In writing my novel Facing the Curse, I had three basic goals in mind: one, portraying Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) accurately, at least based on my personal experiences; two, drawing attention to domestic violence in gay couples; and three, providing an example of a healthy gay couple. And while I worked toward my goals, I got to have fun along the way.
Goal One: Portraying DID Accurately
As I’ve discussed before in a previous article, Dissociative Identity Disorder is usually portrayed in insulting and hurtful ways. Novels and movies alike tend to use DID as a plot device, and almost without exception, the person with DID is a killer. It’s the basic and very old Jekyll and Hyde phenomenon: there’s a nice “personality,” or rather self-state, and an evil self-state, who is a killer. Even in murder mysteries where the person with DID is shown acting in self-defense, the story is still the same: Mr. Hyde came out and killed someone! Oh, no!