Customer Reviews

The Minds of Billy Milligan

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I am a psychiatrist who subspecializes in working with patients with dissociative disorders. I read this book several years ago gave my copy to a colleague -- never to see it again. When I tried to replace it, it was out of print. I was crushed.

I loved it the first time and I love it even more this time. The author does such a fine job of using all of his skills to bring out the experience of multiplicity. It is a tremendous contribution to both professionals and the public. Just as in the story there were many people who didn't "believe" in the diagnosis -- even now, over 20 years later, there are still psychiatrists who are saying the same thing. It is a disgrace that people are so ignorant.

I couldn't help wondering at the end of the very sad story, "where is Billy Milligan today?" Dr. David Caul has died -- may he rest in peace. What an incredibly courageous soul he was to accept the challenge of steadfastly standing by Billy against harassment which would have brought almost anyone else down.

This book is so educational that no one should miss it.

Wow! I just finished reading this book, and I am completely blown away!

"The Minds of Billy Milligan" is about a young man with multiple personality disorder, the crimes a few of his personalities committed, and the mostly horrendous treatment he endured while trying to find help for his mental disability.

One of the crimes committed was that of rape, the other was stealing. Although I must admit that the crime of rape is horrific, it seems as if neither the court, politicians, nor the media cared about the reasons it happened. All that was focused on was punishment, at the expense of trying to help this man get better, and to learn to be a functioning person is society. It is really quite sad!!!

Unfortunately, I think that if the same thing happened today, the results would be similar. We, as a society, are so worried about making sure that everyone receives their just punishment, that we don't stop to see if there is a reason for the disconnect - a reason for why people in our society do these things. Maybe if we would focus our attention on the "whys", and how to provide EFFECTIVE treatment, we would find ourselves in a much better place.

Overall, I found this book to be both sad & thought provoking. I found myself getting angry at the reporters who sought to bring him down every time he was starting to show progress, as well as toward the politicians who used him as a bargaining chip to gain more votes - quite unhonestly, I found this to be disgusting behavior as well!

I would recommend this book to anyone intersted in psychology - specifically multiple personality disorder - it is a real eye opener!

As with any work of non-fiction, we should allow ourselves to believe as much or as little as we wish to what the author(s) has to reveal in the story. I found this book to be an extraordinary account of the life of a young man living with MPD and the struggles he faced both personally and in society.

Although the crimes Billy committed while under alter peronalities are unexcusable, it's both sad and appalling to know that the justice system in this country can be so cruel.

The conclusion left me wanting to know more of what Billy's life may be like today. Unlike other books about MPD where the so-called victims receive a great deal of therapy to mesh their different personalities into one, this book offers a different end to perhaps becoming whole.

For anyone interested in MPD, this is a great read to add to his/her library.

I first read The Minds of Billy Milligan in 11th grade after my english teacher recommended it to me. I read the entire book in one sitting! I could not put it down. It is an amazing portrayal of a man from Ohio who has multiple personalities. It is uniquely written from the different perspectives of each personality, and gives you an intimate look into the life of a very abused and disturbed man. I would like warn parents that the book is quite graphic, and deals with rape and violence quite bluntly. It is definitely NOT for very young readers. I do feel that anyone interested in psychological disorders should check this book out.

I read this book in 1991 when I was a crisis counselor in Ohio. It dispelled some of my views on mental illness and substance abuse, i.e. how only one of his personalities was a drug addict which, to me, dispelled my belief that drug addiction was not a physical dependency but apparantly a mental one. Unfortunately I was so enthused over this books and the way it delved into what a person with MPD went through I lent it to many collogues and lost track of it and thus no longer have it and I have been trying for several years to obtain another one. Once you start it you cannot put it down until finished. I met someone at a conference in Cincinnati, Ohio who knew this man and we discussed how he was doing. At that time his personalities were still fused and he worked for the Ohio Dept. of MH as a janitor.

