Family Px: Exploring the Personalities of a
Dissociation (DID) System
The concept of Dissociative Identities (DID - formerly called Multiple Personalities) has been embraced in pop culture by both those who believe it exists and those who deny it altogether. Unfortunately, the issue is seeped in controversy. United States of Tara (Showtime TV Series 2009-2011) attempted to give an authentic demonstration of how DID manifests within a domestic scenario, albeit with quite polarized personality-types. Other TV shows like Law & Order and Criminal Minds have exploited it as a means of solving impassable crime stories with DID as motivating the serial killer or child abuser. Doom Patrol perhaps is the TV series that comes closest to representing the multi-faceted and complicated nature of dissociative identities and their relationships. Understanding DID requires grasping a paradigm shift in how we perceive the human condition and mind.
Dissociation is not about crazed murderers or individuals plagued by drastic deviations in character, voice, and dress. It is about the normal human condition coping with life despite coping with extreme childhood trauma that was, and continues to be, untenable and, otherwise, is unbearable. The average person is singular and has different tenants to their personality (i.e., how one behaves in church vs. at a party). In DID, there is a plural system of personalities, each with their own strengths, life skills, and weaknesses, all of whom share the same body and the same life. Together, they navigate the human experience albeit at times with some difficulty. But they can and do evolve into a strong cohesive group of identities who work together to live good lives.
To counter the misconceptions proffered by popular culture, Bernadine, a visual artist who has dissociative identities and has worked as a peer support worker, with 1000’s of folks with DID, has created this series entitled "Family Px: Exploring the Personalities of a Dissociative (DID) System" wherein she created portraits of typical (albeit completely fabricated) personalities within DID. It is not uncommon for DID systems to have many personalities. Fox examines how each personalities’ job co-exists within their internal environment and, ultimately, how they assist the system to operate in the external world. These portraits include young/old, female/male, and human/non-human personalities.
Each portrait is framed in the same 10” x 10” black shadow box. Each includes a tag that identifies the personality with their name, approximate age, and function within the DID system. These portraits include digitally altered images, photographs, and mixed media found objects. When installed, the viewer is allowed to step inside the dissociative system and understand the subtle intricacies and nuances at play and how this “person’s” life experiences and childhood trauma dictate how they must cope within their world along with how they work always to survive.
Bernadine lives well with her dissociative identities. Inspired to represent her lived experience in art, she began producing portraits of typical types of personalities: infant, rescuers, all-knowing etc. She had one rule: they couldn’t be of anyone in her system or from any system of the plural people she had worked with and/or knew. Soon she had several portraits. To be authentic as personalities, they had to have relationships with each other – so she began plotting out those. And as the number of personalities grew, she soon had to map them out. Eventually, that map went from pages in a sketchbook to taking up an entire wall in her studio and included images of the portraits noting names (or other signifiers), functions, and relationships. The map became crucial for her to keep it all straight. For unlike with her own system, Bernadine found it almost impossible to recall names and if she could get that right, she couldn’t remember what they did or how they fit into the whole system. She often misnamed them or misidentified them in other ways. The map became crucial to the fabrication of this system and she relied on it heavily to create what eventually became 50 personalities in the series. It is extremely hard to manufacture a dissociative identity system. And even if someone starts to make one up, unlike those who have grown up with theirs, recalling the who, what, where, and how of that system is hard to impossible to keep straight.
Family Px has been exhibited in Vancouver BC at the Britannia Art Gallery, Gallery Gachet, as well as having several of the portraits included in group shows. Most recently the portraits of Perry, Verona, and Bertha were included in Gifts of Madness exhibition this year in Penticton, BC. They have also been selected as art included in the touring version of this exhibition.
Bernadine uses her life experiences to inform her creative process. She creates art that reflects the contemporary reality of women’s lives. Bernadine obtained her BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, BC and has studied at the Alberta College of Art and Douglas College of BC. After graduating from ECIAD, Bernadine worked as a Film Producer/Production Manager for both film and animation projects and then worked with victims of violence for over a decade. She has volunteered her expertise on the boards of various art organizations, including Women in Film, CARFAC BC, and the Society for Disability Arts and Culture (host of international KickstART Festival). She is a signatory to the Canadian Artists Representation Copyright Collect and creates art and writes out of her home studio in the forest. When not making art, Bernadine teaches drawing, curates exhibitions, organizes art and cultural events, is a social activist around issues pertaining to the lives of women and children, takes care of two cats and lives with her adult grandchild.
