Allen turned instantly and blurted out, “Marlene is the name of Tommy’s girl friend. ”

That moment, seeing how spontaneous his remark was, spoken with no time for reflection, Dr. Kocan decided he was not faking.

“That’s my first name too,” Kocan said. “You say she’s Tommy’s girl friend?”

“Well, she doesn’t know it’s Tommy. She calls all of us Billy. But Tommy’s the one who gave her an engagement ring. She never knew the secret.”

Dr. Kocan said pensively, “It’s going to be quite a shock when she finds out.”

At the APA meeting, Dr. Harding brought Dr. Cornelia Wilbur up to date on Milligans progress. He told her he now believed fully that Milligan was a multiple personality. He described Milligans refusal to recognize the other names in public and the problems it was causing.

“He’s used it in Dr. Pugliese’s group therapy and caused problems with the other patients. When hes asked to share his problems, he just says, ‘My doctor told me not to talk about it.’ You can imagine the effect of that and of his tendency to play junior therapist. Hes been dropped from group.”

“You’ve got to understand,” Wilbur said, “what it does to the alter personalities not to be recognized. Sure, they’re used to responding to the original name, but once the secret is out, it makes them feel not wanted.”

Dr. George considered that and asked Wilbur what she thought about his attempting to treat Milligan in the brief time left.

“I think you should ask the court for at least another ninety days,” she said./‘And then I think you should try to fuse him so that he can help his attorneys and stand trial.”

“The state of Ohio is sending a forensic psychiatrist down to look him over about two weeks from now, on May 26. I was wondering if you’d consider coming to the hospital for a consultation. I could use your support.”

Wilbur agreed to come.

Although the APA meeting was scheduled to run until Friday, Dr. George left Atlanta on Wednesday. He called a team meeting at Wakefield the following day and told the staff that after discussing the case with Dr. Wilbur, he had decided that not recognizing the alternate personalities was counter-therapeutic.

“We thought if we ignored the multiple personalities, perhaps that would integrate them, but actually it’s just caused them to go underground. We’ve got to continue to stress the need for responsibility and accountability, but we’ve got to avoid repressing the various personalities.”

He pointed out that if there was to be any hope of achieving fusion so that Milligan could go to trial, all the personalities would have to be recognized and dealt with as individuals.

Rosalie Drake felt relieved. Secretly, she had always responded to them anyway, especially Danny. It would be easier now for everyone, having it all out in the open instead of pretending it didn’t exist just because of the few who still didn’t believe.

Donna Egar smiled when she entered the new plan on the nursing-goal sheet of May 12, 1978: