Seeing Horror through the Lens of Health: Embodying Dissociative Identity Disorder in The Babadook

Abstract: This essay analyzes the representation of dissociative identity disorder in Jennifer Kent's debut feature, The Babadook (2014). Although the film's exploration of psychological themes such as maternal ambivalence, grief, and repression have already been widely discussed in the critical literature, I argue that such readings tend to mitigate the embodied nature of the suffering that Kent's film depicts. Using Arthur Frank's concept of chaos stories as well as Edward Branigan's work on film narrative, I show how The Babadook provides a valuable, fictional example of how dissociative identity disorder can be depicted in cinematic language. Through Kent's use of internal and external focalization, amongst other filmic techniques, the film promotes an ethic of witnessing whereby spectators can actively see the disorienting impact the protagonist's suffering has on her life. In this way, The Babadook gives health care practitioners insight into the complexity of her subjectivized illness experience.