Split Movie Analysis Essay

Accurate Representation of the Dissociative Identity Disorder in the Movie Split
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Accurate Representation of the Dissociative Identity Disorder in the Movie Split
Introduction
The psychological disorder discussed in this essay is the Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), also referred to as multiple personality disorder (Schreiber, 2009). Disassociation occurs when an individual is disconnected from their sense of reality, or when they fail to register thoughts, feelings, and memories in their conscious minds. As a result, the way the individual views themselves and their environment changes. There are several dissociative disorders. However, dissociative identity disorder is the most complex. This type of disorder is associated with a severe change in identity. The history of DID dates back to 1791, during which, the first accounts of exchanged personality were recorded concerning a 20-year old German woman who acted like a French aristocrat, spoke perfect French and even spoke German with a French accent (Schreiber, 2009). Experts find it difficult to diagnose DID. However, the disorder is believed to be caused by childhood trauma which limits the child’s ability to complete the normal development process required to facilitate a core sense of identity. As a result, doctors normally refer to an individual’s history and perform tests that can rule out the possibility of conditions which might lead to the same symptoms such as memory loss.
The movie Split presents an accurate representation of DID. The movie involves a man with DID who kidnaps three girls. The kidnapper then takes the girls to an unknown location and threatens to unleash a 24th personality who will eventually harm the girls. There are various reasons why the movie accurately represents DID. Firstly, the movie accurately shows that people with DID have one main personality, but often have no control or accurate memories about their life. Secondly, Kevin’s condition is also shown to have been caused by abuse and suffering during his childhood years, and the personalities are an adaptive response to overwhelming circumstances.
Discussion
In the movie, the character is shown to have close to 24 personalities, each of which is completely different from the other. Kevin is considered to be the main character, however, for a very long time, Barry, a different personality had been in control of the character’s body and had frequently been visiting the psychiatrist to monitor his progress. The emails that Barry sent to the psychiatrist shows that Barry knew other personalities had taken control of the body on several occasions. This shows that the main individual—Kevin—has no control over other personalities. Instead, his life is fragmented and not accessible to him. A similar situation is described by Sachs (2015) after having diagnosed Paula, a patient with DID who was raped at a young age but could not accurately describe the events. Sachs described Paula as having more than 90 pe...