The book The Magic Daughter is a memoir of a person (Jane Phillips) who has multiple personality disorder. Prior to reading her story, I've never heard the personal experiences of a person with this disorder. My knowledge of multiple personality disorder is limited to the information I've learned in class. The only images of multiple personality disorder that I've encountered were on television, the most memorable image is the movie Sybil. So the story of Jane was very informative.
It was hard to truly understand her despair because the disorder is so rare. Phillips does things that affect not only herself but the people around her. The different personalities have a mind of their own and she has no memory of the events. It is very disturbing when Phillips is in the middle of something, like driving a car and forgets she's driving, where she was going and why. I think this would be very difficult to cope with, not being aware of what you"re doing and why. Her struggles are obvious as she explains her troubles and anyone can see why she wanted to commit suicide. It was as if Jane had lost complete control of herself she was no longer normal and able to function as she did before. I can imagine, how I would feel if my mind seemed .
to be insufficient it could become dangerous just to live.
The discomfort Phillips feels is so evident as she describes how her dissociative disorder is changing her whole world. She can't do the normal activities, such as attending school, driving, sleeping, and everything. James disorder is different from other psychological disorders because, most disorders can be controlled and don't effect everything in a person's life, like multiple personality disorders.
Statistics state that women out number men, nine to one when it comes to multiple personality disorders. There have been studies done that explain people who have MPD are normal individuals and have the same emotions as people without the disease.