Haddock - The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook

The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook

Deborah Bray Haddock,
M.Ed., M.A., L.P

Foreword by James A. Chu, M.D.

Copyright 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-150726-4
MHID: 0-07-150726-4

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-73-730394-0, MHID: 0-73-730394-8.

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To Milt

Wethe community of those who study, treat, or live with dissociative disordershave been waiting for this book for a long time. The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook is a welcome new addition to the growing literature on the treatment of persons with multiple identities. Deborah Haddock has a gift for being able to explain complex phenomenology in clear and understandable language. Her book provides valuable information to clinicians who are relatively new to the diagnosis and treatment of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Most important, however, is that this book provides welcome guidance to persons with DID.

Is there anything I can read to help me understand my problems? I have been asked this question by dozens of people who were beginning their treatment for dissociative difficulties. Other than some first-person accounts and basic booklets, there has been little to recommend to them. The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook is the first resource to describe the genesis of DID and the process of treatment with both simplicity and sophistication. This book is truly appropriate for use by patients, who should pace their reading as tolerated in consultation with their therapists.

The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook explains the intermix of dissociative and posttraumatic symptoms, difficulties with self-esteem, and relational problems, tracing their roots as adaptive mechanisms that derive from overwhelmingly traumatic experiences. As a result, this book may go a long way to help to destigmatize and depathologize these difficulties, to reduce the secret shame that all childhood abuse survivors suffer, and to explain the experience of persons with DID to a wide audience.

The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook is written from the patients perspective and is eminently practical. For example, choosing a therapist is often a huge hurdle, but this book describes all the stepslocating a therapist, dealing with insurance when selecting a therapist, describing the qualities of therapists that are helpful and the different treatment approaches that therapists may use. I found the information on what is not good or appropriate therapy particularly useful in defining what both patients and therapists need to do to make sure that boundaries of a good therapeutic relationship are established and respected.

The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook describes the process of therapy, including the phases of treatment, and gives many useful exercises and tools. For example, in the discussion of the critical process of stabilization are many examples of grounding techniques and help on how to set up a basic safety plan. The sections on how to begin work with alter personalities, to share information, and to manage feelings are extremely helpful in beginning the process of treatment. The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook also addresses the dilemmas that inevitably arise in treatment and offers practical advice about how they may be understood and resolved.

Perhaps the strongest theme of this book is its empowering message of hope. Although the treatment of DID is realistically portrayed as long term, treatment is described as possible and doable. The tasks and difficulties in treatment are not minimized, and Deborah Haddock emphasizes patients active role in treatment beyond just passively accepting nurturance and guidance. It is perhaps this messagethat persons with DID must accept responsibility for their problems even though they were induced by others and feel totally outside their control, and that they must strive to trust others to help find solutions to these problemsthat is the most important, empowering, and enduring contribution this book can make.