Were quite something. Lobby. Church. Vault. Corridor. I think they put more effort into canvassing for these backgrounds than actually making a coherent documentary about Billy Milligan and those whose lives he touched. Psychology has evolved since the 1970s; multiple personality disorder is now renamed dissociative identity disorder. The fact that it remains in DSM-V today means that it is still a recognized disorder in spite of the popular hysteria in the 1980s. The experts who were involved in the case then and appear in this documentary take on an impersonal stance, furthering the impression that psychologists and psychiatrists see only symptoms that make up a disorder, instead of a person who is suffering.
Instead of debating about Billy Milligan, the nature of his disorder and the impact on his victims, it may be more effective to think about him in a parallel universe where he did not become a manipulative sociopath with dissociative psychosis. In this universe, his mom grew up with a loving dad, instead of one who abandoned her when she was young. Even if her first marriage had failed, she could have made a decent living as a single mother providing for her three children because of gender and pay equality. This meant that she was not forced to marry a man like Chalmer Milligan and none of her children would be raised in an unsafe environment. Without the intense physical and sexual child abuse, Billy Milligan of this universe would have fulfilled his true potential and may have raised his own children who would grow into healthy functioning adults like their parents. This Billy Milligan would not have raped or killed anyone. Ultimately, people are rarely born monsters. It is the environment that creates them.
Instead of debating about Billy Milligan, the nature of his disorder and the impact on his victims, it may be more effective to think about him in a parallel universe where he did not become a manipulative sociopath with dissociative psychosis. In this universe, his mom grew up with a loving dad, instead of one who abandoned her when she was young. Even if her first marriage had failed, she could have made a decent living as a single mother providing for her three children because of gender and pay equality. This meant that she was not forced to marry a man like Chalmer Milligan and none of her children would be raised in an unsafe environment. Without the intense physical and sexual child abuse, Billy Milligan of this universe would have fulfilled his true potential and may have raised his own children who would grow into healthy functioning adults like their parents. This Billy Milligan would not have raped or killed anyone. Ultimately, people are rarely born monsters. It is the environment that creates them.