First Person Plural, My Life As A Multiple

[Lotus]

First Person Plural, by Cameron West, Ph.D., copyright 1999.

West describes his difficult journey of rejecting his DID diagnoses and what it took for him to accept it. He suffered CSA. His story inspired me and helped me understand DID much more than I had in the past.

[Beachlady]

Hi Lotus,

I don't think we've "met" but hi and welcome....

I read and own and love this book!!!!
Have you read other memoirs you particularly liked??

Beachlady

[Lotus]

Hello Beachlady,

Nice to meet you. It's great to get to talk to someone who has read this book! It taught me so much about acceptance. I also learned how a professional who think's outside the box with healing tools can make a huge impact on a clients progress. Like when that Dr in the book videotaped Cameron West switching personalities, and how that became Cameron's breakthrough moment when he could no longer deny his parts existence. His healing took off at that point! God bless him - What a journey he endured as so many of us have.

I mentioned 2 other books (It's OK to Tell & Prisoner of Another War) in this forum. They are both survivor stories and they both helped me. I feel empowered when I read about other survivor's stories, and I feel less alone with my pain. All the parallels we share just floor me.

Do you know of any other books on childhood trauma survivor's stories?

Blessings,
Lotus

[Beachlady]

Hi Lotus,

It's great to talk to you too as someone else familiar with this book!! I so admire his persistence, and the amazing support and care his wife gave him in his healing. I saw an interview with them recently on Oprah's network, and I was so excited to get to see them talk about their experience.
I know of several other memoirs.
Of course, the classic When Rabbit Howls by Truddi Chase for the Troops; it's quite triggring but also very very good and she was an amazing woman (she died in 2010).
There's a pretty old (I think 1987) but very very good one When You're Ready: A Woman's Healing from Childhood Physical and Sexual Abuse by Her Mother by Kathy Evert; Inie Bijkerk (her therapist) wrote the forward.
Scream Louder is another one, by Marsha Utain, also in the late 1980's (I think 1989). It's another one co-written with her therapist.
A more recent one another survivor friend led me to that's excellent and really quite lyrical is The River of Forgetting by Jane Rowan, published in 2010. She talks a lot about using arts and body based ways of healing. It's again about CSA and a little about dissociation, though not DID.
One I absolutely love is The Magic Daughter: A Memoir of Living with Multiple Personality Disorder by Jane Phillips, published in 1995. It's very recovery focused, less memory recounting to deal with, and she's got a lovely sense of humor and strength - very good one.

Happy reading to you
Beachlady

[Lotus]

Hi Beachlady,

WOW!! I'm psyched to check out your book suggestions. Thanks so much. They all look very interesting. If I find any other good ones, I'll share the titles.

Healing Blessings,
Lotus

[silentlistener]

Hi Lotus,

I read this book too. It was wonderful.
I like how they handled balancing thefamily outside with internal needs.
Has anyone read Breaking Free about the NFL player?
Sl

[Lotus]

That's true about balancing boundaries with family and internal parts. i have not heard of the book you mentioned silentlistener. I love your name.

Blessings,
Lotus

[acorn]

I read this book several years ago and I really struggled with it.

[Lotus]

Dear Acorn,

I would like to hear about what you struggled with in regards to the book if your okay with that.

Blessings,
Lotus