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A Brilliant Adaptation
How Dissociative Identity Disorder and the Power of the Therapeutic Bond Saved Me
Brief Description
A searing and profound memoir of one woman's journey through dissociative identity disorder and childhood sexual abuse—and how she found hope, healing, and recovery. Sally Maslansky is living the perfect life: a beautiful home in Malibu, California, a successful Hollywood producer husband who adores her, and...
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A Brilliant Adaptation
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Description
A searing and profound memoir of one woman's journey through dissociative identity disorder and childhood sexual abuse—and how she found hope, healing, and recovery.
Sally Maslansky is living the perfect life: a beautiful home in Malibu, California, a successful Hollywood producer husband who adores her, and a recently adopted son she treasures. But when Sally begins to remember the trauma she endured as a child, her world begins to unravel.
In this gripping and provocative memoir, psychotherapist Maslansky shares how childhood sexual abuse led her to develop dissociative identity disorder (DID), and how, with the help of renowned therapist Daniel J. Siegel, she ultimately recovers. The book reveals the power of the therapeutic bond to heal deep attachment wounds, the science of neuroplasticity in healing the traumatised mind, and our capacity as human beings to reconcile unspeakable experiences in order to grow, change, and live vibrant, loving, and joyful lives against all odds.
Together with Siegel, Maslansky slowly recovers her childhood memories and reconnects with the forgotten parts of herself—parts that she grows to admire, respect, honour, and love, because they literally saved her young mind from unimaginable horrors. In A Brilliant Adaptation, Siegel describes Maslansky's DID as a brilliant adaptation of the mind—a protective force that kept her mentally safe when the people she should have trusted most were the ones responsible for her abuse.
Whether you have struggled with DID yourself, love someone who has DID, or are simply looking to be inspired by the tenacity of the human spirit, this memoir offers a provocative glimpse into an often pathologised and misunderstood condition, and shows the profound and healing possibilities of therapy, human understanding, and the will to survive.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781648486944
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 26 February 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: New Harbinger Publications
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 16.0mm
Width: 226.0mm
Height: 150.0mm
Weight: 292g
Pages: 200
About the Author
Sally Maslansky, LMFT, has been in private practice for twenty years in Chapel Hill, NC. She treats families, adoption, trauma, parenting, and adult individuals. Her training is in interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB), mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), adult attachment interview (AAI), attachment theory, polyvagal theory practices, mindfulness, and the wheel of awareness practice.
Foreword writer Daniel J. Siegel, MD, is a noted neuropsychiatrist, executive director of the Mindsight Institute, and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. He is author ofThe Developing Mind, The Mindful Brain, and other books, and is founding editor of the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology.
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