Dysfunctional Family: The Hoover Family

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The movie shows the Hoover family a typical American dysfunctional family who are all at different stages of their lives. Each member of the family has their own odd quirk. The family includes Richard, the father, who gives motivational speeches on “The Steps to Being Successful” which is completely ironic because his motivational book is failing, the grandpa who is addicted to heroin, Dwayne, the son, who is slightly depressed and refuses to speak, Sheryl, the mother/wife, who is just trying to keep it all together for everyone and Frank, the uncle, had a failed suicide attempt. Abby, the daughter just landed a spot at the Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest. The whole family decides to pack up their van and take a road trip …show more content…

He starts to really care for Dwayne because they both have depression in common. At one point in the movie, Frank and Dwayne were having a conversation and Dwayne mentioned he wished he could sleep till he was 18 so he could skip all the bad parts of high school. Frank then quotes a French writer, “When it gets down to the end of your life and you look back at all those years that you suffered, you will realize those were the best years of your life because they made you into the strong person you are now”. Frank and Dwayne then continued to talk about the struggles of life. Is seems to me the way Frank can reflection on his own depression can really help others. It shows that he understands what he did and that he will handle it differently next time. There were no blatant biological and psychological stressors that influenced Frank’s depression. There was no indication of past family medical problems that would have made him susceptible but according to Beck’s therapy Frank probably inherited a genetic disposition that made him susceptible to depression. If Frank wasn’t predisposed, he could have handled all of the bad events without getting mad and impulsive. He could have had a positive outlook instead of going into deep depression and trying to kill himself. The social-cultural/environmental stressors were the primary influences that cause his depression. He believed he was a full grown adult and was supposed to have his life together but it was the complete opposite. He had a romantic failure, a career disappointment, he lost his job, his homosexuality stigma, and then he lost his apartment. For most of the movie he was handling his depression really well, but it wasn’t until he ran into is ex-student/lover that his improved mood started to spiral back downward into a depressed mood. This showed he still has

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