A Study Of Multiple Personality Disorder: Dissociative Identity Disorder As Seen In The Work Of Martin Scorsese

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Introduction

The dissertation tries to portray the condition, Multiple Personality Disorder from the movie Shutter Island. Multiple Personality Disorder is a type of psychological condition where a person comes across several personalities in himself. Multiple Personality Disorder is otherwise known as Dissociative Disorder. It was Dr Jean Martin Charcot, a physician at a hospital in Paris who discovered the disease in 1880. He called this disorder Hystero-Epilepsy and later came up with the name Multiple Personality Disorder. At first people were not aware of this psychological condition but later through explanations and illustrations, people came to know about this. The problem is that the symptoms found in multiple personality disorder are found in other diseases. At the beginning, the patients will start with two or three personalities which may develop into more numbers. One of the common factors amongst the patients suffering from MPD is that most of them share a similar background. He also claims that most of the people suffering from this disease had faced some kind of childhood sexual trauma and they might also have a personality which just stopped when the trauma happened. The problem with this disorder is that Multiple Personality Disorder cannot be completely cured but it can only be controlled.

Actually, Multiple Personality Disorder was firstly found in1791, in a 20-year-old German Women who started to speak French and behaved like a French woman also she started speaking German in a French accent. When she was a French women she remembered every single thing she said and being a German woman she denied the knowledge of French. 67% of Multiple Personality Disorder cases has been reported during 1880, 1920 and 1944 and because of this reason, MPD was focused on for study at this period of time. As the number of cases were reported was increasing, more and more alternative personalities was reported. Now also there are many people who even think that whether MPD exists or not. The symptoms of this disorder are convulsions, contortions, impaired consciousness and fainting. Most of these symptoms are seen for other diseases as well, so people find them difficult to recognize. This disorder produces a lack of connection in person’s thoughts, feelings, memories and actions. The people with Multi Personality Disorder usually has mood swings, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias and suicidal tendencies.

The people with MPD may do something that they wouldn’t do normally such as stealing money, speeding, etc. There are different forms of Multiple Personality Disorder which includes amnesia, fugue, depersonalization disorder. When another personality of a person assumed control over him he could not recall the events for a span of time. This disorder can be a result of child abuse (may be physical, emotional or even sexual) or any other trauma experience which might have affected the person in his young age and this disorder is diagnosed more in women when compared to men.

The problem is that many of the peoples diagnosed with this disorder are unaware of their condition and they think it might be a symptom of depression. Usually the people don’t understand their condition and they change in personality from one to another and is sudden and non predictable. After the change of personality from one to another they don’t have any idea about how they are going to react. The patients suffering from such disorder may try to attempt suicide and they might become violent. The patients who undergo MPD may find it difficult to recall the things which happened earlier.

In our day-to-day life we come to know about this disorder from movies, articles, fictional writing, newspapers etc. Literature and psychology are two divisions of science that studies about Human mind. The only difference between psychology and literature is that psychology researches about human behavior while literature researches human behavior through fictions. A literary work benefits from psychology if the writer has successfully presented the characters, expressed their moods and bring the reader into psychological dimensions of human reality. Literature and psychology meet in their focus of emotions and human soul.

Beside literature and psychology, there is no other branch of science that is engaged so much in the study of the relationship between human body and soul with its contradictions and dilemmas, making efforts to define the relationship in terms of certain rules, to know the mysterious aspects of the human soul and its subconscious areas by means of long and detailed journeys: at the same time both branches have been struggling in their existence between arts and science for about a century.This was the explanation given by Academic Ismet Emre about the relationship between literature and psychology. As long as humans are the theme of the texts, psychological elements will be present in every literary works.

Shutter Island: Separating Fact From Fiction

With a producer like Martin Scorsese, each picture we see has inside it, the subjects and greater thoughts of the motion picture. The opening shot turns into the examination of the film as we see a broad view of the ship leaving its haze. On board is Teddy who is becoming ill adrift alongside his accomplice Chuck. Teddy is ill because currently, he is on a moving ship in the ocean, searching for answers. He does not know the reason behind his travel on the ship, in other words we say that, Teddy is in kind of amnesia.

