I know Brian. He has been treating survivors of extreme abuse for 25 years. Along with other colleagues, Brian developed a method of working with dissociated, traumatic memory, derived from survivors themselves, that makes the process much less difficult and painful.
Brian is just beginning to speak out about his experience and expertise in this area, more is yet to come.
Interview with Brian Moss
By Janet Thomas
The Survivorship Journal, Vol.18, Issue2, December, 2012, p.4
http://survivorship.org
As guest editor of this issue, I looked close to home for possible articles. And nobody is closer to my
healing home than my therapist, Brian Moss. I first contacted him during the week between Christmas and
New Years, 1984-5. I was an incoherent mess in a meltdown. It felt as though each moment of my life was a
series of propped up dominoes that were beginning to collapse faster and faster behind me. And I could not
see in front of me. What began as a desperate search for immediate relief became a 25-year exploration of
my past, a moment by moment reconstruction of my present, and a hope- and faith-filled journey into my
future.
We all have our profoundly private and meaningful experiences with our therapists. They bear
witness, they bring their skills to save our lives, and they see us through. Like so many therapists who work
with extreme abuse, Brian himself experiences the isolation, the dissonance, the disbelief, and the shattering
realization of what goes on in this world under the guise of “civilization.” Because I know and trust the
depths and mysteries of the written word, I asked him to respond in writing.
For this issue of the Journal, we are focusing on only one question. For the logistical requirements of
the Journal, Brian’s point-by-point answers have been abbreviated. His long, thoughtful and inclusive
response, will be posted on our website.
Brian Moss, MA, MFT is a Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor of the American Association of Marriage
& Family Therapy. He lives in the Seattle area and consults widely, specializing in working in partnership with
DID clients and their therapists.
Survivorship: What qualities and information are useful for a therapist and a client working with
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)?
Brian’s response: Brian’s response is divided into two categories: PERSONHOOD which
encompasses personal traits, and KNOWLEDGE which addresses professional understanding.
PERSONHOOD
TOLERANCE FOR AMBIGUITY
Integrating a trauma narrative, especially if it is the result of sophisticated mind control procedures, is a
complex and lengthy process where subjective states (hypnosis, drugs) and manipulated states (electric
shock, psychic-driving, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation) are mixed with objective states (veridical
memory of ritual/sexual abuse or any other experiences meant to terrorize.)
CAPACITY TO DISSOCIATE
There is a difference between “forgetting” and “forgetting that you forget”; one insulates us temporarily as
we metabolize our experience while the other prevents us from fundamentally accessing our experience. The
capacity to dissociate in a healthy sense allows us to live our lives in spite of what we know—to balance the
terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive. There are so many ways to get derailed: cynicism and
anger, despair and hopelessness, or the false relief of numbness.
TOLERANCE FOR ISOLATION
All of us, survivors and therapists alike, got to where we are in stages. Painful truths that do not correspond
to what we have been told about the world require new understandings that only gradually come into focus.
In sharing what we have learned and/or remembered, there is deep frustration that in telling our most urgent
truths we are not believed.
AT LEAST ONE TRUE “INTIMATE”
Whether spouse, partner, mentor, friend, find someone that can handle the material and understand the
larger and hidden truths of what you are learning. The reality behind DID is a “through the looking glass”
experience and is a journey best not taken alone. Therapy is difficult when the client is lacking outside
support or dealing with an unsympathetic spouse/partner. Clients that are still embedded in the deviant social
networks responsible for their original abuse have an enormous challenge facing them.
A SUBSTANTIAL DEGREE OF DIFFERENTIATION
A significant moment in my early childhood occurred while I was watching the television adaptation of Orson
Welles’ War of the Worlds. There is a scene in which the creatures have landed and are zapping everyone. A
priest comes forth, holds up a bible and is incinerated on the spot. I remember thinking, “Are they allowed
to do that?” Differentiation from family, religion, dominant paradigms of any kind including television,
mainstream media, and society in general—gives us the ability to think independently and to tolerate the
withdrawal of approval or ridicule that is often the reaction to doing so.
INTEREST IN CONTROVERSIAL/FORBIDDEN AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE
Many DIDs have teams of parts that are used to research psychic phenomena. These psychic skills are
exploited in a variety of contexts including military and intelligence work. It was eye-opening for me to see
the seriousness with which this research is pursued covertly while being overtly ridiculed in conventional
academic settings.
ABILITY TO DISCERN DISINFORMATION
Quality disinformation must contain a high degree of truth or it will be rejected outright. The goal of
disinformation is to present pieces of the truth in a way that leads to the wrong conclusions. The other purpose
is obfuscation in general. There is an overwhelming amount of disinformation on the internet and in our
media. Who would have guessed that when Orwell’s “Ministry of Truth” finally arrived we would embrace it
as “Wikipedia”.
