When Rabbit Howls - The Troops for Truddi Chase

 

I really need to start noting how I discover particular books as, once again, I have no idea how this one came onto my radar. This is the story of a person who has 92 acknowledged personalities and the reasons for them and how they integrate in one human's body. The original trauma that caused the splits was vicious sexual abuse starting when Truddi was just two years old, and the original personality has been buried ever since by the other personalities who have helped her survive in the world. These personalities vary in age and gender and, of course, personalities, and her therapist has spent years trying to catalog the various people inhabiting the body and understand their functions. Chase herself, if that term can actually be used in this case, writes the story with an introduction and epilogue by her therapist.

It's striking just how articulate the narrator is here - you would think that someone with this kind of mental issue would have troubles communicating but just the opposite - this is very intelligently written and an easy read. She writes in the third person (can you say that about a multiple personality?) and also writes from her therapist's point of view, seemingly quite accurately. It's all quite fascinating...She is also the owner of a successful business with at least 7 employees, who may notice random oddness here'n'there, but nothing that seems to be a cause of alarm to them. That is, until the therapy causes enough schisms that she ends up selling the business.

As we slowly learn about more'n'more different characters and bits'n'pieces of her past as her therapy progresses, we also discover that she somehow causes electrical interference (for lack of a better term) when her personalities change. The video tapes of the therapy sessions are filled with static, light bulbs blow out abruptly, batteries die quicker than they should. It is all strange enough to be fiction and the story is so extreme that I continually wonder if I am being fooled into believing that this is a true story.

As an aside, at least one of the personalities has pretty good taste in music from what they reference here!

This is a very depressing read - I need to take breaks from it at times - due to the horrific sexual - and other - abuse and due to the woman's disorientation and the lack of control, although that's subjective, I suppose, as someone was in control. Very disorienting to the reader - at least to me - as well.

But, all in all, a fascinating read about a subject that I know little about. This was published back in 1987 so it would be interesting to learn what became of her and how therapy has advanced since then.