by William J. Baldwin, D.D.S., Ph.D.
Dr. Baldwin is no stranger to our pages or to members of APRT. In the paper below he presents his findings on the condition he calls soul-mind fragmentation and makes some concrete and useful suggestions for diagnosis and treatment. In this paper, he pulls recent research on Dissociative Identity Disorder, spirit releasement, past-life therapy, and fragmentation therapy together in a novel and effective way.
Soul-Mind Fragmentation and DID
The concept of divided or multilevel consciousness has been studied extensively in recent years. The divisions of consciousness have been labeled variously as ego states, subordinate personalities, subpersonalities, alter personalities, fragments, special-purpose fragments, mind fragments, inner children, compartments, parts, voices, complexes, and selves. An emotional or physical trauma can cause parts or fragments to split from the core personality. These fragments of consciousness are active in the daily functioning of a “normal” individual. These partial personalities, or subpersonalities, retain the person’s age and characteristics at the time of the split. They strive to fulfill the unfulfilled need that led to the split, and continue to maintain the emotional mood of the traumatic event. These subpersonalities are literally stuck in the incident (Crampton, 1981).
Subpersonalities do not become the personality in charge nor do they take control of the behavior. Rather, they manifest as subconscious urges, and can cause variations in mood, physical energy, sociability, likes and dislikes in food and drink, unusual eating habits, and many other aspects of physical and emotional conditions and behavior (Assagioli, 1965; Ferrucci, 1982; Brown, 1983; Stone & Winkelman, 1985, 1990).