Creating Hysteria: Women and Multiple Personality Disorder

New
Paperback
1999
$31.14

From 1985 to 1995 an estimated 40,000 Americans, most of them women, were told they suffered from multiple personality disorder. Feminists, fundamentalists, and a substantial portion of the mental health community Andorsed this Sybil-ing of America. Sensation-seeking television talk shows took up the MPD rallying cry. In Creating Hysteria, Joan Acocella tells a riveting tale of therapists betraying their patients, of a psychotherapy profession at war within its own ranks, and finally of expatients rising up and putting an And to the MPD scandal. Creating Hysteria exposes one of the most frightening mental rollercoaster rides taken by thousands of people in modern times. Joan Acocella brilliantly illuminates how the mental health profession spearheaded, perhaps inadvertently, a fin-de-siecle hysteria, the fallout from which will take us into the next millennium. Anyone who has ever been interested in mental health should read this book. -Elizabeth Loftus, president, American Psychological Society

Synopsis

From 1985 to 1995 an estimated 40,000 Americans, most of them women, were told they suffered from multiple personality disorder. Feminists, fundamentalists, and a substantial portion of the mental health community Andorsed this Sybil-ing of America. Sensation-seeking television talk shows took up the MPD rallying cry. In Creating Hysteria, Joan Acocella tells a riveting tale of therapists betraying their patients, of a psychotherapy profession at war within its own ranks, and finally of expatients rising up and putting an And to the MPD scandal. Creating Hysteria exposes one of the most frightening mental rollercoaster rides taken by thousands of people in modern times. Joan Acocella brilliantly illuminates how the mental health profession spearheaded, perhaps inadvertently, a fin-de-siecle hysteria, the fallout from which will take us into the next millennium. Anyone who has ever been interested in mental health should read this book. -Elizabeth Loftus, president, American Psychological Society

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 228
Edition: 1
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Published: 27 Aug 1999
ISBN 10: 0787947946
ISBN 13: 9780787947941

Media Reviews

At long last we have a volume that takes a hard look at the epidemic of multiple personality disorders and comes up with somesurprising conclusions. (Aaron T. Beck, M.D., University Professorof Psychiatry, Department of Medicine, University ofPennsylvania)

Creating Hysteria exposes one of the most frightening mentalroller coaster rides taken by thousands of people in modern times.Joan Acocella brilliantly illuminates how the mental healthprofession spearheaded, perhaps inadvertently, a fin-de-sieclehysteria, the fallout from which will take us into the nextmillennium. Anyone who has ever been interested in mental healthshould read this book. (Elizabeth Loftus, president, AmericanPsychological Society)

A remarkable expose of an embarrassing and mischievous epidemicinstigated by a small group of 'multiple personality' proponents.This book provides ample warning for patients and therapistsalike. (Herbert Spiegel, pschiatrist, expert on Sybil case)

Multiple personality disorder is both fascinating and sad, but thestory of its recent social evolution is deeply disturbing. CreatingHysteria tells a gripping tale that will captivate anyoneinterested in the pathology of the human mind and the culturalforces that shape it. (Daniel L. Schacter, professor and chair ofpsychology, Harvard University)

As Acocella makes devastatingly clear, MPD was a diseaseessentially created by unethical or incompetent therapists andimposed upon their vulnerable female patients. Creating Hysteriatells a sorrowful, infuriating story that compels and deservesattention. (WAndy Kaminer, public policy fellow, RadcliffeCollege)

Author Bio

JOAN ACOCELLA coauthored the textbook Abnormal Psychology: Current Perspectives, now in its eighth edition. A staff writer for The New Yorker, she is the author of Mark Morris (1993) and the editor of The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky (1999).