multiplicity_archives | Entries tagged with books

fayanora.livejournal.com

I'm sure I've told y'all about this book before, but I'm finally reading it, so I'm going to tell you what I think of it.

The book is "Blindsight" by Peter Watts. It's hard scifi.

Now... the blurb on Amazon may say that one of the characters has "surgically-induced Multiple Personality Disorder," but neither the book nor the book's jacket call it that. In fact, I haven't seen one mention of MPD in the book except for the letters "MPD" where the book said "they called it a disorder." It seems that the future society of the book abandoned the term Multiple Personality Disorder and now calls it Multiple Consciousness Complex, and one character in the book used surgery to *become* a multiple called the Gang of Four. It seems this gives her a lot of advantages in her field, including the ability to multitask on a large scale. Psychiatry and psychology seem to be dead sciences, as well, in an age of brain editing. In fact, they called the practitioners of those branches "hacks" and "barbarians." They referred to integration as a barbaric practice of picking one conciousness core and murdering the rest.

And it is not just all that which makes it an awesome read. We highly recommend it.

EDIT: Oh yeah, The Gang gets very upset when someone calls one of them an alter. They also go into this huge rant about it. At one point, the Gang of Four member named Melissa says, "You think when you're spending time with me you're really spending time with Mom?" (Not an exact quote.)

Second Edit: You're welcome, everyone!

forever-alone.livejournal.com

(I don't recall seeing this posted before, but I could be wrong.)

We just got back from doing a little book-shopping and stumbled across an MPD/DID book we'd never seen before. Since I'm compelled to read each and every one of these atrocities I find, I looked it over, fully intending to buy it no matter how awful it was... but to my surprise, the first quote I read on the back cover actually THRILLED me. Here it is:

"I've lived this way and managed for all of my life. And I don't view it as dysfunctional, actually. I like the way that I am, and it works."

A collective wave of confusion followed by disbelief and excitement washed over the several of us who were close to the front. A multiple, in her own words, describing her system as functional and alluding to a desire to STAY multiple? We were more than a little interested.

( More... )

Current Mood: contemplative

pyoska.livejournal.com

While we were in the shower, we came to a weird, yet oddly rational, realization.

Has anyone else here read Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series? Well, we were thinking that the way our system operates and swaps fronts is kinda like the way the Fates did it, only no physical body changes. And that there's more than 3, and more keep creeping out.

Which leads us into our question: since embracing my multiplicity, we've noticed that Others have been slowly creeping forward and saying hi. Well, Niko didn't really creep forward, he kinda bounded Out, but he's a wolf. So we forgave him (ok, the rest of us did, but Shardae is still a little put out about it.) Plus, Ceri, Niko, Maari, and Shardae have all been coaxing the Others to come forward, but they haven't. At least, not enough for me to get more than a passing sense of them, enough to know they're there, but nothing else. Has anyone else been like this? Could it be that they're still frightened of what my (Heather's) reaction would have been before I realized I wasn't alone? We're all pretty much in constant contact with each other, except when one of us goes In.

I know. We're asking a lot of questions, but we're all new to this, and we want to know the best way to coax the rest out.

relevancedenied.livejournal.com

I was just wondering if anyone had read I Am More Than One by Jane Wegscheider Hyman, "How Women with Dissociative Identity Disorder Have Found Success in Life and Work". I just picked it up, and though all of the subjects are abuse survivors, it seems to be a good book all the same.

watchusburn.livejournal.com

hey, does anyone know of any fiction books with the subject of multiplicity, or DID or MPD or whatever?

Preferably good/non-sensational books, but anything will be be fine.

Thanks in advance

Current Mood: creative

rabbitsystem.livejournal.com

I was reading a book today (The Singular Self, Rom Harre) that tries to clarify the meaning of 'self'. Quite apart from my problems with his chain of reasoning, the author also says I'm not real, or else not human.

"Only those human beings who display a single, continuous Self 1 [singularity of point of view] as an aspect of whatever Self Three [the publicly presented self] they may from moment to moment be presenting are to be counted as psychologically normal, perhaps even as persons properly so called."

Excuse me? There's more than just me in this head, so I'm not a person? How did you figure that out?

