A Petition Filed Against Dissociative Identity Disorder Being Included in the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

The Petition

J.F. Kihlstrom

DID is an extremely controversial diagnosis, and while I do not agree with it, the petition makes an extremely strong case against the diagnosis.  In the service of promoting better understanding of the debate, which has at least three sides, I quote from the petition below (those who originally wrote the document asked recipients to circulate it freely).

My wife reading in bed. And it wasn’t because she was trying to get to sleep. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The evidence supporting this diagnosis as a distinct mental disorder is modest whereas much suggests it to be a behavioral artifact equivalent in nature to pseudo-epilepsy generated by suggestion in vulnerable people. Its identification as a special, separate diagnostic entity in DSM has harmed the practice of psychiatry and undermined its scientific credibility. Although it is important for us to provide evidence to support these statements, we wish to avoid excessive detail, given that such evidence has been documented widely in the published literature.

Origins

The notion of dual personalities was founded upon cases of bipolar illness (1) and was followed by the idea of extra personalities.  This expansion first occurred with the hypnotically-induced introduction of a second personality and the deliberate naming of those personalities as if they were separate entities (1).

 

Prevalence

Taylor and Martin (2) recognized a total of 76 cases occurring between 1816 and 1944�slightly more than one every two years; they thought a similar number might be unreported. In 1954 Thigpen and Cleckley (3) reported their case, which was published as �The Three Faces of Eve� in 1957. After a film was made of this case, the numbers of reported cases increased steadily; there was a further dramatic leap after the film of �Sybil�. By 1990 thousands of cases were being diagnosed; some authors identified more cases in their personal practices than had been described in the literature over an entire century.

 

Twentieth Century Suggestion

As is well known, Sybil, a patient of Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, was fully aware that her therapist wanted her to create extra personalities (4).  In 1973, Dr. Wilbur gave tape recordings of Sybil�s interviews to Schreiber [the journalist who reported Sybil as a case of multiple personality disorder (5)]. Schreiber made the recordings available to Ronald Rieber, a professor of psychology, who amassed evidence showing that at least some of the personalities were artifacts overtly created in treatment (6).

Etiology

Dissociative Identity Disorder is often alleged to result from repressing an experience of childhood sexual abuse. This claim has not received adequate scientific validation. For example, Piper and Merskey (7) reviewed all the studies that claimed to corroborate DID patients� abuse recollections. These authors concluded that �no evidence supports the claim that DID patients as a group have actually experienced the traumas asserted by the disorder�s proponents� (7).

Proponents of the DID diagnosis assert that horrific, repeated childhood physical and sexual abuse is the primary cause of DID.  Victims supposedly develop their multiple personalities as repositories for traumatic memories that the �host� personality is unable to tolerate consciously. The DID diagnosis thus relies on the concept of traumatic Dissociative Amnesia (DA or �repression�): the notion that the mind protects itself by banishing terrifying memories from awareness, rendering them inaccessible until the person feels psychologically safe to recall them, often years later.  There is no convincing evidence that victims can become incapable of recalling genuinely traumatic experiences, as the trauma theory of DID requires (8). Indeed, an extensive survey of the historical literature, including both fictional and non-fictional written works in multiple languages, found no written example of �dissociative amnesia� prior to 1786 (9).  Thus the notion of �repressing� a memory itself, like DID, appears to represent a recent culture-bound phenomenon, rather than a naturally occurring human psychological process.

In a comprehensive analysis of studies of people with documented trauma histories, not a single mention of spontaneous amnesia for the traumatic event was found�unless the forgetting was attributable to either organic amnesia or childhood amnesia (10).  Finally, an examination of Freud�s original work gives reason to think that the evidence from psychoanalysis for repression is also very unsatisfactory (11, 12).

 

Harmful Effects

Due to the assumption that trauma is a primary etiological factor, the DID diagnosis has resulted in wrongful accusations of sexual abuse on the basis of recovered memories, not only in North America but throughout the developed world (references). DID has caused mockery of psychiatry, and, for patients, has led to misdiagnosis (13), mismanagement (14) and inadequate treatment of depression (15).

 

Lack of Consensus

Canadian and American psychiatrists show little consensus regarding the diagnostic status and scientific validity of DID. In surveys of board-certified psychiatrists in the United States (16) and Canada (17) fewer than one-third of Canadian psychiatrists and 35% of American psychiatrists replied that DA & DID should be included without reservations in the DSM-IV; fewer than 1 in 7 Canadian psychiatrists and only 21-23% of American psychiatrists replied that there was �strong evidence of validity� for these disorders.  French- and English-speaking Canadians had similar opinions.

 

Conclusions

There are overwhelming reasons to question the validity of Dissociative Identity Disorder. We respectfully urge you as members of the Work Group and the Task Force to drop the category of dissociative disorders from the upcoming DSM-V: it is harmful to patients and their families, scientifically unjustified, and undermining the credibility of psychiatry.

Retrieved 05/27/12. Full Petition & References link below:

http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrm/DissDisMaster.htm

 

Discovery Channel: “Psych Week” Includes Multiple Personality Disorder Beginning June 3

via press release:

Carrie Fisher HOSTS Discovery Fit & Health’S PSYCH WEEK
BEGINNING Sunday, June 3

- Two All-New Specials Headline the Weeklong Programming Event Dedicated
to Mental Health –

(New York, NY) Hosted by Carrie Fisher, Discovery Fit & Health opens a meaningful dialogue on mental health with PSYCH WEEK, a weeklong programming event from Sunday, June 3 to Friday, June 8. With mental health programming airing nightly, beginning Sunday, June 3 at 8 PM ET/PT, PSYCH WEEK will profile individuals dealing with a spectrum of afflictions and addictions, from agoraphobia, sexsomnia and bipolar disorder to schizophrenia, hoarding, OCD and multiple-personality disorder. …

The fascinating new mystery series BROKEN MINDS, hosted by Dr. Reef Karim, premieres with back-to-back episodes Wednesday, June 6 at 9 pm ET/PT. Each episode takes viewers to the most baffling regions of human behavior – where patients live in an alternate reality and doctors struggle to unlock the answers trapped deep inside the mind. From a man who is plagued by a secret desire to amputate his own leg to a woman who truly believes she is dead, BROKEN MINDS explores the complicated and mysterious behaviors of the human brain. …

The Woman with 15 Personalities  – Friday, June 8 at 8 PM ET/PT
The Woman With 15 Personalities presents a unique look at a person living with Dissociative Identity Disorder, a condition in which a person displays several distinct identities, each with its own perception of the environment.

Written By Amanda Kondolojy

 

 

Network Therapy.com: Supports Multiple Personalities & Dissociative Identity Disorder

This organization offers mental health consumers a lot of resources and information.

BUT…

The down-side is that they support dissociative identity disorder/multiple personality disorder. When any organization does so, it makes me question everything else they have to say and every mental health provider who is associated with it.

Follow this link to find out what they have to say:

http://www.networktherapy.com/library/topic.asp?id=26

 

Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders version -5 Draft Criteria Open for Final Public Comment

May 2nd through June 15th, 2012

If you take issue with multiple personality disorder, now referred to as dissociative identity disorder, being included in the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders this is your last chance to voice your opinion to the American Psychiatric Association.

There is a long list of researchers and clinicians who wrote the American Psychiatric Association (APA) committee stating their protest, we need your voice. The fact that the leading clinicians/therapists/psychologists/psychiatrists have been sued for medical malpractice has not deterred the APA from including dissociative identity disorder in the manual.

The fact that many patients, like me, were severely injured during treatment, thousands of families destroyed by false accusations of child sexual abuse, and wrongful convictions based on events that never occurred but remembered by someone – has not been enough for the powerful American Psychiatric Association to look at their practices with a critical eye.

There is a mountain of documentation about the harm this treatment has caused. One wonders why the APA is including it in a manual of mental disorders that many clinicians and patients alike mistakenly believe it legitimizes the disorder. Is it the money to be made? Is it to keep from admitting the APA has made a huge mistake by not scrapping this earlier? Is it to save face?

The APA needs to hear from YOU if we, the public, are to help scrap this non-existent mental malady from the books and restore safe treatment for mental health consumers.

~~~~~~~~~~

The links below will navigate you through the website – it’s actually easy and quick.

http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Default.aspx  website

http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Registration.aspx  registration

http://www.dsm5.org/about/Pages/OverallCommentsPage.aspx leave your comment

For the next 6 weeks we are pleased to once again offer the opportunity to submit comments on the draft fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). This commenting period marks the third and final time DSM-5 draft criteria will be available for your feedback. Following this period the site will remain viewable with the draft proposals until DSM-5’s publication.

 

Following the previous commenting period (May-July 2011), members of the DSM-5 Task Force and Work Groups reviewed feedback submitted to this site and, where appropriate, revised their proposed diagnostic criteria and made other changes. With the completion of the DSM-5 Field Trials, Work Group members have spent the past several months examining data and findings from these important studies. Therefore, the proposed diagnostic criteria found on this site are the result of the DSM-5 Work Groups’ ongoing deliberations, based on findings from scientific field studies, patient and clinician perspectives, and views from the general public. We want to stress that revisions will continue to be made, as necessary, over the next several months.

 Next Steps

It is important to note that the proposed changes listed here do not represent the final changes for DSM-5. The proposals listed here reflect the most up-to-date drafts, final versions of which will be put forth for review and approval by the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) later this year. However,  these proposed changes will undergo further revisions between now and the end of 2012, in part generated from your input, and also because results from the DSM-5 Field Trials continue to be analyzed, discussed, and integrated into proposals, along with an extensive  review process that is taking place for these proposals.  This review process includes:  a Scientific Review Committee which will review the scientific validating evidence for revisions; an extensive peer review process where hundreds of expert reviewers will consider the clinical and public health risks and benefits of making changes from DSM-IV; and a review by an Assembly DSM-5 committee. Revisions will continually be made based on feedback from these various groups.  This represents an unprecedented level of internal and external review for the DSM including the public review via the three postings on the DSM5.org.   

 

Finally, there will be an overall review by the DSM-5 Task Force that integrates these assessments and sends final recommendations along with all supporting data to the APA’s Board of Trustees for a final review.  The Board of Trustees will consider the recommendations of the Task Force along with those from the Scientific Review Committee as well as other review committees mentioned above and the public comments. The final manual approved by the Board will be submitted to the American Psychiatric Publishing for publication by December 31, 2012. The 166th APA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, May 18-22, 2013, will mark the official release of DSM-5.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders
Bipolar and Related Disorders
Depressive Disorders
Anxiety Disorders
Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders
Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders
Dissociative Disorders
Somatic Symptom Disorders
Feeding and Eating Disorders
Elimination Disorders
Sleep-Wake Disorders
Sexual Dysfunctions
Gender Dysphoria
Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders
Substance Use and Addictive Disorders
Neurocognitive Disorders
Personality Disorders
Paraphilic Disorders
Other Disorders

APA Position Statement on DSM-5 Draft Diagnostic Criteria

The official position of the APA on draft DSM-5 diagnostic criteria is that they are not to be used for clinical or billing purposes under any circumstances.  They are published on the www.dsm5.org Web site to obtain feedback on these preliminary DSM-5 Task Force proposals from mental health professionals, patients, and the general public.  They have not received official reviews or approval by the APA Board of Trustees and will not be available for clinical use or billing purposes until May 2013.

 

Questions & Comments People Have About Multiple Personalities & Dissociative Identity Disorder

I do a lot of Internet research – not a surprise. I continuously come across questions posed to groups, websites, in comments, and in forums that clearly demonstrate how illiterate and uneducated the general public is regarding dissociative identity disorder and multiple personalities.

This post will simply list questions that I come across to illustrate my point. I will not be offering links or the identity of people or sources.

The problem goes much deeper. These questions are usually posed to groups or organizations that support dissociative identity disorder and the development of multiple personalities. The person posing the question receives both an answer that corresponds with the DID/MPD mind-set as well as support, encouragement, & frequently a diagnosis from members of the forum or group.

What occurs next is that the person posing the naive question begins to be indoctrinated into the multiple personality belief system and lifestyle. After a short time, the questioner become convinced they, too, have multiple personalities because they either present the group with symptoms consistent with the disorder or they learn about symptoms from just being in the group or organization.

It concerns me that a growing number of teens are finding these websites and blogs intriguing. They have no idea what psychic pain lies ahead. Constant reinforcement, recruitment, and attention is so freely offered, it mush become difficult for a vulnerable girl of 15 years to resist.

Below are questions & statements:

can alter personalities have same family backgrounds?

therapist told me i have multiple personalities

how dangerous are incest victims with multiple personalities

what do they prescribe for multiple personalities

how to heal my adolescent son’s double personality

I have DID also known as Multiple personality disorder. Trying to find others with same disorer  [sic] for a support circle.

can you call out multiple personalities?

workers comp settlements for pshycological [sic] traumas

does exploring alters enable/make them worse?

Can you have false memories/thoughts?

do multiple personality sufferers have fatigue?

i have different handwriting styles (this questions is usually used as an indicator of alters)

did the woman of dr. phil really have multiple personalities?

can people with disasociative [sic] identity disorder raise thier [sic] children

can you have more than one dissociative disorder

dr jekyll and mr hyde mental

Am I Bipolar or Dissociative? Unsure of my own realities in love.?

i cut for attention dissociative identity disorder

Can false memories be helpful in healing the person’s view of themselves  in the present?

patients giving stories of theri [sic] multilpe [sic] personalities or alter

as psychiatrist we welcome anyone with multiple personality disorder free of charge

parent has multiple personalities

i miss my therapist

I have become very intrigued by dissociates! It seems like a whole new realm to explore.

 

Dissociative Identity Disorder & Multiple Personality Blogs, Websites & Support Groups, Forums, & Discussions

Below are sites and posts written by people who support and/or believe in the existence of multiple personalities & dissociative identity disorder.Some links take you to discussions.

This list is here so you can learn first-hand about the lifestyle related to multiple personalities and dissociative identity, the opinions & questions that the public has, and the many beliefs that individuals hold.

I do not endorse or support any site listed below.

An elementary Internet search using Google groups, Yahoo groups, bing or other search engines will offer you the same information listed below:

http://101personalities.blogspot.com/  101 Personalities

http://alexstraaik.com  Alex Straaik

http://allpsych.com/journal/did.html All Psych Online

http://www.anaparkergoodwin.com Ana Parker Goodwin

http://www.aninfinitemind.com/  An Infinite Mind

http://Astridetal.wordpress.com Astridetal

http://www.AstraeasWeb.net Astreas Web

http://community.babycenter.com/post/a33285271/dissociative_identity_disorder_real_or_fake? Dissociative Identity Disorder Real or Fake?  (a discussion)

http://bipolardid.wordpress.com Living with Bipolar Disorder, DID, and Childhood Abuse

http://www.christianforums.com/t7643593/  Christian Forums

http://www.CopingWithDissociation.com Coping with Dissociation

http://copingwithdissociativeidentitydisorder.yuku.com/  Coping with dissociative identity disorder, Message Board

http://www.covenantwarriors.org  Covenant Warriors Ministries

http://www.crazyboards.org/forums/index.php/topic/56926-lost-in-a-fog/  Lost in a Fog

http://crazyinthecoconut.co.uk/  Crazy in the Coconut

http://dawnawakening.wordpress.com Dawn Awakening: Living with Dissociative Identity Disorder in Australia

http://didawareness.blogspot.com/2012/04/answers.html?zx=2fa8f4cc02e34723  Ashley’s Blog DID Awareness

http://www.didmpdinfo.com/  DID MPD Info

http://DidWorldMap.wordpress.com   My Clouds, My Storms and Multiple Personality Disorder

https://DiscussingDissociation.wordpress.com      Discussing Dissociation (by Kathy Broady, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, trauma therapist, USA) Thoughts from a Trauma Therapist

http://DissociativeDisorders.blogspot.com  Dissociative Disorders

http://DissociativeIdentityDisorderAndMe.blogspot.com   Candycan & Co.

DividedsRoom.wordpress.com    Direct link removed by request of blogger.

http://DontCallMeSybil.com (Holly Gray) Dehumanizing & Demystifying Dissociative Identity Disorder

http://dissociationlink.blogspot.com.au   Dissociation Link – Australia

http://www.drbilltollefson.com/ Dr. Bill, Master Life Coach

http://eassurvey.wordpress.com  Eassurvey

http://www.empty-memories.nl/index.html , Netherlands, Website about P.T.S.D & dissociative disorders

http://www.ExperienceProject.com  Experience Project, Find others who understand you

http://hereandnow4angel.blogspot.com  Here and Now For Angel

http://houstonhilton74.hubpages.com/hub/Lets-Talk-about-Multiple-Personality-Disorder  Let’s Talk about Multiple Personality Disorder

http://insidevoices.wordpress.com  Inside Voices

http://inviziblepain.wordpress.com   Invisible Pain, Ivory Garden

http://www.igdid.com   Ivory Gardens. Direct link removed by request of blogger.

http://Just-Call-Me-Frank.blogspot.com  Just Call Me Frank

http://LivingMultiple.net  Living Multiple

http://www.live-natural.com Live-Natural, discussions

http://mentalpoliticalparent.com/2012/04/18/the-right-help-to-be-terrifyingly-confused/Mental Political Parent

http://manynotquiteone.blog.ca My Thoughts On/In Dissociative Identity Disorder

http://MemoirOfARedemptiveLife.wordpress.com  Memoir of a Redemptive Life

http://mdmkay.blogspot.com (Dr. M. Kay)

http://www.medicinenet.com/dissociative_identity_disorder/article.htm#what   Medicine Net

http://multiplepersonalitydisordercure.com/tag/multiple-personality-disorder-cure/ Multiple Personality Disorder Cure, Symptoms & Information

http://mycloudsandmystorms.blogspot.com   My Clouds, My Storms & Multiple Personality Disorder

http://neloran.wordpress.com  dissociative-identity-disorder-is-not-a-mental-illness (may not find)

http://www.new-landscape.com/2012/05/  New Landscape: MPD/DID Support Group

http://NothingInMyNoggin.wordpress.com  Nothing in My Noggin, New York, US specific location by permission only

http://www.pandys.org/didchat.html  Pandora’s Project

http://PsychCentral.com  Psych Central

http://publiclyplural.blogspot.com/   Publicly Plural

http://roseroars.wordpress.com Rose Roars, Child Sexual Abuse Survivor & DID/MPD

http://solenesblog.blogspot.com  Solene’s Blog

www.SamRuck2.wordpress.com “Loving My DID Girls” (link may not connect)

http://sarahkreece.blogspot.com  Sarah K. Reece, Holding My Childhood to Ransom, poetry, art, writing, mental health, life

http://www.slverkriss.com/DID/index.blog?entry_id=2259811 Dissociative Identity Disorder Blog

http://sixbillionsecrets.tumblr.com  Six Billion Secrets

http://stuarthayashi.blogspot.com/2012/03/dissociative-identity-disorder-formerly.html Stuart Hayashi’s Blog: BPD Awareness

http://www.sundrip.com/journal/ The People Behind My Eyes

www.SuvivorForum com (by Kathy Broady, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, trauma therapist, USA) pay to join ( 05/14/12, not found, search Kathy Broady)

http://suzy-livingsucessfullywithdid.blogspot.com  Living Successfully with DID

http://www.sybilsfriend.com/-linkscontact.html  Sybil’s Friend

http://tattooedmultiple.wordpress.com Tattooed Multiple’s Waffle

http://www.thenaturalrecoveryplan.com/articles/Dissociation.html The Natural Recovery Plan: Hope & Help for Fatigue Suffers

http://thirdofalifetime.com Dissociation Blog Showcase, Sarah E. Olson

http://TwentyTwoFaces.com (Judy Byington, MSW, LCSW, retired)

http://Vhttp://www.empty-memories.nl/index.htmlwoopVwoop.wordpress.com  Vwoop Vwoop” The sound a mind makes as it shifts

http://voices.yahoo.com/what-its-like-live-multiple-personality-disorder-11305232.html What it’s like to live with multiple personality disorder

http://www.WebMD.com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder Web MD

http://z3.invisionfree.com/A_Minds_Journey/index.php? A Mind’s Journey

 

 

 

Lawyers in Fetal Abduction Case Undecided About Using the Multiple Personality Disorder Defense

From Journal Sentinel

By Bruce Vielmetti

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA: Annette Morales-Rodriguez accused of cutting the fetus from a woman has a new defense team undecided about using the insanity defense of multiple personality disorder for their client.

The trial, now set to begin Sept. 17, a second time.

Retrieved 05/24/12. Full Story http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/new-lawyers-in-fetal-abduction-case-unsure-about-insanity-defense-q15hbf6-153209405.html

 

Book Review: Crazy Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? by Singer & Lalich

Since there is a lot of discussion on this blog about therapies and whether or not they are effective rather than dangerous, I think it prudent to review a few books that are on my reading list.

The reviews below are from the Amazon.com and from the book flap/cover. I offer the opinion of the Library Journals so the information is not my opinion which can be accused of bias.

Dr. Singer (deceased) was a sociology professor at the University of California – Berkeley. She was a world-renowned expert on cults and cult behavior. As repressed memory therapy and multiple personalities swept across the United Stated in the 1980s she became vocal about her work on damaging cult behavior and demonstrated how this MPD/DID therapy was indeed harmful by showing how related techniques used by cults were also used in therapy. She showed how it worked by altering and changing patient’s beliefs and kept tjem in the therapy.

