blunders, who certainly exemplifies those here in a self-serving narrative. If this account is even real, which some reviewers have questioned, Schoenewolf was an inexperienced newbie shrink who found himself working with a multiple, and did not immediately refer her to a more knowledgeable therapist. He fell in love with his client&, who responded (?) by spontaneously integrating (or was it really integration?). He finally did refer her to another, disinterested therapist. The book contains not only his diary, but her diary -- a simulation, written by Schoenewolf himself!
One of our correspondents said: "Not too bad a book, even if I did want to smack the author upside the head a couple times. (He got integration and co-consciousness mixed up, for one!) But I cheered him when he realized he might not have any business trying to get them to integrate; what if Jennifer was (gasp!) better off this way? If nothing else, he said one very interesting thing: Sybil and crew's integration wasn't permanent.... they came back and she just let them stay. If that's true, I imagine she figured/realized she had no choice. I'm hoping it's true! ... It WAS the first book I've ever read that said multiplicity is .. a lifestyle option.... But the therapist tried to tell a couple of system residents that they weren't real and/or not a different person than Jennifer and/or just her walking, talking unconsious. Mildred [of Jennifer's household] tried to set him straight, and neither was listening to the other!"
Teresa has an interesting review of Jennifer and her Selves.
Click here to order Jennifer and her Selves
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Title: Sybil Author: Flora Reta Schreiber Publisher: Warner, 1973 Still in print. Bears re-reading due to the recent controversy over the authenticity of the material. |
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About the Sybil Film
Due to high viewer demand, a 30th anniversary edition of Sybil has been released on DVD in North America and a remake was released in June 2007, starring Tammy Blanchard.
Discuss Sybil Remake at the IMDB discussion board for the Sybil remake - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499260/board.
Everything we have on Sybil is on our Controversy page.
Please try to keep in mind that what you see in the film is only very loosely based on the real events in the life of Shirley Ardell Mason. The novel by Flora Schreiber is not a psychiatric case history. It is a fictionalized narrative, exaggerated for shock value, and the film even more so. In fact, it was deliberately made to resemble a horror movie. The remake was also based on the book, rather than on what actually happened between Cornelia Wilbur and Shirley Mason.
Among the many untruths perpetuated by the remake, one of the worst came at the end, with the statement that Shirley Ardell Mason ended her life as a "recluse". She was an artist who exhibited her paintings at local galleries. She taught art for years, designed toys, and owned her own business. She was a devout member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and was well known and liked there. Only a very few people knew Shirley was Sybil.
Shirley's friend Nancy L. Preston has written a book called Life After Sybil which will be offered for sale on this page as soon as it becomes available. Miss Preston was interviewed for the DVD and that interview is included in the extras. Miss Preston's website, Sybil's Friend, has lots of personal reminiscences about her art teacher, mentor and friend.
To see if a store close to you rents copies either of the DVD release or the old VHS version (which was drastically cut); Formovies.com Sybil Listing
If you are still interested in the old VHS version or want to try for the old 192-minute version; Video Addicts Want List Here, post a message saying you want a copy of the Sybil film. Don't forget to mention our website.
Click here to read about the Sybil controversy
Click here to buy the Sybil novel. Used copies also available through this link.
