The Myth of Sanity : Divided Consciousness and the Promise of Awareness - Hardcover

Stout, Martha

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670894753 ISBN 13: 9780670894758

Publisher: Viking Adult, 2001

Synopsis

The author explores the fragmented and often fragile human psyche, revealing common, everyday forms of dementia that plague millions of people and discusses the impact of traumatic memories in one's daily life. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Martha Stout, Ph.D. is a clinical instructor in psychology in the psychiatry department of Harvard Medical School and a clinical associate at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her twenty-year private practice has specialized in the treatment of psychological trauma survivors.

Reviews

Stout, a clinical psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, writes here about her experiences working with abuse survivors who exhibit dissociative behavior--blacking out, losing time, even developing "alters" or multiple personalities. Engaging in the fashionable practice of analyzing psychiatric disorders in terms of the culture at large, Stout claims that in our repeated exposure to media violence, we have become a "shell-shocked species." In other words, the everyday experiences of distraction and escape ("spacing out" during a meeting, losing oneself in a movie) are not that different--in terms of physiology and behavior--from an abused individual's experiences of dissociation and hypnotic trance, which she illustrates through fascinating accounts of her patients' lives, such as the boy who witnesses his brother being kicked to death by a sexually abusive uncle and the girl whose mother threatens, during a terrifying game of hide and seek, to cut off her thumbs. Stout describes dissociative experiences in compassionate and moving prose ("Julia did not remember her childhood because she was not present for it"; "Garrett's childhood was too terrifying for any child to survive... he became several children, and these children divvied up the horror, and made it survivable"). However, readers may be surprised to find that, title aside, this engaging book never delivers on its initial promise to show us how dissociative individuals have harnessed a particular ability to live life to its fullest; most of the people here seem pretty happy just to have survived. Agent, Susan Lee Cohen.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Such films and books as The Three Faces of Eve and Sybil have made the phenomenon of multiple personality disorder familiar. This condition, which is now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, is more common and less flamboyant than its portrayals in the media. In its less severe form, argues Stout (psychology, Harvard Medical Sch.), sufferers may just seem absentminded or emotionally distant. Moreover, the kind of childhood trauma that causes such dissociation can be caused by "life events" such as accidents or surgery as well as by ongoing parental abuse. As is often the case with books written by therapists, it is impossible to tell how common such a condition may be, and the reader is left with the suspicion that the author is generalizing from a few patients. However, as this particular title is well written, the topic is of perennial interest, and this is the only discussion of the less-exaggerated forms of the disorder written for the lay reader, this book is recommended for all but the smallest public libraries. Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, WA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670894753
• ISBN 13: 9780670894758
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 252