Sybil: a name that conjures up enduring fascination for legions of obsessed fans who followed the nonfiction blockbuster from 1973 and the TV movie based on it—starring Sally Field and Joanne Woodward—about a woman named Sybil with sixteen different personalities. Sybil became both a pop phenomenon and a revolutionary force in the psychotherapy industry. The book rocketed multiple personality disorder (MPD) into public consciousness and played a major role in having the diagnosis added to the psychiatric bible, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But what do we really know about how Sybil came to be? In her news-breaking book Sybil Exposed, journalist Debbie Nathan gives proof that the allegedly true story was largely fabricated. The actual identity of Sybil (Shirley Mason) has been available for some years, as has the idea that the book might have been exaggerated. But in Sybil Exposed, Nathan reveals what really powered the legend: a trio of women—the willing patient, her ambitious shrink, and the imaginative journalist who spun their story into bestseller gold. From horrendously irresponsible therapeutic practices—Sybil’s psychiatrist often brought an electroshock machine to Sybil’s apartment and climbed into bed with her while administering the treatment— to calculated business decisions (under an entity they named Sybil, Inc., the women signed a contract designating a three-way split of profits from the book and its spin-offs, including board games, tee shirts, and dolls), the story Nathan unfurls is full of over-the-top behavior. Sybil’s psychiatrist, driven by undisciplined idealism and galloping professional ambition, subjected the young woman to years of antipsychotics, psychedelics, uppers, and downers, including an untold number of injections with Pentothal, once known as “truth serum” but now widely recognized to provoke fantasies. It was during these “treatments” that Sybil produced rambling, garbled, and probably “false-memory”–based narratives of the hideous child abuse that her psychiatrist said caused her MPD. Sybil Exposed uses investigative journalism to tell a fascinating tale that reads like fiction but is fact. Nathan has followed an enormous trail of papers, records, photos, and tapes to unearth the lives and passions of these three women. The Sybil archive became available to the public only recently, and Nathan examined all of it and provides proof that the story was an elaborate fraud—albeit one that the perpetrators may have half-believed. Before Sybil was published, there had been fewer than 200 known cases of MPD; within just a few years after, more than 40,000 people would be diagnosed with it. Set across the twentieth century and rooted in a time when few professional roles were available to women, this is a story of corrosive sexism, unchecked ambition, and shaky theories of psychoanalysis exuberantly and drastically practiced. It is the story of how one modest young woman’s life turned psychiatry on its head and radically changed the course of therapy, and our culture, as well.

A patient-oriented manual for complex trauma survivors.This training manual for patients who have a trauma-related dissociative disorder includes short educational pieces, homework sheets, and exercises that address ways in which dissociation interferes with essential emotional and life skills, and support inner communication and collaboration with dissociative parts of the personality. Topics include understanding dissociation and PTSD, using inner reflection, emotion regulation, coping with dissociative problems related to triggers and traumatic memories, resolving sleep problems related to dissociation, coping with relational difficulties, and help with many other difficulties with daily life. The manual can be used in individual therapy or structured groups.

Your clear, compassionate guide to managing BPD — and living wellLooking for straightforward information on Borderline Personality Disorder? This easy-to-understand guide helps those who have BPD develop strategies for breaking the destructive cycle. This book also aids loved ones in accepting the disorder and offering support. Inside you'll find authoritative details on the causes of BPD and proven treatments, as well as advice on working with therapists, managing symptoms, and enjoying a full life. Review the basics of BPD — discover the symptoms of BPD and the related emotional problems, as well as the cultural, biological, and psychological causes of the disease Understand what goes wrong — explore impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, identity problems, relationship conflicts, black-and-white thinking, and difficulties in perception; and identify the areas where you may need help Make the choice to change — find the right care provider, overcome common obstacles to change, set realistic goals, and improve your physical and emotional state Evaluate treatments for BPD — learn about the current treatments that really work and develop a plan for addressing the core symptoms of BPD If someone you love has BPD — see how to identify triggers, handle emotional upheavals, set clear boundaries, and encourage your loved one to seek therapyOpen the book and find: The major characteristics of BPD Who gets BPD — and why Recent treatment advances Illuminating case studies Strategies for calming emotions and staying in control A discussion of medication options Ways to stay healthy during treatment Tips for explaining BPD to others Help for parents whose child exhibits symptoms Treatment options that work and those you should avoid

