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lb_leeI've had a couple requests on this, so here it is, a recommended list of DID books (or DID-ish books) that I wish all multiples would read, even if they're on the opposite end of the multi spectrum.
Why? Because a lot of multiples on the Internet only use Internet sources... and overwhelmingly, they use sources from just the past five to ten years (if you can get a proper source date on them at all). What your teacher used to tell you is true: those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it. Online plurals are constantly reinventing the wheel, and nogoodniks will take advantage of people's ignorance to claim patent falsehood.
A lot of people don't read these books because a lot of them are terrible. I won't pretend otherwise. They are boring, depressing, infuriating, or factually incorrect. But I'm not recommending these books for pleasure or even teaching what they intend, most of the time. You're not here to see yourself reflected in literature; you're here to learn your history and where all these trends and counter-trends online came from in the first place. It will make some effective bullshit-repellent. (And if you want the works that I have found more helpful personally, skip down to Part Three.)
Optional books are listed as BONUS ROUNDs. You don't have to read them, but if you're feeling up to it, go for it! I've also put them in a general recommended reading order, and tried to stick with books that are easy to find. (And if they aren't, I offer my own copies.)
PART ONE: THE "CLASSICS"
There were multi cases in the 1700s and 1800s, but sadly I don't know a lot about them, and they're hard to find. So we're skipping ahead to the 70s, with the books that helped form the core of multi tropes in pop culture (and sadly, also among therapists), for a good while, leading to the backlash. Florid descriptions of abuse abound!
Sybil
Author: Flora Rheta Schreiber
Date: 1973
What is it?: Possibly the most famous/infamous book on MPD ever.
Why Should I Read It?: Because of its nigh-mythic status. Sybil became a virtual Bible on multi in the seventies. As far as I know, it created the genre of multi trauma-porn memoirs, which is why they all sound so similar to each other; they are all modeled on the developments of this one darn book. It also seems to have originated the idea of multiplicity being caused by chronic, grotesque abuse (unlike Eve, whose trauma was based on family injury and death)--yes, believe it or not, abuse wasn't always a part of the DID narrative! This book will likely infuriate you, but trust me, you need to read it to understand the trends and backlash of multi in the 80s and 90s. (On the plus side, by reading this book, you will learn to recognize its many many copycats, and be able to ignore them with impunity.)
BONUS ROUND! The Minds of Billy Milligan
Author: Daniel Keyes (AKA the Flowers for Algernon guy)
Date: 1981
What is it?: The tale of Billy Milligan's system raping people, getting arrested, and being judged not guilty by reason of insanity.
Why Should I Read It?: This book is optional, because in some ways it mirrors the Sybil trauma narrative. However, it might be of interest because it spawned its own imitators, including the recent movie Split, and was in itself very similar to the earlier (but much harder to find) book, the Five of Me, by Henry Dana Hawksworth. (Hawksworth's autobio, in fact, got a movie that came out the same year as The Minds of Billy Milligan; the works may have influenced each other.) Multi axe-murderers were a thing before this, but Billy Milligan and co. really seem to have helped solidify the trope of male multiples facing physical abuse (rather than sexual) and being violent in turn to others. (Again, this seems to predate the whole idea that abuse MUST be sexual to cause DID... though the abuse Milligan reports is plenty grotesque.)
"10 People Who Were 74 People," from the Book of Lists #2
Author: God only knows. The book itself is credited to Wallace, Wallace, Wallechinsky, and Wallace.
Date: 1980
What is it?: A list of the most well-known multiples at the time, back when Milligan was cutting edge news and hadn't gotten his book yet.
Why Should I Read It?: First of all, it's super-short--like three pages from a small paperback that I transcribed for y'all, so you can clear it out super-fast. Also, this is honestly the best I've got right now as a quick, fast, pop culture depiction of multiplicity before it became associated entirely with gruesome abuse. There's nothing dark in it, so it might be a nice, light chaser after the grim darkness of the books around, and a nice look at how pop culture was perceiving all this.
When Rabbit Howls
Author: the Troops for Truddi Chase
Date: 1987
What is it?: The Troops' autobio about their trauma history, their system function, and trying to get their act together and go public to help fight abuse.
Why Should I Read It?: Because The Troops, bless 'em, originated a good number of the tropes that multiples online use today. We all owe them a debt. They were notable for fighting integration adamantly, instead preferring to work cooperatively, and while their book is incoherent and hard to read, it's worth it. They are also one of the larger systems to have written one of these books; there system was of roughly a hundred, and they go in-depth about their system functioning and roles, which are a bit different than the smaller systems in prior books. As far as I can tell, every plural who hasn't been pressured to integrate owe the Troops a debt; up until this point, I don't know that anyone really accepted that one could live multiple and be okay with that. They also might've had a hand in the whole "multiples have magic powers" thing.
BONUS ROUND! The Flock
Author: Joan Frances Casey (with Lynn Wilson)
Date: 1991
What is it?: The Flock's autobio, mixed with their therapist's notes, about discovering they're multiple, cooperating, and integrating.
