United States of Tara

The American TV company Showtime has produced three seasons of a television series set around a lady called Tara who lives with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Despite being darkly comedic, the show deals in a reasonably sensitively manner with the way that DID impacts her own life and those of her family.

The show creators appear to have done some research and have created a believable scenario in presenting the chaos that is Tara's life. Real life DID expert Dr Colin A Ross was on board as a consultant. Despite the experience being subjective, and leaning towards the clinical end of the spectrum, We expect that many multiples will be able to identify with at least some aspects of her life. Loved ones too might be able to recognise some of the issues that the family experiences.

It was inevitable that some things would be exaggerated and larger than life. This was probably necessary to make it work for television. The different people within Tara tend to be strikingly different from each other in order to show clearly the kind of challenges faced by having people with different outlooks sharing a body. We have people who are very similar as well as quite different to each other. In fact, we have at least one pair of twins.

The changes that take place when Tara "Transitions" (Switches) between different people were filmed in such a way that it would be clear to the audience that a change had taken place. There was a sound too like a low chord being transposed. Often switching is very subtle, often there is little more than a moment of 'absence' that very few people would notice.

The stories have been carefully and well written with excellent continuity. Season one quickly builds all the characters and sets out the day to day challenges faced by both Tara and the family who love her dearly. Season two is a little more intense to watch and any multiples watching might be well advised to take care if they are vulnerable or might be triggered. Look out for comedian Eddie Izzard who is excellent in the role of Dr Hattras.

The third season becomes quite dark after the first few episodes. This season features a person within Tara who has not been seen in the series until now. Bryce is abusive and sadistic and causes much distress for Tara and her family. A fourth season was never filmed, but given how the third season finishes it might have possibly featured Tara being hospitalised. Perhaps one day Showtime will film it or release the scripts, it would be nice to see how the series progressed / ended.

Our general feeling is that Multiplicity is much much less rare than many people (Especially professionals whom should know better) think and television shows like this can and do help to raise awareness.

- Rachael Kathryn MacGregor

March 2023