The Crissing Link: Poetic License: a poetic journey through the labyrinth of multiplicity

by Rev. Criss Ittermann

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Author: Rev. Criss Ittermann

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 1448612977
ISBN 13: 978-1448612970

People with multiple personalities, now Dissociative Identity "Disorder," can lead relatively normal lives. But it's rare to hear of successful people who choose to live with multiplicity, much less proud champions defending their right to live a plural life. The Crisses is a multiple system that has been a champion in the self-help movement for multiples since 1996. The Crisses encourage multiples to intelligently and informatively choose whether or not to integrate, and accept and embrace who you are as simply different and unique rather than troubled. Poetic License is the introductory book in The Crissing Link series. Rev. Criss Ittermann, aka The Crisses, leads us on a poetic journey through their head. Meet some of the women, men, children and non-humans who this woman's body home, share their life together for better or worse, and struggle with the language, ethics, gender-bending, and closets of a world full of humans so strangely and simply "single."

"A wholly unique combination of genres and voices." -- Kirkus Discoveries review

Review

An autobiographical work of poetry and confession by an author with multiple personalities.

This book of poems is intriguingly introduced by the author's partner, Christopher. He seems as much devotee as devoted, and he frankly discusses the process of accepting Ittermann's polyamorous (meaning multiple sexual partners) lifestyle and multifaceted mind. It's this mind--more than the earnest self-realization or the harrowing journey of redemption and rehabilitation--that is the book's real fascination. Inspired by a traumatic event in childhood, these multiple personalities began to manifest themselves in the author when she was 16 years old. There are apparently 70 different personalities contained within her, and incredibly, many have past lives. Ittermann guides the reader through this Byzantine array of personae, all of whom have been bit by the poetry bug, in a series of chapters, each dedicated to a specific consciousness. Collectively they are known as the Crisses, and the parts that form this gestalt include such beloved stock characters as the wounded child and dark poet, and more unconventional identities like the elf and dragoness. Some personalities write confessionals about parenthood or polyamory, and some about elfhood. Skeptical readers may test the poetry's diversity of form, lexical variety and tone, but the voices and styles are genuinely varied, and the subject matter personality-appropriate. There is a genuine lyricism and heart in most of the poems, but some overly sincere clunkers too. The book is somewhat unhinged by the inclusion of too many elements (comics, poetry, self-help, etc.), but its genres are individually fascinating, just like the many voices. The Crissing Link is, in the end, interesting poetry masquerading as pop-psychological inspiration. Some will wish it kept a more consistent format, but how could it?

A wholly unique combination of genres and voices. --Kirkus Discoveries