In the film industry, psychological films are recently mushrooming that usually tell the story of people with various mental disorders or psychological disorders. One of mental disorders that is commonly shown in several psychological films is dissociative identity disorder or also known as multiple personality syndrome.
One of popular psychological films is Split directed by M. Night Shyamalan that tells the story of a criminal who became a fugitive from the police named Kevin Wendell Crumb. It is known that Kevin has 22 different personalities within him which one by one emerged as a result of coping mechanisms from bad experiences during childhood.
One of the most powerful personalities that Kevin has is The Beast. When Kevin becomes The Beast, he will behave like a wild, savage and invincible human being. Even though Split is not a true story, the cases of dissociative identity disorder that Kevin experiences evidently exist in real life.
To know more about dissociative identity disorder, causes, symptoms and best treatment for those with multiple personality syndrome, you can dive into our post below. Here you go!
What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder?
According to kampuspsikologi.com, dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a personality disorder characterized by the formation of multiple personalities in an individual. In other words, dissociative identity disorder is a mental health condition where people with DID have two or more separate identities.
Those personalities definitely control their behaviour at different times. Basically, each identity has its own personal traits, history, likes and dislikes. Dissociative identity disorder can lead to gaps in memory and hallucinations where the person with dissociative identity disorder believes something that is real when it is not.
One of the phenomenal cases in the world of psychology is the personality case of a woman named Sybil, aka Shirley Mason, from the United States. That said, she has 16 different personalities, consisting of boys and girls. In Indonesia, the most popular case of dissociative identity disorder is experienced by a woman named Wella who is known to have 9 different personalities.
Well, these two cases confirm that apart from being considered extremely rare, DID is diagnosed more frequently in women than men. However, it is possible that the number of men with the disorder is higher than reported since men are more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior than to experience the kind of memory aberrations that are a symptom of dissociative identity disorder.
Symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder
According to WebMD, there are several symptoms of dissociative identity disorder that can affect a person’s ability to change their life. Here are they:
-
- Depersonalized disorder is the feeling of being detached from someone’s body that is often referred to as an ‘out of body’ experience.
- Derealized disorder is the feeling that the world is not real or seems foggy or distant.
- Dissociative amnesia is the failure to remember a large amount of important personal information. There is also micro-amnesia where the discussions involved are not remembered, or the content of meaningful conversations is forgotten from one second to the next.
- Identity confusion or identity change is when a person has difficulty defining the things that interest them in life, or their political or religious or social point of view, or their sexual orientation, or their professional ambitions. In addition to these visible changes, the person may experience distortions of time, place, and situation.
While Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) provides the following criteria for diagnosing dissociative identity disorder:
-
- There are two or more distinct identities or personality states, each with relatively enduring patterns of understanding, thoughts, and relationship about the environment and self.
- Amnesia must occur that is defined as gaps in remembering daily events, important personal information, and/or traumatic events.
- People with dissociative identity disorder may be distressed by the disorder or have difficulty functioning in one or more major areas of life due to the disorder.
- Distractions are not part of normal cultural or religious practice.
- The symptoms of dissociative identity disorder cannot be caused by the direct psychological effects or a substance (such as fainting or disorganized behavior during alcohol poisoning) or a general medical condition (such as complex partial seizures).
- Different personalities can serve different roles in helping the person with dissociative identity disorder cope with their life’s dilemmas. For example, there are an average of two to four personalities that emerge when a patient is first diagnosed. Then there is an average of 13 to 15 personalities that can be identified during treatment. Environmental triggers or life events cause a sudden shift from one change or personality to another.
As the time goes by, the person with dissociative identity disorder may develop a number of other psychiatric issues, including:
-
- Depression
- Mood swings
- Eating Disorder
- Suicidal tendencies
- Alcohol and drug abuse
- Compulsions and rituals
- Sleep disturbances (insomnia, night terrors, and sleep walking)
- Anxiety, phobias, and panic attacks, (flashbacks, reactions to stimuli or “triggers”)
- Psychotic-like symptoms (including auditory and visual hallucinations)
Causes of Dissociative Identity Disorder
According to Zeligman et al., and Dorahy et al., the most causes of dissociative identity disorder are childhood trauma or a history of self-development related to a combination of internal and external factors such as social and cultural.
