in Fight Club, and in whodunnit stories like Secret Window.United States of Tara was reported to be the first US television series with DID as its focus, and a professional commentary on each episode was published by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. More recently, the award winning Korean TV series Kill Me, Heal Me (Korean: 킬미, 힐미; RR: Kilmi, Hilmi) featured a wealthy young man with seven personalities, one of whom falls in love with the beautiful psychiatry resident who tries to help him.Most people with DID are believed to downplay or minimize their symptoms rather than seeking fame, often due to fear of the effects of stigma, or shame. Therapists may discourage them from media work due to concerns that they may feel exploited or traumatized, for example as a result of demonstrating switching between personality states to entertain others. (p 169)However, a number of people with DID have publicly spoken about their experiences, including comedian and talk show host Roseanne Barr, who interviewed Truddi Chase, author of When Rabbit Howls; Chris Costner Sizemore, the subject of The Three Faces of Eve, Cameron West, author of First Person Plural: My life as a multiple, and NFL player Herschel Walker, author of Breaking Free: My life with dissociative identity disorder.In The Three Faces of Eve (1957) hypnosis is used to identify a childhood trauma which then allows her to merge from three identities into just one.
Reviews of DID patients and their medical records concluded that the majority of those diagnosed with DID would also meet the criteria for either borderline personality disorder or more generally borderline personality.The DSM-5 elaborates on cultural background as an influence for some presentations of DID. (p 295)
Many features of dissociative identity disorder can be influenced by the individuals cultural background. Individuals with this disorder may present with prominent medically unexplained neurological symptoms, such as non-epileptic seizures, paralyses, or sensory loss, in cultural settings where such symptoms are common. Similarly, in settings where normative possession is common (e.g., rural areas in the developing world, among certain religious groups in the United States and Europe), the fragmented identities may take the form of possessing spirits, deities, demons, animals, or mythical figures. Acculturation or prolonged intercultural contact may shape the characteristics of other identities (e.g., identities in India may speak English exclusively and wear Western clothes). Possession-form dissociative identity disorder can be distinguished from culturally accepted possession states in that the former is involuntary, distressing, uncontrollable, and often recurrent or persistent; involves conflict between the individual and his or her surrounding family, social, or work milieu; and is manifested at times and in places that violate the norms of the culture or religion. Controversy
DID is among the most controversial of the dissociative disorders and among the most controversial disorders found in the DSM-5.