The Myth of Sanity, Martha Stout
The Myth of Sanity, Martha Stout
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The Myth of Sanity
Divided Consciousness and the Promise of Awareness

Author: Martha Stout

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Unabridged: 9 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 06/06/2023

Synopsis

Why does a gifted psychiatrist suddenly begin to torment his own beloved wife? How can a ninety-pound woman carry a massive air conditioner to the second floor of her home, install it in a window unassisted, and then not remember how it got there? Why would a brilliant feminist law student ask her fiancé to treat her like a helpless little girl? How can an ordinary, violence-fearing businessman once have been a gun-packing vigilante prowling the crime districts for a fight?

A startling new study in human consciousness, The Myth of Sanity is a landmark book about forgotten trauma, dissociated mental states, and multiple personality in everyday life. In its groundbreaking analysis of childhood trauma and dissociation and their far-reaching implications in adult life, it reveals that moderate dissociation is a normal mental reaction to pain and that even the most extreme dissociative reaction-multiple personality-is more common than we think. Through astonishing stories of people whose lives have been shattered by trauma and then remade, The Myth of Sanity shows us how to recognize these altered mental states in friends and family, even in ourselves.

About The Author

Martha Stout, Ph.D., served on the faculty in psychology in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School for more than twenty-five years and was a clinical associate at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She practiced as a clinical psychologist specializing in recovery from psychological trauma and PTSD. Dr. Stout has taught psychology at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York, the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, and Wellesley College. She is the author of, among numerous other publications, The Sociopath Next Door, The Paranoia Switch, and The Myth of Sanity.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by sergio on 2023-07-14 02:06:52

The book is excellent, period. Since I have ALL her books, I can judge that the only drawback here is that occasionally she dog-whistles to the woke crowd (EG hysteria as a "sexist" label) without any reason considering the story being told, just to be cool with the "right" crowd...childish to me.

Goodreads review by Caroline on May 20, 2015

A very easy to understand book written about dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder). I didn't like the writer's style, which I found rather twee and cloying, but she gets full marks for clarity and for giving a first rate explanation of this syndrome. The b......more

Goodreads review by Shaun on February 01, 2015

It is by no means certain that our individual personality is the single inhabitant of these our corporeal frames...We all do things both awake and asleep which surprise us. Perhaps we have co-tenants in this house we live in. - Oliver Wendell Holmes I really enjoyed Stout's well-written and engag......more

Goodreads review by Nomy on March 28, 2009

a new friend got this book for me after we had a couple conversations where i mentioned dissociation and parts. i feel really grateful. this is a good read, well-written and compassionate, from the perspective of a therapist who works with trauma survivors. i really appreciate her approach, she's no......more

Goodreads review by Anita on April 06, 2009

The book talks about the implications of trauma in childhood on the psychology of adults. The "myth" of sanity is that we all have moments where we "dissociate" based on childhood experiences that can be fear inducing to traumatic. To the extreme... Dr. Stout, with as much as intellect and clarity a......more

Goodreads review by Susan on April 17, 2014

We are all capable of disassociating and often do without knowing it ... from daydreaming to being on "autopilot" to being totally absorbed in a book or project. This is a mild form. The premise of this book is that Disassociative Identity Disorder (DID, formerly known as Multiple Personality Disord......more

Quotes

"We only think we're sane, says this Harvard psychologist. . . . The befuddled, normally sane masses can learn a lot from the victims of grave psychological abuse." —The Dallas Morning News

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