Top 10 Dissociative Identity Disorder/Multiple Personality Movies and TV shows
These movies have been chosen based on their entertainment value, popularity, and realism in representing Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder, sometimes incorrectly called 'Split Personality"). Five of these movies are based on the real lives of people with multiple personalities, one is fictional by inspired by a true story, and the others entirely are fictional.
Reviews comment on the movie's accuracy in showing Dissociative Identity Disorder - is what is shown likely, possible, or simply not DID at all? Which leave out key symptoms or invent nonsense?
Do the movies entertain, and avoid stigmatizing mental illness? Find out little known facts about the movies, famous quotes, and which movies you'll want to watch again, and again. Where to Watch lists which can be watched freely online.
All movies have been reviewed by at least one person with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
1. Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase
Year: 1990Genre: DramaCountry: USA Director: Lamont JohnsonRated: No rating. TV movie, free to watch. Actors: Shelley Long, Tom Conti, Tiffany Ballenger, Jon Beshara Major awards: 1 win & 1 nominationBook (Autobiography): When Rabbit Howls (1987), by Truddi Chase/The Troops for Truddi Chase
The best choice of DID movie for psychology students, professionals or psychology buffs, and the only movie with a script written with very close involvement with a person with multiple personalities (DID): TruddiChase, New York Times best-selling author of When Rabbit Howls. Voices Within, starring Shelley Long and Tom Conti, tackles many of the common stereotypes and misunderstandings. Truddi's script shows what it's like to be high-functioning, and have polyfragmented Dissociative Identity Disorder, meaning she has a large number of alter personalities, 92 in fact. She also has a sense of humor, which shows throughout the film. She explains life with so many alter personalities:
"We're a lot of people in one package. Not five, or twenty, but we had a roll call and there's enough to cover our front, our rear and our flank. We are the Troops and we have our marching orders tonight."
DID Portrayal Rating
Overall Rating 10
Psychology broadly correct
Very well explained
Avoids mental illness stigma?
Based on real person with DID
Truddi Chase (and the Troops)
Triggers
Substance use (alcohol, tobacco), child sexual abuse, animal abuse and more.
Comments
Tackles key misunderstandings of DID. Does not show the severity of abuse that causes polyfragmented DID (read her book), or include suicidal alter in the original book. Watch Sybil or The Three Faces of Eve for an alternative view of DID.
In a very short introduction we get to know and hear from some of Truddi's alter personalities, known as The Troops, including Mean Joe, Lady Catherine, Black Katherine, Sister Mary Katherine, Catherine, and a businesswoman called Ten-Four. This challenges the common total amnesia stereotype of Dissociative Identity Disorder - which says everyone with DID must have no memory at all of the actions of their alter personalities (only recurrent amnesia is required for DID: amnesia for all alters' behavior isn't necessary).[3,4,7] The main film begins with Truddi in a payphone: saying she's found "him" and tells her therapist she plans to kill "him" … this feels like one of the fictional events that the movie warns you about at the start. During the journey to get to "him" the movie travels back in time to events earlier in her life.
Truddi's early, adult life is happy, despite the untreatable blackouts, but then her daughter brings a dog home, triggering a memory, and her mind begins to unravel... Stability is replaced with outbursts of odd behavior, flashbacks, panic attacks, and memories of child abuse. Finally she calls a child abuse helpline, and the journey into her mind truly begins.
A major strength of the movie is in explaining how the creation of each of her alters helps rather than hinders, and actually allows her to function better, and to survive with her sanity.
Some people with DID might find the movie too far from their experiences, but including a range of very different experiences in the movies helps show the variety within DID. Others may like (or hate) the very strong views expressed against integration into a single personality - they decide to co-operate but not merge. If this is the only source of information you have about Dissociative Identity Disorder you might get the impression it's quite easily manageable - but the movie left out a lot, including Truddi's suicidal alter, so watch another real life movie for a more balanced view. The movie has some fictional events and drama added - but not in a sensationalized way.
Where to Watch It
It's available on YouTube and linked to from Truddi Chase's website for watching online, or try Amazon to buy it on video. The UK video is called Shattered (1990). Truddi's interviews with Oprah are on YouTube.
— What are you? Who are you? How many of you, are you?
— 2-4-6-8 we don't want to integrate!
— We'll always outnumber you, Stanley.
Like Truddi and the Troops, most people with Dissociative Identity Disorder now choose co-operation between alter personalities rather than full integration (fusing into one), but both have good outcomes [4]
Truddi calls her alter personalities 'The Troops' and they worked together to write the book When Rabbit Howls
2. Sybil
Year: 1976Genre: Biography, DramaCountry: USA Director: Daniel PetrieRated: No US rating (TV movie). Australia: M, Netherlands: 16, Portugal: M/18, Sweden: 15 Actors: Sally Field, Joanne Woodward Major awards: Emmy, nominated for a Golden Globe Books: The True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities by Flora Rheta Schreiber (1973). Many others, including SYBIL: In her own words, by Dr Patrick Suraci (2011), which includes some of Sybil's artwork.
DID Portrayal Rating
Overall Rating 9.5
Psychology broadly correct
Avoids mental illness stigma?
2007 version suggests Schizophrenia made Sybil's mother abusive
Based on real person with DID
ShirleyArdellMason
Triggers
original ( 2007 version) Self harm, sudden violent death, severe sexual abuse (not directly shown), religious abuse, suicide attempt and more.
Comments
1976 rating shown. A dissociative fugue within DID is shown in 2007 version. Shows a limited/stereotyped view of DID, watch Voices Within for an alternative.
Sybil 1976 (original) starring Sally Field, Part 1. French with English subtitles
Some scenes may cause distress. You may need to reload the link after turning off the age restriction.
'Sybil' is the best known case of a person with multiple personalities/Dissociative Identity Disorder. Sybil Dorsett's life is completely unmanageable: her regular flashbacks make her dissociate and "lose time", then she ends in a different place with no idea what happened. Life is falling apart, she can't manage to study, and she's finding herself in increasingly dangerous situations. Sybil gets referred to Dr Wilbur, then slowly begins healing from her childhood trauma and severe child abuse, particularly her mother's horrific acts of sexual abuse and emotional abuse.
Of the two movies, the original (1976) and newest (2007, made 9 years after Sybil's death), this original is far superior, with a better script, better portrayal of trauma therapy, and Sally Field in the lead role as Sybil.One of the better depictions of Dissociative Identity Disorder in a movie. Sybil has strange reactions (triggers) caused by everyday things: dishcloths, walking canes, and even the color green - will she ever make sense of it? Will she ever be able to manage her life? The movie keeps your attention and is far from predictable, with the last scene being particularly moving.
Sybil (2007)
Year:2007Genre:DramaCountry: USA Director: Joseph Sargent Rated: No US rating (TV movie). Actors:Jessica Lange, Tammy Blanchard, Ron White, JoBeth Williams Major awards:1 win & 2 nominations. Books: Sybil: The True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities by Flora Rheta Schreiber (1973). Many others, including SYBIL: In her own words, by Dr Patrick Suraci (2011), which includes some of Sybil's artwork. Overall Rating8.5
After her mother's death, Sybil, a young art student, becomes emotionally unstable and experiences a dissociative fugue, when she "comes to" from the fugue it's 6 days later, and she discovers she's now in Philadelphia, in the snow. The New York art college setting adds interest, with boyfriends in art school, and her alter's art being brought into therapy. Even for a movie the switches to alter personalities are very obvious and melodramatic - but in real life Sybil, like over 96% of people with Dissociative Identity Disorder, hid her diagnosis well;[4] nobody guessed her real identity while she was alive. The switches between alter personalities get more subtle - and more realistic - later, but are still easy to keep track of.
One of the male alters, Sid, is unaware he is in a female body but has noticed that something important is missing, and uses the classic "trance logic" style of thinking that alters have to reassure himself that it will grow when he's older. Moments like this might be extremely familiar to those who know people with DID. The film is difficult to watch at times because of the graphic imagery and described abuse, but it holds your attention until the very end.
Two main negatives: – Sybil's doctor's childhood medical records are left out, it then feebly attempts to cast doubt on Dr Wilbur, showing uninteresting arguments with a colleague
– It's misleading to hear Multiple Personality Disorder was not a diagnosis, it just wasn't yet a separate diagnosis - and the first psychiatric manual was less than 10 years old and did include it. MPD was "dissociative personality" in 1952 (DSM-I); by 1968, it was named "hysterical neurosis, multiple personality type" - in the same "hysteria" category as amnesia and fugue.