Teddy is researching a 67th patient that he trusts exists on the island and he is looking to cut down the staff of “Ashcliff” as he trusts they are Nazis endeavoring to penetrate America through mentally programming investigations. Teddy is first acquainted with the primary layer of the island when he is enabled access to the ship. He is in a spot few get the chance to go. The second layer is presently in entering Ashcliff’s closed up office where he clashes with the specialists there who tries to control reality. Lastly he enters Ward C. An impervious stronghold to ward off the very fierce mentally unstable people from the society. The more profound Teddy goes, the more profound he is going into his mind and therefore further into reality of his story. Also, from here is demonstrated what has truly occurred.

The last piece is to get him to the beacon. A beyond reach place that he realizes he will discover reality. In any case, it’s anything but a fact about crazy lab rat specialists indoctrinating patients, yet rather it is Dr. Cawley and his accomplice, Chuck, who is really his essential doctor there to uncover to him the genuine idea of his life and the untruths he has made to secure himself. The finish of the film demonstrates him being Teddy once more, as though to state that he has relapsed. In any case, Scorsese surrenders the completion over to the choice of the group of onlookers. As Andrew inquires as to whether it is smarter to live as a beast or kick the bucket as a decent man. This is a message that he might not have relapsed, however can’t live with himself for what he has done by murdering his better half, nor with the recollections of the passings of his kids. He is open to the beacon where he will be given a lobotomy.

‘Shutter Island’ is one of those films that rips the rug out from under your expectations with the frequency and intensity of a magican’s act. Initially, we think we are watching a well-intentioned U.S. Marshall named Teddy enter an insane asylum/prison hoping to uncover the whereabouts of a recently-disappeared patient/inmate. Later, our strangeness barometer begins to beep and we recalibrate our assumptions. Now we think we are witnessing a brave and bereaved soul searching for damning evidence that will expose Shutter Island as an expensive, cutting-edge torture chamber. Only during the final act (unless you’ve connected the foreshadowing dots), when our barometer falls off the charts, do we realize that the narrative is really about tragic psychosis and elaborate role play.

Overall, I found the film to be a very intense, somewhat entertaining discussion of lines – the kind of elusive, easily blurred lines that exist between perception and reality, normalcy and insanity, even exceptional and subpar filmmaking. There is another extremely relevant though largely ignored line of which I’d like to discuss, the line between realistic and melodramatic portraits of clinical psychology. Although issues like delusions and 20th century inpatient treatment are aggressively examined within the plot, many of its exclamation points are in fact question marks that warrant further discussion:

Does Teddy suffer from an actual psychological disorder?

Teddy is a strange case. In retrospect he presents as an intelligent, high functioning individual, so much so that his traumatic experiences during WW II merely dented, rather than overwhelmed, and his coping resources. However, the mild and (then) socially acceptable alcoholism and workaholism he exhibited as a family man provided just enough emotional detachment to blind him from the murderous insanity bubbling up within his bipolar wife. One Saturday, an unsuspecting Teddy arrived home from a work trip to his three drowned children and a creepy, suicidal wife (whom he promptly put out of misery). Although such an experience would seem to virtually garuntee the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, somewhere along the way his symptoms tipped into the very real but much less common psychiatric condition known as Delusional Disorder.

As indicated by the DSM-IV you can be advanced – subjectively, socially and inwardly – and not just experience the ill effects of dreams (fixed, resolute convictions that negate clear, consensual proof) however experience such a state without clear mental hiccups. Teddy additionally meets this analysis, as per the manual, since he encounters the hallucinations for all the more then one month (don’t request that I clarify the time cutoff) and not as the consequence of disposition issues (he isn’t especially discouraged or restless) chronic drug habits (the jug is never again an issue) or schizophrenia (far and away also socially sagacious, and his fancies are not bizzare – ‘outsiders arrived in my kitchen’). As the DSM-IV further groups Delusional Disorder by means of substance of the daydream, an analyst may likewise take note of that Teddy experiences a Mixed Type. His psyche produces subjects of gaudiness (I will reveal a mass connivance!) and oppression (I will be kept from consistently leaving this island!)

Is the film’s diatribe against the mental health field warranted?

