Scribbles and Bits

"It doesn't matter what the professionals think; we don't think we're a multiple." (S4OS I:4, pg. 14)

(many thanks tosobqjmv_sphinx for linking me about this!)

Running for 9 issues from 1985-1987, Speaking for Our Selves (or S4OS) was possibly the first newsletter for people with MPD. It not only predated Many Voices by a couple years; it may have been the inspiration: "After a group called Speaking For Ourselves closed (which was the first newsletter for individuals with dissociative disorders) –– Lynn Wasnak picked up where they left off and she founded the organization 'Many Voices'" (The Awareness Center, "Remembering Lynn Wasnak," 2013). It was based out of Long Beach, California, and the subscription rate for six issues was $6 for multiples, $12 for all others (S4OS I:4, pg. 22).

Unfortunately, the only digital copy of any of the issues I have been able to find is the one sobqjmv_sphinx linked me, Vol. 1 no. 4 from June 1986. (Not screenreadable.) Nevertheless, here's the data I've managed to dig up:

( This is the earliest firsthand record I have of medical multi community! So excited. )

While at the public library (visiting our new best friend, the book scanner), we scanned the in-library-use-only copy of Sandra J. Hocking and Company's Living With Your Selves: a survival manual for people with multiple personalities. From 1992, it's the earliest medical-multi self-help book that I know of. (EDIT: incorrect! Jackyln Pia's Multiple Personality Gift, from 1991, predates it and has been posted online.) (Also, EDIT 9/25/23: I have replaced the link with the complete scan of the book I made later. No material is missing from this new file!)

Hocking and Company are unusual in that she/they are/were one of the few publicly out medical-multis who managed to publish more than one book in their lifetime! (I'm going to flail at names and pronouns because integration plus multiple names means I'm not sure what the proper way to refer to Hocking is.) Hocking's full bibliography that I know of is:( Bibliography! )

( The cultural context of Hocking and Company )
( Language and terminology notes )
( Various Quotes and Bits )
( Hocking's Contract for Survival, which I think is the best part of this book and which we plan to adapt for our own use! )

( Conclusion )

( Ciiiiitationnnnnns! )

( Footnote about Colin Ross. UGH. )

Some plural links and info:

• Massively belated announcement, but ATW, the author of got parts? an insider's guide to managing life effectively with DID has passed on, and gotparts.org now seems to be permanently down. From the Wayback Machine: "A.T.W. died of complications related to cancer in 2016 at the age of 55. She is dearly missed by all who knew and loved her.  Got Parts is her durable legacy and we hope you have enjoyed sharing her journey in this book."
• Dragonheart Collective put out a 27-page paper on Safety in Alterhuman Spaces, covering warning signs and poisonous behavior patterns in otherkin, fictionkin, plural, and other related subcultures. Totally worth a read! (Also check out their projects page; they've been up to a lot of neat stuff recently!) (Thanks, Hungry Ghosts, for telling us about this!)
• We (LB) and Lore Jason are hosting another offline outdoor plural meet-up, Saturday, March 19th, from 12-3 PM!

( Details behind cut )

Okay, so for everyone's geeky entertainment, here is the full-text transcription of my first exposure to the concept of multiplicity: Pg. 377-380 of The Book of Lists #2, by Wallace, Wallechinsky, Wallace, and Wallace, copyrighted February 1980.

Many of the cases listed in this book have since been recategorized as non-multi. And this is a pop culture book that gets a good few of its solid facts wrong, but I still hope you guys will enjoy it.  I will add my notes on the cases in brackets, correcting facts that the book gets wrong, and adding sources.  Besides those, all the rest of the text is the original article.



10 PEOPLE WHO WERE 74 PEOPLE

( Read more... )

So, I took advantage of my student status to drag up follow-up studies on folks with DID, to see how many multiples achieved integration and held on to it.

Here are the results.  Note the small sample sizes; I guess us multis are hard to chase down for studies.

First, according to Kluft, integration

Coons, Philip M. and Bowman, Elizabeth S. (2001). Ten-year follow-up study of patients with dissociative identity disorder. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, vol. 2, issue 1, pg. 73-89.

Twelve systems, checked up after ten years.  Six integrated, but two of the integrations ended up collapsing, so only four stayed integrated.  One out of three success rate.

Ellason, Joan W. and Ross, Colin A. (1996). Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II follow-up of patients with dissociative identity disorder. Psychological Reports, vol. 78, issue 3, pg. 707-716.

Thirty five systems, checked up on after two years.  Eight integrated during the follow-up period.  Only abstract available, so no idea if any relapsed, or any other criteria.  Less than one in four success rate.

Ellason, Joan W. and Ross, Colin A. (1997).Two-year follow-up of inpatients with dissociative identity disorder.  The American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 154, issue 6, pg. 832-839.

Fifty-four systems, checked up on after two years, all from one hospital in Dallas.  It was unclear whether the integrated patients had integrated during the course of those two years, or had integrated beforehand; also unknown was when they had gotten their diagnoses.  Regardless, sixty percent of the patients maintained integration.

I can't help but wonder WHY this procedure is so vaunted when they can't even get a study on it with any decent-sized sample.  And what I do see about its success rates ain't exactly giving me great feelings.