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DID in films

 Here’s a list of films that include characters with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or portray aspects of the condition. Note that the accuracy and sensitivity of these portrayals vary widely, and many have been criticized for perpetuating harmful stereotypes:


Voices Within stream on Moviephone
A woman who suffers from multiple personality disorder is found during therapy to have suffered child abuse in this fact-based story.
also on Kindle and Everand

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): Truddi Chase, New York Times best-selling author of When Rabbit Howls. Read more: https://traumadissociation.com/did-osdd/top-10-multiple-personality-did-movies.html


Sybil (1976 DVD & 2007 JustWatch)

Based on the true story of Shirley Ardell Mason, this film depicts the journey of a woman with DID and her therapy sessions.  The 2007 version is highly truncated.

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. Read more: https://traumadissociation.com/did-osdd/top-10-multiple-personality-did-movies.html

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Frankie & Alice (2010) view on prime video

Halle Berry plays a woman with DID struggling to reconcile her multiple identities, including one that expresses racism, which contrasts sharply with her core identity.
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. Read more: https://traumadissociation.com/did-osdd/top-10-multiple-personality-did-movies.html


see below
Three Faces of Eve (1957) view on prime video

Loosely based on a real case, this classic film explores a woman with three distinct personalities.
See: Multiple Personality Disorder Real Psychiatric Interview with Eve White Eve Black and Jane
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. Read more: https://traumadissociation.com/did-osdd/top-10-multiple-personality-did-movies.html


see below
Split (2016)

Though entertaining, this thriller by M. Night Shyamalan has been criticized for portraying DID in a highly sensationalized and inaccurate manner.

Villain Therapy: SPLIT and Dissociative Identity Disorder

MoonKnight (on Apple tv)

Psychology of a Hero: MOON KNIGHT and Dissociative Identity Disorder



Identity (2003) view on prime video

A psychological thriller where the twist involves multiple personalities within one person.
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. Read more: https://traumadissociation.com/did-osdd/top-10-multiple-personality-did-movies.html


see below
The United States of Tara (2009–2011) (TV Series) view on Hulu

A more nuanced portrayal of DID through a comedic-drama lens, following a suburban mom with multiple alters.


Primal Fear (1996) view on prime video
A legal thriller involving a character accused of murder who may have DID.


Fight Club (1999) view on prime video
While not explicitly about DID, the main character struggles with a split between his conscious self and an alter ego.
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. Read more: https://traumadissociation.com/did-osdd/top-10-multiple-personality-did-movies.html



Mr. Robot (2015–2019) (TV Series) view on prime video
Features a character whose dissociation plays a significant role in the narrative.
see below
Me, Myself & Irene (2000)
A comedy starring Jim Carrey, this film blends the concept of split personalities with over-the-top humor, though not an accurate depiction of DID.


Raising Cain (1992) view on prime
A psychological thriller where DID is central to the plot but portrayed in a dramatic and exaggerated manner.


Shutter Island (2010) view on prime
While the character does not have DID, the film delves deeply into dissociation and trauma-related disorders.


Secret Window (2004) view on prime video
A thriller with dissociation elements and a major twist involving identity.



Persona (1966) view on prime video subtitled
A complex psychological drama often analyzed for themes of identity and self-fragmentation.

Never Talk To Strangers view on prime video
Criminal psychologist falls for a charming, mysterious stranger, while at the same time unexplained, terrifying incidents begin occurring. 

Separate Lives view on prime video
James Belushi is a ex cop that wants to become a therapist. Linda Hamilton is his instructor. When she starts noticing that strange things are happening to her, she asks him to follow her around and record what she does. The secret that she is hiding from herself might be enough to tear her apart, if someone doesn't help her first.

A train accident in rural Nebraska gradually unveils a mystery involving the town's bank clerk.

Brilliant neurosurgeon Jason Cole must battle with his own alter-ego, Ian Price, in order to live a normal life in this modern take on Jekyll and Hyde.

see below
What If It Works?  view on prime video
Adrian, an irrepressibly chirpy tech nerd, has OCD. Grace, a beautiful street artist, has multiple personality disorder. It's a love story that seems impossible. But what if it works?

