A Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder

I read this book a few months ago and initially did a review of it for my news letter. For several years I have been fascinated with Dissociative Identity Disorder and have read many books and case studies about it over time. I was intrigued with "A fractured mind"and how the remaining three alters of the author collaborated to write an inside account of this disorder. Robert B. Oxnam was not the first one whose alters collaborated to write a book about his experiences with it. I am sure several people can recall Truddi Chases long book " When Rabbit Holwes" which was Authored by Truddi and The Troops, which is what she called her inner system. Truddi Chase had ninety alter personalities. Anyway, back to the book A fractured Mind. What I think certain critics should understand is that when dealing with a book written by a person with DID you are not hearing or reading the voice of just one person or author. You are hearing /reading the voice of what could be several authors. One person who complained about the profanity used in A Fractured Mind should have taken this fact into account. It was not the "voice" of Robert B.Oxnam that was using profanity but that of one of his Alters. Probably it was the voice of one of the angry ones. It could have been the Witch or Tommy. It could have been the internal voice that Oxnam took in from one of his abusers as the witch was. Robert Oxnam internalized his abusers messages and that is how the witch was created. The Witch was the voice and image of one of the people who abused him. The abuser who claimed to be a witch when she abused him. His being so young at the time he believed her and didn't know that she was lying to him about being a witch just to frighten a young boy into submission. I believe even after a person with DID has been integrated that it is still impossible to access all the painful memories of the abuse that caused the condition in the first place. We all have internal filters that block and repress memories that are perhaps too painful and detrimental for our psyches to handle. I do not have DID but I also do not have a full range of memories of my childhood. Whether or not to integrate or to work towards integration is an extremely personal choice for the person who has DID and the process can be very painful and long from what I have read about it. Some people with this condition do choose to cooperate with each individual alter rather than integrate into one personality while others choose to go the route of integration. Whatever the decision or choice of the person with DID he should not be scrutanized for it and his choice of therapy should be respected. As fascinating as this condition is it is extremely difficult to live with and deal with. I think those with DID who have written reviews for this book should support each persons' odyssey into wholeness or cooperation rather than pick a part one persons story and journey. Everyone with DID should intergrate with each other and support one another as this condition needs all the understanding, compassion and empathy it can get as well as the people who have to live with it. I fully enjoyed and was fascinated with a Fractured Mind. Also I should stress that A fractured Mind is a book meant for Adults and not children. The subject matter and nature of the abuse suffered by the author when he was a baby maybe too difficult for children to read. There is nothing pleasant about child abuse or abuse of any form and to require the author to clean up the language of one of his alters would not do justice to the book and his story. In fact to do so would take a way some of the validity of the book and the authors story and experiences. I for one highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know what the world is really like to some and not a cleaned up version of it. I was simply fascinated by Robert B. Oxnam's book and I think those with an open mind would be too.

An important person in my life was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and in the interest of providing the best support I could to that system (an inclusive term for all the personalities involved), I started looking for books on the subject. As with other rare psychological conditions, there is not a lot out there for the layman, what is out there is specific to a single system's viewpoint, and usually doesn't include a professional's perspective. I chose this book because it seemed both well written and has a lengthy afterword by the therapist involved in the case.I was not disappointed. In reading through this book, I was able to recognize and better understand several traits in my loved one's system and I feel like I am better prepared to show compassion and respect to all of the alters involved. I have not met all of them, and I know that it may be difficult for all of us when I do meet some of them, but I'm more prepared for that now.The afterward by Dr. Jeffrey Smith is invaluable for placing the rest of the book in context and also addressing some confusing feelings that popped up while I was reading it. He explains the difference between "singletons" (those of us who have different aspects to our personality but full access to memories) and systems, who *are* different personalities without access to each other's memories, and who may not even be aware of each other.For people are already somewhat familiar with this diagnosis, be aware that both the author and the therapist use the outdated term MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) instead of DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder." This is intentional and the therapist addresses it early in his afterward.All in all, I think this is an excellent book for beginning to understand DID, learning what systems go through while experiencing it, and showing how they interact with the world. I'm just beginning my journey to understand its effect on my loved one, but I feel better prepared to do that after reading this book.

