Psychological disorders are very real and present in many people we come in contact with daily, however, are very rarely talked about. Learning about these disorders can help us to understand others and ourselves better by telling us why we do and think the things we do. One effective way that we can observe and learn about psychological disorders is through movies. “Mommie Dearest” was directed by Frank Perry. It is centered around the actress Joan Crawford, who suffered from various psychological disorders. Joan’s daughter, Christina, wrote a book about her mother and her many problems and it was later turned into a movie. It is very effective to use movie analysis as a way of learning, especially in psychology, because it provides a great way to observe without distractions. When you’re looking at disorders, it’s difficult to find a person who has many of these disorders and will allow you to observe them. Psychological disorders can be split into two major groups, personality disorders and mood disorders. Personality disorders are patterns of traits that can get in the way of your social or work life and may interrupt the individual’s normal lifestyle. Mood disorders are inconsistent and unreliable changes in mood by the affected individual. (Rathus, 1998). With all of this being said, it brings me to my point that I will be talking about for the rest of this essay. Joan Crawford demonstrates the personality disorders of histrionic, narcissism, and OCPD. When it comes to mood disorders, Joan demonstrates bipolar disorder. First, I will be talking about histrionic. People who are histrionic are often very emotional and seek constant attention. (Psychology Today, 2017). The cause of this is unknown but some saw it may have something to do with childhood events and/or genetics. Symptoms of this are seeking reassurance constantly, being self-centered, being very concerned with physical appearance, and having your opinions be easily influenced by other people. There are many times in the movie where Joan Crawford showed signs of histrionic. The first example I will be sharing is at Christina’s birthday party. (Mommie Dearest, 1981). It appeared to me that Joan adopted children just for the attention of it.
For my case study my group and I chose the movie “Fatal Attraction”, and we chose Alex Forrest for our case study. For my part I chose to do the diagnosis aspect on Alex Forrest. Throughout this paper I will be diagnosing Alex Forrest. The following key clinical data will be discussed: client demographics, presenting problem, preliminary diagnostic information, symptoms, client characteristics and history, diagnostic impressions, potential disorders, and the DSM diagnosis.
“Who giveth/presents this woman?” is asked by the priest in Vincente Minelli’s 1950 film Father of the Bride and in Charles Shyer’s 1991 remake of the same name, respectively. Both films are extremely similar in content, as the remake borrows heavily on dialogue, temperament of characters, scene progression, and the overall essence of the theme of adoration between a father and his daughter, even though they are set 41 years apart. It would be foolish to say that post-war 1950s gender roles of the original film are the same of those of 90s remake, but regardless of the vast societal progressions and gradual increase of women’s rights from the 50s to the 90s (and now) there is still a subconscious stereotype of a “traditional” family that conforms to the ideas of gender roles that live within films of today.
Based on this, we saw how Tiffany and Pat’s unconscious affects their disorders in a psychodynamic perspective. Their genetics, childhood experiences, and Big Five personality traits explain the biological and trait perspectives of their disorder. Finally, the sociocultural perspectives on their disorders are the effects of their environmental experiences, and look at the environmental factors. I believe the theoretical approaches can be used to look at Pat and Tiffany’s personalities by accurately giving a description of who they are, and why they are who they
The movie Parenthood cover’s many of the topics we have discussed this semester in class. But it obviously focused very strongly on parenting and marriage. During the course of the movie we see the four Buckman children’s very different style of parenting. Although all four were raised by the same parents the culture of their individual families are all look very different. Gil Buckman felt abandoned and ignored by his father and therefore responded, with his wife Karen, by being a very active and attentive parent. Gil and Karen are on the authoritative end of the parenting spectrum, and their families’ culture revolves around activities such as baseball games, Kevin’s baseball game, Birthday parties, school plays and basically having fun together (Lecture, 4/22). On the opposite end of the parenting spectrum are Nathan and Susan. They are very authoritarian and reminded me of the “tiger Mom’s” of China. The culture of their family means that they don’t have their daughter in preschool, they are waiting a prescribed amount of time to have a second child and Nathan is continuously drilling facts into their daughter. Susan feels like she should be playing with children her own age but Nathan’s feelings have taken over their family’s culture.
In the film Babies, 4 infants are being observed for the first two years of their lives. Each babies comes from different culture, which shows how the various customs can impact the child’s development. Ponijao is the youngest one in his family and lives in a village in Opuwo Namibia. Bayar lives in Bayanchandmachi, Mongolia. Mari is the first child of a couple who lives in Tokyo Japan, and Hattie lives in Sans Francisco California. The film shows the babies develop cognitively, physically and socially-emotionally, during the infancy and toddler years. The Infancy and toddlerhood period is from birth to 2 years. “This period brings dramatic changes in the body and brain that support the emergence of a wide array of motor, perceptual, and intellectual capacities” (Berk & Meyers, 2016, p.6).