He appears to regard systems that share memories as even less real that those who don't, on the grounds that to be an 'I' means to have a completely unique autobiography. Well, my autobiography IS unique. Because it's me that's telling it, and because I am not the same person as Ellen whatever he thinks on the matter.

Admittedly he's working from the usual psychiatric 'fragmented singleton with amnesia' model, but that still implies that people brought into being by trauma aren't people. I've shared a head with such people, I KNOW they can be people!

If this is how I'm likely to be regarded I'm never coming out at all.

Current Mood: enraged

effrenata.livejournal.com

In his 1939 book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill describes how he created a group of "invisible counselors" within his mind who developed into independent characters, although he continued to regard them as "purely imaginary".

( His Account of What He Did )

Link: http://www.psitek.net/pages/PsiTekTAGR34.html

This is similar to how I make thoughtforms -- only it's not quite so literal with me, and I don't have a copy of Napoleon Bonaparte walking around in my head. Also, notice that all of Hill's soulbonds are male. Apparently he never thought of adopting Queen Elizabeth or Marie Curie. It's an interesting look at the culture of the time.

chipmunk-planet.livejournal.com

If you've never read the Dune series by Frank Herbert, go out and read them. Not the prequels, they were written after his death and stink. Start with Dune, written in I believe 1965. It is a classic, arguably the best SF book ever written.

Dune itself is about the dangers of prescience, but what interests me greatly about this series is its attention to the topic of multiplicity. Due to breeding there came to be a class of women who have access to their ancestors' memories, with the help of a substance known as melange (or the spice). This group's goal was to breed a male that could do this, and the first book deals with this quite a bit. But something went wrong and Paul could see the future as well (It wasn't clear about whether he had access to his ancestors' memories too, but it suggests at the end of the third book that he did). His children and sister, though, clearly had access to all their ancestors' memories, and the next two books, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, go into this a lot. Of the two, Children of Dune is written the best.

I just finished re-reading Children of Dune last night, and as with every time I read this, I'm struck with how the author portrays the experience of being a community. The only thing he doesn't have with his characters is losing time (which is what disabled me -- I had a job where I just couldn't lose time and work). One of the issues these people face is that an evil ancestor in each case tries to take over the collective, something called Abomination. One character loses the battle and becomes possessed, the other two make bargains with the group inside and remain mostly themselves. I found that concept frightening in abstract, but not too applicable (after all, our people are just us, not some weird ancestor from the past ... imagine if you descended from Ghengis Khan or something!) For me, the task is to understand these parts of myself and become a more well-rounded person, something that was taken from me as a child.

In any case, it's not too often that the experience of life as a community is portrayed in such a positive manner. It's strange that I've never seen anyone comment on this, as it plays such a huge role in the series.

Current Mood: contemplative

rhymer-713.livejournal.com

There are all those books about multiplicity out there that we decided to write our own with our own personal experiences. We don't know necessarily whether we'll get it published or not--but it would be cool to talk about multiplicity in that way and let each member of the family have a say. Also, we have finally agreed on a system name. We are the Rhymer system. Oh yah,. Has anyone ever been sitting in class and realized that some one that you had never seen before was fronting? That happened to me the other day. Apparently someone else chose to make herself known. Have a great thanksgiving all,
Rhymer

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Runescape on my roomie's computer

spookshow-girl.livejournal.com

I found an excerpt from this book on the idea of "internal space". So it would seem it's not nearly as unheard of as people would like to imply.

Patients may report an internal architecture inhabited by alternate personalities, as in the following example:
All of the parts inside of me have rooms. Every room is different. My room is at the far end and there's more space between my door and the door next to me. Diana's room has walls made out of mahogany. She has three big huge windows and she looks out onto a garden. Um. Julia's room has bunk beds in it and a rug on the floor and teddy bears and dolls and stuff like that in it. Every room is different. (SCID-D Interview, unpublished transcript)

--Me

Current Mood: amused

eridanusus.livejournal.com

we just watched that thing on 60 minutes about Robert Oxnam, Chris started crying when they showed the first clip of bobby skating. It was really really weird. Tian just goes, wow my heart tastes salty. apaprenly she means, like, we had this feeling like...our heart was in our throat, she said it was so high up we could taste it. I dunno. it was really freaky to wach even though he wouldn't let them talk o any of the others they still showed Bobby skating and it was like... that's me. Even though we don't like change voice and stuff like he said, but yeah.

luwana.livejournal.com

(At the shop, Pointer & Pickles.)

