The Web Catalog is in ... Our First Item

In the book, “Rewriting the Soul,” Ian Hacking (1995) asks, “Is it real?” He referred to the epidemic nature of multiplicity. He wrote that at one time multiplicity was considered rare. Hacking asks, “What happened? What is it? And, what is the answer?” He considered that multiplicity could be a fabrication between doctor and patient or as a social circumstance. He suggests that an intervention should be made and concluded that the situation demand professional caution. He sites the organizational work done by, “the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, but he claimed to be neutral.

Hacking seems to be part of a movement that believes that “… emphasis on personalities is wrongheaded.” He writes that multiplicity is a failure to integrate. He quotes Spiegel (1993) as saying, “The problem is not having more than one personality; it is having less than one personality.” Hacking further writes a comparison of multiplicity  to Alice (in Wonderland). “For this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. ‘But it’s no use now,’ thought poor Alice, ‘to pretend to be two people! Why, there is hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!”

Yesterday, I pulled from my shelves the first book I found on multiplicity. I wanted to write the first item in THE CATALOG. I skimmed through the first chapter. And, I felt anger and betrayal. This author’s thinking horrified me. I don’t have the ability to remember what I have or have not read or who is who, but I’d fallen under the wrong assumption that I have bought only “good books.” I feel strongly that the work of Kathryn Corey Center is being guided by a power much higher than us. So-be-it. This remains the first entry. We hope to offer "some" objectivity. Welcome to our first entry.

There is so much literature to process that I’m simply aglow with encouragement. Today is the center’s first week anniversary. Although I realize it will take years and years to contribute in a worthwhile manner to the field of multiplicity, I feel strongly that there is a fundamental purpose to the work and we WILL proceed. We will be checking out the other books on our shelves before going much further. Along with other ideas, we hope that THE CATALOG will aid our thinking processes. We find it hard to remember, but we do know what allows feeling good or bad. We’re not less than a person!