Too many of us have tried to tone down our weirdness for friends or partners only to later learn that we were suppressing the best things about us.

There’s no joy like the joy of being your strange self and finding that there are people who love you for it.

—Boze Herrington

In the post-#metoo era, what would justice look like for the victims of trauma? With rape conviction rates remaining low and the psychological toll some victims fear from the legal system, what other action would feel like justice for victims?

The crime alienates the victim not only from the person who violated her but also from all those who doubt her veracity, who blame her rather than the perpetrator, or who choose to turn a blind eye.

Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice.

Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Herman is a feminist who is best known for her work proposing Complex PTSD as a diagnosis, and the three-phase treatment model involving a stability and safety phase before addressing the trauma directly – which she developed in collaboration with Bessel van der Kolk and others – publishing her groundbreaking book Trauma and Recovery back in 1992.

Now she’s back, discussing what trauma victims need from the society that turned a blind eye to their trauma – and the flaws of “restorative-justice programs” – which often “rely on the threat of criminal punishment to secure an offender’s compliance” – as Eren Orbey of the New Yorker describes it.

Read the article A Trailblazer of Trauma Studies Asks What Victims Really Want (archive link)

• Trauma and Abuse including complex trauma
• Complex PTSD: symptoms in a graph
• Do survivors blame themselves? How can they change this?
• Complex PTSD as a diagnosis – ICD-11 by the World Health Organization

• List of Historical accounts of dissociative identity disorder

1940 – 1960

• The Three Faces of Eve – the popular press version of Cleckley and Thigpen’s misrepresentation of Chris Costner Sizemore (which was originally an academic article), Chris actually had significant early trauma that she only recalled years later, eventually developed 22 alters and published her full story in 1977
• The Bird’s Nest (Lizzie) – Shirley Jackson – written by a psychiatrist, a film for this was released in the same year as the movie for The Three Faces of Eve. The five personalities in the book are shown as only three personalities in the movie.
• Strangers in My Body / The Final Face of Eve – James Poley, “Evelyn Lancaster” (Chris Costner Sizemore) – Chris was prevented from telling her full story by her ex-therapists so ended up fudging parts of this, publishing her full story in 1977.
• The Chris Costner Sizemore papers – selection of letters, diaries etc, covering 1950s to 1980s – held at Duke University

1960 – 1980

• Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities – Flora Rheta Schreiber – A Times bestseller in the 1970s, Schreiber writes about Shirley Ardell Mason and her therapist Cornelia Wilbur – the book led to 2 TV mini-series, a number of follow on books, and a rather bizarre and sensationist book trying to blame DID symptoms on anemia during the 1990s backlash against abuse survivors
• The Final Face of Eve – Elen Sain Pittillo, Chris Costner Sizemore – Chris’s full story including domestic violence in her first marriage, suicidality, finally getting a good therapist, and life after integration
• The Five of Me – Henry Hawksworth
• Paperclip Dolls – Annie McKenna

1980 – 2000

• Michelle Remembers – Michelle Smith and Lawrence Padzer (her psychiatrist). A later backlash against ritual abuse discloses places considerable blame on this book.
• Therapist when Rabbit Howls – Truddi Chase and the Troops (her alters) wrote this together, and took her story of incest and abuse public
• Multiple Personality Disorder from the Inside Out – edited by Cohen and Giller, accounts from many different people living with DID
• Prism : Andrea’s World – Jonathan Bliss, Eugene Bliss – based on “Andrea Biaggi”, a Silician-American
• The Lives of Billy Milligan – Daniel Keyes – Milligan sold his story after being sent to a locked psychiatric hospital following his trial for a 3 week crime spree involving multiple rapes and thefts by several of his alters
• Voices – Trula Michaels Lacalle – by a psychologist
• Beyond Integration: One Multiple’s Journey – Doris Bryant, Judy Kessler
• I’m Eve/A Mind of My Own: The Woman Who Was Known as “Eve” Tells the Story of Her Triumph Over Multiple Personality Disorder – Chris Costner Sizemore – her last book
• Shatter : The True Story of Kathy Roth’s Eight Separate Personalities and Her Struggle to Become Whole – Nancy Hughes Clark
• Through Divided Minds: Probing the Mysteries of Multiple Personalities – Robert S. Mayer – written by a psychoanalyst
• Katherine, It’s Time: The Incredible Journey into the World of a Multiple Personality – Kit Castle, Stefan Bechtel
• Becoming Kate – Theodore J. Jansma
• Suffer the Child – Judith Spencer – about “Jenny” whose poetry is included
• 37 to one: living as an integrated multiple – Phoenix (formerly Sandra) J. Hocking – she wrote a self-help book and a book for loved ones before this
• Abused Beyond Words: The Healing Journey of Reclaiming Our Inner Power and Peace by Speaking the Unspeakable Truth – Moriah S. St. Clair
• Jennifer and Her Selves – Gerald Schoenewolf – by a novice therapist
• The Family Inside: Working with the Multiple – Doris Bryant – a self-help book with a study of someone with DID
• Moira – Martin Obler
• The Laid daughter : A true story – Helen Bonner
• Thirteen pieces : life with a multiple – Mary Locke – written by a partner after the end of a relationship
• The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality – Joan Frances Casey
• Telling without talking : art as a window into the world of multiple personality – Carol Thayer Cox and Barry M. Cohen – art therapists include 180 pieces of art by people with DID
• Broken Child – Marcia Cameron
• Silencing the voices: one woman’s experience with multiple personality disorder – Jean Darby Cline
• First Person Plural – Cameron West, one of the few men with DID to describe incestuous abuse
• Silencing the voices : one woman’s triumph over multiple personality disorder – Jean Darby Cline and Jeff Darby Cline
• Diary of a survivor in art and poetry – deJoly LaBrier
• Rag Doll: A Journey of Healing and Integration – Alayna
• Nightmare : uncovering the strange 56 personalities of Nancy Lynn Gooch – Nancy Gooch
• Childhood’s Thief: One Woman’s Journey of Healing from Sexual Abuse – Rose Mary Evans – written by a therapist
• Becoming One: A Story of Triumph Over Multiple Personality Disorder – Sarah E. Olson
• Magic Castle: A Mother’s Harrowing True Story of Her Adoptive Son’s Multiple Personalities — and the Triumph of Healing – Carole Smith
• Sorority of survival : memoirs of a multiple – Katherine A. Newman
• The Magic Daughter: A Memoir of Living with Multiple Personality Disorder – Jayne Anne Phillips
• Welcome Home Stranger: An Account of Multiple Personalities – Matthew Daniels, author from New Zealand

