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Loading... Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities (edition 2008)by Richard Baer
Work InformationSwitching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities by Richard K. Baer
   Penguin Random House (235) No current Talk conversations about this book.  wendithegray | May 1, 2017 |    ) mystic506 | Sep 3, 2016 | The book is well written. I cannot say it has made a believer out of me. It has convinced me that Dr. Baer believes in the story he wrote. In particular it was his afterward that persuades the reader that he documented this case all the way through and truly believed in the multiple personalities of Karen. ( ) jlsimon7 | Mar 1, 2015 |  ) aBohemian1 | Jul 11, 2012 | ) LynnSigman | Dec 8, 2010 |
 An amazing true story written by the psychiatrist treating Karen for almost 20 years. Thanks for enlightening me further into the illness, Dissociate Identity Disorder and helping me understand it more to be able to further support my friend.
Biography & Autobiography.
Medical.
Nonfiction.
HTML: Switching Time is the first story centering on multiple personality disorder to be told by the treating physician. It is the incredible saga of a young woman stranded in unimaginable darkness who, in order to survive, created seventeen different versions of herself. In 1989, Karen Overhill walked into the office of psychiatrist Richard Baer complaining of depression. She poured out a litany of complaints, but in the disengaged way of someone who has experienced a terrible trauma. Slowly, Baer began to peel back the layers, eventually learning that Karen had been the victim of childhood sexual abuse. As time passed, though, his patient worsened and began to talk continually of suicide. Details of her abuse accumulated until he saw, via hypnosis, the true dimension of what Karen had suffered. Baer was at a loss to explain Karen's sanity, precarious though it was, until he received a letter from a little girl, Claire. One by one, Karen's "alters" began showing themselves---men, women, young boys, a toddler, black, white, vicious, nurturing, prim, licentious. And their "stepping out" confronted Baer with the challenge of a lifetime. Somehow, to save Karen, he would have to gain the trust of her alters in order to destroy them. .No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)616.852360092Technology Medicine and health Diseases Diseases of nervous system and mental disorders Miscellaneous NeurosesLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.85)
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I do appreciate that Dr. Baer admitted when he wasn't sure that all the stories of abuse were true. I have read quite a few stories of survival. It's astounding the shape sexual abuse can take. It's Karen's tales of ritual abuse and Satan worship that sends up the red flags - it is true or not. Were all those people involved? There were quite a few people that were said to be a part of the rituals, sex parties and other things.
However, we know that everyone can see an event in a different light. And children can interpret things in their own special ways. I can't imagine what Karen went through.
The book reads as if we were reading Dr. Baer's own notes instead of an actual narrative. I also felt that things were repeated over and over again as if the author knew he needed more words to make the story longer.
I think the sub-title is a little too dramatic for this book. A Harrowing Story - the harrowing thing is not his treatment but Karen's abuse.
The book was pretty dull to be honest. It might have been more interesting if Dr. Baer had taken time to flush out his descriptions and meetings with the alters. I felt like he glossed over them. They were very two-dimensional. Alters are, if anything, NOT two-dimensional.
The premise of the book was interesting, but if you're interested in the psychology and the stories of multiple personality disorders, I suggest Cybil or another book. (