Description of Mental Health Illness
For this assignment, I decided to review the film Me, Myself & Irene (2000), directed by the Farrelly brothers and starring Jim Carrey (as Charlie Bailey gates and Hank Evans) and Renée Zellweger (Irene P. Waters). The film portrays the dissociative identity disorder in the main character. On the one hand, there is Charlie, who is a nice guy and pushover, and on the other, there is Hank, who is the exact opposite of Charlie, aggressive, extroverted, and uncompromising.
DSM-V Criteria for Dissociative Identity Disorder
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a rare mental health disorder affecting just 1.5% of the global population. It is incredibly difficult to diagnose, and patients may spend between 5 and 12 years in treatment before being accurately diagnosed for the condition. The DSM-V criteria for DID are having two or more distinct personalities, usually a positive and negative personality. Each personality varies in behavior, perception of the world, memory, and sense of consciousness (Mitra & Jain, 2021). In the film, the main character has two personalities, that is Charlie and hank, each with his own personality distinction.
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Examples
Two distinct personality states
Charlie is a nice guy and avoids confrontations, while Hank is aggressive and looks for confrontations. For example, Charlie calmly tells Heather Hodder to stop skipping her rope on the streets, but she tells him off. The next scene is Hank waterboarding her in a nearby fountain for skipping the rope on the streets.
Non-suicidal self-harm
Charlie injures himself as he tries to fight for control against his other personality Hank.
Dissociative amnesia
When Charlie comes back, he regrets but does not remember most things that he did as Hank. On the train, he asks , "what the hell is going on here ” (Charlie: Me, Myself, & Irene).
Loss of identity
Due to the failure of his marriage, Charlie develops split personalities, and most people who knew him as Charlie can hardly recognize him. “ I am not a bad person ” (Charlie: Me, Myself, & Irene).
Feels little or no physical pain
Hank is injured multiple times, including falling down a hill, but is not injured. He is tazzed and mobbed by the baseball players but hardly gets a scratch.
Going into a trance-like state when separating personalities
You can tell when hank is about to emerge by the sudden trance-like state.
Verbal Therapeutic Communications Used In the Film
This refers to spoken communication that prioritizes the mental well being of the DID patient
Using comforting words when the patient is regretting the actions of the other personality;
“ No, no, you are not a bad guy, you are not. Do you hear me, huh, you are a good person” (Irene: Me Myself & Irene).
Preventing self-harm by speaking to the aggressive personality
“ Stop it Hank, you are going to kill him” (Irene: Me Myself & Irene).
Showing the patient that everyone is better off with the vivacious personality
“ Why don’t you just send Charlie out here, things we finally becoming civilized?” (Irene: Me Myself & Irene).
Nonverbal Therapeutic Communication
Providing comfort during breakdown periods
Being kind to the lousy personality as well
Non-Therapeutic Verbal Communication
Non-therapeutic verbal communication includes shouting, reminding them of their condition, violence towards the personalities, and dejection.
“ Stay away from me Hank” (Irene: Me Myself & Irene).
“ Let’s kick the Sh*t out of this crazy A**hole” (Baseball players: Me Myself & Irene).
“ What you did to that little kid was terrible” (Irene: Me Myself & Irene).
Non-therapeutic non-verbal communication
Beating up the lousy personality
A facial expression that implies disgust
Strengths and Weaknesses from a Mental Health Professionals’ Point of View
The film did exceptionally well in portraying the two distinct personalities of Charlie and Hank, as a good person and wrong person respectively, for example, juxtaposing similar scenes with both Hank and Charlie, that is, the grocery store scene, the girl, skipping the rope on the street scene, and the car parking scene. The weakness of the fill was that it did not clearly bring out what triggers the different personalities. Usually, there is a trigger for the positive personality and others for the negative personality. Also, there was no dominant personality, as is the case with most DID patients.
Role of the Film in Perpetuating Stigma
Different types of stigma are perpetuated on mental health patients by society. These include stereotyping them as dangerously and handling them with violence, as is the case when the Hank-personality faced violent mobs trough out the film. Additionally, there was social labeling in the movie, with most people referring to Charlie as a lunatic, crazy, and a ‘schizo.’ Stigma has a detrimental effect on the patient’s decision to seek treatment, as was the case for Charlie (Corrigan et al., 2014).
Role of the Film in Addressing Mental Health Stigma
The film uses peer support intervention in reducing stigma. Charlie’s work colleagues show him support even after knowing his diagnosis and do not try to change him. They also let him keep his job as a city patrol officer. Peer support is crucial in acting as a counterbalance in discrimination, rejection, and isolation associated with stigma when patients are trying to seek help.
Reflection on the Impact of the Film
The film had a profound impact on me as a person and a health professional. At the personal level, I sympathized and empathized with Charlie and the torment he was going through, particularly the associative memory loss. It is a condition that is very hard to live with, and those who have it live a remarkably low-quality life. As a health professional, I understood more about how to recognize and treat a person with DID.
References
Corrigan, P. W., Druss, B. G., & Perlick, D. A. (2014). The impact of mental illness stigma on seeking and participating in mental health care. Psychological Science in the Public Interest , 15 (2), 37-70.
Mitra, P., & Jain, A. (2021). Dissociative Identity Disorder. NCBI Statpearls . Retrieved 14 th April 2021 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568768/
MrJanainabrandao.M278. (2020, Feb 19). Me, Myself & Irene Full Movie Jim Carrey Movies . [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VISog5Bi-o0&t=1914s
