Multiple Personalities, Multiple Disorders: Psychiatric Classification and Media Influence

by Carol S. North, Jo-Ellyn M. Ryall, Richard D. Wetzel

Book Overview

The existence and characteristics of multiple personality disorder (MPD) have been debated from the time of the first case reports in the 19th century. The dispute has never been resolved, and MPD has become the most controversial syndrome known to mental health professionals. Currently, very little balanced academic material on this disorder is available, and much of the literature aims to disprove its existence as a psychiatric disorder. In the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195080955
• ISBN13: 9780195080957
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

An intellectual blitz (blitz being good)

North, et al., do an excellent job tearing apart their opponents-- with surprisingly humble rhetoric. The science is sound, the premises are solid, and their opinions have been borne-out by time. I only wish the culture-at-large got their paws on this knowledge morsel sooner. . . or ever. The rhetoric is not just an added bonus. They needed to come at this problem with enough force to make people respect them, but also with enough gentleness, so that one might be entirely defensive to their argument if it ran counter to their ingrained thought. The rhetoric in this book should be examined and imitated by scientists, because our knowledge must be palatable before it can be swallowed! The authors should write more books.