The Bifurcation of the Self: The History and Theory of Dissociation and Its Disorders

This book uses case history methodology to illustrate the relationship between theory and practice of the study of Dissociation Identity Disorder (DID). The book is rigorously illustrated with two centuries’ worth of famous cases. It reviews the current state of DID-related controversy so that readers may draw their own conclusions and examines the evolution of hypnosis and the ways it has been used and misused in the treatment of cases with DID. Challenging conventional wisdom on all sides, the book traces the clinical and social history of dissociation in a provocative examination of this widely debated phenomenon. In doing so, the author takes on some of the most difficult questions in the field.