"Are you, er, Pickles or Pointer?" said Vimes, as a last resort.
"I'm Miss Pickles, dear. Miss Point-" She stopped. Her expression changed, became slightly younger and considerably more alert.
"And I'm Miss Pointer, dear," she said. "Don't worry about Pickles, she just runs the body when I've got other things to do. Are you Commander Vimes?"
Vimes stared. "Are you telling me you're two people? With one body?"
"Yes, dear. It's supposed to be an illness, but all I can say is we've always got along well."

~ Thud! - Terry Pratchett

Current Mood: cheerful

penguin001.livejournal.com

Quite honestly the 60 Min thing wasn't quite what I was expecting. Robert Oxnam is successful, showing that not all multiples are failures and can't function. Also the fact that he hid it for so long attributes to that. I feel it also attributes to the fact that multiples are scared of coming out. Why? Because of the negative view on it. Sure, Cybill allowed a lot of people that were multiple come out, but there's been that stigma that multiples can't function with the general public.

A few things he said struck me funny, but I realize he was trying to explain it in a way that a mass group of non-multiples would understand. I know that it would offend some, but honestly, it's difficult to explain somethings to the general public in a way that they will understand. He did a good job of explaining it so that it didn't seem as though multiples are crazy fanatics. He was also able to laugh about it himself. I know for me, that's something hard to do. It's hard to laugh when you wake up in a place that you shouldn't be, and stuff around you has obviously changed.

They also covered how some people don't believe that DID/MPD doesn't exist at all and it's all bad Dr.s implanting and warping the views of their patients. The guy interviewed pointed out that he knew what he knew before he talked to a Dr.

So, overall, I feel the show did a good job of blowing up some bad stereo-types, but at the same time, making is seem like it's not as big of a deal because of the comparisions used. Some internal conflict was covered, but not too much. I feel like it was a swing in the opposite direction, so hopefully some balance will be found.

pengke.livejournal.com

A Fractured Mind starts off horribly, meanders into excruciating boredom, before turning out to be a surprisingly decent book. It’s the story of a very successful business man who was slowly destroying his life through drinking and bulimia. One day in therapy, the stereotypical angry alter comes out, shocking the therapist and leading us into the MPD diagnosis. Unlike most DID novels, the patented hidden child abuse memories do not compose the majority of the book. In fact, they’re only described in a brief, disjointed passage and referenced in a few other cases. The book is primarily about the people in the system and their memories of learning about each other. At the end of the book is a trite, vomit-worthy explanation from their therapist.

The book should be interesting for multiples. For the newly diagnosed, it will provide some positive things that they need to learn but could also be misleading. For singles, the book combats some stereotypes but creates and reinforces others.

( The Good )

( The Bad )

( The Scary )

( The Puzzling Integration )

( The Therapist )

pengke.livejournal.com

A new MPD/DID book came out last week. We started reading it at work and right away it has us wanting to throw things.

( Read Excerpt )

It's mind-boggling to me how multiples can come up with this stuff. It's understandable that singles might get confused because they have nothing to make a comparison with but shouldn't a multiple be able to see the difference? It's no wonder that singles have trouble understanding the difference between multiplicity and people having different sides to their personality when crap like that is appearing in the literature.

It's just...Ugh! And that's just in the prologue. I really should learn to stop reading these books.

Edit: ( More excerpts on the same topic. )

ricktboy.livejournal.com

A friend of mine found this book, it's about multiple parents...to explain then to children...

anyone read it? can you tell me if it's worth it?

http://www.sidran.org/catalog/semm.html

x-posted to plural_parents

laurenthemself

I acquired a copy of First Person Plural by Cameron West and was wondering if anyone else here had read it. Am I right in saying that by the end of the book, Cam and 'his guys' were still working as a system, rather than having integrated? I found that very interesting, showing that integration wasn't the ultimate answer.

