The Silence of the Lambs by Anthony Hopkins - Essay Example

Even though, the plot is incredible, the film makes an honest effort to explore the consciousness of a person who suffers from Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). The film, hence, portrays the character as a complex person with a combination of character traits instead of a pure evil person. Nevertheless, as with every popular story, the character development is controlled by the need of the movie to be entertaining. The importance of writing and production is, therefore, put on the shocking and dramatic character traits (Demme, 1991).

The film won Academy Awards for best actor, best picture, best actress, best screenplay and best director. Identification of Symptoms That Are Consistent and Inconsistent With the Diagnostic Criteria Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) has a number of symptoms. Some of the symptoms are consistent, and some are inconsistent with the diagnostic criteria. The consistent signs are: the abusive cycle, alienation, anger, avoidance as well as baiting and picking fights. Some of the inconsistent signs are: cognitive dissonance, depression, high and low functioning, imposed isolation as well as lack of conscience.

Abusive cycle refers to the typical rotation between destructive and constructive behavior. These are the behaviors that normally exist in dysfunctional families and dysfunctional relationships. Alienation refers to cutting a person off or interfering with a person’s relationship with other people. This can be done through manipulating the behaviors and attitudes of the victim or of the individuals with whom they interact with. With regards to anger, persons who go through personality disorders regularly feel a sense of unsettled rage and a sensitive perception that they have been wronged, neglected, invalidated or abused.

Avoidance, on the other hand, refers to the practice of withdrawing from relationships with other individuals. This is a common and consistent trait among people suffering from personality disorders. They tend to pull away themselves from others. Baiting and picking fights are also common traits. It refers to the practice of generating an offensive statement or action for the intention of obtaining an emotional or aggressive response from another individual (Demme, 1991). With regards to inconsistent symptoms, cognitive dissonance refers to the discomfort that most people feel when they come across information that opposes their existing set values or beliefs.

In the movies, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter, was thought to be suffering from this symptom, since no one seemed to understand him apart from Jodie Foster. People who suffer from personality disorders also experience depression. Depression is the feeling of being sadder than a person thinks he, or she should be. Hannibal, in the film, portrayed a sad character that seemed to be depressed at all times. High and low-functioning refers to the trait of being able to hide his/her dysfunctional behavior or at other times being unable to hide his/her dysfunctional behavior.