Mental health is often a tricky subject to cover in film and television since it is so complex, but it's still important to explore those aspects of humanity for our collective understanding. One of the latest series to take a shot at an on-screen interpretation of it is Marvel Studios' Moon Knight starring Oscar Isaac. His character Marc Spector has a second identity named Steven Grant and such could be indicative of a mental health condition covered in another popular title: Hereditary.
Josh St. Clair from Men's Health made this comparison by referencing the fifth episode of Marvel Studios' Moon Knight, where it is revealed that Marc created Steven as a defence mechanism for the trauma he experienced upon his brother's passing. This act of splitting into a dual personality is also seen in Ari Aster's Hereditary, in which the characters exhibit a mental health condition known as dissociative identity disorder (DID). Such a condition affects one's consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, and behavior, among other things.
St. Clair mentions that Marc has been diagnosed with DID in both the comic books and the show itself and that Isaac and his co-star Ethan Hawke both conducted research on the disorder to prepare for their roles in the show. Still, some experts warn audiences to take the show's depiction with a grain of salt, as not all the interpretations of the disorder were accurate. Anthony M. Tobia, M.D. from Rutgers University noted that the interactions between Marc Spector and Steven Grant seem overly dramatized and very unlikely in real life.
He explains that a person with DID is more likely to perceive the alternate personality as a voice or auditory hallucination. Furthermore, the show appears to suggest that there is a connection between DID and violent behavior, which can send a potentially dangerous message. While such a correlation supposedly lends Marc Spector the very killing prowess that viewers get excited over, it definitely can be misleading.
Despite these flaws, Moon Knight still has its redeeming qualities. Isaac himself said that the series has helped people in his own life who have suffered from mental health conditions, including his uncle. Speaking to Esquire, Isaac said his uncle started crying while watching one of the episodes because it made him feel like he was finally being seen. Oftentimes, mental health is stigmatized and underrepresented in mainstream media, let alone in superhero epics like Moon Knight.
Moon Knight is now streaming on Disney Plus.
Source: Men's Health