Frequently Asked Questions

What is CPI about?

It is about a woman who many people would regard as mentally unstable.

How'd she get that way?

She has a life-long history of abuse at the hands of people she should have been able to regard as trustworthy. Her father first took her into his bed around the age of six. And by the time she was twelve she had been hired out for sexual favours to family members and strangers alike. In her early teens she was coerced into starring in pornograpic videos for the benefit of her father and uncle and later worked as a prostitue of her own violition.

Is CPI based on a true story?

Yes. Incest and/or child pornography/prostitution - although usually done in secret - is practiced in every country in the world. It is also found in all classes cultures and religions. In fact in less than the time it takes to watch this musical there is a good chance that some sort of sexual misconduct will have occoured to a child on your very own street.

Does the musical have a happy ending?

The end is downright encouraging given the fact that no matter what she does Melissa will never have had a happy childhood or healthy role models from which to learn throughout her formative years. By the end of the musical Mel's future is at last showing great promise.

So what exactly is wrong with her?

To put it simply, Melissa is somewhat confused. At the age of 40 she is finally having to come to terms with the fact that her entire life has been based on lies planted in her trusting childhood head as facts by selfish and perverted adults who cared not one jot for the long term effects of their trickery. At the age of six Melissa was told that it was her duty to keep her father happy during her mother's absences. And that is precisely what she did. Totally oblivious to the fact that what her father was doing to her was very wrong indeed. She trusted him - and he betrayed her. And when she finally began to realise his deception and the nature of their relationship her brain simply couldn't cope and she fled deep inside both mentally and emotionally in order to escape her anguish. And so the first splitting of Melissa's character took place. As the six year old child another far more cynical alter-ego was created to cope with the realities of child pornography and prostitution and this process repeated itself several times during other critical periods in her life.

Does she have a genuine medical condition?

If she were aquainted with the U.S. mental health profession Melissa would probably assume she had a Dissasociative Identity Disorder. The plain truth however is that whether such a condition even exists is totally irrelevant to Mel... since compartmentalising her innermost thoughts and emotions in the way that she does is the only way in which she can make any sense of them. Right now it helps her to see herself in that way - last year or tomorrow or next month or next year may see her situation as being completely different.

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A brief outline of disassociation/dissociation

Disassociation is what happens when the human mind is confronted with a reality it cannot reconcile with it's own perception of the way things ought to be. disassociation plays a vital and life saving role during any extremely traumatic event such as war; fammine, or flood. But the disassociation that takes place when - particularly from a very early age - a child is regularly amd systematically abused by adults who claim to be demonstrating love and affection, is particularly heartless and cruel and can leave emotional scars from which many individuals never recover.

Over an extended period of time, as an abused child becomes accustomed to dealing with abusive situations, the child may develop a knack of disassociating their minds from what they are doing to such an extent that they mature emotionally and mentally, not as one singular adult, but as a collection of different and often conflicting attitudes and viewpoints towards events that have taken place. Not surprisingly, such sustained fragmenting of the human mind can often create problems in other areas of the victim's life, and the sheer amount of mental effort it takes to remain functional with a brain in this condition is exhasting in the extreme and of course that has consequences all of it's own. The DID model therefore is a condition which, (to many), is the only way they know in which they can survive the un-survivable. It is what happens when one part of a person's mind simply can not be reconciled with the continued existence of other deeply conflicting beliefs or expectations held in the same head.

And the CPI musical relates to just one brief but life-changing period in the life of a disassociative abuse survivor who is finally learning to come to terms with the effects that her abuse has had on her life. The survivor's name is Melissa, and so far as she is concerned there are several other people inside her head, all clamouring for attention which she cannot give.

Although not sexually explicit in any way the Crazy People Incorporated musical deals with highly charged emotional issues and contains a certain amount of imagery that some may find disturbing.

Please enjoy the music, if nothing else, and help spread word about this site's existence in any way you can.

Yours Sincerely

Snafu's Crazy People Incorporated is the proud winner of the Many thanks for this much appreciated recognition of our efforts.