Books like Creating hysteria by Joan Ross Acocella
In *Creating Hysteria*, Joan Acocella examines how, over three decades, thousands of women seeking psychological help were diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and subjected to therapy that produced fabricated memories of childhood victimization. Through hypnotic suggestion, medication, and therapist persuasion, patients were led to construct elaborate alternate personalities—children, harlots, angels, devils—thereby creating a self-perpetuating cycle of repression and trauma.
Acocella analyses the broader forces behind the MPD epidemic, including media sensationalism, Christian fundamentalism, cultural politics, feminism, and financial incentives from managed care. The book details how the diagnosis was wrongly endorsed by many feminists and how it bypassed regulatory limits on psychotherapy. As patients later discovered the fraud, they sued their therapists, and the MPD practice has since fractured, exposing damage to the mental health profession, child-protection efforts, and women's rights.
First publish date: 1999
Genre: Psychology/General Psychology
Authors: Joan Ross Acocella
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