The film “Superstar”, by Todd Haynes, tells a controversial rendition of Karen Carpenter’s life story. Through his depiction of the Carpenter family and of the stressful lifestyle of a performer, Haynes shows the audience that although many mental illnesses, such as anorexia, are viewed as internally driven, the root cause of these conditions is almost entirely external. Throughout the film, the Carpenter family is characterized as an overprotective unit with very high and strict standards. For example, the parents instituted certain policies such as making their children live at home until the age of twenty-six. They were also extremely hesitant to allow Karen to receive treatment in solitude, despite an expert opinion stating that would be
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the main character is constantly being told what she is and is not able to do such as “But he said I wasn’t able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there;… (Gilman)” This is an excellent example of her feeling oppressed, because her husband feels that he knows her capabilities better than she does. Another example of this is “’What is it little girl?’ he said. ‘Don’t go walking about like that—you’ll get cold.’ (Gilman)” This is an example of John thinking that her condition is so bad, she has to be treated like a child, constantly telling her what and what not to do. In “The Story of an Hour” the shows she has felt depressed with “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. (Chopin)” After receiving news that her husband passed away in a train accident, she felt as if the burden of doing things for her husband was lifted, and that she could do the things she wants to do.
In the film, the participants completed seven tasks, which were designed to highlight characteristics or symptomology of one or more mental illnesses. While observing each task, I sympathized with
The Notebook demonstrates the growth and development theories including biosocial, psychosocial, and cognitive. The Notebook is a movie about a young couple who falls in love. The woman, Allie, is from a wealthy family who is discouraged when she has fallen in love with a young man, Noah, who only makes .40 cents an hour (Cassavetes, 2004). The story is told through a “notebook” that Noah is reading to Allie, whom has Alzheimer’s disease. Allie has no clue that Noah is her husband due to her disease. Noah has hope that Allie will eventually recognize the story he is telling her and realize it is her husband
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
After several days spent meticulously filtering and interpreting the poorly translated web of psychological theories, Katharine Cook Briggs finally decides to unwind on her recliner. She calls her daughter, Isabel, eager to hear about the newest rendition of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, test form D, but she is unavailable (“A Guide to…”). She turns on the television, interested to hear the latest news updates on the deteriorating geopolitics of the late 1950s. Instead, she receives an unappreciated surprise in the form of the perky, gleeful face of stereotypical housewife June Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver as she thoughtlessly cleans, cooks, and cares for the family, all the while indoctrinating the audience on domestic female roles that Katharine finds both diminutive and regressive. June Cleaver may not have been the news Katharine was anticipating, but it was equally informative. She very well could have been a June-type mother, or worse, her daughter could have been. This comedic television trope of the average housewife reinvigorates Katharine, a constant reminder of her good fortune growing up in an intellectually supportive environment. She turns off the television, opens Psychologische Typen von C.G. Jung, and continues to comb through the pages, endlessly searching for the key to unlock the complexities of personality (“Myers’ and…).
This paper focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of the character Maureen Johnson from the musical Rent. The story of Rent takes place in New York City in the 1990s and focuses on a group of young adults as they struggle for success while staying true to their beliefs and their relationships with one another (Columbus, 2005). Through her interaction with the other characters and beliefs about herself, Maureen’s psychopathology becomes evident.
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.
Karen Carpenters tragic fall into anorexia, as depicted in the film “Superstar”, is a prime example of how debilitating external factors can result in the development of an internal disorder. The characterization of Karen Carpenter in the film reveals the overwhelming stress she experienced as a result of her hectic career as a performer. When speaking to her brother about their career, she says, “it is just wearing on me” (Haynes). Furthermore, throughout the film, the parents of the Carpenter household are characterized as being overprotective and
Leigh Anne leaves her Ordinary World by Crossing the Threshold into the Special World, where she must overcome a series of challenges. Leigh Anne’s journey begins when she helps out a juvenile in need. As a wife and a mom of two Mrs.
According to Elizabeth Lowell, “Some of us aren't meant to belong. Some of us have to turn the world upside down and shake the hell out of it until we make our own place in it.” Sometimes what every situation needs is an outsider to flip the script and create a new outlook on everything. In Shirley Jackson’s novel, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” the speaker, Merricat, is an outsider of society on many levels, such as mental health, gender, and that she is an upper class citizen in a poor area. Although Merricat is mentally unstable, her outsider’s perspective criticizes the social standard for women in the 1960s, indicating that social roles, marriage, and the patriarchy are not necessary aspects in life such as it is not necessary to have the same outlook on life as others.
In psychology personalities are developed through several theorist, but from these personalities can become skewed, causing a psychological disorder on a person's personality. These personality disorders can commonly be seen in about 31 million Americans, which densely equals out to 15% of our population population (Davis, n.d.). Psychological disorders are seen as behavior patterns or mental processes that creates a difficulty for oneself or a hinder on an individual's strength to endure certain situations that take place in life everyday. Disorders are primarily discovered through psychological testing, however, it is possible to identify them through watching psychological films or thrillers. In this case, the character Joan Crawford will be analyzed for her dominant personality disorders in the movie Mommie Dearest. While watching the movie Mommie Dearest the audience can easily recognize obsessive cleaning rituals, a fantasy over one’s own success, and dramatic changes of moods that swing up and down. The main character, Joan Crawford, displays dominant characteristics of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, bipolar disorder, and a narcissistic personality disorder. As an audience we see that these disorders become very upsetting to those that are close to her, affecting her relationships with everyone and everything, specifically with her daughter Christina.
Throughout history, mental illness has been labeled as a defining deformity, that harnesses in its “victims,” into a box, parallel to the familiar “mime in a box” image. In a world where we glorify “normality,” a lack of illness, which by all means is a gift, the beauty of one mind takes away from the beauty of an outlier, even though, ironically people may not even recognize their differences. Hester, at a glance suffers from a literal scarlet letter, but an imprint on her brain may exist as well. Irrational actions, sudden emotional episodes, and destructive thoughts can only prevail for so long following sin; Hester’s persona has branches of self-defeating personality disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. No one of her time, however, will bring the issue to light, Hester will be left known as the mistress, a witch, or “A,” rather than to explore her “complicated” condition. As decades pass, Hester’s state will remain, as the “A,” the mark of the stigma on mental illness today. When left neglected, society rejects the possibility that under a visible coating, mental deformities may lie; those who are divergent, who require affection more, are made subordinate, marginalized with no quest for a cure.
In these short stories, Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing”, each have common situation about mental illness towards self, family, and even with outside of world-society. Different people handle struggles in different ways. In all the stories, freedom was taken away in one way or another. Both were struggling with inner conflicts about comforting to other people’s wants or needs. The characters in both stories hand to deal with abandonment in some form. All dealt with emotional and mental abuse. Both woman and daughter found their own way of escaping from conforming to what other people thought they should do. Both stories deal with the oppression of female. Female in these stories are all confined in one way
The book the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and the short story the yellow wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman are both about two women who have severe mental issues. On top of that Both females also fall under many stereotypes during the time of the 1950s. Esther falls under the stereotype of a young american girl who goes to New York. Esther is expected to marry a rich young man, and what she calls a home wife. A wife that cooks,cleans, and does whatever the husband tells her to do. THe female in the yellow wallpaper falls under the stereotype of just being a wife who has many problems that she tries to tell her husband JOhn about but he refuses to listen to her. Since John is a doctor tries to take matters into his owns and deals with the problem himself.
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