COURAGE TO FOLLOW THE CLIENT'S LEAD
Abandoning their clients’ experience in order to preserve their (the therapist’s) comfortable view of the
world is the same dynamic survivors experience at a societal level. Survivors want—and need—to be
believed. No-one is afraid of the dark itself, they are afraid of what might be in the dark. Survivors know what
is in the dark. They want to tell their therapists; they want to leave the scenes behind; they want to end the
dissociation. They want—and need—to know it is over. It is essential that therapists do not let them down.
This takes courage as well as expertise.
APPRECIATION OF LIFE’S ABSURD MOMENTS IN ORDER TO DEFEND AGAINST CYNICISM AND THE NEED TO
UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING
One of my teachers had a story that I heard him tell often. It was a true story he read in the newspaper
about a man who had given up and climbed a bridge preparing to jump. A crowd formed in anticipation of the
spectacle and the police were called who, in their best manner tried to negotiate with and talk the man
down. Getting nowhere, running out of ideas and becoming increasingly frustrated, one of the officers pulled
his gun and threatened to shoot the man unless he came down. The man climbed down. It is important to
understand that not everything can be understood.
ABILITY TO PERSEVERE IN THE FACE OF SOCIETAL DENIAL
Judith Herman named it in Trauma and Recovery: “The study of psychological trauma has repeatedly led into
realms of the unthinkable and foundered on fundamental questions of belief.” There will be polarization
occurring in society as more and more information comes out and more survivors come forward. There will
be attempts to discredit survivors and to misinform and censor content for those seeking information but to
no avail. There are too many survivors and they will continue to speak their truth in an ever increasing
chorus.
A BELIEF SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS FOR EXISTENCE OF THE SPIRITUAL
Most DID systems contain spiritual guides or transcendents capable of guiding the work of healing. DID
survivors benefit from therapists who are comfortable with these realities. The transcendents, by their very
nature, are beyond the reach of programming/conditioning and remain untouched by mind control
techniques much as the Sun does not cease to exist simply because a cloud moves in front or the earth
revolves.
BELIEF THAT LIFE HAS MEANING
In enduring or bearing witness to the desecration of every value the belief that life has meaning frames the
ability to go forward rather than fall into despair. What I have noticed both for myself and the therapists I
work with is that when we are willing to know, and not turn away from darkness, a corresponding light
enters our life to help balance and navigate it.
KNOWLEDGE
UNDERSTANDING OF SYSTEMS THINKING
Systems theory addresses the whole, including the relationships of the parts of the whole to each other. It
does not simply focus on the individual parts in isolation. The concept of wholeness, the integrative process,
is the essence of all psychological growth—not just Dissociative Identity Disorder alone. The word “therapy”
derives from the Greek word therapeia meaning “to heal”; the word “heal” from the Old English word hælan
meaning “whole”. “Integrate” derives from Latin, integrare, to make whole, from integer, complete.
UNDERSTANDING OF UNCONSCIOUS PROCESS
In terms of unconscious process there is an important distinction to make between repression and
dissociation. Traditionally, therapists received training in which experience not consciously available was seen
to be a kind of primitive unconscious regulated largely by primary process thinking and regression.
(Repressive model) Contrast this with concealed experience and memory systems (DID) that are coconscious,
where parallel states are existing with a variety of levels of development, some more healthy or
competent than the presenting personality! Knowing the subtleties of unconscious perception, and how they
are named, informs the therapist and empowers the client.
UNDERSTANDING OF SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE
Consciously unacceptable material is camouflaged in symbolism. As it is metabolized, dissociated information
will become more representational and less symbolic. When information is transmitted symbolically the
degree of symbolism used will depend on the tolerance of the system for the material being depicted. When
the information needs to be defended against, the defending alter will either not be present or will filter the
4 information symbolically. As integration takes place there is less need for symbolism and both dreams and
artwork become more representational.
UNDERSTANDING OF THE TRUE ETIOLOGY OF DID
Complex DID systems are not simply a response to trauma and stress—even horrific trauma such as ritual
abuse, though it does have a role to play. Nor is it caused iatrogenically by well meaning therapists attempting
to treat trauma survivors as Wikipedia would have us believe. DID is mind control, intentionally imposed and
practiced, requiring a great deal of effort and conditioning over a period of many years. To develop an
elaborate DID system is to endure an ongoing medical procedure throughout childhood, one that requires
clinical settings with access to extensive equipment and pharmaceuticals. All DID systems are the result of mind
control and programming techniques.
