Silver Linings Playbook Movie Analysis

Once he was released, Pat lived with his parents since his wife still had a restraining order on him. In various scenes, we see ways in which Pat is expansive in his thoughts about getting back together with his wife, Nikki. He also became extremely joyful when he felt like things were going in a step in the right direction on his mission to win back his wife, and grew particularly irritable otherwise. Scarred by the moment he found Nikki having an affair with their wedding song playing, Pat develops hallucinations about the song causing him to hear it even when it wasn’t on. Hearing the song, whether it was actually playing or only playing in his head enraged Pat, causing him to experience a manic episode. Pat’s excessive optimism about getting back together with his wife caused him to have irrational thoughts, which drove him to make poor judgments and partake in reckless behavior like when he broke his

Many individuals have the power to alter their perception, but many people have disorders to comfort and confront their psychological perspectives. In the film, Silver Linings Playbook, directed by David O. Russell explains how psychological disorders are maintained within Pat and Tiffany, and explaining their theoretical personalities to three sub categories: psychodynamic, biological and trait, and sociocultural. The psychodynamic perspective looks at the topographical and structural model created by Freud. In continuation, the biological perspective is based on the genetic traits, and the Big 5 personality traits. Finally, I'll discuss the sociocultural perspective which a based on the environment factors in one's life. All of these perspectives

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.

Besides, from Solitano’s Bipolar disorder he also exhibits what the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association 2000) call an intermittent explosive disorder. Throughout the film, Solitano breaks out into

In the movie Silver Linings Playbook, Bradley Cooper plays the main character Pat Solitano Jr. The movie starts off with Pat being released from a psychiatric facility. Pat’s time spent in the psychiatric facility was a plea bargain that his lawyer advised him to make. The court only mandated eight months of inpatient time, and against the will of the doctors in the facility, his mother is discharging him because she thinks that eight months is sufficient time for Pat to become well. On the drive home Pat wants to stop at the library so he can pick up a copy of all the books that his ex-wife Nikki has on her high school teaching syllabus, so that he can connect with her and get his job back. When they get back to his parent’s house it

According to “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator suffers from a disease called neurasthenia. George Beard first used this term back in 1869 (Beard 217). This disease is also known as “nervous exhaustion” and heightened excitability. Neurasthenia has clear resemblances to hysteria and nervous disease. As a disease, neurasthenia may be identified not as a descendant but a relative of the two. It was back in 1869 that Neurasthenia was identified as a disease that displays fatigue, depression and extreme anxiety (Beard 217). During the nineteenth century, nervous disease transformed into a new disease called “hysteria.” The name hysteria came from the Greek word for uterus. This transformation positioned the

Pat, the main character in Silver Linings Playbook, is depicted as an individual that has bipolar disorder. The movie shows how he deals with life after leaving a hospital where he received care for his disorder. Upon leaving the hospital, Pat is reluctant to take the medication prescribed to him for his disorder and displays several symptoms that are consistent with a person having bipolar disorder. Although he is reluctant in the beginning, with the support of his friends and family Pat begins to take his medication and is able to live a decent life with this 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.

Pat was diagnosed with Bipolar one disorder shortly after arriving at the mental institution. I agree with this diagnosis for many reasons. I believe that it would have to be Bipolar one because Pat displays manic episodes. With Bipolar two disorder, there has never been a manic episode. Bipolar two disorder also must display at least one major depressive episode. From the information from the movie, Pat didn’t really display a depressive episode. Pat demonstrates several symptoms of Bipolar one disorder, many falling into the mania category. His manic episodes cause a great deal of distress in his life. Before the incident with his wife’s lover even occurred, Pat was having severe delusions. He told the school board that his wife and the history teacher were plotting against him. The delusions did not stop once he was out of the mental institution. When pat caught, his wife cheating on him their wedding song was playing. Now every time Pat hears the song he goes into some kind of psychotic episode and puts everyone around him in danger of becoming his next victim. As I mentioned earlier Pat does not take his medication as it is prescribed. He said it makes him too foggy. This could be due to the fact that he enjoys how his mania makes him feel. Throughout the movie, Pat refers to his ex-wife as his wife. He is obsessed with this delusion and honestly believes that he will win her back over. Even though she has made it perfectly clear

As per the requirements in the DSM-V, in order to diagnose someone with Bipolar I, they need to have had at least one manic episode (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). A manic episode is one that lasts for a minimum of one week would require hospitalization or have psychotic symptoms. This is differentiated from a hypomanic episode in that, for hypomania, the symptoms last four or fewer days, doesn’t require hospitalization and does not include psychotic feature. I will distinguish between the two using the presence of psychotic symptoms. Pat’s psychotic symptoms can be seen as both delusions and hallucinations (Cohen et al., 2012). His delusions are shown very early on in the movie; he is completely

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.

The movie Silver Lining playbook is an award winning movie that exposes some social disorders that the community as a whole as engaged in for years. “A word-of-mouth hit in 2012, David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook has been popularly discussed as successfully targeting an adult audience under-served in contemporary Hollywood, as “authentically” reflecting the parenting challenges of its star and director, and as portraying a “modern” romance about a sympathetic, deeply damaged protagonist couple” (Nadel P1.).

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

Movies have some form of conflict. Whether it is person against nature, person against person, person against self, or person against fate. There is always conflict, sometimes more than one type. When viewing films with a conflict of person against self, usually the character has internal struggle that they need to overcome. Sometimes this internal struggle will be making a difficult decision and sometimes it can living life with a psychological or physiological disorder. The latter scenario appears in many films in the industry. There are movies presents characters with anxiety, loss of hearing, depression, and many other disorders. Most of the time these features are noticeable, other times it is not. In the case of the movie, Silver Linings Playbook, the main character displays signs of bipolar disorder and throughout the entire movie the signs are noticeable to pick out: the irritableness and sometimes overly excited of the manic episodes and the sad and remorsefulness of the depressive episodes.

One example is when he wakes his parents up at four in the morning to express his thoughts on Ernest Hemingway. Another example is when he is waiting in the waiting room to meet with his therapist. His manic episode is triggered due to the playing of his wedding song on the speaker, which is a reminder of his wife’s cheating. In Patrick’s therapy session, which he hates to attend, his therapists try’s his best to inform him that he needs to take his medication in order for his mood swings and “weird” thinking, which is caused by stress, to stop. He warns Patrick that if he doesn’t take his medication to control his emotions, he will end up going right back to the mental hospital. People who have this disorder are usually giving medication such as antidepressant, mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics etc. Patrick is on three medications which are lithium, seroquel and abilify, but due to the side effects these medications tend to have such as weight gain, fatigue/drowsiness, and blurred visions, Patrick refuses to take the medications due to how they make him feel (National Institute of Mental Health). Instead he decides that he is going to look for a silver lining within every situation and have a more optimistic view on life.