mental illness that involves the sufferer experiencing at least two clear identities or personality states, each of which has a fairly consistent way of viewing and relating to the world. Some individuals with DID have been found to have personality states that have distinctly different ways of reacting, in terms of emotions, pulse, blood pressure, and blood flow to the brain. This disorder was formerly called multiple personality disorder (MPD) and is often referred to as split personality disorder. Although statistics regarding this disorder indicate that the incidence of DID is about 3% of patients in psychiatric hospitals and is described as occurring in females nine times more often than in males, this may be due to difficulty identifying the disorder in males. Also, disagreement among mental-health professionals about how this illness appears clinically, and if DID even exists, adds to the difficulty of estimating how often it occurs. Some professionals continue to be of the opinion that DID does not exist. The nature of this skepticism is sometimes due to questions about why many more individuals who have endured the stress of terrible abuse as young children do not develop the disorder, why more children are not diagnosed as having DID, and why some DID sufferers have no history of tremendous trauma. One explanation for what some believe to be these inconsistencies is that given the highly complex and unknown nature of the human brain and psyche, many of those whom one would expect to develop dissociative identity disorder are spared due to their resilience. Another concern about the diagnosis of DID involve having to rely on the traumatic memories of those who suffer from this disorder. That DID is significantly more often assessed in individuals in North America compared to the rest of the world, for the most part, leads some practitioners to believe that DID is a culture-based myth rather than a true disorder. As with many other mental-health issues, symptoms of the same disorder in children look very different than in adults. Studies that verify the presence of DID using multiple resources add credibility to the diagnosis. Research on individuals with DID that have little to no media exposure to information on the illness lends further credibility to the reliability of this diagnosis. Movies about DID have been well known in the United States since the 1950s. The 1953 movie The Three Faces of Eve tells the story of Chris Sizemore, a real-life woman with the disorder. She was thought to develop DID in reaction to witnessing several terrible accidents at a young age. That movie described three personalities that were successfully merged or integrated into one within one year. More accurately, the person depicted in that movie had to contend with 22 personalities that took more than 45 years to be able to coexist in a functional way. A miniseries about DID was Sybil. The character of Sybil Dorsett portrayed the life story of Shirley Ardell Mason, who experienced severe physical, emotional, and sexual abuse that was inflicted by her mother. She was thought to develop 16 distinct identities. As with the diagnosis in general, the veracity of the story of Sybil remains a controversy, with claims that the illness in general and Sybil specifically, is a hoax. Signs and symptoms of dissociative identity disorder lapses in memory (dissociation), particularly of significant life events, like birthdays, wedding, or birth of a child; blackouts in time, resulting in finding oneself in places but not recalling how one traveled there; being frequently accused of lying when they do not believe they are lying (for example, being told of things they did but do not recall); finding items in one's possession but not recalling how those things were acquired; encountering people with whom one is unfamiliar but who seem to know them as someone else; being called names that are completely unlike their own name or nickname; finding items they have clearly written but are in handwriting other than their own; hearing voices inside their head that are not their own; not recognizing themselves in the mirror; feeling unreal (derealization); feeling like they are watching themselves move through life rather than living their own life; and feeling like more than one person. Causes of dissociative identity disorder While there is no proven specific cause of DID, the prevailing psychological theory about how the condition develops is as a reaction to childhood trauma. Specifically, it is thought that one way that some individuals respond to being severely traumatized as a young child is to wall off, in other words, to dissociate those memories. When that reaction becomes extreme, DID may be the result. As with other mental disorders, having a family member with DID may indicate a potential vulnerability to developing the disorder but does not translate into the condition being literally hereditary. Diagnosis
There is no specific definitive test, like a blood
