Let us think about a situation where communication with different identities becomes smooth by using email. Suppose that a patient A has different identities, say B and C, and they are sharing one mail account and one address, and the therapist has a difficulty contacting B or C during her weekly sessions in the office. If the therapist sends a email addressing A, stating that he would like to get in touch with B, or C, they might respond to the mail in A’s mail, saying something like “Are you the one who is wanting to see me? I’m B and not in a feeling to see you directly. I don’t trust you yet.” B might also say, “I know that C is not listening to you. I don’t think you have a chance with C”.
Thus, B or C is now having some level of communication with the therapist already. As many identities usually are initially hesitant about directly contacting the therapist in the office, email can be a way of ease them into the communication with the therapist.
The therapist can even send a mail addressing B or C. If they do not want to contact the therapist, all they have to do is to ignore the mail. What I learned from my experiences with several DID patients that I communicate by email, if addressee is different; other identities tend to just ignore the mail pretty well. Thus the therapist can have a confidential communication with each identity still using the common mail account.
I will present a case which shows us the way we can communicate DID patients by email.
Case A
A is a young woman in her early twenties, now a student of a vocational school for fashion design. Her complaints included “I sometimes lose memory and it causes a disturbance in my classes of practical training.” “My roommate says that my different identity comes out during the night and do the internet for a couple of hours, but I cannot believe it.” A is a serious looking and hardworking student who appears to be honest and sincere.
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