I have loved M. Night Shyamalan’s movies since I was blown away by the ending (and the fantastic slow-building dynamic between Bruce Willis’ Dr. Malcolm Crowe and Haley Joel Osment’s Cole) of The Sixth Sense (Kennedy, Marshall, Mendel, Mercer & Shyamalan, 1999) the summer after I graduated high school in 1999. Shyamalan’s blend of psychological suspense, science-fiction, and spirituality in his movies fit an intersection of my genre interests. And, as a kid that grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, the added location shoots in and around Philadelphia always hit an extra personal note for me. His recent release, Split, is one of his best movies and a full return to form for the writer, director, and producer. I particularly enjoy the bold exploration of a controversial mental health topic, with psychological themes that (strangely in the format of a horror movie) hit deep, empathic emotional notes among the central characters. This post explores the theme of major trauma and resulting resilience and empowerment for the character Casey Cooke (played quietly and effectively by Anya Taylor-Joy), which relates to the real psychological construct of post traumatic growth.
Now, before diving into these themes, allow me a paragraph of disclaimers. Any movie that boldly addresses a major psychological disorder enters into complicated waters. A dramatized, movie-demonstration of Dissociative Identity Disorder (or DID), which the main character of Kevin Wendell Crumb (and his 23 other separate personalities) – who is brilliantly played by James McAvoy – possesses, offers the opportunity and benefit of highlighting a type of mental health struggle while also risking the misrepresentation of a vulnerable group of people. For example, Shyamalan’s story impressively grounds the character of Crumb who was once a traumatized child who develops identities (of various ages and genders) that defensively protect (or dissociate) Crumb’s conscious mind from the full traumatic impact of the emotional and physical abuse suffered via the character’s mother. Meanwhile, DID does not correlate or lead to premeditated, sociopathic violence. This aspect of the representation of DID in the movie could stigmatize individuals with complicated responses to major trauma. A second disclaimer: this movie involves scenes of kidnap, imprisonment, gruesome violence against teenage girls, and implied scenes of child molestation and child abuse. Although this movie may provide a validation of traumatic growth, it may also trigger traumatized individuals. Finally, this discussion would be best enjoyed after seeing the movie without any pre-loaded spoilers or foreknowledge. The movie’s suspense and surprise ending is best experienced unaware of where the movie is taking you.
Ok. Has everyone heeded these disclaimers? Are you able to proceed? Ok, good.
Our heroine in this movie is Casey Cooke, a high school-age girl who doesn’t appear to fit in with her female peers at a birthday party scene early in the movie. We learn throughout a series of flashbacks throughout the movie that Casey is “different” from her peers because she has learned to survive, and has suffered, continued sexual abuse by her uncle. We also learn that her uncle tragically becomes her legal guardian after the sudden death of her father when she’s an early elementary school-aged girl. We learn throughout the movie that this traumatic experience, paired with her father’s guidance around deer hunting, provide her an advanced set of survival skills. At the beginning of the movie, Casey is kidnapped with two female peers in a mall parking lot by McAvoy’s Crumb (who is currently in the identity-state of Dennis: a stoic, Obsessive-Compulsive personality). After being imprisoned in a spartan basement room, we see Casey demonstrating steady, calculated survival skills while her peers go into a defenseless or sometimes desperate panic. She collects data about her environment and situation before jumping to conclusions about the abduction and imprisonment. She carefully considers all the information shared by Crumb’s multiple personalities – entering and exiting the locked room – and tries to extract any clues about their imprisonment. She also befriend’s the most agreeable and persuadable of Crumb’s identities, a 9-year-old boy named Hedwig. Eventually, through these resilient maneuvers, she is invited out of the room by Hedwig and appears to almost escape. Later, when she’s given the opportunity to confront Crumb (and other rapidly manifesting identities, including the most dramatic of the 24 identities: “The Beast”) directly, she continues to hold him off until “The Beast” decides to not attack her (which I’ll explain and discuss below). These resilient survival skills keep Casey alive in this horrifying scenario. Shyamalan is suggesting that her past trauma makes her stronger.
This concept, that traumatic experiences, while disruptive and painful for the victim, may also lead to enhanced psychological development, has been described as post traumatic growth (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1995, 1996) in the mental health literature. While there are many disorienting and painful reactions to major trauma, some people also demonstrate improved relationships, increased personal strength, improved cognitive flexibility and worldview, positive spiritual change, and increased appreciation of life. This isn’t always the case for victims of trauma, and many can find themselves stuck in self-blaming and/or fearful psychological paralysis. But some victims respond to a major violation of their safety with a movement toward positive growth.
