An Analysis of Dissociative Identity Disorder As Seen Through the

Main Character in Split Film

Kayla Zoe / 1941006

Background of the Study

Dissociative Identity Disorder or what often called as a condition of possessing multiple
personalities in a person’s body. A person who is suffering Dissociative Identity Disorder often
become a “different person” from time to time, depending which personalities that takes control
of the person. Because of this, the person who suffer from this illness often didn’t remember of
what happen when the other personality took control of their body. Many films chose a character
who suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, mainly in thriller movies, including Split, which
show psychological aspect from the multiple personalities that the main character possess, which
are going to be discussed in this study. However, what’s different from this film is that the
character didn’t just possess 2 personalities—as what usually people who suffered from
Dissociative Identity Disorder had—but 25 personalities in total. However, only 5 of 25
personalities were seen most of the time in the film.
The Director of Split, M Night Shyamalan, is an American filmmaker and actor. He was
best known as a director of various film other than Split. He made various films in the past, but his
most known film was The Sixth Sense which was produced in 1999. Through that film, he was
nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for the Academy Award. However, not
all his films were successful. Some films were badly received by the audience, which affects a
financial failure on the film’s budget. Some of the films were After Earth (2013), The Village
(2004), The Last Airbender Live Action (2010), etc. However, after that period, his career changed
drastically when the film The Visit (2015) and Split (2016) was successful, and become one of his
best films that he had ever made.
Split itself talks about a man who one day suddenly kidnapped three girls and imprison
them in a pretty creepy place. Not knowing of what happened, the girls tried to escape but couldn’t.
As they were imprison on that place, they learned that the kidnapper, namely Kevin, was suffered
from a mental illness that is Dissociative Identity Disorder, that he has 23 personalities and
switching between 5 personalities when he’s talking with them. Time passed, the three girls also
learned from the 5 personalities that they have to escape before “the Beast”, the 24’th personality
awakens.
As Split closely related to a person who suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, it is
more suitable to analyze the characteristic of the main character. In this study, the 5 different
personalities of Kevin, the main character, will be analyzed in this study so that we’re able to
uncover the reason behind Kevin’s Dissociative Identity Disorder.
As a literary device, character is defined as “a person, animal, being, creature, or thing in
a story. Writers use characters to perform the actions and speak dialogue, moving the story along
a plot line.” (Character). On the other hand, Characterization is defined as “a literary device that
is used step-by-step in literature to highlight and explain the details of a character in a story”
(Characterization Definition).
The approach that is used to analyze the characteristic of the character in the film is by
using an extrinsic approach, which is psychoanalytic approach. Psychoanalytic approach refers to
“an approach that focused on the unconscious mind rather than the conscious mind. It is built on
the foundational idea that your behavior is determined by experiences from your past that are
lodged in your unconscious mind” (Ackerman). The theory that is going to be used to support this
analysis is Sigmund Freud’s personality theory (1923) that is id, ego and superego. Freud believed
that “id is the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives
and hidden memories, the super-ego operates as a moral conscience, and the ego is the realistic
part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego” (McLeod). The reason why this
approach is used to support the analysis is to find out the reason of the character’s mental illness
and how the dynamics of the main character’s id, ego and superego were shown in the film and
what is the most dominant personality out of the 5 personalities that is shown in the film.
The method that is used to gather data is from the film itself and internet research. Through
the film, various screenshot will be taken to support the proof in the analysis. From the internet
research, various data related to the physical approach will be taken as a reference to support the
analysis.
Research Questions
1. What is the reason of the main character’s mental illness (Dissociative Identity Disorder)
2. How the dynamics of the main character’s id, ego and superego were shown in the film
and what is the most dominant one?

Main Analysis
In this section, I will divide my analysis into 2 parts. The first part includes the analysis of
five of the main character’s personalities, while the second part includes the correlation with
Freud’s theory on id, ego and superego.
In the story, Kevin is portrayed as a loner who suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder.
He kidnaps three girls as Dennis, one of the personality that Kevin possess. Dennis is portrayed as
a middle-age man who seem to always show a serious expression and very perfectionist especially
in terms of cleanliness. He wants everything to stay organized. This characteristic of him is shown
at the beginning of the story, when he took over the car and kidnapped the girls. Before he start
driving the car, he cleans the car first from trash. Dennis also always wipes the chair before he sits.

Picture 01 Picture 02
Dennis’s visual appearance Dennis cleaning the car

Picture 03
 Dennis wiping the chair

The second personality that Kevin possess is a man named Barry, which is portrayed as a
flamboyant person who seems work in the fashion field. We are able to know this when he visited
Dr. Fletcher’s house, a therapist who talks with Barry from time to time and was aware of his
multiple personalities. It can be seen from the dialogue when she said :
Dr. Fletcher : you know, of all my other clients with your disorder, you’ve been the
most consistent at your job.
Based on how Barry was portrayed, judging from his appearance, he wore clothes that are
more fashionable comparing to Dennis. He has a good sense on art and fashion, as can be seen on
his drawings.

Picture 04
Kevin as Barry

Through Barry’s’ characteristics, we also learned that he has always been living alone and
that he is actually lonely. It can be seen from his dialogue :
Barry : you know we’re gonna have to take care of ourselves and nobody
even believes that we’re exist.

Barry : hey, you live alone?

