CHAPTER 28
As Chantal was closing the door to a small community room which held a donated VCR player and some chairs, and was filled with lots of wonderful sunlight, Jane and Matthew overheard her say: “Well, it’s nice to see you once again Dymphna.”
Whatever that meant, the two monastics simply put their trust in God and in their community friend, and grad school colleague and friend of their abbot, Brother Francis.
It was a Sunday so community members were off in all directions recreating and renewing themselves. Some hiked, some read, and some baked. Sunday was a day to be flexible.
Over an hour later Chantal emerged from the community room looking a little bit worn. The sun was fading into pastels now. She held a small tape recorder in her hand.
No one was in the kitchen, dining, or living areas, which all made up the great room. She swung the cord on the brass bell which ordinarily announced meals and other community gatherings.
Within minutes the entire community was present, all back from their adventures and preparing for Evening Prayer.
“May I address the community Sister Jane?” asked the forensic psychologist.
“By all means Doctor F.”
“When there is clear and present danger of harm to self or another, Pennsylvania law permits—sometimes requires—that a licensed psychologist divulge what is normally privileged and confidential material. If a doctor of psychology errs on either side of that fine line he or she can be in trouble. The clear and present danger, as I see it, is that Anthony’s driving was dangerous to himself and others so I will share with you what I think is appropriate and nothing beyond that.”
“How can his driving be dangerous? Anthony has been driving fine up to this point,” questioned Sister Scholastica.
“That’s just it, Sister. Anthony’s driving is fine—but Dymphna’s is not. In fact, she is not even a licensed driver.”
“Who’s Dymphna?” asked Brother Benedict with his usual direct approach.
Benedict doesn’t look so good. But that’s another story for another time.
“Dymphna is one of the many personalities Benedict has developed. He has what used to be called ‘Multiple Personality Disorder.’ Now we refer to it as ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’ or DID for short.”
“Brother and Sister filled us in a little bit, Doctor Fleur. So this Dymphna character is really Anthony in another form.
“Something like that Brother. People with DID have often had a very traumatic youth and the various personalities which emerge out of that chaos are parts of the person which are trying to cope with life. Unfortunately, the person has blocked out so much of life that each personality becomes an entity of its own. They have little knowledge of one another.”
“Hmmm,” Benedict continued. “Sometimes I feel either I can’t scrape one decent personality together or at other times I feel that I have a few of them.”
“The various moods or frames of mind we get into are simply that. Sometimes I need to be serious or have on my doctor hat. At other times my role can be different. In all cases, however, I know the other frames of mind, they share a common memory bank and personality.”
“Got it,” Benedict mumbled.
Brother Matthew spoke up. “But how could Anthony / Dymphna not know how to drive?”
“Easily Brother Matthew. Each personality is just that. They can be of different ages, sexes, abilities, etc. One might have allergies and another need glasses. Dymphna, for example, was not a licensed driver and had poor eyesight. That’s why she stole the lighted magnifying glass from the Dollar General Store.”
“What did she need to see?” asked Sister Jane.
“Dymphna is a little paranoid and was trying to find records the monastery might be keeping about Anthony. She wanted to make sure that ‘nice things’ were being written and said about him so that he would be accepted as a postulant to the monastery if that is what he decided he wanted to do. When you folks would go to bed, Dymphna would often prowl about looking for such records.”
Sister Scholastica asked: “But why steal? She / he had money.”
“It gets a bit more complicated now. Remember that each personality has its own personality and traits, so to speak. Dymphna is a kleptomaniac. Tension builds up in her until she indulges in her impulse to steal. Most of the time the items stolen are not even useful to the person, though some can be, as is the case with the magnifying glass. She took other items from Dollar General also—things easily available to her here.”
Sister Jane spoke—more to herself than to the group. “That would account for the items in the community which have been disappearing recently: my Office Book, Brother Matthew’s cap, incense sticks, and perhaps a few other things we thought too small to mention.”
“Very likely,” agreed Chantal.
Brother Matthew asked about Anthony’s references to the “Little One” and “The others.”
“Multiples, sorry, DID folks often have more than two or three personalities. Anthony probably has fifteen to twenty. I have not met them all. One of them is a little boy of about eleven years of age. He wants to be a ‘good boy’ and has tried to do some little favors for the community such as…”
“…planting flowers and cleaning up.” Matthew finished the thought for her.
“Exactly,” Little One just told me that.
The entire community exclaimed: “What?”
Chantal sighed. “Anthony was in treatment with me for a few months prior to coming here. I knew him as ‘Vincent.’ I’m still not certain of his legal name. He said that he didn’t have medical insurance so I never had occasion to check out or question the name he gave me at intake. I gave him a break on the fee because he had no health insurance, which is what I normally do.
“Clinical hypnosis is the treatment of choice for DID, since the alters or sub-personalities are easily manifested and communicated with in trance. We were making good progress when he abruptly stopped therapy. The next time I saw him was several months later—last week when I visited here.
“At any rate, I just hypnotized Anthony and recorded our converstation. Several of the personalities emerged. One of them wants him to be here as you know. That one is Dymphna. Another does not want him to enter the monastery and he is fighting the process—won’t even tell me his name yet. I taped all of this because Anthony will have a hard time accepting that all of this is happening within him.
“When he was in treatment with me he revealed a traumatic event that took place on a train in India, for example. That even may have been real. We have to sort out reality from non-reality very slowly and get the personalities to communicate with one another.”
“What next?” asked Brother Benedict.
“David, my dear detective husband, through the magic of police computers, has found an aunt of Anthony’s in Philadelphia. I’m up to date on David’s progress through the magic of cell phones. With the cooperation of this monastery, David and I would like to take Anthony to Philadelphia and have him treated as an in-patient at Friends Hospital there.”
“That sounds like a fine idea and a compassionate next step,” agreed Sister Jane de Chantal. The other members nodded in assent.
“Now, shall we say hello to Anthony?”
The others nodded once again, but with some caution.