VIEWING DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER THROUGH A JUNGIAN LENS

by Christian Vincent

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY

Pacifica Graduate Institute 15 December 2010

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2010 Christian Vincent All rights reserved

iii I certify that I have read this paper and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a product for the degree of Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology.

____________________________________ Kathee Miller, M.A., M.F.T. Faculty Advisor

On behalf of the thesis committee, I accept this paper as partial fulfillment of the requirements for Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology.

____________________________________ Avrom Altman, M.A., M.F.T. Research Coordinator

On behalf of the Counseling Psychology program, I accept this paper as partial fulfillment of the requirements for Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology.

____________________________________ Wendy Davee, M.A., M.F.T. Chair, Counseling Psychology Program

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Abstract VIEWING DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER THROUGH A JUNGIAN LENS by Christian Vincent This thesis attempts to provide a bridge between the worlds of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Carl Jungs (1983) complex theory. Furthermore, trauma theory is discussed in its connection to DID. Each alter personality typically found in DID has been equated to Jungs concept of complexes and archetypes. A parallel is also made between Jungs (1957/1981) idea of the transcendent function and the integration process for a multiple personality. The idea behind making this parallel is to offer a reframing of DID from pathological to non-pathological. Phenomenological research was conducted for this thesis. Several interviews were completed with individuals who have experienced various stages of DID from being recently diagnosed to full integration of alter personalities. Lastly, an interview was completed with a Marriage and Family Therapist who has worked in the field of DID for more than 30 years. The questions posed to these individuals are designed to reflect a deeper understanding of the disorder beyond the pathological view as well as to highlight the similarities between DID alters and Jungian complexes and archetypes.

Acknowledgements Thanks to Suzie for her everlasting love and pop-up books. Thanks to my many teachers for your trust and guidance. Thanks to DArcy for your extensive knowledge and invaluable teachings throughout my life.

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Dedication This work is dedicated to the amazing inner world of DID.

Table of Contents Chapter I Introduction ......................................................................................1 Area of Interest ........................................................................................................1 Guiding Purpose.......................................................................................................4 Rationale ..................................................................................................................5 Research Methodology ............................................................................................5 Overview ..................................................................................................................5 Chapter II Review of Literature ........................................................................7 Definition of Dissociative Identity Disorder............................................................7 History of Dissociative Identity Disorder ................................................................9 An Outline of Carl Jungs Complex Theory ..........................................................20 Archetypes .................................................................................................20 The Self ......................................................................................................21 Complexes..................................................................................................21 The Unconscious ........................................................................................23 The Ego ......................................................................................................23 The Shadow ...............................................................................................24 Anima and Animus ....................................................................................24 The Transcendent Function........................................................................25 Jung on Dissociation ..............................................................................................26 The Effects of Trauma ...........................................................................................28 Richard Kluft .............................................................................................28 Babette Rothschild .....................................................................................29 Judith Herman ............................................................................................30 Donald Kalsched ........................................................................................32 Introduction to Richard Nolls Article ...................................................................33 ShadowPersecutor Alter...........................................................................35 Anima/AnimusContrasexual Alters .........................................................35 The Child ArchetypeChild Alters ............................................................35 The SelfInner Self Helper ........................................................................36 The Transcendent FunctionIntegration ....................................................37 Summary ................................................................................................................38 Chapter III The Interviews ...............................................................................39 Introduction ............................................................................................................39 Interview with B .................................................................................................40 Interview with M ................................................................................................50 Interview with D .................................................................................................57 Interview with DArcy Vanderpool, M.F.T. ..........................................................61

2 Summary ................................................................................................................79 Chapter IV Conclusion .....................................................................................80 Areas For Further Exploration ...............................................................................81 Closing Remarks ....................................................................................................82 Appendix A ........................................................................................................................83 References ..........................................................................................................................86

Chapter I Introduction For the abused child, childhood is less a Wordsworthian ode on intimations of immortality than it is an intimidation of immortality. And, yet, the hysterical symptoms could be considered to be the soul dancing and could be celebrated as such if it were not that the dance was being forced by the bullets of abuse being fired at its feet. (Mogensen, 1989, p. 148) Area of Interest Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) has intrigued me since I was a child. The minds capacity to protect the soul at such a young age is a thing of beauty and wonder. In my experience of growing up with a parent who has DID and working with DID clients, I have witnessed the strength and beauty in each of them to overcome the challenges that this disorder can present. One of my most poignant memories as a child is playing Barbie dolls with a seven-year-old little girl named Suzie. However, the person sitting next to me was a grown woman. Understanding that this little girl was actually one of the many parts of my mothers personality was not frightening or bizarre to me because her therapist took the time to explain the disorder in a manner that my six-yearold mind could comprehend. It was not always an easy experience when certain alters would come out but I knew that she was doing the best she could in that moment. Each of her alters were incredibly creative and intelligent individuals. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to meet them and understand each of them. As I came to understand more of the reason for their existence I grew angry with her perpetrator but remained in awe of my mothers ability to switch into a different person to handle different situations. I knew

2 that she was a very unique person so I did my best to understand why she behaved in certain ways. This desire to understand her at a deeper level ultimately led me to graduate school and into working with other people diagnosed with DID. Studying depth psychology has provided for me the ability to understand DID archetypally. Transformation of identity is a ubiquitous theme in the popular culture of North America, as it is around the world (Ross, 1997, p. 67). This connection I am making between DID and Carl Jungs complex theory is an endeavor to unveil the disorder that is shrouded in so much mystery. A complex is an idea filled with emotionally charged contents, which interrupts our attention and redirects our thinking and often our behavior (Singer, 1994, p. xxxvi). Furthermore, Jungs idea of complexes led him to search through the maze of the human psyche and he was able to trace the trail of the complex back toward its sources in those basic elemental tendencies of the human personality which produce certain specific kinds of thinking patterns common to the entire human species. These Jung named the archetypes (p. xxxvii). When a disorder is viewed as a pathological disruption to a persons life it does not leave much room to inquire about the beneficial aspects of the disorder. Jungian analyst Greg Mogensen (1989) stated Perhaps when we stop conceiving of trauma as damage we will stop conceiving of neurosis as sick or wrong and vice versa (p. 146). Jung viewed the dissociability of the psyche as a normal and necessary function which served a person throughout his or her life development (Noll, 1989). In the case of DID, it is an intensified reaction due to extreme abuse. Not every abused child becomes a multiple, but a history of childhood abuse has been found in more than 90 percent of all diagnosed multiples (Steinberg & Schnall,

3 2000, p. 17). Throughout this thesis the term multiple will be used to describe an individual with DID. It is important for people to understand how and why DID happens. This thesis does not specifically focus on the severe sexual, physical, and emotional abuse that a child experiences, but trauma theory is looked at in connection to DID. It is a crucial element to remember when bringing into question the reason why a person with DID acts the way he or she does. His or her mind has become fragmented for a very devastating reason. The childs capacity to dissociate is the only means of escape from an unbearable experience when there literally is no escape (Herman, 1992). The chronic and severe abuse causes the child to imagine that the abuse is happening to someone else as a way to separate herself from intense affects associated with the experience (Ross, 1997). Another piece of this thesis is Jungs (1957/1981) concept of the transcendent function and the integration process that a multiple experiences. The transcendent function is the union of opposites in which new situations and conscious attitudes emerge (Jung, 1983). Unconscious material must be made conscious so that a person can begin to work through his or her issues. For a multiple this work is done through hypnosis, guided imagery, and processing memories of abuse so that the different alters can begin to integrate into one another and ultimately a unification of all alters is achieved (Noll, 1989). An alter is a clinical term and was defined by psychiatrists Bennett Braun and Richard Kluft (as cited in Putnam, 1989) as an entity with a firm, persistent, and well-founded sense of self and a characteristic and consistent pattern of behavior and feelings in response to given stimuli. It must have a range of functions, a range of emotional responses, and a significant life history. (p. 23) Child abuse is a horrendous attack against the body, mind, and soul of the affected child. The psychological community has devoted a great deal of time to investigating the

4 pathological understanding of DID symptoms but has failed to take the time to understand this disorder as a creative way for the mind to save the body, and even more importantly the soul, from utter despair or even worse, death. DID should be understood as the capability of the soul to survive and overcome a repeated act of cruelty with great strength and vigor. Furthermore, the multiple should be celebrated for their courageous capacity to thrive in unbearable conditions. Mogensen (1989) stated It is not that childabuse and other events are not important problems. They are. We abuse our recognition of child-abuse, however, when we assign it the lions share of etiological significance (p. 148). Furthermore, he continued his reframing of the pathological standpoint with this following: Unable to be the child of a particular parent, one may instead become a child of the culture, a daughter of the Jerusalem of her own creative survival, a Son of Man, a metaphor. Yes, perhaps if there were more metaphors around, there would be less abuse. (p. 148) Guiding Purpose DID is viewed by many as a pathological nuisance. Carl Jung looked at a persons symptoms as purposive and as serving the persons soul (Singer, 1994). Archetypal psychologist and author James Hillman (1989) wrote, Precisely what each symptom needs is time and tender care and attention. Just this same attitude is what the soul needs in order to be felt and heard (p. 19). This thesis aims to look at the symptoms of a person with DID and to see how this incredibly complex defense mechanism has saved lives and allowed the individual to have a life in spite of the horrific abuse they endured. The goal of this work is to offer a different perspective for understanding the DID paradigm from a non-pathological point of view.

5 Rationale This topic is important because DID is not a widely understood phenomenon. Belief in the existence of the disorder is crucial to the healing of the client. Often, a multiple is misdiagnosed and therefore her true condition goes untreated. A greater investment needs to be made in educating clinicians in the field about DID. The exploration of this disorder from a depth psychological perspective will contribute to the field of counseling psychology because it provides clinicians with an alternative theoretical framework to understand their client. Research Methodology Phenomenological research was conducted for this thesis. I completed four indepth interviews with three multiples in different stages of DID and an interview with a Marriage and Family Therapist who has worked with DID for over 30 years. Open-ended questions were asked of the participants. The questions were formulated to reflect a deeper understanding of the disorder, as well as to highlight the similarities between DID alters and Jungian complexes and archetypes. The purpose of these interviews is to show how DID does parallel Jungs complex theory and the idea of the transcendent function. The lived human experience of multiplicity comes through in the answers of each individual. Overview Chapter I provided an introduction into the exploration of the thesis topic and posits that Dissociative Identity Disorder can be viewed through the lens of Carl Jungs (1983) complex theory. Furthermore, Jungs (1957/1981) idea of the transcendent function as a parallel experience for the integration process of someone with DID is

6 introduced. The guiding purpose of this thesis is to offer clinicians an alternative theoretical framework to understand DID. This thesis topic is important because DID is not a widely understood phenomenon in the field of psychology. Furthermore, the general understanding of the disorder is from a pathological view point. Phenomenological research was conducted for this thesis. Chapter II is begun with a definition of Dissociative Identity Disorder followed by a thorough history of the development of DID from possession theory to modern-day diagnosis and controversy. A review of the literature on trauma is then introduced with authors Richard Kluft (1985), Babette Rothschild (2000), Judith Herman (1992), and Donald Kalsched (1996). Carl Jungs (1983) complex theory is also outlined and segues into the parallel between DID and complex theory. Chapter III begins with an introduction to three interviews that were completed with individuals who have a diagnosis of DID and are at various stages of the disorder and one interview with a Marriage and Family Therapist who specializes in the treatment of DID. Chapter IV will discuss a summary of my findings from the interviews. I will also discuss the implications and ramifications of my work. Lastly I will include any contributions that my work has made to the field of counseling psychology as well as suggestions for areas of further exploration and study.

Chapter II Review of Literature But still, for all this, I see the formulation of bizarre and imaginative symptoms to be less a sign of the tragedy of child abuse than a hope for its remedy. The last can become first. Where an incarnational life has been rendered impossible, a psychic life may have its span. (Mogensen, 1989, p. 148) Definition of Dissociative Identity Disorder The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) defined Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) with the use of four criteria: The presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states (Criterion A) that recurrently take control of behavior (Criterion B). There is an inability to recall important personal information, the extent of which is too great to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness (Criterion C). The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance or a general medical condition (Criterion D). In children, the symptoms cannot be attributed to imaginary playmates or other fantasy play. (p. 526) This disorder reveals the incapacity to integrate various aspects of identity, memory, and consciousness (p. 526). Each alter or personality may be experienced as having a separate name, personal history, and self-image. The host personality is usually found to have the individuals birth name and is characterized as being depressed, submissive, guilty, and dependent. The other personalities are characterized as possibly being angry, self-sabotaging, or dominating, as just a few examples. Different alters possess different jobs in service of the overall system. Individuals who have this disorder regularly report experiencing large gaps of missing time in which they experience complete amnesia. The memory loss may also

8 occur when the individual is asked to recall his or her childhood and adolescence which they have little to no memory of. When recovering memories it is usually the protector or hostile alters that are able to recall information whereas the more passive or scared alters experience more constricted memories (APA, 2000, p. 526). Individuals with Dissociative Identity Disorder often report having experienced severe physical, sexual, and emotional abuse during childhood (APA, 2000, p. 527). Early childhood traumata are highly correlated to this diagnosis. There is also a large occurrence of comorbidity with other disorders such as Mood, Personality, SubstanceRelated, Sexual, Eating, or Sleep. Often an individual with this disorder may have a cyclical pattern of being in physically and sexually abusive relationships. DID diagnoses have been found in cultures all around the world but are most prevalent in North America. The disorder is diagnosed three to nine times more frequently in adult females than in adult males and females tend to have more identities than do males, averaging 15 or more, whereas males average approximately 8 identities (APA, 2000, p. 528). In his book Dissociative Identity Disorder: Diagnosis, Clinical Features, and Treatment of Multiple Personality, psychiatrist and researcher Colin Ross (1997) defined DID as the following: What is DID? DID is a little girl imagining that the abuse is happening to someone else. This is the core of the disorder, to which all other features are secondary. The imagining is so intense, subjectively compelling, and adaptive, that the abused child experiences dissociated aspects of herself as other people. (p. 61)

