First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind

by Stephen E. Braude

Do people with multiple personalities have more than one self ? The first full-length philosophical study of multiple personality disorder, First Person Plural maintains that even the deeply divided multiple personality contains an underlying psychological unity. Braude updates his work in this revised edition to discuss recent empirical and conceptual developments, including the charge that clinicians induce false memories in their patients, and the professional redefinition of "multiple personality disorder" as "dissociative identity disorder."

330 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 1991

About the author

Stephen E. Braude is an American philosopher and parapsychologist. He is a past president of the Parapsychological Association, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, and a professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist and composer.

Braude received his Phd. in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1971. After working as a lecturer in the philosophy department at UMass Amherst, he found a permanent home at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, working successively as an assistant, associate, and full professor. He served as the Chair of the Philosophy department between 1998 and 2005. He has received numerous fellowships, awards, and grants including but not limited to the National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship, numerous grants from the Parapsychology Foundation, and the Distinguished Achievement Award of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation. He has also received several Faculty Research Grants from UMBC.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an interesting and useful handling of some of the philosophical issues connected with Multiple Personality Disorder (aka DID). In particular, Braude examines the question: Can I be multiple?

Although the conclusion is fairly weak, this book handles the topic in enough detail for the reader to start thinking about really important questions.

[Mischke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this as an undergrad in the author's class entitled "Philosophy and Parapsychology"