Do the trick it to state that ‘ShutterIsland’ isn’t the most reassuring true to life depiction of psychological wellness. Two primary concerns that should be tended to are the ‘cavern scene’ and the ‘last scene.’

Cavern Scene: In the mid seventies -, all things considered, not dream – an analyst named David Rosenhan led an analysis that endeavored to inspect exactly how well the mental network analyzed wildness. It went poorly. A bunch of research confederates acted like ‘counterfeit’ schizophrenics, entering an inpatient medical clinic with reports of mental trips. Once inside they continued to act like their typical, high accomplishing selves each and every minute paving the way to release. Shockingly they were not permitted to leave without a schizophrenia mark and medicine for psychoactive drugs.

The viewers may perceive remainders of this investigation in the cavern scene, as an analyst, also known as fabrication of Teddy’s creative ability, rails against the impasse of being articulated crazy in spite of being normal. Obviously, this scene is a noteworthy exaggerated jump from the real world. Jumpy if not pernicious specialists, obsolete if not counter-intuitive treatment approaches and vulnerable if not martyred patients is the stuff of the removed past if not absurdist connivance. The present the truth is that finding remains an intricate blend of craftsmanship and science with mental preparing comprising of best quality level logical measures and insightful, non-judgmental clinical points of view. Indeed, the field has entered an unchartered area with respect to understanding rights, a fair power dynamic among treator and treatee and all around contemplated, exactly upheld treatment. In the event that just the truth was as edge-of-your-situate intense…

Last Scene: Are we truly to trust that the agreeable and achieved Teddy (no earlier history of dysfunctional behavior over an unmistakable example of flexibility), goes insane from a familial injury, at that point more than once gets through his hallucinating outlook amid treatment, just to return to insane mode like a music CD stuck on rehash? Albeit singular contrasts and the sensitive, unpredictable mix of qualities, condition and identity can make the visualization of steady sickness a sporadic, once in a while perpetual undertaking, the stuck-on-continue finishing does not bode well. By and by ‘Shade Island’ need an update, as psychological maladjustment is introduced in the antiquated restorative model organization in which a mystic ‘infection’ emerges, sneaks up on the rationally solid personality without hardly lifting a finger, makes irreversible harm and rejects at any point let go. In the event that you ask me this last scene is the craziest thing in the entire film, and that is stating something…

Do places like Shutter Island really exist?

Without first-hand knowledge I think it’s safe to say that Shutter Island is a caricature. But it is a caricature inspired by the ‘snake pit’ mental hospitals of the ’50s and ’60s in which many chronically ill patients suffered a lifetime of filth and mistreatment. When public outrage finally caught up to the reality a national deinstitutionalization commenced during the 70’s that did little more then demote mental patients from marginalized status to homelessness status. The movie also discusses the ‘ice pick’ frontal lobotomy. Before you dismiss this as horror movie fiction you should know that approximately sixty years ago over five thousand procedures were performed in the U.S. Yes, the procedure was performed with an ice pick-like instrument. Yes, the surgeon could be seen jamming the pick through the eyeball before proceeding with a frenzied wiggling motion. Yes, my attempt to save the image of psychiatric history from cinematic misrepresentation is backfiring..

What is this current film’s general decision?

From one viewpoint, prosecutions of the emotional well-being field in this motion picture go from deplorable correctnesses to sensational embellishments to head-scratching contortions. Then again we are furnished with at last good natured specialists and essential exhibitions of mental anguish. To the extent this current film’s depiction of clinical brain research is concerned, if it’s not too much trouble email with your decisions.

Figure 1 – The cover photo of Martin Scorsese’s movie Shutter Island

A Study of multiple personality disorder/ dissociative identity disorder with real life examples

Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder, is one of the most controversial disorders in the field of psychology. The scientific explanation for the disorder is: the presence of two or more conscious identities in the same person, although only one is conscious at a time. In simpler words, a person who has the disorder suffers from a break in his or her personality. Their mind separates into several distinct people. There are two separate theories on how this disorder came to be. The first theory is one that many people are familiar with; DID is caused by severe trauma. The second theory, which is less known, is that DID is an iatrogenic condition, caused by the therapist themselves.

