Nancy Hughes Clark with Kathy Roth, Bantam Books (1986) out of print
Shatter is the brilliant and compelling true story of Kathy Roth and her struggle to overcome Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). I have read many books on this subject, and none so far have offered the in-depth insight into the day to day, and indeed hour by hour living with DID. There are other books dealing with DID such as Flora Schreiber's Sybil (Penguin 1974) and Thigpen & Cleckley's The Three Faces of Eve (Secker & Warburg 1957), but this is by far the best portrayal yet, of living with DID in and out of the therapeutic setting.
The book brings to the fore the way that it is not just the history of trauma that creates these difficulties. Growing up and developing in an environment deprived of emotional support, nurturing and guidance will have a dramatic impact on the development of the Child and thus inhibit effective/normal functioning throughout life. When key developmental stages are missed, life is taught to be one of survival rather than one for living. Survival for Kathy was to dissociate, eventually being fragmented into eight different personalities, or 'alters'.
"She felt like Alice in Wonderland having just taken the magic shrinking potion. She was becoming smaller and smaller, sinking deeper and deeper into her body. Finally, she was in a still, small place at the very center of her being, and she had the experience of watching herself as though she were a separate person." (p52)
"Her whole life was a ship breaking apart in a storm, and this Matthew Caldwell was offering a safe harbor where she could try to put it back together." (p77)
Essentially it is her therapist, Dr Matthew Caldwell, with support from his partner Marian who show her and the reader how sensitive yet robust proactive integrative psychotherapy can really make a difference. Through him, the reader can gain an understanding of why Kathy dissociated in response to abusive situations/upbringing:
"To avoid facing some specific trauma ... Kathy has created discrete and separate personalities... Each personality is separate and each has its own ego states, not to mention likes and dislikes, memories life-style and particular behaviours". (p85-86)
But this is not just a study of causes and symptoms - for a start Kathy, a wife and mother, must and does learn coping strategies of her own when facing the unique challenges of DID, from finding herself surrounded by clothes of a size and style she would never buy, bought by a teenage alter to struggling with the impulses of a suicidal alter.
Furthermore, the book is built around an inclusive philosophy in which how the therapist deals with and regards those suffering with DID is central to the whole therapeutic process:
"...multiple personality ... is not something that needs curing like a disease; it's something that needs understanding and experiencing ... and finally it integrates and you become yourself." (p 176)
Starting from this perspective, the therapist developed an approach tailored to the client's specific needs. In particular, the book illustrates the potential value of a forceful style, in which the therapist engages closely with the client, always with respect for the ciient's needs, aims and interest. As Kathy says in her acknowledgements, she is grateful to her therapist
"for pushing me when I was strong enough to be pushed, and for stopping, too; and especially for not letting me settle for less than wellness." (p. vii)
In this respect it is a perfect example of the application of Richard Erskine's 'Inquiry, Attunement and Involvement' approach (see R Erskine, Theories and Methods of an Integrative Transactional Analysis, TA Press 1997).
However, while it is a positive portrayal of the therapeutic process, it is also a realistic one. The book avoids easy answers and neat endings and concludes as a work in progress in helping Kathy to discover her true identity:
"And the key from now on is... "Don't dissociate. "It sounds so simple ... But it's the answer. Before I really believed that fusion meant getting rid of the others. I can handle this! ... I can handle the others getting smaller, fading into the background. That's all I ever wanted - it's something I can live with". (p326)
The book is unobtrusively well-written, and while personally I would like to have read more on therapeutic dialogue, I appreciate that this is a book, not a therapists' 'how-to' manual. The book offers so much in so few pages: a true-to-life portrait of life with DID and a narrative study of effective therapy which amply repays re-reading. What a shame such a brilliant book is no longer in print: those of you who have the know-how, get this book reprinted!