The Osiris Complex

Psychiatrist Ross believes that multiple personality disorder (MPD) is "the key diagnosis in an impending paradigm shift in psychiatry, because MPD best illustrates the characteristic response of the human organism to severe psychosocial trauma, and because trauma is a major cause of mental illness, from a public health point of view." This collection of case studies, then, is intended not only to present interesting stories or provide a window into the current dissociative- disorders field, but to help foster an understanding of the relationship between childhood trauma and serious mental illness. The only case identified by real name is that of poet Anne Sexton.