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Brain Storm: A Life in Pieces
Win a free kindle copy of this book!
4 days and 07:23:18
100 copies available
U.S. only
The sad 7-year-old girl. The aggressive 14-year-old boy.The terrified 3-year-old child. The cult leader.
She lived with these, and over thirty other parts of her mind, no less real than you and I, throughout endless cycles of deepest depression, paralyzing panic, thoughts of suicide, and a revolving door of psychotherapists.
A harbinger of the coming storm, darkness followed her everywhere, from infancy to a career as a renowned, openly gay OB/GYN in New York City. A loving wife and three remarkable kids completed the fa�ade she allowed the world to see while inside her mind was a raging tempest. A fierce will to survive sustained her until, at long last, a gifted therapist gave a name to her unrelenting psychic pain: Dissociative Identity disorder (DID). And so the work began.
In Brain Storm, Dr. Shelley Kolton tells the story of a childhood marked by unimaginable abuse and the distinct parts her brain created to hold those memories and protect her. She balanced the demands of medicine, marriage and family as new parts - each one requiring her attention and care - emerged while grueling therapy sessions consumed her days and nights. After twelve torturous years, she finally accepted that the alters colliding inside her brain had, in truth, saved her. Kolton, often using emails and text messages written by her alters, mixed with her own journal entries, paints an honest, intimate and at times humorous portrait of a woman living with DID, managing the inhabitants of her own creation. With memories so raw and real, she puts to rest any doubts as to the existence of multiple personalities. Brain Storm is the heartbreaking account of a mind, fragmented and broken, ultimately made whole by one woman's incomparable strength and courage.
"You will not emerge unchanged from Brain Storm. It is a harrowing, hallowing experience and a triumph of the human spirit" - Robin Morgan, bestselling author of Sisterhood is Powerful, former Editor-in-Chief of Ms. Magazine.
She lived with these, and over thirty other parts of her mind, no less real than you and I, throughout endless cycles of deepest depression, paralyzing panic, thoughts of suicide, and a revolving door of psychotherapists.
A harbinger of the coming storm, darkness followed her everywhere, from infancy to a career as a renowned, openly gay OB/GYN in New York City. A loving wife and three remarkable kids completed the fa�ade she allowed the world to see while inside her mind was a raging tempest. A fierce will to survive sustained her until, at long last, a gifted therapist gave a name to her unrelenting psychic pain: Dissociative Identity disorder (DID). And so the work began.
In Brain Storm, Dr. Shelley Kolton tells the story of a childhood marked by unimaginable abuse and the distinct parts her brain created to hold those memories and protect her. She balanced the demands of medicine, marriage and family as new parts - each one requiring her attention and care - emerged while grueling therapy sessions consumed her days and nights. After twelve torturous years, she finally accepted that the alters colliding inside her brain had, in truth, saved her. Kolton, often using emails and text messages written by her alters, mixed with her own journal entries, paints an honest, intimate and at times humorous portrait of a woman living with DID, managing the inhabitants of her own creation. With memories so raw and real, she puts to rest any doubts as to the existence of multiple personalities. Brain Storm is the heartbreaking account of a mind, fragmented and broken, ultimately made whole by one woman's incomparable strength and courage.
"You will not emerge unchanged from Brain Storm. It is a harrowing, hallowing experience and a triumph of the human spirit" - Robin Morgan, bestselling author of Sisterhood is Powerful, former Editor-in-Chief of Ms. Magazine.
318 pages, Paperback
Published January 2, 2021
About the author
Shelley Kolton
2 books49 followersShelley Kolton co-founded the first all-women OB/GYN practice in New York City in 1980. As a physician, she appeared as a medical contributor on news shows such as the MacNeil/Lehrer Report and ABC News, among others. Dr. Kolton was also a medical consultant for a number of television series during the 1990s. She collaborated on – and wrote the foreword for - The Next Nine Months: A Guide to Your Body After Giving Birth (Penguin) and has been published in several prestigious medical journals. This is her first book.
Dr. Kolton was diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder, now characterized as DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder), in 2007. She spent the next 13 years on a nightmarish journey, struggling to heal from the memories of horrific abuse she suffered as a child and understanding the parts her mind created in order to protect her. She wrote this book not only as a gift to her loved ones but to help those who are struggling with abuse of any kind and to demonstrate the power of the mind to heal itself.
She lives in New York City with her wife, two of her three daughters, her dog Leo and until recently, her beloved pit bull, Gracie.
Dr. Kolton was diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder, now characterized as DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder), in 2007. She spent the next 13 years on a nightmarish journey, struggling to heal from the memories of horrific abuse she suffered as a child and understanding the parts her mind created in order to protect her. She wrote this book not only as a gift to her loved ones but to help those who are struggling with abuse of any kind and to demonstrate the power of the mind to heal itself.
