ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the clinical study of Carly with dissociative identity disorder (DID). Carly had been previously engaged in therapy with another person and this had helped her to accept the diagnosis of DID but had not really helped with processing what it meant or helped her to face the past trauma. Initial sessions were with several different alters who all seemed to want to be known and accepted. Early on in therapy with Carly, there was a dominant alter who acted as host for a few months and was able to prepare some written material describing some of the life experiences and the alters who had lived through specific times, giving ages to these alters. All DID systems have hostile alters and these can be very scary. Progress in therapy can be difficult to assess. The main observable evidence of progress is the reduction and then cessation of self-harm and suicide attempts.