The Role of Metaphor in the Treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Listening to the Multiple Voices of Shared Experience

In this study, the Listening Guide (Brown & Gilligan, 1992) was used to explore the therapeutic application of metaphor in the treatment of dissociative identity disorder (DID) from the perspective of both client and therapist. Through analysis of the interviews, eight voices were identified. These voices are organized into two overarching categories: 1) voices of trauma and dissociation, and 2) voices of healing and integration. Relationships were observed among the various voices of dissociation, as well as between the voices of dissociation and those of trauma and healing. These relationships reveal natural links between clients’ metaphors of trauma, dissociation, and healing. The clients’ core metaphors of dissociation – Hope’s beehive metaphor and ‘Reace’s mansion metaphor – illustrate the complex relationships that exist among these metaphorical constructs. The metaphors represented the individuals’ subjective experiences of DID and were used as the main organizers of the healing process across all three phases of treatment.