Sybil's DID diagnosis has been confirmed as accurate by psychiatrists DrColinRoss & PM Coons, and by her closest relative Naomi Rhodes. Controversy, false claims in Sybil Exposed and trial by media
The doubting of Sybil's diagnosis came to public attention many years after her death, largely as a result of interviews and writing by journalist Debbie Nathan, author of the book Sybil Exposed, and someone known to doubt the very existence of all Dissociative Disorders (Ross, 2012).
One article including such an interview boldly claims Real 'Sybil' Admits Multiple Personalities were Fake, reproducing part of a letter in which 'Sybil' renounced having multiple personalities, while simultaneously claiming "I am all of them." The article omits Sybil's follow up letter, which was written just 2 days later, in which she renounces the content of the previous letter, and explains she wrote it because she was having difficulty in admitting that she didn't have control over her "selves". 'Sybil' then writes that denying her diagnosis was a way to try to prove to herself that she did not need her psychiatrist. In the interview, Debbie Nathan fails to mention this second letter, or even the fact the letter that the interview is based on was in the original book, Sybil. Dr Suraci, a retired psychiatrist who was a friend of Sybil's proved that journalist Debbie Nathan's book, Sybil Exposed, included a number of false statements, and forced the publisher to alter the original dust jacket. Many sources given in the book were "phone conversations" without transcripts, Debbie Nathan also appears to have also left out key medical evidence confirming the abuse, and waited until the deaths of 'Sybil', her psychiatrist Dr Wilbur, and author Flora Schreiber to write what amounts to a character assassinations of them all. This is hardly a surprise given Nathan's past defending of child abusers, including her book "Are these women child molesters?: The making of a modern witch trial (1987). She's also a board member of the "National Center of Reason and Justice" which helps people who claim to be "innocent" of sexual abusing/harming/killing kids, but does not help victims who have had crimes committed against them.
Journalist Debbie Nathan's assertion in Sybil Exposed that Dissociative Identity Disorder symptoms - including amnesia and fugues caused by pernicious anaemia (which is caused by vitamin deficiency) are absurd. Psychiatrist and medical doctor Colin Ross refers to her pernicious anaemia theory as "medically implausible", and "self-contradictory", noting that the dates of Sybil's documented dissociative symptoms and improvements do not correlate with either anaemia or her psychiatrist "iatrogenically" creating Sybil's multiple personalities (Ross, 2012). Does Debbie Nathan find a medical doctor or psychiatrist who does agree with her "pernicious anaemia" theory as the cause of Sybil's symptoms? No, she does not, and nor does she include in Sybil Exposed the opinion of Herbert Sybil on Sybil's diagnosis in her account of her interviews with him; Spiegel knew Sybil and she participated in research and clinical demonstrations with him for 3 years, and he was also consulted by Connie Wilbur on the case. Spiegel's view was that Sybil had a complex Dissociative Disorder (DDNOS, now called OSDD), which he stated in his book Trance and Treatment (2008) - which also includes his detailed account of Sybil's case. He also called her a "grade 5 hysteric", which isn't a psychiatric diagnosis but his own term, the highly stigmatized term "hysteric" actually refers to someone with hysteria, which was later renamed to Dissociative Disorders - another fact Debbie Nathan does not mention.
At the very start of Sybil Exposed Debbie Nathan claims - without any source - that both the popular book Sybil and the televised drama - 'were instrumental in creating a new psychiatric diagnosis: multiple personality disorder, or 'MPD' - but the DSM-III does not list the book Sybil or any paper based on the real-life Sybil in its references, but it does list Sybil's psychiatrist, Dr C.B. Wilbur, as joint author of a multiple personality case study (of someone with 4 personalities) from a year before the book Sybil was published - "The objective study of a multiple personality" by Ludwig, Brandsma, Wilbur and Bendeldt (1972). In fact, contrary to Debbie Nathan's claim, 'multiple personality' was already in the DSM psychiatric manual, it was described within 'hysterical neurosis dissociative type' (code 300.14), as 'multiple personality type'; alongside 'amnesia', and 'fugue', symptoms 'Sybil' also had. When Multiple Personality became a separate diagnosis in 1980, it even kept the diagnostic code: 300.14. On page 73, of Sybil Exposed, Nathan fabricates details of the sex life of Flora Schreiber (the author of 1973's Sybil) by adding the words 'penis' and 'finger' - Schreiber's' sex life is certainly crossing a major boundary, 'sexing up' and inventing non-existent details, and so the book Sybil Expsoed continues. The original scans from page 73's source are on Dr Patrick Suraci's website - proving there's no references to a penis, or fingers. Debbie Nathan even calls 'Sybil,' a victim of severe child abuse, a 'perpetrator' of fraud. But Nathan only wrote this after the death of 'Sybil'. Of course. Perhaps the only thing exposed in Sybil Exposed is the fabrications within the book itself.
— You're never ready for what you have to do. You just do it. That makes you ready.
— You survived it when it happened, and you'll survive remembering it.
— There is no past. Past is present when you carry you.
— How long have you been around, Vicki?
— Oh, since Sybil was [inaudible]. I was the first, and the others came after.
— What others?
— Sid and Maddie and Peggy and [inaudible]. Oh, [laughs] you don't know about them, do you?
— I've met Peggy.
— How many are there?
— Sixteen. There are 16 of us.
— Feeling is as inescapable as breathing, Mr Dorsett.
— People say I do things that I haven't done.
— Like what?
— Well, sometimes I'll meet people I've never seen before who say they know me, and sometimes I'll find clothes I don't remember buying hanging in my closet. Or a painting I've started.
I'll come home and find it finished, only in a completely different style. Like this. passes Dr Wilbur a black and white drawing signed Peggy Lou Baldwin — Who is Peggy Lou Baldwin?
— I never heard of her.
— My mother used to call me Peggy Louisiana when I was a little girl, and Mrs. Baldwin was my favorite teacher in school.
— But I didn't draw that.
— Where did it come from?
— I‐‐I found it in my room in Philadelphia when I-‐
— What were you doing in Philadelphia?
— I don't know.
Sybil is the best known biographical account of a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder
Eight years after Sybil's case, multiple personality, a subtype of the hysterical neurosis diagnosis, was moved to a separate diagnosis of multiple personality disorder. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder became a separate diagnosis in the same year: 1980. [DSM-III]
A year before the book Sybil was published, Dr Wilbur jointly published a research paper about another case called The objective study of a multiple personality: Or, are four heads better than one?. [DSM-III]
3. Frankie & Alice (2010)
Year: 2010Genre: Biography, DramaCountry: Canada Director: Geoffrey SaxRated: R Actors: Halle Berry, Stellan Skarsgard, Phylicia Rashad Major awards: Nominated for a Golden Globe
DID Portrayal Rating
Overall Rating 9
Psychology broadly correct
DID no longer treated using hypnosis or drugs to recover memories [4]
Avoids mental illness stigma?
Based on real person with DID
Francine L. Murdoch
Triggers
Substance use (alcohol, drugs), sexual scenes & dancing, racism, self-harm and more.
Comments
violence is not linked to DID, child alters are very common, and it doesn't explain why alter Genius was created.
Self harm near the end of trailer. Contains strong racist language.
From the title, you would expect that Frankie and Alice would be a movie about a couple called Frankie and Alice, or one person (Frankie), who has one alter (alter personality) called Alice. Neither is quite right: the movie is young African-American woman called Francine, or Frankie, with very posh, racist alter called Alice and a highly intelligent child-like alter called Genius.
Frankie's life is a disaster, and she isn't looking for help. She's busy trying to avoid her problems as she drifts from one alcohol and drug-induced haze to another, and getting fired from one shady 'exotic' dancing job after another. Help finally comes when she is arrested for a minor offense, and enters treatment for substance abuse … then alter Alice starts talking to the psychiatrist…
— I close my eyes and let the music take me, like I'm on the outside just watching. Like I aint even there. Like I'm watching myself from the outside.
Actor Halle Berry prepared for the role by meeting the real Frankie, speaking to professionals and watching hours of footage of people with Dissociative Identity Disorder recorded in therapy (with their consent) [5]
Frankie later married a psychiatrist
4. David and Lisa
Year: 1962Genre: DramaCountry: USA Director: Frank PerryNo USA rating (TV movie).UK video rating: 12+ years Actors: Keir Dullea, Janet Margolin, Howard Da Silva Major awards: Nominated for 2 OscarsBook: Lisa and David, by Theodore Isaac Rubin (1961)
DID Portrayal Rating
Overall Rating 9
Psychology broadly correct
David (a patient) calls Lisa "Schizophrenic", at the time DID was called: dissociated personality, dissociative reaction, hysteria [DSM-I] for 1962 movie
Avoids mental illness stigma?
Based on real person with DID
Real person, diagnosis uncertain
Triggers
Violent nightmares and emotional abuse.