2000 – 2020

• Looking Inside: Life Lessons from a Multiple Personality in Pictures and Words – Judy Castelli – misdiagnosed with schizophrenia for 20 years
• Body Scripture : A Therapist’s Journal of Recovery from Multiple Personality – Barbara Hope – a therapist with DID
• Big Marcia H – Lisa Heibner
• Beyond these walls : The true story of a lost child’s journey to a whole life – Hanna Gabriele
• I Am More Than One: How Women with Dissociative Identity Disorder Have Found Success in Life and Work – Jane Hyman
• Carol Rutz – A Nation Betrayed
• Safe Eyes – A Story of Healing – Deborah Hall Berkley
• The Shining man with hurt hands – Ellis H. Skolfield
• From ghetto to glory : a memoir – Monique Douglass-Andrews
• Unshackled: A Survivor’s Story of Mind Control – Kathleen M. Sullivan
• Not Otherwise Specified: A Multiple Life in One Body – Leah Peterson (DDNOS) – Leah was a consultant for the TV series The United States of Tara
• A God Called Father: One Woman’s Recovery from Incest and Multiple Personality Disorder
  – Judith Machree
• Lina in search of Lina : The history and treatment of a patient with multiple personality disorder – Rolando I. Haddad
• Secret Weapons: How Two Sisters Were Brainwashed To Kill For Their Country – Cheryl Hersha – mostly about experiences with MK-Ultra and other abuse, with DID resulting
• A Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder – Robert B. Oxnam – read the excerpt 
• Am I a Good Girl Yet?: Childhood Abuse Had Shattered Her. Could She Ever Be Whole? – Carolyn Bramhall, DID including ritual abuse
• Fire and Water: A Safe Journey Through Multiple Personality Disorder – Anna Thomas
• 5010 – The One Who Flew Into the Cuckoo’s Nest by Kathi Stringer
• Anne’s Multiple World of Personality – Anne Garvey
• Today I’m Alice: Nine Personalities, One Tortured Mind – Alice Jamieson, describes the British NHS psychiatric system at the time
• Fractured: Nine Lives To Escape My Own Abuse – Ruth Dee, written under a pseudonym by a former headteacher
• Hell Minus One – Anne A. Johnson Davis
• Five Farewells – A Southern Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder – Liz Elliott
• Switching Time / A Life in Pieces: the Harrowing True Story of a Woman with Multiple Personality Disorder – Richard Baer – psychiatrist writes about treating someone with DID, includes letters and parts she wrote describing integration in detail, also available on audio CD
• A Shattered Mind – Dauna Cole
• As if it Didn’t Happen: A memoir of abuse, multiple personalities, and hope – Maggie Claire
• Coming Present: Living with Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder and How My Faith Helped Heal Me – Caroline Lighthouse
• Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder – Herschel Walker – by an African American athlete
• All Of Me: My incredible true story of how I learned to live with the many personalities sharing my body – Kim Noble
• The Sum of My Parts: A Survivor’s Story of Dissociative Identity Disorder – Olga R. Trujillo – also available in Spanish
• Sybil in her own words: The Untold Story of Shirley Mason, Her Multiple Personalities and Paintings – Patrick Suraci – by her friend (a former psychiatrist), including some of Shirley Mason’s notebooks, art and photos from her cousin – interview with Suraci  
• After Sybil… From the Letters of Shirley Mason – Nancy Preston writes about her friend “Sybil” – see Sybil (the original)  
• Mother Had a Secret – Tiffany Fletcher – writing about her mother with DID and the impact on her life
• Us – Matthew Mckay – writing about someone else
• I Am WE: My Life with Multiple Personalities – Christine Pattillo
• We Are Annora – P. S. Marrow
• In Out of Ice/Glass: Living With Dissociative Identity Disorder and Chemical Dependency – Sarah Smith
• Which One Am I?, Multiple Personalities and Deep Southern Secrets – Thomas S. Smith, James Darrell Williams – jointly written by a loved one and someone with DID
• Twenty-two Faces – Judy Byington – about Jenny Hill
• The Rape of Eve – Colin Ross – a psychiatrist describes the manipulation of Chris Costner Sizemore by her previous psychiatrist, Chris contributed to this book before she passed away
• Fractured Mind: The Healing of a Person with Dissociative Identity Disorder – Debra Bruch

2020 – present

• Coming soon

• Historical accounts of DID 
• List of books about healing from trauma and Dissociative Identity Disorder

• 1580s: Jeanne Fery: A sixteenth-century case of dissociative identity disorder – van der Hart, Lierens and Goodwin (1997)

1700-1799

• 1790 – 1952: Multiple personality before “Eve” – Adam Crabtree (1993), a short summary of the psychology of the times and recognition of DID
• 1790: a woman from Stuttgart described by Eberhard Gmelin speaks different languages depending on which personality is in control at the time

1800-1849

• 1802: Three cases described by Dwight who publishes them in 1818, with one likely to be multiple personality disorder and the others likely to be dissociative amnesia or fugue (Hacking, 1991), Dwight describes a female with “two souls, each occasionally dormant and occasionally active, and utterly ignorant of what the other was doing”
• 1815-1875 Double consciousness in Britain 1815-1875 described by skeptical historian Ian Hacking (1991)
• 1816: Mary Reynolds is described by Mitchill, and later by M. Kenny (1986)
• 1823: Dewar published the first case of a teenager with DID, a 16 year-old Scottish girl
• 1823 to early 1900s – Adolescent MPD in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – Elizabeth Bowman (1990)
• 1834: “Estelle” is treated by Charles Antoine Despine (also described by Catherine Fine, 1988)

1840-1869

• 1845: Mayo describes an 18 year-old English girl with two personalities, “misconduct in her relatives ” is mentioned
• 1846: Ward refers to other boys with “double consciousness” whose “nervous system has been weakened by excess, terror or cerebral excitement” which Hacking believes suggests trauma
• 1860: Mary Reynolds is described by Plumber

