The Troops for Truddi Chase, When Rabbit Howls (New York: Jove Books, 1990, first published by E. P. Dutton, 1987).

They decide not to integrate! No, seriously, this book is different in a lot of ways from the average autobiography of a multiple. It describes a very complex system in a woman who functioned quite well in the world (and who had a very hard time accepting the reality of the alters). "She" does not simply switch from one alter to another--the alters often speak through the surface shell or through other alters and sometimes they blend together.

I identified with this book more than with any other that I have read. I recommend it very strongly, particularly if you feel like the classic descriptions somehow don't fit. The abuse (by a stepfather) is gruesome, and there are quite a lot of abuse memories told, mostly not with a lot of detail (though you may not want to read this one if you are afraid of snakes). The therapist is confused and caring, and the book is organized around the story of the therapy, not the story of the abuse. There is considerable discussion of disruption of electrical appliances and some discussion of psychic phenomena.

Cameron West, First Person Plural: My Life as a Multiple (New York: Hyperion, 1999).

This is, in many ways, a useful book. It presents a more modern view of DID, with some co-consciousness and a healing process that emphasizes coming to accept the alters rather than integration. It deals with such topics as denial, self-injury, and the impact on the author's wife and son.

I am glad this book is being widely read. It gives a much more accurate view of DID than is common in popular culture. However, I must admit that I found the book very irritating because he makes the story so neat. He seems to go through each step of healing in order and only once. It just isn't that easy. The story is centered around healing and the abuse descriptions are brief, though I found them triggering because they are explicit and deal with abuse by his mother.

Barbara Wilson, Blue Windows: A Christian Science Childhood (St. Martin's Press, 1998).

This is a beautifully written, but very painful memoir of growing up in the 1950s. The author's mother was a devout Christian Scientist, and Wilson tries to understand and value her mother's faith. However, when Wilson was 10, her mother came down with breast cancer and had a mental breakdown because her Christian Science practices failed to heal her cancer. Her mother spent several years in-and-out of mental and other hospitals before dying of cancer.

Wilson experienced sexual abuse by an uncle; while that is a relatively small part of her story, she integrates it into the larger family pattern of maintaining that if you believe evil does not exist, then it cannot hurt you. This book should be of interest to people thinking about family silence or the mental illness or death of a parent. It deals primarily with childhood pain and also good memories, not with the healing process.

Louise M. Wisechild, The Mother I Carry: A Memior of Healing From Emotional Abuse (Seattle: Seal Press Feminist Publishing, 1993). Books can be ordered from Seal Press at 3131 Western Ave., Suite 410, Seattle WA 98121.

This is a wonderful account of using inside people and an inner-house as way to give form to the healing process. The focus of this book is on healing from emotional abuse by her mother, particularly dealing with the messages that she ended up carrying within herself that she was a bad person.

The book is shaped around an account of the healing process, though it does include memories of the emotional abuse by her mother and a few brief descriptions of sexual abuse by her grandfather, another male relative, and her stepfather (there is more discussion of the sexual abuse in The Obsidian Mirror). Wisechild does not diagnose herself with DID; she simply says "I have known for quite a while now that my personality is a collection of inner voices" (p. 10) . Wisechild enjoys her inner voices and does not believe that they need to be fused into a single self in order for her to heal. She is open about her feminist ideas and lesbian identity and relationships.

Louise M. Wisechild, The Obsidian Mirror: An Adult Healing from Incest (Seattle: Seal Press Feminist Publishing, second edition 1993).

This was one of the books most helpful to me because she puts a lot of emphasis on the world of symbols (for example, she envisions herself struggling to climb out of a deep pit). She talks very vividly about different parts of herself, but does not name them multiple personalities. Her abusers were her grandfather, another male relative, and her stepfather, and there are some explicit details of the abuse. However, her story is organized around her healing process, rather than being an autobiography of the abuse.

next: Therapy Accounts Coauthored by Therapist and Client (or written by Therapists)