Multiple Personality Disorder from the Inside Out

This book was beneficial in assisting me with better understanding the experiences my clients live through with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Although not compiled specifically for clinicians, I found it gave me insight that I wouldn't have gotten in an academic piece. I highly recommend this book for anyone who lives with DID, for their family and friends, and for Therapists and Case Managers who work with people diagnosed with DID (MPD). The book encourages empathy with, and greater understanding into, people living with this special coping strategy.

This book was incredible. I wish I had read it when I was first diagnosed with the disorder, but I was well on my way into integration by the time I found it. Even still, it was helpful because I was able to see that others were feeling the same exact things I had felt and was still feeling. It validated my thoughts and feelings about every aspect of the disorder. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been diagnosed with MPD, their therapists, their significant others and anyone else who knows someone with MPD and wants to understand what is happening to them.

I read this book when it first came out and loved it then. I still love it today. I do not have MPD/DID, but I think this book does a great job of educating the public about it. We need more of this: real people's experiences with mental illness. I think that is more valuable than many theories taught by the professionals. edit: I know many people do not view MPD as a mental illness but to the public it is, as well as to many professionals. I personally think that dissociation is not a mental illness. However, the suffering that often comes with severe dissociation, such as major anxiety, depression, mood difficulties - those are labeled mental illnesses. This book included people's descriptions of their lives and all of their difficulties in a way that went beyond having fragmentation, in my view. The professional term is "comorbid." being "comorbid" myself and not having MPD, but having quite a bit of fragmentation, the issue of mental illness is a hard one for me to figure out. Sometimes I define myself as mentally ill and sometimes I don't. When I do, it is b/c of my unstable mood and to make the point that I have suffered from it in major ways and for a long time, and it imposes real limitations on me. I wish a similar more current book could be written. I like the poetry as well as many of the essays. I also like the variety of perspectives. Having art in color instead of black and white would really help. I also agree that more emphasis on later stages of recovery and less emphasis on other people's opinions would be good. I have noticed that other people's issues become much less relevant as healing progresses, b/c I've gotten more confident and learned to deal with them or ignore them as the case may be.

As someone who has DID/MPD, this is the best overall book I have read. It gives the perspective on MPD from those that know best, the people who have it. Being diagnosed with DID (the new name) is trauma in itself, let alone reading all the mis-information out there, and hearing the sensationalism. This book was like reading about myself. It validated my feelings and helped me not feel so alone and afraid. I still refer to parts of it for inspiration, information, and acknowledgment that I'm not crazy. I had my husband read the book, my therapist has read it, and anyone in my life that wants to be supportive also gets a copy. I am well on the road to recovery now, and I can truly say that this book helped me along the way.

I personally think this is a wonderful book :) It's a collection of writing from 146 multiples and some of their significant others; lots of prose, some poetry and a little art. The writing was sent in as a response to a questionnaire distributed to readers of Many Voices and members of ISSMP & D (now ISSD). It contained three open questions for multiples, and one for SOs. The multiple were asked what they wish they had known when they were first diagnosed, and what the would like therapists and SOs to know about MPD. SOs were asked what they would like to share with other friends and SOs of multiples. From these questions there is is a huge range of responses. From people talking about the terror, or relief of their diagnosis as MP, to guidelines to prevent abuse in therapy, and for health workers dealing with multiples in the emergency room. It is this breadth that makes the book so valuable to me, I can go to it just wanting companionship in my fears, or looking for inspiration, or to help me find a solution to a problem in our inside work. The book is divided into nine chapters; the first seven deal with the course of therapy (Diagnosis, Pain, Skeptics, Therapy Successes, Therapy Disappointments, Hope, Unification). The last two are about relationships, one (Families and Friends) talking about what the multiple wants from their relationships, the other (Other's Voices) a collection of writing by the SOs themselves, these are authored by many people, including a son, a daughter, a mother, spouses, partners and friends. The main things I miss in it are writing by littles (I think there are 2 or 3 things, but I'd like to see more), writing by non-"host" alters in general (again there was a little, but not as much as I'd have liked) and writing by therapists. All I can say in recommendation is that I've read it, I've loaned it to my SO to read, and my counselor read it cover to cover. I think it gave us all a little more hope, and understanding, something that we all so desperately need.