This book uses case history methodology to illustrate the relationship between theory and practice of the study of Dissociation Identity Disorder (DID). Challenging conventional wisdom on all sides, the book traces the clinical and social history of dissociation in a provocative examination of this widely debated phenomenon. It reviews the current state of DID-related controversy so that readers may draw their own conclusions and examines the evolution of hypnosis and the ways it has been used and misused in the treatment of cases with DID. The book is rigorously illustrated with two centuries' worth of famous cases.