Similarly, in the film Split, Kevin Wendel Crumb is a man who has a childhood trauma, so he develops 23 different personalities within himself, including The Beast.
According to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the persons with dissociative identity disorder are biologically known to have smaller limbic system structures than people in general, mostly in the hippocampus and amygdala. In this case, the hippocampus acts as a memory controller, while the amygdala functions in emotion management.
Furthermore, decreased function in the orbitofrontal cortex is also associated with reduced blood flow to the brain in the person with dissociative identity disorder. Well, the fact is in accordance with the DSM-5 statement, that one of the symptoms of multiple personality disorder is the occurrence of amnesia or the inability to remember relevant information, even in a short period of time.
Some Treatments for Dissociative Identity Disorder
According to Cleveland Clinic website, there are some treatments for dissociative identity disorder, here are they:
-
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is one of psychotherapy forms that focuses on helping the person with dissociative identity disorder manage changing patterns of dysfunctional thinking, feeling, and behavior.
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a technique designed to treat people who constantly experience nightmares, flashbacks, and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can trigger mental disorders, one of dissociative identity disorders.
- Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is a form of psychotherapy for people with dissociative identity disorder which can include dissociative symptoms that often occur after experiencing abuse or trauma.
- Family therapy is one of therapies that helps teach families about the disorder and helps family members recognize symptoms of recurrence.
- Creative therapy e.g., art therapy or music therapy can allow a person with dissociative identity disorder to explore and express their feelings, thoughts and experiences in a safe and creative environment.
- Meditation and relaxation are techniques to help people to better tolerate their dissociative symptoms and become more aware of their internal state.
- Clinical hypnosis is a therapy which uses intense relaxation, concentration, and focused attention to achieve an altered state of consciousness. This therapy may allow people to explore thoughts, feelings, and memories that they may have hidden from their conscious mind.
- Treatment with antidepressants. In fact, there is no cure for dissociative disorder on its own. However, people with dissociative disorders, especially those associated with depression and/or anxiety, may benefit from treatment with antidepressant or anti-anxiety medications.
- Psychotherapy, or talk therapy is one of therapies designed to address whatever triggers dissociative identity disorder. This therapy aims to help “blend” different personality traits into a consolidated personality that can control the triggers. This therapy often involves family members in therapy.
From many treatment options for dissociative identity disorder, a number of studies regarding the treatment for dissociative identity disorder still have problems caused by post-traumatic stress experienced by the person with dissociative identity disorder since extracting trauma in the past is something that is very uncomfortable and pleasant for patients.
Aside from that, almost all practitioners will use mental health tests in the form of standard diagnostic interviews which often do not include questions about dissociation, posttraumatic symptoms, or a history of psychological trauma. Then, a number of unexpected events may appear on the sidelines of the treatment. In Wella’s case, one of his 9 personalities can appear to prevent Wella from seeing a psychiatrist.
According to Huntjents et al., in their journal entitled “Schema therapy for Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID): rationale and study protocol”, the recent research is still trying to find out what is the most effective treatment that can be used to treat the person with dissociative identity disorder since there has been no proven research stating what kind of therapy is effective for dissociative identity disorder.
So far, the recommended treatment for dissociative identity disorder needs to focus more on past psychological and emotional trauma, managing thought and behavior patterns, and identifying triggers that cause the emergence of different personalities in individuals.
Conclusion
The depiction of dissociative identity disorder in some psychological films is occasionally scary, but keep in mind, if you have family members with dissociative identity disorder, it doesn’t mean that you will always see something scary. Instead of keeping him/her away, you should try to look deeply into each individual with dissociative identity disorder since all psychological disorders, not necessarily personality disorders, have hidden causes.
Even though it is hard to deal with negative stigma against those who experience psychological disorders, trying to understand empirically and provide compassion and sympathy for them is a must. Of course, it is such a great step to help them survive.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
