No one is perfect. This is obvious when living an everyday life with both physical flaws, like scars, or mental flaws, like psychological disorders, being prominent. Psychological disorders are defined as a significant dysfunction in an individual’s cognition, emotions, or behaviors (Myers, 2014, p.506). While Hollywood movie stars seem to be above flaws, the movie Mommie Dearest, directed by Frank Perry, shows that everyone is susceptible to psychological disorders. The main character, Joan Crawford, most notably depicts obsessive-compulsive, histrionic, and bipolar disorder.
Mommie Dearest follows the life of Hollywood Movie star, Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway, as Joan adopts two children, Christina (Diana Scarwid) and Christopher with the help of her lawyer and lover Greg (Steve Forrest).
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While the beginning of parenting may have been fine, especially with the help of her maid, Carol Ann (Rutanya Alda), soon she has keeping her emotions in check when raising her children. This leads to multiple emotional breakdowns, often leading her to beat Christina for small inconveniences. Eventually Christina’s harmless acts of rebellion are too much for Joan, and she sends Christina to a boarding school, and then a convent in order to learn respect. Christina then follows in Joan’s footsteps and becomes an actor, but disapproves of the public’s view of her mother, causing her to speak out about the abuse that she received as a child. One of the main psychological disorders that Joan portrays throughout the movie is bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania (Myers, 2014, p.520). Joan experiences her “mania” when she is successful, and her period of depression when she is around Christina. For example, Joan is ecstatic at beating Christina multiple times when racing while swimming, but then quickly descends into extreme anger at Christina’s opposition to swimming in the future. The filming and abundant pictures at Christina's birthday party also displays Joan’s possession of the histrionic personality disorder, which is shown through excessive emotional ability and the need for attention (Rathus, 2010). Finally, Joan’s abundant scrubbing of her hands, arms, and face in the beginning of the movie and the meticulous inspection of Mary Ann’s cleaning exhibits Joan’s obsessive-compulsive disorder. This disorder causes the person to become obsessed with orderliness, perfection, and control, also shown through Joan requiring her son, Christopher, to be strapped into his bed at
night. Mommie Dearest, uses the character of Joan Crawford to display multiple psychological disorders, like obsessive-compulsive, histrionic, and bipolar disorder. These disorders are most commonly shown through her acting career and her interactions with Christina. Christina’s negative relationship with her mother caused her to speak out against her mother, causing the production of the movie. With help, Joan could have been diagnosed with her disorders that she had, and been taken to therapy for help. Mommie Dearest shows that these behaviors are not normal and can be very destructive, reinforcing the idea that identification and help of psychological disorders is needed.
The first disorder Joan Crawford shows is the bipolar disorder. This is an episode of manic behavior. A person with a bipolar disorder will experience sudden changes in mood from both
For an example in one particular scene, Tiffany has an episode of irritability towards her sister with assumption that her sister hates her; which included loud inappropriate comments and an abrupt exit. There were also symptoms shown such as an excess desire for sex. Tiffany casually talks about all the men she has slept with since her husband’s death, including “the whole office” at her previous job. This is a way she has learned how to deal with her depression.
Borderline Personality Disorder in “Girl Interrupted” The movie, “Girl Interrupted,”is about a teenage girl named Susanna Kaysen who has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. People with Borderline Personality Disorder “are often emotionally unstable, impulsive, unpredictable, irritable, and anxious. They are also prone to boredom. Their behavior is similar to that of individuals with schizotypal personality disorder, but they are not as consistently withdrawn and bizarre” (Santrock, 2003).
It is a common misconception for sadness to be mistaken as Clinical Depression. A disorder like this can be caused by traumatic experiences. The novel “Sleepers” by Lorenzo Carcaterra depicts four boys who are sent to a juvenile prison for 18 months and the aftermath. The film adaptation, “Sleepers”, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Kevin Bacon, Billy Crudup, Robert De Niro, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, and Ron Eldard, shows the four Boys: Tommy Marcano, Lorenzo Carcaterra (Shakes), Michael Sullivan and John Reilly, experience sexual abuse and torture during their confinement at the prison. This paper will examine the problems that the boys suffered during the film “Sleepers” such as: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Avoidant Personality Disorder (APD), Alcohol addiction, violent behavior, and propose treatments (Levinson).
Crowe, M. (2011). Feeling out of control: A qualitative analysis of the impact of bipolar
In the movie “Crazy Beautiful”, the main character Nicole obviously has a mental illness. I believe this comes from a multiplicity of reasons such as genetics, and her abuse of alcohol. Also, it appears as Carlos has a much more difficult life than Nicole, however he is not the one with the mental illness. I will go into further detail on what I think why the illness is with Nicole, not Carlos. Nicole is a very interesting character; she just needed to find her weakness and work through it with people who care about her.