What is family? According to our class notes, "two or more persons joined together by bonds of sharing & emotional closeness who identify themselves as being part of the family," stated by Friedman. Friedman's definition of the family is displayed in the movie, The Notebook. An assessment of the family unit is seen throughout the movie setting and story.
One can point out many factors could have led or contributed to Marilyn Monroe being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. As stated in her back ground history she had many stressful events throughout her childhood and adult life. Monroe’s childhood was filled with poverty. The simple fact of Monroe’s mother being diagnosed with a mental illness posed a greater treat of her
The Parenthood film depicts average family that are changing life course which is the building block of many families. We have the father and mother with marital disfigurations of attachments, and lack of attachment between themselves and the relationships involving their four adult children and grandchildren. Furthermore, in this paper a description of accepting the shift generational roles and Structural Theory is analyzed and discussed in an article moreover, the Buckman’s family members accept financial responsibility for self and their families. Lastly, the subsystem chosen for the analysis, speculation is Larry.
Throughout life, people will meet others who are different from them. People have different backgrounds, ethnicities, lifestyles, etc. Everyone is unique in their own way. In some situations, people will act very different, according to their personality. Some people are not patient and will react angrily to certain things, while others will act calmly. For example, a person with a narcissistic personality disorder, will think that they always need attention. They also may be preoccupied with fantasies of their own success, power, intelligence, or beauty. Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) is someone who looks as if she has this
Imagine your own family member constantly manipulating you into thinking you were going to be forever young. Now imagine that person telling every individual that you cannot care for yourself nor will ever get better. To be completely honest, that is a scary thought, not having any control over your own body and believing your caretaker that you are mentally incapacitate to care for yourself. The documentary I chose to watch and write about is Mommy Dead & Dearest, this documentary was released 11 March 2017 and the director is Erin Lee Carr. In this documentary, we see Dee Dee and Gypsy’s narrative who brings Munchausen Syndrome by proxy — a form of child abuse that involves a caretaker making up an illness for
Psychological disorders are stated to be abnormalities of the mind, known as mental disorders (Klasco, 2011). Abnormalities of the mind cause persistent behaviors that affect an individual’s daily function and life (Klasco, 2011). The different types of psychological disorders include mood disorders, personality disorders, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders (Klasco, 2011). The causes of these disorders are unknown, but factors that contribute to these disorders include childhood experiences, chemical imbalances in the brain, illnesses, heredity, stress, and prenatal exposures (Klasco, 2011). Psychological disorders can be serious and can be life-threatening
This paper will present a synopsis of the film, Girl, Interrupted. It will summarize the mental illness Borderline Personality Disorder, and the effects this disorder can have upon one’s life. Also, it will summarize the different symptoms and definition associated with this mental illness. This paper will provide my perspective on the treatment administered in this film and insight regarding what I believe would be improved treatment procedures. This paper will provide examples of treatments, symptoms and the general effects of this mental illness.
People with this disorder believe that they deserve excessive admiration. They are far too preoccupied with their own fantasies about their success, power, intelligence, or beauty and often show little empathy towards other people by treating them with ignorance and doing everything in their power to exploit them (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2016). Joan challenges Christina to a race in the pool, knowing that she is bigger, better, and faster than her. She shows no mercy to Christina, as she finishes far ahead of her each time just to prove that she is better. She even went on to state, “You’ll never be me Christina. You’ll never be as good as me.” If you paid attention closely in the movie, you could also see that her house was covered in portraits of herself. She thought she was the most beautiful and perfect person on this planet and that no one would ever compete with her. She loved being in the spotlight and would do anything it took to be in it. No matter what, Crawford always had to have the feeling that she was the best and demanded to be admired by her fan and
As I watched the stories of individuals and families dealing with death, one particular thread struck me as particularly important in these movies and in a person’s life— the role of close relationships. Throughout all of the movies that we watched, relationships became increasingly important influences at the end of one’s life, taking the form of both family and close friend relationships. Over all else, it has been shown through research and demonstrated in antidotal form that our relationships with one another has the potential to determine the quality of one’s life as they move towards old age.
It would be important to consider the possibility of this disorder co-occuring with depression or co-morbid with a substance abuse related disorder. If treated properly, Monroe may never have struggled with substance abuse, which included sleeping pills on a regular basis, drinking to intoxication, and using drugs on set. It is my belief that Monroe 's genetic predisposition, childhood, time period (including a male dominant culture that rejected Psychological disorders) set her up for failure. These obstacles did not allow for normal development. If Marilyn lived in a less judgmental and more psychologically aware society it is possible she could have overcome her battle with mental illness. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which did not exist in Monroe 's lifetime may have provided much insight into Marilyn 's suffering and along with