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A review by tobyyy
Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities by Richard Baer
1.0
Okay. This book made me angry. Very, very angry, and I think I have good reason for it.
(Also, DNF at about 70%.)
First off, treating a client who has DID is not "harrowing" for ANY therapist. If it's harrowing at all, it is for the client. Yes, I can see how it would be stressful for the clinician... but not harrowing. WTF, Baer? "Harrowing" to me implies that your life was in danger due to your client. It was not. Ever.
To me, Baer is a faker or a liar at best. According to this book, he had never dealt with a client with DID before, yet he managed to seamlessly help her integrate? LOL -- what a joke. Even clinicians experienced with complex trauma/DID work can't just "make" any multiple client integrate that simply or easily.
Also, he blamed Karen for the break-up of his marriage. Um... okay? So, Baer, you had NO part in your divorce? Yeah, okay, so the frequent midnight phone calls from Karen caused a problem between you and your wife... but that's not Karen's fault!! It's YOUR fault for not putting up appropriate boundaries.
Additionally, Baer made Karen sound like she was simple, like she couldn't do the easiest of tasks that singletons can do... when in reality -- okay, yes, sometimes people with DID get paralyzed by recurring memories, flashbacks (emotional or otherwise), body memories, etc. -- but there are a lot of multiples in high stress jobs, who are very successful. You would NEVER guess this, however, due to Baer's portrayal of Karen & co.
I talked with Jarrod about this book (which goes to show how angry it made me) and he suggested that maybe Baer's practice was failing if he is indeed as abysmal a clinician as this book makes him sound, and so he wrote a fictitious account of a client -- thus sensationalizing ritual abuse (RA), childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and DID. And as we all know, shit like that sells because people like reading about other people's misery. And with the profits from the book, Baer wouldn't have had to worry about his failing practice anymore. So because I was curious, I googled this guy, and it looks like he’s a real doctor... but he has the worst patient reviews I’ve ever seen. So maybe Jarrod’s suggestion is legitimate.
I think that's a little cruel, but honestly, this book was so unimpressive. In all of my classes, I've been taught that the clinician is not to be considered "the expert" and is not to expect to "fix" people. But in this book?.... yeah. Baer is totally tooting his own horn, saying-without-saying that he is a hero for helping this poor useless lump of a woman with DID when no one else could, blah blah blah...
Seriously. If people can't write actually realistic accounts of treating DID, and go to the lengths that Baer did to sensationalize it and make himself sound awesome...... then they shouldn't write at all. And in fact, shouldn't be practicing clinicians at all either.
In case this weren't abundantly clear by now (lol) --
DO NOT RECOMMEND.
(Also, DNF at about 70%.)
First off, treating a client who has DID is not "harrowing" for ANY therapist. If it's harrowing at all, it is for the client. Yes, I can see how it would be stressful for the clinician... but not harrowing. WTF, Baer? "Harrowing" to me implies that your life was in danger due to your client. It was not. Ever.
To me, Baer is a faker or a liar at best. According to this book, he had never dealt with a client with DID before, yet he managed to seamlessly help her integrate? LOL -- what a joke. Even clinicians experienced with complex trauma/DID work can't just "make" any multiple client integrate that simply or easily.
Also, he blamed Karen for the break-up of his marriage. Um... okay? So, Baer, you had NO part in your divorce? Yeah, okay, so the frequent midnight phone calls from Karen caused a problem between you and your wife... but that's not Karen's fault!! It's YOUR fault for not putting up appropriate boundaries.
Additionally, Baer made Karen sound like she was simple, like she couldn't do the easiest of tasks that singletons can do... when in reality -- okay, yes, sometimes people with DID get paralyzed by recurring memories, flashbacks (emotional or otherwise), body memories, etc. -- but there are a lot of multiples in high stress jobs, who are very successful. You would NEVER guess this, however, due to Baer's portrayal of Karen & co.
I talked with Jarrod about this book (which goes to show how angry it made me) and he suggested that maybe Baer's practice was failing if he is indeed as abysmal a clinician as this book makes him sound, and so he wrote a fictitious account of a client -- thus sensationalizing ritual abuse (RA), childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and DID. And as we all know, shit like that sells because people like reading about other people's misery. And with the profits from the book, Baer wouldn't have had to worry about his failing practice anymore. So because I was curious, I googled this guy, and it looks like he’s a real doctor... but he has the worst patient reviews I’ve ever seen. So maybe Jarrod’s suggestion is legitimate.
I think that's a little cruel, but honestly, this book was so unimpressive. In all of my classes, I've been taught that the clinician is not to be considered "the expert" and is not to expect to "fix" people. But in this book?.... yeah. Baer is totally tooting his own horn, saying-without-saying that he is a hero for helping this poor useless lump of a woman with DID when no one else could, blah blah blah...
Seriously. If people can't write actually realistic accounts of treating DID, and go to the lengths that Baer did to sensationalize it and make himself sound awesome...... then they shouldn't write at all. And in fact, shouldn't be practicing clinicians at all either.
In case this weren't abundantly clear by now (lol) --
DO NOT RECOMMEND.