The Drama of Mental Illness - Term Paper Example

The Drama of Mental Illness Most movies are made for one primary purpose: to entertain. Documentary movies also aim to educate, but this must be balanced by entertainment or people would not watch them. Documentary movies differ from commercial film in that they research everything and only present what is believed to be true supported by evidence. Mental illness is often dramatic and people want to know about it. Mentally ill people often have very interesting stories to tell, but they also behave in different and interesting ways. As humans we usually do not want to be different, but we are curious about those who are. Mental illness is defined as an illness of the mind, not the brain, though the brain may suffer damage as a result or the mind may suffer when the brain is damaged. It is also defined as an illness that prevents a person from functioning in society. Many jurisdictions define mental illness as being likely to hurt one’s self or others, due to an inability to cope. Joseph Pierre quotes Karl Meninger (2012) as having said that most people have some form of mental illness part of the time and some have mental illness most of the time (Pierre 651-658). So one might expect that mental illness would be something we all know about and recognize, but what we see in the movies seems somehow not quite real much of the time. In these four works, only Bickel from Taxi Driver can actually function in society without help, though that could change. Raymond from Rain Man might in the future become very high functioning, but he will likely need a companion for life. With medication and time John Nash can become functional, but he needs a companion also to motivate him. For example, in the movie “A Beautiful Mind” Russell Crowe plays John Nash, the brilliant schizophrenic mathematician, with a hint of reserve part of the time, and then lets go with all he’s got in other scenes. Of course this has the effect of treating the audience to a taste of the inconsistency of living with a schizophrenic. The plot also often blurs the lines between reality and John Nash’s delusions, so the movie confuses the audience. Sometimes the only way to tell which is reality is that the other characters show it, especially Nash’s wife. It is probable that it was the director, Ron Howard’s, intention, but I am not certain it was entirely successful. It was probably done to try to give the audience a feel for what it is like to be seriously mentally ill, by blurring the internal reality of the plot and the illusions within the plot, such as Bash’s early hallucinations as in the nuclear explosion in Boston. However, I think that this portrayal is rather like using glasses to try to see through a frosted window. We can see what happens and guess at the feelings of confusion and panic, but we cannot feel them. So the audience can sympathise, but empathy is crippled by the distance. Schizophrenia is a mental disease that has biological roots. There is no question that this disorder affects the mind, but it has been determined that part of the causes of schizophrenia are definitely biological and some may be genetically transmitted. One doctor researched the idea that it might be caused by a retro-virus. In fact, it is probable that schizophrenia, as defined by DSM V, which defines all mental disease periodically, has multiple slightly different types with many different causes. Movies do not tell the audience about this, since they usually only deal with one patient at a time, as in “The Beautiful Mind”, “Rainman” , Taxi Driver and many others, the audience only hears about one set of symptoms at one intensity level. There are many symptoms, of which the most common are delusions, voices and paranoia, and many more different levels and treatments. The same treatment does not work for all patients, or even the same dosage when it does work. So the more we study schizophrenia the more questions we have, and the less it seems we know. Therefore, movies that tell the story of one mentally ill character with sensitivity are very useful. John Nash started out with a great deal of promise, but it was overshadowed by the looming mental illness that he was powerless to escape. We see warning signs from the beginning. Nash has no people skills. When he grabs the “Go” board and carves it into a triangle, he does not ask, just takes over and leaves without explanation. When one of the students stares at it in wonder we see that first flash of brilliance. However, once the hallucinations start they accelerate and begin to run together with shorter and shorter periods of lucidity. Most of the rest of the film blends reality with illusion and hallucination, except for the treatments in hospital. It is nearly the last scene before we realize that Nash has achieved a sort of equilibrium between reality and delusion. His visions and voices persist, but he controls them by telling them that they are not real and he will choose to ignore them. The scene with the giving of the pens tribute is a reminder of the early scene when John learned what it meant. He can function with his wife’s help, and he acknowledges that. The main character in Rain Man suffers from autism spectrum disorder, also called Asperger’s, which is not strictly a mental illness, but rather a disability and it can be compensated for and improved. This has three main characteristics: “autistic aloneness, a desire for sameness and islands of ability”. (Murphy 29) So we see each of these in the movie. Many times, we see Raymond retreat into himself, like he does when Charlie turns on the bathwater. This is the “autistic aloneness”, and we understand it is a retreat into safety at times of great fear. That scene depicts utter terror, as it recalls a moment when the universe changes and became a cold and lonely place. It was obviously when their father took him to the home to protect the second son, Charlie. We begin to understand some of the motivations of the characters in this scene, even the dead father, who could not accept losing one son to autism and the second son to freedom. The desire for sameness is also seen very strongly in the movie, right from the first time we meet Raymond. Sameness is secure. Autistic people have trouble dealing with change, but we see Raymond cope with it by finding some things that are the same, such as the ceiling light in the motel room and the book. While these appear startling in the film, most cases of autism present with much more need for sameness. The repetition of phrases or spelling is typical and the mirroring of language as well. It is difficult for autistic people to initiate conversation or add new sentences to it. Raymond does really well with Charlie, perhaps showing his own love for his brother. Probably his father yelled at him and punished him, but his little brother never did. Rain Man moves steadily from the distant relationship of exploiter and exploitee to true filial love one small step at a time and the director and actors make it work. Raymond’s “islands of ability” are shown one at a time and each one seems to surpass the last. As Charlie’s respect for his brother grows so does the understanding of the audience about Raymond’s condition. Raymond actually has some amazing abilities, but he cannot make real use of them, since he is not capable of actually applying those abilities to a problem. The film Taxi Driver was a first depiction maybe of PTSD in returning soldiers. However, without an education in psychology, I really cannot be certain that this would be the diagnosis of Travis Bickle as played by Robert DeNiro. