Schizophrenia in the Movie Sucker Punch

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For a long time I had an deep interest in schizophrenia, I think that mental illness such as this one of ten miss interpreted in the media. There have been several movies that display schizophrenia in pop culture. One of these movies is one that I very much enjoyed tittle sucker punch.
The movie Sucker Punch is based on the inner thoughts and imagination of the main character, Baby Doll. The movie is set partially in Baby Doll’s reality and partially the imaginary world that she creates, as her escape. Her imaginary world is filled with a Wise man, Huge Ninja’s, Steam punk Russian Nazis, Dragons and Cyborgs, villains who attack her as she tries to seek freedom. All of these figures are symbolic of the people that Baby Doll meets in her reality, and the unimaginable situations that she faces. Her reality is filled with real life villains, her abusers. These unimaginable situations include sexual and physical abuse. Throughout the movie it is apparent that Baby Doll suffers from a dissociative disorder. Throughout the film Baby Doll spins deep into several dream like world’s that tell the audience what is actually happening throughout the movie, the way that she sees her world. If the viewer pays very close attention, it is revealed that Baby Doll may suffer from undiagnosed Schizophrenia. The dream worlds that Baby Doll falls deep into are coping mechanism that she uses to disassociate herself from the abuse that she has suffered from, at the hands of her step farther. Then the dream worlds are used to help Baby Doll deal with the sexual abuse that she suffers by the crooked orderlies and others in the asylum that her stepfather sends her to, after the attack where her sister is murdered. There are several clues that the di...

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...et in the 1950’s; during the 1950’s one method of treatment for Schizophrenia were lobotomies. In the middle of the movie the audience is looking through this movie gives great insight into the mind of a mental ill, young woman. The movie shows how her disease may have been triggered in young Baby Doll. Young Baby Doll learned to dissociate herself from her surroundings, when the abuse by her stepfather first began. She created a dream world where she was the heroine, to escape the reality where she was the victim. The movie vividly displays the imaginary world that those diagnosed with Schizophrenia may fall into, and other symptoms that they may display. A person suffering with Schizophrenia often cannot differentiate between what is real and what is not. It is evident that the worlds that are full of dragons and giant ninjas, is not something that is not real.

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