Customer Reviews

Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder

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4 star:		(1)
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This book helped us to understand ourselves better. We read this book in search of things that we could relate to that might be similar to our own experiences. It speaks of signs and characteristics that multiples display that we found very much the same as our own life. Really helped in our acceptance of the diagnosis.

I found Dr. Putnam's book to be helpful in very real ways. Not only did he go into the anatomy of the disorder -- and there were plenty of things I disagreed with given my insights into my own experiences with myself and other multiples -- but he went into helpful methodologies for exploration and treatment. He was respectful that multiples do not need to integrate. He mentioned that not all entities in a multiple's head are human-identified. These were critical to me. I don't expect that any one book would get "everything right" for such a complicated, unusual, and ill-understood mental landscape. What I do expect is that people who write about it write from either a wealth of experience, clinical understanding, personal experience, or bountiful qualifications that they are merely stating their opinion. Dr. Putnam has a wealth of observational and clinical experience to share, and his own personal experience with people he is helping. I take each individual statement as a possibility within the wide and deep realm of multiple personality, but I do not apply his individual statements to individuals. Individuals and their expressions of multiple personality vary widely. I have my own perceptions and insights and share them at kinhost.org. Dr. Putnam gives me a book I enjoy arguing with -- and quoting. I would venture to say there's no better book for a clinician to familiarize themself with the phenomenon and possible ways to explore it from a clinical standpoint, but I would also tell you that your experience of any one individual with multiple personalities is not easily reflected by ANY one book. Read away, but then be prepared for any individual multiple to go "out of bounds".

This book is full of vital information for therapists treating people with DID.
Well worth every penny !

I find this book well-researched and written. It provides an extremely thorough overview for clinicians about what was known at the time of its writing about the diagnosis and treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder (currently called Dissociative Identity Disorder) as well as the history of trying to understand DID. Psychotherapists like me who don't specialize in DID need to recognize this condition and its symptoms in order to refer clients to those with sufficient experience to treat it or to get consultation for doing so if we must. I believe that understanding this condition can also help us understand the separate ego states that most people have, which store our responsiveness to emotionally impactful experiences, and the idea that personality is not necessarily unitary (consider the object relations school of psychoanalysis, for instance).

Contrary to other reviewers who have said the author is disrespectful of women or that he suggests all those suffering DID must be integrated, the author is humble about these issues. He states that more women than men may be diagnosed with DID because men suffering the disorder may more often find themselves encountering the criminal justice system instead of being treated in mental health settings. (I would add that more girls than boys are, unfortunately, sexually abused, which may help account for more women suffering such severe trauma that they develop DID.) He also suggests that full integration is not as valuable a goal as is helping clients achieve higher functioning and better communication across the personality system. He adds that therapy is considered only partially done once someone with DID has achieved apparent fusion and much work needs to be done in mourning and in accommodating oneself to the stresses of living in the world with a wider variety of coping mechanisms than dissociative ones alone.

Read it, you will know why. Putnam adresses a great deal of issues that a therapist may encounter, and truly gives both the Therapist and the paitent hope.

I wanted to read this book, because I read " Thanks for the Memories " by Brice Taylor first. The more education on this subject the better... because awareness about this problem is growing. This book gives some important insight and much needed answers !

Dr. Putnam has himself admitted that the occurrence of MPD is much less prevelant than formerly believed. How many women, who have very likely been traumatized by early events in their lives, have undergone further trauma and torment via psychotherapy treatment of this disorder?

Here is a therapy consisting of revictimization. Not only is the client induced to relive traumatic events, they are encouraged to believe in events that may not have taken place. Throughout the therapy, both the client and therapist dwell in this nightmarish world of make-believe where it is possible for alters to develop in a second upon the command of the therapist. Total reliance on the therapist is one of the unstated goals of this type of therapy.

According to Dr. Putnam, after the client has gotten a basic medical workup she should be discouraged from seeking further medical care. . At the same time many of those diagnosed with MPD by Dr. Putnam have serious headaches. One wonders if this is before or after the therapy sessions. This book written in 1989 does not address the many developments for treating headaches and hormonal symptoms of women. Sometimes psychic torment can reflect unresolved physical pain.

He would be well advised to chuck these dated dangerous theories and write a new text which would incorporate information about the psychobiology of trauma, but which would also show respect for women. A text which would encourage therapists to not dismiss the physical pains and possible medical problems of women who have experienced stressful or traumatic events in their lives.

Weell, Dr. Putnam "confirmed" a diagnosis of MPD on me in the '80's through his "brain-wave tests". Many painful years later, I realized the "MPD" had been created by the desire to please a "therapist" who wanted a multiple to rival Truddi Chase.
Putnam's book is a handbook on how to be a multiple--read it and become--it is readable and logical to someone who is looking for MPD. Reading it again after many years, I found it's logic inconsistent and scientifically doubtful.