In the United States, one in four adults have dealt with some type of psychological disorder of their own. In fact, for people age 15-44, it is the leading cause of disability. Psychological disorders are behavior patterns or mental processes that interfere with everyday life (Rathus, 2010). They can be classified as personality disorders, which are patterns of inflexible traits that disrupt social life or work and may distress the affected individual, or mood and anxiety disorders. These refer to feelings of worry or fear that are strong enough to interfere with daily activities and mood changes that are not appropriate for the situation to which they are responding. One way to learn how to identify these disorders is through movie analysis. For example, the film …show more content…
This mood disorder involves a cycle of mood changes from depression to wild elation and back again. Symptoms range from mania or hypomania to depressive. Hypomania or mania symptoms include: impaired judgement, excessive self-confidence, “racing thoughts”, and being likely of engaging in risky behaviors (Nordqvist, 2017). Depressive symptoms include feelings of hopelessness, insomnia, extreme sadness, and irritation. People who suffer bipolar disorder go from maniac symptoms to depressive symptoms. Although there is no single cause, genetic factors and biological traits play a big role. In the movie, Joan Crawford finds Christina “mimicking” her in the mirror. She goes from calm to hysterical very quickly. She grabs scissors and begins carelessly cutting Christina’s hair. Another time in the film when Crawford goes from relaxed to frantic, is when she finds a wire hanger in Christina’s closet. She overreacts and haphazardly throws all her clothes on the floor. Both of these events were a time when Crawford went from one emotion to the next extremely quick. There were many cases where Joan was bipolar, but she had other personality disorders as
She acquired borderline personality disorder because her husband, Tommy passed away. In the DSM-5, borderline personality is described as “a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five of the following” (Butcher, Hooley, & Minek, 2014, 342). Tiffany showed at least five symptoms of borderline personality
“No wire hangers, ever!” Joan Crawford spoke to Christina Crawford in Mommie Dearest the movie. The scene where Joan says this is just one example of her having one or more psychological disorder. Psychological disorders are behavior patterns that cause a person to anguish. Also, they may cause a person to obstruct the capability to manage everyday activities (Rathus, 2010). Joan displays many psychological disorders, but the most visible are bipolar disorder, histrionic personality disorder, narcissistic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
She didn't like herself (low self-esteem), or others. She was both futile and helpless. The only way she displayed her anger was by giving a whimper. She obviously had a lot of pent up feeling, for she reveals a lot later in the movie through self-disclosure.
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 also are 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). In “Girl Interrupted” Susanna Kaysen the main character, goes through many episodes that give a picture of the disorder she’s suffering from. The first such incident occurs when the psychiatrist is talks to Susanna about her failed suicide attempt. During the conversation, she is seen as confused and irritated by his presence. While the psychiatrist questions her, her mind seems to be somewhere else because she is having flash backs of her past, maybe a sign of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Susanna seems to be uncertain about things, she claims that she does not know what she feels. She was taken to the hospital after she tried to commit suicide, she took a bottle of aspirin. Her reason for taking the full bottle of aspirin was major headache, which was also alarming to the psychiatrist.
particular group of people whose symptoms are indicative of personality disorders, and are between neuroses and psychoses (Manning, 2011, p. 12). Personality disorders are extremely pervasive because they effect a person’s “mood, actions, and relationships” (Manning,
There are multiple criteria that come into play when determining a psychological disorder. One reason is because, it is hard to know for sure if an action is abnormal or not. Something could be abnormal in our country, but a custom in another.
One kind of anxiety disorder is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This disease can ruin a person's life because it causes them to have repetitive thoughts and behaviors towards certain things. Life can become very difficult because this way of thinking and acting is very difficult to overcome, especially since the obsessions have no point and are stressful for the person. It begins to interfere with the person's school, work, and/or home.
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.
Eventually she adopted a child and as she grew older, forced her to call her “Mommie Dearest”. Joan was always hard on Christina, therefore overly strict. She always made sure to please the media. or example, during Christina’s birthday party she made sure to get pictures and speak with the paparazzis. One of the most famous scene’s is the wire hanger scene.
Bipolar Disorder is the tendency of manic episodes to alternate with major depressive episodes, like a roller coaster. Barlow, D., Durand, M., Stewart, S., & Lalumière, M., 2014, p. 222. Their moods and relationships are unstable and they usually have a very poor self image, recurrent feelings of emptiness and fear of abandonment. Barlow, D., Durand, M., Stewart, S., & Lalumière, M., 2014, p. 444.
...rly 20s when symptoms of bipolar disorder first appear. Bipolar I disorder is one or more manic episodes or mixed episodes (symptoms of both a mania and a depression occurring nearly every day for at least one week) and one or more major depressive episodes. Some symptoms would include, feeling hopeless, sad, or empty, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, thoughts of death or suicide. Treatment for bipolar mania may include lithium, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, and benzodiazepines.
They fantasize over their own success. They think they are more powerful, or beautiful then everyone else. They don’t show empathy towards people or if they do it is very little. Joan Crawford showed many examples of this personality disorder during the film. At Christina’s birthday party Joan was in the same floral print dress as her daughter.
Abnormal behavior that people experience help to mold a person into whom they are and they follow them everywhere they go. Anxiety disorders, such as phobias or OCD, may be easily overcome with practice; however, personality disorders are not so easy to rid yourself of. It is rather difficult to get rid of personality disorders due to the depth of the dismal emotions you experience, as well as your childhood history. Anxiety disorders are the less of all evils, however, they still maintain the capability of controlling somebody’s life.
This disorder is characterized by inflexibility and fixation on rules, procedures, and orderliness (Rathus, 2010). At the beginning of the movie you watch Joan scrub her hands, fingernails, wrists, forearms, and face. Then she moves on to cleaning her house, she even goes as far to move furniture around to clean certain areas even after she’s already cleaned them. In one of the later scenes of the movie, Joan attacks Christina after finding one lone wire hanger in her closet in the midst of all plastic hangers. She goes ballistic and throws all of Christina’s stuff around then drags her into the bathroom and orders her to wash her already clean floor. Another obvious disorder exhibited by Joan is the paranoid personality disorder. This disorder causes people to be more suspicious of others and to interpret others’ motives as harmful or evil (p.525). She constantly overworked her children and forced them to give up their toys and gifts from their birthday’s and holiday. She did this because she was concerned about them growing up spoiled and never learning to work for what they wanted. She also did this because she wanted the publicity that came along with her children giving away their toys. She was also extremely paranoid that Christina was making fun of her, even though she was just taking after her mother’s footsteps and acting. Joan found Christina’s skits as mockery. In her later years, Joan was always aware of the younger, prettier, more talented women that were trying to take her job. Lastly, Joan sports the histrionic personality disorder multiple times throughout the movie. A person with the histrionic disorder is overly emotional and dramatic and seeks constant attention (p. 526). This side of Joan comes out at one of Christina’s birthday parties. Reporters ask to get pictures of just Christina, and Joan thinks it ridiculous that they don’t want her. She begins to compete with
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.