Successful, happily married Truddi Chase began therapy hoping to find the reasons behind her extreme anxiety, mood swings, and periodic blackouts.
What emerged from her sessions was terrifying: Truddi’s mind and body were inhabited by the Troops—ninety-two individual voices that emerged to shield her from her traumatizing childhood.
For years the Troops created a world where she could hide from the pain of the ritualized sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her own stepfather—abuse that began when she was only two years old.
It was a past that Truddi didn’t even know existed, until she and her therapist took a journey to where the nightmare began...
Written by the Troops themselves, When Rabbit Howls is told by the very alter-egos who stayed with Truddi Chase, watched over her, and protected her.
What they reveal is a spellbinding descent into a personal hell—and an ultimate, triumphant deliverance for the woman they became.
My Review of When Rabbit Howls by Truddi Chase.
I have read stories and watched movies about people living with multiple personalities, or suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), but I haven't read any that has freaked me out like this book.
I mean I haven't read of anyone who has more than 90 personalities in them. So this book brought out different emotions from me. I was at times shocked, scared, irritated, scarred and obviously awed.
This is an autobiography written by Chase and the troops. In this book, the first born personality, which is the rightful owner of the body, does not even exist.
She ceased existing when she was two. She's in fact, locked in somewhere, sleeping forever. So the person referred to as Chase from the book is one of the personalities the firstborn personality created to protect her from her step father.
Now Chase and the troops are victims of sexual abuse, the step father sexually abused and brutalized the little girl, with her mother being a mere onlooker who didn't do anything to stop the rapist and abuser.
Chase and her troops maintain a high level of individuality that their memories are not intertwined.
A personality might drink, without the other personalities being drunk. And they obviously do not have any memories of the other personalities.
But Chase knows something is wrong with her. She has received psychotherapy in the past, but no good result was yielded.
She even gets married and divorces because she isn't in control of her self and mind. Norman, her husband would rather not live with her, because of her weirdness and irregular mannerisms.
She doesn't even know how to love, because she is scarred beyond comprehension. She gives birth to her child, Page, because that will make her husband happy, without knowing how to groom her to become a better woman.
She knows she has to be a good mother, because she suffered from the hands of a bad mother and a terrible step father.
When she meets with her therapist, Dr. Robert Phillips, whom she refers to as Stanley in the book, she tells him to always make a video of their sessions.
Yes, she wants the world to watch and know her story, and she doesn't care if she's been taunted or insulted.
She feels victims die in silence because of what people would say, thereby setting the abusers free.
She hopes that people will watch her videos and be inspired to speak up, so the perpetrators of evil, will not go unpunished.
The stepfather is an annoyingly nefarious monster, who serially abused her and engaged in all forms of sexual perversion.
The personality who howls like a rabbit was created when the step father stepped on a rabbit to enjoy how it cries.
She created all these personalities to shield herself from the excessive abuse, because there's only so much a single child can take. She suffered so much as a child and that is why the troops were all created to help her alleviate her pain.
Child abuse is a heinous crime and the perpetrators should be punished severely, because of the trauma they put the abused through.
Every form of sexual abuse, whether there's an actual penetration or not, leaves a scar on the abused. And even if they might not know it, or try to suppress it in their memories, it always comes back to haunt them.
And the worst experience anyone can have is being serially abused by a figure you depend on, and also being neglected by another figure who you trust so much. In this case, Chase is being neglected by her own mother, who is supposed to be on her side.
Most people deny the existence of DID because of its complexity, but this book gives you a great insight into that mental illness.
This book will leave you in shreds, it will leave you in utmost wonder and absolute skepticism, that you start doubting everything you once believed in, and start asking questions.
How are these personalities created? Why do they have different handwritings? Because in this book, Chase and the troops write down their experiences, and each of them has a distinct handwriting.
Each has different names, mannerisms and memories. If you really want to read a book that explores the complexity of DID, then this book is perfect for that quest.
I won't say I enjoyed reading this book, because I was scarred most of the time. But it was definitely a wonderful and thoughtful read.
This book left me in shreds. I could not imagine how someone would have more than ninety personalities in them, and still cope with life and living.
I can't even imagine what really happened in Chase's life, and how she was able to cope with such a difficult life. In all, it's a 4.5/5 book.
You should definitely read it, especially if you're curious about mental health like I am.
Have you read the book? What do you think about it? Please share your thoughts with me in the comment section.
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