Running head: Split Psychology Analysis 1

Split Psychology Analysis

Mackenzie A Kilduff

Seton Hill University

“We are what we believe we are” (M. Night Shyamalan, 2016) is just one of the

psychological phrases used in the movie, Split. Kevin Crumb, one of the main characters in the

movie, suffers from dissociative identify disorder, or DID. He has twenty-three different

identities that can emerge over the course of the movie. Kevin changes from personality to

personality, displaying different ages, genders, and interests. Due to his disorder, Kevin kidnaps

three young girls who then struggle to find their way out of his control during the movie. While

the girls, the police, and his therapist try to figure out what went wrong, Kevin begins to snap. As

a result of what happens, the movie focuses on societal views of mental illness and the lack of

understanding that comes with mental illness, specifically DID and post-traumatic stress

disorder, or PTSD. Society struggles to understand his disorder, no one believes in the work that

his therapist is doing, and the girls do not know how to cope with what has happened to them. In

the film Split, the viewers will learn through the life of Kevin, an individual who struggles with

dissociative identify disorder, learn about gender roles, and see how society struggles to

understand people who live with different types of disabilities.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Steve Crumb suffers from dissociative identify disorder, or DID. According to our

textbook, DID is defined as “a dissociative disorder in which a person has two or more separate

personalities, which usually alternate” (Davis, Palladino, & Christopherson, 2013). In the movie,

twenty-three different personalities are displayed and Kevin changes, or alters, between all of

them. His alters can switch, or take the light, and become the main alter. On a day to day basis,

the main alter is Barry, who is a fashionista that loves to create sketches and bring them to his

therapist. Kevin lives much of his life as Barry S. Barry is a fashionista that loves to create

sketches. He has a had a job for the past ten years being a manager at the local zoo, and he had
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been doing very well in his job. According to NAMI, “a person may feel like one or more voices

are trying to take control in their head. Often these identities may have unique names,

characteristics, mannerisms, and voices” (citation). In the movie Split, Kevin experiences this in

his day to day life and his alters tend to change very frequently. Two of his alters, Dennis and

Patricia, begin to take control of his body and everything changes. Dennis is the alpha-male, and

he has to be in charge. He has obsessive compulsive disorder, which according to our textbook is

“an anxiety disorder characterized by repetitive, irrational, intrusive thoughts, impulses or

images and irresistible, repetitive acts” (Davis et al., 2013). Dennis likes to stay completely

clean, in order to avoid getting in trouble by others, and he has even color coded the cleaning

supplies for the bathroom. Much of his habits have developed from his OCD. Patricia, another

identify of Kevin, is the caregiver of the alters. Patricia looks after the girls, makes sure they are

fed and clean, and even brushes their hair for them. Dennis and Patricia are the two alters that

come into the light the most during the movie. The two alters can co-exist in the same setting and

they work together to get things done. In addition to these two alters, a younger personality

comes into the light in the movie as well. Hedwig, a nine year old little boy with red socks, is the

most vulnerable personality. He is also able to coexist at the same time as the other alters, and he

appears very often when the other alters are away. During the movie, the viewers learn about all

of the personalities, but rarely get to spend time learning about them or experiencing them. We

learn about all of Steve’s personalities through his therapist and his computer. Steve, the host of

many personalities, lives with a disorder that is very hard to understand and live with.

Gender Roles

When a host lives with many personalities, all of those personalities are different, the

biggest being gender. Over the course of the semester, we have discussed gender and the roles it
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plays in a person and in society. In the movie Split, the most prevalent personalities that Steve

has are presented with the most common gender roles. According to our textbook, a gender role

is defined as “behaviors considered appropriate for males and females in a given culture” (Davis

et al., 2013). In our society, gender roles are learned at a very young age, and they are focused on

during much of our lives. As a girl, growing up, they are taught not to play with trucks, not to

play sports, and not to like the color blue. In contrast, as a boy, growing up they taught to not

play with dolls, not do ballet, and not like the color pink. These labels and fixations create large

divides and stereotypes in the way we few gender. We label females as being the more nurturing

gender and we label males as being the tough and in charge gender. Many people believe that

females should stay home and do the cooking, cleaning, and nurturing. In contrast, many people

believe that males should be the bread-winners and should have the say in everything. In the

movie Split, gender roles are very prevalent in Steve’s personalities. As discussed previously, the

two main personalities are Patricia and Dennis. Patricia is labeled as the caregiver by Kevin’s

therapist and by the girls that are being held captive by him. She fits every stereotype labeled

female during the course of the film. She dresses in long dresses and wears makeup to remain put

together and good looking. In addition, she continuously makes sure that the girls are taken care

of and that they have everything they need to continue to live where they are. Patricia brings

them sandwiches for lunch and fixes them dinner, she makes sure that their clothes are clean and

that they are not dirty, and most importantly, she makes sure that they are not hurt by any of the

other personalities. In contrast to Patricia, Dennis is the alfa-male, meeting many of the

stereotypes that society feels about males. Males typically do not show their feelings, they work

hard and earn the living for a family, and they are the ones that should be in charge. Dennis

always has to be in charge and he gets angry when another alter comes into the light. He wants to
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be the only alter that has a say in anything and he wants to be in charge of all of the plans. He

hides his emotions and does not want anyone, especially the other alters, to see when he gets

upset. Gender roles play a huge part in how people view the world around us, and they are

largely displayed in the movie through the main personalities displayed in Steve’s life.