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Title: Internal Family Systems Therapy Author: Richard C. Schwartz Publisher: New York: Guilford, 1995 ISBN: 0898622735 (acid-free paper) To learn more about internal family systems therapy, click here. Some MPD/DID multiples might find this approach useful in organizing an operating system. |
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Title: My Mom is Different Author: Deborah Sessions Publisher: Sidran ISBN: 0962916439 Written for little children, this is an introduction to MPD classic, trauma, dissociation, splitting, psychotherapy, hospitalization, and other yummy subjects. My Mom Is Not Your Entertainment Hilarious parody by a member of the Flatlanders system. |
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Title: : Multiple personality; an experimental investigation into the nature of human individuality
Author: : Boris Sidis
Publisher: New York, Greenwood Press, 1968 (orig. published 1904)
Sidis believed there was such a thing as adult onset multiplicity, caused by physical injury. He has a lot of case studies of people who never showed signs of amnesia, dissociation or other selves until they were in an accident, mostly when they had a head injury. He also has the usual "hystero-epilepsy" cases. This is a fascinating side trip. Even if it was written by a guy with delusions of grandeur who forcibly overeducated his own son to make a genius out of him, leading to the kid's mental breakdown later in life.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 12:31:29 PM This book is now online. Multiple personality; an experimental investigation into the nature of human individuality by Sidis
Click here to look for this book at Advanced Book Exchange
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Title: I'm Eve Author: Chris Costner Sizemore with Elen Sain Pittillo Publisher: New York : Jove, 1978 ISBN: 0515075140 Chris Sizemore tells her life story which was (to put it mildly) erroneously reported by Dr. Corbett Thigpen in "The Three Faces of Eve". |
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Title: A Mind of My Own Author: Chris Costner-Sizemore Publisher: Morrow, 1989 ISBN: 0688081991 Chris continues telling her own true story, begun in I'm Eve. While she continues to maintain her stance that multiplicity is a mental illness for which the only cure is integration (she reports a brief confrontation with the Troops (Truddi Chase) over this issue), the book's still worth reading. Surprisingly enough, particularly with her pro-integration stance, Chris does not believe in fragmentation and asserts that her actual selves (not what was described by her former doctors) were separate entities. "Despite authorities' claims to the contrary, my former alters were not fragments of my birth personality. They were entities, whole in their own rights, who coexisted with my birth personality before I was born. They were not me, but they remain intrinsically related to what it means to be me." More at Multiple Personality Before Eve. Costner is not quoted directly in this article as stating that the 'alters' were remnants of who she was in past lives, but she does confirm her belief in reincarnation in this book. |
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Title: Magic Castle Author: Carole Smith Publisher: St. Martin's Press ISBN: 031217196X The real story here is not little Alex and his violent behavior which was interpreted by his mother and doctor as multiple personalities, but his mom's fight against the mental health industry to try to get some help for his real problems. One wonders if the SRA stories were invented by her, for example. It's not at all clear whether he was actually multiple, or whether the idea of MPD was used as a kind of therapeutic tool that he could work with to sort out his genuine issues. |
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Title: Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination Author: Daniel Smith Publisher: Penguin 2007 ISBN: 1594201102 Recently, a series of British studies uncovered the fact that mentally healthy people hear voices. As these findings become accepted by modern psychiatry, professionals must abolish their prejudices. Hearing voices will no longer mean an automatic diagnosis of schizophrenia or psychosis; societies and movements have been formed to study what it really means to hear voices. Here, Daniel Smith explores the place of voices in Western history, with a special focus on Joan of Arc, Socrates and Daniel Paul Schreber. Readers of Julian Jaynes' The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind might be interested in what Smith has to say. |
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Title: The Fasting Girl: A True Victorian Medical Mystery Author: Michelle Stacey Publisher: Tarcher/Putnam 2002 ISBN: 1585421359
Stacey's take on Mollie focuses on her anorexia and its context in Victorian
America. Stacey based a lot of her book on Mollie Fancher, the Brooklyn Enigma: An Authentic Statement of Facts in the Life of Mary J. Fancher by A.H. Dailey (Brooklyn: Eagle Book Printing, 1894). This book is out of print. Click here to look for copies of Mollie Fancher through Advanced Book Exchange: One does occasionally turn up, usually going for about $75-100. Anthony Walsh has got a lengthy document on Mollie which includes a bit more about her other selves. The doctor who looked after her apparently documented them in some detail. The People's Almanac 2 has much more about Mollie's group, which you can read at Trivia Library: Mollie Fancher, the Brooklyn Enigma. |
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Title: Incest, and the Betrayal of the Soul in Psychotherapy Author: Robert Stein (singlet) Publisher: Spring, 1973 ISBN: 9780882145068 Stein, a Jungian therapist, wrote this book to raise tough questions about incest, the therapy process and the therapist-patient relationship. It is written in a clear, readable style, and still relevant today.