Comments
No scenes involving treatment of dissociation/DID/OSDD. Child alter personality appears to shown. A 1998 remake also exists.
A drama about two teenagers, David and Lisa, in a residental school for "disturbed" young people (those with psychiatric problems). If you dislike the labelling kids with mental disorders or traditional psychiatric approaches then this movie might just appeal to you. While the movie has been tagged Dissociative Identity Disorder by many people online, it's much broader and more interesting than focusing on one person with one specific disorder; it's a fascinating look at the inner thoughts and actions of different people, and how they connect and heal while changing those around them.
Both David and Lisa are seen as "odd" by both society, and their peers. David is exceptionally smart, normally hostile and fears being touched. Lisa only speaks in rhymes - if she speaks at all. Hardly anyone likes David, yet he befriends the friendless Lisa, who sometimes - when she has switched to her alter Muriel - runs and jumps around like young child, asks him to 'play,' and terrifies him by keep trying to touch him.
It is the character of David, rather than Lisa, who is the most intriguing, with his anti-psychiatry views and combative manner. "You've won," he tells the psychiatrist when he finally sets foot in his office … the office that David has secretly been battling to avoid. The movie doesn't really reveal Lisa's past, but David's dysfunctional family are horrified by the changes in him when he starts getting better.
Adapted from a book by a psychiatrist who doesn't appear interested the "medical/biological" model of mental illness, the original 1962 movie reviewed here is a black and whiteindie movie, and reported to be better than the 1998 color version.
A diagnostic puzzle? Descriptions on movie websites refer to David as having psychosis (really??? he doesn't show any breaks with reality in the movie), and refer to Lisa as having Dissociative Identity Disorder. Confusingly the 1962 movie cover says nothing about any diagnosis, but the remake says Lisa has Schizophrenia, a psychotic disorder. Lisa's drawing appeared to show she understands she has either Dissociative Identity Disorder (or a similar form of Other Specified Dissociative Disorder (OSDD-1) - with a child alter personality, Muriel, but amnesia didn't seem apparent in the 1962 version. It seemed more interesting to think about whether a mental diagnosis could be appropriate for David's mother, and if so, what would it be? Is there really a clear line between mentally healthy and a consistently diagnosable disorder?
Triggers: This may be the only film about DID that is in any way close to being family-friendly: no crisis, self-harm, suicidality, drug use, violence or sexual scenes. David's violent nightmares involving are disturbing but he wakes up before anyone is hurt.
Schizophrenia originally meant a "split mind" but not split or multiple personalities - it is a psychotic disorder, not a dissociative disorder.[3] It remains a common misdiagnosis for DID.[4]
5. Waking Madison
Year: 2010Genre: DramaCountry: USA Director: Katherine BrooksRated: R Actors: Imogen Poots, Elisabeth Shue, Taryn Manning, Sarah Roemer
As fictional movies about Dissociative Identity Disorder go, this one of the best ones, and one of the very few with an original plot.
DID Portrayal Rating
Overall Rating 7.5
Psychology broadly correct
Good for fiction. Alters are not imaginary friends,[3],[4] alters can integrate (merge) but not die, threats to "kill" alters are against treatment guidelines,[4] hallcinations of alters not typical [2,4]
Avoids mental illness stigma?
Most
Based on real person with DID
Triggers
Many, includes sexual assault in present, injecting drugs, psychiatrist using marijuana, religious abuse, self-harm
Comments
Best fictional Dissociative Identity Disorder movie to date, and one of the very few with an original plot.
Suicide threat and self injury in trailer
One of the few fictional stories about DID that isn't a horror movie, Waking Madison is in our view the best based non-biographical movie about Dissociative Identity Disorder. Madison Walker decides to lock herself in her home for 30 days until she "figures herself out" ... the odds are not in her exactly favor: people with Dissociative Identity Disorder symptoms often don't get diagnosed for around 7 years.[7] Wisely, she decides to keep a video diary to remind herself why she's there.
The trailer and first few minutes are intense - the surreal but beautiful hospital corridor scene immediately after Madison's suicide attempt is the most striking scene in the movie; the mix of distorted reality and grisly images may trigger, but most of the film has a lighter tone.
Events jump between the psychiatric ward, and its other residents, and the 30 days before Madison's suicide attempt. Madison's brief visit to her parents, with her mother's emotional and religious abuse, referred to as part of her untreated "sickness", opens the door to her past, but could have been done without blaming mental illness for abuse.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is portrayed fairly well for a movie not based on real experiences, but doesn't show signs of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder symptoms which are typical in DID, and any self-injury seemed healed by the next scene! Watching from an entertainment point of view this doesn't matter, and it is a very good film. The twist at the end was unexpected, and of course unrealistic, but definitely improved the movie. Happy endings leave behind good feelings - even if in real life things are not so easy.
— You know what I do when I have scary thoughts? I close my eyes and I think of the happiest place I know.
— But I don't have any happy places
Director Katherine Brooks was in Thailand during the 2004 earthquake and tsunami, and her later film project Lost in Time is about a woman with the dissociative form of PTSD, as a result of the trauma from the tsunami.
6. The Three Faces of Eve
Year: 1957Genre: Drama, MysteryCountry: USA Director: Nunnally JohnsonApproved Actors: Joanne Woodward, David Wayne, Lee J. Cobb Major awards: Won an OscarBooks: The Three Faces of Eve by Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley (1957),, A case of multiple personality by Thigpen and Cleckley (The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1954, 49(1):135-1511954). Autobiographies:Strangers in My Body: The Final Face of Eve by Evelyn Lancaster (pseud.) and James Poling (1958), I'm Eve by ChrisCostnerSizemore with Elen Sain Pittillo (1977), Eve by Chris Costner Sizemore (1978), A mind of my own by Chris Costner Sizemore (1989)
DID Portrayal Rating
Overall Rating 7.5
Psychology broadly correct
40 years before treatment guidelines but excellent. Alter personalities are now known to integrate (merge) or become inactive, not "die"
Avoids mental illness stigma?
The introduction refers to a fictional killer, the rest is fine
Based on real person with DID
Chris Costner Sizemore
Triggers
Brief abuse of child, suicide, alcohol use, domestic violence
Comments
Shows a limited/stereotyped view of DID, watch Voices Within for an alternative. Headaches and total amnesia for hours at a time are common before treatment. May give the impression that an isolated upsetting event is capable of causing Dissociative Identity Disorder, when multiple totally unbearable events is the cause. Eve actually had more than 20 alter personalities - and repeated major traumas - these were not known of when the movie was made and only emerged over time when she sought therapy again, which 'Eve' described in detail her later books.
This Oscar-winning movie is the true story of 'Eve', based on the clinical notes and book written by her psychiatrists, Cleckley & Thigpen - although her full actual story was only known 20 years later, when she revealed the full childhood and adult traumas she went through in her memoirs.
Joanne Woodward won an Oscar for Best Actress in the roles of Eve White, Eve Black and Jane. Eve White is a very reserved housewife, unhappily married to an angry, and sometimes violent, man. She gradually begins having 'spells' of amnesia during which her fun-loving alter personality, Eve Black, goes on shopping sprees, neglects her daughter, and acts irresponsibly. Eve Black knows everything about Eve White, but Eve White doesn't even know there is another 'Eve'! Her psychiatrist is so stunned when Eve Black introduces herself that he immediately seeks a second opinion.
Joanne Woodward is a joy to watch, acting the part of Eve Black: playful, flirtatious and causing no end of minor mischief. At first, Eve Black appears the exact opposite of the reserved and restrained Eve White, but as the movie goes on she seems increasingly like a teenager. Things become even more puzzling when another alter, Jane, suddenly appears: does she hold the trauma memories that neither of the others seem to? Does she remember the missing pieces of Eve's childhood?
Overall, a great explanation of one-way amnesia … including the alter personality who gets drunk and leaves the host personality with the hangover then laughs about it … it's good to know you aren't the only person with Dissociative Identity Disorder that's had that happen! Joanne Woodward really makes this a fun movie.
The study of Eve's case was very influential in improving understanding of Dissociative Identity Disorder in early psychiatry and psychology (the first psychiatric manual was published only a few years before the film's release). 'Eve' wrote several books on her experiences of DID, which revealed that further alters existed than those integrated in the movie. Surprisingly, this black and white movie has never been remade. Note: Integrating into a single identity is no longer seen as the main or only way to heal,, most people with DID now achieve co-operation between their personalities with greatly considerably reduced amnesia, and either can't or choose not to fully integrate together.
— the fact that you might be having spells of amnesia doesn't mean you are losing your mind … doesn't mean that at all
— it's no use, you just don't want to tell me but I know it.
—How do you know it, Mrs White?
—Because now I'm hearing voices too
—What kind of voices?
