Reading Eagle
June 3, 2011
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=312085
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| John Fidler |
Hank is the overseer. He loves children and animals.
So does Locutus, who's uncomfortable in crowded places like malls.
Tristan, full of sadness and despair, fills Joe's dreams. He loves children, too, as does 28, who doesn't want a name. He's funny, fun-loving and likes playing practical jokes. There's a 17-year-old, too, named Joseph, but I don't know much about him yet.
As for Joey, the 7-year-old, he just likes playing, coloring and taking naps. After all, he's just a kid.
I haven't met all these fascinating individuals, but I feel as if I know them.
They all reside within one person, Joe Behe, who says he was sexually abused many years ago by a Catholic priest, the Rev. Edward Graff, at Holy Guardian Angels School in Hyde Park.
Graff is dead. But the multiple personalities Joe's mind has created to protect him from the horrific memories of the experiences he said he suffered are very much alive. They're busy protecting Joe, who remains heavily medicated. He sleeps little.
I learned more about Joe's multiple personalities last month at a meeting with him, his girlfriend, Kamela McDannell, and his therapist, Rhonda Vacante, president and chief executive of Pennsylvania Comprehensive Behavioral Health Services in York.
I wanted to explore Joe's diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder, which I wrote about in a previous column.
"The mind is so powerful," Rhonda said. "When it encounters something that is too much for one mind to handle, it splits off into several minds. Each one has its own personality and each one takes responsibility for different parts of Joe's life."
Rhonda has been working with Joe since March. But Kammy has been with Joe for eight years. She works with brain-injured patients.
"I knew," Kammy said. "I saw the personalities."
Kammy and Rhonda work together, listening to what these alters, as Rhonda calls them, can tell them about the secrets locked tightly in Joe's mind.
"He's made such progress," Rhonda said. "Unlike some others with the disorder, Joe is aware of the other personalities. Some other patients have no awareness."
But Joe's awareness doesn't tell Rhonda all she needs to know because he sometimes forgets what happens when the other personalities emerge.
"Kammy fills in the blanks," Rhonda said.
As Joe's girlfriend, Kammy is the one who sees what Joe's nightmares can do. Recently, one of the personalities threw Joe into a rage in the middle of the night and he began beating up the bed. When he awoke, he felt better, she said.
In another episode, Joe flew out of the bed, hit his head and broke two ribs.
"It was like 'The Exorcist,' " Joe recalled in a blur.
After I returned to Reading I called Joe to clarify something.
We talked for a few minutes and he answered my questions.
Later that day I had a call from Hank. His Southern accent was pronounced. He spoke clearly.
He wanted to make sure everything was OK. "I'm the caretaker of these alters," Hank drawled. "I know Joe 41 (Hank's name for Joe) spoke to you."
When I hung up I just sat.
Imagine going through something so horrifying that the only way you're able to face it is with the help of parts of the mind that spring impromptu to shield you from the experience.
I remembered something Rhonda said about the mind.
"It's an amazing, amazing thing," she said.
Just as amazing is Joe's commitment, which he shared during our initial conversation. He repeated it in front of me, Rhonda and Kammy.
"I don't want this (the sexual abuse) to happen to anyone else again."
John Fidler is a copy editor and writer at the Reading Eagle. He holds a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago. Contact him at 610-371-5054 or jfidler@readingeagle.com
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