Silver Linings Playbook Character Analysis

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 Silver Linings Playbook, Pat Solatano, Sr., the character of the father, a sixty-five year old male, exhibits symptoms and meets the diagnostic criteria for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), as explained in the DSM-V (CITE APA). He also participates in gambling. The character presents with extreme organization, in his study, by numbering envelopes, and organizing the recordings of the Philadelphia Eagles football games in precise order. He is obsessed with the Philadelphia Eagles football team and their success. His symptoms present as ritualistic and repetitive. He exhibits attachment to his son Pat, Jr., and feels he brings the football team good luck. The symptoms present daily, and many are specific to the Philadelphia Eagles football games. He wears special clothing that is the team color of green, and

How would you react if you found your wife in the shower with another man? Any sane person would furious, but would you lose control and beat the other man senseless? Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of bipolar disorder in The Silver Linings Playbook how untreated the disorder can take control of a person’s life giving them manic episodes and major depressive episodes. This film aims to accurately display the struggles any person with bipolar disorder will deal with in their daily life while trying to manage the extensive mood swings they experience. The intended purpose of this paper is to analyze not only in what ways the director and cast accurately display the everyday life of an individual with bipolar disorder, but also the quality of the film. Throughout the movie themes of divorce, medications, the need for social support when dealing with mental disorders and a person’s unwillingness to accept help, will all be brought up in order to help an individual manage their disorder.

The film I chose to analyze is Silver Linings Playbook because I was interested in the story when I read the synopsis of the movie. I thought that this would be a simple movie where the main characters would help each other because they had something in common. Reading the synopsis, I also thought that Pat would be back together with his wife, but at the end he found another love. In the next paragraphs I will show my knowledge on what I have learned this semester. On my analysis of Silver Linings, I will give examples that has the concept of language, nonverbal communication, listening, emotions, conflict, and close relationships.

Throughout life, an individual undergoes many changes that can take a toll on him or her, eventually resulting in mental illnesses. It mostly depends on how the individual will face the challenges that are thrown at them. The award winning novel, Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick approaches many mental illnesses during the book such as depression, OCD, but primarily an illness called bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression disorder. According to the Mayo Clinic, a bipolar disorder is a mental illness marked by alternating periods of elation and depression, experiencing extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (Mayo Clinic Staff par. 1). During the course of the book, this disorder is vividly shown in the main character,

The film Silver Linings Playbook, starring Bradley Cooper, is set in Philadelphia as he plays the main character Patrick “Pat” Solitano Jr., a diagnosed bipolar who was released from a mental institution and later moves back to his parents. According to the Mayo Clinic website, there are two types of bipolar disorders: Bipolar I and Bipolar II. Bipolar I is about experiencing manic episodes, and this can cause a significant impairment in the person’s life such as difficulty at work, social activities, or relationships. This could also cause to trigger a break from reality. Bipolar II deals with depressive episodes, but have never experienced manic episodes and this can cause distress or difficulty in areas of the person’s life such as decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts, or distractibility (mayoclinic.org). Between the two types of bipolar disorders, Pat Solitano expresses the symptoms of Bipolar disorder I. Therefore, he meets the criteria for this mental illness. Pat shows manic episodes throughout the film. During his therapy, he takes Dr. Patel further back to where it all started before the major incident took place that led to his confinement in the mental institution. Patrick calls the police because he thought that his wife Nikki and the history teacher were plotting against him by embezzling money from the school. However, it turns out that these are just his delusions which infer that this is completely false. There were several visible symptoms that were

Pat was a former teacher, whom being diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder really set his life back in a negative way for a while. Bipolar Disorder is an illness that is associated with mood swings that range from the lows of depression to the highs of mania. Without medication and treatment by a psychiatrist, it is highly unlikely for a person to lead a normal life. In the first moments out of the mental hospital, Pat menti

Were The Greasers Heroes? With one or two looks of the Greasers the word hero wouldn’t be the first word to come into people’s minds. The words dirty, mischievous, criminal and hood would top the list vastly before hero, but nonetheless the Greasers live on. The book “The outsiders,” is about these heroic, or gallant, wallflowers on the outsides of society.

In the movie Silver Linings Playbook, we follow Pat Solitano Jr., a man recently released from a mental institution (Cohen et al., 2012). He is a Caucasian male, likely in his early to mid-thirties and of Italian descent. He was a high school history teacher, living with his wife, Nikki, an English teacher. Upon finding his wife in the shower with another man, he nearly beats the man to death leading him to be sent to a psychiatric facility for eight months with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. In this essay I will support the diagnosis of a Bipolar I disorder. A diagnosis of Bipolar I disorder, has specific criteria in the DSM-V that have to be met. I will be listing the criteria and through examples of Pat’s actions, thoughts and behaviours, he meets the criteria.