Why Should I Read It?: This is an optional book, because in many ways, it covers a lot of the same territory as books like Sybil and When Rabbit Howls. I mention it because it is lighter on the trauma talk than those books, focusing more on daily life, and because there is a section where the system describes forming a government and living cooperatively... right before they integrate and the book ends. It was one of our favorites as wee baby multis, and you might be able to glean a little from it. It still has a really, SUPER-codependent relationship between the Flock, their therapist, and her husband, though. (Namely, the 'reparenting' thing is discussed in depth, which will become important in the backlash later on.) It's still in print, in ebook and paper form.
A Mind of My Own
Author: Chris Costner Sizemore (AKA Eve)
Date: 1989
What is it?: Sizemore's memoir about life after integration, going public about being Eve, and having to fight for the legal rights to her own life story.
Why Should I Read It?: Sizemore was considered the classic case of MPD in the 50s; she was the subject of The Three Faces of Eve. But that tale is also one of medical exploitation; one of her system members signed away the rights to her life story to her therapists, they totally distorted it, and she had to sue to publish her own memoirs! Despite being a "classic case," when given her own words, she is anything but. She is adamant that she never experienced abuse, and that her system members were triggered by the accidents she witnessed, but not created by them. She is also one of the few people to discuss life after integration, and treats it in a more nuanced way than simply, "And then I was better, The End." After you read the "classics" above, read this to help break down the ideas of what DID/MPD simply must be. Might be good to realize that even the classics were shoehorned to be so by the folks writing the books.
PART TWO: THE BACKLASH (and the backlash against the backlash)
This section, I promise, will cure you of any fears that non-DID multiples had anything to do with people disbelieving in multiplicity; the backlash was overwhelmingly about abuse and repressed memory. As rates of diagnosed multiples suddenly skyrocketed, the mental health folks were in a bind. Had they truly missed a ton of horrifically abused multiples all these years? Were they overdiagnosing us? Also, we tended to have incredibly creepy, enmeshed relationships with our therapists, who were reparenting us, using drugs to help our recall, and selling books they wrote about us. We had become a status symbol. Backlash was inevitable.
Witness for the Defense; The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial
Author: Elizabeth Loftus (member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation) and Katherine Ketchum
Date: 1991
What is It?: Loftus's discussion of memory, trauma, the weaknesses of eyewitness testimony, and how memory can be manipulated, on purpose or by accident.
Why Should I Read This?: Loftus is one of the shining stars of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, and her research is what a lot of skeptics reference when arguing against multiplicity or recovered memory. If you're plural, you will encounter one of her arguments eventually, so you might as well do your homework and see what she says so you can fight it or analyze it more easily. For a chaser afterwards, feel free to read about some of the complaints about Loftus, including violating privacy and escaping an ethics investigation by resigning.
Sybil Exposed
Author: Debbie Nathan (member of the National Center for Reason and Justice)
Date: 2011
What is it?: Nathan's proclaimed debunking of the Sybil case, claiming that Sybil wasn't really multiple, and that multiplicity is framed by the women's issues of her time, with Schreiber and Sybil's therapist colluding to create a media phenomenon.
Why Should I Read This?: This book is again, one of the books skeptics reference most. Better to just bite the bullet and make yourself familiar with Nathan's arguments, since again, you WILL encounter this eventually, especially since the book is still relatively new.
BONUS ROUND! Crazy Therapies
Author: Margaret Thaler Singer (cult authority, NOT the birth control lady)
Year: 1996
What Is It?: Singer's discussion of suspicious therapy practices, including new ones with very little evidence to support them. (Including EMDR!)
Why Should I Read It?: You can get away without this one, if you so choose, since I feel the above books cover a lot of the same territory. (Also this book doesn't seem available in ebook form.) This book came out right smack in the middle of the rise of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, so provides a convenient quick listing and sum up of a bunch of quack DID therapies. Also it might be informative for folks who thought EMDR was always reputable and considered awesome; it was not!
"Crisis or Creation? A Systematic Examination of 'False Memory Syndrome'", from The Journal of Child Sexual Abuse.
Author: Stephanie J. Dallam
Year: 2001
What Is It?: Exactly what it says on the tin. Article that examines the history of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation and whether False Memory Syndrome has enough evidence to support it.
Why Should I Read It?: Because well, after reading folks like Loftus, you might as well read the folks who said she was wrong, and learn how the FMSF was a political organization pretending to be a scientific one. Also it's free to read online. (If by this point you're just feeling hopelessly confused and lost, join the club.)
BONUS ROUND! The Witch-Hunt Narrative
Author: Ross E. Cheit (strong proponent of recovered memory, sued and won on the basis of his own)
Year: 2014
What Is It?: A five-hundred plus page clunker about the MacMartin preschool case and other legal cases involving abuse allegations in preschools and daycare centers.