The first theory on why people suffer from DID is extreme traumatic experience that causes the victim to dissociate from their life. The traumatic experience could be severe and horrific child abuse, frequent cult ritual activities, and a victim of sexual crimes. To deal with the event, the person retreats into his or her mind. They turn away from the experience and lock it deep within their minds. According to theory, this causes them to create personalities, people, who are stronger and better equipped to deal with the trauma. These extra people are called “alters” or “others”.

Their habit of retreating into their minds once the abuse occurs causes them difficulty in creating an integrated personality. Instead their personality develops in pieces, divided into categories. As they go through life, living in such an unpredictable environment, they learn to react differently to certain situations. They change and mold their personalities to better protect themselves. After several years, these dissociations become personalities, a mind of their own, that acts and thinks independently. The sudden split in their personality is identified as a desperate survival strategy for someone who did not having any other option to escape the abuse they suffered through. Even after they escaped the abuse, the personalities have been established and became independent.

The second theory for DID’s existence is that therapist are the ones who induce their clients to dissociate from themselves. The disorder originally involves the victim suffering from amnesia without apparent brain damage. The victim is also unaware that he or she has several different people living in their minds. To cure DID, some therapists use hypnosis, a technique that leaves the receiver extremely susceptible to the tiniest hint of suggestion. Because of the usage of hypnosis, the theory suggests that the memories recovered during the sessions are false memories. Prior to seeking counsel, the client did not have memories of abuse nor have they reported or manifested alters. They only began reporting about their past experiences with abuse and manifesting alters after undergoing sessions of hypnosis. The recovered memories are also impossible to prove. The people, dates, and times of the abuse that the clients claimed to have remembered contradict the information given by other sources.

In extreme cases, clients report to be victims to satanic ritual abuse. Their recovered memories involve prolonged abuse at the hands of devil worshippers. The abuse ranged from sexual, psychological, and physical. They often claim remembering seeing butchered infants, breeding of babies for later sacrifice, ritual sexual abuse of a child, drinking of blood, cannibalism, and sex orgies. However, the FBI reported that they had investigated the claims and have found no evidence of satanic cults. It is proven, through the FBI’s extensive investigations that satanic cults do not exist. Despite the second theory’s suspicion about DID, it does not mean the disorder isn’t real. It’s as real as the hunger people feel every day. Those with DID do suffer and therapists are looking for ways to cure the disorder.

Those who live with Dissociate Identity Disorder often live their lives in confusion. One of the many effects of the disorder is losing track of time and memory. Most often, the victim would black out at the most unfortunate moments and wake up to find themselves in a different location, the time had moved forward extremely fast, and sometimes they’d be in possession of things that they know they’ve never bought before. There are also times when they’re called a different name by people who claim that they have known each other for quite a long time but yet they’re complete strangers.

Not only do they live in constant confusion, victims of DID also suffer from unexplained body pain and headaches. They may have sleep disturbances, unable to reach the REM stage. Some may be able to reach the REM stage but suffer constantly from nightmares and are always tired. Those with the disorder often report family dysfunctions such as one or both parents being abusive or neglectful, sexual abuse from a relative, or their parents having drug addictions that left them incapable of caring for a child. Victims also have distortions in cognitive thought. They experience a sense of hopelessness or helplessness. They may also experience anxiety or panic. In extreme cases, the victims may also hear voices or hold conversations within their own minds. It is also possible for victims to refer to themselves as “we” or “us”. It is suggested that this is done subconsciously. Having the disorder may also include having depression and suicidal thoughts.

Dissociative Identity Disorder became extremely well known throughout the years after the famous movie Sybil that was based on a novel with the same name. Prior to the movie there was a reported number of approximately fifty cases that involved DID. After the movie’s premiere, the number of DID cases skyrocketed to about four thousand. Sybil was about a real life woman who underwent therapeutic sessions of hypnosis. Her therapists used sodium pentothal (truth serum) on her during these sessions. Her therapist suggested giving names to her various emotional states as a means to help her cope better with her problems. However, the woman did not suffer from Dissociate Identity Disorder. The author of the novel said herself that if she didn’t write Sybil as a woman who suffered from DID, the book wouldn’t sell. Because of Sybil and several other movies that featured DID, the disorder became extremely popular amongst society and reported cases of the disorder began to rise.

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