Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness affecting people who have experienced trauma or witnessed another's traumatic experience. Millions of Americans suffer from PTSD (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Adults”, n.d. “State and Country Quickfacts: USA”, n.d.), so it's important to raise awareness for these diseases. An effective method of educating the public is through film, but inaccurate portrayals of mental illness could actually encourage stereotypes of disorders. Therefore, filmmakers should make movies like Good Will Hunting and The Perks of Being a Wallflower which provide accurate portrayals of PTSD and raise awareness about this disorder. Good Will Hunting tells the story of 20 year-old Will Hunting, a physical …show more content…
Firstly, trauma is re-experienced long after the original event. Charlie constantly re-experiences the horror of Aunt Helen's death in flashbacks to the night she died and his sexual abuse. Will's brutal fistfights are a re-experiencing of his trauma. The second criterion is the avoidance of stimuli that remind the victim of the trauma. Charlie actively avoids anything that worsens his flashbacks during Christmas, the anniversary of Aunt Helen's death. Will represses his memories by lying about his family history to avoid confronting the truth of his abuse. Thirdly, the trauma causes negative changes in cognition and mood. Charlie suffers from dissociative amnesia, the inability to remember aspects of his trauma (like Aunt Helen abusing him and his violent involvement in a fight to protect his gay friend Patrick). Charlie also has a distorted perspective when laying blame (American Psychiatric Association, 2013); he wrongly blames himself for things that are not his fault, like Aunt Helen's death. Will similarly has a distorted perspective of blame, except that he blames others for his problems. His hatred of wealthy people stems from his poor upbringing where financial stress nay have caused his foster father to abuse him. Finally, negative changes in arousal are observed. Will's overly …show more content…
Dr.Maguire helps Will by generally using empathetic psychodynamic therapy, encouraging the intimate discussion of the client's symptoms and the effects on the client's life. By providing clients with meaningful self-insight on their experiences, psychodynamic therapy is useful for people with a traumatic childhood. But the most important aspect of Dr.Maguire's method is his strong relationship with Will. Other psychologists failed with Will by using outdated therapies like “free association” and not creating an empathetic relationship. Good Will Hunting has thus humorously dealt with the stereotypes of outdated psychotherapies and incompetent therapists. Charlie also receives psychodynamic therapy, though the film doesn't depict the exact dynamics of this treatment. Charlie's situation differs from Will's in that he isn't treated until he is hospitalized for a severe mental breakdown, while Will is treated before his mental condition can deteriorate. Charlie's sessions with psychiatrist Dr.Burton help him recover, and he continues seeing her on a weekly basis after his release from hospital. If Charlie and Will had received therapy sooner in life, their more severe symptoms may have been
PBS’ Frontline film “The Wounded Platoon” reviews the effects the Iraq war has had on soldiers as they return home and transition back into civilian life, focusing particularly on the rise in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among American military members from Fort Carson Army base (Edge, 2010). Incidents of PTSD have risen dramatically in the military since the beginning of the Iraq war and military mental health policies and treatment procedures have adapted to manage this increase (Edge, 2010). In “The Wounded Platoon,” many military personnel discuss how PTSD, and other mental health struggles, have been inadequately treated (if at all) by military mental health services. Reasons and Perdue’s definition of a social problem allows us to see inadequate treatment of PTSD among returning United States military members as a social problem because it is a condition affecting a significant number of people in undesirable ways that can be remedied through collective action (Reasons & Perdue, 1981).
In Good Will Hunting the main character Will Hunting is a janitor at Boston’s prestigious M.I.T. His ability to solve complex mathematical equations has earned him notoriety through out the mathematical department. Will Hunting is not a student, he is merely a bright young 20 year old kid with a troubled past. Will Hunting is exposed by Professor Gerald Lambeau when he is caught working on another mathematical equation. Professor Lambeau discovers his troubled past when he attends Will Hunting’s court hearing. Lambeau Finds out that Will Hunting has had many run-ins with the law and offers to give Will Hunting direction instead of being sent to jail. Will Hunting is ordered by the court to attend psychiatric sessions to he...
The protagonist in the motion picture Good Will Hunting is called Will, and he is described to be a high intellect person but with recluse tendencies whereby he has kept to himself mostly having only a few friends near him. The young adult is employed as a janitor in the university where can work out a difficult question presented to the students by the professor. The problem appears to be quite difficult for the students, but he does not struggle. The teacher takes an interest in the young man and stands for him in court and takes responsible for him. He takes him to therapy to treat his psychological disorder which becomes apparent with the actions and words that he utters in the film. Will is tough in the therapy sessions until he later
Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder that develops when an individual experiences or lives through a life-threatening event. (NIH 2010) These individuals react with intense fear, helplessness, or horror. On a daily basis, the Troops overseas live through life-threatening events. These events are why 12-30% of warfighters develop combat-related PTSD. Troops are prepared for duty but are unprepared for psychological effects of war. We can witness the effects of PTSD in American Literature. One unusual example of these impacts could be shown in the novel, The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is a symbol of combat-related PTSD, which he inquires during World War One(WWI) while stationed with the 17th Infantry. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is described to have many symptoms and risk factors of PTSD. Jay Gatsby’s
Charlie begins to learn how society treats the mentally retarded. He realizes his old friends at the bakery just made fun of him. After watching the audience laugh at video of him before the operation, Charlie runs away from a mental health conference with Algernon after learning that his operation went wrong. Charlie does research on himself and learns that intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown. In many ways Charlie was better before the operation.
