Psychological Disorders In The Film Mommie Dearest, By Frank Perry

There are two different kind of disorders, personality disorders and psychological disorders. Psychological disorders are illnesses that an individual experiences as episodes. Personality disorders are enduring traits that are major components of the individual's personality (Rathus, 2010). No matter what kind of disorder a person may possess their lives are affected everyday by them, it takes over their body and consumes them as a person. Disorders are often misunderstood. You do not have the ability to make a split second decisions and then continue life without that disorder, it will take lots of counseling. While we are not trained psychologist everyone can learn or identify disorders in popular movies or television shows. In the movie, Mommie Dearest, directed by Frank Perry, Joan Crawford possesses several of these disorders including bipolar, borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive personality disorder and narcissistic.

Based on this, we saw how Tiffany and Pat’s unconscious affects their disorders in a psychodynamic perspective. Their genetics, childhood experiences, and Big Five personality traits explain the biological and trait perspectives of their disorder. Finally, the sociocultural perspectives on their disorders are the effects of their environmental experiences, and look at the environmental factors. I believe the theoretical approaches can be used to look at Pat and Tiffany’s personalities by accurately giving a description of who they are, and why they are who they

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

Mental illness has plagued human kind for as long as we have been on this earth. The science of psychology has made great strides in past century. The stigma of being mentally ill has begun to fall away and people are finally starting to get the help that they need to recover. Bipolar disorder is one illness that we have come to more fully understand. Through assistance from a psychiatrist, family and medication a patient with bipolar disorder can enter remission and live a normal life.

Psychological personality disorders are extremely common in our society today. Personality disorders can be defined as patterns of inflexible traits that disrupt social life or work and may distress the affected individual. A great deal of these disorders go unnoticed, and/or undiagnosed. One way to learn how to identify these disorders is through movie analysis. For example, the film “Mommie Dearest”, directed by Frank Perry, is a story about Joan Crawford and her struggles with personality disorders. Joan Crawford demonstrates the personality disorders of Bipolar Disorder, Histrionic Disorder, Narcissistic Disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder.

In the movie Mommie Dearest Joan Crawford shows many different types of personality disorders. Personality disorders are a deeply engrained or maladaptive pattern of behavior of a specified kind, typically they occur by the time one reaches adolescents and causes difficulty in personal relationships or society. Studying these psychological disorders can help us to identify and properly treat these abnormal functions that we acquire as we grow older. One way to learn how to identify these disorders is through movie analysis. When you are able to recognize these disorders through a movie they stick out in the real world much more. The disorders that I analyzed that Joan Crawford had were, Bipolar, Borderline, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Narcissism.

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.

When a seventh grader at Frederick Area High School in Frederick, South Dakota, was asked to describe what bipolar disorder is, he said that it refers to people that “change personalities fast” (McGaugh). However, this is only a common misconception. Though the word “bipolar” is often used in conversations to describe a person that has mood swings, bipolar disorder actually refers to a serious mental illness. According to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, about 2.6 percent of American adults suffer from a form of bipolar disorder, and about one in five people with bipolar disorder commits suicide. Despite the impact that bipolar disorder has on the lives of patients and families alike, it is treated casually by people across the United States. Even though many treat it flippantly, bipolar disorder is a serious mental ailment, and the public needs to have a greater understanding of it.

Psychological disorders are stated to be abnormalities of the mind, known as mental disorders (Klasco, 2011). Abnormalities of the mind cause persistent behaviors that affect an individual’s daily function and life (Klasco, 2011). The different types of psychological disorders include mood disorders, personality disorders, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders (Klasco, 2011). The causes of these disorders are unknown, but factors that contribute to these disorders include childhood experiences, chemical imbalances in the brain, illnesses, heredity, stress, and prenatal exposures (Klasco, 2011). Psychological disorders can be serious and can be life-threatening

Shutter Island is a film depicting several of the many facets of Abnormal Psychology as defined and studied over the course of this term. Several of the concepts discussed in our lectures and demonstrated during our classroom time were evident and vividly depicted in the film including personality disorders past and present; stress and anxiety disorders; psychosis, and mood disorders. There were others subtly displayed in the film however, these listed were of primary focus and coincidence most closely with our study this term. While focusing more on the abnormal, Shutter Island

Mental illnesses and personality disorders are often depicted in popular movies and television shows. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has a character named Clementine, who displays symptoms of a personality disorder. In order to conclude at a possible diagnosis, the guidelines for personality disorders will be used in this paper. The guidelines are included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). There are two possible diagnoses that Clementine could fit into: Borderline Personality Disorder and Histrionic Personality Disorder. Other personality disorders were ruled out based on the criteria needed and she did not meet a sufficient amount.

Schizophrenia vs. Bipolar Disorder Page 1 Schizophrenia vs. Bipolar Disorder Angela M. Powell English Composition I Kim Elliott-White April 18, 2011 Schizophrenia vs. Bipolar Disorder Page 2 Brain disorders are commonly misunderstood due to the actions of the person living with the disorder. Education about brain disorders should decrease the misunderstanding of the disorders, and increase the support for those suffering with the disorder. A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with distress or disability that occurs in an individual and which is not part of normal

The movie A Beautiful Mind is one that offers psychologists with a lot of fodder to think about and its storyline brings out various aspects of psychology that can be analyzed to bring a more conclusive close to this debate. The thesis statement of this essay is that psychological disorders need to be understood independently of various factors such as biological and environmental factors. This is because the world of psychology has always tried to attach the above factors to various psychological disorders but I strongly feel that psychological disorders need to be understood and analyzed independently so as a true and deeper understanding of these disorders comes to the fore. The movie A Beautiful Mind is about a genius mathematician Nash who has a psychological disorder, which is later diagnosed to be paranoid schizophrenia. The effects of this disorder are evident in the movie and the essay tries to see how the need to study psychological disorders independently could be helpful in helping various examples of cases such as that of John Forbes Nash.

The romantic comedy movie Sex and the City was centered on four main characters. The story was told in the point of view of the main character, Carrie Bradshaw. For the purpose of the concept analysis paper, we were told to evaluate possible characters who may exhibit possible mental disorders. According to MedlinePlus Medical Dictionary (2015), a mental disorder is define as the disorganization of emotions, personality, and mind that have a serious impact on the normal psychological functioning of a person. There were several examples presented in the movie, however three characters revealed the most examples of a mental disorder.