9 History of Dissociative Identity Disorder Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) has a long history fraught with various attitudes, theories, and misconceptions. The following pages will give a brief illumination of the rise, fall, and resurrection of Dissociative Identity Disorder. From enthusiasts to skeptics of the disorder, the colorful and controversial history of Dissociative Identity Disorder has staked its claim in the field of psychology. Either as alterations of consciousness or mixed with complaints of lack of somatic sensation or control, references to dissociative phenomena go back to pharaonic Egypt and have been observed in preindustrial societies (Cardea, 2000, p. 55). In earlier times the disorder was understood as a state of demonic possession. Psychiatrist and author Colin Ross (1997) outlined in great detail the four stages of demon possession theory in order to come to an understanding of dissociation in the nineteenth century. Ross began by speaking about classical demon possession in which the disassociated state identified itself as a Christian demon and uttered blasphemous statements. The exorcist engaged in theological debates with the demon, as well as using threats and commands prior to formal exorcism (p. 16). He continued to explain that there was an invariably strong contrast between the character of the possessed person and that of the demon with the person being devout and polite, and the demon irreverent and insulting (p. 16). However, radical changes were being made in the midst of the political climate and religious dogma throughout Europe. Canadian-Swiss psychiatrist and medical historian Henri Ellenbergers (1970) book The Discovery of the Unconscious described this as follows:

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Europe had come under the spell of a new philosophy, the Enlightenment, which proclaimed the primacy of Reason over ignorance, superstition, and blind tradition. Under the guidance of Reason, mankind was expected to proceed along a path of uninterrupted progress toward a future of universal happiness. In Western Europe the Enlightenment had developed radical tendencies that were to materialize later in the American and French revolutions. The remainder of Europe was ruled by enlightened despotism, a compromise between the principles of Enlightenment and the interests of the ruling class. (p. 56) Witch hunts and inquisitions had greatly declined but everything related to demons, possession, or exorcism was shunned (p. 56). German physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) arrived on the scene of medicine with his theory of animal magnetism in 1775. Ellenberger (1970) signified this as the fateful turning point from exorcism to dynamic psychotherapy (p. 57). Mesmer believed that by manipulating magnetic fluids naturally present in a persons body a variety of ailments could be cured. Although Mesmer did not receive the fame he sought to achieve through his practice of animal magnetism, he opened the door for his student Armand Marie Jacques de Chastenet, the Marquis de Puysegur (1751-1825), to further explore this theory. He took up the practice of animal magnetism and developed it in a direction that would make it truly significant to the history of psychology (Crabtree, 2000, p. 200). Puysegur, who was later recognized as one of the pre-scientific founders of hypnotism, discovered that many people, when subjected to magnetic passes, would go into an altered state of consciousness (Crabtree, 2000, p. 200). He coined the term magnetic somnambulism due to its resemblance of the sleepwalking state (p. 200). Puysegur became aware of five characteristics of this state which were: sleep-waking kind of consciousness, a special connection between subject and magnetizer,

11 suggestibility, a notable alteration of the personality of the subject, and amnesia for the events of that state upon returning to ordinary consciousness. Through his work with animal magnetism Puysegur achieved a new, purely psychological paradigm for thinking about mental disorders (p. 200). From 1784 to 1880, artificial somnambulism was the chief method of gaining access into the unconscious mind. First called the perfect crises by Puysegur, magnetic sleep, or artificial somnambulism, was given the name of hypnotism by Braid in 1843 (Ellenberger, 1970, p. 112). Hypnotism quickly became the popular and professional method in which to work with individuals diagnosed with dual states of consciousness. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, hysteria became more prominent, and it was at this point that a synthesis was reached between the teachings of hypnotists on the one hand and official psychiatry on the other (p. 142). With the arrival of new investigators in the field of dynamic psychiatry such as Jean Martin Charcot, Pierre Janet, Alfred Binet, Carl Jung, Joseph Breuer, and Sigmund Freud, further inquiry and groundbreaking work around dissociation soon followed. By the end of the eighteenth century and all of the nineteenth century, occurrences of divided personality became known, at first as very rare if not legendary happenings. After 1840, they were regarded in a more objective manner, and by 1880 this problem was among the most discussed by psychiatrists and philosophers. (Ellenberger, 1970, p. 126) Early transitional demon possession theory had markedly evolved as well and by 1830, possession states no longer invariably met the classical features. Instead of being possessed by demons, folk could be taken over by dead neighbors or relatives, which meant the exorcists had shifted toward a psychological theory of possession (Ross, 1997, p. 18). In a case review from around 1890 Ross recognized the third stage as late

12 transitional demon possession and stated that the conception of the therapist is purely psychological and so is the treatment (p. 19). He further explained how the thinking of the physician has made a considerable transition: The patient complains of being demon possessed, but the demon is considered by the physician to be a dissociated psychic entity, and its purpose is psychological. The psychological theory and the therapeutic interventions are subtle and complex, and the case is related to a wide range of dissociative phenomena, other cases, multiple personality, and a theory of dissociation. (p. 19) Psychiatrist and researcher Judith Herman (1992), in her book Trauma and Recovery, articulated the early history of how hysteria was recognized and understood by the general public: For two decades in the late nineteenth century, the disorder called hysteria became a major focus of serious inquiry. The term hysteria was so commonly understood at the time that no one had actually taken the trouble to define it systematically. In the words of one historian, for twenty-five centuries, hysteria has been considered a strange disease with incoherent and incomprehensible symptoms. Most physicians believed it to be a disease proper to women and originating in the uterus. Hence the name, hysteria. As another historian explained, hysteria was a dramatic medical metaphor for everything that men found mysterious or unmanageable in the opposite sex. (p. 10) Jean-Martin Charcot endeavored to pull back the mysterious curtain that hung in front of what was then known as hysteria. Charcot was credited for great courage in venturing to study hysteria at all; his prestige gave credibility to a field that had been considered beyond the pale of serious scientific investigation (Herman, 1992, p. 10). A French neurologist, Charcot is best known for his research with hysterical women followed by his dramatic, theatrical Tuesday lectures that were attended by the Parisian wealthy, doctors, authors, and such. His kingdom was the Salptrire, an ancient, expansive hospital complex which had long been an asylum for the most wretched of the Parisian proletariat: beggars, prostitutes, and the insane (p. 10). Charcot worked with

13 hysterics through the use of hypnosis and carefully documented the symptoms with writing, drawings, and photographs. However, Charcot did not have any interest in the inner life of the hysteric. It would be Charcots followers who would begin to demonstrate the causes of hysteria and cross over the threshold into what would become known as dissociation. On the American forefront was William James, another researcher of the phenomena of multiple personality. He spoke of a plurality of selves in the normal individual, which included the material, social and spiritual selves, and the pure ego. These selves could undergo various derangements, some resulting in DID (Ross, 1997, p. 23). James later published his work Principles of Psychology in 1890 in which he discussed multiple personality in a theoretical chapter on the consciousness of self (p. 23). Pierre Janet completed some of the most influential early theoretical work in the field of dissociation that was geared toward the idea of multiplicity. In Janets 1889 work LAutomatistne Psychologique, he introduced his concept of dissociation. This piece of historical literature described associative symptoms of ideas that have been split off from consciousness and exist in a parallel life along with the dominant stream of consciousness (Noll, 1989, p. 354). Janet described his hysterical patients as governed by subconscious fixed ideas, the memories of traumatic events (Herman, 1992, p. 12). Janet viewed the dissociative tendency of individuals as pathological and as a sign of psychological weakness and suggestibility (p. 12). Janets belief that patients with posttraumatic dissociative disorders are tainted with mental degeneracy contributed to the discrediting of DID (Ross, 1997, p. 24). If Janet had thought of the biological

14 predisposition as a talent or ability, it might not have been so easy for DID to be swallowed up by organic mental illness (p. 24). Janet became widely known for his theories and observations and was a major influence in both Europe and the United States. Unfortunately, Janet lived to see his works forgotten and his ideas neglected (Herman, 1992, p. 18), although he never retracted his theory of early traumatic sexual experiences being the root of dissociation. Freud and Breuer are both credited with work in the field of disassociation. Together the two men contributed to the study of dissociative phenomena with the interpretation of the case Anna O. reported in 1895 in their Studies on Hysteria (Noll, 1989, p. 2). Also occurring at this time were similarities between the developing theories of these men. Both Janet and Freud recognized that the somatic symptoms of hysteria represented disguised representations of intensely distressing events which had been banished from memory (Herman, 1992, p. 12). Initially, Freud followed suit with his mentors Charcot and Breuer in their skepticism of the role of sexuality in the origins of hysteria (Herman, 1992, p. 13). However, it was not long before Freud came to his own realizations. His case histories reveal a man possessed of such passionate curiosity that he was willing to overcome his own defensiveness, and willing to listen (p. 13). From one hysteric to the next the consistency and continuum of early sexual trauma took precedence in the story of the patient. Following back the thread of memory, Freud and his patients uncovered major traumatic events of childhood concealed beneath the more recent, often relatively trivial experiences that had actually triggered the onset of hysterical symptoms (p. 13). By the mid 1890s Janet in France and Freud, with his collaborator Joseph Breuer, in Vienna had arrived independently at strikingly similar formulations: hysteria

15 was a condition caused by psychological trauma. Unbearable emotional reactions to traumatic events produced an altered state of consciousness, which in turn induced the hysterical symptoms. Janet called this alteration in consciousness dissociation. Breuer and Freud called it double consciousness. (p. 12) Within a few years of publishing Studies in Hysteria, however, Freud repudiated the seduction theory (Ross, 1997, p. 27). It resulted in a repudiation of the clinical realities of both abused children and adult survivors of childhood abuse (p. 28). Freud embarked on a metapsychological digression: A second aspect of Freuds genius was his ability to create a socially acceptable theory that denied the reality of childhood sexual abuse (p. 28). By the turn of the century, the political impulse that had given birth to the heroic age of hysteria had dissipated; there was no longer any compelling reason to continue a line of investigation that had led men of science so far from where they originally intended to go. The study of hysteria had lured them into a netherworld of trance, emotionality, and sex. (Herman, 1992, p. 17) When Freud repudiated the seduction theory, he simultaneously repudiated hypnosis and Jungs interest in the paranormal. Since DID, sexual abuse, autohypnosis, and extrasensory experiences are closely linked, Freud effectively banned a large area of psychic reality from serious study (Ross, 1997, p. 34). In conjunction with the disrepute of hypnosis followed a new understanding of DID as an artifact that was thought to be a result of an interaction between a nave diagnostician and a gullible, hysterical patient (p. 34). Carl Jung took a great interest in the study of dissociation. Jung studied mediums and spiritism and presented case histories containing numerous dissociative phenomena in a treatise called On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena (Jung 1902/1977) (as cited in Ross, 1997, p. 23). It was Jungs interest in parapsychology that was one of the factors leading up to his definitive split from Freud.

16 If we think of Jungs interest in the paranormal as intertwined with his study of dissociation, we realize that to stay with Freud, Jung would have had to abandon his study of dissociation and related phenomena (pp. 23-24). Furthermore, Jungs concept of autonomous complexes is directly analogous to Janets subconscious fixed ideas or second existences and to Freuds observations of compulsive and obsessive phenomena (Noll, 1989, p. 354). This shift in thinking caused the course of psychology to take a completely different path along with the work of Pavlov. Professional energy and ideological commitment that did not flow into psychoanalysis were channeled into behaviorism (Ross, 1997, p. 35). Also, the discovery and rise of interest in schizophrenia can be attributed to the decline of the diagnosis of DID. Those DID patients who were not classified as oedipal hysterics after 1910 were likely to be called schizophrenic. In this instance it was not the patients conflicts that were blamed for the symptoms, but her brain (p. 35). Schizophrenia was called dementia praecox until Bleuler introduced the term schizophrenia. Dementia praecox is actually a better name for this group of disorders than schizophrenia, while schizophrenia is a better name for DID then multiple personality disorder. Schizophrenia means split mind from the Greek schizo, split, and phren, mind, while dementia praecox means dementia of early onset. It is actually DID that is characterized by a split mind. This confused terminology has given rise to popular confusion about schizophrenia, which is often thought to be the same as split personality. (p. 35) This confusion around the name of the disorder is another factor which led to the decline of DID. The name multiple personality disorder led to incredulity and arguments about whether the disorder is real (Ross, 1997, p. 37). Furthermore, the terminology suggests that it is necessary to debate whether or not one person can really have more than one personality, or, put more extremely, whether there can really be more than one

17 person in a single body (p. 37). Obviously only one physical body exists. However, the mind inside this one body is in many pieces. From 1910 until 1980 very little work and time were invested in the field around DID. The few cases treated during this time did not make any contribution to a theory of DID or give any elaboration to understanding it. In the late 1950s the case of Eve White was believed to be the only living case of multiple personality and was thought to be an extremely rare occurrence. The book and movie The Three Faces of Eve were so sensationalized by the current media that any realistic grounding of the case was thought to be a work of fiction by many (as cited in Ross, 1997, p. 41). One of the forgotten theorists of DID during this silent period was George H. Estabrooks. His writings contained material to support a general psychological theory based on the assumption of a second or subliminal self (Ross, 1997, p. 41). Estabrooks was also one of the only investigators during this period to shed light on the systematic creation of DID by military intelligence agencies. He exposed several case histories of military personnel serving during the Second World War in whom artificial DID was created for use in courier and infiltration operation (p. 42). However, he pointed to the extreme difficulty and arduous procedures required for an iatrogenic creation of the disorder. He deserves to be remembered as an important theorist of DID and dissociation, and he should be thanked for documenting the creation of artificial DID by military intelligence agencies (p. 43). In the late 1970s Ernest Hilgards publication of Divided Consciousness inaugurates the serious modern study of dissociation along with the resurgence of interest in hypnosis, the Vietnam War, and the Womens Movement which unveiled the

18 truth and prevalence of childhood sexual abuse (Ross, 1997, p. 44). Furthermore, a handful of specialists were beginning to emerge. Cornelia Wilbur is noted for treating a case of DID that was depicted in the 1973 book Sybil (as cited in Ross, 1997). Other clinicians such as Richard Kluft, Eugene Bliss, Ralph Allison, Bennett Braun, George Greaves, and David Caul were given recognition for having participated in an oral tradition that was transmitted partly through annual workshops at the American Psychiatric Association meetings (p. 44). The year 1980 was a major milestone for the evolution and history of DID because it was announced as an official diagnosis included in the DSM-III as Multiple Personality Disorder. There were also several important publications on multiple personality by Bliss, Greaves, Coons, and Rosenbaum that gave insight into trauma, incest, amnesia, and integration (Ross, 1997). Interest in DID had resurfaced in the field and the following decade was spent exploring and researching the disorder. In 1984 the first major conference on DID was held in Chicago and the formation of the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation was set into motion. This was later renamed the International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD) in 1994. It was also during this decade that four major scholarly journals devoted to the study and treatment of dissociation were put into print and the leading contemporary writers in the field had begun to make their characteristic contributions (Ross, 1997, p. 49). Towards the end of the decade the transition from a prescientific to a scientific body of knowledge was consolidated (p. 53). Ross (1997) explained the further development of DID through the next decade: A large number of editors and authors entered the field in the 1990s who were not part of the small inner circle of the 1980s, and the field began to display a

