Dissociative Identity Disorder In Frankie And Alice

The movie I chose for this paper is titled Frankie & Alice. The main character, played by Halle Berry, was named Frankie. Frankie had a history of traumatic events that took place as she was growing up which resulted in her being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. Frankie was unaware that she had any type of disorder until she was picked up by police and chose to receive treatment instead of going to jail. The paper includes a synopsis of the movie, along with an analysis of the symptoms Frankie’s character experienced to lead to her diagnosis. Also included are evidences about dissociative identity disorder and what may lead to its diagnoses in an individual. Prevalence of the diagnoses along with treatment selections for the diagnoses is also discussed.

The first myth is that Dissociative Identity Disorder isn’t real. This is false because in 1980 it was released into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). The second myth is that Dissociative Identity Disorder is the same as Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a psychotic illness which does not involve alternate personalities or dissociation. The third myth is that people with Dissociative Identity Disorder are violent, but they are no more violent than “normal” people. The last myth says that Dissociative Identity Disorder is a personality disorder. Dissociative Identity Disorder is a dissociative disorder because instead of extreme emotional reactions with the world, Dissociative Identity Disorder people lose contact with themselves (Peisley, 2017, 1). Dissociative Identity Disorder has also been depicted in many movies. For example, Me, Myself, and Irene with Jim Carrey is about a 17-year veteran of the Rhode Island Police and without his medicine his personalities come out. This is false because no medications can “get rid” of the disorder. Another movie about Dissociative Identity Disorder is Frankie and Alice starring Halle Berry who is a black stripper seeking therapy from an imperious white racist. These two movies are other great examples of misconceptions of Dissociative Identity Disorder.As stated above, this disorder has many different misconceptions of the true meaning of Dissociative Identity Disorder that everybody needs to be aware

Robert Oxnam published an autobiography called A Fractured Mind in order to educate more people about his illness and to introduce a deeper understanding of Dissociative Identity Disorder. In an article written by Bruce Weber of the New York Times, Oxnam explained how writing the book was a timely challenge because each of his alter personalities wrote their chapter of the story in a first-person narrative (Weber, 2005). The reader learns about Dissociative Identity Disorder by being introduced to Oxnam’s alters, watching their interrelationships develop and recognizing the integration of his fragmented mind.

Dissociative Identity Disorder is a disorder distinguished by the existence of two or more distinct personality states. It is also known as DID or Multiple Personality Disorder. It is very rare, with only 20,000 to 200,000 known US cases per year. Currently, there is no known cure, but treatment can sometimes help. Many believe that DID can be caused by a significant trauma and is used as a coping mechanism to help avoid bad memories. The disorders most often form in kids victim to long-term physical, sexual or emotional abuse or, sometimes just a home environment that 's frightening or highly unpredictable. The stress of war or natural disasters close by also can bring on dissociative disorders.

The mental illness called dissociative identity disorder or DID brings up many controversies in the world of psychology. Many psychologists have their doubts as to whether it is a "real" diagnosis or not. In the article "Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Controversial Diagnosis" the author goes into detail, providing facts that have been collected from many sources and gives information as to why it is such a controversial topic. The article answers many questions regarding the topic, providing the reader with enough information to understand why there is such a controversy surrounding this topic.

Dissociative identity disorder can be diagnosed with, “the presence of two of more distinct identities or personalities states (each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self), b. at least two of these identities of personality states recurrently take control of the person’s behavior, c. inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness, d. the disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance or general medical condition”, (Levy & Swanson. 2008. Clinical Assessment of Dissociative Identity Disorder Among College Counseling Clients. p. 11). Physicians argue that the evidence that the patient presents is real, they are looking for something more, or rather dig deeper to diagnose each separately as its own issue. Psychiatrists also argue that criminals may “get off” due to the individual’s alters playing a role in the diagnoses’ everyday life.

Psychology plays an enormous role in Dissociative Identity Disorder it is the way of explaining the disorder and the troubles the victims got through. In “Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Literature Review” by Mcallister, Mcallister states ways in which psychology connects with DID. Phycologists have and continue to study this disorder closely. They explain how this disorder is developed by many abused children. These children

Dissociation is defined as “a mental process, which produces a lack of connection in a person 's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity” (Grohol, 2016). The Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a severe condition in which two or more separate, distinct identities or personality states are present in an individual. In other words, a person has, what seems like, actual distinct and contrasting people in their head and these “alters” are able to take control of an individual’s mind and body at any time and act as a completely different individual. Each alter is capable of having its own set of likes, dislikes, talents, memories, and personal experiences. The alters’ usually have a specific name, age, gender and possibly race. According to Psychology Today (2014), the alters’ characteristics are typically very different from the primary identity, including their history, self-image, vocabulary, knowledge and predominant mood. The primary identity tends to be passive, dependent, guilty and depressed. A person with DID experiences extensive memory loss which is typically more extensive than what would be experienced by ordinary forgetfulness. For instance, if an alter were to take over, once the individual is back in control of his or her own body, they typically report not remembering anything that was done or said. Some individuals report feeling “familiar” with the conversations or experiences that were had by the alter, but as if they had only overheard

