�jon lonergan 1994/1996
I was recently asked about working with victims of "Cult Abuse" and how they could be helped. What seems to be quite significant in these people is the high incidence of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). Although the current psychological label is Dissociative Identity Disorder rather than Multiple Personality Disorder, I shall use the older term since it is closer to people's experience although it might not fit into conventional psychological theory as well. Also there are Dissociative Disorders which are NOT MPD so here MPD is a more precise term.
The range of beings which can live in the one person is amazing and quite a bit has been written about them. This article is an attempt to elucidate which techniques I have found particularly appropriate to dealing with them.
The most useful approach is that of treating the person as several individuals sharing the same body and trying to ensure each of them is happy about it .
That is, doing therapy where needed within the individual Personalities and negotiating between them.
B came to see me some years ago complaining that she was struggling for her sanity since she had been through a process with her spiritual "teacher" to get in touch with her "Higher Self".
What she got in touch with then started to try to take over her life and when she came to me she was saying "I am B" over 1000 times a day in an effort to retain her identity.
This "Higher Self" used to continually criticise her and those around her for their inferior moral status and as a result of this she was in the process of getting divorced and her children did not want to have anything to do with her. In other words her "Higher Self" had destroyed her family. So much for her "Higher Self". She was better off being "un-evolved".
This other being was called "Angelique" (who was "an angel and a devil") and eventually B decided that Angelique wasn't her Higher self after all but her Transpersonal (!) Self .
B had originally allowed Angelique to do all this destructive behaviour because she had been told by her spiritual teacher that she must listen to Angelique as Angelique had a deeper wisdom due to her "evolved" nature.
Now B was struggling to stay sane against Angelique's onslaughts and had been for 18 months.
At least she recognised there was something wrong, though she was not ready to think there was anything wrong with her guru.
She was surprised when the first thing I said to Angelique was "Well Angelique, what is it you want?"
"In 18 months no one's ever said that to her!"
She was stunned when I repeated the question and Angelique said "I want to be here and not feel the pain".
Hardly the response of a being trying to take over her life.
Angelique had been brought forth or created and told she was B's Higher Self, with the associated status and responsibilities. And she could not do the job! She was thoroughly fed up and frustrated yet the only acceptable way for her to release this emotion was to tell others how THEY were failing. After all the Higher Self isn't supposed to have ordinary limitations, so she wasn't permitted to confess to her own feelings and failures, but she was allowed to tell others theirs.
Even after it had been recoded as a "Transpersonal Self" it had not stopped interfering. It kept talking to B and not allowing her any peace. And if this being did not want to feel pain then trying to destroy it would go against its desires, not to mention its well-being.
The two sessions that it took to re-integrate the "aberrant" personality were basically concerned with removing the hostility it felt and getting it what it wanted .
Angelique was "stored" in the Auditory System ("it used to be pictures") as a voice and B would maintain her sanity by using affirmations ("I am B"), also Auditory, so the technique for integrating Angelique and B was to have them take turns at talking. So A would start talking and B would finish A's sentence, and vice-versa.
They had already agreed on the desired outcome so having them both operate harmoniously in the same time frame in a relaxed state, enabled them to integrate. Just how they did that in detail I haven't any idea.
When the client is paying by the hour it hardly seems fair to have them pay to indulge my curiosity.
I imagine a good description of what actually happens will only come after neurology has moved beyond its current primitive (though fascinating) level of competence.
B said it was good to have A speak to me as other people rejected A and wanted to get rid of her.
So, ensure that the goals of the Secondary Personality are met, and then any objections to change can be dealt with as they arise.
There was one part of this "Transpersonal Self" that did not want to integrate. It wanted out. It wanted to destroy B so it could go back to where it came from.
The part of Angelique which wanted to destroy B and go back to the "other plane" was quite determined but when I pointed out that if it didn't deal with this now it would only be re-incarnated the next time until it did deal with the problem, it changed its mind. "I didn't think of that."