Why, Dear God Why?: I know, I know, I'm sorry. I put this book as a bonus round just because it's the antithesis of what I want on this list; it's boring, depressing, hard-to-find, hard-to-understand, and long. But it's thorough, and helps break down the Memory Wars and the pop culture narratives that led to Satanic Panic and what actually happened. It is the only book like this that I have found, and if you can't stomach the cost or find it, contact me for an ebook version. If you can get through this monster, it's worth it. But I won't lie, it's rough. This book was not made for the layman.
PART THREE: MULTIPLES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
Okay, I feel parts 1 and 2 pretty much cover the multi history stuff most folks on the Internet don't bother with. Those are the bits I cared most about. But continuing onward, plurals were moving online and speaking for themselves by the mid-90s (with Usenet groups like alt.support.dissociation). So here are some other things, overlapping with and progressing from the backlash period, which I myself hope to read and learn from (but in many cases haven't gotten to yet; I'll note those with the word 'UNREAD').
got parts?: An Insider's Guide to Managing Life Successfully with Dissociative Identity Disorder
Author: ATW (a multiple)
Year: 2005
What is it?: The best self-help book I've seen on living multiple. Does NOT focus on trauma.
Why Should I Read it?: The majority of queries I see from new baby multis about how to get their act together is covered in this book: getting to know your system, treating it with respect, building a headspace and mapping system members, time management, building co-consciousness, self-care, relating to others. If it doesn't work for you, then fine, but please just try it first. Yes, there's an annoying thing in the start from a shrink about how system members aren't people, but ATW themselves never make that claim. This book does not focus on trauma; it is not particularly intense or upsetting, compared to the rest of this list, and it focuses on working with your system, rather than against them.
BONUS ROUND! Amongst Ourselves: A Self-Help Guide to Living With Dissociative Identity Disorder
Author: Alderman and Marshall (two queer therapists, a multiple and her singlet partner)
Year: 1998
What is it?: Exactly what it sounds like. Title says it all really.
Why Should I Read It?: Honestly, this book is harder to find than got parts? and isn't as good, thus why it is optional. (Also it's not in ebook form.) If you DO choose to read it, do so after reading got parts?, because got parts? is the practice, while Amongst Ourselves is more the theory. Does have some stuff in the back for significant others, family members, and doctors, and a chapter on coming out that I recall being helpful.
UNREAD! The Archive of the Many Voices Newsletter
Author: Many.
Year: 1989-2012
What is it?: A complete archive of a newsletter made by and for multiples! (I admit, I haven't gotten to read it yet.)
Why I Want To Read It: Ms. Wasnak, blessings upon her, made the whole archive free for everyone to read when she died in 2014. I dare say it'll be hard to find a more continuous record of multiples discussing their experiences, and I want to see how terminology and philosophy evolve over the course of twenty-plus years.
UNREAD! Chunks of alt.support.dissociation
Author: Many
Year: 1995-today! (Yes, it's STILL freakin' going!)
What is it?: A Usenet group (now yoinked by Google) made by dissociatives for dissociatives.
Why I Want to Read It: Just from what I've skimmed through so far while looking for OTHER things, I get the sense that this group has a really devout userbase and its own very specific ways of doing things. It's a subculture I haven't spent much time in, and I'd love to learn about it to compare and contrast with the plural groups I have spent time in.
UNREAD! The Wayback Machine Archive of Dark Personalities
Author: The Anachronic Army
Year: 2000-2003
What is it?: The earliest for-sure record I can find of a multiple explicitly denouncing and separating themself from the DID/MPD definition.
Why I Want To Read: This seems to be where a lot of the "healthy multiplicity" rhetoric comes from, online-wise, and seems to have been made specifically in backlash to the rules of alt.support.dissociation. I want to go through this site and compare and contrast to the rhetoric now. Also I want to check out their recommended mailing lists with similar philosophies, if any of them still exist.
Why? Because a lot of multiples on the Internet only use Internet sources... and overwhelmingly, they use sources from just the past five to ten years (if you can get a proper source date on them at all). What your teacher used to tell you is true: those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it. Online plurals are constantly reinventing the wheel, and nogoodniks will take advantage of people's ignorance to claim patent falsehood.
A lot of people don't read these books because a lot of them are terrible. I won't pretend otherwise. They are boring, depressing, infuriating, or factually incorrect. But I'm not recommending these books for pleasure or even teaching what they intend, most of the time. You're not here to see yourself reflected in literature; you're here to learn your history and where all these trends and counter-trends online came from in the first place. It will make some effective bullshit-repellent. (And if you want the works that I have found more helpful personally, skip down to Part Three.)
Optional books are listed as BONUS ROUNDs. You don't have to read them, but if you're feeling up to it, go for it! I've also put them in a general recommended reading order, and tried to stick with books that are easy to find. (And if they aren't, I offer my own copies.)
PART ONE: THE "CLASSICS"
There were multi cases in the 1700s and 1800s, but sadly I don't know a lot about them, and they're hard to find. So we're skipping ahead to the 70s, with the books that helped form the core of multi tropes in pop culture (and sadly, also among therapists), for a good while, leading to the backlash. Florid descriptions of abuse abound!
Sybil
Author: Flora Rheta Schreiber
Date: 1973
What is it?: Possibly the most famous/infamous book on MPD ever.