Dr. Fletcher : you know this
Barry : um, sorry, I just meant how long?
Dr. Fletcher : (laughs) always.
Barry : it must be so lonely.
 Even though in this dialogue Barry is talking about Dr. Fletcher, however he unconsciously
talked about himself too. He had always lived alone, with no family, neighbor, etc. Similar to Dr.
Fletcher who live alone in her house. That’s why Barry could relate to her. Being a person with
Dissociative Identity Disorder is not easy, people didn’t really accept this disorder. Perhaps that
explains how his feeling of inferiority.
The third personality that is dominant in Kevin’s character is Patricia. Judging from his
name, as we can tell, Patricia is portrayed as female character. His first appearance in the film
shows him wearing feminine attributes. Not only his appearance, his voice also slightly changed
into a more soft voice.

Picture 05
Kevin as Patricia

The fourth personality is Hedwig, who claims to be a 9 year old child. He is portrayed as a
childish child. His voice also changed into a more childlike voice. If Dennis always have a serious
voice, Barry with his easy-going and flamboyant voice, and Patricia with his soft and feminine
voice, Hedwig has a cheerful voice. Hedwig often made a ruckus, often made Patricia angry with
him. It can be seen from his dialogue :
Hedwig : I’m not even supposed to be here. I stole light from Mr. Dennis, but
he’ll be back real soon. I can’t steal the light for too long, or he’ll
know and get angry.

Hedwig : Ms. Patricia, she said.. she’s not mad at me anymore. She sings for
me sometimes.
 Picture 06 Picture 07
Kevin as Hedwig Kevin as Hedwig

Hedwig’s dialogue also different, as he portrayed to be a child. It can be seen from his
dialogues :
Hedwig : my name’s Hedwig. I have red socks.

From what Hedwig said, the girls also learned more about “the beast” which is Kevin’s
24’th personality who is fierce and dangerous, and that he will do awful things to them. It can be
seen from his dialogue :
Hedwig : he’s on the move.
Someone’s coming for you, and you’re not gonna like it.
He’s doing awful things to people and he’s gonna do awful things
to you.

On the later part of the film, we are able to know of Kevin’s childhood and that he
experiences trauma through her mother abusing him whenever he made a mess. Perhaps this was
the reason of Kevin’s current condition, that he suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder.
The final personality that Kevin possess is the Beast. The Beast is the most dangerous
personality that Kevin possess, and is portrayed as the most different character in terms of physical
appearance, as he was portrayed as a big creature that doesn’t look human anymore.
 Picture 08 Picture 09
Kevin as The Beast, crawling Kevin as The Beast
on the wall

As what has been explained before, Kevin receives physical abuse from her mother and
leaves trauma to the point that he had multiple personalities. He then kidnapped the girls, because
the girls was considered “pure”, which implied that they’ve never received suffered from anything,
not like him. That’s why The Beast targeted on them. It can be seen from The Beast’s dialogue :
The Beast : those who have not been torn
have no value in themselves
and no place in this world
Based on these characteristics, the film uncovers the reason behind Kevin’s Dissociative
Identity Disorder. In the past, he didn’t get the happiness that he deserve. Normally, children were
loved by their parents and gain fullness. However, Kevin didn’t get all of that, rather the opposite.
He suffers from the physical abuse from his mother, and what remains in his childhood is no other
than traumatic experience and memories that he wanted to forget. Up to the present time, he
unconsciously trying to forget those bad memories and thus, risen up various personalities inside
him, which sometimes also conflicted with his real self. Throughout the film, it can be seen that
most of his other personalities takes control of him. He rarely appear as the real “Kevin”. At the
end of the film, the other personalities also claimed that they intend to take control of Kevin
completely. Because of this disorder, Kevin’s id, ego and superego is unbalanced. His ego turns
out to be the most dominant aspect in all of his personality. According to Freud, the ego is “that
part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world” (Freud). This
explains how the personalities have some kind of goal, that they act as a projection of how Kevin
tries to forget all of his bad memories, but it turns to be that they did it in the wrong way, they did
awful things to innocent people. And this is part of Kevin’s defense mechanism, a way for him to
completely forget the bad memories that he had in the past.

Conclusion
Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that Kevin is suffered from Dissociative Identity
Disorder and it links to his traumatic experience in the past, making him having 23 different
personalities altogether. The most dominant personalities are Dennis, Barry, Patricia, Hedwig and
The Beast. Kevin’s personalities serve as a defense mechanism of him trying to forget his past.
Connecting it to Freud theory on personalities, it can be seen that Kevin’s ego is the most dominant
one comparing to his id and superego. Kevin’s ego serves as a projection of how Kevin tries to
forget all of his bad memories.

Bibliography
(n.a). “Characterization. Literary Devices, literarydevices.net/characterization/. Accessed
22 June 2022.
(n.a). “M.Night Shyamalan.” The Moviedb, www.themoviedb.org/person/11614-m-night-
shyamalan. Accessed 22 June 2022.
(n.a). “Split”. Imdb, www.imdb.com/title/tt4972582/plotsummary. Accessed 22 June 2022.
(n.a). “What is Character?” Literary Terms,
literaryterms.net/character/#:~:text=What%20is%20Character%3F,still%20be%20a%20c
omplete%20story. Accessed 22 June 2022.
Ackerman, Courtney. “Psychoanalysis : A Brief History of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory”.
Positive Psychology,
positivepsychology.com/psychoanalysis/#:~:text=Hewitson%2C%202010).-,The%20App
roach%3A%20Psychoanalytic%20Perspective,lodged%20in%20your%20unconscious%2
0mind.
McLeod, Saul. “Id, Ego, and Superego.”
www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html#:~:text=According%20to%20Freud's%20psych
oanalytic%20theory,id%20and%20the%20super%2Dego. Accessed 22 June 2022.
Psychology Today Staff. “Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder).”
Psychology Today, www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/dissociative-identity-
disorder-multiple-personality-disorder. Accessed 22 June 2022.