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Title: The Stranger in the Mirror: Dissociation, the Hidden Epidemic Author: Marlene Steinberg (singlet) Publisher: Cliff Street ISBN: 0060195649 Another in a recent series of books by professionals assuring us that dissociation is real and happens to everyone, and promoting the idea of the "dissociative spectrum" with, of course, multiplicity at the extreme end. And, of course, being multiple is still a disorder. The author seems to be a little out of touch with present-day realities -- she uses dissociation and multiplicity to explain why some people feel they are the opposite gender from their bodies, and to let us know that anyone who believes in reincarnation is delusional. Remember, DID is an identity disorder - they're trying to depoliticize it by telling us no one really has more than one person per body. The goal is to keep multiples as clients, just reshuffling the deck a little. More at strangerinthemirror.com. |
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Title: Demystifying the Autistic Experience Author: William Stillman Publisher: Jessica Kingsley ISBN:1843107260 Reviews at Amazon say: "Presents autism in a positive light, and describes why we do things instead of dismissing us as uniformly defective and inappropriate." "He proves autism is not this wild unmanagable condition that requires massive intervention." Describes the reasons behind the things autistics do without being flowery or assuming autistics are all geniuses. Roguealleycat@amazon sez: "Some great points and people should read it, although he has some notions of respectful language that are certainly not universal to the autistic community." And, that the author "does not make it sound as if those of us who are happy with ourselves either lack insight or aren't autistic enough to appreciate how disabled we are." If you are interested in books by autistic authors, try Amanda Baggs' Autistic Authors Booklist.
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Title: The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age Author: Sandy Stone (Allucquere Roseanne Stone) ISBN: 0262193620 By the Author of Violation and Virtuality. How the internet and other means of communication have undermined the established illusion of one-self-per-body. Go for it. |
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Title: The Myth of Sanity: Divided Consciousness and the Promise of Awareness Author: Martha Stout Publisher: Viking ISBN: 0670894753 As far as we can tell, the real message of this book is that behavior we all thought was normal or merely idiosyncratic is actually symptomatic of a treatable mental disorder. Think about it: we've all heard that dissociation is a natural response (whether to trauma, or whatever). If that's the case, then why is modern psychiatry trying to cure it rather than merely observing it? It's wise to ask ourselves as we read this and other such books: Who benefits? If we accept the dissociation belief system -- particularly this New Wave variety which discounts multiplicity as just another dissociative delusion -- what do we get out of it? What does the doctor get out of it? |
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Title: Trance and Possession in Bali: A Window on Western Multiple Personality, Possession Disorder, and Suicide Author: Luh K. Suryani and Gordon D. Jensen Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0-19-588610-0 A well-written, detailed but completely understandable exploration of possession trance, its relation to multiplicity, and their place in the healing rituals of traditional, indigenous cultures. "In this book, the authors describe the psychosocial experiences of the Balinese in Trance-possession states during traditional healing, dance, drama and gamelan performance, as well as in several mental disorders. This book is a collaboration between a Western psychiatrist with a wide experience of Balinese Culture and Mental Health and Western trained Balinese steeped in local culture." |
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Selves in Bali The concept of self in Bali, by L.K. Suryani.
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Title: The Myth of Mental Illness (Revised Edition, 1984) Author: Thomas Szasz Publisher: Harper Collins ISBN: 0060911514 This book is forty years old (updated in '84) and is as relevant today as the day it came out. Szasz uses clear, simple language to expose the facts behind the stigmatization of those who are different. He insists that most of the things we call mental illnesses are merely variances in normal human behaviour, or normal emotional states like loneliness or insecurity that could be helped in ordinary ways. You may not agree with everything he says, but that's not why this book is listed here. |
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Title: Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences Author: Thomas Szasz Publisher: Harper Collins ISBN: 0815604602 Szasz restates his claims, presents his findings and explains his theories in plain language. He even gives you a bit on why he uses plain language. This book may be a better introduction than "The Myth of Mental Illness" if you've never read Szasz before. His theme is always the same: what we term mental illness is, by and large, behaviour which is explicable and reasonable given the society in which we live. Society's vigorous repression (through drugs, electroshock, etc.) of those who are different has become a form of institutionalised hate crime. We have come to regard the mental health industry as a kind of religion, as the standard against which normalcy is measured. |
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Title: The Medicalization of Everyday Life Author: Thomas Szasz Publisher: Syracuse Univ. Press ISBN: 0815608675 Once more, Szasz takes a look at our lives and times and how the pharmaceutical industry, in cooperation with the mainstream media and the legal system, have formed a government of social control. Medical and health decisions are made for us, "for our own good", every day. Find out what the system is doing to you and your kids -- how much of your life can you take back? Want more on Thomas Szasz? Visit http://www.szasz.com/. |
