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Joan Frances Casey Books

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“I was just thinking that I started off OK," Jo said. "There wasn't anything different or wrong with me when I was born. I wasn't inherently bad or freakish." That's right, Jo," Lynn said. "Other people—my mother and father—did things to me that made me feel all wrong about myself," Jo said, another warm wave of new, sure knowledge washing over her.”

Self AcceptanceDissociative Identity DisorderComplex PtsdAbusive ParentsChild Abuse SurvivorTrauma SurvivorFeeling Broken
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“Steve said he was glad that I trusted him to develop relationships with the other personalities. He knew that my acceptance of them was a sign of greater health, but he really liked me best and wanted to know when I'd be integrated—when the other personalities would be gone. "Look, Steve," I said, "whether you like it or not, all of the personalities are part of this entity. No personality is ever going to disappear.”

Dissociative Identity DisorderMultiple Personality DisorderAlter PersonalitiesDissociative PartsDidmpd
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“The Karen personality was created when Jo was nine and her mother said once too often, "Why can't you be like your cousin Karen?" Jo's internal Karen was the perfect mimic of her cousin, and fulfilled Nancy's demand that the child be neat and organized.”

RejectionEmotional AbuseDissociative Identity DisorderMultiple PersonalitiesAlter PersonalitiesDissociative PartsParental AbuseAlter PersonalityIntrojects
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“Jo and I were becoming friends, and I realized that I loved the rest of my Flock as well. Missy was a fun-loving, artistic kid. Rusty had a droll sense of humor. Everyone seemed to be getting healthier, happier, and more productive. When I wasn't putting stress on the Flock by fighting with Lynn, I now felt that I was sharing this body, this physical space, with a whole group of very interesting and worthwhile people.”

Dissociative Identity DisorderMultiple Personality DisorderAlter PersonalitiesDissociative PartsDidmpd
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“More than one personality was created in the hope of being the daughter Nancy could consistently love. More than one new personality was created in response to Mother's unexpected fury.”

Emotional AbuseDissociative Identity DisorderAlter PersonalitiesDissociative DisorderAbusive ParentsAbusive MotherAttachment TraumaImpossible StandardsDisorganized Attachment
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“Why didn't I feel that I belonged to my parents? How early could I have known that I was not right? I think it has always been part of me. Can a newborn sense her parents' disappointment and feelings of frustration at not being able to change the unchangeable?”

Abusive ParentsEmotional NeglectUnmet NeedsChild NeglectChildhood NeglectUnwanted Child
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“I attempted to be clear and straightforward in my approach to Dr Tate, deferring to his medical expertise and stating my desire merely to be helpful. Renee and Joan Frances, in turn, were clear and straightforward about their needs in a way that was new for them. Yet we were seen as manipulative multiple and puppet therapist. Renee had probably never been less manipulative in her life than when she was trying to reason with Dr. Tate.”

Mental IllnessDissociative Identity DisorderPsychiatristManipulativeMental Illness StigmaMental Health BiasMental Health SystemPsychiatric Abuse
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“Now that she had the diagnosis to explain her sense of reality, she sorted some of the chaotic jumble of thoughts and memories. "I'd feel funny having 'daydreamed' my way through whole seasons," Jo said, "but then I'd hear someone say, 'Time flies,' or 'How did it get to be three o'clock already?' and I'd think that everyone was like me.”

Mental HealthDissociative Identity DisorderDaydreamingTime FliesDissociative DisorderDissociativeDissociative AmnesiaDdnosLosing Time
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“When the Jo personality first told him of the diagnosis, he called MPD "clinical bullshit." Then, seeing Jo's stricken look, he softened and showed her how the possibility of many personalities in a single body was philosophically untenable. MPD did not fit into Steve's system of beliefs, and therefore it did not exist.”

Mental IllnessDenialDissociative Identity DisorderDissociationMultiple Personality DisorderBelief SystemDidmpdInvalidation
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“Why didn't I feel that I belonged to my parents? How could I have known that I was not right? I think it has always been part of me. Can a newborn sense her parents' disappointment and feelings of frustration at not being able to change the unchangeable?”