test, that can accurately assess that a person has dissociative identity disorder. Therefore, practitioners conduct a mental-health interview that looks for the presence of the signs and symptoms previously described. They usually ask questions to explore whether the symptoms that the client is suffering from are not better accounted for by another mental disorder, dissociative or otherwise. Other dissociative disorders include depersonalization disorder (feeling detached from themselves or surroundings), dissociative amnesia (memory problems associated with a traumatic experience), dissociative fugue (abandonment of familiar surroundings and memory lapse for the past), and dissociative disorder, not otherwise specified (episodes of dissociation that do not qualify for one of the specific dissociative disorders just described). As part of the assessment, mental-health professionals also usually ask about other mental conditions and ensure that the client has recently received a comprehensive physical examination so that any physical conditions that may mimic symptoms of DID are identified and addressed. Dissociation, a major symptom of DID, is known to occur in a number of other mental illnesses. For example, an individual with this disorder may seek to relieve overwhelming memories of trauma by engaging in the self-mutilation that tends to be found in those with borderline personality disorder. Also, feelings and behaviors that may appear to be caused by dissociation, but are not, make it all the more difficult to distinguish DID from other conditions. Somatization disorder, psychogenic amnesia, psychogenic fugue, conversion disorder, and schizophrenia are just a few such disorders. Rape and other adult trauma victims have been found to be quite vulnerable to developing dissociative symptoms. The controversy about whether DID exists, as well as the overlap of symptoms it has with a number of other conditions, sometimes results in misdiagnosis. DID often co-occurs with other emotional conditions, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder (BPD), and a number of other personality disorders, as well as conversion disorder. This diagnosis is sometimes feigned by individuals who may be seeking attention, as in Munchausen's syndrome. It has also been appropriately diagnosed as well as feigned in individuals involved in the criminal justice and civil or family court systems (for example, forensic cases). Adding to the diagnostic difficulty is that people like pedophiles and other sex offenders, who may legally stand to gain from having DID, genuinely suffer from significant dissociative symptoms, as well as full-blown DID. In cases where there may be an ulterior motive for being diagnosed with DID, studies show that using a structured interview tool may be the best way to determine if the person truly suffers from this condition. Treatments for Dissociative Identity Disorder Psychotherapy is generally considered to be the main component of treatment for dissociative identity disorder. In treating individuals with DID, therapists usually try to help clients improve their relationships with others and to experience feelings they have not felt comfortable being in touch with or openly expressing in the past. This is carefully paced in order to prevent the person with DID from becoming overwhelmed by anxiety, risking a figurative repetition of their traumatic past being inflicted by those very strong emotions. Mental-health professionals also often guide clients in finding a way to have each aspect of them coexist and work together. The goal of achieving a more peaceful coexistence of each part of the person's sense of self is quite different than the reintegration of all those aspects into just one identity state. While reintegration used to be the goal of psychotherapy, it has frequently been found to leave individuals with DID feeling as if the goal of the practitioner is to get rid of, or "kill," parts of them. Hypnosis is sometimes used to help increase the information that the person with DID has about their symptoms/identity states, thereby increasing the control they have over those states when they change from one personality state to another. That is said to occur by enhancing the communication that each aspect of the person's identity has with the others. In this age of insurance companies regulating the health care that most Americans receive, having time-limited, multiple periods of psychotherapy rather than intensive long-term care provides what may be another effective treatment option for people with DID. Medications are often used to address the many other mental-health conditions that individuals with DID tend to have, like depression, severe anxiety, anger, and impulse-control problems. However, particular caution is appropriate when treating people with DID with medications because any effects they may experience, good or bad, may cause the sufferer of DID to feel like they are being controlled, and therefore traumatized yet again. As DID is often associated with episodes of severe depression, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can be a viable treatment when the combination of psychotherapy and medication does not result in adequate relief of symptoms. Introduction Nowadays there are an increasing number of people who are diagnosed with mental illness; one of these diseases is the