Multiple Pesonality Disorder

Video #1: Multiple Personality Disorder

The first video aims to discuss questions related to multiple personality disorder. The documentary starts with a brief historical background of the disease. Starting from medieval, religious community described the state in which a human being was possessed by the evil forces, a condition that is called multiple personality disorder in modern psychiatry. In the early 20th century, the study on this subject has led psychologists to the assumption that a person can have multiple separately functioning personalities. This condition was acknowledged as a mental disorder that was called hysteria. In the beginning of this documentary, several important questions related to the origin of this disease and the impact it has on the patient are asked. This introductory part invites the audience to explore multiple personality disorder and make an attempt to find answers for these questions.

Investigation of the multiple personality disorder starts with the case of a woman named Gretchen, who suffers from this illness. The audience is introduced to the history of Gretchen’s disease and the consequences of it that significantly affect her life. There are advantages and disadvantages of Gretchen’s condition. For instance, when woman is in distress, she switches to a stronger personality that is able to cope with the difficulties that caused distress. However, Gretchen does not know what happens with her when she switches between her multiple personalities. Such confusion results in panic attacks and frustration. Each personality of Gretchen has different handwriting and because of this, Gretchen rarely is able to recognize her writing when she is back to normal condition. Some of Gretchen’s personalities...

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... reasons of the patients' worries are hidden deep inside their personality.

In the second part of the video we see parents of children with eating disorder on the group therapy session. It is important that this documentary shows the audience how hard it may be for the family and friends to observe how their loved ones suffer and die from the eating disorder and not being able to help them.

The video concludes with a talk show where we meet with some of the heroines of the documentary after a year of its production. We meet with Marya and Annie and find out that they got better and managed to overcome their depression and started to feel a wider range of emotions that help them to deal with eating disorders. Marya discusses her book that she wrote when she was 21 and how it affected her life and influence it had on other people who suffer from eating disorders.