I asked Dr. Henriksen to offer a layman's explanation of my disorder, and his reasons for suggesting the implementation of a public blog as part of my treatment.

I think it's important that I mention this at the outset:

I am participating in this treatment completely of my own volition. My relationship to Dr. Henriksen is not solely as a patient; I consider myself to be a partner in this experiment, primarily out of my desperation to find a cure.

I've italicized this term, cure, because, as Henriksen has pointed out to me time and again, complete absolution of my disorder is unlikely. In fact, the process of treatment which I'm undergoing is one of adaptation, and I have no illusions that I will ever be an entirely singular individual personality.

- Shawn

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I have only recently diagnosed "X" with the condition of Multiple Personality Disorder. This is a revision from my original perspective that he suffered only from Dissociative Identity Disorder, a more common (although still rare) dysfunction of the brain in which severe trauma causes a defined split between one's Emotional Self and their Intelligent Self.

Following the guidelines set forth by Dr. R.B. Allison, my revision can be explained by the following points:

1) "X" MAY have experienced a life threatening trauma before the age of seven. This trauma has yet to be uncovered, for reasons summarily related to point #2.

2) "X's" Emotional Self and Intellectual Self have become swapped, presumably at another traumatic point in his life. In effect, his Intellectual Self answers to the name "Shawn," while his Emotional Self answers to the label "Jon." It is this personality that has responsed to age regression; "Shawn," although obviously the original personality, is NOT Grade V hypnotizable. This is where my work is decidely subject to criticism, for it is at this point that many students of Allison's will remark that this is an impossibility, and that the hypnosis has obviously yielded delusions. However, my sessions with "X" have been so thorough, and "Jon's" responses so accurate, that I can come to no other conclusion.

3) Age regression has shown obvious polarization of his parents at the time of trauma.

4) As an only child there is the effective "polarization of siblings."

My usual course of therapy would be to cure the patient of the delusion of this second identity. However, in this remarkably unique case, I consider it essential to work through therapy with both identities, as the only one responsive to age regression is "Jon," and this is our primary tool for discovering what trauma originally led to these splits.

This has led me to suggest the use of this public blog to be shared by both personalities, so that they might work together to discover the truths that are deeply concealed within this patient's wounded mind.

- Dr. William H. Henriksen