The Minds of Billy Milligan
Daniel Keyes, Random House, 1981 (reissued by Bantam as mass market paperback, 1999)

In 1977 a series of abductions and rapes in Ohio were followed by the arrest of William Stanley Milligan, who was assigned a public defender by the court. Milligan, who had previously been convicted of rape and armed robbery, was given a routine psychological evaluation by prosecution-friendly psychiatrists who quickly concluded that something was seriously wrong - that Milligan, in fact, had multiple personality disorder. Milligan eventually became the first multiple to receive a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict in a criminal trial.

I read this book originally as an adolescent, and recently picked it up again, curious if the book would hold the same power as an adult. I was pleasantly surprised. Daniel Keyes - author of the classic Flowers for Algernon - wrote this book in a fashion that takes the reader inside the mind of a remarkable, fascinating human being.

Each of Billy Milligan's 23 distinct personalities had their own voice, their own histories, their own character (or lack thereof) - they were different people, quite literally. Keyes captures this well, making it possible to clearly envision all of these people running around inside the body of one man. His further account of attempts to treat Milligan and "fuse" his personalities was even more fascinating.

Keyes is a solid novelist with a very good grasp of what happens inside people's hearts and minds. Applying those skills to a non-fiction, "true-crime" book, he has produced a masterpiece.

I was very disappointed to learn that the "sequel," the Milligan Wars, has only been published in Japanese and will not be available in North America until the movie based on the first book comes out. This book apparently covers what happened to Milligan after 1981 and the end of the first book. Based on what I could find on the web, no one really knows when or if the movie will actually be made, which means no one knows when or if the second book will be published.

A fascinating read and highly recommended.

The minds of Billy Milligan is a compelling, great book. I read from start to finish not putting it down. I am anxious for the movie and sequal to come out in America. the movie is going to be called a crowded room and the sequal, already out in Japan, is the milligan wars.

My mother in-law was actually responsible for Billy Milligan while he was in the Athens State hospital in Ohio. I've had a chance to read this book, and although very good, what my mother-in-law tells me is much, much different.

She cared for him during his entire stay there. She said that he had more psychology and parapsychology books in his room than she could have ever imagined. She also said that his IQ was off the charts. She believes (and she has a doctorate in psychology) he only has FOUR distinct personalities. Raven being one of them. Billy had the abilitiy and knowledge to manipulate his condition, making it appear much more severe.

Of course, she can't write anything about this, because Billy's publicist made everyone caring for him sign a waiver saying they wouldn't. Yes... Billy Milligan has a publicist.

He also was a millionaire (because he exploited his disease) and drove a corvette on the weekends they let him go home.... yep... they let Billy Milligan have weekends.

This book is a very good interpretaion on what could possibly been going on in Billy's head. However, after talking with someone who was actually there, and knew him well.... makes me second guess the validity of it.

This is an incredible book. It takes you through the harrowing, depressing mind of Billy Milligan. It amazes me so much that it's a true story. I guess sometimes, fact is better than fiction. It's my favorite book - a must-read if you have any interest at all in psychology.

What a shame that this wonderful book ever went out of print. Set largely in Athens, Ohio, where I went to college, it was written by one of my former instructors, Daniel Keyes. Keyes is most famous for having written "Flowers For Algnernon." Keyes made the most of working with what was right under his nose with this book. Billy Milligan, you see, was assigned to the Athens mental asylum, after his trial on multiple rape in Columbus, Ohio. There, Milligan was able to work with an extraordinary psychiatrist who was able to diagnose and treat him for having multiple personalities inside himself, many of them not knowing what the other "person" was doing. Milligan was also discovered as a big artistic talent while being treated at the asylum and sold many of the paintings he did there as an Outsider artist. The book is absolutely gripping. You won't be able to put it down. Although it is non-fiction, it reads like the best of fiction because Keyes is a fiction writer.