19 divergence of points of view, especially concerning the historical veracity of trauma memories, and the frequency of iatrogenic DID. (p. 55) Furthermore, he went on to state: The possibility still existed in 1995 that the dissociative disorders could disappear from professional awareness, repeating the history of the early twentieth century. This seemed unlikely, however, because of the much greater research base, the political organization in the field, and existence of a dissociative disorder section in DSM-IV. (p. 57) From 1995 on DID remained a controversial diagnosis. A large divide has lingered in the professional community between those who believe in and give the diagnosis to clients and those who believe it to be an iatrogenic creation of therapists and a product of false memory syndrome (Ross, 1997). A collaborative book, Dissociative Identity Disorder, edited by Cohen, Berzoff, and Elin (1995), offered opposing views of DID. Contributor Denise Gelinas (1995) gave testament to one of the controversial aspects of DID. In 1994, The False Memory Syndrome Foundation was established by Peter Freyd and his wife Pamela after Peter was confronted by his own grown daughter with accusations of sexual abuse (p. 200). Furthermore, the false memory controversy, and the lawsuits against individual therapists, constitutes a backlash against the private realization and therapy and the public discourse about childhood sexual abuse (p. 205). Diagnostic tools such as The Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule by Colin Ross and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders by Marlene Steinberg were developed, and a collaborative effort by Bernstein and Putnam brought about the Dissociative Experiences Scale. In the book The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook, psychologist Deborah Haddock (2001) offered insight into the current thought and future needs in the field of DID. Haddock stated, As more and more research is being done regarding the

20 effects of trauma, we are learning about the brains influence during and after traumatic events and how memory is affected (p. 14). The continuing study of DID can yield valuable insight into a variety of issues in both biological and psychosocial psychiatry (Ross, 1997, p. 60). An Outline of Carl Jungs Complex Theory Archetypes. Jungian analyst Daryl Sharp (2001) gave a concise overview of Jungian concepts in his book, Digesting Jung. An archetype is a primordial, structural element of the human psychea universal tendency to form certain ideas and images and to behave in certain ways (p. 14). Ellenberger (1970) stated, They are the centers of psychic energy; they have a numinous, life like quality; and they are likely to be manifested in critical circumstances, either through an exterior event or because of some inner change (p. 706). French Jungian analyst Elie Humbert (1984/1988) offered his insight on Jungian theory in his book, C. G. Jung: The Fundamentals of Theory and Practice. Humbert stated that the psyche consists of unconscious predispositions that make possible an organized human existence. Archetypes, which have slowly evolved through the course of history, are a priori conditions to actual experience (p. 95). Archetypes may appear in dreams; they may also be elicited by the use of forced imagination or spontaneous drawings. There is almost an infinite variety of archetypes. Some seem to be very remote from consciousness, others are more immediate, and must be described in connection with the structure of the human psyche. (Ellenberger, 1970, p. 707) Through his work with his patients Jung began to notice a pattern of similarities between each of their dreams and situations. As he explored this Jung also encountered these similarities in fairy tales, myths, and stories indigenous to diverse cultures (Humbert, 1984/1988, p. 96). Jung was first struck with the idea of archetypes after

21 working with schizophrenia at the Burghlzli mental hospital. Jung theorized that there are universal symbols which may appear in religious myths as well as psychotic delusions (Ellenberger, 1970, p. 705). In Boundaries of the Soul, Jungian analyst June Singer (1994) offered a thorough introduction to Jungian concepts and terminology. She wrote, The great primordial images give evidence of the inherited powers of human imagination as it was from time immemorial (pp. 100-101). Singer gave further clarity to archetypal situations and figures in the following: Jung categorized them in such terms as the heros quest, the battle for deliverance from the mother, the night sea journey, and called them archetypal situations. He suggested designations for archetypal figures also, for example, the divine child, the trickster, the double, the old wise man, the primordial mother. (p. 100) The self. The self is the most central of all archetypes. It is at the same time the invisible, unconscious, innermost center of personality, and a psychic totality, as it results in the unification of the conscious and the unconscious (Ellenberger, 1970, p. 711). The Self is the archetype of wholeness, which functions as the regulating center of the psyche (Sharp, 2001, p. 55). Jung (1983) viewed the archetypal self as the God within; by fulfilling his own highest potential, the individual is not only realizing the meaning of life, but also fulfilling Gods will (p. 20). Complexes. After Jung conceptualized archetypes he came across complexes through his word association test. He found all possible varieties of them from the small groups of unconscious representations to the full-fledged dual personalities (Ellenberger, 1970, p. 705). English psychiatrist and author Anthony Storr (1983) compiled some of Jungs works in The Essential Jung. His introduction offered a brief history of Jungs interest in dissociation and a summary of Jungs word association test. A list of a hundred

22 words was read to the patient and the patient would respond with the first word that came to them. By timing the interval between stimulus and response, it becomes possible to show that, unknown to themselves, subjects are influenced by words which arouse their emotion and slow down their responses (pp. 14-15). Typically there was a theme linked to the groups of words, and for such a compilation of associations Jung coined the term complex. Through his experiments Jung traced the nucleus of the complex as the interweaving of environmental stimuli and associated contents of personal experience around an archetypal root. Most complexes are unconscious or only partially conscious. Jung identified what was previously seen as a failure to react as complexes that create a barrier between the will and the act (Singer, 1994, p. 69). In his book Hypnosis: A Jungian Perspective, Jungian analyst and hypnotherapist James Hall (1989) furthered this idea when he wrote, Relatively stable patterns of complexes comprise the structure underlying both ordinary consciousness and neurosis. Those that are not well integrated into consciousness behave as part-personalities in the psyche, each striving to become the model for conscious identity (p. 46). The ego and shadow develop as complexes in which, as discussed below, some experiences and affects dissociate from consciousness and become the personal unconscious. Sharp (2001) summarized complexes as follows: The existence of complexes goes a long way toward explaining both multiple personality disorders and what the helping professions call lost memory recovery. An early trauma is often at the root of such cases. What may happen in response to a painful traumatic event is that the ego dissociates. The self-regulating function of the psyche is activated and creates a complex that dis-remembers the eventit gets buried among the detritus of ongoing life. (p. 11)

23 The unconscious. Jung declared that there were two levels of the unconscious (Singer, 1994). The first one is the personal unconscious which was understood to contain missing memories, repressed ideas, subliminal perceptions not strong enough to reach consciousness, and any contents not yet ready for consciousness. Freud and Jung differed in their views of what the personal unconscious contained. Jung felt that the instinctual elements common to all men were transpersonal. Furthermore, what Jung meant by contents not yet ripe for consciousness was the drive toward being receptive of new material, which defines the individuals potential (Singer, 1994, p. 104). June Singer described the collective unconscious as follows: The collective unconscious is better conceived as an extension of the personal unconscious to its wider and broader base, encompassing contents which are held in common by the family, by the social group, by tribe and nation, by race, and eventually by all of humanity. Each succeeding level of the unconscious may be thought of as going deeper and becoming more collective in its nature. The wonder of the collective unconscious is that it is all there, all the legend and history of the human race, with its unexorcised demons and its gentle saints, its mysteries and its wisdom, all within each one of usa microcosm within the macrocosm. (p. 104) The ego. Singer (1994) stated that anything psychic, that is any experience when it comes into awareness, will take the quality of consciousness. The organ of awareness is called the ego, and as such the ego functions as the center of consciousness (p. 15). The ego begins to emerge in childhood as the baby senses itself as a separate entity and something different and discrete from the mother (p. 96). It develops by integrating into its sphere of consciousness as much as was previously unknown to it as possible information about the world it lives in and an understanding of human nature. As we develop we compromise between our natural inclinations and the patterns of society, assuming a persona, or a way in which we present ourselves to meet society on societys

24 terms (p. 158). In the archetypal journey the ego winds its way between the snares of the persona and the traps of the shadow and the result is that we take on the mask which is a segment of the collective psyche (p. 220). The ego and the persona often become identified as being the same thing. We believe that we are the image we attempt to portray to the world (p. 221). The shadow. The Shadow is the sum of those personal characteristics that the individual wishes to hide from the others or from himself (Ellenberger, 1970, p. 707). However, the Shadow can also be manifested as a projection and the individual sees his own dark features reflected in another person whom he may choose as a scapegoat (p. 707). The Shadow is a representation of what the conscious personality is lacking. The Shadow is for each individual what the individual might have been but has not had the chance to be. Because of this the shadow brings to the forefront the question of identity (Humbert, 1984/1988, p. 49). Becoming conscious of ones shadow generally provokes conflicts that call into question habits, beliefs, emotional ties, and, more basically, the various mirrors of self-consciousness (p. 50). Anima and animus. Emma Jung (1934/1985) wrote Animus and Anima and completed two seminal essays on these archetypes. She reflected the following on the nature of the anima and animus: The anima and the animus are two archetypal figures of especially great importance. They belong on one hand to the individual consciousness and on the other hand are rooted in the collective unconscious, thus forming a connecting link or bridge between the personal and impersonal, the conscious and the unconscious. (p. 1) Singer (1994) stated that Jung articulated the anima and animus as twin archetypes of the contrasexual: the anima standing for the eternal feminine aspect in a

25 man, and the animus representing the eternal masculine aspect in a woman (p. 179). Jung attributed the formation of the anima and the animus to three major factors: the archetypal, the developmental, and the social (p. 186). The archetypal factor is the relation to universal and biological distinction of the two sexes. An individuals psyche is strongly influenced from the unconscious side not only through the physical structure of the body but also by body chemistry and particularly through the presence of male and female hormones (p. 186). The developmental factor is rooted in the parental imagos, the images of the parents or parental surrogates that have been imprinted on the childs consciousness from birth on and that exerted a crucial early influence on them as children (p. 186). Sibling relationships are also noted as being significant to the developmental factor of the anima and animus. Our early experiences with our parents and the family constellation determine to a very large extent the psychological image we carry of the opposite sex (p. 186). Lastly, the social factor is of importance and includes all interpersonal relations from the family through the intermediate structures from the community to the world at large (p. 191). Furthermore, modes and mores of society, today as in the past, play an enormous role in determining what shall be considered acceptable behavior and acceptable thoughts for men and women (p. 192). The transcendent function. Humbert (1984/1988) stated that in order to ensure life, our human nature has at its disposal an internal quasi-autonomous regulator, provided one manages to set it up (p. 125). The transcendent function is Jungs idea of uniting the opposites and bringing unconscious material into consciousness. Furthermore, It is the process through which the new comes about in us. This is a costly undertaking. For we feel our egos losing their grip on secure frames of reference (Ulanov, 2008,

26 p. 329). Jung (1983) posited that this rounding out of the personality into a whole may well be the goal of any psychotherapy that claims to be more than a mere cure of symptoms (p. 226). Author and Jungian literary theorist Morris Philipson (1963) provided a deeper understanding of the transcendent function in his book, Outline of a Jungian Aesthetics. Philipson stated, In other words, the conditions for wholeness are implicit in the experience of dissociation. The solution requires concessions to both worlds. Adaptation to the claims of the outer world is no more desirable, pure and simple, than adaptation to the claims of the inner world. What is desirable is the middle path which reconciles the two, so that what is achieved is not an artificial or imposed wholeness but such integration as is, strictly speaking, proper to the particular individual, given his particular experience of both worlds. (p. 43) Furthermore, Singer (1994) stated, The psyche consists of consciousness and the unconscious, but the critical point is that these are not two separate systems, but rather two aspects of one system, with the exchange of energy between consciousness and the unconscious providing the dynamic between growth and change. (p. 15) Jung on Dissociation Much of Jungs writing and thought on his complex theory was conceptualized in terms of dissociated personalities. He studied under Pierre Janet, who worked extensively with dissociation and was a major influence on Jungs understanding of and theoretical work on dissociation (Noll, 1989). Storr (1983) gave an account of Jungs early work with dissociation: Jungs first study was conducted on a 15-year-old girl who, claiming to be a medium, said that she was controlled by a variety of different personalities, which Jung interpreted as personifications of various unconscious parts of herself. Before Freuds concept of repression became widely employed, the term used to describe such phenomena was dissociation; and Jung, who at that time was as much influenced by Janet, with whom he had studied, as he was by Freud, whom he had only read, continued to think of personality as being capable of

27 dissociation into a number of subsidiary personalities, any of which could temporarily take over. (p. 14) Jung (1983) had come to his own conjecture on multiple personalities and complexes in his work A Review of the Complex Theory: My finding in regards to complexes corroborates this somewhat disquieting picture of the possibilities of psychic disintegration, for fundamentally there is no difference in principle between a fragmentary personality and a complex. They have all the essential features in common, until we come to the delicate question of fragmented consciousness, but whether such small psychic fragments as complexes are also capable of consciousness of their own is a still unanswered question. (p. 39) Jung viewed the dissociability of the psyche as a natural process of the psyches defenses against traumas potentially damaging impact (Kalsched, 1996, p. 13). In his work On the Nature of the Psyche, Jung (1947/1981) stated the following: Just as the cases of double consciousness doubted by Wundt really do happen, so the cases where not the whole personality is split in half, but only smaller fragments are broken off, are much more probable and in fact more common. This is an age-old experience of mankind which is reflected in the universal supposition of a plurality of souls in one and the same individual. (pp. 173-174 [CW 8, para. 365]) Jung also spoke to the character of symptoms and stated that contents that appear in consciousness are at first symptomatic (p. 175 [CW 8, para. 366]). He continued this notion by stating, The symptomatic contents are in part truly symbolic, being the indirect representatives of unconscious states or processes whose nature can only be imperfectly inferred and realized from the contents that appear in consciousness (p. 175 [CW 8, para. 366]). Finally, Jung posited that this state is neither pathological nor in any way peculiar; it is on the contrary the original norm, where as the psychic wholeness

28 comprehended in the unity of consciousness is an ideal goal that has never yet been reached (p. 175 [CW 8, para. 366]). In his book Re-Visioning Psychology, archetypal psychologist James Hillman (1975) stated the following about dissociation: The phenomenon of dissociationbreaking away, splitting off, personification, multiplication, ambivalencewill always seem an illness to the ego as it has come to be defined. But if we take the context of the psychic field as a whole, these fragmenting phenomena may be understood as reassertions against central authority by the individuality of the parts. (p. 25) Furthermore, Hillman stated that this movement of consciousness into psychological reality is experienced at first as pathological; things fall apart as the one becomes many (p. 35). However, he offered a reframing by stating, We might look for Dionysus and his community, where self-division, dismemberment, and a flowing multiplicity belong to a mythical pattern and further suggested that there are archetypal patterns at work, Gods affecting our styles of consciousness (p. 35). The Effects of Trauma Richard Kluft. Psychiatrist Richard Kluft (1985), one of the leading researchers of DID, wrote Childhood Antecedents of Multiple Personality and gave a thorough account of the effects of abuse on the infant and childs psyche. Kluft stated the following regarding the circumstances required for a child to become dissociative: The effects on the psyche of the various kinds of child abuse are multitudinous. The outcome may depend on the abused individuals genetic endowment and the response of the persons in the individuals environment to the abuse; upon the types and sources of the abuse; upon the age of the individual and the number of years over which the abuse was endured; and upon the childs management of tasks of various developmental stages. (p. 25)