I certainly wouldn't have the faintest idea whether or not the reincarnation viewpoint is true, but since it fit with Angelique's belief systems, it worked.
Then things proceeded smoothly, as once the client (and her relevant Personalities) is congruent (they all agree) about the outcome, the technique is not an issue. Just saying "come together now" will work as well as any other technique. I often ask the client what to do.
The Negotiation and Reinterpreting or Reframing approach is one oriented to creating congruence whereas a controlling/curing/medical approach automatically creates resistance.
The more respectful approach bypasses the limitations of the "normal" approach to Multiple Personality Disorder, that of "curing" the client. This presupposes that there is something wrong with the Secondary Personality (sometimes they're better company than the main one) and it should be somehow destroyed and the main one emerge from the battle strong and triumphant.
With that sort of confrontationist approach the Secondary Personality naturally thinks the therapist is trying to destroy it and of course any discrete entity can be expected to protect its own existence.
What works better is a negotiation approach in which the real answer is to have the other Personality's desires met in a way that satisfies the main personality.
And what works for two personalities also works for three, four, etc.
In dealing with any Cult Multiple Personalities, a negotiation for time-sharing can help as some of the Personalities will identify strongly with the cult and that part may need to be treated separately itself to remove its pain and fear before it will stop trying to control (or report to the cult) the client. If the client lives with other cult members it is especially difficult as the very forces which created the Multiple Personality Disorder will tend to re-create it after the therapist's work at fixing things.
Christian approaches to anything resembling Satanism or any form of magic are usually laden with negative judgments and regard these beings as "bad" and "the devil's work" and should be destroyed. As with exorcism. So of course these Personalities fight back.
This conflict can then generate fear and anxiety in all the parties involved which then makes it even harder to get the Secondary Personality to agree to anything.
This could be regarded as one of the rules of successful negotiation - if you want someone to agree with you, don't try to kill them!
And the client too can take this approach to unacceptable Personalities. A common question is "Can't we just get rid of her?" (the unacceptable personality).
The mainstream churches aren't too bad at creating MPD either with their emphasis on such things as "the voice of your conscience". Some people's lives are ruined by an over-active conscience which has its own independence psychologically and won't give them peace.
Nor do the Personalities necessarily have to be integrated. They sometimes appear just to give the person a message, or to protect them. Sometimes they are just passing through and get "stuck". Not everything has to be deep and meaningful.
What makes an antagonistic approach worse for everyone is the degree of congruence these Personalities display.
An "evil" Personalitie does its role exceptionally well which means all the fear and guilt of the therapist can be engaged by this in a relationship that benefits no one. These "Satanic Personalities" have a heightened sensitivity themselves to the weaknesses in others which correspond to their own natures. So they can "turn on" in just the right manner to "ensnare" the therapist.
The celibate or sexually inhibited are of course open season for any Personality that can tap into sexual energies, because such a Personality can express or challenge, with full congruence, what the therapist is trying to deny in him- or her- self.
The understandable, though ineffective, rejection and condemnation by the therapist then locks them both into a no-win situation.
One study of Multiple Personality Disorders found that 70% of them had been sexually abused as children. Which means they are very aware of other people's sexuality, especially when the other is in a position of authority (as is a therapist) since it mirrors the original traumatic situation, or at least one class of them.
So it comes down to negotiating to get all Personalities agreeable and to change (not necessarily destroy) the ones that are themselves destructive .
It is important to realise that not all cults are like this, some are quite benign, and it is hard for any cult to be as abusive as supposedly benign State and Religious Institutions . When a child is abused by the State or Church any recovery is much more difficult as the message they learn is that there is NO safety ANYWHERE.
This message of NO SAFETY is probably one of the prerequisite conditions for the development of Multiple Personality Disorder, and for the State or God - via their Institutions - to prove it true makes healing even harder.