Narcissism In The Mommie Dearest Movie

Released in the summer of 1994, the movie “When a Man Loves a Women” produced by Touchstone Pictures’ producer Jon Avnet created a film that touches on a female alcoholic. This film included stars like Meg Ryan, Andy Garcia, and Lauren Tom. An airline pilot played by Garcia as Michael and his wife Alice portrayed by Ryan are forced to deal with her alcoholism. Within this family it includes that of her two children and the nanny (Lauren Tom). The film offers several hinting scenes to Alice’s addiction. Alcoholism is a disease of denial, the movie focuses on not only the alcoholic but those around her that deny and have even grown accustomed to her drinking.

Psychological disorder: According to the textbook, Psychology: Principles in Practices, they are behavioral patterns or mental processes that can cause personal suffering. With that being said, wouldn’t that mean that if a person had a psychological disorder, they would have a disturbance within them, or more importantly, their brain? A psychological disorder, by definition, are the behavior patterns or mental processes that cause serious personal suffering or interfere with a person’s day to day life or routine. In contrast, a personality disorder is characterized as patterns of inflexible traits that can cause a disturbance in the afflicted person’s personal life and may cause distress. To fully understand disorders, psychologists

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.

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.

For instance, the relationship she has with her parents. Her mother seems like she’s trying to be her friend and be part of the plastics instead of being a mother figure.

A psychological disorder can be defined as patterns of behavior or mental processes that affect a person’s capability to carry out every day routines and interactions with others. These psychological disorders can be characterized as personality disorders or mood and anxiety disorders. Many people experience these disorders and struggles within their life. Today approximately 1 in every 5 adults live with a psychological disorder in the United States alone. With that being said, even the most prestigious can have mental illness. For example, Joan Crawford, American film and television actress regularly struggled with several types of personality disorders shown in the movie Mommie Dearest. This movie, based on a book written by her daughter, Christina Crawford, depicts the several scenarios in which Joan shows signs of multiple psychological disorders. Movies similar to Mommie Dearest are a great way to help students understand disorders and the symptoms associated with them. Within this movie Joan Crawford demonstrates signs of having bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, histrionic disorder, and Narcissistic disorder.

The daughter is bored with her mother's dreams and lets her pride take over. She often questions her self-worth, and she decides that she respects herself as nothing more than the normal girl that she is and always will be. Her mother is trying to mold her into something that she can never be, she believes, and only by her futile attempts to rebel can she hold on to the respect that she has for herself. The daughter is motivated only to fail so that she may continue on her quest to be normal. Her only motivation for success derives from her own vanity; although she cannot admit it to herself or her mother, she wants the audience to see her as that something that she is not, that same something that her mother hopes she could be.

The movie I chose for my Sociological movie analysis was “Step Brothers”. The main plot line of the movie was about two families; one with a mother named Nancy at about retirement age with a thirty-nine-year-old son named Brennan who had never left home and hadn’t had many jobs, and the other family was a father named Robert of about the same age with a forty-year-old son named Dale who attended college until his junior year, but then dropped out moving back in with his dad having occasional jobs as well. Nancy attended a conference where Robert gave a speech which caused them to meet, fall in love, and get married. Nancy and Brennan moved into Robert’s home where Brennan and Dale do not “connect” and cause lots of problems. Eventually, they

The authors of "The Fall of the Female Protagonist in Kid 's Movies" and "Lies Hollywood Told Us: Love

In psychology personalities are developed through several theorist, but from these personalities can become skewed, causing a psychological disorder on a person's personality. These personality disorders can commonly be seen in about 31 million Americans, which densely equals out to 15% of our population population (Davis, n.d.). Psychological disorders are seen as behavior patterns or mental processes that creates a difficulty for oneself or a hinder on an individual's strength to endure certain situations that take place in life everyday. Disorders are primarily discovered through psychological testing, however, it is possible to identify them through watching psychological films or thrillers. In this case, the character Joan Crawford will be analyzed for her dominant personality disorders in the movie Mommie Dearest. While watching the movie Mommie Dearest the audience can easily recognize obsessive cleaning rituals, a fantasy over one’s own success, and dramatic changes of moods that swing up and down. The main character, Joan Crawford, displays dominant characteristics of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, bipolar disorder, and a narcissistic personality disorder. As an audience we see that these disorders become very upsetting to those that are close to her, affecting her relationships with everyone and everything, specifically with her daughter Christina.

From this, one can infer that Helen would have also been more prone to abuse, and other effects of low self-esteem. Some of the narcissistic characteristics Helen’s mother exhibits are her utter disregard and lack of respect for everything Helen says and the choices she makes, speaking over her, giving Helen her attention only once it applies directly to her “Vice president! His income must be– does he know you’ve got a mother to support?” (Treadwell 17), and an immediate overreaction to any sort of criticism. Many children with narcissistic parents may have grown up in both neglectful and verbally abusive situations, but Helen’s situation would have been compounded beyond that as she appears to have grown-up with only her mother as a parental figure. Helen’s father was revealed in the second act as, seemingly, long dead. The Second character who exhibits the most pressing issue is Helen’s husband, Mr. J, who proves to be a sexual predator. Helen’s physical repulsion, such as when the telephone girl asks her “Why’d you flinch, kid?” (Treadwell 10), and her reactions to Mr. J touching her should have been plenty of notice for him to stop. In the beginning, Mr. J has both status and rank over Helen as her boss, which puts their implied romantic relationship on shaky and inappropriate grounds because of Mr. J’s power over her. That he constantly touches her, treats her differently, and makes her feel

People are capable of doing crazy things! Nora, in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, loved her husband so much that she committed forgery just for the sake of his wellbeing. Susan Glaspell’s character in Trifles, Mrs. Wright, murders her husband after she discovers that he killed the one most precious thing to her, her pet bird. It was out of love that these women committed illegal crimes. Nora wanted her husband to be healthy because she loved him and knew that without his salary coming in, their home would fall apart. In contrast, Mrs. Wright wanted her husband dead. He was responsible for taking the life of the only company she had for many years. Mrs. Wright loved her pet bird more than she

Another cause an individual will become a narcissistic is because it was a learned behavior. When a caregiver is too concerned with their “own preoccupations to be with their child, they often raise narcissistic children” (Summers & Summers, 2006). Due to this, the only time that a narcissistic

Doing so, she uses her grandchildren as a ploy to get her way, setting aside the wishes of her family. Speaking to O’Connor’s mother’s self centered behavior and lack of care for others, even in the face of adversity.