Essay about Strangely Ordinary People

Based on Conrad’s character in the movie, he could be described as having more of an intuitive grieving style. This style of grieving utilizes more of the affective domain and uses little of the cognitive (Martin & Doka, 2011). For the intuitive griever, grief is characterized by the experience of painful feelings. The feelings of guilt and sadness were those that Conrad experienced the most. After

He then he returned home with the phase of being cured, however, no one really knows that he is only physically cured, not emotionally. His father recommend him to go see a psychiatrist to help him fully recover from the traumatic events he has experienced. Conrad continues to go to school. His academic has been dropping since the day his brother passed away and he's slowly moving and isolating himself away from his friends. He quits swim and did not notify his parents about it so that they don't worry about him so much, especially his father. Instead he goes to the library everyday after school to kill time. At one point, he went out for a coke with Karen his old friend from the

Person-centred therapy came about through Roger’s theory on human personality. He argued that human experiences were valuable whether they were positive or negative so long as they maintained their self actualising tendency. Through one’s experiences and interactions with others Roger believed that a self-concept/regard was developed. Carl Rogers believed that a truly therapeutic relationship between client and counsellor depends on the existence, of three core conditions. The core conditions are important because they represent the key concepts and principles of person-centred therapy. These core conditions are referred to as congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy. Congruence is when the therapist has the ability to be real and honest with the client. This also means that the therapist has to be aware of their own feelings by owning up to them and not hiding behind a professional role. For example, a therapist may say ‘I understand where you are coming from’’ to the client. However the therapist has expressed a confused facial expression while saying this. The clients can be become aware of this and may feel uncomfortable in expressing their feelings, which might impact their trust and openness towards the therapist. Therefore the major role of the therapist is to acknowledge their body language and what they say and if confusion happens the therapist needs to be able to

Regarding psychological functioning, Conrad is under the vicious cycle of depression. His brother’s death led him to adapt a negative explanatory style. This in turn resulted in his depressed mood and cognitive and behavioral changes. He also believes that he has disobeyed his parents and does not deserve their forgiveness or affection (1:09:38). Conrad lives with a sense of guilt, not only for attempting suicide, but for things he had no control over (ex. Karen’s death). From a socio-cultural approach, Conrad depression worsens due to his unstable relationship with his mother, along with other relationships in his life. Throughout the movie, we clearly see that Conrad’s mother does not understand the severity of Conrad’s mental state. She frequently believes that Conrad is fine and wants their lives to ‘get back to normal’ (0:24:37). She believes Conrad’s mental health is a phase that can be fixed by simply being harder on him. The movie also takes place in a time where discussing mental health is taboo. Mental illness was significantly less common and thought to be a touchy subject. Throughout the movie, we can see that people do not know how to approach the Jarretts about Conrad’s state and frequently stumble through conversations or do not understand the situation (0:22:14; 0:31:52; 0:48:05). This plays a part in Conrad’s depression because he feels he can’t talk to or relate to anyone

Berger to learn how to express his emotions outwardly, but in a healthy manner, his mother, Beth did not express the need or the want to attempt to feel her demanding emotions. On the surface for Beth, everything was okay and that is exactly what she told everyone. She refused to feel her emotions. She often acted in violent manners that revolved away from the true conflicts in front of her. For example, she seemed to refuse to internally accept the mental condition that her son was living and fighting internally in. When she found out about Conrad quit the swim team, her first thought was the embarrassment she expressed due to the ignorance her face showed to her friend when hearing the unexpected news. Revenge was the thought that popped into her mind to fill the void the followed the question as to why her son would have done such a thing. She acted in means of attacking. Rather than attacking, a healthy way of dealing with the situation would have been to avoid assumption all together, and express her emotions outwardly in order to have the ability to listen to her son and what his true intentions were. Listening before reacting would have saved the family from an attack not only in this situation, but also in many

He was used to live in his brother’s shadow, but when the boat accident happened to them, he was the only one to survive. As he was always indentifying himself the less important one, he considered it was wrong that he was the one who would still have a life. As a result of nervous breakdown, he tried to kill himself with cutting his wrists in the bathroom, fortunately his father found out and save him. Then he went to the psychiatric for four months. When he comes back, there are still issues he needs to deal with.

Christopher R. Browning’s “Ordinary Men” chronicles the rise and fall of the Reserve Police Battalion 101. The battalion was one of several units that took part in the Final Solution to the Jewish Question while in Poland. The men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, and other units were comprised of ordinary men, from ordinary backgrounds living under the Third Reich. Browning’s premise for the book is very unique, instead of focusing on number of victims, it examines the mindset of how ordinary men, became cold-hearted killers under Nazi Germany during World War II. Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men” presents a very strong case that the men who made up the Reserve Police Battalion 101 were indeed ordinary men from ordinary background, and

The Jarrett family from the movie Ordinary People have a variety of issues. Complicating matters is the complex, tangled nature of these issues. To combat these issues we need a clear plan. In the absence of a clear plan there would be a great deal of floundering about. Floundering which would likely end in opening hurts we can not resolve. Therefore let us be clear about what we are setting out to accomplish.

