Post Stroke Thoughts

I apologize for not updating my blog or participating in any of the DID Facebook groups for awhile.

I am recovering from a small stroke. While the recovery is going well, such events are always an important opportunity to take stock of one’s life, conduct and aspirations. As you know, I wrote Engaging Multiple Personalities Volumes 1 and 2 last year in order to pass on the extraordinary knowledge and insight I received from my DID patients. Prior to my stroke, I was doing a bit of traveling but each evening I kept coming back to recollections of my patients. In hindsight, before I actually became aware of my lack of understanding, it is clear that I missed several DID cases.

In fact, early in my career there were a number of cases where I believe I fell into the traps I warn about in my books, diagnosing patients as bipolar or borderline. Like other psychiatrists of my generation (even up to now), I had been taught the DID was simply so rare that it was highly unlikely that I would ever see even one case. The result was that I did not pay attention to alters that showed up to see if I was trustworthy and open to their presence. Unfortunately, for some of my patients, out of my own ignorance, I missed the correct diagnosis/therapeutic path.

I hope that my books will guide other therapists to avoid making those same mistakes. I will continue to blog and participate in supporting the DID community as best I can during my recovery.

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