There are many movies that portray mental and psychological disorders, from these I chose the award winning movie: Rain Man. Rain Man was released on December 14, 1988. In the beginning of this movie, a car dealer, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), learns that his father has died and returns home to Cincinnati to attend his funeral. Charlie and his father had a falling out with each other starting when Charlie was sixteen years old and decided to steal his father’s car for a victory lap around town. His father reported the car stolen, resulting in Charlie being arrested. Charlie’s friends got off with a warning, however Charlie’s father decided to leave his son in jail for two days before he got him out. Charlie’s mother died when he was two years
Her detrimental relationship with her mother turned into a psychosomatic disease, which later affected her life and the people in it.... ... middle of paper ... ... 12 Nov. 2013. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=8255d75b-58ea-4383-be87-4f5601606c51%40sessionmgr13&vid=1&hid=26&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=lfh&AN=17088173>.
The movie primal fear was directed by Gregory Hoblit and was released in 1996. It is a crime-thriller film based on William Diehl’s 1993 novel with the same name. Hoblit tells a story of a defense attorney Martin Vail who defends Aaron Stampler the altar boy who has been charged with a murder of a catholic archbishop. Hoblit portrays Martin Vail as a white male in his forties, wealthy and well known lawyer who loves public limelight and Aaron Stampler as a simple young boy who was born in a small town of Kentucky and moved to Chicago and ended up as a beggar on the streets where archbishop spotted him and took him to his savior house.
Self-destructive behaviors are also very common in individuals with Borderline personality disorder. Susanna validates this trait by her lack of motivation, conversations about suicide, and her suicide For example; Lisa, the diagnosed sociopath, displays very little empathy for those around her. This is made clear when she sees Daisy’s post suicide body and is not saddened whatsoever. Another accurate portrayal is the patient with anorexia nervosa Janet. Janet refuses to eat, is in denial about her condition, is emotionally labile, and is always exercising.
There are two different kinds of disorders, personality disorders and psychological disorders. Psychological disorders are illnesses that an individual experiences as episodes. Personality disorders are enduring traits that are major components of the individual's personality (Rathus, 2010). No matter what kind of disorder a person may possess their lives are affected everyday by them, it takes over their body and consumes them as a person. Disorders are often misunderstood. You do not have the ability to make a split second decision and then continue life without that disorder, it will take lots of counseling. While we are not trained psychologist everyone can learn or identify disorders in popular movies or television shows. In the movie, Mommie Dearest, directed by Frank Perry, Joan Crawford possesses several of these disorders, including bipolar, borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.
Frank Coraci’s, also known for his movies Zookeeper and Click, 1998 film, The Waterboy, stars Adam Sadler who plays the main character Bobby Boucher who suffers from a mental disorder. Bobby is an outcast due to his disability and I constantly picked on and taken advantage of by everyone in his life. This includes his mother, coaches, teachers, and his peers. This occurs up until and even after he discovers his true calling as a linebacker. He leads his team to many victories after not winning game in over 40 consecutive games and becomes loved by his whole school. Many people find this movie to be funny or even amusing, but I do due to its type of humor, the way it mocks child abuse and mental illness, and its inaccuracies.
Joan Crawford, was one of the most popular and well known actresses in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. Although her life was more extraordinary than mundane, she suffered from multiple personality disorders, as do many Americans. Personality disorders are patterns of inflexible traits that disrupt social life or work and may distress the affected individual (Rathus, 2016). The movie Mommie Dearest, captures moments in Crawford’s life that show her struggles with her personality disorders. Throughout the movie, you watch her personalities become more prominent and abusive. Her main disorders include borderline and paranoid personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as histrionic and narcissistic personality disorder.
"I am Sam" is a heart-warming movie showing how a mentally challenged father with an IQ level of a seven-year-old raises a child with love and patience despite his mental illness. I have chosen to write a review of the movie “I am Sam” because it is a powerful, emotional film about love, family bonds, and parenting challenges. The main character, Sam, lived in Los Angeles, CA in the 1990s. Sam has the mental capacity of a seven-year-old, he works at Starbucks and has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandoned them after she gave birth. Sam is an avid Beatles fan and named his daughter Lucy Diamond after the Beatles song. Sam’s mental impairments are autistic tendencies and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Sam’s moderate obsessive-compulsive
“We have got to quit fooling around with this. I know this stuff sells, but that doesn’t make it right” (Clinton). Bill Clinton is right about this. Some movies have so much action in them that kids are becoming violent because they have watched too many bad movies. Some parents are even letting their little kids watch rated R movies, when they are supposed to be seventeen to watch them, even though they can teach you to do good things. Hollywood movies teach youth to do bad things because, some movies are teaching youth that it’s ok to smoke or drink, because Hollywood movies are setting a bad example.