When Rabbit Howls, by the Troops for Truddi Chase (memoir prose, 1987)

[lb_lee]

“I saw a multiple killed once. Not in the strict sense of the word, of course. Her therapist did it. [...] Her psychiatrist tried his damnedest to force her—them, her other selves, to integrate. He wanted to see one 'wellrounded, whole' person. I think in many ways the fragmented aspect of MPD scared the hell out of him, especially when he saw things he couldn’t comprehend, ideas he couldn’t have conceived himself in a million years. There was so much beauty unfolding in that woman, and she had such a long way to go—her people getting to know each other fully, exploring themselves and her, showing their wares, if you will. They never had a chance.”

Blurb: The Troops' autobio about their trauma history, their system function, and trying to get their act together and go public to help fight abuse.

Why is it worth your time?: There's a reason that this book still seems to be remembered comparatively fondly, while most other old MPD memoirs are not. The Troops originated a good number of terms and ideas that multiples online use today. They were notable for fighting integration adamantly, instead preferring to work cooperatively, and while their book is incoherent and hard to read, it's worth it. They are also one of the larger systems to have written one of these books; their system was of roughly a hundred, and they go in-depth about their system landscape, functioning, and roles, which are a bit different than the smaller systems in prior books.

Plural Tags: MPD/DID, switching, memory work, otherworld, abuse high-focus

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available in paper and ebook formats.

Comments

Content warnings

[lb_lee]

Child abuse of all types imaginable, headmate death, animal cruelty, and violence. This book is a rough read, though I recall not AS rough as Trujillo's.

Re: Content warnings

[acorn_squash]

+ racism (throughout), body horror involving insects (last chapter only, skippable)

While I'm talking about the last chapter, it was surprisingly sweet and cathartic given the subject matter. I'm glad they let us know that it was a revenge fantasy & not reality, though, 'cause that sure wasn't clear from the chapter itself!

By the way, I really hope you don't mind me adding to the content warnings when I notice something that could be added. If you do mind, just let me know and I'll stop, okay? It's a twitchy little desire for completionism of the sort best channeled into editing Wikipedia, not a criticism in any way.

Re: Content warnings

[lb_lee]

Sneak: no, no, adding CWs is super helpful and appreciated! Some of these books we haven't read in a good while, including this one, and we are in no hurry to read them again. And this is exactly why I made CWs a comment thread, not part of the tags, so people could add on!

[acorn_squash]

This was a really neat book! Excellent writing style, and I loved learning about the Troops' headspace and system organization. It was a little hard to understand at first since the Troops basically had to make up all of their own terminology. Plus, they were writing in a somewhat literary style rather than an expository style. It got easier to understand as I went along, though, and it was absolutely worth the effort, except for one thing: There's some racism that was quite startling and awful - the kind of thing I'd expect from the 1880s, not the 1980s.

I was amused to find that, while the copy I read advertised itself as a "first person account of multiple personality disorder," the book was actually written entirely in third person :)