(no subject)

[walkerinthegrey.livejournal.com]

Hey.. this is Ariel posting under Luc's name because I'm just losing it... I dunno. I've been kinda stressed and unstable, and then I just read this book First Person Plural: My Life as a Multiple and it was so much like our experiences, and it got everybody going, wanting out and shit, and the only person around who even really knows about us is my boyfriend, but he's been really unstable and can't even handle his own problems, let alone mine, and I think I'm going crazy. i really do. I'm so afraid that I won't be able to control it and that people will find out... I live with my mom and stepdad, but they don't know about me being multiple, because I try to always just be me when I'm around them, but I'm going crazy... they'll figure me out. I know it. they'll know I'm crazy.. and Nameless wants to cut again.. she wants to see the body bleed.. see herself bleed.. all of us.. .god.

Comments

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Don't read books like that. Ew. You want to read a book about MP, at least make it one like Truddi Chase where she sets the example of being competent. We really need a book about healthy multiplicity to set against all the gunk that is out there.

Cru Gordon (Cameron West's real name) did a great disservice to the whole community publishing that book. Yes, you're in a similar situation, you're multiple while everyone around you is in total denial and thinks multiplicity is insanity, and this can very much screw things up, and make you go into denial and think that you are not or just "insane" as you say.

But if you think about what he wrote, the problems aren't so much with Cru's people, they're with his wife. Notice how she reacts when his doctor say that he should allow other people to front run for an hour every day. She flips out completely. She's the nut, not him! It's her attitude that causes 90% of what goes wrong with that bunch, if you ask us. He should have just told her that's the way it was; but being that he's basically afraid of women due to what he went through as a kid, he naturally let her have the upper hand. Understandable, but he's got to find a way to communicate with her.

What that group needed was a cohesive operating system and to lay down the law to Ms. Buns. A little less focus on the good life and all the yuppie conveniences and a little more on his personal health and reality would have made his life a whole lot easier.

[forever-alone.livejournal.com]

The Troops didn't really torture the stepfather.

[forever-alone.livejournal.com]

That's alright. Everyone makes mistakes. :)

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

I read that part as they didn't actually torture the stepfather, it was a fantasy they came up with to give everyone a sort of feeling of closure. I'm sure there would have been legal repercussions if they actually had done some of those things.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

I hear what you're saying -- they shouldn't even have fantasized about it -- but it's hard not to. The whole point of making it a fantasy instead of going and actually doing it, I'd say, is actually pretty mature and sets a better example than if they actually did something. As the Irishman points out himself: "I have many sides, and man may win by more than one method. It seems to me that the wisest choice would leave us all free to fight on many fronts and for many days, instead of only one. True, t'would be a grand occasion, that one day, but of what value if we all go down with the enemy?"

(Oh, and by the way: Andy would like to point out that the way she's transcribed the Irishman's accent, it is not an Irish accent but a version of Highland Scot. Irishmen drop consonants, but not in the same way.)

What irked us about that sequence was the fact that she used it to give the story a suspense buildup all the way through, making Stanley and Dr. Fielding (who didn't even exist!!) and Capt. Johnson get all apprehensive about what the "symbolism toward the end" meant and "a gift from the Irishman" etc. etc., and you imagine it's some really ancient shocking thing, and then all they do is go make the stepfather eat worms. We thought it was going to be, well, better than that anyway.

[shandra.livejournal.com]

I agree with some of your points, but I also think that First Person Plural was a landmark book in that for the first time the therapist didn't solve everything or become the arbitrater of what a good life was. For that reason alone I think it's a step in a decent direction.

Also it does depend on your definition of functionality. He freaked out and quit his job, which was weird, but he also pursued and got a graduate degree, kept his marriage together (I mean we might have been gagging, but this is a traditional marker of success) and raised his kid all right. If you're saying he was a failure because he quit his job, or cut, that's kind of harsh.

I really don't think we can toss all the "dysfunctional" people out of the community anyway; tempting, but if that was his actual experience and not some therapist writing it down for him, I say, kudos to him. As annoying a yuppie dweeb as he seemed to be. We just need more points of view out there. :-)

[forever-alone.livejournal.com]

...but if that was his actual experience and not some therapist writing it down for him, I say, kudos to him.

That's the thing. A good chunk of that book seemed... off to me. Bordering on phony. I don't know why it came across like that, it just did. Maybe it was his writing style (which I found to be quite awful).

im confused

[sweetjourney.livejournal.com]

i lived with a woman for 5 years who had pretty much the same attitude as his wife at first when my psychologist said "give them time to come out a little each day." imho its a normal reaction for an S/O to balk at that suggestion if they are not mp themselves.
Also, if i recall correctly, in the end didnt Cameron West become a psychologist himself? How is that a disservice to us? To me it showed that no matter what he went through he was able to come out a competent, strong person in the end.