Written and published by Kasianna PAGES and Eléonore KEREUN
- INTRODUCTION
In 2016, the American psychological thriller of M. Night Shyamalan was released in the Fantastic Fest, an annual Texan film festival then in the USA in 2017 (Thurman, 2018). Split is part of a trilogy after Unbreakable and Glass by the same author, in which the main characters are endowed with superpowers. In addition, Split was an international success, with a cast that included James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy and Betty Buckley among others. This movie features a man affected by a dissociative identity disorder, who kidnaps three girls and keeps them in a basement to “prepare” them for “the beast” a superhuman abilities identity. He is followed by a psychologist who tries to help his system of 23 identities, but she tragically passes away when she tries to prevent the emergence of the 24th, the “beast”.
In this writing we will present our psychopathological analysis of the main character Kevin Wendell Crumb. Then, we will propose a critic of the staging of DID and the stereotypes that arise from it.
- PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
2.1 THE CHARACTER’S DIAGNOSIS IN TERMS OF DSM-5
Kevin Wendell Crumb, the main character in the film SPLIT, suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID) with 23 different personalities. The film features seven identities, all different in age, gender and personality, including Barry, Dennis, Patricia, Hedwig, Jade, Orwell, and the Beast.
Referring to the DSM-5 (2015), dissociative identity disorder is characterized by the disruption of identity with the presence of at least two distinct personality states or possession experience. Thus, Kevin fits this description with his 23 personalities living inside him, and the alteration of identity is clearly evident in the scenes of the film.
The second diagnostic criterion for dissociative identity disorder is recurrent episodes of amnesia. This second DSM-5 (2015) criterion involves recurrent gaps in recall of everyday events, important personal information and/or traumatic events that are incompatible with ordinary forgetting. According to Kevin’s psychiatrist, a darker 24th personality more threatening than all the others, called “the Beast”, still remains buried within him. When the Beast becomes the primary identity, Kevin has no memory of the events that occurred while he was dominated by the Beast.
In addition, individuals with this disorder typically report having experienced multiple forms of abuse in childhood or adulthood (APA, 2022). In the film, Kevin reports traumatic childhood memories that may be one of the main causes of his multiple identities. Indeed, in a flashback scene, Kevin’s mother appears to be very angry, yelling at Kevin as he hides under the bed and physically abusing him to the point that viewers can see the fear on his face. Thus, he would have developed different identities to escape and cope with the traumatic experience. Indeed, one of his identities named Dennis would come to the rescue of Kevin’s original personality to please his mother about cleanliness so that he would not be beaten.
2.2 FICTION VERSUS CLINICAL REALITY
Although this film makes DID visible, its scripted representation is in fact truncated and stigmatises people with the disorder in real life. It is in addressing the identity of “The Beast” that fiction begins to take over clinical reality. Indeed, in reality, it is not possible for an individual to defy physical laws as well as exceed the limits of their own body. In the film, The Beast gains muscle mass within minutes, becomes immune to bullets and other weapons, and acquires the ability to climb walls. The violence is repeated over and over again, but in reality, a person with DID is overwhelmingly more dangerous to himself than to others. Indeed, DID develops in individuals in real life as a coping mechanism to deal with trauma.
Those actually affected by DID are served by the protagonist’s violent social representation and almost animal-like evolution. The behaviors associated with the disorder embodied by the main character are not generalisable to other DID sufferers.
- CONCLUSION
As a whole, the film Split did a good job of representing dissociative identity disorder according to the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria: distinct personality states, recurrent memory gaps and childhood trauma. However, the film goes beyond clinical reality by adding a touch of scary and violent fiction distorting and stigmatizing the reality of the disorder.
To our mind, this particular Kevin’s behavior gives a terrifying aspect to the story, and this is why people went to see it as a horror film, and why it became successful. Moreover, we think that the main actor was very professional and talented to play the many roles embodied in one person.
Given the significant distress cause by this disorder, treatment seems necessary. Psychotherapies and/or pharmacological treatments may exist with positive results, however this remains a challenge due to the complexity of the disorder and the lack of research on it (Spiegel, 2022).
- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787
Shyamalan, M.-S. (Réalisateur). (2016). SPLIT [Film]. Blinding Edge Pictures and Blumhouse Productions.
Spiegel, D. (2022a, septembre 26). Dissociative Identity Disorder. MSD Manual Professional Edition. Assessed octobre 17 2022, at https://www.msdmanuals.com/professional/psychiatric-disorders/dissociative-disorders/dissociative-identity-disorder
Thurman, T. (2018, 31 october). [Fantastic Fest Review] James McAvoy is the Reason to See M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Split’. Bloody Disgusting ! Assessed october 11 2022, at https://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews/3408190/fantastic-fest-review-split-shyamalan/
5.VOCABULARY
5.1 KEY TERMS
- DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) : TDI (Trouble Dissociatif de l’Identité)
- Disruption of identity: perturbation/rupture de l’identité
- Possession experience: expérience de possession
- To stigmatize: stigmatiser
- Trauma : traumatisme
5.2 WORDS WE HAVE LEARNED
- Cleanliness : la propreté
- Embodied : incarné
- Weapons : armes
- Truncated: tronqué
- Overwhelmingly : en grande majorité