Dissociative Identity Disorder. Chances are, you don’t know what it is. Maybe you know it better by its antiquated term, Multiple Personality Disorder. If you do it’s probably from the most recent cop show or horror movie, both of which most likely portrayed someone with DID as the serial killer who didn’t remember their crimes.
The most recent portrayal of DID in the media is in “Split,” a new horror movie scoring a horrendous 74% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.5 rating on IMDb. It’s made 169.4 million in the box office thus far. It’s astounding how well the film is doing considering the unethical and altogether offensive premise. For those who are unaware, “Split” follows Kevin, a man diagnosed with DID, as he kidnaps three young girls from a parking lot and holds them captive in his home. The film follows the story of both him and his psychiatrist as they explore this world, seemingly unaware of how offensive and stereotypical their portrayal of mental illness is.
I think it's important to clarify a bit about DID, especially considering how poorly it is portrayed in this new film. In reality there have been an incredibly low number of criminal cases related to DID. In fact, when you Google “criminals with DID,” only two even come up (Billy Milligan and Juanita Maxwell). This is a stark contrast to how frequently cop shows and horror films portray DID as the ultimate cause for murder. In fact, three episodes of the hit show “Criminal Minds” deal specifically with serial killers known to have DID.
In reality, those with DID are far from violent creatures. Most cases of dissociative identity disorder originate from some sort of trauma between ages six to nine. Often sexually abused, the brains of these children develop dissociative identity disorder as a way to cope with the abuse and trauma they are experiencing. Someone with DID describes it as, “living with roommates, but inside your head.”
A bit of DID terminology: The different people are known as “alters,” not “identities,” or “personalities.” Those have become antiquated and offensive terms. When an alter is taking control, it’s called “fronting” and all the alters together are called a “system.” The “host” is the one that leads many of the interactions, and can often be interchanged between one or two of the alters. While all the alters see their time in the spotlight over the course of the system’s life, some appear more frequently than others. Someone with DID can have numerous amounts of alters, as a new one is formed when a new traumatic event occurs in their life as a way for the brain to cope with the stress of the situation.
DID and schizophrenia are often confused, making it incredibly difficult to be diagnosed with the disorder. DID is not like intrusive thoughts. They are not violent by nature. According to many with DID, the scariest thing that could happen is simply that “Someone’s gonna say something stupid and you won’t be able to stop them.” Different alters pop up at different times, often resulting in some level of amnesia between the switches.
Hollywood has always had a knack for butchering, minimizing, or altering stories of mental health. Take “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” for example. While the novel was about the plight of a Native American who was institutionalized after seeing the destruction of his native community and therefore his family. In the film, however, it is entirely whitewashed and focused on the eccentricities of a middle aged rebel, played by Jack Nicholson. The film was so different from the novel that, in fact, the author refused to even watch it.
Movies like “Psycho,” “American Psycho,” and “The Silence of the Lambs,” “American Beauty,” all find ways to take these serious illnesses and trivialize them for the means of shock value and monetary gain. Hollywood isn’t trying to tell the stories of these people. They’re not trying to tell the reality of an illness. Just like “Split,” they’re profiting and taking advantage of an illness.
Now, that’s not to discredit the industry as a whole. There are several films that have made an attempt to tell the truth of a situation. “Little Miss Sunshine,” “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” “Lars and the Real Girl,” and “Girl, Interrupted,” all serving as a testament to the power that a story of mental illness can have. So why are there not more of these stories being made? When did we suddenly become afraid of truthful stories?
It is possible for Hollywood to tell these stories truthfully. But telling a genuine story is not just about making money. The industry would have to be willing to risk the box office hit for the sake of truth. And at a time when the media is so focused on the trends and by-the-minute news stories, unfortunately there does not seem to be a window for these types of films.
