been steadily getting weaker over the years, and Lee had been steadily getting stronger.”
“Ah, it was like a tug-of-war between them.”
“In a manner of speaking. Only, since neither knew about the other, each was tugging, as you put it, against an unknown.”
“Tugging against an unknown,” Kay repeated, trying out the words in an attempt to better grasp the elusive concept. “I’m striving to relate this to something familiar in my own personal experience, but I confess I’m having trouble finding anything.”
“I doubt you ever will. This phenomenon is hard to relate to normal experience. The individual I treated was born LeRoy Lyle Nye on August 20, 1952. That means his body is in its forties. But Lee, the man who came to me for treatment, can remember very little personal history before six years ago.”
“Because he only came to life six years ago?”
“In some respects, yes, but he is an adult. He views himself as a man in his early thirties and behaves consistent with that view.”
“Surely this Lee personality must have suspected something was amiss when he could only remember back such a short time.”
“He thought very little of his past. The present and future claimed his primary focus. His blackout episodes were far more disturbing to him than his lack of earlier personal memories. The latter he accepted as a mere inconvenience.”
“He only felt inconvenienced? I would think a normal person would be frantic.”
“Because a normal person would feel the loss. But when Lee thought about his lack of memories, which wasn’t often, he merely assumed others had the same difficulties remembering as he did.”
“Is Lee’s reaction typical for someone with his disorder?”
“There is very little that is ‘typical’ in a multiple-personality case. Each is as individual as the mind from which it evolves. These cases were once thought to be rare. Now, most in the field believe they are far more common than any of us imagined. The literature is growing on the subject, but we still have much to learn about diagnosis and treatment.”
“You realize, I expect, that the concept of two separate and distinct personalities existing in the same mind is rather an unusual one for the layperson to envision, much less accept.”
His left hand swept across the thick, unruly hair at the side of his head. It was a rough, square hand, a tool for the impatience that she sensed had set it into motion. But it was also a servant to the disciplined mind that returned it to the arm of his chair. As she had earlier sensed, this psychologist could be just as complicated as his subject.
“Kay, multiple personality disorder or MPD still seems like science fiction to many people, even many psychologists. Some postulate that the affected individuals possess not many personalities, but many fragments of one personality.”
“Which approach do you consider more accurate?”
“I’m a pragmatist. I don’t fixate on disputing or embracing labels or adhering to hard-and-fast data.”
“So how do you approach treatment?”
Damian rested his elbows on the arms of his chair, the heels of his shoes disappearing into the thick mustard-colored carpet, his long, lean legs crossing at the ankles.
“I believe achieving results is what is important, not how the results are achieved. Patients come to me or any psychologist because they want to eliminate their disruptive feelings or behavior, sometimes both. I try what I believe will work, and if my method doesn’t work, I drop it and try something else until I find what does work.”
“What did you try with Lee when he came to you?”
“Lee wanted to eliminate his disruptive blackouts. Nothing in his present life appeared to be causing them. His lack of memories strongly pointed to the possibility of past trauma. I hypnotized him to discover what that past trauma might be. It was under hypnosis that Roy emerged.”
“So up until the time you hypnotized Lee, you didn’t know Roy, the second personality, existed?”
“That’s correct. Actually, Roy never came out in my sessions with Lee unless Lee was under hypnosis.”
“Are you saying he had to be hypnotized into being Roy?”
“No. What I’m saying is that under hypnosis, the control Lee exerted over the shared mind was relaxed sufficiently to allow Roy to be called out at will.”
“At your will, as opposed to Lee’s or Roy’s.”
“Yes. The first time it happened was quite unexpected. I had hypnotized Lee and asked him to tell me about his blackout periods, reasoning that an unconscious part of his mind must know. And it did. That unconscious part was Roy.”
“He popped up and introduced himself?”
Damian smiled. “Not exactly.”
“Then how did you know you were talking to this other personality?”
“Frankly, I didn’t know who I was talking to at first. The experience of finding another personality inside one’s patient is unnerving. It takes some adjusting and reflection on the part of a therapist not used to the phenomenon.”
“Lee was the only multiple case you had seen?”
“At that time, yes. I was eager to get up to speed on proper diagnosis and treatment. After I discovered Roy, I videotaped every subsequent session in order to be certain that I wouldn’t miss anything. That proved very fortunate. If I hadn’t had the tape to replay for Lee, I doubt he would have believed in the reality of Roy. You see, even people with multiple personalities have difficulty accepting the concept.”
Damian smiled at her with warm understanding for her reservations. “I know it must be difficult to take all this in,” he said.
Kay found herself wanting to immediately release her skepticism and accept whatever this man said. She caught herself just in time and shook herself mentally. Damn, but this psychologist was good at getting one’s defenses down. She’d have to be careful. Very careful.
She sat up straighter in her chair, cleared her throat. “How can a person’s mind become separated into these different personalities as you’ve described?”
“Psychological research connects the development of multiple personalities to a traumatic fragmenting of the core personality.”
“And the English version of that translates to...?”
He grinned at her, a very attractive grin.
“Perhaps an analogy would be helpful. If you think of our early-childhood personalities as rough diamonds and life experiences as the diamond cutter, then a multiple-personality individual is the result of life’s diamond cutter clearly missing its mark. The personality ends up shattered into pieces—sometimes two, far more often into many different pieces.”
“And in the case of your patient, the different fragmented personality piece that emerged as a young child was Roy.”