~~~~~~~~~

From Library Journal

Many who consult therapists don’t realize that there is little regulation of mental health workers. As a result, some therapists indulge in questionable practices.. they discern three problems that apply to all these methods: they have not been rigorously tested, and nothing is known about whether people are actually helped by them; people caught up in these questionable therapies are not receiving proven treatment for their initial complaints; and there is a good deal of evidence that many of these therapies are harmful and make use of classic mind-control techniques to keep patients hooked. …

Review

“Professionals will find the book valuable in that it provides a different perspective on many of their own therapeutic approaches…[it is] worthwhile because it courageously challenges the shamans and rattle shakers, the opportunists and the fakes, and those parts in all of us.” (Transactional Analysis Journal)”A timely, important, much-need and sane expose. If you are considering any kind of alternative therapy, you need to read this book. …”This book is an intelligent, witty guide for anyone who is considering an “innovative” or unconventional approach to mental health or personal transformation.”"Singer brings educated skepticism to her topic–the wide-open field of fringe psychotherapy.” (Dallas Morning News)”A compelling, fascinating, well researched and informative book. By informing consumers of the serious dangers of quack psychotherapies, Singer and Lalich have performed a much needed public service.” (R. Christopher Barden, Ph.D., J.D., L.P., adjunct professor of law, University of Minnesota, president, National Association for Consumer Protection in Mental HealthPractices)”Singer and Lalich reveal the dark side of a host of modern, Crazy therapies in which therapists can become persuasive agents of destructive influence. The authors’ perceptive, critical analysis is must reading for all mental health professionals, for all current and potential clients of psychotherapy, and for all those interested in how reasoned traditional therapy lost its mind and in our time.” …”Crazy Therapies is a much-needed book to help consumers navigate the unregulated filed of psychotherapy.”

“This is a consumer guide to help sort out what might be right for you.” (The Denver Post)

“Written in a clear, highly entertaining, and popular style, “Crazy Therapies” is just the book for anyone trying to wend their way through the daunting therapeutic maze.”

“Tells a sad but fascinating tale of pathological therapies that abound throughout the country.”

“This title is a good complement to Jack Gorman’s The New Psychiatry. Together, the two titles provide a solid background for anyone seeking assistance with life’s problems.”

“A startling–and often amusing–expose of the alternative philosophies and practices that can be found in today’s ever-growing psychotheraputic marketplace. This book is an intelligent, witty guide for anyone who is considering an ‘innovative’ or unconventional approach to mental health or personal transformation.” (Feminist Bookstore News)

“Crazy Therapies is fascinating reading and would be helpful for anyone considering any innovative approach to mental health or personal transformation.”

“…a must read for anyone who believes that there is sometimes little difference between some mental health practices and the occult. This is that rare book that is both highly entertaining and deeply disturbing…” (Behavioural Interventions, April 2001)

From the Inside Flap

Crazy Therapiesis a startling–and often downright amusing–expose of the alternative philosophies and practices that can be found in today’s ever-growing psychotherapeutic marketplace.While it is true that millions of people are greatly helped by psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, group, and other types of legitimate therapies, each year thousands of vulnerable and unsuspecting individuals go to and trust practitioners who persuade clients to accept with various unfounded and fanciful methods. Generally these enthusiastic–and perhaps ill-trained–therapists are themselves convinced of the healing powers of an array of techniques, some dating back far into time, that range from hilarious to hazardous.Some clients are helped–most likely as a result of a placebo effect; some lose precious time and money; and yet others are psychologically damaged by some rather offbeat and irrational procedures. Past-life therapy, alien-abduction therapy, rebirthing, and skull bone adjustments, to name a few, might be laughable if the results of some of these bizarre practices weren’t so potentially wasteful and at times harmful.Written by Margaret Thaler Singer and Janja Lalich, the book describes actual case histories of people who participated in a variety of controversial therapies. Methods and guidelines distinguishing a legitimate therapeutic approach from one that is irrational, possibly harmful, and sometimes unethical are outlined by the authors. They also offer specific advice on how to avoid the risks of emotional and psychological entanglement with an influential practitioner putting forth a seductive theory. Crazy Therapiesis an intelligent, witty guide for anyone who is considering an ?innovative? or unconventional approach to mental health or personal transformation.

From the Back Cover

“Crazy” Therapies is a startling–and often hilarious–expose of the alternative philosophies and practices that can be found in today’s ever-growing psychotherapeutic marketplace.While it is true that millions of people are greatly helped by psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, group, and other types of legitimate therapies, each year thousands of vulnerable and unsuspecting individuals go to and trust practitioners who persuade clients to accept with various unfounded and fanciful methods. Generally these enthusiastic–and perhaps ill-trained–therapists are themselves convinced of the healing powers of an array of techniques, some dating back far into time, that range from hilarious to hazardous.Some clients are helped–most likely as a result of a placebo effect; some lose precious time and money; and yet others are psychologically damaged by some rather offbeat and irrational procedures. Past-life therapy, alien-abduction therapy, rebirthing, and skull bone adjustments, to name a few, might be laughable if the results of some of these bizarre practices weren’t so potentially wasteful and at times harmful.

About the Authors

MARGARET THALER SINGER is a clinical psychologist and adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley. An expert on post-traumatic stress and cults, she lectures widely in the United States and abroad. She is the lead author of Cults in Our Midst (Jossey-Bass, 1995).

JANJA LALICH* is a writer, consultant, and specialist in cults and psychological manipulation and abuse. She is also the coauthor of Captive Hearts, Captive Minds (1994) and Cults in Our Midst (Jossey-Bass, 1995).  is a writer, consultant, and specialist in cults and psychological manipulation and abuse. She is also the coauthor of Captive Hearts, Captive Minds (1994) and Cults in Our Midst (Jossey-Bass, 1995).

*Lalich is now a PhD.

 

Is Change in Handwriting Evidence of Multiple Personalities & Dissociative Identity Disorder?

Image via Wikipedia

I updated this article because Dr. Yank, whose research was sited, stated that I misunderstood her research study from 1991.

I am grateful that she came here and gave me this opportunity.

Dr. Yank submitted the following (an excerpt):

Submitted on 2011/12/16 at 7:17 pm I happened to stumble upon this website and noticed a comment about my research. The research was rigorously performed and evaluated, but it seems that the blogger may not have understood the intent of the study. I am a handwriting researcher. My goal in this study was to determine whether individuals could write different styles so consistently over time that it would make it difficult to ascertain authorship on documents. This question is relevant in the case of questioned signatures and writings (wills, forgeries, written statements, and others). That goal was clearly stated in the article. I do not have an opinion on whether or not DID exists. My research showed that in some rare cases, alleged alters wrote in unique and consistent patterns over the time that samples were gathered (several months). These situations were very rare and were verified by people who knew the writers (I did not).

Original article:

Is a change in handwriting proof that an individual possesses multiple personalities or has dissociative identity disorder as many expert believe?

Different and/or changing handwriting styles has been used as evidence of the existence of multiple personalities for decades. It is argued that an individual, either believing in or having a diagnosis of MPD/DID, can have alter personalities who write and express themselves differently on paper. It is furthermore argued that each personality can be identified by their handwriting.

I won’t argue the point that any given alter personality can be identified by their handwriting as Jane Redfield Yank, M.S.S.W. did in “Handwriting Variation in Individuals with Multiple Personality Disorder, 1991. It’s easy enough to create a character with all types of personality traits that can be reenacted and recreated over time. It occurs in films, theater, novels, and television every day. It would be interesting, however, to have a handwriting expert analyze writing samples of someone who believes they have multiple personalities. I know of no such study, but my guess is that there would be consistent inconsistency through all personalities.

I was researching the life and work of  Dr. Wallace Nutting, a minister who was also a photographer and interested in preserving antiquities. Nutting (1861-1941) became interested in photography after ill health forced him to retire from ministry. His photographs were sometimes hand-colored and often signed by the colorist, rather than Nutting himself. As a result, there are many authorized signatures on file at the Wallace Nutting Library.

Here are quotes from the Library website that address the multiple personality/handwriting theory:

“Wallace Nuttings career spanned several decades so it would reasonably be expected that his signature style would change to some degree.” Of course, my handwriting is not the same as it was when in high school is yours?

“During the several decades that the Nutting Studio was in operation, several head colorist were authorized to sign Nutting’s name to his work. For this reason the signature style will vary depending on when and in what studio the picture was made.”

Wallace Nutting Library Authorized Signatures

The library shows illustrations of Nutting’s signatures over the decades of his life. They are most interesting as they changed considerably as the culture changed, his health failed, time constraints on his art grew, colorists entered his work, and daily life moved on.

While I was in treatment, and diagnosed with multiple personalities, my former doctor used my handwriting changes as evidence that I had alters inside me that wanted to have a voice. I was initially shocked. His observations and analysis were enlightening because they quelled my doubts, and his observations were terribly frightening – leaving me with increased feelings of unreality, disconnectedness, and loss of control. Upon further thought, however, I found the statement odd for several reasons.

First, I was a prolific journalist in the early 1980s before I met him and wrote for many hours daily  – easily filling a blank book in a few weeks with tiny letters and tight use of space. When I told the doctor, he chose to ignore me.

I also knew that at times I got tired and my hand hurt – so of course my handwriting changed. When I told the doctor, he chose to ignore me.

When I was mad, or in a hurry, my letters were larger, as were the loops. The script in general was more intense, bold, and forceful. When I told the doctor, he chose to ignore me.

I savored the joy of the physical act of writing, the texture and smell of different types of paper, the feel of fountain pens or plastic ones off an assembly line, and enjoyed watching how the ink flowed as I wrote. I liked the colors, the feel of a pen in my hand and how the right combination of pen and paper could keep me writing for hours. And how the wrong texture of paper and pen could keep my journal entries short. I wrote at my desk, on my lap, while on a bus, and any other place whether or not I was stationary – so of course my handwriting changed. When I told the doctor, he chose to ignore me.

I gave up trying to tell him how writers love the instruments of their craft and that there was an another explanation to the changes in my handwriting. I let the matter go and choose to ignore him – sometimes.

Back to Wallace Nutting. His plethora of signatures could easily have been used as evidence of severe childhood sexual abuse and, therefore, he could have been diagnosed with multiple personalities had he survived and lived in America during the explosion of the MPD diagnosis in the 1980s and 1990s.

I know some will say Nutting was an undiagnosed multiple. I can’t change that. Those who put weight on changing handwriting using it as proof or evidence that multiple personalities and dissociative identity disorder exist might take a moment and factor into the equation that different handwriting exists just because we are human and change all the time.

Yank, J.R. Dissociation_Vol._4_No._1_p._002-012_Handwriting_variations_in_individuals_with_MPD

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1904: Multiple Personality & Human Individuality, by Sidis & Goodhart

Multiple Personality: An Experimental Investigation Into the Nature of Human Individuality

By Boris Sidis and S. P. Goodhart

ISBN: 978-1-59147-626-9   Publication Date: 1904

APA Print-on-Demand books are currently unavailable for purchase. We apologize for the inconvenience.

This book looks at multiple personality through the lens of individuality. Each part deals with a specific aspect of multiple personality: personality, double personality, and finally, consciousness and multiple personality. The work of Parts I and III covers a period of eight years. Out of the material accumulated by Dr. Sidis and his collaborators, some experiments and observations of functional psychopathic cases have been utilized in the last part of this volume. The authors note that the case of double personality described in Part II is of great interest and is specially recommended to the reader’s attention. This case was investigated in the Pathological Institute of the New York State Hospitals.

Here is a link to the table of contents http://www.sidis.net/mpcontents.htm

Boris Sidis (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

~~~~~

Excerpt from wikipedia

Boris Sidis, Ph.D., M.D. October 12, 1867 – October 24, 1923) was a Ukrainian psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Boris Sidis eventually opposed mainstream psychology and Sigmund Freud, and thereby died ostracized.

From Google Books:

S. P. GOODHART, PH.B., M.D. Assistant Professor of Neurology, Columbia University Neurologist to the Montefiore Hospital NEW YORK CITY, USA

~~~~~~

I am finding old, old articles that refer to multiple personalities as “functional psychosis”. Unfortunately, this book is out of print and no longer a print-on-demand. Maybe one of you will get lucky and find it. JB

 

Multiple Personality Treatment: Harvard Graduate, Dr. David Brendel – M.D., Ph. D, Massachusetts, USA

Dr. Brendel, on his website states:

“With a very broad range of clinical and academic experience as a psychiatrist for more than a decade, I now focus primarily on treating patients and consulting with other mental health professionals dealing with complex cases. I continue to teach and lecture on mental health and related issues in many different settings, but my true passion remains the work I do with patients and their loved ones. I became a psychiatrist to help you and others who are suffering needlessly with highly treatable mental illnesses. I work with local patients from the Boston area, but I also work with many international patients who come from countries such as Canada, Philippines, Saudi Arabia and England, where they may not always be able to get the care they need in a timely manner.”

“As a Harvard-trained Psychiatrist, I know I can help you or your loved one. Please contact me today via telephone on (617) 932-1548 or email ForPatients@DrDavidBrendel.com.”

Although Dr. Brendel does not claim to specialize in dissociative identity disorder, he prides himself on treating “difficult cases”. There is a section on his website devoted to treating MPD/DID as well as statements about his ability to treat it.

Dr. Brendel is a former teacher at Harvard Medical School in clinical aspects of psychology. Even Harvard University is dabbling in pseudo-science and pop-psychology.

Attend Harvard University – only some science required for a psychology degree.

Retrieved 05/19/12.

http://www.drdavidbrendel.com/-/multiple-personality-disorder/Dissociative-Disorder-Psychiatrist.htm

 

Pharmaceutical Drugs for Sale on the Internet: Beware

I find entertainment and interest in odd corners of life – that may not come as a surprise.

The longer this blog lives, the more my spam folder gets stuffed with drug ads. The drugs for sale are goofy, blatantly questionable, and I wonder who buys them over the Internet? Not a question I’m likely to pursue, nonetheless I find it interesting that people will buy these drugs without knowing much, if anything, about them.

Internet drugstore (Photo credit: nicolasnova)

Why do people resort to the Internet to purchase drugs – or medications if you prefer to call them? Wait a second. These pills are pharmaceutical compounds – they are drugs giving them a medical sounding name like medication is a fluffy word used by the medical industry to play on your trust and vulnerability. I will call these pharmaceutical compounds drugs, because that is exactly what they are no matter what other word you prefer to call them.

So why do people purchase drugs over the Internet from companies or individuals whom they do not know? Could it be embarrassment, shame, or other emotions we may not want to share with our family Or with our doctor (if we are privileged to have one). Or is it the “pre-existing” condition clause of most health care providers in the United States that keeps patients from changing insurance providers if it is known that we have an already diagnosed condition.

Not having the option to change, or obtain, health care coverage keeps people in jobs we would prefer to change. It keep us stuck in a failing system where we have to keep that low-paying unfulfilling job in order for our children or spouse to have health care.

We all know the ridiculously high cost of drugs in the United States. People cut pills in half, miss doses, or go without pharmaceutical interventions that would alleviate pain and other medical issues because we can’t afford the drugs our doctor prescribes – perhaps eating or having heat in the winter is more of a priority than one little heart pill. Decisions like these are made over morning coffee every day.

I’ll jump over the outrage that I have because people are forced to make these life-altering decisions and move right to asking you to look at what buying pills on the Internet may do to you – and subsequently your family and friends who love you.

A few questions about the drugs available on the Internet:

Who manufactures them?

What are the ingredients?

What country produces them?

Are they compliant with your country’s standards?

What are the “inactive ingredients” – fillers, additives, coloring, dyes?

What dose should you take?

Why are they cheaper than a pharmacy?

Who pays for the cost of running an Internet website?

Who ships the drugs to you?

Does your medical doctor, spouse, or family know you are buying black-market drugs?

Lastly, how will those who love you feel if you take one of these drugs and die? Yep, die is what I asked.

By taking a closer look at the spam folder for this blog and scrutinizing the drugs peddled, I am finding social trends either real or fabricated. I find that men seem to need help with erections and that women need help with depression and we all are anxious. Is this news? Not particularly – until you look at the massive campaigns to push these drugs on desperate people. Who is behind these campaigns?

Internet drug campaigns would not exist if there were no buyers – and no buying of black-market drugs is what I suggest. I know the arguments about not being unable to afford drugs, about needing food or shelter and low cost drugs, or the embarrassment of letting someone know you need psychiatric drugs. But choosing the alternative of the black-market drugs is not a viable answer, is it?

Below I will list only the drug descriptions that fly into my spam folder so you, too, can see what drugs are being pushed on you – by using me a lowly blogger. I will not disclose who or what website is selling them.

Pharmaceuticaal Drugs for Sale on the Internet: Don’t Buy Them by www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at mentalhealthcareedu@gmail.com.

 

Fragmented Sleep, Fragmented Mind: The Role of Sleep in Dissociative Symptoms

Perspectives in Psychological Science

Authors:

1. Dalena van der Kloet1,
2. Harald Merckelbach1,
3. Timo Giesbrecht1 and
4. Steven Jay Lynn2

+ Author Affiliations

1. 
   
   ¹Maastricht University
2. 
   
   ²Binghamton University (SUNY)

1. Dalena van der Kloet, Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands E-mail: Dalena.vanderkloet@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Abstract

In psychopathology, dissociation typically refers to a disturbance in the normal integration of thoughts, feelings, and experiences into consciousness and memory. In this article, we review the literature on how sleep disturbances relate to dissociative symptoms and memory failure. We contend that this body of research offers a fresh perspective on dissociation. Specifically, we argue that dissociative symptoms are associated with a labile sleep–wake cycle, in which dreamlike mentation invades the waking state, produces memory failures, and fuels dissociative experiences. The research domain of sleep and dissociation can accommodate the dominant idea in the clinical literature that trauma is the distal cause of dissociation, and it holds substantial promise to inspire new treatments for dissociative symptoms (e.g., interventions that focus on normalization of the sleep-wake cycle). We conclude with worthwhile paths for further investigations and suggest that the sleep–dissociation approach may help reconcile competing interpretations of dissociative symptoms.

 

What the Belief in Dissociative Identity Disorder or Multiple Personaltiies Teaches

Learning about dissociation, multiple personalities, alter selves, inner selves or other terminology preferred is intricate but not difficult to determine or understand. I was in this type of therapy and thankfully left.

I suspect that people who get involved in DID do not think indoctrination is a huge aspect of how this therapy works and how it keeps patients/anyone entrenched in it. The word indoctrination is difficult to accept largely because it may seem to indicate that someone nefariously tried to harm another. It may not involve intention to harm, control, or manipulate yet there is an element of trying to help someone change their beliefs about their past.

Of course this therapy indoctrinates/teaches/encourages/suggests that the cause of needing to split off into alter parts is due to extreme trauma – usually childhood sexual abuse.

This is what therapy for multiple personalities and/or dissociative identity disorder teaches (indoctrinates) people to accept and believe:

-that MPD/DID survivors are highly intelligent

-they are creative

- anyone who disagrees or questions the sexual abuse believed to have been endured is wrong and is (or considered) abusive just for not agreeing with DID, denying that the abuse occurred (such as a sibling, cousin, aunt)

- those who dare to question must be eliminated from the DID persons life (usually parents)

- a therapist or support group or Internet forum/message board is used for support and validation

- leaving the family of origin because they may hinder treatment, will not confess to sexual crimes, and are considered abusers and/or pedophiles

- that alter selves hold memories of traumatic events that other alter parts have no memory of

- one must dig up and/or discover additional alter personalities to piece together the past

- having no memory of the past or large chunks of it

- loss of time indicates that something one cannot remember, usually sexual crimes, have occurred

I suspect that people in this therapy would not accept that this is indoctrination and fight to prove my statements false. Remember, I was entrenched in this therapy and believed all the statements listed above.

Secondly, thought reform – which in its most simplistic terms is replacing previously held beliefs, like thinking childhood was normal or happy, with believes that severe childhood sexual abuse occurred and is the underlying cause of apparent adult dissociation and inability to function.

Of course when people are entrenched in the slow changing and influence of previously held beliefs they do not realize it is occurring. Nonetheless, it is and does and will.

 

Pupil Dilation Reflects the Creation and Retrieval of Memories

Current Directions in Psychological Science

Stephen D. Goldinger and Megan H. Papesh

+ Author Affiliations

1. 
   