David & Lisa 1962 streaming on Pluto TV
David and Lisa tells the story of a bright young man suffering from a mental illness which, among other symptoms, has instilled in him a fear of being touched. This lands him in a residential treatment center, where he meets Lisa, a similarly ill young woman who displays a split personality.

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. Read more: https://traumadissociation.com/did-osdd/top-10-multiple-personality-did-movies.html

David & Lisa 1998 watch on Moviephone
Lukas Haas portays David, a withdrawn but apparent near genius, who fears being touched. Brittney Murphy plays Lisa, a young woman seemingly suffering from split personalities who speaks only in rhymes and withdraws from anyone who doesn't speak to her likewise. Meeting in the psychiatric ward, the two's eyes lock and an obvious attraction is indicated. First each must learn to approach each other in their own sphere. Enter Sidney Poitier as a caring psychologist who helps David to come to terms with his emotional failure to deal with his father's death at an early age. Debi Mazar also appears as Lisa's case worker.

Mr. Brooks 
"Kevin Costner may seem a strange choice to play an emotionally complex character like this, but he pulls it off quite well. Although the plot is a bit generic (a respected gentleman tries to cover up the fact that he is also a serial killer), it is handled pretty successfully, as we watch the constantly conflicted anti-hero trying to suppress the violent urges that overwhelm him from time to time, and hide them from his unsuspecting family at the same time."

Shattered Mind find on JustWatch
Heather Locklear stars in this psychological thriller as a woman who is racked by multiple personalities and confronts a horrifying past of dark secrets buried a long time ago. When her father dies she descends into a bizarre emotional world where she lashes out at her husband and two young daughters.

6 Souls view on prime video

see below

A forensic psychiatrist discovers that all but one of her patient's multiple personalities are murder victims. She will have to find out what's happening before her time is finished.

All Around Town  stream on JustWatch
A young woman, seemingly good but still psychologically disturbed from being kidnapped as a little girl, becomes the obvious suspect in a murder. 

A contemporary prequel to Psycho, giving a portrayal of how Norman Bates' psyche unravels through his teenage years, and how deeply intricate his relationship with his mother, Norma, truly is.

 

Crowded Room tv series view on Apple tv
In Manhattan in the summer of 1979, a young man is arrested for a shocking crime, and an unlikely investigator must solve the mystery behind it before the true criminal strikes again. 
See also:
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. Danny Sullivan (Tom Holland) is interrogated by a psychology professor (Amanda Seyfried), who gradually helps make sense of his confusing story.… Read More (453 words) Milligan's true story is told in the documentary Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan. Read more: https://traumadissociation.com/did-osdd/top-10-multiple-personality-did-movies.html

The Great Artist view on moviephone
A gifted artist finds himself in a broken balance between creating world class art and the all too silent struggle of self care as his life begins to unravel because of his Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Petals of a Rose  view here
A woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder struggles to prevent her parts from getting triggered on Valentine's Day.

Hide and Seek



Waking Madison view on JustWatch
A woman suffering from multiple personality disorder tries to piece back together her life.
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. Read more: https://traumadissociation.com/did-osdd/top-10-multiple-personality-did-movies.html 

 

Madison is a resident of New Orleans and has suicidal tendencies. To overcome her mental instability, she meets up with Dr. Elizabeth, who often videotapes her patient’s interviews. During her interviews, Madison reveals to Dr. Elizabeth about her alter egos while being them – Madison herself, Alexis, Grace, Margaret, and a little blonde girl. As Madison meanders through her past and realizes the horrid things she has done, she decides to lock herself inside her apartment and videotape everything that happens inside. After the 30th day, when Madison heads out to meet the doctor, she realizes that it was her who had the DID and the fact that she was presenting herself as the four other personalities. Later on, it is revealed to the audience that even Dr. Elizabeth is an alter ego of Madison. Gritty yet shocking and unpredictable towards the end, ‘Waking Madison’ is a one-time-watch. Source


The Entropy System reviews:
Me, Myself & Irene
Identity
Frankie & Alice
Split
The Entropy system reviews:
Sybil remake
Three Faces of Eve
6 Souls
What if it Works?
A forensic psychiatrist discovers that all but one of her patient's multiple personalities are murder victims. She will have to find out what's happening before her time is finished.

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