Buku yang dibaca Bahasa Inggris, tapi review ditulis menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia.

Autobiografi ini ditulis langsung oleh Truddi, penderita multiple personality. Menceritakan perjuangannya mengenali diri sendiri yang hidup berdampingan dengan 92 personality lainnya. Bukan tanpa sebab, multiple personality yang dialami Truddi disebabkan oleh trauma masa kecil (sexual abuse) oleh orang terdekatnya, yaitu ayah tirinya.

Dibantu pskiater bernama Stanley, setiap kepribadian menceritakan apa yang ada dalam pikirannya masing-masing. Setiap kepribadian juga membawa memori masa kecil, sifat, dan tingkah laku yang berbeda-beda. Sehingga, memori masa kecil diceritakan dengan banyak versi, tergantung masing-masing kepribadian. Meskipun cerita yang diceritakan ada banyak versi, setiap cerita tersebut dapat dikaitkan dengan satu benang merah: trauma masa kecilnya yang mengalami sexual abuse oleh ayah tirinya.

Ketika baca buku ini, ada semangat yang muncul ketika tahu bagaimana sebuah pikiran bekerja, hingga bisa menimbulkan kepribadian-keprbadian baru. Hanya saja, jujur, baca buku ini cukup melelahkan karena masa kecil yang diceritakan sungguh menyebabkan trauma. Singkatnya, trigger warningnya sangat melelahkan jiwa.

Pada akhirnya, aku sadar, betapa buruknya sebuah tindakan pelecehan seksual bagi korban. Dampak psikis yang ditimbukkan bisa sangat besar, dan trauma yang pada akhirnya tidak bisa hilang berpuluh-puluh tahun, hingga usia dewasa.

I found this book alternatively fascinating, unbelievable, horrifying and silly. I had heard elsewhere that there has been some speculation that the book is not legitimate but in fact is fabricated. When the story line became a little too weird (as in parts about reading minds and paranormal stuff) then that speculation kept running through my mind and I became a very cynical reader.

I also found the book hard to read in places because of the way it was written (supposedly) from a first person narrative through the various people that Truddi became through her Multiple Personality Disorder.

And my final criticism is that in some places it simply became repetitive and dull.

Having said all that, if in fact this book is legitimate and real, it tells of a fascinating phenomenon and explores the world of MPD in a unique manner. And the abuses this woman went through is horrifying. The fact that she survived it intact in any way shows just how strong she was as a person.

While non-fiction, this book may forever be canonized in my library alongside the likes of Perfume and Cement Garden. The central character – mostly referred to as “the woman” – was horrifically abused in every way imaginable by her stepfather from age 3 to 14. This non-fiction account of the beginning of her treatment with a psychologist is actually written by the “Troup” of personalities that live within her and who were born out of her abuse. They’ve helped her cope with her abuse by protecting her from the knowledge of it, and this is the story of the woman’s Troup introducing themselves to her and revealing to her what she’s endured. This is an older book, and the Troup came to their physician with the intent that telling their story would help him – not only treat Trudi – but inform how he teaches his students and treats other patients who were victims of child abuse. After reading it, I can only assume that it has been an important work in understanding multiple personality and dissociative disorder. I’m not sure anyone could claim to “enjoy” it, but it is an excellent read if this is your taste.

More at www.litandleisure.com.

This is a challenging book to review. It is as disjointed as one can imagine a book written by multiple personalities would be. That being said, it is a chilling look into the day to day challenges such a person faces and the horror which resulted in their fragmented personality.

It is the second time I've read it & I found it just as powerful this time around.

this book was interesting but it certainly wasn't true. first of all, ESP doesn't exist, and neither do "spirits", so claiming to communicate with esp and to spirits disqualifies the book from the nonfiction category.

secondly, the author claims to have felt similar to "Sybil", a well known case of "multiple personality" that has been thoroughly debunked. similarity to a fictional story doesn't make your story more true.

third, I do not believe a petite woman who was "skin and bones" (her description) held down a grown man and administered parasite larvae.

fourthly, she describes her alternative personalities as existing simultaneously outside her body. she vividly describes them being in other rooms of her house. multiple personality doesn't equal multiple bodies.

fifth, people cannot produce "mental" static that disrupts electronics.

sixth, her doctor breaks hippa laws repeatedly.

there's more but you get the idea. perhaps a real woman was really abused. perhaps she has multiple personalities. but so many of the events of this book are obviously fictitious so it is difficult to believe any of it.

I can not imagine one parent being this abusive let a lone two....What a sad sad story.A must read.

Ein einzigartiges Buch über multiple Persönlichkeitsstörung. Es gibt sehr wenige Bücher über dieses Thema.
Dieses Buch ist nicht unbedingt leicht zu lesen, denn es wurde als Begleitung der Therapie von den geschätzten 92 Persönlichkeiten der Truddi Chase geschrieben.
Man muss sich auf dieses Thema einlassen können und noch besser, einen persönlichen Bezug zu diesem Thema haben. Dann ist es ein wirklich gutes Buch, das viele oft gestellte Fragen beantworten kann.

