Dissociation and coping with trauma: One of Lynne Malcolm's favourite programs
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What warning does the episode give about its content and why is it important?
This is an ABC podcast.
Hi, it's All in the Mind on RM Summer. I'm Lynn Malcolm. To mark my years as host on All in the Mind, we're bringing you a series of my favourite programmes. This episode from 2017 deeply intrigued and moved me. It's a compelling personal account of how childhood trauma can lead to multiple identities. and a warning that you may find some aspects of this programme confronting.
My name's Hedwig.
How old are you?
Nine. I've never seen a case like this before. Twenty-three identities live in Kevin's body. Who are you? Help me get out of here, Hedwig. Are you trying to trick me? I'll tell on you. Aren't you the clever one? An individual with multiple personalities can change their body chemistry with their thoughts. Someone's coming for you. Here's
coming.
The beast.
An excerpt from the recently released Hollywood film called Split. It tells a frightening story of three young girls being kidnapped by a disturbed man who has what's known as dissociative identity disorder. The film's done well at the box office, but many people are concerned about the way it portrays this serious psychiatric disorder. I'm
truly appalled, particularly because this movie portrays the person with dissociative identity disorder or as it used to be no multiple personality as a perpetrator of abuse of children. And For the vast majority I would say of people with DID, they have spent, certainly I spent a lifetime doing absolutely everything I could to not be like those people who abused me.
More from Kalina later with her remarkable and brave story of living with dissociative identity disorder.
When you take a mental health issue like dissociative identity disorder, which is a very serious mental health issue related to having been usually profoundly abused or traumatized in childhood, and perpetuate myths and stereotypes that people so affected are vicious psychopaths, it really puts back the progress that we've made decades.
Dr. Kathy Kesselman is president of the Blue Knot Foundation, a national organisation which looks after the needs of millions of adults in Australia who've experienced trauma and abuse in childhood. She describes how the portrayal of the main character in the film Split differs from the people they see with this disorder.
Rather than being violent, they often Have a high degree of self loathing, and they often turn that in on themselves. They really struggle to make sense of the fragments of memory that they deal with, or the different parts of themselves. They're often called personalities. But we all have parts. It's just people with DID, dissociative identity disorder, have those parts very separate from one another. And so one part may not know the other part at all and may not know the main person who occupies the body. And it can be incredibly confusing and frightening for people as they struggle with losing time. struggle with different voices speaking who they don't know, and struggle to make sense of their own world.
And when you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense that the brain can actually divide itself up into bite-sized chunks and separate overwhelming material. And so it actually protects the child. So it's a defence mechanism that happens quite subconsciously. But as it continues to operate, you know, right through life, obviously it creates a lot of issues.
Kathy Kesselman from the Blue Knot Foundation. Professor Warwick Middleton is past president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Association and is the Director of the Trauma and Association Unit at Belmont Hospital in Brisbane. He describes dissociative identity disorder.
It represents a disruption in the usually integrated processes of consciousness, memory, identity, and perception. Someone who dissociates, separates off affect or memories, or functions, but with not a complete awareness across all those processes. A person who is highly dissociative may switch into identity states. Where they feel that they are of a different age, a different sex, living in another time and place, or responding to a different environment.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What warning does the episode give about its content and why is it important?
0:02–7:43
2
How does the film *Split* portray dissociative identity disorder and why is it controversial?
7:43–12:19
3
What do experts say about the link between childhood trauma and DID?
12:19–18:59
4
How did Kalina’s early family environment contribute to her development of multiple parts?
18:59–28:12
5
What therapeutic approaches helped Kalina move toward integration?
28:12–29:03