Split Personality Disorder or the Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). But many of us did not recognized the existence of DID, some of us think that patients with DID are just acting. Split-personality is a very rare dissociative disorder. It usually develops when a person is very stressed in childhood, or undergoes some type of abuse, sexual or physical. The primary characteristic of the disorder is when there is an existence of more than one distinct identity or personality within a person. The different identities then “take control” over the person at different times and the real identity is pushed away. There really isn’t a perfect treatment yet for people with DID, most individuals who develop DID usually try to keep it a secret and do not seek medical help. Also it is difficult to diagnose because you have to determine if it really is a separate personality the person has or if they are acting. When someone truly does have DID it can take years of treatment to cure the patient. “Me, Myself & Irene” is a 2000 American comedy film directed by the Farrelly Brothers, and starring Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger. Chris Cooper, Robert Forster, Richard Jenkins, Daniel Greene, Anthony Anderson, Jerod Mixon, and Mongo Brownlee co- star. The film is about a Rhode Island state trooper named Charlie who, after years of continuously suppressing his rage and feelings, suffers a psychotic breakdown which results in a second personality “Me, Myself & Irene” was titled as such because the main character, Charlie Baileygates, played by Jim Carrey, is diagnosed with a split personality. At some point in the movie, he develops a second personality, and that personality was named Hank. The only common thing about them is Irene, whom they both fall in love with. Charlie, a nice guy cop, kept his anger with himself even if the people are abusing him. But when he cannot control his anger anymore, Hank, a rude and violent one, comes out as his second personality. Throughout the movie, viewers are able to see the symptoms of someone with split personality, and they can see how it can affect their daily life. Synopsis The film follows Charlie Baileygates, a Rhode Island State Police trooper who has been taken advantage of by people throughout most of his life. Immediately after his marriage, his wife, Layla, cheats on him with a black dwarf limo driver who, like Layla, is a member of Mensa. Although Charlie's friends try informing him of his wife's infidelity, he still denies the possibility. Layla eventually runs off with the limo driver; leaving Charlie to raise three illegitimate sons that are the products of Layla's adulterous affair with the limo driver. The affair leaves Charlie emotionally damaged to such the extent that he lets himself be abused by others. Despite him being a police officer, the citizens reject his authority with open scorn. After some time of continuous abuse by the people around him, his anger builds up, and Charlie develops a rude and violent split personality named Hank, caused by "Advanced Delusionary Schizophrenia with involuntary Narcissistic rage." The psychiatrist prescribes him a medicine to keep his double personality suppressed. Believing that Charlie needs a vacation, the force tells him to escort a woman named Irene Waters to Massena, New York because it was reported that she committed a hit and run that was actually committed by Dick, Irene's partner. When some hit men arrive with a contract on Irene's life, Charlie agrees to help her. They manage to escape while two United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agents are killed by the hit men. Charlie leaves his medicine behind during the escape from the hit men, causing his alter ego, Hank, to surface any time he wants. The FBI suspects that Charlie is responsible for the assassination of the two EPA agents. While pretending to work with the police to find their father, Charlie's sons throw the police off his father's trail, and they proceed to steal a police helicopter to get to Charlie before the police get him. Meanwhile, Dick orders some corrupt agents bribed to kill both Charlie and Irene. After they fail miserably, Dick decides to settle the matter by himself. During the confrontation with Dick, Charlie manages to eliminate the alternate personality, Hank. Eventually, he manages to stop Dick, and put an end to the corruption. With Hank gone, and all the members of the conspiracy behind bars, the movie ends with Charlie and Irene together. CHARLIE HANK EVANS/ BAILEYGATES HANK BAILEYGATES He is a Rhode Island State Police Trooper who has been taken advantage of by people throughout most of his life. Immediately after his marriage, his wife, Layla, cheats on him with a black dwarf limo driver who, like Layla, is a member of Mensa. Although Charlie's friends try informing him of his wife's infidelity, he still denies the possibility. After some time of continuous abuse by the people around him, his anger builds up, and Charlie develops a rude and violent split personality named Hank. He is the hyper-aggressive alter ego of Charlie Baileygates. He is caused by "Advanced Delusionary Schizophrenia with