WHY SPLIT IS DAMAGING FOR PEOPLE WITH DID
Wasnt sure how else to reply on mobile @musicplayforme so we made a post for you, hi.
First off, DID is nothing like cancer. Cancer is a respected illness that is generally well understood by the public, and benefits from billions of £’s of research worldwide. Dissociative Identity Disorder has none of those things. They could not be at further ends of the spectrum.
Many people know next to nothing about this disorder, if they know it exists at all. For many people I know, the first time they heard about DID was when they watched Split, which is, you’re right, NOT an accurate representation of DID. However, if you don’t know anything else about it, you will of course make an immediate judgement based off of already existing stigma.
I know so many people who’s first impressions of DID were formed by Split. Friends even, who’s first responses were to be scared of us after we told them, and usually responded with something along the lines of
“As long as one of you wont try to murder me” or “Which one of you is the evil one? You know, like “The Beast”. Do I know them?”
And this is not just our experience. If you ask almost anyone with DID, they will have similar stories. We have heard them. Many of them.
DID is already a highly stigmatized and under researched disorder. Even before Split, many people assumed (due to misunderstanding as well as negative media,) that DID either isn’t real, is very dangerous, or is just a trope used in books and horror movies. The unrealistic nature of Split reaffirms those fears and judgements. Its not foolish to remind you that our disorder is widely misunderstood, discredited, and feared, as it’s not often spoken about EXCEPT in cases like this.
The real kicker is that the director was WARNED about this, by other filmmakers, directors, doctors and psychologists. They advised him to research DID, talk to people with it, even just put a disclaimer at the end of the film. He of course refused, and intentionally created a misleading and damaging film. Additionally, the creators straight up LIED TO and IGNORED our community and the backlash it received, which you can read about HERE: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/split-movie-creators-ignore-people-with-dissociative-identity-disorder
So no, many people do not understand that Split is not based on at least some form of factual information, while supernatural abilities are obviously not realistic, the nature of the ‘evil’ alter is a long enduring trope that is often believed without question.
As sorry as I am to hear about your illness and wish you the best for recovering, as someone with Cancer, you will never have to worry that a Cancer based film will result in you being refused treatment, your friends and family becoming afraid that you might GENUINELY murder them, being constantly told that your illness isn’t real, having an extremely limited amount research available to understand your illness, or of being confined to a psych ward against your will and without treatment.
The release of Split had a huge impact on our community. People used it as fuel to ‘confirm’ that DID isnt real, or is dangerous, or leads to all Systems inevitably being unpredictable criminals. It has often caused children to become afraid of their father or mother, and even adults to act with fear and aggression in response to finding out that someone has DID because of this. It creates an impression in the minds of people who are uneducated on the topic and promotes an inaccurate and highly damaging stigma that is already a huge burden on the community. DID is NOT already well understood. To most people it’s NOT obvious that it is “just a film for entertainment purposes” and has no roots in reality.
The success of the film had a visible and tangible backlash. Yes it raised awareness of DID, but for ALL THE WRONG REASONS. It stimulated a hatred for DID, fear of DID, and reaffirmed the stereotypes that result in this disorder not being taken seriously, therefore being under-researched, doctors being under trained on the subject IF THEY ARE TRAINED ON IT AT ALL, people presenting symptoms only to be laughed off by professionals who – despite it being a recognised Disorder catalogued in the DSM – believe it’s not real or simply an amusing film trope. It has a very powerful knock on affect on the diagnosis and treatment of this disorder. People wind up thinking they can’t have DID because its scary and they are nothing like Split, nor do they want people to assume so. But unfortunately, people DO.
The amount of comments we get about Split on our DissociaDID YouTube channel is astounding. Even on @multiplicityandme who recently released a very educational and well made BBC documentary, people were joking about it, because obviously it’s not REAL, its a film trope! A lot of people don’t realise its innacurate and damaging, and many find it simply a funny meme to invalidate systems with.
THE STIGMA PROPAGATED BY SPLIT IS INCREDIBLY HARMFUL TO AN ALREADY MISUNDERSTOOD DISORDER. IT ENCOURAGES THE BELIEF THAT IT – AND THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE WITH IT – ARE INHERENTLY DANGEROUS, AND DO NOT EXIST OUTSIDE OF A MOVIE THEATRE.
No we are not “foolish”, and certainly not “childish”. I can assure you that we know more about the affect of this film on people with DID and other media like it than you do, especially as Mental Health Advocates and a professionally diagnosed system – we deal with the fallout from this DAILY. It highlights and reaffirms the struggles we ALL deal with to a higher and more concerning level.
So please, do tell me again how comparing this to possibly the most well known, very common and well understood illness with worldwide recognition, constant invaluable research and hundreds of thousands of charities supporting it, is anything like a disorder that suffers from frequent invalidation, inaccurate information and centuries worth of harmful tropes and stigma that often still goes unrecognised today, was a good idea or even remotely similar.
Please consider why 99% of Systems agree on this. Why would we want to boycott a film if not for good reason? Our community has suffered enough. Consider joining us in this endeavour.
If that still doesn’t appeal to you, or anyone reading this, consider promoting ACCURATE, DESTIGMATIZING, HEALTHY information about Dissociative Identity Disorder, such as the educational videos on our YouTube channel –
as well as other creators like
MultiplicityAndMe
@multiplicityandme @multiplicityandwe
The Entropy System
and the many other systems who work HARD to ensure that individuals with DID can get the help they need free from this stigma, and to ensure scientifically accurate information is easily accessible to those who want a more definite understanding.
Wishing you all the best,
The DissociaDID System.
Plot Designing 