1870-1899

• 1876: “Félida X” is described by Eugène Azam as “double personality” or ”doublement de la vie”
• 1876: “double consciousness” is now referred to as “double personality” according to Hacking (1991)
• 1887: Barret describes a 17 year-old English boy with two personalities of different ages , with different handwriting. Barret attributes the symptoms with the stress of applying for a scholarship to Cambridge University – his symptoms delay his admission to Cambridge.
• 1880s: Louis Vivé/Vivet in France – originally described by Bourru and Burot in 1885, 1886, 1887, and in Variatons de la personnalité (1888/95); Camuset in 1882; Mabille and Ramadier in 1886; and Voisin in 1885 and 1887. The 19th century DID case of Louis Vivet: New Findings and Re-evaluation (1995/1997) – Henri Faure, John Kersten, Dinet Koopman and Onno van der Hart
• 1880s: V.L. and his six personalities are treated by Bourru and Burot in France, as described by Sidis and Goodhart in 1904.
• 1887: Pierre Janet describes “dissociation” as demonstrates that some people have multiple “psychic centers” that he describes as multiple “personalities”, rather than dual or alternating states
• 1858: Ansel Bourne – Wonderful Works of God: A Narrative of the Wonderful Facts in the Case of Ansel Bourne of Westerly, Rhode Island, Who, In The Midst of Opposition to the Christian Religion Was Suddenly Struck Blind, Dumb, and Deaf, and After Eighteen Days Was Suddenly and Completely Restored In the Presence of Hundreds of Persons, in the Christian Chapel At Westerly, on the 15th of November, 1857. Bourne also describes his father’s death when he was seven, severe poverty following the death, and being forced from school into work at thirteen due to poverty
• 1881: Ansel Bourne is described as having dissociative fugue episodes and an “alternate personality”.
• 1894: Peter Scott is described by Dana
• 1894: Mollie Fancher is described by Abram H. Dailey in Molly Fancher: Brooklyn Enigma; An Authentic Statement of Facts in the Life of Mary J. Fancher, 1894. She is described in The Fasting Girl: A True Victorian Medical Mystery – Michelle Stacey – A much newer and confusing account of the story of Fancher including hysteria/hysterical paralysis and the fame surrounding people claiming to not need to eat in Victorian times.
• 1884: Charles L. Dana publishes The study of a case of amnesia or ‘double consciousness’ about a 24 year-old man with no “hysteria, epilepsy, or organic disease”.
• 1899: Theodore Hyslop describes different types of “double consciousness”

1900 – 1919

• 1900: From India to Planet Mars by Théodore Flournoy describes Catherine-Elise Muller under the name “Hélène Smith” as a spiritualist with multiple personalities. Flournoy, a psychology professor, realizes that the “martian” language used by one of them is based on French.
• 1900: Ottolenghi, an Italian , refers to ”sdoppiamenti el le transformazioni della personalitá”
• 1901: Sally Beauchamp (Clara Norton Fowler) is described by Morton Prince as having multiple personalities
• 1904: “Alma Z“, from 1894, is described by Boris Sidis and Simon P. Goodhart (also known as S. Philip Goodhart) in Multiple Personality: An Experimental Investigation into the Nature of Human Individuallty. as having three personalities. Alma Z’s personalities are referred to as No. 1, Twoey and The Boy, and have some co-consciousness. They describe the “dissociated personalities” as “well-defined”.
• V.L., who was cared for in the late 1880s by Bourru and Burot, is also described by Sidis and Goodhart who ever to him as a “manifold personality”. V.L. is a 17 year-old boy with an unknown father, unmarried and promiscuous mother, who is wandering and begging on the streets from a very young age. V.L. becomes a thief and is sent to a reformatory as a child, develops conversion disorder with paralysis after a fright with a snake, and is then looked after in an asylum (a general term meaning place of rest). His is described as having 6 “states”, each with different memories, skills and a distinct personality.
• 1904: Thomas Carson Hanna is described in the New York Times as an “Instance of Multiple Personality” being treated in New York by Boris Sidis, and Sidis’ book is referred to be the journalist. Hanna is described as developing a second personality after an accident with a head injury, and then switching between the two until they eventually merge.
• 1904: Reverend Thomas Carson Hanna is described by Boris Sidis as developing a second personality after a head injury, they eventually merge
• 1905: Prince publishes the book ”The Dissociation of a Personality’‘ about “Miss Beauchamp” describing three personalities
• 1906: Burnett describes a 16 year-old American boy who has had problems since early childhood. He He attributes the different personalities to epilepsy.
• 1906: Gordon reports a 19 year-old American with two personalities and a third state who struggle over control of the body. Gordon describes the boys “delusion belief” about having two ego states and calls it “epileptic psychosis”. Problems continue for at least 9 years despite epilepsy medication.
• 1907: A young girl from London is reported to the British Psychical Research Society as having ten distinct personalities, and is mentioned in the New York Times in an article called ”A Girl’s 10 Minds” and ”A case of hysteria”. The personalities become apparent after she nearly dies from a severe case of flu, after ten years of treatment they fuse together, at age 22. She is treated by Dr Albert Wilson has presented the case to a skeptical Medico-Psychological Association, who come to believe it is genuine.
• 1909: My life as a dissociated personality by B.C.A. – Morton Prince persuaded Clara Norton Fowler and her alters to write this
• 1909: Charles van Osten is reported as having multiple personalities, with symptoms appearing after a head injury. Van Osten has gone missing from hospital. The New York Times quotes Prof. Diefendorf as saying that Van Osten was distressed by the Slocum disaster, and may be looking for his wife and child. ”HYPNOTIZED, FINDS HOMES.: Van Osten, Without Hesitation, Takes Doctor to New York Addresses. Special to The New York Times” (20 May 1909).
• 1916: After around 12 years of treatment Doris Fischer‘s five personalities are described by Walter F. Prince and Theodore Hyslop (1915), Hyslop (1917), and Walter F. Prince (1923). Together they publish over 2,000 pages about her symptoms and treatment. Doris links her violent, alcoholic father to developing different personalities and describes her mother encouraging her to dissociate, with problems beginning at age three and a half, after an assault by her father. The case is reported in the press.
• 1919, 1920: Grace Oliver and her alter personality “Spanish Maria” are described in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

1920-1940

• 1926: Bernice R. is described by Henry Herbert Goddard in “Two Souls in One Body?”; Bernice describes incest which Goddard regards as a hallucination.

