Dissociative Identity Disorders In The Film Frankie And Alice

Frankie and Alice is a movie that was released in 2010 but didn’t receive widespread notice until 2014. Frankie Murdoch is an African American go-go dancer fighting against two alter egos: a seven-year-old child named Genius, and a southern, racist, white woman named Alice. Genius is seven years old, and, as her names suggests, she is a genius. She is nearsighted, and has an outstanding IQ of 156. She actually likes and cares for Frankie, but is afraid of the other alter ego, Alice. Alice is a racist, white woman, who holds nothing but disdain for Frankie. She even says that she hates that she has to share her body with Frankie, because “Negros have a different smell to them.”
Frankie is unaware that these alter egos exist, but she experiences

Oswald diagnoses Frankie with multiple personalities; also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. Dissociative Identity Disorder, also referenced to as DID, is brought on by traumas that occur earlier in someone’s life. Dr. Oswald uses several different types of treatments to trigger memories of these events that caused her to develop the disorder. He begins with using different kinds of hallucinogens, to make her vulnerable enough to allow these personalities to come out. This system is a hit or miss, on which personality presents itself. With Alice being the more dominant ego, Dr. Oswald turns to several other tricks to get Genius to emerge instead. Dr. Oswald finally discovers a recording system, in which he is able to somewhat control what personality comes out, and we are then shown what the repressed memories

We can see that this is the case in the movie because Frankie experiences two traumatic experiences: losing Pete in the car accident, and their child shortly after birth. There is currently no cure for DID; however, WebMD says that long-term care helps, as long as the patient is committed to the treatment. Some of the different types of effective treatment are talk therapy, hypnotherapy, and other alternative therapies such as art. There is no medication that can be used to cure DID; however since DID comes with some symptoms of anxiety and depression, medications that cure those can be added to the patient’s treatment, along with their therapy. Overall, Frankie and Alice was a thrilling tale about an African American young woman learning to cope with her past. It gives such an in depth perspective of someone who suffers from this disease, and shares it in a way that makes others understand it; rather than judge like many people are prone to do. Frankie and Alice also shows that with the help of others, it is possible to somewhat defeat this disorder, by cohabitating with the alter egos. This movie gave all of us an interesting insight to the world of those who have DID, and it is a movie each person should