—Just one voice, but that's what that means, doesn't it?
— Well then, is it fair to say you love me but can't marry me, without telling me why not?
— I just can't. I know it isn't fair. I just can't.
— What is it honey? I'm not going to let you get away with anything like this. This means too much to me. You've got to tell me.
— Please, Earl. Just don't ask me anymore. Please.
— I'm sorry, Janie, I've got to. I can't give you up without even knowing what's the matter.
— (sighs) Alright then. I'll tell you. Did you read in the newspaper about a month ago (sighs) about a multiple personality case? A woman who has … three personalities?
— In the Chronicle?
— Yes, that's the one.
— Yeah, I read it.
— I'm that woman.
— You're the …
— That's right.
— But you sound all right.
— Do I?
— You sound fine.
— Maybe I do. But not the other two.
— Other two?
— Sure. There are two others, you know, and they're very different from me. And I don't even ever know when they're coming out.
— Holy Moses!
— Does she know all about what I do? Does she tell you?
— If I ask her.
— Like about that sergeant?
— Yes, she told me about that.
— See, that's what I mean. Someone around all the time telling on you.
— You tell me about Mrs White, don't you?
— Yeah, but she don't do anything!
Despite the title, 'Eve' later discovered she had over 20 different identities rather than only 3, and needed further therapy.
Joanne Woodward, who won an Oscar as Eve White/Eve Black/Jane later played psychiatrist Dr. Cornelia Wilbur in the 1976 film Sybil, also about a woman with multiple personalities.
The real 'Eve', Chris Costner Sizemore, was guest of honor at the 50th anniversary celebration of the film
7. Fight Club
Year: 1999Genre: DramaCountry: USA, Germany Director: David FincherRated: R Actors: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier Major awards: Nominated for an OscarBook: Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk (1996)
DID Portrayal Rating
Overall Rating 7
Psychology broadly correct
None included
Avoids mental illness stigma?
Based on real person with DID
Triggers
Suicide, bloody fight scenes, guns, death, sex, crime and more.
Comments
DID isn't associated with random violence. Shows an 'alter ego', who may have anti-social personality disorder (be a sociopath), which is very rare with DID.
The main character, known only as 'the Narrator', has chronic insomnia and a well-paid corporate job but appears to have no friends, a very mundane life and has become emotionally numb. As he seeks for solutions to his insomnia, he meets and connects with the troubled Marla Singler, and charismatic, unconventional soap salesman Tyler Durden, who quickly becomes the dominant influence in his life. He joins in with Tyler's elaborate, anti-establishment and often amusing mischief, and before long they setup an underground bare-knuckle "fight club". His life has begun its rapid descent into violence, chaos and outright rebellion against his former way of living.
Something this movie does well is portray modern society's very dissociative (disconnected) way of life; with disorienting flights into different time zones, corporations that put profits before consumer safety, and attachment to possessions rather than people - things that have barely changed in the 20 years since the movie's release. In the secretive "fight club" it is not just the Narrator, but all the men, who are forced to live parallel lives, something known in psychology as "doubling".[2]:26 This film isn't informative or helpful in understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder,[1] which it represents as a Split Personality, but it is captivating, and you'll want to watch it more than once.
It is no accident that 'alter ego' is the term used in the film rather than alter personality; for Tyler is the Narrator's shadow side: his exact opposite,[2]:25 a non-conforming side that counters the Narrator's submission to society's norms. His alter ego is everything that the Narrator is not, and the Narrator gradually embraces this side of himself as the movie progresses.
— Welcome to Fight Club. The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club!
— It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
— Marla's philosophy of life is that she might die at any moment. The tragedy, she said, was that she didn't.
8. Primal Fear (1996)
Book: Primal Fear, by William Diehl (1993), fiction Year: 1996Genre: Crime, Thriller, SuspenseCountry: USA Director: Gregory HoblitRated: R Actors: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, John Mahoney, Alfre Woodard Major awards: Nominated for an Oscar
DID Portrayal Rating
Overall Rating 6.5
Psychology broadly correct
Explained well, but no signs of PTSD, or distress. DID never officially diagnosed.
Avoids mental illness stigma?
Mental illness/crime plot, wrongly suggests there's no formal way to diagnosis DID.
Based on real person with DID
Triggers
Gruesome violence (at the start), sexual abuse/rape shown, abuse of power, and more
Comments
DID isn't associated with committing random violence.
This fictional film focuses on events surrounding the brutal killing of an Archbishop, the following murder trial, and sexual abuse by clergy. The movie is as much about the legal defense of "not guilty by reason of insanity", and the defendant's life, as it is about the murder. Edward Norton is outstanding in the role of defendant Aaron Stampler: a shy, passive, and baby-faced altar boy who is facing the death penalty for murder. During the trial it emerges that Aaron may - or may not - have Dissociative Identity Disorder
The plot conveniently ignores the fact that I'm innocent, it was my alter personality! is not, on its own, enough for an insanity defense: a person with DID (or their alter personality) is not automatically considered 'insane', e.g., incapable of knowing right from wrong/incapable of refraining from crime. [9]:345, [10]:352 There's also no attempt to use assessment tools to check for either Dissociative Identity Disorder, or attempts to fake mental illness to avoid a conviction,[8]:86 - but the uncertainty over the suspect's diagnosis definitely improves the story.
The plot twists and turns, making it a real psychological thriller - as soon as you feel sure you know what really happened, another shocking revelation occurs. Edward Norton won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for this movie, and Richard Gere is superb as his ambitious lawyer, who takes on the seemingly hopeless case free of charge hoping the publicity will enhance his reputation. Although the movie repeats the limited media stereotype of multiple or split personalities - a man with two personalities, one good and the other possibly a violent killer, with total amnesia for the time during killing (of course!) - don't let this put you off watching it; it really is an unusual, and intriguing movie.
A diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder is not associated with killing people or committing random violence (but it is strongly linked to self-inflicted violence/self-injury), and the plot is legally unrealistic. After watching the movie a second time (it really is the kind of movie to watch more than once) I did notice how unemotional Aaron Stampler was. Facing a murder charge would make most people scared, frightened, depressed, and possibly angry or defiant. Was he too numb to feel anything, which a type of dissociation? Was he so overwhelmed emotionally that it didn't feel real? Did he just not care what happened to him, something fairly common in survivors of severe childhood trauma? Watching the movie again gives you chance to look for subtle signs and indicators of how it will turn out in the end.
Forensic Psychiatry Assessing a person in forensic psychiatry (i.e., assessing the past and present mental health of a person accused of a crime) includes considering whether Dissociative Identity Disorder (or another diagnosis) is being faked to avoid criminal responsibility, and whether a mental illness is present but did not cause the crime.[11] This involves using both psychological assessments (including those specific to Dissociative Identity Disorder) to check if a diagnosis is currently present, plus documentation/interviews to explore the person's history and see if a diagnosis was present for some time before the crime.[11] It's clear in the trial that the defense witness in the movie isn't qualified to do this, and hasn't attempted a forensic assessment. The defendant also has to be assessed to see if they are mentally fit to stand trial. At the very end, the defendant reveals he has been intentionally pretending to have Dissociative Identity Disorder in the hope of avoiding jail for murder.
Likely diagnosis: Either malingering (deliberately just faking a mental illness for obvious personal gain), possibly along with anti-social personality disorder (being a sociopath). This is linked to crime, lying, deception, emotional numbness and lack of conscience (no remorse/guilt) - as shown in the reveal at the very end, where he laughs. The 'shadow' he claimed he saw before 'blacking out' was a lie leading to a hunt for a 'third man' and he shows pleasure in having manipulated others.
Insanity Defense:
Only around 1% of those charged with felonies (major crimes) plead insanity, and less than a quarter of these are found legally insane. Only around 20% of insanity pleas contested by the prosecution are successful. [9]:338 Any defendants who are found not guilty by reason of insanity remain under the jurisdiction of the court or a legal panel. The majority are then committed to a psychiatric inpatient unit, where they can be detained either for treatment, or the safety of the public. [9]:338
Only a limited number of mental disorders qualify as 'mental diseases/defects' for the purposes of a legal defense of 'insanity', in most US courts Schizophrenia, major depression, Bipolar Disorder and intellectual impairments qualify. Only some courts have recognized Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, but most now recognize Dissociative Identity Disorder [11]. Generally not recognized are: Personality Disorders, voluntary intoxication (e.g., intentional drug or alcohol use including alcoholism) or Paraphilias (sexual interest disorders that may harm others, e.g., pedophilia, voyeurism).[9]:342, [11]. Those not recognized as appropriate for a not guilty by reason of insanity plea may still be relevant as mitigating factors, to reduce a sentence, allow access to a prison where the mental illness can be treated, or to plea bargain (but not avoid a conviction).[8],[11]
— I speak. You do not speak. Your job is to just sit there and look innocent.
