Katherine, It’s Time
HarperCollins 1989, with Kit Castle; ISBN 0-06-015926-X. Published in paperback by Avon Books (1989, reissued in 1990; ISBN 0-380-71198-2) Optioned, twice, by movie production companies.
A “nonfiction novel” which tells the story of an extraordinary multiple personality case. Due to horrific childhood abuse, Kit Castle split into seven personalities, which were eventually integrated through intense therapy with a brilliant, charismatic psychiatrist. The book, which touches upon the truly spooky occult aspects of MPD, is required reading in several college psychology courses.
Publishers Weekly described the book this way: “Sexually abused as a child by her sadistic father, Elizabeth Katherine Castle fissured into multiple personalities — seven or eight in all, according to this dizzying profile. As mousy ‘Liz,’ living in Texas, she married, nearly ax-murdered her three children and got evicted from her apartment. Then, as ‘Kitty,’ she began pulling in $800 a week as a stripper. As vivacious, artistic ‘Penny Lavender,’ she took the second of three husbands, but her life kept dividing among her warring selves. These included ‘Me-Liz,’ a spiritual do-gooder; ‘Jess,’ a teenage boy with a crush on Kitty; two infant egos; and ‘Michael,’ an ‘inner helper’ who facilitated the integration of her fractured psyche.
This strange case involves psychic phenomena: beings of light, poltergeist-like activity, and Michael himself, who, it is argued, might have been an otherworldly spirit-guide. Bechtel, a journalist who conducted interviews with Castle, re-creates her journey through hell, interweaving the testimonies of friends and loved ones.”
Excerpt
Part One: The Dark Light
Chapter One
“In the fading late afternoon light, the old Dodge nosed eastward through the crush of afternoon traffic out of downtown Dallas. Faceless interchanges drifted past. Through the bug-pocked windshield, Kitty watched the golden light wince off green expressway signs drifting by overhead: 635 South, Sunnyvale, Next Exit. Garland, Buckingham, 78 East. Cotton Bowl Parking, Keep Right. None of it meant a thing. She had no idea where she was going — just away. Away was the best she could do for now. But it was a miracle that she was even breathing, after that fiasco! She was only two hours old, but already she was in full flight from the past…”
