Frankie And Alice Identity Disorder

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Frankie and Alice a film based off a true story, follows a young African American Frankie Murdoch, Halle Berry, in her struggle with Multiple Personality Disorder; now referred to as Dissociative Identity Disorder. Dissociative Identity Disorder is the reaction to trauma as way to help avoid bad memories. It is characterized by having two or more personalities present and each may have unique names, backgrounds, and characteristics. The film takes place in Los Angeles in 1973. Frankie experiences a traumatic event during her adolescence years with the death of her white lover, and then her mother murdering her newborn child after she realizes it was fathered by the white man. The movie begins at Frankie’s job as a Go-Go Dancer, where she is …show more content…

When presented Multiple Personality Disorder in the DSM-5’s book, Frankie meets the criteria without a doubt. The first and most prevalent sign is that Frankie has a disruption of identity with two or more distinct personalities. Early in the film, co-worker’s claim Frankie filled in the crossword puzzle, but she denied it and even looked at the puzzle and said “That ain’t my handwriting.” Genius was the one who filled out the puzzle. Another example of this disruption is when she goes home with the bartender and they begin to get sexual with one another, Frankie’s ego Alice comes to and starts ranting about how “black nigger touching her soft southern white women skin.” Frankie has gaps in her everyday events such as going to the laundromat and blacking out. She’s talking to her friend Bobby who goes to get her coffee, when he returns she begins to have a flashback of her adolescent years with Mr. Pete. She gets scared of Bobby and runs out. Frankie shows occupational impairment throughout the movie by smoking marijuana to make it through her shifts at the club, or by drinking alcohol to function in a social setting. She even buys her mother gifts that she knows she can’t afford. In the film, functional impairments are present, one example of this is after she gets fired from her job, she starts sleeping constantly and not interact with people, developing poor self-care. After two episodes of blackouts, Frankie decides she has a problem and starts to let Dr. Oz treat her. This is a strength she possesses by realizing something is wrong and trying to get help for

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