• 1926, 1927: A 19 year-old American woman “Norma” is described by Goddard with a four-year-old alter personality “Polly” and severe conversion disorder causing episodes of paralysis and mutism. Her history includes the deaths of her twin sister and three other siblings before age 11, paternal incest at age 14, the separation from her surviving siblings and emotional abuse by relatives, and the death of both parents by age 17. Goddard calls the incest a transference hallucination and believes her traumatic history has resulted in a daydream-like escape. The two personalities gradually merge.
• 1933: John Charles Poultney is described in Persons One and Three: A Study of Multiple Personalities – Shepherd Ivory Franz, Poultney gets a severe head injury during World War I and starts switching back and forth between two personalities

1940 onwards

All years

• Multiple personality and dissociation, 1791-1990 : a complete bibliography – Philip M. Coons, George B. Greaves and Carole Goettman

• Modern memoirs about DID
• Dissociative Identity Disorder information
• Alter personalities in Dissociative Identity Disorder and Other specified dissociative disorder
• Books on recovery and healing

What are the key differences between Dissociative Identity Disorder and Schizophrenia?

Some people with DID find their symptoms are never confused with the psychotic symptoms found in Schizophrenia – but others may be misdiagnosed with Schizophrenia, or diagnosed only with Schizophrenia when DID is also present. Experiences like ‘hearing voices’, ‘seeing things which aren’t there’ (pseudo-hallincinations caused by flashbacks) can cause a lot of confusion.
The DSM-5 (full version, p297) gives some limited guidance on differences:

• Individuals with dissociative identity disorder experience these [psychotic-like] symptoms as caused by alternate identities, do not have delusional explanations for the phenomena, and often describe the symptoms in a personified way (e.g., “I feel like someone else wants to cry with my eyes”).
• Persecutory and derogatory internal voices in dissociative identity disorder associated with depressive symptoms may be misdiagnosed as major depression with psychotic features.
• Chaotic identity change and acute intrusions that disrupt thought processes may be distinguished from brief psychotic disorder by the predominance of dissociative symptoms and amnesia for the episode, and diagnostic evaluation after cessation of the crisis can help confirm the diagnosis.

Dissociative Identity Disorder is also a dissociative disorder, meaning that symptoms are primarily dissociative in nature – even when it was known by the name Multiple Personality Disorder, DID was classified as a Dissociative Disorder; Schizophrenia is classified as a psychotic disorder, meaning in involves one or more of: delusions, hallucinations, disor­ganized thinking (speech), grossly disorganized or abnormal motor behavior (including catatonia), and negative symptoms (flat emotions or severe lack of will).

Survivors of organized or ritual abuse may have some highly unusual beliefs which are not caused by any kind of delusions or psychosis, but result from the highly unusual abuse they have survived – including abuse designed to discredit survivors who tell.

Elizabeth Howell explains:

Kluft reported that patients with DID endorse 8 of the first-rank Schneiderian symptoms (Schneider, 1959, as cited in Kluft, 1987a) that are considered pathognomonic of schizophrenia.
These symptoms are voices arguing, voices commenting on one’s action, influences playing on the body, thought withdrawal, thought insertion, made impulses, made feelings, and made volitional acts.
In DID, rather than as indications of schizophrenia, the hallucinated voices and the made actions are understood as due to the activities of a dissociative identity. The psychotic person is more likely to attach a delusional explanation, such as “The CIA has implanted a chip in my brain.” In contrast, the person with DID, although probably unaware of the source, often knows that these experiences are not normal and does not seek to explain them in a delusional way (Dell, 2009c). In addition, the person with DID—as opposed to someone who is psychotic—often has the ability to be in two states of mind at once: While the person experiences the self as having the “crazy” thought, the person is able to hold the tension and know that it is just that, a crazy thought.
Of course, this knowledge that one is having thoughts that others would consider crazy only tends to contribute to the highly dissociative person’s fear or belief that he or she is crazy!

DID IS CONFUSING TO EVERYONE

The phenomena of full and partial dissociation are highly confusing to the person with DID as well as to those who notice them. Unlike someone who suffers primarily from depression or anxiety and who can label the problem, the person with DID generally suffers from amnesia about the very symptoms experienced and often cannot specfically identify the problem…
– Understanding and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder, Elizabeth Howell (2011)

CIA, Dissociative Identity Disorder and Ritual Abuse Survivors
While high profile organizations like the C.I.A. are often referred to by people who are experiencing psychotic symptoms (e.g., delusions of persecution), many people are unaware that the CIA has historically been involved in child abuse, including child abuse with the purpose of creating dissociative identity disorder. The involvement of the CIA in these human rights abuses is not a ‘conspiracy theory’ but is well documented, with hearings in the U.S. Senate held in the 1970s to investigate this, and other related abuse.
Karl Douglas Lehman and Ellen Lacter have produced guidelines to help clinicans differentiate between Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder which may be helpful, see Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-First Century (2008) – chapter 4.

Alison Miller, a psychotherapist specializing in therapy for ritual abuse survivors, comments that that one lie about abuser’s power and knowledge (that children are told) is that “There is a microchip implanted in the survivor’s body that tells the abusers where s/he is and / or what s/he is thinking” Healing the Umimaginable, p122

Miller also points out that even if such as object was found, “that does not mean it is capable of collecting complex information and sending it back to abusers, or even sending them signals, for twenty or more years, as some survivors belief.” (p205)

Diagnostic and Screening Tools
A variety of different diagnostic and screening tools are available to help determine if a person has Schizophrenia or Dissociative Identity Disorder. Diagnostic interviews can give a definite diagnosis, and determine whether both or neither are present, for example the Structured Clinical Interview for Dissociative Disorders, or the Dissociative Disorder Interview Schedule, but these can only be carried out by clinicians (both involve a degree of observation).