Speaking of which, I think someone here mentioned that 'Sybil' dissociated again after the book was published... is that true, and does anyone have any links etc. to back it up? I'm getting more and more fascinated by these case studies, and want to know more.

Also, I had a fantastic day on Saturday discussing draconity and otherkin and soulbonding and inner worlds with some friends. It's great to know people who are happy to listen and not automatically tell me I'm nuts when I start discussing my bonds.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Sheryl Crow -- 'All I Wanna Do'

ex-visual-sy218.livejournal.com

I just transferred to a new/old college. Meaning, I've gone there before, but I'm in a new department. I'm a photography major, for those who want to know.

So far, two of my classes have mentioned plurality. Like, multiplicity. We were just given a passage written by Jorge Luis Borges, which sounds suspiciously like a plural writing about another in his system. It's dramatic, but he clearly states that there's "another Borges" within him, who is responsible for the literature he creates.

Exact quote from Borges: ...the stone eternally wants to be a stone and the tiger a tiger. I shall remain in Borges, not in myself (if it is true that I am someone), but I recognize myself less in the books than in many others or in the laborious strumming of a guitar. Years ago, I tried to free myself from him and went from the mythologies of the suburbs to the games of time and infinity, but those games belong to Borges now and I shall have to imagine other things. Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything and everything belongs to oblivion, or to him. I do not know which of us has written this page.

It's the last line that gets me. The two of us who front are constantly blending (heh, new term for me), and writing for each other, and there have been times that we weren't immediately sure who was speaking or writing. So, the passage stuck out to me for that very reason.

Discussion on this passage is supposed to follow in one of my studios. But, besides that point, we've discussed plurality before in my classes, as a supported method of creation. In other words, they don't care if we're loony*, and in fact, they want discussion on how loony* we are. For this, I'm really, actually pretty greatful, because it gives me a RL community where we'd be supported. I'm pretty god damned tired of having the internet as my only outlet.

This leads me to my question: How many of you are artists or musicians or "creative people"? I'm curious to see if there's a prevalence of right brained people who are also multiple.

*Disclaimer: use of the term "loony" is for humor purposes, only and need not be taken in offense.

iamshadow.livejournal.com

I was browsing amazon to find out details of a Barbara Hambly book due out in September, when I saw in the sidebar a link to a list compiled by a user called Orion Sandstorrm, who identifies themself as "otherkin, draconic". They have a list called So you'd like to... find your way as an Otherkin

A lot of the books are esoteric in nature, some nonfiction, others ficton. They range in theme from weres to aliens, fairies to vampires. It covers totemic magic, familiars and shapeshifting.

It's quite comprehensive from the looks of it. I don't know how good the books on the list are - maybe others on the list would be able to enlighten all of us on the pros and cons of the literature listed!

At the end, it says - This guide created with thanks to Livejournal users Ksol1460, Scribblekitty, Halyn, Elynne, and others.
More suggestions appreciated. Please take a moment to rate this guide using the stars at the top of the page. Is this user on this list, and has this been linked to before?

laurenthemself

I was reading the comments on this entry about communication within systems, and I had a thought... just a vague one at this stage, but hey, I'll settle for vague, since I rarely have very solid thoughts.

I was thinking, because of the way multiplicity tends to be presented in the media (as a Bad Thing), and how integration is seen as the only way to 'cure' this 'disorder', and also that it's 'always' caused by abuse, what if people here wrote their own stories? I know some people wouldn't be able to manage a whole novel, but even short stories would be good, and maybe (it's a very long shot, I know) we could try and get our work published.

Even if you think this idea's crap, would you ever try writing the story of yourselves?

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Paula Cole -- 'Carmen'

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Multiplicity

Being Plural

Entries tagged with books

Sure I've mentioned this before, but...

Interesting literary find.

comparison, and another question

(no subject)

bookies

So apparently, we're not human.

Napoleon Hill's Method of Creating Personalities.

multiplicity in fiction: Dune

An Idea

Internal space

fracured mind - bobby

(no subject)

60 minutes

Review of A Fractured Mind

Arg.

(no subject)

Very quick post before I run off to counselling

(no subject)

Otherkin reading list

Inspired by comments.

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March 2013

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