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List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $16.47
Your Save: $ 8.48 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Crown
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.852360092
EAN: 9780307382665
ISBN: 0307382664
Label: Crown
Manufacturer: Crown
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2007-10-02
Publisher: Crown
Release Date: 2007-10-02
Studio: Crown
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Editorial Reviews:
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One afternoon in 1989, Karen Overhill walks into psychiatrist Richard Baer’s office complaining of vague physical pains and depression. Odder still, she reveals that she’s suffering from a persistent memory problem. Routinely, she “loses” parts of her day, finding herself in places she doesn’t remember going to or being told about conversations she doesn’t remember having. Her problems are so pervasive that she often feels like an impersonator in her own life; she doesn’t recognize the people who call themselves her friends, and she can’t even remember being intimate with her own husband.
Baer recognizes that Karen is on the verge of suicide and, while trying various medications to keep her alive, attempts to discover the root cause of her strange complaints. It’s the work of months, and then years, to gain Karen’s trust and learn the true extent of the trauma buried in her past. What she eventually reveals is nearly beyond belief, a narrative of a childhood spent grappling with unimaginable horror. How has Karen survived with even a tenuous grasp on sanity?
Then Baer receives an envelope in the mail. It’s marked with Karen’s return address but contains a letter from a little girl who writes that she’s seven years old and lives inside of Karen. Soon Baer receives letters from others claiming to be parts of Karen. Under hypnosis, these alternate Karen personalities reveal themselves in shocking variety and with undeniable traits—both physical and psychological. One “alter” is a young boy filled with frightening aggression; another an adult male who considers himself Karen’s protector; and a third a sassy flirt who seeks dominance over the others. It’s only by compartmentalizing her pain, guilt, and fear in this fashion—by “switching time” with alternate selves as the situation warrants—that Karen has been able to function since childhood.
Realizing that his patient represents an extreme case of multiple personality disorder, Baer faces the daunting task of creating a therapy that will make Karen whole again. Somehow, in fact, he must gain the trust of each of Karen’s seventeen “alters” and convince them of the necessity of their own annihilation.
As powerful as Sybil or The Three Faces of Eve, Switching Time is the first complete account of such therapy to be told from the perspective of the treating physician, a stunningly devoted healer who worked selflessly for decades so that Karen could one day live as a single human being.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Ask Karen A Question
Comment: Would you like to ask me, Karen Overhill, a question? Log onto "Switching Time" website www.switchingtime.wordpress.com and I will answer you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amazing Read
Comment: I've always been interested in cases of multiple personality, and SWITCHING TIME is the mother of them all.
I found myself immersed in the story of both the doctor and patient and cringing at the horrors this poor woman suffered (although I will admit that I'm not quite sure, even after reading the book, how many of the events she mentioned actually, truly happened).
This book is disturbing at times, but also immensely interesting. For fans of the subject, this is definitely a must-read!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hard to put this book down!
Comment: I just finished this book and it was fascinating, troubling, thought-provoking and intense. I have never wanted to write a review until now. I hope this book does well when it comes out in paperback. As you read it, you start to realize different parts of your own inner self and how they make up your own distinct personality. To imagine anyone suffering the abuse she endured is horrific.
Dr Baer's account of his treatment is not too technical yet definitely not written for a "fiction lover". Awesome read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Remarkable
Comment: This is a remarkable story of the truly awful abuse suffered by Karen and the subsequent splitting of her personality, an act that saved her. Her long journey with Dr Baer is equally remarkable and immediately it is apparent how important the therapeutic relationship is. Without such a relationship all that followed would not be possible.
There is so much to say about this book and I would recommend it to therapists, psychology students, and to anyone who is interested in the mind and the effects of severe long term abuse or those who want to read a moving story. I would have liked a little more theory in the book about DID and how exactly Karen's alters formed and maybe some theoretical musings on the abusers as their behaviour was truly abhorent. The alters did a good job of explaining the function of each but I am left wondering if perhaps we all have aspects of multiplicity? The book, 'Multiplicity' by Rita Carter does suggest that.
Yesterday I spotted a book review by Karen as she has started reading books on DID, and this prompted my review. This is a book that will long stay in my mind, and I admire Dr Baer for his dedication to Karen. If he had stuck to rigid boundaries, Karen might not be around today. Finally, how can I finish without a few words for Karen? To have suffered such abuse and then to have faced it over 18 years of therapy, shows a woman who despite the worst the world could throw at her, has incredible bravery and resilience. I am sure that readers of this book wish you well on your continued journey.......I certainly do. Your words will help many people. Lastly, a final word on the alters, in that you have many beautiful parts within you and they are all you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fabulous book!
Comment: This is one of the most fascinating books I have read in my long career of reading. Many years ago I read Sybil and found it to be a page turner but this book is even more interesting and makes the unbelievable totally believable. Coming from the perspective of the psychiatrist treating the case gives the book a very unique style. I recommend it whole heartedly and hope the patient, Karen, writes a follow up ten years from now and lets us know how she has prospered.
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