Adventure
Programming With an Individual Who Has Multiple Personality Disorder: A Case History
Chessa
Hedman
Brigham
Young University
I read an article entitled, Adventure Programming With an
Individual Who Has Multiple Personality Disorder: A Case History. I will begin by giving you a summary of the
article. I will then share my opinion of
the strengths and weaknesses that the article had. Following that, I will explain how the article
can be used or applied and I will end by sharing my personal reaction and
interests in the article.
Summary
of the Article
The article begins by
describing who Gene is. Gene is a
37-year-old man who suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder, Major
Depression, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Gene was diagnosed back when the DSM III was in use, so Multiple
Personality Disorder is now referred to as Dissociative Identity Disorder. When
Gene was admitted into psychiatric treatment, he was going through a lot of
hard and stressful things in his life.
He was dealing with a divorce and some legal charges due to professional
fraud. Gene was treated at one hospital
for 20 days and then at a nonprofit hospital in central Pennsylvania. There was an eight-day increment between
these hospital visits and “During those eight days, Gene reported increased
dissociation, emergence of an additional alter, a minor traffic accident, and
both suicidal and homicidal ideation” (Preskenis & Witman, 1996, p.
290). The two medications that Gene was
on were, Imipramine and Klonopin. The
article explains that as a child, Gene was sexually, physically and emotionally
abused. He also had some personal
struggles with his marriage and alcohol issues.
During Gene’s second admission, he participated in an Adventure Program
and the article discusses his success in the program. The Adventure Challenge Program is for people
who are struggling with cooperation, trust and self-esteem. They began each Adventure Challenge session
by setting parameters and rules for everyone and “prior to all sessions, group
members were observed for both verbal and non-verbal expressions of mental and
physical states” (Preskenis & Witman, 1996, p. 290). During the sessions, the individuals gave
input and one practice they did had to do with choosing animals to represent
themselves. The article specifically
stated, “Participants chose an animal and explained their choice in the context
of characteristics and competencies which the animal possesses that they would
like to develop or enhance” (Preskenis & Witman, 1996, p. 291). Every session also included time for the
individuals to discuss their reaction to the experience. They discussed what they learned and what
they liked and did not like. Gene
specifically participated in three sessions per week and each of these sessions
lasted about two hours. He did this for
two and a half weeks, so he attended eight sessions total. When they were choosing their animals, “Gene
chose the otter as his animal due to its freedom and grace. He related to the otter because he wanted
more freedom in his life and wanted the grace of God” (Preskenis & Witman,
1996, p. 292). Gene had own personal
goals, but his biggest goal was to learn how to trust other people. At first Gene was very hesitant to the
activities, but as time when on he got a lot more comfortable and seemed to be
learning and growing immensely. The
authors specifically commented, “While Gene’s response to the adventure
programming supports its utility for a particular individual with issues
related to Multiple Personality Disorder, the experience of group members with
similar issues has not always been so positive.
The intensity of the adventure experience has appeared to exacerbate
symptoms for some participants” (Preskenis & Witman, 1996, p. 293). So all in all, the article discussed Gene’s
success with the Adventure Program, but not everyone has been as successful as
Gene.
I found the article to be very interesting. The title was very clear in telling the
reader what exactly they were about to learn about. The body of the article followed exactly what
the title said. It demonstrated how the
Adventure Program had an impact on someone with Multiple Personality Disorder. The authors did a great job providing a few
examples as to how Gene truly did benefit.
As the reader, the article kept me interested the whole time. It was not boring. The authors stuck to the point without
varying off topic. With recreational
therapy, there is a lot of high adventure activity involved, so it was nice and
interesting to read specific examples of how these high adventure activities
may benefit future clients we may work with.
Weaknesses
of the Article
Although the article was
interesting, there were some weaknesses.
The first weakness was, I felt that they did not provide enough
information as to how Gene himself specifically benefited. They described the Adventure Program fine,
but they did not spend enough time focusing on how it benefited and helped
Gene. Another weakness I found was that
there were not any statistics to back up the information they were giving. As authors they would talk about how great
the Adventure Program is, yet they could not give any statistics to prove
this. As the reader, I would want to
know these statistics so I know that the Adventure Program actually works and
is reliable. The last weakness was the
way they ended the article. The majority
of the article is spent discussing the benefits of the Adventure Program and
then the last page states how it actually does not help majority of
patients. I was very taken back by this
and wondered what the point of them writing the article was at that point. It made me slightly confused.
How
the Article can be used or applied
If someone has or knows somebody experience Multiple
Personality Disorder and is interested in some high adventure therapy, this is
the article for you. I know there are
many people out there who are intrigued and interested in Multiple Personality
Disorder. They want to learn about it
and learn about ways to help. This
article can provide a success story and maybe help give someone some hope. Also if somebody were interested in conducting
some type of high adventure therapy camp, this would be a good article to
read. It explains a step-by-step process
of how each and every session was conducted.
So it could provide some valuable information for someone trying to
create a therapeutic high adventure camp.
My
personal reaction and interests in the Article
Overall, I did not feel it was a very valuable article
for me personally. I did not feel like
it was convincing in the fact that this would be good therapy to use for my
future clients. I am very interested in
Multiple Personality Disorder, so I was personally looking for treatment and
recreational therapy practices I could use with my future clients who may have
Multiple Personality Disorder. I did not
feel like this article provided me with that information. The fact that the whole last page discussed
how unsuccessful it was for majority of clients besides Gene, does not make me
want to use it. It left me wondering why
I even read the article. Like I said I
would recommend it for someone looking to run a high adventure therapy program,
but for me personally, I did not find the article useful.
References
Preskenis,
K., & Witman, J. (1996). Adventure programming with an individual who
has multiple personality disorder: A
case history. Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 30(4), 289-296.
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