Inside Karen’s Crowded Mind

How do you know which is the real personality? Does one choose?

that's me and i am still in therapy. please pray 4 me

Sadly, quacks like this are what give the profession a horrible name. There are some undeniable truths in DID, chief among these is that none of the personalities have an awareness of the others. None. Therefore, a letter written by one claiming to live inside another is pure BS. This is a horrible story, it's pitiful that this "Doctor" (and I use the term very loosely) wrote this book. It's also a scam that this man treated this woman for four years before finding out she had DID....treatment does NOT last that long, EVER, with a true professional. This "Doctor" was bilking this woman for money, and it sounds to me like he found a great way to do so.

Wow! I'm so happy that she was able to survive through everything, and still come okay "normal" in the end! For those who don't believe things like this exist, well I'm happy for yu because it only means that you've never had someone close to you or someone you knew, or you've never yourself experienced any fo the nightmare that those who have lived with it have had to go through.
Yes, the majority of the mentally ill may be homeless, but there are several functional mentally ill people out there as well as those who have money, as money don't buy sanity. Treatment don't always cost from the pocketbook, Insurance both private and public pay for alot of it.

thank you for such an honest evaluation...

i am 60yrs old and have been multiple since i was two, when my first terror began..
i had it all done to me..sexual..physical emotional and ritualized abuse. I was sold to a satanic cult by my own alcoholic parents..i am alive because i was able to 'dis-connect'..

Not again! Every few years we get fed this garbage about recovered abuse memories. Sheesh, it is 2007 already. When will the mental health profession purge itself of these charlatans and the malpractice they commit. Shame on Newsweek for publishing such uncritical, unscientific nonsense.

Blah....Blah..Blah...BS BS BS...Cmon get real...Ridiculous....good luck with the movie script...although its already been done...pure idiocy.

trevorg your pain comes through as anger, it was not the drs who killed your daughter but your daughter killed herself. You have to face something drove her to it , no one can put thoughts into your head that are not already there. Why was your daughter so hurt? deal with what demons drove her to it, and you will heal yourself. you call your granddaugther precious but your daugther demented. You have to face what part if any you played in her death and that is what is killing you. Her loving family was not there for her? face your anger and stop sprouting hate at people you do not know.

I think my girl freind has this problem, Its crazy to deal with. Im going to leave her.

so, how do you know whih is actually the real person?

I believe in DID and can see how it could develop. As a child, I was abused, not sexual but extreme physical abuse and severe emotional trauma--all from evil, brutal stepfather that would dole out beatings with broomsticks, extension cords, his fists, his feet, work boots, planters and the butt of a gun! I also watched him repeatedly beat my mother and siblings, kick the family dog for barking too loudly and drown my with his bare hands to punish me for not washing the dishes fast enough!

Two of my sister's said he sexuallty molested them, he denied it of course. Yet, I believe them and truly feel it is the reason both turned to drugs and went through man after man later in life. I also believe it is the reason my mother became an alcoholic during my teen years, well after she escaped him and his brutality. I think the guilt of it all was just too much for her to take, even though she was out of the situation.

I say all this to say, someone that suffers far more trauma than myself, siblings or mother could very well wall themselves off to deal with the situation they find themselves in.... I know there were times during and after those brutal beatings, and all the other crazy stuff I witnessed that II would go somewhere pretty and peaceful...just to be able to cope with my life.

MPD...wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy! Rare? When someone says that something is rare I don't expect to see one in my life. Including myself I've known between half a dozen and a dozen and not all in a therapuetic setting. I don't think that it's common but it's definitely not rare. For those still in therapy becoming "one" is worth the pain and the hard work. Some feared that they would cease to exist...not so. God Bless!

It is a sad, sad part of psychology. Many lives have been ruined. There is research showing that women who are treated in therapy for DID/MPD do not start cutting or burning themselves and making suicide attempts until AFTER they go into therapy and are "diagnosed" with this bogus illness (i.e, after they are taught to be multiple). They are also more likely to be hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals, have their marriages fall apart, and end up on disability AFTER beginning to work with a recovered memory therapist than before. This therapy destroys lives and identities and creates professional victims. It is very lucrative for the therapists, because the woman typically stay in therapy for years and years and never get better.
Don't fall for this ridiculous article. And if you know a woman who is seeking mental health therapy, tell her to turn and RUN if her therapist starts suggesting that her problems may lie in repressed or dissociated memories of abuse.
Interested in reading more about this therapy cult? Read "Making Monsters" by Ofshe and Watters, a Pulitzer Prize-winning description of this horrible sociological phenomenon: the recovered memory therapy movement. There is also a short, witty, and devastating critique of multiple personality disorder/dissociative identity disorder called "Creating Hysteria," written by Joan Acocella. Both books are available at Amazon.com (very cheap if you buy used) and will help you understand this terrible malpractice that continue to infect mental health treatment today.