MeDIDa: M. Night Shyamalan’s Split

Episode 13 of MeDIDa, and we are unfortunately discussing M. Night Shyamalan’s Split. Split is a film written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan. It premiered in 2016 before being released to the general, global audience in 2017. The film depicts a group of girls getting kidnapped by a man with DID, who plans to sacrifice them to a supernatural alter called The Beast. Split quickly became the cultural touchstone for dissociative identity disorder. For many people, this film is the only piece of media that they have seen explicitly representing DID. So, how does this film go about covering such a complex and sensitive topic while also making the person with DID the film's antagonist? (Spoiler alert: it doesn't cover it with any complexity or sensitivity). If you have any comments or suggestions about media to cover, or even would like to be a guest on the podcast, send an email to [email protected] Intro and Outro music: Bug Catching by Emily A. Sprague