Shutter Island Mental Illness

Diagnosing an individual with a mental illness balances on a fine line between giving a life-long label and misdiagnosing. Mental illness is best viewed on a continuum allowing for a varying degree of severity. In the field, mental health professionals are faced with determining what signifies the appropriateness of diagnosing a mental illness. A professional’s judgment is impacted by their personal perceptions and observations, societies views and norms, and the patient’s history. The film, “How Mad Are You? A Search for Insanity” demonstrates the difficulties in distinguishing those who are mentally ill from those seen as healthy ( ). I will explore my reactions and thoughts regarding the participants’ experience as well as the mental health professionals. Additionally, I will share how this information is applicable to my future career in the field of social work.

Film portrayals of the mentally ill, have contributed to the stigma faced by people with these conditions. Films tend to create and reinforce the same certain stereotypes of the mentally ill. The film Silver Linings Playbook, is a refreshing departure from from this pattern. Exaggerated cinematic portrayals have largely bypassed mental illnesses , such as; Bipolar disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Depression, etc. This film Silver LInings PLaybook, accurately depicts these common disorders among several characters in this film. The three main characters that blatantly show this depiction, are; Pat, Tiffany, and Pat’s best friend Danny Mcdaniels.

In the Movie, American Psycho, Patrick Bateman demonstrate challenges to identify his unique type of personality theories. The purpose of this essay is to review a selected film as a Psychology student, and discuss it from a psychological perspective. Also in this paper providing a diagnosis for a character in the movie and discuss the behaviors that support the selected diagnosis, and to explain and discuss the mental illness depicted in the film.

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.

In the film K-Pax, a a middle age man, claiming to be 337 earth years old, is brought into psychiatric institute after he causes a disturbance at a train station. Prott, the patient, experiences a delusion where he believes that he is from the extraterrestrial planet K-Pax and he will return back on July 27, taking one person with him. Prott is delusional, but very intelligent which makes many patients believe his stories, and the doctors question him even more. He shares unknown knowledge surrounding a star system that had never been figured out before. Throughout his time at the mental institute he gives tasks to another patient, each task is proven to be true and works. His psychiatrist Dr. Powell uncovers that Protts true name is Robert Porter, after looking

Generally people with mental issues are cast aside in society. The mentally impaired are immediately labeled as different. Questions on what to do with these people are common. In literature they are seen being locked into a tower room where they are forced to live their days peeling back the yellow wallpaper. This confines the characters to a world where it's just them and their insanity. These characters are present in many different stories. Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Shakespeare's King Lear are two prime examples of characters suffering from mental disabilities and disorders. Although they are not locked in a tower, the mental illnesses are apparent when studying the Mad Hatter, Alice, King

The book was divided into 3 parts, the first section was Facing Mental Illness. In this section there were 6 chapters that covered every part of her coming to terms with her illness which is bipolar disorder or manic depression. In Chapter 1: Darkness, she gave her history with mental illness and she wasn’t the only person to deal with it within her family. Her father and brother also dealt with depression.There were also many close friends and family members that killed themselves. She makes mention of how she hated what the illness dd to her father and brother but it helped her when she had to deal with

Mental disorders have long been the Achilles heel of the medical world. With each case having some degree of uniqueness, physicians are often unable to fully treat these types of conditions with just a generalized medication or textbook treatment option. There are many competing theories as to how one falls ill to a mental disorder. Some claim that it occurs solely through chemical imbalances within a person’s brain, while others see it as a more wholistic problem that is the result of an endless possibility of differing factors. Through the characterization found within “Superstar” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” and the data shown in studies done by the Medical University of Lublin, it becomes evident that seemingly internal disorders, such as anorexia and hysteria, are caused, in reality, by the need for social control that develops in response to purely external factors such as daunting expectations or stressful lifestyle.

In the movie “The Deer Hunter” a psychological disorder is depicted in the film. This disorder is depicted on the main character of the film. In this film one see clearly what the disorder is and the symptoms that depict that it is indeed a disorder. Following what caused the character to get the disorder. What followed after, once he had the disorder? How it affected the character of the movie and those around him. What changed in his life and if he received any type of treatment because of the disorder. Then finally, what happened to the character in the end of the film. In the film, it starts off with three characters and how their lives are like, but then all three go to war. This event leads to the disorder for the character Michael “Mike” Vronsky. The symptoms are depicted after he returns home from the war in Vietnam.

The conditions in Afghanistan created upon the Russian invasion caused much pain and suffering to the citizens of the country. In Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner,” the consequences of this invasion created a harsh environment for the children and adults of Afghanistan. This environment created the development of mental disorders in Amir, Assef, and Sohrab throughout the novel. By examining the mental disorders such as Narcissistic disorder in Assef, the antisocial disorder in Amir and the adjustment disorder in Sohrab, it will be shown how the events in Afghanistan contribute to these characters mental problems.

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

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is an incredible movie that was released in 1993 with two amazing actors, Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. Gilbert Grape, acted by Johnny Depp, lives in a small town with his five siblings and his mother. Gilbert has several responsibilities considering that his mother, acted by Darlene Cates, is very overweight and is not able to leave her home. He also has a younger brother Arnie, acted by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is mentally impaired. As the story begins, you learn about Gilbert’s father who committed suicide in the basement of the house when Gilbert was very young. This left his mother hopeless and depressed spending most of her time sitting on the couch watching TV and eating. Being unable to properly care for her family due to her obesity forces Gilbert to take on the responsibilities of repairing the house and taking care of Arnie while his sisters help as much as they can. Keep in mind that Arnie who has a mental illness has a tendency of getting into things he should not be in, as well as having a habit of climbing the water tower in town. Gilbert works at a small Grocery store in town where he often

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.

Teddy is actually a counter personality of Andrew Laeddis, the patient he sought out to avenge his wife’s murder. In previous years, Andrew was a World War II veteran, who helped free Jews at the Nazi concentration camps. He coped with his symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by drinking alcohol and spending all of his time at work. He emotional detached himself from his bipolar

Schizophrenia is defined by the American Psychological Association as, “a serious mental illness characterized by incoherent or illogical thoughts, bizarre behavior and speech, and delusions or hallucinations, such as hearing voices.” Though only effecting 1% of the population, the complex and long-term psychological disorder interferes greatly with the daily life of those diagnosed. Victims of schizophrenia often experience a combination of positive (hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech/thinking/behavior, catatonic behavior, etc…), negative (affective flattening, alogia, avolition), and cognitive (difficulty understanding, poor memory, difficulty integrating thoughts, feelings and behavior) symptoms. In the movie Shutter Island, the main character repeatedly shows the gradual increase of subtle signs of both schizophrenia and PTSD.