29 Babette Rothschild. Psychotherapist Babette Rothschild (2000) talked about the effect of trauma on the body in her book, The Body Remembers. She stated that trauma is a psychophysical experience, even when the direct event causes no direct bodily harm and traumatic events exact a toll on the body as well as the mind (p. 5). Following a traumatic event, dissociative phenomena can continue for years or even arise for the first time years later (p. 67). This is true for many multiples whose symptoms often have a much later onset even thought the abuse had stopped many years prior. Rothschild set forth the notion that conceptualizing how the brain and body process, remember, and perpetuate traumatic events holds many keys to the treatment of the traumatized body and mind (p. 5). She stated that dissociation is an instinctive response to save the self from suffering (p. 13). Furthermore, she remarked that although the concept of dissociation has been around for a long time, how this actual mechanism works is unknown. Rothschild (2000) wrote about trauma and the early development of the brain. She referenced Allan Schore, Bessel van der Kolk, Daniel Siegel, De Bellis and colleagues, and Perry and colleagues who all assert that predisposition to psychological disturbances, including PTSD, can be found in stressful events during early development: neglect, physical and sexual abuse, failure of the attachment bond, and individual traumatic incidences (p. 24). Furthermore, There is a speculation that individuals who suffered early trauma and/or did not have the benefit of a healthy attachment may have limited capacity for regulating stress and making sense of traumatic experiences later in their lives (p. 24). Rothschild (2000) also addressed emotions and trauma. She specifically spoke about the emotion of fear and stated that terror is the most extreme form of fear. It is

30 central to the experience of trauma, the result of the (perception of) threat to life (p. 61). She continued by stating: One of the problems for individuals with PTS and PTSD is that fear persists long after the threat abates, frequently associating to more and more aspects of their environment. The fear they once felt to an external threat becomes anxiety generated from within. (p. 62) She remarked that this could be due to an insufficient cortisol production or could be the cause of a continued perception of threat (p. 62). Rothschild stated that whatever the cause, the result is debilitating. When fear is so broadly generalized, its protective function becomes handicapped (p. 62). Judith Herman. Judith Herman (1992), in her book Trauma and Recovery, outlined the effects of chronic childhood abuse on the psyche. She stated that the child trapped in an abusive environment is faced with formidable tasks of adaptation (p. 96). The abused child is asked to trust the deceitful, find refuge in a perilous atmosphere, and prevail in a powerless situation. Unable to care for or protect herself, she must compensate for the failures of adult care and protection with the only means at her disposal, an immature system of psychological defenses (p. 96). Herman articulated the consequences of childhood abuse on the developing child: The pathological environment of childhood abuse forces the development of extraordinary capacities, both creative and destructive. It fosters the development of abnormal states of consciousness in which the ordinary relations of body and mind, reality and imagination, knowledge and memory, no longer hold. These altered states of consciousness permit the elaboration of a prodigious array of symptoms, both somatic and psychological. And these symptoms simultaneously conceal and reveal their origins; they speak in disguised language too terrible for words. (p. 96) Symptoms manifested under such conditions include but are not limited to hysterical seizures and psychogenic amnesia beginning in childhood, anorexia and promiscuity in

31 adolescence, sexual dysfunction, disturbed intimate relationships, depression and murderous suicidality in adult life (p. 97). Herman (1992) also talked about the abused childs struggles to make sense of her parents or perpetrators behavior. To preserve her faith in her parents, she must reject the first and most obvious conclusion that something is terribly wrong with them (p. 101). In the childs mind she begins to fight a battle of absolute hatred and desperate love for her parent. Consequently the child begins a vicious cycle of denial and self blame for the abuse that is happening. All of the abused childs psychological adaptations serve the fundamental purpose of preserving her primary attachment to her parents in the face of daily evidence of their malice, helplessness, or indifference (p. 102). Colin Ross (1997) articulated attachment issues in the case of a person with DID: The attachment systems become personified as separate identities who idealize the parents, and are amnesic for most or all of the abuse. The amnesia barriers need not be absolute, as long as they down regulate the traumatic psychophysiology sufficiently to permit attachment. (p. 65) Furthermore, he stated that an additional drive to the creation of alter personalities is the need to create stable internal persons who are always available for attachment, safety, security, and nurturing (p. 65). Herman (1992) also spoke to the dissociative capacity of an abused child and to the point of personality fragmentation. While most survivors of childhood abuse describe a degree of proficiency in the use of trance, some develop a kind of dissociative virtuosity. They may learn to ignore severe pain, to hide their memories in complex amnesias, to alter their sense of time, place, or person, and to induce hallucinations or possession states. . . . Under the most extreme conditions of early, severe, and prolonged abuse, some children, perhaps those already endowed with strong capacities for trance states, begin to form separated personality fragments with their own names,

32 psychological functions, and sequestered memories. Dissociation thus becomes not merely a defensive adaptation but the fundamental principal of personality organization. (p. 102) Lastly, she stated that that birth of alter personalities by abused children make it possible for the child victim to cope resourcefully with the abuse while keeping both the abuse and her coping strategies outside of ordinary awareness (p. 103). Donald Kalsched. Clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst Donald Kalsched (1996) gave testament to the effects of trauma on an individual who has been the victim of horrific abuse in his book, The Inner World of Trauma. He stated that the psychological defense of dissociation allows external life to go on but at a great internal cost (p. 13). Furthermore, The outer trauma ends and its effects may be largely forgotten, but the psychological sequelae of the trauma continue to haunt the inner world (p. 13). Kalsched spoke about psyches self-care system as being analogous to the bodys immune system (p. 17). He summarized this concept as follows: Like the bodys immune system, these complementary dynamisms of disintegration/re-integration are involved in complicated gatekeeping functions at the thresholds between inner and outer worlds and between the conscious and unconscious inner systems. Strong currents of affect reaching the psyche from the outside world or from the body must be metabolized by symbolic processes, rendered into language, and integrated into the narrative identity of the developing child. (p. 17) Kalsched (1996) posited that although an individual self-care system has been established, in the trauma response we might imagine that something goes wrong (p. 17). One of the effects of severe trauma, however, is to split the archetype within its own structure. We might say that one pole (mentation) attacks the other (affect), thereby destroying the psychological structure and leaving an already fragile ego further undernourished. Trauma both stirs up volcanic affect and at the same time severs it from its image matrix. The traumatized infants raw experience is

33 unmediated by parental figures and remains imageless, hence meaningless. The capacity for fantasy is destroyed. (p. 92) Furthermore, he stated that the trauma literature shows that children who have been abused cannot mobilize aggression to expel noxious, bad, or not me elements of experience (p. 17). He highlighted Sandor Ferenczis theory of identification with the aggressor in which the child is incapable of feeling anger and hatred for the abuser and instead introjects the hatred and comes to hate itself and its own need (p. 17). When this concept of the self-care system gone awry shows up in DID, Kalsched (1996) made note of the Protector/Persecutor personality identified by Colin Ross (1997). This alter is identified by Ross as being capable of going to great lengths to self-harm the host personality, including attempts to kill off the host with the belief that their actions are providing protection to the system. Designed to protect the personal spirit from annihilation by reality, the self-care system provides a fantasy that makes sense out of suffering but splits the unity of mind and body, spirit and instinct, thought and feeling (Kalsched, 1996, p. 95). However, to the psyche, a negative meaning is apparently preferable to no meaning at all; a negative fantasy better than no fantasy at all (p. 95) Introduction to Richard Nolls Article Richard Noll (1989), a licensed clinical psychologist, wrote an article entitled Multiple Personality, Dissociation, and C. G. Jungs Complex Theory which bridged Carl Jungs complex theory to modern-day DID. Noll examined Jungs writings on dissociation and his complex theory and stated that it is one of the earliest and remains the most comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding the phenomenology of multiple personality (p. 353). Although greatly influenced by Freud, Breuer, and Janet, Jung deviated from his contemporaries of the time and viewed the dissociative nature of

34 the psyche as an essential process that was on a spectrum from normal mental functioning to abnormal mental states (p. 353). Jung separated himself from the other great thinkers of the time by viewing dissociation as normal and a healthy necessity to integrate. Other theorists of that era and even in the modern day tend to view dissociative disorders as an entirely pathological occurrence. Noll (1989) continued his argument by asserting that Jungs autonomous complexes have parallel characteristics with the alter personalities found in an individual with DID. What Noll meant by this was that the composition and dynamics of multiple personality prominently unveil the archetypal core of complexes (p. 353). Research studies on DID have been able to determine some fundamental types of personalities that are found in a persons system. The DID personalities strongly equate to Jungs prominent archetypal figures that are discussed in his complex theory. Noll (1989) pointed to Jungs feeling toned complexes which are described as clusters of affect whose dynamics are observed in the phenomenon we term personality (p. 354). Jung posited that the ego-complex was of extreme importance because of its development stemming from the individuals childhood years, its connection to ones birth name, and its place at the foremost core of consciousness. However, Jung was aware of and stressed the importance of many other autonomous complexes, each with an allotment of consciousness all its own, and which interact and often conflict with the ego for executive control of conscious processes in the body (p. 354). Noll pointed out in his article that the ego-complex is noted in the DID literature as the birth personality. However, due to the severe fragmentation into other alternate personalities, this is typically not the person who initially comes in to be treated. He continued to outline and

35 make the parallel between DID alters and Jungs other complexes such as the shadow, anima, animus, self, and most notably the archetype of the child. Shadowpersecutor alter. The Jungian shadow in DID as understood by Noll (1989) is an alter, or in some cases alters that are persecutor personalities. These particular alters torment the afflicted individual, often committing acts of internal violence toward other personalities, external violence toward other people, or attempting self-mutilating or suicidal actions towards the host body (p. 360). These persecutor personalities are often discovered to be introjects of the childs abuser and repeat the cruel and painful acts of abuse that caused the original fragmentation of the young childs mind. The shadow can also be recognized as an alter who is sociopathic, sexually promiscuous, engages in substance abuse, and has a problem with impulse control. Furthermore, Noll stated that the birth personality or the ego-complex is unaware of and powerless before this alter as a result of the amnestic barrier present in an individual with DID. Anima/animuscontrasexual alters. The contrasexual alters found in a person with DID can be linked to Jungs understanding of the archetype of anima and animus. A female multiple may have a male alter or several male alters and male multiples may have female alters. However, Noll (1989) postulated that they are not an integral factor in the psyches struggle for wholeness in the same manner that the child archetype plays out in the disorder (p. 360). Noll understood this as being due to the unique psychological demands of the individual with multiple personalities (p. 360). The child archetypechild alters. The child archetype can be noted as being the most dominant, present archetype in DID (Noll, 1989, p. 369). The role of this archetype

36 is a symbolic connection between what Singer (1994) called the personalities in potentia of childhood, ego development, and the prospective future (p. xxi). The developmental task of the child is fundamentally to create a coherent ego-complex separated out from the unconscious. However, for an individual with DID, the fulfillment of this task was shattered by unspeakable acts of abuse (Noll, 1989). Noll stated that the child is therefore a poignant symbol of the adult task of individuals with multiple personalities to separate finally and heroically from the dominance of the unconscious and achieve the promise of wholeness (p. 360). Noll directed the reader to a study completed by Frank Putnam that determined the most common attribute of multiple personalities in subjects was the presence of a child personality (p. 360). This finding was attributed to the childhood traumata which is a known derivation of fragmentation in DID. The selfinner self helper. Many features of Jungs archetype of the Self are present in the Inner Self Helper or ISH that is found amongst alters in DID (Noll, 1989). It is a non-emotional intellectual portion of the patient, an area of concepts designed to deal effectively with both internal and external problems (Allison, 1985, p. 4). The ISH was first discovered by forensic psychiatrist Ralph Allison and is said to be an allknowing being that helps guide a multiple through his or her life (Noll, 1989). Allison (1985) furthered a description of the ISH with the following: It attempts to bring order out of chaos and acts as an idea center, trying to influence the alter-personalities to cooperate so that all can have their needs met, danger can be avoided and basic survival of the total organism can be assured (p. 4).

37 The ISH will also team up with the therapist during session and help guide the therapist by suggesting new avenues of treatment that will be beneficial for the client or giving the therapist clues to hidden memories or personalities whose conscious realization would be therapeutic for the patient (Noll, 1989, pp. 360-361). In the hierarchy of alters the ISH assumes an executive role in the organization and function of the multiple selves and can be thought of as an overseer or even a guardian angel to the system (p. 361). The transcendent functionintegration. Lastly, Noll (1989) made a connection between Jungs idea of the transcendent function and the integration process in DID. Jung notes that the healing of neuroses occurs through assimilation of unconscious contents to ego-consciousness, thus reducing their autonomy and thereby expanding the horizons of the personality (p. 358). The ultimate goal in treatment with a multiple is the integration of alters with the birth personality along with the blending of memories, talents, and modes of thinking and feeling that were formerly imprisoned behind amnestic barriers (p. 359). Noll (1989) took an in-depth look into the work of Jung and was able to make the connection between his understanding of the dissociability of the psyche and how his complex theory parallels with modern day DID (p. 362). Noll brought his comparison full circle when he stated that the phenomena of multiple personality is important for realizing the central significance of dissociation in the complex theory and provides an excellent contemporary clinical example of the archetypal ground of the psyche (p. 362).

38 Summary In summary, a clinical definition of DID was given and followed by the historical development of DID. The foundation for the thesis question was laid with an outline of Carl Jungs (1983) complex theory that explains each aspect from archetypes to the transcendent function. Jungs understanding of dissociation follows this. Next, a literature review of the effects of trauma on the brain and body was given. Finally, Richard Nolls (1989) article, Multiple Personality, Dissociation, and C. G. Jungs Complex Theory was reviewed and the direct link between DID and complex theory was made. Chapter III consists of interviews with individuals who have DID and a Marriage and Family Therapist who has worked extensively with DID. Chapter III allows for the thesis topic to be understood as a real human experience.