Why Should I Read It?: Because of its nigh-mythic status. Sybil became a virtual Bible on multi in the seventies. As far as I know, it created the genre of multi trauma-porn memoirs, which is why they all sound so similar to each other; they are all modeled on the developments of this one darn book. It also seems to have originated the idea of multiplicity being caused by chronic, grotesque abuse (unlike Eve, whose trauma was based on family injury and death)--yes, believe it or not, abuse wasn't always a part of the DID narrative! This book will likely infuriate you, but trust me, you need to read it to understand the trends and backlash of multi in the 80s and 90s. (On the plus side, by reading this book, you will learn to recognize its many many copycats, and be able to ignore them with impunity.)
BONUS ROUND! The Minds of Billy Milligan
Author: Daniel Keyes (AKA the Flowers for Algernon guy)
Date: 1981
What is it?: The tale of Billy Milligan's system raping people, getting arrested, and being judged not guilty by reason of insanity.
Why Should I Read It?: This book is optional, because in some ways it mirrors the Sybil trauma narrative. However, it might be of interest because it spawned its own imitators, including the recent movie Split, and was in itself very similar to the earlier (but much harder to find) book, the Five of Me, by Henry Dana Hawksworth. (Hawksworth's autobio, in fact, got a movie that came out the same year as The Minds of Billy Milligan; the works may have influenced each other.) Multi axe-murderers were a thing before this, but Billy Milligan and co. really seem to have helped solidify the trope of male multiples facing physical abuse (rather than sexual) and being violent in turn to others. (Again, this seems to predate the whole idea that abuse MUST be sexual to cause DID... though the abuse Milligan reports is plenty grotesque.)
"10 People Who Were 74 People," from the Book of Lists #2
Author: God only knows. The book itself is credited to Wallace, Wallace, Wallechinsky, and Wallace.
Date: 1980
What is it?: A list of the most well-known multiples at the time, back when Milligan was cutting edge news and hadn't gotten his book yet.
Why Should I Read It?: First of all, it's super-short--like three pages from a small paperback that I transcribed for y'all, so you can clear it out super-fast. Also, this is honestly the best I've got right now as a quick, fast, pop culture depiction of multiplicity before it became associated entirely with gruesome abuse. There's nothing dark in it, so it might be a nice, light chaser after the grim darkness of the books around, and a nice look at how pop culture was perceiving all this.
When Rabbit Howls
Author: the Troops for Truddi Chase
Date: 1987
What is it?: The Troops' autobio about their trauma history, their system function, and trying to get their act together and go public to help fight abuse.
Why Should I Read It?: Because The Troops, bless 'em, originated a good number of the tropes that multiples online use today. We all owe them a debt. They were notable for fighting integration adamantly, instead preferring to work cooperatively, and while their book is incoherent and hard to read, it's worth it. They are also one of the larger systems to have written one of these books; there system was of roughly a hundred, and they go in-depth about their system functioning and roles, which are a bit different than the smaller systems in prior books. As far as I can tell, every plural who hasn't been pressured to integrate owe the Troops a debt; up until this point, I don't know that anyone really accepted that one could live multiple and be okay with that. They also might've had a hand in the whole "multiples have magic powers" thing.
BONUS ROUND! The Flock
Author: Joan Frances Casey (with Lynn Wilson)
Date: 1991
What is it?: The Flock's autobio, mixed with their therapist's notes, about discovering they're multiple, cooperating, and integrating.
Why Should I Read It?: This is an optional book, because in many ways, it covers a lot of the same territory as books like Sybil and When Rabbit Howls. I mention it because it is lighter on the trauma talk than those books, focusing more on daily life, and because there is a section where the system describes forming a government and living cooperatively... right before they integrate and the book ends. It was one of our favorites as wee baby multis, and you might be able to glean a little from it. It still has a really, SUPER-codependent relationship between the Flock, their therapist, and her husband, though. (Namely, the 'reparenting' thing is discussed in depth, which will become important in the backlash later on.) It's still in print, in ebook and paper form.
A Mind of My Own
Author: Chris Costner Sizemore (AKA Eve)
Date: 1989
What is it?: Sizemore's memoir about life after integration, going public about being Eve, and having to fight for the legal rights to her own life story.
Why Should I Read It?: Sizemore was considered the classic case of MPD in the 50s; she was the subject of The Three Faces of Eve. But that tale is also one of medical exploitation; one of her system members signed away the rights to her life story to her therapists, they totally distorted it, and she had to sue to publish her own memoirs! Despite being a "classic case," when given her own words, she is anything but. She is adamant that she never experienced abuse, and that her system members were triggered by the accidents she witnessed, but not created by them. She is also one of the few people to discuss life after integration, and treats it in a more nuanced way than simply, "And then I was better, The End." After you read the "classics" above, read this to help break down the ideas of what DID/MPD simply must be. Might be good to realize that even the classics were shoehorned to be so by the folks writing the books.
