Beyond These Walls: The True Story of a Lost Child's Journey to a Whole Life

Rachel Gunner & Hanna Gabriele
Argun Books (2006)
ISBN 0977769100
Reviewed by Beverly Pechin for Reader Views (11/06)

From the very first words you read in “Beyond These Walls”  you are going to realize that this will be an amazing trip.  The authors worked together to create not only the basic story of a girl who's world revolves around Disassociative Identity Disorder or Multiple Personality Disorder but of the therapist involved in making her life worth living again.

The story itself reads like fiction.  Even those who have been fairly well versed in the health field regarding DID or MPD will find the intensity above and beyond anything considered 'normal' under these terms.  With twenty six men and women trapped inside the mind of this one woman, you will not only loose your sense of reality while reading it but truly become so involved that you seem to absolutely understand what's going on.

Based on the true story of a young lady, Hanna who suffers from DID/MPD, you get to become involved on so many levels of her care that you feel as though you're a part of the process.  Not only do you get to see an inside view of the therapist’s ideas and techniques, often completely unlike any other technique ever used in these situations, but one of the authors is the patient herself.  Speaking from all of the different personalities involved you get to see and begin to truly have an understanding of each of the characters in Hanna’s mind.  This is the first time in my life I have ever read a book about DID/MPD and felt like I truly did understand what was going on and not just feeling the insanity part of the disease.  Whether you get this understanding from the therapist's side or the patient's side I'm not sure, but I think the combination of the two together gives you a complete understanding like no other.

The therapist learns with the patient and shares what she learns.  Not only does Hanna learn not to attack the many personalities, especially the 'bad' ones but truly try to work with each and understand their basic needs.  You witness each of them come out of their shell to slowly but surely trust the one person they've learned never to trust, an adult that's a therapist.

After reading some of what the patient has gone through you will not only feel so deeply for her but begin to wonder what our mental health system actually is about.  Techniques that seem logical to me as a lay person were unheard of in the industry and Rachel Gunner (the therapist/author) seems to have broken new ground in an area that formerly was very black and white about how to handle these type of people and their problem.  As Gunner treats each of the personalities as a person, wrapped up inside one body, you realize that this is a first for Hanna Gabriele and your heart simply aches for all she's been through as a person diagnosed with DID/MPD.  Not only do you get to witness some of the most intimate moments of the patient/therapist relationship but you get to hear what each was thinking while they worked together.  To see not only the techniques used but witness the excellent results, along with the often met brick walls that must be torn down, is to be a part of the most fascinating interaction imaginable.

Highly recommended for anyone in the mental health field, this book could be an amazingly helpful tool in hopefully creating a new life for many patients suffering from this horrible disease.  As a layperson, I enjoyed reading the book to not only finally find someone who truly explained the disease in a way that was realistic and much easier to understand but also loved getting an inside look at what ground breaking techniques came out of this entire relationship between Rachel and Hanna.

Oddly enough, the relatively small cast of physical characters becomes an amazingly interesting and intriguing large cast of characters when you are introduced to each of the personalities involved and learn to relate to and understand each of them.  Amazing is one of the first adjectives that comes to mind when I think of this book: simply amazing.   If you have any interest at all in multiple personality disorders or similar mental health issues this book will surely curb your appetite.  Not only will you finally get a better understanding of the disease but perhaps a better understanding of how to help those in need.

An odd end result of reading this book..... you will find yourself truly caring for each and every one of the entities involved.  Each personality, even the 'evil' ones, will somehow sneak into your heart and touch you.

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