Family Systems Theory In Still Alice Howland

Still Alice is a movie written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland in 2014. The film is about the life of a 50 year old female linguistics professor at Columbia University who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Julianne Moore, plays the role of Dr. Alice Howland, the main character in the film. Alec Baldwin plays the role of her husband, Dr. John Howland and Kristen Steward, Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish play the roles of their 3 adult children Lydia, Anna and Tom. In the beginning of the movie, John is portrayed as a loving, supportive and understanding husband, however, as Alice’s illness progresses John becomes unable to cope with the physical, emotional and life style changes. In order to deal with what is happening in his life John accepts a new position at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. This new position takes him away from his wife and in order to compensate for his

This theory views the family as a system containing interrelated and interacting parts. Whether something is affecting a family member positively or negatively, all family members are affected by these factors (Mitrani,Feaster, McCabe, Czaja, Szapocznik, 2004). In this case, the Howland family must cope with the vast changes in the cognitive function of their mother Alice. Throughout the film, we see how the impact of Alzheimer’s disease affects the family as a whole. Lydia who lives in California must move back home so that she can take care of her mother while her father is away at his new job. This is an example of how Alice’s Alzheimer’s diagnoses does not only affect her, but also affects Lydia’s life. Another example of how the disease affects the family system is when John and Alice are about to go for a run; Alice advises John that first she must use the bathroom before they part. Sadly Alice does not remember where the bathroom is in the house and she urinates in her