Mental Illness: Case Study

The movie I selected to complete my case study on is named Frankie and Alice which is played by actress Halle Berry. This movie depicts real life events of Ms. Francine Murdoch. During Ms. Murdoch’s adolescent years, she experienced many tragedies. She lost the love of her life to a horrible accident which ended in his death, and she lost her infant child at the hands of her mother. In this case study, I will share a few of the symptoms that I observed during this movie. Additionally, I will diagnose the type of mental illness, provide my differential diagnosis, and propose a treatment plan for Ms. Murdoch’s condition. Mental illness often can go undiagnosed. Properly identifying symptoms of mental illness in it's early stages could save a life. Ms. Murdoch symptoms of mental illness were not apparent in the beginning. However, as the story developed it became very obvious that something was troubling her. She would lie to her mother about attending college, although she was working as a stripper in a night club. She was experiencing memory lapse where she would blackout and end up in strange places. She would later find out that she attempted to stab someone at a wedding that she attended. Additionally, Ms. Murdoch would often forget meeting someone, and she would transition between three different personalities. Frankie is Ms.
Murdoch with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) which is formally know as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). The personalities of Ms. Murdoch appeared to have their own life experiences, emotions, fears, likes, and dislikes. When they reveal themselves, they take on a life of their own, independent of one another. This explains her perceived memory lapse and erratic violent behavior. Additionally, she was often misdiagnosed as being a drug addict. Individuals suffering from DID is defined as a person possessing multiple identities which have their very own memories, desires, and conflicting impulses (Bernstein,