Societal Views on Mental Illness

Typically, this type of disorder is very underdiagnosed, causing many people to not

understand what it is or recognize it when they see. As a class, we have talked about all of the

misconceptions and misunderstandings that are associated with therapy and disorders. Due to the

extremes that happen with this disorder, society tends to not understand it when they see it, or

even know how to comprehend what is going on. In the movie, many of the individuals that the

viewers come into contact with are unable to understand DID, they are unable to understand the

research and therapy associated with DID, and the girls have different ways of coping with what

has happened to them and how to get out of the situation. In our society today, people have a

hard time understanding you if you are different and they do not understand what to do if they

come into contact with someone who is different.

Individuals with DID typically see therapists to cope with the experiences and lives that

they are living. In the movie, Kevin begins to see a therapist, Dr. Fletcher, as the personality

Barry, to discuss his life living with multiple personalities. The type of therapy that Kevin begins

to seek is considered client-centered therapy, which our textbook defines as “therapy designed to

create an environment in which the client is able to find solutions to his or her problems” (Davis

et al., 2013). Kevin starts to see this therapist because he needs to begin to cope with the new life

that he is living and he looks to her guidance. However, at the start of the movie, he begins to

question everything about himself and how society sees him. Barry, visits Dr. Fletcher’s office
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and he states, “No one even knows we exist. Is anyone listening? Does anyone care about us”

(M. Night Shyamalan, 2016). Dr. Fletcher explains to Barry that people are starting to

understand and that people like her are listening. However, this is not actually always the case.

Dr. Fletcher carries on a full conversation with her neighbor about her job and the clients that she

sees. Her neighbor proclaimed, “I don’t know how you work with these people. I don’t believe in

it. No offense” (M. Night Shyamalan, 2016). Dr. Fletcher begins to explain that the research that

she is doing is very up and coming and that everyone should give her a shot at what she is doing.

However, just about everyone discredits her research because they are unable to understand what

she is doing and the disorder that she is studying. Our society has a hard time accepting therapy

as a way to treat someone with a series illness. Many people see that it is not as effective as

medication, it is too much money, and that it is only a temporary fix (Patel, 2018). However,

none of these claims are even valid, because therapy has a huge impact on people’s lives. The

simple comment that Dr. Fletcher’s neighbor made is the exact problem with how society views

people that are different than each other, but the movie, Split, made a conscience effort to try and

change this stigma.

As the movie progresses, the stigma surrounded around disorders is shifted into a

different light when the girls begin to fight their way out of the control of Kevin. Kevin holds

three girls captive in the basement of the facility that he works in. As a result, the girls think and

try just about everything that they can to get out. However, the girls are never on the same page,

because they can not all relate to the situation in the same way. Two of the girls do not

understand the other girl and they do not understand how she is so different. Casey, a tall, brown

haired girl, experienced life in a very disheartening way when she was younger. As a little girl,

Casey was sexually assaulted by her uncle. Due to her experiences, she has post-traumatic stress
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disorder, or PTSD, which our book defines as, “a reaction to a traumatic or life-threatening

situation that is characterized by repeated experience of the traumatic even, avoidance of

reminders of the situation, emotional numbness, and increased arousal” (Davis et al., 2013).

Casey has constant flashbacks from the experience, but she begins to have a different approach

to the current situation that she are in. Casey begins to play along with the delusion that Steve is

in, because she understands that he is also going through something just like she did. HAt the

end of the movie, Casey is the only girl that survives because she changed her stigma around the

way she viewed the situation and the way that she lived in his control. Her PTSD ends up saving

her life, and helping her to realize that she is so much bigger than the disorder and the

experiences that she has gone through. At the end of the movie, she leaves her home with her

uncle and is set free from all of her past experiences. In our society today, many people struggle

to understand what to do with people who have disorders. People with disorders are

automatically labeled as not enough, just as Kevin was in the type of job he received, and just as

Casey was to the other girls that she was with. However, some people, like Casey, make a

conscience effort to fight to understand what is going on in that person’s life and they begin to

know how to handle mental illness. As a society, it is very important that we change our stance

on mental illness and change our stigma around how we few people who are different than we

are.

Mental illness is around us every single day. People that we live with, people that we go

to school with, and people that just walk by on a day to day basis. Some people in our society

choose to ignore it, and not work to understand what is happening in that person’s life. However,

when society takes a stance to begin to understand, our world will be changed for the better. In

the movie Split, the director, M. Night Shyamalan, paints the picture of the life of Steve Crumb
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who lives with dissociative identity disorder. Over the course of the movie, Steve struggles to

find out who he is and everyone, including his peers, his therapist, and the girls he kidnapped,

struggle to figure how who is as well. However, at the end of the movie, Steve figures out that he

is who he says he is. He does not have to be his disorder, he can be whoever he wants to be. The

movie Split shows us that society must change their way of thinking to truly understand what

people are all about.

References

Davis, S. F., Palladino, J. J., & Christopherson, K. M. (2013). Psychology (7th ed.). Upper Saddle

River, NJ: Pearson.

M. Night Shyamalan (Producer & Director). (2016). Split [Motion picture].

U.S.: Blinding Edge Pictures.

National Alliance of Mental Illness. (2018). Dissociative disorders. National Alliance of Mental

Illness. Retrieved from [Link]

conditions/dissociative-disorders.

Patel, A. (2018). Therapy myths: 10 common misconceptions about seeing a therapist.

The Huffington Post. Retrieved from [Link]

common-therapy-myths_n_1900370.html.