Girl, Interrupted - Personality Disorders

The film “Girl, Interrupted” is a true story adapted from the original memoir by Susanna Kaysen. Set in the 1960s, it relates her experiences during her stay in a mental institution after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder following a suicide attempt. Many films include characters with a mental illness; the actors who play these characters have the immense challenge of staying true to the illness they portray.

Without any dispute, the 1992 feature film "Single White Female" is an excellent example of a psychological "thriller", which it was initially touted as and seemingly confirmed by grossing several million dollars. However, the one particular aspect of this film that truly confirms to the label of psychological is the characterization of Hedy Carlson, who functions extremely well as a case study for Borderline Personality Disorder. By definition, Borderline Personality Disorder is a condition in which someone exhibits "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"¦" (APA 2000). A fairly comprehensive examination of Hedy's actions and personality within "Single White Female" lends credible evidence that she is in fact suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder, and also alludes to forms of treatment that may be of assistance in any attempts to counteract the effects of this condition.

and chicken. Every morning she would drum the nurse's station for her Colace or Ex-Lax

Personality and how we behave have been of much interest to psychologists for a long time now and because of this there have been many theories and theorists that have been developed. Personality is defined as consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within and individual (Fritzley, 2012, p. 10). There are six main approaches to personality psychology they include: biological approach, humanistic approach, behaviorist approach, trait approach, psychoanalytic approach and cognitive approach. Each approach shines a little light onto why we behave the way we do and how our personalities are formed, the approaches contain many different theories from

“Girl” is a short story in which the author, Jamaica Kincaid, unofficially presents the stereotypes of girls in the mid 1900s. Kincaid includes two major characters in the story “Girl”, they are the mother and the girl. Although the daughter only asks two questions in this story, she is the major character. The mother feels like her daughter is going in the wrong direction and not making the best decisions in her life. The whole story is basically the mother telling her daughter what affects her decisions will have in the future. The mother believes that because her daughter isn’t sitting, talking, cleaning, walking or singing correctly it will lead her to a path of destruction. “Girl” is a reflection of female sexuality, the power of family, and how family can help overcome future dangers.

Personality disorders are the maladaptive way of thinking and behaving that can interfere with the individuals’ personal relationships and their integration to society. An individual who suffers from a personality disorder would typically behave and think outside of the societies’ norms. Although, there are ten personality disorders, in this essay we will be analyzing and focusing on the borderline personality disorder and its portrayal in the popular film, Silver Linings Playbook.

There are two different kind 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 decisions 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.

Girl, Interrupted provides an in-depth look into Susanna Kaysen’s experience of living with a mental illness and staying in a mental hospital. Twenty-five years after she leaves McLean she learns of her diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and discusses it in her memoir. Kaysen reads about her disorder from the DSM-III-R and views her diagnosis as:

Susana Kaysen is a fictional character in the movie, Girl, Interrupted. She is an 18 year old young adult, who suffers from mental illness. Susana had multiple behaviors that can be defined as abnormal. Susana’s behaviors can be grouped into four categories. The first one is deviance, which is defined by behaviors that differ from society’s norms. Susana was known to be promiscuous and have multiple sexual relationships. One sexual relationship she had was with an older man, and it happened to be a teacher. Another behavior that can be seen as deviance is her unwanted desire to attend college. At her age and in the time of the movie, it was an expectation to attend college and receive a degree. However, Susana did not want to attend a university. Another deviant behavior is Susana’s substance abuse problem with alcohol, cigarettes, and pills. Susana also displayed deviance by not following the rules in the ward. She would not take her medication and she would sneak out. At one point she even escaped for several days. These deviant behaviors were Susana’s ways of acting out.

Kathryn Merteuil, the primary antagonist in Cruel Intentions, is the master at manipulating both men and women. She is the most popular girl at her school and bases the entirety of her self-worth on her perception that everyone either wants her or wants to be her. In order to maintain her appearance, Kathryn binges and purges and has a heavy cocaine addiction. Although well liked and popular, Kathryn holds no stable relationships and is easily upset and irritated when things do not go her way. Although this film’s focus is not Kathryn’s mental health diagnosis, Kathryn’s actions and unstable emotions are arguably that of a patient with Borderline Personality Disorder.

The novel, Girl, Interrupted is a memoir of author Susana Kaysen’s life and her journey through early adulthood as she suffered with Borderline Personality Disorder. The novel captures her time at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital located in Belmont, Massachusetts. Kaysen divides the novel into separate anecdotes of events and fellow patients she encountered during the two years she was admitted at Mclean.

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

Donnie Darko is an almost confusing film about time travel, schizophrenia and the manipulation of one 's fate. The film focuses on a teenage schoolboy named Donnie Darko. Donnie is not mentally healthy but he is very intelligent and has extremely high Iowa test scores. He also has a tendency to hallucinate and do destructive things when sleepwalking, such as flooding his school and burning down a house, due to this he is on strong medication and sees a therapist on a regular basis. After a near death experience, Donnie starts seeing an imaginary friend known as Frank. Frank is a seven foot tall, demonic looking rabbit, who tells him about how the world is going to end and of the possibilities of time travel. Frank saved Donnie from this

Girl, Interrupted (1999) directed by James Mangold is largely based on a semi- autobiographical book by the same title. The movie chronicles eighteen year old Susanna Kaysen’s experiences surrounding her stay at a mental institution. It is 1967, a time of social change and unrest. Susanna makes a half-heart attempt at suicide, ingesting a bottle of aspirin and chasing the pills with a bottle of vodka. She is taken to the emergency room, her stomach is pumped and she survives. Afterwards she meets with a psychologist who explores her more recent feelings and experiences. The psychologist concludes, with her parents assent, that she would benefit from a stay at Claymore, a private mental institution. The next year and nine months forever

The movie Split is an American thriller that is centered around the fictional character known as Kevin Crumb. Kevin suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder which leads to him being known as many other names. Kevin is also commonly known as Hedwig, a young boy, Dennis, a perverted man who suffers from OCD, and Patricia, an older classy woman. These are only some of the personalities Kevin has taken on. These personalities began to develop young in Kevin’s life as a defense mechanism to help protect him from his abusive mother. Kevin has many other personalities, some of which are evil. These evil personalities are what give the movie its thriller genre. Kevin kidnaps a girl, and she experiences all of these different personalities until a new one emerges that dominates over the others. “The beast” as it is referred to is the one that causes all the scare factors in the movie. When Kevin sees the damage that his other personalities have done, he is horrified and scared because he does not know how to control himself.