Good Will Hunting is the graceful tale of a young gentleman’s struggle to find out where he belongs in the world, by first finding out who he himself is. In this film, Matt Damon takes on the role of a disturbed genius that has a keen understanding of the deepness of human character. The film is a voyage through the mind of Will Hunting as he is required to undergo psychotherapy as an alternative to serving jail time. With the assistance of a psychologist, played by Robin Williams, Will learns about himself and recognizes his individual worth in the world by comprehending what is most important to him in his own life. This motion picture serves as a source of superb example for film technique. Gus Van Sant’s directing ability joined with the writing skills of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who also plays Will’s best buddy, Chuckie, is a vibrant mixture of technical features used to induce sentiment and compassion amongst the viewers of this heart-warming film. Characteristics of the color, angles, shots, camera movement, editing, and distortions are all each particularly noteworthy to the general composition of Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting.
When Charlie was really young, his Aunt Helen sexually abused Charlie up until her death. This causes as whole new set of symptoms for Charlie, including the PTSD categories of intrusion and avoidance. Charlie experiences flashbacks (dissociative reactions) of the nights that his Aunt Helen would violate him, and what was happening during that time. He has intense distress in response to reminders of this, which is evident when Sam touches Charlie 's hand, and then he remembers how his Aunt Helen used to touch his hand the same way before she would sexually violate him. Charlie also experiences avoidance symptoms, because he works hard in trying to avoid internal reminders of the
Good Will Hunting is a film which conveys many interlocking themes and messages to its viewers. One of these nicely woven themes is placing trust in the people we care about as well as people we have only recently become acquainted with. Another message, arguably more significant than the last is finding and pursuing the potential one has and bringing meaning into our lives in any form we choose. I believe the potential and success this film demonstrates is that success, growth, and meaning in a person’s life does not always have to come in the form of advancing in a career or social status but rather in the form of overcoming hardships and developing close reciprocating relationships.
Though our society has evolved regarding the profession and need of counseling services, many people remain with the stigma that only individuals who are “crazy” require counseling. For many years, the notion of counseling was rarely linked to or associated with mental health/mental illness. However, due to personal ordeals and societal demands the level, many people suffer with mental illness. There was a point in time where seeking counseling services was taboo. As individuals and a society, we fail to reflect on or are oblivious to the disadvantage of not addressing our mental state if and when necessary. In the film “Good Will Hunting”, I will describe the resistance of the character Will Hunting in building effective and meaningful
The purpose of this report is to analyse the personality of the character, Will Hunting from the film Good Will Hunting using the psychodynamic and humanistic theories of personality. The main characters discussed in this text and their relationship to Will can be seen in appendix 1.
Within the sociological perspective there are many concepts, however there are only a handful of concepts that explain Will Hunting’s actions and identity. Social location is the overarching reason for ones actions and identity. It predefines one’s life; actions, emotions, identity and all aspects of life. Social location is defined as “…the intersection point of specific social forces” (Berger 67). A person cannot help but to be thrown into a certain social location and this location limits human behaviour and expectations. Social forces refer to anything in society that can cause change; friends, family, legal system, etc. Within a social location, there are certain rules one must abide by “…location in society constitutes a definition of rules that have to be obeyed” (68). These rules are present in order to keep a functioning society, social control comes in when people disobey these rules and need to be put back into line. Social control is ...
Intertextuality means that there is a connection between two or more texts. That’s why the relationship between the films The Green Mile and Dead Man Walking are said to have intertextuality. The Green Mile was directed by Frank Darabont, the same director from ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. The film is about Paul Edgecomb, a prison guard, retelling the supernatural phenomena that is John Coffey, a vagrant in the middle of the Depression, falsely accused of rape and murder of two little girls. Dead Men Walking was directed by Tim Robbins, the same actor from again The Shawshank Redemption, is based on the recount of Sister Helen Prejean, a nun from Louisiana, and her dealings with murderer Matthew Poncelet. Each of the directors use film features and techniques to present their
The film “Good Will Hunting” follows the story of Will Hunting (Matt Damon) a self-taught genius who works at one of the most prestigious technology schools; MIT, as a janitor. Will is an orphan with a criminal record of Assault, grand theft auto, assaulting a police officer, etc. Will solves a complex math problem, which leads to him being discovered by professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) as a genius. Professor Lambeau makes a deal with the judge when Will is incarcerated to be on parole under Lambeau’s supervision and Will is ordered to see a therapist once a week. Will Outsmarts many of the therapists, which forces Lambeau to go to his last resort, college friend and psychology teacher Sean Macguire (Robin Williams).
This paper will discuss the relationship between Will Hunting and the psychologist Sean Mcguire in the movie Good Will Hunting. The struggles that occur between these main characters will be analyzed and their meanings found. A basic outline of the movie will be included to give the larger picture and its influence upon the two men.
In the movie it is not specifies what type of internalizing disorder Charlie had. A possible diagnosis Charlie could have been classified with is Post traumatic Stress disorder because of the trauma he felt after he was molested by his aunt. He feels guilty because of the death of his aunt, since she dies on Charlie’s birthday when she was going out to buy his birthday and Christmas present. Charlie always kept as a secret what his aunt Helen did to him, his parents find later when Charlie is already receiving treatment. Sometimes we can infer that Charlie doesn’t blame his aunt for what happened, but there are times where he states that he was glad his aunt had died in that accident. Some of the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder is