Katherine, It's Time: An Incredible Journey Into the World of a Multiple Personality

Sexually abused as a child by her sadistic father, Elizabeth Katherine Castle fissured into multiple personalities--seven or eight in all, according to this dizzying, not altogether credible profile. As mousy ``Liz,'' living in Texas, she married, nearly ax-murdered her three children and got evicted from her apartment. Then, as ``Kitty,'' she began pulling in $800 a week as a stripper. As vivacious, artistic ``Penny Lavender,'' she took the second of three husbands, but her life kept dividing among her warring selves. These included ``Me-Liz,'' a spiritual do-gooder; ``Jess,'' a teenage boy with a crush on Kitty; two infant egos; and ``Michael,'' an ``inner helper'' who facilitated the integration of her fractured psyche. This strange case involves psychic phenomena: beings of light, poltergeist-like activity, and Michael himself, who, it is argued, might have been an otherworldly spirit-guide. Bechtel, a journalist who conducted interviews with Castle, re-creates her journey through hell, interweaving the testimonies of friends and loved ones. Photos. (Oct.)