Two screening tools which can be used to determine if a dissociative disorder is likely to be present are the SDQ-20 and the Dissociative Experiences Scale – both of which are mentioned in the Dissociative Identity Disorder Treatment guidelines for adults. Both of these questionnaires give a typical score for Dissociative Identity Disorder, Schizophrenia, Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified and other conditions – but they are actually intended to highlight of a clinical diagnostic interview is likely to be helpful rather than giving a specific diagnosis. Both questionnaires result in a single score, making it impossible to rule out or confirm a diagnosis of Schizophrenia in people likely to have Dissociative Identity Disorder.

If I could get a grip on reality, I’d strangle it —Unknown

Multiple Personality Disorder and Cats… really?

We know that cats can get feline leukemia and feline aids. Cats are subject to mood disorders (e.g., distemper) and adjustment disorders (e.g., peeing on owner’s new lover’s discarded clothing).

Continue reading… Cats with Multiple Personality Disorder

Having DID isn’t all bad…

Having DID isn’t all bad – https://shadowlight8.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/did-is-real-it-can-be-hell-but-it-also-can-be-fun/

Multiple Personality Disorder tax return…

New Tax Form MPD-1040

Certain deductions are available for those who qualify as multiple personalities in the current tax year…

Read more…

Multiple Personality jokes – T-shirts & memes

Source: http://www.coolnsmart.com/tshirt_quotes/

Related Links

• 20 of the best Mental Health jokes (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
• Mental Health Humor and Cartoons (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
• Positive Effects of PTSD… Seriously? (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
• Dissociative Identity Disorder (traumadissociation.com)
• What’s your favorite movie about Dissociative Identity Disorder? (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
• How many types of Dissociation do you know? (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
• Depersonalization Disorder – a personal experience of treatment (traumadissociation.com)
• My 100 Strengths, as Said by a Group of Dissociative Trauma Survivors (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
• Dissociative Disorders (traumadissociation.com)

Violence & Dissociative Identity Disorder – any link, or just stigma?
There’s no link between having DID or any other mental disorder and being violent or committing violent crimes. The only exception is Anti-Social Personality Disorder (and even this is an optional criteria), this disorder only rarely occurs in people with DID. Sources: Mental Illness and Violent Behavior: The Role of Dissociation (2017) in Statement on Split by ISST-D, Peterson, Skeem et al. (2014) in Mental illness not normally linked to crime, DSM-5 p659 ASPD criterion A.
Being a victim of violent crime – especially physical abuse/assault and sexual abuse or rape is extremely common in people with DID. Self-inflicted violence e.g., self-harm and suicide attempts occur in 40-60% of people with DID (source: DSM-5).
Stigma? Extremely common – e.g., this scientific article in a newspaper has a picture with a caption “psychopaths” – a term irrelevant to DID but suggesting violence and crime.
Now, to the “Split” movie Dissociative Identity Disorder quiz…

Click as many answers as you like for each question – correct answers go green, wrong answers go red. There’s no total score to worry about.

Further links and research for questions

Question 4 – blindness with alters that can see and blindness caused by psychological trauma – videos & cases
Real cases of transient blindness, with and without DID: Blind woman who switched personalities could suddenly see (2013), / Sight and blindness in the same person: original research, 2015 (PMID: 26468893 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.109) / 2007 summary. Diana, with her blind alter personality Margo, and her sighted alter personality Corey.

A case study in Eastern Congo, Africa, in 2011 found this kind of dissociative and transitory blindness among women traumatized by extreme sexual violence.15 year old girl in Ethiopia

Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire (scroll down for the SDQ-20)

Question 8- Example cases of amnesia for a major trauma include:

• Witnessing a murder, recalled years later, allowing police to identify the previously unidentified victim
• Cases of child sexual abuse witnessed by other adults or victims who they never forgot
• a significant percentage of cases of sexual abuse or rape which involved hospital treatment at the time but couldn’t be recalled later (LM Williams, 1995)

• See also: The Recovered Memory Project

• Dissociative Amnesia – Soldiers witnessing another soldier’s trauma: which the soldier denies all memory of – previously called psychogenic amnesia – is well documented among combat troops (see DSM-5 p300, and Trauma-induced dissociative amnesia in World War I combat soldiers (van der Hart, Brown, & Graafland, 1999)

• Holocaust survivors who were held in concentration camps having not a single memory of it (link above)
• Dissociative Amnesia – a case of losing all memory of finding the body of a loved one after their sudden death (video, may be distressing to watch)
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder – an optional criteria of PTSD is forgetting a “significant part of the trauma” typically due to “dissociative amnesia”(source: DSM-5, PTSD criteria D.1)
• People without a specific mental disorder who were abused or traumatized as children, particularly physically or sexually, are known to spontaneous recall such a memory
• Historical examples from literature also exist, including the Parisian opera Nina (1786) by Dalayrac and Marsollier, in which the heroine forgets seeing her lover apparantley killed in a duel and still waits for him daily – then won’t accept it is him when he does later appear.
• Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire (scroll down for the SDQ-20) – physical problems common in people with DID

Question 9 – Animal alters

Smith (1989) describes a 70 year-old Native American with many alter personalities which see themselves as animals or spirits – unsurprisingly they aren’t evil serial killers either.
See also: Alters in DID

Question 10 – Why it’s very difficult to pretend to have Dissociative Identity Disorder to clinicians – besides biological/physical testing