Chapter III The Interviews Introduction The following interviews were conducted with three different individuals who either currently have or have had a diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Interview with B was conducted with a survivor of incestuous abuse who has integrated; however, the integration has since fallen apart. Toward the end of her interview her child alter came out and answered some questions for me. It was an incredibly moving experience and reminded me of one of the many reasons I am so passionate about this work. Interview with M was conducted with an individual who was subjected to incestuous and ritualistic abuse and is working toward integration. She is truly an amazing person and I am so grateful for her courage to share her experience for this thesis. Interview with D is with an individual who has fully integrated and she discusses her experience from this standpoint. The voice of this woman is a testament to the successful treatment of DID. Each of these participants brings her own dynamic to the interviews and shows how DID acts as an effective strategy for coping with a traumatic environment during childhood (Ross, 1997, p. 62). The interviews also demonstrated the ways in which these people are unique in how their inner system of alters function. The last interview is with a Marriage and Family Therapist who has worked extensively with DID. The questions are designed to reflect the concepts from Carl Jungs complex theory and some other

40 questions are meant to give the reader a general understanding of the inner world of DID. Throughout the interviews I offer my thoughts, personal experiences, and theoretical backbone from Chapter II. I found that DID alters do parallel different complexes and archetypes that are described in Jungs theory. The child archetype is one of the most dominant features of this disorder and the connection to this is made in the interviews. The shadow archetype is present in the angry and persecutory alters. The contrasexual alters discussed are representative of the unconscious femininity and masculinity of the individual. The ISH is representative of certain aspects of the archetypal Self. I also found that the integration process is conducted very similarly to Jungs concept of the transcendent function. However, for a multiple, integrating certain alters is not always a pleasurable experience. Interview with B CV: Who are your main alters and what are their roles? B: There were 2 Bs, one was a mom. Two ______, with a C and with a K. B with an I and with B with a y. And while were talking right now, the B with a y is scratching it out and she says, I want to be an I too. I hear from them all the time. I try to maintain it so that its really when its safe, that I hear from them so its not all the time. There was R and R was a boy. There was S who was a poker player, very, very smart. Intellectual, really classy, shes a money maker and decision maker. Back to C and K. One of them was an artist and the other was a writer. R used to be real mechanical, could fix any kind of car or motorcycle and was real handy. He used power tools and did those kinds of things. There was M. M was seductive. She had dark hair. She was flirtatious, but none of us liked to be sexual. There was Charlie. Charlie

41 was the overseer and they would meet in a room. Everybody had their own seat. Charlie was like a floater and sort of floated. S floats too. S can have some of the memory. And then there was little S and she is 7. But we started to integrate all the little people they all integrated into little S to help her grow up to be 7. So she is 7 now. She knows how to read now and she likes to color. But the other alters who had different fears are now in little S so sometimes she gets scared so she has to put her feet up because she is scared of rats and other things little kids would be scared of. She loves to be read to and is learning to read. Sometimes I find myself in a bookstore and I find myself looking through kids books and Ive been in there hours. Its really funny. And then there is angry S and if there is any anger she is the one who gets angry. Her favorite color is red and its strange because I dont like red and dont have red around me. I shared with a workout instructor I had years ago and he had me work out on a red mat and he could not believe the strength I had when I was working out on the red mat or if he had me look at a red dot. He called on different alters to work out. He thought my body was so weak but thats when he figured out maybe you should call on angry S. He couldnt believe it was the same body working under these different personas [his word]. Personal reflection. Colin Ross (1997) stated that alter personalities are highly stylized enactments of inner conflicts, drives, memories, and feelings. At the same time they are dissociated packets of behavior developed for transaction with the outside world (p. 145). I am in agreement with Rosss point that all of these different alters are not in fact different people inside of this one body, but it becomes clear that each alter that was named has a clear function and plays a very important part to the system as a whole.

42 CV: Is there anyone who was abusive? B: Never. Never. CV: How have your alters been helpful? B: Theyve kept me safe in the sense of accepting stuff that gets to be too difficult someone who is stronger will come out and take care of it. S has a gift for making money. She has an extremely good memory for backtracking and seeing cards so she has made a lot of money for me. She knows how to talk to people when I go out and be elegant and has a lot of confidence. When it comes to writing C can write and one of the Cs and one of the Bs are really crafty so they have helped with raising the children. And then theres the B who cooks food for the kids and for me now. So each one has their own strength and that helps me to be successful. CV: How have they hurt you? B: They dont let me sleep. When Im playing cards and S is out she can play cards from Sunday to Thursday with no food just drinking water and stay up and not be tired. The only reason she stopped on Thursday was because she had an appointment to go to and by the time the appointment was over somebody else came out and made sure the body rested. So that can be dangerous. CV: Any part of you that has been repressed or any qualities you dont like to own for yourself who holds those qualities? B: I think it would be shared between the stronger ones. Even though little S is a little girl shes really strong. Between her and S. S floats away. She bites her tongue. But she will float away. She doesnt let things get to her she just floats away.

43 Personal reflection. We spoke more in depth about these qualities and I found that this persons shadow components existed in several abusive relationships that she had been involved in. June Singer (1994) stated that the task is to learn how to recognize the shadow in its many and varied aspects so that the genuine person can emerge into the light (p. 221). For the survivor of abuse this is a very difficult task. Herman (1992) noted that almost inevitably, the survivor has great difficulty protecting herself in the context of intimate relationships. Her desperate longing for nurturance and care makes it difficult to establish safe and appropriate boundaries with others (p. 111). Furthermore, Her empathic attunement to the wishes of others and her automatic, often unconscious habits of obedience also make her vulnerable to anyone in a position of power or authority (p. 111). CV: Inner self helper Charlie. Was he separate from your soul or was he part of your soul? B: He was just there to keep the peace and to make sure everybody took their turn and that everybody got sleep. I dont think he was part of my personalities. CV: Was he like an angel? B: I dont believe in angels, so no. Charlie made you feel safe. Charlie never had a face. Like Charlies Angels Charlie. CV: How old were you when he came along? B: I was actually older. I didnt realize he was there until my husband died. CV: Did Charlie ever tell you how long hes been around? B: Yes, hes always been there but I didnt know it. Hes wise; I dont know how old he is.

44 CV: How did Charlie help the system? B: He organized, he kept peace and he never interjected until he felt that he needed too. Hes like one of these wise people who you listen to what they say because they dont say much so you just hold onto what they say. Personal reflection. Richard Noll (1989) stated that when the inner self helper is present it assumes an executive role in the organization and function of the multiple selves (p. 361). Certain symbols identified by Jung as representations of aspects of the self appear in DID in the form of the ISH. The ISH is the regulating center of the multiples system. Furthermore, I see the archetype of the spirit surfacing in the ISH. Ellenberger (1970) noted that an individual is usually confronted with it in critical life situations when he must make difficult decisions and this archetype has a tendency to appear as the figure of the wise old man (p. 710). CV: Was R your masculine part? B: Yes and S didnt have a sex until we integrated everyone in, she just knew how to be elegant and super smart and classy and knew those things would make her money but she was never sexual, never once. She never did super feminine stuff like bake or brush her daughters hair. There were lots of those people around to do feminine stuff, to do the mommy stuff. The masculine ones were really handy they knew how to read a map to drive anywhere. They liked lookin at girls. Personal reflection. In this statement I see the archetype of the caretaker present when this person describes the mommy stuff. Judith Herman (1992) stated that many survivors are terribly afraid that their children will suffer a fate similar to their own, and they go to great lengths to prevent this from happening. . . . For the sake of their children,

45 survivors are often able to mobilize caring and protective capacities that they have never been able to extend to themselves (p. 114). CV: Child parts were there more than just little S? B: There were lots of them. The youngest was about 2 weeks. At first I thought it was in a dream but then there were more of them and they went from 2 weeks to 4 months old. Then I talked to my mom and the person who sexually abused me and told him what I was thinking and feeling and he started to cry and told me that those things really happened. There was nobody there but him and I so if he is telling me they happened I must be remembering. Little S job was to keep everyone else safe. There was a phone but she was too young to talk so she was the one who would get hurt for the sexual stuff. And then the stuff that was not sexual like once there was tape that was put on my eyelashes to keep my eyes open and my face was dunked in water. I think it was the swamps it wasnt the Mississippi river, but my face was put in the water and brought up. Well that was P, and because her eyes were open under water and it was really burning her eyes, after that she had to wear glasses all the time. I think she must have been 6 or 7 when that happened shes telling me 5 that was to keep her from telling on them. If she told anybody then that would happen to my brothers. She didnt want that to happen to my brothers so she never told anybody either. The other one when she was 9 she tried to jump out of the car and run from my uncle and she ran really fast. That was another P and she could run super fast. That was the first time and it wasnt good what happened after, but every time she could she would run. She was in track because she liked to run and shes only about nine. I think the youngest stuff happened to little S. C liked to play softball but P would run for us.

46 Personal reflection. Judith Herman (1992) noted in her book that runaway attempts are common, often beginning by age seven or eight. Many survivors remember literally hiding for long periods of time, and they associate their only feeling of safety with particular hiding places rather than with people (p. 100). This person shared with me that her favorite place to hide was deep in the woods where she would often remain for hours at a time. CV: Can you explain what it was like to integrate for everyone in the system? B: My integration has broken apart. I know that when we were going through the integration it was extreme anxiety. I know it was crucial that we integrated because I wasnt sleeping at all and I had broken apart so that there was a mom and there was a girlfriend and there was a poker player and there was a person who did business and there was just all these people doing stuff and there was just no time to rest and it was wearing my body and the system down and the parts that were used to taking abuse, were used to taking abuse and didnt realize that they deserved better than that. And they were in an abusive relationship it was mental abuse and so I needed to integrate for that. The people that were good thought, well well just integrate the people that dont understand that they deserved to be loved. But everybody had to integrate. It took years. There was so much frustration because it took a long time to get them to talk about things. Then once they were talking about things and they got comfortable and they felt safe and they knew how the system worked and how they functioned, then they had to be told they had to integrate so we had to go through all different kinds of processes to find out which is the best way to integrate and what is best for us is the fact that well never ever go away. Its like that chocolate cake that needs all the different ingredients and you cant make the

47 cake without the eggs, sugar or cocoa so all the components had to come together to build into one person, like the chocolate cake so that helped some but it was still a lot of anxiety and a lot of crying because the core people didnt want to go. There were like 5 or 6 of them that just didnt understand why if they had all the strengths of all the personalities and if everyone under 15 went into little S and anybody over 15 would go into somebody else and if that was how it was sectioned out then if everyone went into the mom shed be too sissy, then S said Im going to be the leader and everyone can go into me, and everyone was listening and thats what we were going to do. But then Charlie stepped in and Charlie is like, okay, we have to do it this way and S you have to integrate too and she was really objecting to it. So we let S and little S stay around the longest and then Charlie said okay its time. And thats how it happened. The three that came back were the B that was born to her parents and little S, and S. There are some of them that are tattle-tales and they always get people in trouble. There is a personality named K who tattles on everybody and tells everything. So my therapist said if she wanted to know anything that anyone else did she could find out through K. There was someone else I was going to tell you about. I just forgot. I just asked K and she wont tell me now because I called her a tattle-tale. Personal reflection. When we spoke about the integration process I noted the similarities to what Jung (1957/1981) spoke about in his essay on the transcendent function. Even if there is sufficient intelligence to understand the procedure, there may be a lack of courage and self-confidence, or one is too lazy, mentally and morally, or too cowardly, to make an effort (p. 91 [CW 8, para. 193]). However, Jung finished his

48 thought by declaring that it is a way of attaining liberation by ones own efforts and of finding the courage to be oneself (p. 91 [CW 8, para. 193]). A few days after the interview I received a phone call from this individual and she told me that K filled her in on what she had suddenly forgotten in the middle of the interview. K reminded her about a poem that was written with the participation of each of her alters. I have included this in the appendix of this thesis at their request. CV: In this next portion I ask if there is anyone inside that would like to come out and share anything with me. B: Its really important that people feel like they can trust and they are safe. We had this friend and before she was our friend she was our doctor and now I cant talk to her anymore and its really hard so you always need to make sure people can trust you. And god wanted us to slow down so god made B sick cause she wouldnt slow down so he let her get sick so he could say so you need to slow down or youre gonna die. Then she got sick and she started feeling better. When she started feeling better she didnt slow down and god said okay I told you, you need to slow down so he let her break her leg because she would definitely slow down if she broke her leg. And then he told her she couldnt walk anymore. S is really strong so S came up and angry S came up and they helped with physical therapy and so now she can walk again and thats a good thing. Sometimes she still feels pain. S doesnt feel any pain. No pain at all. And shes good. People think shes mean. But shes not mean its the people that integrated into her. She doesnt have any feelings so she cant be mean. If shes mean its not her. Shes just smart. But angry S is real mean. But shes not mean to B or to me. CV: Am I talking to little S?

49 B: Umhmm. CV: How are you? B: Im always sad. CV: Does anything make you happy? B: My brother, he doesnt hurt little kids. My mom was only 23 and I was 7 she didnt help me not because she didnt love me. She didnt help me because she didnt know. Even though I told her she didnt really know. Mommies dont like it when their little kids get hurt so if shed really known she would not have let me get hurt. Personal reflection. Here I can see the child alter grasping on to the desire for the positive mother, although this was not the reality for this person during her childhood. Jung (1931/1981) stated, There is inherent in the archetype, in the collectively inherited mother-image, the same extraordinary intensity of relationship which instinctively impels the child to cling to its mother (p. 373 [CW 8, para. 723]). CV: Does Charlie have the ability to stop your body from doing something? B: I dont know. He just tells us. And sometimes hell remind me of something too. Like sometimes if Im not feeling goodI dont know what its like to not be a multiple. Some people have a conscience or god tells them or something, but Charlie will say have you changed your patch? And I know I have to change my patch or something like that. CV: Who talks to Charlie? B: Everyone can hear Charlie. CV: Any closing remarks?

