Formatting a multiple personality conversation

[julianwinter]

I tried to find scripts containing multiple personality conversations but couldn't locate any. I have a multiple personality character (Angie) that carries on conversations with herself and the various people inside her e.g., Father and Mother.

In dialogue would I list each "personality" as a character or indicate it's merely a voice?

............................ANGIE
...............I don't want to talk about it.
............................FATHER
...............I do.
............................MOTHER
...............Leave her alone.

I thought of listing Father as "FATHER'S VOICE" since he isn't real.

Suggestions? Thanks a lot. julian

[Deus Ex Machine]

Is she talking or just hearing the voices in her head?

HEARING VOICES EXAMPLE:

............................ANGIE
...............I don't want to talk about it.

............................FATHER'S VOICE
...............I do.

............................MOTHER (VO)
...............Leave her alone.

In the above you can use either of the styles I used but don't mix them like I did, just pick one style and stick with it.

SPEAKING ALL THE VOICES EXAMPLE:

............................ANGIE
...............I don't want to talk about it.
......................(Father's Personality)
...............I do.
......................(Mother's Personality)
...............Leave her alone.

Angie paces like a caged animal.

............................ANGIE
......................(Father's Personality)
...............Shut up, bitch!


This way it remains clear that Angie is the only character talking but it also makes clear what personalities are speaking through her.

HTH

[Steve]

I agree with Deus but it might read a little more smoothly if you say

Jane
(as Dick)
blah blah blah
(as Sally)
blah blah blah

[Noah1]

It's very, very, very, very rare for a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) to have his/her personalities carry on a conversation with each other, at least not outwardly (about a .00001% chance); nearly impossible. The "alters" (personalities) usually can only control behavior of the host one at a time.

Generally, if one personality takes over for another, it takes around 5-10 seconds for the process to take place (usually accompanied by some severe pain; often a migraine).

It would also be nearly impossible for the personalities to talk with the host (or each other) because one personality (usually the host) has amnesiatic episodes during occupation by the alters - doesn't remember what the alters did and, most of the time, isn't even aware of the alters at all. They (usually the host) black out during the alter's occupation.

And, considering that 83% of all DID cases are the result of childhood sexual abuse and 68% are the result of incest, I seriously doubt that the alters would be parents; hers or fictitious ones.

The alters rarely have any kind of a similar relationship with each other.

You might pull this stuff over on someone who doesn't know any better, but it's not a very believable scenario and the general public may not fall for it. I know the educated public wouldn't.

This scenario sounds uniformed (that's not a slam).

So, to recap:

Alters being parents: more than likely wouldn't happen.

Alters having a conversation with each other: definitely wouldn't happen.

You can format it any way you want, but it won't change the fact that it is a poor piece of fiction.

I'm not trying to slam your concept. I don't know the story. But I do know psychology (my field, actually) and what you have presented is not believable, nearly impossible, actually. If you change it around, it could work. But, you really need to research this a lot.

It is sometimes possible for a host to hear the other personalities' voices (pretty rare, though) which sometimes leads to a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia (as was suggested by a previous poster). That might be a more believable approach for the scene.

Unfortunately, DID is often presented theatrically in a way similar to what you have based on the ignorance of the audience and general dramatic purposes (Gollum in LOTR comes to mind*). It seems cooler and makes the person look more "crazy." Cases similar to that do exist, but don't really happen in that fashion. It's mostly HW bullsh!t.

I think you should strive more for fact and believability than catering to the ignorant masses (that includes agents and studios. :p ) who don't know any better.

I would suggest you research DID a lot more before you start this, because right now it sounds like you're just making it up based off what you've seen on really bad TV.

And, no, internet sources don't count. Most of them have erroneous information. Even the ones that seem legit.

Some good, personal account books are:

The Three Faces of Eve by Thigpen and Cleckley (1957). It's also a movie.

Sybil by F. Schrieber (1974) about a girl with 16 personalities. It's really fascinating. Probably the best personal account book out there on the subject.

edited to add:

*About Gollum. He actually had (and, of course, I'm diagnosing a CGI troll, so give me some latitude here :D ), a form of DID sometimes referred to as Split-Personality Disorder which is a form of DID where only one alter presents. I think, if you want to play it the way you have it (more like a Gollum scenario, though that scenario is psychologically inaccurate) then your character should/would only have ONE alternate personality. It might work that way.

Noah

[pantalone]

What about "voices" in the head? Not a full-fledged personalities, but voices talking to the character? Do these people hear a single voice, say God, or multiple voices together, say a chorus of angels, or several individualised voices, like God, Satan and angels?

[Deus Ex Machine]

It's called suspension of disbelief. You create believability.

I don't think anyone would say Back to the Future was consistent with our reality and science, but they would say that the film successfully suspended their disbelief so they could accept the reality and science of the story and enjoy the movie.

[wcmartell]

Imagine what will be on the screen and coming from the cinema speakers.

Write what you've seen and heard.

If there are voices in the character's head, how do you know when you're watching the film that *only* the character hears them?

I think the first step to finding an answer to this question is being able to see the scene on the screen. If you can't see the scene - you have to either wait until you can or find something else to write about. If you can see the scene, then you can ask specific format questions (or look for answers in previously produced scripts).

- Bill

[Queen Uhuru]

Okay, maybe this will help a bit...

I have a little girl character playing with her two Barbie dolls and it is obvious the child is mentally ill because Barbie One is bashing Barbie Two with plastic head butts as the two Barbies argue with each other (and the little girl provides all the dialogue for both Barbies).

I know this isn't exactly a multiple personality situation, but you might format it this way (this was suggested to me by Mike Raschella):

Little Girl picks up Barbie One and uses its head to bash Barbie Two.

LITTLE GIRL
(Barbie One)
I hate you! I hate you! You suck!
(Barbie Two)
You suck more!
(Barbie One)
No, you do!

And instead of having a long vertical column of interacting dialogue under one character name (LITTLE GIRL), I might break that up with bits of business and action. More head butts. Whatever.

(P.S. That's not really the dialogue I used in my script. ;) )