Fallbrook CA, May 2024 -This month Robert D Reed publishing will be releasing the book In Search of Teressa: A Journey into the Mind of a Woman with Many Personalities, written by renowned author and neuroplastician Lynette Louise, aka “The Brain Broad.” It is Lynette’s eighth published book and her second book published with Robert D Reed.
It is her first written through the lens of someone else’s life and memories.
The book was written at the request of Teressa, a woman who has been diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (known colloquially as multiple personalities) and who has spent much of her lifetime searching for the answer to a self-proposed question: “Whose fault am I?”
With The Brain Broad’s penchant for scientific seeking via outlier thinking and poetic prose, the exploration of this question is at once academic and wondrous.
The book contains two parts.
Part one is written directly from Teressa’s own memories and version of things. The story unfolds in the fashion of fiction. The reader dives in and is introduced to the unreliable power of memory and its significant role in the creation of who we become. Memory issues plague Teressa from her early childhood onward, and she suffers from a variety of physical ailments stemming from unexplained sources. However, it is not until her adult years, as a wife and mother, that she is diagnosed with DID. Nature vs nurture is on display as Teressa’s brain function is influenced by malnutrition, abuse, religion, retreats, and a love story that takes such careful care of her it becomes unhealthy.
The second part of the book brings the author’s voice and observations to the forefront. As an international brain and behavior expert, Lynette Louise is experienced and thoughtful. She is there to write Teressa’s book, but also to help Teressa better understand herself and to take some control of her own healing. Living with her adult autistic son, Dar, Lynette stays in the apartment above Teressa’s garage. Interviewing family, friends, and counselors, while sifting through documents, medical records, letters, and thousands of journal pages, the ways in which Teressa and her “alters” (alternate personalities) grew to be who they were by the time of Lynette’s introduction is teased out. Instructively, but also painfully, the ways in which professionals were potentially culpable in the deteriorating of Teressa’s mental health beg to be recognized.
Following clues, experimenting with kindness, keeping an open mind, these are at the heart of both science and art. This book utilizes these tools and engages readers because of it.
It is further uniquely explored because the author herself has a history that is similar to Teressa’s. Both her family life as well as flirting with similar diagnoses, in her youth. However, the two women ultimately ended up with very different minds.
“I want readers to come away with a recipe for how to live a life that improves, moment to moment,” Lynette says regarding a key takeaway from her latest book. “A recipe for improving regardless of your history or situation.”
Though a diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder is not common, it is intriguing.
Following the life, memories, choices, and influences of someone who has been given the diagnosis is even more so.
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Book: In Search of Teressa: A Journey into the Mind of a Woman with Many Personalities
Author: Dr. Lynette Louise
Publisher: Robert D Reed
CONTACT: Dr. Lynette Louise – Lynette Louise, D.Sc., Ph.D. ABD
EMAIL: crazy2sane@gmail.com / lynette@lynettelouise.com
www.lynettelouise.com / www.brainbody.net