She lives in New York City with her wife, two of her three daughters, her dog Leo and until recently, her beloved pit bull, Gracie.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 24, 2021
This is a book about a woman who has Disassociative Identity Disorder (DID) which used to be known as Multiple Personality Disorder. Reading about DID always amazes me. It’s a disorder that is hard to understand and many people think the sufferers are faking their alters but they are not.
Amazingly this book is written from the viewpoint of not just the original Shelley but also her alters using emails and journal entries. This is also a book about severe childhood trauma that is repressed at first and comes out later. I’ve got to say, Shelley’s second therapist is AMAZING. Anyone with DID reading this book would probably want to know where they can find her. Shelley was so lucky to get a good therapist the second time around. To be able to heal enough to manage life and even write about it is something.
This is a shocking book for so many reasons so TRIGGER WARNING. If you’ve ever wondered how DID looks like or works, this is the book to find out. The best of the DID books I’ve ever read.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Amazingly this book is written from the viewpoint of not just the original Shelley but also her alters using emails and journal entries. This is also a book about severe childhood trauma that is repressed at first and comes out later. I’ve got to say, Shelley’s second therapist is AMAZING. Anyone with DID reading this book would probably want to know where they can find her. Shelley was so lucky to get a good therapist the second time around. To be able to heal enough to manage life and even write about it is something.
This is a shocking book for so many reasons so TRIGGER WARNING. If you’ve ever wondered how DID looks like or works, this is the book to find out. The best of the DID books I’ve ever read.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
June 2, 2021
Brain Storm by Shelley Kolton shares her experience discovering as an adult that she’d experienced childhood abuse and developed dissociative identity disorder, as well as the work she did on integration and healing.
The book’s introduction was written by feminist activist Robin Morgan. She wrote that this book affirms that DID is a feminist issue. Given that I have dear friends that are multiples inhabiting a male body, I thought that particular descriptor was unnecessarily limiting, but the book itself didn’t take seem to take an overt feminist stance.
The reader is introduced early on to the author’s abuse at the hands of a high school coach, but it wasn’t until age 40 that she started having panic attacks and flashbacks as earlier trauma emerged. Unfortunately, her therapist didn’t recognize the true nature of what she was experiencing, but the author was later able to find her with a therapist who diagnosed her with dissociative identity disorder and began long-term work dealing with the trauma of ritual abuse by a satanic cult up until age 4.
The author shares how, over the next 10 years, 31 members of “my gang” emerged. It was particularly interesting to read about how one of her alters who had his own alters. Some in the “gang” had less than typical names, like Fuckface.
Much of this unfolds in journal entries or in emails between the author’s various parts and their therapist. The reader isn’t often brought into the therapy room for the frequent intense sessions, but that may have been difficult to do given that much of the author’s earlier work with her therapist involved abreaction, a reliving that “dissipated the panic and de-weaponized the memory.”
The author admits that her adult family life was very strained, in large part due to alters she wasn’t aware of. She writes that after her partner’s breast cancer surgery, “I was there for her post-op in body but not so much in spirit. I was a total asshole, but in all fairness to myself, I was completely dissociated, something I couldn’t control.” The book clearly shows that DID doesn’t just affect the diagnosed person.
The pacing of the book made it seem as though the work on integration happened fairly quickly once it began. I don’t think that’s actually the case; however, as a reader, I didn’t feel like I got a clear sense of how that process happened.
However, it sounds like the author made a remarkable recovery, and the book’s postscript, written by the author’s therapist, speaks to this as well. Also was remarkable was that the author kept up her practice as an OB/GYN throughout. This book provides readers with a first-hand look at what dissociative identity disorder is, and clearly shows the author’s commitment to her family and her strength and perseverance in working through significant trauma.
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
The book’s introduction was written by feminist activist Robin Morgan. She wrote that this book affirms that DID is a feminist issue. Given that I have dear friends that are multiples inhabiting a male body, I thought that particular descriptor was unnecessarily limiting, but the book itself didn’t take seem to take an overt feminist stance.
The reader is introduced early on to the author’s abuse at the hands of a high school coach, but it wasn’t until age 40 that she started having panic attacks and flashbacks as earlier trauma emerged. Unfortunately, her therapist didn’t recognize the true nature of what she was experiencing, but the author was later able to find her with a therapist who diagnosed her with dissociative identity disorder and began long-term work dealing with the trauma of ritual abuse by a satanic cult up until age 4.
