Split Personality? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Sauron the White · 09-19-2007, 02:29 PM

If Gollum is portrayed in the films as having some type of disassociative disorder - and I think he does - it is important to understand this is clearly not the same as the typical Hollywood version of the split personality. In many films over the years, and in countless TV shows, we see the split personality as the 100% take over of a person by a different personality almost like a possession. That is an extreme of an extreme.

Most people who experience disassociate disorder maintain a personality with a middle constant that can vacilate in part to different ends. Most people around them can live for years seeing them everyday and never realize they have the disorder. Its not like "today I am me.... now look ... I am Rasputin". It really does not work that way.

Frodo wakes up the Smeagol portion of his personality and it battles back and forth with the Gollum side. In the middle is a constant that permits to serve his new master, enjoy rediscovering his more pleasant side, while at the same time leading him to Shelob. People without the disorder would see those two things as a contradiction, but someone with the disorder sees nothing at all wrong with what they are doing.

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09-19-2007, 02:29 PM	#11
Sauron the White Ghost Prince of Cardolan Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 903	If Gollum is portrayed in the films as having some type of disassociative disorder - and I think he does - it is important to understand this is clearly not the same as the typical Hollywood version of the split personality. In many films over the years, and in countless TV shows, we see the split personality as the 100% take over of a person by a different personality almost like a possession. That is an extreme of an extreme. Most people who experience disassociate disorder maintain a personality with a middle constant that can vacilate in part to different ends. Most people around them can live for years seeing them everyday and never realize they have the disorder. Its not like "today I am me.... now look ... I am Rasputin". It really does not work that way. Frodo wakes up the Smeagol portion of his personality and it battles back and forth with the Gollum side. In the middle is a constant that permits to serve his new master, enjoy rediscovering his more pleasant side, while at the same time leading him to Shelob. People without the disorder would see those two things as a contradiction, but someone with the disorder sees nothing at all wrong with what they are doing.