   Arizona State University

1. Stephen D. Goldinger, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Box 871104, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104 E-mail: stephen.goldinger@asu.edu

Abstract

It has long been known that pupils—the apertures that allow light into the eyes—dilate and constrict not only in response to changes in ambient light but also in response to emotional changes and arousing stimuli (e.g., Fontana, 1765). Charles Darwin (1872) related changes in pupil diameter to fear and other “emotions” in animals.

For decades, pupillometry has been used to study cognitive processing across many domains, including perception, language, visual search, and short-term memory. Historically, such studies have examined the pupillary reflex as a correlate of attentional demands imposed by different tasks or stimuli—pupils typically dilate as cognitive demand increases.

Because the neural mechanisms responsible for such task-evoked pupillary reflexes (TEPRs) implicate a role for memory processes, recent studies have examined pupillometry as a tool for investigating the cognitive processes underlying the creation of new episodic memories and their later retrieval.

Here, we review the historical antecedents of current pupillometric research and discuss several recent studies linking pupillary dilation to the on-line consumption of cognitive resources in long-term-memory tasks.

We conclude by discussing the future role of pupillometry in memory research and several methodological considerations that are important when designing pupillometric studies.

*pagination by blogger

 

Chris Costner Sizemore AKA “Eve” (1927- )

Christine (Chris) Costner Sizemore

born 1927 -

Most Noted for:

Diagnosed in the 1950s, she is considered by some to be the first documented case of multiple personality disorder in the 20th century. Chris Sizemore is known by the pseudonym, Eve.

Sizemore had eight psychiatrists during her lengthily treatment that spanned over two decades. Corbett Thigpen and colleague, Hervey Cleckley, M.D., published a book that was a historical case study based on her life titled: “The Three Faces of Eve” which gained best-seller status as did the movie by the same title.

During the later part of her illness and recovery from multiple personality disorder, Chris Sizemore was treated for four years by Dr. Tony Tsitos in Virginia.

Early childhood traumas:

Chris Sizemore, in a YouTube documentary “Hard Talk,” a BBC Interview, said that at the age of two, she experienced three consecutive traumas.

1. her mother cut her arm badly
2. she saw a drowned man being recovered from a ditch, heard the word “death,” and began to believe that anyone who was sick or hurt was “dying.”
3. she witnessed a man cut in half at a lumber yard.

Chris Sizemore repeatedly states that it was with the help of her psychiatrists, devoted family, and her belief in God that saw her through her illness and led to her recovery.

Publications:

1958.  The Final Face of Eve

1977. I’m Eve

1989. A Mind of My Own

Sources:

Georgia Encyclopedia

Sizemore, Chris Costner, 1989. A Mind of My Own.

Wikipedia: “Chris Costner Sizemore”

YouTube: “Multiple Personality Disorder on Hard Talk BBC Interviews – Chris Costner Sizemore, Part I”rumiscience”  watch?v=CTvr2fDBjmg Retrieved 3/14/11.

 

Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. Supports Multiple Personalties & Dissociative Identity Disorder

Towson University

8000 York Road

Towson, Maryland, USA

From the website:

“Founded in 1866, Towson University is recognized among the nation’s best regional public universities, offering more than 100 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in the liberal arts and sciences, and applied professional fields. …

With more than 21,000 students, Towson University is the second-largest public university in Maryland. As a metropolitan university, Towson combines research-based learning with practical application. Our many interdisciplinary partnerships with public and private organizations throughout Maryland provide opportunities for research, internships and jobs. Towson University is a founding member of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU).”

Towson University is hard at work educating young students about the validity and existence of the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder & multiple personalities. It has an impressive track record for hiring a teaching staff that is a virtual who’s-who among proponents of the diagnosis and treatment of what remains a highly controversial psychiatric disorder. In addition, several professors are linked to the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD).

About the ISSTD

Vision Statement

Social policy and health care will address the prevalence and consequences of chronic trauma and dissociation, making effective treatment available for all who suffer from the effects of chronic or complex trauma.

Mission Statement

ISSTD seeks to advance clinical, scientific, and societal understanding about the prevalence and consequences of chronic trauma and dissociation.

Below are snippets of the teaching and research staff biographies.

Bethany Brand, PhD

Principle Investigator

She began her career in trauma related work as a research assistant with Frank Putnam in 1988.  She completed a two year trauma disorders postdoctoral fellowship at Sheppard Pratt Health Systems, after which she was an attending psychologist within the Trauma Disorders program.  She supervises the psychological assessment of the trauma postdoctoral fellows at Sheppard Pratt Health Systems.  She has served as the Chair of the Education Committee and as a Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Chronic Trauma and Resiliency for the International Society for the Study of Dissociation and Trauma.

Catherine Classen, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator

Catherine Classen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Academic Leader of the Trauma Therapy Program at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, Director of the Women’s Mental Health Research Program at the Women’s College Research Institute in Toronto, and President of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.   She received her PhD in 1991 from York University, completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University in 1993

Richard J. Loewenstein,  M.D.
Co-Investigator

Richard Loewenstein, M.D., is a Senior Psychiatrist and the Medical Director of the Trauma Disorders Program at Sheppard Pratt Health Systems, Baltimore, MD, ranked by U.S. News and World Report as among America’s 10 top psychiatric facilities. He is also Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is the author of over 50 papers and book chapters on sleep disorders, consultation-liaison psychiatry, dissociation, dissociative disorders, and trauma disorders. He is co-author, with Frank W. Putnam, M.D.,

Frank Putnam, M.D.
Co-Investigator

Frank W. Putnam, M.D.,  is Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital National Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.  He was formerly Chief of Developmental Traumatology at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD.

Dr. Putnam is the co-developer of the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) along with Eve Bernstein, PhD, which is a non-scientific psychological tool used to recognize dissociation. The DES is used by both laypersons and professionals.

 

National Association of Social Workers (USA) Offers Educational Credits for Attending Multiple Personality Disorder Conference

Calling all Social Workers!

(and others)

If you take issue with dissociative identity disorder/multiple personalities being a valid disorder, it’s time to speak up – well, you missed your chance before the conference in Florida, USA, but it’s your responsibility and never too late. Even anonymous letters are good enough.

Unless the National Association of Social Workers in the United States discontinues offering continuing educational credits (mandatory for retaining a license to practice) their profession will continue to be haunted by pseudo-science masquerading as viable psychological treatment.

Social workers evidently support the belief in multiple personalities and the practice of psychotherapy aimed to treat dissociative identity disorder.

A conference: An Infinite Mind “Healing Together, was held in Florida, USA.

According to the conference website:

“This program is approved by the The National Association of Social Workers for clinical social work continuing education contact hours.This program has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselor. …”

Image by Army Medicine via Flickr

I almost wish I hadn’t looked into the National Association of Social Workers to see what values they hold and what their standards and ethics are. But I did, and here is what I found:

Code of Ethics

Value: Competence

Ethical Principle: Social workers practice within their areas of competence and develop and enhance their professional expertise.

Social workers continually strive to increase their professional knowledge* and skills and to apply them in practice. Social workers should aspire to contribute to the knowledge base of the profession.

1.03 Informed Consent (paragraph one)

(a) …Social workers should use clear and understandable language to inform clients of the purpose of the services, risks related to the services …”

1.04 Competence

(c) When generally recognized standards do not exist with respect to an emerging area of practice, social workers should exercise careful judgment and take responsible steps …to ensure the competence of their work and to protect clients from harm.

3.08 Continuing Education and Staff Development

“Continuing education and staff development should address current knowledge and emerging developments related to social work practice and ethics.

4.01 Competence

(a) Social workers should accept responsibility or employment only on the basis of existing competence or the intention to acquire the necessary competence.

(b) …should strive to become and remain proficient in professional practice and the performance of professional functions …critically examine and keep current with emerging knowledge … routinely review the professional literature and participate in continuing education ….

(c) …should base practice on recognized knowledge, including empirically based knowledge, relevant to social work and social work ethics.

5.01 Integrity of the Profession

(b) …Social workers should protect, enhance, and improve the integrity of the profession through appropriate study and research, active discussion, and responsible criticism of the profession.

(e) Social workers should act to prevent the unauthorized and unqualified practice of social work.

5.02 Evaluation and Research

(c) Social workers should critically examine and keep current with emerging knowledge relevant to social work and fully use evaluation and research evidence in their professional practice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has a lot of thinking and work to do before their code of ethics reflects their behavior. Since they support the practice of treating multiple personality disorder/dissociative identity disorder, what does that say about their lack of scientific training being a necessity for practice? Evidentially, social workers do not find science necessary.

When continuing education credits, annual schooling that enable social workers to retain a license to practice, are offered in areas that do not show scientific rigor, all patients and their families suffer.

Over and over in the document above uses the words: ethics, values, knowledge, professional. What dictionary are they using to define their terms?

The actual beliefs of the NASW become transparent when the dots are connected between the programs they supports for continuing education credits – - – - and their mission statement. What is on paper and what they profess to stand for are at odds and rather flimsy.

I doubt that many social workers actually know what is in their code of ethics. If they do, why are they supporting treatment for a psychiatric condition, multiple personalities, that is steeped in decades of controversy and documented patient harm?

I know social workers that I hold in high-regard. They are hard-working and dedicated to patient welfare. So this critique is meant as a criticism of their governing body rather than members who have few choices if they want to keep their license to practice. That fact, however, does not offer asylum from responsibility and knowledge about the organization that they support.

Perhaps a social worker will read this and inform/educate the rest of us about why the NASW turns their back on people who trust them to be honest about research and therapeutic practices both in general, and specifically in regards to dissociative identity disorder.

 

 

Expert Evidence on Recovered Memory in Historic Child Sexual Abuse Cases

Sinead Ring, LL.M., of National University of Ireland, Galway School of Law, has published Due process and the admission of expert evidence on recovered memory in historic child sexual abuse cases: lessons from America, International Journal of Evidence and Proof, 16(1), 66-92 (2012). Here is the abstract:

This article reviews the decisions of the US state courts on the admissibility of expert testimony on recovered memory in historic child sexual abuse prosecutions. Unlike their English and Irish counterparts, most US courts scrutinise the reliability of expert evidence on recovered memory. In examining the US decisions the article explores the challenges posed to the criminal process by the contested scientific status of recovered memory theory. It sets out due process arguments why expert evidence on the topic should not be admitted in a criminal trial.

 

Fragmented Sleep, Fragmented Mind: A New Theory of Sleep Disruption and Dissociation

Association for Psychological Science

PRESS RELEASE

February 13, 2012

Fragmented Sleep, Fragmented Mind: A New Theory of Sleep Disruption and Dissociation

Scientific research has shed new light on dissociative symptoms and dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder. This condition seems to arise most often when a vulnerable person meets a therapist with a suggestive line of questioning or encounters sensationalized media portrayals of dissociation. Research shows that people with rich fantasy lives may be especially susceptible to such influences.   A new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests a mundane but surprising reason why some people might be vulnerable to dissociation: sleep problems.

The pop psychology belief is that patients develop multiple personalities to cope with traumatic experiences in their past, especially child sexual abuse. But this assumption isn’t supported by scientific evidence…Many people with dissociative disorders  do say they were abused as children, but that doesn’t mean abuse caused their condition.

A more likely explanation, Lynn says, is that dissociative identity disorder arises from a combination of cues, from therapists and from visions of multiple personalities in the media..

Lynn and his colleagues’ research further suggests that sleep problems may be one reason why some people are more vulnerable to dissociation and dissociative disorders….“We’re not arguing that this is a complete or final explanation,” Lynn says. “We just hope the word will get out and other investigators will start looking at this possibility.”

…Therapists should “be scrupulous in avoiding suggestive approaches—not only with people who may be particularly vulnerable to those procedures, but with people in general who seek help.” Also, he cautions, “if your therapist is trying to convince you that you have multiple personalities, you should find a new therapist.”

###

For more information about this study, please contact: Steven Jay Lynn at stevenlynn100@gmail.com.

Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, publishes concise reviews on the latest advances in theory and research spanning all of scientific psychology and its applications. For a copy of “Dissociation and Dissociative Disorders: Challenging Conventional Wisdom” and access to other Current Directions in Psychological Science research findings, please contact Divya Menon at 202-293-9300 or dmenon@psychologicalscience.org.

Retrieved 05/13/12.

 

Craigslist Classified Advertizement for Multiple Personality Treatment, USA

Craigslist is an online classified advertizing type of organization. www.craigslist.org

You can go there to find a cheap bike someone wants to get rid of or sell your old bookcase. There are hundreds of categories that connect people who need something with people who have something to sell.

This is the first time I’ve seen a Craigslist ad offering psychotherapy for multiple personalities. Maybe today is the day I Have seen everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~

NY NJ Hypnosis Multiple personality disorder (ny nj)

---

Date: 2012-05-10, 12:55PM EDT
Reply to: 7ntns-3007527534@comm.craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

---

Welcome to contact me please for more information call 718 698 2702 or leave a message.
http://www.annastherapy.com
- Feel happier
I am healer and hypnotist ..
Past life regression ..

• Location: ny nj
• it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 3007527534

 

YouTube: Videos About Multiple Personalities and Dissociative Identity Disorder

This post is a list of YouTube videos about multiple personalities and dissociative identity disorder that anyone can find on the Internet. Some are posted by mental health care providers and others are by people who believe they have the disorder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXgIeQ6u5HM  DID/MPD Vlogs: Intro by Mosaix Nebula

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjTOs1L3SBg&feature=channel_video_title INSiDE short film.  Directed by Trevor Sands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAcSvTzF_Y0  DID/MPD Blogs: Alter Roles, Published on May 1, 2012 by MosaixNebula

 

Dear Dr. Phil,

Thank you for the research your staff conducted on multiple personalities and the subsequent airing of your show about multiple personalities AKA dissociative identity disorder.

I found the respect you gave your guests, particularly Tracy, to be outstanding.

Most importantly, you and your staff took the concept of multiple personalities and made it a reality for viewers which will help them understand this controversial mental-malady.

It is my hope that Tracy accepts your offer for treatment. She and her family took a huge risk in coming out – on national and international television. Perhaps they can all begin to heal.

Sincerely,

Jeanette Bartha

 

Film, “Scribbler”: Katie Cassidy to Play Woman with Multiple Personalities

The Hollywood Reporter announces:

Katie Cassidy Signs Up for ‘The Scribbler’

Getty Images

Katie Cassidy is set to play the title character in The Scribbler, “a mind-bending thriller feature” that begins production this week with an impressive ensemble cast.

Cassidy plays Suki, a young woman dealing with multiple-personality disorder who undergoes an experimental procedure to cure her illness that involves a machine named “The Siamese Burn.” John Suits directs a script Daniel Schaffer adapted from his own graphic novel, which was published by Image Comics in 2006.

Cassidy joins a cast that includes Garret Dillahunt (Winter’s Bone), Michelle Trachtenberg (Gossip Girl), Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse), Gina Gershon (How to Make It in America), Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos), Billy Campbell (The Killing), Sasha Grey (The Girlfriend Experience), Ashlynn Yennie (The Human Centipede), Kunal Nayyar (The Big Bang Theory) and T.V. Carpio (Limitless).

Retrieved 05/10/12. Full Story http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/heat-vision

 

Is Dr. Phil Exploiting Patients and Their Families by Interviewing a Woman with Multiple Personalities?

Television would not exist without high ratings. Multiple personalities usually get high ratings as Oprah Winfrey has shown many times by airing shows about self-proclaimed multiples like Trudy Chase.

I think the public need to know and physically “see” what multiple personalities look like.

The show has not aired where I live so more later.

I want to know why the Dr. Phil show is airing this particular topic at this particular time?

The show has not aired where I live so more later. In the meantime, take a look at Debbie Nathan‘s recent release about the history behind Sybil, her therapist, and the block-buster movie.

http://www.amazon.com/Sybil-Exposed-Extraordinary-Multiple-Personality-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK, I’ve just viewed the show.

I think Dr. Phil is an expert at people skills because he balanced respect for the patient – with disseminating information – with Not supporting the diagnosis by saying that it’s rare – which he repeated several times. He also said several times that in his 35 years in the field of psychology he has never met a multiple. Very clever, very crafty.

I appreciate that Dr. Phil took every opportunity to point out the inconsistencies in Tracy’s statements as she portrayed different personalities/alters upon request. For example, several times she said “I” instead of “her” when talking about a different personality. That is a major slip-up that people who define themselves as “multiple” make a lot and I am glad Dr. Phil pointed it out it every time.

Dr. Phil did not mention the children in this family which is another plus. These children live a chaotic life and he spared them further trauma.

Overall, I think Dr. Phil gave the public a glimpse into this bizarre diagnosis and was able to show quite clearly the lifestyle of those involved.

I have to give the man credit for explaining to Tracy that often there are several diagnosis involved and any given patient. He was able to steer her in another direction regarding possibilities of treatment and perhaps she will find a therapist to treat her for a mental condition that actually exists. Dr. Phil also offered that the plethora of pharmaceuticals she is and has been on can contribute to issues.

Overall I am pleasantly pleased with this show given the fact that I don’t think multiple personalities exist.

Follow the live conversation at the Dr. Phil show website.

http://community.drphil.com/boards/?EntryID=32168

 

 

Dr. Phil & Multiple Personalities Follow the Discussion on Psych Forums

Follow the live discussion on Psych Forums

http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic88072-30.html

Last year a person or persons with multiple personalities complained to wordpress about a post of mine that said multiple personalities don’t exist and I think I also put a link to her blog.

Therefore, I am permanently banned from PsychForums. This is what Psych Forums posts when I try to sign-in:

You have been permanently banned from this board..

Reason given for ban: Being very disrespectful to people with DID by saying it does not exist

Seems to me that Psych Forums should have said I was censored from speaking on their website because I don’t agree with them.

~~~~~~~~~~

Dr. Phil’s website advertizement for people to be on the show. The quote below is from the Dr. Phil website.

Living with Multiple Personalities?

Are you or someone you know struggling with multiple personality disorder, otherwise known as dissociative identity disorder?  Does your family not understand?  Or maybe you haven’t told them about it? Are you comfortable switching between your different personalities? 

~~~~

Although I think multiple personalities are fabrications and a dance between therapist and client rendering them a product of therapy, to exploit patients is not OK. The show has not yet aired where I live so I wait before making further comments.

After viewing: Dr. Phil did a good job bringing reality into the show by pointing out inconsistencies in statements made by alter personalities, by showing the long, long list of medications Tracy has been on and by educating her that there are usually more than one diagnosis for a mental illness, thus suggestion and encouraging her to seek other avenues of treatment. Hopefully she will take advantage of the treatment center he offered.

 

Dr. Phil, Television Psychotherapist (USA) Features His First Encounter with a Woman Claiming to have Multiple Personalities. Tommorow, 5/10/12.

From Dr. Phil’s website: http://www.drphil.com/shows/

Thursday – May 10, 2012

“My Husband, My Kids and My Multiple Personalities“

Tracy is a married mother of four who says her life was forever changed the day she was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, more commonly known as multiple personality disorder. She says she has five personalities, or “alters:” Emily, a frightened 5-year-old child; Becky, who cuts, bruises, chokes and has threatened to kill Tracy; Susie, an innocent 10-year-old child; Samantha, “the CEO;” and Miss Anne, “the caretaker.” Tracy says that she’ll oftentimes black out when an alter takes over and that the transition back to being Tracy can make her physically ill. Joined by her husband, Tyler, the couple says Tracy’s alter egos and unpredictable moods are causing strain on their marriage, and they’re struggling to explain her erratic behavior to their children. Is Tracy’s diagnosis real? Then, in a Dr. Phil first, Tracy transitions between her alters onstage. Speaking as Becky and Susie, can Dr. Phil gather insight into Tracy’s disorder? Tracy’s therapist, Dr. Peggy Avent, joins the show and explains her diagnosis. Could a secret from Tracy’s childhood hold the key to understanding her illness? Tracy’s mom, Sandy, weighs in and shares why she blames herself.

~~~~~~~~~~

The advertisements for this controversial show claims that Dr. Phil McGraw will ask the “hard questions”. It leaves me wondering what Dr. Phil considers a “hard” question.

Will he take a middle-of-the-road stance and claim to not be an expert, so he can’t evaluate whether or not her personalities are real? Of course, Tracey will be flanked on the other side by her therapist which will probably tame Dr. Phil’s usual bold and in-your-face opinions.

Do you think he’ll cave in and concede to an expert in dissociative identity disorders and multiple personalities? I think he will; I also hope to be disappointed.

What questions would you like Dr. Phil to ask Tracey?

I want to know what took him so long to do this? I’d also like to know why he doesn’t balance the show and have someone (maybe like me, duh) who thinks multiple personalities don’t exist?

About Dr. Phil

Dr. Phil McGraw, perhaps the most well-known mental health professional in the world, is the host of the new leader in daytime talk, Dr. Phil. Launched in 2002, Dr. Phil provides the most comprehensive forum on mental health issues in the history of television. For nine years, Dr. McGraw has used the Dr. Phil platform to make psychology accessible and understandable to the general public by addressing important personal and social issues. Using his top-rated show as a teaching tool, he takes aim at the critical issues of our time, including the “silent epidemics” of bullying, drug abuse, domestic violence, depression, child abuse, suicide and various forms of severe mental illness.

Dr. McGraw’s work was recognized by the American Psychological Association in 2006, by honoring him with a presidential citation. Over the years, the Dr. Phil show has received 21 Emmy nominations and won 5 PRISM Awards, for the accurate depiction of drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse and addiction. In addition, The Alliance for Women in Media, sponsors of the Gracie Award, named after Gracie Allen, has honored Dr. Phil every year since 2008.

Dr. McGraw earned a B.A., M.A. and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of North Texas, followed by a year of post doctoral training in Forensic Psychology at The Wilmington Institute. Dr. McGraw was a licensed psychologist in the State of Texas and practiced clinical psychology where he developed a multimodal treatment protocol for chronic pain patients. With his training and interest in forensic psychology, Dr. McGraw founded CSI (Courtroom Sciences, Inc.), a consulting firm specializing in litigation strategies performing a wide variety of forensic activities. After 25 years, he retired from practice as a licensed psychologist to devote full time to his educational media platform.

Retrieved 05/09/12 http://www.drphil.com/shows/page/bio/

Let us not forget… Oprah Winfrey had a hand in introducing him to the world of TV 10 years ago.

 

Attitudes Toward DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders Diagnoses Among Board-Certified American Psychiatrists

The article below was published in 1999.

Light bedtime reading (Photo credit: Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious)

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM 5th edition is almost in press. The controversy continues yet the inclusion of multiple personalities famously disguised by renaming it dissociative identity disorder continues? This is an outrage.

Shame on all those who practice psychiatry, psychology, and social work and do nothing to stop the inclusion of this “illness” in this psychiatric manual used by these professionals to help diagnose, classify, and code for billing for their services.

The argument of the inclusion of DID/MPD has been going on for at least 13, count em, 13 years! If that doesn’t nullify the validity of the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder famously known as multiple personality disorder and the DMS manual what does?

What hurts the most is that the DSM manual is mistakenly thought by patients to validate this diagnosis. Not only is this belief wrong and not the intent of the book/manual, but to have a 13 year discussion on whether or not DID/MPD should be included is medical malpractice.