• As it mentions in “Split”, people with Dissociative Identity Disorder spend an average of 7 years in the mental health system before being diagnosed with DID – typically have have a series of misdiagnosis. If many clinicians have neither training or experience diagnosing any dissociative disorders, they aren’t likely to give the diagnosis to someone realistically acting out the symptoms either. But the actors may be diagnosed with schizophrenia, psychotic disorders, borderline personality disorder, or bipolar disorder by mistake – and possibly medicated for them. Even if the actor told a clinician they believed they had Dissociative Identity Disorder/multiple personalities that often won’t lead them to asking relevant questions for diagnosis – they may assume you just want to be a “special” or “interesting” case, or maybe you should be assessed for histronic personality disorder (which involves dramatic, exaggerated behavior). Not until the 2013 publishing of the DSM-5 could people’s self-reporting of DID symptoms count (self-reporting Depresson, Bipolar symtpoms etc, was fine though) – the person had to switch to an alter personality in front of clinical staff (reports and descriptions from partners were ignored). Having an alter personality turn up for the assessment didn’t usually because it wasn’t a “switch” being observed.People professional diagnosed and be told by friends or family that “you don’t have that” or “nobody has that” because they don’t present symptoms that fit the stereotype, or because they don’t “match” movies about real people with DID like Sybil. Check out Truddi Chase’s interviews on Oprah, and see if you can spot her DID symptoms… of course, she might not actually “switch” to an alter personality when on camera.
• Dissociative Identity Disorder (like other mental health conditions) shouldn’t be diagnosed just be observing someone – which is what happens in the movie Primal Fear – the character of Aaron Stampler was acted so brilliantly that Dissociative Disorders specialist Dr Bethany Brand commented on how realistic it was to watch… but clinical assessment has a set of well-validated screening tools and diagnostic interviews available for clinicians which can be used to check for faking DID.
• Dissociative Identity Disorder is a hidden disorder – like all the other dissociative disorders, unless symptoms are continually obvious (which only applies to about 4% of people with it), or the person has a short period of more obvious symptoms (as shown in the movie “Split”) – there won’t be much to act: it’s behavior-based symptoms are subtle, and most clinicians don’t ask about dissociative symptoms or amnesia
• It’s not difficult to memorize answers to standard questionnaires – but the clinician might never give you a questionnaire, and if they do then questionnaires aren’t diagnostic tools. Questionnaires (e.g., the Dissociative Experiences Scale) are screening tools – they simply signal to the clinician that a clinical interview for dissociative disorders would be appropriate/helpful – they give a range of scores in which DID is highly unlikely, or fairly likely to be present in many people with those scores.
• Supposing you get to a clinical interview, and the clinician is knowledgeable about Dissociative Disorders. There’s only two well established clinical interviews, but one has over 100 questions – without a “total score” to aim for, and the other takes around 90 minutes and the scoring information (i.e., the range of ‘correct’ answers isn’t publically available). Supposing the actor did manage to get a set of appropriate answers (there are many different combinations, since DID isn’t the same for everyone), those answers would need to be memorized and repeated at the same time as making subtle movements which indicate some dissociation is taking place – at the same time as not actually looking like you are trying to remember anything. To practice the interview questions you’d need get a copy first, which you have to buy for and they are only given to people who can prove their clinical qualifications in the first place, academic qualifications alone aren’t enough!
• Part of assessing for any mental disorder – including Dissociative Identity Disorder – involves taking into account current and recent life circumstances. If this acting is being done to fake a disorder in order to avoid a criminal conviction, this will mean a “forensic” assessment gets added – and DID is hardly ever counted as a legal defense anyway (in contrast to psychotic disorders, which are accepted as a legal defense if several enough) – not exactly like the movie Primal Fear then. Motivated faking of Dissociative Identity Disorder or truly believing you have it when you don’t (“simulated DID”) both have many indicators, e.g., (e.g., Thomas, 2008) that would be difficult to fake.
• Note: Some poor “teaching” about Dissociative Identity Disorder involves role playing alters, which is mistaking DID for a primarily behavior-based disorder, students may find their memory poor as they act different roles – which is called “state-dependent memory” and exists in non-DID people: it’s easier to remember events when you are in the same emotional state as when the event happened. After, they write up their “experiment” using their memory of it (none will have amnesia for everyday events like many people with DID do, so this won’t be a problem), and they will never have these “symptoms” again… because of course, the symptoms were acted rather than genuine. Faking DID behaviors won’t lead to the students going home and not recognizing their room mates, not remembering the year they were born, or find themselves covered in blood because an alter personality self-harmed without their knowledge. They won’t “come round” several hours later and not know whether they remembered to eat dinner – or whether an alter personality remembered and ate it for them. This “role playing” is actually an example of stigma: it would be totally insulting to “act out” a more familiar disorder like depression by “looking sad and lethargic” for a while, but DID is often treated without compassion and as a “fun” or “entertaining” practical exercise. Even worse, this leads to the assumption that if only someone with DID could “snap out of it” and “behave normally” the whole condition would go away – which doesn’t work for any mental disorder – because it’s not a choice.

Further Information about Dissociative Identity Disorder

Statement on Split by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISST-D, 2017)

Separating Fact from Fiction: An Empirical Examination of Six Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder – Brand (2016)

Dissociative Disorders: An Overview of Assessment, Phenomonology and Treatment A 10 page Dissociative Identity Disorder and Dissociative Disorders summary from the Psychiatric Times, comparing DID with Borderline Personality Disorder, Schizophrenia and Bipolar

Dissociative Identity Disorder Treatment Guidelines for Adults (ISST-D, 2011) – search this 80 page document for everything you ever wanted to know about DID

Dissociative Identity Disorder in the DSM-5 – 10 pages including the diagnostic criteria (APA, 2013, from p580 via google books preview)

Jeanne Fery: A sixteenth-century case of dissociative identity disorder

Know someone you think is faking having Dissociative Identity Disorder? Read Holly Gray’s excellent blog

Source: Thanksgiving Day, aka “Forced Family Fun”

How Society Enables Child Molesters
Charles Whitfield (2001) researched the defense tactics of accused and convicted child molesters and found that of all the defenses that a child molester has at his disposal, the most effective is our collective desire not to know. We all so much want the abuse not to have happened that when an accused person says they didn’t do it, it resonates with our own personal hopes and beliefs about the incident.

Read more about this research from The Leadership Council’s post

“Society gives the image of sexual violators as weird, ugly, anti-social, alcoholics. Society gives the impression that violators kidnap children are out of their homes and take them to some wooded area and abandon them after the violation. Society gives the impression that everyone hates people who violate children. If all of these myths were true, healing would not be as challenging as it is.
Half of our healing is about the actual abuse. The other half is about how survivors fit into society in the face of the myths that people hold in order to make themselves feel safe. The truth is that 80% of childhood sexual abuse is perpetrated by family members. Yet we rarely hear the word “incest”. The word is too ugly and the truth is too scary. Think about what would happen if we ran a campaign to end incest instead of childhood sexual abuse. The number one place that children should know they are safe is in their homes. As it stands, as long as violators keep sexual abuse within the family, the chances of repercussion by anyone is pretty low. Wives won’t leave violating husbands, mothers won’t kick their violating children out of the home, and violating grandparents still get invited to holiday dinners. It is time to start cleaning house. If we stop incest first, then we will strengthen our cause against all sexual abuse.”
― Rosenna Bakari, Talking Trees facebook page

Related Posts

• 3 Types of Rape Culture that interfere with Trauma Recovery (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
• Sexual Abuse and Child Sexual Abuse – is it planned or spontaneous?
• What Would Make You Believe a Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse? By Andrea Grimes
• Ten reasons I didn’t tell I was being abused
• Pedophiles groom both the child and the family

• Emotional instability and psychiatric symptoms
• Inability to keep physically safe from the perpetrator group

She states both are related to programming – which is “the training of child insiders (alter personalities) to do ‘jobs’ assigned by the perpetrators.”

