So creating new people to serve clients, and then killing them after.

This is the way I saw it in the first episode. It feels a little less like that in the second episode.

The closest naturally occurring phenomenon to Dollhouse probably is not DID, but something called Psychogenic Fugue (or Dissociative Fugue), where people temporarily develop a new identity and with a new lifestyle. They usually recover the old identity completely over time.

On TV the minister from Pine Valley develops a fugue state and is soon running a successful strip club in Center City. In real life, the “new” identity tends to be confused and marginally adjusted at best, triggering efforts to help the person recover the old identity. But there may be a few legitimate cases where someone changed skills and personality and was viewed as a success in their new identity.

why not make sure the Actives say yes to the clients?

You mean make them unable to say no to the clients? It's possible. I'd been assuming they just tailored the personality in such a way that the personality would really want to have sex with them, but a) that's a fine line, and b) we don't really have enough data to know which.

I just asked because it seems like a show where rape is common and commonplace would not be something I would think a network would want to produce. Maybe I need to up my cynicism.

FOX? I believe the suits at FOX believe that rape is something that only happens in a dark alley at night, when a stranger jumps a slutty woman who was clearly asking for it because of what she was wearing and anyway, what was she doing in such a bad part of town anyway if she didn't want to be raped? I don't think they consider such complicated things as, Can someone consent to sex ahead of ever meeting the intended sex partner, especially when their executive functioning has been erased? I don't think that *they* think what they're showing is a young white female with no agency being raped by different men week after week.

I also believe that far too many of the coveted male 18-30whatever demographic believe the same things.

And I'm not remotely kidding.

The closest naturally occurring phenomenon to Dollhouse probably is not DID, but something called Psychogenic Fugue (or Dissociative Fugue), where people temporarily develop a new identity and with a new lifestyle. They usually recover the old identity completely over time.

And now I'm flashing on the Agatha Christie episode of Doctor Who.

I'd been assuming they just tailored the personality in such a way that the personality would really want to have sex with them

But then the personality is being tailored to have no free will, which, then, makes the "sex" rape. Of Caroline, "Echo," AND whatever the personality du jour is.

As to the multiple personality thing: There is controversy about whether Dissociative identity disorder is even real.

That was the point of my "old-fashioned" comment. What I really meant was "TV-science version of" DID -- or amnesia for that matter. Like William Powell in "I Love You Again" (which would raise the question of whether George Carey was raped by the Myrna Loy character). I understand that actual psychological disorders are going to be much more complicated than their fictional equivalents, but hey -- apples to apples, after all.

But then the personality is being tailored to have no free will, which, then, makes the "sex" rape.

Here's the line I'm drawing (and I freely admit it's an absurdly fine one): on one hand, a personality which is psychologically incapable of having sex with the client; on the other, a personality which is the client's "perfect woman" but who could say no, should the client (for example) decide to hunt her before initiating sex, rather than after. And indeed, I think the Jenny personality would have refused had the "I'm going to try to kill you" thing come up earlier.

Does my distinction make sense to you? If I hire someone to go out and find my perfect man, who finds me totally hot and attractive, that perfect man is likely to sleep with me (just go with the hypothetical, please!) but still has free will. If I have that perfect man's personality imprinted onto an android (that is, separating this from the issue of underlying identity, which is a deep and murky issue to be discussed separately), that man still has free will. If I have a personality synthesized from several of my perfect men (ha!), then that personality is VERY likely to have sex with me, but still may have free will.

Oh boy, am I ever overthinking this. My point is, I think the personalities, as presented, have free will. That is, Jenny is not being raped. This does not prevent the sex itself from being rape, as Caroline is still at issue.

I think the Jenny personality would have refused had the "I'm going to try to kill you" thing come up earlier.

But I think Dollhouse could (and wouldn't, merely because of profit reasons) imprint an Active that would have sex in that situation. Does it still feel consensual?

And Rick, is there a term (and, um, profile?) for trauma-induced personality change, like Phineas Gage?