The author shares how, over the next 10 years, 31 members of “my gang” emerged. It was particularly interesting to read about how one of her alters who had his own alters. Some in the “gang” had less than typical names, like Fuckface.
Much of this unfolds in journal entries or in emails between the author’s various parts and their therapist. The reader isn’t often brought into the therapy room for the frequent intense sessions, but that may have been difficult to do given that much of the author’s earlier work with her therapist involved abreaction, a reliving that “dissipated the panic and de-weaponized the memory.”
The author admits that her adult family life was very strained, in large part due to alters she wasn’t aware of. She writes that after her partner’s breast cancer surgery, “I was there for her post-op in body but not so much in spirit. I was a total asshole, but in all fairness to myself, I was completely dissociated, something I couldn’t control.” The book clearly shows that DID doesn’t just affect the diagnosed person.
The pacing of the book made it seem as though the work on integration happened fairly quickly once it began. I don’t think that’s actually the case; however, as a reader, I didn’t feel like I got a clear sense of how that process happened.
However, it sounds like the author made a remarkable recovery, and the book’s postscript, written by the author’s therapist, speaks to this as well. Also was remarkable was that the author kept up her practice as an OB/GYN throughout. This book provides readers with a first-hand look at what dissociative identity disorder is, and clearly shows the author’s commitment to her family and her strength and perseverance in working through significant trauma.
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
February 18, 2022
I didn’t know anything about DID, and this book was incredibly enlightening. I learned so much about the disorder, so much about what a good therapist can do, how families can be the most fucking complicated thing ever, and alternatively, the most beautiful. I’m so thankful the author took the time to share her story. It couldn’t have been easy, but it shed light on something I didn’t know much about. The book is comprised of Shelley’s thoughts, as well as emails and texts from her alters. It’s incredible. Oh, did I mention Dr. Kolton is the best fucking OBGYN I’ve ever had?
(She curses in the book so I think my language is acceptable!!)
(She curses in the book so I think my language is acceptable!!)
Want to Read
October 30, 2021Lucky enough to have won a giveaway for this book! It just came in and I can't wait to get started on it. The author was kind enough to include a handwritten greeting in my copy and I really appreciated that. I think it's a sign she put a lot into this and I think we are going to get a lot out of the read.
Read
August 13, 2021Kolton does not look for pity from her readers, but rather looks to increase the understanding behind DID. If you are curious about this disorder, Kolton gives you a patient’s-eye view of not only what it’s like to live with DID but what it’s like to undertake the long journey of therapy toward recovery.
Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/08/13/dr-sh...
Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/08/13/dr-sh...
July 19, 2026
This book shows the battle those with DID face in it's most raw form. Holding back no punches, the author and trauma survivor Shelley Kolton shares her life with the reader describing her early life experiences through the voices of her alters and her waking self. It brought me to tears many times over- even at one point with me shouting "NO" out loud and frightening my own partner who was in another room.
Do not read/listen to this memoir unless you are in a safe place mentally. If you have DID, like I myself do, make sure all of you feel safe and secure and take it slow. It isn't an easy listen. But it is a necessary one to understand the life and trials that happen with this "dis-order". I call it that because integration isn't really what I want for us, my own system. But that is because I do have co-consciousness with most of them and the one that I don't is pretty quiet these days.
Their daily struggles with pain and love, fear and motivation are poignant, keeping the reader/listener engaged and going through the emotions with the author.
DID is definitely a master thief of time.
I highly recommend this book. Well written, well performed and extremely engaging.
Do not read/listen to this memoir unless you are in a safe place mentally. If you have DID, like I myself do, make sure all of you feel safe and secure and take it slow. It isn't an easy listen. But it is a necessary one to understand the life and trials that happen with this "dis-order". I call it that because integration isn't really what I want for us, my own system. But that is because I do have co-consciousness with most of them and the one that I don't is pretty quiet these days.
Their daily struggles with pain and love, fear and motivation are poignant, keeping the reader/listener engaged and going through the emotions with the author.
DID is definitely a master thief of time.
I highly recommend this book. Well written, well performed and extremely engaging.
February 15, 2026
Raw and Powerful
The honesty, without censor, of the relationship of this level of sexual abuse on a child and the lasting impacts on the mind is critically important to tell. Also woven throughout, is the needed context of paternal, societal violence towards women and children that is encouraged. This book is valuable on many levels.
The honesty, without censor, of the relationship of this level of sexual abuse on a child and the lasting impacts on the mind is critically important to tell. Also woven throughout, is the needed context of paternal, societal violence towards women and children that is encouraged. This book is valuable on many levels.
May 3, 2022
Very interesting and engrossing! Learned quite a bit about living with D.I.D.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews