The Family Inside: Working With the Multiple

By Doris Bryant

Book Overview

This practical book on working with multiple personality disorder demystifies MPD and redefines it as a creative and sensible way of surviving a childhood of extreme trauma and absolute powerlessness. Using Judy Kessler's own story as an example, and referring to work by Virginia Satir, Erik Erikson and Gestalt, the authors address the complex results of this survival skill and the challenges that MPD clients and their therapists face in reintegrating the shattered self.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393701425
• ISBN13: 9780393701425
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

If you're having doubts about being 'multiple'... this is the book for you.

My comments are more so directed towards those who are still struggling with just the idea of have "parts", or being "multiple": After several years of dealing with repressed memories surfacing, my therapist was trying to get me used to the idea of my having "parts" (an easier word for me to accept than 'multiple'). It took me a long time to even accept the idea, but things were increasingly happening in my head and life that was proving that it was true: I had 'parts.' Because I was struggling to accept her 'diagnosis', I asked her to suggest a book for me to read that would help me to understand what she was trying to convey. She suggested 'The Family Inside'. Not really wanting to read the book, yet feeling desperate to understand what was happening to me, I simply opened the book, letting it open to where ever it fell and began reading. It opened to somewhere in chapter 4 where it explains the different personalities of the 'parts' and their interactions with each other. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. I did not read this book from beginning to end, but hopped all over it, first reading the sections that I felt I needed that would help me to understand what I was experiencing... but, eventually reading the whole book. The truth hit me with full force as I read and saw that I could identify so closely with nearly everything in the book. I cried as I read the personal experiences in the book, because I could so closely relate to them. This book caused me to finally accept that I was 'multiple'. So, if you are in any way struggling with the idea of having 'parts' or being 'multiple', "The Family Inside" is definitely the book for you. It was for me... and I'm glad I read it (and keep referring back to it). Because of this book, I am truly on the road to recovery.

The Family Inside: Five Stars

If I were to recommend only one book on mending Dissociative Identity Disorder, this would be it. Wonderfully, thoughtfully written and helpful to therapists, individuals who experience dissociative identity, supportive others who want to understand. A full treasure chest of healing techniques. Approaches mending from a developmental and inner family systems perspective (Virginia Satir). The authors share illustrative examples of healing and integration throughout the therapeutic work from both professional and client perspectives. Absolutely stellar: this book deserves the highest rating. Concurrently, there are many books on dissociative identity that really don't convey the complexity of either dissociation or of the therapeutic mending process. This one does. There are also some books on dissociative identity that tend to sensationalize the issue or focus on detailed or graphic descriptions of horrific abuse that may or may not be applicable to all cases of DID, perhaps giving readers a less whole and layered understanding than this book can, and in this sense evading one critical core issue of Dissociative Identity: severe developmental damage in the stages of child development. This book does not underestimate the consequences of severe emotional trauma and neglect in the development of Dissociative Identity Disorder. While sexual, emotional, physical, and ritualized trauma are covered in the book, the focus is on the way trauma is processed by the developing child, and on the ways to mend those developmental fissures. Trauma forever changes a child at the moments that it is experienced, and the changes in personality structure and developmental ability that result ripple through deep waters for years afterward. This book is a gem.

a must read

As a professional treating an MPD for the first time I equipped myself with just about every book available on this topic. This book by far has been the most informative, interesting and valuable of all the material I have read. Not only did it give me insight in to the structure of the "multiple" mind but has deepened my understanding of the effects of trauma on victims in general. The narrative is presented from the perspective of the clinicians and includes theory and practical applications and from the perspective of the patient which gives the reader an inside view of the experience of a "multiple". The material is extremely well written, well organized and structured in a way that it can easily be used as a referrence for specific issues and concerns that come up during treatment (must first be read from cover to cover). I do not ordinarily read professional texts as I do novels which I cannot put down. In the case of "The Family Inside", I toted it around and read it with great interest whenever I had a free moment. A must read for anyone with an interest in this subject.

This book is wonderful.

This is the only book I've read that talks about how a multiple's system may be structured. Now I understand why my insiders rarely come out, and when they do, mostly at night. The book also discusses and recommends co-therapy -- therapy with two therapists, which I've found therapists reluctant to do, even though I've suggested it. MPD is so bewildering. I feel for the first time, after reading this book, that I finally know where to place myself and my system in the galaxy, and what my work needs to be. It makes me feel connected, just a tiny bit, to the human race, which I've been outside of my whole life.

THE MOST WONDERFUL BOOK EVER ON MPD

I am a multiple. I have read several books by the "experts", i.e. Kluft, Putnam, etc. I could't put myself into the "categories" or "time frames" and felt I wasn't making progress the way "I should". The Family Inside makes total sense to me. The authors allow a multiple her uniqueness - no two multiples are alike as no two people are alike. There are many ways I identify with Judy Kessler. Some of my alters work with "subdivisions" of themselves, as did Judy's. These are the ones that hold hurt, etc, and don't really talk. I was relieved to read this. I related to Judy's struggle in having to relate a memory over and over before it could even start to become a "memory of the past" - relating it as many times as it took. I learned that comforting the "children" is okay. It is not silly or odd to yearn for unmet childhood needs. I learned that multiples do not develop through many stages of their lives as they are too busy dissociating in order to survive. Wow, this makes plain good common sense to me. A multiple is too busy being a multiple to develop - we are most intelligent little beings who found a way to dissociate in order to survive - NOT DIE!! - we didn't have feelings - we couldn't show emotions. These are all things I knew inside but didn't know how to verbalize until I read The Family Inside. These little people still need to find their way through the lost develomental stages in order to recover. God bless Doris Bryant and Lynda Shirar for their down to earth insightful method of helping a multiple. They have a wonderful sense of what it takes to give us our lives back. I feel better about myself now. My feelings don't seem so strange - I know my feelings are me and are okay no matter how awful they are- because of this book. God bless Judy Kessler for sharing herself with me. I gave this book to my therapist - who loves it as well. I, too, am blessed with a very special therapist - she encourages US to be US and ME to be ME. I felt I had a true kindred spirit in Judy when I read her advice to those working with multiples. It takes a very dedictated person. There is no room for "screwing around". She lets therapists know what we need - what is acceptable and what isn't. They must be totally dedicated to sticking it out through the nightmare of horrors we slowly entrust to them. These authors show a well deserved respect for MPD. They project the feeling of it being a priviledge to work with a multiple. Thank you for the best book ever on MPD. I would love to write directly to Judy and Doris.