50 B: Just were really glad youre going to be a doctor and help people like us because were not crazy. Dont ever tell people were crazy because were not crazy. Were just special, very special. CV: Well, thank you and thanks to everyone inside. B: Yeah, I have to go back inside. Personal reflection. These closing remarks struck me so deeply and truly captured the pathological view of DID that so many people, both professional and lay persons, hold. I have such great admiration for these people and see their ability as something greater than driven by pain, as Colin Ross (1997) stated. I do not doubt that a great deal of pain was endured during the fragmentation process of a multiple. However, just as little S asserts, I believe these individuals to be very special, remarkable, and resilient with a great zest for life despite their suffering. Interview with M CV: What were the roles of your main alters? M; To protect me every single one of them. I had a layer of alters, their main role was to put up a front or a shell. As I understand it most people have one alter who has that role and it is a host alter. I dont have that. Now individually each one takes care of certain tasks. In special circumstances the individual will relate to cult ritual abuse and some of them have everyday tasks like she eats or this one over her does the driving thank god and their job is a separate job. Me personally I have a protector, I have an angel, I have a logical and computing alter, I have a nurturing and mothering alter, am I missing anyone? Ill come back to it. Im looking at them. And previously I had abusive alters. I had angry and aggressive alters. I had very narcissistic alters those

51 were fun. I had extremely co-dependent alters. And they needed to learn to operate in conjunction with somebody else. Theyre still separate but they piggyback on each other so theyre not out individually because they dont function individually well. The personalities have been helpful to me to surviving what I went through and then theyre helpful every day to me just to get things done find my keys, remember where light switches are, drive certain places, drive at all, they help me dealing with my everyday relationships. Some people are more skilled at relationships than others and stuff like that. Personal reflection. In this interview there is a marked difference because this person survived through ritualistic/cult abuse. Her system is multilayered with a set of the typical alters found in DID such as the caretaker, protector/persecutor, child alters, and so on. However, underneath this top layer there are alters who are specifically created for participation in the ritual abuse. One of the very interesting and more disturbing things I learned about this particular type of abuse is that cult leaders are skilled in the ability to create fragmentation and cause new personalities to form by their own desire. On the one hand it seems that the top layer is created by the young child who is experiencing the abuse as her own means of protection. Yet she is also at the mercy of the cult who intentionally causes her mind to fragment through specialized hypnotic technique. CV: How have your personalities been harmful to you? M: Some of them are psychotic. Some of them are completely devoid of emotion or of how the world works or what its like in reality. So those are the people thank goodness who have not actually come out yet but its very painful to know there is a part of me thats like that. And theyve hurt me physically sometimes. Self harm for a multiple is

52 really different than for people who are integrated. Its not always the same person hurting me. Ill wake up with parts of my body marked and I dont know howbut its clearly a self-inflicted injury. And sometimes theyre working underneath the surface injuriously. They will undermine healthy activities like going to work, like waking up and taking care of myself and eating. There are people who have eating disorders and sometimes theyre not out controlling the body per se, but theyre under the surface controlling it. Personal reflection. In the body of this paragraph I see the inner self-care system in its diabolical form so powerfully described by Donald Kalsched (1996): It is as though the persecutory inner world somehow finds its outer mirror in repeated selfdefeating re-enactmentsalmost as if the individual were possessed by some diabolical power or pursued by a malignant fate (p. 5). CV: Jung defined the shadow as an unconscious complex defined as the repressed, suppressed or disowned qualities of the conscious self. Does this describe any of your alters? M: So there is someone inside who is, lets say, psychotically murderous. Yes. Okay it absolutely applies. There are people in here who have been involved in infidelity and the rest of us didnt want to and didnt acknowledge it. There are people in here who have been taught how to kill, sacrifice, dissect animals and thats a horrific thing to think about having inside. And the fact that they do it without emotion is even more upsetting. CV: Do you have an ISH that is separate or part of your system? M: I have an ISH who is separate and is part of my system. The way I distinguish it is they look identical but there are distinct differences.

53 CV: When did your ISH come to you? M: In utero. CV: In what ways has your ISH helped your system? M: It kept us alive. Personal reflection. In this discussion about her ISHs I am reminded of Ralph Allisons (1985) notion of Higher Helpers that are part of a hierarchy. Whereas the ISH has identified herself as the best within the patients mind, the Higher Helpers identify themselves as spirits, not part of the patients mental mechanism (p. 4). At the beginning of the interview she identified a protector and an angel. She also mentioned that one of these is not part of her system, which falls in line with Allisons theory. One of the most intriguing aspects to me about DID is the highly numinous nature found within. CV: Do you have any opposite sex alters that represent your masculinity or femininity? M: I dont know if they necessarily represent mine, or the whole systems or the bodys sexual orientation. Some of them are absolutely assigned an orientation. One or two of them has adopted an androgynous or slightly masculine orientation. Most of that is to avoid or escape what I had to go through because most of my abusers were male I think. CV: How old are your child parts? M: They range from infancy all the way up to eight and there were hundreds of them. CV: What are their jobs? M: That would be a little more complicated. Some of them are ritualists. Some of them were just there to experience whatever experience they were present for. Actual alters there are 5 or 6 actual child alters. One of them their job was to have sex. One of them had attachment issues. She was an infant. I dont really know what her job was other than

54 to hold memories. There was one very early on whose job was to guard where the entrance was to most of the memories. She resided in a black box. She was about 8 or 12. She was very, very badly injured as I experienced it. Personal reflection. Colin Ross (1997) noted several factors that made up the child parts and their roles: Each child personality may be an independent entity, or there may be a sub organization of the children. There may be two or three leaders among the children who control the release of memories, abreactions, and amnesia barriers between different children, and the children and the presenting personality. (p. 146) Another piece of this paragraph that stands out to me is the child part with attachment issues. Ross posited that the fundamental problem with DID is the problem of attachment to the perpetrator (p. 65). He went on to say that the child is helpless and powerless. The childs developmental problem is that she must attach to her perpetrator in order to survive (p. 65). As is the case with many victims of sexual abuse, the child tries to attach to her perpetrator father and enabler mother, who often is a perpetrator in her own right (p. 65). The image of a child hidden away in a black box and severely injured is so poignant and heartbreaking. During this interview I am a witness to an individual who has survived unspeakable pain and suffering. I feel as though that horrific image gives a powerful voice to what this person has come through. CV: How do you feel about integrating your personalities? M: Actually I feel very, very positive about it. I havent had much resistance to it only because we understand how it actually works and have pretty much from the beginning. Except that sometimes its really sad. Losing, well not losing, its very much like losing

55 your friend in some ways. Ive partially integrated. What most people would call a host is mostly just a great big huge glob of my integrated portion. Im much more focused. I can see more of the time. When I dissociate a lot of times the first thing that goes is whatever visual experience is happening in front of me. I can smell things I couldnt smell before. I have a lot of the physical sensations of my body back at the same time and Im smelling at the same time Im seeing. I notice things I didnt notice before. Traveling from one point to another when Im going about my day I notice the timeframes are very different from what I experienced them to be. It takes forever to go to the store where before I thought it took three minutes. I remember things a lot better. I dont lose my keys quite so often. I get to, when I have a loving relationship, when I have something happen to me that is a loving act I get to experience the feeling, the touch, all right there. Sometimes its overwhelming. Its like being touched when you havent been touched your whole life for me. Sometimes its very jarring, but its wonderful. Personal reflection. I learned during these interviews that the integration process is different for everyone. Many times the integration of an alter does feel like the loss of a very dear friend who has been there through very difficult experiences. Colin Ross (1997) took a very stringent stand on the integration of alters by stating, There is no need to be wistful or regretful about the disappearance of an alter on integration, because this is a step toward healing the pain. The patent may mourn the loss of the alter, but the therapist shouldnt (p. 144). Although I do agree with his stance of moving in a direction toward healing, work with these clients is often long term and it is a big change when an alter that has been around and helped through a great deal of the therapy finally makes their exit. I have learned through my training that it is beneficial to have some type of ritual for

56 the alters as they integrate. The actual integration ritual is a landmark for a long process that has finally come to fruition (p. 376). CV: Anything anybody inside has to say? Any questions you want to revisit? Anything more you could say about your ISH? M: I experience my system as having one, but it can be experienced different from person to person. The part of her that is not a part of my soul I superimpose a visual over it so that I can comprehend it really. So a nice neat little package, but when that part is actually present which is overwhelming, I dont know there is no time to really wonder if it is a boy or a girl. Usually if that part is engaged there is something going on that is really bad. There have been times when I have delved into memories and parts of alters memories that I should not have been and knew it, and it was going to be damaging to me psychologically, that part intervenes and does so dramatically, or at least thats how I experience it. But gosh darn it I forgot the question. Sorry multiple moment. Personal reflection. I have heard through several accounts as well as seen with my own eyes the ability of the ISH to shut down the body in moments of extreme distress or danger. The night my father died my mothers ISH completely shut her body down after receiving the tragic news. I remember she dropped to the ground and appeared to be completely unconscious for about 10 seconds until an alter strong enough to handle the situation was able to come into the body. It was a terrifying experience in that moment, but after learning about the ISH and their capabilities I understood that something more was happening other than just passing out. Interview with D CV: Please describe the main roles of your personalities/alters.

57 Caretaker? D: This would be V who came to the forefront when I thought learning new things and performing intricate tasks on the job was beyond her/my intelligence or scope. CV: Angry or Aggressive? D: This one was named the Angry One also was the abuser this one would tell me that it would be ok if I died because no one would care. CV: Protector? D: I suppose DD would have been the protector by calling forward whichever personality I needed when the truth got too close. CV: Abuser? D: The Angry One was also the one who made it ok to take drugs, drink, self-abuse (cutting, hitting my head against the wall, biting my fingers and lips, pulling my hair out, and the secret eating). Personal reflection. In this individuals system Kalscheds (1996) notion of a diabolical inner self-care system is clearly present. Her protector and abuser alters appeared to have worked as a team in their struggle to keep this individual safe. Kalsched stated, When the Protector/Persecutor is present in the inner world, aggression that would normally be available to the ego for separation/differentiation is cut off from consciousness and appears in daimonic form, attacking from within (p. 184). Her selfinflicted injuries and substance abuse were the personification of the daimon-lover. What the daimon-lover supplies is always based on a genuine need, but it never fulfills it, and the more one indulges in the substitute, the deeper the real need is obscured (p. 173).

58 CV: Overseer? / Host/Persona? D: D/Me I was the host and shared the role of Overseer with both V and DD. CV: How have your personalities been helpful to you in your life? The gang took care of things until I was able to integrate them/us all together in 1993. They were probably what prevented me from actually killing myself when all felt hopeless, which was much of the time between ages 9 and 45. CV: How have your personalities been harmful to you? D: The Angry One was the persona of my self-hatred and still can be heard from as my Inner Critic. Personal reflection. Judith Herman (1992) spoke to this lingering belief long after the abuse has ended: Adult survivors who have escaped from the abusive situation continue to view themselves with contempt and to take upon themselves the shame and guilt of the abusers. The profound sense of inner badness becomes the core around which the abused childs identity is formed, and it persists into adult life. (p. 105) CV: Jung defined the shadow as an unconscious complex defined as the repressed, suppressed or disowned qualities of the conscious self. Does this describe any of your alters? D: Yes, the fourth of my gang is Little Girl Lost. She was the part of me that died when I was raped at 9. She was the one who took the brunt of my own self-hate, which kept her so broken that I almost lost her. CV: Do you have an Inner Self Helper that is separate from (or a part of) your system? D: I would have to say that if I had an Inner Self Helper it would be my connection with Little Girl Lost that has grown over the years. I still can visualize her when I want and she seems to be getting older and wiser.

59 Personal reflection. This persons alter Little Girl Lost has such an incredible function for her system of alters. Although she is described as being broken, I see a great strength within her. She is able to maintain an identity in spite of the tragic abuse she was forced to endure. Often the child alters, though terribly frightened, are some of the strongest parts of a persons system because of their capacity to bear so much of the abuse and self-hatred, and their ability to hold memories. Somehow they still maintain the innocence of childhood though it is buried very deep down. Salvaging this part of the person is one of the greatest challenges of therapy and also one of the most crucial elements to healing. CV: When did your ISH come to you? D: I really started to feel her presence in 2004. CV: In what ways has your ISH helped your system? D: I was in a car accident in 2004 and I lost many of my cognitive abilities from my injuries. It took almost a year to recover. Having her with me on this journey and every journey since then has been an awesome experience. She allows me to revel in my accomplishments. CV: Do you have any alters that are of the opposite sex that represent your masculinity or femininity? D: The Angry One is male and I feel as if he is the direct opposite of Little Girl Lost. Personal reflection. The Angry One personified another shadow component of this persons system. Sexual and aggressive complexes, for instance, are often found in the shadow area of the psyche because of childhood dissociation (Hall, 1989, p. 48). Male alters in female DID clients serve as tough protectors. However, The opposite

60 gender alter is both an expression of the conflict and a defense against it (Ross, 1997, p. 154). From a Jungian standpoint, Negative anima/animus forms, whether projected or included in the self-image, serve to isolate, defend, and protect the self image from imagined neurotic threats (Hall, 1989, p. 56). CV: How old are your child parts? D: Little Girl Lost and The Angry One were both 10. CV: What are their jobs? D: As I have gotten older and done my part of the work they have just about integrated into the Ying Yang part of my conscious. Neither has grown stronger as they have integrated they have just become one. CV: If you have already integrated can you explain what that was like for everyone? D: Although I never consciously lost time while each alter played a role, I feel that they had their purpose when I needed them and now I dont. It took me a lot of years and an out-of-body experience to realize that they were all an extension of me that I could not or would acknowledge at the time. CV: Is there anything else you would like me to know about? D: The brain does a wonderful job of protecting those of us who have no other protection. My alters allowed me small glimpses of my trauma(s), just enough until I was able to look at them fully on my own. CV: Does anyone inside have anything they want to say? D: We would All like to thank you for the opportunity to tell my story. Personal reflection. The person from this interview offers hope to other people with DID as well as to myself. Often integration in DID is a long and arduous process. In

61 my aspiration to specialize in the dissociative disorders I am humbled by the immense amount of work required by client and therapist to work together and achieve integration. Furthermore, there is always the potential for the integration to fall apart due to some form of trauma or extreme stress. For instance, when my father died in 1999 my mothers integration broke apart after having been fully integrated for three years. Interview with DArcy Vanderpool, M.F.T. CV: How long have you worked with clients that have a diagnosis of DID? DV: 30 years and the first multiple I ever met was actually 8 years before that so a total of 38 years. But the first one I met was not diagnosed with DID until after I learned what it was. Then I diagnosed her. She wasnt my client at the time. She was somebody elses client and I wasnt even a student yet she was actually in my own therapy group so when I learned about it then I called her family and said this is whats really going on. CV: How many clients all together have you worked with that have DID? DV: I stopped counting at 500 and its someplace over that. CV: What has been your greatest experience working with DID? DV: I think in general my greatest experience has been meeting multiples ISHs and being able to talk with them when theyre in the body and getting that sense that there is a much bigger world than what we know about and there is a hope there for everyone and even if thats just a part of their mind that thats there, that we all have that. Being able to see that in so many different people is phenomenal and I feel blessed to have had that experience. The other great experience is to have the relationships with people that last 10 and 20 and 30 years and to be a part of their life and their family and theyre part of my family. We still have the professional relationship but at the same time when you

