Black Swan Psychology Paper

Body image has always been a huge part for women in their lives. In the beginning of the essay Bordo gives a great opening with a good description that open your eyes. She speaks about how a young girl standing in the mirror who thinks she is fat when in actuality she is the right size according to her doctor’s chart. The young lady only thinks she fat because of what she sees on TV and how actress, singers, and artist’s bodies looks. With the media it has people thinking

The author attributes this kind of behavior to the presence of a "body-image distortion syndrome", as well as "other severe perceptual and cognitive problems that "normal" girls don 't have" (640). There is no doubt that the purpose of this first example Bordo made up is to appeal to her targeted audience, in order to help them understand how serious the effects of popular media can be and how deep they penetrate on the weak mind of an insecure girl.

Desire for the unachievable goal of perfection is constantly stimulated by media’s portrayal of skinny women and muscular men. Many people who view all of these images are highly effected, and begin to think they are not normal. For example, Danny Bowman, who at nineteen years old tried to kill himself because he did not take a ‘perfect’ selfie after ten hours of repeatedly trying (Aldridge). He dropped out of school, stayed home, and was violent when asked to stop (Aldridge). Danny tried to overdose after not taking a perfect selfie, because it was what he based his life around (Aldridge). Danny says that posting on social media, “becomes a mission to get approval and it can destroy anyone” (Aldridge). He was distressed when getting comments of disapproval on his selfie’s and getting rejected to be a male model, because he didn’t have the ‘right’ body or skin (Aldridge). He would look at and compare himself to the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and feel down about his appearance (Aldridge). Likewise, a woman named Gina was diagnosed with anorexia after three years into the disorder, without knowing the cause (Gina). She barely ate and excessively exercised, and became obsessed with losing calories (Gina). After meeting with a therapist, Gina realized that her disorder, “was a product of every single advertisement, every little comment, every nuance and whisper and Photoshopped magazine cover”, and, “tended to by flash diets and juice cleanses and guilt-free foods and bikini

The portrayal of people being sickly creatures has been used in Hollywood film for a very long time. This has been in the endeavor of putting the viewing public in the shoes of the patient and entertain them with over the top portrayals of disease. For patients that are women in particular this has been achieved by defining them along the lines of vague terms such as them being over emotional and unstable. Despite the advancement experienced by the society, women have not yet fully seen the goal of equality realize fruition. With the expansion of the psychiatric and psychological terminologies, there now additional ways via which mental illness can be ascribed as a weakness for men and women portrayed in Hollywood film. This is best

Nina Sayers is a dancer working for a NYC ballet company, who desires to be cast in the lead of Swan Lack. She does not drink and nor does she go out with friends, her life revolves around ballet. All she seems to do is work at the company, come home, and attempt to further refine her technique. One day the director Thomas, picks dancers for a surprise audition to seek a lead dancer who will be able to transcend between the innocent white swan and the sexually seductive black swan. Nina is a very controlled and innocent person, which resulted in her doing well on the white swan, but Thomas believed she was too controlled and much of a perfectionist to ‘lose herself’ and switch between the two contradictory roles. Nina was determined to embody

Employing her essay with key terms like body image, anorexia, and bulimia among other disorders, the essayist has written her piece rife with appeals to pathos to define them; the essay’s introduction carries her readers into a girl’s mind who struggles with her appearance

For example, a personal problem many women face is Body Dysmorphic Disorder. This mental illness comprises of an obsessive fixation on a perceived flaw of the body. Moreover, the fixation on the imperfect causes women to compulsively check the perceived flaws, engage in behaviors to minimize the perceived flaws, as well as, detrimentally compare their appearance to that of others. Though the disorder is hardly noticeable to the general public, it is a personal problem many women encounter. With the use of the sociological imagination, Body Dysmorphic Disorder correlates to the strong presence of media. Specifically, the exposure to certain beauty standards along with, particular ideas of womanhood. Additionally, unrealistic images through the usage of photoshop effect the mental health of women as well as, the way in which they perceive themselves. The pressure to look a certain way derived from the media is everywhere. Ultimately, the social issue of media impacts the triggers of Body Dysmorphia in women throughout the

