united states of tara what is tara's trauma
List of United States of Tara characters Tara Gregson (Toni Collette), nÃ©e Craine, is the central character of the series. She is an extremely talented woman who would like to nurture her growth as an artist, but can't for balancing everything else in her life, including her job as a mural painter, her husband and two teenage children, and her dissociative identity disorder. Tara's natural personality is somewhat of a mixture of all her alters. The cause of Tara's condition was allegedly believed to be a rape that took place while she was a teenager, but later discovered that both she and Charmaine were molested by their older half-brother Bryce. By the beginning of season two she is able to become aware of her alters (co-consciousness) and communicate with them while still being conscious. The series begins shortly after she made the decision to stop taking her medication, which allows her underlying vulnerabilities (her "condition") to re-emerge. In the time leap of three months between seasons one and two, she picks up medication again, and it works for a while. In the final episode of season three Tara takes drastic measures and throws herself off a bridge, but survives and manages to kill her "abuser" alter. Diablo Cody, one of the show's producers, has stated that Tara isn't being irresponsible by not taking the medication, but rather "wants a chance to try living with her condition, instead of smothering it with drugs" because it is "clear ... that she is not receiving proper treatment for her dissociative identity disorder".[1] Tara's "therapist" alter is shown promoting this view to a student class, before her professor intervenes. Collette has said that she is "excited" and "absolutely in love" with the project.[2]