ABSTRACT
Between the personal contributions that follow, authors have inserted autobiographical excerpts from another survivor, Annalise, who has written many pieces on the subject. In these excerpts authors include the hardest point of all. Many themes so central to the suffering of those with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) are covered in the excerpts, like survivor guilt, body shame, rage, the reality of conflicting alters, memory, and the practical realities of living with DID. But the most recurring and penetrating theme is the deep and complex ambivalence towards the perpetrator. In the film, “The Neverending Story”, the deadliest challenge the protagonist, Sebastian, must face is the mirror. Sebastian is as brave as brave can be. It may benefit most survivors of abuses of this nature to write down their stories, to observe the reality of their lives on paper, and to tell someone, even if not many, who they are.
