Dear colleagues who are registered for our September 9th Webinar of working with Perpetrator Introjects in clients with DID,
Here are some powerful and useful readings for you to read now or in the future. They are among the only articles written on this subject.
This is a brilliant article that is shockingly rarely referenced by other authors, perhaps because it addresses such a painful topic. I first read it a dozen years ago. I highly recommend it.
This is my other favorite article on this topic. While profound dissociation in childhood is an extraordinary survival technique, it produces a malevolent ego state in adulthood, outside of the control of the ego, that wreaks havoc on the person and others around her.
“To maintain attachment, the abuse must be disavowed, but to protect the self from abuse, the need for attachment must be disavowed. Disorganized attachment may result.” Blizzard develops a frame for this profound contradiction and proposes useful treatments.
“This paper presents a theoretical model of the etiology and development of persecutor alters. It elucidates the underlying and continuously protective nature of the alter which becomes masked by the apparently persecutory behavior. Using clinical examples which build on their appreciation of the positive function of persecutor alters the authors present their treatment techniques.” Well worth reading!
Successful therapy with severely dissociated clients requires the transformation and integration of malevolent ego states that can endanger both patient and therapist. Clinical hypnosis is an effective approach used here.
If you’re not trained in clinical hypnosis, I think this model can still be powerfully adapted to access the essential empathy.
Gordon Emmerson lived with the Watkins late in their lives, read all of their work, and carried forward their Ego State Therapy. Here he addresses the treatment of the Vaded (Malevolent) Ego State. The Invisible Bridge induction heals the original wound that dysregulated the ego state, allowing it to function normally again.