When a patient is in a manic episode they are very excited, energetic, and hyper. A manic episode can cause a patient to make impulsive, irrational decisions such as, partaking in high risk behaviors, spending large amounts of money they cannot afford, having sexual indiscretions even when they’re in a committed relationship or driving at dangerous speeds. There is a lesser state of mania called hypomania, it is in very close relation to a manic episode, the patient is not as hyper but it is still considered a abnormal state of high emotion. When a patient is in a depression episode it consists of sadness and hopelessness. The patient can become more tired, irritable, or have a change in their eating habits. In this episode thoughts of suicide can occur, losing interest in things they have previously enjoyed. These are just a few examples of the actions a patient makes when in a manic or depressed episode. There are multiple bipolar disorders, bipolar I and bipolar II are better known. The reader has been diagnosed with bipolar two at the age of twenty two. This disorder has been a problem since the age of ten, after learning more about the disorder over the years it’s been a process learning how to cope and continue everyday life. The lives of patients who have been diagnosed with this disorder are affected

Pat the main character of the movie has bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disorder is also known as Manic Depressive Disorder. Bipolar Disorder consists of mood swings from the lows of depression to the highs of mania. These mood swings may happen as often as a few times a day to a few times a year. The exact cause of Bipolar Disorder is still unknown. Since the exact cause of Bipolar Disorder is unknown it is unknown what parts of the brain is exactly affected by Bipolar Disorder. Current research indicates that structural abnormalities of the amygdala, basal ganglia, and the prefrontal cortex are the parts of the brain that are affected by Bipolar Disorder.

During the film Silver Linings Playbook many of the characters had extensive anger issues or could not maintain their anger well in their daily lives (Russell, 2012). Pat had anger issues, Pat’s dad also had anger problems, Pat’s friend Ronnie has anger problems and Tiffany is working on controlling all of her emotions not just anger. These four characters are the main reason it seemed practical for a self management group. Many of them are balancing lots of stress and dealing with it through anger or other ill-advised avenues. This group would be mostly a support group, but also a therapy group so clients could learn how to deal with their current problems and add some more balance into their lives. It would be a support group because the goals are obviously to talk about existing problems while using current positive coping skills (Toseland & Rivas, 2012). However, it would also be a therapy group because the goal is to take away coping skills that have only caused more problems and replace them with better ones.

David O’Russel’s Silver Linings Playbook (2012) supports very dynamic mise-en-scene, sound, score music, and cinematography for conveying the theme. Russel uses A unique approach with steadicam while following the point of view of Pat (Bradley Cooper) and his journey with A mental illness which is conveyed through various close-up shots to emphasize the personality of the main character Pat. Contributing film terminology provided from Richard Barsams Looking At Movies, This film analysis will be providing evidence of how Russel used various shooting angles to portray the characters personas throughout the film such as low- angle over the shoulder shots to provide a sense of vulnerability each character is trying to reveal. Silver Linings Playbook exhibits a

The serious effects of mental illness in America have been captured brilliantly in numerous different modern day films. Silver Linings Playbook, a film directed by David Russell, follows a frustrated love story of two mentally unstable individuals. Pat Solitan, played by Bradley Cooper, is a middle aged white adult who is recovering from a failed marriage, and has just recently returned from an eight-month stay in a psychiatric hospital after attacking his ex-wife’s new lover. He returns home to his parent’s house in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where he meets Tiffany Maxwell, played by Jennifer Lawrence. Tiffany is a young, widowed white woman who has recently lost her job and has moved back in with her parents who live in the same neighborhood as the Solitano’s. The two individuals meet one night at a dinner party, and automatically click over a lighthearted dialoged about the numerous anti-psychotics that they have been placed on. Both Pat and Tiffany display abnormal behavior throughout the film. Their journey of dealing with their mental abnormalities is at times heart-breaking, but they are able to use one another as a support system in order to get their mental conditions under control. The two individuals display unique behaviors and personality traits that can be analyzed to meet criteria in the DSM-5 for mental disorders. It can be interpreted from the film that Pat has Bipolar Disorder, and that Tiffany has

The issue or the clinical concerns begin with the second of only two children (Pat Solitano, Jr.) and his somewhat recent diagnosis of suffering from an “undiagnosed bi polar disorder.” The diagnosis came