RejectionEmotional AbuseParent Child RelationshipUnwanted ChildParental Rejection
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“I had never before considered that people near me might have problems that were not caused by me. I had been created to please people. If the people around me weren't happy, I must be doing something wrong. Lynn helped me see that I lacked the power to make other people feel anything.”

Ego CentricChild Abuse SurvivorPeople PleasingPeople PleaserMaking Others HappyNot About YouOther People S HappinessAll My Fault
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“The Flock have come a long way in their acceptance of this, and when a professional refused to deal with them in a straightforward manner and, in fact, manipulated and deceived them in return-they rebelled fiercely but self-protectively.”

Mental IllnessManipulationDissociative Identity DisorderPsychiatristManipulativeMental Health BiasManipulative PeoplePsychiatric Abuse
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“It bothers me that you should have to look for someone special, as though I'm some sort of freak," I said. "Some psychiatrists don't believe in multiple personalities." she reminded me. "They don't believe in multiple personalities" Kendra mimicked as we left Dr. Brandenberg's office. "Since when does one have to have faith in a mental disorder?”

Dissociative Identity DisorderMultiple Personality DisorderMultiple PersonalitiesMental Health StigmaMental Health BiasDidmpd
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“Steve said he was glad that I trusted him to develop relationships with the other personalities. He knew that my acceptance of them was a sign of greater health, but he really liked me best and wanted to know when I'd be integrated—when the other personalities would be gone. "Look, Steve," I said, "whether you like it or not, all of the personalities are part of this entity. No personality is ever going to disappear." "What about Robin and Reagen? Little Joe?" he asked. "Those personalities were absorbed, not exiled. No one inside will ever disappear. We're all real. We all matter.”

Dissociative Identity DisorderMultiple Personality DisorderDidmpd
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“The Flock required only four or five hours of sleep a night. That a lot of time for work. And the amnesia that in the past had crippled us became an advantage. Our production multiplied because each personalfty could focus on a separate task. Jo, for example, worked for many hours researching and writing a paper, unaware of what else needed to be done. When I pushed Jo aside to fulfill my graduate-assistant duties, I didn't worry about the progress of the paper. When Jo came back to work, she picked up precisely where she had left off, with no concern about her "lost time". She had near-perfect recall of all that she experienced. This was augmented by her near-perfect amnesia for all the time that elapsed between her points of consciousness. Being a multiple apparently created more efficient use of my conscious and semiconscious mind. I didn't want to give up my greater productivity to become just like everyone else.”

Dissociative Identity DisorderMultiple Personality DisorderDissociative DisorderDissociative AmnesiaDidmpd
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“A few days later, I waited outside Dr. Brandenberg's door and realized that I was tired of excusing the medical community for "not knowing anything about multiples." MPD had been recognized as a disorder for at least a hundred years. It had been brought to the attention of the professional and public communities through Three Faces of Eve in the 1950s and again by Sybil in the 1970s. Literature related to the disorder had snowballed in the clinical journals. I could understand that not every mental-health professional had treated a case, but I couldn't accept that mental-health professionals knew so little about it. At the very least, the doctors had access to the journals that had provided Jo with her wealth of information on the topic.”

Dissociative Identity DisorderMultiple Personality DisorderMultiple PersonalitiesDissociative DisordersMental Health ProfessionalsDidmpd
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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“Are any of these anxieties or beliefs about my past real? Maybe I'm just making them up⎯re-creating the past. I have to smile as I look at what I just wrote. I can tell when my solitary exploration becomes too threatening, or when I'm treading close to a memory too frightening to be remembered. Rather than push through unfamiliar brush, I stomp the well-worn path of "Maybe I'm making all of this up." But retreating there no longer makes sense to me.”

DenialRepressed MemoriesDissociative AmnesiaTrauma MemoriesDissociated MemoriesDissociative Denial
Book:The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality
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