Christopher Browning describes how the Reserve Police Battalion 101, like the rest of German society, was immersed in a flood of racist and anti-Semitic propaganda. Browning describes how the Order Police provided indoctrination both in basic training and as an ongoing practice within each unit. Many of the members were not prepared for the killing of Jews. The author examines the reasons some of the police members did not shoot. The physiological effect of isolation, rejection, and ostracism is examined in the context of being assigned to a foreign land with a hostile population. The contradictions imposed by the demands of conscience on the one hand and the norms of the battalion on the other are discussed. Ordinary Men

The stages of grief are demonstrated in Conrad’s relationships with his family and friends. Conrad has experienced depression and a suicide attempt in response to his brother’s death. At the beginning of the book, Conrad is going through the first stage of grief, which is shock and denial. Conrad’s father, Cal, worries about Conrad’s mental health and gives him the name of a therapist. However, Conrad does not call him. Cal believes that Conrad, “ ought to stick with the plan --’” (13) However, Conrad “can’t [because he] is swimming every night…[He doesn’t] need to see anybody. [He] feels fine’ (13). Conrad is uncomfortable talking about the death, and seeing a therapist would require him to talk. Conrad is afraid to feel his emotions. He thinks if he just avoids thinking about his brother’s death, he will be okay. The second

As you read you will learn information of the 1980 movie Ordinary People, the theory of family systems, and how they relate to one another. I will describe some basic information about the movie as well as key points that I feel will connect to the idea of family systems. I will also touch base on strictly the theory of Family systems for a better understand of the characters and plot of the movie.

The film “Ordinary People” is story about the Jarrett family, an upper middle class family living in the picture perfect suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois. The story begins shortly after the tragic and untimely death of the oldest son, Jordan (also referred to as Buck), who died in a boating accident, that his younger brother Conrad, survived. When a traumatic event such as this occurs some families unite and battle the grief and heartache together, as a unit, while others become emotionally isolated and detached from one another. This is the case for the Jarrett's. The depth of grief that each individual character is suffering is uncovered as the film progresses. This tale is

Berger, "She loved my brother, too.  It's just me"(120).  He concluded that Beth could not love him because there was something wrong with him.  After the big fight that Conrad had with his parents, he revealed to his father his opinion of Beth's feelings for him. Conrad tells him, "All right, then.  She hates me"(114).  Because Conrad felt that there was something wrong with him, he did not know how to react to situations nor did he know when to express his feelings.  For his Christmas present, Conrad's parents and grandparents bought him a car.  His response to this extravagant present was, "Yeah, okay… Thank you both, it's beautiful really.  It's terrific"(126).  He was not overly excited, as one should be, on receiving such an extraordinary gift.  He was not quite sure how to act, so he repressed all of his feelings.  In an early conversation with Berger, Conrad said, "What I'm doing here is that I had to come"(41).  This proves that Conrad was in denial of his psychological state and foreshadows Conrad's severe state of depression.  Conrad repressed all of his feelings and emotions.  He told Berger, "I don't feel anything"(98). Later on in the conversation, Berger told Conrad that the "Only way you're ever gonna get to know him [the guy in the closet] is to let him out now and then."(100)  This alludes to the fact that Conrad repressed his feelings and was extremely depressed.  All of these factors led to

While watching the movie “ordinary people” there are many psychological aspects that are notices throughout the movie. The story is about a dysfunctional family who goes through many defence mechanisms throughout the movie.In the beginning you can see how hard it is on Conrad just to get up the everyday the struggle of just getting up you can see how it affects him. You could see how much his father was trying to help him, he would of done anything just to be able to help Conrad. His father tried to understand what was wrong with his son what could he do to prevent him from hurting himself again. Conrad 's mother on the other had did absolutely nothing to help conrad the burden of her other son was too much to bare to be able to even acknowledge Conrad when all he needed was his mother 's love that he won 't receive.When Conrad 's brother died, she lost the ability to love she didn 't know what she could do she was lost and confused. She was so focused on how she perceived to everyone that she neglected her family when they needed her the most;she hid from the reality trying to be seen as perfect when everything was crumbling beneath her.Conrad’s mother was never able to forgive Conrad for his attempted suicide,which she thought was bringing down the family.

However, in real life, the true origin of her depression stemmed from the unexpected death of her father when she was eight years old (Wagner 6). This alteration was significant because many readers are not able to relate to the death of a father at a young age and the subsequent depression and sadness that would stem from an experience like that. However, everyone can relate to having moments of sadness and detachment as a result of seeing or hearing of something traumatic that has happened in society. These alterations also allowed Plath to elevate certain messages in the book when necessary.