involuntary Narcissistic rage”. Hank is the polar opposite of Charlie, being outrageous, mean, short-tempered, feeling macho, loves dirty sex and always ready to pick up fights. He do things that Charlie won’t do. She is a beautiful woman Charlie is assigned to escort to a prison upstate in New York. She was accused of committing hit-and- run which his ex-boyfriend had committed. Later on the film, she fell in love with Charlie. He is an employee at the restaurant where Charlie and Irene had eaten. He is an albino who joined the adventure of Charlie and Irene. He pretended that he killed his entire family with a hammer for he was afraid that Charlie’s split personality might hurt him. Later on the story, he saved Charlie from Dick, Irene’s ex- boyfriend. She is the ex- wife of Charlie. Right after their marriage, she cheated on Charlie with Shonte. She is also a member of Mensa, an organization for people with very high IQs. Shonté Jackson (Tony Cox) He is a black dwarf limo driver who like Layla, is a member of Mensa. He is the biological father of Jamal, Lee Harvey and Shonte Jr.. They are Jamal, Lee Harvey and Shonte Jr. Sons of Layla and Shonte but the two left Charlie to raise the kids. The kids grew up with Charlie and though he’s not their real father, they loved Charlie so much. Like their real parents, these three have high IQs. They are foul-mouthed wiz kids. Jamal Baileygates (Anthony Anderson) He is one of the triplets. He is a son of Layla and Shonte. They grew up with Charlie and even though he’s not their real father, they loved Charlie so much. Lee Harvey Baileygates (Mongo Brownlee) He is also one of the triplets. They grew up with Charlie and like his brothers, they loved Charlie so much. He is also a body builder. Shonté Jr. Baileygates (Jerod Mixon) He is also one of the triplets. They grew up with Charlie and like his brothers, they loved Charlie so much. Like his brothers, he also have a high IQ. Dickie Thurman (Daniel Greene) He is Irene's ex-boyfriend. He is actually the one who committed hit-and- run. Dick ordered some corrupt agents bribed to kill both Charlie and Irene. Lieutenant Gerke (Chris Cooper) He is a friend of Dickie Thurman. He leads the corrupt agents hired by Dickie Thurman to kill Irene and Charlie. Colonel Partington (Robert Forster) He is the colonel at Rhode Island. He is also one of Charlie's friends. He assigned Charlie to escort Irene to a prison in New York. Psychodynamics
Charlie Baileygates, a Rhode Island State
Police trooper has always been taken advantage of by people throughout most of his life. Immediately after his marriage, his wife, Layla, cheated on him with a black dwarf limo driver. Although his friends tried informing him of his wife's infidelity, he still denies the fact. Layla eventually runs off with the limo driver; leaving Charlie to raise three illegitimate sons that are the products of Layla's adulterous affair with the limo driver. A typical man would usually get angry upon knowing the infidelity of his wife but it’s different with Charlie. Instead of getting mad, he just let his wife go away. He didn’t get angry nor became sad. Despite of that flat response, the affair leaves Charlie emotionally damaged to such the extent that he lets himself be abused by others. That incident was the greatest emotional crisis he had encountered. Later on, despite him being a police officer, the citizens reject his authority. They would usually mocked and ignored him. At first, he felt like he was going to burst so he decided to confess with the priest about the anger he felt. But even the priest of their town who also knows his story just laughed at him upon recognizing him. After some time of continuous abuse by the people around him, his anger builds up, and Charlie develops a rude and violent split personality named Hank, caused by Advanced Delusionary Schizophrenia with involuntary Narcissistic rage. Hank, an abusive, violent, sexually compulsive police officer and he would do what Charlie won’t do. Having split personality is a dissociative identity disorder. Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities known as alter egos, each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment. The diagnosis requires that at least two personalities routinely take control of the individual's behavior with an associated memory loss that goes beyond normal forgetfulness. In Charlie’s case, he developed dissociative identity disorder due to the severe psychological trauma brought by his ex-wife exacerbated by the other stressful events caused by his fellow citizens. Based on the Development theory, dissociation becomes a coping mechanism for Charlie when faced with further stressful situations. Hank comes out whenever Charlie was being stressed, mocked or insulted. Narcissistic rage is a reaction to narcissistic injury. It is when the narcissist feels degraded by another person. When the narcissist's grandiose sense of self-worth is perceivably being attacked by another person (typically in the form of criticism)the narcissist's natural reaction is to rage and pull down the self-worth of others to make the narcissist feel superior to them. It is an attempt by the narcissist