List of United States of Tara characters

United States of Tara centers on the characters comprising the Gregson family. The series follows the family as it deals with Tara Gregson and her struggles with dissociative identity disorder. Her family, including husband Max, children Kate and Marshall and sister Charmaine, serve as her support system. Secondary characters include love interests, neighbors, friends and Tara's therapists. Tara's "alters", or alternate personalities, stand as characters in their own rights and continually interact with the other characters and sometimes with each other and Tara.

Tara Gregson (Toni Collette), née 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". 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.

Max Gregson (John Corbett), Tara's husband, is a nurturing man who unconditionally supports Tara and attempts to resolve conflicts and support her. He acts as caretaker to both of his children and, despite the challenges and frustrations, Max is a committed husband and father. The New Yorker called him "a member of that strange breed of TV husband that exhibits infinite patience." Max's own father left him and his mother during his childhood due to her mental illness which may motivate his fierce commitment to his family and to supporting his wife through. Throughout season two, Tara thinks that the only reason they are still together is because he views her as a "project". He is very close to both of his children, Marshall and Kate. He ran a landscaping business for the first two seasons until selling it to a competitor, for which he goes to work, in season three. Max had a one-night stand with Pammy in her bar. He has an extreme fear of flying, as shown in the season 3 episode, "Chicken 'n' Corn".

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