~~~~~~~~~~

Am J Psychiatry. 1999 Feb;156(2):321-3.

Pope HG Jr, Oliva PS, Hudson JI, Bodkin JA, Gruber AJ.

Source

Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02178, USA.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

The authors assessed the opinions of American psychiatrists regarding the diagnostic status and scientific validity of the DSM-IV categories of dissociative amnesia and dissociative identity disorder.

METHOD:

A one-page questionnaire was mailed to a random national sample of 367 board-certified American psychiatrists.

RESULTS:

Three hundred one responses were received-a rate of 82%. Only about one-third of respondents replied that dissociative amnesia and dissociative identity disorder should be included without reservations in DSM-IV; a larger proportion replied that these categories should be included only as proposed diagnoses. Only about one-quarter of respondents felt that diagnoses of dissociative amnesia and dissociative identity disorder were supported by strong evidence of scientific validity.

CONCLUSIONS:

Among board-certified American psychiatrists, there currently appears to be little consensus regarding the diagnostic status or scientific validity of dissociative amnesia and dissociative identity disorder.

Comment in

• Am J Psychiatry. 2000 Jul;157(7):1180-2.
• Am J Psychiatry. 2000 Jul;157(7):1180; author reply 1181-2.
• Am J Psychiatry. 2000 Jul;157(7):1179-80; author reply 1181-2.
• Am J Psychiatry. 2000 Jul;157(7):1179; author reply 1181-2. 

~~~~~~~~

p.s. thank you Altus for the links.

 

International Cultic Studies Association Conference: Montreal Canada, July 5 – 7, 2012.

This is a good opportunity to learn about how mind control and thought reform can be associated with the belief in multiple personalities.

Manipulation and Victimization

The International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) will be conducting its 2012 Annual International Conference jointly with Info-Cult/Info-Secte and in collaboration with the Université de Montréal, The International Centre for Comparative Criminology (ICCC) of the Université de Montréal, and l’Association québécoise Plaidoyer-Victimes. The conference will be held at The Holiday Inn Select Montreal Centre Ville Downtown.
Note:  In addition, the International Centre for Comparative Criminology (ICCC) at the Université de Montréal will organize a scientific conference entitled, “Manipulation and Victimization in a Religious Context: Understandings and Controversies.” This conference will run parallel to ICSA’s annual conference. Both conferences will be open to registrants of either conference.

Agenda and Abstracts:

http://icsahome.com/infoserv_respond/event_conferences_workshops_sessions.asp

 

Are Primary Causes of MPD Psychotherapists? by Scott Mendelson, M.D.

Dr. Mendelson examines the explosion of multiple personalities in the United States between 1980 to 1986 which can be viewed as a culture-bound syndrome – one most closely associated with the United States rather than a world wide mental illness seen in many other countries.

Scott Mendelson, M.D.

Posted: January 31, 2011 04:55 PM

Are the Primary Causes of Multiple Personality Disorder Psychiatrists and Psychotherapists?

“Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), or, as it is referred to in most recent version of the manual DSM-IV, Dissociative Identity Disorder, is a genuine psychiatric disorder. However, the numbers of cases of MPD are far higher in North America than in any other part of the world. Many suspect that this surplus of MPD cases is the product of American culture and over-indulgent psychiatrists and psychotherapists.”

In a 2004 review for the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, the American psychiatrist, Dr. August Piper, remarked that more MPD cases were discussed in the medical literature in the five years after inclusion in the DSM-III than in the preceding two centuries. Between 1980 and 1986, more than 6000 patients in the United States were diagnosed with the disorder. Champions of the disorder, such as psychiatrist Colin A. Ross, began to claim that MPD was rampant…”

Most psychiatrists believe that the diagnosis of MPD has gotten entirely out of hand, and it isn’t merely due to the unexpectedly large number of patients being diagnosed with the illness. … Personalities began to propagate like locusts. … Yet, reports of patients with hundreds of separate alter personalities became routine. For example, Dr. Richard P. Kluft, a psychiatrist specializing in the treatment of MPD at the University of Pennsylvania, reported in a 1988 paper that one of his patients had over 4000 “alters”.

Others suffer delusions and thought disorders bizarre enough to warrant diagnoses of schizophrenia rather than MPD. Still, the question remains as to what degree leading questions and indulgences of vivid imaginations have prompted the alternate “personalities” to come into being.”

“The sufferers of Multiple Personalities also appear to feed off each other’s imaginations. Websites and Internet discussion groups for “multiples” abound, and sufferers take pride in how many alter personalities populate their minds. Pseudoscientific jargon flows freely in sites aiming to provide a technical basis for the illness and snare “multiples” for cutting edge psychotherapy. … This is pure baloney.”

Full Article: Huffington Post Retrieved 4/2/11.

Multiple Personality Disorder and other culture bound psychiatric conditions are discussed in Dr. Mendelson’s new book, “The Great Singapore Penis Panic and the Future of American Mass Hysteria“.

 

Morton Henry Prince, M.D. 1854-1929

Morton Henry Prince, M.D. 1854-1929 was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was a physician (neurology) and a psychologist.

Specialty:  neurology and abnormal psychology defined as psychopathology i.e. a mental disorder with maladaptive behavior.

Interests: disintegrated personality, dissociated personality, hypnosis, hysteria, hysterical neurasthenia, multiple personality, psychology of sudden conversion, secondary personality, sudden religious conversion, subconscious writing, suggestibility, unconscious, the normal self.

Most Noted for: a biological study of “Miss Sally Beauchamp” who was in treatment for seven years.

Abbreviated Accomplishments:

1879 Harvard Medial School, medical degree

1906 Journal of Abnormal Psychology. A founder and editor until 1929.

1911 American Psychological Association, First President

1927 Established Harvard Psychological Clinic

 

You Tube: Dissociative Identity Disorder, Medications and Pokemon?

This YouTube was produced by a young woman (age 19); it runs 11:12 minutes. In my opinion,this is one of the best videos I’ve seen on the web.

She discusses medication, how many diagnoses she has received since the age of 9. She seems to find dissociative identity both bad, due to the “Sybil” patient who became and urban legend and the fear she now feels she needs to face that it is true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhWsNYl1474

Retrieved 2/24/12.

 

1954, Thigpen, Corbett H., Cleckley, Hervey M. “A case of multiple personalities”

Thigpen, Corbett H., Cleckley, Hervey M., A case of multiple personalities, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1954. 135-151

~~~~~~~~~~

This publication preceded their book, The Three Faces of Eve that became a film produced and directed by Nunnally Johnson in 1957.

Corbett Thigpen and Hervey Cleckley were psychiatrists at the Medical College of Georgia, later Georgia Health Sciences University, Georgia, USA when they documented the life of Chris Costner Sizemore AKA Eve.

I am looking for an Internet link for this article. If anyone finds one, will you share?

 

About this blog

About this blog.

 

You Tube: Dr. Carolyn T. Long’s Opinions About Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dr. Carolyn T. Long, minister and consultant, comments on multiple personalities and dissociative disorders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zvssdsKBec

Retrieved 4/13/12.

 

Twilight Rapist

Update on a case of the multiple personality defense.

The Huntsville Item reports:

Convicted rapist testifies

By Cody Stark

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, USA — “Convicted rapist Billy Joe Harris tried to convince the court he was insane when he took the stand in his burglary of a habitation with intent to commit aggravated sexual assault trial Thursday.”

“What Harris did not talk about were the events from 2009 to 2010 that earned him the nickname the, “Twilight Rapist,” and led to a life sentence for his conviction of the aggravated sexual assault of a disabled elderly woman in Edna. He also said that he had no memory of allegedly breaking into the residence of an elderly Marquez woman and attacking her in July 2009 …” Harris did remember parts of his childhood and military service that the defense is claiming led to his developing multiple personality disorder, which is the key to his plead of not guilty by reason of insanity.”

“The state thought it was convenient that Harris could not remember anything about the aggravated assault in Edna nor the burglary in Marquez on Thursday. The prosecution read back the defendant’s testimony during the Edna trial which showed that Harris claimed one of his other personalities was in a consensual relationship with the Edna victim.

The state also argued that Harris was only claiming to be insane after his other defense tactics failed.”

Retrieved 4/13/12. Full story: http://itemonline.com/

 

Misinformation About the False Memory Syndrome Foundation: A source list

Internet (Photo credit: hdzimmermann)

I initially published misinformation about the False Memory Syndrome Foundation and/or it’s advisory board members found on the Internet in separate posts but after a year of writing this blog I found that the amount of material floating around on the Internet to be voluminous. Therefore, this post is a list of those websites, articles, and blogs that print misinformation as of April 12, 2012.

If you are familiar with any organization or individual that could be added to this list, please let me know.

http://open.salon.com/blog/survivant/2012/04/12/the_false_memory_syndrome_foundation  survivant

 

We can’t cope, say mental health workers: Australia

`WE NEED MORE RESOURCES’: Union delegate Wayne Watts and mental health workers at a stop-work rally at Geelong Hospital yesterday.

 LOCAL mental health services are ‘ruthlessly’ discharging clients into the community because they do not have the resources to meet growing demand, workers claim.

Full Story: http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2012/04/11/319131_news.html

 

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations surveys Brookhaven Retreat

Brookhaven Retreat is currently under review by The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Joint Commission Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more that 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States (Joint Commission). Being nationally recognized by JCAHO  “is a symbol of quality and reflects positively on the organizations commitment to meeting certain performance standards.”

The official report will be available within 10 days. Updates will be made as they are published.
Brookhaven Retreat.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/business/press-releases/article/Joint-Commission-on-Accreditation-of-Healthcare-3473584.php#ixzz1rlpPXQn0

 

National Child Abuse Prevention Month, United States

April is Child Sexual Abuse Prevention ACTION month

April is Child Abuse Prevention and Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It’s the month each year when we join with you to redouble our efforts to keep children safe so they never experience sexual abuse. As parents, as professionals and in our organizations, institutions, and communities, TOGETHER we CAN prevent child sexual abuse.

What you can do now! …

http://www.childwelfare.gov/preventing/preventionmonth/

 

New Memories vs. Old Memories

Memories, memories, memories. After wrongly believing I was sexually abused, the search for memories happened all day, all night, and clouded times in-between. Searching, dreaming, thinking, yearning, wanting – wanting what? Wanting to know if the new memories were true, were they right?

Questions. I had tons of them. “Are dreams really memories?” Doc said yes. “Were daydreams memories?” Doc said yes. “Nightmares, daydreams?”  Yes, yes, yes. “How about those truth serum interviews?” Big yes! I should have predicted that answer, they don’t call it “truth serum” for nothing.

Everything my eyes rested on, every color, sound, texture, smell, had potential memories of abuse hiding behind it. I scrutinized window dressings as I drove through the streets of Philadelphia knowing there were hidden satanic messages somewhere. Did that message on the sign have a double meaning? What about that book at the library? That license plate? Questions, questions, hypervigilance. Always looking, always ready to spring into action if there was a perceived threat to my well being.

“But my new memories aren’t like the one’s I’ve never forgotten.” I’d repeat yet again to my psychiatrist. “Why?” His usual response was that another personality had the information and he or she isn’t ready for me to know it – or we need to ask them. “Who am I speaking to?” He’d ask peering straight into my eyes. OK, I thought, he’s the doctor. Here we go again. Who am I? What personality is here? Who wants to talk? What do I need to know? What’s your name? Step up, dam you, tell me what I need to know! Do it now!!

Whether or not new recollections surfaced, I felt let down. How long would I have to depend on other personalities to tell me about my life? Why doesn’t the new memory feel like the old ones – the ones I’ve always had? Like vacations at the beach, at church camp, in kindergarten?

After nearly 7 years of trying to make new memories feel just like the old ones, I failed to reach my goal of meshing them together to get an honest picture of my youth. A picture that would prove I was abused.

It took too long to realize why old and new memories were always at odds. The new ones were confabulations – a mixture of real experiences, fantasy, misremembering, and suggestions. I was easily convinced of their accuracy because truth was always woven in. There might be a real relative, teacher, playmate, or place. Unknowingly, therapy helped fill in the rest of the new memory to make it fit with my identity as a sexual abuse survivor.

The dissonance prompted by new verses old memories never abated until I realized therapy, the alters, the doctor, the meds, the hospital, the group therapy, the triggers, the flashbacks, the other patients, et al was the problem, not my ability to remember the realities of my youth.

 

My Experiences with False Memories, author unknown

All names in the story have been changed (except that of Elizabeth Loftus and Paul Ingram) to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

During my years in graduate school I lived in a run down house in a run down dangerous neighborhood with other students.  …One day a beautiful woman (I’ll call her Lauren) called to look at a room that was available.  I told her I’d escort her from her home to mine since the neighborhood was dangerous.  She decided not to rent but decided she liked me.  I asked her to marry me and we became engaged.  …

Lauren told me how she had been abused as a child.  … by her parents and would be tormented by flashbacks to terrible scenes of abuse. … her parents were members of a cult, how a friend of hers from childhood may have been murdered by the cult, how the cult engaged in animal sacrifice and how her father had injured her with a corkscrew.  These tales were hard to believe to say the least.

… in order for us to continue I had to support her and believe her.   …I went with Lauren to her therapist for couples counseling (I’ll call her therapist Dr. Herman).  To my surprise Dr. Herman believed Lauren.   I asked Dr. Herman how she could believe everything Lauren told her.  Dr. Herman told me that “The therapist has to believe the patient”.  Her therapist believed that people who are abused often are not believed and they need someone to believe them and support them.  Dr. Herman felt it was her obligation to do so.  …

How do therapists create false memories of abuse?    The therapist convinces the patient that repressed memories are the source of their problem and the only way they’ll get well is if they remember.  The patient …starts imagining stories of past abuse.  If the patient has doubts …their therapists assure … she doesn’t want to believe the truth.  …

Retrieved 4/3/11. Full Story: My Experience with False Memories

 

 

 

 

 

MCConnell Air Force Base: Kansas, USA Psychological Health Advocacy Program

931st Air Refueling Group, Kansas, USA

Psychological Health Advocacy Program promotes mental health

Mental Health Awareness Ribbon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kansas/ A program that promotes emotional wellness is available to Reserve Airmen and their families at no cost – regardless of deployment status.

Additionally, they will locate resources for Airmen and their family members, and provide consultation for wing and group leaders who are concerned about the psychological health of their Airmen.

The PHAP staff is available to provide confidential, round-the-clock assistance to Airmen at no cost.

To reach the PHAP call center and speak to a representative to find out about available resources, call 1-888-810-2400 or e-mail AFRC.PHAP@us.af.mil. emergency line 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

article credit: by Brannen Parrish
931st ARG Public Affairs

 

Confirmation bias: why psychiatrists stick to wrong preliminary diagnoses

Psychol Med. 2011 May 20:1-9

Mendel R, Traut-Mattausch E, Jonas E, Leucht S, Kane JM, Maino K, Kissling W, Hamann J.

Source

Department of Psychiatry, Technische Universität München, Germany.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Diagnostic errors can have tremendous consequences because they can result in a fatal chain of wrong decisions. Experts assume that physicians’ desire to confirm a preliminary diagnosis while failing to seek contradictory evidence is an important reason for wrong diagnoses. This tendency is called ‘confirmation bias’. Method To study whether psychiatrists and medical students are prone to confirmation bias and whether confirmation bias leads to poor diagnostic accuracy in psychiatry, we presented an experimental decision task to 75 psychiatrists and 75 medical students.

RESULTS:

A total of 13% of psychiatrists and 25% of students showed confirmation bias when searching for new information after having made a preliminary diagnosis. Participants conducting a confirmatory information search were significantly less likely to make the correct diagnosis compared to participants searching in a disconfirmatory or balanced way [multiple logistic regression: odds ratio (OR) 7.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.53-21.22, p<0.001; OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.23-8.56, p=0.02]. Psychiatrists conducting a confirmatory search made a wrong diagnosis in 70% of the cases compared to 27% or 47% for a disconfirmatory or balanced information search (students: 63, 26 and 27%). Participants choosing the wrong diagnosis also prescribed different treatment options compared with participants choosing the correct diagnosis.

CONCLUSIONS:

Confirmatory information search harbors the risk of wrong diagnostic decisions. Psychiatrists should be aware of confirmation bias and instructed in techniques to reduce bias.

Retrieved 03/29/12.

 

Bridgeway Counseling Treats Multiple Personalities & Dissociative Identity Disorder: Idaho, USA

From the website:

Founded in 2001 by Frank Shull.

The agency was first known as “My Counselor,” and counseling was our only service. In the decade that followed we added psychiatric evaluations and psychiatric medication management to our services.

Frank’s goal has been to create a psychiatric / mental health agency that would treat every patient with dignity and give professional, first-rate care. Our Counselor, Social Worker, Psychiatric Medical Clinician, and Office Staff are highly-trained and very friendly. We understand that for many people, visiting a mental health professional can be a stressful experience. Whether you come to us for marriage or couples counseling, depression, anxiety, or to bring a family member in “for their issues, such as anger or hyperactivity, we do our best to make each of your visits as enjoyable as possible.”

Frank E. Shull, M.Ed., LCPC earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Lewis Clark State College at Lewiston, Idaho. He completed his Masters degree training from University of Idaho at Moscow, Idaho.

Frank is credentialed as a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC), the highest counselor licensure in Idaho. He is a State of Idaho Certified Supervisor for other mental health professionals seeking supervision.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states that sometimes have power over the person’s behavior, thinking, or feeling. With dissociative identity disorder, there’s is an inability to recall key personal information that is too far-reaching to be explained as mere forgetfulness. There are also highly distinct memory variations, which change with each specific personality.

The “alters” or different identities may have their own age, sex, or race. Each may have his or her own postures, gestures, and distinct way of talking. Sometimes the alters are thought of as people. As each personality takes control of the individuals’ behavior and thoughts, a ‘switch’ is occurring. Switching can take seconds, minutes, or days.

Dissociative Identity Disorder is often misdiagnosed, because it is misunderstood by many medical and mental health professionals. When that happens, the most common misdiagnosis includes one or more of the following: Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, or Schizophrenia. Having the wrong diagnosis will lead to years of medication administration for the patient without any understanding of the true nature of the problem.”

http://bridgewaycounseling.us

Retrieved 03/29/12. Bold font not by blogger.

 

“Emotional Finishing School for Women” : Brookhaven Retreat, Tennessee USA

Brookhaven Retreat, residing in the Smoky Mountains on the east coast of the United States, boldly defines itself as “an emotional finishing school that helps women overcome depression, trauma, anxiety, personality disorders, substance dependence and other diagnoses.”

Shameful! A women’s finishing school? What’s that archaic statement mean?

This deplorable statement means that women are not whole human beings and need to go to a gorgeous facility in the United States – to learn how to overcome… being women.

Brookhaven Retreat is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Organizations that oversees hospitals in the United States. Having achieved this accreditation and secured licensed mental health practitioners is a positive for this facility.

