Attachment, Trauma and Multiplicity: Working with Dissociative Identity Disorder [Paperback]

Firstly, I would say, the book says that it is good reading for therapists and professionals working with DID. I am not a professional; I have DID however I thought that since I am well educated and of reasonable intelligence, I would be able to understand the content. I was wrong! It doesn't matter how intelligent you are, if you havent studied psychology, there is a lot of material in the book that WILL NOT make any sense to you at all. It uses a lot of jargon and technical terms that no amount of brains will help you understand if you haven't already got the knowledge of psychological terms (and I don't mean a BASIC knowledge either). That is not however the fault of the authors as they don't advertise themselves as being a useful book for people with DID. I'm just putting that in as a warning. If you think you can handle it and don't know A LOT about psychology then you should probably add a psychology manual to your shopping basket as well. But in my opinion, if you have DID or want to know more about it and aren't a professional in the field, you should just buy a different book.

I did like the fact that the book seems to be evidence based. I have read other books on DID that were easier reading and really informative but had cited no evidence to back them up. I think a book that could have the writing style of other more manageable books but the evidence that this book quotes would be more useful to the inquisitive DID sufferer.

Now, despite not having a clue about some of the content, I did read the whole book (most pages four or five times over... very slowly) and was able to glean some useful information from it. Having said that I found that there was a variation in the readability between chapters. Each chapter is written by a different author and brings their insights on attachment, trauma and multiplicity to the book. Some chapters were difficult to manage because of the psychological content of the book (as I said before: not the fault of the book), however other chapters were just difficult to read because the writer used excessive complicated and I felt unneccessary vocubulary, which in my opinion is just done to try to sound knowledgeable but isn't helpful. Even if I had studied clinical psychology instead of the subjects I did, I would find this off-putting.

In addition, I felt the book was poorly edited. Some of the layout of material was mish mashed (chapter 3 for example, introduces a clinical case then skips back to treatment theory for trauma for a few pages before starting to talk about the clinical case later on). There were several spelling mistakes and errors where sentences did not make sense due to having an extra word or word missing. I feel that where this book is a second edition, the editors have cut and pasted bits and added in bits but didn't take enough time to check the spelling and grammar. Or maybe the person proof reading it was so overwhelmed by the wordiness and jargon that they couldn't tell the mistakes from the complicity. It doesn't take much to make sure the book doesn't contain errors before it's printed and this is one of the main reasons I haven't given it a high rating.

Another point I would like to make is that there seems to be a strong emphasis on 'ritual abuse' in the book. In some chapters I almost felt that the writer was of the opinion that ritual abuse is the only cause of DID. I did not really understand why there was so much emphasis and why some of the assumptions about things that have happened to people with DID were made. At one point (chapter 12) the author states that people with DID have suffered organised sexual abuse arranged by the father. Now, of course, this does happen, but it hasn't happened to everyone with DID and future editions of the book I feel should not make so many assumptions. It is important to talk about the causes of DID but I found myself feeling like an anomaly for not having suffered torture and endured satanic rituals as a child.

I questioned the helpfullness of the chapter called "Snow White and the Seven Diagnoses" where the author attempts to relate DID to the fairytale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. To be honest I found it slightly offensive; as though the author was trying to romanticise the condition, but without really giving a good reason as to why it would be useful to do so. Plus, I found the descriptions confusing. The author states themselves: "It is not fashionable to cite Disney versions when applying fairy tales to clinical questions." I would say, she should have followed this fashion advice.

I also feel the chapters didn't really follow a set path. The book is more like a conglomerate of different professionals thoughts on attachment and trauma; each coming from a different perspective. This probably had its benefits but also meant there was some repetition and no 'beginning, middle and end' to the book. It is more like a lucky dip. You could read the chapters in any order and it wouldn't really matter. Maybe that's not a flaw, but I didn't like this element.

I have been very critical so I would just like to emphasize that a lot of my opinions may not be agreed with by others reading the book. The things I liked about it, was the actual information on attachment. Once I was able to decipher some of the chapters, I learnt a lot about what types of attachment are and how in families where abuse is taking place the child can be both seeking attachment and fearful of the care giver leading to disorganised attachment styles which then follow through to adulthood. I liked how this is related to the client-therapist relationship and I found it very informative on a personal level, for me with DID as a client in therapy. Therefore, if you have DID and are brave and brainy, I would say you will get something from the book if you buy it.

For any professionals, I would say you should read it. I would want my therapist to read the book, but be warned, you may agree that the layout, editing and some of the authors' writing styles make it more than light reading.

I hope this is useful!

I liked the way the book demonstrates DID from different multidisciplinary perspectives. It has helped me to clarify and understand clients problems as they present in my therapeutic work. This book is recommended!