With movies like Fatal Attraction and Psycho performing so well in box offices around the country, managing to rake in 10 Academy Awards nominations collectively, it’s no wonder directors and producers are quick to jump on the bandwagon of writing movies featuring a mentally ill villain type, who is most always dangerous and violent. It’s such an easy trope to play into; just isolate and slander the 42.5 million adults a year who get diagnosed with mental disorders that are making it difficult enough for them to function. Continue to turn what you don’t understand into something that should be feared. That is exactly what M. Night Shyamalan does in his latest blockbuster “Split”. The movie focuses on a character with dissociative identity disorder (DID) who kidnaps and tortures three young girls. Through this incredibly cheap plot device we are led to believe that people who suffer from this rare disorder are generally ill intentioned or malicious, when that is simply just not the case.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is a condition that even many psychologists cannot fully comprehend, although there has been extensive research as to why and how these chronic episodes of depersonalizations occur in the first place. It is generally understood to be the brain’s way of coping with a particularly traumatic event, often in one’s childhood, and therefore often coexists with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Due to the lack of information surrounding DID, it is easy to understand why one may find it particularly fascinating. After all, it is not out of the ordinary for someone to become captivated by a topic they know little about, and go searching for answers. The problem lies in those who find their answers in popular media, especially when the topic is as important and controversial as mental health.
To the defense of Shyamalan and directors of his type, mental health is a broad and complicated spectrum, it is hard to represent mental illness accurately, as everybody has a different experience. That being said, the fault lies in the intention. Perhaps if Shyamalan had gone into the making of “Split” with the intention of crafting a film that appropriately and completely represents mental illness he could have come out with not only a less distasteful movie, but a better one. Several interviews with Shyamalan show no signs of any research on his end leading up to the writing and directing of “Split”. Some of the information that he used to cater to the plotline of the movie has still not been widely accepted by the psychological community, for example, stating that a person suffering from DID is able to change their bodies chemical makeup simply using their thoughts. Shyamalan has stated in countless interviews that it was his intention to write something that would be seen as “provocative” and chalked much of the controversy up to his “dark humor”.
“Split” releases in theaters on January 20th. There has been speculation that the way that M. Night Shyamalan portrays dissociative identity disorder may shift throughout the course of the film, and many are certainly hopeful that that is the case. Regardless of whether it is or not, “Split” will continue to cultivate a media environment that can be threatening and malicious towards those who are not seen as “normal”.