Upon further examination of the programs at Brookhaven, it is evident that they aim to treat issues women face more than men such as domestic violence, sexual trauma and eating disorders. In addition conditions such as depression, PTSD, borderline personality disorder, and bipolar disorder are treated.

Then…. Brookhaven leaves the credibility scale and jumps into the realm of pop-psychology by including self-diagnostic online tests for: shopping addiction, enabling, love addiction and other equally nonsensical disorders.

This residential facility is only 6 years old and in that span of time has learned, and proven, that language is powerful. Telling women that they need to attend a “finishing school” is a marketing tool that works. Telling women they are less than whole to fill hospital beds is shameful whether or not valid psychotherapy is provided.

Brookhaven is a private-pay facility and accepts no insurance.

So, if you are a rich woman who wants to overcome being a woman by attending a “finishing school”, you now have a place where you can go to be pampered at a residential facility while enduring psychotherapy and emptying your wallet.

Aerial view of Brookhaven Retreat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Brookhaven Retreat

Tennessee, USA

An upscale mental health treatment facility for women only.

We are an in-patient, residential, emotional finishing school for women. We treat depression, bipolar disorder, emotional trauma, and substance abuse, which many women use as an escape tool.

• Located on 48 beautiful acres in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains
• Full concierge and travel assistance available
• Treatment for depression, emotional trauma and addiction
• Spa cuisine featuring market fresh food and local produce
• Detoxification and suicide prevention programs
• Comfortable Healing Environment
• Highly trained expert staff

Brookhaven Retreat is Accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Organizations (Joint Commission), which has surveyed this organization and found it to meet the requirements for accreditation.

http://www.brookhavenretreat.com

http://recoveryforwomen.com

Retrieved 03/27/12.

* bold-face font Not by blogger

 

Cedars-Sinai, California, U.S. A. : Phasing out Psychiatric Services

Cedars-Sinai is a health care facility that has a long history of providing services to  patients since 1902. It boast that it is “now a world-renowned, 1,000-bed nonprofit academic medical center. Cedars-Sinai’s community benefit contribution, which totaled $600.6 million … supports a broad spectrum of initiatives to give those in greatest need access to health information, screenings and care” and “has evolved to become the largest nonprofit hospital in the western United States – one that is internationally renowned for the best patient care modern medicine has to offer.”

US News & World Report indicates that “Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA is ranked nationally in 12 adult specialties”,  #2 in Los Angeles and among the best over-all ranking in the United States.

Eliminating mental health care services from this prestigious hospital has a huge impact on patients who depend on Cedars-Sinai for treatment. It will also have an impact on the many and jobs at the facility in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. aimed at mental health care.

On their website they list the following mental disorders as being covered under their care:

• anorexia
• bipolar disorder
• bulimia
• depression
• schizophrenia

So much for counting on a quality medical facility to provide mental health care. What are mental health consumers going to do? Where will they go for treatment?

Cedars-Sinai is sending a clear message: quality mental health care is no longer an important aspect of overall patient health care.

Shame on you Cedars-Sinai. Step up to the plate and keep your doors open to all patients with medical conditions below And above the neck.

Cedars-Sinai, California, U.S. A. : Phasing out Psychiatric Services by www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at mentalhealthcareedu@gmail.com.

 

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Community Walk: Tuson, Arizona, USA

No registration fee for National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Walk

 Community Walk for Mental Illness Awareness 2012

Saturday, March 31, 2012
Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium
2500 E. Ajo Way

5k Walk (3 miles)
Shorter route available (1 mile)
*It is not a requirement to walk in order to participate.

Registration Begins: 7 AM
Program Begins: 8 AM
5k Walk Begins at 9 AM

No Registration Fee; fundraising encouraged.
NAMI Walks accepts donations up until 60 days after Walk day which is by May 20th!

Dogs are allowed as long as they do well in crowds. Water for dogs along walk route as well as a doggie treat table at the stadium.

With all the publicity regarding shooter Jared Lee Loughner since the Tucson Tragedy mass shooting of January 8, 2011, NAMI has been hard at work trying to raise awareness and assistance for the mentally ill in Southern Arizona and nation-wide.

2012 Honorary Chair is Ron Barber, former District Director for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (and now Democratic candidate for that CD 8 House seat).

More about this walk, so to www.namiwalksaz.org, or call 520-622-5582, or write to NAMIWalks@NAMIsa.org.

---

 

 

European Society for Trauma & Dissociation Conference March 29 – 31, 2012: Berlin, Germany

European Society for Trauma and Dissociation E.S.T.D.
1ste Hogeweg 16-a
3701 HK Zeist
The Netherlands http://www.estd.org

Sponsors Conference:

“There are many walls to take down – on the way to integration”

From the website:

We are delighted that the third European conference of the European Society of Trauma and Dissociation will be held in Germany … we do not only want to address individual, but also societal aspects of trauma and dissociation.

The opening plenary will be given by Dr. Karl-Heinz Bomberg*, who will talk about late effects of political repression in the GDR. Furthermore, psychotherapists from Israel, Germany and the USA will share their perspectives on the lasting effects of the Holocaust and World War II in the form of a symposium.

In addition, Bethany Brand will present the first multi-site, multi-national treatment outcome study of Dissociative Identity Disorder; Michaela Huber will give a lecture about state of the art treatment in Complex Trauma, and Marja Rexwinkel will describe treatment interventions addressing attachment problems in severely traumatized families with very young infants.In inspiring preconference workshops from international high ranked speakers like Rick Kluft (USA), Sandra Wieland (CAN) Richard Loewenstein (USA), Andrew Moskowitz (UK), Bethany Brand (USA) and Kathy Steele (USA) and others you can inform yourself about the state of the art of diagnosis and treatment of dissociative disorders. We are very pleased that Bruce Perry, who inspired us in Belfast with his Keynote speech, is coming back offering a three hour in-conference workshop on “An Introduction to the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics”. ..The

Conference is accredited by the German Psychotherapeutenkammer Berlin (psychotherapy organisation), which is also officially recognized by the German Ärztekammer (medical organisation).

• 8 CME credits for Pre-Conference Workshop on 29 March 2012
• 3 CME credits for Keynote Lectures on 29 March 2012
• 6 CME credits for Lectures on 30 – 31 March 2012

http://www.estd2012.org/index.php

 

Treatment Facility for Dissociative Disorders & Multiple Pesonalities: Desert Milagros, Arizonia, USA

Desert Milagros

2559 East Fort Lowell Road
Tucson, Arizona, USA 85716

Dissociative Disorders Intensive Outpatient Program

Dissociation is an important yet overlooked aspect of diagnosis and treatment. …Our program offers identification of dissociation through formal assessments. Once the diagnosis is made and treatment ensues, participants begin the process of addressing dissociative symptoms and behaviors that allows healing to take place in a new hopeful dimension.

Dissociative disorders occur on a continuum from mild dissociation to Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly Multiple Personality Disorder. …Through this process, movement toward conscious awareness is attained. We encourage family involvement so that more understanding of the condition can lead to healthy relationships with loved ones.

Our Intensive Outpatient Program offers both individual and group work focusing on three stages of treatment: first stabilization and co-consciousness, second processing early trauma, and third integration of ego states. …Typically ongoing treatment is needed for integration.

Treatment Modalities

Desert Milagros website says they treat eating disorders, dissociative disorders and general mental health using an “integrative approach” to “mind-body-spirit healing”. Essentially, that means they use any type of “therapy” they deem useful or potentially useful. Most of what is offered as treatment is not science-based and can fall under the pop-psychology category.

Energy Psychology Techniques

…all address the energy systems and the natural rhythms of the mind and body. The benefits include grounding and centering and better focus and concentration. In the process anxiety, fear, and depression can be significantly lowered.

• EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)
• TAT (Tapas Acupressure Technique
• Brain Gymexercises and balances
• NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming)
• Psych-K

Trauma therapies

• EMDR
• Brainspotting
• Somatic Experiencing

DBT and Mindfulness Practices

Expressive Arts Therapies

Nutritional Support

Neurofeedback:

Nature Therapy:

Mind Body Therapies

http://desertmilagros.net/treatment-programs/dissociative-disorders-intensive-outpatient-program

Retrieved 03/25/12.

 

National Association of Social Workers Workshop in Oregon, USA: Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities)

Event Information

Understanding DID Dissociative Identity Disorder

12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.  May 8, 2012.
Eugene, Oregon

No fee.
1.5 hrs.
Gina.Tormohlen@co.lane.or.us

Sponsored by National Association of Social Workers, Oregon Lane County District, USA

The workshop/event is overseen by Gina Marie Tormohlen, MSW – indicates a masters degree in social work.

http://nasworegon.org/calendar/event/understanding-did-dissociative-identity-disorder

Retrieved 03/25/12.

About Gina Marie Tormohlen, MSW

I was unable to find any professional papers published by Ms. Tormohlen doing a routine google search.

On October 04, 2011, she conducted another workshop through the Oregon Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers entitled: Spiritual Issues within Treatment for Psychosis.

On March 14, 2012.  Ms.Tormohlen was again appointed  a designee to direct a peace officer to take a mentally ill individual into custody according to ORS 426.233. by the Lane County Board of Commissioners, Sid Leiken, Chair.

http://www.lanecounty.org/Departments/BCC/Documents/ORDERS/12.03.14.4.pdf

 

Multiple Personality Defense in Murder of Pregnant Woman

New twist in murder case involving Morales-Rodriguez

Posted on: 5:22 pm, March 9, 2012, by Chip Brewster, updated on: 05:29pm, March 9, 2012

“MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, USA  — According to Foxnow.com, “There’s a new twist in the case of a pregnant woman [Morales-Rodriguez] murdered and her unborn baby cut from her womb. Now, a new psychological evaluation may allow the woman accused of the killing to plead insanity.

According to the draft of that psychological evaluation, 34-year-old Annette Morales-Rodriguez wasn’t the only one present when 23-year-old Maritza Ramirez Cruz was killed. The report says Rodriguez’s other personality, Lara, was in control of her body.

Dr. Anne Speckhard spent two days interviewing Morales-Rodriguez. During the second day, Speckhard filmed a transformation take place. Annette turned into Lara — a completely separate personality.”…

Retrieved 03/26/12. http://fox6now.com/2012/03/09/new-twist-in-murder-case-involving-annette-morales-rodriguez/

 

 

Call to Reform Mental Health Treatment Law, California, U.S.A.

California HealthCare Foundation by The Advisory Board Company.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Report Calls for Reforming Calif.’s Mental Health Treatment Law

On Sunday, the California Treatment Advocacy Coalition released a report suggesting that a state mental health law does not provide adequate access to treatment for people with the most severe mental illnesses, KPCC’s “KPCC News” reports.The report was compiled by physicians, lawyers, judges, mental health care workers and patients over the course of 30 months.Details of the ReportThe report found that Californians with severe mental health conditions are four times more likely to be in jail than in a hospital or outpatient clinic that provides appropriate services.

The authors provided 14 recommendations for changing the 1967 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, which was intended to help residents with mental illnesses acquire care in their communities.

A Sacramento Bee editorial states that mental health advocates’ push to overhaul the state’s mental health laws “ought to be taken seriously by legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown (D).”

According to the editorial, the problem of untreated severe mental illness commonly is “ignored, manifesting itself as it does in homelessness, suicide, early death and petty crime” (Sacramento Bee, 3/18).

Read more: http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2012/3/19/report-calls-for-reforming-califs-mental-health-treatment-law.aspx#ixzz1pmaUS0r1

Retrieved 03/21/12.

 

Protests Over Mental Health Service Cuts: Carlow, Ireland

The Nationalist

Protests over cuts to mental health

Last Updated Mar 2012

By: Clare Minnock

Carlo, Ireland. A LARGE group of protestors gathered outside St Dympna’s Hospital on Friday to highlight the continuing cuts to local mental health services.

Members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), mental health advocacy groups, service users, family members and local representatives came out in force to oppose what they see as the “slow dismantling” of the local services.

PNA general secretary Des Kavanagh said people in the Carlow region are “extremely annoyed to see model services that had been built up in Carlow being slowly dismantled”. …

Retrieved 03/21/12. http://www.carlow-nationalist.ie/tabId/369/itemId/14139/Protests-over-cuts-to-mental-health.aspx

 

Treatment Facility: University Behavioral Health of Denton, Texas, U.S.A.

2026 W. University Drive

Denton , Texas , 76201 USA

see also: NorthPoint Family Centers

Dissociative Disorder Treatment, Denton Texas

University Behavioral Health of Denton offers specialized care for dissociative disorder, conduct disorder and other mental health and chemical dependency problems in programs that are designed to meet specific needs. programs for women, youth, military members, and faith based programs. You can learn more about programs for kids and adults on our website. Please call us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for more information or a free assessment at 940-320-8100 or 888-320-8101.

Christian Counseling Programs Denton TX

The Christian counseling programs at University Behavioral Health of Denton, Texas combine professional counseling with religious beliefs and faith in God. There is a spiritual aspect throughout the treatment process. Most Christians find this religious atmosphere and faith centered approach to be helpful in recovery from serious mental health and the drug and alcohol recovery process.

We offer a wide range of services in our Christian counseling center. Our psychiatrists and clinical staff provide a comfortable environment and specialized treatment to meet the unique needs of individuals. There are specialized programs for women, soldiers in the military, youth, and Christian counseling programs that provide effective treatment and compassionate care for a wide range of mental health conditions and chemical dependency. In addition, we offer a program for individuals with co-occurring disorders.

http://www.ubhdenton.com

Retrieved 03/21/12.

 

Advocacy Groups: Asks Federal Trade Commission to Investigate Drug Prices in U.S.

Mar 19, 2012

CREW with Advocacy Groups Ask FTC to Investigate Anti-Competitive Practices of Vaccine Makers

Washington, D.C. – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices (NLARx), the Campaign for America’s Future (CAF), and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to immediately investigate the vaccine bundling practices of Sanofi Pasteur and Merck, which make it harder for pediatricians to use the best vaccines for children.  Sanofi and Merck force pediatricians to buy vaccines in a bundle at a discount, or pay exorbitantly high prices to purchase vaccines individually.  As a result, some children may not receive the vaccines most suitable for them.

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan stated, “When parents take their kids to the doctor, they expect the best medical care available, not the care dictated by drug companies seeking to maximize their profits.  Basically, doctors are asked to make a choice they can’t refuse.”

CREW first wrote to the FTC about this issue in 2010, but a whistleblower has now provided new details about the practice.  Vaccine discounts are conditioned on an express agreement that healthcare groups will purchase only a particular company’s vaccines. ….

…Sloan continued, “Parents assume doctors are making drug decisions based on the patient, but in fact, they are making decisions based on the price.  That will be cold comfort to a young woman who discovers she might have avoided cervical cancer if only she’d received the right vaccine as a girl.”

Read letter to the Federal Trade Commission  http://www.citizensforethics.org/page/-/PDFs/Legal/Investigation/3-19-12%20FTC%20Vaccine%20Bundling.pdf

Retrieved 03/21/12.

~~~~~~~~~~

You may not find vaccinations useful; you may think vaccination issues do not impact your prescription drugs.

But what happens when our doctor cannot write a prescription for the drug he/she thinks would benefit us the best?

Why is the pharmaceutical industry determining how our health care is delivered? Because they can.

 

Internal Family Systems Therapy: Richard C. Schwartz

The abstract below about “Internal Family Systems” (IFS) psychotherapy does not mention personality states or dissociative identity disorder, but I have seen those terms linked with IFS elsewhere. The author uses the term “subpersonalities” ah, what’s that supposed to do to advance the science of psychology?

The article was published in 1995 during the proliferation of the diagnosis and treatment of bogus multiple personalities and this may be Richard Schwartz’s attempt to coin a new phrase for both personal and professional gain – I don’t know.

The concepts are the same but the choice of words used to introduce those well worn concepts have changed. As it’s said, the stripes of the animal are the same and I, for one, am not fooled by this nonsense.

What has occurred and continues to occur is that other pop-psychology therapies are aligning themselves with Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. What this means for patients in the long-run remains to be discovered, but it looks as though patients are once again receiving potentially harmful therapy.

Further research on IFS is ongoing for this blog.

Buyer Beware.

~~~~~~~

Internal family systems therapy. Guilford family therapy series.

by Schwartz, Richard C.

New York, NY, US: Guilford Press. (1995). viii 248 pp.

[The author] applies the systems concepts of family therapy to [the] intrapsychic realm.

The result is a new understanding of the nature of people’s subpersonalities and how they operate as an inner ecology, as well as a new method for helping people change their inner worlds.

Called the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, this approach is based on the premise that people’s subpersonalities interact and change in many of the same ways that families or other human groups do. The model provides a usable map of this intrapsychic territory and explicates its parallels with family interactions.

The author offers specific guidelines for helping clients release their potential and bring balance and harmony to their subpersonalities so they feel more integrated, confident, and alive. [He] also examines the common pitfalls that can increase intrapsychic fragmentation and describes in detail how to avoid them.

Finally, the book extends IFS concepts and methods to our understanding of culture and families, producing a unique form of family and couples therapy that is clearly detailed and has straightforward instructions for treatment.

Offering a comprehensive approach to human problems that allows therapists to move fluidly between the intrapsychic and family levels, this book will appeal to both individual- and family-oriented therapists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)*

* pagination altered by blogger.

Retrieved 03/20/12. psycnet.apa.org

 

Treatment Facility for Dissociative Identity Disorder: The Center for Growth, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Dissociative Identity Disorder: Mapping Your System

by Heather Lauren Davidson M.A., Ed.M

“This exercise is designed for people struggling with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder. Mapping your system will help you better understand the relationships between all of your alters….

Making Your Map
Use a large blank sheet of paper to draw your map on. Always make sure you record the date on the map because it can serve as a record about your system. Each of your alters will be represented by a circle with their name in the middle. The host’s circle should be in the middle of the sheet. The size of the circles should represent how often they occupy the host (not their general influence or importance). Thus the host’s circle should always be the largest. Orient the circles based on who they are close with. The closer the circles, the closer the relationship. The further the circles the more distant the relationship. If you find yourself struggling with trying to figure out the proper circle size, just make your best guess. At a different point in time you can update your map. Keep in mind that you are record the relationships as they are in the present. These relationships are not static and will probably change over time.

After that exercise people are asked to:

Interpreting their Map

Track it vver Time

Assess each alter

Reflect on the information recorded

Journal on each alter personality

Set up a meeting with all the alters

Create a timeline

Heather Lauren Davidson M.A., Ed.M

To schedule, please call (267) 324-9564 .
The Center for Growth, Inc., 233 S. 6th Street, Suite C-33, Philadelphia PA 19106

 

Treatment Facility, Mercy Ministries: Harm Continues to Women Patients?

Lincoln, California, USA

According to the Lincoln News Messenger, Mercy Ministries, an international nonprofit organization that claims to help “females with life-threatening situations” namely anorexia nervosa a life-threateningeating disorder, has reopened its doors to patients.

Mercy Ministries, formerly of Australia, paid $120,000 for misrepresenting itself to women clients yet was permitted to open facilities in the United States after closing it’s treatment facility in Australia. Currently, it has treatment facilities in Lincoln, California; Monroe, Louisiana; Nashville, Tennessee.; St. Louis, Missouri, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Although some of Mercy Ministries former patients claim the Lord showed them healing, there is a growing number of families telling horror stories of treatment using out-dated and debunked repressed-memory-therapy (RMT) which gained popularity in the 1980s. RMT treatment focuses on remembering alleged childhood sexual abuse that has shown to produce tainted, if not purely made-up, recall fraught with inaccuracies.

Mercy Ministries is repeating a period of psycho-social history and pop psychology in the United States that humiliated the entire profession and left it on its knees. Yet learning from their mistakes did not happen because fathers are once again being accused of sexually abusing their daughters only after their adult-children were influenced at various Mercy Ministries treatment centers to remember. Memories of horrific sexual are meant to heal their serious medical condition.

The Lincoln News Messenger claims that “Someone with an eating disorder might die without the appropriate medical treatment.” Furthermore it’s editor, Carol Feineman, says that while the United States Joint Commission on Health Care Accreditation JCHCA, acknowledges Mercy Ministries, it did not accredit them as a provider of mental health services. The JCHCA oversees hospitals within the United States and it is a serious infraction for Mercy Ministries to operate without their accreditation – not that they are not permitted to do so, but full-disclosure needs to occur with all and any clients that come to them for treatment.

Evidence is growing and indicating that Mercy Ministries may be treating women with debilitating eating disorders without proper authority, supervision, or medical and psychological health-care providers.

A Bible-based counseling and treatment center, Mercy Ministries is permitted under United States, Canadian, New Zealand, and United Kingdom law to open it’s doors to ill women who may or may not know it is not a proper medical facility. Is God’s love and guidance enough to help women overcome anorexia in lieu of medical treatment? Patients deserve and warrant proper nutritional, therapeutic or medical oversight of their medical and psychological conditions. Otherwise, they may just as well go to church and save themselves the money.

