Psychopathologies, also known as psychological disorders have become a growing concern in the society. The more modernized the world becomes, the greater the need of illuminating just how necessary it is to try to understand the roots of mental illness and situations that may cause mental disturbance. The media has played a great role in trying to bring out case studies in form of documentaries, television series, movies and even books and stories. However, there is still much more to be done in terms of creating awareness when it comes to these mental diseases, which by the way can affect anybody. It is therefore very essential, having this in mind to understand a few aspects that might be tied to psychological illness. This paper takes an in depth look into Sidney Sheldon’s book “Tell Me Your Dreams”, and how it vividly brings out one of the psychological disorders known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID),formally known as Multiple Personality Disorder. The book is the epitome of what a DID case study would look like and the purpose of this research is to give an all-round analysis on the dimensions affected as well as to bring out a psychological theory i.e. Psychoanalysis to best explain this condition.
The book “Tell me your dreams” focuses on young computer whiz Ashley Patterson who is the daughter of a famous medical doctor Steven Patterson. Ashley suffered from severe psychological trauma as a child where she was continuously raped by her father and at the same time encountered negative comments from her mother who taunted her with the words “You can never amount to anything”. She however grows up to become an intelligent woman who finds herself living under her father’s shadow. Ashley has no freedom at all to even involve herself in relationships because her father greatly forbids it. Due to this difficult childhood, Ashley develops Dissociative identity disorder, which results to two of her alters. Toni Prescott and Alette Peters. Toni Prescott had a British accent and she was also the eldest alter. She was very aggressive, outgoing, and very protective of Ashley and Alette. However, she hated Ashley because she was much more vulnerable and sweet and Toni felt that she didn’t know to stand up for herself. On the other hand, Alette Peters loves art and she enjoys hanging out with painters and art lovers like herself. She also has a deep Italian accent. She exhibits a more warm personality as compared to Toni. Trouble ensues when young men end up dead, all of them castrated. The murder investigations later lead to Ashley Patterson as the killer of all five men. She undergoes treatment in the asylum which was led by Dr. Gilbert who confirms that Ashley suffers from DID. In the end Ashley is put in a hypnotic state and her two alters leave her body she decides to move on with her life by forgiving her father.
According to Sigmund Freud, the experiences from childhood locked away in our unconscious mind will affect behavior in the future. Freud also asserts that there are various psychological defense mechanisms, which the mind employs to protect itself from too much psychological pressure. However, in as much as these defense mechanisms may be of help reducing the load one has to deal with especially when it comes to memory, they may cause problems in the life of the person involved by preventing them from normal functioning. In The book Ashley is sexually molested by a person whom she trusted and looked up to-her father-this happens after Ashley lost her mother in an accident. Both these events lead to the development of mistrust as well as an attachment style that is anxious avoidant with any kind of male figure in her life including her father(Zepf, 2006). This is seen in how she would meet up with him very rarely, not bothering to keep in touch so much. Subconsciously her mind was telling her to keep away from any kind of relationship with a man; this is what made it possible for “Toni,” her defensive and protective alter, to kill all the men every time she was faced with the fear of being too close to one. Her bad relationship with her mother especially being told She would never amount to anything also created the “don’t care type of attitude” in Toni, this was her way of dealing and responding to the things she was told but didn’t find amusing or interesting. The same can be seen in Alette her other Alter but in a subtle way. She always said extremely negative and bad words and thought the most evil thoughts whenever she found herself in a situation that triggered her repressed anger.
Ashley is seen to elicit several of the defense mechanisms that Freud talks about among them include the following: Repression, this is where all memories are either locked or blocked in the unconscious and are unable to be accessed by the conscious mind in making of decisions. Ashley was unable to recall who molested her before the hypnotherapy she underwent by Doctor Gilbert. In addition, she experienced denial, after part of the first thoughts that had been locked up in her unconscious about her father began to surface; she was in denial on the possibility of her father being the one who treated her so horribly. However, the more things went on the more it became clearer to her. Projection is another defense mechanism experienced by the Ashley. She killed every man that tried to get too close to her and especially when it came to insinuating romantic relationships. This meant that these men were acting as surrogates to what her father had done to her. Ashley experienced dissociation severally, where she would switch alters and find herself somewhere unfamiliar having lost large tracts of time that she was not able to account for. This allowed her alters to come out and do whatever they needed to do in matters regarding protection of Ashley. Also, it gave her the freedom of experiencing other parts of the world, allowing her to travel and meet new people and this was more prone to Tony who was extroverted in nature as compared to Alette and Ashley.
