When Rabbit Howls

Remember when books had the due date stamped inside of books? The writing is done by Truddi's different personalities. I was disappointed there were not photos of Tuddi or more readable samples of the writing.

I had When Rabbit Howls by The Troops for Truddi Chase on my to read list since December 2006 ~ or thereabouts. I was newly off the streets, newly (mis)diagnosed as being Bipolar and read several (mostly boring) medical books on the subject. Perhaps I had misspelled Truddi's name or attributed the book to another author, had a hard time locating it at local library.

During a recent check of unread books on my to read list, I found it in Long Beach Library card catalog. The copy was located at a branch library and I had it delivered closer to home. A nice extra from LBPL and the city of Long Beach that funds it.

The book copyright is: 1987 by Truddi Chase; epilogue and introduction copyright 1987 by Robert A. Phillips, Jr PH.D.  Stanley, the name given to Dr. Phillips by The Troops; The Troops are Truddi's multiple-personalities.

As recorded by The Troops, Stanley said: "Someday, through books like yours, the public will understand that reality."

Upon Truddi's insistence Dr. Phillips recorded their therapy sessions. He described how her cheekbones sunk given her appearance of a child's rounded face. Seems the shape of her eyes also changed, as well as the eye color as different personalities came out to chat with the doctor. Hence my disappointment with no inclusion of photographs. Seeing is believing, methinks.

A web search trying to locate videos of those sessions, lead me to a Lifetime movie based on the book, "Voices Within." Lifetime movies were something I liked when I still watched television, so I may have watched the movie on some long forgotten yesterday.

(Lord do I hate this new version of Blogger, makes reading what I wrote difficult, can no longer see entire post, sigh.)

A student, Jeannie Lawson tells Stanley: "Watch the shoulders of the street people. The Vietnam vets hold themselves the same way," ~  "Like. they need their whole body compressed underneath them, controlled."

Jeannie also was inflicted with multiple personalities due to childhood abuse. Dr. Phillips showed his students videos of Truddi. Jeannie means in the same way as Truddi, who kneels on a cushion during therapy sessions, in a Yoga-like position.

At one point Truddi or one of her other selves feared she would become homeless.

I had a hard time reading this book, some parts difficult to process or understand, yet as a whole it was very interesting. Also very disturbing, as would be with details of horrendous child abuse and sexual molestation. Very sad.

I also found an interview that Ms. Chase did on the Oprah show, and learned that she is now deceased.