Download Internal Keys to Safety by Alison Miller (survivorship.org) to learn more – could be very triggering. 

Survivors may want to review this with your therapist or support person before reading it. This presentation is not meant as therapy or treatment.

Related Links

• Adult and Adolescent Indicators of Ritual Trauma (endritualabuse.org)
• What is organized abuse? Is it the same as ritual abuse? (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
• Non-State Torture – what is it? Is it Ritual Abuse? (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
• Polyfragmented Dissociative Identity Disorder Facts (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
• Working with Cult – RA – Mind Control and Extreme Torture and Abuse (discussingdissociation.com)
• Wikipedia has a long history of problems with accuracy, bias and allegations of connections to pedophilia and pornography (ritualabuse.us)  

Books on Ritual Abuse and Mind Control by the Sidran Institute

Warwick Middleton: Australian psychiatrist

Transcript

Now when the [trauma and dissociation] unit first started, there were psychiatrists in the hospital that was established who had the sort of reactions that were talked about here this morning, with raised eyebrows and shaking of heads, like borderline hell had just moved in. In fact, it’s sort of interesting that by not attacking, by not being overly defensive, by being warm, inviting, encouraging dialogue, giving appropriate information, research material, articles, books, et cetera, if they were requested, but certainly never attacking anyone for being a disbeliever or having a different paradigm, it’s very interesting over the years just how many of those psychiatrists that were openly incredulous and dismissive, have become stalwart admittants to the unit.  In fact, I can remember one psychiatrist … this is going back more than a decade and a half, who rang me, at that stage he was a senior registrar … it says something about the ambivalence about this area, he rang me saying he doesn’t believe that DID exists, but nevertheless he has a patient with it that he’s like to refer.

Research (Newest articles first)

Leonard, D., Brann, S., & Tiller, J. (2005). Dissociative disorders: pathways to diagnosis, clinician attitudes and their impact. Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry, 39(10), 940-946.
Abstract Results: Of the 250 clinicians, 21% reported experience with more than six cases on average of any one of the dissociative disorders, 38% with less than six, 42% with none; 55% regarded them as valid diagnoses, 35% dubiously valid and 10% invalid. Of the 55 patients, 76% reported delays in diagnosis (57%,  years and 25%, <10 years) with adverse consequences in 64%; 80% had experienced sceptical or antagonistic attitudes from clinicians, rated as destructive by 48%. They were disabled (60% rated as <50% impaired) and were heavy consumers of health services (48% hospitalized, 68% <5 times). There was considerable comorbidity including moderate or severe depression (96%), self-harm (68%), suicide attempts (69%), panic disorder (53%), eating disorders (75%), substance abuse (25%), poor physical health (44%), major interpersonal (70%) and sexual problems (90%). Patients rated individual psychotherapy as the most helpful treatment (90%) but medications, such as antidepressants, were also valued (60%). Conclusions: Although over half of the responding Australian clinicians thought that dissociative disorders were valid, the rest were dubious about their validity with 10% believing them to be invalid. Only 21% had considerable experience with the disorders. These findings may relate to some of the difficulties perceived by patients, which included delays in diagnosis, suboptimal treatment and negative experiences with clinicians. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/j.1440-1614.2005.01700.x

Somer, E. (2000). Israeli mental health professionals’ attitudes towards dissociative disorders, reported incidence and alternative diagnoses considered. Journal of trauma & dissociation, 1(1), 21-44.
Results: Years  in clinical  practice  (including postgraduate  and registrar  training)  did not  differ  between psychologists  (mean =  16.1 years, SD  =  9.68)  and psychiatrists  (mean =  18.8 years, SD  =  10.05). Overall, there  was  a  greater  tendency to believe  in the  existence  of  the  condition with 48 (55.8%) respondents  replying “Yes,”  and 32 (37.2%)  replying “No”  to the  reality of  DID. Five  (5.8%) participants  replied “unsure,”  and one  did not  respond to this  item. Excluding the  unsure responses  and one  missing value, a  chi-square  analysis  between psychologists  and psychiatrists for  this  item  showed a  significant  relationship between profession and belief  (chi-square  =  13.00, p  <  .001). Psychologists  showed a  greater  tendency to believe  in the  existence  of  DID  (23 yes, 3 no), while  the  slight  majority of  psychiatrists  did not  believe  in the  clinical  reality of  DID  (25 yes, 29 no).

Abstract Clinical diagnoses of dissociative disorders (DDs), including Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), are controversial because there are mental health professionals in North America and elsewhere who are skeptical about whether these psychiatric disorders actually exist. This paper explores the attitudes of mental health professionals in Israel toward DDs and DID through a survey of 211 practicing clinicians (return rate of 39.5%). Of the sample, 95.5% scored at or above the point on a 5-point Likert scale measuring belief in the validity of DDs (m = 4.17, SD = 0.78); 84.5% declared at least a moderate belief in the validity of DID (M = 3.5, S.D. = 0.97). The average Israeli clinician surveyed had made 4.8 career-long DD diagnoses (S.D. = 18.06) and carried an average of 1.05 DD patients in his/her caseload (S.D. = 2.86). DID had a career-long diagnosis frequency of 0.14 patients per clinician (S.D. = 0.59) and was currently seen at a frequency of 0.03 cases per clinician (S.D. = 0.20). The five most frequently considered alternative diagnoses to DID in Israel were Borderline Personality Disorder (24%), Psychotic Disorder/Schizophrenia (23%), PTSD/Anxiety Disorder (10%), Malingering (8%) and Depressive Disorder (7%). The findings suggest that attitudes of Israeli clinicians are similar to those of North American clinicians despite the geographical and cultural differences between them. Full paper – https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eli_Somer/publication/232909347_Israeli_Mental_Health_Professionals’_Attitudes_Towards_Dissociative_Disorders_Reported_Incidence_and_Alternative_Diagnoses_Considered/links/02e7e51cef1213f1df000000.pdf