UNDERSTANDING THAT EFFORTS TO CREATE DID IN CHILDREN WERE NOT SIMPLY EXCESSES OF THE COLD WAR IN
THE NAME OF NATIONAL SECURITY
Disturbing as it is, we must acknowledge the ongoing nature of these activities. Clients are sensitive to any
backing away by the therapist and are reluctant to fully disclose when they fear they won’t be believed.
Clearly, people who would torture children, for any perceived agenda, are sociopathic. What they are after is
a type of power that is outside legal or ethical constraints and better described as organized crime, no
matter the context in which it is framed.
UNDERSTANDING ISSUES RELATING TO ALTERS
Over-identifying with the innocent child alters and avoiding the mean and destructive ones maintains division
and conflict within the system. Developing a fascination with certain alters, or with the process of switching
itself, is another way to become triangulated into the system; there is no reason to encourage switching—
most alter systems can be accessed while keeping a sense of co-consciousness with the normative section.
DIDs can parallel process to an extraordinary degree and this ability can be utilized to integrate without
losing stability.
AWARENESS OF BLENDING VS. SWITCHING
Many clients and therapists expect a more dramatic presentation (switching with lost time) and miss
important system shifts because the client remains co-conscious. When an alter, or programming is behind,
alongside or blended with the front system, the changing quality of consciousness may present more subtly.
Most alter movement taking place in a therapist’s office (unless the client is severely destabilized) involves
blending with no loss of time.
DISCERNMENT REGARDING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STABILITY AND INTEGRATION
The front/normative section is designed to be free from interference and highly functioning as long as the
covert aspects of the system remain unknown and there is compliance with the demands of the
programmers/handlers. Programming is designed to maintain stability through compartmentalization.
Paradoxically, it is the more effective therapists, who begin to make inroads into the deeper structures, who
find themselves inadvertently destabilizing their clients. This “success” can trigger programming. (Dissociated
trauma scenes and conditioned self-destructive behavior.) Overt stability is not the same as integration.
UNDERSTANDING OF DEEPER STRUCTURES OF DID
While allowing for some variation, most programming follows standard protocols. The front/normative
section is designed to be free from interference and highly functioning as long as the covert aspects of the
system remain unknown and there is compliance with the demands of the programmers/handlers. Many therapists
deal with leaking or triggered trauma scenes related to sexual abuse and ritual abuse without ever getting to
the deeper structures and teams involved in covert activities or the programming responsible for it. The
trauma scenes act like a mine field keeping these deeper structures and parts hidden and compartmentalized.
RECOGNITION OF THE DOUBLE-BIND IN MIND CONTROL
As with all double-binds the only way out is to acknowledge the bind and transcend it. There is no way to
resolve the situation if it is accepted as presented. The basic feature of false choice programs is: “I stay safe
and comply with programming/training or I resist and trigger trauma scenes.” It is not either/or; alters should
be made aware that both sides of the dilemma are manipulated and all parts of self can come to the present
and be free of the demands.
UNDERSTANDING THE NEED TO WORK “FROM THE OUTSIDE IN”
Trauma programming is layered. A good visual image to illustrate this concept is the children’s game of
Mikado or “pick-up-sticks”—the outermost sticks must be removed before attempting to move underlying
ones. When working to dismantle programming any interference encountered must be dealt with before
proceeding. Not to do so is like pulling a stick from the middle of the pile and activating multiple layers of
conditioned responses at once—something guaranteed to stop any further progress and destabilize the
client.
UNDERSTANDING THAT EMOTIONAL CATHARSIS IS NOT NECESSARY FOR INITIAL MEMORY WORK
There are two basic forms of memory: explicit memory and implicit memory. Explicit memory is what most
people are referring to when they talk about memory; it records consciously available information about past
experiences. Implicit memory is information that is not consciously available and was encoded outside of
conscious awareness. Abreaction and triggering can be understood in terms of implicit memory. The sense of
self and self-control that accompanies explicit memory is lost when a trauma memory is an implicit
recollection. The difference between these two forms of memory must be acknowledged to understand the
basis of trauma programming.
AWARENESS OF POSSIBLE SURVIVOR CONTACT AND SABOTAGE BY HANDLERS
All survivors are monitored internally via programming that is designed to force compliance or initiate
reporting to programmers/handlers in the event of non-compliance. Of greater concern and missed by many
therapists is that survivors are also often contacted and sabotaged by the people in their present life—even
survivors well along in their recovery; this includes people (often family in generational cults) known to the
survivor as well as unknown handlers able to access alters outside the awareness of the normative
personalities.
A CLOSING STATEMENT FROM BRIAN:
The chance to share this information with you is my pebble in the pond—maybe reaching you on the far
shore. Don't doubt that there are many survivors whose voices have been heard, and many therapists who
know the truth about what is going on in the world; all of us working quietly (or out-loud) to make healing
possible for each other and to create the world we know is possible.
Edited to add emphases.
