Psychology in TV

This is an evaluation of the show United States of Tara, about a woman with Dissociative Identity/Multiple Personality Disorder.




When I first heard that they were going to make a show about a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and her family, I was intrigued. I consider myself a TV connosieur (as silly as that sounds) and I'd never seen a show that focused on someone with a mental illness and where all the storylines revolved around this mental illness. This show had lots of great potential to really open up people's eyes about Dissociative Personality Disorder, of which there is very little information about. However, it did not live up to the potential of what it could have been. 

I will get into the most detrimental mistake it made, which I would say was classifying itself as a sitcom, or comedy. As a family member who doesn't watch said, "why would you want to watch a show about something so depressing--especially a comedy?" It's kind of wrong--misplaced laughter at it's most. The mockery of a terrible sickness that is caused by serious childhood trauma--typically sexual abuse? That treads a very fine line  with a very sensitive topic that few people can do justice! 


It's as if the producers/writers thought "Oh, wouldn't it be fun to write about a woman with DID and all the funny adventures she gets into when she changes personalities! That's a fun show, right?" Now, as a viewer, why would I want to watch that? I mean really, Tara, the main character has two teenage children. Does anyone really think they're saying "Oh it's so fun when mom turns into Buck, a beer guzzling, motorcycle-driving man with a temper! Oh and T, that promiscuous, foul-mouthed teenager- so fun when mom becomes her!" That's not funny- and I promise-pinky promise that I have a sense of humor. There is one scene where Tara's teenage alter named T punches Tara's daughter. If that happened in real life Child Services would most definitely be called.  


I watched most of the episodes and I don't think I even laughed once. I mean this woman and her sister (who doesn't have the disorder)  were sexually abused as a child by their stepbrother, resulting in her mind being split into more than four different personalities---and I'm supposed to laugh at everything she has to go through? No, thank you. And her kids are shown being totally desensitized to this and act like this hasn't affected them negatively at all. It isn't until the third and final season that her son begins to lash out at her. Honestly, it probably would have happened sooner in real life. From her son, Marshall's point of view, she has ruined the family by going off her medication to find out what is the cause of her DID. He thinks his dad his awful for supposedly giving into his mother. Most people would think he is an admirable husband, but their son thinks he's pathetic. According to his own son, he should have left his wife and let her fend for herself. That sounds awful, but unfortunately that's probably how a lot of kids feel. 


You're probably thinking "Like you could've done any better!" No, probably not. But this show had the potential to tell a raw and heartbreaking story of a terrifying condition caused by horrible circumstances. Here are a few things that would have made this more  realistic. 


1) Of course, make the show a drama, not a comedy. Betcha didn't know I was gonna say that, right?


2)  Show more realistic develepment in the children's reactions towards their mentally ill mother. In USoT, The son's hatred of his mother and disdain for his father seemingly came out of  nowhere. The first two seasons, he didn't show a lot of negative reactions. Honestly, Tara loved and supported her kids (she was shown as completely supportive of her son being gay).  It didn't make sense that he went from being seemingly accepting to acting out by making about how bad his life. Not that I'm minimizing his feelings, but it just was not developed. 


3) Show her struggling to keep her transitions under control as she's trying to live her everyday life. 


4) Show her struggling to maintain relationships- with friends, family and possible boyfriends. 


5) Make it an educational mini-series of sorts. I know you may think "Why would I want to watch something educational?." But mental illness affects so many people, I really think it would speak to many viewers on a deep and personal level. 


Part of me thinks maybe there shouldn't have even been a show about DID in the first place. It is really a tragic disease caused by abuse at a young age. It would be nearly impossible to do it justice. However, part of me thinks it's a great way to educate people, because there is so little known about it. I just don't know... 


WHAT DO YOU THINK? Would you want to watch a TV show, let alone a comedy about a mental illness? And if you ever saw the show, what did you think of it?


Well, that's it for the ramblings of a bored psych major on summer break!