Analysis Of Fatal Attraction

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Teresa Dolezal Abnormal Psychology Professor Amanda Ellis Film Paper 3/31/14 Film Paper: Fatal Attraction’s Borderline Personality Disorder In the 1987 movie titled Fatal Attraction, a happily married New York lawyer named Dan Callagher (Michael Douglas) has an affair with his colleague Alex (Glenn Close), and the two enjoy a steamy weekend while Dan's wife and daughter are away. But soon after the weekend ends, Dan receives multiple harassing phone calls from Alex and soon finds out that she is pregnant with his child. He tells Alex multiple times that he wants nothing to do with her or the baby but she does not stop. She soon escalates to the point where Alex is kidnapping Dan’s daughter and stalking not only him but also his family. Eventually it gets to the point where she breaks into Dan’s house and attempts to murder him and his wife, which then unsuccessfully leads to her murder. After witnessing Alex’s erotic behavior and self-harm tendencies, I have diagnosed her with borderline personality disorder (BPD). According to our textbook, BPD has been a major focus of interest for many reasons including; being very common in clinical settings, very hard to treat, and associated with suicidality. The DSM-5 diagnoses BPD in the presence of five of more of the following criteria: 1) frantic efforts to avoid abandonment 2) unstable interpersonal relationships in which others are either idealized or devalued 3) unstable sense of self 4) self-damaging impulsive behaviors in at least two areas (such as sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, and binge eating) 5) recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or self injurious behavior 6) marked mood reactivity, 7) chronic feelings of emptiness 8) recurrent bouts of intense or poorly contr... ... middle of paper ... ...the DSM-5 criteria. The fact that Alex not only meets five but seven and a half of the criteria based on the textbook without a doubt lead me to believe that she has BPD. I really enjoyed watching this film and it really helped me to learn about BPD not only as a disorder but also from a perspective of someone who actually has the disorder, even if Alex was fictitious. The movie did a great job at portraying the disorder properly. The only thing I would have liked to have been added to the film would be seeing that instead of Dan “drowning” than Beth shooting Alex in the end, if they would have kept her alive and allowed her to seek treatment. I would have liked to see the treatment options given. But overall watching this movie helped to supplement what I learned in lecture about the disorder and have sympathy for those people who are unfortunate enough to have it.

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