Divyanshu Yaduvanshi
M. Night Shyamalan’s movie “Split” is an engaging thriller depicting as the name suggest split personality, a colloquial name for the Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) in which there is presence of at least 2-3 distinct personality states in an individual (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; as cited in Malley, 2017). Although the movie focused and centred around DID for the most part, it also had hints of Personality Disorder (PD) within each identity. The movie tried to achieve the over-dramatisation of every 24 identities living inside the body of Kevin Wendell Crumb by implicitly raising the question of PDs showing comorbidity with DID. This blog will further go into the nuances of co-occurrence of PDs with DID by also critically analysing the portrayal of different PDs among Kevin’s identities.
When an individual has certain inflexible and maladaptive personality traits wherein they are either unable to function or meet the demands of their culture then they are labeled to have PD (Hooley et al., 2021). The movie split showed 24 dissociative identities within Kevin’s body which was more or less an appropriate portrayal of DID but at the same time each identity as argued by the psychologist in the movie, Dr Karen Fletcher had its own physical traits as well as personality and thereby were also showing signs of different PDs.
The plot of the movie revolves around Kevin’s identities working together to kidnap 3 teenage girls and then trying to murder them which is where psychologists criticise the psychological validity and argue might be a wrong portrayal of DID because the patients in this disorder pose a threat to themselves and not to others. Hence, Clyman (2017) argues that one of the possible reasons for such a portrayal might be because the different identities had a shade of PDs like Antisocial, Avoidant, and Borderline Personality Disorders along with DID. Simultaneously, the movie highlights the different identities taking charge of Kevin’s body when they individually get the ‘light’ and showed that most of them were aware of each other and treated the rest as another individual in real life. The following section of this blog will briefly go over analysing the PDs as portrayed through Kevin’s different identities and the reasons why they fit the diagnosis for personality disorders.
The identity which got the most ‘light’ in the movie was that of Dennis whose identity can be argued to have been under the purview of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). Dennis characterises a lot of traits of ASPD some of which included violating the rights of others, deceitfulness, aggression, and antisocial behaviours (Hooley et al., 2021). Dennis did not have empathy for others which was evident when he asked the girls to remove their clothes in front of him and also showed aggression throughout the movie. The people diagnosed with ASPD are often associated with unlawful activities which was also a characteristic of Dennis’s personality which included forcing teenage girls to dance half naked, kidnapping, and even becoming an accessory in murder. Additionally, Dennis’s identity emerged for the first time during Kevin’s childhood when he was being physically abused by his mother which is a strong causal factor for ASPD since the prevalence of this disorder increases when exposed to any past trauma as argued by Hooley et al. (2021). Simultaneously, in the movie it was shown that in one of the sessions Dr Fletcher argues that the repressed identity of Dennis came into light when two teenage girls did a sexual prank with Barry (another identity of Kevin) which brought Dennis back in the light and took the center stage thereafter which is again a relevant casual factor for ASPD (Hooley et al., 2021).
Similarly, Barry’s identity was portrayed as having Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) due to his exaggerated sense of self-importance, a preoccupation with being admired and a slightly extroverted nature. This was evidenced when Barry was shown as an extrovert person who was into his looks and wore all the latest fashionable clothes, tendency to overestimate one’s own abilities, accomplishments and showed extreme grandiosity. He was also portrayed as a dominant leader since he was the one who was deciding who would get the ‘light’ among the different identities of Kevin before Dennis and Patricia took over which according to Hooley et al. (2021) gave clear signs of NPD.
Simultaneously, Hooley et al. (2021) argues that individuals with Avoidant Personality Disorder show introversion, social inhibition, fear of criticism, disapproval, require others attention and are often lonely. All these fit the characteristics of Hedwig in the movie who seeks the approval of Dennis and Patricia, and is lonely but at the same time wants company of others, and is shown as shy. Furthermore, Hedwig’s identity suggests that he is nine years old which further suggests the prognosis of Avoidant Personality Disorder due to its high prevalence in children.
The Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) characteristics include affective instability, impulsivity, and rapid shift from one emotional state to another which is due to the environmental triggers (Hooley et al., 2021). An experiment conducted by Ross et al. (2014) is one of a kind in which they tried to argue the co-occurrence of DID and BPD. One of the findings by them included that BPD showed comorbidity with DID and the participant scores on trauma increased when both of them co-occurred together. This research throws light onto the question of whether PD can co-occur with DID although this research was limited to BPD but further research can also look into other PDs as well. Furthermore, the movie also showcased Ms Patricia’s character with a few signs of BPD like impulsivity, anger, and emotional instability.
Hence, the movie Split is more than just portraying DID but also showcasing PDs and gives a rather apt description of different identities who might have a particular personality disorder. Although the evidence for the same is limited since there was lesser screen time for a lot of the other identities and judging or labelling a disorder solely on that basis might prove to be more harmful in the clinical field. On the other hand, the movie along with explicitly reflecting the theme of recognising DID as a separate mental disorder from other disorders in DSM-5 also resonate implicitly with the theme of PDs being comorbid with DID. Thus, the movie Split also paved the way for future research into the field of co-occurrence of DID with PD and thereby leading to better understanding of both these disorders and in turn their treatment.
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