Cormier, J. F., & Thelen, M. H. (1998). Professional skepticism of multiple personality disorder. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 29(2), 163.
Abstract If you saw a patient who appeared to have more than one personality, what diagnosis would you make? And how would you vary your clinical approach? Data from 425 respondents indicated that the majority of psychologists believed multiple personality disorder (MPD) to be a valid but rare clinical diagnosis. Respondents cited extreme child abuse as the foremost cause of MPD. Approximately one-half of all respondents believed that they had encountered a client with MPD, whereas less than one-third believed that they had encountered a client who feigned MPD. http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pro/29/2/163/
Professional attitudes to Dissociative Identity Disorder (MPD) in Britain: More on treating DID where it doesn’t exist.  Paper presented at the 4th conference of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation-UK branch. J Mcintee. 1998. and

Davis, J.D. & Davis, M.L. (1997). The prevalence of dissociative disorders within the mental health services of a British urban district.Paper presented at the Fourth Conference of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation. Chester, UK, April 19-11.
Summarized by Somer, E. (2000) A recent survey conducted in Britain sought to test the prevailing view in the United Kingdom academic press that DID either did not exist or was fashionably over-diagnosed by gullible practitioners, influenced by ill-advised North American colleagues. The survey was designed to examine British psychologists’ and psychiatrists’ attitudes towards the identification and treatment of dissociative disorders (McIntee, 1998). Dissociative disorders had been encountered by 66% of respondents, of whom 14% attributed dissociation to iatrogenesis. The 965 British mental health professionals responding to the survey reported having seen a total of 3225 clients with DDs, 526 clients diagnosed as DID, and 596 clients with Dissociative Disorder–Not Otherwise Specified. The estimated life prevalence rates for a British research sample reported a year earlier were 15.2% for DDs in general and 5.7% for DID specifically, with clinical profiles resembling those described in the North American literature (Davis & Davis, 1997).
Hayes, J. A., & Mitchell, J. C. (1994). Mental health professionals’ skepticism about multiple personality disorder. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 25(4), 410.
Abstract Three studies were conducted to investigate the nature of mental health professionals’ skepticism regarding multiple personality disorder (MPD). An initial pilot study was conducted to develop a psychometrically sound survey instrument. In Study 2, the results of a national survey of 207 mental health professionals supported the hypothesis that skepticism and knowledge about MPD are inversely related, r = –.33, p < .01, although the strength of this relationship varied among professions. Moderate to extreme skepticism was expressed by 24% of the sample. Results from Study 3 supported the hypotheses that MPD is diagnosed with less accuracy than is schizophrenia and that misdiagnosis of MPD is predicted by skepticism about MPD. Findings are related to literature pertaining to mental health professionals’ skepticism about MPD and consequential effects on treatment. http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pro/25/4/410/

Dunn, G. E., Paolo, A. M., Ryan, J. J., & Van Fleet, J. N. (1994). Belief in the existence of multiple personality disorder among psychologists and psychiatrists. Journal of clinical psychology.
Abstract Surveyed the attitudes of 664 psychologists and 456 psychiatrists with regard to the existence of dissociative and multiple personality disorders (MPDs). 97.5% of the Ss indicated that they believed in dissociative disorders, while 80% reported a belief in MPD. 12.3% did not believe in MPD, and 7.7% were undecided. Belief in MPD was related significantly to profession, age, and years of experience. Young Ss with less professional experience believed more in MPD than did older Ss. Ss who had worked with patients with MPD would tend to believe in the entity. http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1995-21368-001

Barton, C. (1994). Backstage in psychiatry: The multiple personality disorder controversy.
Abstract Arguments about the existence of multiple personality disorder (MPD) are creating a professional dispute. Skepticism is manifested in literary as well as behavioral forms. The most widely cited recent skeptical paper is that of H. Merskey (see record 1992-31500-001). Merskey uses arguments that are sociological in nature but with little attention to empirical evidence. Merskey’s skepticism about MPD differs from skepticism in natural science. Proponents’ research is ignored rather than being subjected to critical examination and disproof through attempted replication. His skepticism appears largely based on challenges to the integrity of MPD patients and questions about the competence of therapists. http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1995-29438-001  – Mersky’s response – and Barton’s response to it

Dell, P. F. (1988). Professional skepticism about multiple personality. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 176(9), 528-531.
Abstract Therapists who have treated patients with multiple personality disorder (MPD) were surveyed about professional skepticism regarding the existence of MPD. Of these therapists, 78% reported that they had encountered intense skepticism from fellow professionals. Much of this skepticism appears to be explainable in terms of a) the lengthy decline of psychiatry’s interest in dissociation, b) under appreciation of the prevalence of individuals with dissociative ability, and c) misconceptions about the natural clinical presentation of patients with MPD. These factors, however, could not explain the behavior of those skeptics who deliberately interfered with the clinical care of patients and who engaged in repeated acts of harassment against the patient and/or therapist. Half of the survey respondents reported that they had encountered these latter forms of extreme skepticism. http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Abstract/1988/09000/Professional_Skepticism_about_Multiple.2.aspx

Your old life doesn’t just snap back into place immediately. You changed, and others changed along with you. – Thomas Fiffer

If this sounds overwhelming and depressing then remember that recovering is both possible, and worthwhile. You can begin to have the good life you deserve. You might find it helpful to read the excellent article below – and to share it with those close to you, to help them understand that possible reactions after the end of the abuse – and what can be done to help.

    The Unspoken Secrets about Life After Abuse by Thomas Fiffer (The Good Men Project)

Related Links

It’s my fault, it’s always my fault: Self-Blame (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (traumadissociation.com)
Denial: A psychological defense against trauma (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
If the Abuse is Ongoing (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
Being male and a survivor (traumadissociation.wordpress.com)
The Misconcepts of Misandry (hatred against men) (rhsroyalreport.wordpress.com)
Signs of being in a pscyhologically abusive relationship (violencehurts.wordpress.com)