(above) From series Family Px Laura 12 years (Learning life through board games of strategy. If only she could help apply those approaches to dealing with the things that happened in the night time. Perhaps then she could “win” and make it stop) and Verena 4 years (... loves music it is in her bones and makes her body move to the rhythms that filter in through her ears making her brain forget anything she might have seen or experienced that is painful or scary. Music made it all go away.)The concept of Dissociative Identities (formerly called Multiple Personalities) has been embraced by contemporary society. Unfortunately, popular culture has glamorized and sensationalized this “disorder.” United States of Tara attempts to give an authentic demonstration of how DID manifests within a domestic scenario, albeit with quite polarized personality-types. Other TV shows like Law & Order and Criminal Minds exploit the idea of different personalities as a means of advancing unique crime plots or solving implausible story impasses usually where someone with DID is the insane murderer. Popular culture, with their limited idea of what DID is, or is not, along with an imposed time frame to work within (40-42 minutes in an hour-long drama), disallows for the inclusion of the paradigm shift required to understand the intricate, subtle nuances and complexity of DID.
(above) From series Family Px Georgia 1 year (Everyone knew that Georgia was still very small. She was just learning to walk but already outside folks were making her do things that she didn’t like. Someone decided that helping her learn to walk might help her get away. So a bunch of us are helping her everyday. She is getting pretty good at it.)
Dissociation is not about crazed serial murderers or individuals plagued by promiscuity and drastic deviations in style, voice, and dress. It is about the normal human condition coping with life despite facing extreme childhood trauma. Where there is usually a singular person with different sides to their personality (i.e., how one behaves in church as opposed to attending a party) in DID there is a plural system of personalities each with their own strengths, life skills, and weaknesses sharing the same life. Together, they navigate the human experience.
(above) From series Family Px Tommy baby (What's to say? Tommy was a baby who never got to grow up. We liked the way he giggled - a baby giggle. So, we made sure nothing bad ever happened to him so that he wouldn't forget how to giggle.)After having worked with thousands of individuals with DID over many years, the types of portrayals found in popular culture are the exception not the rule. To counter this, Bernadine is creating a series entitled Family Px wherein she employs the use of image and narrative to reveal typical personalities within DID and how they operate in their internal and external worlds. These six pieces are the first of many, many more to come.
(above) From series Family Px Sarah 9 years (Sarah’s favourite place in the whole world was the backyard with her bubbles. So long as she focussed on making them and then watching them float up higher and higher into the sky, the other stuff going on around her could be ignored.)
These mixed media assemblage art pieces will be exhibited and on sale at The Centre for the Study of Gender, Social Inequities, and Mental Health workshop entitled Critical Inquiries in Mental Health Paradigms and Praxis on May 9th, 2011 in Vancouver, BC.
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