The Story of Eric

In 1982 a Florida clinic received a young man, age 29, who had been picked up by the police in a dazed and beaten condition. He had no ID and was acting in a quite bizarre manner. At the clinic the young man, named Eric, began talking to the doctors in two voices: the infantile rhythms of a young child and the measured tones of an adolescent or adult. According to the "older Eric," after the death of his immigrant German parents, his stepfather and his mistress took him to a Florida drug dealer's hideout, where he was rape3d several times and watched his stepfather murder two women.

Eric continued to talk with his therapist about his past. During one treatment session Eric's face suddenly twisted into a violent snarl and he spat out a stream of obscenities. This disclosure of a new personality, who demanded to be called Mark, indicated to the psychologist that Eric was suffering from multiple-personality disorder. Eric's other personalities emerged over the next few weeks: a timid middle-aged man named Dwight; the hysterically blind and mute Jeffrey; and arrogant named Michael; a coquette named Tina, (considered a whore by Eric); and finally an argumentative lawyer named Phillip who was concerned about Eric's rights.

Ultimately, Eric revealed 27 different personalities, including three females, one of whom was gay. The ages of these personalities ranged from a fetus to a sordid old man who wanted Eric to fight in Haiti as a mercenary. During one therapy session lasting an hour, Eric shifted personalities nine times. Most of the personalities interacted with one another. One personality named Cye was a religious mystic who left comforting notes for Eric. Michael, a pushy young man who loved rock music, hated Eric's classical music so much that he tore out the wires to the stereo. One of the personalities was a librarian named Max who would signal an imminent personality changed by saying, "One of the books just fell off the shelf."

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