What do we does a society concerned with proper mental-health care going to do? How about sending this article to your friends and family? Tweeting, talking, and educating others about how to obtain proper medical care is a good start.

To read more mercyministries.org

 

Narcissism, a Relational Aspect of Dissociation

Narcissism (Photo credit: Gwenaël Piaser)

by Elizabeth F Howell

Journal of Trauma Dissociation (2003)

Volume: 4, Issue: 773512528, Pages: 51-71.

Abstract

Pathological narcissism is an inevitable result of trauma-generated dissociation. It is also a relational aspect of dissociation, for in dissociative psychopathology the mutuality of relationships, both interpersonal and intrapsychic, has collapsed in significant ways.

Dissociation of both aggression and dependency characterizes the “closed system.” While an open system allows interaction with the outside and transformation of the individual through interactive interchange with another, a closed system precludes transformation and intersubjectivity.Grandiose, domineering self-states may be understood as procedural, somatoform, dyadic enactments.

These working models of attachment are at the core of much of the narcissistic entitlement, grandiosity, domination, and self-sufficiency that are so often found in dissociative disorders and in narcissism. It is possible to have a real impact on the closed system of narcissistic psychopathology by providing a safe attachment within the therapeutic relationship, and empathizing with the expression of self-protective aggression while containing its destructiveness. As a safe attachment figure with expertise, the therapist has the opportunity to facilitate positive transformation.

PsychInfo

-pagination by blogger

 

Mercy Ministries Admits Misrepresentation: Repays Clients $120,000

Charity admits cheating women

Anne-Louise Brown | 19th December 2009 2:50 AM

“CHRISTIAN charity Mercy Ministries, which ran a home for young women in need on the Sunshine Coast, has admitted to false, misleading and deceptive conduct.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said the Sydney-based group, had apologized for misrepresenting its services and repaid about $120,000 to affected women.

The charity ran two homes for troubled young women – at Glenview on the Coast and in Sydney.

Both homes have closed. The Glenview centre shut its doors last July amid controversy.

ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said Mercy Ministries had advertised its services as free, but then asked residents to sign over their Centrelink payments in return for treatment. …

…“Also, Mercy Ministries misrepresented that it offered professional support from qualified specialists when in fact that was not the case.”Last year, the group became embroiled in a national controversy when three girls who had gone through the program, including two on the Sunshine Coast, went public with their claims of mistreatment.

They alleged the six-month programs had left them suicidal.

Retrieved 03/15/12. Full Story: http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2009/12/19/charity-admits-cheating-women/

 

College & University support for DID: Weill Medical College of Cornell University, USA

The information below is from the website of Weill Medical College of Cornell University (USA)

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) Formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder

What is DID?

DID is the existence within a person of two or more distinct personalities or personality states, each of which may seem as if it has a distinct personal history, self-image, and identity, including a separate name. At least two of these identities or personality states repeatedly take control of the person’s behavior. The different personalities are sometimes called “alters”.

What is Dissociation?
Dissociation is a state in which a person is completely unaware of certain parts or aspects of him or herself. This illness is called Dissociative Identity Disorder because the illness involves states in which a person is aware of one aspect of his/her personality and completely unaware of other parts.

What causes DID?
DID is thought to result from severe and prolonged emotional trauma, physical abuse or sexual abuse during childhood.

What happens to people who have DID?
The life course is variable and the illness is often prolonged. This disorder almost always begins in childhood, although it may not become apparent to others or to the patient until a later age.  …

What is the treatment for DID?
…individual therapy, structure (scheduling one’s time so that there are no long periods of unplanned time), medicines for specific mood or anxiety symptoms, education about the illness, social skills training and group support. Inpatient or day hospitalization may be necessary …

Where can I get more information about DID?
There are books about Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Tracy Alderman and karen Marshall. Amongst Ourselves: A Self-Help Guide to Living with Dissociative Identity Disorder. New Harbinger Press, 1998.

Deborah Bray Haddock. The Dissociative Identity Disorder Source Book. McGraw-Hill, 2001.

Sarah E. Olson. Becoming One: A Story of Triumph over Multiple Personality Disorder. 1997.

Accessed 03/14/12. Weill Medical College of Cornell University

~~~~~~~~~

Although Weill College has dissociative identity disorder definitions, causes, and treatment opinions, I was unable to find a specific program that addresses this alleged disorder.

 

“Denial” Arnold Wesker’s play addressing false memories

London, England

Image via Wikipedia

The King’s Head Theatre will feature several premieres celebrating playwright Sir Arnold Wesker’s 80th birthday.

Opening the season will be the London premiere of Wesker’s false memory play Denial (May 15-June 19)

“At what point does natural physical affection between parent and child become something more sinister? And if an adult suddenly ‘remembers’ that a loved parent abused them years earlier, can the memory be trusted?

Arnold Wesker’s provocative drama exploring false memory syndrome was first seen at the Bristol Old Vic in 2000 and now gets it’s London premiere directed by King’s Head Theatre artistic director Adam Spreadbury-Maher.

This promises to be a taut and unsettling production about the dangerous recesses of the human mind and the devastating effect of a daughter’s ‘recovered memories’ on an apparently happy family.

Arnold Wesker is the author of 42 plays including The Kitchen and Chicken Soup with Barley. This production of Denial is part of a season to celebrate Wesker’s 80^th birthday which will also include the opera Caritas and The Wesker Trilogy.

“The play is brave, honest and urgent” The Guardian

“One of Wesker’s most gripping and undogmatic plays” The Sunday Times

Thoughts from the playright:

“The story behind DENIAL is this.  One day someone from my past rang to tell me he had a story which he thought would made a good play: Something awful that had happened to his friends.  I sighed.  Writers are frequently confronted by people telling them they have good ideas for a play.  Usually they are right, it is just that their stories are rarely stories that ‘speak’ to the writer approached.  But within minutes of hearing what had happened to his friends I knew that this story was ‘speaking’ to me. …

“This material, about his friends’ daughter who had turned on them with dreadful, unfounded accusations of sexual abuse when she was a child was more than a story about a painful, domestic injustice; it was about the theme of manipulation – the therapist as manipulator. …

Click hereto read the playwright Arnold Wesker’s thoughts on Denial.

King’s Head Theatre 115 UPPER STREET, ISLINGTON, LONDON, N1 1QN

 

“Set This House in Order: A romance of souls” by Matt Ruff: Protagonist has Multiple Personalities

Review from the blog: Literary Hoarders”Fantastic!  What a book!

This wildly intelligent and immensely entertaining novel by Matt Ruff just catapulted into my favorites list.  I thought I enjoyed his book Bad Monkeys, but this one was even better.  Matt Ruff’s imagination has no limit, and his writing flows effortlessly.

Not sure where to begin — this isn’t an easy book to summarize.  The story pivots around Andy Gage, who was born in 1965 and eventually ‘murdered’ by his stepfather.  During his death, Andy’s soul shattered into pieces, creating what we know as Multiple Personality Disorder.  Shortly after starting this book, you learn that the main characters are all in Andy’s head.  Each character, Andrew, Aaron, Adam, Aunt Sam, Jake, Sefaris, Gideon… have their own distinct persona, and their own… talents.  When the body is calm, Andrew is at the helm.  When the body is threatened,  Sefaris takes over.  … Depending on which soul surfaces, logic, anger, heartbreak or humor can come about.”

Retrieved 03/12/12. Read full review http://literaryhoarders.wordpress.com/tag/multiple-personality-disorder/

 

United States of Tara “Board Meeting” Represents the Mind of Dissociation?

I found this YouTube video that PsychDogCharlotte posted on Mar 3, 2012. This individual states that it not only represents what he/she experiences in their head, but he/she found relief after viewing this film clip from the TV Series, The United States of Tara.

Retrieved 03/09/12.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRPpEDh3G_o

What do you think?

 

 

Film: “I am a Ghost” by H.P. Mendoza, Sports Restless Ghost with Repressed Memories

San Francisco, California, USA  Center for Asian American Media presents “I am a Ghost” from March 8 – 18th.

According to the Daily Californian, there will be around “120 works to the Bay Area, SFIAAFF is the nation’s cornerstone of independent Asian American cinema. .. that “has supported free-thinking filmmakers like Quentin Lee (director of this year’s opening night film “White Frog”) and H.P. Mendoza (the local filmmaker who helms “I am a Ghost”) since 1982″.

.“I am a Ghost” — Pacific Film Archive Theater, 3/10/12, 6:10 p.m. 

H.P. Mendoza’s film is about” a restless spirit whose repressed memories of murder are uncorked by a medium. “I had a terrible childhood,” Emily, who haunts a lavish Victorian mansion in some vacuum of time, tells the clairvoyant.

Every day, Emily relives the mundane routine of waking up in her lonely palace, psychotically frying eggs and then stabbing herself. Sometimes, she puts on a bonnet and picks sunflowers in the rain. Most of the time, she’s a shut-in.”

Retrieved 03/09/12. Full Story  http://www.dailycal.org/2012/03/07/san-francisco-international-asian-american-film-festival-back-for-its-30th-year

 

Wisconsin, USA: Woman Charged with Cutting Fetus from Mother has Dissociative Identity Disorder

Milwaukee woman charged with cutting fetus from mother has multiple personality disorder, report says

By Bruce Vielmetti
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE -” The woman charged with cutting the late-term fetus from a young mother, with hopes of passing the baby off as her own, suffers from a multiple personality disorder, according to the report of a new mental exam.

The 57-page report released Thursday concludes that Annette Morales-Rodriguez suffered horrific sexual abuse and abandonment as a child and has adopted extremely dissociative behavior to block it out. The truth only emerged during 13 hours of interviews in which her alter-ego, “Lara,” emerged, according to the report….

“Whether it ever becomes evidence, Speckhard’s report offers fascinating reading about a condition – dissociative disorder disease*, or DID – believed to exist in less than 1 percent of people.

According to the report, in the first several hours of an interview at the jail, Morales-Rodriguez spoke of a fairly happy, normal childhood. But eventually, Speckhard noticed that when the conversation turned to the facts of the case or other trauma, Morales-Rodriguez’s eyes would roll up and her eyelids would flutter rapidly, as “Lara” would emerge.

Retrieved 03/09/12. http://www.twincities.com/wisconsin/ci_20134741/milwaukee-woman-charged-cutting-fetus-from-mother-has

*the disorder is actually called: dissociative identity disorder (DID) often referred to as multiple personalities

 

Discussion: Tell us about your relationship with your therapist

Image via Wikipedia

Psychotherapy may have a definitions on wikipedia, psychforums, WebMD and other Internet go-to places for information, but the definition and scope of psychological treatment is so vast and diverse that it cannot truly be defined or quantified.

The same can be said of those who make a living practicing psychotherapy. Therapists run the gamut from those with medical degrees to those who have no formal educational training at all – an unfortunate conundrum for mental health consumers. We often don’t know much about the therapist we employ until after treatment has commenced. It is not unusual to get to know a therapist and forget to ask questions about their credentials once we feel comfortable with them and form a bond of trust.

If you are thinking about finding a therapist, what have you done so far to find one you feel comfortable with?

If you are in therapy – tell us about your therapist. What do you like or dislike? Do you have insurance, do you pay out-of-pocket, or does your therapist treat you for free?

If you left treatment with a particular therapist, why?

 

 

Deliberate Self-Harm & Self-Mutilation by Distressed Mental Health Care Consumers

Image via Wikipedia

I can no longer wait to report on one of the most self-destructive behaviors of those who define themselves as suffering from multiple personality or dissociative identity disorder. And that is: Self-Injury.

Since 2005, I have investigated discussions between multiples in chat rooms, yahoo groups, message boards, websites, personal telephone conversations and recently, blogs. Over 20,000 conversations were documented between individuals who present themselves as multiple. The term “multiple” includes those who claim to have multiple personality disorder, dissociative identity disorder, and other diagnosis’ under the umbrella of dissociative disorders.

What is self-injury?

Initially termed self-harm, deliberate self-injury or self-mutilation, it is now recognized as a behavior in its own right among mental health care providers. According to David F. Duffy a PhD nurse and the coordinator of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England in 2002, self-injury “can be defined as a behaviour that involves deliberately injuring one’s own body, without suicidal intent and with or without pain.”

Six years ago when I began my investigations there were few individuals discussing self-harm. In recent years, conversations are common and include explicit descriptions of skin cutting, burning, severe scratching, hitting or banging body parts, ingesting toxic substances, and then interfering with wound healing. I have recently found a photograph of a severe skin burning so I suspect that posting photographs and details of injuries is on the rise.

As more research is gathered, I will include reasons for the behavior, reinforcements, the functions of, and how individuals feel before and after self-injurious acts.

1. David F. Duffy Ba MSc PhD RMN, 2006, “Self-injury”, Suicide and non-fatal self-harm, vol. 5, (8) p 263-265.

Self-Injury, Self-Harm, Deliberate Self-Harm &amp; Self-Mutilation by Jeanette Bartha is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com.

 

National Multiple Personality Day, USA, March 5th

March 5th is designated as Multiple Personality Day – historically associated with multiple personality disorder; renamed dissociative identity disorder. Today’s celebrations are like any other group celebrating their existence and offering their group to be known on an international stage often using the Internet as one means of expression.

Below are a few links to sites & images found on the Internet addressing Multiple Personality Day.

Multiple Personality Day

By Judie Mackie on March 5, 2010

Sybil

From SearchAmelia About Page:

“SearchAmelia contains daily news, vacation, business, community, event and festival information for Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island, Nassau County and Yulee, Florida. We live, work and play here! With the Atlantic Ocean in our backyard, we take pleasure entertaining our own out-of-town friends, and we are eager to share those experiences with you.                                                                                                       Sally Fields as “Sybil”                                                                                                                                          (photo source unknown)

http://www.searchamelia.com/multiple-personality-day

Retrieved 03/05/12

Multiple Personality Day

When : Always March 5th

Multiple Personality Day is an opportunity to get in touch with yourselves.

Someone with a split personality has two personalities. Someone with multiple personalities has more than two personalities.  Its a psychological disorder that we hope none of our readers have.

Don’t be surprised to find yourself surrounded by people who are talking to themselves today. You might find yourself talking to yourself, too!

When you wish someone “Happy Multiple Personalty [sic] Day”, you may need to do so multiple times, once for each  personality.

---

Origin of “Multiple Personality Day”:

Our research did not find the creator, or the origin of this day. Perhaps, the creator assumed his other half would record it.

http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/March/multipersonday.htm

Retrieved 03/05/12

~~~~~~~~~~

Images, Greeting Cards, Posters, T-shirts for Sale

http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/March/multipersonday.htm

Retrieved 03/05/12

 

Teen Girls Perform Demonic Exorcisms Under the Supervision of Reverend Bob Larson

exorcisms (Photo credit: ahp00k)

This journalism segment (including video clips) by Anderson Cooper regarding teen-girls performing exorcisms is seriously dangerous. Let’s put aside the ridiculousness of the concept that the devil resides inside some people and needs to be cast out – and focus on the results of what these children may unwittingly do – and that is to potentially harm someone desperate to find answers to their problems.

