After reading this article, (and finding out that Park Seo-joon is in this drama) I actually will go watch this! Apparently, “Kill Me, Heal Me” found its way to an American psychologist who said that the drama is very well done and actually does describe Dissociative Identity Disorder well without glossing over it.
She wrote a letter to the production team and in her letter she said:
“She praised how the drama did not fail to overlook the psychological illness of Dissociative Identity Disorder and solely focused to follow a spiritual and healing perspective. she finds the drama to have a high level of completeness despite being only twenty episodes long. Throughout the warm letter, she showed her support and gratitude to Jin Soo Han writer. In the end, she also thanked the lead actor Ji Sung and actressHwang Jung Eum for showing a different kind of acting.”
click here to see the full article.
I didn’t really know much about this disorder so I had to seek out google on this one. And basically, it is something that occurs after a traumatic experience. You may or may not have experienced a mild dissociative moment when you completely remove yourself entirely from a situation that you may be experiencing in real time. Well, with this disorder, a person may actually create (unintentional and uncontrollably) new identities that will experience certain moments and memories for that person. They won’t have the memories each personality has nor will they have the same experience. Think of it like a protective measure the brain takes to protect that individual.
Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously referred to as multiple personality disorder, is a dissociative disorder involving a disturbance of identity in which two or more separate and distinct personality states (or identities) control an individual’s behavior at different times. When under the control of one identity, a person is usually unable to remember some of the events that occurred while other personalities were in control.
Find out more here at NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness.
To find out that “Kill Me, Heal Me” was able to encompass this in such a poignant and natural way actually makes me want to watch this drama. I’m happy that they were able to bring this to light. A lot of times mental illness and disorders get brushed off and swept under the rug or dismissed as something that “just happens” but never fully addressed and that doesn’t really help viewers understand the depth of what that person is going through. So I love when teams get together and say, “No, we’re going to talk about this!” And they write a script that not only addresses it but allows the viewer to connect with it.
The production team for “Kill Me, Heal Me” wrote in response to the American psychologist’s letter:
“We believe that the American viewers enjoyed the detective story and irony in our plot. Jin Soo Han writer’s ability to add a sweet romance along side a warm healing message seems to have garnered the viewers’ hearts not only in Korea, but also in America.”
From the sounds of it, this is a really beautiful drama and I can’t wait to watch it. I wonder if it’ll have the same effect on me as the drama MAMA did. (I cried like a baby on that one!)
Twenty Third Station 