— I am innocent.
— Why gamble with money when you can gamble with people's lives? That was a joke. All right, I'll tell you. I believe in the notion, that people are innocent until proven guilty. I believe in that notion because i choose to believe in that basic goodness of people. I choose to believe that not all crimes are committed by bad people. And I try to understand that some very, very good people do some very bad things.
Primal Fear was Edward Norton's debut movie.
Multiple Personality Disorder was renamed to Dissociative Identity Disorder in the time between the release of the book that the film is based on and the release of the movie.
Headaches are common in people with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
9. A Tale of Two Sisters
Year: 2003Genre: Horror, MysteryCountry: South Korea Language: Korean with English subtitles Director: Jee-woon KimRated: R Actors: Kap-su Kim, Jung-ah Yum, Su-jeong Lim, Geun-young Moon Major awards: 15 wins, 2 nominations
DID Portrayal Rating
Overall Rating 6.5
Psychology broadly correct
None included
Avoids mental illness stigma?
Based on real person with DID
Triggers
Suicide, death, self-harm, emotional abuse, guilt, ghosts/supernatural and more
Comments
Amnesia for past trauma. Psychosis seems very likely.
This is the only foreign language film to make this top ten.Subtitled in English (with DVDs subtitled in many languages), this drama/horror/mystery is based on a Korean folk story. The two girls, Soo-mi and Soo-yeon, are a puzzle: are they two sisters as they seem: or both part of the same person? The film begins with a very brief scene in a psychiatric institution hospital after their mother's death.
Soon after they return home, the creepy music starts, and the terrifying nightmares, which might be real. A cruel step-mother adds to the family conflict, and then there's the ghost … and it's not just the sisters who see the ghost and fear the things that make strange noises at night. A Tale of Two Sisters is everything you would hope for in a traditional horror/mystery, but with hallucinations, and post-traumatic flashbacks as well. The directing is excellent, especially the use of the color red. Fantasy and reality are increasingly blurred, and it becomes harder and harder to work out what is really happening rather than what is just the mind, but things become clearer once the horror of their mother's death is shown.
Indian film Anniyan (2005), in Tamil and subtitled in many languages, is also fairly recent.
— You want to forget something. Totally wipe it off your mind. But you never can. It can’t go away, you see. And … and it follows you around like a ghost.
— "Sometimes you have to bear the worst and live on"
"Like the way I'm bearing you two!"
— Remember what I told you before? Remember when I said you'll regret it some day?
— You …
It is also known as Janghwa, Hongryeon meaning Rose Flower, Red Lotus, after the names of the two sisters, which have been shortened to Soo-mi (Rose) Soo-yeon (Lotus) in this movie
10. Identity (2003)
Year: 2003Genre: Mystery, ThrillerCountry: USA Director: James MangoldRated: R Actors: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes Major awards: 1 win and 8 nominations
DID Portrayal Rating
Overall Rating 5.5
Psychology broadly correct
Nothing is correct. Malpractice: treatment goes against treatment guidelines,[4] dual psychiatrist/defense lawyer role is unethical
Avoids mental illness stigma?
Based on real person with DID
Triggers
Multiple murders, crime, aggression, and more.
Comments
DID isn't associated with being a serial killer, delusions, or complex hallucinations. DID is not treated by "killing off" alters.
The worst movie reviewed here. Usually it's not worth watching movies with the classic trope of the "person with multiple personalities is a serial killer but doesn't even know it" because you can usually guess both the plot and ending - and this film is no exception. This film is slightly different, but a disappointment all the same. It's also one of the highest rated films tagged as both 'Multiple Personality Disorder' and 'Dissociative Identity Disorder' (DID) which is the key reason for reviewing it. It has a very familiar plot for a horror: a group of people are stuck in a cheap motel waiting out a storm, and they are murdered one by one... essentially a "locked room" murder mystery. The strange mix of people stuck in the motel are collectively very, very angry, and surprisingly lacking in fear given the presence of a serial killer among them: arguments abound.Given how many people with Dissociative Identity Disorder have avoidant behaviors,[3] many people with DID may struggle to watch so much anger, conflict and aggression.The movie is "not educational," to say the least,[1] with no sign of an attempt to research Dissociative Identity Disorder. The psychology is a horrible mess, with non-existent terms used like dissassociaties and Multiple Personality Syndrome (rather than Disorder) giving a tiny hint at the gross misunderstandings that this movie includes. Any psychiatrist who, like the psychiatrist in the movie, states "I knew there would be violence" as a result of "treatment" or that identities should be "killed off" is clearly clueless not to mention unfit to practice, and is working against the Dissociative Identity Disorder treatment guidelines.[4] As horror films go, the acting was very good and the first half was entertaining, with some scenes to be shot in a way that made them amusing rather than disturbing.The second half, which included the psychiatric assessment, was far less engaging, dealt with legal rather than psychiatric decisions, and increasingly seemed to showed a psychotic disorder (breaks with reality) rather than Dissociative Identity Disorder. The end was easy to predict from early on in the movie. Verdict: Misunderstanding rather than metaphor, and much that you've seen before. Dissociative Identity Disorder is associated with being the victim, rather than the perpetrator of violence: except in the movies where it is typically portrayed as a 'Serial Killer with Amnesia Disorder'.
More DID movies and TV
Busy Inside (2019)
Year: 2019Genre: Documentary. Country: Russia, USA Director and Writer: Victor Ilyukhin, Olga Lvoff Rating:Unrated. No cinema age rating. Cast: KarenMarshall, MarshaySmith, both people with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and others. Major awards: None.
Highly recommended by many people who have DID. Available to watch on Amazon.
Split (2016)
Year: 2016Genre: Horror, ThrillerCountry: USA Director and Writer: M. Night ShyamalanRated: PG-13 Minimum age 15 or 16 in many countries. Cast: JamesMcAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy Major awards: 10
Director M. Night Shyamalan's psychological thrillerSplit (2016) stars James McAvoy in the lead role as Kevin, the mentally unstable and highly dangerous protagonist. Split was been widely criticized for perpetuating the stigma of Dissociative Identity Disorder and of mental illness generally - resulting in a petition requesting a public service annoucement (which the director and cast refused to do) because of the highly stigmatizing plot combined with the movie's misinformation in blurring symptoms of a mental illness with paranormal/supernatural aspects. Split was a box office success despite causing "outrage among trauma and general therapists".[14]
The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation released a statement on "Split" referring to people with dissociative identity disorder as a "vulnerable population", and stating:
The reality of this disorder is that most of the individuals who experience it suffer greatly, and present no more risk of violence than the population in general. While it has been severely understudied compared to many other mental disorders, in recent years there has been much more research accomplished. In a soon-to-be published research paper (Mental Illness and Violent Behavior: The Role of Dissociation), Webermann and Brand, found that of 173 individuals in treatment for DID or a disorder very similar to it, only 3% reported having been charged with an offense in the past six months, while 1.8% were fined, and 0.6% were incarcerated in this time period. No convictions or probations in the prior 6 months were reported. None of the symptoms reliably predicted recent criminal behavior. Their conclusion was that, in this representative sample of individuals with a dissociative disorder, recent criminal justice involvement was low and symptoms did not predict criminality. This suggests that the features of the disorder are not related to engaging in criminal activity. - ISSTD
Year: 2023Genre: Mystery, Drama, and CrimeCountry: USA Language: English Directors: Brady Corbett, Mona Fastvold, Kornél Mundruczó, Alan TaylorRated: Caution. No cinema age rating. Creators: Akiva Goldsman, Todd Graff Production companies:Apple Studios, New Regency, Weed Road Pictures, EMJAG Productions Seasons:1Episodes:10 Actors: TomHolland (as DannySullivan), Amanda Seyfried, Will Chase Major awards: None
Overall Rating5
The Crowded Room is a thriller that fails to thrill.
The Crowded Room, a TV miniseries set in 1979, follows an emotionally disturbed young man as he is questioned about his role in a shocking crime. DannySullivan (TomHolland) is interrogated by a psychology professor (Amanda Seyfried), who gradually helps make sense of his confusing story.
Unfortunately, both the questioning and the flashback scenes are painfully slow and repetitive, The Crowded Room drags on, it is a long way from the nail-biting thriller it could have been.Despite being "inspired by" the life of a real person, The Crowded Room manages to misrepresent the man's experience of having DIDand fabricates or changes events significantly; leaving the audience believing a common myth about DID. The Crowded Room misrepresents Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) in very significant ways, for example by showing the protagonist as experiencing his alter personalities as visual, auditory and sensory hallucinations of different physically people - apparently making the classic mistake of confusing it with psychosis or schizophrenia (which are characterized by a break with reality) - but people with DID are almost always aware that their alter personalities (alters) come from inside themselves - for example, "hearing voices" that belong to alters which they realize other people don't hear, and sometimes experiencing them physically taking control of their body - although some people with DID are initially unaware of having alter personalities. One aspect that the series does get right is that Dissociative Identity Disorder is hidden rather than obvious in the vast majority of people, Danny initially appears as an Apparently Normal Part of the personality (ANP), with his other identities emerging later on.