PART TWO: THE BACKLASH (and the backlash against the backlash)
This section, I promise, will cure you of any fears that non-DID multiples had anything to do with people disbelieving in multiplicity; the backlash was overwhelmingly about abuse and repressed memory. As rates of diagnosed multiples suddenly skyrocketed, the mental health folks were in a bind. Had they truly missed a ton of horrifically abused multiples all these years? Were they overdiagnosing us? Also, we tended to have incredibly creepy, enmeshed relationships with our therapists, who were reparenting us, using drugs to help our recall, and selling books they wrote about us. We had become a status symbol. Backlash was inevitable.
Witness for the Defense; The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial
Author: Elizabeth Loftus (member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation) and Katherine Ketchum
Date: 1991
What is It?: Loftus's discussion of memory, trauma, the weaknesses of eyewitness testimony, and how memory can be manipulated, on purpose or by accident.
Why Should I Read This?: Loftus is one of the shining stars of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, and her research is what a lot of skeptics reference when arguing against multiplicity or recovered memory. If you're plural, you will encounter one of her arguments eventually, so you might as well do your homework and see what she says so you can fight it or analyze it more easily. For a chaser afterwards, feel free to read about some of the complaints about Loftus, including violating privacy and escaping an ethics investigation by resigning.
Sybil Exposed
Author: Debbie Nathan (member of the National Center for Reason and Justice)
Date: 2011
What is it?: Nathan's proclaimed debunking of the Sybil case, claiming that Sybil wasn't really multiple, and that multiplicity is framed by the women's issues of her time, with Schreiber and Sybil's therapist colluding to create a media phenomenon.
Why Should I Read This?: This book is again, one of the books skeptics reference most. Better to just bite the bullet and make yourself familiar with Nathan's arguments, since again, you WILL encounter this eventually, especially since the book is still relatively new.
BONUS ROUND! Crazy Therapies
Author: Margaret Thaler Singer (cult authority, NOT the birth control lady)
Year: 1996
What Is It?: Singer's discussion of suspicious therapy practices, including new ones with very little evidence to support them. (Including EMDR!)
Why Should I Read It?: You can get away without this one, if you so choose, since I feel the above books cover a lot of the same territory. (Also this book doesn't seem available in ebook form.) This book came out right smack in the middle of the rise of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, so provides a convenient quick listing and sum up of a bunch of quack DID therapies. Also it might be informative for folks who thought EMDR was always reputable and considered awesome; it was not!
"Crisis or Creation? A Systematic Examination of 'False Memory Syndrome'", from The Journal of Child Sexual Abuse.
Author: Stephanie J. Dallam
Year: 2001
What Is It?: Exactly what it says on the tin. Article that examines the history of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation and whether False Memory Syndrome has enough evidence to support it.
Why Should I Read It?: Because well, after reading folks like Loftus, you might as well read the folks who said she was wrong, and learn how the FMSF was a political organization pretending to be a scientific one. Also it's free to read online. (If by this point you're just feeling hopelessly confused and lost, join the club.)
BONUS ROUND! The Witch-Hunt Narrative
Author: Ross E. Cheit (strong proponent of recovered memory, sued and won on the basis of his own)
Year: 2014
What Is It?: A five-hundred plus page clunker about the MacMartin preschool case and other legal cases involving abuse allegations in preschools and daycare centers.
Why, Dear God Why?: I know, I know, I'm sorry. I put this book as a bonus round just because it's the antithesis of what I want on this list; it's boring, depressing, hard-to-find, hard-to-understand, and long. But it's thorough, and helps break down the Memory Wars and the pop culture narratives that led to Satanic Panic and what actually happened. It is the only book like this that I have found, and if you can't stomach the cost or find it, contact me for an ebook version. If you can get through this monster, it's worth it. But I won't lie, it's rough. This book was not made for the layman.
PART THREE: MULTIPLES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
Okay, I feel parts 1 and 2 pretty much cover the multi history stuff most folks on the Internet don't bother with. Those are the bits I cared most about. But continuing onward, plurals were moving online and speaking for themselves by the mid-90s (with Usenet groups like alt.support.dissociation). So here are some other things, overlapping with and progressing from the backlash period, which I myself hope to read and learn from (but in many cases haven't gotten to yet; I'll note those with the word 'UNREAD').
got parts?: An Insider's Guide to Managing Life Successfully with Dissociative Identity Disorder
Author: ATW (a multiple)
Year: 2005
What is it?: The best self-help book I've seen on living multiple. Does NOT focus on trauma.
Why Should I Read it?: The majority of queries I see from new baby multis about how to get their act together is covered in this book: getting to know your system, treating it with respect, building a headspace and mapping system members, time management, building co-consciousness, self-care, relating to others. If it doesn't work for you, then fine, but please just try it first. Yes, there's an annoying thing in the start from a shrink about how system members aren't people, but ATW themselves never make that claim. This book does not focus on trauma; it is not particularly intense or upsetting, compared to the rest of this list, and it focuses on working with your system, rather than against them.