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Title: Coercion as Cure, A Critical History of Psychotherapy Author: Thomas Szasz Publisher: Transaction 2007 ISBN: 0765803798 Like Masson, Szasz pulls no punches. This is what happens when we presume that a certain select group of people know more about ourselves than we do. This is not about the misuse of psychiatry; this is about the idea that psychiatry itself is a misuse of social and political power. Want more on Thomas Szasz? Visit http://www.szasz.com/. You might also be interested in The Etiology of a Social Epidemic. Written by a social worker, it begins as an indictment of so-called "attachment disorder" and the brutal, sometimes fatal "therapies" designed to cure it. But she goes further, exploring the origins of psychoanalysis and the place of psychiatry as a tool of social control. More on toxic psychiatry here. |
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Title: William James on Exceptional Mental States
Editor: Eugene Taylor
Publisher: Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1984
ISBN: 087023451X
According to Robert H. Wozniak's page on William James, James didn't believe normal people had a single self -- that's an illusion, he thought. He lived at about the same time as Mollie Fancher and there is much more about him in The Passion of Ansel Bourne. This book consists of transcriptions of scholarly lectures by James in 1896, covering Dreams and Hypnotism, Automatism, Hysteria, Multiple Personality, Demoniacal Possession, Witchcraft, Degeneration, and Genius. "The first four talks establish James as the master of a modern dynamic psychology of the subconscious, while the remainder articulate the pathological working of the subconscious in the social sphere."
Click here to buy William James on Exceptional Mental States
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Title: Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet Author: Sherry Turkle Publisher: Simon & Schuster ISBN: 0684833484 Listen to this: "At one extreme, the unitary self maintains its oneness by repressing all that does not fit. Thus censored, the illegitimate parts of the self are not accessible. This model would of course function best within a fairly rigid social structure with clearly defined rules and roles." Did you hear that? A singlet is one who has repressed everything that doesn't fit. That presumes that there were lots of things that didn't fit in the first place. This would seem to suggest that multiples who do feel they are parts of a whole are keeping all those "illegitimate" parts of the self uncensored. Isn't that a lot better than the dissociation theory? |
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Title: Mending Ourselves: Expressions of Healing and Self-Integration
Author: Edited by Lynn Wasnak Publisher: Many Voices Press ISBN: 0963727702 One of the very few books on life after the integration process. A series of short essays like Multiple Personality from the Inside Out and just as readable. If you are opting for integration, this one is highly recommended. |
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Title: Wounded Innocents Author: Richard Wexler Publisher: Prometheus, 1995 ISBN: 0879759364 "The war against child abuse has become a war against children. In the name of "child protection" innocent families are disrupted nearly two million times every year and thousands of children are needlessly torn from their parents and thrown into foster care--even as children in real danger are ignored. While the problem of child abuse is serious and real, journalist Richard Wexler charges that our solutions to the problem have actually made it worse--in fact, hurting the very children that they were intended to help." From the Lifting the Veil review, which you can read in its entirety here. Read about the New York City Admin. for Children's Services and what they do to families in the name of "protecting the children".
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Title: First Person Plural Author: Cameron West Publisher: Hyperion 1998 It is another courageous healing story. It has aroused some controversy because of the relative ease with which he learned to communicate with his people once he realized they were there. This isn't unusual though, despite what you're told in some of those cheap dime novels. People reading this book and comparing it with their own experiences, remember that as Truddi Chase says no two groups or systems are alike, we all have different ways of communicating, perceiving the world, processing information, and different people handling different things for different purposes. West does in fact have a degree in psychology, but it is from the Association of Humanistic Psychology, not the standard APA, and he explains in the text that he worked for the degree in order to better understand multiplicity in general as well as his own condition. He is not a practicing therapist. Compulsive Reader's Coral Hull reviews First Person Plural
Cameron West's Website |
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Title: A Rainbow for Patti
Author: Carol West
Publisher: Behavioral Science Center
ISBN: 0-938837-11-7
"The author's story of how and why a multiple personality develops is based on her own experience and was designed to explain this disorder to children who use this technique to survive."
21 Dec 2006: The author says: "Contrary to most of the books published on Multiple Personality Disorder, A Rainbow for Patti is a gentle, non-threatenting introduction to this disorder. It is written at a child's level, and is only 45 about pages, with several illustrations done by child selves. It is designed for therapists to use in introducing the subject to clients, as well as to help family and friends of those with MPD to understand the disorder. It does not mention abuse, and is not frightening in any manner. It is also a heart-warming story of self-acceptance, hope and inner strength.