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder seem probably, with the insomnia, the stress and the buried rage. However, it is also possible that Bickle suffered from an adrenaline addiction. Or maybe that is also part of PTSD. In any case, we know that there is something mentally not quite right about Bickle, but we like him, so we are relieved when he seems to come out ok after all the violence. Bickle is a good guy and the people he hurts, such as the abusive pimp, seem to deserve it, so the audience really does not want to punish him. Besides, it seems that he is already punished as he is suffering a lot and depressed. The film never really reveals the actual mental state of Travis Bickle, but we know he is mentally ill. Robert DeNiro portrayed the disturbed character extremely well, walking around in Bickle’s skin. However, the film did not give enough about the cause of Bickle’s emotional problems, and some of the audience might assume that he simply could not readjust to society. Of course little was really known about PTSD in the early 1970s. While two of the previous movies look at mental illness from a view of chronological events and concrete evidence, they do not give much up close look at mental illness. We understand a great deal more from Rain Man, because we see the progression of his development while with Charley. However, Autism seems like more of a disability than a mental illness to me. In the book, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, we see schizophrenia from several viewpoints and one is the viewpoint of the victim during hospitalisation and treatment. This closer look and more rounded view of one person is really a good way to see how this disease affects the whole family. Deborah’s whole family is dysfunctional, and she cannot function in society at all while she is hiding in her fantasy world from a world that has not been kind to her. The parents are torn by guilt and the younger sister feels justifiably angry as she was neglected in favour of her sister. Deborah is totally dysfunctional and experiences several psychotic episodes and even injures herself in the hospital. She is moved to the “Disturbed” ward. She bounces back and forth between Ward A and B and goes through many psychotic episodes and self mutilations. She loses friends to suicide and slowly withdraws into Yr and then back to reality. What Deborah endures and does are contributing factors to her illness, and the end of the book shows hope, but we do not see her recovery. We understand by this time that recovery will only be remission as the disease has no “cure”. In Rain Man we know about the damage that one child was institutionalized while the other carried the entire burden of satisfying parental needs. However, it is told from a more expository angle as it is past history. What we do see in Rain Man is the moment of discovery that finally connects the two brothers. I was curious about the movie and play version of this story, but the movie is older and I could only find trailers. The play is in books, but not available in my library. Movies are usually different from books, because everything must be visual. So action and dialogue are the primary contents of movies. Movies are more distant in view, since they must be outside of the character. We have to get clues from the acting and the dialogue about how people feel. The actors in all of these movies did really well in making us believe in them. It must be even harder for the actors than for the audience to believe in these characters. We understand more from the sensitive portrayal of mental illness than from any sort of description, but film does not easily work from inside the person’s mind. Internal monologue is difficult to sustain. The mixing of delusions and reality in “A Beautiful Mind”, on the other hand is not as easy to effect in a book as in a movie, and the movie makes it much more immediate than it would be even if an internal monologue were used from an unreliable narrator. Still, it is difficult to even understand mental illness from outside. We are fortunate that some people who have suffered from it or lived with the disabling effects have been able to write about their experiences. Psychiatrists study for years and learn much from their patients, but living inside that confusing and possibly terrifying world is the only way to really know. I think these movies and the book have contributed to better understanding of what it is to be mentally ill. More than this, they have shown that these are real people with real feelings, and that many of the people who are afflicted with these illnesses and disabilities are very smart and capable, even brilliant, in many ways. It is one thing to be told or to read that many people with schizophrenia, Asperger’s, or other mental illnesses or disabilities are also absolutely brilliant in some areas, and it is quite another to witness it, even in the contrived reality of a movie. More than this, the sensitive portrayal of a sufferer and a narrative of their success in overcoming some of the difficulties encourages more people to try. The man who was the inspiration for Rain Man, Kim Peek, developed much more after seeing the film and becoming a national news celebrity. He went from being able to store huge amounts of information to being able to put it together, possibly due to the rise in confidence the film gave him ("The real Rain Man dies of heart attack aged 58 | World news | The Guardian."). While he did not progress quite as much as Temple Grandin, perhaps his story influenced her or someone close to her ("Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds | Video on TED.com."). Not all media are equal in portrayal of mental illness. Books have a built in intimacy, but movies have the added visual dimension and immediacy of action. Since I suspect that more movies may be watched than recreational books are read, this makes movies a very important source for learning and understanding mental illness and disability. Works Cited "The real Rain Man dies of heart attack aged 58 | World news | The Guardian."Web. 11/22/2013 . "Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds | Video on TED.com."Web. 11/22/2013 Murphy, Wendy. "Chapter Two: THE RAIN MAN SYNDROME." Lerner Publishing Group, 2002. 29. Print. Pierre, Joseph M. "Mental Illness and Mental Health: Is the Glass Half Empty Or Half Full?" Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 57.11 (2012): 651-8. Print.   Read More