Concerning the Portrayal of Mental Illness in Crawlspace
In Crawlspace, John claims to suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder and, at times, blames the murders on an alternate personality—Jack Hanley. This aligns with the real-life case. Though the disorder has since been renamed Dissociative Identity Disorder, the show is set in the late 1970s and retains the terminology of the time. It is important to note that the musical is concerned with exploration- not diagnosis.
In life, as in the show, John was a notoriously unreliable narrator with a known interest in psychology. When he was arrested, various psychology books were found in his home, including the infamous 1973 book Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber, which detailed the treatment of a patient with Multiple Personality Disorder. Years later, the book was revealed to be a fabricated account. Nonetheless, its publication led to a surge in diagnoses of the condition and widespread misunderstandings.
Many involved with the case believed that John, a known showman and conman, began forming his insanity defense long before his arrest. Multiple Personality Disorder was a topic of public fascination in the '60s and '70s (think Psycho) and was heavily sensationalized. Likewise, in the show, John’s concept of the disorder is also sensationalized, reflecting his manipulative tendencies and the cultural climate of the time and not discounting his very real psychological issues.
It should be stated that John Wayne Gacy, in life, was never diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder. Instead, he was diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder and later with Paranoid Schizophrenia.
Crawlspace not only explores the complexities of mental illness but also warns against the dangers of oversimplifying both psychological disorders. John's real-life record and his flawed understanding of Dissociative Identity Disorder are deliberately incorporated into the show, serving an important narrative function while offering insightful commentary. If his views seem insensitive, it's because John was deeply insensitive, desperate, and troubled. His perspective as a character does not reflect the authors' views or the show's message; rather, it is a necessary tool for telling the story authentically, clarifying the play's cautionary themes, and exploring larger societal and psychological issues.
The play engages with the theme of misunderstanding on many levels—not just of DID, but of mental illness more broadly—using Gacy's (true life) self-diagnosis as a key narrative device. In the show, it’s crucial that John, either in failing to understand himself or in attempting to prove his insanity, falls into the trap of oversimplifying Dissociative Identity Disorder. This highlights the dangers of sensationalism, showing how such simplifications distort understanding and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Furthermore, it aligns with the overall goal of the play, which is not to provide a clinical recreation of DID or any disorder but to offer commentary on how mental health is often misunderstood, provoking questions about its complexities, causes, contradictions, and nuances.
When John’s ghostly "multiples" appear on stage as part of his narrative, they may be interpreted in several ways—true fractures in his psyche, the personified voices of his conscience, the hallucinations often linked to Paranoid Schizophrenia, memories conjured by substance abuse, or a deliberate ruse to manipulate doctors and prosecutors. Their origin is intentionally left up for debate; their function becomes the focus. Here, "multiples" doesn't imply "Multiple Personality Disorder" implicitly but rather personifies Walt Whitman’s famous quote, “I contain multitudes,” from Song of Myself. It’s an attempt to visualize the human psyche—clinically fractured or not—and reflect a philosophical idea of human complexity.
Also, Crawlspace examines John through the mental lens of the fictional Doctor Mathewson. What appears on stage is her interpretation of events as John describes them, filtered through her training and evolving attempts to diagnose him. She must contend with John’s unreliability as a narrator while battling her own fears, past experiences, and biases, which begin to interfere with her objectivity. Over the course of the play, John’s "ghosts" begin to mingle with her own, posing the question—were they ever simply John’s to begin with? The events depicted in Crawlspace are not intended to be a true representation of any particular mental disorder.
Instead, the play focuses on decoding and searching for causation and order in a chaotic psyche (John's, the Doctor's, or both), factoring in unreliable narratives, misunderstandings, sensationalism, and memory. Care has been taken not to portray any specific mental disorder inaccurately or contribute to stigma. This is a show about asking questions and exploring the complicated issues of humanity.
The waters are intentionally murky—nothing is black and white, but rather gray matter brought to life.