The Family Inside: Working With the Multiple (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Judy Kessler (Author), Lynda Shirar (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This practical book on working with multiple personality disorder demystifies MPD and redefines it as a creative and sensible way of surviving a childhood of extreme trauma and absolute powerlessness. Using Judy Kessler's own story as an example, and referring to work by Virginia Satir, Erik Erikson and Gestalt, the authors address the complex results of this survival skill and the challenges that MPD clients and their therapists face in reintegrating the shattered self.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (November 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393701425
• ISBN-13: 978-0393701425
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,530 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE MOST WONDERFUL BOOK EVER ON MPD, January 19, 1999

By A Customer

I am a multiple. I have read several books by the "experts", i.e. Kluft, Putnam, etc. I could't put myself into the "categories" or "time frames" and felt I wasn't making progress the way "I should". The Family Inside makes total sense to me. The authors allow a multiple her uniqueness - no two multiples are alike as no two people are alike. There are many ways I identify with Judy Kessler. Some of my alters work with "subdivisions" of themselves, as did Judy's. These are the ones that hold hurt, etc, and don't really talk. I was relieved to read this. I related to Judy's struggle in having to relate a memory over and over before it could even start to become a "memory of the past" - relating it as many times as it took. I learned that comforting the "children" is okay. It is not silly or odd to yearn for unmet childhood needs. I learned that multiples do not develop through many stages of their lives as they are too busy dissociating in order to survive. Wow, this makes plain good common sense to me. A multiple is too busy being a multiple to develop - we are most intelligent little beings who found a way to dissociate in order to survive - NOT DIE!! - we didn't have feelings - we couldn't show emotions. These are all things I knew inside but didn't know how to verbalize until I read The Family Inside. These little people still need to find their way through the lost develomental stages in order to recover. God bless Doris Bryant and Lynda Shirar for their down to earth insightful method of helping a multiple. They have a wonderful sense of what it takes to give us our lives back. I feel better about myself now. My feelings don't seem so strange - I know my feelings are me and are okay no matter how awful they are- because of this book. God bless Judy Kessler for sharing herself with me. I gave this book to my therapist - who loves it as well. I, too, am blessed with a very special therapist - she encourages US to be US and ME to be ME. I felt I had a true kindred spirit in Judy when I read her advice to those working with multiples. It takes a very dedictated person. There is no room for "screwing around". She lets therapists know what we need - what is acceptable and what isn't. They must be totally dedicated to sticking it out through the nightmare of horrors we slowly entrust to them. These authors show a well deserved respect for MPD. They project the feeling of it being a priviledge to work with a multiple. Thank you for the best book ever on MPD. I would love to write directly to Judy and Doris.

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is wonderful., April 24, 1999

By	[e-mail] (New York) - See all my reviews

This is the only book I've read that talks about how a multiple's system may be structured. Now I understand why my insiders rarely come out, and when they do, mostly at night. The book also discusses and recommends co-therapy -- therapy with two therapists, which I've found therapists reluctant to do, even though I've suggested it. MPD is so bewildering. I feel for the first time, after reading this book, that I finally know where to place myself and my system in the galaxy, and what my work needs to be. It makes me feel connected, just a tiny bit, to the human race, which I've been outside of my whole life.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a must read, December 21, 2000

By A Customer

As a professional treating an MPD for the first time I equipped myself with just about every book available on this topic. This book by far has been the most informative, interesting and valuable of all the material I have read. Not only did it give me insight in to the structure of the "multiple" mind but has deepened my understanding of the effects of trauma on victims in general. The narrative is presented from the perspective of the clinicians and includes theory and practical applications and from the perspective of the patient which gives the reader an inside view of the experience of a "multiple". The material is extremely well written, well organized and structured in a way that it can easily be used as a referrence for specific issues and concerns that come up during treatment (must first be read from cover to cover). I do not ordinarily read professional texts as I do novels which I cannot put down. In the case of "The Family Inside", I toted it around and read it with great interest whenever I had a free moment. A must read for anyone with an interest in this subject.