The Myth of Sanity: Divided Consciousness and the Promise of Awareness

Why does a gifted psychiatrist suddenly begin to torment his own beloved wife? How can a ninety-pound woman carry a massive air conditioner to the second floor of her home, install it in a window unassisted, and then not remember how it got there? Why would a brilliant feminist law student ask her fianc to treat her like a helpless little girl? How can an ordinary, violence-fearing businessman once have been a gun-packing vigilante prowling the crime districts for a fight?

A startling new study in human consciousness, The Myth of Sanity is a landmark book about forgotten trauma, dissociated mental states, and multiple personality in everyday life. In its groundbreaking analysis of childhood trauma and dissociation and their far-reaching implications in adult life, it reveals that moderate dissociation is a normal mental reaction to pain and that even the most extreme dissociative reaction-multiple personality-is more common than we think. Through astonishing stories of people whose lives have been shattered by trauma and then remade, The Myth of Sanity shows us how to recognize these altered mental states in friends and family, even in ourselves.

Author: Martha Stout
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 02/26/2002
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.49lbs
Size: 7.82h x 5.08w x 0.62d
ISBN13: 9780142000557
ISBN10: 0142000558
BISAC Categories:
- Psychology | Psychopathology | Dissociative Identity Disorder
- Psychology | Personality
- Health & Fitness | Diseases & Conditions | Nervous System (Incl. Brain)

About the Author
Martha Stout, Ph.D. is a clinical instructor in psychology in the psychiatry department of Harvard Medical School and a clinical associate at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her seventeen-year private practice has specialized in the treatment of psychological trauma survivors. She lives in Boston and Cape Ann, Massachusetts.