The first one I finished was called Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating A Woman With 17 Personalities and was written by Dr. Richard Baer.
I'm pretty sure I got the mass paperback edition, haha. But doesn't matter, still the same book. Anyways, this book was published in 2007, so it's pretty recent, but Karen, the woman in the book, began treatment in early 1989 and remained there until 2006. So essentially, she began treatment before I was born and finished up just two years before I graduating high school. It's kinda overwhelming to think about.
The book itself goes through Baer's treatment of this woman from beginning to end and throughout, he meets and talks to each of the seventeen personalities. It was a very interesting thing to read, being a psych major, but honestly, even if you're not, I'd recommend it. (That was probably a run-on sentence). The only thing I must warn about though is to keep this book away from younger children and anyone who doesn't think they'd be able to handle reading about the abuse Karen went through. Torture, more like. Half the time I was reading, I was shaking my head, finding it hard to believe that anyone could do that to another person, let alone a child.
Each personality as it turns out, was born to deal with a certain aspect of Karen's life - it was interesting to learn how fast they could switch in and out to complete daily tasks along with dealing with the abuse. Each personality was distinct - each had a different posture, way of speaking, and general... personality, I guess. XD It was really fascinating to see how they intermingled with each other.
This book was very interesting to read from a psych dork's point of view, but it also saddened me. I would definitely recommend it, as it gives excellent coverage of multiple personality disorder, but if you do read it, prepare yourself for what you will read.
---
Books completed: 1/25
Next on list: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Your psych dorkiness really comes out from this blog post. D< I haven't been reading much recently. ;__; I need to sleep less. XD
ReplyDeleteGee thanks. <3 :D Yeah? Well. xD You need to sleep in order to have the brain functioning to read, deary.
ReplyDeleteXD I shall look up on the internet and find out the minimum amount of sleep I can have and STILL function perfectly well. D<
ReplyDeleteI have a theory, you know. I'm theorising that the amount of yours you sleep doesn't really count. It's WHEN you sleep that determines your sleepiness. :'D