Billy Milligan, the man who The Crowded Room's Danny Sullivan has based on, passed away from cancer in 2014, leaving no chance for him to address what the series gets wrong other than the earlier book about his life, which is collaborated on, and a documentary that interviewed several people who knew him well. Like almost all fictional representations of people with "multiple personalities", the plot centers on presenting the mental disorder as a cause of senseless violence, and the sufferer as a person too dangerous to be treated in society, and as an unreliable person that cannot reliably describe their own experiences - these stigmas that are without foundation but perpetuated by Hollywood, in this case with very little in the way of entertainment.
A far more exciting watch than The Crowded Room - and with a very similar legal theme - is the crime thriller Primal Fear (1993), starring the excellent Richard Gere. Primal Fear is compulsive watching, as well as being much better in terms of realism and psychology, despite not being inspired by a true story. The gripping TV series Marcella (starring Anna Friel) is far more bingeworthy crime series, and the free-to-watch movie Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase delves into the psychology much more clearly, all without the painfully slow reveal - one that was mostly given away in the title credits of The Crowded Room.Milligan's true story is told in the documentary Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan.
Spoilers
The Crowded Room is fictional, but was inspired by (and is very loosely based on) the life of BillyMilligan, a real person with Multiple Personality Disorder (now called Dissociative Identity Disorder). Milligan was a troubled young man who went on a two-week crime spree in 1977: except the worst crimes weren't committed by Billy, but by several of his 23 other alter personalities.[12] The Crowded Room differs considerably from Milligan's story: Milligan didn't shoot anyone, but committed 3 rapes, kidnappings, and theft before being caught, and the crimes took place at Ohio State University, not in New York, and over a two-week period. Milligan became famous not for his crimes, but for his mental illnesses, which saw Multiple Personality Disorder used for the first time in a Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity plea.[12] Once legally insane, Milligan was detained in a forensic psychiatric unit, and underwent court-ordered treatment until he was safe to release; Milligan's 11 years of treatment lasted longer than a prison sentence would have done.[13] The real story of BillyMilligan was first was told by DanielKeyes (1981, ISBN 9780394519432) , in his book The Minds of Billy Milligan, and in the documentary TV series Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan, which includes footage of Milligan..
Billy Milligan's mental illness, including his alter personalities formed as a result of chronic early child abuse, during treatment they fully fused so that he no longer had Multiple Personality Disorder when he was released, although he later committed additional, non-violent crimes.
The Crowded Room took over 30 years to be produced; and was originally planned as a movie starring Leonardo diCaprio.[16]
Marcella (2016-2021)
Year: 2016Genre: Crime, Psychological thriller, Police procedural, Drama, MysteryCountry: UK Language: English Director: HansRosenfeldtRated: 15 Creators: HansRosenfeldt, NicolaLarder. Production company:Buccaneer Media Seasons:3Episodes:24 Actors: AnnaFriel, RayPanthaki, JackDoolan, JonBeshara Major awards: 2 wins & 4 nominations including 2017 International Emmy Award for Best Performance by an Actress (Anna Friel), 2018 British Screenwriters Award for Best British Crime Writing (Hans Rosenfeldt, creator/writer)
British detective series Marcella stars Anna Friel in the lead role as a brilliant but troubled Metropolitan police detective Marcella Backland, detective with a strangely familiar murder case to solve, a marriage in crisis, teenagers to parent, and disorienting "blackouts" (dissociative amnesia) Marcella tries to piece together not only the crime, but her own puzzling life. Part psychological thriller, part police procedural, Marcella is a gripping and dark drama that keeps you guessing. The secrets hidden deep in Marcella's mind are part of the mystery, but this is very much an engaging crime thriller and not a show about therapy or psychiatric hospitals. The later reveal of a hidden trauma is realistic for dissociative amnesia involving a single episode, but for Marcella to have developed DID with the repeated amnesia shown, she would have needed additional and repeated early childhood traumas, and there is no suggestion of this.
The American TV series Rebecca (2021), which ran for 1 season with 8 episodes, was based on Marcella.
Year: 2021Genre: Documentary Country: USA Director: Olivier MegatonRated: TV-MA Minimum age typically 15-16 depending on country. Cast: Jacob Spicer (playing Billy MilliganDissociative Identity Disorder), Kathy Preston (Milligan's sister), Bob Ruth (journalist), Sheila Porter (Psychologist), Ron O'Brien (prosecutor) Major awards: NoneSeasons:1Episodes:4 Book: The Minds of Billy Milligan by DanielKeyes (1981). Random House. ISBN9780394519432
A documentary about BillyMilligan (born William Stanley Milligan), the first person to have a not guilty by reason of insanity plea accepted for Multiple Personality Disorder. Milligan escaped a guilty verdict, but was committed to a locked psychiatric unit for 11 years of court-ordered treatment, due to the danger he posed to the general public combined with being found to be "insane". Multiple Personality Disorder is now better known, and was renamed to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) in 1994, and is very, very rarely successful as an insanity defense.
United States of Tara (2009-2011)
Year: 2009Genre: Drama, ComedyCountry: United States Language: English Directors: CraigZisk, CraigGillespie, and others. Rated: TVMA Minimum age typically 13-14. Creators: DiabloCody. Production company:ShowtimeSeasons:3Episodes:36 Actors: ToniCollette, JohnCorbett, RosemarieDeWitt Major awards: 7, including 2009 Winner Primetime Emmy Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Toni Collette), 2009 Winner Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Design, 2010 Golden Globe Winner Best Actress in a Television - Series Comedy or Musical (Toni Collette)
Actor Toni Collette gives an award-winning performance as home-maker and mother Tara Gregson, as well as Tara's alter personalities Buck, Alice, and "T" in the hugely successful United States of Tara.
The Many Sides of Jane
Year: 2019Genre: Docuseries/Documentary and Reality Country: USA Language: English subtitles Seasons:1Episodes:6
The Many Sides of Jane is a documentary TV series about Jane Hart, a young mother who living with Dissociative Identity Disorder. The series includes sessions of Jane in therapy for DID, and her struggles coming to understand her diagnosis.
Kill Me, Heal Me
Alternative names:Kilmi, hilmiYear: 2015Genre: Drama Country: South Korea Language: Korean with English subtitles Seasons:1Episodes:12
Heal Me, Kill Me was a popular TV series featuring a rich man with Dissociative Identity Disorder, who was dating his secret psychiatrist. It is not based on a real person.
True Stories in Film and TV
Movies based on real people with Dissociative Identity Disorder include:
Busy Inside — Karen Marshall and Marshay Smith both feature in this documentary about their lives with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase — Truddi raised awareness of Dissociative Identity Disorder and published her autobiography under her name. She lived a long life before dying of natural causes, and remained both 'multiple' and healthy after therapy. Interviews by Oprah can be found on YouTube.
Frankie & Alice — Francine Murdoch met actress Halle Berry before the movie was filmed, but has otherwise led a quiet life. She is known to have married a psychiatrist (although not the one featured in the film). She is still alive.
The Three Faces of Eve — 'Eve' gave up her anonymity and is Chris Costner Sizemore, now deceased, who attended the 50th annivsary of the film's release. Some clips of her talking about her life are on YouTube.
Sybil — Lived a long life with her identity kept secret, after her death from cancer her identity was revealed as Shirley Ardell Mason.
Lisa from David and Lisa — Lisa's diagnosis never made clear, but appears to be either DID or OSDD-1, which is very similar.
TV Series Based on Real People
TV series or shows based on real people with Dissociative Identity Disorder
The Many Sides of Jane — A recent documentary TV series about JaneHart, a young mother diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Includes some of her therapy sessions.
Monsters Inside — A documentary TV series about Billy Milligan, who was famously diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder in the late 1970s.