This paper will discuss dissociative identity disorder which is one of several dissociative disorders. Dissociative identity disorder has not been around as long as many other mental disorders, the earliest cases of persons reporting dissociative identity disorder symptoms were not recorded until the 1790’s. (Frey R.J., Ph.D. Cataldo L.J., RN, Ed.D. Longe J.L., 2015.). Even though it has not been around for that long psychiatrists are debating whether dissociative identity disorder was previously misdiagnosed and underreported, or currently over diagnosed. (Frey et al 2015.). Psychiatrists may not find out wither if it is over, under or misdiagnosed but people need to know what DID is. People also should

My topic of choice for this research paper is Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID. This appellation is rather new; therefore, most are more familiar with the disorder's older, less technical name: Multiple Personality Disorder or MPD. When first presented with the task of selecting a topic on which to center this paper, I immediately dismissed Dissociative Identity Disorder (which for the sake of brevity will be referred to as DID for the remainder of this paper) as a viable topic due to the sheer scope of the disorder. However after an exhaustive examination of other prospective topics, I found myself back at my original choice. There are several reasons why I chose DID. The foremost of which is the widespread fascination of this

Dissociative identity disorder, otherwise known as DID, is a psychological disorder that is characterized by the presence of multiple personalities, or alters, that co-exist within the same body. Notably, a fundamental component of DID is amnesia, which is the memory loss that occurs during the transition of alters. Despite its classification as a psychological disorder within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, there has been monumental controversy surrounding the legitimacy of dissociative identity disorder and, unfortunately, the media’s highly popular albeit distorted portrayal of DID continues to raise speculations about the disorder to this day. The purpose of this paper is to focus primarily on the fallacies concerning

When children do not get diagnosed with DID at a young age, it can cause the disorder to intensify the personalities as an adult. Adults who have DID have multiple identities within them. These various personalities could range from the typical personality of the person to a change in sex, voice, race, and age (Multiple Personality Disorder). While switching from one personality to the next, a person will enter a dissociative state, which is the disconnection or separation of the mind from physical encounters. This allows a person to feel a sense of safety by having a “defense against the trauma” (Cherry). However, dissociation hinders a person’s ability to remember, and the host will not recall how he/she behaved while in an altered identity. This forgetfulness is part of the amnesia symptom. Even though people with DID have numerous characters inside their bodies, only a select few can remember how other alters act while the dominant personality is gone. Typically the host does not know how each identity behaves. Dissociation and amnesia could also hamper with an individual’s normal functions and cause problems with social interaction

What constitutes someone’s identity as a person? Some may argue that role models or one’s environment can influence a person’s values. Others may differ and remark how one’s experiences in life can determine how one may perceive the world. However, the memories from these experiences may not always positively affect an individual. Instead, a memory or event may be of a severe traumatic event that can unknowingly haunt an individual for the rest of his or her life. These memories will then possess a strong control over one’s life that can alter the way that a person may live their life. For a trauma victim, their life may be plagued by moments of time that may appear to trigger his or her trauma, resulting in an individual losing touch with reality. This experience portrays an altered reality that can make the trauma victim tremble with fear concerning that moment in time where they were at their most vulnerable. The mental state of trauma victims is explored by Martha Stout in her essay, “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday.” Stout, a psychologist, depicts how a number of her clients, trauma victims, from varying degrees of dissociation. Dissociation can affect a trauma victim in many forms, and is often used a method to protect the mental state of a victim from further pain. By allowing the subconscious to take over, the victim does not have to be mentally present for situations that may trigger one’s memory of trauma. This will protect the victim but this level

The arguable claim that I am using in this paper is whether or not Dissociative Identity Disorder is an actual disorder, or if it is an extreme bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. I will be using three main points to prove that this disorder is real. One being comparing people who are suffering from bipolar illness and people with dissociative identity disorder, and sharing their differences and ways to tell them apart. I will also be doing this with schizophrenia, which will be another main point. Finally, I will use the information many different scientists have gathered to prove the realness of this disorder.

Imagine waking up in a new house, town, city, even state and not knowing how you got there. Now add onto that thought of forgetting almost a year of your life because someone else, or something, has taken over your body. That is just a look into dissociative disorders in general. Dissociative Disorders are ‘extreme distortions in perception and memory” (Terwilliger 2013). Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), or previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, is often the most misunderstood dissociative disorder of them all. It has always been somewhat of a mystery. Seeing videos of the disorder can really give you an insight on what happens with the person who suffer from it. Almost everyone in the