BONUS ROUND! Amongst Ourselves: A Self-Help Guide to Living With Dissociative Identity Disorder
Author: Alderman and Marshall (two queer therapists, a multiple and her singlet partner)
Year: 1998
What is it?: Exactly what it sounds like. Title says it all really.
Why Should I Read It?: Honestly, this book is harder to find than got parts? and isn't as good, thus why it is optional. (Also it's not in ebook form.) If you DO choose to read it, do so after reading got parts?, because got parts? is the practice, while Amongst Ourselves is more the theory. Does have some stuff in the back for significant others, family members, and doctors, and a chapter on coming out that I recall being helpful.
UNREAD! The Archive of the Many Voices Newsletter
Author: Many.
Year: 1989-2012
What is it?: A complete archive of a newsletter made by and for multiples! (I admit, I haven't gotten to read it yet.)
Why I Want To Read It: Ms. Wasnak, blessings upon her, made the whole archive free for everyone to read when she died in 2014. I dare say it'll be hard to find a more continuous record of multiples discussing their experiences, and I want to see how terminology and philosophy evolve over the course of twenty-plus years.
UNREAD! Chunks of alt.support.dissociation
Author: Many
Year: 1995-today! (Yes, it's STILL freakin' going!)
What is it?: A Usenet group (now yoinked by Google) made by dissociatives for dissociatives.
Why I Want to Read It: Just from what I've skimmed through so far while looking for OTHER things, I get the sense that this group has a really devout userbase and its own very specific ways of doing things. It's a subculture I haven't spent much time in, and I'd love to learn about it to compare and contrast with the plural groups I have spent time in.
UNREAD! The Wayback Machine Archive of Dark Personalities
Author: The Anachronic Army
Year: 2000-2003
What is it?: The earliest for-sure record I can find of a multiple explicitly denouncing and separating themself from the DID/MPD definition.
Why I Want To Read: This seems to be where a lot of the "healthy multiplicity" rhetoric comes from, online-wise, and seems to have been made specifically in backlash to the rules of alt.support.dissociation. I want to go through this site and compare and contrast to the rhetoric now. Also I want to check out their recommended mailing lists with similar philosophies, if any of them still exist.
no subject
Date: 2017-10-09 03:55 pm (UTC)Sorry I never got back to this, even though you put it together partially for me! We've been in the middle of some moving shenanigans. (Now, instead of Virginia, if you see a random Kentucky IP hanging around all the time, probably me!)
This is reminding me that it's time to check out the new local library. The one I lived with since I was twelve until now was... not the greatest for variety. If you want European history, got you covered with like ten shelves. Queer section... two books total, both less than a hundred pages. That kind of place.
Thanks for the list of what to start looking for!
no subject
Date: 2017-10-09 06:16 pm (UTC)If you want me to grab it for you, it'd be no trouble. It's probably one of the trickier books on the list to find.
--Rogan
no subject
Date: 2017-10-10 04:35 pm (UTC)Actually, that would be super cool! I can paypal you money for it if it's still there the next time you go back.
...also I'm the perfect awkward storm of autistic, not socially active, and raised on nineties internet, because I saw this yesterday and just spent a while staring at it like "woah... they'll let me see... their address... when they send it... WHAT IF I WAS AN INTERNET MURDERER???? DOES THIS MEAN I HAVE PROVEN MYSELF TO BE NOT AN INTERNET MURDERER THROUGH THE CORRECT NUMBER OF CONVERSATIONS??? Also WHY IS SOMEONE DOING ME A FAVOR I AM BORING????"
(Note: not a passive aggressive hint for REASSURE ME THAT YOU THINK I AM COOL. No response necessary.)
But seriously, haha, thanks a lot!
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Date: 2017-10-12 06:52 pm (UTC)I'd... like to read the ebook version, actually. I don't know how well I'll do with it, but when I read books where I feel I'm being herded to a conclusion by a lot of quotes from secondary source material or "dramatic retellings", I have a sense of being manipulated and want to see the original documents and what was actually said by whom and when. I was interested (though cynically unsurprised) to learn how much Elizabeth Loftus and other FMSF members/promoters had distorted and outright lied and written books without ever looking at primary source material or trial transcripts. I knew there was an ongoing thing where they'd try to smear people as "reporting satanic ritual abuse" when they just reported that abuse involved things like wearing costumes or cruelty to animals, or that the way elements of abuse were conducted could be described as ritualistic, but it was difficult to extract any solid information about what really happened. (I have found a document that was used as a primary source for a claim of "countless suicides" and it literally is just a two-page affidavit by an investigator told by a hospital employee that three patients at one institution committed suicide over a period of six years and she believed this was due to the therapy methods, literally no other information given. I mean, Colin Ross was involved, so I wouldn't be surprised, but there just isn't enough information to determine the reasons for the suicides either way. So stuff like this... I'm deeply interested in.)
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Date: 2017-10-12 07:11 pm (UTC)--Rogan
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Date: 2017-10-12 07:25 pm (UTC)Ugh, yeah. I read Loftus in high school, pretty uncritically, and the FMS narrative has had a pretty huge negative impact on us. (Especially since well, at least two of our abusers have specifically brought it up as something we're doing.) So we've become pretty hardcore obsessed with our records and pinning down dates and data, because there's always that lingering fear and uncertainty. (And probably always will, honestly.)
