{"id":315,"date":"2014-11-03T01:25:25","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T01:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/?p=315"},"modified":"2020-08-10T22:18:43","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T22:18:43","slug":"dissociation-popular-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/?p=315","title":{"rendered":"Dissociation: popular culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

I watched a TV crime drama last week where the bad guy was portrayed as a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” kind of guy, with two distinct personalities. When the show\u2019s guest therapist figured it out, he said, \u201cOh, he has DPD, dissociative personality disorder, <\/em>that\u2019s why he passed the polygraph\u2014we tested Jekyll, not Hyde!\u201d<\/p>\n

They figured out they needed to bring out the other personality, that knew about the crime, that couldn\u2019t pass the polygraph test.<\/p>\n

The thing that struck me was how an acronym like DPD was just casually thrown about and assumed to be understood in the way MPD, multiple personality disorder<\/em> used to be understood, even though the recognized diagnosis for what used to be MPD is DID, dissociative identity disorder.<\/em><\/p>\n

Never mind that the scientific community actually uses the term DPD for depersonalization disorder<\/em>, a condition that includes feeling disconnected from oneself, but does not include alternative identities. Yet, even though the TV show got that part wrong, it\u2019s so interesting that dissociation<\/em> itself is a word in a popular TV detective series today.<\/p>\n

Three years ago I was repeatedly told by my writing group that I shouldn\u2019t even use the word dissociation <\/em>because no one understood it, and any explanation I gave, even the most dumbed-down explanation, was criticized for being \u201ctoo clinical\u201d.<\/p>\n

Perhaps some dissociative individuals fit the model they showed on that TV show: highly compartmentalized to the point of no shared awareness with alternate identities. Today, I read the literature and find aspects of my DD, dissociative disorder,<\/em> that were absolutely true for me, and other aspects that are sketchier. I\u2019m fond of saying that no one is more compartmentalized than I was before integration, and it\u2019s no doubt true for most DD individuals.<\/p>\n

I think my main point is that if primetime TV is a reflection of popular understanding of a serious psychiatric condition that has its roots in childhood trauma, we\u2019ve come a long way from where we were even three years ago. DPD, indeed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a beginning. At least the word has entered our vocabulary.\u00a0Dissociation<\/a>. <\/em>It\u2019s real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I watched a TV crime drama last week where the bad guy was portrayed as a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” kind of guy, with two distinct personalities. When the show\u2019s guest therapist figured it out, he said, \u201cOh, he …<\/p>\n

Dissociation: popular culture<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-popular-did"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":831,"href":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions\/831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherine.klatzker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}