Engaging Multiple Personalities: Therapeutic Guidelines (Volume 2)

This book is a gem. The doctor has fresh insights into fractured personalities, how they get that way, what a therapist should do to help, and what a person with Multiple Personality issues can do to get help. I am using it for research for my novel, my work in progress.

It was an interesting read. It gave me a greater understanding of the disorder, and the challenges involved in healing.

This was a very easy and informative read. I would recommend it to others who want to know more about DID.

Helpful in my work as a therapist.

I have had great pleasure and benefit from reading Yeung's three books on DID, and have tried to summarize some of the most important here.Yeung unites theory and clinical practice well, and one gets close to both the therapist and his patients. DID is explained easily and recognizable, and with a basic respect and humility towards the patients. The books are a clear recognition of the diagnosis, and the suffering and loss of function it causes for the patients. They also contribute to the demystification of the theme.Yeung emphasizes the importance of understanding and recognizing the patient's dissociation. The treatment involves contact and communication with the dissociative parts. Many patients experience improvement in quality of life and functioning after treatment. Yeung gives hope to those who have been plagued for years, and perhaps mistreated or given up by health. At the same time, he is sober and realistic in that not everyone can be helped. Yeung describes both good and less successful treatment courses. The author's honesty provides both trust and credibility.When one has got in touch with the patient's various dissociative parts, it is important to try to understand what role each part has had and what trauma is carried by the different parts. All parts deserve recognition and respect, as they have been the prerequisite for enduring and surviving serious trauma. Show care for the different parts, eg. by confident, reassuring, or comforting.In the conversation, treats try to get in touch with and talk to the parts that come forth, recognize them, and try to understand the role and trauma they carry. There is no need to talk to all parts. Communication with the parts that are ahead can help several other parts feel heard and understood and calm down. It is not essential whether the patient has few or many parts.The goal of the treatment is not integration, but first and foremost that the different parts work well together in a community. Yeung compares treatment with group therapy. The therapist attempts to contribute to corrective emotional experience in relation to the trauma carried by the individual parts. Help the patient understand what is happening, become aware of the different parts, and try to help them communicate. In particular, it is important to communicate with scared, depressed or angry parts.In conclusion, it is important to recall that people with DID do not get better if they do not receive treatment that is directed directly at the dissociation and the parts. If one is not aware of this type of problem, one can confuse the symptoms as expressions of other mental ailments. Examples are bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders and personality disorders. Here is the obvious risk of misdiagnosis, and treatment that does not help, or at worst, aggravates the problems.I believe that Yeung's books contribute to optimism in terms of treatment opportunities at DID, and in the hope of improvement and opportunities for people who are severely affected by dissociation.Grethe Freimpsychiatrist,Norway

Following on the success of Engaging Multiple Personalities Volume 1, by respected Vancouver psychiatrist, David Yeung, that dealt with studying the long time disastrous results of intense and repeated childhood trauma on the adult (DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder, commonly known as Multiple Personalities), Engaging Multiple Personalities Volume 2 is another fascinating and convincing book that deals with recognizing these patients through auditory hallucinations, handwriting differences, etc, treating them to help them "modulate their affective responses and deal with emotional flooding". He recommends very useful practices such as mediation, yoga and physical exercise in his advice to these survivors of severe childhood abuse. He also has a very interesting chapter on how the therapist needs to take care of himself as well.Volumes 1 and 2 are books that I would highly recommend to both the layman and the therapist

Dr. Yeung has written a "spot-on!" guide to working with patients with DID. His 2-volume opus has been a gem to discover. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in treating someone with DID.

I am finding this book very helpful in working with a therapist who has had no previous experience of working with DID .... as is he. I have found the description of different common type alters particularly helpful as it gives me insight into an internal system I have lived with since childhood. I thought the book would be a step by step guide on how to 'do' therapy and was initially disappointed that it wasn't but for someone like me who is constantly trying to 'work it all out', which quite frankly is impossible, I am finding it a helpful tool that suits the way I think

I have only just started to read this book but so far find it very informative and interesting. Good explanations and an easy read. Would recommend