So when I finally started finding the DEBUNKINGS of all that, ten years down the line, it was simultaneously a huge relief, and also infuriating. It was like, Jesus Christ, I spent so many years completely hung up on some bullshit theory that never had any scientific evidence and was pure political propoganda? FUCK ME WITH A STICK.
--Rogan
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Date: 2019-04-18 04:58 am (UTC)-- Akira
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Date: 2019-04-18 03:06 pm (UTC)I can email you a copy! What's your address again?
EDIT: never mind, found it, and sent!
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Date: 2019-04-18 03:41 pm (UTC)--Akira
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Date: 2019-04-18 03:44 pm (UTC)--Mori/Sneak
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Date: 2019-04-18 03:48 pm (UTC)--Akira
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Date: 2019-04-18 03:49 pm (UTC)I guess we're old now; a lot of plurals don't seem aware of the Memory Wars now, even though they were SO HUGE, or at least it felt like they were.
--Sneak
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Date: 2019-04-18 04:11 pm (UTC)The reason why I requested this book was because I read an article on an otherwise decent critique of how the topic of sexual abuse can be misused to spark smear campaigns, but they cited the McMartin case as an example of a witch hunt, which reminded me of this book. I think the author of the article was well meaning but that their work is seriously damaged by flawed research (they may very well not be aware of Cheit's difficult and obscure research), so when I'm able I'd like to write a critique of it, but of course I'd have to back it up with solid research
--Akira
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Date: 2019-04-18 04:31 pm (UTC)That said, everything I heard about McMartin was that it was a total shitshow, and really was a mess.
--Mori
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Date: 2019-05-08 05:30 am (UTC)I read Cameron West's First Person Plural (not to be confused with the other book by that name) a few months ago, and thought it was pretty good. The cover art and review blurb had me worried that it would be overly sensationalist, but for the most part it's restrained where appropriate. I also liked how the book presented both integration and remaining separate as valid options depending on the particular system members (especially considering the book's date of 1999), and how West went into the gender dysphoria felt by a young girl in his system (though he didn't quite seem to have the vocabulary at the time of writing).
- Fuzzy
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Date: 2019-05-09 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-22 12:16 am (UTC)On his blog, Ross E. Cheit reveals that Debbie Nathan presented an award to Lawrence Stanley for his article titled "The Child Pornography Myth" the man was a child pornographer who published as N.S. Aristoff for the man-girl pedophilia publication, Uncommon Desires and fled to the Netherlands after being investigated for child pornography. Here is the 1990 article about the reward. This clip shows that N.S. Aristoff was credited on NAMBLA's Bulletin alongside David Thorstad! (David Thorstad happens to be a thorn in the side of our system in particular for existing as a pedophilic blemish on the American Trotskyist literary canon. It seems that my research on child abuse keeps leading back to NAMBLA and Thorstad, completely unintentionally! Hikaru says that the pedophile world, at least in the US, appears to be a small one.)
That blog post also details how Nathan tried to stop publication of Cheit's book with a threat to sue for libel for criticizing her badly researched book, but since that threat was toothless, it did not stop the book at all and she ultimately did nothing. hah!
One more thing about Nathan:
I find this source suspicious and have not looked over it in its entirety, but I find the quote useful at least.
Why does she have such an interest in defending rapists and pedophiles? I am curious!
--Akira
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Date: 2019-07-22 06:11 pm (UTC)Mori: I mean, they're a small, super-marginalized group with all the reason in the world to be secretive and paranoid. So it makes sense they would be small and close-knit; it's been a while and I can't find the doc, so grain of salt, but I seem to recall that a lot of child porn is made informally by a small number of people and just endlessly privately circulated between them. (You know, the equivalent of family photos.) I didn't know about Thorstad, though! How come y'all keep running into him? (Then again, we don't read Trotsky...)
That blog post also details how Nathan tried to stop publication of Cheit's book with a threat to sue for libel for criticizing her badly researched book, but since that threat was toothless, it did not stop the book at all and she ultimately did nothing. hah!
Rogan: Oh man, Debbie Nathan. Yeah, she's... she's like that. And so is the "National Centre for Reason and Justice", which seems mostly dedicated to trying to protect convicted child sex criminals, even the ones who are unequivocally utterly undeniably "yes, they did this, for a long time, folks knew for decades" like Father Shanley. It's a horror show.
BUT I HAVE A PERSONAL STORY ABOUT DEBBIE NATHAN! Check it out! But yeah. She has uh. She apparently has a Google Alerts set up for the Witch-Hunt Narrative.
As for the article, Playboy has it online behind a paywall, but since it'd cost me like $8, I might invest to get my hands on it. From what I can see (and it's cited elsewhere, including by Elizabeth Loftus), that article seems to be more focused on the nature of incest support groups and a sense of competition between folks to have the most gruesome memories. This and the quote you use do seem to mesh with what of Nathan's work I've read, though again, I want to read it to be sure.
