Jennifer and her Selves

by Gerald Schoenewolf

A young psychotherapist records his experiences in treating a multiple personality and discloses how his own feelings hindered treatment

Genres: Mental Health, Psychology, Nonfiction, Biography

221 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Gerald Schoenewolf is a licensed psychoanalyst and professor of psychology. He is the author of 22 books, most of which are about clinical psychology and psychotherapy. He has also written six novels, a poetic translation of Chinese Daoist philosophy and an illustrated book of poetry, HOLDING ON AND LETTING GO (revised in 2020). He has also written 20 screenplays and written, directed and produced two feature films. Five of his screenplays have won awards at festivals. He lives with his wife, Julia and his parrot and two cats in the mountains of Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Emily Kestrel]

Three stars because it was interesting, but very dated (lots of Freudian lingo), and I’m not sure DID really works like that. Since it was written in the early 90s about a patient he saw in the early 80s, I can forgive that part. But him thinking that the patient was telling him about her early childhood CSA was a form of flirtation? Surely even in 1980 normal people didn’t think that was sexy. WORST THERAPIST EVER!

[Iamshadow]

Reads like fiction, and creepy, male therapist power-fantasy fiction, at that. Jennifer & co. have been so heavily turned into the therapist's fantasy (manic pixie dream girl fused with helpless tower princess) that it's hard to find the corners of the real story and their real characters, if they ever existed at all, which I've seen questioned in a review on another site. I think any book that starts with the therapist thinking his new patient disclosing CSA as her attempting to be 'seductive' towards him is off to a bad start... Still, far from the worst book on multiplicity I've read, which says a lot about how bad some of those books are.

Probably the thing I liked about it best was the ending. Jennifer& said the things the therapist wanted them to say, to implying they were 'integrating' (though the therapist seems to think establishing internal communication and co-consciousness is integration, which, it really isn't, not even blurring or blending are integration, they're a commonly experienced phenomenon of overlapping between system members that doesn't erase or combine individual identities), and then once the therapist admitted he was out of his depth, they didn't self-destruct. They went off and had a life. They met him at a later point (a meeting orchestrated by him, not them) and confirmed they they were NOT integrated, and that they were doing fine, thank you very much.

Unfortunately, there is no true voice of Jennifer& in this work. Even the so-called 'diary entries' were fabricated by the therapist, a very odd choice. Continuing from his perspective throughout would have made more sense. Instead, there is all this faux 'insight' that he claims is just as good as actual diary entries because he thinks he has complete understanding of Jennifer& based on their time together, which is garbage, because there's no way anything he could fabricate could be true to their actual feelings and experiences without them guiding his hand, and there is absolutely nothing in this book to suggest Jennifer& had any input in writing it. He freely admits fictionalising and heightening events to make a better story in the introduction.

If Jennifer& exists, this book sheds no light on them and their experiences, because it's not actually about them at all. It's a fantasy constructed by a mediocre man, and, as such, is focussed purely on his wishes and desires, and when it comes down to it, there's nothing less interesting in fiction than an English professor lusting after his student, or a Freudian analyst lusting after his patient.

[Gerald Schoenewolf]

As the author of this book I am, of course, biased. And it goes without saying I've read through it hundreds of times as I've revised it. This is my revised edition of a book that first came out in 1993 to mixed reviews. Most reviews praised the book as a "page-turner," while a few others found deficiencies. In this new, revised version I've added the real ending to the story. The book still excites me and I think it is a very good read. But I'll let readers decide that for themselves. It deserves to be on this site.

[Joy]

The study of a dancer with multiple personalities, written by her therapist. He explores his emotional involvement with her case as well as hers, showing how it caused her re-integration to occur with astonishing speed and then then forced the end of her treatment with him. If the author had known then, as he began his career, what he did by the time the book was written, he might not have gone outside established procedures; and she might still be looking for someone who could help her.

[Fishface]

Another of the innumerable multiple-personality biographies in circulation during the days when everyone and everything was thought to have it. This one was OK, but it didn't knock my socks off.

[Vicki Gooding]

This is documentation of a therapist and the integration of the dissociation personalities that have plagued this woman. A wonderful work in progress.

[Anne Hawn]

It is hard to say a book like this is enjoyable when you are dealing with the unraveling of a life full of pain and abuse, but it was captivating. Jennifer was subject to physical and emotional abuse and to cope with the pain, she dissociated into 7 different personalities. Each personality was "born" as a response to a horrifying situation that the child, Jennifer, was not able to cope with. In her creative mind, another personality emerged who was able to bear the pain and betrayal. While these alters enabled her to cope with her situation, they eventually began to cause her problems. Jennifer was unaware of the alters, but she was aware of losing time. When she would awaken, sometimes in an strange location, she would find that days or weeks had disappeared. Frequent suicide attempts and "cutting" brought her to mental hospitals and new therapist until she finally arrived at Gerald Schoenewolf's office.

Shortly after she began work with Schoenewolf, her personality changed so drastically that he finally became aware that he was dealing with a multiple personality. The book deals with the portion of her therapy that dealt with exposing all of the alters and eventually integrating them. The story is a fascinating look into the way a creative and intelligent mind protected a vulnerable child from abuse that she could not cope with.

[JD Kennedy]

It was ok, nothing more.

I have read a few books on DID and the subsequent therapy. Whilst I appreciate this was written showing the frailties and fallibility of a therapist, I do not feel it captured the feelings or experiences of the patient.

[Lali Belardo]

Very good.!