In "Multiple Personality Disorder from the Inside Out," 146 people who have MPD and their siginficant others reveal the complex issues of diagnosis, therapy, and maintaining personal relationships. These writings have been gathered into a compelling and practical volime for anyone interested in improving the support network for individuals who suffer with MPD.
The relationship between two teenage girls who become acquainted through letters intensifies as their correspondence reveals some of the terrible problems of their lives.
With its simple, respectful, user-friendly tone, the first edition of Inside Out and Outside In quickly became a beloved book among mental health practitioners in a variety of disciplines. The second edition continues in this tradition with chapters revised to reflect the most current theory and clinical practice. In addition, it offers exciting new chapters, on attachment, relational, and intersubjective theories, respectively, as well as on trauma.
The diagnosis of multiple personality disorder (MPD) entered the clinical mainstream with a rapidity and in a manner atypical for new descriptions of psychiatric illness. This book contains the most up-to-date information on MPD available written by experts in this field. The first section is a memorial to Cornelia B. Wilbur, M.D., a pioneer in MPD treatment. It is full of personal accounts from people who knew her well. The second section deals with general issues in the treatment of MPD. It discusses basic principles in conducting the psychotherapy of MPD, posttraumatic and dissociative phenomena in transference and countertransference, and treatment of MPD as a posttraumatic condition. The third section goes on to give case studies that illustrate the application of techniques, approaches, and insights that are considered important in the treatment of MPD patients but are difficult to learn because they have not been documented in detail in the literature. Methods discussed include the use of Amytal interviews, play therapy, egoûstate therapy, and the use of sand trays. The last section of the book discusses some of the contemporary concerns in the field (including consultation in the public psychiatric sector and the incidence of eating disorders in MPD patients), and on the recent history of the study of MPD.
This is the true story of a woman with sixteen personalities - two of whom were men - and her struggle, against overwhelming odds, for health and happiness.
In 1989, Robert B. Oxnam, the successful China scholar and president of the Asia Society, faced up to what he thought was his biggest personal challenge: alcoholism. But this dependency masked a problem far more serious: Multiple Personality Disorder. At the peak of his professional career, after having led the Asia Society for nearly a decade, Oxnam was haunted by periodic blackouts and episodic rages. After his family and friends intervened, Oxnam received help from a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Smith, and entered a rehab center. It wasn't until 1990 during a session with Dr. Smith that the first of Oxnam's eleven alternate personalities--an angry young boy named Tommy--suddenly emerged. With Dr. Smith's help, Oxnam began the exhausting and fascinating process of uncovering his many personalities and the childhood trauma that caused his condition. This is the powerful and moving story of one person's struggle with this terrifying illness. The book includes an epilogue by Dr. Smith in which he describes Robert's case, the treatment, and the nature of multiple personality disorder. Robert's courage in facing his situation and overcoming his painful past makes for a dramatic and inspiring book.
A compelling true story of one woman's battle with the aftermath of childhood trauma, which gives a gripping account of the often controversial and misunderstood condition of dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). This emotional but ultimately uplifting journey details the unforeseen twists and turns of the effects of therapy and how it can help in coming to terms with the past and its unsettling echoes in the present. Heartwarming and lucid, it's an inspiring tale for all to read. Through its clinical rigour, professional therapists will also gain insight into the various treatment options for DID, including the innovative use of energy therapy. The book contains 32 colour illustrations, including 24 drawings by The Girls. The star of this book is an extraordinary, bright-spirited, and entertaining six-year-old girl, called Little Vivvi, who experienced shocking abuse from members of her family. Yet Little Vivvi lives within Vivian, a middle-aged woman who has struggled with DID for many years. The challenging process of psychotherapy is laid bare, as Little Vivvi wrestles with overwhelming memories of childhood abuse. Alongside talking therapy, energy treatment, which she calls Wooshing, is utilised to astonishing effect, becoming the enigmatic ingredient that finally enables Little Vivvi to find relief from the distress and fear that had dominated her existence. As therapy seems to draw to a close, Izzy appears. A very sensitive, thoughtful and mature eight-year-old, Izzy too needs love, support and treatment to speak about her trauma. After overcoming her understandable distrust, Izzy enables an exceptional ending to the therapeutic journey, far beyond anything Vivian and her therapist, Gill, could have dreamed. Little Vivvi and Izzy will make you want to laugh out loud as well as cry. Their story teaches so much about suffering, dissociation and survival. Their aim is to enlighten, inspire and offer hope to others through reading their incredible tales, which reveal the astonishing power of The Girls within.
Books about Multiple Personality Disorder have usually been written by mental health professionals as texts or case studies. Now, in Becoming One, author Sarah Olson has allowed us the rare privilege of entering her internal world as she journeys from fragmentation to wholeness.Two little girls, the author and her sister, were routinely terrorized and assaulted over a period of years by a family friend. One grew up closed and withdrawn, the other angry and self-destructive. And, most painful of all, their common suffering resulted in estrangement from each other. Becoming One began as Olson's attempt to provide a written account of her memories for her sister as a possible means of reconciliation and family healing.Olson argues that Multiple Personality Disorder (recently re-christened Dissociative Identity Disorder), rather than being a form of insanity as is popularly believed, is actually a brilliant coping mechanism relied upon in the most desperate of circumstances. It is nearly universally associated with severe trauma suffered by very young children and reveals a highly creative, terrified young mind doing whatever needs to be done to survive in an untenable world. The author's courage and generosity in candidly sharing her remarkable experiences afford an invaluable understanding of the effects of severe childhood abuse, and provides important insights into the world of dissociation.Through selected journal writings, letters, and transcripts of recorded therapy sessions, she highlights the role psychotherapy played in her recovery. Here is at once a highly personal look into an individual life, the dynamics of a troubled family, and the healing power of the therapeuticprocess.
