Customer Reviews

More Than One: An Inside Look at Multiple Personality Disorder

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This is a book I have lent to several people to introduce them to the complex world of dissociative identity disorder, (formerly called multiple personality disorder). Those who have read it have come to a sound, positive understanding of the disorder. Through its gentle treatment of the topic, the fears of others have been allayed and I have been able to show others my true selves. The book is an easy, fast read, written for the general public. I'm sad to find that the book is out-of-print; it has been a great resource!

Did you know that when someone has "multiple personalities", each personality can be allergic to DIFFERENT foods, or require completely different eye glasses in order to read, or even not have diabetes when another personality does? Don't ask me to explain it, but each personality is, in every sense, a completely different person. This is why I do not refer to this phenomenon as a "disorder". Although, a person with multiple personalities will have difficulties dealing with life that others do not have, in many other ways their coping skills are far superior to those with only one "personality".

I can speak about the subject of multiple personalities from personal experience because I was married to someone I loved very much who had multiple personalities. I was fortunate to have found this book at a very early point in our relationship because it enabled me to understand something that would have otherwise been incomprehensible. After I read this book, I wanted to learn more and bought several other books on this subject. However, nothing came close to providing as good an understanding as this book. I can't recommend it highly enough.

I am familiar with D.I.D.- What M.P.D. is now called. I have recommended this book several times. There are those who think multiplicity is rare. Not so! This book gave an easy to understand explanation of this disorder. It includes an indepth look into the family dynamics that contribute to this disorder. I find it very helpful in better understanding how abuse affects the entire family and how all members of the family are contributors to it. We need to be educated in this area and I found this book helped me to achieve that. I highly recommend it.

I must admit that I have not fully read this book yet, but have merely browsed it out of curiosity after purchasing it. I bought it as I am intensely interested in the dynamics of DID (dissociative identity disorder, formerly--and at the time of this book's publication--known as MPD) and wished to acquire some of the better-known and/or more authoritative or comprehensive books on the subject. Me not having fully read the book yet should be taken into account when perusing this review, since I normally wouldn't submit one without reading the book.

That being said, although the book is written in an accessible, conversational style with lots of case examples to make the disorder easier to understand, there's a chapter near the end, focusing on "Of God & Evil," in which the author clearly states her Christian background, her belief in evil, and her use of the Bible and prayer in her practice--even going so far as to agree that treating multiples is "spiritual warfare." Even as someone who is not multiple, I see such a chapter as potentially triggering and unfortunate for one who is NOT Christian as the author is. To quote one part, "Bible study is another valuable tool for patients. When they read the Bible, they read about everything from demon possession to people with severe emotional problems. These stories reflect the power of God to deal with even the most evil and destructive forces. Patients are comforted to know that they have hope to be free, and the Bible stories are a witness to people making miraculous changes"--what of patients who are not Christian, and not only do not believe in the Bible as the word of God, but have been mistreated by people identifying as "Christian"? I skimmed through this chapter hoping the author would make reference to patients who are not Christian, to see how treatment with them could progress--are different holy books/creeds used to comfort patients of different faiths, or is a more secular approach taken for atheist/agnostic patients, for example?--but there was no such mention that I could see. The book makes reference to Satanic ritual abuse (RA/SRA) as a potential cause of DID in earlier chapters so I found this disheartening; there are also Christian cults and Christian abusers who can do such things--in fact, child abuse by people identifying as Christian is likely more widespread than abuse by people identifying as Satanists--and not every patient is going to respond well to a faith-based approach, so I had hoped the author could be more inclusive of such patients. As a result, non-Christian multiples who read this book may feel left out and slighted.

I also find the belief in "true evil" to be potentially dangerous, as this belief can lead people to externalize "true evil" as something that is not within them and scapegoat others they see as "evil"--without realizing that everyone has the potential for good or evil. Seeing things in terms of "black OR white" is itself a form of splitting--breaking complex things down so they don't conflict, cutting them off from each other so that integration and wholeness can't result. When people start to fixate on the existence of "true evil," they tend to split it off from themselves, and it becomes all too easy to see it anywhere but within oneself. It wasn't that long ago that a multiple would have been seen as possessed (as mentioned in this book) and have been regarded as evil themselves.

I was unaware of the religious overtones when buying the book as these are not mentioned anywhere in the item description; otherwise I might not have bought it, as I'm more interested in either a secular or more spiritually inclusive approach to treatment. I'll attempt to take the non-religious chapters at face value as being informative and helpful to patients and those wishing to learn, but the religious-based section puts a damper on a fully positive review. This chapter is probably good for Christian readers, but I'd recommend skipping it if one is not of this faith.

In addition, the author's statements regarding her faith can somewhat nullify her comments on Satanic ritual abuse, which, unfortunately, is frequently disbelieved and considered a belief of "fundamentalist Christians" embarking on a Satan scare. I am not Christian, and do not believe in widespread RA/SRA, but I do believe it COULD happen and it's dangerous to completely write it off as nonexistent. A good book to look at on this subject is Colin Ross's Satanic Ritual Abuse: Principles of Treatment from the same author as one of the most definitive books on DID out there today ( Dissociative Identity Disorder: Diagnosis, Clinical Features, and Treatment of Multiple Personality (Wiley Series in General and Clinical Psychiatry) ). Ross is not interested in proving or disproving RA/SRA's existence, nor in disparaging Satanism as a faith (any books out there for multiples identifying as Satanist?) or in promoting any sort of faith of his own, but in merely treating patients as suits them best. A Christian approach, as taken by the book being reviewed, is a good approach--for Christian patients. For non-Christian patients, it could be damaging.

I also noticed in my browsing that the author of this book seems to regard DID as more frequent than is commonly stated; perhaps I misread, but I think this could be a dangerous belief as well, and is a reason why I shunned buying certain books that, to paraphrase one critical review, are along the lines of "I'm multiple, you're multiple." DID exists, and should be treated as real, but it should not be treated as common.

Should Amazon allow me, and should the need arise, I may edit/revise this review when I finish reading the book if my opinion drastically changes. I thought I should make any potential readers aware of these issues however in case they could find such material triggering or unwelcome; I would have liked to know before purchasing the book about its religious overtones.

(Edited 7/22/09 to remove typo.)