Just like every other psychological disorder, DID causes a lot of emotional distress to its patients and this is clearly seen in the book. The first emotional distress that this disorder caused Ashley was intense fear, accompanied by paranoia. In the book, we see occasions where Ashley’s alter, Toni taunts her with threatening messages threatening to kill her. She comes home from work only to find her lights on and a message on her mirror written using a red lipstick telling her that she is going to die. Ashley becomes paranoid and totally convinced that someone is following her. Identity confusion is also present and this is seen when the murder investigation points at Ashley yet she is convinced she didn’t commit any of those murders. She becomes more confused when her Doctor tells her that her alter personality was responsible for the murder. More emotional distress is seen when Ashley can’t seem to form healthy relationships. She grows up full of hate convinced that her father was responsible for the death of the man she loved Jim Cleary with whom she had planned to elope with, little did she know that Toni her alter ego personality was the one responsible for the death of the man she loved.
Motivation also plays a very important role in this story. We see this through Toni who ends up killing five men. What drives her to do these acts is the desire for revenge as well as the need to protect herself. After being raped repeatedly by her father, the trauma made her see all men as a threat to her. Any man who relates with Ashley or her other two alters ended up dead and this was because of Toni the protective and aggressive alter who always felt the need to protect Alette and Ashley. Ashley also has feelings of self-hate and this is presented by her alter Toni who exhibits extreme hatred for Ashley to a point of wanting her to die. These feelings of self-hate can be because of the sexual molestation that she experienced as a child.
Dissociative identity disorder has its own specific symptoms some of whichs are outlined in the book. The symptoms include, Amnesia, which is failing to recall any information or experiences(Murray, 1994). In Ashley’s case every time she dissociated she had no recollection of any of her past lives as the other alters. This explains why she had no recollection of committing any of the murders she was been accused of. Suicidal feelings is another symptoms associated with Multiple personality disorder. This is seen where Toni threatens to kill Ashley because she looks at her and sees a weak person. Her alter Toni feels that Ashley is letting both her and Alette down and should therefore be eliminated.
Even though Dissociative Identity Disorder may appear complicated to manage, this form of disorder is treated in various ways. One way is by Clinical hypnosis where a trained therapist helps the patient suffering from DID to have an access to their repressed memories as well as helping the client to fuse their different alters. Clinical hypnosis also enables patients to stop any forms of maladaptive behaviors that come with DID. In Ashley’s case, Dr. Gilbert used clinical hypnosis to bring all of Ashley’s alters to life so that they can come to an agreement. Ashley was able to talk about what had happened in her childhood and she was able to relive and face all the traumatic memories she had tried so hard to repress. In the end, Dr. Gilbert was successful and through the hypnosis both Toni and Alette agreed to become one with Ashley. Toni was also able to forgive her father for all the bad things he had done. Another way of treating DID is through psychotherapy where one can uncover and map the alters, this was done by Dr. Gilbert as he brought the two alters to life. It also involves treating the traumatic experiences and this is where Ashley finally got to talk about what had happened during her childhood.
It’s important to note that from the above preview that DID is largely caused by any psychological trauma that one may experience during childhood and it’s an individual’s way of coping with these kinds of trauma. However, it is manageable, and in some cases people make full recoveries and Ashley is a good example.
REFERENCES
Murray, J. B. (1994). Dimensions of multiple personality disorder. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 155(2), 233–246. http://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1994.9914774
Zepf, S. (2006). Attachment theory and psychoanalysis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 87, 1529–1548. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00451-005-0245-6
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