Someone needs to stop these children but who is supposed to do so? Obviously Reverend Bob Larson, who oversees the children won’t be stopping them.

~~~~~~~~~~

How the Teens Got Involved in Exorcism

Anderson Cooper

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 10:50AM

Brynne and Tess, both 17, and Savannah, 20, all have different stories as to what drew them into performing exorcisms. Brynne is the daughter of Reverend Bob Larson, who helps spiritually guide people, and who has helped train the three girls in the spiritual implications of performing the ritual.

“I had my dad right beside me the whole way,” says Brynne of her first exorcism, which took place in a church in Africa when she was 13. “I’d been around this my whole life, I knew what was going on, and he really walked me through it and helped me with it. …

“Anderson admits that he doubts the validity of exorcisms, and wonders if Reverend Bob Larson and the three teen girls who claim to be exorcists are just making the rounds to publicize themselves for an upcoming reality show and “says that he thinks the girls seem coached and unnatural.”

“People don’t understand that we’re normal girls, and there are so many hours that we have put into this that people have not seen.”

See the full interview on Wednesday, February 29.

Filed Under: As Seen On The Show

Read more: http://www.andersoncooper.com/2012/02/27/how-the-teens-got-involved-in-exorcism/#ixzz1nz0TXZkb

 

Ulric Neisser, memory researcher & False Memory Syndrome Foundation board member, dies at 83

Feb. 28, 2012 Ulric Neisser, a founder of cognitive psychology, dies at 83 Ulric Neisser, photographer unknown According to George Lowery “Ulric “Dick” Neisser, the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Cornell whose pioneering 1967 book “Cognitive Psychology” named and helped launch the cognitive revolution in psychology, died Feb. 17… “Neisser advanced a new way of looking at the human mind. He held that memory, perception and other internal thought processes could be studied and measured, work that was aided by growing computing power… “Neisser showed that memory, no matter how certain we are of its accuracy, is often only a partially accurate or sometimes inaccurate reconstruction of past events. During the 1980s, this work called into question the validity of child abuse cases in which evidence consisted of vividly remembered incidents. Neisser served on the board of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation…* 1976, Neisser wrote “Cognition and Reality, 1995, he chaired an American Psychological Association task force that reviewed “The Bell Curve,” ” in which he criticized cognitive psychology for excessive reliance on laboratory work rather than real-life situations. 1998 gave the commencement address at the New School for Social Research (now the New School) *Font change by blogger. Full story http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb12/ObitNeisser.html retrieved 3/01/12

 

Highest Known Workers’ Compensation Settlement in California History $8.9 million

Highest Known Workers’ Compensation Settlement in California History – L.A. Attorney Scores Record $8.9 Million Settlement, Rebuking System in Major Brain Injury Case

PRWeb

Published 11:01 a.m., Thursday, March 1, 2012

Los Angeles-based attorney Christopher Asvar, (Asvar Law, APC) secures highest known workers’ compensation insurance settlement in California history. Wins $8.9 million on behalf of his young client for work-place traumatic brain injury.

Los Angeles, California (PRWEB) March 01, 2012

“Los Angeles-based attorney Christopher Asvar (http://www.asvarlaw.com) has just secured the highest known workers’ compensation insurance settlement in California history, totaling $8.9 million on behalf of his young client who suffered a workplace traumatic brain injury. …

“At the time Mr. Asvar commenced his representation, his client was suffering from severe depression, cognitive deficits, anxiety, psychosis, self-mutilation and perhaps most interestingly, a psychiatric diagnosis of multiple personality disorder. Despite the fact that there was no objective evidence of a traumatic brain injury (Asvar’s client had negative MRI and CT scans), Mr. Asvar prevailed in his contention that his client’s symptoms related to what the medical experts in the case ultimately came to regard as a “mild” traumatic brain injury. …

Case Number: 2137779
Court: Los Angeles Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board

About Christopher A. Asvar, Esq. and Asvar Law, APC
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/3/prweb9229143.htm

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/business/press-releases/article/Highest-Known-Workers-Compensation-Settlement-in-3373011.php#ixzz1o2EsaTlf

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/business/press-releases/article/Highest-Known-Workers-Compensation-Settlement-in-3373011.php#ixzz1o2Ehep7j

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/business/press-releases/article/Highest-Known-Workers-Compensation-Settlement-in-3373011.php#ixzz1o2DcY5sj

Retrieved 03/02/12.

 

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), United States: A simplistic view

We talk about it. We debate about it. We complain about it. Some call it “Obama Care” believing the President is injecting socialism into the American way of life that will ultimately destroy, or attempt to destroy, capitalism.

We argue, we have opinions, but what do we know about this document?.

So, lets educate each other and take a closer look at this document from different sources that offer facts and content of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, rather than personal opinion or political spin.

According to wikipedia:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law (along with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010) is the principal health care reform legislation of the 111th United States Congress. PPACA reforms certain aspects of the private health insurance industry and public health insurance programs, increases insurance coverage of pre-existing conditions, expands access to insurance to over 30 million Americans, and increases projected national medical spending while lowering projected Medicare spending. [1]

My first reaction is What? Say that in English, please.

You know what we have to do, my friends – break down that single paragraph so we know the definitions to words used in this specific content. I’ll reduce it to its most simplistic terms. Then we can be better equipped to share opinions about the PPACA.

First, a word about writing, documentation, and quoting sources. When you see brackets with a number between them, like this  [1] – it tells you where I got the information. If you want to know that source, scroll down this page to the bottom where all the sources are listed in numerical order, find [1] and there ya have it! No sweat.

OK, here we go:

legislature  a body of persons vested with power to make, amend, and repeal laws.[2]

An act of a legislature declares, proscribes, or commands something; a specific law, expressed in writing. [2]

statute an established law or rule [2]

Health care reform  used for discussing major health policy creation or changes—for the most part, governmental policy that affects health care delivery….  it typically attempts to: [1]

• Broaden the population that receives coverage
• Expand the array of providers consumers may choose among
• Improve the access to specialists
• Improve the quality of health care
• Give more care
• Decrease the cost

I hope the above information puts us closer to being on a level playing field – albeit on a simplistic and elementary manner, to begin our understanding of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA.

By scrutinizing only the definition published on wikipedia on 02/05/12 this Act is:

• a law created by those we elected to represent us – the American people
• became law on March 23, 2010 after being signed by President Barack Obama
• the main change in health care for all American citizens
• changes health care for both private and public insurance programs
• stops discrimination for people who cannot get insured if they are already sick (pre-existing condition)
• gives over 30 million Americans access to insurance
• increases national medical spending
• decreases the cost (or national medical spending) of Medicare – a government program in the United States

I did a quick Google search about the PPACA in an effort to get accurate information, free from political spin. Will post an update if that day comes.

Sources:

[1] Wikipedia.com, Downloaded: 02/05/12. Wikipedia is a source that may change over time because people with authorization are able to change the information on wikipedia pages from time to time. Always beware of wiki documents because of this. I use it an elementary source of information, but use it cautiously.

[2] legal dictionary – the free dictionary http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com

http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal/whatsnew/overview

 

Second Patient Files Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Against Castlewood Treatment Center & Psychologist Mark Swartz for Inducing Multiple Personalites

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Second Woman Claims Clinic Gave Her “False Memories” of Satanic Rituals

Kevin Killeen

February 16, 2012 4:00 AM

Castlewood Treatment Center in Ballwin, USA

BALLWIN, Mo. (KMOX) —” A second woman has filed a malpractice lawsuit against a Ballwin treatment center, claiming she was hypnotized into thinking her eating disorder was rooted in “repressed memories” of cult involvement.Leslie Thompson, 26, filed the suit late yesterday against the Castlewood Treatment Center and her former therapist, psychologist Mark Schwartz.

The suit filed alleges that while undergoing treatment at Castlewood for anorexia between December 2007 and May 2010, Thompson was led to understand that she had “multiple personalities,” and that she had repressed memories of participating in satanic rituals, even “witnessing the sacrificing of a baby.”

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is it 2012? The profession of psychology & psychiatry falls further into disgrace. How a single profession can continue a downward spiral that seems to have no bottom, defies the laws of gravity. It seems to have found its own manner of spinning through the universe traversing time and place at will.

Patients continue to be commodities as in any other industry – some are expendable and will break. That’s an accepted fact of the manufacturing process – some widgets will work, others will break, and others will be OK for sale and distribution. Psychiatric patients are flesh and blood commodities when they fall prey to manipulative and self-serving psychotherapists who peddle outmoded and debunked psychological treatments in this case, that of the existence of multiple personalities and dissociative identity disorder.

Why are mental health patients not protected by the three largest medical-governing bodies in the United States, namely the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association? How about adding the National Association of Social Workers? What organization bears the responsibility to protect patients? What will it take to force these organizations and their hundreds of thousands of members to stop this insanity?

It reminds me of politicians and some who hold public office who ignore warnings and cries of a constituent who endured personal tragedy that could have been adverted if only, for example, a traffic light had been installed at a busy intersection as requested.

The injured individuals bravely go to their local and state authorizes in an effort to change laws and to bring public awareness to their plight – only to be ignored – usually because, in this example, to install a traffic light would not be fiscally possible.

When is the patient heard? – when the patient becomes the person who held public office.

Read more http://abcnews.go.com/US/therapist-accused-implanting-satanic-memories/story?id=15043529#.T0fuQ3pAIxE

Second Patient Files Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Against Castlewood Treatment Center &amp; Psychologist Mark Swartz for Inducing Multiple Personalites by Jeanette Bartha is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com.

 

Lets Talk Common Sense About Psychotherapy: Is it time to fall off the couch?

Let’s talk common sense.

If I need back surgery, and the doctor tells me I will get worse before getting better – duh, of course. She’s going to take a very sharp knife and cut my body. If a therapist says the same thing – of course I can expect to get a little worse (or experience more emotions) as I look at painful issues.

It defies common sense, however, to go to therapy, and feel worse, and worse, and worse, and worse to the point where I cannot function as I did before arriving to the couch. But that’s exactly how it happened. The decline occurred slowly and methodically in a coercive manner. One day at a time, as they say. Another memory, another memory, another – another day spent in bed crying my guts out wanting to know “why” – how could family, neighbors, teachers have hurt me when I was a child? Why don’t they love me? All the while getting worse, less able to think rationally, to make clear-headed decisions, to socialize, to eat, to exercise as stamina declined and muscle decomposition set in.

Is this the help I sought? No. But this is what I got and what I eventually came to believe was Normal for an alleged sexual abuse survivor.

Common sense didn’t kick in until I realized I had to flee therapy or die like those before me who were recovering dubious memories of long ago. Later, more common sense kicked in as my lawyer and I prepared for trial during the medical malpractice and negligence suit I filed against my treating psychiatrist and the hospital where I was treated. We obtained school records. If I was spending nights at satanic cult meetings, or at home being severely abused, common sense would show school tardiness, or absences, and probably behavioral problems. The records didn’t. How could I be abused all night and come to school all  perky the next day – defies common sense. No marks on my body? Defies common sense.

What about the realities of tremendous and repeated physical & sexual torture? No scars? No pregnancies? No abortions? No broken bones? Neighbors didn’t notice? Teachers didn’t notice? Parents of my best friends didn’t notice? My best friends didn’t notice? Defies common sense.

Where did the common sense factor go?

It evaporates the moment we allow someone else to make decisions for us. The moment we have questions, but don’t vocalize them. The moment we are too afraid to leave treatment believing we need our therapist and can’t make it on our own. The moment we disagree with someone in our trusted circle of survivors, but keep the thought to ourselves.

Common sense wains the moment we choose to keep silent about the present, not the past.

previously posted as “Let’s Talk Common Sense about Multiple Personalities“

Lets Talk Common Sense About Psychotherapy: Is it time to fall off the couch? by www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at mentalhealthcareedu@gmail.com.

 

Psychotherapy, Suicide, and Patient Regression

Psychotherapy, suicide and foreseeable risks of decompensation by the vulnerable.

J Law Med. 2011 Mar;18(3):467-77.

Freckelton I.

Source

Crockett Chambers, Melbourne, Australia. I.Freckelton@vicbar.com.au

Abstract

Utilising the findings and recommendations in a 2010 coronial inquest in New South Wales into the death of Rebekah Lawrence, a person who had recently completed a personal development course incorporating confronting techniques of regression, run by persons without formal psychotherapeutic skills, this column scrutinises issues arising in relation to unregistered therapies.

The evidentiary bases upon which coronial findings of suicide can be made are also examined, along with the effects of the ancient presumption against findings of suicide. In addition, the existence of regulatory controls, as recommended by the New South Wales Deputy State Coroner, are discussed.

The grim conclusion arrived at is that the potential exists for further deaths of vulnerable people in the aftermath of the wielding of powerful psychological techniques by persons ill equipped to do so and to identify and respond to the sequelae of their therapies.

*pagination by blogger

Retrieved 02/04/12.

 

Dissociative Identity Disorders Treatment Facility: The Center: art, play & traditional therapy

The Center: art, play, & traditional therapy

Oaklyn, New Jersey, USA

The Center is a cooperative of mental health clinicians with their own private practices.

We recognize the importance of a safe therapeutic environment for our clients as well as for ourselves. We respect and value differences and the uniqueness of each clients and so support a variety of modalities to allow clients a choice for effective therapeutic process.

We, as the cooperative The Center, are committed to creating and maintaining an environment that models healthy living skills, promotes self-awareness, embraces acceptance and accountability, and stimulates the creative healing process in all of us.

Other services:

• supervision for licensure
• peer supervision
• workshops
• groups
• lectures and seminars at no cost.

Board Members

• Alexandra Block MA, ATR-BC, LPC
• Nancy MacGregor MA, ATR-BC, LPC
• Mary O’Neill MEd, LPC
• Michele Rattigan MA, ATR-BC, LPC, NCC

Additional Clinicians

• John Bishop, Ph.D., M.S.W.
• Amy Salmon Kasten, MSS, LCSW
• Mindy Jacobson-Levy MA, ATR-BC, LPC
• Nancy Patten-Kline, DO
• Aaron Pollock PsyD, LPC
• Sue Worthington-Duffy, MA, ATR-BC

http://www.thecenteraptt.com

LPC – Licensed Professional Counselor, United States

MSW – Master of Social Work, United States

ATR-BC – Art Therapist Registered – Board Certified, United States,

NCC – National Certified Counselor, United States

MA – Master of Arts, United States

Retrieved 02/04/12.

 

Dissociative Identity Disorder Organization: PODS (Positive Outcomes for Dissociative Survivors)

PODS (Positive Outcomes for Dissociative Survivors)

HUNTINGDON Cambridgeshire United Kingdom, England

Works to make recovery from dissociative disorders a reality through: training, informing, and supporting.

PODS is supported by a Registered Charity called START (Survivors Trauma and Abuse Recovery Trust).

Retrieved 02/04/12. info@pods-online.org.uk

 

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) Treatment Center: Art B 4 Words

Art Before Words

Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, USA

Individual and group art psychotherapy treatment utilizing expressive techniques such as sandtray therapy, a projective tool involving the creation of stories with figures and objects with sand, is one such modality. The visual stories are talked about in depth, much like an art rendering, and the relevance to one’s personal life is subsequently explored.

Mindy Jacobson-Levy, MCAT, ATR-BC, LPC, credentialed member of the American Art Therapy Association (1976 – present), the Delaware Valley Art Therapy Association (1976 – present), International Society for the Study of Dissociation (1985 – present), and National Eating Disorders Association (2004 – present).

http://www.artb4words.co

Retrieved 02/02/12.

 

If Human Brains are Slow to Wire, How Can Early Memories be Accurate?

Image via Wikipedia

 Human Brains Wire Up Slowly but Surely

by Jon Cohen on 1 February 2012, 6:00 PM |

Synaptic division. Compared with chimpanzees, human children slowly wire their brains.

Credit: Fotosearch

” … a key feature of our brains that sets us apart from our closest relatives: We unhurriedly make synaptic connections through much of our early childhoods, and this plasticity enables us to slowly wire our brains based on our experiences. … Now a study that looks at postmortem brain samples from humans, chimpanzees, and macaques collected from before birth to up to the end of the life span for each of these species has found a key difference in the expression of genes that control the development and function of synapses, the connections among neurons through which information flows.

As researchers describe in a report published online today in Genome Research, they analyzed the expression of some 12,000 genes—part of the so-called transcriptome—from each species. They found 702 genes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of humans that had a pattern of expression over time that differed from the two other species. (The PFC plays a central role in social behavior, working toward goals, and reasoning.) By comparison, genes in the chimpanzee PFC at various life stages had only 55 unique expression patterns—12-fold fewer than found in humans.

Retrieved 02/04/12. Full Story http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/02/human-brains-wire-up-slowly-but-.html?ref=hp

~~~~~~~~~~

Could this be why memory researchers claim that the human brain in unable to physically create memories until age 3-ish? If the connections our brains need to send information are slow to mature, how can a memory from the cradle be accurate?

If the professions of psychotherapy and psychiatry look to science and refuse to accept biological facts about how the human brain develops, what does that say about supporting psychotherapy aimed at helping clients/patients remember events in their lives that our brains are incapable of making? Will facts about the human brain stop psychotherapists from encouraging clients to do the impossible?

Will brain research help patients choose science-based mental health treatment?

 

 

 

FDA talks, but doctors don’t necessarily listen

Image via Wikipedia

By Tracy Staton

Poor FDA. It takes flak every time a drug spawns unexpected side effects. But when it tries to warn doctors about those side effects–and offers advice for preventing them–few physicians are listening. As AMedNews reports, researchers looked at 16 drugs that got new label warnings or were mentioned in “Dear Doctor” letters from 1990 to 2010. And they found that doctors’ behavior often changed very little after those cautionary tales were told.

When the FDA recommended that patients using atypical antipsychotics–such as Eli Lilly’s Zyprexa* and AstraZeneca’s Seroquel–be monitored for signs of diabetes, rates of blood-sugar testing in those patients didn’t increase, AMedNews reports. When the agency repeatedly warned against combining the acid-reflux remedy Propulsid with the blood-pressure pill Atacand, prescribing habits didn’t change for 18 months.

Retrieved 02/03/12. Full Story: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/1354421284358d9a

*font change by blogger

 

Big Pharma Downsizes as Generic Drugs Hit Market

Gloom for pharma industry, yes. Doom? No.

By Tracy Staton

“AstraZeneca’s layoffs announcement yesterday touched off more than its share of hand-wringing. It may be a straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back case; this shedding of 7,300 jobs follows a spate of payroll-cutting news from Novartis , Sanofi, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Takeda Pharmaceutical, and more. And it adds to

Large Glass Pill Bottle (Photo credit: VCU Libraries)

AstraZeneca’s already daunting total of 21,000-plus since 2007.”

…. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry felt the need to issue a statement: No, AstraZeneca’s job cuts don’t signal doom for the U.K. pharma industry. …

…companies have either diversified into related businesses–eye care, consumer health–or broadened their geographic reach, or brought in promising new products, or all of the above. Those who haven’t moved into other businesses have focused more tightly on their cores. Most have put more effort into specialty drugs, even meds targeted at very small, genetically selected populations.

Retrieved 02/03/12. Full Story https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/1354421284358d9a

 

When Misinformation is Used to Distract the Need for Safe Mental Health Care

What can be gained by offering people misinformation about mental health care? What happens when disinformation – the intentional spreading of information that is not true – is used against people who publish research, make statements, or voice opinions we don’t agree with?

We all suffer. This behavior divides people. It stokes the fires of hate. It distracts people from issues. It causes tempers to flare and emotions to rise. It incites violence. It deepens rage.

So why do people do it? That is not a question I can answer.

When emotions are high and deeply-ingrained belief systems challenged, it is all too easy to lapse into character assassinations and lose sight of why we are distressed about what we read. The option to argue our point of view, or critique what was written, falls by the wayside.  We become distracted, once again, from the issues and offer a pathway to misdirected emotions, rage, and hate that elevate misunderstandings that do anything but unite us.

So why do people misquote others for personal gain? What is the motivation behind this type of behavior? What good can come of it?

I assume we all want the availability of health care that is safe & effective. It matters not what school of thought we choose to support  – we want proper care for ourselves, our friends, and our family members. I hope too, we want the same for others.

Whether or not we agree with someone’s personal choices for their mental health care or a particular type of therapy, it is in everyone’s best interest to ensure that the care available is safe and effective, and provided by educated and trained providers.

Unfortunately, safe and effective treatment is not always on the market. There are few regulations on mental health care treatments and even less on those who want to call themselves practitioners and treat patients. Heck, anyone can call themselves a psychotherapist and bring in clients if they so choose.

What happens when psychotherapy is dangerous? How do we evaluate therapy to find out if it is effective?

When psychotherapy, such as that for dissociative identity disorder and multiple personalities, has shown over and over and over that it can be harmful, and is known to have taken the lives of many women and destroyed countless families – it needs to be taken off the market.

How do we protect ourselves as mental health consumers? We educate, we learn, and we listen. Self-education, however, goes far beyond reading books, research articles, and pouring over medical journals. How many times have we done that only to find the best information came from the people next door or from conversations we come across on the Internet?

It boggles my mind that mental health care practices are largely unregulated – or should I say they are somewhat regulated, but not enforced. Medical infractions occur and ethical boundaries are pushed every day. But how often do you read about a psychotherapist being chastised by colleagues or professional organizations for wrongdoing? Rarely. How often do psychotherapists go to jail for physically and/or emotionally harming a patient? Even more rare.

The women I know personally, who died during treatment for multiple personalities and/or dissociative identity disorder don’t seem to be changing the views of those who claim to diagnose and treat it – this precious loss of life during psychotherapy also does not seem to deter women from buying the exact same therapy that killed.

There isn’t more to say; we either bond together and demand safe and effective mental health care, or we continue to have slip-shot psychotherapies that have the potential to do grave harm. Unless we dampen the impulse to distract each other from the real issue – safe medical care – and ignore the impulse to use misinformation and disinformation when we disagree with someone, the current sloppy care and oversight will continue.

Hopefully, it won’t be on you.

 

Brain Waves Show Our Thoughts or Multiple Personalitiy Switches?

Science decodes ‘internal voices’

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News: Science & Environment

 31 January 2012

“Researchers have demonstrated a striking method to reconstruct words, based on the brain waves of patients thinking of those words.

The technique relies on gathering electrical signals directly from patients’ brains.

Based on signals from listening patients, a computer model was used to reconstruct the sounds of words that patients were thinking of.

With the help of that model, when patients were presented with words to think about, the team was able to guess which word the participants had chosen.Mindy McCumber responds: “As a therapist, I can see potential implications for the restoration of communication for a wide range of disorders”.

