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 a comedy, the show deals sensitively with the way that DID impacts acts upon her own life and that of her family.

The show has clearly done its research and has created a believable scenario in the chaos that is Tara's life. Despite the experience being subjective, and leaning towards the clinical end of the spectrum, many multiples will be able to identify with at least some aspects of her life. Loved ones too might recognise what the family experiences.

It was inevitable that some things would be exaggerated and larger than life. This is necessary to make it work for television. The different people within Tara were strikingly different from each other in order to show clearly the kind of challenges faced by having people with different outlooks sharing a body. Multiples often have people who are similar as well as quite different to each other.

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. Often switching is very subtle, often little more than a moment of 'absence' that most people would not notice.

The stories have been carefully and well written with excellent continuity. Season one 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.

Sadly, the show is only available in the UK on region 1 (Non Europe) DVD as none of the tv channels have picked it up yet. Hopefully this will change. Multiplicity is proving to be much less rare than was previously thought and shows like this can and do help to raise awareness.

- Rachael Kathryn MacGregor