About Truddi Chase

Truddi M. Chase and "The Troops" were the authors of When Rabbit Howls, an autobiography describing their childhood life with a sexually psychotic stepfather.

In the early 1980s, Chase began therapy to address feelings of extreme fear and distress which she thought might be related to the fact that her stepfather had "fondled" her. What she uncovered with Dr. Robert Phillips was a snakepit of sexual depravity and mental and physical cruelty.

Without prompting on his part, Truddi Chase revealed herself to be not one woman, but nearly a hundred people sharing one body, interacting with the world through a screen or front they called "the woman". Over a ten-year period, these selves, "The Troops" -- men, women and children -- explained to Phillips exactly what had happened. They spoke of pleasure and enjoyment in their lives as well as pain. Some of the most poignant passages in the text are about their daughter, whom they took to public gardens so that she could "see and touch beauty".

At that time, most people with multiple personalities were supposed to integrate into a single self, but the Troops refused integration and worked as a cooperating team.

The book When Rabbit Howls was published in 1986 and was not well received by the press, but was welcomed by victims of child abuse and people with multiple personalities, who found in the Troops' narrative validation of their own experiences.

Truddi Chase died March 10, 2010, after a long battle with COPD. Their daughter is involved with training service dogs and works in an arboretum.

Truddi's last book, The Creature of Habit, was completed by their daughter in 2013. It is self-published and will be available on amazon.com later this year.