Customer Reviews

A Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Anyone with experience with Multipal Personality Dissorder will recognise this book as a true account of DID....as experienced uniquely by one individual. While some readers may choose to see it as indulgent, or chide him for softpedaling the details of his childhood abuse, none the less it reflects the experience of DID in a manner that those who personally confront this dissorder will surely recognise.

The puzzlingly intense reactions that...simply the concept of DID itself seems to arouse in others (see reviews above for various examples) seems reason enough for Oxnam to have avoided writing about his experiences. One can certainly imagine where his professional reputation has very little to gain as a result of daring to write about a topic that continues to remain so unsettling to so many.

But whatever his personal motivations, Oxnam deserves the thanks of others with DID for bringing to the publics' attention the fact that even well-respected and "acomplished individuals" can suffer from this much-missunderstood condition.

And not be afraid to admit it.

Although I don't live under a rock, prior to purchasing "A Fractured Mind," I don't recall having ever heard of Robert B. Oxnam. Having now finished reading his book, I believe I won't have any such trouble remembering either his name or his story.

First, I'd like to say that I have deep respect for Mr. Oxnam for going through with making his story and struggles known to the public--myself included. This was a courageous move on his part and I hope there are no regrets for any and all involved in the project.

On, now, to the story. For the first section of this book, Oxnam told a lot of--what I thought at the time--standard family background, academic and work-related information, and showcased an obvious alcohol problem. I wondered if I was missing something or if they'd gotten the name of the book wrong. Once Oxnam began treatment and then therapy for alcoholism, things started to fall into place for me as a reader and I was amazed at how successful this man had become in spite of what I now know were serious mental and physical problems.

I've read the book and seen the movie "Sybil" and was expecting this to run roughly the same course: in-depth coverage of the abuse that caused the original and subsequent dissociation, tales of bickering alters and integration, and a somewhat tidy ending. Imagine my surprise and confusion when the trauma Oxnam had suffered was discussed about the middle of the book. I cringed, thinking that all the dirty details would be chronicled throughout the second half; I was wrong. In a savvy move, the abuse was mostly alluded to, with only a few key events mentioned (no salacious content here). What the reader is left with is Oxnam's basic reaction--as an adult--to what happened to him as a child nearly fifty years earlier. For me, this had a more powerful impact than had everything been laid out.

What surprised me again was that the story wasn't over after that. True to the title, this actually IS about Oxnam's "Life With Multiple Personality Disorder," and is told with honesty and a clear aim to show what living with the disorder is really like, including the ugly parts. It's about how the daily grind, work, marriage and family, fits into and is affected by one man who is now the collective whole of three distinct personalities. The story of Robert B. Oxnam, Bobby, and Wanda does not end with the conclusion of "A Fractured Mind;" how can it? He isn't "cured" in the typical sense of that fairytale happy ending, yet he does seem to be quite healthy at the end--in my lay and humble opinion.

At first I wasn't sure why anyone without a professional interest in multiple personality disorder would want to read this book--an autobiographical account by an MPD sufferer of his multi-decade struggle with MPD. Yet this turned out to be, first of all, a well-told and absolutely gripping story. And while Dr. Oxnam faced challenges that are orders-of-magnitude greater than most of us, he comes across not as a freak but as an intelligent and feeling person struggling to understand himself. In that sense, the book goes to the heart of the human experience. Dr. Oxnam shows an almost impossible courage not only in coming to grips with MPD but in sharing publicly the intimate details of his personal hejira. I came away feeling the greatest admiration for Dr. Oxnam, and much richer for having read this book.

Doctor Robert Oxnam goes on a boat ride near the beginning of this book - one that has the contours of an escape. Yet, in a very real sense this whole story "A Fractured Mind" is a sea voyage and a sea change, an Odyssey in the traditon of Homer's great work. Like Homer, Oxnam is a blind bard until the fragmented pieces of his own soul come home for a reckoning.
Before he becomes aware of the other people living inside his skull he is that strange figure caught in a song by the Beatles "He's a real nowhere man". There is something hollow yet implacably driven about his life. He consists of ambitions and cravings as he dashes meaninglessly through the existential void of his life. Compelled to deal with his alcoholism or be destroyed it is only a matter of time before the uncanny something that has bewildered his life manifests one day in his therapists office as a small boy.
Before that there are warning signs like intimations of doom across his life. Why does he suffer these strange "blank spots" in his memories? Most sceptics of Dissociative Identity Disorder irrationally believe that therapists magically create alter egos and memories in their clients - where this profoundly idiotic point of view comes from is beyond me. But in any case Oxnam's therapist does not create the symptoms Oxnam experiences before therapy and before the revelation of the first alter.
From the revelation of the first alter Oxnam's life ceases to become a mere wandering or a mere drive for an empty success in his field. Properly speaking it becomes a pilgrimage - an actual journey and a true sea change into self-knowledge and self-presence, out of an irresponsible careerism into a deep responsiblity for himself and others.
An earlier reviewer asserts that Oxnam invented his own MPD to deal with his only "moderately successful career." That must be one of the more stupid excuses for denying a multiple's story I've yet heard. Obviously the questions raised about the normal human soul and personal identity by the fact of multiplicity are still quite unsettling to some very weak minded people even though we now live in the twenty first century and it ought to be obvious to everyone now that the human soul is wondrously strange and that we hardly know ourselves and what treasures of darkness exist within us.
What ever the case may be we owe a debt to Doctor Robert Oxnam who has set his pen and heart to paper true. It is sojourners and survivors like him who summon up the deepest courage to deal with life as it is unlike the nervous scorners who run for the shadows like the scared people they are.
May the odyssey of Robert Oxnam fare forward and fare well.

Oxnam lends excellent credibility to the bizarre malady of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) -- a complex syndrome of disintegrated personalities within one's self. He makes an assertion near the outset of the book that we all may have a limited influence of this type of dissociative disorder.

For instance, a close friend had a sledding accident and hit his head on some ice. He no longer felt like sledding and checked his wallet, then drove home. He made it home, but all he remembers is placing his key in the ignition, then waking up in the middle of a CAT scan. Fact: Our brain tells our hands to turn a stearing wheel, but who tells the brain, to tell the arm, to turn?

Latency is a scary neurosis of consideration, as to how commonly we all come to having similar distortions in everyday life. There is a video clip of a man driving into a train in the wee hours of the morning but smiling during the whole event. Usually depressed people kill themselves. Turns out, this train was out of schedule and this particular fellow took the same route every day after work. It is believed that he never actually saw the train. Are we going through life much of the time on auto-pilot? Is having a 'presence of mind' something that has to be worked at? How often do we 'zone out'?

This book is a great account of repairing the many facets of one's life by integrating the personalities and finding catharsis. Oxnam, an accomplished professional, candidly shares his life's experience with this non-chemical, socio-pathic imbalance.

I don't give out five stars lightly. This was one of the most interesting books I've read in a long time. It's a fascinating glimpse into reality as perceived by someone with multiple personalities. The story is told from the varying perspectives of the different identities; each is unique but yet also part of a cognitive whole. I couldn't put it down. Truly amazing.

I read this book a few months ago and initially did a review of it for my news letter. For several years I have been fascinated with Dissociative Identity Disorder and have read many books and case studies about it over time. I was intrigued with "A fractured mind"and how the remaining three alters of the author collaborated to write an inside account of this disorder. Robert B. Oxnam was not the first one whose alters collaborated to write a book about his experiences with it. I am sure several people can recall Truddi Chases long book " When Rabbit Holwes" which was Authored by Truddi and The Troops, which is what she called her inner system. Truddi Chase had ninety alter personalities. Anyway, back to the book A fractured Mind. What I think certain critics should understand is that when dealing with a book written by a person with DID you are not hearing or reading the voice of just one person or author. You are hearing /reading the voice of what could be several authors. One person who complained about the profanity used in A Fractured Mind should have taken this fact into account. It was not the "voice" of Robert B.Oxnam that was using profanity but that of one of his Alters. Probably it was the voice of one of the angry ones. It could have been the Witch or Tommy. It could have been the internal voice that Oxnam took in from one of his abusers as the witch was. Robert Oxnam internalized his abusers messages and that is how the witch was created. The Witch was the voice and image of one of the people who abused him. The abuser who claimed to be a witch when she abused him. His being so young at the time he believed her and didn't know that she was lying to him about being a witch just to frighten a young boy into submission. I believe even after a person with DID has been integrated that it is still impossible to access all the painful memories of the abuse that caused the condition in the first place. We all have internal filters that block and repress memories that are perhaps too painful and detrimental for our psyches to handle. I do not have DID but I also do not have a full range of memories of my childhood. Whether or not to integrate or to work towards integration is an extremely personal choice for the person who has DID and the process can be very painful and long from what I have read about it. Some people with this condition do choose to cooperate with each individual alter rather than integrate into one personality while others choose to go the route of integration. Whatever the decision or choice of the person with DID he should not be scrutanized for it and his choice of therapy should be respected. As fascinating as this condition is it is extremely difficult to live with and deal with. I think those with DID who have written reviews for this book should support each persons' odyssey into wholeness or cooperation rather than pick a part one persons story and journey. Everyone with DID should intergrate with each other and support one another as this condition needs all the understanding, compassion and empathy it can get as well as the people who have to live with it. I fully enjoyed and was fascinated with a Fractured Mind. Also I should stress that A fractured Mind is a book meant for Adults and not children. The subject matter and nature of the abuse suffered by the author when he was a baby maybe too difficult for children to read. There is nothing pleasant about child abuse or abuse of any form and to require the author to clean up the language of one of his alters would not do justice to the book and his story. In fact to do so would take a way some of the validity of the book and the authors story and experiences. I for one highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know what the world is really like to some and not a cleaned up version of it. I was simply fascinated by Robert B. Oxnam's book and I think those with an open mind would be too.

Robert Oxnam's story is truly unbelievable. As I read the book, I tried terribly hard to imagine myself in Robert's place, and was unable to do so. The story is very well written, having been broken into sections by the personality speaking at the time. As I read the story... the story of 11 personalities becoming a mere 3... I was completely unable to put the book down. A story that will make your jaw drop in awe... a story that will make you think... a story that will make you wonder... -- this book is completely worth your time.

This book, about the author's journey to understand and meet his different personalities, is well written and easy to read. It made me wondered how we develope our own personalities and become who we are. His psychiatrist offers an interesting and enlightening post script on dissociative identity disorder (DID). Lots of food for thought - an interesting read.

This was the first story on MPD I read, and it fueled my interest in this disorder. I first heard of MPD from some show on Discovery I think...a man murdered his daughter and doctors claimed he had MPD.

I picked up this book thinking that I would really be all over this book, and I was not dissapointed. Just by reading the first paragraph I was automatically sucked into Robert B. Oxnam's world and was in awe of his story.

One who picks up this book will not be dissapointed in the least. It is a great read, and I recommend it for all with an interest in psychology.