Creative Identities in Dissociative Identity Disorder

[David Baxter PhD]

Creative Identities
by Robert T. Muller, Trauma Blog
Kim Noble is an artist living with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Once called Multiple Personality Disorder, DID is a mental illness in which an individual’s identity is fragmented into two or more distinct identities. Kim has 20 personalities, or alters, that are known to her, but not all of them have a connection to one another. Thirteen of them are artists who paint.

This image, called “Training of the Purple Spirit”, was made by Anon, one of the alters who takes over at night and is identifiable only by his abstract impressionism.

For Kim, painting is one of the ways she copes with the pain of living with DID.

Image Credits

• Feature: Anonymous at pxhere, Public Domain
• Body: Kim Noble at kimnobleartist.com

 

[David Baxter PhD]

It's interesting to view the different artistic styles in works by the different personalities. See Kim Noble, Artist and click on the "hamburger" menu at the top left and select Our Work from the drop-down options.

About Kim Noble
Kim Noble is a mother, artist, and author who has Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). DID is a creative way to cope with unbearable pain. The main personality splits into several parts each having an amnesic barrier between them. In and out of hospital from the age of 14, with no formal art training, Kim and her alters became interested in painting in 2004 after spending a short time with an art therapist. The resulting 13 artists each have their own distinctive style, colour, and themes that they work with. Many are unaware they share a body with other artists. Combined, they have had over 60 exhibitions, nationally and internationally.

Noble was the first Artist in Residence at Springfield University Hospital in Tooting, South West London. Her book All of Me: How I Learned to Live with the Many Personalities Sharing My Body was published by Piatkus in 2011. Noble has had many TV and radio appearances, including the Oprah Winfrey Show, This Morning Show, the Anderson Cooper Show, and BBC Radio1 with Victoria Derbyshire.