“A therapist has been accused of taking advantage of a patient with a split personality — using one of her alter egos for sex, another to be his cleaner and a third to lend him cash for holidays. When confronted by his alleged victim he refused to comment, saying he had a duty of confidentiality to her other personalities. The German woman, Monika Mirte, 44, had gone to qualified psychotherapist Peter Blaeker, 43, after she was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. Much of the time Miss Mirte was in control, but sometimes she became her other personalities, ‘Kathrin’, ‘Finja’ and ‘Leonie’. She alleges that Blaeker used his knowledge of her condition to use her for sex, housework and loans. If convicted he faces up to five years in jail. Miss Mirte said: ‘It is like there is more than one person in my head and when one of the others is in control, I always have no memory of what happened when I return. I found out there were certain personalities he favoured, and he used them to fulfil his wishes. He used Kathrin for sex and Finja to do the shopping and pay for it, while Leonie gave him money to travel on holidays to Mallorca and Sylt (a popular German tourist island).’ It is unclear how Miss Mirte became suspicious about her ‘treatment’ but she eventually confronted Blaeker. She claims the therapist told her he would not discuss the matter because he had a duty of confidentiality to his patients, including her other personalities.” — ThisIsLondon (UK)

Therapist? Or the rapist? Naturally you want to extend your sympathy to the victim here, and yet there is something rather comical about the whole story. You laugh at someone who does something without being fully aware of what he’s doing, which is why comedies often depict sleepwalkers and drunks doing ridiculous things. There is a touch of that here. You see the victim changing personalities the way Madonna changes hairstyles, and each one does something that may not be in the best interest of the victim’s “real” identity. It’s a little funny, and yet you also know that she’s mentally ill, so you’re left with a touch of schadenfreude. Is it ok to laugh at the insane?

Her lack of self-awareness — or her lack of a proper self to be aware of — only throws the therapist’s deliberateness into sharper relief. In their relationship, he had the advantage of an integrated self, an identity that couldn’t be severed into manipulable pieces. (United she might have stood; divided she fell.) This makes his talk of “confidentiality to her other personalities” absurd, since it implies that he considers her “alters” as legitimate legal entities. He validates the very thing he is supposed to be curing. It’s like a researcher saying, “I have a duty not to the human body but to the bacteria that it nourishes and sustains.” Meanwhile it’s clear that the one thing he really cares for is not the woman or her subsidiary personalities but his own big ego.

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