2 out of 4 stars
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Shattered to the Core by Charlotte Ann is a very unusual autobiography. It is the story of Charlotte's life, told by the many personas that share her body. Charlotte has Multiple Personality Disorder. The reader is first given an overview of her life, with a glimpse at the many personas, or alters, who were created within herself, in order to cope with her exposure to horrific abuse and trauma. She writes that "The pain and fear were so deep that the core of the brain split apart in so many ways." This introductory portion of the book touches on aspects of Charlotte's life that are later revisited.
The next several chapters are each narrated by a different persona. We read about some of the same life events from different perspectives, and different life events are also revealed by different personas. This is not a life story told chronologically, but rather is told according to the significance that various events have to the narrator of each chapter. Make no mistake, these events are shocking and often incomprehensible. Various forms of abuse, from sexual to psychological, were prevalent throughout most of the author's life and we learn that only in recent years, did Charlotte come to understand that Multiple Personality Disorder was her primary coping mechanism.
The last portion of the book describes the work Charlotte has done, and continues to do, to integrate fifty-seven personalities into less than ten. She optimistically touches on the future she envisions for herself. The author also stresses the importance of writing this book as part of her healing process. She includes a refreshing chapter about the happiness she has experienced in her life.
There are a couple of things about this book that I really liked. First, it is nothing short of fascinating to meet these personas who present as individuals working together to survive and support each other. Each persona, or group of personas, describes why they came to exist and what their importance is, or was, in the family of personas. The struggle to integrate, or reduce the number of multiples, is understandable after having heard from so many of them that they are of critical importance. For example, in chapter four, the persona named Charmaine writes, "My strength is great indeed, and what is most important, I have a great deal of insight. Because I am able to see into the minds of the other persona's, I am a great asset. In turn, this helps cut through the barriers to protect and educate others, this helps to be more conscious of their needs and helps them all work together as a team."
Also fascinating is the fact that even though the personas are sharing one body, they write as if they were completely different people. One example is in the chapter narrated by Tam. She describes the fact that in school, no one wanted to choose Tamara, another persona, for their sports team because she was overweight. There are also two personas who seek treatment for an alcohol addiction. How can only one persona be overweight and only two be addicted to alcohol? How can some be male? This complete separation of physical characteristics was endlessly interesting to me.
I also liked the overwhelming positive, optimistic quality that shines through all of the sadness in this book. It is awe inspiring given the horrors this author endured. For example, near the end of the book she writes , "Life gives you lessons to learn and if you look at it this way, you can survive and thrive in this world no matter what happens. I have learned to love myself and to go inward to see my strengths." Charlotte even expresses gratitude for the ability to split personalities, believing this is what kept her alive.
Unfortunately, there are many things about this book that I didn't like. It is full of errors. There are missing punctuation marks, hyphens used seemingly randomly, the word persona is consistently pluralized to persona's, then is used instead of than, was instead of were, there are missing words, gym spelled as jim, and the list goes on. The mistakes are so numerous that they greatly reduced my ability to focus on the content.
Furthermore, I found the writing style to be quite flat, particularly in the earlier parts of the book. I was reading about abuse so horrific that I hadn't imagined it even existed, being described as if it were a routine dental checkup. Clearly there were serious psychological ramifications to these experiences, yet very little in the way of emotion is conveyed.
Finally, the book feels disorganized and becomes repetitive. Parts of it read almost as a stream of consciousness, with personas interrupting each other to insert their points of view. In some cases, when one life event is described more than once, new details are revealed, or a fresh perspective is presented. In contrast, there are many examples of reading multiple times about the same things with nothing new being offered.
It's likely that some who have struggled with a serious psychological illness, and perhaps some who have survived abuse, would find inspiration in this book. It clearly took courage for Charlotte to face her demons, work hard toward healing, and share her story. However, the errors, repetition and flat writing style keep me from recommending this book to a wider audience. I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
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Shattered to the Core
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