Early traumatic memories affect us all, every day-but in startling ways that we are only beginning to understand.You are driving from one familiar place to another and realize upon arriving that you can't remember how you got there. Or, on a holiday trip home to see family, you find you are inexplicably fatigued. Perhaps it's your spouse, who has taken to disappearing for evenings at a time, and you're convinced that he or she is having an affair. Or it is a boss or colleague, who seems to switch to an alternate personality in the blink of an eye. You can never predict when it will happen, or why it does. The Myth of Sanity is a book about our common, but mostly invisible, dementia. In the first book to explore this topic, Martha Stout explores the profoundly fragmented nature of human awareness and offers a new understanding about the role played by traumatic memories in day-to-day life.Do people who have recovered from extreme trauma come to know something about awareness that the rest of us are never forced to learn? Through the lives of patients like Julia, a film editor who "woke up on Tuesday and found out that it was Friday"; Garrett, who experiences severe dissociative identity disorder; and Nathan, a psychiatrist himself, we come to understand that the answer is yes. Healing, wholeness, and the will to live our best lives, these elusive qualities are, ironically, lessons well taught by those whose lives have been shattered and remade.

Finally, a book that addresses your concerns about DID From Eve to Sybil to Truddi Chase, the media have long chronicled the lives of people with dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder. The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook serves as a much-needed bridge for communication between the dissociative individual and therapists, family, and friends who also have to learn to deal with the effects of this truly astonishing disorder.

New edition provides updated concepts and ideas in simplified medical language The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation, and Disease, Second Edition is the update of the classic book that explains the reasons behind some of the most common symptoms and conditions that previously defied a medical explanation. Respected author, Robert C. Scaer, MD, has diligently simplified the complex medical language that was used in the first edition to make it easier for lay readers and patients to understand—all without sacrificing accuracy. This valuable text presents a new theory of the neurophysiology of traumatic stress and dissociation and includes several updated chapters and new concepts that have been developed since the previous edition. Human response is quite different than other animals’ response to trauma. This response is discussed in detail in The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation, and Disease, Second Edition, including the fight/flight/freeze cycle and how the human response causes abnormal regulation of many body systems which then may lead to many illnesses or conditions. The emotional and physical experiences of patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and other syndromes such as whiplash are comprehensively examined. Patients and lay readers alike who have been told it is “all in your head” may well feel like this book was specifically written about them and the unexplained complex symptoms they experience. Topics in The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation, and Disease, Second Edition include: the role of the fight/flight/freeze response in traumatic stress the neurophysiology of traumatic stress and dissociation the Whiplash Syndrome as a model for procedural memory in trauma analysis of traumatic repetition the theoretical concept of somatic dissociation the varied syndromes and medical diseases of trauma and dissociation a theoretical analysis or therapy for trauma illustrative case histories of trauma and the body and more! The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation, and Disease, Second Edition is valuable information for physicians, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, physical, occupational, and speech therapists, nurses, and those lay people looking to better understand the physiologic rationale for a large number of perplexing chronic medical diseases and syndromes.

The NFL legend and Heisman Trophy winner shares the inspiring story of his life and diagnosis with dissociative identity disorder. Herschel Walker is widely regarded as one of football's greatest running backs. He led the University of Georgia to victory in the Sugar Bowl on the way to an NCAA Championship and he capped a sensational college career by earning the 1982 Heisman Trophy. Herschel spent twelve years in the NFL, where he rushed for more than eight thousand yards and scored sixty-one rushing touchdowns. But despite the acclaim he won as a football legend, track star, Olympic competitor, and later a successful businessman, Herschel realized that his life, at times, was simply out of control. He often felt angry, self-destructive, and unable to connect meaningfully with friends and family. Drawing on his deep faith, Herschel turned to professionals for help and was ultimately diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder. While some might have taken this diagnosis as a setback, Herschel approached his mental health with the same indomitable spirit he brought to the playing field. It also gave him, for the first time, insight into his life's unexplained passages, stretches of time that seemed forever lost. Herschel came to understand that during those times, his "alters," or alternate personalities, were in control. Born into a poor, but loving family in the South, Herschel was an overweight child with a stutter who suffered terrible bullying at school. He now understands that he created "alters" who could withstand abuse. But beyond simply enduring, other "alters" came forward to help Herschel overcome numerous obstacles and, by the time he graduated high school, become an athlete recognized on a national level. In Breaking Free, Herschel tells his story -- from the joys and hardships of childhood to his explosive impact on college football to his remarkable professional career. And he gives voice and hope to those suffering from DID. Herschel shows how this disorder played an integral role in his accomplishments and how he has learned to live with it today. His compelling account testifies to the strength of the human spirit and its ability to overcome any challenge.