"The book was professionallly published in 1993, but due to the publisher going out of business, I am now the distributor. I have more than 100 copies of the book, and they can be purchased by contacting me at az.curly.q @ hotmail . com. $14.95 includes S&H.
Title: The Multiple's Guide to Harmonized Family Living:
A Healthy Alternative, or Prelude, to Integration
Author: Tammy Whitman & Susan Shore
Publisher: Artistic Endeavors, Marina del Rey CA
ISBN: 188439003x
Quoting from Janus of the Gateway's review on Anita's Booklist:
"Presents an alternative approach to dealing with MP, emphasizing harmony among inner selves rather than casting off or integrating them into a single personality. Written by a person with MP, it gives suggestions on how to help your inner people get along better with each other with less friction and cross-purposes. Not a big book, easy to read (not filled with psycho-babble). Maybe not for everyone, but might be very appropriate for some? I liked it - it even made us smile sometimes! :)"
Click here to buy The Multiple's Guide to Harmonized Family Living
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Title: Nobody Nowhere Author: Donna Williams Publisher: Harper 1994 ISBN: 0380722178 Donna Williams coped with the very different, often confusing sensory input common to autism by relying on the fact that she was (and is) also multiple. Autism and multiplicity may have similar neurological bases. You may click here to buy this book direct from Jessica Kingsley Publishers. (Strongly recommended as Ms Williams tells us the publishers' editions of this book can be hard to get.) Click here to buy an audiocassette of "Nobody Nowhere" read by Debra Winger. Donna's Homepage Also you might be interested in Donna's author page at amazon.com and her amazon.com blog. |
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Title: Somebody Somewhere:
Breaking Free from the World of Autism Author: Donna Williams Publisher: Three Rivers 1995 ISBN: 0812925246 Williams describes her life after the publication of the first book and her experiences teaching special-needs children in her native Australia. You may click here to buy this book direct from Jessica Kingsley Publishers. (Strongly recommended as Ms Williams tells us the publishers' editions of this book can be hard to get.) For more information on what autism really is or can be, go to autistics.org. A Note on Autism by an anonymous, autistic reader
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Title: Autism: An Inside-Out Approach Author: Donna Williams Publisher: Jessica Kingsley 1996 ISBN: 1853023876 Williams takes this opportunity to criticize so-called therapies for autism based in stereotypes which limit the definition and abilities of autistics. She presents an exhaustive list of the different kinds of autism and therapies used to treat them, and also explains a bit more about her multiplicity. "Exploring autism from the inside, it shows clearly how the behaviours associated with autism can have a range of different causes, and in many cases reflect the autistic person's attempt to gain control over their internal world. The sensory and perceptual problems that challenge a person with autism are described in depth, together with strategies for tackling them so as to enable that person to take more control of their lives." Roguealleycat@amazon sez: "Some good descriptions. Debunks some myths, but sometimes replaces them with new ones. Treat with extreme caution, and ask an autie before applying the concepts to them or you could hurt them badly." |
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Title: Like Color to the Blind Author: Donna Williams Publisher: Times 1996 ISBN: 0385255950 Williams talks about her continuing activities related to her previous books, and about living in the everyday world, including her brief marriage to an autistic gentleman. If you want to understand more about the Irlen filters she wears to prevent sensory overload, read what she says about Irlens here (scroll down a bit). You may click here to buy this book direct from Jessica Kingsley Publishers. (Strongly recommended as Ms Williams tells us the publishers' editions of this book can be hard to get.)