The same goes for Black Swan, as he, as well as the screenwriters involved, gives us Nina, an innocent girl with a determination. However, the obsession in Black Swan is not directly linked to Nina's desire for celebrity. She doesn't necessarily want to be a dancer but rather is living out a delegated fantasy from her mother, played here with solid enthusiasm by Barbara Hershey. This disconnect—the buffer that is created between Nina and the black swan role—causes you to feel for her even more than any of Aronofky's previous characters. This is her obsession, but it's a means of giving her mother happiness, of finding a balance between what she wants for herself and what will please the person whose fantasy is really being pursued. This relationship, as well as all the relationships in Black Swan, is created with forceful pursuance. It's both in the way Aronofsky shoots his characters as well as the highly gifted actors he incorporates into them. Natalie Portman, always on top of her game, pulls out everything for Nina here. Innocent to edged, mousy to fearless, light to dark, she bulls through the range in performance required of her, but it is pulled off with the absolute grace that is appreciative of the character involved. In this dark masterpiece, she brings the light, and it becomes all the more heart-wrenching when her light begins to fade.

“Nina Forever” is technically strong, particularly with respect to the brothers’ editing, Oli Russell’s cinematography, and the remarkable lead performance by the emergent Ms. Hardingham.

In this scene, Nina is the main focus. With her mother Erica in the background throughout, no matter if you can see her or not. Her voice and non- diegetic music is added to show how her mother embodies Nina. With the use of sound as Erica pushes on the locked door, there is light music that would put you to sleep. This calms the audience to portray that Erica is a caring, loving mother. When Nina’s mother becomes more invasive towards Nina the musical background intensifies. This also intensifies when Nina traps herself. The director uses non- diegetic music to identify when Nina is trapped physically and more importantly mentally. She confines herself away from her mother and mental illness. Nina’s reaction to her mother is the usual response to help and personal mental health “go away.” This demonstrates Darren Aronofsky 's way he wanted to depict women to mental health and relationships. The audience is able to grasp on mental health that is not being supported. Which consequently portray how relationships need to fight for help with individuals that have mental health issues. Darren Aronofsky represent women in a way that women in society react to their mental health and chose not to get help. He shows how people outside react to the characters mental health from an inside perspective. From the non-diegetic music, we are able to communicate the levels of mental health and how two

In the beginning of the film, Nina was depicted as an average, normal person living in New York that yet lacked the freedom to express herself as a sexually free, young woman due to her mother’s controlling behavior. When she wins the coveted Swan Queen role, the feeling of immense pressure that comes with the role causes Nina to lose her tenuous grip on reality and descend into a living nightmare. For example, she experiences symptoms such as interpreting normal behavior from Lily as an attack because of Nina’s jealousy toward Lily’s effortless embodiment of the Black Swan (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, & Nock, 2014). Nina’s attention to negative behavior to Lily is a result of her own imagination – she starts conceiving events that did not happen such as a lesbian fling with Lily and her constant attempts to sabotage Nina’s ability to perform as the Swan Queen. In addition, she suffers through hallucinatory episodes that involve bodily horror, such as her skin tearing off her body and the appearance of an evil twin, every time she reaches a step closer to her full transformation of the Swan Queen.

The complex human nature and mix of psychological disorder intertwine to complete this master piece, looking at Nina from a psychological perspective; she is an intriguing character and many of her behaviors are manifestation of mental disorders. Therefore the focus of this essay is not on the cinematography, but rather a detailed analysis of Nina and how mental disorder symptoms are portrayed in the movie.

Beauty and Body Image in Media. (2009)Roberts, S., & Fredrickson, B. (1998). “Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women’s Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks.

In this article, girls at young ages are having eating disorders and possibly on death’s grotesque door. Others think that the way women are thinking are quite a despondent way of thinking. Media exposure on women is massive and affects those who reads the magazines or see the front cover of any magazine dealing with housework or brand name magazines. The consequences of becoming the beauty standard are being ignored and every women has to satisfy themselves and others to feel accepted and beautiful. The peer pressure of the media having to affect these women positively and negatively, so it's a 50/50 since it can give tips and tricks on makeup, fashion, cooking ideas and etcetera, whereas the images of models will give out a low self-esteem to those on social media or magazines.

However, she struggles to step out of her comfort zone and get into the role of the black swan that is dark and flirtatious. As the time to perform draws near, she starts to feel even more stressed out which provides a condition for other personalities to surface as desperate coping strategies (Kluft, 2010). During Nina’s dissociative episodes, she possesses the black swan persona who has violent confrontations with herself. She has deep scratch marks on her back with no recollection of how they got there, but the movie infers that they are self-inflicted which is considered self-abusive behavior, another symptom of