Dissociation and coping with trauma: One of Lynne Malcolm's favourite programsDissociation and coping with trauma: One of Lynne Malcolm's favourite programs
All In The Mind
Warning: some listeners may find aspects of this program confronting. The compelling account of a woman who lived with dissociative identity disorder—and how she eventually became integrated.
29:06•10 Jan 2021
Living With Many Parts: Dissociation, Trauma and Healing
Episode Overview
- Media depictions like the film Split can reinforce harmful myths that people with DID are violent, rather than highlighting their struggle with self-loathing and confusion.
- DID is described as a defensive response to severe, often long-term childhood abuse, where the mind separates overwhelming experiences into different identity states.
- People with DID may notice memory gaps, changes in handwriting, differing physical abilities, or voices they don’t recognise as their own.
- Effective therapy focuses on safety, consistent relationships, and gradually building cooperation and communication between parts.
- Integration into a single self can bring greater stability, but some people may still value aspects of their multiple parts and not choose full fusion.
“The whole core of being like this was to hide what had happened.”
Interested in the personal battles against addiction? This episode shifts the focus to trauma and dissociation, showing how complex the mind’s coping strategies can be. The program looks at dissociative identity disorder (DID) through both clinical explanation and lived experience, and you’ll get a clear sense of how media portrayals can mislead people about this serious condition. The conversation opens with the Hollywood thriller *Split*, and the concern that it frames a man with DID as a violent predator.
Dr Cathy Kesselman, president of the Blue Knot Foundation, says she’s "truly appalled" at the way the film reinforces myths that people with DID are "vicious psychopaths", when in reality many live with intense self‑loathing and confusion rather than outward violence. Professor Warwick Middleton adds detailed context, explaining how DID is linked to profound childhood trauma and long-term abuse.
He describes how identity states can hold separate memories, feelings and body sensations, often leaving people with DID facing gaps in memory, different handwriting, and even differing physical abilities or need for glasses. Kalina, diagnosed with DID in her mid‑30s, shares a raw account of living for decades with many parts, or "bits" as she calls them. She talks about having parts that were sporty and playful, others highly academic, and others that carried traumatic memories.
On the outside, she appeared successful and "normal"; inside, switching parts was her private survival strategy. As she puts it, "The whole core of being like this was to hide what had happened." Long-term psychotherapy helped her parts build cooperation, communicate through journals, and eventually fuse into "one whole self". She now feels more content, though she admits she sometimes misses the sense of never being alone inside.
If you’ve ever wondered how the mind protects itself from overwhelming trauma, this thoughtful conversation might help you see dissociation—and those who live with it—in a very different light.
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.