This book can be truly difficult to read as it is written in the perspect of about 90 (?) personalities? You will see about 8 really strong ones portraited throughout most the book. Truddi Chase is a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder, and through this book you learn her trials on dealing with why this has happened. You learn about her incestual family and heartbreaking childhood.

As you never actually meet Truddi Chase, and she is not mentioned ONCE in the book, you learn so much about her and absolutely fall in love with her.

This book was written by the many faces of Truddi Chase and is a true story.

I have never been so entralled in a book

IF you are interested in reading about true survival accounts, reading about the unimaginable, the will to live and what a person's body/mind does to survive because of the true-life evil and horrendous acts that others are capable of inflicting.... then all I have this to say about this book - OMG!! While reading this book, I caught myself with my mouth gaping open or shaking my head at times.

This book deals with the true horror account of Truddi Chase, the incomprehensible things she endured as a child. As a result of that the inconceivable things done to her as a child, her body and mind went into "survival mode" and she came to have multiple personalities, 92 of them, known as "The Troops". One who was in the troop was named was Rabbit (hence the Title of this book).

"Written by the Troops themselves, When Rabbit Howls is told by the very alter-egos who stayed with Truddi Chase, watched over her, and protected her. What they reveal is a spellbinding descent into a personal hell—and an ultimate, triumphant deliverance for the woman they became." It is descriptive in it's accounts making understandable the magnitude of the hell Truddi went through.

I read this book with purpose, and it left me feeling compassionate, not only for Truddi, but for all victims of extreme abuse (sexually and/or otherwise). For me, it took away the fear and uncertainty of meeting and dealing with some of these individuals I have come to know or have cross paths with in real life. It also served as a legitimate source about why and when it becomes necessary (or ripe) for the body/mind to split resulting in an individual having Multiple Personalities (commonly known today as Disassociation Disorder.)

If you choose to read this book, you will not soon, or maybe not ever, forget it.... I won't.

Too good to be true. Purporting to be a manuscript written by the alters, it reads like a quite brilliant novel — and thereby strains credulity. So I don’t really know how to classify this. It seems that MPD diagnoses peaked in the 90’s and have now collapsed — and so it is hard to say how real any of this is. Certainly, there is skepticism.

So brave. The Troops and Stanley were so brave. This was a heartbreaking read, but triumphant.

After a few days of stewing, I know for a fact that my one review might not reach all eyes and might not catch much attention. But what I do know, is that this book was pretty clear with the Introduction and with the Epilogue, how you as a reader should read their story.
This book is based on the manuscript worked on by the Troops and their many experiences from their own individual perspectives, of their lives shared with the other Troops as well as the Woman they spoke through.

As a plural group / system ourselves, we found this book not only to be comforting and validating for our experiences of understanding one another and perhaps seeing a form of an innerworld, teeming with life of many individuals sharing their energy and time and space with, but also, it was a harsh and vast reminder that the damage done to us was not our fault. That we survived. That we lived. That we continue to live.

We wish we could have had the chance to meet the Troops (Their body passed away Mar 10th, 2010), because we would thank them for their clear bravery and insistence on sharing their story, so that people could know and be aware that people who suffer at the hands of others, need to be supported, to be cared for. To feel loved. To feel safe.

I think this can and will be a hard read for anyone who has endured and survived through physical, emotional, and verbal abuse, but remember you can take your time. The story will be waiting for you to be ready.

For other reviewers who are reviewing this like its fiction, re-read the introduction. Look Truddi Chase (and The Troops) up. They were real. Their trauma was real. How they experienced reality, was the Only way they could Survive through the vast damaging abuse from most of everyone in their lives. Am I telling you that Everything that they experienced happened 'In Real Life, Physically'? No. I'm saying as a clue in, that imagine when they describe the tunnel, when the woman describes seeing the other members, when the members interact with her and others of the troops, imagine this is happening as a visual in her mind, an innerworld. When the woman goes into a space full of whiteness, I imagine and remember our own space like that, when we need to keep ourselves safe inside of our mind, away from the physical external experience that our body is going through.

Be kind. Be aware that you aren't the smartest person on the planet. Be aware that it doesn't matter if you 'Think' it's not real. It happened in this person's experience and that deserved to be respected. If you don't like real account tellings of someone's traumatic life, then don't read it. But don't claim that it's a farce and don't claim it's fake and for attention. And for fuck's sake, stop saying that DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) isn't real. It's literally been proven that in the formative years of life that your brain (and your body) is not fully developed, not fully formed. Your many concepts of identity (and even then you don't even have an idea of the Word Identity!) are all separate, and as you age and grow and learn from your environment and experiences and education, these identities meld and mold and become your identity as you age into maturity.

When someone is harmed, especially More than Once, at such a young age, the brain defends itself and tries to continue to survive through the pain/abuse/torture/trauma, by building walls, barriers, to keep some form of the soft, malleable/moldable identities safe from the knowledge that cannot be processed by such an unformed mind. That is how the first 'splits' happen. So when you say that DID isn't real, you're also claiming that when we are born we are Immediately One Singular Identity. Which is false.

Thanks for your time if you've read thus far.