Review by Booklist Review
Multiple personality disorders (MPD) are now subsumed under the rubric dissociative identity disorders (DID), or just plain dissociation. Most DID cases are the result of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse in childhood. Psychiatrist Steinberg puts her considerable research and clinical experience to the purpose of making it clear that DID is a "hidden epidemic," that many of its sufferers are misdiagnosed and fail to receive proper early treatment, and that the sensationalism of many MPD cases of yore (e.g., The Three Faces of Eve) has warped physicians' as well as public attitudes. In addition, she explodes the five most common myths about dissociation and describes its five core symptoms. She uses three long case histories to illustrate the beginning and development of DID (drunkenness and abuse played major roles in these instances), and she offers practical steps for rehabilitation. Her work in the field reached a peak when the Steinberg Clinical Interview process was given a place in the fourth edition of psychiatry's bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. --William Beatty
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
What do the Columbine killings, "getting lost in a good book" and your midlife crisis have in common? According to psychiatrist Steinberg, they are all events that can be placed on a broad continuum of behaviors related to dissociative identity disorder, popularly known as multiple personality. Steinberg, whose research was supported with grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, argues with conviction that mild dissociative behaviorÄtemporary episodes of disconnection or memory lossÄcan be a useful mechanism for coping with such mundane but stressful events as giving public presentations as well as major traumas like an operation or an assault. In more extreme forms, it is a debilitating disorderÄsimilar, she argues, to attention deficit disorderÄthat is in need of psychiatric recognition and intervention. Arguing that DID often results from early childhood abuse, Steinberg passionately calls for removing the stigma from its related behaviors, noting that the popular conception of the disorder is gleaned from overblown films such as Sybil and The Three Faces of Eve. Readers can gauge their own dissociative tendencies with the book's abridged version of the Steinberg clinical interview for DSM-IV dissociative disorders. Readers interested in clinical depression and ADD will gravitate to this book, although Steinberg's throwaway comments that suggest that seeing "alternative" lifestyles depicted on TV can cause psychic confusion and that stepparents have a greater tendency to violate the incest prohibition may cost her some otherwise sympathetic readers. While DID doesn't have as much cultural currency as ADD, Steinberg's research has much to add to the contentious debates surrounding childhood trauma, diagnostic categories and the changing relationship between incurable disease and manageable disorder. Agent, Mary Tahan. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