Life is an ongoing struggle for patients who have been chronically traumatized.They typically have a wide array of symptoms, often classified under different combinations of comorbidity, which can make assessment and treatment complicated and confusing for the therapist. Many patients have substantial problems with daily living and relationships, including serious intrapsychic conflicts and maladaptive coping strategies. Their suffering essentially relates to a terrifying and painful past that haunts them. Even when survivors attempt to hide their distress beneath a facade of normality—a common strategy—therapists often feel besieged by their many symptoms and serious pain. Small wonder that many survivors of chronic traumatization have seen several therapists with little if any gains, and that quite a few have been labeled as untreatable or resistant. In this book, three leading researchers and clinicians share what they have learned from treating and studying chronically traumatized individuals across more than 65 years of collective experience. Based on the theory of structural dissociation of the personality in combination with a Janetian psychology of action, the authors have developed a model of phase-oriented treatment that focuses on the identification and treatment of structural dissociation and related maladaptive mental and behavioral actions. The foundation of this approach is to support patients in learning more effective mental and behavioral actions that will enable them to become more adaptive in life and to resolve their structural dissociation. This principle implies an overall therapeutic goal of raising the integrative capacity, in order to cope with the demands of daily life and deal with the haunting remnants of the past, with the “unfinished business” of traumatic memories. Of interest to clinicians, students of clinical psychology and psychiatry, as well as to researchers, all those interested in adult survivors of chronic child abuse and neglect will find helpful insights and tools that may make the treatment more effective and efficient, and more tolerable for the suffering patient.

This book adopts a novel, even revolutionary, approach to healing a wide range of psychological problems in therapy. The premise is that all of us have a number of multiple personalities within us who powerfully influence every aspect of our lives. By locating these internal parts and neutralizing the effects of the high-energy, often traumatic, experiences that created them, Parts Psychology demonstrates that patients can heal rapidly and completely from long-held emotional issues. The core of the book contains the healing narratives for 12 patients who, except for the problems that brought them to therapy, lead relatively normal lives. Several chapters describe the treatment process for such problems of emotional intimacy as lost love, low sexual desire, jealousy, and sexual swinging. Others describe issues of compulsion such as binge eating, porn addiction and bulimia. Several chapters detail success stories in the treatment of anger and rage, depression, grief and anxiety. Child abuse appears in the history of a number of patients. Each story begins with the first meeting with the therapist and concludes when the patient graduates from therapy. A first look at patients’ inner worlds might suggest to some the presence of multiple personality disorder (dissociative identity disorder). And many patients are shocked to find that they can have conversations with themselves. However, the case studies illustrate that having unconscious parts (subpersonalities), represented by a range of images, is normal. Although people may use fascinating images to represent their internal worlds, the more important content of a part of the self is its unique set of memories. Life experiences recorded in memory are the subject matter for therapy. Adult issues always have to do with the painful or novel life experiences that created the parts and the problems in a person’s life, especially the adaptations and experiences of childhood.

By the first day of kindergarten, Olga Trujillo had already survived years of abuse and violent rape at the hands of her tyrannical father. Over the next ten years, she would develop the ability to numb herself to the constant abuse by splitting into distinct mental “parts.” Dissociative identity disorder (DID) had begun to take hold, protecting Olga’s mind from the tragic realities of her childhood.In The Sum of My Parts, Olga reveals her life story for the first time, chronicling her heroic journey from survivor to advocate and her remarkable recovery from DID. Formerly known as multiple personality disorder, DID is defined by the presence of two or more identities. In this riveting story, Olga struggles to unearth memories from her childhood, and parallel identities—Olga at five years old, Olga at thirteen—come forth and demand to be healed. This brave, unforgettable memoir charts the author’s triumph over the most devastating conditions and will inspire anyone whose life has been affected by trauma.