Entertainment
Woman Shares a Gripping Look Into Her Life With Dissociative Identity Disorder in ‘We Are Jeni’
Jeni Haynes created 2500 alters to survive her fathers abuse. This ID documentary explores dissociative identity disorder DID and her path to justice.
Starting at age 4, Jeni Haynes was repeatedly raped and tortured by her father, Richard. To cope with the trauma, the Australian-raised girl created more than 2,500 identities, a.k.a. “alters.” Jeni was eventually diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder.
In this doc, the alters are represented by animated characters to clarify who is speaking. Several of them, including 4-year-old Symphony and Muscles, a teenage boy, who had each lived different aspects of the abuse, gave evidence to the police, resulting in Richard’s arrest, trial and 45-year sentence. We Are Jeni is a fascinating, non-exploitative look at DID. But it’s also cathartic, knowing this horribly abused girl ultimately got a modicum of justice.
We Are Jeni | Premieres Thursday, May 7, at 9 ET, on ID
