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The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality

Book by Joan Frances Casey · 22 quotes · Dissociative Identity Disorder, Multiple Personality Disorder, Didmpd

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The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality Quotes

“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
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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
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“It is clear that the various personalities I am seeing are quite different from one another. The physical changes are startling. I have come to know Missy, Jo, Renee, and Joan Frances well and am no longer surprised by the move from one personality to another. In fact, I experience each of them as different from the others in the same way as my other patients are different from one another. Although they share the same body, they are not the same and do not wear the body in the same way. It may be more accurate to say that the various personalities share the same physical space in a serial manner. Their descriptions of their parents have virtually nothing in common. Renee even denies that they are her parents. She doesn't claim different parents. She doesn't claim any at all, saying that she is "a creation of this entity alone.”

Dissociative Identity DisorderMultiple Personality DisorderMultiple PersonalitiesAlter PersonalitiesDissociative PartsAlter Identities
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“Robin and Reagan are unique in that they date their creation not to a single traumatic event but to the need of the group to maintain a nonconficted, nonabreactive memory trace. The other past-keepers are both reactive and information-providing personalities-they appear in my office to give me information the system seems to think I need, or in response to my touching a critical nerve in the Jo, Missy, Joan Frances, or Renee personalities.”

Dissociative Identity DisorderAlter PersonalitiesDissociative PartsAlter PersonalityMemory Trigger
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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
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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
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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
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“as my understanding of and competence in treating the disorder have grown, multiple personality has come to seem, though still horrendous, less unique and incomprehensible, and thus more manageable”

Dissociative Identity DisorderMultiplicityMultiple Personality DisorderMultiple PersonalitiesDissociative DisorderHealing From AbuseMultiple 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
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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
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“What is it, sweetie," I asked. "Hair, said a voice that wasn't Missy's. It was Little Joe, a two-year-old personality, and his fingers played in my waist-length hair just as my own babies had many years ago. My skin prickled as I realized how complete my experience was of being touched by a toddler.”

Dissociative Identity DisorderAlter PersonalityChild Alters
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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
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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
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“Somehow the disorder hooks into all kinds of fears and insecurities in many clinicians. The flamboyance of the multiple, her intelligence and ability to conceptualize the disorder, coupled with suicidal impulses of various orders of seriousness, all seem to mask for many therapists the underlying pain, dependency, and need that are very much part of the process. In many ways, a professional dealing with a multiple in crisis is in the same position as a parent dealing with a two-year-old or with an adolescent's acting-out behavior. (236)”

PsychiatryDissociative Identity DisorderPsychotherapyMultiple Personality DisorderMental Health StigmaMental Health ProfessionalsPsychiatric Abuse
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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
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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
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