Mapping the Mind - Rita Carter 2010

Mapping the Mind - Rita Carter 2010

Preface

Introduction

PART I

A Brief History of Our Selves

Priests, possession and Mesmer’s plural pianist

Pierre Janet and the vanishing furniture

Multiple Personality Disorder — the first wave

Ego-states and hidden observers

Modern MPD — a manufactured madness?

So what is a personality, anyway?

The Landscape of Mind

Majors, minors and micros

The big ’I am’ — developing the sense of self

The children in the child

How situations create personalities

Searching for the essential self

The trouble with personality tests

Sharing the stage

Mechanisms of Mind

Memory, experience and ’I-memories’

State-dependent recall

How memories fit together — the brain-wide web

The brain as building site

Dissociation

Adaptive dissociation

Defending the self

The dissociative spectrum

Sliding into disorder

Changing Times, Changing Selves

The rise of the pick ’n’ mix culture

How multiplicity can protect your health

Problem families

The early-riser and the alarm-clock saboteur

Renegades

Taking responsibility

Intruders and gate-crashers

The People You Are

Inner parents

Inner children

Roles and stereotypes

Opposites, shadows and renegades

Identikits and celebrities — personalities from pieces

Virtual personalities

PART II

Introduction

Preparation

How Multiple Are You?

Where are you on the spectrum?

Reading the Personality Wheel

Single Major

Double Major

Major—Minor

Major—Minors

Multiple Minors

How do your minors relate?

Meet the Family

Defenders

Controllers

Punishers

Role Players

Relics

Creatives

Working Together

Visualising your selves

Know your triggers

Stocktaking

Building the team

Let sleeping dogs lie

Making conversation

Putting agreements into practice

The empty chair

Drawing up an agenda

A helping hand

Making a minor

Saying goodbye

Families in families

In the workplace

Acknowledgements

Notes

Resources