Awakenings Movie Psychology

The movie, Awakenings, begins by showing a little boy, Leonard Lowe, playing in the park with his friends. Those same friends join Leonard as they go to school. While at school, Leonard begins to show signs that he is having difficulty writing. His teacher, looks through his notebook and notices that his writing has suddenly gotten worse. His teacher then notifies Mrs. Lowe of her findings. It is evident that Leonard’s right hand has curled to the point that he can no longer use it to write (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
At this point, the movie picks up at the Bronx in 1969. Dr. Malcolm Sayers arrives at Bainbridge Hospital for an interview. Dr. Sayers is a researcher who has little experience with human patients. The idea of being a doctor in a

mental hospital intimidates Dr. Sayer. Ultimately, Dr. Sayer is hired. He begins by meeting a new patient (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
During his initial assessment on his first patient, he notices that the patient, Lucy, is in a catatonic state. However, he also notices that she is able to catch anything dropped in front of her without moving anything but her hand. This intrigues Dr. Sayer, who begins to theorize why she can catch objects, yet still isn’t able to move on her own otherwise. He begins to look at the files of other catatonic patients for similarities (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
Dr. Sayer discovers all of the catatonic patients had previously suffered from encephalitis. He particularly becomes interested in Leonard Lowe’s case. Dr. Sayer then visits Mrs. Lowe to find out more information about Leonard’s symptomology. Mrs. Lowe begins to explain that at the age of 11, Leonard began sitting in a trance-like state. She further explained that the last time he had spoken to her was November of 1939 (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
Dr. Sayer begins to test each of his patients for signs of a response to various stimuli such as music, playing cards, and walking with assistance. Dr. Sayer researches further into his theory, which leads him to a local seminar about a promising new drug, L-Dopa, for Parkinson’s disorder. His theory is that this catatonic state is due to excessively fast tics and tremors, which cause the patient to essentially freeze in position (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
Dr.

Sayer then goes to his superior leader, Dr. Kaufman, with the notion to put all of the patients on L-Dopa. Dr. Kaufman then agrees to only allow one patient on L-Dopa, and with the consent of the family. Dr. Sayer then begins Leonard on the medicine, and slowly increases the dosage. When Leonard receives 1000mg of L-Dopa, he begins to talk and move like a non-catatonic person could do (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
This change for Leonard is amazing. He begins to explore his new world, including going out into the public with Dr. Sayer at his side. Further tests are performed to evaluate Leonard’s condition. After evidence is provided concerning Leonard’s condition, Dr. Kaufman decides to allow all of the catatonic patients to take L-Dopa (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
Once the catatonic patients begin to take L-Dopa, they too begin to have their physical abilities restored. Lucy, begins to talk about how she knows that it is not 1926 anymore, but she wants it to remain 1926 because she is scared of being older. Lucy states that she knows she is older than twenty two, but she can’t imagine what it is like to be older than that. Other patients also begin to enjoy their new found freedom from catatonia (Sacks & Zaillian,

1990).
However, the joy is short lived after Leonard begins showing worsening symptoms. He has an angry outburst toward the doctors and staff who won’t allow him to do as he wishes, which is to take an unsupervised walk outside. He begins showing other signs such as paranoia, severe tics and tremors, and aggression. Yet, Leonard is allowed to return to his previous ward, where he rejoins the other patients on L-Dopa, as he begins to show worsening symptoms. He begs Dr. Sayer to stop the symptoms but not to give up on him. As the doctors increase his dosage, the symptoms get worse. Ultimately, he is back to a catatonic state (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
Dr. Sayer goes before the patrons of the hospital to inform them of the results of this experiment. In his statement, he tells them there was inconclusive evidence as to what they got both right and wrong. He ends with saying that “we often forget that the human spirit needs nourishment too” using things that matter to us. “Those things being family, music, and human contact” (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
As the movie ends, it gives an update on Dr. Sayer. Dr. Sayer continued to work with the post-encephalitic patients to find a new medicine that might help them more. It also stated that the patients continued to have awakenings from the catatonic state, but they weren’t as pronounced as the summer of 1969 (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
I really enjoyed this movie and the way it portrayed each perspective on life with a mental illness. While watching this movie, I began to see how patients can become trapped in their own mind due to their disease process. These patients knew when someone was interacting with them, yet they were unable to respond. The movie did an excellent job of showing how these patients really were stuck in the same timeframe as the day they became catatonic. I also saw how something as simple as advocating for a patient, just as Dr. Sayer did with the medicine, can truly make a difference in the life of that patient. Most of all, I learned that even though a person is mentally ill, their spirit needs to be healed just like the rest of their body.
Symptomology
In the movie Awakenings, it portrays a patient, Leonard Lowe, with a medical history of encephalitis who later enters a catatonic state. This presents as what is now diagnosed as catatonic disorder due to another medical condition specifically encephalitis. As Leonard is introduced in the movie, you clearly see he has symptoms such as mutism, waxy flexibility, and negativism. After he is on the L-Dopa for some time, the symptoms progress to agitation and stereotypy (Townsend, 2014).
Leonard is showing symptoms of mutism by the fact that he is not making a sound at all, even though the staff and his mother try to get him to speak. Dr. Sayers continues to say Leonard’s name to assess the continuance of mutism throughout the catatonic state. The mutism is further evidenced by Mrs. Lowe’s explanation of it having been thirty years since the last time Leonard spoke a word (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
Waxy flexibility is evidenced by the ability of the staff to position Leonard’s hands in a more comfortable position multiple times in the movie. While Leonard was in a catatonic state, the staff were able to reposition him into a more comfortable position. Although Leonard could not move his extremities himself, the staff had no trouble doing so, and the extremity would stay in that state until it was moved again (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
Negativism was characterized by the fact that Leonard did not respond to anything or anyone around him. Several times throughout the movie, both his mother and the staff talked to him and it did not elicit a response, either verbally or nonverbally (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
Once he had been on the medicine for a bit, he began showing signs of agitation. This was evidenced by the aggression he showed toward Dr. Sayers and the staff for not letting Leonard take an unsupervised walk outside. Stereotypy was also portrayed when his arms and face began moving opposite of how Leonard tried to move them. Leonard once stated that he could not read anymore because he could not keep his eyes on the words (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).