Retrieved 02/03/12. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16811042?print=true

~~~~~~~~~~

Are researchers who claim to detect multiple personalities changes actually tracking our high-brain functioning  that reflects our thoughts instead?

 

Science fair project on multiple personalities awards teenager with attendence at support conference

The Commercial Appeal: Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group

Memphis, Tennessee, USA

• By Chris Van Tuyl
• Posted January 27, 2012 at midnight

Erin Ellis is a 14-year-old with a weighty topic she’ll be carrying first to Florida and then to Oxford.

By virtue of winning fourth place in her category at the Lewisburg Middle School Science Fair, Erin, an eighth-grader, and a good number of her classmates will advance to the next stage of competition — namely, a trip to the Mississippi Science and Engineering Region 7 Fair at Ole Miss in March.

With her topic of dissociation, she will attend An Infinite Mind’s “Healing Together,” an educational and support conference on dissociative identity disorder,

Marlene Steinberg, who wrote “The Stranger in the Mirror: Dissociation — The Hidden Epidemic,” will also be in Florida.

Retrieved 010/30/12 Full Story:  © 2012 Memphis Commercial Appeal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,

I’ve been reporting on the rise in teenagers involvement with dissociative identity disorder – more commonly called multiple personalities, for quite some time. In those incidences, the increase in teen involvement was from the I-might-have-other-personalities point of view that is discussed Internet chat rooms. This is the first instance I’ve seen where a teenage child is gearing up to make the study of multiple personalities her career.

          Erin Ellis, age 14, was rewarded for her science-fair project with a trip to Lake Buena Vista, FL  for the An Infinite Mind’s “Healing Together” conference where Dr. Marlene Steinberg, co-author of Stranger in the Mirror: Dissociation – The Hidden Epidemic, published in 2001. Slated to attend the conference, Steinberg has a unique opportunity to make a lifelong impression on the 14 year old. Steinberg’s book, in my opinion, is a how-to publication on developing multiple personalities.

           A 14 year-old-child rubbing shoulders with the likes of Dr. Steinberg who enjoys status in the DID community, will undoubtedly find Erin star-struck. A second trip, one to Oxford University in England, was also awarded.

          This unfortunate recruitment of children who cannot adequately judge or critically examine the issues & controversies surrounding dissociative identity disorder/multiple personalities have a particular vulnerability to influence.

The next generation of researchers and proponents of the diagnosis of multiple personalities is born.

Science fair project on multiple personalities awards teenager with attendence at support conference by Jeanette Bartha is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com.

 

Risk Analysis: Tips for Health Care Practitioners

By Eric Nelson, CIPP, Director, Breach Prevention | May 3, 2011

Additional information can be found at the US Department of Health and Human Services Web site (http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/srsummary.html).

Any health care practitioner who collects, manages, and stores patient information faces the risk that his or her data may be lost, misused, or accessed by or disclosed to unauthorized individuals. While technology (eg, encryption) may provide some level of protection, it is only one component of an effective security program.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security and Privacy Rules apply to all covered entities, regardless of size, and require the implementation of administrative, technical, and physical safeguards. The first step, and required under the Security Rule–Administrative Safeguards, is to perform a risk analysis. The HIPAA risk analysis requirement specifically states:

Although the Security Rule applies only to electronic health information, the Privacy Rule requires safeguarding any type or medium of protected health information (PHI). Steps to perform a risk analysis are:

1. Identify the information that your practice collects, manages, and shares. 

2. Identify third-party risks.

3. Identify and document potential threats and vulnerabilities. 

4. Assess security measures, policies, and procedures.

5. Determine the level of risk and potential impact of threats.

Finally, risk analysis is not a one-time exercise. …it is an ongoing process …

Retrieved 1/24/12.

 

Journal of Behavioral Neuroscience: Memory modulation

Image via Wikipedia

Roozendaal, Benno;McGaugh, James L.

          Our memories are not all created equally strong: Some experiences are well remembered while others are remembered poorly, if at all.

          Research on memory modulation investigates the neurobiological processes and systems that contribute to such differences in the strength of our memories.

          Extensive evidence from both animal and human research indicates that emotionally significant experiences activate hormonal and brain systems that regulate the consolidation of newly acquired memories.

          These effects are integrated through noradrenergic activation of the basolateral amygdala that regulates memory consolidation via interactions with many other brain regions involved in consolidating memories of recent experiences.

          Modulatory systems not only influence neurobiological processes underlying the consolidation of new information, but also affect other mnemonic processes, including memory extinction, memory recall, and working memory.

          In contrast to their enhancing effects on consolidation, adrenal stress hormones impair memory retrieval and working memory. Such effects, as with memory consolidation, require noradrenergic activation of the basolateral amygdala and interactions with other brain regions.  Pages 797-824

retrieved 1/24/12.

 

Kuwaiti gets life in prision: multiple personality excuse

Kuwaiti gets life in jail for stabbing, killing 2 friends

Arab Times

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 25:  “The Court of First Instance, presided over by Judge Hani Hamdan, sentenced a Kuwaiti to life in prison and fined him KD 5,001 for killing his two friends in one of the victims’ diwaniya*.”

Due to “converting from Sunni to Shiite.

A psychiatric report was also submitted to the investigators, stating the accused is suffering from multiple personality disorder and he has been undergoing treatment for the last six months.”

Retrieved 1/27/12. Kuaiti gets life in jail for stabbing 2 friends

The Dewaniya, mistakenly and commonly called Diwaniya, has existed in Kuwait since time immemorial. In the old City of Kuwait it was the reception area where a man received his business colleagues and male guests. Today the term refers both to a reception hall and the gathering held in it, and visiting or hosting a dewaniya is an indispensable feature of a Kuwaiti man’s social life. Some claims that the term originally referred to the section of a bedouin tent where the menfolk and their visitors sat apart from the family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewaniya Retrieved 1/27/12.

 

I’m Sick and Scared: Take care of me Doc!

Thinking it was the doctor’s job and responsibility to take of me when I took ill with depression was the biggest mistake I’ve made in my life. This naivete and uneducated belief nearly cost me my life. But it didn’t, and here I am talking to you.

I’m not alone in this type of irrational thinking. Most of us believe doctors know what to do.Why is that? If we take a raw look at people who choose to become medical doctors, we would see they are just like us – perhaps with more education but sometimes, that’s as far as it goes.

Doctors, too, have arguments with spouses before leaving for work, some sit at the office daydreaming of fishing or skiing and don’t want to hear one… more… person … , they get stuck in traffic and curse their way into the parking lot like all of us do from time to time. Oh, you do that every day? Ever think it may have been a medical doctor in a hurry who cut you off in traffic because he didn’t want to get out of a warm cozy bed and jump into the shower? Sometimes, our doctors are simply in a bad mood.

Doctors cannot be human  like us because we want reassurance and comfort when we are sick, vulnerable, and needy. To sustain hope and irrational beliefs that doctors are not like us, we need to believe irrational things about normal, human behavior. What we do is place doctors in a category that doesn’t exist – that of non-person – all knowing – The Healer.

Take a moment and reflect on the numerous doctors and nurses that passed through your life. Got those faces in your mind? OK, go back further. How about the pediatrician, if you are fortunate to have had health care when a child. That person is usually our first encounter with medical care, doctor’s offices, hospitals, medication, and needles – oh my!

My pediatrician was a blast. He was a plump, middle-aged white man who was fun to be around. He traveled to Africa with a big gun, rode jeeps on safaris, and brought back treasures that he scattered throughout his office. He often sat on an elephant foot made into a stool (I know, bad, bad) because traveling through Africa brought him excitement and pleasure and undoubtedly got him through many a rough Monday morning. Photographs on the walls and pictures tucked randomly under the glass-top of his desk captured his adventures and captivated my imagination.

I learned to trust doctors at an early age and did not develop a healthy skepticism or the knowledge that I was in charge. I was not afraid of “white coats” worn by nurses and doctors. Those white-coated men and women were interesting, exciting, and wanted help me feel better.

Here I am decades and decades older and yes, wiser, though it took the threat of dying to bring me to this point. I’m wiser and educated after my encounter with mental health care doctors and nurses whom I should not have trusted blindly. My childhood experiences with medical care was positive, why would I think mental health treatment would be anything but helpful?

I was almost dead wrong.

Here’s an example of what I experienced recently:  I went to a doctor for a follow-up appointment. The only way that doctor could have been more disinterested in me as a person, and more careless with me as a patient, is to have not shown up at all. Her behavior was a total reversal of what I experienced months earlier. So different was her manner and attitude, that I went home and looked through my files (yes, I have files on my doctors and you should too) to make sure she was the same person I saw previously. I was sure I mistook her for someone else, but I didn’t. Her behavior was deplorable. I left the office, disregarded her medical advise, went home, called her boss and made a complaint, then promptly fired her from my medical team.

This particular doctor, a woman just like me, no longer fit in the health care team I painstakingly crafted over many years; so I fired her.

That, my friends, is being proactive about my health care. I am my doctor’s employer. I am not a needy patient blindly trusting a Doc to take care of me! I now oversee my own health care and take responsibility for those I hire to be on my team.

I hope you do too.

 

Illinois, USA: Govenor Pushes to Close Mental Health Facilities

The facts on Quinn’s plan to close mental health facilities

By CHRISTOPHER WILLS

The Associated Press

Last Modified: Jan 24, 2012 02:09AM

SPRINGFIELD —

“Gov. Pat Quinn is launching a major push to move mentally ill and disabled people out of institutions and into communities. That means big changes for hundreds of people in state care, economic blows to the towns where facilities will be closed and turmoil for the government employees losing their jobs.

Most advocates for the disabled back the plan but wonder whether sick or disabled people will get the necessary care in group homes or living with their families. Others wonder why the Jacksonville Developmental Center and the Tinley Park Mental Health Center are first on the list to close.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Upon first glance, it seems that the people of Illinois are more concerned about job loss and state budgets than the welfare of mentally ill and developmentally disabled people.

The article says that Governor Quinn refuses to release rankings of mental health facilities in the state, yet he says the facilities that scored the worst regarding the condition of the buildings and the economic impact on the community are first on his list of reasoning. But is that a truthful statement?

The Associated Press says, “Some critics accuse Quinn of trying to balance the state budget on the backs of disabled people.” It is predicted that “closing the Jacksonville and Tinley Park facilities will save about $20 million ..”

It is argued that the cost of keeping a patient in a facility is much higher than housing that patient in a community setting.

There appears to be a growing push and pull between advocates, families, and state budgetary needs in the future for Illinois.

Retrieved 1/25/12  Full Story http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/news/10193266-418/the-facts-on-quinns-plan-to-close-mental-health-facilities.html

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The Same Old Elephant ..by Richard Kluft, MD,PhD

Available online: 24 Jan 2012

Journal of Trauma & Dissociation

Abstract

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will

be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

T. S. Eliot (Little Gidding, 1971)

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry folks, this is all the abstract states on the Journal of Trauma & Dissociation web page. This article is by Richard Kluft, MD who is a prolific writer & researcher about multiple personalities and dissociative identity disorder since the mid 1980s.

This scant abstract let’s us know nothing. Article for purchase $36 US dollars. How’s that for easy access to information?

Got money?

 

Journal of Health Psychology calling for papers on health disparity

Health Psychology special series on health disparities.

By Kazak, Anne E.;Bosch, Jos;Klonoff, Elizabeth A.

Health Psychology, Vol 31(1), Jan 2012, 1-4.

Abstract

With the initiation of this new ongoing special series in Health Psychology on health disparities*, we will publish articles that highlight ways in which health psychology can contribute to understanding and ameliorating these disparities.

We welcome articles for this new special series and anticipate the submission of manuscripts across the full spectrum of topics related to health psychology and health disparities. Retrieved 1/24/12.

* The condition or fact of being unequal, as in age, rank, or degree; difference

from dictionary.com

 

The Use of Distraction to Keep Women in Psychotherapy

Why oh why do women need to discredit people who expose the horrors of the psychology machine that sweeps up women and spits them out like spent chewing gum? Why do I still read passionately written slams about organizations and researchers who are vilified for their opinions because they criticize unpopular beliefs?

Thankfully, I was never sexually abused. Yet I once believed I was. If I was treated & coaxed to remember events of sexual abuse that never happened in the year 1998 instead of 1986, I am sure I would be one of those women slamming anything and everything I thought was against me. Being a social activist, I would probably wage a campaign to expose the people or organizations I thought were trying to silence my voice when I had every right (and responsibility) to cry out screaming – I’ve been injured in the most vicious manner – sexually abused as a child!

Image via Wikipedia

There would, however, be one difference with how I would handle my rage  – I’d read about organizations & people before hurling misinformation. I would not want to be wrong. I did the same thing when I thought I was sexually abused – I waited and searched for the one memory that would tell me I was right. I never found that pure memory and instead, found my psychiatrist was wrong.

If remaining in therapy through 2012, I too, might be stuck in Internet forums and groups where like-minded people congregate to express thoughts and feelings they once again think no one wants to hear. I too, might believe some organizations and bloggers like me were here for one purpose – to silence me, to make fun at me, or to lie about why I was sick.

But I wasn’t treated in 1996, or 2000, or 2012 – I dodged another psychiatric bullet. I am thankful beyond words. I was treated before home computers were a means of expression and an anonymous vehicle to hurl misdirected anger and hate. I was lucky because there was no way I could stay entrenched in therapy unless I was a member of a face-to face group in a brick-n-mortar building. A real place with real people rather than a virtual place with anonymous people most of whom I would never meet.

I find the state of psychology and how it continues to steal women’s lives from them a deeply sad situation. Vulnerable people have nowhere to turn for help – we all turn to medicine and medical personnel to help us through rough times in our lives. If we need an operation – we go to surgeons. When we need a limb set, we see a orthopedist. But turning to mental health care providers is a crap shoot at best. But most people don’t know that when they knock on the door with a professional looking name on it. A therapists’ room can be a sinister place to hang one’s coat and cozy up to a person to listen and learn.

The misdirected rage I encounter concerns me.

I think some women don’t know where else to direct hurt and anger especially when feeling the world is against them. That rage and discontent should rightfully be directed at the psychology industry and the psychiatric nonsense that made women into mere shells of their previous selves. Psychological theories made many believe they needed to, once again, turn to psychiatrists for answers. Women took to the couch as they did for Freud thinking and believing he had all the insight and answers. It was the few who figured out that Dr. Freud was making it up as he went along using women to test psychological theories that he later recanted.

Women are still on the couch although the original therapist is long gone – gone to analyze similar behaviors and re-name them. Many mental health care providers now treat eating disorders & borderline personality disorder with all the fervor they once treated multiple personalities – which, due to political pressure had to be renamed and redefined. Yet it remains multiple personality disorder no matter how many times the name changes.

Anger gets misdirected as evidenced by this blog and the topics I write about and the hateful comments left over and over again. I am a conduit for rage and hate. I am not against women who survived horrendous sexual violence – that is a ridiculous notion yet it exists.

The misdirected anger at me, anger at organizations, anger at books & authors, anger at anything outside of ones self accomplishes one huge goal. Distraction. It changes the topic and makes something outside of the human psyche the problem and makes the therapist and other women with similar beliefs the saviors. If one is vested in fighting perceived threats from the outside and immersed in protecting the physical and psychic self there is little time and energy to look at those closer to home as a reason to keep one sick and needy.

It reminds me of the strategies of politics currently displayed in United States presidential campaigns. Distract. Distract, distort, and redirect. The tactic is quite simple and elementary. And, it’s there for one reason – it works.

The Use of Distraction to Keep Women in Psychotherapy by Jeanette Bartha is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Where Are Your Psychiatric Meds Manfactured?

Think the United States Food & Drug Administration (the FDA) has your back and is keeping your psychiatric medications safe? Inspections & safety are two basic functions of the FDA, but what’s really been going on?

Image via Wikipedia

Let’s take a look.

Both the American Scientist, an illustrated bimonthly magazine about science and technology & Miller-McCune an online magazine on current academic research addressing pressing social concerns, reported the following this week:

• up to 40% of medical drugs are manufactured outside the US
• the FDA visits only 11% of 3,765 (or 414) of foreign factories
• it takes 2-5 years to follow up on citations on drug manufacturing plants that have safety complaints on file.
• and there’s more

Patients in the United States receive prescriptions from their psychiatrist or general practitioner for drugs manufactured outside US borders. At best, they are minimally inspected. Is that OK with you?

The leading drug manufacturer is China, followed by India & Canada.

http://mmc-podcasts.s3.amazonaws.com/Miller-McCune-MedicineCabinet.pdf

Have an opinion about these facts?

Be proactive & make your voice heard: Talk to your mental health care provider and ask them if they know where the drugs they prescribe are manufactured. Ask them what their medical opinion is on this fact.*

If you don’t like what you hear, speak up!

Educate yourself, inform your family & friends, be aware.

Pdf retrieved 01.13.12.

*This blog is not a substitute for medical advise. Talk to your physician regarding your mental health care.

Where Are Your Psychiatric Meds Manfactured? by Jeanette Bartha is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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General Discussions: Multiple Personalities & Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Got something you want to say but don’t know where to post it?

We have interesting discussions on this blog that often go off topic & then get buried under a blog heading that you may miss because the title isn’t of interest – but our conversations may be.

This area is for general discussions – a forum of sorts.

This is an experiment. Let’s see how it works & if you find it useful?

Thank you (each of you) for coming here to read, chat, or make comments. I am fortunate to be engaged with interesting people & their opinions every day.

Best. Jeanette

 

 

 

 

Lack of Scientific Training

by Fred Pauser January 26 at 4:11pm

Hi Jeanett,  First, I want you to know I’m on your side. You were a victim of Recovered Memory Therapy who has come to see the truth. What you have to say on the matter is important.

Thanks for the recommendation of Mistakes Were Made, by Carol Tavris. She is a *scientific* psychologist, unlike many psychiatrists, and unlike all recovered memory therapists. I have read two of her books: The Mismeasure of Woman, and, Anger. Both very excellent books, Carol is terrific! I had already purchased Mistakes Were Made some time ago, but it has been sitting here unread — if I had realized that it has so much about recovered memory therapy in it I would have read it long ago. Due to your hint, I read the pertinent section today (pp. 93-126).

In regard to your comment about therapists being able to get credentials in a weekend: I see where you may have picked that up. Carol alluded to a weekend course that individuals passing themselves off as lawyers may take (p. 103). She then implies that something similar occurs in clinical psychology. In 1995 I was living in Seattle. At that time anyone could obtain a business license at city hall and then put out a shingle calling themselves a psychotherapist. David Calof was one such “therapist” — a recovered memory therapist with NO college degrees. He also published a magazine for “professional therapists” called Treating Abuse Today, a real pseudoscientific rag. I happened to get a copy from a therapist friend. Since I was already science minded, I could easily see that it was full of nonsense. I came to know some of the falsely accused parents in Seattle including Chuck Noah who used to actually picket the offices of certain therapists with signs. That’s how I got involved fighting recovered memory therapy and associated extensions. I did not picket, but, for example, I wrote an article exposing the nonsensical nature of certain of Calof’s articles in Treating Abuse Today.

In the state of Washington the time when one can do as Calof did, has long passed. Heavy credentials are required to practice there as a clinical psychologist. In many states I think a Ph.D is required (or an MD for psychiatry). I think that these days a person would be taking a big chance trying to practice psychotherapy with false of no credentials — certainly in NJ. I did a quick search on the internet to see if there are any states that do NOT require certification and heavy education requirements, and did not come up with any, but my search was superficial — maybe there are such states (but I doubt it nowadays).

The movie, “Sybil,” came out in 1976. I’m a bit off to say that recovered memories and multiple personalities “took off” after that. I should say they *started* to take off after that, but I guess did not really become pervasive until the mid or late 80s.

I am quite surprised that you did not acknowledge that one of the basic causes of the fiasco of recovered memory therapy is a *lack of scientific training.* Carol really emphasizes that in her book. Even in the case of psychiatrists, who she says, “still learn almost nothing about psychology or about the questioning, skeptical essence of science” (p. 103). Psychiatrists learn Freudian psychoanalysis, which unfortunately is pretty unscientific. And clinical psychologists are also given a pass on scientific training in college, Tavris points out. And I hasten to add, Carol does not get much into the reasons for that. I submit it has to do with the pervasiveness of the philosophy/ideology of *Postmodernism* in academia during the 70s-90s at least. There are several dovetailing causes behind the advent and phenomenon of recovered memory therapy/multiple personalities.

Another contributing factor was the influence of the feminist movement. As Carol pointed out, clinicians such a feminist Judith Herman felt they “were doing important work raising public awareness of rape, child abuse, incest, and domestic violence” (p.120). For more insight about the effects of feminism on psychotherapy, I suggest Christina Hoff Sommer’s excellent book, Who Stole Feminism.

The biggest cause behind the whole mess is the lack of training in science and scientific methodology. As Carol points out, even those with all the required degrees and proper certification may lack it. I suggest that scientific training for clinical psychologists/psychotherapists and psychiatrists is of the utmost importance!!

Reprinted by permission from my Facebook page: Jeanette Bartha

 

Teens & Multiple Personalties

The Internet has made it simple for teens and college students to have access to misguided information about multiple personalities & dissociative identity disorder. According to what proponents believe, there is a lot of information available regarding symptomatology and the lifestyles of multiples on hundreds of websites, blogs, chat room, forums, and discussion boards.

Our youth are reading up on multiple personalities and then developing symptoms that mimic what they are reading about  -  then they begin to believe they have signs or evidence of multiplicity. The phenomenon is spreading through high schools as is the behaviors associated with it like cutting themselves, spacing out, claiming to lose time, and believing they have other entities in their mind.

Unfortunately, these impressionable young people do not realize that this disorder is not cool and doesn’t actually exist. In addition, there is scant information on the Internet reporting the destructive nature of this bogus mental malady that is guaranteed to decrease their ability mature and learn to live productive lives. Unwittingly they are self-educating themselves about learned helplessness and taking steps to become a lifelong pseudo-mental patient.

What occurs over time, if these teens are followed through chat rooms and  discussion forums, is that their behavior becomes increasing erratic, chaotic and self-destructive as their stability and tender sense of self begins to unravel, often in ways that agree with what they are reading in social networking sites. Teens do not realize the depth and breadth of the road they have embarked upon and their parents are often stunned when they discover that their child thinks they have alter personalities and may be cutting themselves to cope – just like their new friends do.

Teens are influencing each other and the belief in multiple personalities in some school districts seems to be a popular epidemic.

Teens & Multiple Personalties by www.jeanettebartha.wordpress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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“The Pinocchio Papers” once known as the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DMS)

Now in it’s fifth revision, the once useful Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is now more of a political banner than a scientific document.

Harboring misinformation and politics that mislead mental health care consumers and professionals alike, the DSM’s lies & deceit grow continuously – resembling the nose of the infamous puppet, Pinocchio*, more than a scientific text whose binder is expanding with knowledge.

If Pinoccio’s nose grew longer with every lie, is the DSM-V more voluminous for similar reasons?

Stay tuned.

*Pinocchio a character in an Italian children’s story that was later made into a cartoon film. Pinocchio is a wooden puppet who at the end of the story comes alive as a real boy. At one point in the story, Pinocchio’s nose grows longer when he tells lies. People sometimes mention the idea of someone’s nose growing longer to mean that someone is lying. Retrieved 1/08/12. idoceonline.com

“The Pinocchio Papers” by Jeanette Bartha is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Can Psychotherapists Be Predators Too?

Not a topic I’ve ever read about, so let’s put it on the table.

I wonder about psychotherapists who spend days, weeks, months, and years constantly probing the minds of their patients (with multiple personalities) about  horrific sexual abuse memories. That’s a difficult way to make a living and a difficult living to make for the patient. If someone has say, 10 personalities, that’s a lot of stories, and a lot of sex scenes to remember and reveal and to then process and recover from. Why doesn’t the well of sexually explicit details of child sex abuse ever bottom out? Why is the breadth and depth of similar details from several alters important for the therapist to hear, yet again? Does each personality really have to remember every tiny detail about sex organs and what most would categorize as perverted sex acts of every event int their childhood in order to get well? For every personality? I think not.

Let’s peek into a typical therapy session like those I experienced:  Two adults enter a room. The person in a position of trust and holding the authority may be a man, may be a woman. One may be twisting his beard absentmindedly, the other may be holding a teddy bear. The initial two adults have vanished and now there is one adult and the other person in the room might be a child alter, a mad alter, a scared alter, or anyone within the spectrum of multiplicity. We won’t know until the patient speaks, makes behavioral clues that let us know which personality has entered the session, or the therapist requests to speak to a particular alter.

Then the conversations begin again. Stories about sex, talks about sex, every day. Sex, sex, sex.  Most of it perverted sex that most humans would not willingly participate. Then the patient is encouraged to abreact, or re-experience the feelings from that time. More pornographic details are revealed to the therapist, writings of different alters penned in different handwriting or colors are shared, drawings and poems written by the patient are shown to the therapist. At what point does the therapist stop being a helper and become just another voyeuristic perpetrator?

Can Psychotherapists Be Predators Too? by Jeanette Bartha is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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