The book was well written. I am a therapist so I can really appreciate the details into the mind and how it was able to integrate as well as the limitations of it. I was suprised to read very little detail into the actual abuse, however. This is a direct link and root of the split and it would be interesting to know, in this particular case the time and thinking at the point of dissociation. I am impressed with the strength and creativity of the mind and how it constructs to survive. I had many emotions come up throughout this book but all along wondering how someone can reach the age of 60 before gaining some insight into such disturbing pathology, without having a healthy or unhealthy dose of Narcissism.Also wondering why there was little mention of his family; his previous wife and children. I would imagine that this would be tremendous source of objectivity of this condition. I realize this book was written to understand "inside" the mind on MPD however, I would think that the family who had to endure the range of emotions and "switches" would be just as painful, confusing & difficult. There was very little acknowlegment to the family left in the wake of all these personalities. As if they were dicarded so he could begin his "healing" journey, become "well" and meet and marry someone else who accepts him!?!Who was the father to his children? Who was the husband to his wife? where are they? How are they?I would be very interested in reading their story.

This book is truly amazing. This true story is so sad but also so fascinating. Highly recommended.

This is in my top 10 favorite books of all time, absolutely fantastic and enlightening. I found this real life story of Robert's life fascinating, poignant and mind blowing (pun intended!). How he even approached this subject is amazing, to write it in such a way that even someone without MPD/DID could understand it and told by the various personalities themselves and in conjunction and agreement with each other. How he found out he had MPD and then with the help of his psychiatrist to work thought it all. He describes so brilliantly how his personalities present themselves, communicate separately with the reader and the psychiatrist and with each other and also how they operate inside the world and imagination of his brain and outside manifestations and characters of him and the journey he has taken to integrate himself into the person(s) he is today is one of the most touching, honest and realistic books I've ever read. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the workings of the human brain and psychology.To anyone who doesn’t believe in MPD, read this book. This is not a glamorous made up story, it’s a life lived in complete turmoil brought about by early childhood trauma. The brain is such a resilient organ and largely misunderstood and so much of how it works is still unknown to us. MPD in my view is the minds ultimate self defense mechanism. Unable at such a young age to understand what is happening to him or vocalize his problems and the horror so terrifying that his mind fractured so as to protect him from himself, others and his memories. Only one part of his self is aware that trauma actually occurred and the rest is protected. Having lived most of his life without realizing anything wrong had happened, Robert went on to have a wonderful career which is very unusual for someone with this disorder. If something is smothered eventually it will find a way out, sideways more often than not and present in other ways such as addiction, mood swings, depression etc. Was it a co-incidence that Robert unknowing sought out the one psychiatrist that was uniquely equipped to help him with his condition? I think not and that at some unconscious level he found the person who would help him to work through all his problems. He suffered so much loss, loved ones, family and friends before he got help.He is extremely brave in my view, self depreciating, honest and I’m so happy that he found true love and understanding in his current wife, she is truly a supporting loving woman. Dogged determination with a mental strength and fortitude that astounds me struggling all the way through many years he has worked through a lot of his issues and is the person he is today.I do not have MPD. I noticed a slight similarity in the distancing myself from emotions. I have always called it “bubbling” just a personal term I use when I find myself removed mentally from a situation and only realize much later that it has happened, it’s like I’m there in body but not in mind. I imagine that I create a bubble that keeps me separate from the difficult situation I’m in and operate on autopilot. Difficult to explain to others but I know that in stressful situations I do “bubble” and because I’m aware of my tendency to do that, I can sometimes foresee it and can sometimes act against it and force myself to be aware in the moment and not revert to the bubble. So this book really resonated for me and I’ve found it very helpful in understanding what and where my bubbling comes from and why I do it. I didn’t understand it before this book.On so many different levels, whether a person has DID/MPD or not, this book is an amazing read and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone interested in the workings of the human mind and imagination and you just might learn a little something about yourself as well.

A brilliant book! Robert is a fascinating man, extremely intelligent. The reason I gave 4 stars and not 5 is because I did find it quite hard to read probably because of Roberts intelligence and I am just a mere council estate girl definitely not Yale educated like the Author :)I am training to be a counsellor and have always had an interest in DID/MPD. It is remarkable the way the mind can protect us from the horrors of abuse. This book is a brilliant insight and my understanding of MPD has grown greatly from reading it. Thank you Robert for writing your story you have enriched my understanding and life that bit more.A brilliant write up at the end from Roberts Therapist who is also mentioned throughout the book.

I liked how this book was written from the eyes of the many personalities and also the viewpoint of the therapist. A good read.

Very helpful to hear firsthand from someone who can articulate the inner conversations and illustrate the memory walls without requiring the reader to be vicariously traumatized in the process. A great example of what it can look like to be present to each part of ourselves, the way we would try to be to someone we cared about outside of us. I found the image of the meadow with the equal collaborating internal community to lend itself as a really beautiful metaphor of hope. I'm grateful for the author's courage to share his story with us.