Dissociative Identity Disorder

"Identity" was a good movie I saw last weekend. I am a very big fan of psychological thrillers and I can say that that movie is a killer one (literally)! I guess it was recommended by a student of mine. I just know that it was my kind of entertainment. The murderer in that film suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder from where the title was derived.

I had never understood well that sort of disorder until I saw "Identity." Even though I am not a psychologist, psychiatrist, nor psychotherapist, I've been always interested in comprehending all types of disorders, phobias, or psychosis.

The only formal education on disorders I've ever had was a college course called "Introduction to Psychology" which I took four years ago. Then, I could have general ideas of all the major characteristics for each kind of patient. I may be wrong on my attempt to digress about this disorder since I am no professional in that matter, so if you are and know that I made mistakes, report and correct me on the comment section.

I started writing about this issue not because of the movie per se, but because a few years ago I met a person whom I think has this condition. He is known in the city as being a crook, a deceiver, a person with crazy moral standards who enters small businesses and always try to close real good deals through his magnetism, eloquence, and most of all by pretending being someone he isn't for instance doctors, judges, lawyers, etc. He doesn't normally steal nor take real advantages of his victims, however he sells or buys people's dreams. Yeah, by now you've already realized that I was one of his victims which is true!

He entered my school in January 2003, on my birthday more precisely around 5:30 pm. The man was in dark business suit and had a pin on the left of an official lawyer's Brazilian association. He was a young judge from out of town who needed to take an English course only to understand International Law terminologies. I recommended him some dictionaries and websites about the topic but he had already bought and read the best materials found in the market (he showed me his own notes in pieces of scrap paper which were placed in a sort of appointment book). I was trying to make up his mind so I insisted that a course wasn't needed just for that. He then convinced me that I was going to enjoy lecturing International Law terminologies because more judges were interested in this sort of course and that no other institution in town was able to offer it. As we had recently opened our business, we thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to start off with a group of judge students who would be learning from our instructors. Don't even get me started with the tuition payment - fresh cash period. Just like a dream, but better - a lucid one!

4 days later, when I went to court to meet the other judges and probably set a schedule for the course, I found out he was lying. Right at the front desk, while the receptionist was saying that that man's name was fake -- there was no judge at his age, with his last name, not even with his appearance -- I felt a mix of disappointment and a bulk of admiration towards that individual because he had gotten me. My husband laughed his butt off about it. I did not find that funny at first, but now I giggle a little over that situation. What I can say, for sure, about that man is that he may have D. I. D. or he's just a talented forger.

Well, I know that D.I.D. is a mental condition and that is not a bit close to what I call: "my creative process for building characters." Although, those who suffer that disorder have to be highly creative, I guess. My point is that by being a 'maybe-writer' or someone who aspires to have any material published some day, I can assure that novelists are somehow dealing with Dissociative Identity Disorders while composing their characters - at least that happens to me. I'd embody them and their lives experiencing other realms - especially when I close my eyes and freeze my hands floating over the keyboard. To build up my characters, I do go after other people's experience, personal information on auto and biographies, diaries, blogs, or just by talking to them. I am not a good "talker" but I am certainly a good listener, and probably a very very very easy person to be convinced too.


Curiosity Facts:

• I haven't finished my translation jobs yet. I hope to conclude my work by the end of this week.
• Tibby is recoverying pretty well from a spaying surgery. She jumps on furniture and purrs a lot when eating. The only supposed problem is that her stiches bother her a little since they jeopardize her outer beauty, but I have convinced her to rub some healing gel on the scar and I keep telling her that everything will turn out OK.
• I am back on track with a novel that I started in 1999. I have the characters but I do not know what to do with them. I need a plot, a conflict, something to change the course of things.
• Believe it or not, but I have met four more victims of that D.I.D. crook - he always introduces himself using the same first name - PAULO. They say he lives nearby, that's why I've already bumped into him countless times. He is never underdressed and seems to be carrying that appointment book wherever he goes. One of his victims told me that he has already been arrested however he is never kept more than two days in jail for the fact that no one presses charges of a real crime - Let's face it, he can't be sent to court just by performing people's personality! This disorder is simply tantalizing and amazing at the same time.