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Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities |
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Editorial
Review:
One afternoon in 1989, Karen Overhill walks into psychiatrist Richard Baer's office complaining of vague physical pains and depression. Odder still, she reveals that she's suffering from a persistent memory problem. Routinely, she "loses" parts of her day, finding herself in places she doesn't remember going to or being told about conversations she doesn't remember having. Her problems are so pervasive that she often feels like an impersonator in her own life; she doesn't recognize the people who call themselves her friends, and she can't even remember being intimate with her own husband.
Baer recognizes that Karen is on the verge of suicide and, while trying various medications to keep her alive, attempts to discover the root cause of her strange complaints. It's the work of months, and then years, to gain Karen's trust and learn the true extent of the trauma buried in her past. What she eventually reveals is nearly beyond belief, a narrative of a childhood spent grappling with unimaginable horror. How has Karen survived with even a tenuous grasp on sanity?
Then Baer receives an envelope in the mail. It's marked with Karen's return address but contains a letter from a little girl who writes that she's seven years old and lives inside of Karen. Soon Baer receives letters from others claiming to be parts of Karen. Under hypnosis, these alternate Karen personalities reveal themselves in shocking variety and with undeniable traits--both physical and psychological. One "alter" is a young boy filled with frightening aggression; another an adult male who considers himself Karen's protector; and a third a sassy flirt who seeks dominance over the others. It's only by compartmentalizing her pain, guilt, and fear in this fashion--by "switching time" with alternate selves as the situation warrants--that Karen has been able to function since childhood.
Realizing that his patient represents an extreme case of multiple personality disorder, Baer faces the daunting task of creating a therapy that will make Karen whole again. Somehow, in fact, he must gain the trust of each of Karen's seventeen "alters" and convince them of the necessity of their own annihilation.
As powerful as Sybil or The Three Faces of Eve, Switching Time is the first complete account of such therapy to be told from the perspective of the treating physician, a stunningly devoted healer who worked selflessly for decades so that Karen could one day live as a single human being.
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Customer Reviews:
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Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5
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Ask Karen A Question
Would you like to ask me, Karen Overhill, a question? Log onto "Switching Time" website www.switchingtime.wordpress.com and I will answer you.
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Amazing Read
I've always been interested in cases of multiple personality, and SWITCHING TIME is the mother of them all.
I found myself immersed in the story of both the doctor and patient and cringing at the horrors this poor woman suffered (although I will admit that I'm not quite sure, even after reading the book, how many of the events she mentioned actually, truly happened).
This book is disturbing at times, but also immensely interesting. For fans of the subject, this is definitely a must-read!
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Hard to put this book down!
I just finished this book and it was fascinating, troubling, thought-provoking and intense. I have never wanted to write a review until now. I hope this book does well when it comes out in paperback. As you read it, you start to realize different parts of your own inner self and how they make up your own distinct personality. To imagine anyone suffering the abuse she endured is horrific.
Dr Baer's account of his treatment is not too technical yet definitely not written for a "fiction lover". Awesome... more info
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Remarkable
This is a remarkable story of the truly awful abuse suffered by Karen and the subsequent splitting of her personality, an act that saved her. Her long journey with Dr Baer is equally remarkable and immediately it is apparent how important the therapeutic relationship is. Without such a relationship all that followed would not be possible.
There is so much to say about this book and I would recommend it to therapists, psychology students, and to anyone who is interested in the mind and the effects of... more info
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