Cognitive Differences In The 1981 Film Mommie Dearest: Movie Review

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Part 1: Throughout a person’s life span they will experience right from wrong. As a person grows, their parents use real-life examples to teach them the differences. This is known as cognition. Cognition is defined as “all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating” (Myers, 2014). Cognition deals with behavior resulting from mental processes. How and what people learn, will show through their actions and behaviors. The 1981 film, Mommie Dearest, directed by Frank Perry displays the cognitive concept being derived from the actions of Joan Crawford. Part 2: Mommie Dearest shows the lives of Joan Crawford and Christina Crawford. Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) was an American actress who suffered many personality disorders. These …show more content…

This disorder is described as an “instability of mood, chaotic personal relationships, and a disturbed sense of self” (Rathus, 2010). Mommie Dearest had three instances where this personality disorder was very prominent. In the first instance, audiences witness the moment Joan catches Christina “making fun of her.” This disturbs Joan, so as a punishment, Joan chops away at Christina’s beautiful hair. This can be classified as borderline because hearing Christina say bad things, disturbed Joan’s sense of self. The nest occurrence of this was after Joan had been informed that she was box office poison. Joan didn’t handle that information very well, as she chopped down her flowers. This can be considered borderline because Joan freaked out after being so calm, otherwise known as instability of mood. The final instance we see borderline personality disorder is after Christina got in trouble at school. Joan told a reported that Christina had been expelled. Christina barged in to say that she was not expelled. This caused Joan to have a rage of emotion that resulted in slapping Christina and choking

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