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Review Of The Movie 'What About Bob?'

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What About Bob? “What about Bob?” is an immensely funny movie that makes effective use of its characters’ emotional issues to entertain its audience. In reviewing the portrayal of its main characters, it becomes apparent that the personality and emotional issues of Bob and Marvin are primarily derived from the writer’s desire to entertain their audience. From this writers’ point of view, the movie succeeds. Looking at these two characters from a clinical point of view, Marvin’s portrayal is more consistent with a DSM V diagnosis than Bob’s portrayal. Bob’s character plays off of Marvin’s personality to give the movie its humor. Early on in the movie, Bob appears to suffer from panic disorder with agoraphobia. The panic attacks are not so much shown as described in a discussion with Marvin; Bob says going out makes him dizzy, nauseous, he has trouble breathing, gets cold and hot sweats, goes numb and fears diseases like his bladder shutting down or cardiac arrest. He does suffer from a phobia about germs but this appears secondary to his …show more content…

Prior to being in New Hampshire, the story has Bob suffering from symptoms each time he leaves Gill and his apartment. Once he feels part of a family, or part of a group in the hospital, he is fine. He is also very manipulative; he uses his symptoms to achieve his objectives. In evaluating his symptoms it also important to note how normal he can act when he impersonates an inspector at the call center. He wants Marvin’s address and he can manage his symptoms to fool the operator. When he lies over the phone and Marvin gets mad he says, “Oops that was a mistake.” He is in fact very infantile, as can be seen in his relationship with Sigmund; he uses this attribute to make himself appealing to Marvin’s

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