Rewriting the Soul [Hardcover]

Ian Hacking (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 1995 | ISBN-10: 069103642X | ISBN-13: 978-0691036427 | Edition: 1St Edition

Some years ago, one could list by name the tiny number of multiple personalities recorded in the history of Western medicine, but today hundreds of people receive treatment for dissociative disorders in every sizeable town in North America. Clinicians, backed by a grassroots movement of patients and therapists, find child sexual abuse to be the primary cause of the illness, while critics accuse the "MPD" community of fostering false memories of childhood trauma. Here, the distinguished philosopher Ian Hacking uses the MPD epidemic and its links with the contemporary concept of child abuse to scrutinize today's moral and political climate, especially our power struggles about memory and our efforts to cope with psychological injury. What is it like to suffer from multiple personality? Most diagnosed patients are women: why should gender matter? How does defining an illness affect the behaviour of those who suffer from it, And, more generally, how do systems of knowledge about kinds of people interact with the people who are known about? Answering these and similar questions, Hacking explores the development of the modern multiple personality movement. He then turns to a fascinating series of historical vignettes about an earlier wave of multiples, people who were diagnosed when new ways of thinking about memory emerged, particularly in France, toward the end of the nineteenth century. Made possible by these nineteenth-century developments, the current outbreak of dissociative disorders is embedded in new political settings. This study concludes with a powerful analysis linking historical and contemporary material in a fresh contribution to the archaeology of knowledge.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Many clinicians, backed by a grass-roots movement of patients and therapists, argue that child abuse is the primary cause of multiple personality disorder (MPD), while critics charge the MPD community with fostering false memories of childhood trauma. Using this controversial disorder as a point of departure, Hacking (philosophy, Univ. of Toronto) here probes deep into the science of memory. While the fascination with memory is nothing new, it wasn't until the second half of the 19th century that a real science of memory developed. The study of pathological memory arose out of this new science, and with it came the study of multiple personalities. Hacking (The Taming of Chance, Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1990) argues that the manner in which the sciences of memory evolved has much to do with today's memory confrontations, and, moreover, that the current outbreak of dissociative disorders reflects our new political times. Ultimately, Hacking illustrates in this demanding examination how the current politics of memory have resulted in the scientizing of the soul. A challenging read for all but scholars and specialists in the field, this is recommended for larger academic psychology collections.?David R. Johnson, Louisiana State Univ. Lib., Eunice
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

In this brilliant and provocative new book, Ian Hacking fixes his searching gaze on the hot topic of multiple personality. The results are remarkable.... In Hacking's hands, multiple personality emerges as a paradigmatic case study illuminating basic questions about truth, memory, fact and fiction, about knowledge, science, and identity.... [This book] treats these impossibly difficult problems of knowability in the human sciences with grace and wisdom. -- Ellen Herman, Contemporary Psychology



The details of Hacking's discussion are enthralling and illuminating. He manages to avoid altogether the sensationalism usually associated with treatments of multiple personality, providing an informative history and raising deep and important philosophical issues. -- Marya Schechtman, Mind
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr; 1St Edition edition (April 3, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 069103642X
• ISBN-13: 978-0691036427
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #228,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #95 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Personality Disorders

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Smart *and* Very Readable, April 11, 2008

By 

BRC "BRC" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rewriting the Soul (Paperback)

Ian Hacking is a brilliant thinker and an elegant writer. I read this book after one of my husband's friends suggested it. He said it was the best book he can ever remember reading (like me, he prefers to read good nonfiction).
After reading the book (during which I couldn't help marking particularly good passages because I knew I'd want to reread them), I have found myself refering to this book frequently in my own writing (I'm an academic) and conversation with my students. I must agree with my husband's friend: this is certainly one of the best books I've read.
If you enjoy smart analysis of contemporary culture and the frailties of sciences claiming to map the human mind, you will really enjoy this book. If you are a deep believer in the pure and virtuous authority of psychology, you will feel disturbed.

1.0 out of 5 stars Outdated, January 10, 2012

By 

Marilee Snyder "BoulderTherapist" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rewriting the Soul (Paperback)

All I have to say about this is that the book was published in 1998 and is now 14 years old. In a hotly contested field such as this, it is more helpful to stay current in the literature. A specific, exhaustively peer-reviewed text which was recently published is this one:

Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and Beyond by Paul F. Dell and John A. O'Neil (Apr 20, 2009)

I suggest that if you are truly interested in the phenomenon of DID/MPD, read more recently published books. "Rewriting the Soul" was written during the heated years of the media war between the "False Memory Syndrome Foundation" and the medical/psychological profession. Naturally this book was greatly influenced by that sociopoliticized time. Times have changed, whatever your perspective on this diagnosis.