Which, I mean. I admit, I don't like Nathan. I find her creepy, the amount of fact-checking she seems to require means I have to take everything she says with more salt than I'd like (to the point that the only reason I read her is because I have to deal with her claims from other people), and she seems to have a fixation on The Witch-Hunt Narrative and taking it very personally, instead of recognizing that maybe the book wouldn't have been created if she had been more transparent and honest with her goddamn data in the FIRST PLACE.
With all that said, though, that article took place in 1992, RIGHT around when the False Memory Syndrome Foundation was founded, and when the Memory Wars were slamming down. And yes, the FMSF and the NCRJ are abusers lobbies... BUT THERE REALLY WAS FUCKED UP STUFF GOING ON IN THE RECOVERY MOVEMENT!
Like, I've been in a lot of multi groups, and I've read a lot of stuff. There IS sometimes pressure to express gruesome histories, though it may not be conscious or overt! (Though sometimes it is--I see the genic pissing wars as, at base, the same old shit, of folks with trauma DEMANDING other plurals cough up theirs or else be kicked out of the clubhouse. They paint it with "appropriation" horseshit instead of, "your misery dick must be THIS BIG to ride the Multi Train," but it's still social pressure to use abuse history to be in the in-group.) There were and are unscrupulous or woefully naive therapists out there who fuck people up with bogus groups! There's a REASON I highly don't recommend doing memory work among other corporeal people, because it can so easily lead to shit like this!
So that part at least is sort of right, but Nathan requires so much salt with everything she writes that even when she's RIGHT, there has to be a lot of explaining. Just UGH.
Why does she have such an interest in defending rapists and pedophiles? I am curious!
Man, Akira, I wish I knew. The best guess I can toss out is that she's a hardcore contrarian. I hope that's all she is.
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Date: 2019-07-22 08:29 pm (UTC)re David Thorstad: Oh man this guy. He's a thorn in our side since we, Janusz especially (being the boring nerd that he is), have been getting into Marxist literature lately, and unfortunately David Thorstad, since he was apparently a Trotskyist (Leon Trotsky himself has nothing to do with Thorstad since he was killed in 1940), happens to dominate the Marxist literature on gay liberation, which is a serious problem since the man is a self-styled pederast and founder of NAMBLA, the notorious pedophile association whose publications clearly show that they endorsed contact with kids the age of 12 and younger. (Source for that from their website so no one can say I'm lying! aka the article that made me throw my phone on the floor in a rage)
And besides the fact that advocating for the "right" of pedophiles to manipulate children into sex is clearly un-Marxist when the material origins of pedophilia seem to be within the nuclear family (Janusz's analysis, personal communication), which is consistent with Marx and Engels' call for the abolition of private property and the nuclear family since Engels says the oppression of women and children originates in the monogamous family and private property (see Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Chapter 4. The Monogamous Family); I am not persuaded that Thorstad is even very good at being Marxist when he attempts to appeal to "nature" and tradition to justify pederasty:
Sourced from 1994 paper by Andy Quan that details and analyzes the discussion at ILGA for expelling NAMBLA (NAMBLA's scapegoating man/girl pedophilia later in this discussion as involving a heterosexual power dynamic is also really interesting in the light of Thorstad being associated with Lawrence Stanley/n.s aristoff and Uncommon Desires being allegedly the sister organization to nambla! (Bob Nalett San Jose P.D., via that same video Akira linked via Cheit))
You could justify slavery, serfdom and caste systems with this same logic! You should have seen Akira's initial reaction to the Japanese bit when we first read this lmao, he flipped his shit he was so pissed!
Speaking of Akira being pissed, the reason why we've been back on researching this shit is because a few days ago we happened to be reading an article on identity politics that wasn't supposed to have anything to do with this mess at all, and then when he got to the bottom and there was a citation from Thorstad he flipped his shit because we weren't even trying to look for this, we had a moratorium on this subject for the sake of our sanity.
So Akira decided to channel all that angry energy into finally cracking open that Witch-Hunt book, and that's where we are now!
(You can probably tell that we have something of a polemic in the works against marxists who defend nambla)
EDIT: phew I totally went off about all that other shit! I'm honestly not surprised about Nathan lol she sounds like a shady person. I also hope that she's just a contrarian lol.
I also totally agree about the "you must be this badly traumatized to ride" bullshit that's what we've seen ourselves too. I guess that's inevitably what happens when you treat trauma as an identity and not you know an experience a lot of people have. Which you know we were originally reading about identity politics in the interest of understanding that.
--Hikaru
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Date: 2019-07-26 11:53 pm (UTC)Yeah, I'm familiar with NAMBLA and its squicky relationship to gay liberation. It... gives me hives. I'll spare you my own long textbrick about it. (And OMG the nostalgia from ancient Greek pederasty. GAG.)
Man, I seem to have managed to mostly avoid this Thorstad guy! Maybe because I never really was in on the Marxist train, and my knowledge of queer liberation is mostly based on comics. :p I can't say I'm particularly sorry about that right now.
--Rogan