Dissociative Identity Disorder as seen in The Blacklist

The Blacklist is an interesting thriller that focuses on capturing the most dangerous and wanted criminals in the world with the help of a former US Navy officer who is now a high-profile criminal, Raymond Reddington. All the episodes are named after the serial number given to each criminal. The episode I would like to discuss today is No. 104 – Lord Baltimore. This episode explains an important disorder that we have studied under personality disorders, that is, disociative identity disorder. It is the only episode in the whole series that explicitly shows the symptoms of a personality disorder.

In this episode, a woman named Nora Mills is suspected of being the so-called ‘Lord Baltimore’, but strangely enough, she is not aware of this. She also shows other forms of behaviour that she is unaware of. When taken back to Nora’s past, we see that she had a twin sister named Rowan Mills. Rowan was a happy, outgoing and well-adjusted child while on the other hand Nora had troubles fitting in and was introverted. This was the beginning of Nora’s jealousy and anger towards her twin sister. It is even revealed that Nora was molested when she was a little girl by her uncle which ends up having detrimental effects on her personality. When they both grow up, Rowan takes up a job as a data engineer at QuanCord analytics while Nora studies marksmanship and starts working for a private security firm active in the middle east. At one point, Nora tries putting pressure on Rowan to use her position in her company to spy on competing security firms. When Rowan refused, Nora assaults her which marks her first act of violence. During Nora’s next assignment in Iraq, they were hit by the Iraq IED and attacked by insurgents. Nora survived but was attacked and abducted and taken to Mosul. She was faced with injustice again which ended up building her hatred for her sister. Her sister never had to suffer any of this. After 3 months, when Nora returns, she kills Rowan looking at how successful she has become in life. Rowan, in Nora’s eyes, was the better twin and the better version of herself. Rowan represented everything Nora could not become.  As soon as she kills Rowan, her personality splits between hers and her sister’s, living most of her life as Rowan. This is the beginning of her dissociative identity disorder. Nora is actually Lord Baltimore who is hired to do criminal activities, but she hides behind the personality of meek, humble and happy Rowan so that her identity is not revealed. It is Nora, who is actually Lord Baltimore.

The amusing symptoms of this disorder which can be seen in this episode are how strikingly different her two personality’s are(just like her own personality and her twin sister’s) and how she is unaware that another side of her exists when she assumes one personality role. She also has a trigger that makes her switch from Rowan back to herself, which is a track that is played by her friend of soothing music. Listening to this music snaps her back to reality in a matter of a few moments. It is important to note that Nora Mills acquires this disorder only later on in her life. It can be seen as a coping mechanism used by Nora after she has murdered her own sister.

Dissociative identity disorder, earlier known as multiple personality disorder, occurs when the personality of an individual gets fragmented into two distinct personality states. The causes of this disorder may be varied. People suffering this disorder have often been victims of sexual or physical abuse in their childhood, as in the case of Nora Mills. They may also occur in individuals whose family members have also suffered this disorder. It also develops as a result of post-traumatic stress and the transition between two personality states also occurs when one is experiencing stress. People with this disorder often suffer memory loss and they feel like they are having an out of body experience in which they are watching themselves, on the outside, engaging in some action. They also feel like they are not in control of their own impulses.

With proper treatment, individuals may be able to improve their functioning in day to day life, but if this does not occur quickly, it may cause major difficulties and put them in a lot of trouble, as it does for Nora. The goal is to unify all the different personalities of the individuals into one.