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Title: Autism and Sensing: The Unlost Instinct Author: Donna Williams Publisher: Jessica Kingsley 1998 ISBN: 1853026123 "Expanding on themes of her previous book, Autism: An Inside-Out Approach, Donna Williams explains how the senses of a person with autism work, suggesting that they are 'stuck' at an early development stage common to everyone. She calls this the system of sensing, claiming that most people move on to the system of interpretation which enables them to make sense of the world. In doing so, as well as gaining the means of coping with the world, they lose various abilities which people with autism retain. She goes so far as to suggest that the constraints of space and time do not exist in the same way for autistic people, and that the emotional as well as the physical world is seen and therefore approached in a different way. The book provides a fascinating insight into the way that people with autism perceive the world, going into far more depth than Williams' previous books." A current theory of autism is that while neurotypical children develop a huge amount of neurons which "retire" after the kid is about two, the neurons of autistic children don't retire and remain active. This could account for some of Ms Williams' ideas explained above. Roguealleycat@amazon sez: "Theory on autistic developmental stages: sensing, interpretation, and significance. "Sensing" makes sense, the rest lose me. Take with a large metaphorical saltshaker rather than the usual grain." |
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Title: Exposure Anxiety - The Invisible Cage: An Exploration of Self-Protection Response in the Autism Spectrum Author: Donna Williams Publisher: Jessica Kingsley 2003 ISBN: 1843100517 "Exposure anxiety is increasingly understood as a crippling condition affecting a high proportion of people on the autism spectrum. To many it is an invisible cage, leaving the person suffering from it aware, but buried alive in their own involuntary responses and isolation.... Exposure Anxiety makes it hard to stand noticing you are noticing. It can make love a form of torture, repel you from the sound of your own voice, make you meaning deaf to your own words and those of others and compel you to avoid, divert from or retaliate against the very things that which most have the power to reach you." Roguealleycat@amazon sez: "Useful stuff interspersed with bad. Contains irresponsible promotion of a drug (no warnings about serious dangers) and the author applying her own ideas about autism and Asperger's to the rest of us."
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Title: Everyday Heaven: Journeys Beyond the Stereotypes of Autism Author: Donna Williams Publisher: Jessica Kingsley 2004 ISBN: 1843102110 Donna's fourth autobiography, covering the nine years after her divorce and describing her everyday life, explorations of her sexuality and orientation, dealing with the death of loved ones, and so on.
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Title: Not Just Anything Author: Donna Williams Publisher: Jessica Kingsley 2004 ISBN: 1843102285 This is Donna's journal. "A mosaic of logic, passion and philosophical musings by Donna Williams, sometimes jolting, sometimes moving, often illuminating. In it Donna takes you on a poetic adventure into places past, present and beyond. Often intertwined with the world of autistic experience, her writings divulge with immediacy, a person in the grip of overload and shutdowns, of extreme sensory and emotional highs and passions, of alienation from self, from body and fear of the intensity of emotion, of the struggle to know self, to communicate, to comprehend. At other times, her writing somehow transcends the often assumed limitations of autism, and she dissects so many of the concepts we take for granted, bringing us face to face with our own social constructions of 'reality' and so called 'normality' in a way only Donna can." |
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Title: The Jumbled Jigsaw: An Insider's Approach to the Treatment of Autistic "Fruit Salads" Author: Donna Williams Publisher: Jessica Kingsley 2005 ISBN: 1843102811 "The Jumbled Jigsaw exposes autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) not as single entities but as a combination of a whole range of often untreated, sometimes easily treatable, underlying conditions. Exploring everything from mood, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and tic disorders to information processing and sensory perceptual difficulties, including dependency issues, identity problems and much more, Donna demonstrates how a number of such conditions can combine to form a 'cluster condition' and underpin the label 'autism spectrum disorder'." |
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If you are interested in more books by autistic authors, try the Autistic Authors Booklist.
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Title: Aristoi Author: Walter J. Williams Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates; TOR SF, Sept. 1992 ISBN: 0812514092 |
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Read a review of Aristoi here
And another review here.
A brief look at the book and a couple of excerpts.
Title: All in the Mind? (also published as "Mind Out of Time?"
Author: Ian Wilson
Publisher: London: Gollancz, 1981
ISBN: 0575029684
We recommend this book for people who need a bit more critical thinking when it comes to claims of reincarnation or other psychic phenomena, and even multiplicity itself. Wilson, author of Jesus: The Evidence and Murder at Golgotha, is not a debunker, but does try to explore the possibility that we should not necessarily believe everything we read. Likewise, don't take him without a few grains of salt; we suspect him, not of sloppy research, but selective research. We think he's ignored some data which might show flaws in his theory.
Reincarnation? The Phenomena Which Seem To Suggest It By Filippo Liverziani. This article sources a lot of All in the Mind?, and other works concerning investigations of reincarnation and multiple personalities, so you can see the kinds of things Wilson reports on.
Click here to buy All in the Mind?
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Here are some book reviews at Dark Personalities, by Lemarath^Teresa.
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