Where to Watch Online
David and Lisa is on YouTube, both the 1962 original, and the 1998 remake
Sybil (1976) on DailyMotion, or Sybil (2007) on YouTube
The Three Faces of Eve and many others can be streamed / rented from Amazon, Google Play, or from YouTube
The ovguide.com website finds links to movies and trailers from different sites, including YouTube and Vimeo
Busy Within, A Tale of Two Sisters, Fight Club, Frankie & Alice, Identity, Primal Fear and Waking Madison:
Movie subscription services like Netflix & Amazon Prime
Amazon instant video, VUDU, Google Play Movies, iTunes, etc. (Pay per view)
YouTube, Vimeo or Daily Motion - trailers, selected movies, streaming to mobile devices, games consoles & smart TVs
Live streaming websites offering "free" movies mostly seem untrustworthy according to Web of Trust and review websites, or sign you up for trial subscriptions
People with DID who have interviews available on YouTube include: "Eve White/Eve Black" from The Three Faces of Eve (Chris Costner Sizemore), Truddi Chase from Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase (on Oprah), Cameron West (on Oprah's YouTube), and KimNoble, artist and author of All of Me, also on Oprah (her story has never been made into a movie)
Dr RichardKluft's documentary What is D.I.D.? (2009) produced by Showtime might be of interest (no longer online), or watch Dr Kluft in Learn More about D.I.D. (United States of Tara, Season 1) - a commentary on Dissociative Identity Disorder and its portrayal in the TV series United States of Tara, also produced by Showtime.
Movies can also be bought on streaming services, DVD or sometimes on VHS video cassette.
DID Portrayal in Movies
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) has only five diagnostic criteria, all of which must be met for a person to be diagnosed with it. A DID Portrayal Rating of 5 out of 5 stars means that the movie clearly shows each diagnostic criteria. For movies about a real, person it is not about the person's diagnosis, but how well the film portrays DID symptoms, taking into account how much Dissociative Identity Disorder varies between different people.
See Dissociative Identity Disorder's official DSM 5 wording
Comparing Movies to DID Criteria
This criterion is met if the person has at least one other alter personality. Alter personalities/identities (alters) can be either observed or described by the person. There are two parts to identifying alters, signs of alters and how the person makes sense of it. Some people/cultures describe this as "an experience of possession." Signs of alters include sudden changes in mood, behavior, consciousness (often described as 'blackouts' or 'losing time'), memory gaps, altered perception (e.g., size of objects or people), thinking style (IQ alterations in Frankie & Alice), and/or altered senses or movements (for example, temporary ability or inability to feel or move).
Making sense of the alters if the actions or words of alters are remembered, which they can be (see criterion B), then they must feel like they do not belong to the person/belong to someone else. This may be described by the person as "it was as if someone else's words were coming out of my mouth when I was speaking" or "I felt like I was watching myself", or "I don't know why I suddenly liked eating food I normally hate", "I felt like a totally different person, much younger, like a child". Using the term "we" instead of "I", like Truddi Chase does to refer to herself and her alters in Voices Within, also shows an awareness of other "selves" being part of the person. This is the sense of dissociation, a disconnection from the self. If this is persistent and there is never any amnesia then Depersonalization or OSDD, (a disorder very most similar disorder to DID), could be the diagnosis rather than DID. Sybil describes feeling "possessed" by her alters.
DID, psychosis & schizophrenia confusion Many of the movies not based on real events suffer from confusion with schizophrenia or psychotic disorder. A person with DID may have alter personalities who may experience themselves or perceive themselves to have a different physical form (e.g. gender, age, race) than the person's actual body, and may mentally appear that way to the person when communicating, for example, Alice in Frankie & Alice, but they are capable of accepting that they appear differently to others, and can learn they share the same physical body.[4] There are no delusions or hallucinations that would make a person believe that both they and an alter personality could be in the same physical room at the same time but in different external bodies - unless a psychotic break or psychotic disorder like Schizophrenia is also present. Schizophrenia is a common misdiagnosis for Dissociative Identity Disorder, only around 1% of people with DID have Schizophrenia as well.[4] The movies that make this mistake are all fictional stories, and include characters who turn to face their alters, these are Identity, Fight Club, Waking Madison and A Tale of Two Sisters. Hearing voices within Dissociative Identity Disorder almost always means the voices seem to originate from inside the person's head, (although flashbacks from the trauma can include sounds or voices that appear to come from outside the head).
Indicators of alters: A person may also describe being told of things they did or finding evidence of things they must have done but have no memory of, for example, in The Three Faces of Eve, and Frankie & Alice, both women are told they yelled at their daughters but don't remember, and both find expensive shoes they must have bought but don't think they did. These actions are too significant to be explained by simple forgetfulness.
The person must have recurrent memory gaps, i.e., amnesia, which can be either for day-to-day events, significant personal information, or past trauma. Normal forgetting is excluded. Forgetting sometimes where you put your keys does not count, sometimes forgetting where you live or your name, or being unable to find your keys so often it disrupts your life would count.
In Voices Within, Truddi comes home from the doctor's office and begins a work-related phone call (switching to a work-related alter). Her husband interrupts, and she doesn't remember what doctor he is talking about. He tells her, "we just came from his office", but he is talking to a different alter - one who has amnesia for the appointment. In A Tale of Two Sisters Soo-mi is unable to remember the trauma that happened to her sister until her father tells her, and even then she struggles to accept it happened. In Fight Club the arson of the apartment is forgotten, it's a significant past event but not traumatic to the character - he doesn't seem to have avoidance, flashbacks, nightmares, distress or intrusive thoughts about it, so this is amnesia for a non-traumatic event (which can happen in DID). At the start of Waking Madison, we see Madison setting up a video camera to record what she does, and writing herself a note to remind herself what the purpose of staying at home is. She's clearly aware that she has periods of significant amnesia, although she doesn't seem to understand why until later.
The dissociative symptoms (subtle or obvious signs or alters, or signs of amnesia) cause either significant distress, or negatively affect the person's social life, work, or another important area of life.
In The Three Faces of Eve, Eve divorces and feels unable to remarry, and Eve White, who first sought help, is persistently distressed. It's less obvious in Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase; which doesn't show much of the distress and/or impaired life that DID caused her compared to her earlier book, When Rabbit Howls. Some anxiety is shown, disruption caused by amnesia and behavior of her alters around her eldest daughter lead to divorce. It's not uncommon for high functioning people with DID to be successful at work, and for people outside their home to not recognize any mental distress. Truddi's need to cut back on her drinking and smoking hint that these may be ways in which she copes with (or avoid) emotions. Missing from the movie is the depth her distress reaches, for example, the suicidal alter personality described in her original book isn't included in the movie. In Sybil, both self-injury and a suicide attempt occur; alter Marsha is almost always suicidal.
The symptoms aren't the result of a cultural or religious practice, for example, trance or possession states in cultures that use them in religious or spiritual practices. In children, symptoms aren't the result of fantasy playmates. In other words, the symptoms aren't imaginary, fantasy religious or spiritual.
None of the films meet this exclusion, although in both Waking Madison and Identity (the least realistic film), virtually all events take place in the person's mind rather than in real life.
The symptoms aren't caused by a particular substance, for example, alcoholic blackouts, altered behavior when using drugs, or another condition like head injury.
In Voices Within, Truddi Chase goes to many doctors and psychiatrists and none can find the cause of her 'blackouts'.
In Frankie & Alice the drugs and alcohol could cause amnesia and altered behavior, but symptoms continue after withdrawal when she is under psychiatric evaluation. In The Three Faces of Eve, a good psychiatric assessment checks her medical history for this reason, with her regular doctor having ruled out physical causes including head injuries.
Assessing the portrayal of DID in movies based on real people: the DID portrayal ratings for the movies above are a judgement of the accuracy of the movie in representing DID, not an attempt to cast doubt on or confirm a character's diagnosis. Diagnosing a person should be done by a trained and licensed clinician at a clinical interview - taking an abnormal psychology class or having DID for instance does not give enough training to carry out a clinical asessment of someone else, although it is interesting to see the more subtle signs of DID in the movies that portray DID well. This is not trial-by-media based on what a person is able to firstly able to remember at that time, or what they were comfortable sharing publicly, and lastly, what they were able to condense into a movie without risking lawsuits or distressing audiences too much.
Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase is based on a real person, but missed out from the movie is the depth her distress reaches and the degree of abuse, for example, her suicidal alter personality from her earlier book, When Rabbit Howls isn't mentioned. In David and Lisa, based on another real person, Lisa rarely speaks, so you don't know if she has any amnesia or not, but a clinician would have notes and extended contact and would be able to ask questions to determine that. Lisa is referred to as 'Schizophrenic' but the diagram she draws and her distinct child-like behavior as Muriel make it clear she has an alter personality called Muriel. With her obvious alter identity, behavior that causes problems in public (e.g., at the train station) but uncertainty over amnesia she could have Other Specified Dissociative Disorder (OSDD, formerly DDNOS) - a form of dissociative disorder very similar to DID but falling just short of the criteria, this diagnosis wasn't introduced until 1980 (along with the other Otherwise Specified categories) - it's unclear whether OSDD is being represented rather than DID because whether amnesia is present isn't clear when a person hardly ever speaks, but OSDD is the diagnosis given when there are not quite enough evidence of meeting the DID criteria. The movie was produced in 1968, but no psychiatric disorders had agreed diagnostic criteria until the DSM-III manual was released in 1980, so it is impressive to see such a clear good portrayal of a complex dissociative disorder. She does not show any psychotic symptoms, Schizophrenia is groups with the psychotic disorders and not the dissociative disorders, although some dissociative symptoms do occur in Schizophrenia.[3]
DID symptoms vary widely in different people
Several movies are rated 4 or 5 out of 5 for their portrayal of DID, yet the people portrayed are not alike and their other, non-dissociative, mental health or life problems are very different - this kind of varied mix is not uncommon.[4] Despite the same core DID symptoms, the presentation of those symptoms and how much they effect the person can vary considerably. Compare Truddi, the career woman from Voices Within whom drinks and smokes too much, to Frankie from Frankie & Alice, a very intelligent exotic dancer, also an addict who can't hold down a job. Truddi's use of cigarette, alcohol, and possibly overwork to avoid or numb emotions are less obvious than Frankie's anger and use of illegal drugs. Around 1 in 100 people have DID, and its symptoms and usually hidden in 96% of those, except in times of major stress. Many people with DID also hide symptoms or problems; Frankie calls her mother from a psychiatric hospital, saying only that she is "in Florida", letting her mother assume it's a holiday.
Common Mistakes in DID Movies
Hallucinations of alter personalities are shown, who the person with DID believes are a separate individual People with Dissociative Identity Disorder don't make this mistake, and don't and watch their alter personalities interact with the outside world, e.g. picking up objects or talking to other people, except when watching through their own eyes as they take out control of the person's physical body. Having a mental image of how alters look is fairly common, but is not the same as hallucinating an additional person's presence and believing others can see that person: delusions aren't present.
DID and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder are usually the only issues shown, but there's usually a combination of many different diagnoses present, which vary in severity, with many viewed as "coping mechanisms" that help numb emotions before becoming problems themselves:
Substance Abuse/addiction, Eating Disorders, Major Depressive Disorder, Anxiety Disorders and Phobias, self injury, plus Avoidant or Borderline Personality Disorder are common too. The complexity and mix of symptoms don't normally make it into media portrayals.
Communicating with alter personalities typically involves hearing voices inside - not outside the head, keeping a shared journal or blog, or leaving notes for each other
Alters cannot truly "die" or "be killed" - they can go into hiding, they can merge (integrate), but normally most people stay separate and work together better. Merging is no longer considered the "best" goal (once the distress/impaired functioning fully goes we still have alter personalities, but no longer have any mental disorder)
A person talks about having lots of "blackouts" but shows none - has no memory loss or forgetfulness in the movie, they never forget who anyone is, where they live or anything important
Dissociative symptoms go beyond amnesia and alters - derealization, depersonalization, feelings spacey, emotional numbing or fugues
Any abusive parents get shown as either non-abusive now (and instantly forgiven), in jail, or dead but abusive parents normally stay abusive and may only abuse those they have control and power over, like children, including during adulthood, don't think of your own parents or parents who honestly regret what they did - these parents don't, and may deny abuse in the face of overwhelming evidence, say the child wanted it or deserved it, or constantly invade their adult child's privacy and guilt-trip, and lie, the abuse is a criminal offense so rarely admitted
alter personalities are created for a specific purpose, for example, self-defense or trauma memories, or work, if the one in the plot has no clear essential purpose re-write the plot
opposite sex alter personalities and child personalities (aged under 8) are very common, but only rarely portrayed. DID develops from multiple early childhood traumatic experiences, typically occurring before age 5, some realistic movies, e.g. The Three Faces of Eve and Frankie & Alice, which based on real people, show trauma that occurred at a far later age but before the healing is complete, and importantly show the link between alters' characteristics and previous childhood trauma.
Randomly violent alters that seem to have no purpose for the person are often portrayed in fictional accounts. They aren't acting to defend or protect the person with Dissociative Identity Disorder, they are one-dimensional and can't reasoned with.
DID has no "quick fix" and no longer having alter personalities is not the "cure"
Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder takes years. A third of people with DID integrate (merge) into a single identity, sharing all memories and characteristics of all alters and the most dominant one (the host/main person) together - this is more like gradually forming a personality that incorporates all of them than anything else.[4] Two-thirds of people keep at least some alter personalities and reach a "co-operative arrangement" or "resolution" in which they all work together in daily life, amnesia is minimal in everyday life (known as co-consciousness) but some amnesia exists for the past, they work in harmony together.[4] It is no longer a "mental disorder" when the distress and impaired functioning is no longer present.[3]
UK: Carolyn Spring - a writer and mental health trainer who has Dissociative Identity Disorder
, and mental health advocateRachel Waddingham, who lives with Dissociative Identity Disorder
and has done considerable media work including media interviews
Wedding, D., & Niemiec, R. M. (2014). Movies and mental illness: Using films to understand psychopathology. Hogrefe Publishing.
Gold, S. N. (2004). Fight Club: A Depiction of Contemporary Society as Dissociogenic.Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 5,(2),13-34.
doi: 10.1300/J229v05n02_02.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. (5th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association. ISBN 0890425558.
High Functioning in Dissociative Identity Disorder
"Functional Consequences of Dissociative Identity Disorder", page 295, states that impairment can vary from "apparently minimal to profound", giving "high-functioning professionals" as an example of apparently minimal. It goes on to state: "higher-functioning individuals may impair their relational, marital, family, and parenting functions more than their occupational and professional life (although the latter also may be affected)." Published in 2013, this appears very close to Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase (1990).
Integration, or a Co-operative Working Harmony between Alters "A desirable treatment outcome is a workable form of integration or harmony among alternate identities." p133
"Accordingly, a more realistic long-term outcome for some patients may be a cooperative arrangement sometimes called a “resolution” — that is, sufficiently integrated and coordinated functioning among alternate identities to promote optimal functioning. However, patients who achieve a cooperative arrangement rather than final fusion may be more vulnerable to later decompensation (into florid DID and/or PTSD) when sufficiently stress p134
Fine, C. G. (1992). Multiple Personality Disorder. Comprehensive Casebook of Cognitive Therapy, 347–360. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4757-9777-0_35
Abstract
Long believed to be a rare and apocryphal psychiatric condition (Kluft, 1987), multiple personality disorder (MPD) is presently understood as a relatively common but often misdiagnosed syndrome. Putnam, Guroff, Silberman, Barban, and Post (1986), in a study of 100 MPD patients, found that the average MPD patient is correctly diagnosed only about seven years after initial mental health assessment for symptoms referable to MPD. During that time frame, he or she can expect to receive an average of 3.6 erroneous diagnoses. These misdiagnoses have as much to do with graduate training programs, Hollywoodian perceptions, and overt skepticism about a disorder (Dell, 1988) that carries with it supposed flamboyant and attention-seeking behaviors (though this type of presentation occurs in only 6% of the cases; Kluft, 1985) as it does with MPD patients’ decided attempts to dissimulate or deny their condition (Kluft 1985, 1987) to their therapists and to themselves. MPD is a condition of secrecy; if the presentation were truly overt, delay in diagnosis would be the exception rather than the rule (Kluft & Fine, 1989).
Campbell, R. (2009). Campbell's psychiatric dictionary (9th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Awareness of Alters ('Personality States')/ Co-consciousness
p290 - "There is generally amnesia during each personality state for the existence of the others and for the events that took place when another personality was dominant. Sometimes, however, personalities are aware of (co-conscious with) all or some of the others to varying degrees and may experience the others as friends, companions, or adversaries."
Galton, G., & Sachs, A. (Eds.). (2008). Forensic aspects of dissociative identity disorder. Karnac Books.
"In R v Hamblyn (1996, New Zealand), the accused was charged with using cheques with intent to defraud. She was diagnosed by two psychiatrists to be suffering from DID. The psychiatrist called by the defense gave evidence that "alter" personalities controlled the behaviour of the accused at the time of the offences but knew right from wrong, even though the host personality did not know of, nor control, the actions of the alters … The court found that "the alters were not insane, so at the time the offences were committed, the body was being directed by a sane mind" (p. 229)." p. 88
Simon, R. I., & Gold, L. H. (Eds.). (2010). The American Psychiatric Publishing textbook of forensic psychiatry. American Psychiatric Pub.
Steinberg, M., Bancroft, J., & Buchanan, J. (1993). Multiple personality disorder in criminal law.Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law, 21,(3),345-356. PMID: 8148515.
Traumadissociation.com (). Top 10 Dissociative Identity Disorder Movies and TV shows. Retrieved from .
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