62 know someone so intimately for those years and theres just a few handfuls of people but just being in their life like that and in my life like that is meaningful and I love it. CV: Can you describe your experience with the ISH? How did they help you with a client or in session? DV: The ISH always becomes a co-therapist. I dont like to do therapy without an inner self helper. I have done it and its very hard without because it provides an organizing principle for being able to work with a client because they know what has to be done. They know the history of the client. They know the order of things to come up and they can tell you what to expect or whats coming up next. They keep everybody in line inside of the people that they work with so that its a very orderly process and the therapist doesnt have to know what its all about you just have to work with the ISH when things come up and a lot of therapists when they dont know what theyre doing and I didnt know what I was doing years ago you feel so responsible, and you dont know what you have to do and you dont know where this case is going and how many years its going to take and are they going to be suicidal? Are they going to be homicidal? How are they going to hurt someone? Are they going to be a decent parent with their children? Are they going to abuse their own children? Are they going to run away? What are they going to do to you? Are they turning you into the cult? Is someone going to kill your animals? Is someone going to kidnap your own children? All those kinds of things you just dont know and with an ISH you dont have to worry about those things in general. So thats another thing they give you besides having a co-therapist and being organizing and taking care of the inside, theyre also working with you so that you dont have to be totally in charge. You are as a therapist but at the same time you know that the system is going to

63 present itself and handle itself as long as you provide the therapy with it so that you dont have a an out-of-control system. I think another thing that the ISH does is that is can put the system down for safety purposes. If you need to protect yourself or you need to protect that patient you can just put them out. The ISH has been able to help someone who had a stroke heal and she couldnt speak in the hospital and the doctors didnt know what to do with her and I could go in and contact the ISH and the ISH could heal the body and the brain in such a way that somebody could come out, a child personality could come out and talk to the doctors and they couldnt believe how this woman healed in a matter of days. So there are lots of incidents like that where the ISH has actually intervened in the persons life to save them when something was going to happen. An ISH told a client hide over here behind the car because something was happening right up ahead in a parking lot and the person saw what happened up ahead which was a dastardly kind of thing and she was protected because of the ISH. So they do intervene in their lives when they really need help and they have been doing that all along although we dont have all of those examples. Personal reflection. These remarkable occurrences run the gamut of reminding a person to take their medicine to actually saving their life. My personal thought is that if Jung would have further pursued the field of dissociation, given his great interest in the paranormal, he may have encountered a few ISHs. Perhaps he even did. Jung was aware of the strong link between dissociation and extrasensory perception (as cited in Ross, 1997). His dissertation On the Psychology and Pathology of the So-Called Occult Phenomena was devoted to an analysis of the dissociative phenomena produced by his

64 cousin Helene Preiswerk (Noll, 1989, p. 354). As I noted in Chapter II, this interest in the paranormal was one of the reasons Freud broke with Jung. The ISH for most multiples is thought to be a spirit of some sort. Sometimes it is a small piece of their own spirit and other times it is more like a guardian angel that identifies as a separate spirit. Jung (1948/1981) stated the following: Spirits are complexes of the collective unconscious which appear when the individual loses his adaptation to reality, or which seek to replace the inadequate attitude of a whole people by a new one. They are therefore either pathological fantasies or new but as yet unknown ideas. (p. 317 [CW 8, para. 599]) He went on the state that the psychotherapeutic endeavors of the so-called spirits are aimed at the living either directly or indirectly through the deceased person, in order to make them more conscious (p. 317 [CW 8, para. 599]). DV: Another thing that ISHs have done is to tell me things about myself and to tell other therapists about themselves or their families. We usually tell them to not go there. We try to not ask them for that but they sometimes offer it and even though you dont want them to they offer it anyways because theyre loving and I think they have a relationship with us and they care about us and maybe its their job. I dont know. But they have done it many, many times and that feels like a blessing. They seem to have a lot of knowledge about the world, about people in general, about humans in general. I think its always tempting to want to ask them about psychic things, about future things, about the shape of the world and what can we do about it and in that sense theyre again very generous with giving suggestions and recommendations also just letting the world take care of itself and letting everyone learn from their own mistakes and experiences and not interfering with that but at the same time being able to see the beauty and bigness and the blissfulness of what people are, what they have and what we dont always do with that and at the same

65 time showing the bigness and the grandness of whats available to each and every one of us, mainly in the way we think and respond to things. Its just our choice. Theyre marvelous teachers. CV: What has been your greatest obstacle or challenge in working with DID? DV: Obstacle or challenge, oh man. I think the obstacle first of all was not knowing anything about it. Not having any training in it. Not having had anybody ever talk about it in a professional sense or setting. Not knowing what to do and not having anybody years ago to go to, reach out to and say help, you know, be a mentor. Finally finding some people that had a little more experience than I did and yet I presented a paper at the first international congress and there were so many people there that knew so much more than me and yet at the same time none of us knew very much. So I think that was one obstacle. Another obstacle is the way other professionals did then and still deal with the diagnosis in thinking that it doesnt exist or thinking that theyre just malingering, that they dont know enough about and theyre not interested enough to see the folly of their own belief and way that you know it clearly is a diagnosis that is recognized. It is something that can be recognized in people. All they have to do is look at the trauma and see PTSD times ten. To have the profession so closed to that, its not everybody, but its a big number, that I have run into personally here in town where the psychiatrists make fun of me and put me down because I believe in the diagnosis and I treat it and specialize in it and being so unethical that they will tell my patients when they see them in the hospital or when I send them for consultation for medication, that I am wrong, that I have them diagnosed wrong, that there is no such thing as DID and I am a crazy lady because everyone in my practice has DID. Without talking to me about this patient with this diagnosis, without

66 learning about it themselves, without knowing me as a person, without knowing me as a professional, without having the guts to call me and say why do you think this? I have had to go to the head of the hospital medical director probably about 5 or 6 different psychiatrists that I worked with when I had a lot of patients going into the hospital, and were a small town. I think thats way too many for anyone to have to report that they cannot talk to my patients like that. Come and talk to me! We all disagree on diagnoses and we can have professional discussions about it. So that was an awful obstacle in the beginning and its still there and I still deal with it 30 years later. Another obstacle is that so many people with DID do not have the financial resources to pay for therapy. Thats enough said in all the complications that arise from that because they cant get treatment. We have all done pro bono work. I send them to everybody I know to do pro bono work. Those people already get abused within the system by not recognizing the diagnosis or knowing how to treat it, then, by not having any money they cant get treatment so thats a horrible obstacle in the profession. Not for me personally, I take some but youre limited as to how many you can carry. Another obstacle I ran into was when my own life was threatened and that was difficult. I did a number of different consultations on it with a peer group and with other professionals. Pretty much across the board people told me that I should discharge the patient and send her to someone else. I didnt do that because I didnt know if there was anyone else in town that could work with her. By that time I had already worked with her for many years. I just thought it would be such a rupture in our relationship that I prayed as I have done with these clients all the time, for a way to deal with it and looking for insight and wizardry and magic and came up with insisting that her husband attend all of the sessions so that I had protection. Checking her shoes

67 because she had come with razor blades in her shoes and all kinds of things. Having all those things away from her in the session and using hypnosis to freeze her in the session so that she could talk and breathe but couldnt move her hands or feet or stand up. And we did that for months until we got through that horrible obstacle in her treatment. The obstacles come in many pieces. Financially, professional ignorance, professional lack of ethics, clinical work with clients and I guess thats about it. Always trying to come up with solutions to solve all of the obstacles and problems that come up on both a social level and establishing continuing education and starting a foundation and bringing professional people here to train other professionals in the community to doing pro bono work and finding other people to do it. I think that covers most of it. Personal reflection. In this portion of the interview I am sharply reminded of the great divide that remains in the professional community between those who believe in the diagnosis and genuinely understand it and those who are skeptical and blatantly regard the disorder as an iatrogenic artifact of enthusiastic therapists. It is very difficult for me to digest the opposing stand on DID, mainly because of my own personal experience with it and also around the inability of people to accept it. The individuals forced to suffer at the hands of cruel adults perpetrating their young bodies and ripping their innocence from them do not choose for that to happen. So it is highly unlikely that they would choose to pretend or lie about the abuse when they are finally able to talk about it. To deny their truth, already impregnated with so much shame, is a crime and tragedy in and of itself. After writing about the long history of DID and noting Freuds repudiation of the seduction theory, it becomes apparent that this set the foundation for the future incredulity of DID. Ross (1997) stated, The field developed a dissociative disorder, an

68 active dismissal and forgetting of the role of sexual abuse and other childhood trauma in the formation of DID. This was a convenient intellectual maneuver for the abusive patriarchy (p. 41). CV: How do you work with contra-sexual alters? Meaning if you have a female client with male alters and vice-versa. DV: Well first of all there is the basic recognition and acceptance that women will almost always have male alters and males will almost always have females. They will also have animals and sometimes, almost inanimate objects. So there is the acceptance. The easiest way I find to explain that to people is that we all have masculine and feminine energy within us and so this is just the representation of that. And with those alters I work with them, whatever sex they are in terms of the way we talk, and how we process things, kinds of activities for them in terms of having a normal life. Also having the host and the other alters accept that theyre just like everybody else inside. I dont know that I have ever had anyone object. I had one client who was male and had female alters and it was very interesting for him to have a sexual relationship with his wife in both the male and female alters. He also had alters who liked to dress up as women. Its very easy for women who have male alters to dress more masculine. Personal reflection. This portion of the interview calls to mind an instance of a male multiple that was in a DID focus group that I facilitated. He came into group one day but his female alter was out in the body. His entire demeanor was very effeminate and his clothing and freshly pierced ears were all distinctive signs that his female alter had come to group that day. I was also reminded of my mothers male alter who favored

69 baseball caps and hiking boots. Her style of dress was usually indicative of which personality had dressed them that morning or who was out in the body. DV: Then there are always the sexual issues because sometimes the host and other alters that are one sex dont want to have sexual experiences the way that the other alters or gender want to have sex. Putting aside limits of the body and physical parts, you ask them the same way we work with children, children shouldnt be involved in the sexual activity, so if there is a male personality that wants to have sex as a male with either gender, male or female, if the female personalities dont want to be involved then they dont. They can go to sleep, or turn their backs or whatever. Otherwise they negotiate things, just like anything else inside, its all negotiated. CV: What is the integration process like from your point of view? DV: Well first of all, it starts right away because as theyre accepting the diagnosis they are recognizing that there are other parts of themselves, this is not just one life in one body. So as they get to know the other people and become friendly with them and work as a team they start bringing down all of the barriers of amnesia and you have the sense of cooperation and collaboration and learning about each other, learning how the others think, how they behave, picking up on things they didnt learn developmentally. So thats the first piece of it. And then as people have processed enough of their stuff they start integrating by just going inside with each other, one into the other, sharing the body, sharing moments inside, getting used to that, it just happens automatically. And theyre told, I think its right to tell them from day one, anyone that is ready to integrate at anytime go ahead and do that, because once the barriers come down and theyre able to do that, fine, it makes the work easier because instead of having 200 parts running around

70 in there maybe we have only 125 parts. Or instead of having eight personalities and five little parts, those five little ones can become one. So for them its a matter of sharing space inside or outside of the body and its a matter of sharing attitudes, viewpoints, perspectives, information, and when they do that they see that its okay. Sometimes there isnt a good fit and they just try to push and force into each other and thats okay too because it gives them an experience of what thats like and they easily break apart again. So you have them do that as you go through therapy. Then you have a final integration which usually doesnt happen just once but theyre prepared for it. They know its coming. They have a lot of therapy to do of letting go of the attachment. Especially to the little child thats there. Thats not only true for the person but for the spouse or family members because thats someone that you love and you have got a history with and you have grown attached to. So it feels to everybody like a death or leaving, thinking that you wont see them again. Personal reflection. In my own experience I was extremely close to my mothers child part. I felt a sadness once she had integrated because she was truly wonderful to be around. She loved pop-up books and for people to read to her. I used to love buying her pop-up books for Christmas or her birthday and seeing the look of excitement on her face. However, I understood that her job was done and her role in the integration was crucial to my mothers healing. DV: Everybody has to get ready for that and for some people it takes them years to get ready for that, some people never get there. They always want to keep just a group or committee at the end. So thats two ways to do it, is one you let the committee be there and its an integration of the functionality of life and much of the history and the

71 emotions and how they process, but it isnt complete. For those that do a final integration, they usually fall apart because theyre not strong enough in other defense mechanisms and once they have more practice with other defense mechanisms and they dont have to dissociate in order to handle something thats difficult to handle, a challenge, then they stay together. Its a sadness for everybody. Its also a completion of a process. Its a relief. For the client its a big emptiness and void inside. So they have to get used to that. They dont know how to spend their time dealing with everyday normal life and the outside world and creating activities and friendships and social life and community things. So they have to learn all of those developmental things that they missed. For me as a therapist its always a joy and a loss for the individual people that I have grown to love over the years and at the same time an absolute joy to see that you can take somebodys life that has been in absolute shambles and they can be functional and they can live somewhat normally with having had some kind of trauma. Its nice to include ritual in the integration. Everybody knows how theyre going to integrate. Their inside system or their ISH knows how to do it the way that it was originally. Personal reflection. In this piece of the interview on integration aided by the therapist I see the mirrored aspects of Jungs concept of the transcendent function. Jung (1957/1981) stated that consciousness is continually widened through the confrontation with previously unconscious content (p. 91 [CW 8, para. 193]). He continued this notion by stating, Constructive treatment of the unconscious, that is, the question of meaning and purpose, paves the way for the patients insight into that process which I call the transcendent function (p. 75 [CW 8, para. 147]). The suitably trained analyst mediates

72 the transcendent function for the patient, i.e., helps him to bring conscious and unconscious together and so arrive at a new attitude (p. 74 [CW 8, para. 146]). CV: Explain your understanding of the child alters and the purpose they serve through the course of treatment and integration? DV: The purpose of the child alters first of all, is that theyre there because thats how they split. The purpose they serve is that they were able to handle some part of the abuse that the original personality couldnt handle. And so there is a lot of strength in them even if they seem like little children, they handle something that another part couldnt. Some of them handle certain emotions. Some will be sad children. Some will be angry children. Some will just be little pieces that have memories of a piece of abuse, but not the whole thing. Some of them will have the whole event. So they carry that for years. Allowing whoever is the host at any given time to have as normal of a life as they possibly can. Most of the child alters havent had a normal childhood so they dont have a lot of sense of play and toys and make believe the way a normal child does. My God, they have been trained to kill and not have a sense of emotion at the worst end. And at the other end they may have gone fishing with their father and so theyre really a great little boy that knows how to fish or a little girl that knows how to play tennis, so they carry the joys of a child and the innocence of a child, even if they lost their innocence very early on. So the different alters, once they process the abuse, are able to get into the child like states and be children and thats a joyful experience for everybody involved. There is always going to be one strong child that we consider to be the main child alter, usually not the original personality, but it may be. But there is a big personality in there that is a child and that child has the joyfulness of being a child. So for the family and especially

