Elizabeth Stark

This review was written by Elizabeth Stark of Psychology Today. She is no longer working for them, but you may be able to reach her by contacting the magazine. Click here to visit Psychology Today's contact information page. We are not in contact with Ms. Stark and do not know her email address. The views expressed in this article are Ms. Stark's, not ours.

Multiple-personality disorder is an affliction that fascinates and yet invites skepticism. Its symptoms are so bizarre that even some mental-health professionals doubt its existence and attribute the behavior to accomplished acting.

When Rabbit Howls (E.P. Dutton, $18.95), the story about the 92 personalities of a woman called Truddi Chase, is sure to raise these conflicting feelings. This shocking tale tests the bounds of credulity at every turn. Not only are we asked to accept these 92 personalities (some as yet unidentified) but also Chase's "powers", such as mental telepathy and the emission of an energy level that disrupts the circuitry of electrical appliances.

The book was written by "the Troops", the collective name the personalities have given themselves. They include such members as Mean Joe, a black man who defends and protects the others; Sister Mary Catherine, who tries to repress all thoughts of sexuality; the Recorder, a member with photographic recall (very handy when you're writing a book); Sewer Mouth, who keeps the narrative peppered with profanity; and Rabbit, a child without language who howls with the memory of being raped at the age of 2.

The Troops begin the tale when Chase, unaware of the others who inhabited her body, entered therapy with Robert Phillips, a psychotherapist in suburban Washington, D.C. Chase suffered from overpowering headaches, confusion and tremendous gaps in her memory. She had no recollection of the 14 years of sexual and psychological abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather and mother. In fact, she seemed totally innocent of the details surrounding sex, despite the fact that she had a daughter.

Phillips, whom the Troops dubbed "Stanley", soon began to suspect that Chase was a multiple. The book compresses their six years of therapy into nine months, following the doctor's and patient's gradual awareness of the 92 personalities.

These various personalities reveal themselves throughout the manuscript -- interrupting, supporting and arguing with each other. The writing style shifts radically at times, reflecting the personality of whoever is speaking. (For instance, one member, Ean, an Irish poet, writes in a kind of brogue.) Authorship by 92 people may also be the reason the book is by turns horrifying, compelling, funny, repetitive or dull.

In both the introduction and epilogue, Phillips is at pains to remind us that, unlike previous books on multiples such as The Three Faces of Eve and Sybil, this book was actually written by the patient. But he clearly had tremendous influence on, if not input into, the manuscript. Large sections are told from his point of view and describe his thoughts and feelings, as well as private conversations and phone calls. If Phillips did not help with these sections and the Troops simply created them, the authenticity of the entire story becomes even more questionable.

Making things even more suspect is the admission by Chase that some supporting characters, such as the expert with whom Phillips consults on the case, are fictitious. We also discover that the ending to the book, a fantastic act of revenge on the stepfather, was simply a cathartic story told for the sake of "the children".

If taken at face value, When Rabbit Howls offers an extremely disturbing tale. Many researchers believe that multiple personality develops as a way to cope with early incest and child abuse. In Chase's instance, the abuse completely destroyed her core personality; the woman who presented herself as Truddi Chase had no memory or personality of her own.

The Troops repeatedly claim that their purpose in telling their story is to open the public's eyes to the atrocities of incest and sexual abuse. Certainly no one could finish this book with anything less than total revulsion for Chase's abuse. What she suffered at the hands of her stepfather would challenge the imagination of the sickest and most perverted mind. But the story will probably be much more influential in piquing people's curiosity about the complicated mystery of multiple personality.

In previous well-known case of multiples, such as Eve and Sybil, the various personalities were finally integrated into one core personality. But in Truddi Chase's case, the Troops refused integration. They demanded of Phillips, "Whom would you choose among us to live beyond that integration? Whom would you kill?'

In the epilogue Phillips tells us that since he first saw Chase in 1980, "there is evidence of increased functioning . . . and a greater acceptance of who they are and how their multiplicity works for them." Despite this improvement, the prospect of a shell of a woman forever inhabited by 92 personalities remains disturbing.

Elizabeth Stark is an associate editor at Psychology Today.