From psychotic "tragedy" to hysterical "drama": Anna history.

The authors present a multiple personality case. The characteristics of the family system seemed to be typical of psychotic families, but after a rightway look on the case, the therapists focussed their attention on several elements which had not come out before. Carefully analysing the case, they were able to find out well played "roles" or "masks", (particularly a "great-seducer father", and a "very depressed mother") a stressed "characterization" of the players and a double level of reality, as if members, although maintaining an inner capacity of self-definition, play a particular "role" on the family "stage", never revealing themselves to the others. These elements are to be considered as primal "clues" of "emerging qualities" of that family. The symptom metaphorically points out a different reality behind the "masks" and with its dramatization, its quick and short rising, its modifications depending on the environment, confirm a different interpretation of the case.