That first quote is interesting; it's obvious enough that Ruff has taken a lot of of his inspiration for the characters from well-known online sites about DID, especially places like Astrea's Web, which emphasize plurality, natural multiplicity, etc. It sounds like he makes rejecting integration sort of a radical concept, which it might be to most people who are only familiar with Sybil or think that multiple personalities is inherently "wrong" and has to be corrected. But there have been stories and autobiographies before his that didn't end with the main character integrating. I know First Person Plural and This Alien Shore both end positively with the narrator/character functioning, but still multiple.

In my personal opinion, I think completely rejecting integration is just as bad as thinking that it is the only way to treat DID. Integration can sometimes help organize and structure a chaotic system/'household', and personalities will naturally came and go. I'm kind of curious if Ruff's characters touched on the degrees of personalities.. I'm not sure how to put this, but personalities that are more fully-formed than others. People who probably don't know any better would assume that a multiple system is just like a mall full of people crammed into one person. In reality there are different types of personalities-- some that are pretty well-rounded, some that just fulfill a particular function and not much else, and some that are just "fragments" who might form and dissolve quickly. The idea of the "core" personality being dead and the main frontrunner being created by the other personalities also isn't particularly new; it was the pervasive plot point of When Rabbit Howls to almost an annoying and depressing extent, because there was no particular person in the system to relate to as a reader.

Anyways, sorry to go on and on in your journal, I should probably just read the book. 8X