Multiple Personality Disorder Essay Example

Alter-egos: De-mystifying Dissociative Identity Disorder. Secret Window is a psychological thriller about a mind that is cracking right down the middle and separating into two different people with the most dominate of the two personalities taking over. Mort Rainey is a successful writer going through a rather unfriendly divorce from his wife of ten years, Amy. Alone and bitter in his cabin, he continues to work on his writing when a mysterious stranger named John Shooter shows up on his doorstep, claiming Rainey stole his story. Mort says he can prove he wrote his first, but while Mort waits for the evidence to appear, Shooter starts to become more and more violent.

Mort is sharing a mind with John Shooter, the man who claims that Mort stole his story from him. In the beginning, Mort just shrugs this off; however, as the movie progresses, Mort starts to doubt himself. This is significant because, the audience starts to wonder if Mort exactly stole the story or not. This helps viewers to relate to Mort even more and therefore, helps the audience to see things throw his eyes. Someone around Mort should have seen that he was displaying odd and unusual behavior. If he had medical attention then maybe he would have gotten treatment for his disorder. The disorder in which I am speaking of is known as dissociative identity disorder or better known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities. Each having a unique set of memories, behaviors, thoughts and emotions. Mort’s alter ego John Shooter is what is called a “host personality” this is when the personality has executive control of the body for the greatest percentage of time during a given time period.

The conceptualization of dissociation among people is that it is a response to trauma. Research shows the relationship between different types of traumas, such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, and child