ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 26, 1996 TAG: 9604260078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
A woman with multiple-personality disorder has won $350,000 plus interest in her medical malpractice lawsuit against a man who started out as her therapist and later became her husband.
Susanna Van de Castle has 11 personalities. At least two of them testified during the eight-day trial, saying that Robert Van de Castle negligently handled her treatment and exploited her condition, staging public lectures showcasing her as a subject.
Lawyers for Robert Van de Castle, a professor emeritus at the University of Virginia medical school, said the suit was part of a divorce gone awry.
Outside the Albemarle County Circuit Courthouse on Wednesday, Susanna Van de Castle said her next step will be to work on getting well.
Robert Van de Castle said he was disappointed by the judge's ruling.
``Everything I've ever done for my wife has always been with her best interests at heart,'' the psychologist said through his lawyer.
Susanna Van de Castle, 40, began receiving treatment from Van de Castle, 68, in 1987. The couple was married two years later.
Lawyers for Robert Van de Castle argued the treatment ceased in 1988, but Albemarle County Circuit Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. ruled the two-year statute of limitations on medical malpractice claims had not run out before the suit was filed in April 1994.
Peatross based his ruling in part on conversations Robert Van de Castle had with friends of his wife, including a priest, in 1992. The psychologist told the friends he was still working to integrate her personalities, according to testimony.
Evidence of Robert Van de Castle's negligence, Peatross said, included his failure to maintain proper therapist-patient boundaries by doing things such as giving her gifts, allowing her to stay in his home, lending her money and taking 6-year-old Honey - one of Susanna Van de Castle's personalities - into his bed when she was frightened.
Peatross also said the doctor committed harmful violations of the standard of care by marrying the woman while he was still providing therapy and exhibiting her to the public at events where admission was charged.
The judge said Robert Van de Castle's contact with actress Sissy Spacek and his discussion of a book deal with a writer also showed a profit motive.
In closing arguments, Susanna Van de Castle's attorney, Thomas E. Albro, said the therapist took a woman who was a mess and made her worse.
``None of the experts said she got the treatment she needed,'' he said. ``He needed supervision and he needed a plan, and he had neither.
``He used personalities from time to time to show what he could do. ... He did it when it suited him. It was part of his ego trip,'' Albro added.
Attorneys for Susanna Van de Castle estimated that the interest awarded with the judgment will bring it to $500,000. They were seeking $1 million.
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