Traumatized Splitting and Fragmentation — PART II — Self-Hatred in Severance
This post is a follow-up to Part I which introduced the subject of traumatized dissociation, splitting, and fragmentation. You can read that here. Also, more spoilers than last time.
In this post, I will dive deeper into self-hatred, self-objectification, and perfectionism related to fragmentation discussing the character Helly from Severance.
Helly R. in Severance:
What an asshole…wait, almost forgot they are the same person…Sometimes we can be assholes to ourselves.
Are You Enslaving Yourself?
When Helly sees Mark, the first thing she says to him is: “Am I livestock?.” She is indeed being treated as a beast of burden. The sad irony is that she is the one who signed herself up for this.
Helly R. is the perfect case study in Severance for how self-hatred, self-fragmentation, and objectification intersect. From the moment she wakes up in Lumon, she fights against the artificial division between her "innie" and "outie" selves. And yet, her "outie"—her original, external self—treats her "innie" as a disposable object, an entity that is neither human nor deserving of autonomy. This is where Severance takes the metaphor of dissociation and self-alienation to a terrifying extreme: what happens when the parts of you with power views other parts as unacceptable, shameful, or weak?
One of the most chilling moments in Season 1 comes when Helly's "innie" sends a video plea to her "innie" begging for release. The response? A cold, brutal rejection in which her "outie" tells her that she is not a person, that she does not get to make decisions, and that she will continue to work no matter what she wants. This isn’t just a dystopian HR nightmare; it’s a striking representation of self-objectification and internalized oppression. It’s the voice inside us that says, keep going, shut up, you don’t get a say. It’s the part that forces us to work past human limits, to endure suffering as though our well-being is secondary—or nonexistent.
“In unbearable situations, the psyche generates a protector—part angel, part demon—who shields the self from pain but also keeps it imprisoned.”
Helly’s “workie,” disoriented after her exile.
“Exiles are the parts that carry the burdens of pain, trauma, and shame. They are the young, wounded parts of us that got pushed away for survival, but they are also the keys to our healing.”
What's Your Outie Up To?
Keeping you in unhealthy/abusive relationships (with partners, family, friends, jobs)
Denying your needs and feelings
Turning to addiction, substances, workaholism, numbing out to ignore your inner world
General masking, ignoring your values and intuition
Treating your body like an object to perfect with health obsession, over-exercising, restrictive dieting
Ignoring your body’s needs by not tending to it with food and movement
“Trauma divides us from ourselves. Healing is about becoming an ally to the parts of us that had no choice but to carry the unbearable.”
Helly’s story is especially resonant when we consider how people push themselves to conform to external demands—whether it’s corporate expectations, beauty standards, or relentless perfectionism. When we internalize the idea that only certain parts of ourselves are valuable—the productive, attractive, compliant parts—we create an internal hierarchy that mirrors Helly’s predicament. The part that suffers, the part that wants out, the part that questions—those voices get suppressed, ignored, and dismissed. Instead if seeing vulnerable parts place, the outside world sees protective parts—for instance, a competent type-A worker—but that vulnerable part does not go away. The protective parts work overtime to hide away the psychic suffering of the vulnerable, exiled parts. The pain of those vulnerable, exiled parts go untended go, festering.
Who Is Your “Innie”?
Exiled parts of you, hidden away from others, that…
Feel unloveable
Experience “unacceptable” emotions whether rage, sadness, or joy
Are scared, anxious, vulnerable
Feel dependent, too much, or not good enough
Carry traumatic memories
Hold “acceptable” desires or needs
What Severance does so well is make this split literal. Helly’s "innie" wants freedom, but she is trapped inside a system that denies her full personhood. And yet, her "outie"—who holds the key to her release—actively refuses to grant it. In many ways, this mirrors the way people engage in self-denial. We override hunger cues to diet. We push through burnout to meet deadlines. We tell ourselves that we are only worthy if we meet impossible standards. At this point, at the end of Season I, we don’t know Helly’s backstory or her reasons for this split. But if we take Mark, who is seeking to escape the intolerable grief of the loss of his wife, we can build empathy for splitting. Not just for success or vanity, he splits because his suffering is too great, because splitting is the only way he knows how to survive.
“You carry the hurt. You feel it down there, too. You just don’t know what it is.”
Helly’s journey is painful to watch because it reflects a reality so many experience: a war between the part of us that needs care and the part that has internalized the demands of an unrelenting system or overwhelming trauma (or both!). Her eventual defiance—her refusal to remain a passive object in her own suffering—offers a powerful moment of resistance. But it leaves us with a question: how often do we, in our own lives, act like Helly’s "outie"—ignoring our suffering selves in the name of performance, success, or survival?
