An analysis of the representation of Dissociative Identity
By Joely Johnson
Disorder in four Hollywood movies
Who D.I.D It?
The Movies
This page gives background of the four movies I analyzed for this research project. I include movie posters, trailers or clips, a still image from the movie, and my summaries of each film.
The Three Faces of Eve
(1957)
Directed by Nunnally Johnson
The Three Faces of Eve follows the mental health journey of Eve White; a quiet, meek mother and wife who lives to take care of her family. After Mrs. White's daughter Bonnie is found wrapped up in the strings of the blinds, calling for help from her father, Mr. White takes Eve to the psychiatrist, where Eve complains of splitting headaches followed by blackouts of long periods of time, in which she cannot remember anything she does.
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After beginning treatment, Eve exposes her second identity, Eve Black. Mrs. Black claims she is not married, not a mother, and is very outspoken. She spends her evenings going out drinking and dancing, and flirting with men. Eve Black says that she hates Eve White's husband, as he is very abusive and controlling.
After two years of treatment, a divorce, and a separation of Eve and her family, a third personality emerges. She doesn't seem to know anything about her identity. She names herself Jane. She is kind on her visits with Bonnie, and confident and driven. Eve White likes Jane, and hopes that she becomes the main identity when it is her time to go.
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In a therapy session, Eve's therapist hypnotizes Eve to go back in time to when she was a child, to address her trauma, in which she remembers that her mother made her kiss her dead grandmother's body during her funeral. After hypnotherapy, both Eve White and Eve Black disappear, leaving Jane the only personality. Jane and Bonnie are reunited, she remarries, and lives a normal life from then on.
Three Faces of Eve Movie Poster
Photo Retrieved From: iTunes
​Eve White, Mr. White, and Dr. Luther talking at Eve's therapy session
Photo Retrieved From: Rotten Tomatoes
Fun Facts:
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release date: September 18, 1957
Budget: $965,000
Box Office: $1.4 million
Awards: Academy Award for Best Actress goes to Joanne Woodward, who plays Eve White.
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Identity movie poster
Photo Retrieved From: HellHorror.com
Identity
(2003)
Directed by James Mangold
Identity follows the misfortune of a bunch of travelers caught in a rain storm. After a car accident rendering one of them hurt, they find refuge in a creepy old motel, and the 10 travelers get rooms to wait out the storm. Each of them begins to get picked off one by one, and are suspected to have been murdered, as each death is more gruesome than the last. Each body found is accompanied by a subsequent room key. (1st person to die, room key 9. 2nd Person to die, room key 8, and so on).
Every once in a while we flash back to this man, tied down to a chair, shifting eyes, being interrogated by doctors and cops, as he is set to be executed the next day for being a serial killer. His name is Malcom, and he is said to have a severe case of Dissociative Identity Disorder, and one of his personalities is the killer.
We discover that through this drug therapy, Malcom's personalities will all meet for the first time, and Malcom is expected to kill off all of his personalities until he is left with a nice personality who will not continue his killing spree in real life. We find that the hotel scene is in his mind, his way of killing off all of his personalities - the ten individuals in the hotel. If he kills off all of the personalities, Malcom will be seen as fit to go to a mental facility and not get killed.
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After many personalities are killed, we are left with just one, a woman named Paris. We think that Paris is safe, and Malcom is taken off of death row. We then flash to Paris digging in her garden, where she finds room key 1, and she is then killed by the young boy from the motel, one of the personalities we are led to believe is dead, but had not actually died. The final personality remaining is the killer. He takes over Malcom's mind, and kills the people transporting him to the mental facility.
Malcom Rivers during his therapy session
Photo Retrieved From: My Geek Blasphemy Blog
Fun Facts:
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release date: April 25, 2003
Budget: $28 Million
Box Office: $90.2 Million
Awards: Nominated for Best Action, Adventure, or Thriller Film and Best DVD Special Edition Release at the Saturn Awards​
Sybil
(2007)
Directed by Joseph Sargent
Sybil follows the story of young art student Sybil, who is going to school in New York. One moment, she is in class, dropping a glass. The next moment, she wakes up in Philadelphia. Having spent a weeks worth of nights in a hotel, with no recollection of what had happened to her.
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When she goes back to school, Sybil's teacher is concerned with her disappearance over the past week, and sends her to a doctor, worried for her well being. This doctor labels her a hysteric, suffering from "women's problems," who would benefit from help from a woman doctor, Dr. Wilbur.
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While visiting her new doctor, Sybil's personalities begin to emerge, each seeming to deal with a different emotion of Sybil's person - Peggy Lou handles anger, Vicky likes to live the lavish life and buy things, Ruthie deals with childhood trauma, and so on. Sybil has 16 alters.
The male doctors write off the idea of Sybil having multiple personalities, saying that she is probably just dealing with her menstrual cycle. They write off the work of Dr. Wilbur, and say that she is ridiculous for continuing to work with Sybil.
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Dr. Wilbur takes Sybil back to her hometown to discover more about her past. She learns that Sybil was mentally, physically, and sexually abused by her mentally ill mother in her childhood. Leading her to develop these personalities at a young age.
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Through Hypnotherapy, Dr. Wilbur convinces Sybil's 16 personalities to age to the same age as Sybil, hoping that this will mature them not to act out so much.
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In the end we are told that Sybil's personalities never fully went away, and she died a "recluse," under the name Shirley Ardell Mason, in 1998.
Sybil movie poster
Photo Retrieved From: IMDB
Fun Facts:
Production: Warner Bros. Television
Distributed by: CBS
Release date: May 8, 2007
It was later reported that Sybil's 16 personalities were completely made up, and that she did not have Dissociative Identity Disorder to begin with.
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Split
(2016)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Split follows the kidnapping of three young girls, perpetrated by a man named Kevin. Kevin takes them to a scary underground facility and locks them each in a separate room, in which they learn that Kevin has many different personalities. 23, to be exact. Each of these 23 personalities serves a purpose for Kevin - and all of them are preparing for the 24th personality, The Beast, to emerge.
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Kevin continues to have appointments with his therapist, Dr. Fletcher, and she notices that he is acting different than usual. She decides to pay a visit to his home, and learns that he kidnapped the girls, and she begins her search to try and save them.
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The girls were kidnapped by one of Kevin's personalities to use as sacrifices to "The Beast." And two of them end up eaten by The Beast in an attempt to escape, and the beast kills the therapist as well.
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The one girl who is left is running around trying to hide from The Beast, and she finds a gun. She shoots at him twice, but finds that the gun has no effect on him. Becoming his final form of the 24th personality gave him superhuman abilities.
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The beast sees that the final girl has also gone through hardships, so he decides to sacrifice her life and he escapes. She is saved from the place they were kept in and goes back to her life, while Kevin is running amok as The Beast.
This movie was a sequel to Unbreakable, and the third movie, Glass, came out in 2019. This is a thriller and superhero trilogy, meaning that Kevin's DID is actually him developing his super powers.
Split movie poster
Photo Retrieved From: IMDB
Fun Facts:
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release date: September 26, 2016
Budget: $9 million
Box Office: $278.5 million
Split has been revealed to be the second installation of a super hero trilogy, following Unbreakable (2000)
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Kevin as his 24th personality, The Beast
Photo Retrieved From: Bustle