Dissociation is not about crazed murderers or individuals plagued by drastic deviations in character, voice, and dress. It is about the normal human condition coping with life despite coping with extreme childhood trauma that was, and continues to be, untenable and, otherwise, is unbearable. The average person is singular and has different tenants to their personality (i.e., how one behaves in church vs. at a party). In DID, there is a plural system of personalities, each with their own strengths, life skills, and weaknesses, all of whom share the same body and the same life. Together, they navigate the human experience albeit at times with some difficulty. But they can and do evolve into a strong cohesive group of identities who work together to live good lives.
To counter the misconceptions proffered by popular culture, Bernadine, a visual artist who has dissociative identities and has worked as a peer support worker, with 1000’s of folks with DID, has created this series entitled "Family Px: Exploring the Personalities of a Dissociative (DID) System" wherein she created portraits of typical (albeit completely fabricated) personalities within DID. It is not uncommon for DID systems to have many personalities. Fox examines how each personalities’ job co-exists within their internal environment and, ultimately, how they assist the system to operate in the external world. These portraits include young/old, female/male, and human/non-human personalities.
Each portrait is framed in the same 10” x 10” black shadow box. Each includes a tag that identifies the personality with their name, approximate age, and function within the DID system. These portraits include digitally altered images, photographs, and mixed media found objects. When installed, the viewer is allowed to step inside the dissociative system and understand the subtle intricacies and nuances at play and how this “person’s” life experiences and childhood trauma dictate how they must cope within their world along with how they work always to survive.
Bernadine lives well with her dissociative identities. Inspired to represent her lived experience in art, she began producing portraits of typical types of personalities: infant, rescuers, all-knowing etc. She had one rule: they couldn’t be of anyone in her system or from any system of the plural people she had worked with and/or knew. Soon she had several portraits. To be authentic as personalities, they had to have relationships with each other – so she began plotting out those. And as the number of personalities grew, she soon had to map them out. Eventually, that map went from pages in a sketchbook to taking up an entire wall in her studio and included images of the portraits noting names (or other signifiers), functions, and relationships. The map became crucial for her to keep it all straight. For unlike with her own system, Bernadine found it almost impossible to recall names and if she could get that right, she couldn’t remember what they did or how they fit into the whole system. She often misnamed them or misidentified them in other ways. The map became crucial to the fabrication of this system and she relied on it heavily to create what eventually became 50 personalities in the series. It is extremely hard to manufacture a dissociative identity system. And even if someone starts to make one up, unlike those who have grown up with theirs, recalling the who, what, where, and how of that system is hard to impossible to keep straight.
Family Px has been exhibited in Vancouver BC at the Britannia Art Gallery, Gallery Gachet, as well as having several of the portraits included in group shows. Most recently the portraits of Perry, Verona, and Bertha were included in Gifts of Madness exhibition this year in Penticton, BC. They have also been selected as art included in the touring version of this exhibition.
Bernadine uses her life experiences to inform her creative process. She creates art that reflects the contemporary reality of women’s lives. Bernadine obtained her BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, BC and has studied at the Alberta College of Art and Douglas College of BC. After graduating from ECIAD, Bernadine worked as a Film Producer/Production Manager for both film and animation projects and then worked with victims of violence for over a decade. She has volunteered her expertise on the boards of various art organizations, including Women in Film, CARFAC BC, and the Society for Disability Arts and Culture (host of international KickstART Festival). She is a signatory to the Canadian Artists Representation Copyright Collect and creates art and writes out of her home studio in the forest. When not making art, Bernadine teaches drawing, curates exhibitions, organizes art and cultural events, is a social activist around issues pertaining to the lives of women and children, takes care of two cats and lives with her adult grandchild.
Interested in purchasing the Family Px Series?