Did: A Film Analysis

It seems as if traumatic events involving sexual or emotional abuse are the common threadshared by people with DID. Typically the event(s) occurred in childhood or adolescence and were usuallyof a violent nature. The case of Herschel Walker suggests that there may be varying degrees of severitywithin DID diagnoses. The “alters” seem to serve a defensive purpose, and there is little or no memoryof events or actions that occurred while the alter was in control.I was not in class to view the Hilary Stanton documentary due to illness, although I was able tolocate the trailer for the film and witness her behavior as each different alter briefly. After viewing adifferent documentary (1993 HBO) and seeing the behavior of Hilary Stanton as “little …show more content…
I would believe there are people that are indeed highly vulnerable to suggestion in a therapeutic setting, but I do not think it is possible to maintain such a high degree ofconsistency for each alter, and that a clinician would typically be able to recognize if the client wasfollowing their lead or playing a role over a period of time. This seems to be a disorder that carries agreat deal of impairment and distress, and I find it hard to believe that it is merely suggestions given to avulnerable client that are causing these extremely variable, yet reliable symptoms that indicate DID.The Hillside strangler case is a good example of why DID has such a controversial reputation.Kenneth Bianchi used his knowledge of basic psychology, and acting skills to craft a defense for hismurder trial. If I were the clinician assigned to such a case, I would be looking for any sort ofcontradictions that may indicate deception. In the cases of DID that appear to be severely fragmentedsuch as Hilary Stanton, this behavior was maintained over a period of more than a decade of therapy.Bianchi was unable to keep his appearance up