73 for the spouse they get to see what their wife was like at five years old. And wouldnt we all like to see ourselves at that age! So they bring a lot of joy to the system and to the family and to the therapist. If youre fortunate enough to have a group and youre working with a lot multiples, a child group allows for all of the children to come out and play together and party together and share toys and share their lives together. Those people get to have those healing experiences that other adults that go through trauma cant have but the dissociated person can. So I think it does a lot to heal at a very deep level. Not just the particular abuse but the whole experience of childhood and being a normal person. The child alter also helps because they tell on the other people. Thank God they have child alters, especially if they dont have an ISH. They will tell if somebody is using drugs or if theyre drinking or if they lied or didnt tell you about something and they do the same thing with the spouse. Sometimes that creates more family therapy thats needed but very important. As you go towards integration, they bring such a positive element to the whole person and once theyre actually integrated you can see them and they like knowing that. So if they know other multiples and they can see the child alter in that adult integrated multiple they feel hope and they know they dont die! So they really help everybody else get to integration. Its a paradox because theyre the ones that dont want to go and theyre the ones that you dont want to go as an outsider and at the same time they are the ones that bring so much to it. Thats the extra special spark of the personality as its integrated. You really want to get them on board and they can really push the system to integration as well. The other bigger personalities bring things in like being able to do the business of work and being able to do math and balance a check book. Also being able to have sex with their partner and manage those

74 kinds of things that are adult skill sets. And the child bring so much of the personality together with all of those skill sets that its a beautiful blend. Personal reflection. In this portion of the interview on the child alter I drew the connection to the child archetype and its dominant presence in DID. Its role as a symbol of linkage to the past as well as of the potential of the future unites the corrupted innocence and vitality of childhood with the hope of unification and wholeness in adulthood (Noll, 1989, p. 360). Jung (1983) also eloquently stated the following: For in every adult there lurks a childan eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention, and education. That is the art of the human personality which wants to develop and become whole. (p. 194) [CV:] What are your thoughts on the Birth Personality: DV: I want to say something about the original personality. Years ago we were so obsessed with who the original personality is and we have to find the original personality so that we know that everybody can integrate into them and we do it right! Ugh they will do it, its not our job. I just feel like a consultant. Its their job but the original personality usually has the innocence of childhood. Sometimes theyre not able to take everybody integrating into them. Sometimes the integration has to go a different way and I have to trust that its the right way that they dont integrate into the original personality, they integrate into someone else. Sometimes its wrong if they integrate into someone else. Sometimes they can feel it right away or you can kind of see it, there are just some connections missing. The original personality often is so young in the clients that I have worked with that you cant do much therapy. Another alter can tell you about them. Sometimes they dont need therapy. They do need therapy in terms of preparing them for integration. Preparing them as you go through things for the idea that theyre a grown up,

75 and that years of life are over, and they missed out, but lucky them, they were in a bubble. There is preparation work that is necessary. Sometimes they just need a mothers nurturing. Holding them, or giving them a bottle and rocking them usually helps. And sometimes you dont ever meet them, theyre there and can hear you and I think that the ISH does a lot to protect them and prepare them. I know that as therapists we dont have to worry about finding them and putting them into the right place for integration. The system does that. It is self regulating. Personal reflection. In Chapter II, Noll (1989) stated that the birth personality in the literature on DID is known as the ego complex in Jungian terms. Frank Putnam (1989) stated, Typically the original is not active and is often described as having been put to sleep or otherwise incapacitated at some much earlier point because he or she was not able to cope with the trauma (p. 114). Typically the birth personality does not surface until much of the trauma has been metabolized by therapeutic abreaction (p. 114). So although the ego-complex has been in a bubble or put to sleep all of the other personalities that have developed through the course of the persons life are able to achieve a specific and powerful self concept with which the individual identifies himself (Singer, 1994, p. 46). However, in the case of the multiple some of these parts may not be fully conscious to the host depending on the degree of co-consciousness their system operates under or until full integration is achieved. CV: I was wondering your thoughts on the shadow for someone who is fragmented? DV: Well there are so many personalities that are part of the shadow. And then within the full alters you have shadow parts in within them. So the way that beginning therapists see it is that youre presented with a host who is often depleted and tired and theyre always

76 passive. Theyre a people pleaser, and co-dependent, because theyre an abuse victim. Then usually the first personality you meet, unless you have got somebody that is so flooded that everyone is coming out, and theyre emoting and abreacting all over the place, the first personality out is the angry one with power and strength and the one who has assertive abilities but theyre usually extremely aggressive. The host will be afraid of that person and often they dont want that person to come to therapy and meet the therapist because theyre so afraid of what that person is going to do and theyre afraid the therapist wont like them or want to work with them. Theyre afraid the alter is going to mess up the office or hurt the therapist and so on. Thats the most obvious first time that you see shadow. I think before that you see lots of shadow in the host or whoever is coming to session, when theyre not telling you about everybody else, theyre afraid. They know about it and theyre not necessarily demonstrating because they know how to hide it. Then you find different personalities inside that hold anger. They hold beliefs about themselves that theyre bad and lots of self-deprecating things and guilt and shame that they shouldnt have. Those really belong to the abuser. And then if you have a client that really has done something wrong like abused their child or had killed someone, been involved in a cult, beaten people up, helped select a child in the mall that later was kidnapped and sacrificed or abused, that becomes part of their shadow. It doesnt come out for a long time and you have to deal with it in terms of shames and so all of the literature on shame comes into that. But when they have actually done things wrong like killing other people, then you have to deal with it like it was not their fault because they were not old enough. But then when they are old enough and have done something wrong then you have to deal with that shadow part differently. You just have all of the usual and

77 customary effects of shadow in anybody inside like you do with a normal person. Its all part of the therapy that it is just little by little that it emerges and its a matter of acceptance. The whole type of therapy in a way is like shadow work because what youre doing is bringing something out into the open that has been denied and its a full personality! You can do some interesting comparisons there, that the whole personality has a huge shadow that has been fragmented, the shadow itself is fragmented. Then you have certain personalities that are all shadow. When you go into the cult personalities theyre almost totally shadow until you have done the work to accept them and then theyre not because then they accept what theyve done and how they think and feel and they have got a perspective on it. Thats the treatment. Just treatment of the shadow, the whole thing, over and over. When theyre integrated, the shadow work at that point is learning about normalcy and accepting that they can do things that they never thought they have done before. All different parts of themselves have done those kinds of things, like they are not very functional maybe after they integrate and yet they might have a hospital administrator in there or a business man or woman who can manage a multibillion dollar corporation. Its developmental work. I would like to read a paper on what somebody else thinks about shadow work after integration. So much of the work after integration is about selfesteem, so how much shadow is in self-esteem work? It doesnt seem like a lot, except for the normal person you would have a number of hidden things, but these people have worked through so many different aspects of their personalities, and so many different alters, and their beliefs even their self-esteem beliefs, but the shadow component of what theyre not aware of and what they project out and deny, all those kinds of things

78 are worked through so much that by the time we get to integration, so much of that goes away and is forgotten, it just falls back down into the unconscious or wherever it goes! It has been worked on. The integrated person doesnt remember it the same way we dont remember our childhoods but because it has been worked through I dont think its a shadow. With a normal person all that stuff from childhood that goes down into the unconscious that we dont remember isnt worked through so it comes up in adulthood as shadow that you work on. But with the integrated multiple, in order to integrate they have to deal with all the memories and distortions of the belief about it and the bad behaviors because they cant connect that they accept all that stuff, that I dont think they have much shadow work. Thats a hypothesis to work on later. CV: Thank you so much for participating and sharing your amazing knowledge and information. Its going to be very helpful to me and anyone who reads this. Personal reflection. The shadow is never removed or completely assimilated by the ego; rather, there is an ethical imperative of acknowledging it and taking creative responsibility for it. Jung was firmly convinced that the way to psychological health and meaning was through shadow (Salman, 2008, p. 72) This portion on the shadow aspect of DID was very intriguing to me. Shadow in DID is unique in the sense that it presents itself in a number of different fashions in the fragmented mind. It becomes clear that the multiples shadow begins to develop very early on and then it multiplies and then those parts may fragment even further. However, the shadow or in most cases, shadows, of a multiple are in many ways their saving grace until eventually the protector turned persecutor begins internally attacking the other alters, harming the body, or acting out. For the multiple I also feel as though DID could be recognized on some level as a product of the shadow of treatment of children.

79 The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of selfknowledge, and it therefore as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. (Jung, 1983, p. 91) Summary The interviews conducted with these individuals were intended to incorporate lived experience into the hypothesis that DID and Jungs complex theory are of a parallel nature. Chapter III consisted of four separate interviews. Three of those interviews were conducted with individuals who either have a diagnosis of DID or have fully integrated their personalities. There was also a differentiation in the types of abuse that occurred in the history of the interviewees. These included incestuous and ritualistic abuse. The last interview was conducted with a Marriage and Family Therapist who has worked with DID for over 30 years. The questions asked were formulated to reflect the parallels between DID and Jungs complex theory and to give some insight into the inner world of a multiple. Next, Chapter IV will discuss a summary of my findings. I will also discuss the implications and ramifications of my work. Lastly I will include any contributions that my work has made to the field of counseling psychology as well as suggestions for areas of further exploration and study.

Chapter IV Conclusion Through this thesis process I have discovered that there is an alternative way to view and understand Dissociative Identity Disorder. The predominant view of the disorder is a pathological one and focuses on the problematic symptoms and hardships of DID. My goal was to research and find a way to view DID as a non-pathological phenomenon. What I came across was a parallel between DID and Carl Jungs (1983) complex theory. As I continued to conduct research I also became aware of the parallel between the integration process for a multiple and Jungs (1957/1981) concept of the transcendent function. Interestingly, during his time Jung was not a major contributor to or much of an enthusiast about studying dissociation. However, he had still managed to lay an extensive theoretical foundation for understanding modern-day DID. Jung held a benign view of dissociation and viewed it as a normal function of the psyche (Noll, 1989). After conducting my interviews I became aware that the multiples ability to dissociate was their means of survival. The abusive environment that they were subjected to was the norm for them. When an event such as sexual abuse happens with consistency and the reaction to that eventsevere dissociation to the point of fragmentation becomes consistent, then normalcy sets in. Colin Ross (1997) referred to this phenomenon as crystallization. Dissociating and creating a different person who could handle the abuse was the deciding factor in their continued existence. Without the gift to

81 dissociate, the only other option for the individual was psychosis or death. It is no wonder that Jung viewed dissociation as a normal and healthy function. The implications of this work suggest that a new generation of therapists are entering the field and are ready to pick up on the trail of DID that was started so many years ago. However, this time around is different because the focus is geared toward the positive nature of dissociation. The ramifications of this argument are the possibility of a backlash by the skeptics of DID and possibly other schools of thought overshadowing this optimistic stance. This approach to DID contributes to counseling psychology because it offers an alternative view of the disorder. It also allows for the possibility of working with a DID client from a depth approach. The disorder and the client can be understood archetypally. Areas for Further Exploration Shadow work with a multiple came up several times during discussion with others during the writing of this thesis. The question of what can actually be considered the shadow for a multiple was pondered due to the fact that somewhere in the system one or more of the alters is conscious of what would be considered the Shadow by Jung. Another area that could benefit from further research is the typology of the alters and the usefulness of this to the functioning of the system. Finally, interest in the psyche-soma relationship was elicited. Sometimes, the different alters will have physiological differences. For instance, one alter may need to wear glasses so that he or she may see when he or she is out in the body or different alters may have medical conditions that are present when they are in the body.

82 Closing Remarks It is my hope that this work is able to offer the reader a significantly different lens through which to view DID. The etiology of this disorder is not to be taken lightly and the purpose of this thesis is not to ask the reader to only see the good and disregard the bad. Instead I ask the reader to acknowledge the resiliency and strength of a person with DID. The abuse that these individuals have endured is unthinkable and tragic. The abused childs existential task is equally formidable. Though she perceives herself as abandoned to a power without mercy, she must find a way to preserve hope and meaning. The alternative is utter despair, something no child can bear (Herman, 1992, p. 101). Although education and awareness of horrendous child abuse is on the rise, Judith Herman referred to a study done in the 1980s by Diana Russell which found that one in three women have experienced some form of sexual abuse during their childhood. It is clear that this problem is of epidemic proportions in our society. Stopping the abuse from happening may not be entirely possible but being able to provide DID clients with the help they need to heal is possible and of great importance. The skeptics that choose to reject the existence of the disorder or solely believe in an iatrogenic etiology are in blatant denial of the fact that child abuse, in particular severe sexual abuse of infants and children, exists and is rampant particularly in North America. I will end with a quote by Colin Ross (1997): We have a popular superstition in North America that our children are our most valued resource and that the intact nuclear family is a good place to grow up. For many children this is a lie. The intact family, for many North American children, has been a war zone of physical and sexual abuse, a private Vietnam. It is not acceptable to dismiss the psychic scars and amputations from this childhood trauma as artifact. (p. 80)

APPENDIX A BIRTHDAY An artist painting in a field of yellow, A self portrait of a girl and a fellow, Let me see! Says one, no, me! Let me! But the artist smiles and just says, Well see.

She paints them in and then discovers, Behind these two, there is another. She pauses now to paint the pond, And next to it a golden blond.

Then someone on her shoulder said, Just make my tresses fiery red. The palette whirls, another hue, A girl appears, concealed in blue.

A monumental task this appears to be, This simple portrait I am doing of me. On the pond a girl in her tears is boating,

84 While above her another is impatiently floating.

She drops her brush when nudged from the back, By a mischievous girl dressed all in black. Enough is enough! She says, and then grins, Next thing you know Ill be painting twins!

While sunshine merrily lights up the flowers, A voice says, Hurry! Ive been here for hours. Oh, no, says the other. I just got here, you see. We cant leave till shes painted me.

The artist painting in the field of yellow, Her self portrait, all at once, became mellow. She said to herself, I need time to think, Meanwhile, a voice said, Paint me in pink.

She stepped back from her canvas again and again, While another voice said, You cant fit them all in. But if you listen to me and follow my plan, I assure you that there is a way that you can.

First we join hands and then we shall dance,

85 And then we shall leave it to circumstance. Ill still be me and youll still be you, But well be moving so fast we cant tell who is who!

A circle was formed and the dance was begun, As they watched the self portrait begin to be one. The glorious day then echoed with mirth, A day to remember, the day of her birth.

(Anonymous)

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