Lars And The Real Girl Analysis

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Lars and the Real Girl was an independent film about a young man named Lars who lived a quiet stable life until he was struck with such severe mental illness that the whole community rallied to support him on his mission to recovery. Lars was a great example of a man who had suffered from early attachment loss and childhood trauma that manifested into psychological dysfunction. In the beginning of the film, we saw that Lars was in fact interested in human interaction as he stared out of his cold foggy window one winter morning at his approaching sister-in-law coming to invite him to breakfast. Despite his curiosity, he attempted hiding to avoid social interaction. He reluctantly answered the door clutching his baby blanket around his neck like a scarf, but politely declined the invitation. We discovered very quickly that Lars was not comfortable with social interactions therefore he avoided it. He never seemed interested in …show more content…

p. 90). However, Lars was exhibiting the first two criteria A for schizophrenia, delusions and hallucinations, and negative symptoms as well (DSM-5, 2013. p. 99). He believed that Bianca, a sex doll, was his girlfriend and he was actively engaging in conversation with her. Delusional disorder can be distinguished from schizophrenia by the absence of the other characteristic symptoms of the active phase of schizophrenia. (DSM-5, 2013. p. 93). Lars does not have impaired functioning due to his delusion of Bianca and his behavior is not too bizarre and his behavior is not attributable to a substance or medical condition however, he may still be suffering from schizophrenia. He is in the correct age of onset, he is male which makes him thirty to forty percent more likely to develop schizophrenia than women and more likely to display negative

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