Dissociative Identity Disorder:
A Study on Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear The movie Primal Fear explores the journey of defense attorney, Martin Vail, as he defends his client, Aaron Stampler. Aaron is charged with murdering the Archbishop of the Catholic Church in Chicago and appears to be just a young altar boy with a speech impediment. Throughout the movie it is made clear that the Archbishop wasn’t the saint that he seemed to be and instead had a multiple of skeletons hidden in his closet. The Archbishop was involved in many real estate dealings that hurt many people, and he forced his altar boys, including Aaron, to make pornographic videos for his pleasure. At this point in the trial the defense is clearly losing because there is plenty …show more content…
613). The difference in traits and physical mannerisms are shown in the movie because while Aaron is quiet and timid, Roy is loud and assertive. An important thing to note is that while Aaron had all of those symptoms, not every case suffers from every one; an individual who suffers from the disorder may have a secondary personality that has the exact same memories and name as they do but different traits and mannerisms; meanwhile, another person who suffers from the disorder could have a secondary personality that is a separate gender from them and could have an accent that they have no reason having. Another reported symptom of the disorder is that the personalities do not share memories and are sometimes not even aware that the other personality exists. This is shown in Primal Fear when Aaron appears to have no idea what Roy does whenever he “takes over” and has no idea who Roy even is. Other common symptom of the disorder are frequent headaches and time loss; the time loss occurs because when the individual switches personalities a lot of times they do not remember what the other personality had done. In the movie Aaron is shown to have a headache both before and after Roy “takes over;” Aaron also …show more content…
The most commonly practiced treatment for the disorder is psychotherapy, though there are many different approaches to it. According to Dr. Steve Bressert, most therapists “take an individual modality (as opposed to family, group or couples therapy) and emphasize the integration of the various personality states into one, cohesive whole personality” (2016). Drug therapies are not effective for dissociative identity disorder, so it is much more difficult to treat then many other mental disorders. Finally according to Brand, Loewenstein and Spiegel: “Given the severe symptomatology and disability associated with DID, iatrogenic harm is far more likely to come from depriving DID patients of treatment that is consistent with expert consensus, treatment guidelines, and current research” (2014, p. 169). Thus, even though the treatments for the disorder are difficult to complete, it is ultimately better for the patient than if they simply do not seek treatment. The main thing to draw from Aaron Stampler in the movie Primal Fear is that dissociative identity disorder is something that is in our society, but it can be faked to get around various failures or wrong doings in life. The symptoms of the disorder vary greatly from case to case as do the causes of the disorder, and the treatments for it are long and require the patient to put forth a lot more effort and commitment
A Study on Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear The movie Primal Fear explores the journey of defense attorney, Martin Vail, as he defends his client, Aaron Stampler. Aaron is charged with murdering the Archbishop of the Catholic Church in Chicago and appears to be just a young altar boy with a speech impediment. Throughout the movie it is made clear that the Archbishop wasn’t the saint that he seemed to be and instead had a multiple of skeletons hidden in his closet. The Archbishop was involved in many real estate dealings that hurt many people, and he forced his altar boys, including Aaron, to make pornographic videos for his pleasure. At this point in the trial the defense is clearly losing because there is plenty …show more content…
613). The difference in traits and physical mannerisms are shown in the movie because while Aaron is quiet and timid, Roy is loud and assertive. An important thing to note is that while Aaron had all of those symptoms, not every case suffers from every one; an individual who suffers from the disorder may have a secondary personality that has the exact same memories and name as they do but different traits and mannerisms; meanwhile, another person who suffers from the disorder could have a secondary personality that is a separate gender from them and could have an accent that they have no reason having. Another reported symptom of the disorder is that the personalities do not share memories and are sometimes not even aware that the other personality exists. This is shown in Primal Fear when Aaron appears to have no idea what Roy does whenever he “takes over” and has no idea who Roy even is. Other common symptom of the disorder are frequent headaches and time loss; the time loss occurs because when the individual switches personalities a lot of times they do not remember what the other personality had done. In the movie Aaron is shown to have a headache both before and after Roy “takes over;” Aaron also …show more content…
The most commonly practiced treatment for the disorder is psychotherapy, though there are many different approaches to it. According to Dr. Steve Bressert, most therapists “take an individual modality (as opposed to family, group or couples therapy) and emphasize the integration of the various personality states into one, cohesive whole personality” (2016). Drug therapies are not effective for dissociative identity disorder, so it is much more difficult to treat then many other mental disorders. Finally according to Brand, Loewenstein and Spiegel: “Given the severe symptomatology and disability associated with DID, iatrogenic harm is far more likely to come from depriving DID patients of treatment that is consistent with expert consensus, treatment guidelines, and current research” (2014, p. 169). Thus, even though the treatments for the disorder are difficult to complete, it is ultimately better for the patient than if they simply do not seek treatment. The main thing to draw from Aaron Stampler in the movie Primal Fear is that dissociative identity disorder is something that is in our society, but it can be faked to get around various failures or wrong doings in life. The symptoms of the disorder vary greatly from case to case as do the causes of the disorder, and the treatments for it are long and require the patient to put forth a lot more effort and commitment