to soothe their internal pain and hostility, while at the same time rebuilding their own self-worth. In the case of Charlie, he goes into Narcissistic rage whenever he was insulted or he sees something unlawful which is also related that narcissists are also perfectionists. Narcissistic rage is frequently short-term, and passes when the narcissist rationalizes the shame that they felt. Depressions are interrupted by rages because things are not going their way because responses are not forthcoming in the way they expected and needed. That’s why for them to avoid depression, they would go into rage and alter egos may come out. Narcissists may even search for conflict to find a way to alleviate pain or suffering just like in the case of Charlie. His alter ego Hank was always ready to fight other people. Rage comes in many forms, but all pertain to the same important thing, revenge. The first time Hank came out, he made revenge to all the people who just ignored and insulted Charlie that day. This rage impairs their cognition , therefore impairing their judgment. . There was an incident in the movie that Charlie thought that a healthy individual parked in the lane for disabled. Because of that, he became judgmental and he turned into Hank Evans. He broke the car’s glass and inflicted damages to the car but went away upon discovering that the man parked on that lane for he fetch a disabled man. During the rage they are prone to shouting, fact distortion and making groundless accusations. Two specific identified forms of narcissistic rage are explosive and passive- aggressive. The explosive form being an obvious anger, for example was damaging property or harming people and being verbally abusive. The passive- aggressive sort might be sulking or giving their target the silent treatment. They can become enraged to the point of being homicidal especially if he/she has the need to seek revenge. Narcissistic rage is usually short-term, but can provoke problems with those towards whom the anger is targeted. In the case of Charlie, he belongs to the explosive form. Whenever he became Hank Evans, he would always start a fight, destroy properties and always talk in an insulting manner Psychopathology Conclusion
“Me, Myself & Irene” was a comedy film. It has an
entertaining way of presenting a person with split personality. But they also show the viewer the effects of this disease to a person’s life. Charlie changes to Hank in just a few seconds. The change of personality was happening when Charlie gets into an annoying situation. He then acts as totally different individual, he starts to confront people in their wrong doings and he is also offending people with his acts. The viewers see how hard it is to have DID. It has a great effect in the life of the patient having it. The people around you cannot distinguish who you really are. Your other personality might also involve you on some criminal acts and other embarrassing situations that you cannot remember because one of the symptoms of DID is the loss of memory when his/her other personality takes over him/her. It helps us to realize how it is important to convey your feelings to somebody. We must show to other if they offend us or they makes us angry. It is necessary for us to bring out our inner feelings to avoid psychological problems. We should take good care of our mental health. Medication was important in controlling split personality disorder based on the movie. Hank takes over with Charlie easily, when he was not able to take his medications. But there is no definite treatment with this disorder. Therapies can be a great help to patient with DID. Recommendation
The movie was educational, it shows about
DID, which is discussed in Psychiatric Health Nursing. Viewers can learn about split personality disorder while having fun. They can see the signs and symptoms of DID here in the movie. We will recommend this movie to other viewers, especially to Nursing and Psychology students, who are interested to see how it is to have a split personality disorder. It can help them to understand split personality further and if they desire for an additional movie regarding this disease, we also recommend them the movie “The Three Faces of Eve.” We also recommend this to our clinical instructors and other nurses for reference of DID. And also for entertainment. Suggestion
The movie describes well the symptoms of the
disease but we suggest that they should add some details regarding the treatment of the disease. They can add some scenes where Charlie went to a doctor for check-up. And we think that they should tell the name of the medication Charlie was taking. Future Perspective
This movie is beneficial depending on the situation
that might be encountered by a person in the future , because, some of us , most especially those who are in the medical field, have possibilities of encountering people who experiences the case of Charlie – slit personality. If this will happen, we understand the reasons for this people who are studying about the split personality disorder could use this movie to be reference of their study and could contribute, even for a bit in thinking of solutions for this problem.