Karen Overhill discusses her experience with longterm visits with a psychiatrist for Dissociative Identity Disorder (her autobiographical essay refers to her condition as Multiple Personality Disorder but MPD has given way to DID as the preferred way of looking at the condition . . . meet the 17 personalities inside my mind and read how I ruthlessly killed them one by one . . . note that Overhill was first diagnosed during a period when MPD was being diagnosed far more than it should have been (there is still debate as to whether or not the condition actually exists outside of the conditioning environment of the therapist) and the cause given is childhood sexual abuse (in the 1980s there was a wave of diagnosis of childhood abuse as it was commonly believed to be the root of pretty much everyone’s problems – a rash of imprisonments based upon false memories created in therapy resulted in this hysteria – not to say that at least some of the cases were genuine, but that there was way too much witchhunt mentality in the day and when you look for witches you invariably find them whether they are there or not).
There are a couple particularly interesting aspects of Overhill’s case. One is the early receipt of a letter written in a child’s hand from one of her "personalities" letting the therapist know the child personality wished to speak with him but did not know how to manifest to do so. Another interesting aspect is the protective male personality giving the therapist specific directions for a process to reintigrate the personalities . . . a sort of guided trance process that did indeed work for Overhill, albeit it was a bit startling and she did have to then work at reintigrating memories.
When working with folks with unusual presenting issues, it is extremely important not to bring one’s own baggage into the mix and not to look for causes that may or may not be there. It is important to use clearn session language and be wary of creating memories, impressions, or symptoms that may or may not have been there originally. The great hypnotist Spiegel wrote of his experience when acting as a substitute therapist for the woman upon whom the famour Sybil story was based. Spiegel concluded that the alternate personalities were created in therapy and were not genuine prior to the therapy.
Of course, DID can be a genuine disorder and Overhill’s case is an interesting one in any case.
All the best,
Brian
Taipei, Taiwan (12-13 April 2008)
Taipei, Taiwan (21-22 June 2008)
Los Angeles, California (14-18 July 2008)
Los Angeles, California (26-27 July 2008)
Los Angeles, California (2 August 2008)
See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details!
Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com
