Has anyone ever seen a critical or skeptical review of this book? It seems like several promininent cases of multiple personalty disorder, like “Sybil,” have been debunked lately, but I haven’t been able to find anyone who has challenged Truddi Chase’s story. On the web, all I’ve found are glowing reviews and recommendations for the book.
I’m curious about her specifically because I saw her about 7 or 8 years ago on Oprah and have wondered ever since what became of her and what the general opinion of her story in the scientific community is.
One part of the Oprah interview that always stayed with me occurred close to the end, when either an audience member or Oprah herself commented that, during the program, it appeared that Truddi had slipped into different personalities. Oprah asked the audience if anyone else had noticed, and several hands went up. Truddie herself seemed surprised at the comment. She’d been emotional, and had broken down into tears and recovered several times, but it never looked to me like she “became a different person.” It looked to me like people had seen what they wanted or expected to see, and maybe it was reinforced communally or something.
Anyway, I have yet to hear a skeptical view of this woman’s story, and I was wondering if anyone with any insight into her case had offered one? Thanks
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
This ain’t gonna help much, but I do remember hearing a couple of things in a psych class a long time ago. My professor at the time stated that he felt Trudie could in fact be one of those exceedingly rare cases of MPD because (among other things) she apparently changes her handwriting when manifesting different personalities.
This seemed to indicate some sort of personality compartmentalization within the brain that utilized similar areas of the cerebrum in different ways according to the profile of the dominating personality, blah, blah, blah.
On the other hand, if I were going to hack a best-selling autobiography to make my million, you can damned well bet that I’d be practising my handwriting styles for the shrinks. No point is too small to be overlooked when scamming big bucks.
Well, I’m not necessarily trying to accuse her of pulling a scam; it just seems like (according to the skeptical sites anyway–and I guess I could see this becoming a Great Debate if anyone here has strong feelings on the subject) that a lot of people diagnosed with MPD didn’t have it before they started seeing their shrinks. That it, along with repressed memory syndrome, are coaxed out of patients by biased and/or overzealous therapists, a lot of whom think a majority of people have been abused and are repressing it.
I was just wondering if the horrible stories Truddie told had any basis in fact. Is she a victim of abuse by cruel parents or by manipulative therapists?
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
