How Real is Tara?
I really enjoy the new Showtime program “The United States of Tara.” Toni Collette plays Tara Gregson, a wife and mother of two who also has Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). It’s entertaining and seems real, but I’ve often wondered how correctly it portrays DID.
Today, I received a press release from the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation that promoted an interesting section of its Web site about the show and DID, including commentary about the validity of each episode.
The United States of Tara is a darkly comedic television series whose intent is to entertain, not to educate. And yet, Tara unavoidably provides its audience with an informal ‘education’ about DID. Because education and awareness about the dissociative disorders are ISSTD’s primary goals, ISSTD provides professional commentary on each episode’s portrayal of DID. ISSTD seeks to provide the general public (and television critics) with a description of what is accurate and realistic in The United States of Tara, and what is not.
ISSTD says that it has approached the series with an open mind and from a positive standpoint because the producers and scriptwriters of Tara sought extensive consultation on DID from some of the world’s most prominent experts on DID. The show’s creative team also interviewed and consulted DID patients.
ISSTD is an organization of mental health professionals who are not television critics. As such, the ISSTD commentaries do not address the quality of the show or the performances of its actors. It’s commentaries focus primarily on three issues. First, the commentaries identify the points at which Toni Collette’s television portrayal of DID is either consistent with, or divergent from, what occurs in most persons with DID. Second, the commentaries discuss the treatment of DID as depicted in Tara; they draw comparisons between what is depicted and what would take place in treatment conducted according to the recommend treatment guidelines for DID. Third, the commentaries extensively discuss the behavior and reactions of Tara’s family as they deal with a wife and mother who has DID.
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