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FEW SUBJECTS have provoked such intense reactions from clinicians and laypersons as what was formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), and now, in the DSM-IV-TR, is known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). This controversial diagnosis has created ground as fertile for misunderstanding and misadventure as any group of passionate advocates might generate. Ira Brenner has made an effort to quiet these climatologic upheavals by bringing us Dissociation of Trauma.He speaks with the voice of a classically trained psychoanalyst who has had to make serious and far-reaching technical adaptations to accommodate extraordinarily complex patients. While he succeeds quite well, sometimes brilliantly, on the level of technique, his theoretical efforts seem too burdened by old theory.
What can we learn from Brenner? He organizes his book into thirds. There is an initial theoretical section that pitches the case for seeing the dissociative disorders as having a unique characterological basis. Following