A Fractured Mind

My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder

By: Robert B. Oxnam

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1989, Robert B. Oxnam, the successful China scholar and president of the Asia Society, faced up to what he thought was his biggest personal challenge: alcoholism. But this dependency masked a problem far more serious: Multiple Personality Disorder.

At the peak of his professional career, after having led the Asia Society for nearly a decade, Oxnam was haunted by periodic blackouts and episodic rages. After his family and friends intervened, Oxnam received help from a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffery Smith, and entered a rehab center. It wasn't until 1990, during a session with Dr. Smith, that the first of Oxnam's 11 alternate personalities, an angry young boy named Tommy, suddenly emerged. With Dr. Smith's help, Oxnam began the exhausting and fascinating process of uncovering his many personalities and the childhood trauma that caused his condition.

©2005 Robert B. Oxnam (P)2005 Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This touching and powerful account of the 'inner world' of the disorder, the power struggles and dialogues among the fractured parts of a person's mind, provides valuable insight into a courageous man's struggle." (Publishers Weekly)

Too many name drops but overall a good book

I did enjoy it quite a bit and finished it in a day. My only complaint with it was the touch of narcissism with the constant discussion of status and name dropping. Remove those things and you have a great book!

Brave

Thank you for sharing your story! I learned so much and the book is very well written.

Fascinating Read - Shows What Our Minds Can Do

What did you love best about A Fractured Mind?

The concept that our minds are able to do what is needed to take care of us. Even things that we would think are crazy, really aren't... they're just the mind adapting.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Fractured Mind?

There's too much to say... I will let the reader determine that for themselves

What about William Dufris’s performance did you like?

Solid performance in the role of the author.

Unsure at first but so glad I listened!

I listened for a few chapters and started to be not so into his voice and snobbishness but I'm really glad I listened to the whole thing, it turned out to be a great story and very informative.

Thank you for sharing...

Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts on D.I.D.
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You have helped many people.
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Your description of outer life vs inner helped put things in perspective. Easy to comprehend. Very well written... would love an opportunity to speak with you.

Fascinating

I found this story to be fascinating. There is so much we don't know about the human mind. Unlike a previous reviewer,I thought the reader was perfect for this book, and I did not feel that Christianity was put down. The author found his spiritual support from other sources. I am not a "multiple" but was able to empathize with much of Mr. Oxnam's process of integration. Psychotherapy is hard work and he has stuck with it for many years. Kudos to Dr. Smith. I would definitely recommend this book to any who are interested in human nature and how we function.

MPD

Very good and informative book about MPD. Gives the reader good insight into the disorder.

Complicated condition made approachable

The narrator of this was so captivating that I found myself checking multiple times if it was the author who was reading it. He just really captures the voices/personalities of each of the alters, and he even pronounces all the Chinese very fluently (from what I can tell).

The writing itself is very conversational, which I love in a memoir. I think Oxnam is, at times, a little too high-brow for your casual listener, which was at times a little alienating, but I think that worked well in the context of his story, as he was often feeling alienated from those around him.

The only real issue I had with this book was that it takes a long time to get into the meat of the stuff about DID, which was what I came for. That said, it’s a very necessary buildup to truly understand the suddenness and surprise of the appearance of the first alter. But until that moment, it is a fairly dry autobiography, told with a tone of emotionless distance in some ways, as though the writer was just listing a series of facts and dates. Then again, it was written by a man who was over the age of 50, so I can’t really take issue with him being detached from his childhood, especially given what comes to light about it.

SPOILERS AHEAD
I would’ve liked to know the end of the story, I think. In the very beginning, Robert explains that at the time of writing, he is the only remaining personality, but when the book actually ends, Bobby and Wanda are still there. Don’t get me wrong, I think the ending was beautiful and a very appropriate way to close things, but I’m still curious how long it was until Bobby gave in to the idea of integration and what it was that finally convinced him.

Hard to draw the line between metaphor and reality

The book was interesting but it felt so close to fiction or metaphor at times that I was taken out of the story. The author has formerly written fiction and I feel this worked against him. He either went too far into the fictions, or didn’t specify that he was paraphrasing or creating a metaphor to explain it. It felt unbelievable the way he explained it at times. Too literal. But overall, informative as to the internal workings of those with DID.

my own childhood forgetfulness.

It was explained so well that I think most people can understand it in their minds.