Borderline Personality Disorder In The Virgin Suicides

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The Virgin Suicides Film Summation Set in 1970s Michigan, The Virgin Suicides (1999) tells the story of the five Lisbon sisters from the perspective of four neighborhood boys, whose narration throughout the movie describes the girls’ lives, personalities, and deaths. Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecilia Lisbon (listed oldest to youngest) live at home with their two overly strict and protective parents. The film opens up with thirteen-year-old Cecilia attempting to kill herself by slitting her wrists in the bathtub. Cecilia’s psychiatrist claims that it was simply a cry for attention, and that she didn’t intend to succeed. He suggests the girls be allowed to participate in social events, and stresses that it would benefit them to be around …show more content…

People with this disorder tend to display “great instability, including major shifts in mood, an unstable self-image, and impulsivity” (Comer, 2014, p. 413). The term “borderline” was coined by psychoanalyst Adolf Stern in 1938 under the assumption that this condition resided on the border between neurosis and psychosis. The text also describes those with borderline personality disorder as being prone to bouts of anger and violent emotional reactions, however it can be suggested that the reason Lux does not portray this emotional reactivity is partially due to how she was raised. The strictness and control the Lisbon parents reinforced could have very well instilled in their daughters the notion that they are to do and act as they are told and to behave in a calm, polite, lady-like manner. This could explain why all five sisters seem to be shy and quiet, and even wild-child Lux has her moments of conservative propriety. In an article by Scott O. Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz in Scientific American Mind, it is said that people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are “often regarded as hopeless individuals, destined for a life of emotional misery” (2012). Because of this stigma, many individuals do not fit the stereotypical mold of someone with BPD. Other films such as Fatal Attraction (1987) and Girl, Interrupted (1999) further shape the misconception that individuals suffering from BPD are violent and bizarre. While Lux does not bang her head against the wall out of anger or scream at her parents over the smallest infraction against her, she does at times portray other signs of BPD. Impulsivity and self-destructiveness can be seen as Lux partakes in risky behaviors such as drinking, smoking marijuana and cigarettes, and unsafe sex with different partners (Comer, 2014, p. 414). These behaviors of

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