As is fairly typical whenever I see anything by Diablo Cody (juno, jennifer's body, etc) I immediately start kicking myself because I'm just as talented a writer as she is, and goddammit where's my oscar and million dollars start up for my own series?
Green monsters aside, I also was intrigued by the concept of the DID (the disorder the main character on the show suffers from previously termed Multiple Personalities) Alters who come out and ruin/rule/direct Tara's story.
The next day, S asked her question of the day at work: Who would your four personalities be, if you had the disorder?
After poring over the question for a bit, i brought it up with J, who appraises the show with a more analytical eye due to her background in art therapy and psychological studies. She referenced a project she'd had to do once where she had to isolate and identify all of her "selves" and dissect them and their possible origins in a paper.
I found it very easy to come up with four personalities, hell, I even gave them names, but let's face it, creating characters isn't something I find particularly difficult. Once I started thinking about their origins though, things got interesting.
Vicky: A strong, athletic, competitive Australian. Loud, bawdy and impulsive. Funny, affectionate, somewhat of a bully.
Jessie: A very serious eight or nine year old girl who is very shy. Reads and climbs trees, doesn't like talking especially to people she doesn't know. Afraid of strangers and the dark. Hides a lot.
Lady Spectacle: A Huge outlandish Drag Queen. Incredibly beautiful, sings, hosts, dances, wears outrageous costumes, makes filthy jokes. Drinks and mixes a killer cocktail and knows her way around a Cher number.
The lizard skin fairy...
The more I thought about these facets of my personality, the more ubiquitous the masking coping mechanism became. Obviously not everyone suffers from such a serious disorder as DID, but I watch so many people put on different faces throughout the day, and they so rarely realize they're doing it, but it's just a form of social or coping chameleonism.
Uncomfortable around a group of new coworkers? put on a mask.
Meeting the SO's parents for the first time? Put on a mask.
Bump into a friend at the story you haven't seen in years whose life is very different from yours? Put on a mask.
I think it's not a bad thing to have protective gear in one's psychological arsenal. It's imperative actually. We have to be able to pull on some form of protective personality in order to keep the outside world at bay, but, like anything latent or reflexive, it's always worth a second look.
The next time you walk away from a conversation shaking your head thinking, "Why the hell did I spend twenty minutes talking about the Egyptian Pantheon? I don't think I could care less about that." Ask yourself who...deep down...needed to pull out that information to protect you, and what from?
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