Alters

Callen Morgan is a 35-year-old psychotherapist with a thriving practice, a loving family, a dead father to whom she speaks regularly, and a unique condition: Dissociative Identity Disorder. While Callen is fully aware of her alters, her patients are completely unaware that it is their issues that have triggered and created certain alters for Callen. They also remain unaware that they are being treated by someone with DID. Callen developed DID as a young child, likely initially triggered from her abusive and neglectful parents. Her now-deceased grandfather, remained her lone stalwart confidant and supporter, until she went into a lengthy remission before he passed. While pregnant with her daughter, the stress of the pregnancy, a new marriage, and a heavy workload provoked the re-emergence of her DID. At first, she kept this from her family, but through working with her own psychotherapist, she eventually came to cope within the confines of her condition and gained the support of her family. As she developed her own practice, Callen noted that, for reasons unknown, certain patients’ profiles and circumstances triggered the emergence of alters that shared their same thoughts, behaviours, and experiences as those of those patients. Her patients remain unaware that the Callen Morgan they are seeing is not the CORE Callen Morgan, but rather, a manifested alter who is able to wisely and empathetically work with them on their issues. Even though Callen’s husband has long been aware of her DID and of many of her alters, he never knows who might come home to him and their daughter each evening. Depending on which alter meets him at the door will determine his response and actions for the rest of the night until she returns to her core alter. Their daughter, however, being a hormonal teenager with budding attitude issues, sees her mother’s condition as a way to manipulate Callen in order to fulfill her own needs and wants. Finally, Callen often relies on more than just her family and psychotherapist to cope with the trials and tribulations of leading a life with DID; for many years now, she has taken to conjuring the spirit and manifestation of her deceased grandfather who acts as a sounding board and advisor, often providing much of the comic relief in an otherwise darkly dramatic story.