The seeds of post traumatic growth are present in the character of Casey Cooke throughout Split. She clearly demonstrates more finely honed survival skills from her traumatic experience. But it is a scene at the end of the movie, when she battles Crumb’s identity named “The Beast”, that a full sense of personal empowerment is established for Casey. To set the stage for this scene, it is explained at points in the movie that people with DID may develop unexplained physiological changes (such as a DID identity that has a higher blood pressure syndrome than the person’s other personalities). This would be a dramatic example of mind over matter, where the brain believes something to be true for the body and the body actually responds in a physiologically measurable way. Shyamalan writes that Crumb’s transformation into the Beast personality involves an enormous increase in strength and speed. At the key scene, the Beast has already used its strength and savagery to kill three people: Crumb’s therapist who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and two of the girls that have been imprisoned. Casey has barely escaped attack by the Beast and, after running through the labyrinthine corridors of the basement, has locked herself in what appears to be a prison cell. [I know. This is a classic horror moment where the potential victim appears to put themselves in more danger.] After Casey shoots the Beast at point blank twice with a shotgun (without killing him; we’re told this is mind over matter as well), he tries to enter the cell and is able to bend the steel bars of the cage wider. Its at this dramatic moment that the Beast sees that Casey has many scars from self-injury on her shoulders and abdomen. The Beast realizes that Casey has also been traumatized in some way, like himself.
Now, to understand the impact of this scene, we need a quick aside. We learn toward the end of the movie that the Beast has a very clear philosophy and mission in kidnapping teenage girls. The Beast believes that “the broken”, or people that have been traumatized, are “the more evolved”. Although the Beast’s philosophy is used for depraved actions, this philosophy actually speaks to post traumatic growth. The Beast believes traumatized individuals are more developed and more capable than “the unbroken”, or people who haven’t experienced major trauma. Correspondingly, the Beast believes that “the unbroken” are unworthy of their lives and only function as potential food to better his strength. Yea. This second part of his mission is deranged.
So, back to our scene. In the moment that the Beast realizes Casey is “broken”, “more evolved”, and “worthy”, it decides not to eat her. As the Beast explains this to Casey, you can see a major insight sinking in for her as tears roll down her face . She recognizes that her survival throughout this nightmarish experience with Crumb, and her survival of living with a guardian that repeatedly molested her, make her a powerful person. You can see in her eyes that she realizes she can survive anything. Maybe she hasn’t even started acting to the heights of her powerful potential. (See a clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8-FxxgRACE).
There’s a second beautiful scene where this power takes hold for Casey. After she’s found in the basement cage (which turns out to the be the underground levels of the Philadelphia Zoo) and taken to safety by a Zoo employee, we see her attended to by a first-responder and later she sits in the back of a police car waiting for her uncle-guardian to pick her up. A police officer tells Casey that her uncle has arrived and asks if she’s ready to go home with him. Anya Taylor-Joy, as Casey, turns to the officer and has a look of utter defiance in her eyes. We can see that she’s now claimed power over her relationship with her uncle. Though its not shown in the movie, in my mind she next tells the police that her uncle has molested her throughout her life and should be criminally charged and removed from her life.
We will get to see Casey’s development in the upcoming movie, Glass; written by Shyamalan and currently being shot by the same production company and film team. I expect that we’ll further see the development of Crumb as a super villain and maybe Casey’s character will be conceptualized as a super hero (given her evolved mental strengths).
Its the building sense of suspense and horror throughout the movie Split that allows these emotional revelations to be so powerful. Just when we think Casey will be harmed/killed, we watch her embrace her empowerment during this traumatic experience.
As a psychologist, I have worked with many clients with a history of major trauma. Some struggle significantly with issues of trust and safety (very understandably) and feel trapped in anxiety and depression. If a traumatized client is ready for deeper therapy work, we often move into emotional therapeutic moments where I help the client confront their anger toward the perpetrator. There are therapeutic moments where we may be able to talk to the client’s self (maybe as a child, maybe as a teenager) at the moment of the trauma and to tell their younger self that they don’t deserve such treatment and that they deserved to be better protected. We talk about ways they can emotionally protect themselves in their current life and the sense of self and experiences that they deserve in their current life. In other words, we help the traumatized client embrace their power.
This entertaining, suspenseful, and emotionally powerful movie captures the importance of this empowerment for traumatized victims in a beautiful way. Casey is a bad ass at the end of this movie. I wish for all traumatized individuals to find that bad ass part of themselves.
Ryan D. Weatherford, Ph.D.
Licensed Psychologist
Dr. Ryan's Writings 