Four Personality Disorders In Mommie Dearest

     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Their behavior is similar to that of individuals with schizotypal personality disorder but they are not as consistently withdrawn and bizarre” (Santrock, 2003).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

The causal models that best represent Norma Desmond’s Borderline Personality Disorder abnormality would be the Biological, Sociocultural, and Cognitive-Behavioral model. Firstly, the biological model helps to determine the causal factors as research suggests that genetics play a significant role in BPD as the text supports, “people with BPD often appear to be characterized by lowered functioning of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is involved in inhibiting behavioral responses” (344). Generally, genetics are a main aspect to BPD, however other models help to identify Desmond’s abnormality such as the sociocultural model, which helps to determine further explanations on how the potential impact

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.

In the movie Mommie Dearest Joan Crawford shows many different types of personality disorders. Personality disorders are a deeply engrained or maladaptive pattern of behavior of a specified kind, typically they occur by the time one reaches adolescents and causes difficulty in personal relationships or society. Studying these psychological disorders can help us to identify and properly treat these abnormal functions that we acquire as we grow older. One way to learn how to identify these disorders is through movie analysis. When you are able to recognize these disorders through a movie they stick out in the real world much more. The disorders that I analyzed that Joan Crawford had were, Bipolar, Borderline, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Narcissism.

In my opinion, the most predominate disorder within Joan Crawford is Histrionic disorder. This personality can be defined as a mental health condition that causes a person to be excessively dramatic and emotional. People with this disorder tend to seek out constant attention from others and are easily influenced by others. Although the exact cause of this disorder is unknown it may stem from childhood events or genetics. Joan Crawford shows symptoms of Histrionic disorder frequently throughout the movie, the first scene being when she throws her daughter Christina an extravagant birthday party. This scenario shows Joan taking away attention from her daughter in any way she can as she soaks up the light of the photographers. Another example would be when Joan filled in for her daughters position in a soup opera while she was sick without her permission. In these scenes, Joan is pushing her daughter aside to fill in the spotlight.

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

Susana’s mental illness caused much distress in her life. At one point she had an episode of being frantic and kept repeating that she had no bones in her hand. During this time, she was taken to the emergency room because of her attempted suicide and the doctor noticed bruises on her wrist. In the ward, she completely went into a rage and was screaming at the nurse. These episodes are very common for

One of the more obvious disorders that were shown was Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder which is, one’s inflexibility and fixation on rules, procedure, and orderliness, the main difference between OCD and OCPD is they do not perform constant meaningless rituals. Some symptoms are anxiety about time, cleanliness, and worry about money which causes them to work more than needed. What causes OCPD is not entirely clear but psychologist believe it is a combination of genetics and environment. One of the scenes that display OCPD was when Joan and her maids were cleaning her house and one of her maids forgot to move a pot when she waxed the floor which caused a ring of dirt and Joan said, “I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at the dirt.” then her current boyfriend showed up and she forgot

the mania. Using a system of extreme contrariety, she effectively exemplified the magnitude of her

One personality disorder Joan Crawford demonstrated was bipolar. This disorder can be defined as periods of reckless behavior and hyperactivity that can change at any given second (Rathus, 2010). There are several occasions throughout the movie that show Joan suffering through this disorder, for example one moment she would be a cheerful, smiling mom and at a drop of a hat, it would change for the worst making her become an angry and aggressive toward her child Christina. This can be seen when Joan is kissing her sweet daughter Christina goodnight, and then looks through the closet where she finds a dress hung by a wire hanger. Joan’s behavior quickly becomes elevated, ripping all of the clothes and hangers out of the closet, yelling at Christina, which then leads Joan to beat her daughter with the hanger. Another example is in the scene

history of mental illness leading to disordered thinking. She would struggle with this illness that

Based on the DSM V criteria, the personality that best fit Jane is Obsessive Compulsive personality style. The first reason why this personality style best describes Jane’s situation which is demonstrated in her symptoms and her problems regarding school. According to Jane’s case study, one of the symptoms present is obsession which is defined as “recurrent and persistent thoughts” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). This is shown when Jane worries about the quality of her assignments and that she only wants to turn in assignments which she considers to be perfect. In this example, Jane is obsessed with the idea of perfection. Another symptom of this personality style is compulsion which is “ repetitive behaviors” (American Psychiatric

The 1976 film, Sybil, is based off of the life of a woman named Shirley A. Mason, who was a psychiatric patient. Her life was portrayed in the book in 1973, then turned into a film which spiked an enormous amount of reported cases for multiple personality disorders, now known as dissociative identity disorder. The film goes through Sybil’s life while suffering with these personalities and her treatments under her psychoanalyst, Dr. Wilbur. She was born to Hattie and Williard Dorsett in 1923. Sybil’s father, Williard was a businessman , deeply religious, and ignored his wife borderline mental illness of schizophrenia. All throughout her childhood, Sybil faced her mother’s manic episodes, her depression, and her abuse. Sybil moved from New York

Elisa suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a disorder in which repetitive, intrusive thoughts and ritualistic behaviors designed to fend off those thoughts interfere with an individual's functioning.

In chapters 12 and 13, we learned about Schizophrenia and Personality disorders. The section on Obsessive Compulsive personality Disorder (OCD) is what interested me the most. Many people in today's society use the term OCD as a descriptor for when they are slightly anal about how something is done or to describe how organized they are. However, this is a personality disorder which has great relation to anxiety over order—how a particular thing must be or be done. It is not just about having organization and order, it is and obsession riddled with anxiety. It is not something that the sufferer can just walk away from and let alone even if it bothers them, they feel the need to continue until it feels right and in order. OCD can manifest in